Depth of the Rain by Orin Drake
A completed novel, available here.

        Chapter 6 - "So What's Your Name, Prick?"


        After recovering from their momentary insanity and bouts of foolish laughter, Evyn and Shadow just sat there, looking upward to where the squirrel had met its doom.  It had gone from funny, to sad, to... indifferent.  Soon it would be funny again, they were sure of it.  It would probably just be one of those things myth was made of... only it was a little more interesting, making a squirrel fly.
        Sandy had taken it upon herself to carry their web of supplies in her mouth to another location.  She had been wandering the woods for something else for her companions to eat when she'd found a most lovely location for lunch.  Attentive as she was, she moved swiftly without being seen, as to hopefully give them a pleasant surprise from their pained muscles.  Certain enough, when she came back to find them still sitting there, staring up at the sky, trying to keep perfectly still so nothing would hurt.  Of course, it was a rather... empty effort.
        Sandy neighed and lightly thrust her nose in the middle of Shadow's back.  The reaction was a very slow, painful leaning back instead of having to turn her body or her head.  All the girl could see was a big horse nose right above her head.  Evyn, seeing Shadow leaning back, followed her lead.
        "We are sad, sad cases."  She commented in good humor, having to look up a horse's nose.
        Evyn grinned.  "Can't argue with that."
        Sandy neighed again, a touch more urgently.  It wasn't far to the place she'd found, and she knew better than to have them simply lounging around with their desperate aches.  As much as they didn't want to, they had to eat, and they had to move.  So, they may as well do it in a beautiful surrounding.
        Shadow caught on to the beast's intentions enough to actually force herself to her feet.  It was getting harder and harder to move, to her awful surprise, without shooting pain through her arms and back.  Even her legs had gotten a bit of a work out, enough to add to the lovely pain.  She grunted and lifted, then held a hand out for Evyn.
        He simply stared at her.  "Sure I can't just lay here?" he asked, mostly seriously.
        "I'm afraid not."  She responded.  She knew enough about physical fitness to know staying in one place after such activity wasn't good for healing.  She hated to know that, but it was a part of her consciousness.  Now that she was actually standing, she felt a little better... but not enough to count.
        Evyn finally surrendered his hand to her help.  He gritted his teeth and grunted, using her resistance to get to his feet.  Of all the farming, all the wood chopping, he'd never been that sore before.  Leaving the other two for just a moment, the went to get Taerlyn.  She was sitting where they'd left her, staring out into nowhere, not having seen the whole Rocky incident.  He helped her up and noticed their supplies gone, then shot Sandy a questioning look.
        The horse pretended not to notice as she threw her head up, raised her tail, and led them all outward in a proud prance.  They hadn't been able to see the place she was taking them to from where they'd been sitting due to the thickness of the interlocked branches of silvery trees, so when Sandy nudged through to open a little window, both Shadow and Evyn gasped.  It looked like a tropical paradise on the edge of a cliff, vines rolling down the sides and all over the ground to make a lush carpet of leaves.  The cliff overlooked a lovely little canyon that wasn't too deep to see wildlife darting this way and that.
        Shadow was the first to press in, thanking the steed with a gentle pat on the neck.  She stood there for a moment without moving; her fear of heights having disappeared, it seemed.  Sitting willingly on the cliff's edge, she looked out across the landscape; beautiful, unspoiled and really just amazing.  The trees were thick with bright greens, an occasional jewel tone blue or orange flowering vine entwined within the branches, birds of amazing peacock hues hopping in and out to gather food and twigs.  It was a welcome peace to look at while eating, and hopefully could distract them from the taste of their food.  So maybe that's why fancy restaurants have such nice views...
        "Now... hungry?" Evyn asked, sitting beside her to take in the scenery himself.  He was equally as thrilled and amazed with the gorgeous landscape before him, being so used to the fields of his home and Tenteron.  Taerlyn sat numbly by his side, but a little further from the cliff than the rest.  She may be numb, but her fear of heights was still in tact.
        Shadow stared at him for a few seconds in silence.  "Not when I think about what we're going to eat."
        He grinned and turned with a little grunt of pain, rummaging through her back pack.  He only assumed that it was alright to do so by now, and she didn't protest (luckily).  He found and handed her the open package of shoe leather jerky regardless of their appetites insisting otherwise.  "I know exactly what you mean.  But... do it for Rocky."
        She chuckled, took a small handful and handed the package back.  "What I would give for a chocolate chip cookie..."
        Her companion's stomach echoed her desire.  "Anything chocolate would be nice..." he dreamed, salivating, as he handed some jerky to Taerlyn.
        Shadow laughed quietly.  "I just realized we really haven't been gone from civilization that long...  We're not much in the way of surviving the wild, are we?"
        "Oh, I don't know..." he responded thoughtfully.  "We've come this far.  We just can't catch the wildlife."
        "I suppose that's true."  She agreed, taking a breath and biting into the jerky.  Sandy supportively nudged her shoulder and walked off, no doubt to try and round up the other horses yet again.  I should start calling her mama, Shadow kept to her own amusement.
        Evyn watched with a light smile on his face.  It seemed like they'd known each other forever somehow.  A trust had been built (and a strong one it had become) in such a short time.  He was glad to have her there, even though when they'd first started out, he had been pretty certain she'd kill him in the night... or something along those lines.  She scared him and set him at ease all at the same time.  A sudden loud buzzing drew him from his thoughts.
        "Wow."  Shadow whispered.  She stared in awe at the giant dragonfly that had flown up right in front of her.  It must have been at least the length of her entire arm from wrist to shoulder, huge and beautiful purple and blue, shimmering madly in the afternoon light; it looked like it was wearing armor, the way its exoskeleton shone.  It hovered right in front of them for several seconds, seemed to float easily in the air on hardly viable wings, then zoomed off in an airplane roar and was gone.  "You don't have mosquitoes like that, do you?" she asked quietly.
        "I hope not."  He responded with a shudder.
        "Or spiders...  Something so wrong with giant spiders..." she trailed off, recalling horror movies of days long gone.
        "Worse than giant mosquitoes?" he asked, wondering if her world actually contained giant spiders.
        "Uglier by far."  She answered.  She gazed out at the natural wonders all around them, but somehow found something... missing.  Something that belonged there, that was not there.  At last she realized what it was.  She got up, walked to her backpack, and rummaged for a moment.  Finding what she needed, she tucked the metal music box under her arm and sat back down where she had been.
        "Nature lover, huh?" Evyn grinned.
        "Indeed."  Shadow grinned back.  To the box, she spoke, "Motley Crue, 'Live Wire'."  But the box did not respond with either a click or the normal grind.  Instead, it was a labored whirring, trailing off into nothing.  "Ugh."  She commented.
        "What?" he prodded, staring at the box in her hands.
        "I think... the battery has gone dead..." she sighed softly.  "If there even was a battery...  In other words, it has no energy to run on.  How... depressing..."
        "You could sing it for me."  He smirked.
        "That'd go over well, wouldn't it?" she somewhat unwillingly let herself joke.
        "Did you have things like that in your world?" he pointed to the dead metal box.
        "Similar."  She responded.  "Nothing responded to your voice, but... similar.  Lots of weird music machines."
        "I take it you listened to a lot of music?" he grinned.
        "I always listened to music.  It was my medicine."  She let herself go off on a long dream.  "And television, what I'd give for that...  I just want to stay up and watch TV all night, catch some of the Tonight Show if there's a good guest on, then watch Conan of course when he still had Andy, go off and play Super Mario Brothers 3 until 4:30 in the morning, then catch Captain Scarlet and Transformers (G1, of course), then go to bed as the sun comes up..." she finally noticed the blank look on her audience's face.  "Sorry, just venting.  Later I may take the sword into the woods and get me some dead trees to take out my aggression."
        "Not that you have any."  He suggested, being ever so helpful.
        "Exactly."  She agreed, thankful as hell for a sharp companion.  She'd never had anyone to talk to like that on earth, let alone someone to bounce humor off of.
        The sudden darkening of their surrounding area forced them to stop talking and look up.  It seemed the storm they'd just come through wasn't the last one they'd have to face.  The clouds looked even darker and more threatening than the others had, and there were immediate lightning flashes with distant but ground shaking thunder.  "I don't suppose we should travel in that."  Evyn pondered quietly.
        "Probably not the best idea."  Shadow stared up and took a deep breath.  It had begun to smell of rain as the breeze delicately increased.  "Do storms usually come this fast here?"
        "Afraid so."  He answered, getting up and offering a hand to his sister.  She stiffly took it and stared distantly at who she still considered a stranger.  "That is, if you live in a place that gets a lot of rain."  He added.
        "Off we go to find shelter..." Shadow announced, tucking her now useless box under her arm and following.
        Evyn let go of Taerlyn's hand, and to his surprise, his new companion took it without any reaction.  Himself, he threw the web of bags over his shoulder and led to find their rides.
        As another burst of cool air and thunder erupted, the brown horses whinnied shrilly.  Sandy just stood there between them and grunted, snorting and smacking her hoof upon the ground impatiently.  Such a smart horse... Shadow's mind echoed dimly.  She certainly didn't need to think it any more, as she'd grown to accept Sandy as simply a person who couldn't talk, but the creature still amazed her.
        Seeing as how the sandy grey steed was busy trying to keep the other horses in check, Evyn scanned the trees carefully to find a place that looked safe.  He spotted a little clearing with a large bunch of young trees, and hoped very much that it would reduce their chances of getting struck by lightning.  He indicated his find, and the rest were quick to follow.
        "This looks nice."  Shadow commented.  She then looked up and several yards away to a very large tree; about the size of a California redwood on earth.  It was dead and had been for a long time; it may have been petrified considering it was still standing at all.  Nearly stripped of all its branches, the giant stretched straight into the air.  "Right next to a lightning rod."
        "Not... that close."  Evyn attempted to dismiss.
        "Not to say I don't like the idea."  She grinned widely.
        "That no longer surprises me."  He shot back, finding a grin on his own face.
        Another flash of lightning and the rumble of ever closer thunder erupted, making the brown horses scream and rear.  Keeping their hope alive, at least they didn't run away, and Sandy only cringed in surprise.
        Shadow looked around for good places to sit, and finally decided upon a small spot right next to a blossoming baby tree.  Evyn followed and sat next to her, guiding Taerlyn beside him.
        Sandy glared at the other horses.  At first they only stomped the ground, frightened, nervous because of the storm.  She simply continued to stand there, staring until she got their attention.  She then whinnied what certainly sounded like an order, and the horses tentatively followed the command by laying on the ground.  Looking as satisfied as a horse can, Sandy nodded and lay down herself.
        "Do you suppose she can talk, too?" Evyn's mind wandered out loud.
        "I wouldn't be surprised."  Shadow answered thoughtfully.  "She reminds me of Thirty/Thirty."
        "Who?" he looked rather confused.
        She grinned an odd grin; a very happy, memorable one.  "A character on television a long time ago.  I only watched the show for him...  He was a mechanical horse that could stand up on his back legs, and he had this really neat gun..."  She trailed off.  "Well, he was neat, anyway."
        "I bet."  He offered, amused.
        Another, much closer wave of thunder shook the ground.  The brown horses shrieked excitedly, but Sandy only glared at them, irritated at their manners.  With the violent thunder, Taerlyn squeezed her brother's hand and he wrapped and arm around her absent-mindedly, as he used to do when they were younger.  The squeeze gave him little hope, but a little was enough.  The sky opened and began to pour rain over them again, but only for a few seconds before it stopped and enticed another wave of brilliant lightning and thunder throughout the sky.
        Shadow stared up at the storm clouds, through the trees, over the extremely tall dead tree and back to the horizon... and would have thought there literally was a light bulb above her head at that very instant.  Sure it was dumb.  Sure it was the product of too much TV.  But it was worth a try.  "Maybe I could recharge the battery if lightning hit the box..." she thought dangerously out loud.
        Evyn just looked at her.  "You think that would work?"
        "Worth a shot."  She shrugged.
        He could not help but grin, strong and wide.  He watched as Shadow carefully looked upward until she felt it safe, then ran out to the dead tree, placing the metal box right against the trunk.  She ran back, sat down, and was determined to wait.  He didn't say a word, simply waited with a growing look of amusement.  First Rocky and now this...
        Astoundingly, lightning did indeed strike the little box in the middle of the field only moments after it had been placed there, getting quite a bit of a whinny out of all of the horses.  But, in true Shadow's luck fashion, it sparked, lit up, and combusted.  A long sound of agony came from their little camp as the smoke cleared.  Right after the echoes of thunder died down, the sound of Evyn's muffled laughter rose softly above the breeze. 


 

        "Hah, very funny."  She challenged.  "That's right, laugh at the stupid girl."
        He couldn't respond for quite a few minutes, still trying hard to stop laughing long enough to sound sincere.  "You're not stupid.  That was funny."
        "Hilarious."  She agreed sarcastically.  Trying to hold a straight face, she ultimately couldn't help but laugh with him.
        As though frightened by their laughter, the storm began to quiet and ease away into misty nothingness.  The almost black of the sky began to recede into gray, and finally white and blue within a matter of minutes, and their giggles persisted until the sunlight finally shown bright upon them.
        "We should get going, I guess."  Shadow suggested, looking at the char and dead metal thoughtfully.
        "Do we have to ride?" Evyn asked suddenly.
        "Like having to walk?" she grinned.
        "Oh, I like riding... but there's something to be said for walking.  Just for a little while."  He simply missed using his own legs, and had begun to worry about losing strength in them since he had begun to get better at using a sword.  Besides that, they still had sore, tight muscles to work out.
        "Not a problem.  I'm sure the horses will appreciate it."  She got up and stretched, Sandy doing the same.  "What about Ter?" she asked, realizing that it may not be the best thing to march her onward in her state of mind.
        In answer, Sandy swiftly dropped to the ground and neighed her offer.  She was perfectly capable and completely ready to take on the task of caring for her.
        "Sure you can handle everything?" she asked the horse.  When Sandy neighed softly and remained laying down, the answer was obvious.
        The two of them helped Taerlyn onto the steed's back, then went about walking through the forest, the brown horses only glad to walk behind them with no riders.  One of them was stuck carrying the web of supplies, but at least it wasn't heavy.  Or moving around all the time, pointing and chattering.
        The smell of rain was still thick in the air, and the cry of birds and insects almost musical.  It was really quite a beautiful area, more so than Shadow had ever seen (as well as the rest of them, for that matter).  They walked in awed silence, the sights, sounds and smells feeling so perfect after the rain.
        "You're not stupid, you know."  Evyn stated out of the blue.
        "Matter of opinion."  Shadow grinned.  "But yeah, I guess I gathered I'm not too close to idiot status-"  She stopped talking, stopped moving instantly as they stepped through a very thick line of trees and right onto a field of tall grass and sparse shrubs.  Quite a departure from the forest they were just wandering.
        Her companion noticed right away.  "What?" his voice edging on deep concern, stepping up behind her.
        "Just a little odd."  She answered thoughtfully.  "Lots of trees, and then no trees at all.  I guess I'm nervous about doorways now."  Not to mention nervousness about a recap of their previous incident in a grassy field.
        "Understandable."  He grinned to himself.
        They continued to walk in silence over the field, the smell of grass never before as clear as it was in the afternoon sun.  Sandy walked leisurely behind them, stopping every now and again to reach down for a nibble and make sure the two brown horses kept up the pace.  She was just enjoying the quiet, the walk, the parts of the world she'd never seen.
        Unfortunately, the quiet was about to be shattered.  A cloud of dust appeared very quickly over the horizon, across from the line of trees they'd just left, from the other end of the open field.  Evyn and Shadow stopped in their tracks, glanced at one another and gulped.  The violently quick, heavy footfalls of whatever created that dust cloud were so quick that they didn't have the time to decide what to do, and very unfortunately could do little more than stand there stupidly.  A small army of a dozen or so donkey monsters, each riding beasts that looked like mutated crosses between horses and mangled lizard carcasses, were already nearly upon them.  It was a regular Clive Barker painting.
        The lead monster pointed directly to Shadow; she could see it clearly, its teeth gleaming, the bump on its head obvious.  It growled acknowledgment, and the other creatures rushed forward.
        "Oh great."  She heard herself say, unaware she'd even spoken.  "He's gotten all of his brothers to come pay me back."  With a quick glance to Evyn, they took off in a run back to the trees.  At least they had a chance if they could hide.
        Sandy didn't wait for orders.  The moment she saw her companions running from the riding atrocities, she took off into the forest with Taerlyn on her back.  Seeing her run, the brown horses followed suit in fast panic.
        Evyn couldn't help but be surprised at how incredibly fast Shadow was capable of running.  She nearly outran him, and he had always enjoyed running laps around the fields of home.  He'd even outrun his father on several occasions, a man proud of his athletics.  "What now?" he gasped.
        "Keep running."  She simplified.  "As soon as you hit the trees, just run.  Hide.  We'll find each other later."
        But they didn't even make it to the tree line.  Evyn gasped in horror as Shadow's neck snapped back, her entire body appearing to fly backward, the sound of clawed hooves right behind him.  Unwisely, he skidded to a stop and looked back, but it was too late to have taken action.  Two of the donkey monsters had thrown ropes around her neck and waist, already having pulled her from the ground and onto the back of one of the horse/lizard beasts.
        "Shadow!" he cried out, seeing the miniature army instantly change direction and ride off.  Helplessly he watched as they disappeared, not bothering to so much as look back at him.  He ran his hand through his hair and grunted weakly.  His heart was racing, his breath was quick, but he couldn't feel the adrenaline.  "Great."  He said loudly, angrily, to no one in particular.  "Just... great."
        Sandy broke from the trees and made to follow the band of ugly things, but was rather instantly made aware of Taerlyn's increasingly tightening hold, grasping onto her mane for dear life.  With a disgusted whinny of helplessness, she pawed the ground several times.  Even if she had been able to take off after them, she had to face the facts that she'd never have been able to keep up.  They appeared too fast, and disappeared even faster.
        Evyn rubbed his face roughly with his trembling hand and walked up to the steed.  "This is all we need."  He sighed, feeling completely helpless.  He hadn't the strength to be angry, so he just sat on the ground and caught his breath.  Sandy lightly pressed her nose against his back, but it gave him no hope. 


 

        It was the smell that kept her from being able to struggle much, or think about how lucky she was not to have had her neck broken.  A very fierce smell of all that was disgusting, all public rest rooms and landfills combined with the most wretched body odor any human nose could take choked her whole thought process.  She tried to get the ropes off of her, tried to fight her way free, but with every breath her head spun.  She lost track of the time on account of the stench mixed with the horrible heat of the day and the sweating bodies around her, and began to wonder if she'd passed out at any time during the ride.  Before she could decide, the group stopped.
        She didn't have time to look around, to orient herself at all before she was yanked off the beast by the ropes still tight around her waist and neck, nearly forcing the breath out of her permanently.  Even as the sliding knot loosened its grip, she felt a trickle of blood run between her shoulder blades.  The only thing that gave her any indication of which direction was up, was being flung against a dark red wall and feeling ground underneath her as she slumped from the impact.
        She strained all of the muscles in her body, the force and power she'd used all of her life seeming like nothing against the ghastly creatures that held her against that wall.  The cold bricks of the old building sliced her palms as she tried desperately to push herself away from them, the calloused and grimy hands making her skin crawl.  Her nature, her soul, kept her struggling, kept her losing her strength, but she was certain even in her lunatic raging that they would not allow her to get free.
        A gurgling sound (laughter, so it sounded) came from right behind her.  Accompanying it to her side, she heard a violent snap.  Only in a bolt of anguishing heat, then icy cold pain did she realize the sharp crack's intent.  She held her jaw shut, closed her eyes and tried in great desperation to ignore the bolts running mercilessly through her body.  Another quick snap and a tearing, straining pain brought her out of coherent thought completely.  The third snap rammed her into a blue tinged world of simple pain; a pain of which she'd never felt so clearly before and had never wanted to escape more.
        It was the fourth snap, the fourth crack of agonizing realness, that brought her power directly to the surface.  The fourth crack hit her harder than the other three, and upon it's bloody impact, the earth began to shake underneath them.  A low, trembling voice burst into a melody of otherworldly voices singing together, encasing her conscious thought.  Blue light, blue darkness, came from nowhere, from everywhere in blinding gashes, and the wall began to crumble into sand.  Even the most loyal of the incompetent creatures began to scatter, screaming their lust for the little life they were allowed to live in groggy, incoherent gulps of breath.
        Shadow looked on as through she were outside her body, watching a familiar movie that she'd sworn she'd seen before.  Everything was moving in slow motion before her, inside her, her senses detached and flailing wildly to be reconnected.  She turned her head slowly just in time to see a burst of orange right in front of her eyes... 


 

        At first, there was nothing but light.  Pure, dull, yellowish light.    She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and opened them again.  The same light, just a little closer, a little more clear.  She closed and opened her eyes again, over and over, until she could make out the source of it.  The light looked to be filtering in from a tiny pinprick at the top of a deep but narrow canyon--that she seemed buried in.  The thought came to her that perhaps she was dead.  This is really disappointing, she thought gravely.  I guess Jesus doesn't love me...  She would have laughed had she the strength.
        A presence beside her immediately brought her into steady consciousness, and she was almost knocked right back out of it; a fit of pain burst out to and from her ribs as she tried to lift her head, her spine igniting in flame.  Immediately she worried that her back had been broken, then painfully twitched a toe.  I've been Reeved! she thought, the edge of laughter tickling at her mind.  Obviously, then was not the time to amuse herself.
        Very slowly this time, she raised herself from the not-quite-flat-enough-for-comfort floor onto her elbows, gasping quietly as the pain shot back and forth like little bullets.  She took a determined breath and moved herself into a sitting position against a rounded wall of stone right next to her.  It seemed she was indeed contained in a hole in the earth, the pinprick at the top her only source of light.
        At last in a position that she could stand to feel a little less helpless in, she looked over.  To her side, crouching in a shadow, was undoubtedly the figure that had surprised her earlier, having left her with a small cut above her eyebrow.  Only this time, he was solid.  Real.  And too close.
        Her eyes having adjusted to the dull golden light, she stared at him for a long time.  He was tall, clearly much taller than her even though he was crouching.  Pale and thin looking, but obviously powerful.  His hair was a once-kempt brown tangle to go with his incredibly dressy emerald green outfit consisting of what she would have called a "warrior dress"; a form fitting and simple green tunic, leading to black pants beneath an emerald cape edged with elaborate gold designs.  Around his neck was an inch-wide silver collar that looked as though it had no clasp of any sort, just one solid ring of metal that amused her with tantalizing shininess.  About his waist was a belt that looked as though it had been woven from tiny strands of silver wire in a detailed design, something of a Celtic knot she encountered in her world.
        Well.  This was an odd and relatively uncomfortable situation.  "Why are you here?" she asked sharply, her mind working like a computer to slowly store and compact the sharp pains throbbing throughout her body, pushing all of the sensations away.
        The boy laughed bitterly, sounding like the same coughing fit she'd heard when he'd bloodied her head and disappeared.  Quite similar to the laughter she knew she'd heard before she'd been whipped.  The sound was grating, unrelenting, like nails on a chalk board mixed with Alantis Moriset.  His regular voice held little difference, though it was a lot easier to tolerate.  "I wanted to see you..." his grin widened as he continued.  "To hear you beg..."
        She noticed quickly that his glittering dark eyes were bouncing insanely, never seeming to stop to gaze at just one thing.  It seemed as though he were either entirely straight-jacket-insane, or perhaps just quite happily on some kind of drug.  Regardless of his behavior, she knew he was at least something resembling sane in its most basic form, and assumed perhaps that was the problem.  With this world she had so far experienced, aware didn't seem like the best state of being, let alone intelligent and aware.  She swallowed and went over his words in her mind, noticing how uneven and detached his voice had been, trying to grasp at a reason.
        "So what's your name, prick?" she snarled at the end of the last word, not meaning to, not wanting to speak it at all but not being able to control it.  She actually wanted desperately for him to keep talking, though she didn't understand why.  There was something very deep inside her that kept leaping toward him, telling her to keep him here, keep him talking, to keep her eyes on him at all costs.  Regardless, she'd decided it would be smarter to cut to the chase if she was just going to die anyway.
        "Roan."  He responded, somehow managing to sound even more detached and fucking nuts; distant beyond distant.  His eyes stopped bouncing and flying just long enough to give her an eerie feeling she was sure she'd never felt before.
        The stillness didn't last long, and she realized with a dull shiver that he'd been looking directly into her eyes.  The hairs stood stiff on the back of her neck and her body unwillingly shuddered into another spasm of agony.  Working quickly, her brain again catalogued the pain away like a computer to clear the path for coherent conversation.
        "And your reason for being here?" she asked very slowly, her mind beginning to come back together and focus from the various suppressings of pain.
        "I told you.  I'd like to think you're begging for me to save your pathetic little life."  His eyes had begun to move more slowly then, with an almost unnerving grace.
        "You may as well kill me right now, then."  She stated quite seriously, looking up into the pinhole of light coming from the top of the cavern.  Was that a way out?  How the hell had she gotten in here, anyway?
        For an instant, his coughing laughter sounded human, but she never would have believed him to be anything close.  He just felt so... different.  Surprising her from her thoughts, he crawled over to her, his body smelling something of wet dog and rotting fruit.  Momentarily, she wondered just how he'd gotten a hold of such fancy clothing.
        His movements were smooth and quick as though they'd been prepared and practiced well ahead of time. Axl-esque fluidity, she thought with an almost invisible grin, thinking that she could quite possibly explode into song at any moment from the simple insanity of the situation itself.
        He got close enough so that she could clearly make out that his eyes had no color to them (only oil black), then stopped and sat cross legged in front of her.  His stance and continual stare suggested he was inspecting her up and down in a very thorough fashion.  "I think I will show you something."  He said at last, emotionless and flat.  His hand moving in a blur, he painfully grasped the side of her neck.
        Without thinking, she immediately snapped her head around and tore into his wrist with sharp teeth, blood splattering against her tongue and the side of her face.  Only too late did she realize she'd drawn some into her mouth and swallowed, the metallic taste having already coated her throat.  For an instant, she was struck with wondering just why the hell she'd have done something like that, but the thought was quickly dissolved with the awful sound of his laughter.
        She was drawn directly into his vice-like eyes, stone cold blackness, unable to escape their grip.  He held her there with nothing but his gaze, making certain she was writhing in a trapped and sickening feeling of powerlessness before directing her shocked attention to his gushing wrist.  He winked at her, then closed his eyes and appeared to be thinking hard.  A dull pounding seemed to encase the area in which they sat, like the earth's own heartbeat rushing toward them.  Transparent blue fire suddenly rippled from his chest to his arm, peaking, dipping, and seeming to absorb the blood.  As the cold fire burned through the flesh, it sealed the once gaping wound without so much as a scar.
        As amazed as she was at the sight, something almost familiar in the back of her mind screamed out to her, shouting that she somehow knew how to do it for herself.  Her rational mind seized the irrational bubble and strangled it, taking over full control.
        Roan cackled another short laugh and simply stared at her, crouching and hugging his knees like some dangerous gargoyle.  After a long and uncomfortable silence, he added as if just an afterthought, "Do it or your friends die."
        A rather surprised look crossed the depths under Shadow's face, but she knew better than to believe him.  That irrational part of her mind had managed to survive, and whispered to her that this Roan fellow was no more a quick and easy murderer than he was a true gentleman.
        "I would say 'try me'", she responded in a low, dark tone, "But I guess I should know better."  She sat there, looking at him as he continued to inspect her.  Another long silence passed as she tried to coax the insanity running around in her mind to pause for a moment and tell her how to even attempt such a feat of healing.  It was not that eager to participate.
        "You can press back pain very well."  He finally rang in with his oh-so-cheery voice, holding her eyes more gently this time as she stared in his general direction.  "I know you're capable.  I was there when they were holding you..."  He trailed off into a devious smile, his voice edged with a playful quality she hoped she hadn't heard correctly.
        She didn't seem to react to his statement at all, and it somewhat fascinated him.  She had more or less assumed he was definitely enjoying himself, and wouldn't have been at all surprised to learn that he was the one that had been holding the whip.  Glaring at him suddenly in thought, she then shut her eyes.  Thinking back, remembering the feeling of the ground trembling, the wall crumbling to pieces, then losing conscious control of herself, absolutely determined not to ask him for directions...
        Roan crouched deeper into the ground, watching her closely like a wolf about to attack.  Safe from her gaze, his eyes fixed on her face and stayed there; unthinking, unfeeling, simply staring blankly at something that was beautiful but lifeless, like some lovely animal that had been stuffed and displayed by someone who thought themselves either regal or rightfully proud.
        Eyes still closed, she traced her memories to that instant she felt her own consciousness give way to whatever it was that took over.  She recalled a feeling like being mentally tapped on the shoulder and asked if something could just barge into her head.  It was warm, tingling, and felt so calm and natural as it was happening... and suddenly she was overwhelmed with the feeling again.
        Her eyes shot open, seeming to surprise her captor, and then shut again as she felt as though she were losing control of her body.  A sudden cool calm, then rushing heat flooded every muscle and bone, a vibrant blue crossing her mind in echoes.  Her whole body burned with the color, not at all unpleasantly, then felt as though it might be pulled apart with the power flowing through her.  She gasped as it peaked and finally rippled and began to fade back inside of her skin.  The pain was immediately gone, replaced with the feeling one gets after sleeping far too long; but a tired droning was far better than agony, in her opinion.  She shivered with a flash of cold as the electric energy completely disappeared back inside her and almost fainted.
        Roan was looking at her with a wide grin of malicious intent, legs still tightly pulled to his chest.  "And just who are you, dear?"  The last word took on an echo that made her visually uncomfortable, and the sight made the insane boy incredibly content.
        "I, am Shadow."  She answered in an almost convincingly friendly matter, loudly and securely, reaching her hand out to him as if to shake.  He only looked at the hand in surprise, her fingernails obviously ready to do any damage to him that she possibly could.  After a moment of quiet contemplation, she took her hand back into the safety of her lap and shook her head completely of the sleepiness.
        Slowly, he reached a single hand just a few inches in front of him, toward her, resting it lightly on the ground.  That malicious grin was back, brighter than ever.  "And where did you come from?"
        She smiled with a twinge of vicious energy, fully awake and fully ready to destroy anything in her path.  He wanted to play?  Alright.  She desperately wanted to play as well, now.  "Why, I've lived here all my life, sir."  Her mock innocence almost broke at the end into the trace of a rather dark giggle.
        His look of amusement disappeared into a very slow nod as his other hand crept out in front of him, a few inches farther than the first.  "I know better."  He whispered, staring at her.
        "And where do you hail from, Mr. Stinky?" she asked sarcastically, her voice causing him to clench his teeth.
        He grinned back at her in such a way that his canines flashed from beneath his lips, longer than any normal person's.  He seemed quite annoyed at her general attitude, but at the same time almost looked delighted to have someone to talk to at all.
        Her manner still quite easy, she stretched out her legs and swung one over the other, crossed at the ankles.  "What the hell do you want from me?"
        He seemed to think over his answer carefully, his manner very distant.  His eyes flashed a dull silver as he woke from his thoughts.  "My master wants you for his ownership."
        "Hm."  It was a clean statement, very matter of fact.  It wasn't a response that she had expected, but it was a clear enough one to let her know she was probably never going to see the surface again.
        "My master would prefer your surrender..." Roan continued, a snarl at the edge of every word.  "But if you are to refuse, I am to take you... any way I feel necessary.  Break you like a horse if I have to."  His grin returned tenfold, dripping with evil and full of wicked intent; he forcibly caught her eyes and let her know he was not interested in handing her over without some more marks.
        Her eyes shone with a delicate hatred, then a focussed concentration.  "Try me."  She growled in a voice more animal than any he'd ever heard.
        Not even his master's beasts of hell had let out roars as she had just then, and it made an interesting shudder crawl down his back.  For the first time in his miserable life, he was unable to lock eyes with a "regular being", and it angered him greatly.  Unknown to both of them at the time, it also scared him to the core of his being.
        He darted quickly off of the floor, standing full up.  He grasped the end of his belt and looked down at her with a malicious sneer, making his thoughts completely clear.  To his surprise, he didn't even pull the end from the first loop before he found himself laying on the ground, his legs knocked from under him and a burning pain on the side of his face.  As his head cleared, he saw her crouched in front of him, teeth exposed and a light hiss coming from behind them.  As he attempted to put together the blur that had just occurred, he touched his cheek and pulled his hand back; his fingertips were glazed lightly with blood.
        As if some powerful, infinite hand had called her off, Shadow relaxed and simply sat comfortably on her haunches in front of him, looking at the same blood stained hand he was intently inspecting.  With disinterested ease, she wiped the bloody finger nails on the bottom of her t-shirt.  In a quiet voice, still full of a patient kind of viciousness, she stated flatly, "I don't care who you are or where you come from.  That is simply not something you do.  Most definitely not to me."
        His mind was a blank sheet.  He simply lay there inspecting his hand, her words echoing through his head.  Very slowly, his hand shaking only enough for Shadow to think she may have seen it tremble, he looked at her with wide eyes.  There was a sudden look on her face that he didn't at all appreciate; he'd never seen such a look in all of his life, and yet he seemed to know it immediately.  It was amused frustration and psychotic domination.
        She began to giggle madly, throwing her head back into a full laugh and began gasping for air soon after.  As she noticed him staring at her carefully, she gasped out, "I have an adversary!" and again spewed out insane laughter.
        Roan, further puzzled by the creature (and forced to wonder about who had wound up trapping who), simply stared at her for a long time without so much as blinking.  He'd never known an adversary to be a good thing, let alone something to take as lightheartedly as she seemed to take it.  He shook his head slowly and looked back at her, unconsciously rubbing his tattered face without healing himself.
        He didn't even see her hand come up, never saw her make a move, but in a split second she had her small but powerful fingers wrapped in a fist around his metal collar, and had pulled his face very close to hers.  The collar dug deeply into the flesh at the back of his neck, trickles of blood flowing down his fancy clothes.  Her eyes were literally on fire, glowing with a fierce beauty. There's a dragon in those eyes, he realized immediately, A dragon behind her.  He also understood in that moment that she must harbor a million powers beyond the realm of which he knew, and an enemy was not a thing to make of her whether she realized her ability or not.
        She shook him from his thoughts and they almost touched, nose to nose.  Her voice was normal again, but it seemed to come from far away, in a place she didn't know she was speaking from.  "Any last requests?"
        He gulped softly, but she saw it as well as everything else in the dimness.  Her flaming eyes still held his attention, but the choking grasp she held forced an answer from him.  "I... I renounce my master..."  He took a gulp of air as her fist seemed to grow just a bit bigger, the knuckles buried deeper in his neck.
        "What the hell are you doing?" she asked in a calm, conversational tone.
        He closed his eyes for only a second, praying for himself to powers in which he had never believed but had always been told were there.  He forced his voice, unstable though it was, to remain steady.  "I renounce my master and I ask permission to join with you."  Before she had the chance to react, he added quickly, "And aid in your quest."
        Deliberately slowly, she removed her hand from the collar and simply stared at him.  No shock crossed her face, but there was a steady puzzlement developing in her features.  "You expect me to believe that?"
        She saw him stir uneasily for only a moment before appearing to regain his confidence.  He nodded softly, causing her to tilt her head and prepare to defend herself if she needed.  He reached behind his neck with both hands and yanked them apart, tearing the collar from his throat.  Tiny shards of splintered metal clinked to the ground as he lifted and pulled it from his neck, exposing the wide loop about his flesh, tattered and sickly looking.  Some blood gently coursed onto his shoulders and down his back, grazing the edges of his hair, and some of the shards had slashed at his fingers.  Regardless, he held the collar out to her and waited for her to take it.
        She seemed to ponder the idea as she sat there in silence, staring at the sparkling metal before her.  Finally, she shook her head, amazed and still quite puzzled.  She knew better than to trust him, but she also began to wonder if they couldn't really use him somehow.
        Reading her thoughts, he spoke very quietly.  "I can get into places you and your group never could."  He closed his eyes with the last word, letting the blue fire burn the blood from his cheek and seal the wounds in his fingers.
        "And you're quite the fighter."  She added with a joking, though devious, look.  She was still inspecting him, her muscles ready to strike like lightening if they had to.  Carefully, she reached for the collar and grasped it's unbelievable weight.
        As soon as he let go of the metal, Roan gasped with an unworldly emptiness, as though all of his life and breath were ripped away.  Suddenly he felt more empty than he ever had, abandoned and alone.  And worst of all, completely powerless.
        Though his confusion and fear lasted only a second, it was enough to make Shadow extremely nervous.  She peered at him through those lightly flaming eyes, ready to destroy him should she need to, collar already dropped to the ground to keep both hands free.  She breathed deeply, keeping a close watch on his movements.
        Finally Roan's head cleared, and he realized what had happened.  The collar itself had been a link to his master, allowing him to use the magic he didn't naturally have (like teleporting and being able to see all around him at all times).  Now that the collar was gone, the world felt so empty and incomplete... and he was struck with the idea that perhaps his plan to take her and her friends back to the Dark Lord just may not be possible at this point.  Maybe not ever.  He looked up at Shadow, into her, and just for the flash of a second, wished she'd kill him.
Content copyright Orin Drake 2011.
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