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_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (9/14/2008 2:23:54)

Chapter 24-- "A Whole New World"

"Na skledanou!" the flight attendant said, smiling rather forcedly as she watched Ryan walk off the plane. Turning back to the first class compartment, she nodded to Breeze and Robina with the same smile, repeating her goodbye.

"I think she's saying 'goodbye,'" Robina whispered to her sister as the two walked over to Ryan, who was cracking his back loudly after the eight-hour flight. "Dad never took me here, but he spoke Czech fluently."

Breeze rolled her eyes at her sister's giddiness. "I really don't care, Robina," she said, stopping at Ryan's side and turning back to the plane. The three waited for a moment, when Aria appeared in the doorway of the plane ushering a sleepy pair of children forward. "You two tired?"

"I almost had to carry Ewan," Aria said, rolling her stiff neck. "Thanks for waiting."

Breeze winked at the redhead and smiled. "I'm too important to be carrying kids, you know that."

Ryan and Robina shared a laugh at the princess' statement as Inyro and Kristen strode out of the plane. "What're we waiting for?" Inyro asked, flipping up the hood of his orange hoodie.

"You," the white-haired princess said, turning and walking away down the tunnel. The others caught up with her as she crossed into the airport, and she glanced back quickly to make sure everyone was present. Aria and Kristen were each carrying one of the children, and Breeze giggled lightly. "They're not too heavy, are they?"

Aria, carrying Ewan, smiled and responded, "He ways less than you do, Mistress."

Ryan laughed, along with Breeze, and the two led the group through a small series of hallways, following the yellow signs for baggage claim. "What does 'vychod' mean?" Inyro asked, somewhat sullen.

"I'm pretty sure it means 'Exit,'" Robina said. "And I think it's pronounced 'vee-ch-odd,' not 'vick-odd.'"

Inyro shrugged his shoulders, stuffing his hands into the oversized pockets of his hoodie. "Whatever," he muttered, stepping into the large baggage claim room.

"We're over here," Ryan called, waving to the trailing group from one of the far belts. As the others made their ways over, he and Princess Breeze found a position close to where the baggage would come out, and watched as the belt started forward, the black slats passing by him slowly. "Hopefully we can get our bags quickly."

"I'm in no rush," Robina said, flicking her sister's hair playfully. "We're already here, we might as well take our time and enjoy the whole experience."

"How in God's name is baggage claim an experience?" Inyro asked, his bitter attitude felt by all. As people began to gather around the group to collect their luggage, he pulled himself further into his hoodie.

Aria raised an eyebrow at the werewolf, setting Ewan down next to him as she prepared to take luggage off of the belt. "Did you get your tail stuck in the bathroom door or something?" she asked.

Inyro muttered inaudibly and walked away from the group, making his way over to the magazine and snack stand against the far wall. Ryan shrugged at Aria and turned back to the belt as Breeze tapped his shoulder. "This black bag's mine," she said quickly. As the boy lifted it off the belt with a hearty grunt, she added, "That red one's mine, too."

"My red bag's after Breeze's," Robina said from behind the boy.

As Ryan and Aria retrieved the group's eleven bags, Kristen and Sarah joined Inyro at the stand. "What's up with you?" Sarah asked, crossing her arms over her chest. At her side, Kristen did the same.

"Nothing," Inyro said bitingly, refusing to turn to the girls.

"You're as bad a liar as my brother," the girl replied simply. When the boy continued to ignore her, she rolled her eyes and shoved him. "Inyro, come on. You're acting like a child."

As the hooded boy straightened up, he turned to face the girls. His eyes immediately locked onto Sarah's, and he glared as he said, "Leave me alone."

Gaia staggered over to Kristen sleepily, wrapping her arms around the werewolf's waist and yawning loudly. "Aria says we've got all of the bags," she said slowly, her words slurring slightly.

Wordlessly, Kristen lifted the girl into her arms and carried her back to the baggage belt, Inyro close behind and Sarah following him closely. "You know," the girl said, annoyed, "it's better to talk about your problems than hide them."

"Says the girl who can't shut her mouth? Not surprised," Inyro sniped, quickening his pace to distance himself from Sarah. When she caught up to him, he growled impatiently. "What the hell do you want?"

"Hey!" Breeze said, staring down the hoodied boy. "Calm down. Now."

"Yes, Mistress."

Ryan and Aria, each carrying four bags, pushed the three remaining bags in Inyro's direction. "C'mon, puppy," the scarlet-haired girl said playfully. "Do your share of the work."

Grumbling, the werewolf snatched the three bags off of the ground, and followed the princesses as they followed the arrows to the Customs desk. When the group had assembled in the lobby of the airport a few minutes later, Robina went to the Transportation stand, flanked on either side by Inyro and Aria. "We need a taxi," the princess said simply, smiling at the tired man behind the counter.

Breeze wandered toward the exit of the airport, gazing around with a sense of uneasy wonder. "This is nothing like home," she said breathily to Ryan and Kristen, both of whom had stayed at the princess' side. "It's all different..."

"Except for the McDonald's," Ryan pointed out, amusing himself. He scanned the airport along with Breeze, listening intently as he did. "How do they speak so quickly?"

Robina, walking over to the boy, said, "They're not speaking that fast, Ryan. They speak Czech as fast as we speak English, but because we don't know the language, we don't know where one word ends, and it all runs together. That's what makes it sound like they speak so fast."

"Is it the same the other way around?" Breeze asked, trying to comprehend her sister's theory. Robina nodded.

Suddenly, a man stepped up to the group, bowed low at Breeze's feet, turned, and ran away while the group recovered from their collective shock. "Who was that?" Ryan asked, confused.

Breeze shook her head. "I don't know," she said. "But this whole place just got a lot creepier."

-----
Comments



_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (10/7/2008 21:45:36)

Chapter 25-- "Sunday Walk in Prague"

Two days after arriving in the Czech Republic, Robina convinced the group to travel into Prague, for a day of sightseeing. Together, she and Aria had planned out a route that would bring them from the Basilica of St. Peter and Paul, in Vysehrad, to the Old Town Square. Ryan and Sarah arranged for a car to pick the group up and transport them to the base of Vysehrad, and for a pick-up at the Old Town Clock Tower later in the day. With all of the preparations complete, the group retreated to their respective bedrooms, going to sleep early to get an early start.

At eight in the morning, Inyro and Aria, the last to wake, met the rest of the group in the entrance room of the castle. Inyro greeted the group with a grumble, still moody from leaving the comfort of home. "These Czechs can speak English, right?"

"The ones in the souvenir shops do," Robina said calmly, used to the werewolf's attitude. "Maybe you can hang out with them all day."

Ryan and Breeze led the group to a pair of Skoda minivans parked outside the castle's gates, and split the group into the vehicles. Ryan sat in the front passenger-side seat of the blue Skoda, with Breeze, Sarah, Ewan, and Inyro sitting two-and-two in the back rows. In the other minivan, Aria, Robina, Kristen, and Gaia arranged themselves in the backseats.

"Can we get going?" Inyro asked, impatient, staring at the older man sitting in the driver's seat. "This thing smells like strawberries."

"Okay, now you're getting annoying," Breeze said, snapping at the werewolf. "Honestly, just stay quiet and stop screwing up the mood."

Sliding low in his seat, Inyro crossed his arms and muttered, "Nothing good's going to happen here in this country. If anything, something bad'll happen."

Ryan turned to Breeze and smiled. "This is the first time I've left the Northeast United States, you know. Well, not including Castle Cronois..."

"And how old are you?" Breeze asked, as the driver put the car in gear and started forward.

"I'll be seventeen in a few months. My birthday's August twelfth."

The princess nodded. "You never told me you were younger than me."

"Well," Ryan started, blushing, "does it really matter?"

Smiling, Breeze shook her head. "I guess not."

"I'm the oldest in the car?" Sarah asked suddenly. "Wow, and I'm not even twenty..."

Inyro shrugged. "So? I just turned nineteen. And at least you're not the youngest."

"I'm not that young!" Ewan said, giving a small 'hmph.' "I'm already thirteen."

Breeze giggled, ruffling the young boy's soft, mahogany hair. "So we should treat you like an adult?"

"Treat me however you want, you're a princess."

Ryan laughed at Ewan's statement. "I guess the same goes for all of us."

"So if I told you to eat a worm, or something..."

Ryan gave the princess a wary glance. "Don't be cruel about it, now."

The group fell silent for a short while, gazing out the windows at the approaching, majestic city of Prague. "You know," Breeze said, softly, "my Dad used to always tell me stories of this place. I remember, he quoted a princess who had said, 'I see a city, the fame of which reaches the stars.'" After a short pause, she continued. "I don't really see what she saw in this place."

The minivan rattled into the city, heading along the Vltava to the large hill Vysehrad was situated atop. Inyro cracked his neck in the backseat. "The streets here are almost as dirty as they are in Manhattan."

"Everything's so bright..." Ewan gazed up the hill. "I can see the graveyard. It's glowing... I've never seen anything so bright."

Ryan smiled. "Maybe that's what that princess saw," he said. "Maybe she could see like you could, Ewan."

"But it's a graveyard," the young boy said. "It's not supposed to be shining like that..."

The car stopped at the base of the incline, the driver turning off the ignition and quickly hopping out of the car. He rushed over to Breeze's door, pulling it open and gesturing with his hand for her to exit. When she had stepped out of the car, the man closed her door and stood by his, waiting for the others to exit before bowing swiftly at the princess and hopping into the driver's seat.

"Everyone's bowing to you lately," Inyro said as the minivan accelerated in reverse and drove away. "It's a bit weird."

Breeze nodded her agreement, shying closer to Ryan as the second minivan pulled up. The passengers of the black Skoda van piled out, laughing at Aria as she feigned anger, throwing her arms in the air and letting out a mock roar. Not one to be left out of a funny situation, Sarah asked Kristen, "What're you all laughing about?"

The werewolf shook her head silently. Breeze sighed as she gazed at the girl, the rest of the group becoming background noise to her. "Why are you still so upset?" she asked, laying a hand on Kristen's arm.

"It's nothing," the werewolf said, responding to the princess only out of duty. "Just... Lance could have gone after any one of us. Aria, Robina, you... I want to know, why did he aim at Ryan?"

"Why does it matter?" Ryan asked. "I'd rather he shoot at me than at my princesses."

Kristen shook her head. "But there has to be something more to it."

Inyro, who had already gone ahead of the group and was standing on the incline, about twelve yards from the rest, called out to Kristen, "Maybe he did it because of Aria."

The group fell silent, everyone turning to the hoodied werewolf, who stuffed his hands into the pockets of his scarlet hoodie. "He knows that the Goddess of Lights is real, right?"

"Yeah..." Kristen shook her head, confused. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Inyro grinned and shrugged. "Well," he said, striding confidently back to the group, "if the Goddess is real... who's to say the rest of the legends aren't?"

Realization of the boy's meaning dawned on Kristen, and she turned to Ryan with a curious look. "But, why Ryan? Who could he be, that Lance was prepared to kill - and maybe be killed?"

"He said," Aria started, stepping forward, "something about Ryan being a conqueror. I didn't think of it before now, but he'd started acting differently after Greg attacked us."

Kristen nodded slowly. "Lance might have been referring to the Alpha God, the one who would supposedly kidnap and enslave his enemies."

"Do you really think so?" Inyro asked. "The Alpha God is a werewolf, isn't he?"

Kristen shook her head. "Not necessarily. The legend said he was faster than all of the werewolves, and stronger, but not that he was one."

"I'm really not that fast," Ryan said, beginning to feel uncomfortable.

"He's not really that strong, either," Sarah added.

Inyro shrugged and turned to the incline. "There are dozens of legends and fairytales I've heard as a kid. I'm sure Lance was convinced that Ryan was one of the gods or legendary people that he'd heard about." He glanced to Kristen momentarily. "Maybe he thought Ryan was Wrath."

Kristen felt her face turn red, and ignored the quizzical looks Breeze and Aria gave her. She sped up, passing the hoodied boy and distancing herself from the group. Breeze caught up with her quickly, though, and asked, "Who was Inyro talking about?"

"No one."

The white-haired princess stared at the werewolf for a moment before shaking her head. "Maybe you didn't hear me. Who was-"

"Wrath," Kristen said in a whisper, turning her head slightly. "He was supposedly the ruler of a powerful kingdom, with a beautiful, loving queen. But he would leave every few months and go to a werewolf tribe that he was allied with, and he would steal the alpha's mate and kill the alpha. He would take the mate for his own pleasure, and keep her locked in the dungeon of his castle as a slave.

"Eventually, the legend says that he had taken the alpha mates of all of his allies, but he was greedy and wanted more, so he went to other tribes. The legend says that his wife, the queen, eventually found out, and she made a deal with him to return all of the alpha mates. The deal went that the king would only take alpha mates who ran away from their duties, because they were unfaithful to their tribe."

Breeze took the story in, and asked, "What does that have to do with you?"

"Lance made me run away from the tribe, because I'm the alpha mate. He didn't want me to be used by the men of our tribe. And I didn't want to become the alpha mate, either. I was happy when Lance said to leave for Aethon."

The princess nodded, understanding. The two felt the ground beneath them leveling out, and looked around in silence as the rest of the group caught up. "If Ryan was this Wrath person, I'd never let him touch you. Or any other woman, for that matter."

Kristen smiled. When the group gathered on the top of the hill at the edge of a small, cobblestone road that ran from the basilica to the opposite end of Vysehrad, the werewolf turned to Robina and asked, "Where to now?"

"The basilica, I guess."

Ewan took a step away from the group suddenly, inching his way toward the road they had taken from the Vltava. "I can't see anything," he said, stuttering. "It's too bright. Can we go back?"

"What're you talking about?" Gaia asked, confused. "The Sun's not that bright."

"Not the Sun, the graveyard. There's something there that shouldn't be."

Breeze strode over to the young boy, laying a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "Come on," she said, sweetly. "We'll go wait at the other end. Maybe we can look out at the river."

Ryan and Kristen stayed with the princess and Ewan as the others turned down the road. Together, the four walked away from the basilica, heading toward the outer walls of Vysehrad. "Wow," Kristen remarked, looking out over the city. "I've never seen any place this big."

"You haven't been to Manhattan, have you?" Ryan asked, smiling. "This is nothing."

Ewan sighed and dropped his head, sensing the others trying to sound interested for his sake. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just got scared..."

Breeze laughed lightly, ruffling the young boy's hair and gazing at the Vltava River. "It's okay, Ewan. Could you tell what made it so bright?"

"No." The boy shook his head. "Sorry."

"It's no big deal. Hey, can you tell if there are any werewolves here? I know you can tell them from normal humans..."

Ewan nodded, scanning the streets below. "Actually," he said, "there are a bunch of them here. A couple of them are just walking, but there's a big group of them over in that place." The boy pointed to a skatepark outside of the castle's walls, where a group of people stood watching a pair of skateboarders.

"Hey, cool, a skatepark," Ryan said with genuine interest. "Maybe we'll go check it out after the others come back."

"What's a skatepark?" the others asked, almost simultaneously.

Taken aback slightly by the others, Ryan collected his thoughts and said, "It's a... well, it's a place for skateboarders to hang out."

"And what is a skateboarder?" the white-haired princess asked, as a gust of crisp, warm air threw her hair over her eyes.

"Uhh..." Ryan shrugged. "It's tough to describe. You'll just have to see for yourself."

"See what?" a voice asked, from behind the group. They turned to see a young man, smiling warmly at them. "Princess, I cannot tell you what an honor it is to finally meet you."

"Who are you?" Breeze asked, cautious.

Behind her, Ewan spoke up. "What happened to your skin?"

Ryan and the nameless man gawked at the young boy for a moment, before the dark-chocolate-skinned man broke out into peals of laughter. "I guess you don't see many black people in a hidden castle. Nothing happened to my skin, kid, I was born this way."

"That's weird," Ewan said. "Did your parents look like that, too?"

The man nodded, as Breeze asked again, "Who are you."

"The name's Matthias, Princess," the man said, bowing low. "My friends told me you would be coming."

Her hand sliding to her concealed dagger, the princess nodded. "Who are these friends?"

"Torbold, your chef, and the old man who likes to argue with people... I can't remember his name for the life of me."

Ryan narrowed his eyes, reminding himself that both Torbold and Archie had been unconscious at the time they had decided to leave for Prague, and were in a hospital the last he had heard. "And when did you talk to them?"

"About a month ago," Matthias said calmly, calmly dodging Breeze's dagger as she slashed out and knocking the weapon from her hand. "They were very informative, when I threatened to kill the children."

Ewan's hands burst into flames as the intruder grabbed at the princess. With an angry roar he leapt at the man, the bright orange flames licking at the enemy's face. Ryan and Kristen held the man as Breeze retrieved her dagger, and she pointed it at Matthias' throat. "Who do you work for?"

"Aspect," the man said, as Ewan doused his flames. Matthias smiled at the stunned princess, ignoring the stinging burns on his face. "And they want all of you dead."

Robina and Aria came charging into sight as they rounded a corner, the werewolf Inyro following with Gaia in one arm and Sarah being propelled forward with the other. "Breeze, we've got trouble!" the scarlet-haired girl shouted, glancing back over her shoulder to see a group of five werewolves chasing after them.

Ryan and Ewan began a volley of fiery projectiles, aiming to force the pursuers to stop. "Aria, we could use your help here," the older boy shouted, lobbing handfuls of flames between her and the werewolves. He continued his volley as Breeze forced Matthias to back away and pass the trajectory of the fireballs. At his side, Ewan launched a mix of fireballs and lightning bolts, dedicating each hand to an element. "Keep the werewolves from catching Inyro!"

The young boy nodded to acknowledge Ryan, and focused his attacks into a buffer between the hoodied boy and the werewolves on his tail. "Thanks!" Inyro called, pushing Sarah forward and putting Gaia down. Drawing a pair of long daggers from beneath his hoodie, the boy morphed into a werewolf and turned to face his pursuers. "Now, let's do this nice and fair. Who wants to fight me first?"

The three enemies dedicated to Inyro grinned simultaneously and rushed through the rain of fire and lightning, pouncing at the boy and hoping to overwhelm him. Inyro had anticipated the move and dodged back as the attackers fell on the spot where he had stood, and with a single, swift motion he stabbed his daggers into the necks of two of the werewolves. The third dove to his right, rolling away from the hoodied werewolf and rising in the same motion, baring both his claws and his teeth.

The enemy rushed at Inyro, launching himself into the air with a corkscrewing motion, and forced the boy to dodge off to one side. Using the momentum from his corkscrew, the Aspect fighter threw himself at the hoodied boy in a deadly barrel roll. His claws grazed across the boy's face, tearing the hood of his sweater and slicing into his muzzle.

Inyro roared in pain and stumbled backward, finding balance as his enemy charged forward. Falling back as the Aspect werewolf pounced at him, he threw his feet into the air, catching the enemy's stomach and forcing the breath from the attacker's lungs. The fighter lay dazed on the ground, giving Inyro time to stand and regain the advantage in the fight.

The hoodied boy took the offensive, roaring angrily and throwing one dagger at the enemy werewolf's neck. The blade dug into the attacker's chin as Inyro dropped on the prone body, taking his second dagger to his dying opponent's back and neck.

"Inyro, get over here!" Kristen shouted over the boy's own roars of anger as she ducked away from her opponent. "I don't have a weapon."

The hoodied boy, scarlet sweater damp with similarly colored blood from the fallen attackers, removed his dagger from the werewolf's chin and rushed over to his comrade, handing her one of his blades. Armed, Kristen changed tactics; when her opponent charged at her, she side-stepped and thrust her weapon into the attacker's gut, and was rewarded with a pained grunt as she twisted the dagger in his stomach, widening the wound and effectively killing the enemy.

Ryan and Aria took offense against the fifth werewolf, the boy with his lightning magic and the girl with her concealed daggers. They fought the weak attacker to the wall of Vysehrad, and pinned him to the stone with a barrage of blunt-force strikes. "Why are you here?" the scarlet-haired fighter asked, showing only small signs of exhaustion.

The werewolf coughed blood and, through red-stained teeth, grinned. "I have failed my Master, but more will follow. My Master will get what he wants."

"What does he want? And who is he?"

"The Master wants your souls," the werewolf spat, his biting tone angering Aria.

The girl slapped the werewolf in her rage, cursing at him when Ryan restrained her arm. "You can tell him to kiss our -"

Aria froze as she heard Robina cry out. Spinning around, the scarlet-haired girl watched as Matthias, fully morphed into a werewolf, barreled past the older princess as he attempted to escape from a pursuing Breeze, Inyro, and Kristen. "Stay with this one," she shouted to Ryan, and ran after the group.

Sighing, Ryan turned to the captive werewolf and gave a shout of surprise, lunging forward futilely as the Aspect fighter leapt over the wall and fell to the concrete below. "Damnit," he said, angry at himself, and pushed away from the wall. He strode briskly over to where Robina, Sarah, and the children had gathered; the five decided to move on, knowing that the hilltop church was not a safe place to be.

-+--

Inyro took the lead in the chase, vaulting easily over a park bench as he followed Matthias along the Vltava. When the man suddenly veered down an intersecting street, the hoodied werewolf was forced to cut his speed to keep on course, and he lost ground on the agile Aspect fighter. Grunting with exertion, he poured all of his energy into his legs, allowing him to draw slightly closer to the running man.

Matthias turned into an alley, disappearing from sight momentarily as his pursuers raced to catch up. By the time they had entered the grungy alleyway, the Aspect fighter had already charged up a wall, grabbing onto windowsill nearly fifteen feet off the ground. With a single, swift motion he pushed himself up and through the window. On the ground below, Breeze and the werewolves pulled up, breathing heavily.

"Damnit!" Inyro shouted angrily, pounding the side of his fist into the brick wall Matthias had easily climbed. "How the hell was he keeping so far ahead of us?"

Kristen shook her head. "Whatever it was, it worked. He was jumping over tables like they weren't even there. And did you see how he jumped down those stairs and rolled out of it? That was just-"

"Are you praising him now?" Inyro asked, stepping toward the gray-eyed werewolf accusingly.

"N- No," Kristen stuttered, putting her hands up in a gesture of peace. "Just saying... if I could do that stuff..."

"Let's go back," Breeze said, sighing. She turned and led the two werewolves slowly, her soft green eyes scanning the sidewalks as she started back toward the Vltava.

-+--

Ryan and Ewan stood, breathing heavily, side-be-side as they kept the pair of attacking werewolves away from Robina, Sarah, and Gaia. "Don't come any closer!" the older boy warned, his hands erupting in flames despite his exhausted state. Ewan did the same, threatening to let his burning projectile loose.

-+--

"Don't worry, you won't be killed," a smooth voice whispered, darkly, into Aria's ear. "You're much too cute. You'll make a good wife for Matthias." He laughed and traced the blade of his dagger lightly across the side of her neck, shushing her as she began to cry. With a rough hand he brushed her hair from her bare back, and laughed again.

-----
Comments



_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (11/26/2008 21:48:23)

Chapter 26-- "When Goddess Meets Devil"

Aria moved with the slap to lessen its impact, but felt the sting nonetheless. Crying out, she fell to her knees and bowed her head, fighting every nerve in her body to keep the tears from falling down her cheeks. Her werewolf captors pulled roughly on her hair, inciting a pained shout from her lips and the first teardrop from her eyes.

"Hah!" one of her captors shouted, his raspy voice filled with joy. "Let's see her face Master Matthias again, with tears on her cheeks. And see if she still plans to -" A light cough froze the werewolf mid-sentence and he dropped Aria suddenly, stuttering, "M- Master. I didn't know-"

"Guards, take these three to the dungeons. In chains," called a smooth voice, one that Aria recognized from earlier in the day. Aria kept her eyes to the floor, listening intently as her three captors were dragged, kicking and screaming, from the room. When the door had closed behind him, the Master walked calmly to the scarlet-haired girl and sighed. "I apologize for that. Sometimes the men get a bit... rough when they've been deprived of flesh for too long."

Aria refused to turn her face to the dark-skinned Master. "What do you want with me, Matthias?"

"Not much, Madame," he said, chuckling as if he had told a small joke. "Not much at all."

"I don't believe you."

"Good!" Matthias clapped his hands together. "If you did, this would be no fun. I much prefer the chase to the kill, if you know my meaning."

Aria staggered to her feet and cringed slightly, her bound wrists raw and beginning to bleed. Shaking her head, she blinked the tears away from her eyes. "If you want a chase, you could take these damn cuffs off."

Matthias shrugged and stepped up behind Aria, grabbing her arm just below the wrist as he unsheathed a dagger from his belt. As he slit the plastic wrist cuffs he chuckled and whispered into her ear, "Even with your hands free, you can't escape here. Not even if you killed every one of us."

"I don't care," Aria said softly, shuddering. "All I need to do is wait. My friends can save me." She pulled her arm free of the dark-skinned Master's grip and spun around, grinning darkly as she forced the energy in her body to erupt from the palms of her hands in the form of flames. Suddenly, though, the smile was replaced by surprise as Matthias caught her arm with one hand and grabbed her neck with his other.

Laughing, he asked, "Did you think that would work?" He twisted her arm and the flames disappeared from her hand, pain shooting through her body as her bones reached their limit. "You're too naive, little lady."

She cried out from the feeling of her bones preparing to pop and flailed her body helplessly. "Stop!" she screamed, desperate. The pain lessened suddenly and Matthias released his grip on her, pushing her forward and off-balance. She fell, coughing and shaking, to her knees and shut her eyes tightly as a shock of pain coursed through her arm.

"How long do I need to wait," Matthias began, his voice dark and triumphant, "before you try to run? Before the chase begins?"

Aria ignored him, each shaky breath causing her to shudder. 'Forever,' she thought to herself. 'My princess will kill you long before I grow that desperate.' She waited for Matthias to leave the room before letting the tears she had held back fall. Alone in the room, she let her pained and exhausted figure fall to the hard, stone ground, the roughly-cut, cave-like brownstone walls echoing her sobs through the crisp, chilly air. 'Please, come quickly,' she prayed.

A week later, the single light in Aria's prison, hanging nearly twenty feet off the ground in the cavernous room, flickered to life as the door opened silently. A figure padded quietly into the room, trying to make as little noise as possible, but the door clicked as it closed, immediately waking the light-sleeping Aria. The figure at the door froze, the tray of food in her hands shaking lightly as the scarlet-haired girl's eyes fell on her.

"Who are you?" Aria asked dully, drawing herself into a cross-legged sitting position against the far wall.

The girl at the door stepped forward cautiously and, without taking her eyes off of Aria, slowly placed the tray on the ground. As she straightened up, the door opened behind her and Matthias walked into the room with four changes of clothes for Aria. "Master," the girl said, bowing her head and clasping her hands as she had been trained to do.

"Take the clothes that the human is wearing and bring them to the washroom," Matthias ordered the girl, taking a knife from beneath his coat and handing it to her. "If she won't take them off herself, cut them off."

"Yes, Master."

Aria stood as Matthias exited, smiling at the girl and sizing her up. The girl was no older than she was, Aria guessed, and was both shorter and skinnier. 'She doesn't work out much,' she thought silently. 'This shouldn't be too hard.'

The servant girl walked nervously over to Aria. "C-can I have your clothes?" she asked, stuttering.

Aria shook her head and stood her ground, waiting for the girl to draw within her striking distance before she made her move. But it was the servant who acted first, charging forward with a surprising burst of speed and slicing the dagger diagonally across Aria's front. Without pausing she hopped back, away from the scarlet-haired girl's reach.

Aria's shirt fell open along the front, sliced in a neat line as she stared at the servant. She had underestimated the girl's skill, obviously. 'What the hell was that?' she thought to herself, stunned.

"P-please," the servant pleaded, "just give me your clothes. I might accidentally hurt you, and I don't want to..."

Recovering from her shock, Aria growled softly and lowered herself into a fighting stance, turning her side to the servant to make her a smaller target. 'She only got the upper-hand on me because I underestimated her,' she told herself, bracing herself for the werewolf's next attack.

"Please," the servant repeated, nearly crying. Her silver-blue eyes searched Aria's face pleadingly, but when she resigned herself to the knowledge that the scarlet-haired fighter would not give up, she shifted her grip on her weapon and stepped forward. With her same amazing speed, the girl lunged out at Aria and aimed her blade at the scarlet-haired fighter's pants leg.

Aria shifted backward, away from the knife-strike, and spun swiftly around, bringing her rear foot forward in a powerful kick. As her leg snapped around her waist she set her leg ablaze, using half of her remaining energy to form the hungry flames. Her foot smashed powerfully into the servant's side, sending the girl sprawling and setting fire to her shirt.

Screaming in pain and shock from Aria's strike, the girl rolled away from her opponent and quickly set herself to putting out the small flames on her clothing. She turned her attention back to the scarlet-haired fighter as she patted her shirt down and realized, to her horror, that she had dropped the knife in her surprise. Watching as Aria picked up the fallen blade, she quickly scampered away from her opponent and to the closed door. "Guards!" she cried, pressing herself against the cold, stone wall beside the door.

"Bring them on," Aria said darkly, grinning and twirling the blade in her hand. "God knows I've wanted to kill somebody."

The door flew open and a pair of fully-morphed werewolves charged into the room, turning to Aria and baring their fangs and claws as the servant girl escaped the fight behind them. The two rushed forward simultaneously, growling and chomping their jaws together in an attempt to unnerve their opponent.

Aria dodged to her left as the werewolves hurtled at her, forcing the nearer enemy to attack her alone while his comrade took a wider path to reach her. Using the few short seconds she had to face the first werewolf alone she ducked under a wildly thrown punch and stabbed out with her knife, catching the attacker in his gut. Grinning from the feeling of the blade passing through her enemy's skin, she quickly withdrew the small blade and shifted back, the second werewolf joining his injured comrade.

In one smooth motion, Aria dodged the new enemy's sweeping claw and spun off to her right, again isolating a single werewolf in her fight. Without waiting for the guard to attack again, she struck out with the knife and managed to impale the blade into her enemy's arm as he blocked his chest. She laughed as the werewolf gave a pained howl, removing the weapon from his forearm and spinning it cockily in her hand.

A wave of adrenaline flowed through Aria, the rush of battle reinvigorating her weakened and oppressed spirit. She grinned darkly in her newfound strength, twirling the bloody knife between her fingers and watching as her latest pincushion's face warped in agony. Laughing to herself, her eyes flaring with the heat of battle, she felt time slow as the two werewolf guards struggled to organize an offensive against her.

The first werewolf Aria had engaged scraped the air as he threw himself in front of his comrade, attacking with a rekindled ferocity. He forced the scarlet-haired fighter back a few steps, flailing his claws in a frenzied rage and growling wildly, and separated himself from his fellow guard as he charged. When he stopped his flurry of fists and claws he froze, confused by the grin on his enemy's face.

Aria lunged forward, slicing at the enemy's neck with her knife and stabbing out at his heart as he stumbled away from the attack. The blade penetrated the enemy's skin as he fell off-balance, and the scarlet-haired fighter followed him aggressively, trying to force the weapon deeper. She dropped onto his stomach, pushing the knife into the werewolf's chest, but as she relished in the sound of his agonizing screams she lost track of the helpless enemy's comrade.

The still-standing werewolf slashed out with claws painted red with the blood from his wounded arm and dragged their sharp points across Aria's left shoulder, drawing a shout of pain and surprise from her grinning lips. As the girl fell off of his fallen comrade, the enemy pounced after her, landing with his knees on her stomach and waist and forcing the breath from her mouth. He drew his hand back and struck out with anger, his claws nearly at her face when a single gunshot rang out, forever halting the werewolf's action as he fell forward, dead.

Aria shook with pain as the guard's lifeless body collapsed onto her bleeding shoulder, but managed to raise her head to the doorway. Her heart stopped for a split second as the barrel of Matthias' gun fixed onto her head, and when she heard the man laugh she felt her heart drop to her stomach. But the gun's barrel swept away from her and focused instead on the second guard, whom Aria saw was still alive, groaning and gravely wounded.

Matthias mouthed a few inaudible words as he pulled the trigger once, twice; as he reholstered his gun he laughed darkly, turning to Aria. "So you can fight!" he said, almost happily. Grinning, he gestured to the cave-like room. "I thought this would have killed your spirit, but I am pleasantly surprised!"

Aria pushed the carcass of her werewolf attacker off of her and sat up slowly, pressing her right hand on her wounds. She stared at the man in the doorway, refusing to acknowledge his speaking but absorbing every word. When he stepped away from the door and grabbed out to where she could not see, beyond the door, she dreaded what he would pull out.

With a dark grin plastered on his face, Matthias shoved the servant girl into the room and slammed the door closed behind her, calling through the inches-thick steel, "Do with her what you will, Madame! She is too much a coward for me to care for!"

Aria ignored the servant girl, who pressed herself fearfully against the door, instead focusing her energy to use a healing magic on her wounds. Slowly, the energy pulsed from her palm in the form of a pale, white glow and surrounded her injury, sending a throbbing yet soothing sensation through her muscles and nerves. She ignored the exhaustion she felt even as it grew unbearable, forcing herself to stay awake and finish her magic.

After a few long minutes, the servant calmed, her heart no longer pounding against her chest and her breathing steady. She watched with a mix of awe and unbelievability at Aria as she worked her magic, marveling at the pulsating glow that covered the scarlet-haired girl's shoulder. When the light finally died away she crept forward a few inches. "What were you doing?" she asked curiously, ignoring the fact that nearly ten minutes ago, the same girl she was admiring had been trying to kill her.

Aria snapped her head to the servant but remained quiet, standing quickly and, staggering slightly, walking in the direction of the girl. Thoroughly fatigued, she dropped to her hands and knees in front of the tray of food the servant had left earlier and snatched up a piece of bread. She ate ravenously as the girl looked on, relishing in the taste of the stale bread and warm water, and even when she had finished and the servant repeated the question she ignored her.

The servant rubbed her darkly tanned skin nervously as she watched the scarlet-haired girl, the silence making her increasingly more anxious. "Are you still hurt?" she asked, trying to get the imprisoned Aria to talk. After a long pause, Aria shook her head, still choosing to avoid the servant's eye. She lifted her shirt over her head and dropped it to her side, reaching out for the clothes Matthias had left. She was surprised to find that the shirt fit her snugly, and when the servant saw the emotion on Aria's face she explained, "Master sent me in here two days ago, to check your clothing sizes. He... was very specific."

"You touched me?" Aria asked, shocked and angry, curling her hands into fists.

The servant nodded quickly and, in an attempt to calm Aria, said, "I swear, I didn't do anything to you."

"What gives you the right to touch me?"

"Master would have killed me!" the servant cried as Aria stood and stepped menacingly toward her. She sobbed loudly, shaking with emotion and throwing herself at the scarlet-haired girl's feet. "I refused him today, and he will have me killed!"

Shocked by the servant's action, Aria retreated a few short steps and stared at her. "What did he want you to do?"

"He told me to take your clothes, and I failed him! Now he will come back and kill me, if you have not already!"

Aria turned to the closed door and stared at the dull shine of the light on the steel doorfront. "I really don't care about what happens to you," she said bluntly. "You're Aspect. You've killed my friends, invaded my home, taken me hostage..."

"No!" the servant protested, clasping her hands together in a gesture of pleading. "Not me," she continued, her voice soft, "I could never do that. I'm... I'm just a slave here. Master kidnapped me when I was young, he said. He said I'm lucky I'm not some other man's pet." She dropped her gaze to the floor. "Master may be mean, but he's never hurt me. He's threatened, always threatened. But I've been good. Until now, that is..."

"He's brainwashed you," Aria said simply, still staring at the door. "I don't care if he really kidnapped you or not. But, did he ever say where he kidnapped you from?"

The servant shook her head. "All he ever talked about was your kingdom. Aethon. About your beautiful princess and the ugly werewolves you have as allies."

"He speaks about Mistress Breeze?" Aria asked, spinning suddenly to the servant. "What about her?"

The girl paused, slightly taken aback by Aria's invigorated interest. Stuttering, she said, "Well, he always talks about wanting her as his pet..." She recoiled from the scarlet-haired girl as embers flared from her fists. "And, he- he says her parents were stupid not to ally with him."

"That idiot Matthias, he doesn't get it!" Aria smacked her fist into her open palm, calming herself. Seeing the confusion on the servant's face, she said, "Mistress Breeze's parents were called upon by the leaders of warring werewolf tribes to make peace between them. When they couldn't, they sided with the less reckless and dangerous of the tribes, and helped them drive out the other - Matthias' tribe. The man still hasn't figured it out, and he hasn't changed either."

The servant closed her eyes and hummed quietly. "Was there anyone named Sky in the other werewolf tribe?"

"Yes," Aria said. "Why, did Matthias talk about him, too?"

"Not around others. Only around me. He said Sky was the reason I was here. Master always said, if Sky hadn't tricked the king, I would be safe at home with my family." The servant sniffled lightly, wiping tears from her eyes with shaking hands. "Do you know anyone missing their family?"

Aria shook her head. "I couldn't stand you werewolves for years. I was afraid of you, until I discovered that one of you saved my life. So no, I don't know many werewolves. Only your fairy tales."

"You know our fairy tales?" the servant asked, somewhat surprised. "Which ones?"

"The Goddess of Lights."

The servant grinned. "I like that story. I always used to go to my window at midnight and pray to her, when I was young. I want to pray to her again, now. She could save me, I know she could." She sighed. "But it's not night yet. It was just after lunch that Master had me come here."

Aria cocked her head to the side slightly and smiled. "You can always pray to her, I heard. She listens all day."

"Do you think so?"

"I don't know," Aria said, shrugging. "It's not my fairy tale."

The servant nodded, thinking deeply, and after a moment asked, "Should I pray for you, too?"

"I don't know if the Goddess would care about me. She's a werewolf protector, not a human one."

"She'll hear it, at least," the servant said, grinning. "That's better than nothing."

Aria sighed and nodded. She turned to the girl and, smiling softly, said, "I guess if you want to pray for me, you should know my name. I'm Aria."

"Aria?" The servant giggled. "That's a nice name."

"And what's your name?"

"I only know the one that Master gave me. Suna."

"Suna? That's... is that another language?"

The servant shrugged and slumped slightly. "I don't know. Master never told me. He called me Venus for a few weeks, but then I was Suna."

"I like Venus better, personally" Aria said, sitting at Suna's side. She sighed and shook her head. "Oh well. Men aren't always the best a picking out names. Maybe you should pray for the opportunity to pick your own name?"

Suna laughed blandly, turning her eyes to her feet. "Master would never allow that. Not even if the Goddess of Lights told him to do it herself."

"So then, maybe she'll find you a way out of this place. So you can find your family, and a better name."

Suna smiled wistfully. "All right," she said, "I guess it can't hurt. I'd love to find a way out of here."

'And so would I,' Aria thought silently. 'Let's hope the other werewolves have heard of the Goddess of Lights, too.'

-----
Comments



_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (2/12/2009 22:32:11)

Chapter 27-- "The Reasons I Hate You"

"Robina, what are we going to do?" Breeze asked, sitting on her bed and staring aimlessly at the intricately designed carpet. Nine days had passed without word of Aria, and each day the white-haired princess grew increasingly more anxious. "Where did they take her?"

"Breeze, stop asking me," Robina said without raising her head from her pillow, her voice barely audible. "And get some sleep. It's almost two in the morning."

Nodding silently, Breeze kicked off her slippers and slid her legs onto the bed, knowing full well she would not sleep. She turned to the window and gazed out to the starless sky, sighing softly as she laid her head on her pillow. Her thoughts strayed to what Inyro had told her the night before, the first night with an empty sky, and she felt herself grow even more worried. 'Eight nights,' she reminded herself. 'This is only the second. There's still hope.'

In the room next to the princess', Ryan sat in his chair by the window, Kristen lying peacefully, asleep, in the single bed. He tore his eyes from the ground beneath the princess' window to check his watch - one forty-six. His watch would be over in fourteen minutes, and then he would wake Kristen so that she could take her turn. His gaze fell back on the yard outside, constantly scanning the grounds as his mind drifted next door, to where Breeze would be sleeping peacefully. He wondered if she knew that he kept watch over her every night, protecting her as he had promised to do.

The vivid memory of Breeze, lying bruised and beaten on Prince Henry's bed in the underground labyrinth of Cronois, rushed back to him, and he nearly cried out as he saw her weakened, tear-streaked face in his mind. Her voice shook as she whispered to him in her sleep, pleading for Ryan to save her, to protect her. And he had sworn he would. Forever, he remembered saying. And he remembered the smile form on her face as she heard his voice.

'I'll never let anyone hurt her, ever again,' he swore to himself. 'She asked me to protect her, and I promised her that I would. Forever.' Ryan sat out his last thirteen minutes of watching the motionless shadows on the ground and woke Kristen gently, taking her place in the bed as she shuffled over to the window. 'Good night, Breeze,' he called out silently, and drifted quickly off to sleep.

_+__

Aria gazed calmly at Suna as she slept, debating with herself whether she should try to escape. She went over what she knew about the facility she was in, hoping it would help convince her one way or another. She marked the ground in front of her with her knife, creating a tally board for her information.

She knew that there were always guards patrolling outside her cell, that was marked down as a negative; she also knew she could fight and defeat the werewolves, even if they attacked her in their lupine forms, and that was a positive. However, she was unsure how many werewolves there were, and had no knowledge of the facility's layout due to her being brought from room to room in her sleep until she had awoken in her cell and been left there. Both of those points were negatives, and major negatives at that.

After a pause, she marked another two positives. Not only was she the Goddess of Lights, which might garner her some support, or at least some element of surprise, but she also had Suna, who knew the facility to some degree. She sighed and marked another negative. She knew Matthias would chase her, and knew he expected her to run.

'How can I escape, if he already thinks I will?' she asked herself, and added another tally to the negative. With Matthias, an escape attempt would be too risky. She knew he was letting her live to make her want to run, but she had no clue how he would react if she did try to leave. Would he kill her then, or just throw her back in the cell?

Shaking her head, she dropped the knife and laid back on the hard stone floor, knowing she had to wait. 'My princess will come,' she told herself, 'and my friends. They will save me.'

_+__

Breathing hard, Inyro threw his hood back and raised his face to the sky, letting the quickly-intensifying rain cool him off as he trained in the empty park. The rain and sweat drenched both his clothes and his fur, burdening him with more weight than he wanted, but he took the handicap as an opportunity to grow stronger. And so he charged at the picnic table again, vaulting it as he had seen others - the traceurs - do earlier in the day. He jumped at the table and threw his legs in front of him, planting a hand on the tabletop and using it as a vaulting pad to increase his momentum as he soared over it.

He landed in a run, his feet slipping only slightly in the mud, and gave himself enough distance from the table before turning and rushing at it again. The vault, which he had learned was a dash vault, was the same type Matthias had used to elude him nearly ten days before, and Inyro needed to learn his every move if he planned to truly compete with him. So he scouted out in the park, watching the group of traceurs, free-runners, practice their myriad jumps and vaults. When he mastered this dash vault, he would begin to work on the kong vault, and then move onto wall-climbing techniques he had seen the runners practice on the sides of a small store nearby.

Inyro easily vaulted the table for the tenth time and slowed to a stop as he turned back for another run. He looked up to the sky again, squinting past the raindrops and hoping to see a star through the clouds. But he saw none, and as he reminded himself that this was the second night with a black sky he felt a surge of energy flow into him. 'I have to save her,' he told himself. 'Not Breeze, not Ryan. Me. I promised my life to protect her, and if she were to die, it would be-'

"-all your fault," a voice said from behind the werewolf, cutting his thoughts short. Smiling wryly, Andy stepped toward Inyro and crossed his arms. "You're right, it would be. And if it happens, I'll kill you."

"You... You're dead."

Andy nodded. "But not gone. Thank your father, he saved me from wherever I would've been otherwise. He let me watch over my Aria." He shot a hand out and grabbed Inyro by his throat. "But that doesn't mean I can't hurt you. Or kill you."

"But how?"

"Don't worry about that. Just get my Aria and make sure she stays safe."

Inyro nodded, and coughed lightly as Andy set him on the ground. "But- where is she?"

"They're keeping her in an old mine outside of the city. Fifty miles east. You'll see the signs for it on the road." Andy began to fade away. "Save her, Inyro!"

Inyro nodded, mouthing "I will" as his eyes began to close. "I will save..." He stumbled forward and hit into the picnic table, climbing onto it as he fell asleep.

...........

"Hey!" a voice shouted as hands roughly shoved Inyro off the table he had been sleeping on. As he hit the ground, he heard the voice again. "Hey, you!"

'Who?' Inyro thought, feigning sleep. 'Me?'

Another voice, this one not as deep as the first, and with a distinct British accent. "Connor, calm yourself," it said. "He's probably just some drunk who wandered in here."

Connor laughed sarcastically. "I've seen this guy before. He's been watching us train."

Inyro pretended to wake up, slowly, and he blinked open his eyes and caught the full brunt of the day's noontime sun. Groaning, he rolled onto his stomach and began to push himself up as he said, groggily, "Where am I?"

"Still on our turf," sniped Connor, who Inyro saw to be a fairly skinny boy maybe his age. Connor flicked a tuft of hair near his ear and smirked as the werewolf's eyes turned to him. "Didn't think we saw you watching us, did you?"

Inyro stood his ground, his face free of emotion, and said dully, "If I had wanted to hide, I could have pretended to be one of the teens that ogle at you every day." Seeing Connor's confidence flicker for a moment, he chuckled and turned away. "Yes, I was watching you. Is that a crime?"

Inyro had expected Connor to attack him - to push him, at the very least - and was almost at a loss when he heard the boy step back. "Why were you watching us?" the British voice asked, and Inyro turned around to see the speaker. "And who are you?"

The werewolf took a moment to appraise the obvious leader of the group; he was taller than all but one of the members, and then only by a fraction of an inch, and he seemed much calmer than the others, who all seemed nervous with Inyro in their midst. "My name is Inyro," he said, simply. "Inyro Gatling."

"I've never heard of you before, on any of the other teams," British accent remarked, a hint of confusion in his voice that was almost lost on Inyro thanks to the speaker's stoic face. "Who do you run for?"

Inyro realized what he was asking, and shook his head. "I'm not on any team," he said, "and I don't run for anyone."

Connor called out from a few feet away, "Why are you watching us then?"

"I need to learn how to do what you do," the werewolf said seriously, his calm eyes focusing on the leader of the group. "I need to learn how to move like you do."

British accent nodded slowly, contemplating the statement. "But, why-"

"Eric, you can't honestly say you're going to even think about letting him train with us," Connor said quickly, stepping up to the leader. "We're less than a month away from the exhibition..."

Eric's strong, brown eyes silenced Connor, and he turned to Inyro with the same look. "Why, Inyro, do you want to learn it?"

"To save my friend," Inyro said quickly, but confidently. There was no time to lie.

_+__

Breeze woke to the sound of birds chirping outside her open window, and slowly opened her eyes. She saw Robina leaning on the windowsill, smiling as she gazed at the nature that surrounded them, and yawned softly. "Good morning," she said, groggy, as her sister turned to her. "What time is it?"

"I don't really know," Robina said airily, smiling. "My clock must have stopped working last night, because it says it's only two in the morning."

Yawning a second time, Breeze sat up in bed and let her warm covers fall off of her. Rubbing her eyes, she asked, "Are the others up yet?"

Robina shrugged. "If they are, I haven't heard them. And normally Ryan or Kristen have breakfast ready for us by now." She smiled, adding, "And you slept pretty late yourself. You're normally the one waking me up before the Sun rises."

Breeze turned away from the window and dropped her stocking feet to the ground. Standing, she called over her shoulder, "I'm going to take a shower." She shuffled to the door of the bathroom attached to the bedroom and opened it as she stifled another yawn. As she walked into the bathroom she turned to the left wall, staring at herself in the large mirror and closing the door behind her. 'Why am I not out there looking for Aria?' she asked herself silently, staring deep into her eyes. 'What am I doing just sitting around?'

After a relaxing, hot shower, Breeze stood in front of the same large mirror, slightly fogged from the shower's steam, and brushed her pin-straight hair. "Hey, Robina?" she called through the closed door.

"Yeah?" her sister called back.

"Did you figure out what time it is yet?"

"Ten o'clock, Breeze." Robina was silent for a moment, then, "Ryan and Kristen are still asleep."

Breeze sighed and, satisfied with her hair, put down her brush and opened the door. Readjusting the towel that hung down around her, she asked, "Did you knock on their doors?" Robina nodded. "That's odd. Maybe they were as worried about Aria as I was..."

"I don't know if that's possible," Robina said simply, leaning against the door to the hall. "You haven't stopped worrying since you realized she was gone."

Breeze blushed lightly and walked silently over to her dresser, pulling open drawers and picking out clothes for the day. "I want to go looking for her today," she said firmly. "Or at least for Inyro. Maybe he knows where she is."

"One thing at a time, Breeze," Robina said, shaking her head. "You need to eat breakfast first, and try to wake Kristen and Ryan."

Sighing, Breeze turned to her sister. "Fine. But I'm leaving here by eleven." She pulled her shirt over her head. "I'll take Kristen with me, and maybe Ryan, too. You, Sarah, and the kids are staying here."

Breeze strode confidently out into the hallway, adjusting her pale pink tee-shirt and flipping her hair back to help it dry. She stopped at Kristen's door across the hall from her own, and knocked loudly. When she heard no answer from the other side, she tried the doorknob; it was open. Pushing the door in quietly, she peeked around the edge of the door and scanned the room, but found no sign of Kristen. The bed was neatly made, and the dresser was undisturbed. Confused, she stepped back from the room and closed the door, turning to Ryan's room which was adjacent to her own.

She knocked once, loudly, on the door, and when she again had no response, she tried the door; again, it was unlocked, and she pushed the door in deftly. As the wooden door swung away, she crossed her arms and scanned the room. 'He'd better be in here, or I'll-'

Breeze stopped short, her mind filling with a volatile mix of emotions as her eyes fell on Ryan and Kristen lying in the single bed, the latter's arm draped across Ryan's chest. "What- ?" she breathed, her eyes going wide with her shock and then narrowing quickly as anger clouded her reason. "What the hell are you two doing?" She stormed into the room as Ryan and Kristen were shaken awake by the princess' shout.

Before either Kristen or Ryan could explain the scene to Breeze she was upon them, ripping Kristen out from underneath the down blanket and off of the bed. She threw the girl against the nearest wall and turned to Ryan, who was rushing around the bed to get to the two girls. "Go outside, Ryan." Seeing him hesitate in his advancing toward her, she screamed, "I said wait outside! And close the door on your way out."

"M- Mistress, I-" Kristen started, but was silenced as Breeze pressed her hand against the girl's throat.

"Shut up," the princess said, snarling angrily, her eyes filled with rage and her voice as sharp as her blade. When she heard the door click shut, she tossed Kristen to the ground, kicking out at the werewolf as she rose to her hands and knees. Keeping her voice low, so no one outside the room could hear, she asked, "What the hell do you think you're doing in here, sleeping with Ryan?"

"Mistress, it's not what you think!"

Breeze laughed darkly and kicked Kristen onto her side, pinning her like that against the side of the bed. "Look me in the eye and lie to me again, Kristen."

"But it's true!" Kristen cried, ignoring the pain from Breeze's kicks. "I swear."

"I came looking for you because you and Ryan were sleeping later than normal, and I find you both in the same bed? You were probably up all night-"

"I was, but-" Kristen tried to interject, but was cut off and cried out loudly as Breeze kicked her in the gut.

Dropping to her knees and putting a hand on Kristen's throat, the princess growled. "Don't interrupt me again. All you are doing is angering me even more. Sneaking around with Ryan and lying about it are bad enough already, and you are only adding to it."

"Mistress, Ryan and I were-" she cried out again as Breeze's hand tightened around her neck. "We were watching over you while you slept, Mistress! If you don't believe me, ask Ryan. He asked me to do it with him originally."

Breeze's hold slackened only slightly, unsure whether Kristen was lying to her or not. She wanted to believe the girl; it would be a perfect explanation, and would relieve her of the tumult of emotions that raged within her. But there were too many doubts in her mind; no, Kristen was most certainly lying to her. 'Oh, well,' she thought, frustrated, as she shoved Kristen away from her. 'I know someone who's too scared to lie to me...'

Still fuming with anger, Breeze threw open the door to the hallway and grabbed a concerned Ryan's shirt, forcing him against a wall and asking, "What were you and Kristen doing together last night?" As he opened his mouth to speak, she cut him off and added, in a darker tone, "And don't lie to me, Ryan."

"I- I swear," Ryan said quickly, fumbling over his words, "we were just trying to protect you." He blushed deeply, embarrassed to have been found out like he was; he had planned to present Breeze with it one day, perhaps as a preface to a confession of his feelings for her.

Breeze glanced quickly over her shoulder to where Kristen stood in the doorway to Ryan's room, leaning against the doorframe and clutching her side in pain. She snapped her gaze back to Ryan's face, searching through the obvious embarrassment and sincerity for a trace of something more sinister. When she found no fault in his face, she felt relieved, in part, but angry still. "Why are you protecting me?" she asked, taken aback. "Do you really think you could do anything?"

Ryan stared at Breeze, stunned into silence. Not only had the princess' words confused him, remembering her frightened plea in the caverns of Castle Cronois for him to protect her, but he was hurt, and it showed on his face. His red cheeks drained of their color, leaving him pale and unresponsive to Breeze's repeated calling of his name. 'But... she wanted me to,' he told himself. 'She cried and called out to me, and asked me to protect her. And I promised her...'

"Breeze," Ryan started, his words coming out like a whisper from his lips, "you're the one... who asked me to..."

"What?" Breeze said, incredulous, and released her grip on the boy as she stepped back. "When?"

Ryan met Breeze's eyes with his own half-dead ones, still fighting the shock that the princess' words had caused. "When I saved you in Cronois," he said simply.

Breeze felt her face redden deeply. 'That was... a dream,' she told herself. 'When Ryan came and promised to-' Her blush deepened. 'He wasn't really there...' She shook her head. "I don't know what you mean," she forced herself to say, fighting back the urge to confess it to Ryan. "Why would I ever ask you to protect me?"

As she spoke, though, Breeze found her heart beginning to flutter. 'He really did promise to protect me,' she thought happily. 'Does that mean he...'

"Mistress Breeze," Kristen said softly, stepping away from Ryan's room, "he only had your best health in mind."

"I wanted to keep you safe," Ryan added. "It's my duty. To keep my princess safe. So she doesn't have to put herself in harm's path."

Flashes of anger and blissful joy alternated in Breeze's mind. On one hand, she loved that Ryan wanted to protect her; on the other, she felt offended. "Keep me safe?" she cried, caving in to her darker emotions. "Ryan, you can't protect me! You're too weak." She smirked with a mix of amusement and scorn. "I had Aria to protect me," she continued, "and I have Kristen. But you... You're nothing." She felt horrible the moment the words passed her lips, but she kept herself standing firm. She refused to let Ryan believe he was anywhere near strong enough to protect anyone.

"Breeze, I..." Ryan started, but let his voice die off. He stopped himself, before his princess could hurt him any more.

Breeze raised her hand and slapped Ryan lightly across the face, much less forcefully than she would have to anyone else. "If you forget the 'Mistress' one more time, I'm going to have Kristen throw you out of a window." Without waiting for a response, she walked back to her room, unable to hold back her softer emotions any longer as she opened the door and staggered inside to where Robina stood, shocked. She collapsed to the carpeted floor the moment the door clicked shut behind her, burying her head in her hands to hide her tears and muffle her pained weeping.

"Breeze, what happ-"

"Why am I such a monster?" the white-haired princess asked, her voice trembling as she turned her wet face to her older sister. "Why do I always hurt others?" She sobbed loudly, and quickly covered her mouth to muffle more such cries. "Why did I hurt Ryan?"

Robina knelt by Breeze's side, laying a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. "What happened?" she asked. "Calm down, Breeze, and tell me everything. From the beginning."

_+__

Inyro fell, again; he had spent all day trying to learn the kong vault from Eric and his group of traceurs, but had yet to get it right. Either his feet would clip the table he was practicing on, or he would mistime the jump and fall in a heap to the ground. "Damn it!" he shouted as he picked himself up from the dirt, frustrated at himself; he had easily learned the dash vault, but somehow this new move was impossible for him to master. "What am I doing wrong?"

"You jumped too late," Eric said simply, standing with his arms crossed in the middle of a group of picnic tables set up so Inyro and the traceurs could practice. "You're lucky you even got your legs up before you hit the table."

"So how do I do it right?" Inyro asked, walking swiftly to a spot he could start his run from.

Eric laughed. "Time it better."

Frowning, Inyro rushed at the table, eying the point from which he wanted to jump and preparing himself mentally for the quick succession of movements he would have to execute flawlessly. He jumped, tucked his legs and feet under him and leaned forward to plant his hands on the table; he pushed off of the table, propelling himself forward, but realized as he soared forward that he had jumped too soon; he would hit the table before he could clear it. 'Crap,' he thought in the split second before his feet connected with the surface of the table. And then he hit, tumbled forward and hit the ground hard on his shoulder.

Eric rushed over. "Are you okay?" he asked. "That wasn't a good fall."

"You think?" Inyro asked, more angry at himself than Eric. Shaking off the pain, he stood and walked back to the spot he would start from. He waited impatiently for Eric to move away from his lane; the boy stood still. "I'm ready to go again."

"No." Eric sat on the table's edge. "Come over here, Inyro," he called, patting the table next to him. Frustrated, the werewolf complied. "I know why you're not making the jump."

Inyro's interest sparked. "Why?"

"You're too distracted," Eric explained. "You know where to jump, how to jump, how to do... everything." He shook his head. "There's something there that you're focusing on more than the jump. What is it?"

"I told you why I'm doing this," Inyro said slowly.

"And not one of us really believes you."

Inyro shook his head. "You don't have to. Just know that it's the truth."

Sighing, Eric stood. "Inyro, I can't help you if you won't help yourself. Come on now, you're trying to save someone because the sky has no stars in it? What next, are you going to go jousting with giants?"

"It's true," Inyro said, "whether you believe it or not."

"It's just another windmill, mate. There's no goddess or princess or anything that you're going to save!" Eric turned away from Inyro and started toward a pair of traceurs practicing farther away, calling over his shoulder, "It's a nice story, though. Good fantasy."

Inyro growled under his breath and stood, clenching his fists. He felt himself wanting to transform, to prove to the boy that he was telling the truth, but he stopped himself. Now was not the time. He walked slowly to his spot and turned to the table, focusing his mind on one thought: proving that he could do this vault. He ran, his blood pumping and heart pounding, fists clenched and jaw set. He leapt, planted his hands, cleared the table with ease and landed in a run, charging forward at Eric. The animal side of him released, suddenly; a new burst of speed pushed him forward as he ran, power coursing through every sinew of his body.

Connor saw Inyro rushing up behind Eric. "Eric, behind you!" he shouted, eyes wide with terror. He saw Eric stop, turn, too slowly to see Inyro coming until the werewolf was only yards away; watched as the charging boy crouched suddenly and threw himself into the air, soaring effortlessly over Eric's head and corkscrewing back to the ground, landing in a crouch and laughing. "What the..."

Inyro drew himself up to his full height and turned to Eric, fully aware that he had morphed into his werewolf form. "Fantasy?" he asked, grinning and baring his teeth. "You have no idea." He quickly regained his human form, still smiling at the shock on Eric's face. "So, what's next?"

-----
Comments



_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (8/2/2009 18:57:21)

Chapter 28-- "Shine Like the Stars"

Inyro ran at the side of the small shack, remembering Eric's instructions to him as he threw himself at the brick siding, pushing against the wall with his feet and reaching up to grab the edge of the roof. The moment he felt his fingers land on the horizontal surface of the roof, he snapped both feet against the wall and regripped with his hands, making sure he had enough traction against the wall before pulling himself up and onto the roof. Standing up tall, he turned to Eric, who stood on the ground below, and pumped his fist in the air, smiling as his heart pounded mercilessly from the adrenaline coursing through him.

Eric could only grin, and wave up to Inyro - who now stood twenty feet above him. He had never seen anyone scale such heights before, without the help of a drainpipe, or a flagpole, or a ladder. Silently he wondered what other feats a werewolf could accomplish. An already inhuman being performing inhuman moves.. the potential was immense. "Hey, Inyro, come on down here," he called up. "I want to try something."

"What is it?" Inyro asked, turning to the boy as he rolled out of his twenty foot drop. He waited for Eric to walk up to him, wondering what could be going on inside the boy's mind. Eric had already taught Inyro how to jump farther and move faster and, most recently, climb higher, than any of the other traceurs running with him. "Some new trick?"

"Something like that," Eric admitted, leading Inyro over to an area of picnic tables that stood ten to a row, ten rows deep, and completely abandoned in the center of the park. "More like... something no one else can do."

_+__

Suna sighed, sitting against the hard, rock wall of the prison and watching Aria eat her meal. As she had expected, Matthias had not sent a second helping of food for her; she really was dead in his eyes. A tear streaked her face as she considered this, but quickly she wiped it away.

"Suna," Aria called, without looking up from her dinner, "are you hungry?"

A bit taken aback, Suna stuttered for a moment and finally said, "No." She knew what Aria had meant by the question; she had eaten a good-sized meal just six hours ago, and she knew Aria's meals were less than a quarter of what she normally ate. "I'm fine."

Aria smiled lightly, chewing a tough piece of meat. "So why are you crying?"

"Wha-?" Suna stared, open-mouthed, for a long moment, stunned that Aria had seen her tear. "N-no, that's not because I'm hungry, it's..." She bit her lower lip, struggling to put her emotions into words. Why did she feel so strongly about Matthias' feeling toward her? "I'm dead to Matthias," she said, her eyes focused on her feet, where she dug circles into the dust with her toes. "And everyone else here."

"You feel sad because your slavemaster is disowning you?" Aria shook her head and frowned. "That's just wrong."

Suna sighed. "He was nice to me," she said, sincere, "and he always made sure I-"

"He kidnapped you from your family," Aria snapped, interrupting her. "He made you his slave. Why the hell are you defending him?"

Shocked, Suna fell silent. How could she feel sad, upset, or anything but anger, after all that Matthias had done? She knew it was wrong, for her to feel any remorse for having disappointed him - for having disobeyed. "I-I don't..."

Aria was silent for a long moment, watching the girl with mixed emotions. A part of her pitied Suna, for having to live life as a slave; another part of her wished Matthias would take her away. Suna had been nothing but an emotional wreck for the past five hours, sniffling and wallowing in the corner of the cell, and Aria was beginning to lose patience with her. But something kept her from snapping at the girl, and that same something convinced her to say, softly, "Come over here, let's talk about this."

Nodding, Suna stood and left her corner, staggering slowly over to Aria and sitting beside her, rubbing her red eyes and sniffling lightly. "I don't know why I care," she started. "I know I shouldn't. I know that Matthias hurt me, that he stole me away from my family, and that he's kept me as his personal slave for years, but... he let me live. He never hurt me as much as he did his other slaves, and he always made my life easier than anyone else's. He even trained me to fight, Aria."

"You can be as nice to a person as you want, but a slavemaster is still a slavemaster. He was nice to you, but he expected a lot from you in return, didn't he?"

Suna stared at the ground in front of her. "Perfection," she said, her voice soft. "He expected perfection. If he asked me to do something, he wanted it done immediately, and properly. And if I failed him..."

Aria nodded, understanding Suna's implications. Pain, punishment, maybe not as much as other slaves received, but still enough. She watched Suna silently, noticing her emotions beginning to shift. She was beginning to come around.

"Aria, what can I do, now? It's too late to change anything. Matthias will kill me, and if he doesn't he will leave me here to die."

This was the moment Aria needed. She needed to start taking action, and soon. "You can always escape," she said, innocently. "Run away, and go someplace better."

"How?" Suna asked, her voiced tinged with bitterness. "There's no way to get out without going through Matthias. He knows what I'm going to do, even before I do it."

Aria smiled. "He doesn't know everything," she said simply. Before Suna could respond, she asked, "What time is it?"

Frowning slightly, Suna said, "Late. Maybe midnight."

"Then I guess... now would be a good time to pray to the Goddess of Lights, right?"

Suna sighed, and nodded, turning away from Aria and looking at the door. "But what good will that do? We already prayed to her once."

"Show her you care," Aria said, trying to coax Suna into following her plan. "Only a werewolf in her wolf form can really have the Goddess' attention."

Glancing back over to Aria, Suna raised an eyebrow. "I never heard that before," she said.

"Oh, it's true. Believe me."

Suna nodded. Aria seemed confident in her words, and she had already proven herself to be wise enough. "Okay..." she said, and closed her eyes, slowly morphing into her werewolf form. With her eyes still closed, she muttered a prayer - a plea for freedom from Matthias' grip, and for her family, the family she couldn't remember, back. "Please, Goddess," she said, her voice wavering as her emotion poured out in her words. "Help me."

"...I will," Aria cooed softly, unable to stop herself from smiling at the sincerity of Suna's wishes.

Suddenly, realizing the voice she had heard was Aria's, Suna snapped her eyes open and turned her head, thoroughly embarrassed and slightly angry. "I thought... you believed in the Goddess of Lights, too," she said.

"But I do," Aria said. "Really."

Suna turned back angrily, nearly screaming, "Then why did you-" Her voice cut out suddenly as her eyes registered Aria's new appearance to her werewolf eyes, and she sat, stunned, staring at the scarlet-haired goddess.

"Because I wanted to promise you my help right here and now," Aria said softly, smiling as brightly as the dragon shone on her arm. "And I never break my promises."

_+__

Ryan sat dejected in his bedroom, staring at the plate of half-eated buttered bread and microwaved sausage that sat on his floor, and dropped his head into his hands as he heard Breeze, in the hallway, calling her goodbyes to Sarah, Ewan, Gaia, and Robina. She and Kristen were going to look for Inyro. And she had made it a point of telling Ryan to stay behind, that he was too weak to help her in her search.

'What did I do wrong?' he asked himself, as the others convened in the hallway to discuss their plans for the day. 'Didn't she want me to protect her? Didn't she cry out for me, Ryan, to save her?' He sighed and looked at the plate again. 'Didn't she smile when I said I would?'

Suddenly, he caught a small part of the conversation in the hallway. "I'm going out into the courtyard," Ewan said, "with Gaia. We're going to work on our magic." A spark flew inside of Ryan with those words, and a fire started within him. If Breeze thought he was too weak to protect her, then he had to get stronger. He was walking across the room as Ewan called out, "Bye Sarah! Have fun shopping!" and had thrown open the door before he could finish, "You too, Robina!"

"Ewan," he said, almost desperate.

Ewan eyed him warily for a half-moment, taken aback by his fervent approach, but his expression was quickly replaced with a smile. "What's up, Ryan?"

"Ewan, I need you to train me." Ryan stared unflinchingly into the young boy's eyes, proving his seriousness and determination. "I need to get stronger."

After a short pause, unsure of what to say, Ewan smiled and nodded. "Of course," he said. He had obviously heard Breeze's outrage earlier, and realized why Ryan wanted his help. He would never have denied Ryan, but knowing his reason for wanting to learn was key. He knew how far Ryan would be willing to go. "Come on," he said, smiling and starting down the hallway. "Gaia's already in the courtyard, waiting."

Ryan smiled, relief flooding his face and voice. "Thank you, Ewan. Thank you so much."

Ewan simply nodded, grinning brightly, and led Ryan down the stairs and past busts of former castle owners and trophies of wild game hunts, through the lobby that smelled, on any given day, like sweat and air fresheners, and out into a secluded area, off-limits to both tourists and employees. A single glass door at the end of the hallway showed a portal into a beautiful, expansive courtyard, Gaia standing on its other side, tapping her foot impatiently. "I hope you don't mind if Gaia trains with us," Ewan said.

"I hope you don't mind me training with you and Gaia," Ryan retorted, a bit playfully. Just knowing he was going to get help from one of the strongest mages he knew made him giddy.

Ewan laughed and shook his head. "You're silly, Ryan."

Twenty minutes later, the laughs had ended. Ryan sat up against a tree, nursing a small burn on his left forearm that, ironically, had shaped itself into something like a water droplet. Gaia, sitting next to him, stared blankly at her shaking hands. And Ewan, standing over them, hands on his hips and a small smile on his face, asked, "Giving up yet?"

"N-no!" Ryan said quickly, immediately pushing himself to his feet. "I'll never give up." He gave one last look at his burn, and then put it out of his mind.

Gaia, similarly, stood, staring blankly at Ewan, who smiled back at her and touched her forearm gently. "It's okay," he said soothingly, "you'll get used to it."

"But I... my arms... they were on fire," Gaia said, in disbelief of her own words.

Ewan nodded. "Yes, they were. And like I said, it's okay. When you gain control over your magic, you'll be the one making that happen."

"And look at it this way," Ryan added, trying to lighten up the conversation, "you'll be able to go home one day and show your family just how strong you've gotten."

"Exactly," Ewan agreed. "And then they'll have to accept you again." He waited for a small smile to grace Gaia's lips before nodding and saying, with as much authority as he could muster, "All right, back to work. Ryan, you're up."

Ryan nodded, stepping forward into the clearing Ewan had marked earlier and looking around. He knew what his task was, but had no idea how to follow through with it. Creating a fireball was easy enough, and shooting a bolt of lightning was even easier, for him. But to do both, simultaneously, was nearly unfathomable. Inhaling deeply, Ryan started sparks of electricity bouncing around on his left hand, making sure they were defined enough to tear some of his attention away. Staring at his right hand, he tried to create a fireball, concentrating energy into his palm until the air around his hand began to warp from the heat. But a flame would not come.

'What am I doing wrong?' he thought, trying to mentally encourage the air around his palm to ignite, while keeping a small amount of his attention focused on the electricity in his left hand. 'Come on... I need this. I need this... For Breeze, for Breeze, for Breeze...' Eventually, Ryan closed his eyes, mouthing his source of inspiration over and over as he tried to at least have both elements represented in his hands for a split second. After another long moment of pleading for some supernatural assistance, he sighed and shook his head. Nothing.

"Open your eyes," Ewan said suddenly, recognizing that Ryan had given up. When he saw his eyes beginning to open, he grinned and launched a fireball in Ryan's direction, forcing him to think quickly and retaliate with the only element he knew that would negate it - fire. "There you go," he said, satisfied. In Ryan's left hand, electricity still crackled between his fingers.

Ryan looked down, shocked, at his hands. How had he done it? When he asked Ewan, the boy only smiled and shrugged. He would have to figure it out himself.

"Gaia, come on and try again," Ewan said, gently coaxing her into the clearing where Ryan had stood. "You can do it, I know you can."

Gaia nodded and inhaled deeply, focusing on the individual elements and imagining each one in one of her hands. Without warning, her left hand burst into flames, the fire licking hungrily at the air around it, and a jolt of electricity arced from her right hand directly at Ryan who, taking a moment to look up at the sky, was hit with the full brunt of the strike. Gasping, Gaia rushed toward him, neglecting the fact that her hand was still ablaze as she fell to her knees.

Ewan just barely managed to put out the flames - dousing Gaia's arm with spouts of water that sprouted from the tips of his fingers - before she laid her hands on the scorched circle on Ryan's shirt that marked where her electric strike had hit. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she cried, biting her lip and worrying over Ryan as he coughed loudly. "Are you hurt?"

Ryan shook his head and sat up, smiling down on Gaia and patting her shoulder. "I'm okay," he said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible. "Really, I am."

"Yeah, he's fine," Ewan added. "Just wasn't paying attention."

Ryan chuckled and nodded. "Sorry," he said. "I was watching the sparrows."

"There are sparrows here?" Gaia asked excitedly, snapping her head up to the sky and scanning the partly-cloudy sky hopefully as she stood up. "I just love birds. How they fly, and play with each other, and chirp happily like everything in the world is a fun game..."

Walking up next to Gaia, Ewan smiled and nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Birds are amazing. I love watching them fly... I wish everyone could fly, like birds do. We'd all be so free, and there would be so many more places we could go..."

Gaia looked over to Ewan, smiling brightly, and hugged him. "You're so right," she said, sighing happily. "I wish I had wings."

Blushing deeply, Ewan smiled and hugged Gaia back. "Y-yeah!"

_+__

Kristen glanced over her shoulder as she followed Breeze into a third store that sold weapons, beginning to think that the search for Inyro would be fruitless if they spent it in weapons shops. "Mistress Breeze," she started, a bit tense, "do you really think we'll find Inyro in here?"

"No," the princess said simply, walking toward the counter. She had no clue where to look for the boy, but she knew he wanted revenge - to free Aria from Matthias' grip and kill as many of the enemy as he could. The first store they had visited had never seen Inyro, and the second store had no employees that spoke English well enough to answer her questions, but she refused to give up. Aria was already missing, in a foreign country, and she wanted to stop the trend before it began.

Suddenly, from the doorway, Kristen shouted, pointing at something down the street, "Mistress Breeze, come look!"

Breeze came running, and followed Kristen's finger to a scene that made her heart skip a beat. At the end of the street stood a staircase that led up to Vysehrad, and standing around it were a group of young men, all looking up the staircase at another man who, without hesitation, vaulted the railing and fell fifteen feet to the ground below, landing in a roll and jumping out of it with a big smile plastered on his face. "That's the same move Matthias used," she breathed, almost in disbelief.

In response, Kristen stepped forward. "Shall we go and talk with them?"

"Yes," Breeze said, nodding and stepping up alongside Kristen. Side-by-side the two walked forward, not trying in the least to hide their intentions. By the time they had reached the young men, the group had noticed them and stood, arms crossed, staring them down. "Hello."

One of the young men, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two, smirked. "Hello to you too," he said, with a heavy French accent. "Can I help you with something?"

"Or are you just browsing and looking for something you like?" another member of the group called, inciting laughs from several of the others.

"What was that?" Breeze asked, restrained anger in her voice as she stared down the second speaker of the group. "For your information, I-"

"Down!" Kristen cried suddenly, pushing Breeze forward and into the group of young men as a pair of werewolves leapt from the same railing that the other boy had, a few minutes earlier. She turned around as the two werewolves rolled past her, and took an instinctive step back toward the group as her eyes fell on another three of the wolves bounding toward her. "Mistress Breeze, run!"

Breeze frowned and shook her head, taking out her concealed dagger and stepping up to Kristen's side. "I can fight with you," she said.

"Like hell you can," Kristen snapped back. "Princess, your safety is paramount. Don't worry about me, I can handle these." She drew her own daggers, still tinged with blood from their last use, and turned to Breeze. "Go, now."

Silently, the princess nodded and turned to the staircase, where the group of young men were standing, shocked. "If you know what's good for you," she said, "you'll follow me." Without waiting for a response she pushed past two of the members and started climbing the stairs, praying and hoping that Kristen would be all right.

Kristen growled lightly and widened her stance, holding her daggers at the ready and eying each of her five opponents individually. They all stood calmly, as if waiting for an invitation - or orders - and the two nearest Kristen, the two that had jumped over the railing of the stairs, smiled at her. "What the hell do you want?" she asked, though the answer was obviously the princess.

"We want you," one of the two nearest Kristen said, in a heavily accented English. "Master Matthias wants you and your werewolf friend, Inyro. And we're already preparing to take him in."

"Preparing?" Kristen asked, a bit confused. "Why do you need to prepare to catch Inyro?"

The werewolf laughed. "His father was a great assassin, who taught his children well. Master Matthias wants to take care in his capture."

Stunned into silence for a long moment, Kristen dropped her hands to her side. It seemed that the enemies she was fighting were in for a rude awakening, especially if they thought so highly of Sky's pupils. Another part of her, though, that was less cocky, worried for Inyro's safety. If the enemy was really amassing enough strength to take down a pupil of Sky's, they might have enough to kill Inyro easily. "I guess I have to kill you and warn him quickly, then," Kristen said, sighing.

"Kill us?" the werewolf asked, amused. "We were taught personally by Master Matthias, the man who keeps Sky's daughter as a trophy. A girl like you... you'll be begging for your life before you can call out for help."

Kristen laughed lightly. "Entertain me, please," she taunted, spinning the daggers in her hand.

With a snarl, the two werewolves nearest Kristen charged forward, claws raised and teeth bared to attack. Shifting back in the same direction as the werewolves, Kristen calmly scanned the two. The one on her left, she noticed, was glaring right into her eyes - a mistake she refused to leave unpunished. Staring him back unflinchingly, she discreetly shifted her weight to her back foot and twisted her front foot so it was at a ninety degree angle with the werewolf's approach.

As the enemy bounded inside her range of reach, Kristen snapped her front leg into the air and smashed her heel into the werewolf's head on her left, knocking him, dazed, to the ground so she could focus on his partner. By the time she turned to the attacker, he was nearly upon her - giving her plenty of time to catch his wrist in the hook of her curved dagger and drag it across his body, throwing him off-balance and to the ground in front of her. Her second dagger disappeared from her hand as she flicked it into the neck of the werewolf. One dead.
Kristen retrieved her daggers and watched the second werewolf standing, smirking darkly as she noticed that the other werewolves had taken a step back, away from her. "Well? I'm waiting."

Unwilling to take the tauntings of a girl, the werewolf charged Kristen again, throwing himself forward with his entire body open to her blades as he reached his claws over his head. Growling angrily, he slashed the air where Kristen had been standing, spinning to his right to follow her movements as she sliced one of her daggers across his shoulder. Roaring in pain, he swung his claws around, missing Kristen by mere inches as she dodged back.

Kristen laughed at her opponent's feeble attempts to hit her, and morphed into her lupine form as she dodged the enemy's attacks, sweeping his legs out from under him and spinning away from him as her transformation completed. Looking down on the werewolf with merciless silver eyes, she spun the dagger in her left hand and threw it down, impaling his chest. Before she could retrieve her weapon, though, the other three werewolves had started toward her, howling and barking angrily as they charged her recklessly.

Kristen smiled.

-----
Comments



_Depression -> RE: Author's Fantasy (1/18/2010 0:31:38)

Chapter 29 - "The Prague Spring"

Breeze ran through the narrow streets on the hill leading away from Vysehrad, dodging past tourists and store owners as she headed for the river's edge. From there, she would follow the river to the Charles Bridge, the predetermined meeting point for her and Kristen if they were to get separated. Behind her, the group of runners followed her every move, using their speed and freerunning abilities to keep up with Breeze's adrenaline-induced burst of speed.

"Hey!" one of the young men called, pulling up alongside the princess. "Wait up!"

Breeze slowed only a fraction off of her pace, glancing quickly to him and asking, "What?" before turning back and half-leaping out of the way of a young boy eating an ice cream cone.

The young man, sweating slightly through his blue muscle shirt, slipped between a group of tourists walking down the street, snatching Breeze's wrist and dragging her to a stop. "I want an explanation of what that was back there." He waited for the rest of the group to join up around him. "We all do."

Breeze suppressed her bubbling anger - had the young man been a subject under her rule, or in any way aware of her royal nature, she would have sliced his hand off with her dagger - and simply nodded, saying, "Fine. But you're not going to believe me when I tell you."

"I don't care," the young man said, releasing Breeze's wrist and wiping his sweaty brow. "I just want the truth."

With another nod, the princess led the group down a side street, making sure they were alone before sheathing her dagger and asking, "Where should I start?"

The group was silent for a short moment, when one of the young men - a dark-chocolate skinned man with a thick French accent - said, "Well, how about the hairy people back there?"

"The werewolves?" Breeze asked, snapping her head to another member of the group - one with spiked rust-brown hair that reminded her of Ewan - who laughed loudly upon hearing her. "What's so funny?"

"Werewolves?" he asked, bemused. "You mean like howling at the moon, Blood and Chocolate, wolf people?" When Breeze nodded, her green eyes showing no sign of deceit, he balked. "B-but... it's not a full moon."

Breeze gave the redhead a confused look, unsure what he meant. "So?"

"Man you're stupid," another of the group said, to the redhead. "Werewolves don't even exist." Then, to Breeze, he asked, "And what're you trying to pull, chickie? Kyle told you, we want the truth."

Having never been spoken to so harshly, Breeze gaped at the offending person blankly for a long moment before finally managing, "W-what?"

"We want the truth," the young man said, emphasizing each word and crossing his arms. "The real truth."

"I-I'm giving you-"

The man stopped Breeze before she could say anything more. "No," he said, "stop lying. I'm tired of it."

But Breeze was no longer listening to the runner. She was more focused on the man who was leaving a replica weapons store carrying a large sword in his right hand and glaring directly at her.. Instinctively she took a step back, drawing her dagger and watching as he approached, still at a loss for words from the runner's statements. "B-beh- Behi-..." It was the first time Breeze could remember herself stuttering. The man broke into a run, and suddenly the princess regained her composure. "Get down!" she shouted, running at the man as the runners scrambled, looking around in fear and confusion as the rest of the crowd of people on the street followed suit.

As the tourists ran away from the armed fighters, the freerunners stopped and turned to watch. "What the hell does she think she's doing?" one asked, staring on in shock as the white-haired princess charged toward the sword-wielding man.

"She can't win," another breathed, as frozen as the others were.

Breeze watched her opponent closely as she advanced, looking for the slightest twitch to give away his- There. The man's wrist shifted just slightly, his elbow dropped just a fraction of an inch. There were only two moves he could possibly plan to do in that position, both of which the princess prepared herself for. As she closed the gap between them to a mere two meters, he began his strike, dropping down into a crouch and slashing out and up as he launched himself up to full height again.

The blade's tip just barely missed Breeze's head, instead neatly slicing off a few stray strands of hair that trailed behind her like the tail of a comet as the girl ducked and threw herself forward, using her momentum to smash into the man's stomach. She gritted her teeth as she felt pain course down her left arm - she had hit him wrong, and hurt herself along with hurting him. But the body slam had worked, sending the fighter sprawling back onto the hard cobblestone road, dazed and out of breath.

With the man now on the ground, gasping for air, one of the freerunners picked up enough confidence to run forward and help Breeze to her feet, tugging her away with him as he ran just as fast back to the huddle of runners watching him. "Come on!" he cried, not daring to look over his shoulder as he took off down the road, Breeze having regained her composure and running alongside them.

Kristen was already waiting at the Charles Bridge when Breeze and the freerunners got there, rushing up to her worriedly as she saw her face pale and her arm bruised. "What happened?" she asked quickly, pulling the princess away from the others and looking her over for other injuries. "How badly are you hurt?"

As Breeze described what had taken place, she tenderly touched her aching shoulder. "I think I broke it," she said, grimacing and sighing.

"No, it's not broken," one of the freerunners offered, stepping forward, "just dislocated. I can pop it back it, if you want, but it's going to hurt."

"Do it," Breeze said, without hesitation. She braced herself as the young man set his hands in position, and let out a small, pained whimper as he fixed her shoulder. "T-thank you," she breathed, inhaling sharply.

As Breeze tested her shoulder tentatively, Kristen took her hand. "We're leaving," she said simply, glaring back the freerunner who had stepped forward to protest as she turned and walked off. "We need to find Inyro," she explained, after the two had distanced themselves from the group, "I think he's in some serious trouble."

ญญญ_+__

Sitting in his room, exhausted from relentlessly training with Ewan and Gaia all day, Ryan took out his journal and clicked open his lucky pen, looking down at the clean, lined paper and wondering how he could possibly write how he was feeling. If anything, what he really felt was confused; he could understand Breeze being happy for his watching over her, maybe a little embarrassed or surprised, but angry? As he tried to wrap his mind around how she could be so mad at him for doing something he could only see as good and right, he remembered where Breeze's arm had crossed his chest as she pinned him forcefully against the wall earlier that morning, and felt his cheek where she had slapped him. 'What did I do wrong?'

He paused in his writing after a few long minutes of stream-of-consciousness writing, glancing up in the direction of the hallway as he heard Sarah's voice. Quickly standing, he clicked closed his pen and dropped it to his bed with the journal, turning and walking to the door. "Hey, sis," he said, opening the door and smiling lightly. "Did you buy me anything?"

"Ryan? Why are you crying?" Sarah asked the instant she saw him, concerned.

Ryan snapped a hand up to his face, blushing brightly in embarrassment as he felt his wet cheeks, not realizing that he had been crying as he wrote. "N-nothing," he lied, looking down and wiping his cheeks.

Crossing her arms, Sarah looked over to Robina, who seemed just as concerned. "Well, it damn sure looks like something," she muttered, as the princess motioned to let her talk to him.

Robina waited for Sarah to walk off, smiling reassuringly at her before turning back to Ryan and putting an arm on his shoulder. "Come on," she said, "let's talk about it." She led him, a bit forcefully at first, into her room, sitting her down on Breeze's bed as she walked over to the desk in the room and dropped her shopping bags on it. "So, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing," Ryan said again, quickly averting his gaze as Robina gave him a skeptical look. With a sigh, he shrugged and added softly, "I was just thinking about this morning."

Robina sat next to Ryan and smiled over at him lightly. "You really do love her, don't you?" She rubbed his back. "Well, talk me through it then. Start from the beginning."

Pausing for a moment to consider where 'the beginning' really was, Ryan nodded and looked up at Robina. "I guess... I've liked her ever since I met her. No, wait... I think I've liked her even before that, when I was writing about her, and I could see her in my mind." He stopped and blushed lightly. "Is that creepy?"

"I wouldn't know," Robina admitted after a moment. "I've never heard of it happening with anyone else before, so I don't really think there's a precedent for that. When did it go from 'like' to 'love', anyway?"

"I guess, probably when I found out she was real." Ryan began fidgeting with the hem of his shirt, glancing up to Robina. "I don't know, I feel like I've loved her forever."

Letting out a light "aww", Robina smiled and adjusted her position to face Ryan more, clasping her hands together and looking at him with a spark in her eyes. "So tell me, what did I hear this morning about you protecting my sister?"

Ryan blushed as he opened his mouth to oblige the princess, describing first his night watches, and then his promise to Breeze in Cronois that led him to want to protect her. "I thought she really meant it," he said, a bit dejectedly, his eyes tearing up again as he looked out the window at the setting sun. "But, I guess not."

Taking a tissue from the box on the nightstand next to her, Robina wiped Ryan's cheek and laughed lightly. "Ryan, you don't-"

The two were interrupted as the door opened behind them, and they turned around to see Breeze walk in, bruised and battered and limping lightly. She stopped in the doorway as she saw the two looking at her, her eyes focusing in on Ryan's tear-streaked face and quickly moving off to her sister. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked, refusing to look back at Ryan.

Shaking her head, Robina stood and walked over to her sister, glancing down at her bruised arm. "What happened? Are you all right?"

Not noticing Ryan again until he brushed past her on his way out of the room, Breeze nodded silently and walked over to her bed, sitting where Ryan had been and looking out the window. "What were you two talking about?" she asked, her voice soft.

"You," Robina said matter-of-factly as she sat next to her sister. She nudged her arm, waiting for her to look over before smiling lightly. "He has a very different recollection of that night in Cronois than you do."

Blushing brightly, Breeze looked down at her feet. "What did he say it was like?" she asked.

"He was devastated when he saw you so beaten up," Robina recounted, smiling as she saw her sister's cheeks redden. "He said, it felt like he was the one who got bruised and hurt. He said that's how he always feels, when you're hurt."

Snapping her eyes back up to Robina, Breeze asked, "Really?"

Robina nodded, and continued, "And he couldn't think of anything else to do than just stand there, until you started talking. According to him, you cried in your sleep and called out for help, then asked for his help specifically."

"Well, at least that we have in common," Breeze muttered, trying to imagine what Ryan was doing and how he was feeling as Robina spoke.

"He started crying, and he reached down and took your hand, and he said, 'Forever, princess. I will always be there.'" Robina sighed lightly, smiling. "And then, according to him, you said, 'I love you, Ryan,' and smiled. And that, he said, is what got him through being thrown into prison, being shot, and having to pack up and leave, with his parents crying over him and begging him not to go."

Breeze was silent for a long time, staring out the window at the twilight and blinking back tears. 'How could I hurt him like I did?' she asked herself, leaning against her older sister and laying her head on her chest. 'How could I do that to him, after all he did for me? After he - with no weapon or real training - invaded Cronois, alone, to find me; after he was thrown into prison and tried to escape three times; after he got shot and nearly killed rescuing me?'

Inhaling shakily, finally letting her tears fall freely, she said, "I'm a horrible person, aren't I?"

ญ_+__

Inyro groaned as he bandaged his arm, sitting in Eric's hotel room and staring down at the bloodstains on his muddy sneakers. He was trying to ignore the questions Connor, Eric, and the two other traceurs in the room were asking him, for two reasons. First and foremost, he was trying to answer most of them for himself still, and he could not understand why he would be attacked. 'They're after Breeze, not me,' he told himself.

He flashed back to how the attack started - with a single, innocent spectator coming up to him and saying, in a state of awe, "That was amazing." The next he could remember, he was surrounded by four werewolves, each of them clawing and biting at him as he just tried to get away. He had scaled the nearest tree to get away from the attackers - and surprised himself at how utterly inept the other werewolves had been at following him. From there, separating the group into individual fights had been easy, and the only wounds he had suffered in that stretch were minor cuts and bruises.

Finally, as the traceurs in the room got fed up with his silence, Inyro turned to them and sighed, shaking his head. "Guys, I really don't know what to tell you-"

"You could start with what in bloody hell happened back there," Connor sniped, crossing his arms as Eric shushed him.

"Why don't you just try giving us an idea of what you're doing here in the first place. Maybe if we understood you better..." Eric let his voice die away, looking at Inyro hopefully.

The werewolf shrugged, looking him back calmly. "You didn't believe me the last time I tried to tell you," he said, keeping his voice bitingly unemotional. "Something about windmills and fantasy, I think?"

Eric closed his eyes and nodded, sighing. "And I think I was proven to be a bit of a nut there, yeah? So just give it a shot. I guess... it'll just be a fantastic reality."

"Something like that," Inyro admitted. "Just not as fantastic as you think."

_+__

Aria chuckled lightly as Suna glanced over at her again, staying in her werewolf form in the hopes of seeing the dragon tattoo on Aria again when night fell. "You know, you don't need to be so distant," she called, winking as the girl blushed. "You can see it from up close, too."

"W-well, I didn't want to seem too desperate," Suna said, and added under her breath, "and so much for being discreet."

"That's okay, and don't worry about it. Nothing gets by me." Aria grinned and winked again, before going back to the target practice she had set up against the wall of the cave. She had fallen into a routine in the prison - other than shooting fireballs at whoever opened the door - of charring a sketch of a person into the wall, normally with an "M" on its chest to represent Matthias, and practicing her aim against it.

As Suna walked over, she checked the newest charring and said, "I'd say you're improving. You've really gotten the three main targets down - head, chest, and crotch."

"Well, I figure, if I can't kill him I at least want to make sure he's in pain," Aria replied, giving her work a satisfied nod and turning to the door as it opened, shooting a volley of fireballs at it and snapping her fingers as the werewolf on the other side closed it before he could be hit. She glanced down to the food tray, which was now sprayed out across the floor, and grinned sheepishly at Suna. "I guess that's my fault."

With a smile, Suna shrugged and walked over to the tray, replacing the slices of bread and ham on it. "Maybe next time they'll just put it in a bag and throw that in," she said, walking the tray over to Aria. "Maybe that way, you won't try to stab them with broken tray pieces, either."

Aria sighed and nodded, looking at the food and sitting down to eat. "We'll be out soon," she said softly, as much to reassure herself as to remind Suna. "Three more days. That's all I need."

-----
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