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Tomorrow's Way ~ Part One: Journey to Port Town/ Day 1 |
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Note: The author of this story is currently in Japan and I'm just her editor who was forced into this. This story was mainly posted for my friends to read, but if you're bored and have nothing else to do, then feel free to knock yourself out.
Part 1:
Journey to Port Town
Day 1:
“Megumi!” I called out to my best friend as I ran out of my school.
She turned around to the sound of my voice as I caught up to her.
“Kirin, you’re so slow. What took you so long?” she asked.
“The teacher made us stay late," I explained as we began walking.
“We’d better hurry or we’ll miss the bus," Megumi said, quickening her pace.
The two of us broke into a run, only to slow down because there was too many people in our way.
“Damn! We’ll never make it at this rate," Megumi sighed.
“We need to go through!” I cried out, but everyone in front of me seemed to ignore me.
Then, there was an opening between the mass of people. Megumi and I shot through it in a flash and we were speeding to the buses.
“Isn’t that Kaze and Elliot?” I asked Megumi, pointing to running figures far ahead.
Kaze and Elliot were guys who rode our bus. We’ve known them ever since elementary school and we’ve been riding the same bus ever since.
The buses began to move as Kaze and Elliot slowed down. The buses wouldn’t stop for you when they start moving, so it’s futile to run after them. Megumi and I skidded to a halt behind them.
“Damn! We missed it!” I complained.
“That’s no surprise," Kaze said.
I punched him on the shoulder.
“Shut up! You missed it too," I pointed out.
“This is the third time this week. I can’t call home saying I missed the bus again!” Megumi moaned.
“Then why don’t we walk home?” I suggested to her.
“That’s what I was going to do," Elliot informed.
I turned to Kaze.
“What about you? Are you going to walk home?” I asked.
“I might as well. I don’t want to call my mom out of work just to pick me up. I’ll be waiting forever," he answered.
Megumi broke into a run towards the sidewalk that led off of school grounds.
“C’mon, Kirin! I’m going to leave you behind!” she teased.
“Awwww, but I don’t want to run," I complained, running after her.
“You guys are so immature!” Elliot teased.
I ran after Megumi for awhile. She stopped running pretty soon to catch her breath. I slowed down as I caught up to her.
“Out of breath?” I teased.
“My knee hurts…” she said.
“Can you walk?” I asked.
“Ugh… but it’ll hurt," she sighed.
“Let’s get off the sidewalk and see what’s wrong with it then," I suggested.
I helped Megumi off the sidewalk and we sat down on the grass. We examined her knee.
“I wonder… did you dislocate it?” I asked.
“By just running?” she inquired.
“Maybe it’s a cramp? We should rest here for a bit," I told her.
“I guess," she agreed.
Two figures came in view. I recognized Kaze’s and Elliot’s figures as they came closer. They went towards us.
“What happened? Tired already?” Elliot teased, stopping beside us with Kaze.
“No. I just got a cramp. Now go away," Megumi snapped.
“Where?” Kaze asked, crouching beside Megumi.
She was going to give him a sharp response when I answered before her.
“It’s her knee,"
“Kirin! Don’t tell them-”
Kaze began to massage her knee.
“What have you been doing? All your muscles just tensed up," he said, as Megumi’s face began to redden.
“On her knee? I expected something like that to happen around her arms since she’s part of the archery team," Elliot remarked as he crouched down too.
“See, Megumi, they’re worried about you," I teased.
“Quiet," she snapped.
We watched Kaze massage her knee for a bit.
“There. It should be better a bit," Kaze said, releasing her knee.
Megumi stood up and tested it.
“It’s all better now!” she marveled as she began to walk around.
“I’m guessing she tenses up around that area while she’s in archery class- but maybe it’s because we’re in the jogging lessons in P.E.," he explained to Elliot and me as we all stood up.
Then all of a sudden the ground began to shake viciously.
“An earthquake!?” I exclaimed.
Megumi began to scream. Everyone turned to her. The ground under her must have crumbled away or something, but there was a dark hole and she was hanging on the edge for dear life.
“Megumi!” I cried out, rushing towards her.
She grabbed my arm and I tried to pull her up. I nearly fell in when I felt someone’s arms go around my waist and pull me back up.
“Elliot!” I cried out.
“Shut up! Just pull her out you idiot!” he snapped.
Kaze went beside me and helped me pull Megumi when there was a huge jerk in the earthquake causing all of us to fall forward.
All four of us went plunging into the hole and then I blacked out.
The sound of shattering glass and the smell of fire forced me to wake up. I shot up and found that I was sitting on a chair and my head had been down in a sleeping position. Smoke was everywhere. I stood up knocking down the chair and looked around wildly. I was in a small looking house- or cottage maybe. I was dressed in something other than my school uniform. It’s hard for me to explain. I don’t even know what it’s called. To put it bluntly, I looked like I came out of some nerdy computer game about the medieval times or something. I even had two swords on my belt too! Their blades were both slim and looked like they could easily break in two.
Anyways, back to my predicament. Shattering glass? Smoke in the air? What the hell happened? I was falling in a hole! Not at some cottage of some sort. Where was everyone else?
I looked wildly around.
“Megumi!? Kaze!? Elliot!?” I called out.
Kaze burst out of a room.
“Kirin! Where’s Megumi!? Where’s Elliot!?” he asked me as he rushed towards me.
He had a huge sword strapped to his back. If this was some kind of computer game, he’d be called a heavy blade or something. I wonder if that would make me a twin blade?
“I don’t know!” I cried, not bothering to hide the panic in my voice. “And by the sound of what’s going on, this place is being attacked!”
Before anything else could happen, an arrow went flying through the window of the cottage.
“Let’s get out of here first! I’m sure Elliot and Megumi has the brains to get out too and I doubt they can sleep through all this noise," Kaze told me.
The two of us ran out of the cottage to find complete chaos outside. There were soldiers on horses everywhere. They were slaying everyone. All of a sudden someone roughly grabbed my shoulders. I turned to see a frightened villager.
“Run! You’re still young! You can save yourself!” he screamed.
I noticed that he was slashed on his shoulder and he was bleeding terribly.
“There’s no way I can leave you like this. I’ll help you out," I said.
“Bless you, my dear… but it’s too late for me," he sighed as his hands on my shoulder fell away.
And then… he died.
“Kirin! Come on, lets go," Kaze said.
I drew out my swords.
“I doubt we can get out of here without a fight, but let’s try to avoid it as much as possible," I said.
Kaze and I began to run. We were stopped quite a few times by soldiers, but I (oddly with skill) exterminated them with ease.
“Since when was I good with a sword?” I wondered out loud.
“I don’t know.” Kaze answered. “But I think I’m going to slay one of the guys on a horse, and we can steal it that way,"
“Yeah, it’ll be easier to get out when we have a horse," I agreed, when two figures caught my eye.
“Look! It’s Megumi and Elliot," I pointed out, running towards them.
“Kirin! Kaze!” Megumi gasped.
She was holding a bow and her quiver was packed with arrows. If this was a computer game, she’d probably be an archer. Elliot was holding a book. It had words I couldn’t read on the cover. Judging by the way he was dressed and the book, I’d say he’d be something like a magic user or something of the sort.
“We’re planning on stealing a horse, but now that there’s four of us, I think two would be nice," Kaze explained.
“Good idea, we’ll get away more easily,"
Megumi took out an arrow and aimed at a person on a horse. Then she released. The arrow went whizzing towards the person and he was shot down. Kaze was there in a flash and he boarded the horse before it had galloped away. During that, Megumi had taken down another person and Elliot was boarding the person’s horse. Kaze got the horse to gallop towards me as he extended his hand to help me up when Elliot came by.
“Kaze, it’ll be to our advantage if you went with Megumi. She can shoot people from a distance and I can use my powers to destroy people from a distance," Elliot suggested, extending his hand towards me.
“Right," Kaze agreed and he helped Megumi up onto his horse.
I took Elliot’s hand and was on his horse. Then we were off. Megumi was nonstop shooting with her arrows to whomever came at us. Elliot was trying to get rid of all the people who looked like they can shoot from far range. I noticed that Elliot was using fire magic and occasionally he’d use thunder.
Soon we were galloping out of the village and out into the wild. We decided to take a break after a while. We were in a forest.
We tied the reins to a tree so that the horses wouldn‘t run away, but they were just eating grass so it really didn‘t seem like something we should worry about.
“This is so confusing. Last I checked before all this, we were falling in a hole," I said as I rubbed my sore legs from the riding.
“I guess the hole was a portal to another world?” Megumi suggested.
“That’s really unlikely," Kaze sighed.
Elliot pulled out a map from his belt. Kaze and I turned and stared at him with a questioning look.
“I grabbed it from the house I was in before I left," he answered and added, “It’s really a good thing I did, too,"
He spread it out in front of us. There were five kingdoms on the map: Regin, Tamasen, Serinia, Ristern, and Alaries. They had cities on the maps, but most of the places were villages or towns. The only cities were the capitals and that is where the kings and queens dwell, I bet. Also, there were small sentences scribbled down on the maps.
“Look," Kaze said, and pointed to the Ristern capital (capitals are named after the kingdoms).
“The wisest sages can be found here. The theatres for plays are a must-see," he read.
“Wisest sages?” Megumi repeated.
“I get it. The wisest sages, you’re thinking that we should travel to Ristern and consult with the sages about our problem," I said.
“That’s what I was thinking, but the problem is, where are we?” Elliot put in.
“We’re in the Regin kingdom," Megumi said and pointed to a village. “That was the village we came out of,"
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Because I saw the sign while we were leaving," she said.
“It’s a good thing we have you, Meg!” I cried out, happily.
“What about me? Without me, we wouldn’t have a map," Elliot teased.
“You too!” I said.
“Don’t flatter him," Kaze laughed.
“We know the village we came from, but we left it, so we have no idea still," I complained.
Elliot rummaged through the pack that was slung around his shoulder. I guess that was already there when he woke up.
“Just as I thought, there’s a compass in here," he said, pulling out a circular object.
We all crowded around him watching the arrow spin to the north.
“North west. We went north west," Elliot said and then turned back to the map. “We’re in the Karita Forest. The closest town from here is Karita which is north from here,"
I gazed at the map.
“Let’s travel over to Karita and then plan out our next action in an inn or something," I suggested.
“Yeah," Megumi agreed and then she turned to Elliot. “Hey, do you see any money in that bag?”
Elliot rummaged through his bag again and he pulled out a pouch. He opened it and dumped out a few coins in his hand. Some were gold, some were silver, some were bronze, and some were a dull gray.
“Cool!” I remarked.
“How are we going to know how to pay people?” Megumi moaned.
“Well… we’ll ask someone about it, but we better not do it directly or we’ll seem completely clueless. People will start to take advantage of us if that happened," Kaze said.
“Okay, let’s get some sleep," Megumi suggested.
Reluctantly we all laid down on the grass. Elliot found cloaks for all four of us in his bag and gave each one of us a cloak. I couldn’t sleep though. There was so much to take in. I know Megumi didn’t have trouble with sleeping about it. I listened to her steady breath as she slept. I sat up. It wouldn’t be right if we all went to sleep anyways. We needed a lookout for wild animals or for an ambush. I went and sat beside the sleeping horses with my cloak wrapped tightly around me. I heard footsteps behind me. I turned to see Kaze walking towards me. He sat down beside me.
“We’re going to be riding the horses all day. You really should rest," he said.
“But we need a lookout. What if thieves come or wild animals attack?” I pointed out.
“I guess you do have a point. Why don’t I be the lookout?” he suggested.
“My second excuse is that I can’t sleep," I said.
“Hm… me too. So much has happened. I’m actually surprised we dealt with everything calmly without much panic," he replied.
I found comfort in Kaze’s presence. Although I haven’t admitted this to Megumi, who was my best friend ever since elementary, I’ve always liked Kaze. It took me until sixth grade to admit it to myself. Though I never tried to do anything to show my feelings to him. He was just a friend to me.
I peeked over at Kaze who was looking straight ahead. His dirty blonde hair waved in the wind. His bluish green eyes… I looked away quickly as I blushed.
I looked up and saw the stars behind the leafy branches of the trees.
“Look at the stars. They’re so clear," I gasped.
Kaze looked up too.
“I wish I brought a camera," he remarked.
“Yeah, and then we can take pictures of each other in our ridiculous outfits," I giggled.
The two of us were silent and then I turned to Kaze for the sake of a conversation.
“Hey, if you had a choice, what would you have chose? Do you like having a big sword?” I asked.
Kaze turned to me.
“Hm? I don’t know… I think this is fine," he said.
“Really? For me… I think I wanted to be a fairy or something that can fly," I said.
“Why?” he asked.
“For one thing, I can fly instead of riding a horse and getting saddle sores. Besides, I’ve always wanted to fly," I answered.
“Haven’t you ridden an airplane?” Kaze asked.
“That’s different. It’s loud and noisy. You can’t even feel the wind," I pouted. “I want flying where you can do twirls and flips in the air. Maybe even try to touch clouds,"
“You’re so weird, Kirin," he remarked.
“What about you then? What do you dream about?” I demanded.
“I’m not going to tell you," Kaze said.
“I told you!” I pointed out.
“But I never asked. You brought it up," he informed.
“Kaze!” I sighed.
There was another silence.
“Sorry, I just don’t feel like telling you," he said at last.
“Oh well, if you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to. You’re probably so defensive about it because you’re always dreaming about Megumi, huh?” I teased.
“You’re way off," he said, still keeping his cool.
All of a sudden, I found myself nodding off a bit. My neck began to hurt every time I’d jerk myself awake.
“Just go to sleep," Kaze said. “You really need it,"
“No. I’ll keep watch…” I couldn’t help a yawn.
My head felt so heavy. I managed to sit there with Kaze for a little longer and then I found everything getting darker. Kaze’s scent was the last thing I scented before I doze off.
End of Day 1~
 SweetHotChocoIate · Sun Jun 22, 2008 @ 10:30am · 0 Comments |
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