  jade-sama(aka: the all knowing all seeing being)
2005-05-15 . chapter 1 “Sure it is.” Aura said with a smirk. “A a dare by definition is an action that would normally not be preformed unless the person is goaded into it, and/or bribed. You normally wouldn’t tell us where you learned, so therefore falls under the dare category.”
Alexis glared. But after thinking about Aura’s explination smiled a sly smile back at her interrogators.
“I wasn’t bribed. You still owe me a bribe.”
The red head said triumphantly. Arinne and Aura pretended to think about Alexis’s claim, putting on thoughtful faces and looking up at the sky.
“Okay…name your price.”
Arinne finally said, enjoying herself. Alexis pretended to think ** the matter, looking at the sky with narrowed eyes.
“A secret.”
She said finally, with a sly grin. Arinne and Aura looked at each other, unsure. Suddenly Arinne grinned at Aura and poked the younger girl in the side.
“You heard her Aura. A secret.”
Aura pouted, and groaned. She slapped her forehead and walked back towards the deck.
“Why me?!”
Arinne shrugged.
“You’re…the most…secretive?”
She offered with sheepish grin. Aura just glared. Alexis snickered to herself, hoping that she would be able to get out of telling her own secret. But Aura say this, and quickly reverted the conversation back to the red head.
“Don’t even think you’re getting off Alexi. Okay…random secret of mine…”
Aura thought about it for a few seconds. She tapped her chin as she tried to come up with something that sounded good, but also was non-incriminating.
“Uh…I hate spiders.”
Aura looked up and her audience was not pleased.
“Already knew that dear. And no stupid secrets like that, give us something juicy! I won’t trade otherwise!”
Alexis said with a huff. Arinne couldn’t resist grinning.
“Oh? So does that mean your secret is of the juicy blackmail worthy kind?”
Aura’s eyes sparkled mischievously.
“Sounds like it…okay. Something good.”
The younger girl paced around for good measure, fiddling with her sapphire and opal necklace that hung on a thin silver chain. It was a present from her grandmother when she turned thirteen. Aura wore it always, since playing with it was one of her nervous habits.
“Do you want embarrassing on the humiliating level, or the hilarious level?
Aura asked carefully.
“I’d like humiliating with a side of hilarious please. And supersize it.”
Alexis joked with a sly smile. Aura just pouted some more.
“No fair…”
She said softly. Then a thought struck her.
“Okay! Got one. But you gotta promise not to laugh.”
Arinne and Alexis both looked at each other then back at the younger.
“No way.”
They both said at the same time. Aura sighed and relented.
“Fine…okay, when my grandmother took me to Japan for my great-grandmother’s funeral I was sitting outside the crematory waiting with everyone while her body was burning. These simple folding chairs were lined up along the walls and we were sitting. The priest was talking about the afterlife and the promise of reincarnation and all that jazz…and I sorta drifted off like I usually do.”
“You’re joking right?”
Alexis said with a serious face.
“You fell asleep during a funeral!?…That’s so like you…”
Arinne said with a thoughtful look, remembering the time Aura dozed off in the middle of one of their music concerts when the chours was singing.
“I resent that. But it gets worse…”
Aura continued.
“I had one of my weirded out dreams. Some lady claiming to be my ancestor told me I would be traveling to other worlds and uniting them ‘cause they’re all messed up or something like that. Then she goes off on this strange story about the four elements and their powers and how I shouldn’t be freaked if they manifest in me some time in the future, how its been five hundred years…blah blah blah…why are you guys looking at me like that?”
Aura stopped in her story because her two friends were looking intently at her, with equally surprised faces.
“What? You cannot be freaked by this dream. I’ve had a lot worse and you know it.”
Alexis was the first to regain motor control.
“Yes…but, I’ve never shared the dream…”
“Me neither…”
Arinne echoed the red head quietly.
“Huh?”
Aura said intelligently. Alexis shook herself mentally, and quickly dug up one of her own memories.
“When I was thirteen and living in Norway, my mother took me to the old family property that was then owned by the government since on the land was an old castle. Anyways, we took the guided tour of the place, and I got separated from the group ‘cause I spotted this awesome looking library. There was no one around, and the books in there were so awesome. Mostly written in old celtic tongues. Well anyways, I dozed off in one of the comfy chairs and had this strange dream where an old man told me a story about three worlds that were divided by the tricks of the devil. When he finished the story, he told me that I would reunite the worlds and their races. He also told me that as a part of the his family, I descended from the animals of the forest, and from the plants and trees. So it was likely that certain powers would emerge on my quest. I thought it was just an affect from reading all that lore in that library.”
Aura said nothing, rather spent several minutes digesting the information. Before anyone else could say anything Arinne started speaking.
“I was twelve. My aunt and me were walking down the street of her home town. My parents were busy that weekend with something or another, and my aunt came Friday night and took me to spend the weekend with her in the country side. She kept me entertained on the train ride with these strange tales that had been passed down in her family, my mom’s side. Tales that supposedly took place even before the Bible, and the Egyptians. They were about elves, and demons, and us humans all living in peace with one another. She said that the knowledge about how they became divided, or even it they still were was lost. That the awesome stories about the adventures of these three races were all she knew. I slept that night, and I had influenced dreams. I dreamed I was one of the great adventurers, chasing dragons, and hunting treasure. Anyways, she was taking me to the family bakery that morning. She, her husband and their children ran it, after a quick breakfast, I was allowed to play in the back with some dough. You know just messing around with it. I fell asleep, and I had another dream about those stories. But this was different. An older man, he said he was technically my third cousin twice removed, but still related. He told me that I was going to inherit the powers of the protectors. And that I would have to use them in my quest to reunite the realms of demons, elves and humans. When I woke up, I wrote off as just another influenced dream from the stories my aunt told me. But I stayed with me you know?”
“Obviously.”
Aura said softly, her eyes still wide in surprise. Silence settled around them, just like the thickening dusk as the sun slipped past the horizon. They all stared at one another, for some time, saying nothing, but in their minds, thoughts raged. Alexis finally spoke first, her voice cracking slightly.
“So what does this mean?”
No one answered her. Because no one knew.
*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*
It was raining a heavy acid rain. The cell window had no covering, so a slow trickle leaked down and spilled onto his back. His ragged remains of a shirt had once protected him, now nothing lay between the harsh waters and his skin. But he was used to it. Heavy shackles, laced with spells bound him in place so he had nothing to do but wait for the rain to stop.
He longed to yank free, he knew he could. The measly power restraints had grown weak over the ages. His captors never thought to replace the dungeons equipment. He sighed, and shifted a little, but then hissed in pain as his back wounds were moved.
Deep maroon eyes glanced up at the sound of a door opening down the hall of the dungeon. Softly, feet padded towards his cell, and a short, scrawny demon came into view.
“I have news master, it seems the son of the noble demon Rakuji has been captured. We have not heard from him in many days.”
The prisoner frowned, not good news.
“But he made it through the barrier? And was able to recover from the trip?”
He questioned his servant.
“Aye sir, he said it took two days to return to full strength.”
The prisoner smiled, thought his sevant could not see it in the dimly lit dungeons.
“Excellent. Tell the general to start pushing the youkai he trusts to not turn. Give them orders to pillage all elfin villages they come across understood?”
“Yes master. I will deliver your messages immediately.”
The servant surried away, making sure to close the door behind him.
The prisoner relaxed slightly, but his thoughts raced as he followed though in his mind the next step of his fragile plan. It was important to afirm all beliefs that the demon race was evil in the minds of the elves they attacked. The elfin race had to think, beyond possible doubt that all demons were evil. The miserable oni, as well as the powerful youkai. None of the elves must ever realize that most of the youkai were here in the demon world, trying to control the oni uprisings.
The prisoner smiled as he looked at his chains.
Only a bit longer…
*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*
Aki, son of Rakuji, landed in the cell with a thump, unable to catch himself due to his restraints. Face buried in the dirt he got a nose full of dust and sand as he breathed. His captor, a surprisingly burly elf, pushed him onto his back with his foot; then dragged him to the wall. Throwing him into a sitting position with his back against the wall, the elf quickly did up the demons chains and confines. It was an elaborate set of binds, arms locked against the wall level with the shoulders, and pulled out slightly so that all his chest muscles were stretched and there was no chance of using leverage to pull the shackles out of the wall. One was also done around his neck, but very high up, also keeping the muscles tight. With his body painfully stretched like that, the demon could only take shallow breaths that came out in soft pants. His legs were shackled to the floor at his thighs, knees, and ankles. That was how the elf left him, with a sadistic chuckle he slammed the door to the cell closed and walked away, jingling the keys.
Left in the dark, the demon’s golden eyes carefully analyzed his situation. He said the first thing that came to mind as he realized that he couldn’t escape from his prison. It had been built to hold youkai, even ones that could wield magic. He sent a short puff of air to blow his bangs out of his eyes, but they only fell back down and continued to annoy his nose.
Despite the fact that Aki meant no harm to the elves of this world, he knew he was probably going to end up dead anyway. The demon quickly realized that this was probably the torture his brother in law suffered before the elves executed him as well. Only difference was, his brother in law, had made here on his own, while he had falsely aligned himself with the enemy in order to make it here. To die. Aki would have sighed at this point, if he could.
The oni of his world had been rebelling for years. But recently, rumors had been passing that they were actually traveling through the barriers to the elfin world. Something that was supposed to be impossible. Especially for the oni, they really weren’t smart enough to think of that. This had been proved wrong when his brother in law had traveled through the veil, and then sent reports of oni actually there, attacking villages. Then the messages stopped, and his family could only assume he had been killed. Now that Aki was here, in a cell that smelled distintly of his kin, he knew it to he true. Aki had been trying to find the ringleader of the operation, but instead he had been ordered to pass through the barrier, the first youkai (that they knew of) to do so. Aki had been able to send word to the remaining youkai council leaders a few days before being caught, so they knew that the youkai allied with the oni would begin crossing. Aki briefly wondered if he could make the King and Queen of the elves believe him about the oni uprising and how the majority of the youkai wanted nothing to do with a war.
He doubted it.
His bangs tickled his nose lightly, causing the demon to give a short sneeze. He frowned deeply at the icky feeling of the mucus on his face.
“Aw…**.”
*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*
Prince Yorokibo wanted nothing more than to find a nice brick wall and put his head through it. His mind quickly went to the thick walls of the palaces kitchen gardens where he often hid from his entourage. He was forced to forget about his plans of blissful unconciousness when his older brother entered his room, his cape sweeping dramatically behind him.
“Prince Yorokibo, I must discuss with you plans for the new public library.”
Yorokobi frowned, his brother was in charge of the treasury, and the security of the elfin world. He was the eldest and therefore heir to the throne when their father died. Yorokobi, who had grown up with the monks, and the learned people was one of his father’s, advisors. He was also in charge of seeing to the people’s wants and needs. Unfortantly, the people’s wants and needs often needed money, which lead to many painful head butting matches with the elf in front of him.
“What about it?”
Yorokobi questioned carefully. His instints were telling him, his brother was about to inact his revenge for their argument last night. An argument that Yorokobi had won, and ended up publicly humiliating his brother in front of their parents and the other advisors.
“I just finished this months review of the treasury and there isn’t enough money in the vault at this time, I’m afraid.”
Yorokobi inwardly steethed, though his outward demenor showed no sighs of it other than large purple eyes blinking in slight surprise.
“Oh? I spoke with your clerk two days ago, he said there was plenty of-”
“Well I checked it today.”
His brother said forcefully, his own purple and blue eyes glaring at his younger brother, warning him. Yorokobi slowly submitted, his face blank, not willing to give his brother the pleasure of seeing his anger. The older elf smirked, then turned on heel and left, without so much as a goodbye. That suited Yorokobi just fine. The younger elf rose and stomped out onto his balcony to calm himself. His brother was so petty! A stupid moron of an elf, that deserved no respect from anyone. Yorokobi dreaded the day when he became king, infact the young prince even contemplated leaving the world and finding out if that hole in the barrier worked both ways.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself. Closing his eyes, Yorokobi summoned memories of his childhood, his home, to soothe his anger. He stood there for sometime, remembering the monstary orchards with the beautiful blooming pear trees.
“My lord?”
Yorokobi was startled, but didn’t let it show as he turned to find his servant standing in the doorway.
“Yes?”
“The Kind and Queen are requesting the presence of their advisors. They are about to decide what to do with the demon prisoner.”
Yorokobi sighed.
“Of course. I’m right behind you.”
The servant bowed and backed out of the room, leaving the door to his chambers open, a reminder that he wasn’t to skip the meeting. With a sigh, Yorokobi grabbed his cape from the back of his chair and swung it around his shoulders. He shifted the heavy fabric in annoyance and tied the golden tasseled ends around his throat.
He glanced at the mirror, making sure his blank face was in place, and then left the room.
*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*
Aura awoke with a start. Instantly she was wide awake and perfectly aware. One’s house is one’s territory, one’s domain. And you’re very intuned with what goes on in it, even if your not aware of it. Aura, when sitting in her room doing homework or playing on her computer always had an ear listening to the goings on in her house. The sounds of her dad cooking, her mom on the computer in the den or her sister watching TV. She knew and recognized the common sounds and therefore knew what was happening in her domain. So for this reason, Aura was instantly aware of someone at her back door, trying to get in. The quiet jiggle of the doorknob, and the thuds that were echoing just as quietly.
Alexis and Arinne were asleep in her double bed with her. Her TV was on mute and was playing a rerun of an anime they had watched earlier that night. Aura quickly took stock of the situation. Her parents, instead of coming home, had accepted an invitation to visit their friends at a lake north of Charleston. And upon finding themselves rather intoxicated had opted to stay at the lake house until morning. They had called to say their goodbyes, since Aura, Alexis and Arinne were all driving up to North Carolina the next day to spend spring break with Alexis’s parents in their woodland retreat. Aura had been fine with the arrangement, it just meant the three girls got the house to themselves for the night with her younger sister staying at a friend’s house for the weekend.
All these things meant that she was alone in the house with her friends and an intruder who was now attacking the glass inorder to get in. That noise woke Alexis, she sleepily opened her eyes and looked over at Aura. The red head knew something was wrong instantly, reading the younger girl’s face. There was another crash, followed by the tinkling of glass hitting the floor. That woke Arinne up, Aura was out of bed in a flash and snatched up her phone, then tossed it to the only slightly groggy Arinne.
The back door was kicked open, as Aura did a quick run down of all the possible weapons in the house. Her father had a shotgun, and a handgun, the former in the den, and the latter in his bedroom. There were knives in the kitchen. Her mother kept a baseball bat in the hall closet. Her sister owned a bottle of pepper spray. And there was a samurai sword on her wall. Aura grabbed for the nearest weapon, and listened to the intruder stomp in her kitchen. Arinne turned on the phone but instead of it working it gave a feeble ‘low battery’ beep and died. Aura swore furiously under her breath. The next closest phone was in the den.
Aura’s house was laid out on one floor. Her room was a corner room, on the forward facing side of the house. Next to her room, also facing forward, was her sisters room. Outside their rooms and down the hall was the foyer, and the den, both facing forward. Across the hall was the high ceiling living room, that lead to her parent’s room, at the back of the house with its windows on the backyard. The final two corners were the laundary room, the mud room, and the kitchen/dining room. Laid out in that order front to back. The back door that the intruder had kicked down was in the mud room. Aura motioned for Arinne and Alexis to stay, but the two girls shook their heads furiously. Aura didn’t have time to argue, so the pointed to Arinne and the phone, silently instructing her to get to the den and call the police. Alexis didn’t know where Aura’s father’s guns were, but she knew of the baseball bat in the hall closet. So the three girls crept from Aura’s room and silently down the hall, listening carefully to the intruder, going through the kitchen.
Arinne ducked into the den, while Alexis eased the hall closet open. The door gave a loud creak making them all wince. Aura held her breath as the noises coming from the kitchen came to an abrupt halt. Silence passed for some moments, Arinne stood frozen, her eyes desperately searching in the dark for the phone. Alexis slipped her arm in the only halfway opened door and groped around for the baseball bat. Aura loosed the sword in her hand and remained on guard. Her mind went to the shotgun her father had on the den wall, but then she gave a frustrated cry when she realized her father kept the actual cartages separate from the gun to prevent accidents.
The thief started up his exploration of the kitchen again, this time much quieter. Aura let out the breath she had been holding. She motioned for Arinne to continue her search, and Alexis to follow her. The two crept further down the hall, to where it ended at the kitchen. Peaking around the corner, they saw the thief’s back to them as he held up the silverware for inspection. The light over the sink was on, casting a dim glow around the room. With a shrug the thief stuffed the silverware into his bag, and moved on to the cabinets. Aura drew a breath, preparing to withdraw while he was occupied, but he seemed to have heard her. The thief whirled around to face them, his eyes going wide. Aura and Alexis both gasped, his eyes were silted like a cat’s, and were an unnatural shade of orange. He gave a cry that sounded more like an animal’s snarl and lunged at them.
Aura reacted first, she swung her sheathed sword at the thing with all her might. The intruder batted it away with his arm and kept coming. Aura, unbalanced by the block toppled over, leaving Alexis open. The girl swung her weapon as well, and the thing blocked it just as easy, showing a kind of inhuman strength. Despite the now obvious fact it could whip their asses, the thief-thing, turned and fled now that the girls were off balanced.
“ARINNE!”
Aura screamed for no reason she could think off, as she got to her feet and chased after the thing. Her mind was screaming at her to stop, and let it go. But she wasn’t listening. It comforted her only slightly to notice that Alexis was apparently feeling the same, since the red head was running next to her.
Arinne heard her name called, she hadn’t found the phone under the piles of papers on the desk. Unable to ignore her friend’s call she darted out of the den and around the corner. Running down the hall she skidded into the kitchen just in time to see her other two friends disappear out the door. Not one to be left behind, and of course not knowing what was going on, she followed. Pausing only to snatch up her bow and quiver that she had left at the back door with her shoes. Her mind told her it didn’t hurt to be prepared.
Her bare feet landed on the grass as she jumped down the steps. Blindly she rushed after Aura and Alexis who were running top speed after a faster someone. Down Aura’s street they ran, Arinne didn’t question why they chased the thief, because she too was feeling the pull to follow him. The thief suddenly veered off the road, he showed amazing strength as he leapt easily over a wide ditch in someone’s yard and then dove into the tall trees that grew behind it, providing the house with a live fence for privacy. Alexis and Aura came to a halt in front of the ditch and moved to go around, unable to get across without landing in the glowing water.
Hold on a second. Water doesn’t glow. Those were Arinne’s thoughts as she forgot to stop in her sudden realization and instead, barreled into her two friends, knocking them all over and into the ditch. Her final thought before the blinding flash of light, and her loss of consciousness was:
“Oops.”
The thief poked his head out of the shrubry and looked at the ditch of water. HE then climbed out of the trees and stared, surprised at the portal he used to cross worlds.
“How very strange…wonder why they didn’t use their magic to stop me…”
The thing said in a quiet voice, sounding very masculine. The thing, which actually was a demon, gave the neighborhood a good once over, making sure no one had woken up in the chase. Nothing stirred, so he turned on heel and made his way back to the house he had been robbing. Decided not to push his luck anymore, he put the kitchen back in order and with a wave of his hand he repaired the shattered glass. Making sure the lock was done, the demon thief was about to leave when he spotted are keys on the hook on the wall. With a toothy grin he snatched them and then left. He hopped into Aura’s car and drove away, happy that he got to steal something.
*~*~~*~*~~*~*~~*~*~
there you go. ^^ see? i figured it out, and managed to make it suspenseful! you will owe me a review for this! |
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