Chapter 1 - New Encounters
Dark. Darkness and silence.
An impenetrable black wrapped Lin Sheng Chao.
For the first time in her life she felt truly confused, disoriented. Indeed, only now she understood: scared.
After what seemed an eternity of that silent darkness there was a flash.
Colors, sounds and sensations tore her from that limbo like a river in flood.
She was falling. She could feel the wind on the skin and something wet well as cold, whipping her face, probably rain.
She smiled at the irony of fate. Within a few hours she was living for the second time the same situation.
Not far from her she saw his companions in misfortune: Negi was babbling a spell, Chachamaru was activating the thrusters grabbing Chisame while Setsuna and Kotaro slowed the fall with wings and magic.
The girl felt herself seized by the arms. Negi had reached her thanks to his magic stick and effortlessly hoisted her over it, as if she weighed nothing.
"Phew ... for a nap!" Remarked the teacher covering the few yards that separated them from the ground.
"But... but where are we?" he continued, looking around "We have perhaps watched you over your time? Yet this does not seem the Mahora...".
"No. It is not ... I believe. I ... I do not remember a place like this. "said Lin Sheng.
They were in a small clearing, surrounded by a dense and intricate as dark forest.
A cold and persistent rain beating down on all of them, as the first rays of a pale sun shone without heating the cold air.
Chao looked at Cassiopeia, still clutched in her fist. It was motionless, a big crack across it from side to side, it definitely was unusable.
"So where are we now? And where are the rest of our classmates?" Setsuna interjected by portraying her white wings, before something attracted her attention.
A deer was lying motionless at the limit of the clearing, with something stuck in his side.
Immediately Setsuna took the guard position with one hand on the katana, looking warily around. Kotaro also seemed tense.
At their reaction Negi as well seemed to focus, whispering a few words.
"Setsuna! To your right, about twenty yards, behind that big bush!" he exclaimed after a moment.
Like a bolt snapped in the direction indicated to her the Shinmei and after having dipped behind the shrub could be heard the muffled sounds of a scuffle for about ten seconds.
"All right Professor!" they heard Setsuna call in the end.
Chisame was astonished of the responsiveness of her companions: as it was mentioned a danger Chachamaru set itself before her by dragging a surprised Chao behind him as, with incredible rapidity, Kotaro flanked Negi, wary.
The swordswoman emerged from the bush: she was dragging along, holding it immobilized, a figure that when she came close to her friends, she freed.
This, found itself without impediments, tried to escape as quickly as possible in the opposite direction to Setsuna, but in the run bumped violently against Negi, ending up on the ground alongside the latter.
Now that it was firm and quite visible, the figure turned out to be a boy, maybe sixteen, with tousled blondish hair and wearing some simple clothes of rough workmanship, while a big haversack, a dagger and a quiver hung from his shoulder.
"Wha! Please! Do not eat me! Do not eat me! I'm not tasty, you know...?" He began to stammer seeing himself surrounded, curled up on itself and began to sway slowly.
The six boys from Mahora exchanged a questioning glance: the boy spoke in an English rather chewed. Only Negi and Chao seemed to have understood his words without any problems.
"There ... I think there was a misunderstanding" Negi hazarded after a few seconds, getting up" Here no one has the slightest intention to eat, much less to hurt you! Er..." he cleared his throat "I am Negi, I'm a professor you know? They are some of my students and this is my friend."
The boy froze, looking suspicious "You. .. do not want to eat me? "
"No! People are not among our favorite foods, especially" Negi said ironically "those we know, so... how about you tell us what's your name?" he finished smiling followed by signs of assent of his companions.
The boy looked at them with eyes still wary, but seemed to relax a little.
"William. My name is William August Springfield. So... you are not demons? You're not trying to deceive me with devilish tricks and then make me your slave?".
"Absolutely not!" Horrified Negi "What a coincidence! I also do surname Springfield! So these are Chao Lin Sheng, Chisame Hasegawa, Setsuna Sakurazaki,-do not hide... she will not make you nothing left, you can stay quiet - Chachamaru Karakuri and Kotaro Inugami." Negi presented one by one the people present.
"Now, William August Springfield, could you kindly tell us where we are?"
He looked at them with a frown somewhere between surprised and embarrassed "William. Just call me William... and, well... we are in the county of Westford, in the great land of Wales!" he said with pride " But how you got there? What was that huge drawing in the sky ...?"
A ringing note echoed in the air.
"Oh no! Hurry! We have to go! We can not be found with that!" William exclaimed indicating the deer, with a new note of anxiety in her voice and the terror in his eyes.
"What the...?" Chao began to ask, but she had no chance to finish, because the boy had already run away.
Without the need to have it repeated, the group began to run after him.
Soon, as expected, Chisame and Chao were quickly spaced out and before they could call their comrades back, they had already disappeared from view.
Despite being an ace in sports in fact, the Chinese girl could not compete with the users of ki and magic on the physical plane, much less if she still tired from the final event of the festival.
After a few minutes of running at breakneck speed, the two girls halted panting.
The rain felt less in the thick of the forest, but the air was still cold especially for Chao, still wearing her destroyed clothes, well as soaking wet now, from the fight of a few hours before.
The girls looked around. The light was scarce, even though the sun was raising: no trace of their comrades.
"Damn! But how can we be finished in Wales?" Chisame yelled, trying to wipe her glasses," That your damn thing was not a time machine?"
"Yes, ne! I do not even know why it did not work ... etchi ! "comment annoyed Chao" That's it! We just needed a cold! "
The sound rang out again, this time closer.
Along with it they heard also a great barking, this time.
"So what happens now?" You ask Chisame, testily, "Hey, what do we do now?" she asked then turned to her companion.
"Now you hide and let it be silent," said someone behind her, grabbing her and dragging on the ground.
Other hands grabbed her by the legs and began to pull her behind a bush, where she found Chao under the same conditions.
When they were hidden a large pack of barking dogs passed where until just before they were walking in pursuit of a fox with behind a provided number of knights, who surpassed without deigning to look at the bush.
A few seconds passed in silence, interrupted only by the roar of the rain that fell upon vegetation, then the girls were freed.
The girls turned backing away. Ahead of them there was a group of three men, completely covered by long dark green cloaks, their faces in the shade under the caps.
"Luckily we were following you, ladies! Otherwise, you would now be in the dungeons of Castle Grey on charges of poaching!" the voice of a young man come from the closest of the three figures.
"Hmm... it seems that you are not accustomed to these 'wonderful' days..." he said looking at the shivering of the two girls, then he took off his coat and put it on the shoulders of the two girls. Once discovered the face, the girls found that it belonged to a all in all, handsome man of about twenty, with fluent raven hair, long below his shoulders, with a gentle expression and a thin scar across his right cheek vertically, right up the eye.
Chao embarrassed clenched to a Chiasame red tomato, leaving herself pervaded by the warmth of the new garment.
"Now..." said the man always with a smile "I am Marcus Holyway, and these are my friends Erik Strongspeak and Arthur Whitehand. Instead you are ...?".
"Lin Chao Sheng and Hasegawa Chisame." answered mumbling the two.
Definitely they did not expect such kindness from strangers.
"Come on, do not be shy! I would say that prior to make the questions why we are here, you definitely need a hot meal and rejoin with your friends!"
The two girls immediately launched an alarmed look at those words.
"Do not worry! We already know how many are you, and that among you there are definitely magic users, well as a member of the clan of the birds!" Marcus always ended with a quiet smile on his face, but the ice in his eyes, honey colored.
"B-but how...tried to ask" Chisame.
"As I said earlier, the questions later! Now I bring you to the village." Marcus interrupted with natural make "Ah! Erik... remember to punish that reckless of a William! How many times have we told him not to hunt the deer of the baron?" he said turning then to those who were called Strongspeak.
"Come, then: on the march!"
-end chapter-