Chapter 5: Not Good

Zylup

I can't believe this. Hours ago, we left Bale Castle, listening to Avrin of "how cool this journey's going to be" and how she couldn't "believe I missed it when you turned into a dragoon". Now, we're fighting about where to go.

"You're out of your mind, Zylup!" Avrin yelled at me. "We'll be killed if we go that way!"

"I can handle it," I said.

"But I can't!" she said.

"Exactly!" I shouted over my shoulder. (She was six feet behind me with Enga.)

Suddenly, she grabbed me from the back of the collar and began dragging me down the path that she wanted to go.

Yeah, something like usually occurs every now and then.

Anyways, we were going down the path that Avrin chose. We were walking, walking... and walking. Suddenly, a cart randomly rolled out of the woods and stopped in front of us. There was no sign of motion anywhere, except the wind.

Finally, I blurted out, "What the hell?"

Suddenly, someone shouted, "Put your weapons in the cart before you enter the great city of Seles!"

We looked around, trying to see who spoke, until someone jumped down from a tree and landed behind the cart.

She continued, "Or, by law, you're under arrest."

Her hands rested on her hips. In her hands were a pair of tonfas. She was kind of short- about five feet tall.

Wait a minute... I know her from somewhere...

As it finally came to mind, I muttered with utter regret, "Star...?"

Star

I paused as I observed them. Two out of the three were similar to me, especially...

"Zylup!" I cheered.

I jumped over the cart and nearly pounced Zylup just to give him the long-awaited hug that I've waited many years to give him.

"Ooh, I missed you so much!" I said, squeezing him harder as I said "so".

"Get off, shrimp!" Zylup growled.

After one more squeeze, I let him go, looking at Enga. "Hey Enga! You're looking sharp, as always."

"What are you doing here, Star?" Enga asked in his usual dark voice.

"Well," I began, putting my hands behind my head, "I found a place to settle, here in Seles. It used to be a poor town, but now it's a functioning town, thanks to some volunteering mechanics."

I heard the girl, who I've completely forgotten about, speak up, "Uh..."

"Oh yeah," Zylup said. He pointed at me, saying, "This is Star- the short and annoying brat."

"Hey!" I yelled at him.

"And this," he pointed at the girl, "is Avrin- one with no sense of direction." Avrin glared at him. "Anyways," Zylup continued, "I'm hungry. I'm just gonna go-" He was about to head into town until I stood in his way, putting my arms up. "Star-" he began.

"Put your weapons in the cart before you enter the town, or, by law, you're under arrest," I stated.

Zylup smirked, continuing to walk around me as he said, "Yeah yeah, that's cute, but I got to-"

"Uh, Zylup..." Avrin warned. She probably saw my face.

Oh, he so asked for it...

"STAR!" Zylup yelled at me behind his bars of his jail cell.

Enga and Avrin just looked at me strangely, as if I'm someone who took on a god or something.

"What?" I said, shrugging. "He asked for it." I looked at Zylup, saying, "I'll pick you up in three hours."

Zylup sat there, pouting and cursing at the same time.

"Come on, Avrin!" I said while grabbing her hand. "Looks like you need to take a little rinse." While dragging Avrin away, I told Enga, "Do what you like."

Rinsing her face in the wooden sink, Avrin asked, "So, how do you know Zylup?"

I simply replied, patting my face with a washcloth, "We're cousins."

"Oh, so how about Enga?"

"He lived in my hometown for awhile, but not anymore. Anyways, I've never seen Zylup and Enga that close to one another before. Not once. You must have some big influence on them."

As she dried her face as well, Avrin said, "Well, they weren't really getting along when I first met them, but that doesn't happen a lot lately."

I grinned, saying, "You know, you ain't half bad, Avrin." As I hung up the washcloth and began walking out, I added, "Make sure you find Enga. Zylup and I have to catch up on life."

Zylup

Chewing on a piece of grass that I had saved when leaving Bale, I was laying on my back, staring at the ceiling. I was bored as hell.

Suddenly, I heard an evil chuckle. I looked over and saw Star standing mischievously outside the bars, twirling a pair of keys on her fingers.

"Please tell me you're not here to annoy me," I said without much enthusiasm, looking back up at the ceiling.

"Let's just call this... payback," Star stated, smirking.

"Oh gee, lock me up in a cell just because I wasn't abiding your rules," I said sarcastically. "That's surely a good reason to starve me."

"No," Star said, "this is what you get for ditching me four years ago!"

"Oh, boo-hoo," I continued, "at age eleven, I'm sure you were able to fend for yourself. Plus I had better things to do."

"Better things than not being around?" Star questioned.

"I wasted almost ten years of my life raising you!" I shouted as I sat up, glaring at her. "What more do you want?"

It was silent for several minutes. I figured that I really got to her with what I said. She kept glancing everywhere on the floor. Every time she was going to say something, she held it back.

Finally, she took a key and unlocked the door, muttering, "Whatever..."

As she unlocked it, I stood up and began to leave.

As I was passing her, Star murmured angrily, "I hate you."

I merely sighed, "I know."

I looked around Seles... Of course, with Star right on my tail. Eventually, I found Enga and Avrin in an auction house. They were looking at an item that was a golden necklace with a round indigo blue gem in it.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked with great pain.

"Don't look at me," Avrin said. "It was Enga who had the sudden urge." Right, now let's wait and see if she adds that Enga is going to have a positive attitude.

"Enga," Star popped in, jumping in front of me, "I didn't know you like jewelry, yet alone, bidding."

"No," Enga said, still looking at the jewel. "It's just... a different presence..."

Suddenly, we heard a scream somewhere in the background. We turned around, and behind all the panicking people stood a female with platinum blue hair and Wes.

Star

As soon as I saw what the problem was, I sprinted past Zylup, saying, "'scuse me!" I grabbed the ledge of a building and pulled myself up. Running up the rooftop, I held out my tonfas. When I got to the bell, I hit it as hard as I could with my elbow-lengthed weapons several times. After the final ring, some of the other guards of town assembled outside of the building. I slid down the roof and jumped onto the ground. I lead them into battle.

It was obvious that heading for the big guy was too dangerous, so I charged for the woman first. However, she raised her hand and, before I could hit her, the stone snake on her shoulder came to life. It was about to strike me, but I jumped back-

Just to realize the other gargoyles that surrounded us.

"Oh, that's nice," I murmured.

The gargoyles came charging at my hesitating acquaintances and I. I jumped over one and hit the other one behind it with my tonfas. I kept hitting one after another. Actually, it felt the same way as when I practice with the wooden dummy in my room. I saw that other guards were either becoming injured or killed.

"Ha!" the woman laughed. "This is very amusing."

"Heatshade," the big guy's voice boomed, "we're here for only one reason. "I know," the woman, Heatshade said. "Just go and report to Jatan."

I gagged. That was a name that I never wanted to hear for the rest of my life...

I left myself defenseless. One of the gargoyles attacked me from behind. I fell flat on my face. Before I even had a chance to push myself up, there was already a gargoyle up close, ready to kill me. I winced.

Suddenly, the gargoyle was tackled. I looked up and there was Zylup.

"You really can't take care of yourself, huh?" he questioned as he pulled me up onto my feet.

I was about to make an angry statement, but then I paused just so I could mention, "They... know Jatan."

Zylup grunted, "Another one?" Then, this wasn't his first time encountering someone like Heatshade? Speaking of which...

I looked right at Heatshade, who was becoming very amused. If she knew Jatan, then surely, she was working for him.

Getting out of Zylup's grip, I charged right at Heatshade. Even though she sent gargoyles to stand in my way, I leaped over them, broke them to pieces, or pushed them away. When I closed in, I hit the stone snake's head off with the left tonfa and bashed the right tonfa's flat side right into Heatshade's face. I smirked before looking at my results.

My smile disappeared. The nose was twisted, a tooth was knocked out, a crack was on her chin.

A crack...

My opponent was the one with the last laugh as it crumbled to pieces. It was just a stone statue, like everything else. Since all the other statues weren't alive anymore, I figured that the real Heatshade was gone.

I was able to keep the town safe, but they got away...

We were standing on the border of Seles' entrance. Zylup, Enga, and Avrin were getting ready to leave, so I handed them their weapons.

"Are you guys going to come back and visit sometime?" I asked.

"Probably," Avrin assured.

"With our back luck-" Zylup began, but then Avrin elbowed him in the gut.

"Show some respect, will you?" she told him.

While they were arguing, I thought about what she said. Show me some respect? What did I ever do for Zylup to deserve such a thing? If anything, if it weren't for him, I would most likely be dead.

As they said bye to me, I noticed that the necklace from the auction house was in Enga's pocket. I smirked, slightly chuckling. It looked like Enga changed a little... in a weird way, but nevertheless. Zylup... He hasn't changed at all.

Zylup

As we were walking, Avrin said, "So, you and Star are cousins, huh?"

Fiddling with the straw in my mouth, I replied, "If you mean by blood, then no."

"Huh?" She looked at me curiously.

"We aren't technically cousins," I explained. "When I moved in with Star and her father when I was younger, he insisted that I call him "Uncle". So, the cousin thing stuck."

"Ohh..." Avrin said understandingly.

Suddenly, something jumped onto my back, strangling me, and shouted into my ear, "Piggyback ride!"

God, speak of the devil...

"Hey!" I growled. "Get off, brat!"

Obviously, as one would know, it was Star.

Grinning, Star said, "No way. I'm going with you guys!"

"No!" I argued.

Avrin was laughing at us. Enga wasn't even paying attention.

No one was going to save me. Great...