( The Demonic Ninja Clan History ) [ The Book ]

[Thy Fairy]

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The Smoke in the Wind Prolong
My name is Smoke. Last name you ask? Well don't ask because I"m not telling. I just don't think you need to know. My name is all I have. My identity to who I am. Want to know me...well I would like to know me too. I don't remember much about my past. Only that while I was a young boy, I was abandoned by my family. We were camping out in the woods and I just had to play explorer and I got lost. By the time I found my way back my family had gone. Nothing was left but the trash and the smoke from a recently burned out fire. I didn't know what to do so I slept in the abandoned campground. As time went on, I learned how to survive in the woods. Then one day I crossed the path of a man. He was dressed in black from head to toe and had a black bandana around his head. He looked as if he was hunting something, but as I tried to talk to him he ran away. Being in the woods for so long I knew how to track very well, so I tracked him and eventually found his hideout. It was another campground deep in the woods and it had about 15 tents around it. I guess they were impressed by my tracking skills because they didn't kill me, but rather made me apart of their clan and taught me their ways. Now I am on a mission to find my family and find out what happened to them.

~Chapter One~
My Quest, My Story
Master Smoke. That is what I am called now. I have my own guild and clan. They are my family. After living with the clan hidden in the woods, I set out to find my parents and my sister. Along the way, I met some interesting people who ended up helping me.
I was traveling on my way to a place that I believed to hold the secret to my parents and sisters whereabouts. This place was called Akumagakure. I fell upon a village of ninjas just like the one that I had left. I happened to walk into an apprentice ninja. His name was Seiji. He said that he had to leave. I asked him why.
"I do not wish to talk about it, " he said to me as he continued to walk away.
"Hey! Wait! I have a question I would like to ask you. Please wait just a minute." I yelled at him.
As he turned around he said, "Fine, but please hurry."
"Do you know of a place called Akumagakure?" I asked him. He just stared at me for awhile until there was yell in the distance. He looked behind him and then back at me.
"Actually I do. I could help you find it if you would like."
"Yes, that would be awesome." I said. Then without another word we continued on our way.
One day on our journey Seiji asked me, "Smoke, do you remember anything about your past?"
Thinking hard since I never really stopped and thought about my past. I told him, "Actually, each day I think I remember more and more. But it fades in and out."
"Maybe if you talk about it then it will become clearer."
I thought about it and then told him that I would try. We sat by a small stream and set our stuff down. I sat on a rock across from Seiji as he sat on the ground.
"I guess I should start from the beginning." I told him as he got comfortable against another rock and put his hand in the stream, relaxing.
I begin before my memories started to fade again.
"I was born to a rich family. I had everything that I would ever need and then some. My family was very popular. But being popluar doesnt mean that it's always good. They weren't really home alot. I was raised by my grandmother. She was crazy. She lived on her own and did everything by herself. She defintiely wasn't your typical sweet cat-loving grandmother. She had dogs for every room of her house and she had 13 rooms. My grandfather was a veteran and had just as many weapons. My grandmother had no problem with letting me play with them all. Her name was Adeen. It means fire. My grandmother is Native American but she grew up with an adoptive family. I also have a sister. Her name is Aidan, which also means fire. Can u guess who thought of her name? I suppose u want to know what my name is but i'm sure u have guessed the trend that is going on here. My name is Lye. Know what it means? I bet your thinking fire and if you are then u would be........wrong. It actually means smoke. Native Americans use smoke signals as a way of communicating and my grandmother said that I was the spitting image of my father who worked in the embassy. My mother works right along side of my dad. Which is why I hardly ever saw them. It never really bothered me too much. I figured that they were important people so others needed them more than I did and my sister was too young anyway." I stopped and thought about the rest of my past. I really couldnt remember it. I looked at Seji, sitting by the water his eyes closed reaxling. He looked up when he realized that I had stopped talking.
"Anything wrong?" he asked me
"No, I just can't remember anything after that. No details or anything."
"Well I think that was good for now. Lets rest before we continue." I nodded my head in agreement and leaned back on the rock I was just sitting on and closed my eyes.
As I slept, I began to dream. My dreams were full of people but shadowy people. They had no faces. Then I heard voices. They were calling my name. I woke with a start. Something yelled my name. I looked around but only saw Seji. I thought about what it was saying. It told me that I need to be safe and the only way to do that was to stay in a group or go back to my ninja clan. I thought about it and had an idea.
"Hey Seji, wake up." I said as I woke him up.
"Yyyyeah," he said yawning.
"I just had an idea. If I made a clan would you want to be in it?"
He thought about it for a minute then said, "Sure. Sounds like fun."
And that was how it started. The demonic ninja clan was born. Any people I met on the way I would ask to join. With that we set out again.

 

[Thy Fairy]

~Chapter Two~
The Sand Village


I have been to many villages but this one seemed different. Even Seji was alittle hesitant to continue on through. It was a beautiful place. Something about it seemed familiar. A sign said that this was the Sand Village.
"I think we should stop here and get some more supplies," I said looking at a small little marketplace up ahead.
"Yeah I think your right, but let's hurry. I don't want to be here that long."
Seji was nervous about something but I didn't know why. We kept walking until we got to the market. I got some supplies while Seji stood in the background scoping the place out.
"Ok Seji, I can see that you don't wanna be here. We can go now I'm done."
We continued on our way through the village. We passed several little shops on the way, all of shop owners eyeing us down as if we shouldn't be here. We passed on shop that a fight was breaking out at. We stopped thinking that we might have to jump in. A small boy had stolen something from the shop and the shopowner had grabbed the boy by his shoulder demanding that he give whatever it was back. Seji looked at me and then walked into the shop. Before Seji could get to the shop a man got walked past him and grabbed the boy from the shop owner.
"That is my son don't you dare grab him like that!" the boys father yelled at the man.
"I can grab whoever I want like whatever I want!" the man yelled back cracking his knuckles.
"What! Are you gonna hit me?!" the father yelled looking down at the owners fist. Everyone stood still just staring at the two men. Seji started to walk into the shop again but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see that it wasn't me, it was another man. He just shook his head at Seji and whispered, "Just let them go. They will only turn on you if you interfere. And chances are that they aren’t just gonna fight with their hands.” He took his hand of Seji’s shoulder and keep watching the men. Sure enough the father reached into this shirt and pulled out a small pocket knife.
“Now do u want to settle this the hard way or the easy way?”
The shop owner just stared at the man and then said,”Fine. Take your son and leave my store. Don’t you ever come here again or your son.” the huge shop owner then walked into the back of his store while the man and his son walked out the front, the father bumping into Seji but didn’t even acknowledge that he did.
Seji just looked and me and I shrugged my shoulders. We started walking again, when Seji stopped and looked at me again. He then turned around and walked back to the shop, walking into it this time and stopped at a table that a man in all black was sitting at. I followed him in and stood next to Seji.
“I just wanted to say thank you for stopping me earlier. I could have been hurt badly.”
“No problem, “ the man said.
“Thank you again. I should have known that rouge ninjas don’t just fight with their hands.” Seji held out his hand to the man. The man got up and shook it.
“My name is Seji and this is Smoke. We are here just passing through on our way to Akumagakure.”
“My name is Otama Kun-Sol and I wish you luck on your journey,” he said then added,”if you will excuse me I have some business to attend to.” He shook our hands and left.
“I guess we should continue on our way,” Seji said and started to walk out.
“Wait,” I told him. “I am getting tired and I think we should stop and rest awhile.”
He nodded his agreement and we set off to find a peaceful spot to rest. We spotted alittle park by a pond just outside of the village. We sat down and eat and talked about my past some more.
“Is there anything else that you remember?” Seji asked
“Not really, Only time anything ever comes to me is when I am sleeping.”
“Oh well then maybe we should take alittle nap. I could use the rest,” he smiled
“Yeah we can. I could use it too.” So we both picked a spot and layed out. Seji went right to sleep snoring softly. I just layed there for a minute just thinking about everything. Slowly I started to drift off to sleep. In my dream I was in a forest. Just walking around exploring. I thought I heard a scream but thought it was just probably the birds or a hungry pretador eating its prey. I kept getting the feeling that I was being watched. I finally decided to go back to the camp where my family was. Just as I was about to enter the camp I felt someone pushing me. I woke up to find that my things were being raided by the same little boy who caused the commotion in the store.
“Hey get out of my things!” I yelled at him. Seji woke and grabbed the boy.
“You need to put our things back,” he said calmly to the boy. The boy looked at Seji as if he was about to scream then thought better of it and put all my things down. He ran back into the village running into the man whose name was Otama. He looked horrible. He was bleeding and holding his arm. We ran to him and asked him what happened.
“It’s nothing really just alittle flesh wound,” he tried to smile but it looked more like a grimace. We made him sit down and Seji attended to his wounds.
“Tell me what happened. Who did this to you?” I asked him
“Please it’s ok. I am fine.” I shook my head at him. “You are not fine. What were you doing?”
“Not to be rude but that is my own business.”
“Someone wanted to hurt you very badly. You can’t possibly think I am just gonna let this go. What if they do it again?”
“I won’t tell you everything but I had to go to a man that knew some information that I needed. He didn’t want to give it to me so I had to talk action.”
“Well I don’t think its for you to stay here.”
“Probably not but what else can I do?”
“You can come with us.”
“I can’t now I still the information. I am not leaving without it.”
“Ok then we will wait for u.” I told him. He got up once Seji was finished and said thank you. He then walked back into the village and disappeared behind some shops.
“Wow that was interesting,” Seji commented.
“Yeah your telling me,” I couldn’t help but laugh. Seji smiled. “Hey I think I remember something else. Something important.” He nodded intending me to keep talking,” well I was in a forest just exploring. I kept getting the feeling that I was being watched. I went back to the camp and remember not seeing anyone. I think that I went camping with my family. That’s all I can remember.”
“That’s really good. I think you are actually getting somewhere. Maybe the forest is why you feel you need to go to Akumagakure.”
“Yeah maybe it is,” I said quietly trying to think if that was the connection to Akumagakure. Then I realized that Otama had not yet come back and it had been some time. “Maybe we should go look for Otama and see what is going on.” Seji agreed and we headed to where I saw him disappear at. There were many rundown buildings. One of the buildings had many men standing around it. We walked up to the men cautiously. “Did a man named Otama Kun-Sol come this way?” I asked one of the men. He pointed at the inside of the building, so we contined to walk into the building. There was a door at the back and we went through. What I saw I could not believe. Otama was on the floor bloody and beaten. A man was walking around him telling him he would never say anything to him. He looked up as we got closer.
“I see you brought some friends. Well I don’t care how many people come I am not telling you anything.” the man kicked Otama and Seji flinched. The man then took out a whip and intending on hitting Otama when Seji out of nowhere jumped in front of the man and grabbed the whip. He wrapped it around his arm and yanked it making the man fly across the room. I helped Otama up while Seji followed and we walked back to the pond.
“I guess you just don’t like to take no as an answer,” I laughed.
“Yeah I guess I’m hard headed but I usually am not like that. As you can tell since I wasn’t doing anything to stop him.” he turned to Seji and said,” Thank you so much he might have killed me had you two not shown up.”
“It was no trouble at all. You helped me so I returned the favor,” Seji smiled at him.
“Well I guess I am not getting the information.” he looked at the ground.
“Well then that means you can come with us.”
“I guess so. I own you one.”
We packed our stuff and headed out toward our next destination. What that was, we didn’t know yet.

 

[Thy Fairy]

~Chapter Three~
The Hidden Water Village

Behind the mountains, in a distant land lived creatures that were thought of as a myth. They stayed hidden from the world as to not corrupt their village from the habits of humans. Through a waterfall on the other side was a beautiful place. The land was a luscious green with trees as tall as mountains. Flowers were as far as the eye could see. A beautiful display of colors, red, blue, pink, purple,green, orange, and yellow. It looked as if a rainbow had fallen from the sky to land here. This was the village of the Fairies. Most people would call this place the Water Village since back through the waterfall and over a hill was the human Water Village. They claimed this area as their own for its beauty and abundance of water.
In the distance a group of fairies were playing in the stream. Pushing each other and splashing water everywhere. A girl no older than 18 was sitting on a rock. This couldn't be an ordinary girl, for it was odd to see a human amongst the fairies. If ever a human were to find this place the fairies would hide in the tree tops. No human could see into them since they were so tall. She sat by herself, just watching the others having fun. She was sad and didn't want to make her sadness contagious, so she stayed to herself. Soon, one of the fairies noticied her just sitting there and walked up to her.
"Andrea, why are you not playing with us?" She asked the girl. The girl looked up at but just shook her head, and continued looking down at the ground. The fairy thought for a minute and decided to get someone else to talk to Andrea. When she came back, she had an older fairy with her. "She is sad but she won't say why. Can you talk to her Melody?" The fairy asked and fly away to join her friends again.
"Andrea darling, what is wrong?" Melody asked Andrea.
"I just don't feel well. I'm not really sure what is wrong. I feel like I don't belong here. Like I shouldn't be here."
Melody just looked at Andrea and said," Why would you feel like that? Has anyone made you think that you don't belong here because if they did you tell me who and I will go deal with them." She smiled.
Andrea smiled back a small smile but a smile nonetheless. "No no one has made me feel this way. I just haven't been sleeping good lately and my dreams always make me feel as if I need to find somewhere I fit in. It's hard to explain. I wake up with an empty feeling."
"Well maybe it's time for you to find your way Andrea. I think a journey would do you well. Just make sure to come back whenever you are done." Melody took Andrea's hand and put it to her heart. "You will always be here. We will never forget what you have done for us Andrea. Please don't forget us." She let go of her hand and pulled something out of her pocket. It was a locket. "This is an Angelica Pendant. It will light your way whenever you are lost or in trouble." She put it around Andrea's neck and kissed her cheek. She walked with Andrea to her cave and helped her to pack. When she was finished, she walked back to the stream the others were playing at and told them all goodbye. She explained to them what she needed to do and they all understood except for the younger ones of course. Melody stayed with her until they reached the waterfall.
"Good luck Andrea. I hope you find what you are looking for." They hugged and Andrea walked throught the waterfall and came out of the other side. She looked ahead of her and searched the land. Which way should she go? she thought to herself. The Water Village seemed like a good place to start and it was close by, just over the hill. She walked until she got to the hill and just stared at it. A wave of doubt washed over her. She felt as if she wanted to cry. She swallowed her feelings and continued on until she got to the top of the hill. She looked down and watched the village for a minute thinking about what she should do once she got there.
She stopped at the gate into the village, not really sure of why she wanted to come here. She kept walking, looking at everything and everyone. This was nothng like the fairies' village but it was still nice. She realized that she was hungry and decided to stop at one of the small restaurants that were off to the side. She sat down at one of the tables and put her stuff on the chair next to her. A young woman came up to her and asked what she wanted. She told the lady a glass of water and a bacon and cheese sandwich. She was extremely hungry. The woman left to get her food and Andrea took out her journal and began to write in it. She didn't realize that she was being watched. A man at the next table got up and walked up to her.
"Hello pretty lady. How are you today? I don't think I have ever seen you around here before." He put his hand out to take hers and once Andrea gave him her hand he put it up to his lips and kissed it. Andrea blushed and answered him.
"I am fine, thank you. I am not from around here. I just stopped by to get something to eat." she continued to blush although not because of her hand but because this man was staring at her.
"I am sorry if I stare but I can't help myself when I am in the presences of such beauty." This only made Andrea blush more. The woman came back with her food and Andrea was hestiant to eat with the man still looking at her.
"Don't worry about me you go on and eat." He said and sat down in the chair across from her. She looked at him and wondered why he would sit down. It was alittle rude since he didn't ask her if she would mind. She started to eat and found that she couldnt, not with this man just staring at her. The man noticed that she wasn't eating and got up and went back to his own table. Andrea started to eat again and once she was done paid the woman and walked out. The man was right behind her. He grabbed her arm and she cried out in surprise.
"Hey now, you're ok. I'm not gonna hurt you." He gripped her arm even harder and she tried to jerk it away but the man was too strong. He wouldn't let go. The more she shruggled the more he held on. He guided her to an alley and pushed her against a wall. She screamed and he smacked her across the face. He leaned in to kiss her and she brought her knee up and rammed it into him. He dropped to the floor and Andrea ran away as fast as she could. Once she was far enough away that he wouldn't be able to catch her she hit the ground and started to cry. All of a sudden what seemed like a cloud blocked the sun from shining on her. She looked up to find that it wasn't a cloud but a young man. She was scared. The man leaned down to her and gave her his hand. She took it cautiously and he helped her up.
"Are you ok? I saw you running." he told her.
"No I am not ok. I was attacked, " she cried.
"I am so sorry. There is no safe place for a young woman to travel alone." he picked up her bag and handed it to her. "I promise that I will not hurt you. If you would like I could accompany you until you find what you came here for. I know you must be tired." He then leaned in closer to her and whispered,"The Fairy Village isn't really close to us." he said with a wink. Andrea widened her eyes in shock.
"How did you know that was where I came from?"
"I know all about you. I use to sneak into the village and watch the fairies. They always fasnicated me. I remember the day that they brought you there. I was so interested in knowing why they would bring in a human and why did they trust you so much. I never entered the village. I didn't want them to know I was there."
"I always wondered why I felt as if I was being watched. I thought that maybe it was because the elders of the village were watching me. But all this time it was you."
"Yeah what can I say. It is a beautiful place. Hey are you tired? I could bring you to my home if you don't mind that way I can keep an eye on you and make sure you are ok."
"I would like that alot, thank you." Andrea was very grateful as she followed him back past the alley and past a few apartment like buildings, into a smaller village with cottages all around. They passed several small cottages until they got to a medium sized cottage and the man lead her into the house. It had a simple design. Very cozy. The man took her things and put them into a small bedroom. It has one window, a dresser, and table with a lamp, and a bed,
"This is where you will sleep. Feel free to use the dresser if you would like. I don't know how long you will be staying here. I hope you like it Andrea." He then walked back to the front of the cottage and she heard him in the kitchen. She wasn't surprised that he knew her name even though she hadn't told him, but wondered why she didn't bother to ask him his. She put her stuff down and walked to where he was.
"I'm sorry but I didn't ask for you name."
"Oh I am sorry too. I must have forgotten my manners. My name is Lifeless water but everyone calls me life."
"Thank you life, I appreicate you letting me stay here."
"That is not a problem. I will enjoy the company." He said and sat on the couch and turned his small tv on. "I don't really watch tv much but if you want to there are movies down there in the cabinet."
"On I haven't watched tv since before I went to live with the Fairies. I'm lucky I even remember what it is," she laughed at herself. He smiled. "Well, I guess I will go and try to get some sleep. Thank you again."
He nodded to her and said," It's no trouble. Good night." with that he layed on the couch and was soon asleep.
She closed the door behind her and layed down. She stared at the celing for awhile before she actually fell asleep. She began to dream and in her dream she was in the forest and she met a fairy. The fairy had given her wings and she flew all around the forest, but when she got back home her father took her wings from her and she cried and cried but never got them back. Then it faded out and next thing she knows she is in the forest again. Something bad had happened and she was warning the fairy that they needed to get away. The fairy grabbed her and they flew away togehter. She looked back at her village and saw the destruction. She cried not knowing what would become of her family. She woke up with tears in her eyes. It was dark when she had awoken. She felt so guilty for leaving her family behind. Maybe she should have got the fairies to help her family escape. She had tried to go back but they wouldn't let her. It was too dangerous for her. She didn't know what happened and she didn't know what her village would look like. She hoped that somehow her family escaped and is ok. She got up and went into the living room to find that Life was not there. She sat down for awhile and watched the little tv until she heard a commotion outside. She opened the door to find Life agruing with someone.
"I don't care who she is she shouldn't be here. She stole something from one of our villagers. She needs to be punished." A woman yelled at him.
"I don't believe she would steal something. She is not going anywhere." he yelled back her.
Seeing Andrea in the doorway, the woman pointed at her and said," Let's ask her!" Everyone that was around all yelled and screamed their opinions. A man stepped forward and Andrea recongized him as the man who attacked her. She cried out in surprise and ran behind Life.
"That's the guy that attacked me!" she screamed. Everyone stopped and looked at the man and Andrea.
"Are you sure?" Life asked her.
"Yes! I am sure. That is him!"
The woman looked at the man and said, "Kakashi is that right? Did you attack this girl?"
He shook his head,"No I did not. She is lying!" The man balled his fist and his face started to get really red.
Life pushed Andrea further back behind him and said to Kakashi, "You better stay away from her and my house. I don't care what you say she did to you but I know you attacked her. Leave my home now!" He yelled at the man, but the man didn't budge. Life turned to Andrea and told her to get back in the house. She stood there for a moment then did as she was told. She peeked out the window go see what was going on. Life and the man were in each others' faces. Kakashi pulled back to punch Life but he ducked and upper cut him. Kakashi went to run at Life but Life side stepped and tripped him as he came flying at him. Kakashi got up and stood there staring at Life. If his looks could kill, Life would have been dead 10 times over.
"Fine, I will leave but this is not over!" He screamed and left.
Life came back into the house. "I'm sorry about that. I hope you are ok?"
"I am fine, but why did he come here?"
"Since he didn't get what he wanted from you, he wanted to punish you by accusing you of stealing from him."
"Who is he?" She asked.
"That is Kakashi. He acts like a big shot but he's really not. He's just a big bully." He smiled at Andrea. "He doesn't listen to anyone, not even his own clan master."
"Clan master?"
"Yes, clan master. He is from the Shadow Clan. Even they can't control him. Anyway, I think it's best that we leave. I don't want to have to deal with him again or anyone else for that matter, that is if you don't mind if I join you?"
"Of course not. I could use someone to travel with. I really don't know what is beyond here. And like you said yourself, it isn't safe for a girl to be out on her own." She smiled at him.
She went into the room she was using and made sure she had all of her stuff. He packed his own bag and together they set off to continue the journey she had set out to do.
They had traveled for one day before they reached a wood. It was very thick. They could see to the other side. The walked until they came across a small river. They took a quick drink from it then continued on. There was a road on the other side. It was deserted except a few catcuses and patches of dead grass and another wood off in the distance. They looked at each other and then decided to continue the journey down this road. They both thought the same thing, it had to lead somewhere. They walked for several hours before they came across some horses.
“Why would someone leave horses here?” Andrea asked Life.
“I don’t know, but it can’t be good. I’ve never known someone to just up and leave their horses behind unless something bad happened.” As if to reassure him that he was right they heard a scream. He walked faster down the road. Andrea had to run to keep up with him. They walked until they found another wood. This one was longer than the first. You couldn’t see throught it. Life ran into the woods not entirely sure where he was going. Andrea ran after him hoping nothing bad had happened. They ran until they came across a river.
“What do we do now?” Before Andrea could even look up at Life he had jumped into the water. She followed in after him trying her hardest to keep up. He ran through the woods until another scream pireced the air. Then he ran even faster toward the screams. They kept running getting scratched by the branches. Andrea tripped on a tree root and smacked her head on a rock. Life stopped to help her up asked her if she was alright and when she said yes he grabbed her hand and began to run again. Soon he slowed down and put his finger to his lip and whispered SHHH to her. They carefully crept up to alittle clearing between the trees. There was a group of people in the middle of the clearing. The group had made a circle around something. A closer look, and they saw that the something was three girls, two of which were huddled together, one was crying while the other was holding her. The third girl was standing in front of a young man and she looked furious at him.
“What the hell is the meaning of this. We haven’t done anything. Why won’t you let us go?!” She yelled at her captives.
“You don't need to yell. We only are curious as to why you have come here." The young man said.
"Why is that any of your business?" she yelled at him again.
"This is our forest and it is my business to know what all goes on in here."
"Fine, if you must know we are looking for a pixie. Dark thought she saw one come in here and so we followed. Can we please go now?" She stared at the man as if she wanted to smack him in the face.
"As far as you leaving you must not say anything of us to anyone. Is that understood?" The man walked closer to the girl.
"That is fine but if you so much as lay a hand on those girls or me so help me...."
"Fine. We will not harm you but you must leave now." He said then waved at his clan to follow him back through the woods.
Life jumped up and told Andrea to follow him. They walked into the clearing and they walked up to the girls.
"Are you ok?" He asked the girl that was yelling at the man. She looked up at him and looked back at the other girls.
"We are fine, thank you. What do you want?" She turned to stare at him with the same look she had just given that other guy.
"I heard screaming and came to find out who was making them," he said politely.
"Oh yeah. That was dark. She kinda freaked out, but we are fine now. We are gonna go and find our horses now."
"We heard you say you had come in here to find a pixie."
"Yeah I did. Dark thought she saw one flying around in here so we went to check it out."
"I wonder why it would be in these woods?" Life asked himself.
"Wow you sure are a curious guy," the other girl said.
"Yeah thats me. My name is Lifeless_water or just Life. This is Andrea." He motioned to her.
"Nice to meet you Life, Andrea. I am Leblanc and these to are Dark Emo Bunny or just Dark, and this is Miika_Eikim or just Miika."
"Nice to meet you too," Life said handed the girls his hand to shake.
"Now to find the horses," Miika replied.
"We saw them by the road up there," Andrea pointed back toward the road.
"Good, lets hurry. I don't want them to come back. Stupid guys think they own everything." She mumbled to herself but they all heard. She helped the girl she called Dark up and began to walk up to the road. The other girl followed and so did Life and Andrea. Once they got to the road the girls hopped up onto the horses. They went to head their separte ways when Andrea had an idea.
"Hey," she called out to the girls on the horses, "What if we traveled together. We seem to be going the same way."
The other girl thought about it for a minute then said," Ok. It'll be easier since we have three horses and only two riders." She handed the third horse to Life and Andrea got on behind him. As they rode Andrea looked at the other girls. They looked as if they had been just out rider for fun. She daydreamed for awhile. Then the horse stopped and she snapped out of it.
"What's going on?" She asked
"The horses are getting tired. We need to find a place to rest." After they gave the horses some water and some treats they headed off again to find a nice place to rest.

 

[Thy Fairy]

~Chapter Four~
The Mist

It was night now and soon Leblanc stopped her horse and the rest of the group stopped along side of her.
"What's wrong Leblanc?" Dark asked.
"The horses, they can't continue on, " she said as she got off her horse. "Someone is gonna have to go get water while the rest of us stay with the horses."
"Well since these are your horses Leblanc, you, Dark, and Miika can stay here and me and Andrea will go find water."
"That will be ok but I want Miika to go too, she knows what else I need to get."She said and turned to Miika. "You know what I need, make sure you get it." Then she took the horses and sat down on a rock that was close by.
"We will be back as soon as we get the water." With that Life, Andrea, and Miika set off down the road to find what they needed.
The road continued on for a few miles then all of a sudden stopped. It looked as if the road was never finished. A dirt road took the place of the paved one. They all looked at each other and both Andrea and Miika said at the same time," What now?"
Life looked around for a minute then replied," Well the only thing we can do would be to walk this path now. It looks as if it ends up there." He pointed to the end of the road. It looked as though a huge wall of fog was blocking road from their sights.
They walked until Andrea stopped in her tracks. Life and Miika turned to look at her. She was staring at something on the ground at the side of the road. They couldn't see what it was so Miika asked her what was wrong. Andrea couldn't speak, she just stared and pointed at what looked like a rock. Miika came up to Andrea and moved her eyes to the direction Andrea was pointing in and saw what had made her stop. A snake about the size of a small dog was hissing at Andrea. Miika eyes widen in shock. She didn't know what to do. If she moved it might lunge at them and bite one of them. She turned to Life and with her eyes motioned him to look. He slowly looked on the side of the rock and saw the snake. He looked at both girls then whispered," Miika, slowly back away until the snake is no longer in your eyesight." Miika looked at Life then Andrea and then the snake. She nodded her head and slowly backed away. Once she did Life then whispered again,"Miika find a stick or rock and throw it behind the snake. It will distract it's attention and Andrea and I can move away." Miika scrambled to find something that she could throw. All she could find was a small rock with symbols painted on it. She threw it behind the snake and it turned around to find the source of the noise. Andrea was still standing there shocked by almost being biten. Life had to grab her hand and pull her from the spot.
“Are you ok Andrea? You are so pale.” Life asked her. Andrea couldn’t pull her eyes from the spot. She was just rooted there by some unknown force. “Andrea!” Life yelled at her.”Snap out of it.” Life started to shake her. He didn’t know what to do. She was freaking him out. Miika grabbed Life and told him to stop. She stood in front of Andrea and pulled her face up so her eyes had to leave the spot. Only then did Andrea come back to reality.
“Andrea are you ok?” Mikka asked.
“Wha…yeah I’m ok. I’m sorry. I just kind of frozen.”
“What happened to you?”
“I just remembered being biten by a snake once and I had almost died. I guess I was just reminded of that day and I froze up.”
“Well you’re lucky you didn’t get bitten today.” Life told her. He looked as if he wanted to scold her. Andrea smiled at him and replied back to him,”Yes daddy,I’m sorry.”
He laughted and started walking again. “Nice job Miika. You did well.”
“Thanks.”
They continued on walking until they reached the end of the road. It really didn’t look as if it ended, just that you had to walk through the wall of fog to see it again. It was like you had to walk into another world. They were all alittle nervous. This time Andrea got her courage back and without even looking at the others she walked straight into the fog.
When she passed through it she found that she still couldn’t see. It was chilly here and she wrapped her arms around herself. It was hard to breathe. She felt something brush up against her and realized it was Life. Miika came out on the other side of her. Andrea grabbed both their hands and said,” This can’t be good. I think that we should keep our hands together and see how far we can get until we can see something.” She gripped their hands tighter and started to walk forward. The further they went the colder it got. Andrea finally let go of their hands to wrap her arms around herself again and replied,” Just keep walking forward, if something happends just yell.”
“No problem, but it will be more like a scream.” Miika answered as they continued onward. All of a sudden it got alittle less misty and they could actually make out objects. They were in a swamp but the water had dried up. Andrea was surprised that they had not walked into a tree by now.
“I don’t know what this place is but we need to find some water fast and get out of here,” Life replied soflty, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear him.
“I agree. Water would be so nice right now, but it looks as if everything has dried up.” Miika looked down at the ground and back up at Life and Andrea.
“Yeah, you’re right. I wonder where we will find some water?” Andrea asked more to herself than anything.
They more they walked the better they could see but the mist never fully went away. Soon they came upon a small pond. It was full of water and it was crystal clear.
“Wow, this is beautiful.” Miika stared at the pond and put her hand into it. It had a silky feel to it. It was soft. Not like water she was use to.
“This water has to be magical. I remember reading stories that told of water like this. This is what the pixies would drink from.” Miika explained. She was dazzled by the water’s alluring apperance. Andrea and Life looked at each other with the mention of pixies. They smiled at each other sharing a private joke. They fill their jugs with water and headed back to Leblanc and Dark Emo Bunny. Once the mist got heavy again they walked real slow and make sure to stay close to each other so they wouldn’t lose each other. Before they walked back through, Miika gasped and Andrea turned in her direction and asked what was wrong. Miika didn’t answer her. Andrea called out to Life. He told her he was still here. She called Miika’s name again but no answer. Andrea grabbed Life and said, “Where is Miika? Where did she go?”
“Maybe she went back through already. Let’s go see if she is back with Leblanc and Dark.” Andrea nodded and they walked back through the mist. They walked as fast as they could back to the horses. Once they got there it was revealed that Miika was not there.
“Where is Miika? Why is she not with you?” Dark asked.
“We thought she had come here already. She must be back in that mist," Andrea looked at Life. "We have to go back now. Let's go."
They finished giving the horses water and jumped on their backs and rode to where the mist was. Leblanc hestianted for a minute. Andrea told her it would be hard to see, breath, and it would be cold. "Maybe we should leave the horses here. What do you want to do with them?" She asked Leblanc.
"I don't really want to leave them here but they will be fine I guess. Let's go tie them to the trees over there." She pointed toward the woods.
After tying them, headed back toward the mist. Andrea grabbed Dark and Life's hands and looked at Leblanc. "It's precaution. You really can't see in there." Then Leblanc grabbed Dark's other hand and together they walked through. Leblanc gasped and so did Dark. They realized that Andrea wasn't exaggerating when she said it was cold and you couldnt see or breathe. They kept walking until they came to pond again. Leblanc and Dark stared at the pond. Amazed by the look of it. Wanting to touch it but not sure if they should.
"Yeah, we know. It's fascinating but we don't have time to stop and stare. We need to find Miika." She grabbed Dark and Life grabbed Leblanc and they continued walking forward through the trees and dried up swamp. Leblanc noticied how misty it said and never really got clear. She told them this too. "Isn't it weird that it's like that?" she asked to no one in particular. They walked until they came across another pond but this one was even bigger and it was murky. Not at all like the other pond. In the middle of the pond was something floating. They couldnt tell what it was until it turned over. Miika's face was blue and her eyes were cold. Dark screamed a pierceing scream and fell to the floor. Leblanc grabbed her and pulled her close, Dark's head smothered in her chest. Life and Andrea ran into the water but Life reached her first. They pulled her out and Andrea immedialelty started giving her CPR. When Miika didn't respond she tried again. Dark cried histercally while Leblanc tried to calm her down staring at Miika's body. On the fifth try Miika spit up water. Andrea hugged her and cried.
"Oh my god, Miika. I thought you were dead. What happened to you?" She asked while hugging Miika.
"I don't know. I was standing next to you when all of a sudden someone grabbed me from behind and they pulled him all the way out here," she answered coughing the whole time. "They dragged me into the water and kept my head under. I was so scared. I couldn't even see who it was. I think it as a man though because they told me not to scream." They all sat there taking turns looking from Miika to the water, not sure what to think.
Andrea looked to Life for guidance. No one was sure what they should do. Someone that they didn't know had tried to kill one of them. They didn't know why or where he was now. He could be watching them for all they knew. With that thought in mind, Andrea looked around them and tried to make out something, a body or a figure. She saw nothing but trees and mist. Everyone was silent just thinking about what they should do next.
"I think that we should continue on and see if we can find a town or something." Andrea said.
"That is probably the best idea. We don't know if there is another way to get around this and it might take too much time to try and look for one." Life replied.
They all stood up and thought about which way to go.
"It's very bright this way, " Miika stated, pointing northeast of the pond. They all headed for the brightness, each of them thinking that something bad as going to happen and this time it would be worse than it was.

*********************************************

They had traveled through the woods for a couple hours when they reached a ditch. The ditch dipped down into a field. And in that field was a large village. There was so much activity happening down there. They jumped over the ditch and ran down the hill. They all felt good to feel like a kid again. Once they got to the bottom, they headed into the town.
Their first stop was at a small outside restarunat. They sat at the biggest table they had and began looking at the menu to order.
"Man, I am so hungry," Leblanc commented. Everyone nodded their head in agreement. Everything in the menu looked wonderful. They had trouble trying to find something they wanted to eat. In the end, they all decieded to just take one of almost everything and they would all try it. The woman took their order and went into the back to make their drinks.
"I wonder if the person that hurt Miika is in here?" Dark asked in a low whisper.
"SHHH! Dark, we don't need to talk about that right now," Leblanc scolded her. She folder her arms across her chest and pouted, but everyone was thinking that same thing.
The lady came back with their drinks and they all started talking about where they came from and what they were planning on doing.
"Well, Miika, Dark, and I have been friends for along time. We love to be spontaneuos and just go out and have fun. We were looking for pixies when you found us," She told Life and Andrea.
"Wow. That seems like fun." Life replied.
"Well what about u guys?" Leblanc asked them and they exchanged looks.
"I was actually minded my own business not really doing anything when I met Andrea. Someone in my village attacked her and I came to help her." He smiled very proud of himself.
"Really? So you're just a regular old knight in shining armor now are you?" Everyone laughed, including Dark who still had her arms crossed her chest.
"Yeah he came to my rescue," Andrea smiled and kissed Life on the cheek which made him blush.
"Thank you. I help whenever I can." With that their food came. They need two tables just to put all the plates they had ordered. But they certainly didn't need any help eating it. They acted as if they hadn't eaten in days.
Once they were done they decided to find an inn or somewhere they could sleep. Dark was the first one to spt the little end a short ways from where they had just eaten. The old man inside asked them how many rooms they would need.
"Well all five of us cannot share a room," Leblanc said.
"Yeah but we don't have that much money left between us," Miika stated.
"OK then I guess we will all share a room then." She turned to the man and asked him how many beds the room had. He said three and they paid for the room.
The room had two beds on one side a table made for eating at and another bed on the other side. There was a small cooler for storing food and then another table used for whatever else. Miika and Dark took one bed and Leblanc and Andrea took the other bed, while Life had the third bed all to himself.
"Just because you're a guy and you get a bed all to yourself. Lucky b*****d," Leblanc smiled.
They each got ready for bed and laid down. Not one of them went to sleep right away. They were all thinking about the days events. Andrea couldn't go to sleep no matter how hard she tried. She sat up and went to the table so she wouldn't wake up Leblanc. Life was not asleep either and got up when he heard someone get up and go to the table. He looked into Andrea's tired eyes and said," What's wrong?"
"I don't know. Why does it seem as if someone is trying to stop us? We haven't done anything to anyone. I started this journey and you all just followed me. It makes me feel as if I am responseble for what happend to Miika."
"Don't feel like that. That was not your fault or anyone elses. And remember they were harassed by that group before we even met them."
"I know, but why would someone do that. First I get attacked, then we meet them after they were attacked, and now Miika was attacked. Do we have please come kill us written across our foreheads!" she yelled. Life put his finger to his lips and said,"SHHHH."
"Sorry, I just don't understand this."
"I know. I don't either but we are here to help you find what it is that you need to find. I am not gonna quit until you achieve that." He gave her a stern look.
"Thank you," she laughted at him.
"What?" he smiled
"You are too much."
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"That you really are trying to be a knight in shining armor, " she laughed even harder.
"Oh really well I will be the best damn knight in shining armor there ever was," they laughed.
Finally Andrea started to yawn and Life followed suit. "I guess we should go to sleep now," she said.
"Yeah your right we will have a long day ahead of us."
They both went back to their beds and fell fast alseep. A nice dreamless sleep. One that you really don't want to wake up from.

*************************************

When they woke up in the morning, Breakfast was sitting on the table. Leblanc and Miika were already eating. Dark was still sleeping. "We went out and bought some food," she answered the question in their faces'. They told her thank you and sat down to eat. Once they were almost finished Dark woke and got up to join them. She didn't really eat. She said she was still full from the food they had eaten last night.
After they eat, they took turns showering and getting ready for the new day. They headed out once they were all done.
They found a flea market and decided to look through and see if there was anything interesting to find. They looked for awhile, finding a few things but nothing really great. At one of the stands, Dark was looking at some necklaces and wasn't looking where she was going. She bumped into a young man and he had to grab her to keep her from falling. He wasn't a tall man but an average sized guy. He had long hair and he was wearing all black with a dark star on his back.
"I'm so sorry," she stammered to the man eyeing his the dark star.
"It's ok. No harm done." The man stared at her.
"My name is Dark Emo Bunny but everyone calls me Dark." she said. She always took the opportunity to make friends whenever she could.
"Really? My name is Takeshi Hatake, but everyone calls me Take." he replied to her.
"Cool, would you like to meet my friends?" she asked him. She always saw everything as an opportunity to make friends.
"Ummm sure I guess," he answered as she grabbed his arm before he even got his sentence out. He brought him to Leblanc as if he was a puppy and was gonna ask if she could keep him. She introduced everyone to him and then asked him if he was alone.
"No, I am with my good friend Zipps or you can just call him Zipp."
"I am sorry again for bumping into you," she gave him her best puppy dog eyes that she could. He smiled at her and said," Wow you are cute. What are you doing around here?"
Leblanc knowing that Dark would probably start to tell him everything that every happened because she loved to tell her whole life story answered Take instead. "We are just looking around. This was just a stop on our journey. What about you?"
"Well, My friend and I are trying to find a school that can teach us the way of the ninjas."
"That is so cool. Ninjas are awesome," she giggled.
"Dark come on we need to move on," Miika told her.
"Aww, but what about him? He's my new friend." She started to pout but then had an idea," Wait you can come with us. We are travling together and we haven't known each other very long, can come too."
The man thought about it and then called his friend over, his friend also had a dark star on his back an was wearing a long black coat with long hair. They talked for alittle while and Take went up to Life and asked him if he minded. Life told him that it really wasn't his decision, it was Andrea. So Take and Zipp asked Andrea. She told them she didn't mind. The more the merrier. Once they were all together they continued on to another part of the village.

*************************************

They had reached apart of the village that had several stores. Each store had a display in the window. Behind the stripe of stores was a woods. There was no looking through it. It was dense with trees. Take and Zipp found a book store and decided to look in there to find books that would help them in their quest to become ninjas. Andrea found a small magic shop and went in to look at what fairy wings were valuable for. The rest of the group headed back into the flea market to look elsewhere. They all agreed to meet back in front of the book store in one hour. Then they each headed their different ways. Take and Zipp searched the entire book store for books on ninjas, but they couldn't find even one.
"God you would think ninjas didn't exist or something," Take said to Zipp.
"Yeah, I know. You wanna go somewhere else?" He asked his friend in return.
"Yeah, let's go check out the rest of the stores.
They headed out of the book store and searched each store after that. They found nothing that they wanted so they started to head back to the book store to wait for the others when something caught Zipp's attention.
"Hey what was that?" he asked his friend
"What was what?" Take asked him.
"I don't know that's why I asked you. It look like something ran by really fast in there," he said staring at the woods. "Hey let's go check it out."
They walked into the woods and walked in as far as they could before they realized that something was wrong.
"Why is it so quiet in here? And why does it seem like everything is colored red?" Zipp asked out loud.
"UMM.....Zipp, that is because everything is colored red. Look, it's blood."
"What do we do?" Zipp's eyes got big and he stared at the leaves covered in blood
"I don't know but we should get out of here."
"Wait, what if someone is hurt? We have to help them." he pleaded with take.
"OK fine but let's hurry."
They walked as fast as possible before Zipp tripped and landed hard on the ground. When he looked up, he saw that the source of the blood was coming from a man. He was lying on the ground a pool of blood all around him. Zipp couldnt breathe and Take just stared. They didn't know what to do.

*********************************

Andrea was wondering why everyone was taking so long. She saw the back of someone go into the woods uphead but she didn't know who it was. She began to think that it might have been Zipp and Take since she had just checked every store and they weren't in any of them. As she walked toward the woods a man appeared out of nowhere and said," I don't think they have what we want Cloud. I told you this wasn't the right place." Another man appeared right by the first, both wearing long coats that covered their mouths. One had red and the other black. They both noticed Andrea at the same time and nodded at her.
"How are you?" The one named Cloud asked.
"I am fine. I am just trying to find my friends. Have you seen two younder looking guys come by here?" she asked them.
"No I didn't. Did you Gen?"
"I saw someone go by in front of the store. It looked as if they were going into the woods."
"Thank you." she walked into the woods and kept walking noticting all the red and finally realizing that it was blood. She ran as fast as she could and ran into something hard and knocked it over. She looked up to see that she ran into Take. She looked around him to see Zipp on the ground staring at something. She realized it was the thing that made the woods become bloody. She ran to the man on the ground and yelled at Zipp to get some help. He never ran so fast in his life. Andrea ripped her shirt and tied it around the man's head and ripped another part to tie around his torso to stop the bleeding. Take finally snapped out of it and ran to the man's other side holding pressure to the now bloody pieces of shirt. Zipp came back with the two men that Andrea had just met. They helped her get the man up and carried him between them. They walked back as fast as they could back to the village. Leblanc, Dark, Miika and Life were now waiting at the book store. They ran to Andrea as soon as they saw her come out the woods covered in blood. They took the man to the nearest store which happened to be the magic store. The old woman in there helped the man into a bed she had in the back and put something that looked like horse crap on his wounds. She told them that this would not heal him but make it so he wouldn't bleed to death.
"Why he isn't dead yet, I do not know." She said to them. Then left them with the man to talk.
"What the hell do we do now?" Leblanc asked anyone who would be willing to answer her.
"We have to take him with us. We can't just leave him here." Andrea said.
"Great another person to carry."
"Don't be a snob Leblanc," Dark said.
"I'm not trying to be," she apologized.
"We can help. I know of a village that has a medicine woman." One of the new guys said.
"My name is Gen and this is my brother Cloud. We are on a journey to find the true power in Chakra. We also know where we can get some horses for nothing."

*****************************

Gen told his uncle thank you for lending them the horses and they set out to find the woman who could heal this man. Now a party of 10, they continue on their way with Andrea in front with the guys on side of her, the girls in the middle and Life in the back. They looked as if they were headed to war.

 

[Thy Fairy]

~Chapter Five~
Hell's Gate


A volcano. I had never really seen a volcano in person. It was maginficant. It was huge and the village below looked like little ants scurrying around beneath it. It had a red hue to it and looked like a triangle with a 3-D effect, and a point at the top that if you were to ever go up there would be at least 200 feet or more wide. It was a wonderful sight, but it was deadly at the same time. Not exaclty a good place to build a village. I looked at Seji and could tell that he was thinking the same thing. We moved on to the village. There was tents everywhere. A flea market. No village is complete without it. There was several rundown brink buildings. It wasn't a very busy place. It seemed that everyone was inside their houses today. I could only guess that maybe all the smoke from the volcano wasn't a good sign.
Seji seemed to have noticied the same thing because he said," I wonder why everyone is inside?"
Otama answered him," When a volcano is inactive, nothing froms from it, no smoke, no ashes, no anything. This volcano is emitted smoke, which means that the lava inside of it is moving around. It might be getting ready to erupt." Seji looked at me and I looked at him.
"The hell it will. Not while we are still here," I replied. Seji smiled a weary smile. He kept looking at the volcano.
They decided to look for a place that they could rest at. Walking around made me realized that most villages we had been looked the same. I felt like I have been to all of them before. It's like once you have seen one you have seen them all. We found a cozy little place that had a tavern connected to it. As we walked into the room, I bumped into table. The lamp that was on it fell to the ground. Luckly it did not break. I didn't want to have to replace it. We put our things on the beds and I sat down for a minute. I looked around me and thought to myself, Why is every place we go so small and look as if no one cares about it. If I owned a place like this I would build it to mean something. Once we got settled in, we went down to the tavern. We sat down at the furthest table so we could see everything and everyone. The waitress, who looked at if she wish she wasn't here at this moment in time, came to write down what we wanted. We got our drinks first. When she came back and took our orders, we started to talk.
"Well, this had been an interesting journey," Seji commented.
"I know. I didn't plan on having others to travel with." I replied.
"It's kinda funny how you found us though." Seji said back, "We somehow needed help or we helped you."
"Yeah.." I answered thinking about why did they come into my life. What purpose did they have?
Once our food finally came we ate in silence. No one looking at the other. We then paid the lady and continued to sit at the table.
"Well, what do you want to do?" Otama asked me.
"I don't really feel like doing anything but sitting here."
"Ok then. I think I'll go to the flea market. There is always something worth looking at. I think I saw a tent with some amulets back toward the front of the village. I'll come back here when I'm done." He made to leave when Seji grabbed his arm.
"I think I’ll come with you. I want to get more supplies on our way up there." And the two men got up, told me goodbye and walked out.
I kept sitting there, looking out to the few people that were out and about. They looked back at me with an air of distain. They looked me up and down. Looking at my face. I had jet black eyes with long black hair. My teeth were like fangs. When I smiled I tend to freak people out. Watching all the people go by made me think about the feeling of being watched that I constanly felt since I had left my ninja village. I contiued to watch the others go by when I noticed a bench in front of a small tree and I got up to go sit. When I got to it there were two men sitting on the other side of the tree whispering to each other. They looked as if they were the monks of the village. I laid down on the bench and didn’t pay any attention to them. I just didn’t feel so well. I kept getting an icky kind of feeling in the pit of my gut. I relaxed trying to get that feeling to go away. The men started whispering a little louder. I could hear a little of what they were saying. It seemed they were talking about the volcano.
“It is almost ready to erupt. You know what that means right?”
“No you don’t mean….?”
“That is what I mean. It’s the only thing it could be.”
“But why now?”
“It must mean that the chosen one has come. You know what the volcano is named. Tanguy. It means the fire warrior. That volcano is the representative of the god Tanguy. It was told that when the chosen one came to save us that he would announce his presents with fire and brimstone. The villagers call it Hell's Gate."
“What about the lengend?”
“The legend states that the chosen one must enter the volcano at it’s base and inside he will find his true power.”
The men went back to whispering and I sat up thinking about what I had just heard.
So they believe that the volcano was the spirit of a god. I didn’t know about the chosen one thing but I knew that I wanted to see what it was all about. Natural curoisty got the best of me. I just hope it doesn't kill this cat. I got up, grabbed my bag and headed for the volcano. I made my way pass the old men without actually letting them see that I was headed toward the volcano. I didn't want any to know I was going there. My selfish side was telling me to get it before someone else did.


**********************************************

Seji and Otama were still looking around the market place when they noticied a young man in all black with a dark star on his back and a book in his hand. He had red hair and red eyes. The man was sitting underneath a fruit stand and when no one was looking he would reach up and grab a fruit. The next time he did it, the owner saw his hand and grabbed it pulling the man upward.
“Stop taking my fruits. You will have to pay for that you know.” He told the other.
“I don’t have any money. That is why I was taking it,” he said honestly
“Well then maybe I should cut off your hand and teach you a lesson,” he said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small blade.
Seji and Otama walked up to the two men and got in the middle of them.
“I’ll pay for him,” Seji said and pulled out the money. The man snatched it out of his hand and went back inside his little booth.
“Thank you so much. I should have looked to see if he was watching,”
"It's no problem but why don't you have any money?" Seji asked him.
"It's a story I would rather not tell." he replied.
"Well that is fine. But you won't last long if you keep doing that." Otama told him.
"I know that. But what else am I suppose to do? I don't have anything, and the only person I know is just like me. He is just as bad off."
"Well you need to find something else." Otama said.
"I know that, what do you want me to do? I don't need a lecture," he kind of yelled at them.
"I think you need to try and get a job working for someone."
"I have tried. It's really not my thing. I would rather be going to school but...." he stopped himself and looked at the ground.
"What is it?" Seji asked him putting his hand on the boys back.
He sighed then went into his story. "My name is Kratos. I was born into a family of hunter ninjas. My parents didn't want that life anymore, but they couldn't get out without being killed. So we moved. We changed our names, our life, our everything. I was going to school, learning alittle bit of everything. I only wanted to be a ninja but my parents didn't want that life for me. I was learning anyway by a rouge ninja I had met at school. But soon they still found us. My parents managed to escape but before they did they brought me to this town and told me to wait here. They would be back as soon as they could. They never came back. And I am still here waiting for them," he ended his story with a tear in his eye.
"Wow. I'm sorry," Seji patted his back.
"I met a guy here almost as soon as I got here. He taught me how to sneak and steal what I needed. I never take more than that." He said as if he was apologizing for what he has gone through.
"I don't know how to help you but if you would like, you could give us a tour of the village and I will pay you." Seij replied.
"Really? That would be awesome. Do you mind if my friend helps?"
"No that would be fine."
"Ok I'll go get him." he said as he turned around and ran toward a big rundown building. He disappeared for a few minutes then came back and had another young man with him. Kratos walked fast to hurry and get to them but his guy walked his own pace. A "I don't care" kind of walk. When he finally reached them, Kratos introduced him as Silent, which was fitting since he didn't say anything.
"Well Kratos, Silent, let's get going," Seji told them and him and Otama walked behind Silent and Kratos as Kratos pointed to everything and told them something about it.

******************************************


I reached the volcano’s base and stood there looking up at the volcano. It could erput any time and I will be in here, I thought to myself. Not a very encouraging thought. I walked into the opening which was just big enough for a person to walk through. The walls around me were thick. I could hear the lava moving all around me. The heat wasn’t unbearable but it was sweltering. The further I walked the darker it got. I walked until I saw a big black hole in the ground. I looked down to what I would call a bottomless pit. There was a room right above it. I thought about it for a moment then grabbed the rope with both hands, but before I could jump and swing across fire rose from the pit and shot at me. I jumped back falling as I did. I grabbed the rope again and pulled it away from the opening of the hole and jumped up and swung across. At the same time the fire rose and caught the every end of my coat. When I got across, I jumped down and inspected my coat. It was burned alittle but not that bad. I walked on until I ran into a statue that was jutting out from the wall. I had smacked into the sword. As I went to walk around it the wall on the other side moved and another statue appeared causing me to dive to the ground to avoid being stabbed. I got up only to have to dive again. All along the wall stautes were coming out. I crawled as fast as I could and once the statues stop protruding from the walls, I got up. I was beginning to think that maybe someone didn't want anyone to come in here. The next obstacle I had to face was one that involved swinging axes. I had to jump from side to side at just the right moment. I was getting tired of this and took a chance and ran as fast as I could to the light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, I know how that sounds. Anyway, there was one more obstacle he had to face. As soon as he got to the end a stone wall dropped down, blocking my way. There was words written on it. They said that only the chosen one can enter through. If you are the chosen one then you had to cut your finger and your hand on the middle of the wall and let the blood soak through. I took out my katana and did as I was suppose to do and as soon as my blood touched the wall it opened. When I walked into the volcano after the wall had opened, what I saw was amazing. It was gigantic. And it looked ablaze with all the red and orange on the walls of the volcano. It looked as if I had stepped into an inferno. “This must be what hell looks like,” I said to no one. The top of it was full of what appeared to be daggers. Just waiting to fall onto an unsuspecting victum. In the middle of the volcano was a podium. The podium held an open book. The book was golden in color and looked as if it had never been touched. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I approached the book. I was thinking maybe a net would come falling down on stop of me, or maybe the ground would split open and swallow me whole. I was very cautious as I paced myself to get to the book. I looked everywhere not sure what I was looking for. Hoping I would know once I saw it. I approached the book and stared at it. I was scared to touch it. I wanted to see what the cover looked like. I put out my hand to touch it and gazed my finger down the middle of it. It was soft and silky. I ran my hands across the words on the page. Then i closed the book and stared at the cover. It was solid gold. The engravings were so detailed. It was beyond what a human could do. At the top of the book was a woman. She was half-demon and half-human. She had huge wings and and tail that wrapped around her body. On the other side was a man half-angel and half-human with huge wings and a staff in his hands. They were reaching out to each other. At the bottom was almost the same thing but in the reserve order. The woman was half-angel and the man was half-demon. They, too, were reaching out to each other. In the middle of the book was the inside of the volcano and there in the middle of that was the book on a podium. Behind the book was a person. This person had long hair and wore a long coat. It couldn't be told if it a man or woman, but this must be the "chosen one" that the monks had been talking about. I opened it back up to the page that it had been on. The words were in latin and I couldn't understand them. Then a suddend gust of wind came from no where and blew the pages until they stopped at a picuture of a man standing in the middle of a room with his hands outstretched on either side of him and had some sort of fog or smoke coming from his hands. The opposite page said in bold gothic letters "The Hidden Smoke Jutsu". I stared at the words and couldn't take my eyes away from the part that said Smoke.
"Could this be? Could I be the chosen one?" I said outloud. I was entranced by this thought. I put my hands on either side of the book and began to read. As I read I started to notice that the words were shining gold and as I reached the end of the page it glowed so brightly that it lit up the entire volcano inside. The gust of wind came back and I step back away from the book with the wind in my hair blowing it in every direction. I could felt it all over me and then the light from the book shot straight into the sky and it came together at a point. The point then shot straight at me. It went through me and then wrapped around me until I could see nothing but the gold light. I felt my feet lift off the ground and I swirled around with my arms out on either side of me. The light turned into a red orange color, and it flew into my hands. Then black smoke erupted from my hands and I fell back to the ground. Once I opened my eyes, everything was the way it had been. There was no light or wind. Just me lying on the ground. I got up, feeling a little disorientated, I walk toward the opening. I walked through it having to hold on to the walls as I walked because I felt dizzy. Once I reached the outside, I realized that I must not have gone through the orinigal opening because I was facing a forest and not the village. I walked along side of the volcano when I heard something russeling in the bushes.
"Who's there?" I said. I got no response. I continued on when I heard the noise again and this time what sounded like heavy breathing. I reached behind my back to grab my katana when a voice suddenly said,"There is no need for that."
The owner of the voice had now showed himself. "I knew if I waited here long enough someone would go into the volcano. Give me the book." he demanded.
The book was still in the volcano but I didn't tell him that. He waited for a reason and I wanted to know what that reason was.
"Why?"
"Don't you know who I am? I am CCKakashi and I am part of the shadow clan."
"No I don't know you. Why do you want the book?" I asked again.
"Becuase I want it that is why."
"Well you can't have it."
"Oh yes I will." he said and threw his arm back to punch me. I quickly ducked and sweep kicked him making him land on his back. He then got up and preceded punch me again when I side stepped him and kicked him in the back of the leg making him fall forward. He caught himself and did a front flip and turned to grab my arm. He twisted it behind my arm and I reached my other arm up over my head and grabbed him by the hair and pulled until he let go and then I flipped him over my head with one quick motion and had him laying on his back. He reached to grab my leg and flipped me backward. I landed hard on top of my sword. I knew I would feel that later. I jumped up just as we went to tackle me back down and when he did I put my foot up and kicked him in the stomach. Then I grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back not stopping until I heard a snapping sound. He then caught me off balance and stomped on my foot. He stood there just leering at me.
"You really need to learn the basics of fighting," he told me.
"I know everything there is to know about fighting," I replied back to him.
"Really? You could have fooled me." he said and then ran at me with his head down. He was going to tackle me. I jumped aside at the last minute and he ran into the side of the volcano. The volcano spit out ashes as if warning him to not hit it again. He looked up at it and was caught in a sense of awe. I took the opportunity to ram him into the wall and when he fell back I leaned over him and caught him by the throat. I picked him up and slammed him into the wall of the volcano again.
"You know, you should really learn the basics of fighting. Never take your eyes off your oppent." I smiled at him, my teeth showing.
"What are you some sort of vampire?" he said
"Maybe, but I would never want to suck your blood." I punched him in the torso and when he bent over I rammed my knee into this face. He grabbed my leg and spun me around, I landed on the ground on my back. I was getting tired of this. He wasn't gonna back down. I had to do something drastic. I made to pull out my katana when he threw two daggers at me. One missed but the other caught my side. It just grazed me but I was still mad. He ran at me again and this time I was soo slow to side step him and he started punching me in the face. I put my arms up to block his blows when I suddenly remembered the power that my hands could now do.
I threw him off me and stood up. I put my arms in the sky and yelled,"Hidden Smoke Jutsu!" Smoke began to pour from my hands and as I made a circle, it engulfed us in a huge ring of smoke. I heard him coughing and chocking, unable to breathe in the smoke. I, on the other hand, could breathe and see just fine.
"Where are you?" he yelled
"Does it matter? You can see me." I said to him. He swung in front of him but missed. I snuck up behind him and put my arm around his neck.
"How does it feel to helpless?" I said very calmly. He didn't answer since I was chocking him. I felt so alive at this moment. Something inside me was moving, trying to get out. I enjoyed seeing and hearing his pain.
"I........will..........not..............go down............without a..............fight," he coughed at me.
"It looks like you are to me," I said. I made to reach for my katana again but then the sense of joy from killing him with my bare hands washed over me. I put my hands on either side of his head and in one swift motion, snapped his neck.
Once the smoke cleared, I watched his dead body fall to the ground and was entranced by how still he was. Then, a noise in the distance caught my attention. I ran to the source of the noise and what I found was horrific. There was blood everywhere and under a pile of leaves was a body of a boy. He was covered in blood from head to toe. His long coat stained from black to red. He had red in his eyes. He looked very demonic. I uncovered him all the way and tried to talk to him. He wasn't coherent and kept saying the word, "Demonkiller." He wouldn't say anything else when I tried to ask his name or what had happened. I knew I had to get him help fast. He was still bleeding from his head and he had obviously lost alot of blood already. I picked him up and put his arm around my shoulders. I walked as fast as I could considering he was walking as slow as he could. I walked back to where the opening into the volcano was.
*************************************

"I wonder what is taking him so long?" Seji asked outloud.
"I don't know." Otama answered.
They were standing in front of where they had eaten and didn't see Smoke.
"Maybe we should go by the shops. He could have gone into one and saw something he liked," Seji suggested.
"Yeah I guess that would be ok. I am gonna go back to the room and get our stuff. I have a feeling that we are gonna need it," Otama said. Seji nodded to him and as Otama left, Seji, Kratos, and Silent went to the shops to look for Smoke.
The shops were at the edge of the village. A forest was behind them. Behind the forest though was a big gap and then the volcano was in the distance.
Every store they passed they checked but to no avail.
"I wonder where he went?" Kratos said.
"It would probably help if we knew what he looked like," Silent finally spoke.
Seji described Smoke to them and they continued their search. As they walked past the last few shopes a girl ran out of one and a man came out after her.
"Hey! Someone get that girl. She just stole a pericous amulet from me!" the owner yelled.
Seji didn't hestiant. He took off after the girl and Kratos followed. Silent took his sweet time coming. The girl ran into the woods and they followed her. She was fast but not as fast as Seji. He took off at high speed leaving Kratos behind. When he saw that she had finally stopped, he stopped too. He looked to see that they were in a deserted field. This was the gap between the forest and the volcano. There was movement behind him and he turned to see that Kratos had finally caught up.
"Man, how do you run so fast like that?" he said and bent over to catch his breath.
The girl had turned around with the amulet around her neck.
"That was fun. Come to take it from me now?" she asked with a sinister smile.
"Yes we are." Kratos yelled at her. He made to run at her when Seji put his arm up to block him.
"Wait Kratos, you musn't get ahead of yourself."
"That's right little boy you don't know who you are messing with."
"A spolied little brat who is gonna get the crude beat out of her." he growled
"Oh yeah. Well little boy maybe you should learn this little brat's name first before you go talking about me. My name is Aqua and I always get what I want." With that she brought her hands together and started making hand motions. She was using her jutsu. Seji told Kratos to stay behing the trees until he called for him. Kratos did as he was told.
Aqua summoned her jutsu just as Kratos moved. "Shadow Illusion Jutsu!" she yelled. All the shadows from the tress leaped up from the ground and made their way to Seji. But he was ready. He had summonded his own jutsu. You could feel the vibrations as he yelled," High-speed Jutsu!" As the shadows reached him he ran to the right avoiding their arms. She summoned them to move after him but he was too fast. He kicked her in the stomach making her fall backwards and before he could do anything else she jumped back up and swung at him. Her fist hit him in the side of the head and he dropped to the ground.
"You think that your better than me? I don't think so," She then had her shadows grab him and they flew back to their owners smacking him into the tree. He hit it hard thinking he heard a cracking sound. He summoned his jutsu again and ran as fast as he could to punch her hard in the face. She fell to the ground clenching her nose. Blood ran through her fingers. She glared up at him.
"You broke my nose. Never mess with a pretty girl's face. You will pay for that."
"I'll remember that when I finally see a pretty girl," he laughed at her.
She was furious but he had stopped for too long and another shadow came and grabbed him again. It smacked him back into the tree. He was started to get tired. His chakra faded. She was good. He summoned it one more time and upper cut her. He grabbed her as he was going by so fast. She screamed and yelled.
"Put me down! Let me go!" She cried trying to hit him but he had her arms locked to her side.
"As you wish," he said and slammed her to the ground. Then he kicked her in the ribs. As she was down Seji yelled to Kratos to throw his dark star at her. He did and it caught her in the middle of the back. She cried out in pain. Seji grabbed the dark star and threw it back at Kratos. He caught it as he ran down and as she got up he hit her in the back casuing her to cry out again. She summoned her shadow once more and they grabbed Kratos. As he flew back into the trees he threw his dark star It missed but hit one of the trees and it's shadow retreated back to it's owner.
"I told you you didn't know who you were messing with. The Shadow Clan ninjas are the best." Kratos ran at her and tackled her back to the ground and began to hit her continuously in the torso and gut. She started to spit up blood and Kratos jumped up to avoid it. Seji grabbed his dark star and handed it back to him.
"Come on Kratos, she can't do anymore." As they went to leave Aqua got up and threw a small dark star at them. It hit Kratos and he cried out in pain. They turned around and Kratos took the little dark stars out of his shoulder and stared at her.
"You would attack when your oppents back is turn?" He asked her.
"Not my fault your turned around when we weren't finished." she smiled
"You are a coward!" He yelled at her and in his anger he threw his dark star at her but she had summoned her shadows for one last time. They reached up and grabbed Kratos and Seji but the dark star hit her right in the chest. She stopped and the shadows let them go. Seji walked up to her and as he bent over her she grabbed him by the arm and threw him over her head. She jumped up and ran toward the woods. She disappeared into the trees and Kratos and Seji walked back through the woods they had just came out of to find that she had collasped right in the middle of the ground.
"What are we suppose to do?" Kratos asked Seji.
"There is nothing we can do. It's kill or be killed around here. She chose her fate and we will accept that." he said as he walked over to her. "She is almost gone now. The reaper will have her soul soon." He put his hand over her eyes and closed them. He then covered her in leaves to show respect. He motioned for Kratos to follow him and they went back through the woods and met Silent back at the shop. He was with Otama.
"Where were you? We could have used your help." Seji asked him.
"I would be no help. I don't have any weapons or jutsus."
"He came back to find me," Otama said, " You look really beat up."
"Yeah I kind of know that already." Seji laughed. "Did you find Smoke?"
"No. I don't know where he went too. I can't find him anywhere."

******************************************

Once I had reached the opening, we walked through and I noticied that the book was no longer there. Neither was the pretty red and gold lights. I wondered if the man come back through here and taken it.
I remember the obastacles I had to go through to get here and I hoped that they weren't still there. It was gonna be a huge pain in the butt. Luckly nothing hindered my way. We walked out and I put him down next to the volcano. I told him I would be right back. I needed to go get help.
"You will be ok for now," I reassured him.
"Please hurry," he whispered to me.
I ran as fast as I could possibly run. Once I had reached the shops I had to stop and catch my breath. Seji and Otama ran to me and asked me what was wrong.
"We have to hurry. There is a man who is badly hurt. Follow me." I told them
"Wait you were at the volcano? Why?" Kratos had asked me.
"I don't have time to explain. I'll tell you later. We have to go now." I said and we ran back to the volcano. When we had reached it, they all looked at the volcano in awe.
"I've never seen it up close before," Kratos said to no one inparticular.
"It's very pretty," Silent said in his "I don't care" kind of attitude. I ran to the guy and started to ask him questions again. He started to become back into reality. He still was saying only one word and that word was Demonkiller.
Once he had finally woken he look scared. He demanded to know what was happening.
"I found you in the woods. You have been badly beaten." I told him.
"Who are you?" He asked
"My name is Smoke. This is Seji and Otama. I don't know these men here." i pointed to the two guys that had come with Seji and Otama.
Seji introduced them as Kratos and Silent.
"I....I remember being in a battle.....with demonkillerakuma."
"Why were you in a battle with him?" Seji asked.
"He was following me and when I noticied him I asked him why he was doing that. He told him none of my business and when I told him either to tell me or stop he said he would do neither. So I challenged him to a fight."
"Wow, kid that wasn't very smart." Silent replied.
"Yeah I know that now. I thought I could take him on."
"Well you couldn't," Silent said
"I know that thank you for pointing it out to me," he glared at Silent.
"What is your name?" Kratos asked
"My name is Ripjaws."
"Well Ripjaws, can you tell us what happened?" Seji asked him.
"Yes I can." He sat up alittle bit and started to tell what happened. "I had challenged him like I said but he paid no attention to me. He just walked away from me. I was going into the shops when I saw movement in the trees in front of me. As I walked toward it I saw a man practicing fighting. I ran out from behind the trees to see that he was the same guy that had been following me. I grabbed my dark star from behind me and I ran to him. My shadow was running by me the whole time. He moves whenever I do. He saw me coming toward him and threw his dark star at me. I ducked as I said,"Come one Demonkiller, is that the best you can do?" I laughed even though I was getting my behind kicked. Demonkiller smiled and said,"NO!" he threw it again and and this time it hit its target. It caught me right in the side.
"How was that Ripjaws?" Demonkiller smiled even wider at me.
"Nice job, but let me show you how it's done." I threw me dark star and it hit the tree behind Demonkiller. He laughed and turned to grab it. As he did that I ran at him and cold cocked him in the back of the head. His face was an inch from the tip of the dark star. When he turned around he had managed to take the star out of the tree and swung his arm back to stab the star into my side. I hit the floor and cried out in pain.
"Nice fighting with you little boy," Demonkiller started taunting me, then kicked me where the dark star was sticking out and took off deeper in the forest."
"Wow that is interesting." Otama said.
"Yeah it is," I agreed with him.
"Does he happend to come from the Shadow Clan?" Seji asked.
"Yes he does, " Rip said wondering how he knew that.
"I think we have some issues to figure out with the Shadow Clan. Almost every person we fight is from there."
"Yeah, you're right," i agreed.
"I think we should start our journey again," Seji said concerned.
"Yeah that would be a good idea. But we can't just leave him here. We have to take him with us." I said to Seji then I turned to Rip and said," Can you walk ok? We will help you if you need it."
"No. I'm ok."
"Where should we go?" Kratos asked.
"We?" Silent asked him.
"Yeah we. I want to help, and I have never seen fighting like what I saw with Seji. I am hoping that he can teach me." He smiled at Seji as Seji blushed alittle. He was always the modest type.
"Ok then, I guess," Silent agreed.
Rip got up and they quickly went back to the village to get more supplies since they were now a group of 6. Once they got everything that they needed, they went back to the volcano and discussed which way they should go.
"I know of a healer in a village not to far from here," Silent said.
"Well then lead the way," I told him, hoping that Rip hadn't lost too much blood by now.

 

[Thy Fairy]

~Chapter Six~
The Leader

The volcano was just a shadow on the horizon. Nothing more than a mere memory. I still thought about what all that "chosen one" stuff meant. All I know is that I have the power now and I plan on keeping it. We had to travel pass the volcano to get to the place where the medicine woman was. I was hoping and wishing that Rip would make it. He kept going in and out of conciousness. His head would roll back and his eyes would go up into his head. You would think that he was possessed. We had to stop every so often so we could rest and give him a few minutes to catch his breath. It was a long and difficult journey. Each of us thinking about what the heck was going to happen next. This last place that we had stopped was just outside of a very small village. Only a few houses and a tiny market place that you walked 10 feet and you were at the end. We could only get a few supplies from there. The moon was hung high in the sky. It had started to get cold and we had to keep Rip warm. This place had a pond with some woods in the back and a small cottage. It was pure white with black windows and a black door. Seji and Silent walked up to it to look through the windows.
"I can't see anything." Silent said.
"I know. That's because the curtains are black," I told him.
"Someone needs to go look around inside. It doesn't look as if anyone lives there." Otama replied.
"I'll go," Kratos volunteered. He walked up to the house slowly. He goes up the steps and puts his hand out to knock on the door. Before he even gets to the door, the rocking chair next to him starts to move. Kratos jumped so high, you would have thought his head had gone through the roof. A small cat had crawled out and ran away scared.
"Nice job Kratos. Scared of a cat, how you plan to learn figthing? What if your oppenent jumps out at u?" Silent laughed at his friend.
"Not funny Silent. Shutup." Kratos growled at him as he went back to the door. He knocked soft at first and when no one came to answer the door, he knocked louder. Nothing happened.
"I guess it's ok to go in. Kratos try the door." I told him. When he did, the door opened right up. We all went in and stopped. Otama kept the door open so we could find a light. Seji was closest to the switch but when he turned it on, it stayed dark.
"Find some candles," I told everyone. They all searched everywhere downstairs for some candles. Kratos was the one to find them. He had opened a cabient that had nothing but candles in it. We sent them everywhere and lit them all. The cottage lit up every nicely. Otama closed the door and we all sat down on the floor. The cottage had no furniture. It was so cold in here. We had to find something to sleep with.
"Good gracious it's cold." Seji said wrapping his arms around himself.
"Yeah I know, this isn't good for Rip either. We need to find blankets." I replied.
"We'll go look," Otama said motioning for Kratos and Silent to follow him. He headed to the stairs to check upstairs.
"Are you ok Rip?" I asked him. He was doing the possessed thing again.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered but weakly.
"We are gonna get you as warm as we can and then we all need to get some sleep."
Seji nodded his head in agreement. Rip just stared at the floor. He looked as if he was going to pass ot.
"Rip, you have to stay awake for now ok?" I said concerned that he wasn't gonna make it. I couldn't handle it if he died right here. We are so close to getting him help. He couldn't just die, not now. I wouldn't let it happen. I refuse to let it happen.
"I......I feel........I feel like........like I'm dieing. I know that I am." he said so clamly, as if he had already excepted it. Well, I didn't except it.
"Rip, you are going to be ok. Don't you dare give up on me." I almost yelled at him. "What the hell is taking them so long?"
"I don't know. Oh wait there they are." Seji looked up as Otama and Kratos came down with huge blankets. Silent came after them with even more and some pillows.
"One of the bedrooms was covered with stuff." Silent replied.
I grabbed as many of the blankets that I could and covered Rip in them all. I put a pillow under his head and wrapped him up so tight that he probably wouldn't be able to get out.
"You can go to sleep now Rip, but promise me that you will wake up again." I said feeling as if I wanted to cry. I didn't even know this guy and I was feeling like I was about to lose one of my best friends.
"I.....promise," he said and closed his eyes. It felt like he had already died. I wished so much that I could stay awake to watch him.
"Ok guys take a blanket and pillow and find somewhere to sleep," Seji told them. I grabbed a blanket and pillow and laid down by Rip. I wanted to make sure I was close by should something happen. Seji laid down next to me.
"He'll be ok Smoke. Don't worry. He is strong," Seji said trying to keep my hopes up.
"I know, but it still makes me worry," I told him. I stared at the celeing and thought about what would happen if he didnt wake up in the morning. What would we do? Where would we go next? Soon, my eyes closed and I fell asleep. I kept dreaming about things I had never seen. I envisioned people who I never knew. Soon I was dreaming about the day in the woods again. I kept seeing shadows everywhere. I heard screams but I thought they were coming from the birds. I didn't pay any attention to it. All of a sudden it dawned on me. Those screams were from my family. It I had not been so stupid I might have had a chance to help them. I started to cry. It was all my fault. Now, I have another chance to help this person. I better not screw this up. My dreams switched to Rip. We had woken up to continue our journey but I couldn't get him to wake up. He was pale and he was not breathing. I started to give him CPR but when I bent down his eyes flew open and he reached up pulled me down to him and then bit into my face. I screamed and blood went everywhere. When I looked back at him, he was sleeping again. Then when I turned around, he was right behind me and bit my neck. I woke up that time soaked in cold sweat. I quickly looked over at Rip. He looked ok but I couldn't see him breathing so I reached over and shook him alittle. He groaned at me and turned over. That was good enough for me. That dream didn’t make me comfortable sleeping next to him. Soon, I fell asleep again but this time I was awoken because I was been shaken very roughly.
“Yeah, I can feel you. You can stop now,” I told whoever was shaking me even though my eyes were closed I could tell who it was. “Yes Kratos,” I said finally opening my eyes.
He looked stunned to know that I had known it was him.
“But… how did you know?”
“I could just tell.” I said and smiled. I looked around to see that Silent had put the blankets and pillows everyone was using back up because he had just come from upstairs. Only Rip and I still had our stuff because we were the only ones still sleeping. I wondered how long I had been sleeping for. Otama answered and said that it was around 10:00. He also said that Seji went out to get everyone some breakfast. Once they mentioned breakfast, I realized how hungry I was. My stomache thought the same and started to growl. Everyone looked at me and laughed. I did too. Once Seji had finally gotten back, we all dug in.
“Wow, yall act as if you haven’t eaten at all,” he smiled at him.
“Well duh. It’s because we haven’t,” I said to him.
“Oh well that is a very good reason then,” he said with a smile and sat down to grab something before it was all gone.
Once I had finished I remembered that Rip was still sleeping so I went to wake him.
“Hey Rip,” I said softly. He groaned but didn’t say anything. “ Rip you gotta get up so you can eat.”
“I……….can’t…..it hurts.” he said very low that I had to put my ear by his mouth.
“Well do you need help? You have to eat something ok? It will help build up your strength.”
“I need help,” he said. I grabbed his arm and got him up then put his arm around my shoulders and brought him to the table. He acted as if he didn’t know what to do. I put some food in front of him and said,” Ok, you are gonna have to feed yourself I don’t play anyones’ mommy,” I said seriously.
“Yeah, you don’t look like the nurturing type Smoke,” Seji said smiling to himself.
“What Is so funny?” I demanded.
“Nothing. Just that you have done a great job taking care of Rip.”
“I would have to agree,” Said Otama.
After they all eat, they decided it was time to hit the road and continue with the journey.
They had gone outside but wasn’t sure where they should head.
“Well, the town the medicine woman lives in is north from here. I think we should go through the forest to cut some time. If not we will have to go around and that will take longer. Rip needs help now,” Silent replied.
“I agree. Let’s go through the woods.” I agreed and lead the way into the woods with Rip hanging on to my shoulder. I wasn’t sure how he was staying strong after all of this, but he was a lucky boy. Someone had to be watching out for him. That’s the only thing that could explain why he hadn’t died yet. I just hope that whoever it is doesn’t give up soon. We walked until we got to a small ledge. The ledge was kind of steep. Kratos volunteered to be the first to go down to make sure it was safe. It wasn’t too bad.
“Just stay close to the rocks and you’ll be find coming down. It’s real easy,” he said as he reached the floor and looked up to watch the others.
It was easy…………for the others. I had to support mine and someone else’s weight. It wasn’t as easy as he thought. At least not for me.
"Need help Smoke," Silent smiled.
"No. I can handle it," I said as I struggled to get down the ledge without making us both fall face first to the ground. Once I managed to get down, I took Rip's arm from around my shoulder and set him down on the ground. He still didn't look so good. Half-dead is what he looked like. I could feel it. Death was waiting for him and not too patiently. The others just stood there looking at me. It was like they didn't know what to do. They wanted for me to say something. To give them direction. "I believe this forest should have some sort of berries or something. Rip needs all the energy he can get. Going down that ledge just took alot out of him." Once I was done speaking they scattered to find something that Rip could eat. I sat down next to him. He looked over at me. His eyelids barely opened. He wanted to say something but he had trouble trying to get it out.
"Smoke......"he whispered.
"Yea."
"Smoke.......I just.......wanted.....to say........that........I know that...........that you tried hard...........don't feel bad if..........," he had to stop and take a big breath," if I don't make it." I looked him dead in the eye and said,"The hell you won't make it. You will and that is an order. You understand me," I said sternly.
"Yes sir, master smoke sir." he smiled at me. Just then, Seji had come back with a shirt full of berries.
"I found some," he said happily. He bent down and set them on the ground in front of Rip. Rip looked at me first, then reached his hand out to take one.
"Did you...... check........... to see if............ they are............ poisonious?" He said.
"Of course. You would have more but they were so good," Seji said as he licked his lips. We all laughed. Rip laughed as best he could, considering it was more coughing then laughing. He picked up a few and put them in his mouth. He gave a look like they were so disgusting.
"What's wrong? You don't like them? I could try and find other kinds." Seji offered.
"No...no. It's just.....so hard to............swallow," Rip replied.
"Oh ok. Anything we can do to help?"
"No, I got it." he said and continued eating. It was a little painful to watch me eat, knowing that he was in pain. Soon the others got back. It had been more than an hour.
"What the heck were you doing?" I asked them. They looked at each other and smiled.
"We found a lake just up ahead. It was surround by bushes with huge berries on it. We kind of got caught up with playing in it." Otama said his eyes at the ground.
"Well, did you at least bring some back with you?" I asked.
"Sure did," Kratos said as he brought his bag over to me and let me look into it. It was filled to the top. He placed it in front of Rip and stood back watching him.
"Ummmm.....guys...........it's kind of hard..............to eat when...........you are all staring at me," he said with a smile that was weak but all he could manage.
We all looked away and went about check out the rest of the woods. I found several birds nest all of which were occupied and tried to attack me. Seji was near and kept laughing every time a momma bird would dart at me. I ducked and ran behind a tree.
"Hey, that is not funny. Stop laughing." I yelled at him.
He stopped real fast, but then started laughing again and pointed above me. I looked up to see that one of the birds was sitting on a branch staring at me. It was like she was waiting for me to move so she could make her move. Very slowly I creeped out from behind the tree and started to head for Seji. Seji looked at me and said, "you better not bring that bird to me. You better run somewhere else," he said still laughing at me. I took off running and the bird took flight. Seji just stood there not knowing which way to go. I ducked really quick and the bird flew smack into Seji. She pecked him so hard all he could do what put his arms up to hide his face and stand there. If was my turn to laugh. I was on the floor laughing so hard at him.
"That's what you get," I told him. Soon the bird gave up and she went back to her nest. He walked over to me and said," You are so lucky. I should have known you would play dirty," he tried to look pissed off but ended up smiling instead.
"You can't get mad, you're too easy going," I told him.
"Yeah I know. It sucks," he said and we both started laughing. Then I realized that we had left Rip by himself.
"Let's go make sure Rip is alright. He should be done eating by now." I said as we walked back to where he was.
He was just sitting playing with the berries. He had spelled out his name.
"Bored?" I laughed.
"Just alittle," he said.
"Mine if I eat those then," Kratos came up behind us.
"Nope. Not at all," he answered. He handed them to Kratos and he put all of them into his mouth at the same time.
"Wow, you must be hungry," i said.
"Yeah these are so good. Let's go to the lake now." he said still munching on the berries.
"Ok then, why not?" I said more to myself then anything. I helped Rip up and we followed Kratos and the others to the lake. We didn't have to go very far. Through a few trees and we were there. The lake was gorgeous. It sparkled as if there were tiny little crytals all over it. We walked up closer to see that it was crystal clear. It was also very deep. The bottom looked like a black hole. The other side of the lake was more shallow and at the bottom was several very colorful rocks. There were even more colorful fish swimming in there as well.
"It looks like a rainbow," Rip said amazed.
"It is so pretty," Seji agreed. Rip took his arm from around my shoulder and sat down on the edge. He took his shoes off and stuck his feet into the water. Soon all the little fish were nibbling at his toes. I sat down next to him and did the same thing. Soon I had fish all over my toes too. Seji decided he didn't want to be left out so he sat down next to me. We all just sat there wiggling our toes. It felt so good to be so carefree, but looking over at Rip I realized that he was trying his hardest to pretend like he was feeling good. I could see in his eyes that he was ready to just give up but for the sake of not dissappointing me, he held on. I turned around to see what Kratos, Otama, and Silent were doing. They were throwing berries at each other.
"The longer we stay here the less time Rip has," I leaned toward Seji and whispered.
"I know. We should really be getting on our way," he agreed.
We got up and Seji decided to carry Rip this time. We walked up to Otama and told him that we needed to go. He agreed as well and Kratos and Silent led the way to the next town.

*********************************************************************

"Wow," Seji replied. "I have never seen a village like this before." We had finally reached our last stop before then medicine woman. Seji and I had switched carrying Rip. I felt more comfortable with me carrying him, because it something were to happen i wanted to have no one to blame but myself.
Silent had explained to them that to get to the place that she was at we had to go through this village, but many people along the way would be trying to sell them stuff. He said that we had to just keep walking and not pay attention to them. They knew how to use spells that could draw you into their shops. As long as you didn't look into their eyes you would be fine.
"Remember, just look ahead. Watch my feet as we travel." Silent told us.
We all walked behind him and Kratos. The village was full of huge outside shops. It was so crowed that we could barely get through. The place was full of color and things to see. There was a shop for jewelry, shoes, clothes, weapons, and even if you wanted to buy shurken heads. They had everything down to if you wanted a nose-picker. As soon as we started to hear the sounds of people trying to get us to come to their stores we keep our heads down.
"Come and look over here. I have all different kinds of mask. Anything you want, I got it." One man said to us.
Silent turned back to us and whispered," They may act nice now but as we pass them you will see their true nature. They are nasty creatures. They decieve you to get what they want." Our eyes widen but we kept them down.
"Stupid little brats. Think they are too good for my shop. I will get your soul. Well I won't get one of yours. Death already has a claim on him." the same man said laughing at them. I felt Rip's grip get weaker around me. He felt as if he was slipping from me. Then without warning, he fell. I stopped and picked him up as fast as I could. The shop owners were almost running at me. Silent then appeared by me and helped me to get him up. We tried to continue walking but Rip had gone limp.
"Put him on your shoulders Smoke," Otama suggested.
Seji had stopped to help me put him on my back. He wasn't that heavy, which made it easier to walk. We had to endure only a little more sneers from the shop keepers, and soon we were out of the village. The city gates were so high. They looked as if they were made to reach the heavens. Silent knocked on the outter door. A pair of eyes peaked through the little rectangle window in the door.
"Who goes there?" a voice asked.
"My name is Silent. These are my friends, Kratos, Otama, Seji, Smoke, and Rip. My friend Rip is in need of the medicine woman. We need to see her immedialty." he said to the door.
"Hold on one moment," the voice said and then the huge doors opened to reveal a tiny man. He bowed to them and ushered them in. "I hope your friend gets better," he told them and once they were in closed the door behind them and sat back into this little booth. The city was covered with big buildings and shops and hunderds of people. It was as busy as could be. They all looked around in awe. Watching as the people of the village went about with their lives.
"This place is huge," Kratos replied.
"Is this where the medicine woman lives?" I asked Silent.
"Yes. She lives in the middle of the city but I am not sure where. We will have to ask someone."
We continued to look around. My back was starting to hurt from carrying Rip. I needed a break for a minute. I told the guys that and we looked around for a place to rest. I spotted several chairs by a booth. No one was sitting in them so we went to them. I put Rip in one of the chairs and the rest of us strechted and got ready to continue on.
"Is he ok?" someone asked. I turned around to see a girl sitting behind the booth. She was wearing dark clothes and makeup. No wonder I didn't notice her before.
"Not really. We really need to find someone who can help him. He is dying." I told the girl. She stood up and walked to us.
"I know of someone who can help you. He's knows alot about wounds and things like that," she said. "He lives just up ahead. I can get you a ride there so you don't have to walk."
"Thank you so much," I said and she blushed.
"It's no problem at all." She ran off. I assumed to find us a way to get there without walking.
"I hope this guy can help him. " Otama said
"I wonder who this guy is. The only medicine person I have heard of is the woman. Not a man." Silent replied.
"We'll see soon, here she comes," Seji said pointing in her direction.
She had brought a man with her who had a horse drawn cart.
"This is my brother. He will take you to the place you need to go. I hope he can help you," she said and went back to her booth. We all got into the cart and her brother pulled us along. It was a bumpy road. Not very comfortable at all. Every bump we hit I would smack the side of the cart. My ribs were hurting by the time we stopped. I looked around to see that we were in front of a house. A very big house. We all got out and thanked the girl's brother and he pulled off.
"Well, lets go," I said as Seji helped me get Rip to the door. Seji knocked and we waiting for an answer. A few seconds letter the door opened and a man in his 20's was looking at us.
"Can I help you gentlemen?" he said poitley. He wore red medical clothes and a black bandana with a chain that has a small skull on it. His hair was black hair and he had black eyes. He didn't look like your normal doctor.
"We were told that you could help us." I said to him. "My friend here needs some help." I pulled Rip forward to let him see and he gasped.
"This man should have been sent to me along time ago." he said and pulled me and Rip forward into the house. The rest of them followed us in.
We followed him all the way to hte back of his house.
"By the way my name is Pako." He told us.
"I am Smoke and this is Rip." I replied.
"My name is Seji and this is Otama, Kratos, and Silent." he said pointing to each of them in turn.
Pako had several beds at the back of his house. I guessed this is where he does his medicine. He told me to lay Rip down on one.
He then ordered everyone but me to get out and go sit in his sitting room.
"Ok, now what I need you to do is take this cloth and wipe all the blood off please," he handed me a towel.
I began to wipe off all the dried blood that he had on him. He groaned alittle.
"It will hurt him but it's better to get it off. Then I will be able to see his wounds better." he continued gathering all his instruments and I kept wiping the blood. He came back and sat on the other side of Rip. He had all the things he would need on a steel table.
"OK, now what we do is check to see how bad the wounds are. Meaning how deep or what not.," he told me. I just watched him. He searched everywhere one Rip that showed. "We need to talk his clothes off. At least just his shirt and pants." He leaned Rip up alittle and pulled his shirt over his head. Then he asked me to hold his lower body so he could take his pants off. I did as I was told. Once Rip's clothes were gone he began checking his wounds again.
"Ok well they are pretty bad. I am amazed that he didn't die. In fact I almost wish I could study him. He's wounds are way beyond me. I can give him something for pain but you will have to find someone else to help him."
"Well who else is there?" I asked half-yelling at him.
"There is a medicine woman that can help him. She lives in the heart of the city. Everyone goes to her,"
"Can you show us where she lives?" I asked. I didn't want to have to walk back to the city and then try to find out where the hell she was.
"Of course. That's the least I can do." We got Rip dressed again and he gave him some pain medicine. He then gave it to me and we went out to the others. They were all sitting on the couches in the sitting room. They stood up when we walked in.
"He is going to show us where the medicine woman lives," I told them. They nodded their heads and we walked outside. He got into his cart and we got in after him. I sat up front with Rip and we moved forward on the bumpy road we had just ridden on to get here. It took almost half an hour to get to the city.
Once we got there, Pako took us down a small and narrow road. It was dark and smelled. A few minutes later, we were in front of a big castle-like house. It was dark and gothic looking.
"This is the place. She is kind of strange but she knows her stuff. She will be able to help your friend." he told us.
"Do you know her personally?" Seji asked him.
"As a matter of fact, I do. I've sent many people to her."
"Are you coming in with us?" Kratos asked.
"Well, I wasn't planning on it, but I guess it would be ok. I haven't talked to her in awhile and I could explain his situation to her." We got out the cart and walked up to the house.

*****************************************************************


Andrea stopped her horse just outside of a village. The others stopped behind her.
“What’s goin on?” Gen asked. “Why are we stopping, we are almost in the town.”
“I think it’s time to give the horses a break. We can walk to the village. It’s only right there.” She said pointing in the direction of the town.
"I think we need a break too," Zipp said.
They had ridden into a village that looked as if it was deserted. The only thing that was around was a few tents and one little shop. A few houses were left standing. There was a watering hole by one of the houses.
“Well, you can walk but I don’t want to,” he said stubbornly. His brother Cloud following his brother and staying on his horse.
“Suit yourself. I don’t really care,” She told him. He rolled his eyes at her and they continued on until they got to the village. They walked through without so much as one person saying anything to them. The town was big but no one seemed to be outside.
“I wonder where everyone is,” Life said.
“Maybe they have a holiday where they don’t come outside.” Take said seriously.
“Ummm….I don’t know about that but I do know that we need to find someone so we can stock up on supplies.” Life said.
“Well, lets split up and see if we can find anyone.” Andrea said. Gen and Cloud went one way, while Leblanc, Miika, and Dark went the other way. Take and Zipp decided to stay by the horses. Andrea and Life walked on to see what they could find.
“What if we don’t find anyone?” Life asked her.
“Then we will take whatever it is and leave money on the table. That’s all we can do.”
“Yeah, I guess that would be a good idea“ He said.
“I don’t know what else that we can do.”
“I don’t know either. What about that guy?” he looked over at his horse who was still carrying the body of the guy that they had found. “What is going to happen to him.”
“I don’t know. He looks as if he’s gonna die right now. I just hope we can find this medicine woman soon.”
“Yeah me too.”
They found a small shop and left the horses outside while they check it out. The inside was very small. Life stayed by the door with the door open so he could keep an eye out on the horses. No one was in here.
“Hello!” Andrea said loudly. “I need to buy some things from your store.” No one answered, so she began to take the things that she needed. She could feel Life staring at her.
“What is wrong Life?”
“I just don’t feel right.”
“Why, we are going to leave them money, see here” I put the money on the counter and walked back to the others.
“We haven’t found anyone,” Gen told me.
Neither have we.”: Leblanc informed me.
"THe horses are fine though," Zipp said proudly.
“THank you Zipp and Takd and that is fine, we got what we needed. We can continue somewhere else. This town is creeping me out.” Andrea shivered.
They hoped onto their horses and then Gen turned around to face her. “Hey, what are we gonna do about dead boy over there.” Zipp and Take looked at Ex and they both got shivers.
“Umm lets’ see. How about I don’t know and you don’t call him that again.”
“Fine fine, whatever you say.” We left the village to come across a small pond. The pond was perfect for them to rest at for a few minutes. They let the horses drink the water as they did the same. Life put the man next to the pond as well. They all sat down in a circle and talked about what they were gonna do about this man.
“He doesn’t look so good,” Cloud commented.
“I think we know that already,” Dark replied.
“We have to find this lady soon that can help him.” Miika said.
“I know.” Andrea said.
“Maybe instead of sitting here we should just get up and go.” Life suggested.
"It's getting so hot," Zipp said sweating under the sun.
“Yea, it’s just that we have been walking forever and we and the horses need a break.” Andrea answered to Life.
“I know that Andrea, but he might not have that much time left. We need to get going. Let’s get the horses ready again. Leblanc give them some food and let them drink alittle before we go.” She did as she was told and we all got something to eat and drink as well. Andrea stared at the water wondering what was going to happen to this person.
After Leblanc was finished with the horses they set off again and let Gen led them since he knew where to go.