Hi everyone! Thanks for taking the time to have a look
at my story, I hope you all enjoy it.
Paths of
the Heart
Chapter 1- Dimension shift
A laugh echoed
though out the crumbling almost abandoned temple, it was an eerie laugh,
however not an evil one.
Quite the opposite actually, this laugh reeked of sadness and defeat.
The god emperor stood in the
center of the disintegrating temple, long white hair flaring out slightly, due
to the wind that swept around the place.
His name: Fou-Lu the
Endless.
“So, defeated at last…”
Fou-Lu spoke softly and let out another hollow laugh “What irony, I hath been
beaten by myself!” He said while trying to stop laughing so much that he could
breathe. In front of him the winged princess cringed, she did not like that laugh.
She turned to the blue-haired dragon next to her, to see Ryu’s emerald eyes
sparkling with resolve.
‘A beautiful emerald color…’ she thought, her
eyes went wide ‘beautiful? Where did that come from!?’
Nina quickly dismissed it; she’d worry about that later. There were more
important things to think about now.
At Nina’s side stood Cray
chief of the worens, Scais of the Grassrunner tribe, Ursula former captain of
the empire, the mysterious Ershin and of course her dragon friend- Ryu.
Ursula stepped forward, and
pointed her gun at him “There is no where left to run God emperor!” she shouted
in her arrogant voice, Fou-Lu smirked.
“Thou are correct… but I hath
no intention of running.”
Ursula blinked, “What?”
Fou-Lu ignored her and turned to Ryu,
“So my other half, how does
it fell to be outsmarted?” Ryu growled in confusion and clutched the hilt of
his sword tighter. “Thou art bepuzzled?” Fou-Lu asked in mock dismay.
“w-what are y-you
talking about?” Scais asked, Fou-Lu laughed softly.
“I hath more powers than you can imagine! If I
cannot join with you Ryu… then I’ll get rid of thee!
Dimension shift!”
“WHAT!”
“Ugh?” Nina
groaned as she opened her eyes, and tried to painfully herself off the floor. ‘Floor! I don’t remember being on the floor.’
Only then
did she realize her surroundings “eh? She said when she looked around. ‘Where
am I…’ Nina asked herself. What could she see… grass
birds, trees and swings. ‘I’m in a park… but what
would a park be doing in Chedo?’
Just then a little girl human
girl came up to Nina. “Wow, are you an angel?” she said pointing to Nina’s
wings.
Nina blinked “Uh, no.” The girl looked
disappointed.
“Oh OK then bye.” And she ran off to the
slide.
‘That was odd, an angel… maybe she’s just
never seen a wyndian before, and after all we are in the Empire.’ Nina thought
she shrugged it off, when she remembered her friends “Ursula! Scais! Ershin!
Cray! Ryu!” Nina bellowed as loud as she could, but no
one came, well except a policeman.
He tapped Nina on the back “Anything the
matter miss?” it was then he noticed her wings, he raised an eyebrow, Nina
noticed.
“What, never seen a wyndian
before?” she asked the policeman’s eyebrow went higher. Just then Nina
remembered she was looking for her friends “ oh yeah,
by the way have you seen my friends, one looks like a dog, another like a
mobile-dustbin, two with tails and a blue-haired guy.” Nina finished, if the
policeman’s eyebrow could go any higher it would be in space.
“Yeah, whatever kid.” He said as walked off.
Nina jumped up and down in
frustration “Yeah what have you seen them or not!” She growled and turned
around… only to come face to face with Ryu “Ryu!” Nina screamed in shock and
fell onto the grass, Ryu offered her his hand, she took it and suddenly hugged
Ryu, “oh, Ryu, I thought I was all alone!” Ryu blinked and his face went beet
red, it is safe to say to say that he isn’t hugged often, especially by a girl.
Just then realization dawned
on Nina as she noticed she was hugging Ryu, her face went as red as His.
“Uhhhh…” they said in unison
“let’s just forget that happened OK?” Ryu nodded, still as
red as ever.
Nina tried to start a
conversation with Ryu, though of course he can’t speak “uh, so where are we
Ryu?”
Ryu shook his head, signaling
he didn’t know, Nina sighed and looked to the sky. The sun was setting , Ryu started walking towards the top of a rather
small hill, “huh?” Nina said in a note of confusion, he stopped, his eyes
slightly rounder than usual, Nina followed his path and walked up to him, to
see what caused his expression of shock.
Millions of tiny lights
sparkled from buildings below, reflecting the dying evening sun.
“Ryu… I don’t think were in
Chedo anymore.”
They failed to notice the
pair of eyes in the shadows.
Chapter III: lurking in the shadows
“I got em.” Said a shadowed figure, talking into a mobile phone.
“Are you sure it’s them? the boss doesn’t want any slip-ups Dawn.” Said a monotone voice from the phone.
The woman named Dawn replied “How many guy’s wit’ blue hair an’ angel look-a-likes are there Bolt?” she said sarcastically.
“Shut up! Just watch them, don’t let them out of your sight!” Bolt spat.
Dawn rolled her eyes “Kay, Kay, whatever, keep that mop you call hair on.” A growl was heard at the end of the line, but no more was said. Dawn shoved the phone into a large pocket of her white trench coat, and brushed away a strand of loose jet black hair behind her ear with her gloved hand, as she slid into the shadows nearer Ryu and Nina, to spy.
“Yeash! Look at all those lights, that’s one big town!” Nina said half in amazement half in shock. Ryu nodded in agreement, but then narrowed his eyes and pointed to the shadows in which Dawn lay. She herself then started to sweat, realizing she’d been caught.
Ryu plodded over to her, eyes still narrowed, with Nina trailing him, and glared at Dawn for spying on them.
“What are you doing here?” Nina asked naively.
“J-just just staying in the shade it’s sure hot out today, eh?” Dawn said quickly coming up with an excuse, it didn’t fool them, seeing as the sun was setting. Ryu certainly didn’t look impressed, she, seeing that her excuse had failed made another.
“Actually… you folks looked lost and I wanted to help ya… uh but ya know I thought it would be more polite ta wait for you to finish talkin’ ya know”
They fell for it.
“oh! That’s nice of you… actually we are we are lost, maybe you could tell us the name of this town, and country and maybe… the planet?”
Dawn was puzzled, ‘aliens maybe? Now dat would be intrestin’ hm…” she thought, Nina noticed and quickly made up something, this was soon becoming the war of lies.
“I have amnesia… and so does he!” Nina said.
Dawn blinked but answered anyway “ yer’
in merspring in
“Earth eh?” Nina said, Ryu too had his finger on his chin in thought.
“Well bye!” Dawn said abruptly, eager to leave, and promptly ran off.
“Uh well… that was odd. Hey Ryu what she said, were on the planet earth, How?” she asked.
Ryu looked deep in thought then strangely enough spoke. “ Fou-Lu has thrown us though a portal that he summoned to another dimension, though he most likely planned only me to come here, I wonder why?”
Nina’s mouth literally dropped “you-you can speak, I thought you were mute, why didn’t you say something before?” she choked out.
“Strange… you remember when in battle, if I cast a spell I shout out the name of it, hm?” he chuckled
“Well I had to concentrate on the enemy, not you, no matter how good you look.” Nina said, then she realized what had slipped out of her mouth “uh-um” she stuttered blushing and trying to cover her red face from Ryu, fortunately he didn’t notice what she had just said, or was it unfortunately?
“You seem not to notice many things Nina, like me transforming to a dragon in battle at the start of our quest.” He said arms folded, no expression gracing his face.
“Oh yeah… well, nevermind, but why didn’t you speak out of battle?”
Ryu shrugged “I’m not a rather talkative person, or rather not a talkative dragon.” He said a small smile on his lips, as the sun disappeared under the horizon, leaving them in soft moonlight.
Paths
of the Heart
Chapter IV: First strike
“It’s getting dark.” Nina said nervously.
“Hm” Ryu grunted in reply, not really paying attention, he was admiring the town, or rather city, it was the largest he’d ever seen.
“It’s getting dark.” He said bluntly, not realizing he was copying Nina.
“ Hey! That’s what I said, you mimic!” Nina said jokingly, Ryu said nothing he appeared to be looking for something, Nina blinked and asked, “ What are you looking for?”
“Shelter.” He replied
“ Oh…” the wyndian princess said
quietly and looked at the floor ‘he’s right, he is not very talkative.’ She
thought, then a ‘brilliant’ idea, If this was a cartoon then a lightbulb would
have magically appeared right over her head, but alas that is not so. “Why
don’t we go down to the big town surely there must be an
“Best idea you’ve had all day…” Ryu said smiling, Nina looked proudly at him, “ I’m glad I thought of it.” He ended cheekily, the big smile on Nina’s face slowly wilted.
“HEY! I thought of it! Me, not you!” Ryu started walking off, “don’t you dare run off I’m speaking to you, Stand here and face me you coward! Are you a man or a whelk?!”
“I’m a dragon actually.” Ryu said smugly, listening to the sound of Nina running after him, shouting various insults, it was quite amusing actually, or that was what he thought.
“Whelk! Fairy! Horse! Dog!” Ryu had to laugh at the simplicity of her feeble insults. But that second she grabbed Ryu painfully by the arm, sharp nails digging into him, and let a high pitch shriek to get his attention.
“What is it?!” He said sharply, getting rather annoyed.
At this Nina folded her arms and puffed up her lower lip, “ you’re so mean! You were nicer when everyone thought you were mute, Ryu!” She growled.
Ryu was about to make a smart comment back, when he felt really bad and had a strange urge to apologize. “What is this magic has Nina cast a spell on me?’ he asked himself.
“Nina, I don’t know why I’m saying this… but I’m sorry.” He said softly.
“Huh?” came the very confused reply of a certain wyndian princess, but her mouth then curved into a smile “ I win Bing! Bing! Bing!” she said dramatically, and doing a strange victory dance which kind of looked like an ancient Egyptian boogie.
“C’mon we’ll be here all night if we don’t go down to the town soon.” Ryu said, slightly amused with Nina’s ‘dance’
“Oh, right.” Nina said, skipping off, Ryu chuckled and followed her.
“Everything looks so big!” Nina cried in amazement, Ryu could only mouth “wow” the blonde haired princess started running everywhere, trying to look at everything at the same time, with Ryu trailing her, lights flashed everywhere blinding them with colors.
‘Lucky pound casino’
‘Half price sale’
‘Ginny’s fashion’
Were just a small percentage of them.
“Whats a casino?” Nina asked, Ryu shrugged, they both then noticed everyone was looking at Nina strangely, though it was dark, her pure white feathers were illuminated quite nicely with all the lights around them.
“I think we should find an
“I do decree that this place could use a makeover.” Said Nina, but not a laugh was heard, and for some reason it seemed rather darker than usual “S-shall we ask someone then?” said Nina quietly, Ryu nodded and walked over to a ‘reasonably’ friendly looking man.
“Whacha want?” he asked, maybe this wasn’t quite such a good idea, as he seemed to be looking at Nina very closely, too closely if you know what I mean, Ryu sharp-eyed as he is noticed this, and stood protectively in front of her.
“We was wondering if there was an
“yeah turn left an ye’ll find a place called ‘the armored furball’ it has a rather memorable name dun it? Say missy, yer mighty cute, whatcha say bout-“
But whatever he was about to say they never found out for at that second Ryu grabbed his sword by its hilt, and in a flash the man found himself against a wall with a sword pressed against his throat, in a record of 0.83 seconds.
“Shut up.” Ryu hissed dangerous, Nina stood there with wide eyes as the frightened man legged it as fast as pudgy little legs could carry him.
“Fraidy cat!” Nina yelled at the man running off, it was actually quite funny, he
kept bumping into people and stumbling over his own feet.
“…And
don’t come back!” She added watching him disappear out of sight.
“Inn, Nina.” Reminded Ryu, and the blonde haired girl giggled, Ryu altogether was
puzzled.
“You’re
SO- brave Ryu, It was very Noble of you to save
me from that bad man…” The brave and noble one so appointed by Nina felt a
light blush grace his face.
“…Are
we going? Or am I going to have to carry you to this ‘Armored Furball’ hm?”
Nina
giggled for what seemed the 10,000th time “Well that would be very Noble of you…” Ryu rolled his eyes and grabbed Nina
then slung her over his shoulder like a sack, She
immediately started to flail her arms and legs trying to get free. “Let me go
Ryu!”
“All right.” He said casually, dropping Nina on the hard concrete floor
“Oof.”
Was all that was heard from the wyndian princess.
“What
was that for!?” she said angrily
“You
told me to let you go.” Nina growled and stormed off in the direction of the
‘Armored furball’ Ryu shrugged, smiling lightly and ran on after her.
The
creaking rotten door swung open; as the pair from (dimension X… no not really)
the other dimension stepped silently inside, though silently was not an
adjective that could be used to describe the
“What
the hell are you looking at, never seen a wyndian before?!” he bellowed and
glared at anyone who dared to look their way.
Ryu
led Nina over to a small table and sat down.
“Why
does everyone keep looking at me?” Nina whispered
“I
gather that there are no wyndians in this dimension, you might want to cover
your wings Nina or-…” however we never found out why Nina should cover her
wings for at that moment they were approached by a scantily clad woman.
“Hi
there Hon, what’s you’re name?” She said winking as well as placing her hand on
his. Nina growled feeling a rage grow inside her.
‘How
DARE she touch MY Ryu!… ugh I wish I’d stop thinking things like
that I wonder why… oh nevermind I’m just going to whip her butt.” She thought
angrily.
She
stood up glaring at he woman, and while doing so, she accidentally knocked over
her chair and sent it to the floor with a loud clatter, attracting more stares
than usual.
“Listen
to me buster, you leave him alone, he’s mine.” She
said surprising even herself.
“Humph
I’m no buster.” The woman said throwing a strand of fiery red hair behind her
shoulder “I’m Satire.” She added smirking “And besides, you can share can’t
you?” Satire said in a mock child’s voice as if they were arguing over a toy.
Nina
growled and lurched forward attempting to ring Satire’s neck, however she just
stepped backwards, allowing Nina to fall flat on her face.
The
Wyndian princess lifted her face off the ground rubbing her teeth together,
making a horrible grating noise.
“That’s
it… you’re really gonna get it now…” she said, you could almost see the fire in
her eyes, she grabbed her staff from the table, and lifted herself off the
floor with it and pointed it at Satire dramatically “Now you’re going to pay.”
“OH,
my save me I’m being attacked by a girl with wings and a stick, oh woe is me.”
She said sarcastically, she never saw what hit her.
SMACK
Nina
had just rammed her staff into Satire’s face; She was…
how to put it not very happy.
“AHHHH! My face, my beautiful face!” She screeched,
pulling out a mirror and inspecting the damage: a giant purpling bruise.
Satire
made a noise that strangely reminded Nina of a hawk, the entire pub was silent
now, and had gathered round to watch the action.
Satire
reached into her pocket and pulled out a silver glinting dagger.
“You…
are so… dead…” She said leaving large spaces in her sentence to pant. She took
the dagger in her hand and held it above her and…
SLICE
Gasps
of shock issued from all around.
She
was gone.
“Where
is she? Where is that little worm?!”
“I
would prefer bird actually.” Came a reply from above.
“What?
How can this be?!”
All
looked to the ceiling, and lo behold their was Nina
hovering, smiling but unharmed.
“Missed
me?” she asked.
Steam
was practically issuing from Satire’s nostrils.
Nina
looked down from above, windswept hair in her face, a smile playing on her lips
“Sorry, but playtime… is over.”
“TYPHOON!”
Satire
was lifted into the air up the chimney and into the sky,
she then got caught on top of a skyscraper.
Later
it was reported on the news that “There have been sightings of a flying woman
on top of the ‘happybunny’ corporation building tower.”
Ryu’s
mouth was hanging open from watching this display of action as he silently
thought ‘remind me never to annoy her too much.’ But he didn’t have much time
to think for Nina dragged him to the front desk, slamming her hand down on it.
“Um…
y-yes miss?” the attendant asked, rather frightened and for good reason too.
“How
much is it for a room for two?!” Nina practically shouted, still heaving with
anger.
“Um…
10 p-pounds a night.” he said stuttering.
“I
only have Zenny!” Nina shouted.
“U-um uh h-have it on the house.” He said quickly running away as fast as he
could; Nina dragged Ryu up the stairs, bashing his head with every step.
Ryu
thought ‘I’ll never understand women…’
Chapter VI:
Of Kidnappings and hair dye
A Yawn.
A groan.
And a scuffle.
The Blue haired Dragon god (well partly) has just roused from his slumber.
He remembered the events of last night (stop thinking dirty thoughts readers)
After Nina had dragged him upstairs:
*************************************************************
“Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.”
“Quit your wining, Ryu!”
“Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.”
“Now… where’s that room?”
“Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.
Ouch.”
“Ah, here we are!”
Plop!
“Ouch.”
“Goodnight Ryu!”
“…”
“ZZZZZZZZZZ”
*************************************************************
Yes, Ryu painfully remembered how Nina had dragged him up the stairs, and then dropped him in the middle of the room to be eaten by vicious wolves… Well he would have except there were no wolves in the room, plus even if there was I’d have to right a long fight scene, with involves Ryu chopping the heads off those POOR wolves, however that would be too violent for the lil kidies out there so… I won’t.
“Your just too lazy.” Says Ryu, humph I am not… hey wait a minute your not surposed to speak to me, I’m narrating!
And this isn’t even in the humor section!
Uh, so readers just ignore this paragraph OK?
So Ryu sat up, still rather afraid of Nina, speaking of which, where was she?
He looked over to Nina’s bed to see…
She was gone, yet again.
“Nina?”
“Nina!”
“NINA!”
Ryu looked frantically around.
Where could she be?
Ryu stood silently, clutching his sword by its hilt, looking solemnly round the room, checking for any clue, anything to help him find Nina.
“Maybe she’s just downstairs…” The idea came to him.
So he scurried downstairs as fast as a tree monkey, and stood in front of the desk, gasping for breath.
“Have… you seen… my friend…Nina?” he gasped out.
It was the same attendant as yesterday Ryu noted; though he looked a lot less terrified now.
“Nina? Oh you mean that witch-girl?” Ryu nodded.
“Yeah, I’ve seen her, a man and a woman dragged her away… She put up quite a fight, made a racket she did, all that screaming…I’m rather surprised you didn’t hear, had a hard day yesterday?” he asked
“I’ve had an adventure and a half yesterday…” Ryu answered ‘…then again I always do…’ he thought afterwards.
“Anyway… where did they take her?” the attendant shook his head
“I dunno but they left this.” He said handing Ryu a wrinkled piece of paper, and walking off to clean, while muttering “I tell ya round here things are getting weirder and weirder…”
Ryu glanced at the
note:
Dear: blue haired
one
Your friend is
certainly very interesting with her bird like appearance and strange powers,
that we observed last night, so in the name of science we took it apon
ourselves to find… more about her.
Love
Dawn snow & Bolt
Blueberry
XXX
PS: Don’t bother
looking for your little feathered friend; you know you won’t find her.
Ryu growled, Nina had been kidnapped and he couldn’t do anything about it. She could be anywhere in this god-forsaken world, what’s a dragon to do in a situation like this?
“You might want to check the Crestville research center, that’s the kind of place that would kidnap a girl and experiment on her.” A voice called over from the other side of the room- The attendant. Ryu raised an eyebrow as characters in my stories do, he shrugged.
“What? Not my fault I couldn’t resist taking a little peek at it.” He said referring to the note, at this Ryu rolled his eyes.
“Humans…” he muttered, the attendant looked at him strangely.
“Pardon?” he asked, Ryu waved his hand dismissing it
“Nevermind…” he murmured, the man sighed.
“Some people are weird.” As he went back to his ever so important job, cleaning the tables.
Ryu walked outside though the door and into direct sunlight.
‘Good thing I’m not flammable.” He thought.
It was much different in the day than at night Ryu discovered as he explored, these people looked less likely to beat the crud out of you when you were not looking.
‘Now where’s that place… Crestville?’ Ryu thought anxiously ‘hmm… I’m not going to find it this way, Maybe I should ask someone.’ Ryu then agreed with this statement, and walked up to a woman with a young child by her side.
“Excuse me Mam do you know where the Crestville research center is?”
The woman studied Ryu from this red socks to his bright blue hair, at this she frowned lightly, she was just about to reply when…
“Geez mister you have COOL hair! How did you get it blue that’s my favwite color (I spelt that wrong on purpose, remember she’s little) did you dye it like mummy?” at this the woman slapped her hand over her daughter’s mouth lightly though, blushing furiously at her secret, that wasn’t so secret anymore.
“Uh… no I don’t even know what this ‘dye’ is, my hair has always been this color…” The little girl looked amazed while her mother doubtful.
“Cool!” the girl squealed.
“Um… anyway Mrs. do you know where it is?” Ryu asked again trying to get the subject off his hair.
“Of course I know where that spooky place is, everyone does, it’s on the other side of town on lilyflower row, here have this map.”
She said handing Ryu the said item. Why did she give it Ryu for free? Well minor characters in RPG’s have a habit of giving our protagonists free stuff.
“So mister, where do you come from?” The tiny girl said snuggling her teddy, Ryu didn’t know how and what to answer.
“Uh… I don’t know…” The woman looked critically at Ryu “I Uh… have amnesia!”
The woman now looked at Ryu like he was insane.
“Sure… Bye!” she said quickly running off dragging her daughter behind her, but not before hearing her say:
“Mummy, can I have pretty hair like that?” and a swift “No dear.”
‘Amnesia… pah that’s one excuse that didn’t work.’
He thought when they were gone, when he suddenly remembered exactly where the excuse had come from.
Nina.
*************************************************************
Nina noticing Dawn’s look of confusion made an excuse, this was soon becoming the war of lies. “We. Uh. Have amnesia, yeah.”
*************************************************************
‘Nina’ Ryu thought
‘Although having wild mood swings… you were my best friend’
*************************************************************
“Ryu?”
“Hey Ryu!”
“Ryu why are your always so…”
“Come on Ryu!”
“Your SO noble Ryu…”
“Ryu… whether you’re a dragon or not… your still my friend.”
*************************************************************
‘Oh Nina… I know what I must do now…
I will rescue you and KILL anyone who gets in my way!
Nina… why am I falling in love with you…?
Chapter
VII: The march to Crestville
“Now… where am I?” Ryu muttered looking at the map the woman had given him, “Hollybranch road… got it, now where is Lilyfield row?” he murmured tracing his finger along it “AHA!” he shouted in glee, causing many to look at him in confusion, but then dismiss him as a punk.
“Hmm…
along here… down there, left…” Ryu said to himself ignoring people looking at
him like he was a nutter.
“Ahh!”
he cried watching a car rush by, “What are those!?” shouted the flabbergasted
dragon, “Uh, excuse me, but what are those things? They look like metal whelks
on wheels!” He said to a random guy, this guy looked at him, his left eye
twitching slightly and replied.
“Those
are cars, you nut job!” he said as he stormed off obviously having a bad day,
Ryu scratched his head, and this was seriously NOT his day either.
‘Lets
review the day shall we,” He thought sarcastically ‘Nina’s been kidnapped, we
are still in the wrong dimension and I’ve been branded a “Nut job” plus, I have
no idea where my friends are, can my life get any better?”
Speaking
of friends…
*************************************************************
“You’re
still up?”
“Just…
thinking…”
Cray
turned to Ursula, who at that moment was situated in front of a blazing fire,
gazing misty-eyed into the flames.
“All
that thinking could be bad for you… you know.” Cray said quietly,
Ursula
closed her eyes and replied.
“It’s
been… a day now…”
“Do
not give up hope just yet, destiny has just decided to kick our butt’s a bit,
but it has not defeated us yet… you dummies.”
Both
Cray and Ursula turned around, and there in her full transparent glory was Deis.
*************************************************************
“Bah!
Stupid Car-monsters, why wont they let me cross?…” Ryu
said angrily to himself, attempting to cross the busy main road.
“Maybe
they are guarding something…” Ryu said thoughtfully when it came to him, why
not use ‘shift’ (the skill you get from the the puppet girl, to warp across the
map.) And in 2 seconds flat Ryu found himself on the other side of the road,
nobody seemed to have noticed anything.
‘Gotta
loooove that ability…’ he thought.
*************************************************************
“Deis?”
“The
one and only… well except in the other destined cycle’s…”
“Eh?”
Deis
shook her head.
“Nevermind…”
Cray
and Ursula were confused, but decided to drop the subject.
“What
do you mean we haven’t been beaten yet, is there hope that we can get Ryu and
Nina back?” Cray asked.
“…
Well you know we saw them disappear into a warp hole?”
They
nodded,
“Well
I read some ancient text about a millennia ago…”
“And…”
said Ursula eagerly
“I
forgot.”
They
sweatdropped,
“But…
I’ll look it up again, see you morons.” And she vanished with a wink.
Cray looked to the spot where a see though Deis once stood, thoughts floating though his head like ‘I
wish just her dress was transparent.’ Then he asked “Where do think she’s
gone?”
“Ershin
thinks that Ershin has gone to Caren Parsere`ne the ancient library under the
sea of mud.” Said Ershin, Deis’s host.
“It’s
Deis, you are Ershin!” a familiar female voice called, scolding her host.
Scais
scratched his head,
“G-goddesses…”
*************************************************************
And
so Ryu continued his march, his urgent quest to save the wyndian princess (and
having a feeling of Déjà vu) hoping it would not have such bad consequences as
the last.
Past
the grimy, the posh, the colorful houses he went, following the instructions of
the map, which currently resided in his hand, striding forward,
Forward,
Forward, Forward.
Then…
he stopped.
Why
not use his shift ability again, he swiftly bashed himself over the head for
his foolishness, then thinking he was turning into Fou-Lu for that choice of
word, and then disappeared in a flash.
… Then reappeared in front of a moldy slimy gray building.
“Well,
this place needs a makeover…” he noted as climbed the slippy dull steps to
Crestville.
“I’m
here, and I’m coming for you… Nina.”
Chapter
VIII: The rescue part 1
The
door creaked ominously as Ryu carefully slid it open,
He
was in, that was step one completed, just about ninety-nine left.
“Nina…”
he whispered, head turning left and right, she was obviously not here. He
proceeded cautiously though the room, it was not a nice room, the white
wallpaper was peeling off the walls the gray carpet was ripped in various
places; it gave the feeling of an abandoned warehouse.
Ryu
opened another door, and then closed it quickly, there was a guard, but this
was the only door- he’d have to sneak past or fight him, Ryu chose option
number one.
He
looked round hoping for another door to magically appear, but alas such things
do not happen, not even for a cool dragon dude named Ryu.
Instead
he saw an air vent,
“Perfect…”
he hissed, Ryu took out his sword and jammed it into the air vent causing the
grating to fall off, he smiled and climbed into the vent, or rather he would
have if he was not interrupted.
“What
do you think you’re doing?”
Ryu
turned round and groaned, he had been so busy with the air vent, he hadn't’
seen a rather scrawny looking woman with glasses come though the door.
“Ugh…”
Ryu said at loss of words to say, looks like he would have to fight after all,
though this woman was so wimpy-looking, he didn’t think it would take long.
“Um…
can I… help you?” She said, eyes flicking to the grating on the floor to the
air vent, to Ryu.
“Well…”
Ryu said trying to make an excuse, but then gave up remembering the last. “…
I’m here to rescue someone.” He ended lamely.
“Oh…
they haven’t kidnapped someone again have they… they do that a lot.” She said
placing her hands behind her back and looking to the ground.
“They
do?” Ryu said getting a little more relaxed, this
woman did not look like the type to jump in front of you with a machine gun.
“Yes…
that’s why I’m here.” She said quietly obviously upset about something.
“How come? Who are you anyway?” Ryu asked confused.
“My…
my name is Erma, they kidnapped my brother two years ago, in
exchange for him back I have to work here for ten years… I still haven’t got
him back; I don’t know what they wanted him for, probably an experiment…”
“Oh…
my name’s Ryu…” Ryu had now gathered that this ‘Erma’ was not dangerous at all
and so he decided to ask her. “Um… have you seen a woman… well a girl really
with wings?” he asked.
“A
girl with wings… yes, they brought her in yesterday.” Erma said nervously in a
low squeaky voice.
“They…
haven’t done anything to her have they?” Ryu asked.
“No…
I don’t think so, they haven’t had time, but you better be quick or…” She left
her words hanging.
“…
I’ll tell you what Erma, I’ll help rescue your brother
as well if you keep quiet about this…” Ryu said, ‘why not rescue two instead of
one, its no biggy.’ He thought.
Erma
practically jumped down with happiness, “Oh thank you, thank you!” she said.
“All
right then lets go, before someone else comes.” Ryu said thoughtfully.
“Right,
let’s do it.” Erma nodded.
Ryu
using his sword lifted himself into the open vent, and grabbed Erma by her
frail arm and lifted her up as well.
“Thank
you…” Erma muttered.
They
carefully crawled though the vent, trying to make as little noise as possible.
“Do
you know where your brother or my friend is?” Ryu whispered to Erma.
She
shook her head.
“I
haven’t seen your friend since yesterday when they moved her, and I don’t know
where my brother is either.” Erma said quietly, Ryu frowned; this would make
things a bit harder.
Voices
floated up to the vent, and Ryu sensing the noise moved forward to another
grill with Erma following him, they both lent over to catch the voices.
“This
is so… boring, I’ve got to watch that guy who keeps trying to escape, why does
the boss even bother to keep him, I mean we aren’t
even using him for an experiment, what’s the point of watching this ‘Steve’
guy?” Erma gasped.
“I
dunno, I heard that the boss made an agreement with
his sister, or something…”
“Well
bye, see ya at lunch.”
The
two men who were speaking split up in different directions, leaving the
corridor empty.
“Hey
Ryu, Steve is my brother, we have to follow him!” Erma said eagerly, Ryu nodded
as they climbed down from the vent into the empty corridor, and went though the
door the man talking about guard duty had gone though.
“We
have to hurry or we’ll lose him…” Ryu said in hushed whisper.
“OK…”
Erma said hurrying after Ryu though the next corridor, Ryu then stopped.
“What’s
the matter?” she asked.
“I
can’t remember where he went…” Ryu said though clenched teeth, slightly angry
with himself for losing him, in front of him there
were two corridors.
“That
way.” said Erma pointed to the right, and dirtier corridor.
Ryu
looked puzzled.
“How
do you know?” said Ryu even more confused than before ‘is she just guessing’
thought he.
“I
have a good sense of smell; it smells of donuts down there, the guards here are
really lazy.” She said tapping her nose and smiling,
Ryu raised his eyebrow but ran down the corridor anyway, with Erma in the lead.
Past
many doors they went,
Doors,
Doors,
Doors,
But
none were the one they wanted, still they carried on, getting slightly more
tired with each, but then Erma stopped.
“Look!”
she whispered excitedly pointing to the door straight in front of them, it was
open and the guard they saw talking earlier was sat in a rather hard looking
chair munching donuts and staring, or rather drooling at a picture of a naked
woman in a magazine.
Erma
rolled her eyes “Men…” she whispered quietly, but apparently not quietly
enough. His eyes immediately flicked from the magazine to Erma then Ryu.
“What
the hell do you think you’re doing here, this is a restricted area!” He said picking up a machine gun.
“Oh
crud…” Erma said, Ryu glared at her for giving them away, she winced, it looked
like he would have to fight after all, he grabbed the
hilt of his sword and swung it in front of him, eyes full of concentration.
The
man laughed “You think that you can get past me with THAT thing?”
“Is
that a rhetorical question?” Ryu said, eyes narrowed, as he jumped forward,
sword in front of him.
SMASH
“Ohhhhh…”
the man said as he collided with the concrete wall, “My stomach…” The man got
up glaring at Ryu.
“That’s
it punk, time to burn!” he snarled ramming forward towards Ryu,
He
just side-stepped to the left and let the man crash into the bars of the cage
in which Erma’s brother appeared to kept, wedging his
head between the bars.
“Yeow! Ah my heads stuck Ahhh! Someone’s going to pay!” he cried.
But
then another voice spoke up, one on the other side of the bars, a man’s voice.
“Well,
I hope its not going to be me, I’m afraid my good sir I don’t have any cash
with me at this precise moment in time.”
“Steve!”
Erma cried in joy.
“Why,
Erma you are looking absolutely smashing today, speaking of smashing…” Steve
took out a brick from the side of the cage and smashed the man over the head
with it, knocking him out, and un-wedging him from the bars.
“Oh Steve! I thought I would never see you again!” Erma Said with glee running to
the bars to greet her brother.
Steve
chuckled adjusting his glasses “now why would you think that Erma, anyway who
is that fine fellow you have with you?” he said his gaze lingering on Ryu.
“Oh,
Steve this is Ryu he’s here to rescue his friend too, he said he’d help me.”
Erma said bringing Ryu over to shake his hand.
“Well
hello, my good chap how corking to meet you!” Ryu raised his eyebrows but shook
Steve’s hand anyway.
“Uh
hi, Erma’s told me… all about you.” Ryu said studying Steve, he certainly
looked like Erma’s sister they both had round glasses and brown hair though of
course Erma’s was longer and she had green eyes while Steve had blue.
“Oh
yes we have to rescue your friend now too, don’t we Ryu, what’s her name
anyway?” said Erma.
“She’s
called Nina.” Ryu said sheathing his sword again.
“Uh,
you might want to draw your sword again Ryu…” said Steve, and indeed Ryu felt
someone breathing down his neck; he gulped, turning around slowly.
“Ready
to die, punk?” said the man from before pointing his gun at Ryu’s forehead,
Ryu
gulped.
Chapter IX:
The rescue, part 2
The
man sneered “Crud indeed, now any last words?” he said pressing the gun flat
against his forehead.
“uh…” Ryu didn’t know what to do, this looked like the end,
he would never rescue Nina, he would never get back home, he
would never see Cray, Ursula, Scais and Ershin again…
“He
might not have anything to say but I do!” Erma said surprising everyone.
“Goodnight!”
she said smashing a flowerpot over his head, the flowerpot once resided on the
table, bringing a little colour into the room, though the flower was wilted and
not looked after. Anyway let’s get off the subject of the flower and onto the
man, he was effectively knocked out, slumping to the ground in a heap.
“Erma?”
asked Ryu completely and utterly puzzled.
“What,
I couldn’t just stand there could I?” Erma said putting her hands on her hips.
“Hello,
is anyone going to help me?” Steve asked, still stuck in the cage.
Erma
and Ryu turned to each other smiled, and answered simultaneously
“No.”
*************************************************************
“Warps…
warps… warps…” Deis muttered,
sitting at a wooden desk, books strewn in front of her, she herself looking
very frustrated.
“…
oh that’s it I give up, why should I help dragon-boy anyway, I could be having
a lovely beauty sleep now, for another 100 years!…”
She shouted in anger, she raised her fists to the sky (or rather ceiling,
seeing as she was underground.) and shouted.
“If
there is any other god out there, give me a sign, a hint, anything!” as she
slammed her fists down on the table, as a book fell on her head.
“YEOW! Oh hey this is it…”
*************************************************************
“Thank
god, it was getting stuffy in that cage, but you know I had ALMOST
finished my plan to escape.” Steve said brushing the dust off his brown jacket,
Erma rolled her eyes.
“Sure,
I expect all you needed was another two years.” She said sarcastically.
Steve
shook his head, fixing his glasses afterwards from their disheveled state, “No,
I’m not that optimistic, I’d say about 4…” Erma
slapped her hand to her head.
“Brothers…”
she muttered.
“Say
Ryu, didn’t I hear something about you trying to rescue someone as well?” Said Steve, trying to changing the subject.
“Huh?
Oh yeah, Nina…” Ryu said coming back from a bout of intense thinking.
“Well
I must say, that unless I am mistaken, new subjects are usually taken to the
top of this drab complex, I have learned a few new things here.” Said Steve,
Ryu was starting to get the idea that Steve was the brain of the family.
“Well
then, Erma, Steve I must go and find her, goodbye.” Ryu said turning round in a
flash of blue and walking back towards the corridor.
“Wait!”
Erma bellowed sprinting after him, Ryu blinked and turned.
“Well…
I… uh… um… let us come with you, we’ll show you the way, It’s the least I can
do for helping you save my brother, even though we argue, I still love him.”
She said switching back to ‘shy’ mode.
“Hmmm…”
said Ryu in deep thought, true they could show him the way, but that would put
them in danger as well.
“Please…”
Erma said desperately.
“Well…
all right, but don’t get killed OK?” Ryu said smirking.
“Yes, sir.” Said Erma raising her hand to salute Ryu.
A
snickering was heard behind them.
“Oi! Don’t forget about me old chap!” Steve shouted jogging towards them.
Still smiling, Ryu noticed something on the wall, just about them and turned to
it: a map of the complex.
“Ah,
I see that’s where we are.” Ryu said pointing to a Red Cross signaling the
where abouts of the corridor.
“And
that is where your friend is.” Erma said pointing to another cross, with a
rough line marking ‘top secret area’ on the last floor.
“Good,
let’s go!” Ryu said with enthusiasm running to direction of the stairs the map
had portrayed.
“Yeah!”
*************************************************************
“Colour
warps… tree warps… day warps… Blah blah blah…Space and time warps, yes this is
it.”
Deis
said skimming the contents page of the book that had ‘fell’ on her head.
“Page 206, right.” She said turning to that precise page, and found
herself staring at a picture which looked suspiciously like the warp she had
seen Ryu and Nina disappear into just yesterday, and began to read the text at
the side of it, she had only two words to say at it.
“Oh
my…”
*************************************************************
We
last left Ryu and CO shouting ‘yeah!’ dramatically, however now we find them
sprinting up a VERY long spiraling staircase, seemingly never-ending.
“ How- long… is this- staircase?” Erma asked out of breath.
Ryu
replied not at all tired, “looks endless.”
Erma
shook her head, still running. “But- nothing… is endless.”
“…”
“You
don’t… agree?” Steve added, joining the conversation.
Ryu
stopped, the others almost smashing into his back.
“You
do not believe in the Unfading ones, in this world?”
“What?”
Erma said, getting her breath back. “What do you mean the unfading ones?” she
added.
Ryu
shook his head, smiling slightly. “No matter.”
Erma
tilted her head “well… If you’re sure…”
Ryu
nodded “Let’s press on.”
“Good
Idea, but Maybe we should find a quicker way, I’ve been cramped up for two
years, and my legs aren’t used to such exercise.” Steve said stepping next to
Erma, rubbing his legs.
“There
is another way, though it does take longer.” Erma said pointing to a door on
the left.
“Right,
lead the way.” Said Ryu swiftly, as they set off again, though this time at a
walk seeing as all of them were now rather tired, not
that Ryu would ever admit that though. Past more and more and more dingy
corridors they went looking all the same, like one of those fun houses where you
always smash into mirrors and hurt your nose. It was all very tiring work,
apparently according to Erma they were looking for a lift, this agreed Steve
was a much better plan than running up miles of stairs, however even with
Erma’s guidance they were now officially lost.
“Now
we go left… or was it right… or maybe straight
forward… um,” Steve slapped his head and whispered quietly into Ryu’s ear.
“She
always had a bad memory, not me though, mine’s spiffing.”
Apparently
not quiet enough.
“STEVE!”
“Oh
dear…”
Then
came a long argument.
“How
dare you! I don’t have a bad memory, I’d like to see
you find your way around here! And I think that-“ Ryu
blocked out their voices and sighed, leaning against the wall, closing his eyes
and folding his arms.
“AH!”
Ryu screamed in surprise, the wall sliding back to reveal a secret passageway.
“Huh?”
Steve and Erma both said simultaneously, both turning round.
“What
the…” Ryu muttered, picking himself off the floor, and turning round to gaze at
the gloomy narrow passageway that had just appeared behind him, he turned round
to Erma and Steve.
“Looky
what I found.”
Erma
scratched her head “I didn’t know about that,” She said coming round to inspect
the gap,
“Looks
like a secret passageway.” Erma said, pointing out the obvious.
Steve
rolled his eyes, “Well duh…”
“What
was that!?” Erma said, her voice rising, Ryu once again sighed.
“Oh
don’t start again…” They both looked at him surprised.
Ryu
said nothing, walking forward into the darkness.
“Uh,
isn’t that a bit dangerous it looks… a bit dark…” Erma said
nervously, obviously afraid of the dark.
“Just
come on.” Ryu said simply, starting to disappear from Erma and Steve.
They
both looked at each other, and then ran after him.
Chapter X:
“Eeep… where do you think we are Ryu?” Erma said quietly as they sidestepped though the dark passageway (seeing as it was not wide enough to walk)
“…”
Nothing was said.
“Indeed
I do agree with Erma, Ryu where are we?” Steve piped
in.
“If
I knew then I would tell you wouldn’t I?” Ryu hissed in annoyance,
They
both shut up.
And
so they continued in silence, until of course Erma fell into a giant pit.
“Ah!
Help!”
“Erma!”
said Steve and Ryu simultaneously as she continued to scream,
“Hold
on!” Steve said throwing out his hand for her to grab, which luckily she did.
“Got you…” he said lifting her up.
“You all right?” Ryu asked, leaning down next to her
“I-I-I
am O-okay… I t-think…” She stuttered, hands shaking.
“I
think we should rest for a while…” Ryu said, they both nodded agreeing that
that would be a good course of action for that moment, and sat down, though
Erma’s eyes kept darting nervously back to the pit, as though it would swallow
then all up.
“W-why
do you think there is a pit there anyway?” She asked still rather shaken.
“Who
knows, more likely than not it crumbled from use and instead of fixing it, they
just closed this route.” Ryu said shrugging, as he stood up, dusting his butt,
from the dirt on the ground.
“Eakkk!” Erma screamed, both Ryu and Steve (who had
been surprisingly quiet for the last few minutes) turned to her again.
“What’s
wrong? Did you fall down that pit again?!” Steve shouted sounding worried.
“N-no…
It- It’s much worse than that…” Said Erma, absolutely
terrified.
“Then
what is it?!” Ryu then said, frustrated.
“It’s-
It’s- It’s! -“Erma stuttered.
“It’s
what!” Ryu shouted.
“A spider!”
Ryu
and Steve were not impressed at the sound of the ‘terrible’ creature.
Steve
sighed and pulled a torch from his backpack, and shone it on the spider, picked
it up and stuck on a spider web.
Ryu
gasped, “A stick that shines light! Amazing!”
Steve
looked at him “It’s called a torch, mate.” Ryu scratched the back of his head.
“Uh…
I knew that.” He said.
“Hello,
anyone going to pay any attention to me? I could be scarred for life,” Erma
piped in, as Steve whispered into Ryu’s ear.
“She’s
terrified of spider’s she is, very shy too, when she meets someone she doesn’t
know.”
Ryu
rolled his eyes.
“I
could tell that,” Said Ryu quietly, and then out loud “Can we please go now? Enough pits and spiders.”
Erma
moaned, “But… can’t we stay here for a bit longer, I want to rest.” Ryu looked
at her, deep in thought for anyway to get her to hurry up.
“…
What about him?” he said pointing to the spider “Don’t want to get eaten do
we?” Erma’s eyes widened, and she quickly hurried up, though slowing down
slightly when passing the spider.
“What’s
this…” Ryu murmured as they came to something solid,
“Steve, give me your glowing stick.” He said holding out his hand, beckoning
for Steve to give him the torch, which he did. “How do you work this
contraption?” he asked handing back to Steve.
Steve
flipped the switch, “Like this,” no light came out, “Uh… out of power…” Ryu
rubbed his forehead in frustration, he would have to…”
“BURN!”
A
flame shot up, blinding both Steve and Erma, setting fire to a stick lying
dormant on the ground.
“Wha?”
was all Steve’s mouth could muster.
Ryu
shot him a look that said ‘ask and die’ so he said nothing, Ryu then picked up
the burning stick from the ground, and explored the wall, “It’s…”
“A
lift…” Erma finished for him.