Chapter Five
POV: Lilacheart
I could hardly breathe. The pain was...painful. Wow, that sounds stupid. But I mean EXCRUCIATINGLY painful. Even while unconscious, the howls of Erasers and the sound of swords colliding with claws rang in my ears. I don't know how long it lasted. But after what felt like forever, the sounds began to die away, slowly. And then all was silent.
My eyes opened slightly. Fai was standing over my bed. It was dark. I knew I only had the energy to wake myself up because I was worried about everyone. But that's about it. I coughed out some blood, and attempted to curl up into a ball, because it was cold. But pain wracked my body, and I found it impossible.
"Lilac-chan..." Fai said. Worry flooded his eyes.
"Is...Soundy...Syaoran..." I had no idea if Starsight had come, so I didn't add her.
"They're all—" Fai began, but then I heard the door fling open.
"Fai-san, please tell me she'll be okay..." Syaoran's voice said. He sounded worried. I wondered why. He didn't know me that well. But the feeling was brief, because at that moment I felt the entire pain of my wounds flood me all at once, and a spasm shook my entire body. I opened my mouth to cry out, but that only hurt more.
"Lilacheart-san!" Syaoran yelled, instantly darting past Fai and stopping by my bed side. My entire body jerked again and I felt blood leak from my wounds.
"You allowed me into your home, gave me food and shelter, and I can't even protect you when you need my help..." Syaoran muttered guiltily. I felt everything beginning to fade, but I tried to keep my grip on reality for just a second.
"Soundy's okay, right?" I coughed. Soundstorm was my sister. I had to be sure she was going to make it, even if I didn't.
Syaoran hesitated. "Yes, she'll be fine," he said encouragingly.
"Please, look after her..." I whispered.
"I will," Syaoran said quietly. I allowed my eyes to fall shut. I felt him grasp my hand.
"Thank you..." I whispered, then everything faded to black.
—
A blue light. It's all I remembered seeing. And it didn't last long before my world went black again.
I don't know when it happened, but at last I felt myself wake up.
"Lilac!" a voice cried. I hadn't heard anyone sound so happy before. I cocked my head as much as I could without the pain becoming unbearable. It sounded like...I had just said my own name?
"You're okay!"
Oh right. I had a twin. Then I realized what that meant.
"You're okay, too, then," I said as happily as I could, forcing my eyes open the rest of the way. Soundstorm was leaning on Fai, who was helping her walk. She was in horrible condition, but she looked better than when I'd last seen her.
"She insisted I take her to see you as soon as she could get up," Fai said.
"I thought you were going to die..." Soundstorm whispered. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"
"I thought I really was going to die," I admitted quietly.
"You were," Fai stated.
Before I could ask any questions, I heard a knock on the door. "Come in," Fai called. A girl with red hair who looked familiar opened the door. I couldn't put my finger on who it was, but I was pretty sure I knew her...
"We owe you, Emily," Soundstorm said.
Emily Fletcher, the Healer of Avalon? When the heck had she gotten here? I decided not to dwell on it, just being grateful that she had.
"Where's Syaoran?" I asked. I remembered that he had taken my hand just before I had fainted and I felt myself go red in the face. DEEP red.
"You guys didn't kiss, did you?" Soundstorm giggled.
"No!" I snapped. "Shut up before I kill you!" This was my usual response to her jokes, and when I said it, she actually managed to jump up and down happily.
"She's got her temper back! She's going to be okay!" Soundstorm squeaked. Emily laughed.
"It still hurts really badly..." I whimpered.
"That's normal," Emily said. "I'm not really that good at healing, but I tried my be—"
"You underestimate yourself," Fai said. "You're a great healer. You saved three lives."
"Three?" I asked.
"Starry-chan's in your third guest room."
I jolted upright, groaned, then fell back against the bed. "I didn't mean to nearly kill her!" I wailed. She wouldn't have come if I hadn't called her for help.
"Relax; she brought reinforcements. Like Rabbit-chan, Danny-kun and Kuro-mii!" Fai said.
"Kurogane...?" I muttered, startled. Then I sniggered because he had called Kurogane by one of those funny high school girl nicknames.
"Yeah. By the way, you'll need a new couch and a paint job, there're blood stains in the room." I shuddered, despite myself. I would never get used to blood.
"And Kuro-puu got rid of the dead Erasers."
"IT'S KUROGANE!" I heard from the other room. I managed a weak laugh.
Then Syaoran darted into the room, Mokona on his shoulder. Mokona jumped onto Soundstorm's shoulder and began to sing.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" he said sounding absolutely relieved. He looked a lot better himself. Being a better fighter then me, Soundstorm, and Starsight, he'd avoided many lethal wounds.
"Emily did a great job," I commented.
He nodded.
"Also, are you sure Sakura won't get jealous?" I joked.
My words caused him to frown. "I looked all over town. I can't find her anywhere," he said quietly.
"One problem at a time, Syaoran-kun," Fai said.
"Okay, then. I thought you stopped calling Kurogane-san nicknames?"
Fai smiled. "I figured it would make these ladies feel a bit happier."
Soundstorm laughed. As for me, I thought, We're not ladies, we're hyperactive spaz kids...
"It worked," I mouthed to Soundstorm. She nodded. I rolled out of bed and sat up with a wince. "How long have I been out?"
"You, Starsight-san and Soundstorm-san have all been out through yesterday and the day before," Syaoran said.
"So today's Sunday, then," I said.
"I guess so," Syaoran said with a shrug.
I attempted to get up.
"What are you doing?" Emily asked.
"I need to talk to Sheila. The Dog only got the Erasers out of our house, which means—"
"They could be anywhere by now," Soundstorm finished darkly. Fai frowned. Syaoran sighed. Emily's grip tightened on the door.
"So I need to talk to Sheila. I think we all should." I staggered to my feet, took a few steps across the room, and fell forward. Syaoran quickly darted forward and caught me. I felt my face turn red, and Soundstorm's face turned red for a completely different reason: silent laughter.
"Don't you dare comment, Soundy," I hissed through clenched teeth. She shook her head, hysterical tears running down her face.
"Thanks," I muttered to Syaoran. He nodded, probably not getting why Soundstorm was laughing. Syaoran and Fai helped me get to the living room. They were right; it was a total mess.
"We can't call Sheila, since the phone broke. So..." I sighed. "We'll need to walk."
"Is that even possible?" I heard a gruff voice say. I flinched.
"Don't worry, he doesn't bite," Fai said with a small smile. Kurogane didn't comment.
"I don't think so...we would need to get some support," I admitted.
"We could help," Syaoran offered.
"And as weird as this might sound..." Emily started quietly. "You might want to change into something a little less bloody."
"I'm not sure if that would be easy," I sighed, a bit embarrassed by how weird that sounded. The look on my face probably told them not to add any more. "We'll just have to hope no one of the County is out and about." I turned around to go get Starsight. Fai went with me.
Rabbitfoot was by her bedside, having a casual conversation with her. The Dog was lying on the floor in a corner, listening.
"Lilac, you're okay!" Rabbitfoot exclaimed with a sigh of relief.
"I'm never going to hear the end of the whole 'Syaoran's real' thing from you, am I?" I asked.
"Nope," Rabbitfoot laughed. I sighed, yet could help but smirk a little.
"Starry, we're going to go to Sheila's house. She needs to know about the Erasers."
Starsight immediately sat up. "I'll come," she said, rolling out of bed and slowly walking over to me and Fai. Fai helped us both walk back. "What do we say if someone sees us?" she asked suddenly.
"We'll make that up as we go along," I said. "Is Kurogane coming?"
"What's with the lack of honorifics here?" he grunted.
"I don't know," Syaoran admitted.
"We don't use them here," I said. "Come on, we don't have forever." I slowly turned around and made my way up the stairs before stopping and leaning against the wall. Kurogane, Syaoran, Emily and Fai all helped Soundstorm and Starsight, though I knew if I could do it myself, they probably could, too.
Syaoran helped me walk, Fai helped Starsight, and Emily helped Soundstorm. Kurogane followed from behind, bringing up the rear. The Dog stayed at the house with Rabbitfoot, and Mokona decided to travel in Syaoran's pocket.
"Freeloader," I said jokingly. To my surprise Kurogane nodded. I laughed.
Everything was relatively uneventful as we walked down the roads, and past the school. It was when we reached the park when we ran into a bit of trouble.
Sevenclaws, Icetail, Squirrelflame, and Ivyflower were all there. And the last thing I wanted was to worry them. I exchanged a glance with Starsight, who shrugged.
"There's no point in stopping now," she admitted. "Sheila's house isn't that far from here, and I'd hate to bother everyone for noth—"
"You aren't bothering us," Emily said with a smile.
"You might be bothering Kurogane, but that's about it," Fai joked. So he'd reverted back to calling Kurogane by his real name. But still insulting him.
"Oh, shut up," Kurogane grunted.
"I'll take that as a yes," I muttered under my breath.
"What did you say?" Kurogane hissed.
"Nothing, nothing...come on, let's go," I said quickly. Did I actually think a giant mob of book characters and three residents of the county who were covered in blood and scars could actually get through a town park with four people in it unnoticed? No. But might as well try.
It was Squirrelflame who noticed us first. She tapped Ivyflower's shoulder and pointed at us. I pretended not to notice, but I could sense Starsight's tension next to me. The entire group stood up and walked towards us. However, as soon as blood was visible on our clothing, they all broke into a sprint.
"Lilac! Soundy! Starry!" Squirrelflame yelled. We all stopped and turned to face them. I suddenly felt really self-conscious about the slash that ran down my face. They all looked completely shocked.
"What happened?" Ivyflower gasped, startled.
"We had a bad encounter. We're going to tell Sheila," I said shortly.
"What is THAT?" Soundstorm exclaimed, pointing towards a massive grey thing in the near distance.
"...I'll be right back," Sevenclaws said. He ran across the field and brought the grey thing over to us.
Turns out that it was a giant rat.
"What...where...?" I asked, bewildered. I was actually trying to divert the attention off of us.
"I named it Fluffy, yes?" Sevenclaws laughed.
"My name's Ripred!" the rat insisted.
"Ripred from the Underland?" I asked. The Underland Chronicles, of all places...
"Yeah," Ripred confirmed, looking a little suspicious. "How did you know?"
"Lucky guess," I lied. Ripred was a giant rat who was born with the ability to kill. Like Kurogane, I didn't want to anger him.
"Are you guys all okay?" Icetail asked, switching topics.
"Those scratches look really nasty, even on my standards," Ripred said.
"Yeah, we're fine." I wasn't ready to let anyone know that we had nearly died.
"Who be all of these people?" Sevenclaws asked, raising an eyebrow at the people who were helping us walk.
"Syaoran."
"Fai D. Flowright. You can call me Fai."
"Kurogane."
"Emily Fletcher."
"Mokona!" Mokona squeaked, poking its head out of Syaoran's pocket.
"Cute!" Squirrelflame squealed, petting its head.
"Mokona's got many girlfriends!" Mokona laughed. I smiled.
"We've got to get going," Soundstorm said.
"Are you sure you're okay? We could report to Sheila for you," Icetail offered.
"It's okay," Starsight said. "We'll be fine."
The four Wandies still looked worried. "There's something you aren't telling us, huh?" Squirrelflame ventured.
"We'll explain everything later," I promised. I started to walk steadily down the path, leaving the four of them behind. Syaoran took a step back to see if I could go forward on my own. I was a little too slow for Kurogane, and when I noticed the look on his face, I decided that I should let Syaoran continue to help me.
Finally, we stopped at the biggest house in the county. "This is Sheila's place," I said quietly.
Soundstorm pressed the doorbell. I wondered if we should punch it twenty times, which the two of us did quite a bit. It was our way to let others know it was us in particular at the door. I decided against it.
The door slowly creaked open, revealing Magicyop in the doorway. His mouth fell open. "W-what...?" he yelped. I realized how bad we must all look, despite the healing.
"We need to talk to Sheila," Starsight said when neither me nor Soundstorm said anything.
"Can you explain what happened first?" Magicyop asked in a pained voice, gesturing to our wounds.
"That's actually what we're here to see Sheila for," Starsight admitted. "Also, before you ask, this is Kurogane, Syaoran, Fai—" She face-palmed. "Sorry, this is Kurogane-san, Syaoran-kun, Fai-san, and Emily Fletcher."
"You mentioned Syaoran and Fai as the book characters that fell out onto the sidewalk, right?"
"Not exactly," I said. I was surprised that I sounded a bit angry. I felt that the way Magicyop talked about them wasn't really a polite way to mention living people. Of course, we were surprised that they were living at all, but still.
"Let's just drop the topic, okay?" I sighed. "Can you please get Sheila?"
Magicyop nodded and ran back into the house. He came back moments later with Sheila, who looked horrified. After all, she felt she was responsible for our safety.
"Sheila, apparently, the characters from books don't just appear outside. A swarm of dangerous wolf humans called Erasers landed in our HOUSE." I decided to tell her the worst of the damages. "If Emily Fletcher hadn't showed up, we probably would've died," I finished in a quiet voice.
Sheila looked really upset now.
"I'm really sorry—" I began.
"It's not your fault," she sighed. "What did you do when they appeared?"
"Syaoran gave me a sword, but I couldn't bring myself to use it. I'm such a wimp," I muttered. No one really had anything to say about it. I wondered if they all thought the same thing about their reactions.
Sheila looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she said, "Kurogane, Syaoran, Fai, Emily, I want you all to come inside. I need to talk to you. Starry, Lilac, Soundy, please come in and rest. It looks like you had a hard time just getting here."
I didn't agree with her aloud.
Apparently, Kurogane finally got tired of us being so slow. One by one, he roughly picked Soundstorm, Starsight, and me up and half put us, half dropped us down on the couch. Which hurt, but was actually quite fun.
"Wow, that was an unusual act of kindness," Syaoran said bluntly.
"Shut up, kid," Kurogane snarled.
"That's more like it," Syaoran laughed. Moments later he was running for his life as Kurogane chased him down the hallway. Starsight, Soundstorm, and I all laughed.
It felt good to be resting my feet. I realized that just walking here had hurt a lot. It had probably taken about half an hour for us to make a ten minute trip down the street. No wonder Kurogane had been so impatient. After Syaoran's reaction, I'm sure he would go out of his way to be more...violent...next time. I tried not to think about it as I allowed my eyes to fall shut.
—
I felt someone shake my uninjured shoulder gently. I wasn't a heavy sleeper, so that woke me up almost instantly. Emily stood over me. "Good morning," she said.
"What time is it?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.
"Sheila let you sleep through the night."
I shot upright, startled. "What?"
"Don't worry about it," Emily chuckled, moving around me to wake up Soundstorm and Starsight.
"Where's—" I began.
"They were talking to Sheila all day yesterday; everyone's sleeping in guest rooms," Emily replied. She shook her head in an almost dazed manner. "I amazed at how many guest rooms there are at each house."
"New members of the community often need to wait to have a house built for them, so usually they stay over at another member's house while it's being built."
Emily shrugged. "That's pretty cool," she said as Soundstorm and Starsight slowly woke up. Soundstorm's reaction was just as surprised as mine, and Starsight thanked Emily, muttering something about meaning to thank Sheila later too. Emily dropped a pile of clean clothes next to us. "You can wear these today. You have to go to school."
I was shocked. Did Sheila actually expect us to go to school?
Seeing my look, Emily added, "Sheila has an important announcement to make, but you don't need to do any work today."
I nodded and slowly stood up. My legs felt stiff, especially my injured one. I made my way up the stairs and into the bathroom, where I changed into the new clothes: A pair of jeans and a plain lilac coloured T-shirt. It felt good to have new clothes, seeing as my old clothes were stiff with dry blood and ragged with gashes. I noticed for the first time the bandages I wore; on my knee, my shoulder, and my stomach.
I limped back down the stairs, feeling a little bit better. I sank back down on the couch. One by one, Starsight and Soundstorm came back wearing new clothing as well.
"It's probably going to take us hours to get to school," I sighed.
"And I certainly don't want Kurogane to take us there," Starsight added with a grin. We all laughed.
"Sheila's one of the few people who can actually drive and has a car, so maybe we can ask her for a ride?" Soundy suggested.
Suddenly, Rabbitfoot made her way out of a guest room, closely followed by the Dog.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in surprise. She had stayed behind at our house.
"I was worried. You guys didn't come back," Rabbitfoot admitted. "I came to see if you'd made it here all right, and saw that you had all fallen asleep on the sofa. Sheila let me stay here overnight too. She seems fairly stressed out."
"That's understandable," Starsight said dryly.
At that moment Sheila appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "Did you sleep well?" she asked.
I nodded with a shy smile. Everyone else did, too. Syaoran, Fai, Mokona, and Kurogane came out of their respective guest rooms right behind her.
"Good morning, Sheila-san," Syaoran said, nodding politely. Fai looked like he was trying not to laugh at him for being way too serious as usual. Kurogane just grunted.
"Did you sleep well, Sheila?" Emily asked.
Sheila smiled. "Good morning, Syaoran. I slept very well, thank you, Emily." She then turned to look at us. "I can drive you to school today, if you need me to."
"Thank you," we said in unison.
Sheila nodded and turned to look at Syaoran, Kurogane, and Fai. "I would drive you guys too, but there's not enough room in my car for everyone."
"It's all right, we can walk," Fai offered.
Sheila shook her head. "It might still be dangerous, what with a few dozen Erasers running around. Tell you what, I'll phone Cmoon and see if she's available to drive some of you." She walked over to the phone and swiftly dialled a number. Crescentmoon was one of the few adults in Wands and Worlds County aside from Sheila. As such, she also happened to have a driver's license.
While Sheila was on the phone I shot a glance at Syaoran. "Make sure you don't take her car apart," I sniggered.
"What made you think I was going to?" Syaoran complained indignantly. Starsight laughed.
"Thank you," Sheila said before putting down the phone. She paced over to a desk in the corner of the room and opened up an announcement system that was built into her laptop.
"What are you doing?" Starsight asked.
"Making an announcement," Sheila said bluntly as she plugged a microphone into her computer. Then she spoke.
"ATTENTION. PLEASE TAKE ALL BOOK CHARACTERS TO SCHOOL WITH YOU, HUMAN OR NOT. LEAVE YOUR BAGS AND BINDERS AT HOME. THANK YOU."
Sheila leaned forward and unplugged the mic, stowing it away in a drawer in the desk.
"What's she thinking?" I whispered to Soundstorm, but she just shrugged.
"Come on, we should probably get going now," Sheila said, opening the door. "Cmoon will be over here shortly."
I stood up and groaned when there was a loud pop in my leg. I allowed myself to crumple back down. I don't know how I'd gotten up the stairs before, but I doubted I could do it again. Starsight winced at the sound.
"That sounded like it hurt," Soundstorm said.
I remembered the Erasers jaws and how they'd made their way through my knee. I winced at the memory. No wonder my leg hurt.
"If I have the same results, I think I'll pass on getting up," Starsight muttered.
"Here, let me help," Fai said, taking a step forward.
"No, thanks, Fai, I'm ok, really!" Starsight stammered, aware that Rabbitfoot was staring at her. He ignored her completely and gently picked her up. Rabbitfoot keeled over in silent laughter. Starsight turned bright red, but Fai didn't even notice.
I struggled up to my feet one more time and this time Syaoran came to help me out. Rabbitfoot did laugh this time. Hard. Now it was my turn to go bright red.
Emily helped Soundstorm up. My sister had no reason to be embarrassed, but she did turn to glare at Rabbitfoot. "Stick us together in a shipping, and you die."
Rabbitfoot got the message so continued to laugh at me and Starsight. Oh joy.
"At least you didn't get badly injured," I snarled, more aggressively than I had intended. This caused Rabbitfoot to hold back her laughter. Only a little bit, though.
"I don't really get why she's laughing," Syaoran admitted as he helped me walk out the door, his hand on my shoulder.
"Lucky you," I growled.
—
Sheila and Crescentmoon made it a lot faster for us to all get to school. It was good that she'd offered, or else I probably would've collapsed in the middle of the road. I hated being such a burden.
Syaoran, Starsight, Fai, Kurogane, Mokona and I all piled into Sheila's van, while Soundstorm, Rabbitfoot, Emily and the Dog fit themselves into Crescentmoon's car. Syaoran found it hard not to play with the buttons in the car, seeing as he'd never been in one before. Fai stared out the window, watching with interest as the environment flew by. Kurogane seemed not to care. Starsight fell asleep on the way there, Mokona snoozing in her lap. I talked quietly with the Dog, mostly about how stupidly useless I felt.
I tried to seem a little less helpless as we made our way through the school gates. That plan didn't work. I crashed right into the wall as Greyeyes walked by and muttered a curse just loud enough to be heard. Greyeyes swung around. I noticed she was wearing rollerblades. She was one of the few people who liked to skate to school. It was cool, but I didn't have the skill to do this. "Are you all right?" she asked.
I nodded. I hated getting asked this now. "Just injured," I admitted, deciding not to lie. I noticed at her feet was this little pink...thing...in a cap.
"Oh...my...God..." I whispered.
"Is that KIRBY?" Soundstorm cried, laughing hysterically.
Greyeyes laughed. "Yes. It's been with me since Saturday. It's so cute; I love its company." She looked thoughtful, then added, "It does eat a lot, though."
We both laughed as behind us the others climbed out of the car with Sheila right behind them.
"Good morning, Riskay," Sheila said. Gesturing to the others, she began the introductions. "This is Syaoran, Fai, and Kurogane from Tsubasa; Emily, from Avalon; and the Disreputable Dog, from the Abhorsen Trilogy."
Riskay was Greyeyes' nickname. No one knows why, but she insisted upon it rather than the usual 'Grey', which was the standard that went with the rest of the Wandies.
"What happened to you all?" Greyeyes asked, when she noticed we were all leaning against the car.
"Do you know what Erasers are?" I asked.
Greyeyes froze. "Yeah, I saw a giant mob of them running through the forest," she whispered after a long pause.
"Oh no..." Sheila whispered.
"By the way, where's Magicyop?" I asked. I had only just remembered that he hadn't gotten a ride with us.
"He went to school ahead of me. He said he wanted to walk," Sheila said, her voice quivering. "With the new threat of Erasers running around town...I hope he made it OK...I shouldn't have—"
"He's fine!" a voice called, and we all turned to see Ashtail making her way to the front gate, Magicyop right behind her. Sheila let out a sigh of relief.
"The Erasers appeared in my house," I concluded to Greyeyes.
"That would explain the scratch on your face," she said in a worried tone. With a glance at Starsight and Soundstorm she added, "And why your arm is hanging limp, and your neck."
"We don't need to run through a list," I muttered. "I'll just say there's more wounds than that." I lowered my hand so that Kirby could grab it. I couldn't bend over and pet it, so might as well just let it come to me. It didn't mind. It grabbed my hand with a curious look on its face. I raised it up to eye level and pet its head. It squeaked happily and I laughed. I almost wished Sakura was there. I knew she would love the creature.
...Okay, wait, why the heck was I suddenly thinking about Sakura?
Then I noticed the look of worry on Syaoran's face. That's probably what had made me think of that. "Here," I said, handing Kirby to Syaoran with a smile, much to his surprise. It let out such a cute little squeak that it made him smile, despite whatever was on his mind. We took turns petting it until Greyeyes picked it up and took out a piece of cake, which Kirby immediately inhaled. Everyone laughed.
"Come on you guys, I have to make an announcement," Sheila said. "Everyone, come on in." We all walked through the gate together.
"See you guys later!" Greyeyes called, skating over to Quailfeather, a cheerful, smiling Kirby on her shoulder. Kirby waved goodbye. I laughed, holding back the urge to make some type of girly comment on its cuteness.
I sat down on a bench to listen to Sheila. Starsight, Soundstorm, and Rabbitfoot sat down next to me. I turned to look at Starsight. "Sorry for nearly getting you killed," I whispered. That had been bothering me ever since I'd woke up.
"Don't be!" Starsight insisted. "If I hadn't come, you would've died. I'm sorry I didn't arrive earlier!"
I guess that made me feel a bit better.
Just then Danny Phantom landed next to Rabbitfoot. "Sorry I'm late," he said, sounding harried.
"You're always late for school," Rabbitfoot teased.
"I am?" Danny asked, turning back into his human self.
"Attention, all members of the Wands and Worlds School," Sheila said over a megaphone. All conversations stopped as everyone turned around to look at her. "I would like to announce that all of your normal school activities have been dropped."
"No one's complaining!" Lakestorm yelled. Everyone laughed.
"Instead..." Sheila continued, suppressing her own laughter of amusement, "we're replacing regular school subjects with lessons on how to battle."
This caused a HUGE explosion of talking. I just stared in surprise. I hadn't expected this.
Lowering her megaphone Sheila said, "Lilac, Starry, Soundy, please come over here. I hate to call you guys out, but people really need to see what we might be up against."
I sighed, feeling a little embarrassed. We all helped each other get to the front of the crowd. Everyone fell silent. People stared in surprise. I was really glad that I had changed out of my bloody, torn up shirt.
"And this is after we were healed," I said rather dryly.
This simple statement caused another explosion of talking.
"The good news is, we're about one step in front, having taken a beating and learned a bit through experience," Soundstorm muttered.
"I could've done without this 'experience' of which you speak," I complained.
"Everyone, please, find someone who you think you can learn from. I'm sure that they're willing to help. If they aren't, please send them to me. They'll be sorry." Sheila sniggered briefly, causing everyone else to laugh as well.
"Nice..." said a voice I recognized as Dawnstripe's.
"Anyway, Starry, Soundy, Lilac, you can sit out if you want, and I recommend it. You'll need time to recover."
I sighed as I turned back to the bench to sit down again. "I hate feeling so...worthless..." I muttered. Then I swung around as something caught my eye. "Incoming!" I yelled, pointing. There was a red scratch forming in the sky.
Rabbitfoot, who was the closest to it, made a dive for it. Good timing, too. The person fell down right as she was under the scratch. He landed right into her arms, which made me snigger for some weird reason. I recognized him pretty quickly. Watanuki, from xxxHOLiC. He had the ability to see and attract spirits.
Rabbitfoot looked down at him in surprise, shocked at what she was seeing. Let's face it, people falling out of the sky wasn't something you got used to any time soon. Watanuki obviously didn't notice how close Rabbitfoot's face was to his, because when he lifted his head...
They accidently kissed.
Starsight, Soundstorm and I all burst into hysterical laughter. Rabbitfoot let out a shriek and instantly dropped him; Watanuki gave an identical yell as he scrambled backwards along the ground.
"Fake out make out!" I yelled.
"No, that was real," Soundstorm said, gasping for breath.
"This is going to be a great day!" Starsight laughed.