/ Duel Universe
/ Author: The Cowboy of Oklahoma
/ Ch 33: Moonlight
/ word count: 2804
Monster World:
After I got off the elevator, I nearly collapsed immediately to the deck gasping from breaking down in the elevator before. Gulping several times for more air, I finally got enough control to run out of the Oceanica and into the edge of the encampment. I noticed a fading golden glow from everywhere as I moved through the encampment. A door was open in one of the tent quarters as I passed by, a person inside was fully enveloped in the same golden glow as the rest of the encampment. When they shot up suddenly as if they were shot out of a cannon. Their eyes were wide with surprise as much as filled with questions about what the hell has happened. I keep moving and finally make it to the edge of the encampment closest to the woods. Taking one final glance behind me, I saw the last of the golden glow vanish, and people beginning to move about from their quarters. I turned and headed deep into the woods, the dark essence I felt coming from this direction completely dissipated.
"Well, that was a weird feeling. Bringing me all the way back here just to show me an asshole with an unnatural power boost." I said to no one in particular. "Phantasms. A dark power indeed, but not unbeatable. Why do I get the feeling that these are just the beginning of a darker, and harder challenge to come."
As if to answer my question, a small rainbow sheen shot out of my deck then a small purple teardrop with a rainbow crest on its forehead and wide eyes looked up at me.
"Kuri, Kuri.." it chirped.
Grinning, I looked down at the small creature and patted his head gently. "Okay, okay, I'll worry about it later. Let's go back to the campsite and training grounds." I said.
"Kuri, Kuri!" It chirped excitedly, then floated into the woods.
I followed the little guy as he led the way back to my little hidden oasis that was all to myself. It was half a day's journey from the encampment, through some of the thickest parts of the forest, and past some of the mountains. Once I was in sight of it, a female can be seen stoking the fire, preparing to set a pot for food. She had not seen me crest the small hill next to the camp, so I chose to move Kuriboh back to my deck, and try to sneak up on her. I chose my steps very carefully and moved slowly closer to the campsite.
"I can sense your presence, Master! You still don't have any control over hiding your powers yet." She exclaimed out loud.
I stood and moved through the brush noisily, closing the distance to the campsite.
"Well excuse me, Moony! I was just trying to have a little fun." I said snidely.
She was a medium-sized feminine monster, full-length sleeveless white gown, large white wings, and brown hair. She walked over and threw her arms around my middle.
"It's good to see you again Master. I was worried something may have happened to you, with that dark presence looming over the horizon." She said cheerfully.
She was just like a little kid sometimes, though I'm sure she is much older than I am.
"Master? Did you bring me anything from your travel?" She asked.
"Seriously? I go to face unknown dangers, and you ask if I brought back a gift?" I questioned.
Her ears drooped a bit as I said this, her eyes going what I can best describe as the monster world equivalent of puppy dog eyes.
So I rolled mine. "Oh, good grief."
I reached into one of my pockets and produced a small crystalline figurine of a woman dancing. Moon's eyes lit up with a childish smile to melt stone.
"It isn't much, but it is from the human world," I said.
She clasped it, grateful for almost anything I'd give her. Though I suspect she is willing to wait to want for more. More I cannot give.
"So how was your travel Master? I do not sense the evil presence from before, though something does feel like it's just beyond the horizon, waiting to creep over and reveal itself." She said.
"It was a human, corrupted by a dark power of unknown origin." I sigh. "He will not be a bother to anyone else ever again." I go a bit distant, the memory playing fresh on my mind.
"I am sorry Master, was it a friend?" She asked innocently.
"No," I say the words with some measure of hurt in my voice, then I clear my throat. "No. He was not a friend, nor a good man. But he was human, and there are precious few of us that remain. Getting rid of him means his evil, and the evil that was influencing him, won't be returning, at least for a time. A human cannot survive what he went through, but I suspect the darkness that had corrupted him is still out there somewhere." I explained.
The iron pot began to steam, and she started putting in vegetables, and some sort of edible meat for her kind.
"Rabbit stew again?" I asked mockingly.
She swatted me with her wing across the back, rocking me forward a bit and I nearly spilled my water.
"Hey!" I said.
"Hey yourself Master. You love my cooking, and you haven't complained about the stew before." She noted.
"Well, yeah, it tastes good and all, but not for every single meal," I said.
"Well excuse me, Master!" She said snidely. "Tomorrow I'll surprise you with something new, but no less tasty. Alright?" She poked me in the side to emphasize her point.
"Okay, okay, I get it." I relented, then I peeked at her from the corner of my eye, "how about bear..!" I had to duck away from her flaring wing as she tried to smack me over the head with it.
"You know I can't eat bear meat Master!! We went over this already!!" She shouted, her wings just swishing over my head. "Bears, birds, deer, elk, lions, tig.." She began to explain again.
"Okay, okay, stop hitting me with your boney wings!" I shouted, ducking and covering myself from any more impacts.
She finally stopped swatting in my direction but held her wings up in a threatening manner. I leaned further away from her with a look of mild fear and a moderate-sized smirk across my face.
"Just because you saved me from those mean beast-warriors, doesn't mean I'll let you just say whatever you want about me and my kind." She threatened.
"And swear every lasting loyalty for life, well, my lifespan at least," I added.
"Oh if we didn't have such a tradition to uphold in my clan…" she stopped talking before she broke another tradition. After a few moments, she finally turned to me and gave a small smile. "I'm glad you returned safely Master." She said.
"Thanks. Glad to be back. Though I think I won't be here very long this time." I said.
"What do you mean Master?" She asked.
"I overheard in the castle that the device to be used to clean the goo is almost finished. It was just being delayed with what had happened in the human encampment. But now that that problem has been dealt with, it should be finished very soon." I explained.
"Oh, I see Master, will you be going with the rest of the humans back to your world?" She asked timidly, slowly stirring the pot of stew.
I see the uncertainty in her movements, a hurt behind her aged eyes she's not used to.
"Moon? Is something wrong?" I hesitate to move closer. I reach to touch her shoulder, she shuddered beneath my touch. "Moon?"
She moves her shoulder away from my hand. Leaving the pot over the fire untouched and unattended, she moved away from the campsite.
"I...need some time...Master," she said opening her wings flapping away through the treetops.
I stood there for a moment, watching her leave, the faint smell of boiling water and a metal lid clanking got me to look down and notice the pot boiling over. I stirred it and after a moment took it off any direct contact with the heat. I pondered what her reasons could be, she almost had a similar look about her as what Jackson had when she faked me out, but Sarah wasn't shuddering uncontrollably at my touch.
"Oh Moon, I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means," I said quietly to myself.
Human Encampment:
Akiza was watching over her sister now, Shelly still seemed a bit shell-shocked at what had transpired almost two days ago. She had seen Ka'an, tried to speak with him, and he just walked away. That is what little Shelly could get out before she went almost full catatonic, and wasn't talking to anyone. Not even Akiza could get her sister to open up, and Shelly had never done that before.
"Ka'an," Shelly said quietly.
"Huh? You say something sis?" Akiza asked.
Shelly suddenly shot up out of her chair and went straight out the door without a word to Akiza.
"Sis!?" Akiza called after her, following her sister. "Shelly tell me what's going on?" She asked.
"Someone knows where Ka'an is, and I'm gonna find out who!" Shelly stated while storming off towards the castle. "Someone knows!"
Akiza could do nothing but follow her sister to her destination. Shelly quite literally stalked up to a random transport, fired it up, and took off towards the castle at speed, Akiza barely having time to strap in before she was lurched sideways at the motion. Its original owner, or the one it was assigned to, was yelling for them to return the hovercraft immediately! But their words went unanswered by the now very determined Lieutenant Commander.
Shelly landed the craft and without shutting it down, leaped off of it and stormed into the castle. Akiza asked if anyone here could shut it down before it could do any sort of damage as she ran after her sister.
"Shelly! Calm down! You're being ridiculous and reckless! What has gotten into you!?" Akiza shouted at the ever retreating backside of her sister.
Shelly, once again, unceremoniously forced her way into the meeting hall of the council or the throne room and shouted, "DARK MAGICIAN GIRL!!"
Catching the few occupants inside unawares, and a bit shocked by the entrance. Akiza huffing for breath as she slid to a halt outside the doors behind her sister. Dark Magician Girl, the ruler of the realm, quietly insisted that everyone else leave the chambers. After a moment of people filing out, and Akiza making a motion to leave as well.
"Stay! Sister of Carson." Dark Magician Girl put an air of regal tone to her words, stopping Akiza in her tracks. "What can I do for you Shel..?"
"WHERE IS KA'AN!?" Shelly virtually screamed the question at her. "I know ye'r the ruler, I know ye'r monster underlin's talk to ya', tell you thin's about us humans from time to time, now someone, some..monster, should have seen which way Ka'an went! And possibly even where exactly he is right now!!!" Shelly shouted.
Dark Magician Girl raised an eyebrow at the words, insinuations, and outright rudeness of the implications that she would ever spy on her guests.
"You will do well to remember just who's throne room you now stand Miss Carson." She said in a flat tone. "Yes, I am the ruler. No, I do not have little spies or 'underlings' telling me anything about you humans. And I do not know where.." she started.
"Bull shi..!?" Shelly's words didn't get a chance to leave her mouth fully when she was suddenly slammed to the floor as if a massive weight was dropped on top of her.
Her limbs were moving a bit, but she seemed to be under extreme pressure, her veins were beginning to bulge on her temples from the strain.
"You humans and your colorful words and metaphors. I grow tired of hearing them." Dark Magician Girl said evenly, then her tone changed. "I am the ruler of this realm and I will not tolerate such behavior of anyone. Not even of you humans of which we are trying so hard to return you to your world for our own survival!" Her words reverberated around the room as if she had just used every speaker known to man in that chamber at once.
Akiza's ears rang from the loud noise, her eardrums ached at the pressure she felt coming from the throne, forcing, even her, to kneel.
"Now, if you wish to try again, in a more neutral tone, maybe with some civility, or humble even, I'd be willing to listen to your request." Dark Magician Girl said, then released her magical force holding Shelly to the floor.
Shelly struggled to her knees, and almost got back up onto her feet, but thought better of it, keeping one knee firmly planted on the floor.
"Will you please tell me where Ka'an is, or try to find him for me? I need to speak with him desperately." Shelly tried to sound humble, though an undertone of growling edged into her words.
"And why should I do such a thing for you!? Twice now you've burst into this hall with no less than to make some form of accusation leveled at your human leaders or myself, and now you ask me to expend resources to search my home for your wayward man!?" Dark Magician Girl asked incredulously.
Shelly didn't say anything, just hanging her head. Akiza moved forward after a moment of silence and spoke up.
"Your Majesty, after the battle on the Oceanica, Shelly just hasn't been herself, and I must ask your humblest apologies for her actions," Akiza said.
This caught the attention of Dark Magician Girl, and she turned her head to look directly at Akiza. "Go on." She said.
"She loves Ka'an, and Ka'an cares for her, it's why he went into a rage when we were captured. I know I was not the true cause of his rage and his outbursts, nor the reason why he decimated his opponents in those duels, but he would go that far for the one he truly loves. And now he has disappeared again to an unknown part of your world. Is there no way, no one that could just point us in the right direction?" Akiza asked, humbling herself to the ruler of the realm.
Shelly said nothing to add to these words. Dark Magician Girl thought on the subject a moment, but she truly had no answer for them. She had been trying to locate Ka'an ever since he first disappeared into the wild weeks ago. She had no idea he had returned until she felt the energy of Obelisk during the duel with the Phantasms, and she still could not locate him, even with her strongest locator magic.
"I.." she'd only gotten out when a winged elf maiden monster in a white gown and brown hair entered her throne room through the balcony leading outside.
"Your Majesty, I.., oh." The look in her eyes were that of sadness and regret. "I did not realize that you had guests. Excuse me." She said before turning back to the balcony.
"What is it my subject? I am only interrupted when a problem has arisen elsewhere." Dark Magician Girl said more to Shelly than to her subject.
"Um, I am Maiden of the Moonlight and I must confess I am having feelings for a human male. He is strong, caring, and kind, and he saved me from a beast-warrior that intended to do me harm. For this reason, I have given him my everlasting servitude." Moonlight said. "But he knows he must return to his world to fight the darkness and he may not return." She explained. "What must I do? I am conflicted. I know he is correct, but my heart aches at the thought of losing him. I want to be with him for as long as I can. To...mate with him." She finally explained.
Akiza got a little teary-eyed at the thought that love was blooming, Shelly clenched her fist at the interruption of her request but said nothing.
"And who is this human you wish to be with until the end of his days?" Dark Magician Girl asked.
"His name is Ka'an." Moonlight answered.
Both human females turned to the newcomer and shouted in unison, "WHAT!?"
Dark Magician Girls' eyebrow shot up for the second time today. This was going to be interesting, if not pretty.