Please don't flame me... I will explian at the end of the Capter, but you all have been waiting long enough....
As Alexisa wondered through town with Tasuki beside her, her thoughts still lingered back to the Guardian of Genbu. She found it really hard to believe that the Guardian would choose her life over the Priestess's. 'I wonder what her life was like after the summoning? Did the villagers shun her? That is if she even survived. I wish I cold find out what happened to her,' thought Alexisa as she stopped in the middle of the street and looked up into the sky. 'Would someone wish to live that much that they would rather see one of her comrades die? She was supposed to protect her, not kill her. I just don't understand how someone could do that,' she continued to think as snow slowly began to fall from the sky. She stood in the middle of the street, letting the snow hit her face, and she began to smile.
The Suzaku Warriors spent the day relaxing, laughing, and living the normal life that none of them had realized that they missed so much. They all soon returned to the inn frozen from the cold, but all had smiles on their faces. They gathered at a table and ate dinner, and started to figure out their next move.
"Alexisa, did you look into the thing you needed to?" asked Miaka as she sat down across from her friend.
"Oh, that. Yea I was going to but, I forget," replied Alexisa as she rubbed the back of her head.
"Well, I don't think we can afford to stay any longer, we need to continue looking for the second shinzaho," said Tamahome as he sat next to Miaka.
"That's ok. We can head out tomorrow, provided we know where we are going," replied Aleixsa as she leaned back in her chair.
"We need to go to Sairou, you know?"
"Chichiri, don't just pop up like that, especially right behind me!" Yelled Alexisa as she spun around and looked at the monk standing behind her. "You almost made me fall!"
"Sorry, you know."
"Sairou? Where is that?" asked Miaka looking towards him.
"It's located in the West, with Sairo being the capitol. The country is mainly a desert, with very few villages," said Chiriko holding out a map, and showing the group, from the end of the table where he sat.
"A desert? Huh?" said Alexisa as she looked over at the map. "Why does it have to be a dessert? I hate the heat," she complained crossing her hands over her chest.
"Anything is better than this bitter cold," replied Tasuki looking over at her from where he sat next to Tamahome.
"Cold is totally better," replied Alexisa standing up and smacking Tasuki in the back of the head.
"Why did you do that for?" he asked as he stood up and waved his fan in front of her face.
"Humph," came her reply as she turned her back towards him.
"Well I see that they are back to normal, you know," relied Chichiri taking Tasuki's seat.
"Hey, you better look at me baka."
"Baka. Who you calling baka, Fang- boy."
"I don't think that they are going to stop any time soon," said Nuriko turning away from them and back to the others.
"We will leave tomorrow. Even though today was necessary I think, I am still worried about the Seiryu," said Chichiri with his mask in his hand, and talking over Tasuki and Alexisa.
"How so?"
"Ashitare has more than likely to have reported back to Nakago that we have obtained the first shinzaho, now they will be more eager to gain possession of the second shinzaho before we do."
"Chichiri is right. We will have to travel hard and fast to catch up with them," replied Aleixsa joining in the conversation again. The others looked back to see Tasuki on the ground sporting a few new bumps over his head. "I was surprised that they did not try to take it away from us, while we were wondering around the city. Maybe they decided to cut their losses and they left for Sairou while we were relaxing," she continued as she sat back down in her seat and looked around the table at her friends. " Chichiri is right, we leave first light tomorrow, and so I suggest we all get some sleep and prepare for the long journey ahead of us."
"How will we travel to Sairou? We are slowly running out of coins that Hotohori gave us," replied Chiriko holding up the bag that was quite small in compared to the start of the journey.
"Alexisa? Can you and Chichiri teleport us there?" asked Tamahome
"I don't think so, you know."
"Yea, the only reason why we did was because some of our group could not handle the cold," replied Aleixsa as she glanced over at Tasuki who was slowly getting to his feet rubbing his head.
"What?" he asked once he reached his feet and walked over to the table.
"I am sure that a solution will present itself, but we all should get some sleep," said Alexisa as she stood up looking at her friends. They all reached their feet and slowly began walking up the stairs to their rooms, Nuriko walked beside Alexisa and stood next to her.
"You did not forget did you?"
"What do you mean Nuriko?" she asked looking at him.
"That thing that you wanted to check into. You told Miaka that you forget, or as it that you no longer wanted to know what happened to her?"
"How?"
"I heard you telling Tasuki about it last night. I was coming to thank you, and then I overheard, and I could not turn away."
"How much did you over hear?" she asked as she watched Tasuki's back disappear around the corner.
"I don't know how someone would be able to give their life so readily for another, that is until I met you. Up until a few days ago I thought that the warriors had the roughest time, protecting the Priestess, but now that I know what you have been faced with, and the weight that has been on your shoulders just amazes me. Knowing from the start that one of you will die, is hard enough, but not once has that stopped you from protecting her," replied Nuriko as he sat down at the table again.
"Nuriko, you don't know how wrong you are. Yes at first I did not give a second thought about protecting Miaka, but it is slowly getting harder and harder to do just that. Seeing them together, feeling the love they have for each other is so hard, I know that I will never have that, and it is making me jealous," she replied with tears forming in her eyes. "I can feel that strength slowly ebbing at me, it gets harder to protect her," said Alexisa as she sunk back into her seat, crying softly.
"I have to admit, I felt the same way. Seeing Miaka and Tamahome together would make even the happiest person on earth a little bit jealous. I have been with those two since the beginning, and seeing those two grow stronger, falling more in love with each other, washes those thoughts away. I remember when Miaka was trying to get me to join her as a Suzaku warrior, and I sent her off to the East Pavilion at night to look for an earring that I had "supposedly" lost. I wanted nothing else then to get rid of her, I had see the way Tamahome looked at Miaka, and it drives me nuts," came Nuriko's reply as he looked over Alexisa's head.
"Yet you still protect her. Why?" she asked looking up at him.
"Easy," replied Nuriko looking straight at her. "I will be jealous of them until the day I die. It is easy to get jealous seeing those two together. It is even harder to admit that you are jealous, and still have the courage to protect them. But seeing the love that Miaka and Tamahome share is not the everyday love, it's the love that we all dream about finding, and they have found it. Just seeing how happy those two are, brings a smile to my face, and washes away all the negative feelings. I am happy to have been chosen a Suzaku Warrior, I take my strength in knowing that I will be able to protect that love those two share," he finished saying as he turned to look out the window at the falling snow.
Alexisa looked up at Nuriko, and then looked out the window herself. Nuriko was right, the hardest thing to do is to admit that there is jealously there, and finding the strength to overcome it. Alexisa looked at Nuriko, and looked at him in a new light. She now understood, why Nuriko was chosen as a Warrior. Even though he has strong emotions, underneath it all is a person who wants nothing else than to protect his friends, even at the cost of his life. "Thanks, Nuriko," she replied pushing the chair out from under her. "I think I am heading to bed, you have given plenty to think about," she continued as she put the chair back under the table and turned to leave.
"Alexisa. I have a feeling that you already know what to do. Or you would not have been able to open that door," called Nuriko as he still watched the falling snow. Alexis looked back at him, and was about to speak but closed her mouth and walked to her room. She swiftly climbed the stairs and came to her room's door. Slowly turning the handle so opened to door, to hear Miaka snoring soundly in her bed. Trying not to make much noise Alexisa stepped into the room, and closed the door behind her. After hearing the small click of the handle against the frame Aleixsa turned her gaze back to the room, the window curtains were parted just enough to shine on Miaka's sleeping face. Alexisa stood there looking at he girl. "You don't how know lucky you are," said Alexisa quietly as she slowly walked over to her bed and laid down trying to get some sleep, but her thoughts kept her awake all night.
Author's Note:
I am soooo very sorry for not updating sooner. Things got a little crazy with me, had to work two weeks of overnights, and now just starting to get back to a normal rountine. Again I am sorry for the long wait, had one review that got me thinking, said I was following the storyline of the anime to close, and I was.. so I am going to try to get away from the storyline of the anime. This chapter was actaully pretty hard to write for me, not to sure why, I knew what I wanted to write, but the words were just not coming out of my head and onto the screen. Hopefully this will be the only chapter that this will happen to, sorry that it was short. But I wanted to get at least something out this month... you all have been very patient with me, and I greatly appreciate it. I promise that the next chapter will be longer, and will hopefully not take me as long as this one did. I did not proof read, so sorry for the spelling errors, I am getting better (I think). I think that is all I have to say at the moment. Thanks to all that have reviewed, and those that are still reading. I am trying to get the story in a new direction, let's see what I can pull out of my hat....
So till next update.....
Thanks again to my loyal readers... I will try to get a new chapter out by the first weekend of October. Maybe sooner if the ideas start to flow again....
-JediMadchen86