Tuesday, October 25, 2005

   Chapter 14: Girls (part 3)
None of the kids questioned the words of the Havoc graduates. There was no stopping against these cliffs; there were no banks or anchors for their boats, and only the angels would have a way to get to the top. Elves did not have the power of flight, and the magic of the kids was still too weak to use airlift. There were too many of them for even the combined power of Nano and Contra to take them up.
At first, the current of the river was hardly noticable. They kept up their former pace, but after an hour the girls had started to drop behind.
“Do you want me to take the paddle for a while?” they heard Tari ask.
“Yeah, that’d be nice,” Aurora responded. She was clearly tired; the current had taken a toll on her. She gratefully switched places with Tari.
“Are you okay?” Lucifer asked her, concern in his eyes. She looked weary, even though they had only woken up within the last two hours. The suns were still in opposite skies, but they almost high enough that they could be seen over the mountains.
Aurora nodded. “I think I’m just not used to work like this,” she told him. “My folks aren’t river people, you see.”
“Neither are mine,” he answered, casting a fond glance at the summits of the mountains. “The rivers are what locked us in, and, over many years, made my people the way they are.”
“That reminds me,” she started, “I’ve been wanting to ask you about your hair. How did you make it look like that, and why?”
Lucifer laughed and twisted one of his red ends with his fingers. “That’s a good question,” he said. “I hate to have to disappoint you, but it isn’t something I can tell you about. At least not now.”
“When can you tell me about it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe sometime. But not now.”
“Sasheeta, what are you doing?!” Yatii exclaimed. The dragon had braced herself at the edge of the boat. With one mighty leap, she jumped and landed right in Aurora’s lap.
“You must be Sasheeta,” she said. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
“Hmmhmm,” the dragon squeaked.
The two boats talked more after that, paddling side-by-side, but Pen no longer listened. He was wrapped up in his own thoughts about what Gerrit had told him about Lucaya. When it is complete, the sword will give up itself, and there will awaken something of far greater creation, he had said. What had he met with those words? Lucaya would be destroyed when her spell was finished, but what could be the result? And what was it that would complete the spell? It couldn’t be her two-word name, because that was already a part of the sword. It had to be something else.
“Do you want me to take over your paddle yet, Pen?” Raine asked, dragging him out of his thoughts. Yatii was switching with Lucifer.
“No, I can keep going,” Pen said. “You will need to conserve your strength for the harder stretches of the river.”
“You think that it will get worse?”
“I think that the current will be become much stronger as we go farther into the mountains,” he answered. “What do you think, Lucifer?”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I have a feeling that we will need all the strength we can get.”
He was right. But how right he was, none of them could have known.
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

   Tari and Aurora
Congrats to dream wings and Frgt10one (again)!! Dreams created Tari, and Scottie (Frgt10one)-- via a special request-- made Aurora. Many thanks to both of you!!!

(btw I'm having more compy issues right now so I'm still working on trying to get to everyone's sites. Sorry!)
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   Chapter 14: Girls (part 2)
Since the boat was so light, it took only the combined strength of Lucifer and Ed to carry it up to the river. Yatii and Pen took the paddles and followed them. They were one of the first groups to cast off from the shore; they had been closest to the river.
Pen noticed that the girls pushed off into the river only a minute after they did. For a minute, he and Yatii stopped paddling, allowing the two boats to drift side-by side.
“Hi Pen!” Tory called cheerfully.
Lucifer looked mildly surprised. “You know each other?” he asked, holding on tightly to Sasheeta to keep her from flying on his head again.
“I’m Tory,” she said. “I also grew up in the Archives.”
“So did I!” added her lavender-haired elf-friend. “My name is Lynley.”
“I’m Tari,” said the skinny angel with pale gray-blue-tipped wings. “Well, actually Tarinsa, but you can call me Tari.” She had always seemed to have a smile in her dark brown eyes, even if she wasn’t. But when she did smile, as she was at that moment, everything about her seemed light and cheerful and glittering with youthful happiness.
The one with the pink wings was also smiling. “I’m Aurora,” she told them, gently dipping the paddle into the river to make their boat turn more sideways so that they could see the boys better.
“I’m Pen,” the black-eyed boy said carelessly, refusing to meet their friendly gazes by averting his eyes to the paddle in his hands.
“Lucifer,” Lucifer said to introduce himself. He, even more than the other three boys, seemed to enjoy the girls’ company and did not seem reluctant at all to be friends with them.
“I’m Yatii.”
“Edward, or just Ed.”
“Raine,” said the half-dragon, brushing a silver bang back from his face.
“Do you want to travel together?” Lucifer asked them without hesitation. “I’d certainly like some conversation along the trip.”
“Sure!” Tari exclaimed.
“Yeah,” agreed Tory. She was dismayed by the way Pen had broken out of the conversation already, but she decided that it was best not to force him, so she said nothing about it.
“Once you’re in the water,” Panda yelled, interrupting and flying low overhead on Keion, “get moving right away! You don’t want the current to pull you further downstream!”
At his words, Pen, Yatii, Aurora, and Tory immediately turned their boats back around and started paddling across the wide stretch of the Acheron. They found that they had to steer to the left constantly to keep the current from making them miss the entrance of the Lethe.
The inlet to the smaller river came closer, the last slivers of fog disappearing before them. As the mountains reared up on both sides, Pen felt almost like he going into a hall of rock. Ahead of them, the edges of the mountains were cleanly cut away by many thousands of years of flowing water. The cliffs became taller the further in to the river they traveled, and the stone was smooth as glass.
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Saturday, October 22, 2005

   Chapter 14: Girls (part 1)
“Wow,” breathed the angel with pink wings, her brown hair streaming in the cool breeze from the mountains. They stood together, speechless and spellbound by what they saw, not even realizing it at first when more and more groups from the Caravan gathered at the top of the slope to watch the suns rise.
“It’s so… amazing,” the other angel-friend of Tory’s group—the one with the blue-gray wings—finally said, her voice hardly louder than a whisper.
“Yeah,” Lucifer agreed, a smile spread across his whole face. His eyes were filled with memories and knowledge; mountains were his home, regardless of which they were.
“It will a hard path ahead,” Sharp announced, his voice carrying over the crowd of kids.
“From now on,” Nano said, riding over the slope and pacing Lyanni on the edge of the water before them, “the rest of the way will be against the current. It will be hard, slow work. There will only be one meal a day, for we cannot bring any more.” She pointed to the River Lethe in the distance. “There are only certain places where we can stop. Until we reach them, we have no choice but to keep moving!”
With those words, Lyanni sprang into the sky and wheeled above them, her wings shining like steel.
“Also, keep in mind that there are many predators that call these mountains their home,” Panda added from behind them, his tone—like that of the others—adopting unusual authority and wholesome seriousness. “Getting to University is not an easy task. We will protect you to the very best of our ability, but we are not as powerful as the mountains. Protect yourselves. Protect each other.”
The boys caught each others’ eyes, and the girls did the same. And, almost without noticing it, the two groups exchanged kindly glances; the circles of friends overlapped and merged.
Tory caught Pen’s eyes and smiled cheerfully, but he turned away quickly, unsure of what to make of the girls’ friendliness. He felt insecure about opening up to them. It wasn’t like him to be sociable; it wasn’t like him to care about anyone.
“Get your boats,” Sharp ordered. “We will leave now, while the day is still young. The first stretch of the river is always the longest.”
As the kids started to flood back down the slope, talking, Pen cast one last look to the mountains. He froze.
The fog at the edge of the Lethe broke apart, and there was the shadow of something huge and white, standing at the water, staring directly at them. For some reason unknown to him, shivers ran through his entire body. But as soon as Pen blinked, it had disappeared, leaving him to wonder if it had just been a trick of the fog and the light. He gave it no more thought, turning around and trotting after his friends, down the hill to the boats.
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Thursday, October 20, 2005

*running around like a chicken with its head cut off*
I'm so busy!! Please forgive me if I still don't get to people's sites today. I'll try to find some time in the afternoon but there's no guarantees so sorry if I don't get to you.
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   Chapter 13: Sanna-Saegea-Pindus (part 3)
“I wonder if Letheans still live up there,” Yatii said as he handed his paddle over to Ed.
“I’m sure they do,” Raine responded from behind him. He was wearing a sleeping Sasheeta on his head (she had decided that his head was the best for sunbathing). “They didn’t fight in the war, so you would expect that there would still be some there.”
“Don’t they have any magic?” Lucifer asked. The only ones who fought in the Continental War were those with magic powerful enough to destroy or bind demons.
“No,” Yatii answered. “From what I’ve read, they survived simply on the grasses and trees in the valleys, and so they had no use for any magic. I sure hope we get to meet some.”
“That’s not very likely,” Raine said reasonably. “They don’t like to be bothered by the outside world very much.”
“I know that!” Yatii exclaimed, slashing with his paddle. “I just… well…” He shrugged and didn’t finish his sentence. The boys let the topic drop, returning their gazes to the mountains, which now cast their gigantic shadows over everything as Chella sank away behind them.
When Arigato, the elves’ sun, was also close to disappearing, Panda finally called for them to stop. It was already so dark that they couldn’t see the opposite side of the Acheron River. They pulled up their boats on a flat, deserted, grassy expanse without a town or building in sight, and stretched out on the grass beneath the glittering stars.
They were so exhausted that they didn’t even notice that they didn’t get any dinner. Over half an hour, when the very last beams of light had disappeared, silence stretched over the sleeping Caravan, broken only by a snore and the rustling of grass.

The morning came quickly and with a surprise.
When the soldiers woke them at the break of dawn, they grumbled and ate their breakfast in a sleepy quiet. If Yatii, Ed, and Raine had noticed that Pen wasn’t eating, then they didn’t bother to question about it. Sasheeta happily ate the sandwich for him.
Since he was the first to finish, Lucifer went to the river to fetch water to drink. He came running back from over the ridge, yelling, “Hey! Come look!!” His dark eyes gleamed as if they had seen a god.
Sparked by his energy, they all sprang to their feet and trotted up the rocky slope. They froze when they got to the top, breathless. Among those nearby and having overheard Lucifer, Tory and the three other girls in her group also climbed up the hill, driven by curiousity, to join them.
The nine kids were awestruck by the view.
The Acheron River stretched out far before them, broad as a lake, shimmering and indigo in the morning sun. In the distance, half disguised in patches of high fog, the mountains rose like kings. They were dressed in robes of rich blue and white and edged in green. And there, cradled between their feet, was a little stretch of azure water.
They had reached the River Lethe.
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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

   Chapter 13: Sanna-Saegea-Pindus (part 2)
Pen went to the communal bathrooms—thankfully, they were empty—and locked himself in one of the stalls. He leaned his forehead against the stone wall, closing his eyes to concentrate.
He was already hating himself for his outburst at Lucifer. Why did he do that? Lucifer had never done anything but be kind… He was a real friend, the first he ever had…
Black tears…
What did that mean?
He knew pain now. He could cry… but why?
The silence was too quiet. No breathing… no beating heart…
Black tears…
Stone walls… the sound of a million beating hearts…
Black tears…
A darkness of the heart… a darkness of the mind…
Black tears…
Pen smashed one hand into the rough stone wall, causing a fine mist of sand to crumble to the ground. A second later, he stormed out of the bathroom and back down the hallway. His mind stopped reeling while he walked, and he slowed down as he started to get a hold of himself again. By the time he had made it back to their room, he was back in control of himself.
The door was unlocked, so he let himself in. Lucifer was standing by the window with Sasheeta in his arms, looking surprised.
When their eyes locked, all words left Pen. He could see the deep-down pain in Lucifer’s eyes, like a wound. He was so sorry that no words could express it. On the inside, the fire sparked back to life, burning even more fiercely than before.
A single black tear slid down his face and fell to the floor, where it disappeared.
Immediately, Lucifer’s eyes became soft again. The wound inside him turned into a scar. “It’s okay,” he said, releasing Sasheeta so that she could climb on his shoulder. He gathered up his black cloak, giving Pen the chance to say something, but when there was only silence, Lucifer continued. “Let’s go down for breakfast. The Caravan must be leaving soon.”
Koshga flew to Lucifer’s other shoulder, and the four of them left the room.

After breakfast, which was also held in the great castle courtyard, Panda and Nano gathered together the Caravan and led the group back through the city to the dock. There was a crowd there to see them off—including the parents of many newbies—at the harbor.
Extra boats had joined the ranks of the old ones, almost doubling their numbers. Pen could finally see the toll that the war had had on the elves; they made up only about a quarter of the group, and the rest were all angels. Before the war, it was said that the two races were of equal number.
They started off slowly, giving the newbies some time to teach themselves how to use the paddles, before they started down the final stretch of the Acheron River. Pen and Raine took over the oars in the morning, trading over to Lucifer and Yatii in the afternoon. Pen and Ed paddled the last hour before they finally stopped for the night.
The weather grew hotter as they traveled; the initial heat of the south had been kept at bay the previous day from the rain. But here the sky was clear and the suns were hot; they noticed that the bright green of the angel’s hills was slowly beginning to mix with the drier, rough, yellow grasses of the Southern Plains.
By the time Lucifer and Yatii took the paddles, there were already mountains to be seen on the Anatol side of the river, blue and tall above the forest. They were the Sanna-Saegea-Pindus; in the tongue of the ancient Letheans, the “Peaks of Summer’s Winter,” named so because their summits were famous for being covered in snow, even in the height of the south’s burning heat. The River Lethe was fed by the constantly melting and snowing mountain-tops.
The Pindus Mountains—as they were called by angels and elves—were the home of University. Excitement stirred in the Caravan, the blue peaks coming closer, realizing that they were drawing nearer to their destination.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

   Compy issues
Sorry I haven't gotten to anything on this site over the last few days but my laptop has been acting up. I can't write any comments. Also, today our internet crashed and we didn't get it back until just now. Sorry about that!
On the other hand, I don't have school on thursday and friday, so I will be catching up on everything tomorrow.
Well, until then!!

"Does the Walker choose the Path, or does the Path choose the Walker?" ~Nix
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Sunday, October 16, 2005

   More Characters!!
TO ALL NEWCOMERS:
As of today, I have decided that I will take more characters for my story! So if you haven't created one yet and are interested in participating, please pm me and I will send you the guidelines for creating your character. If you request it, I will also send you a summary of the story so far.

On that note, I also need to mention that these new characters will probably play a smaller role than the old ones. This is simply because I will have less time in the story to work with them and fit them in. Sorry! But it will still be fun, hopefully for you as much as for me. ^_^
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   Chapter 13: Sanna-Saegea-Pindus (part 1)
When Pen opened his eyes, he saw beams of light streaming through the open window. Sasheeta and Koshga were curled up together on the windowsill, their scales shimmering in the morning sun. Birds sung outside; the air was cool and refreshing.
Pen frowned at the weather’s irony. Inside, he could still feel the hole that the music had burned inside him, and the horrible new feeling lurked there, like a monster in a weak cage, waiting for the right moment to break out.
“Oh, you’re finally awake!” Lucifer exclaimed, his voice heavy with relief. He got off the bed, where he had absentmindedly been reading a thin book. Pen also got to his feet, though more slowly. If it wasn’t for the new emotion inside, he would have been all back to normal.
“How are you feeling?” the black-winged angel asked, gathering up the blanket from the floor and throwing it back on the bed. Pen kneeled down and gathered up Lucaya from where she still lay on the rug. Once she was safetly back in her sheath, he answered Lucifer’s question.
“Fine,” he said carelessly, refusing to meet his friend’s eyes. He turned so that he was facing the wall and ran a hand through his black hair.
Lucifer hesitated for a moment, before he broke the silence again. “No you’re not,” he stated.
“I’m fine!” Pen almost yelled. For some unexplained reason, anger was stirring in him. He went to the door and pulled it open roughly, scowling. With his back to Lucifer, he paused. “Don’t worry about me,” he hissed, before he slammed the door behind him.
Lucifer stood, stunned, where Pen had left him. Although he didn’t want to, he couldn’t help but feel hurt by Pen’s actions. Had he done something wrong? Why was Pen so angry at him all of a sudden?
He turned slowly back to the window, where the two pseudodragons had been awoken. They regarded him with their innocent, bright little eyes. Lucifer gathered Sasheeta in his arms and held her for a moment, calming himself.
“It’s not your fault,” she said comfortingly. “I think that’s just the way he is.”
“We can’t read his thoughts like we can for most people,” Koshga filled in. “Otherwise, I would tell you—“
“No,” Lucifer broke in quietly. “I think that he is beyond thoughts.”
The dragons did not question him any more.
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