Iori scowled, watching the preperations to wait out the storm fast approaching.
"You could help, you know." A woman's voice, from behind him. Iori, without really changing position, turned his head just enough so that he could see her. Great, another redhead female. At least this one is built, unlike the shrimp that nearly blew him up.
"Stare any longer at my chest and I am going to turn you into nightmare food." She snapped, her eyes flashing annoyance and anger. Pulling a fan from nowhere, she gestured at the various groups in the wooded area. "Do you see them being wastes of space? Get working."
Iori responded with a rude gesture, the purple flames he had at his beck and call flaring briefly around his hand. She arched an eyebrow, not the least bit frightened. "So, you're one of the Orochi. Since you're the only other male redhead here, I'm guessing you're Iori."
"So what of it?"
"I'm Mai Shurinai. At the least, you can keep an eye on the other Orochi here."
"There's another?"
"Don't look so surprised. She's over there."
Lina scowled up a the clouds, the cold of the rain cutting through the cloud of grief she was in. A gentle hand tugged at her arm, and she turned to see Zelgadis standing beside her. "Come, Lina, there's shelter being set up against the rain."
Zelgadis led Lina to one of the many tent-like plants that had been planted by the red-haired young man, Karuma. He gently placed her upon the bed of leaves he had made while she thought. It was only Lina's hand upon his arm that kept him there when he turned to leave, causing him to turn back to face her.
To Zel's surprise, she wrapped her arms around him and hid her face against his chest. As he sat there in shock, Lina murmured something to him. "Please, don't go. I don't want to be alone."
"Hn. It will be a harsh night." Hiei let the leaf fall again, blocking all view of the storm outside. The shelter plants Kurama had grown were familiar to him, and did an excellent job of keeping out the rain. Wind, however, was another matter. Despite the windbreak Kurama and the others had put up, it still was cold and windy, even under the shelters.
"Since when are you so talkative, Hiei?" Yuusuke smirked from his place by the fire, even as his eyes were red from unshed tears. He had been the first to find Kuwabara's corpse, even before gentle Yukina had. Botan just poked at the fire with a stick, the slumbering Keiko curled up nearby for warmth.
"Hn." Hiei did not say another word that night.
Kodachi looked upon the others, silent and calm for once. Akane was curled up in Ranma's arms, but that did not enrage her as it once would have. Nabiki sat in a state of shock nearby under the care of a sorrowing Mousse, but that too did not disturb Kodachi. Ryoga, Ukyo, and Taoru had vanished, and were presumed dead.
None, not a single one of the people with her, bothered Kodachi. She knew this emotional ennui was not healthy, but she did not seem capable of helping it. But there was one, one alone who roused her from her somber numbness ...
Standing, unnoticed, she collected one of the pots of stew from a fire, and went in search of this one, uncaring of the pouring rain and cold wind.
Chiriko, Sasami, Yukina, Pia, Mink, Lufa ... Kiyone sighed, looking at the three children huddled together on the far side of the fire. Her sigh was echoed by the woman at her side, the woman who had identified herself as Asuko.
Asuko was the first to speak what was both on their minds. "So young to know this horror . . all this pain."
"Indeed ... I've faced down many terrors in my career, but this place ..."
"Is the worst for you." Asuko and the werewolf that sat behind them spoke at once.
"And it's not for you two?"
Asuko replied first. "The worst time of my life was having to watch the one I loved ripped away from me by his own people ... leaving me fourteen and pregnant."
The werewolf, who had said his name was John Talbain, then spoke. "For me, it was the first time I was transformed into this hateful shape."
Silence crackled and snapped between them for the rest of the night.
Washu watched the three girls sleeping across from her on the other side of the fire with a rather meditative look. Even as she watched, the blue-haired one, Umi, shifted in sleep, scooting closer to the other two. The white marshmallow creature, Makona, cuddled closer to the sleeping redhead, Hikaru.
The young woman, Leylia, spoke from next to Washu. "The emotional bonds between the three are strong, it should help them survive."
"Indeed ... though I do not know if Deedlit will survive the night." Slayn spoke from his own position next to the changed high elf. Deedlit's breath was rapid and shallow, high fever making drying her sweat before it could really form. Slayn was wiping her down with towels dampened by the rain with the help of Ranka and Miyu. Yui looked up from where she was playing a soothing melody on a small harp someone had found for her, dainty and ethereal even when her kimono was stained with demon blood. "I believe she will survive."
The three gaurdians of the strange girls, Aoi, Nagi, and Larva, nodded silently from where they sat, weaving some protective magic.
Nuriko sighed, wrapping the bandage around Tasuki's head. Chiciri looked up from his own work with Rezo and Mitsukake in healing the wounded. Lin-Lin too looked up from her spot with Filicia.
"What is wrong, no da?" Chichiri asked, falling, however briefly, into his old speech patterns.
"So many dead ...so many gone ... "
"I know."
Luna stared into the flames, conversing silently with Varga as she was occaisionaly able to. Varga himself had transformed down into the tail he was when his larger form was not needed. Luna had commented more than once she needed a green scaley tail like she needed a hole in the head.
<<Varga, did you recognize any of the monsters?>>
<<No Brain, they were completely unfamiliar.>>
"Talking with Varga again?" Gil Jude spoke from his position next to her, recognizing the spacey look in Luna's eyes.
"Mm-hm. He didn't recognize any of the monsters last night."
"Meaning we're nowhere near our own world or his."
<<Correct.>>
Aulbath drifted in the waters of the mesa's lake, feeling something tug and draw him towards the other mesa ... where she was. He could curse, rail against whatever dieties might be present, but it would not change what had happened.
"Aklenatha ... shinatha" His voice murmured into the night air, feeling the ache in his heart, the longing for one with fair hair, unearthly beauty and fin-like ears, grow ever stronger. That strange man was still screaming on the shoreline for a little girl, sometimes a little monster, to come out and play. With a snort of disgust and the flick of a fin, Aulbath disappeared below the rain and wind rippled surface of the lake, to brood further on the change within him.
Milgazia looked upon his fellow dragons, of a variety that had never before kept company together. Some were quite small, some were brilliantly colored, but the most amazing thing, to his eyes, was that Ancient and Gold were in the same cavern and not trying to kill each other.
Part 9 | Fanfiction