Two Destinies Chapter 5: The Road to Reunion

Author's Preface: Whew, I'm already at 15K words with this project? Wow, I'm verbose… And this is my longest chapter yet! Enjoy! And write reviews, too!

Reid ambled along the side of the tracks, lost in thought. Most of the thoughts that had entered his head were worrisome, though. What if Keele hadn't been able to apply the brakes? What if the train crashed? Were his friends alive? If they were, did they think HE was alive? What would he do if they went on without him? Would he ever get back to Inferia?!? Reid stopped and shook out his head vigorously, as if he was trying to literally shake these thoughts out of his head. Dammit, gotta stay positive… He thought. Everybody's probably fine and waiting for me… Reid then continued walking, examining the surrounding mountains and Celestia's gray sky as he walked. After a few minutes of this, Reid gave a depressed sigh.

"Geez, who knew walking alone was so… boring?" He said aloud, knowing nobody was there to hear him. Reid started thinking about his five friends as he walked. He was so lonely that he almost missed arguing with Keele. Every time they started, one of the three girls, usually Farah, would eventually stop their bickering. He imagined Meredy skipping along ahead of him, leading him to parts unknown at her fast pace.

Just then, Reid's foot got stuck on something. He fell over face first onto his right arm. "Ow!" He yelled. "My arm… Ouch…" Reid cringed in pain as he tried to move it. "Damn, I landed wrong on my arm…" Reid sighed, and then, without thinking, he said, "Farah, I think I did something to my arm… Could you heal me?" He waited for a few seconds, and, when no response came, Reid rolled his eyes and slapped his forehead. "Dammit!" He swore. "I forgot…" Struggling without the assistance of his right arm, he fought to stand up. Once he had finally gotten to his feet, Reid turned to look at the object that he had tripped over. He gasped.

"What is that?" Reid was staring at something shiny sitting on the train tracks. He took a step closer and realized it had a strange, iridescent shine to it. It was… a turtle shell? The shell protruded into the air to about the height of Reid's knee. Reid knocked on the shell. It was hollow, but it was extremely hard. There was a large crack on the back of it, nonetheless.

"Geez…" Reid said. "Looks like this thing got run over by a train or something…" Then, it hit Reid. It HAD been run over by a train – the train that he and his friends had been riding on! This shell was the obstacle on the tracks that the train had run over! Reid glared at the shell.

"Stupid shell!" He said. "It's all your fault I'm hoofing it to Luishka now…" He kicked the shell, but ended up stubbing his toe.

"Ow ow ow!" He said, hopping on his other foot, spinning around as well. Just then, now facing in another direction, Reid saw something he hadn't noticed before. It looked like a piece of crumpled metal, hidden behind a rock, which explained why he hadn't seen it before.

"Metal?" Reid wondered. "What's this doing here?" He then realized something. If he had been walking toward the obstacle that the train ran over, that meant he had been walking the wrong way this entire time! And, after spinning around on his foot, he had no idea which way he was headed anymore!

"Goddammit!" Reid swore loudly, kicking over the metal. The discarded metal had a more distinguishable design on the other side of it. Reid stared at the two bent clamp-like pieces of metal protruding out at him for a second. "Wait a second..." He whispered. "That shape... This is..." Reid gasped loudly. "These are the train's brakes! They must have fallen off!" Reid began to worry again. I hope everybody's okay... He thought, staring at the brakes. At that moment, Reid had a brilliant idea. He looked for the shell again, and saw it was behind him.

"I got it!" He said. "After running over the shell, the brakes fell off. Because the brakes fell off afterward, I should follow the tracks in the direction the train must have traveled - from the shell to the brakes..." He looked back at the brakes, then ahead of him. "...Or this way!" He was happy once again. Calling out to imaginary friends, he yelled, "Guys! I'm coming!" He ran in the direction that he had figured out would lead him to Luishka.

After about an hour, it was sundown. Reid still needed more time before he got to Luishka, but he was tired and had an aching arm. "Guess I'll stop here..." He looked around at the surrounding mountains once more. "But how will I know which way I should go in the morning?" All the mountains looked the same to him. Reid sighed. "I can't find a landmark... Nothing stands out..." He sat down to ponder this conundrum and nearly fell backwards when he tried to sit without using his aching arm. His sword fell out of his sheath when this happened. Reid picked up his trusty weapon and stared at it for few seconds. "Hey, wait a minute!" I've got an idea!" He examined the sword once over, and looked particularly at the tapered tip of the blade. Reid couldn't help but smile at his burst of genius. "Perfect..." He said. "I'll just point my sword toward Luishka on the ground and, in the morning, even if I toss and turn, my sword will still point in the right direction." He set the sword down tip-first toward Luishka a ways in front of him, and then he moved back a little, trying to make sure he wouldn't accidentally kick the weapon in the middle of the night. Satisfied, he laid his head down to fall asleep.


A ways away at Luishka Station, the other five travelers were making preparations to go to bed. Farah scratched her head.

"So..." She said. "Who wants to sleep alone?" Everybody exchanged glances. Nobody volunteered. Farah looked at the three tents that had been set up. "There's no room for more than two in a tent..." Farah shrugged. "So..." Keele cleared his throat.

"You always sleep in the same tent as Reid, Meredy sleeps in my tent, and those two..." He looked at Kyle and Reala, who were holding hands. "They're practically inseparable." Kyle and Reala looked at one another and smiled.

"Inseparable, huh?" Kyle said. "Then I guess we'll take one of the tents together..." He took his one hand and placed it on Reala's hand and moved her other hand under his and placed them together in his grasp. Reala smiled.

"That settles that..." Farah said. "But what about the three of us?"

"Maybe Meredy can pick who she wants to sleep with tonight." Reala suggested while moving closer to Kyle.

"Waiiru!" Meredy exclaimed. "Meredy shall pick her tentmate!" Keele cleared his throat again.

"You know..." He said, "You always have the option of taking your own tent, Meredy..." Meredy shook her head.

"Meredy does not want to sleep alone!" She said. "Meredy will pick between Keele and Farah, and Meredy picks..." She paused for dramatic effect. Keele gulped quietly. Farah winked at Meredy discretely. "Meredy picks Farah!" Farah grinned.

"All right!" She said. "Looks like the girls will sleep together tonight." Farah saw Keele's flabbergasted expression and added, "Sorry, Keele..." The scholar frowned.

"T-that's not fair!" He protested. The frown changed targets to Meredy. "Meredy, why didn't you pick me?" Meredy's smile faded.

"Sorry, Keele..." Meredy said, shrugging. "Meredy wanted to be with Farah tonight..." Keele cut her off.

"But we've always slept in the same tent!" He complained. Meredy just stared at him. "What, is there something wrong with the way I sleep or something?!?"

"Actually, Keele..." Meredy said. "Keele snores. Keele's snoring is very loud. Meredy cannot sleep when Keele is snoring." Keele froze in embarrassment. His face turned bright red.

"I-I snore?!?" He whispered. Face still red, Keele stood up. Aloud, he said, "V-very well... I'll go into my own tent so my snoring doesn't bother anybody..." Keele walked over to a tent and opened the flap to go inside. Just before he entered, though, a high pitched laughter stopped him. Keele spun around and shot a dirty look at Kyle, who was laughing jubulantly. "What's so funny, Kyle?!?" The boy didn't stop laughing.

"I-I can't believe it! Ha ha ha!" Kyle said in the middle of his laughter. "M-Meredy declined sleeping in a tent with Keele - he he he - just because he snores! Ha ha ha!" Keele's face turned a different shade of red in anger.

"I don't see what's so funny..." Keele fumed, pulling out his Craymel Cage. Farah saw this and jumped up to put herself between the two boys.

"Cut it out!" She said. "Keele, what are you doing?" Farah turned her shoulder and shot a dirty look at Kyle, who instantly stopped laughing. He chuckled sheepishly.

"Heh..." Kyle said. "Sorry, Keele... I tried to keep my laughter to myself and couldn't... I apologize for being disrespectful..." He stood up, and Reala followed. He looked at his friend and said, "Looks like Reala and I will just head to our tent now..." They disappeared behind a tent flap. Farah and Meredy followed suit, disappearing into their own tent. Finally, Keele sighed and entered his tent at last.

In the second tent, Meredy was giggling. Farah looked at the Celestian girl.

"What's going on, Meredy?" She said. Meredy looked at Farah and stopped giggling.

"Meredy lied to Keele..." She said. "Keele does not snore. Meredy just needed an excuse to sleep with Farah tonight. I just want to be with somebody different for one night." Farah chuckled.

"Well, you're gonna have to apologize to him sooner or later..." Farah yawned. "But we'll take care of that in the morning... Now, let's just get some rest." Meredy nodded.

In the first tent, Kyle and Reala had settled down nicely. Kyle looked at Reala, who seemed a little pensive.

"Something wrong?" He said. Reala smiled at him.

"I'm okay." She said. In reality, she was thinking about what was going on back home. Were the others all right without the two of them? Sighing one last time, Reala settled down into bed. "Hey, Kyle?" There was no response from the blond swordsman. He already had fallen asleep, it seemed. I'll just tell him in the morning... Reala decided in her head and fell asleep...

Reala woke up and looked around. She was surrounded by pitch darkness... Reala couldn't even see her own hand in front of her face. "Hello?!?" She yelled out. There was no response. She looked all around herself to see if she could find something - anything - in the darkness. Finally, she located a small sparkle in the distance. Is that... Light? She wondered. Reala decided she would take the risk and find out what that sparkle was. She ran towards it, never letting it out of her sight. As she approached it, the light grew larger and larger. Soon, the light had taken a form on her eyes. Reala gasped happily.

"Kyle!" She said. Her blond hero was just standing in the middle of the darkness, glowing with a friendly aura. Hearing her voice, Kyle turned around. When he smiled at her, the aura grew even bigger and encompassed Reala in light. She could finally see herself again.

"Reala!" He said. "Thank goodness I found you! I've been searching the darkness for you." Reala wanted to hug him. Just then, she noticed something moving in the darkness. It was some sort of claw, and it was pitch black, reaching out toward Kyle.

"Kyle, watch out!" She said. "There's something behind you!" The smile faded from Kyle's face, and then he turned around and pulled out his sword.

"Who's there?!?" He yelled into the darkness. "I'm not afraid of..." There was a silence for a second, followed by a terrible yell of agony from Kyle. Reala gasped. Kyle fell to the side, and Reala ran to catch him. Kyle's bright aura faded as she reached out for him. Barely catching him, Reala called out to him.

"Kyle?!?" She said. "Are you all right?!?" At this point, the light that had come from Kyle had faded. Once again, they were surrounded by the darkness. There was no response from Kyle. "Kyle, no!" Reala yelled. "Please! Speak to me! Tell me you're all right! KYLE!!!" She moved her hand over his body in order to hug him. His skin had turned cold so quickly, and Reala wondered why. Just then, as if it was a stark contrast to his cold body, Reala felt something warm when she moved her hand up his body. It clung to her hand and seemed like some kind of... liquid... Reala gasped. "Blood?" She said. "No! You can't be dead! You CAN'T be dead!! Please, Kyle! Don't leave me here!"

"There's nothing you can do..." A deep voice said. Reala gasped. "Your friend is dead... There's no way you can bring him back from the grave..." Just then, Reala's hands fell into her lap as Kyle's body disappeared.

"No!" Reala said. "Give me his body back! Please!"

"I cannot. I need it for my mission." The voice chuckled. "Now, for the other part of my mission..." The darkness then seemed to swallow up Reala, who could not feel the darkness taking over as she wept over the death of her hero...

Reala awoke with a start. It was night, but she could still see to a point. She sighed with relief. It was just a nightmare... She thought, sighing. At that point, Reala rolled over a little to try to get back to bed, but realized there wasn't any movement from the bed next to her. That's funny... She thought, I thought Kyle snored a little bit... "Kyle?" She said. "Are you there?" She sat up and looked at the bed where Kyle had been sleeping when she last saw him. The bed was empty, but it was still a mess. "Kyle!" She yelled, getting out of her bed. She launched through the tent opening in a flash. "Where are you, Kyle?!?" She yelled. At one point, Reala feared that her nightmare had come true, and that the mysterious, deep-voiced person had taken Kyle from her. She began to search the sleeping train station, yelling out for the blond teenager as she ran.

Once she got to the tracks, she stopped her search. "No..." Reala began to cry. "I-I don't believe it... My dream can't have come true..." A tear rolled onto her cheek. She looked up into the starry sky. "KYLE!!!" She yelled.

"What?" Reala gasped and turned around. There stood Kyle, completely okay. "I'm right here... You don't have to... Whoa!" Kyle nearly fell over when Reala ran up and hugged him. A tear fell onto his neck. "Are you all right?" Kyle's voice was comforting in Reala's ear.

"I-I just had a terrible nightmare..." Reala sobbed. "And then, when you weren't there in the tent, I was afraid that it had really happened..."

"What kind of nightmare was it?" Kyle said, trying to comfort the crying girl in his arms. He finally wrapped his arms around Reala and returned her hug.

"I dreamed that you were killed by the darkness..." She said, happy to be hugged by Kyle. "And that a mysterious person took you away from me..." Kyle silently worried about her dream, but when he spoke again, his voice carried none of this worry.

"Don't worry..." He said. "I'm all right. I'll always be here for you..." Reala unburied her head from Kyle's shoulder and looked into his blue eyes.

"What are you doing up this late?" She asked. Kyle looked up into the sky.

"I'm wondering about that dream that I had the other night..." His eyes were still focused on the sky. "I mean the one where my father spoke to me in Melnics... The message he conveyed got me worried... I'm rather restless because of it..." Reala smiled.

"Don't worry..." She repeated Kyle's advice back to him. "Everything is probably all right..." She let go of him and took his hand. "I think we both just stop worrying about the future and deal with the present..." Kyle put his other hand on Reala's.

"That's a good idea." He said, smiling widely. "Let's just go back into the tent and try to get some sleep." The two of them returned to their tent to sleep for the rest of the night.

When morning came, Reid reawoke with a yawn. He sat up and saw that his sword wasn't in front of him. "Huh?" He wondered aloud. "Where's my sword?" The answer came when Reid looked around. The sword had ended up behind him, still pointing in the same direction. Apparently, he had turned 180 degrees in the middle of the night. Reid smiled. If he had just relied on his gut instinct and thought he hadn't turned, he once again would be going in the wrong direction. He stood up and made a remarkable discovery...

"Hey!" He exclaimed. "My arm's all better!" He rotated his arm around in its socket and felt no pain. "Great!" He picked up his sword with his right hand and brandished it in the air. "I can fight again! All right!" Now in good spirits, Reid started to run toward Luishka, but seconds later, he heard his stomach rumble. Reid fell to his knees.

"Ugh..." Reid complained. "I haven't eaten in ages... I'm so famished..." He flopped onto the ground, ready to just die from his hunger. At that moment, Reid heard some kind of squealing noise. He looked outward to see what it was and saw a little baby boar sniffing his head. His eyes met the boarlet's. A boarlet? He thought. At last! Some protein! After a few more seconds of staring, the boarlet squealed as it ran right out from under Reid trying to grab it. It gave a cute little oinkish laugh, seemingly taunting Reid. "Okay, that's it..." He growled under his breath as he struggled to his feet. The boarlet oinked in surprise and started to run away. However, even though he was hungry and didn't have much energy left, he was still able to outrun the boarlet. He caught the boarlet and it struggled in his hands for a few seconds. Placing it under his arm, Reid withdrew his sword. The boarlet tried to bite his arm to escape, but got a mouthful of leather from chewing on Reid's glove instead. Reid chuckled.

"Heh heh heh..." He laughed. "Now, I can actually eat!" The boarlet looked at him with puppy dog eyes, or as close to puppy dog eyes as a boar can make. Heartless Reid thought nothing off it.

"Sorry, Piggy, but that doesn't work on me..." He said. At that moment, the boarlet started screeching at the top of its lungs. A bead of sweat rolled down the back of Reid's neck.

"Uh, oh..." He said. "That can't be good... I just hope that Mama Boar doesn't..." Just then, he heard a deeper and louder screech from nearby. He looked and saw a much larger boar glaring at him. "...Come..." The boar kicked up some dust and snorted. Reid stood up.

"This is bad..." The boar looked larger than him. Almost as if him standing up was a challenge to the mother, the boar began to charge at Reid. Reid tossed the baby to its mother to try to distract her, but the plan failed. The mother kept on charging even though her baby was safe. Reid held his ground despite the ground shaking with each footstep and readied his sword. "Okay, here goes!" Reid smiled. Just when the boar was close enough that she could almost feel Reid gored to one of her giant tusks, the red haired hunter jumped out of the way. The dazed mother was open for an attack.

"Demon Fang!" A small shockwave was fired from the tip of Reid's sword at the boar. The boar didn't seem very affected by the move, even if it did make it stop moving for a half a second. Reid fired a couple more Demon Fangs before having to dodge a tusk attack once again.

"Okay, that's not gonna work..." Reid thought while the boar was distracted again. "Let's try something else..." The boar tried to stomp on Reid, but Reid moved out of the way and attacked the vulnerable creature's belly.

"Tiger Blade!" Reid slashed his sword upward as he jumped and brought it back down again as he came down. The attack left a bloody gash in the side of the boar, and it screeched in pain. The boar whipped her head around blindly and manage to whack an off-guard Reid with her nose. Fortunately, Reid had not been gouged by her tusk and merely landed a few feet away on his back, relatively unharmed. Reid quickly returned to his feet, despite his stomach roaring. Once again, he moved to attack the boar, now knowing her weakness.

"Sword Rain: Alpha!" Reid created a small flurry of stabs at the boar's side, and finished with a more powerful thrust, which jabbed his sword deep into the boar's side. The boar once again roared out in pain. This time, she had had enough and just wanted to get out of there, so the boar tried to run away. However, Reid was too fast for her. He cut off the boar's escape route and prepared his blade for another attack.

"Omega Tempest!" He jumped up and started somersaulting through the air with his sword, the wind from the attack keeping him aloft. The Omega Tempest attack cut a gash in one of the boar's legs and she fell over in pain, unable to continue escaping. Reid continued to rise into the air with his attack, and then, at the end of the spinning, he gathered energy from within and prepared for a strike from above.

"Razing Phoenix!" Reid descended with sword drawn and flames dancing around his body. He and the fire collided with the incapacitated boar, sending flames spreading across her body. Reid jumped off the boar to escape being burned himself and smiled as he heard the last death throes of his kill. Within seconds, the boar grew silent. A couple more seconds later, the flames stopped burning and Reid climbed back on top of the boar. Once on top, Reid saw something that made him smile: cooked meat.

Using his sword, Reid cut a hearty sized piece of meat from the beast's hide. Upon taking a bite, he stopped to determine if it was safe to continue eating. When he swallowed, he took an even larger bite. "Tashts gud..." He said with his mouth full. Swallowing again, he continued, "Great! Now I don't have to worry about starving anymore!" Reid continued to enjoy his feast for some time. However, there was a small problem that Reid had encountered...

"I have nothing to drink! And I'm thirsty now!"

Now that he was full (but still thirsty), Reid set off for Luishka once again. About an hour later, he finally spied a glimpse of civilization: the Luishka Station. Reid's eyes glittered. "Yes!" He exclaimed. "Civilization! I'm finally here!" Excited, he ran as fast as he could toward the station and, within minutes, he found himself walking on cobbled ground instead of rocky terrain. He looked around, hoping to find his friends somewhere nearby (as well as a place where he could get something to drink). He stayed near the tracks mostly, still looking around. However, something caught his eye as he neared the end of the tracks. Reid gasped.

"Is that..." Reid ran up to what he had seen: a pile of twisted metal that was scorched in different places. "No! The train! It crashed! Is anybody still alive in there?!?" He tried to move the metal to see if anybody was inside, but the debris wouldn't budge. He banged on the metal once and nearly broke down into tears. Reid fell to his knees.

"No..." He whispered. "I can't believe it... I'm all alone... In a world where I wasn't even born... I don't belong here..." He looked up towards Inferia and reached out as if he wanted to grab it. "Looks like I'm never going to get back home to Rasheans..." Just then, a high-pitched voice rang out from somewhere nearby.

"Reid!" It said. Reid, however, was not paying attention to his surroundings and assumed the voice came from Inferia for whatever reason.

"I'm sorry, Inferia... My friends... I won't be coming back anytime soon..." Just then, in the middle of his grieving, Reid was nearly bowled over as something threw itself onto his back. Very surprised, Reid looked over his one shoulder to see what the thing on his back was, and all he could see was something yellow. A few seconds later, the yellow object moved, revealing one of Kyle's large grins and his eyes closed. Sure enough, Reid looked down at his torso and saw two arms with gray gloves on them draped over his body. The younger swordsman had nearly knocked Reid over when he went in to give Reid a greeting hug. Reid smiled.

"Kyle? You're okay?" Reid looked back over his shoulder at the kid's smiling face. Kyle opened his eyes.

"Of course I'm okay!" Kyle said. "And so is everybody else! We were all able to escape this..." Kyle pointed to the wreckage with one of his gloved fingers. "...because of Keele. He used the power of his Caramels to help us jump from the speeding train." Reid laughed at Kyle's mispronounciation of "Craymel".

"You know..." Reid said. "If I was Keele, I'd be scolding you for saying "Caramel" instead of "Craymel" again... But I'm not, and I won't..." Kyle laughed.

"Sorry, the word "Craymel" just doesn't stick in my head very well..." The blond swordsman chuckled. "And everytime I hear the word, I get hungry for something caramel-coated." Reid joined Kyle in his laughter.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, me too." Reid stood up. Just then, he couldn't put his finger on it, but something seemed a bit odd. The answer called out to him a few seconds later.

"Uh, Reid?"

"Yeah, Kyle?"

"I'm kinda not on the ground anymore here..." Looking down, Reid saw there were only two feet on the ground, and they were his. Being eight inches taller than Kyle, when he stood up, he had lifted the smaller boy off his feet. That odd feeling that Reid had felt was an extra 121 pounds on his back. Fortunately for both of them, Reid's back was strong enough to lift Kyle into the air. Reid kneeled a little, and the extra weight got off of his back. Reid's face had turned pink.

"Oops..." He said. "Sorry 'bout that..." Kyle once again had a big grin on his face.

"That's okay." The smaller boy said. "You didn't do that on purpose." At that moment, another voice called out.

"Kyle?" It said. The voice belonged to Reala. Kyle turned around.

"I'm over here!" He called back. "And Reid's with me!" Another voice rang out.

"Reid?!?" It was Farah. "Where are you, Kyle?"

"At the wreckage!" Kyle said. Another voice.

"Hweel!" This one obviously belonged to none other than Meredy. "Reid is okay! We can now continue to Luishka!" After this, the three girls and Keele appeared in sight. When they all had finished exchanging greetings, Keele spoke up first on a more serious level.

"I don't believe it..." He said. "The train was going fast already, so how the heck did you manage to end up almost completely unscathed, Reid?" Reid shrugged.

"Good luck, I guess..." He said. "Hey, you guys don't look that bad yourselves. Nobody looks like they have any major injuries, so I assumed getting off the train was no problem?"

"Keele used Sylph to lower us gently to the ground!" Meredy said. "Keele saved us from this!" She pointed at the jumbled up piece of metal. Keele blushed.

"Well, I..." He said, trying to articulate. He couldn't say anything else because Farah spoke up at that point after looking at Reid a little more closely.

"Well, seems like you're not starving..." She said, putting her hands on her hips. "What did you manage to eat?" Reid smiled and recalled the story of the scuffle with the boar.

"Wow, that's pretty cool that you were able to subdue something that big!" Kyle said with admiration at the story's conclusion. Reala smiled.

"You know, now that the team's all back together, we can head off to Luishka." She looked at Meredy. "Will you show us where Luishka is, Meredy?" The Celestian girl smiled.

"Follow Meredy!" She said. "Meredy bring us to Galenos!" Meredy skipped off, with the others following closely behind.

Author's Nota Bene: Whoa, short intro, long chapter. And a short final note, too! All I really need to say here is, "write reviews", please! :D