This is the 4th chapter of Destiny. Now as we all know, Tohru met this woman in white who saved them. The question is: Can this woman be trusted? I hope you all enjoy this chapter. So, now the usual: I don't own Fruits Basket or any of the characters from Fruits Basket. I do own Shadow Frost, Blade and his warriors, IT and lastly Flame Heart.
"H-h-how do w-we know we c-c-can trust you?" Tohru stuttered.
"Just trust me. I promise that I won't harm you," she replied.
The three friends looked at each other, wondering if they should trust her, before deciding that they should. They all walked until they came upon a certain building. They went to the back of the building and they stared at a wall. She saw the woman approaching the wall and they heard her utter something quietly. Surprising the wall started crumbling and there, it revealed a portal. The woman stepped back and smiled.
"Well, go on," she said.
The three friends walked into the portal and they all hoped that this person wasn't evil and that the woman can be trusted.
It's been a week since that day. They had found out that her name was Flame Heart. She had been kind to them offering them protection in an abandoned castle. Flame Heart was greatly respected by her people. A legend is what they call her.
So far, for Tohru, it's been nothing but don't go out alone. She always protected and had always had at least two guards escorting her and her friends. Heck, they even wait outside the restroom when she needs to go and in her sleep. They all never have a bit of privacy. Sure, it's with good reason but everyone needs their privacy sometimes. And besides, it's just plain creepy to have someone watch over you while you sleep or wait outside the restroom listening to everything your doing. And what if you have gas when you're going to the restroom? Embarrassment is exactly what is going to happen. I mean seriously, it's just like having a stalker. So here Tohru is being "guarded" (though stalked seems like a more accurate term) twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
"Are we ever going to be left alone?" whispers Uo to Hana who seemed equally annoyed and disturbed by the fact that they are practically being stalked.
"Probably not," answers Hana trying not to let her emotions get the best of her.
"It's entirely Shadow Frost's fault," Uo said now really annoyed. "We probably never would have gotten into this mess if she hadn't decided to go and send that thing to go and hunt down Tohru or if Shadow Frost weren't evil," she continues.
"Well, at least we're not in Shadow Frost's home. Who knows what would have happened if we all ended up there with her," Tohru said.
"You're right. In fact, Shadow Frost is ruthless. Who knows what she would have done to you, Tohru," said Flame Heart surprising all of them making them jump.
"Uh….Sorry, we didn't see you there," Tohru said. Flame Heart smiles at how slightly embarrassed they look.
"It's fine. Anyways I came to talk to you to see how you all were doing," Flame Heart replies.
"We're not enjoy-"
"We're doing fine," Hana said quickly covering up what Uo was about to say. She glares at said person while Uo huffed and said nothing crossing her arms and glaring angrily at the guards. Tohru giggles a little at what happened.
"I'm glad you're adjusting," Shadow Frost said raising an eyebrow at the scene in front of her. She just shrugs it off and decides to walk off.
Right before she does she hears Tohru saying, "Wait." She pauses and looks at Tohru with curiosity in her eyes.
"I have a question for you before you go." Flame Heart nods willing Tohru to continue. "How do you know so much about the prophecy?" Tohru asked. She notices that Flame Heart tenses when she asked that question. Almost like if she is pained.
Flame Heart forces herself to relax and answers, "That is another story for another time. Right now, what's important is activating your powers." Tohru nods but couldn't help but feel a little curious as to why Flame Heart seemed a little too uncomfortable talking about that.
Flame Heart almost seemed pained when Tohru mentioned that. She wanted to find out what it was that Flame Heart didn't want to tell her.
"But then again, I'd be violating her privacy. It seemed very personal," Tohru thought to herself.
"Tohru, are you alright?" She looks up to meet Hana's eyes and nods slowly.
"Yes, I'm just thinking."
"What were you thinking?"
"Did you hear the question I asked Flame Heart?"
"Yes, I did, why?"
"She seemed a little uncomfortable with that question. Almost like if it pained her that I mentioned it."
"That is true."
"I kind of wanted to find out what made her seem tense when I mentioned it. But I'd be violating her privacy if I did so."
"Well it doesn't seem very fair since her guards are violating our privacy," Uo said still glaring at the guards who seemed to be squirming uncomfortably at her gaze.
"True, but it did seem a little too personal," Hana said.
"I guess we should just wait until she's comfortable enough to answer that question," Tohru said.
Her friends nod in agreement. With that said, they decided that they should wait until Flame Heart could trust them with whatever it was that seemed to disturb her with that simple question.
That night, Tohru lay in her bed tossing and turning. Yet again, another nightmare was haunting her. She sighed and started thinking that she was going to have another sleepless night. These nightmares have been haunting her recently. Since Shadow Frost had sent that thing after them, Tohru had been haunted by these dreams. She had realized how serious the situation was. At least the beast that was sent after them was dead. Or was it? Maybe it was just temporarily weakened. After all, it did seem a little too easily defeated. She was sure that Shadow Frost would at least have the beast put up more of a fight.
She stared up at the ceiling. She started to surprisingly drift to sleep after a few hours. Finally, she found herself asleep.
Tohru found herself in the clearing where Flame Heart had rescued her. IT was on the ground covered in wounds and was still bleeding from the blow that Flame Heart had given him. The beast there looked like he was dead. But it only looked. If anyone paid closer attention, they would see that he was breathing. His breaths were short and ragged. It was surprising that he still survived after a blow to the chest.
Just then, all his wounds started healing really fast. Including the one fatal blow that Flame Heart had given him. He soon started crawling and he coughed up blood. He soon rose and looked around to see if anyone was there. Especially the one he was looking for: Tohru. Tohru had held her breath when he looked to where she was standing. But surprisingly, he just didn't see her. She looked down on her hands and realized they were transparent. He had seen right through her.
He found no one around and he roared frustrated at the fact that his target had escaped. Tohru jumped when he roared. And if anyone else were there, fear would have struck them and would react the same way as Tohru. He then hears footsteps behind him. He whirls around to find Shadow Frost looking beyond angry. Blade was next to her seeming pretty uncomfortable about how mad she looked.
"Where is Tohru?! You were supposed to catch her and bring her to me!" she boomed. Tohru tensed when she heard her name.
"I almost had her, but unfortunately a woman in white had rescued her from me," the beast answered.
"I don't see what the problem is but please describe her to me," she said.
"Well, as you know she was wearing white. She had black hair and red highlights. She had crimson red eyes," he answered. The moment that he had said that, Shadow Frost had paled. Blade notices this and seems to hesitate before stroking her hair.
"Shadow Frost, is anything wrong?" Blade asked.
"She's with Flame Heart," she said after a while. Blade's eyes widened in shock and a heavy silence falls on everyone.
"There has got to be something we can do," Blade said finally speaking up.
"There is nothing we can do about it. Besides, Flame Heart will probably have her guarded every day," Shadow Frost said.
"I am willing to risk everything it takes to get Tohru for you," Blade said. "Obviously this thing," he said gesturing to IT, "didn't work." The beast growled at him.
"Alright, fine," Shadow Frost said. Then Shadow Frost turned to the spot to where Tohru was standing. It seemed like she could see her. Shadow Frost takes a few steps to the spot where Tohru was at. She grins evilly and looks at Tohru and reaches out to grab her. Tohru gasps when Shadow Frost actually had a grip on her wrist. She then leans in and whispers, "It's a good thing you're here. Now I could give you a fair warning. We are coming for you and your friends."
Tears spill out of Tohru's eyes and she struggles to get out of Shadow Frost's grip. Shadow Frost adds, "And since you're here, I might as well show you just how rough you're going to have it. Now stop struggling. There's no point because I am not letting go. And since you're here with me, I'm going to have "fun" with you."
"Let go of me!" Tohru yelled.
"I'm sorry, but I can't," Shadow Frost replies.
"You can't or you won't?" asks Tohru.
"Actually, it's both," she replied. Shadow Frost then pushes Tohru her against the wall. Tohru closed her eyes hoping that this nightmare would end soon.
"Look at me," Shadow Frost said. Tohru refused to open her eyes. She hears a frustrated growl coming for the beast and she immediately snaps her eyes open in case Shadow Frost would command IT to attack her.
Shadow Frost lightly laughs at this and said, "You are going to pay for what happened to the beast." Tohru then started getting angry and replied, "I didn't want to get into this mess. I didn't even want to be the Chosen One. It's not my fault that you decided to go evil and try to take over the whole world. It's your fault alone. And maybe I wouldn't even be in this mess if you hadn't sent Blade in my dreams in the first place!" She continues, "And another thing. We get to decide what we want for ourselves. We don't have to follow some stupid prophecy."
"That's where you are wrong Tohru. I'm doing what I want. Besides having a world plunged in darkness seems like a good idea. The strong will prey on the weak. There will be no law and no order. Doesn't it already sound glorious?" Shadow Frost replies.
"With no law and no order, people will live in fear of one another. That doesn't sound glorious to me," Tohru said.
"Well, to each his own," Shadow Frost said simply. "And if you try to interrupt my plans you're going to get what's coming to you," she continues.
"And if I should interrupt?" Tohru asks a hint of challenge in her voice.
"Why don't you try to find out?" asked Shadow Frost with a smirk on her face. Shadow Frost then throws Tohru against the wall. She lands roughly on the cement badly scraping her knees. Then she immediately gets Tohru by the throat and said, "This is just a little bit of what I can do. I should just kill you right now. But I'll give you a chance to live to see how weak you really are." She lets go of Tohru's throat and Tohru lay there, coughing and trying to catch her breath. She then notices that the scenery around her started to disappear. Then everything turned dark.
Tohru snapped her eyes open breathing heavily. She sits up and looks around to make sure she still isn't dreaming and to make sure that Shadow Frost isn't with her. Seeing that she wasn't dreaming and that she was safe, she gives a sigh of relief. She decides to stay sitting up because she was afraid of having another nightmare like the one that she had. And everyone knows that when you lie down, you'll most likely fall asleep.
She sat there for what seemed like hours. Finally, she gets up and walks over to the window. She notices that it was sunrise already. She decided that it was about time she gets out of the room. So she quickly changes into her regular every day clothes.
She steps out of the room and immediately the guards take notice of it and are by her side in a second. She sighs with annoyance and walks around the halls a little groggily because she didn't get much sleep. Tohru ended up bumping into Hana and Uo. They seemed to be in a much better condition that Tohru was in since they slept much more than her.
"Good morning," Tohru mutters to them sleepily.
"Good morning to you," Hana said.
"Morning," Uo said. She notices how sleepy Tohru looks and she continued, "Hey, did you get much sleep? You look a little tired." Tohru shook her head.
"Why haven't you been getting much sleep?" Hana asked.
"Nightmares," she replied. Hana and Uo both share a look. They were really starting to get concerned about the nightmares now. It's starting to affect Tohru a lot. They stared at Tohru and took in her features. She had dark circles under her eyes and she seemed a little bit pale. Then they looked at her knees in shock. It was scraped and still bleeding.
"What happened?!" asked Hana in shock. Tohru looked at them surprised and followed their gaze to her knees. She honestly didn't notice that, but that would explain why she felt that her knees were hurting. She hesitates because she knew how she got it. She decides to tell them. So, she explains what happened in her dream and said that her scrapes were probably the result of Shadow Frost throwing her against the wall and her landing on her knees on the hard cement resulting in the scrapes.
As she is explaining, she is crying because she was afraid of Shadow Frost and is scared of her friends being taken from her. Hana gently pulls her into a comforting hug. Uo does the same.
"Don't worry about it. We'll make it through this mess together," Uo said.
"Yes, we will," Hana agreed.
"I'm glad that they hadn't taken you two. I would never make it alone," Tohru said.
"We will always be there for you Tohru," Uo said.
Hana nods and said, "Friends come and go, but best friends are forever."
Tohru smiled when she said that. Hana continues, "We better take you to the infirmary." Then they were on their way to the infirmary. After they treated Tohru's scrapes, they went to get breakfast.
After they finished, they went to walk around to the garden that this castle had. They all sat there content even with the guards there. Just when it seems nothing could ruin this moment, they heard marching from afar. They all turn their attention to where the marching was coming from. It looked like an army. They widened their eyes in surprise and the guards immediately rushed the girls to Flame Heart.
Flame Heart ordered the guards to take them to the library in the castle. They followed her orders and took them there. The guards closed the door and locked it.
"What do we do now?" Tohru asked one of the guards.
"You stay here until it's safe to come out. And if someone is to come and get in, you have to get out of here," the guard answered.
They listened to what was going on outside. They heard many footsteps heading towards the battle that was happening. Soon they heard the clashing of metal. Soon there was a roar. They all widened their eyes in surprise.
"Well, that confirms that IT is still alive," Uo said. Hana and Tohru nodded really not knowing what to think.
Just then, they heard a lot of commotion coming from directly outside the library. Then they heard soft thuds outside. The guards tensed and ordered the girls to hide. They all did as they were told. Then the door busted open revealing Blade there. He easily dodged every blow the guards tried to give him. Soon the guards were knocked out.
Blade smirked and started looking between each book shelf to see where the girls were hiding. They started desperately looking for an escape. It was too late. Blade found them and cornered them. Uo, refusing to be taken without a fight, got a random book and chucked it at him. It hit him on his head and he stumbled back in surprise and now looked a little angrier than ever. Then she got multiple books and started chucking it at him. Then finally a really heavy book hit him on his head and knocked him out temporarily.
They all quickly ran to the other side of the library surprised to see a door there. They hadn't noticed it because it was well camouflaged with the wall. They opened the door quickly, slipped in and quietly close the door behind them. They look around and realize that they were in a room with paintings of the prophecy.
"Look, Tohru," Hana whispered. She pointed to a certain painting that showed a painting of the Chosen One. Surprisingly, it looked like Tohru. She widened her eyes in shock. In the painting, she looked like she was aflame, yet she wasn't burning.
"Hey, I think I found something over here," Uo said gesturing to a book. They all walked over to the book. It read, "The Power of Light".
Tohru hesitates before touching the book and she peeked in. But she didn't get to see because they all heard a loud slam revealing a very angry Blade.
So that's the end of it. What did you all think of it? Please review.