The Hundred Clay Soldiers!
The Second and Third Witches!
"There's so many of them," said Melody as she touched one of the clay soldiers' arms. "Its freaky how life-like they are."
"Let's just leave," said Rochelle as she gripped her sides. "I feel like one of them is about to come alive and attack us." She got up close enough to one to look it in the eyes. "Besides they all look…the same."
Melody backed up and looked around at the statues. "I have to disagree with you on that. See this one has samurai armor and a katana, that one has thinner and a kanabo, and the all the way over there doesn't even have a weapon."
"I don't know," said Rochelle, "they just have so many similarities."
Melody was just about to speak up when a loud and piercing scream pierced the air. The two of them looked behind them just in time to see someone fall straight to the ground. Its butt high up in the air. "That damn Saul," said the person.
"Shi?" shouted Melody as she looked at her disgruntled partner lying on the ground. She dashed over to her partner.
Shi piqued its head up and stood up. Shi briefly embraced Melody in a hug. "Its been so long since I saw that cute butt of yours!" shouted Shi quickly grasping Melody's rear end in a surprise attack. Melody shoved Shi off of her and then slammed her fist into Shi's forehead.
"I thought we talked about how you should stop grabbing my butt!" shouted Melody.
"We did," said Shi, "but I decided that your butt was probably so lonely since I haven't grabbed it at all in the past couple hours…unless someone else was grabbing it?" Before Melody could rebut Shi's accusations, another person fell to the ground, he landed squarely on Shi.
"Thanks for breaking my fall, partner," said Saul as he stopped lightly off of Shi.
"I'm going to kill!" shouted Shi, "I was just looking for a secret lever that would move the wall in front of us away and then you push me down a hole!"
"Here's your lesson for the day. Secret levers that move walls are only in TV shows," said Saul, "there's no such thing in reality."
"That's not true!" shouted Shi, "secret levers are just as real as dragons, fairies, and unicorns!"
"No," said Saul as he looked around them, "while fairies and dragons may be real, unicorns and secret levers are just a hoax created by TV to help sell shows and products."
"That's not true!" shouted Shi, "me and Melody saw a unicorn on one of our adventures! Isn't that right, Melody?"
"Don't involve me in this," said Melody in a low and hushed voice.
"Unicorns are like all the other popular myths like the Loch Ness monster or vampires," said Saul, "and don't even get me started on Bigfoot."
"BIGFOOT DOES EXIST!" shouted Shi jumping up and down in place. "Whoa!" Shi suddenly lost its balance and fell backwards, smashing into the clay soldier directly behind it. That soldiers tipped backwards and into the one behind it. Then that one fell into one behind it. Soon there was a domino-like reaction destroying all of the clay statues in a neat row.
"Bigfoot does not exist," said Saul, exasperated. "Next thing you know you are probably gonna start defending the Giant Squid." Only Melody and Rochelle were really paying attention to the destruction of one clay statue after another.
"GIANT SQUIDS FOR LIFE!" shouted Shi even louder ignoring his catastrophic damage.
"Uh…guys," said Melody as she tried to tear her vision away from the fallen statues, but couldn't. "Don't you think you should look at the damage you caused."
"Or what your damage unveiled," asked Rochelle eyeing one of the broken soldier's arms where the clay had been chipped off.
"I know the routine," said Shi, "if I break it I bought. But let's face it, this stuff has to be a couple of millennia old. It can't be too expensive."
"Wrong," said Saul, "things get better with age. Take me and you for example. I'm older then you and therefore I am much better then you."
"I have two legs that would love to differ!" shouted Shi as it brought its leg up into the air and waved it at Saul.
"SHUT UP AND LOOK AT THE DAMN DAMAGES!" shouted Melody with a loud voice.
"Ooooh, you said 'damn'. You have to put a dime in the swear jar," said Shi.
"JUST LOOK AT THE DAMAGES!"
"Is…that an arm?" asked Saul kneeling down touching the broken the clay soldier. Beneath the chipped arm was another flesh like arm. It had blood streaked all up and down it.
"That explains the smell," said Rochelle, eyeing it from a good distance, refusing to get any closer.
"Oh! Look at what you went ahead and done!" shouted an old man. The man was extremely old. In his eighties, possibly even nineties. He was mostly bald, with a few strands of white hair dotting his head. He was wrinkly and his hazel eyes were glazed over. He was dressed in a formal pure white suit with a pure white top hat laying in his lap. "Its going to take me another week to put that cover back on him." He was in a wheelchair that seemed to glide over to the pit where dozens of the destroyed clay soldiers laid.
"Who are you?" asked Melody motioning to Shi. Shi nodded. Its body lit up in a brilliant red flare and became a small yo-yo. The yo-yo wrapped around Melody's fingers preparing to strike or block on the next command.
"I'm Formosan," said the old man, "but my co-workers hate that name and have dubbed me, Foreman. I swear the young'uns have no respect for their elders."
"Well," said Shi, "some elders, like Saul, don't deserve respect."
"I suppose so," said Formosan, "But so many elders these days are treated so poorly…probably because of video games…or the internet. Damn that internet. Back in my day, when we wanted to learn something we had to get off of our lazy bums and go talk to a professional. But now you just google, yahoo, or bing everything. And I do mean quite literally everything."
"Yeah," said Melody as she distracted her gaze from the old man and looked away, "but even in your day you had the library."
"Library?" said Foreman as he waggled his finger at her, "how old do you think I AM?"
"Uh…ninety?" asked Melody with a confused tone.
"NINETY!" shouted Foreman, "I haven't been that young in such a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long TIME! Right now I'm close to celebrating my 1500th birthday…I think. The years have all started to blend together…let's see 1…2…3…" Foreman quietly began to count the years off on his fingertips.
"He's a witch," whispered Shi, "I say we get the drop on him now and finish him off."
"Agreed," said Melody. Her motion was as quick as lightning and as fluid as water. She quickly brought Shi up and around aiming him squarely at the old man's head. His head splattered into millions of pieces. Each one resembling the inside of a clay pot.
"That was EASY!" shouted Shi, "we just killed a witch! I am AWESOME! GO SHI! GO MELODY!"
"He's not dead, yet!" shouted Melody as her eyes started to scan the area around them.
One of the clay soldiers began to rattle as the clay began to flake off of its body, revealing the person beneath it. A young man about 30, a perfect head of brown hair. He was dressed in a militia uniform. Camouflage shirts, pants, and the like. His hazel eyes were glazed over. "Still you show your elders no respect. When we talk…" he said as he picked up the scimitar laying on the ground, "YOU SHOULD LISTEN!"
(-With May and Michael-)
"That giant boar really put us back," said Michael as he walked forward his hand guiding himself along the wall. "Not to mention…I have no idea where we are now." He tapped the wall. "I'm pretty sure this is the third time I saw that wall."
"I don't know," said May her reflection dashing from side to side, "I think all the walls look exactly the same. I guess we should just keep walking forward."
"Which way is forward and which way is back to the entrance?" asked Michael as he looked down the hallway one way and then back down the other way. "Cause I have absolutely no idea."
"Ummm…" said May as she looked up and down the corridor, "I think…maybe…that way."
"This is going to be fun tale to tell when we see the rest of our team," said Michael, "I can just hear Xander 'I took out three witches. How many did you guys fight? None! You were lost!' And ensue the laughter."
"Come on, Xander's not like that," said May, "he'll probably lie and say he took down eighteen."
"True enough," said Michael, "okay, for now though let's forget about them and start trying to find our way down this…do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" asked May cupping her hands around her ear.
"It sounds like a girl singing," said Michael as he brought May up to his shoulders and pulled the bowstring back allowing another arrow to take form in it.
"Yeah," said May, "we are in a temple in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention the witches that are present in the temple." Then out of nowhere a small and quiet voice began to rise throughout
"Twinkle, twinkle, little star!" sung a little girl as she skipped, in a hopscotch manner, through the temple, "how I wonder what you are! Up, above, the world so high! Like a diamond in the sky!"
Michael grimaced. "Really? Singing a song like that?" Michael lowered his bow to his waist, "In a place like this? I'm surprised the witches haven't killed her yet."
The girl soon appeared in view despite the dark and pretty terrible lighting inside the temple. Michael looked at her, she 5 feet exactly, but she still looked and sounded like a little girl. Maybe 9 or so? She had caramel skin with brown eyes hidden beneath her large lavender hair with several pink highlights. Michael noticed her thigh length violet dress with a white polka dot pattern and below that violet pants stretched out and into her knee-high black and white boots. On her head she wore a standard black witch hat that resembles her animal theme.
"Hey, Michael," whispered May under her voice, "is she a witch?" Her reflection motioning to the hat on her head.
"Can't tell," said Michael with a slightly weary look on his face, "I don't see any dead giveaways with her soul. Must be that Soul Protect thing we've heard about."
"Helloooo, Mr. Archer," said the girl in a sickeningly sweet voice, "what are you doing here?"
"Um…we are…looking for a jar, I guess," said Michael, not quite sure if he should lie or tell the truth around her. She seemed pretty harmless. In fact she seemed like she might actually be helpful to say the least.
"Oooh! I saw a jar once!" said the girl, "it was all flowery and it smelled like peaches and…and…AND it had flowers in it…"
"Really?" asked Michael as he began to severely doubt the girl's helpfulness in this case. "That's…uh…nice?"
"IT REALLY IS!" shouted the girl with a large smile on her face. "I'm Spectra!"
"The name's Michael," said Michael nodding his head. He began to walk forward deeper into the temple, even if it was just to get away from the girl.
"Mine is May," said May, still in her weapon form.
"Oh my god! A talking weapon! Spectra's heard of those from Spectra's parents! Spectra heard they were evil!" shouted Spectra pointing at May.
"They aren't evil," said Michael turning around and facing her, "me and my talking weapon help people."
"Spectra heard that talking weapons kill witches, like Spectra!" shouted the girl once more as she quickly back up a few more feet.
"So, you are a witch?" asked Michael as he sighed. "What are we supposed to do? It is basically our job to kill witches."
"WHAT?" shouted May, "you got to be kidding me! Just look at her! Our job is to kill evil witches! No little girl like her can possibly be evil. Let's just forget about her and keep looking for the Magic Tool."
"You are right," said Michael as he put his head in his hand, "let's just leave her be. Maybe she'll turn out to be a good witch." He turned around and faced Spectra, "see ya we are off to find the Magic Tool."
"Spectra knows of the Magic Tool!" shouted the little girl as she ran in front of Michael, "Spectra can show you the way to the Magic Tool."
"Really?" asked Michael, still not believing this girl knew anything of real importance to him. "How does a nine-year-old witch know where the Magic Tool is?"
"Spectra is THIRTEEN!" shouted Spectra, "whoa, cool it Spectra. Spectra almost lost it there for a second. So as Spectra was saying Spectra will show Michael and May to the Magic Tool!"
"Great," said May, "show us the way."
"…right into a trap," said Michael under his breath.
"Really Michael? Really?" shouted May, "you can't even trust a sweet, innocent little girl like this one?"
"Witch," said Michael, "I think you mean I can't even trust a witch like this one."
"She's still a girl," shouted May, "and she wants to show us to the Magic Tool."
"But Spectra has a condition," said Spectra with a high sing-song like voice.
"See," said Michael, "there's a catch. Probably will cost us our soul or something."
"Very funny," said May with an unimpressed tone, "but the least we can do is give the girl a chance. Who knows maybe she just wants us to take her out for ice cream when we are done?"
"Spectra just wants to play a game," said Spectra with a huge cheerful smile on her face.
Buh…buh…buh! The most menacing challenge the Soul Eater crew has ever had to face. Playing a game with a little girl named Spectra, who by the way in case you already didn't know is another OC submitted by my faithful reviewers…er…at least most of them are faithful. And that reviewer is WallaWallaBingBang.
Also for those of you who are wondering Formosan is my own character. And if you are interested, Formosan is the name/part of a name of an actual insect. So get your dictionaries (yes, DICTIONARIES DO EXIST!) and look around for what insect he was inspired by!