Thursday, November 17, 2005

   Nobody's commenting
That makes me sad. Say something!!

Question of the day:
What is your favorite j-pop or anime song?
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Sunday, November 13, 2005

   Other Writing Stuff
I haven't been able to write very much recently because I'm editing three pieces of stories (including this one) that I'm planning to send to Scholastic for their novel writing contest. I should be done within the next week, however, so hopefully I'll be getting back to Pen and his friends by next weekend.
If you'd be interested in reading the other stories, please email me at thedoorknob@hotmail.com and I'll send them to you as attachments. It would be a great help to me to hear your opinions on them. BTW, they're all part of the same series. You'll get a glimpse into the past and into the not-too-distant future!! Oh, and there's no spoilers ^_^
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   Chapter 16: Call to the People (part 3)
By the time night fell, their clothes were dry and the sky was beginning to clear. Stars twinkled down on them through breaks in the clouds, and the blue moon cast an unsteady light upon the mountains.
Despite everything, the kids bathed in the beauty of the stars. Their stomachs felt as empty as their hearts; so much so that even the simple, gently sparking lights were like tiny specks of hope. Solefully, they looked at the glittering water of the river, so terribly empty and clear, having washed away all last remnants of the fight.
After many, many hours, a single voice finally broke through the wall of silence. It was Lucifer.
“What do we do now?” he said, gazing with concern upon Aurora’s pale face. Drawn suddenly out of their own thoughts, the kids of the Caravan turned to look at him, turned into ghosts by the light of the moon. Lucifer was growing impatient, and with his impatience came anger. “What the hell do we do now?!” he cried, more loudly.
“We don’t do anything,” Nomei retorted, coming nearer to him in the darkness. “We can’t do anything. There’s no way to contact anyone: we have no pseudodragons or any way to send a message by flight or magic. We have no boats.”
“We cannot cross the mountains,” Sharp put in. “We do not know the way, nor do we have any supplies for the treacherous journey. For us to have any chance to survive, we will need to treck along the river to the best of our ability. It will be slow, since we’ll need to hunt for ourselves as well. Two weeks at least, I’m guessing.”
“No!” Lucifer yelled, his anger finally getting the better of him. “We can’t do that!! Aurora will be dead by then!”
Sharp’s voice became as hard as the stone of the cliffs. “She will left behind, Lucifer,” he stated, his eyes seeming to glow coldly in the dark.
Lucifer’s mouth did not seem to find any words to his statement for an entire minute. Then, suddenly, he began to swear madly, his rage drowning all rational thought. His anger turned him into a demon.
He fell upon Sharp so rapidly that nobody had a chance to react. With his bare hands, he tore the red armor off the angel and smashed every part of Sharp’s body that he could find. Nomei tried to get a grip on him, but he spun around and his fist met the side of her face with a sickening sound.
The kids stared, disturbed. Lucifer’s dark eyes seemed to have turned black.
Lucifer, spoke a silent voice around them all. The black-winged angel stopped suddenly, surprised by the voice in his head. He looked around himself, trying to make sense of what had happened. Somehow, his eyes became locked to a place in the shadows of the forest. He couldn’t look away.
That’s enough, Lucifer, said the voice.
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Thursday, November 10, 2005

   Chapter 16: Call to the People (part 2)
Yatii and Raine’s faces were stained with tears when they returned to Lucifer. The members of the two groups, who had all miraculously survived the wyvern’s attack, were scattered around the edge of the forest where their clothes hung. They mostly kept to themselves as they tried to grasp the magnitude of the situation. Lucifer had covered Aurora in his leather clothes—which had resisted the water and were still dry—in the attempt to keep her warm. Even wearing only a pair of boxers and his wings, wrapped around himself, he somehow looked no less dignified.
Raine carefully cleared a patch of moss near the roots of the tree and set Sasheeta down on it. He unsheathed Judgement and stuck her in the ground between him and the injured dragon. Gathering a handful of tiny twigs, he arranged them around the blade in the angel-magic symbol for healing, just as his mother had taught him.
Lucifer watched curiously as the half-dragon sat down before his setup and closed his eyes to concentrate. After a moment of thick silence, he touched his finger to the twig-symbol, sending a spark of blue magic through them. The blue light traveled through the white part of Judgement’s blade, before springing forward to envelope Sasheeta.
For many minutes, the two of them were covered in the blue magic. Then, having done all he could, Raine drew back his hand, breaking the spell. He scattered the twigs back into the forest, before returning his sword back to its scabbard.
“She will be unconscious for another day or so, I believe,” he reported to a concerned Yatii. “I’ve healed as much of her wings and bruises as I dare.”
“If you could manage to fix her broken wing into a splint, it would probably be less painful for her to move,” Yatii said wisely. Raine nodded.
“You’re right, but I must rest for now. I’ve never healed a dragon before; it’s taken a lot out of me.”
“I’ll do it,” Ed broke in, turning around from where he was sitting. “I’ve put a bird’s wing into a splint before.”
“Sure. Just be sure not to be too rough on her. She’s still very delicate.”
With those words, Ed and Yatii left the group in the search for a suitably straight and small stick with which to secure Sasheeta’s wing. It took them half an hour to find one that met their standards.
In the meantime, Tari had borrowed Judgement from Raine and used it to cut off a stip of cloth from the bottom of her robes, which were hanging in the tree. It was still wet. In the attempt to make it drier, she hung it around one of her wings and flapped it around. By the time the boys returned, it had become warm and stretchy, though it was still moist.
Yatii gently held Sasheeta as Ed slowly straightened the broken part of the wing. He lined it up with the twig, then folded the wing into a natural position, carefully tying it tightly in place against Sasheeta’s body. Taking care to ensure that her good wing and legs weren’t obstructed by the makeshift splint, he tied the two ends together on the top of her back, like a bow.
“That should be good,” Ed announced, exchanging a friendly smile with Yatii. Ed’s hairtie had been lost in the river, so his dark blonde hair was loose and heavy as it fell arouind his bare shoulders. Yatii had also lost his trademark bird headband, so his hair was more unruly than ever.
Though they did not speak of it, the two long-time friends knew that they both felt like they were facing a different person. Yatii had gotten used to the two mismatched eyes since before he could remember, but now—framed by Ed’s hair, which seemed to have grown strangely long—he noticed them again, more than ever. Ed was surprised by how much more mature Yatii seemed to have gotten without the bird headband. It seemed as if they had both lost something in the river. Something of their childhood.
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Tuesday, November 8, 2005

   Chapter 16: Call to the People (part 1)
“Lucifer…”
“Hang on,” the black-winged angel gasped to the girl he held to chest. He could feel her shivering from the cold water. “We’re almost there.”
With the last of his anger-driven strength, he swam to the rocky shore and carried Aurora out of the river, not even noticing that he was just as wet and cold as she. Like the walking dead, the exhausted and beaten remaining kids of the Caravan dragged themselves out of the water, where they collapsed on the nearest patch of soft grass they could find.
Nomei was the first of the soldiers to come ashore. Her face was grave, and her voice was unusually rough and authoritative. “Everyone, take off all the clothes you can!” she ordered, stripping off her soaked surcoat and armor.
The kids were too weary and too shocked from the event to question her command. They stripped down to their underwear and undershirts, taking the time to hang up their wet garmets in the trees. The two suns, still hidden by ominous clouds, weakly started to dry them out.
Contra and Sharp finally came ashore, and the reason for their delay was revealed. In their arms, each of them held a pseudodragon.
“Sasheeta! Koshga!” Raine called, running to the two Havoc graduates, with Yatii following after. But, as he drew closer, the grim expressions on their faces slowed him down. He stopped two yards away, meeting the eyes of Contra and not looking away. “Oh, no… no… don’t…”
“What is it?” Yatii broke in, stopping just behind his silver-haired friend. When he met Sharp’s eyes, he finally understood. Tears welled in the sides of his eyes. “They’re o-okay… right?” he stuttered.
Contra’s eyes softened, and he stepped forward and very gently set a round red ball that was Sasheeta into Raine’s arms. Both of her wings were torn in many places, and one of them was bent in an unnatural position. “She’s hurt very badly and she’s unconscious,” he told them. “I cannot expend my healing magic on her. We must use it on any kids we can still save from the river.”
When the two boys nodded in understanding, he continued, speaking to Raine. “I have heard that half of your magic is healing. If you can remedy some of the more minor damage, she might have a chance to survive for a while more; with luck, until we can make it to University. You are her only hope now.”
“It’s such a shame,” Sharp added quietly. “She’s still so young and she’s got so much potential. We really shouldn’t set her aside like this, but we have no choice.”
“What about Koshga?” Yatii asked, eyeing the brown-and-red creature that Sharp was holding. The Havoc graduate’s face became more tense again.
“She’s dead,” Contra said gently. The four of them stood in a shocked silence for a minute, though it stretched on and on like an eternity. Finally, Sharp turned away from them and carried his burden away into the forest. A moment later, Contra went back into the river, where he sifted through the wreckages for bodies and survivors.
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Saturday, November 5, 2005

   Extra Huge Post
Action time! Aren't you glad that I decided not to split this post up? I thought that would be too evil of me ^_^
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   Chapter 15: Sky Song (part 3)
The morning started overcast and cool. There was no fog when the Caravan started to kick off from the rocky shore, but the entire world seemed colorless and gray nevertheless.
The two groups traveled in utter silence; Aurora was still sleeping, laying the length of the boat with her head resting on Lucifer’s lap. Tari and Lynley paddled, fighting the current with a new-found strength.
Pen had not rested the night before. The feeling of foreboding had been stronger than ever, and it still spun around impatiently inside him. His attention kept getting drawn to sky, although he did not know the cause; his hand strayed constantly to Lucaya.
They had been traveling for half an hour, and their resting place had just passed out of sight behind them, when Pen sensed the darkness finally drawing quickly nearer. He stopped paddling suddenly, looking fretfully at the two high stone cliffs on either side, who were crowned with trees that jutted out dangerously over the edge.
“Pen, what—?” Ed, who was at the other paddle, started to say.
“Go back!!” roared the voice of Panda to them as Keion shot out over their heads, swerving up into the sky. Lyanni and Nano howered lower over the group, Sasheeta flying on her left and Koshga on her right. “Go back to the shore! Now!!”
Noise erupted as the confused Caravan reorganized itself. But it was all in vain.
“It’s too late,” Pen said to himself, through gritted teeth. He set down the oar inside the boat. Ed gave him a confused look, but no sooner had he dipped his paddle back into the river than a great shadow fell over them. Talking turned into screams of fear and terror.
Pen scowled when he recognized the darkness that had been bothering him. It was a wyvern, huge and brown and powerful. Its feather-covered wings could span the distance between the two cliffs; its tail lashed out like a whip behind it. A long, snaking neck ended in a dragon’s head, but ugly and out of proportion.
The kids had no time to spare on sight-seeing; many of them didn’t even get a glimpse of the monster before it swooped on them. Its long neck easily reached down between the cliffs.
They could only watch as the monster slashed through the group of children; boats broke apart and the river turned red. A horrible song of screaming voices filled the air, undermined by the triumphant bellow of the wyvern.
Sasheeta and Koshga were the first to make a move. As it came towards them, they hurled themselves at its eyes and tore at them with their claws. Blinded, the creature screeched in pain and shook its mighty head, smashing it against the cliffs. The boys flinched as they heard the pseudodragons scream; two specks of red were flung against the cliffs with sickening sounds, and disappeared in the water below.
Nano and Lyanni dodged the blinded creature as it writhed in mid-air, trying to get close to it without getting hit by its flailing wings and tail and claws and head. It shredded the trees at the cliffs’ edges, sending a rain of wood and pine needs upon the river. At the same time, the end of the wyvern’s tail smashed against a loose boulder within the cliff just upstream from them. With a groan, the stone came free, making the ground shake as it crashed into the river.
“Yatii, watch out!” Raine yelled. Fast as lightning, he grabbed the angel around the middle sprang with him into the freezing water, just before the splintered end of a tree trunk smashed into the boat where they had been sitting. Water splashed over everything as the boat broke and capsized, emptying Ed and Pen into the river.
The water was painfully cold, but Pen could not feel it. Anger was burning inside him—anger that he was helpless, anger at the wyvern, and anger that he could not explain. He saw as a huge wave attacked the rest of the Caravan, capsizing the last boats, sent by the boulder that had so conveniently helped the monster achieve its dirty work.
He closed his eyes, feeling the familiar anger curse through his entire being. There was an incredible darkness somewhere… no longer from the wyvern, but from a mind much more familiar…
… The pain was unbearable, but it only gave him strength. He held Aurora in his arms, not even feeling the cold of the water as it ate away at him. His muscles screamed from the burden, his mind roaring with the black anger, but he did not think… he only acted…
Be strong, Lucifer Pen thought to his friend, releasing himself from the darkness. When he opened his eyes, his anger burned inside their depths. He filled himself with its power and emptied his mind of everything else…
Pen sprang out of the water, drawing Lucaya as he flew through the air, and landed nimbly on the fallen boulder. A gust of air from the wyvern’s pounding wings whipped around him, but he did not feel it. He looked to the sky, where Nano was trying use magicked rope to tie the monster together, but to no avail. Even Havoc’s magic was not strong enough against wild-magic in a wyvern. It lashed out blindly with a foot and struck Lyanni to the ground, and her rider went down with her.
Using its hearing, it now came back around for another attack on the Caravan. Pen had been expecting it. As it swooped and brought its head down, he gathered all his strength, and jumped.
For a second, he was flying. Then, his feet connected with the monster’s skull. It roared in anger and shook its head, flying back out from the cliffs and up, away from the river. Pen held on to its rough scales with one hand, refusing to let go, and drove Lucaya into the soft part of its neck, just below the jaw.
The wyvern kept flying, raining blood beneath it, until it became too weak to ascend. It collided roughly with a steep side of a mountain. Pen drew out his sword and sprang off, just before it hit the ground and shaved down the trees in its path, skidding slowly to a stop.
He took a moment to ensure that the wyvern was truly dead. When it did not move again, he wiped Lucaya off on his already-bloody pants and sheathed her.
Looking around him, Pen was faced with a new problem. The monster had carried him far from the river, around an entire mountain. Not far above him, the pine trees began to fade into the white of snow; below, the green valley stretched, silent and sleeping beneath the gray sky.
He was not too concerned about getting back to the Caravan; he knew that he could run there within the day. But with the blood in the water, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to return. Buffeted by a cold wind, Pen curled up against a tree, feeling strangely empty inside. He felt helpless; though he had defeated the wyvern, there was not a speck of triumph inside him. In his mind’s eye, he kept replaying the screams of the kids as they were slaughtered.
Before he knew it, before he could stop it, his eyes began to stream with black tears. He took his hands away from his face and stared at them in wonder as the darkness flowed over them. Then, he closed his eyes and cried to the sky, his voice echoing on and on over the mountains like the song of something forgotten.
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Wednesday, November 2, 2005

   Chapter 15: Sky Song (part 2)
Two more days passed, and still Aurora showed no sign of improvement. Lucifer remained on the girls’ boat, lending his strength and kind-hearted company. The boys could only encourage him; they were concerned about the sick angel, and they were happy to be able to help out in any way they could.
When the fifth night finally set in, and the Caravan landed on a small strip of stoney shore, Raine finally spoke out what had been dancing on all their minds for the last few days.
“I think it’s time that we tell Nano or Contra about Aurora,” he told them.
The pink-winged angel opened her mouth weakly to say something, but she was cut out by Yatii.
“You’re right,” he said. “They could probably heal her from this strange illness.”
“You really think so?” Lucifer asked. “I thought that healing magic was only useful on wounds and injuries.”
Yatii shrugged. “It usually is, but they are from Havoc. Perhaps they are strong enough to do more.”
“… that’s not likely,” Pen spoke up. They were somewhat surprised to hear his voice; he had not spoken in the last four days. “Havoc wizards have powerful magic, but they train it to fight, not to heal.”
There was a thoughtful silence as they considered what he had said. But, finally, Lucifer sprang to his feet. “Well, it doesn’t hurt anyone to ask!” he exclaimed, and raced off into the dark.
Only a minute later, Lucifer returned, followed quickly by Nano. They watched anxiously as the elf set down her staff and knelt at Aurora’s side. She touched her pale forehead, a spark of magic passing between them. Then, Nano straightened up again, slowing meeting the eyes of every kid in the circle.
“She has the sleeps,” she announced, her voice grim. “I cannot cure this.”
There was a horrible silence after her words.
“… sleeps?” Tory finally squeaked, unable to accept the truth.
“Yes,” Nano confirmed. “She will begin to fall asleep more often, until, one day, she will not awaken ever again.”
“Is… is there anything we can do?” Raine asked, his hand fingering the hilt of his sword. “How long do we have?”
“It’s a slow-moving illness, but it seems that she has been fighting it for quite some time. Another five days and she will be out of our reach forever. If we can get her to University, there will be medecine that can save her.”
She sighed heavily and picked up her staff. Her voice was quiet and broken when she spoke again. “We are half-way down the River Lethe, but the way is hard and slow ahead. Even without incident, it will take another seven days. Five at the very least. I’m sorry.”
Nobody knew what to day.
“Can’t you slow it down?” Yatii questioned, tears welling in his eyes. “It’s just not right! She seemed fine only a couple days ago!”
Nano looked at them sadly. “It would be murder,” she said. “I need to have a basis in a material for such a task, and those plants cannot be found in the Pindus mountains. Without them, anything I try would automatically backfire. I would have no way to control it.”
Another silence threatened, but Nano broke it.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I cannot drive the Caravan to death. We can only wait and hope.”
With those words, she turned away and walked back into the darkness, leaving behind eight stunned children. Aurora had fallen asleep.
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Monday, October 31, 2005

   Chapter 15: Sky Song (part 1)
They did not stop until late into the night, when the suns had already set and their way was illuminated only by the blue moon. Traveling against the current was already beginning to show its ugly face in the Caravan; their pace had slowed significantly, and some kids had even fallen asleep sitting up from exhaustion. Stomachs growled from the day without food, breaking the weary silence that hung over them. They all sighed in relief when they saw a gap in the cliffs ahead, where the valley of two mountains met the river.
“Our first resting place is right up ahead,” Panda announced, flying low above them on Keion. “As soon as you’ve made landfall, we will give you your dinners.”
One by one, the groups reached the riverbank and pulled their boats out of the water. They ravenously ate their sandwiches, too hungry and too tired for conversation, before they settled down to sleep.
Pen stayed up long. He had paddled the entire day, but he did not share the Caravan’s weariness. There was a lot of darkness around, both in the night and in the minds of the children; some cried out for their parents as the cold of the mountain decended on them. The black eyed boy sat by the side of Lucifer—wrapped up in his black cloak and wings—and looked over his resting friends.
There were eyes in the night, and some were not as friendly as others.

Two days passed. The river grew narrow, and the current stronger. The kids were slowed as they fought the river. With Pen and his indelible strength, his four friends were spared from some of the weariness that the other groups faced.
But there were few that could match the utter exhaustion of the girls.
When the Havoc graduates awoke them at the dawn of the third day, they found Aurora pale, shivering, and cold beside the boat. She got to her feet weakly, her robes clinging to her quickly thinning body—clearly, she had not been eating the last few days.
The boys, beginning to push their own boat into the river, stopped to watch as she tried to help Tory, Lynley, and Tari do the same. Yet, as soon as it started to slide toward the water, she released her grip and stumbled away, holding her head with her hands.
“Aurora!” Lucifer cried, running to her side.
“I’m… okay…” she said, trying to steady herself.
“No you’re not!” he exclaimed. “Look, you just forget about paddling for today, alright? Get some rest. I’ll take your place at the paddles.”
“… No… really…”
“That’s okay with you guys, right?” he called to Yatii, Ed, Raine, and Pen. They all nodded.
“Of course,” Raine said. “We’ve got Pen. Don’t worry about us.”
He exchanged a grateful glance with all of them, then turned back to the girls, helping Aurora into the boat and kicking them off into the river.
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Friday, October 28, 2005

   The stupid compy should die!!!
Sorry that I haven't been able to post lately but I'm having some major compy/internet problems right now. I'm using my parents' computer to post this... the laptop is being super evil...
So anyway, please forgive me and I will try to add another chapter as soon as I get Lain to help me. *sigh* I want a Navi...
Until then, a question to keep you occupied:

What's your favorite animal, and (if there's a reason) why?


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