Riptear looked over the horizon and grumbled in agitation. The stormclouds were welling in from the east, rumbling like out-of-control boulders. The half-elf, half demon tossed her ponytail of long blue hair and rubbed some of the spikey locks from her face. She turned to Neko and sighed. "Okay Neko my friend, ourselves and the whole of humanity are all SCREWED."
Neko raised an eyebrow as he looked. "Yeah, to say the least."
"The Mazoku are pissed," she added with a snicker.
"What are we going to do?," Neko said rather urgently.
Rip shrugged. "How the Hell should I know??? Kick that crazy priest in the balls fer letting the whole Mazoku race have a field day on the planet?? It ain't that easy. He almost whipped my sorry ass. I suggest we get some help," she said, rubbing her chin.
"But HOW?," said Neko, shifting his position nervously as he watched the clouds. Rip narrowed her eyes in complete sarcasm and turned to face her feline companion.
"You ask too many questions. And as fer what we're gonna do? I was suggesting we go home, get hopping drunk and piss the freakin' night away!!"
"I...I dunno if that'll be very effective," Neko commented.
"My thoughts exactly, that's why I suggest we point our arses to Seyruun and find someone who can help us. They're holding a conference to decide what to do about this whole mess. We need to find the sorceress Lina Inverse and the swordsman Gourry Gabriev, whom I've known from my homeland. I have a feeling they'll be able to assist us in this mess, I know I can always count on him." She turned her head. "We could really use their skills."
Neko narrowed his eyes, seeing a window of opportunity. "But, I thought YOU were the best, Rip."
Rip rolled her eyes in anger and disgust. "It is going to take a combination of skills to clear up THIS mess, my friend. Besides, don't you remember the prophecy?"
"Oh yeah, that prophecy," Neko said with a twitch of his tail.
"Oh yeah, THAT prophecy," she said sarcastically, mimicking him. "C'mon, lets go, find an inn er something. I DEFINITELY don't wanna be caught up in THIS mess," she said, gesturing to the approaching storm front.
"Yeah, lets go," replied Neko.
Riptear was born half-elf, half-Mazoku. She was a swordswoman by nature, but possessed the supernatural qualities of a Mazoku lord, but was still trying to discover her true deadly potential. She had long deep blue hair mixed with scarlet red feathers atop her head, tied back in a ponytail, with spikey locks of blue hanging in her face, veiling her large bright red hawk-like eyes. Her one right eye sported a long red slashmark, a scar from a battle long ago. She was clad in a black trenchcoat with a blue shirt and black cargo pants. She wore black boots and black gloves with the fingers cut from them, Yin Yang designs emblazoned on the back of each hand. She wore a black bandana around her head with an eye design at the forehead, its pupil a Yin Yang. the gloves hid the iridescent scales that dotted the flesh on her hands, but could not hide her clawlike nails. Her unusually well pronounced canines were also another beastlike quality she possessed. She was a rather petite young warrior, standing only at about five feet tall, and carried with her the Blade of the Hellkite, an ancient weapon that had been bestowed to her at birth. It was a long katana, with a hawk's head pommel with red jewel encrusted eyes. It had ancient runes at the base of the blade, and the handguard was designed like a burst of flame. Neko was a half-human half-feline hunter/spy. He had the ears, tail, eyes and claws of a snow leopard, and was dressed in a red cloak with a yellow scarf and a broad-rimmed spy hat. He had black hair with blue highlights and catlike yellow eyes. They were both eighteen, and both met at a mercenary guild a year ago, and seeing that if they combined their talents and put them to good use, they could prosper well working together. With Rip's swordfighting skills and Neko's expert tracking skills, they made an inseperable team.
They had gotten caught in the thick of the storm, and quickly made a dash for the nearest town. They stumbled into the inn drenched to the bone and feeling rather miserable. After paying for their rooms, they walked down the hallway looking for their room numbers. Riptear grumbled, tossing her ponytail around to get the moisture out, causing Neko to become drenched even more.
"C'mon Rip, cut it out!," he called. "Your making me even wetter than before!"
"Oh, quit blubberin' boy!," Rip replied with a laugh, knocking Neko's hat off and ruffling his hair. "Hows about we go get washed, and then you can meet me in my roon fer dinner, okay?," Rip said with a smile.
At this Neko blushed. Uh, well, okay," he replied with a smile.
"Okay, then I'll see you in uh, an hour?"
"Sure," said Neko.
"Okay, see ya inna few,"said Rip with a wave. "Alright, see ya." And with that they parted.
Rip entered her room and, after settling in a bit, poured herself a hot bath. As she sat there in the tub enjoying the bubbles, she almost thought she heard stirring movement in her room. She shrugged it off and laid back to continue her bath. After she had finished, she dried herself off and, humming a merry little tune, opened the door of the bathroom to an oh-so-interesting visitor sitting on her bed. A crack of thunder and a flash of lightning lit up the dimly lit room, revealing the visitor. Riptear screamed, grabbing the towel and binding it around herself tighter.
"Ah Rip, nice to hear your shrill, loud scream again," the being sitting on her bed said with a grin.
"Xellos dammit! Why the fuck did you come back after all these years?? Didn't you remember that restraining order?!"
"Mazoku can't be required to honor contracts, you know, especially when we are no longer on your kingdom's soil. That was a rather useless gesture in the first place," he said with a smirk.
"You ruined my childhood! Y'know how much money my parents spent taking me to therapy?! The townspeople thought I was nuts!! Thats ONE of the reasons why I left my kingdom in the first place!!!"
Xellos shrugged. "Well, I needed SOMETHING to flush you out of that land. You are serving no purpose there."
"But what the hell is your motive, anyway??"
Xellos cleared his throat. "Well, you knew very well you were a uh, 'special' child, to say the least. That you were never fully elven..." he trailed off.
"Get on with it!! You know something about my father, don't you?! About what the hell he was doing in those ruins...SPIT IT!!!" Rip snarled.
"I'm afraid I can't do that," said Xellos, doing his trademark finger waggle.
"I'm SICK of you doing that, I'll break that damn finger of yours off!!"
"Now now," he scorned, doing yet another waggle with his index finger.
"Oh yeah," Rip sneered. "Well, here's one of my own!" and with that she proudly displayed her middle finger, conveniently aiming it right between Xellos' eyes.
"You don't make me want to tell you anything now," Xel said, crossing his arms and pointing his nose defiantly into the air.
"Just hurry up!! I'm sorta standing indecent here...AND IN FRONT OF YOU!!!!," Rip growled.
"Okay alright-oh, by the way, do you still have that big scar you got from that battle with Dameon the Dark Priest..." and all of a sudden Xellos was staring intently at Rip's right side, and in Rip's present situation this clearly unnerved her.
"HEEEY!!! Stop looking at me like that!!"
"Alright alright. I've come to tell you that you must join the Council at Seyruun. You'll know what to do from there. I shall be there, but I don't believe I'll be able to give you any further information unless said otherwise."
Riptear gave him a critical gaze and grumbled. "fine, its just another little step in this rat race you have me in. Now, I have another question that has been eating at my mind for years."
"Yes???," Xellos said with sarcasm in his eyes, raising an eyebrow.
"Why do you squinch your eyes?? I find that rather funny!"
At this Xellos let out a gasp of surprise and fell over off the side of the bed onto the floor. He managed to get onto his feet and, rubbing the side of his head, said, "Uh...I'll be going now," and with that he disappeared, leaving only the raging thunderstorm outside to speak to her ears.
In his place, revealed only by the flashes of lightning through her window from outside, was a small yellow, tattered piece of paper, looking as if it was ripped from some book. She picked it up. On it was a picture of a large bird, surrounded by four globes representing the four elements, arranged in a diamond formation. Earth was above to the North, wind at the left, to the East, water to the right, facing West and Fire below, facing South. The hawk's body seemed almost human-like, with a long lizard-like tail sprouting from tufts of scarlet feathers at the tail's base. The bird had long scarlet feathers arranged in a mohawk on its head, although they were hard to see, since the view was from the front, or underneath it, it was hard to tell. Its golden wingtips were pointed upward to the sky, the tip of its beak pointing towards a ball of flame hovering over its head, its eyes glowing red like the eyes of the Dark Lord himself. The hawk-like beast had elongated legs, and gripped in its talons was the handle of a sword, and beneath the tip of the sword's glowing blade was a large yawning hole shooting pillars of flame. Yet, there was something funny about the sword. Another loud burst of thunder leveled down on her like a hammer slamming down upon her head. The whole room lit up, the veil of darkness ripped like a veil, and revealed everything to Rip.
"Shit, that looks like the - " but she was cut off by another crack of thunder. And, turning the paper over, she saw yet another image of a sword, only it was HER sword, the Blade of the Hellkite. It was thrust into the center of a magic circle, the lines of a pentegram weaving around it. The jewel encrusted eyes of the hawk's head pommel seemed to glow wickedly. Riptear raised an eyebrow. "This is just TOO weird."
Then, all of a sudden, Neko burst into the room. "RIP! Are you alright?! I heard a disturbance in here and I - OH GOD!! I-I'm so sorry, I didn't mean t - " and before he could finish, Rip let out a yell of alarm and cast a Giga Wind, sending kitty boy out the door, and strangely enough, conveniently blowing it shut behind him.
After dressing and things were a bit settled, they sat in her room and talked over supper, bathed in the dim candlelight and the frequent lightning bursts. After explaining her story and showing him the scrap of paper, they sat silently for awhile, neither speaking. Neko watched Rip's red eyes light up in the flashing lightning, and sat thoughtfully. "It doesn't look like the storm's going to let up anytime soon," he said with a sigh. "It could get rough trying to get to Seyruun, Rip."
Rip closed her eyes. "Well, we must try. That Xellos guy has been on my ass ever since I was a toddler. I have a feeling I'm on to him, this little slip of paper is very curious, and I want to be able to approach him on that."
Neko nodded. "Right."
"Well, lets get some rest, see what the morning's like," said Rip, getting up.
"Okay then, good night," said Neko.
Rip smiled. "Okay, you too." And with that they parted for the night, uncertain of what the next day would bring.
Chapter 2 | Fanfiction