Questions, But No Answers
When Li gained consciousness, she found herself in a small clearing,
surrounded by trees. It was early morning and there was still dew left
on the ground. She could feel the moisture seeping through her jeans so
she quickly stood. With her head pounding she couldn't keep her balance
very well and had to lean against a tree. I feel as if I had 10
rounds with a sledgehammer, and lost...
After regaining some footing, and wiping the wet leaves and grass from
her pants, she looked around more carefully, trying to see where she
was. As she did so, she saw something she didn't see the first time.
There in the shadows was the same man from before. She had not come to
this place alone.
She caught her breath and began to back up slowly. The man stepped out
of the shadows, so his features were visible. He had a normal
complexion, a little tan, like hers; judging from where she stood, he
was a little taller than she. His eyes were closed so she couldn't tell
what color they were. His hair was black and cut long, down to the
middle of his back. It had a bluish-green tint to it the Li found quite
striking and she couldn't help but stare at it a few moments. He was
adorned in dark brown, leather trousers and a dark grey, almost black,
tunic. On top of the tunic he wore a black, tinted blue, breast-plate
and shoulder armor.
Around his waist was an ornate jeweled belt; many of those jewels Li
didn't even recognize. A black cape swirled in the wind on his back and
part of it covered his right shoulder and a long thin sword hung at his side.
He smiled slightly and then opened his eyes. They were cat-slitted and
yellowish-red in color. At this, Li backed up more, finally coming to a
rest when her back hit a tree. When he spoke, his voice rang with a
boyish timbre. "Awake at last, my angel? It was nice watching you sleep..."
Li ran. She was scared out of her wits and she wasn't going to stick
around to see what this man wanted. She could hear him behind her. She
chanced a look back and nearly stumbled. Behind her, he stood a ways
away. And then in a few moments and a streaked blur, he was right behind
her. Then he would wait till she was a distance away and repeat the
process. He's toying with me!! She thought frantically, and then
focused on just running.
On a few of the occasions where he was right behind her, she could hear
him speaking to her, "Please my angel...don't run. Stay with me. I will
treat you nice...." This just made her run all the faster. When she felt
his hand on her hair she screamed and tried to run faster then she was
able. She lost her footing and tripped and before she hit the ground, he
caught her. Looking up at his grinning face, Li screamed again and
continued running.
"You're just wearing yourself out!!! There is no point in this my
angel!!" he ran up behind her again. "You will be my angel." Li
continued to run.
"I'm not your angel!! Leave me alone!!" she screamed. All he did was laugh.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Lina and her troup were just walking along, heading for the next town
as usual. Nothing was particularly different about this day, but
Shylfiel had a bad feeling. Lina shrugged it off as her just being
jumpy and ignored her completely when she hung on to Gourry's arm. Zel
seemed slightly nervous and Lina guessed it was either Shylfiel's words,
or the fact that Amelia looked like she was about to hang on his arm.
Amelia had seemed to take Shylfiel's words to heart and Gourry couldn't
really care less, let along think about it.
Lina instantly remember her words, however, when a scream reverberated
through the woods they were traveling in. Gourry pulled out his sword
and Lina got a fireball ready. Out of the corner of her eye she could
see the others get ready as well. She heard another scream, more shrill
this time, and then some words. They were hardly recognizable. "I'm not
your angel!! Leave me alone!!"
Everyone looked at each other somewhat confused. The screaming was
coming closer and all were getting very tense. Then, with a flying of
shrubbery, a young woman cam flying onto the path they were on, still
screaming. Lina only caught a glimpse before she the girl went flying
into the woods on the other side of the path. Shocked, the travelers
looked at each other. Lina just shrugged. "Not our business." she
muttered and was about to continue on her way. But then her attention
was caught again.
A fast-moving blur came up to the path. When it stopped, Lina could see
it was a man. The man smiled at them, winked an eye, and sped off in the
direction the woman had taken. She could still hear the screams a little
ways away.
Turning back to the group, Lina nodded in unison with the others.
"We're involved." With the exception of Gourry, all had seen what she had seen.
Cat-slitted eyes.
Mazoku.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Li couldn't help but keep screaming. The man was still after her.
At first she lost sight of him, but then he was right again on her tail.
With another shrill scream she leapt over a log and landed on a loose
rock. Her ankle twisted and she fell. Somehow she had managed to twist
around and landed against the hard ground with her back; her backpack
was still in her arms.
Soon the man towered over her. His eyes were closed once again and
the smug grin was also present. "Why did you run my angel? This would
have been over a lot quicker if you hadn't run." He placed his hands on
his hips and didn't say anymore.
After the pain had stopped shooting through her spine she looked up
with a wavering eye. "I…am…not…your…angel. I…am…not…anyone's…angel." she
spoke slowly, so he would finally get the point. He smirked again.
"Oh but you are, Lycia. You are my angel. You were from the
beginning." With this he leaned forward and was about to grab her with
an outstretched hand. Dropping the backpack onto the ground she crossed
her arms in front of her face.
Before his hand could reach her it was repelled by an invisible
wall. It flashed white every time he touched it and appeared to hurt
him. He opened his eyes and she could see extreme hate radiating through
them. "You won't protect her!! I've waited too long for this
day!!" he muttered at her. Soon, the white shield wavered and
disappeared. He smirked. "Still not that strong…just as I suspected. You
haven't been in our home-world long enough. Also as I suspected."
He started to reach forward again and Li scrambled backward. "LEAVE
ME ALONE!!" she yelled. After a moment a ball of fire went flying
between them. Heatedly, the man looked in the direction in which it came.
A short girl, about the age of fifteen, with fiery red hair, stood
a ways away. A tall blonde man, with a sword in hand, stood next to her.
Another man, or what she guessed was a man, stood to the other side of
the girl. Metallic purple hair streamed out of the top of his cloak.
Another girl stood next to the cloaked man. She looked younger then the
fiery-haired girl, but not by much. Finally, there was a woman with long
raven hair, standing next to the tall blonde man. Both the man and woman
appeared to be the same age. The fiery-haired one stepped forward. "The
lady said to leave her alone. Are ya deaf?"
The man sneered to himself. "Ms. Lina Inverse. To kill you would be
fun, but it's not my mission." He turned back to Li. "Till we meet
again, my angel." and with that, he disappeared into thin air. Li just
sat on the ground dumbfounded. She didn't know where she was, who these
other people were, and what she was going to do now.
The blonde man put his sword away and everyone seemed to stand down
to a relaxed position. They all converged toward her and she cowered
slightly. When they got closer, none seemed threatening. All but the
fiery-haired girl stopped a little ways away. "What did he want?" she asked.
Li snapped her attention to the girl. "I…I don't know…" she managed
to stammer. She then got a better look at the girl. A hint of maturity
glinted in her ruby colored eyes. But maturity didn't show anywhere
else. She didn't seem very well endowed, and short too. But the spark of
life was strong in her and Li knew, somehow, that she could be trusted.
Then, the girl seemed very familiar. Noticing her backpack for the
first time since she was there, she opened it and pulled out her
sketchbook and turned it to a particular page. The fiery-haired girl
glanced over to the paper, but Li didn't know, or care, if she could see.
Wide-eyed, Li turned other pages and looked around at the others.
Sure enough, every single one had a page with a likeness of them on it.
All in detail…and all had been done in her strange trances like the one
by the seaside. There were a few pictures of people that weren't
present, but it was scary enough for her. With a jerk, she threw the
sketchbook a ways away from her and stared at it for a moment. Then, for
some reason, panic gripped her. She jumped to her feet and took off
running, grabbing her backpack and flinging it to her shoulder. She
didn't know what her destination was, or what she was going to do if she
ran into him again. But she had to get out of there.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Lina tried to look at what the girl was looking at, but wasn't
successful. She did notice, however, that it was some type of drawing
book; a small bag of charcoal-looking sticks were attached to the
corner. She was slightly startled when the girl threw the drawing book
she was holding in front of her, and then doubly startled when the girl
took off. With a questioning look she looked back at the others. All
shrugged, except for Zel, who was staring wide-eyed at the book the girl
threw. With a quick glance, he summoned Lina over.
When Lina approached he handed the book over to her. She caught her
breath when she looked at the pages. Her, Zelgadis, Gourry, Amelia,
Shylfiel, Rezo, Ellis, and a few others were all drawn on individual
pages. They were almost exact likenesses, down to the smallest detail.
One couldn't draw this exact unless they stared at their subjects for
hours on end….but none of them had ever seen the girl before in their
whole lives. How could this be? She turned to the others.
"Well, I'm curious. Who's up to finding her and finding out how she
knew what we looked like?" all of them nodded and they were soon running
in the direction that the girl had. Lina had the sketchbook tucked under
her arm. She would get some answers.
^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^&^
Well, there's the end of the second Chapter. Enjoying it? ^_^
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