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. |
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