Chapter 6

The sixth chapter.

The morning sun shone on all the wooden structures on either side of the dirt road, which was sparsely populated for the time, but had enough people to where it was not lonely.  A group of four people stood outside of one closed shop. The two with their backs to the door were Lance and Lucia, and two standing in front of them were Soro and Cara.
            “So he just disappeared,” Lance echoed worriedly.
            “He got run off, actually,” Soro responded with his arms crossed and a serious look on his face.  He shook his head,”if only those guys would give it a rest, seriously.”
            “It’s not like they’re a minority,” Lance commended, “he might have to move a mountain to change the minds of half the people here.”
            “At least we found him first,” Cara added on a positive note.
            “Well it will be for nothing if we don’t find him again,” remarked Soro. “Lance, please help us look.  We’ll give you an area once we’re up there.”
            “I’ll be right there, don’t wait for me.”

Soro and Cara walked off towards the shrine, and Lance and Lucia both walked into the antique shop and closed the door behind them.  Walking across the store part and to the hallway, Lucia began.
            “Why are we still sticking our necks out for him?” Lucia questioned, irritated.  “If he dies out there, all the better.”
            Lance stopped, and Lucia, who was looking at the ground, hit her head into his back.  Lance sighed and turned around, kneeling down to see Lucia eye-to-eye, or at least as close as he could get to such a low height.  He placed his large hands on her shoulders, “please, don’t talk like that.”  His voice was soft.  “You might not like him now, but that can change, and you know it.  You never know, he may even get to become your best friend.”
            “As if that would happen,” she grumbled resolutely.
            “Come now, are you going to act that way forever?” he spoke with a slight luster to make his words sound more caring.  “Your father wouldn’t like that.”  Lucia looked down, defeated by this.  “Now, I don’t want you to hate him for what he is, but like him for who he is, ok?”
            “I guess...” Lucia’s voice trailed off.  Lance stood back up slowly, and continued down the halls and up the stairs to get ready. 

            “You’re being more lenient than usual,” Cara remarked.  “You’re usually more concerned about someone in this situation.  What’s going on?”
            Both Cara and Soro were walking up the dirt road towards the shrine.  The sun had slowly risen to its mid-morning position, and the shadows were now becoming more defined.  People slowly started to stir, and the roads had more on them; however, they were not crowded yet.
            “I’m testing a theory,” Soro admitted, uneasily.

“That one you thought Velia had?” she asked.

“Yes.  If it works, it will get us one step closer to knowing where the transfers come from... well, how they get here and why, that is.”  He paused for a moment and sighed.  “That, and we shouldn’t make a big deal about it.  If we do, there’ll be no point to hiding it since everyone’ll know.”

“Everyone will already know if those men spread the news,” Cara reasoned.

“I’ll be able to keep them quiet for a little while.”

A short pause preceded the reviving of the original point.
            “But still, will you really risk his life on something so uncertain?” Cara asked hastily.  “I mean, he could get killed if you’re wrong.”
            “I doubt I’m wrong, but who knows,” he shrugged, “they say that desperate challenges help awaken inner power.  The fact that those men chased him into the forest was unexpected and unfortunate, but I have faith that this’ll all turn out well.”
            “It can’t be helped, then,” Cara responded, shaking her head.
            “Yeah, thanks,” Soro responded, uneasily smiling at her.
            After a few moments, they had reached the end of the buildings, and the stone steps that led to the shrine could be seen in the distance.  “I’ll go ahead and start looking,” she said hurriedly pointing with her thumb over her shoulder, galloping backwards ahead of Soro.  “At least one of us has to have some sense of urgency.”  She tried to make light of it.
            Soro chuckled a little under his breath, and then waved to her.  “Aye,” he confirmed.
            Cara spread her out black wings, jumped off the ground, and took off towards the shrine.  Soro watched her, putting his hand over his forehead as if blocking the sun, even though it was behind him.  “It’s not like I’m not worried,” he said to himself softly.  Looking down and ahead again, “maybe I am being too easy.” 

            Jeremy was lying on the ground next to the tree, still sleeping with his head on a short, broken-off log that doubled as an adequate enough pillow.  The sun angled itself through the leaves to hit his face, which caused him to begin stirring.  He slowly opened his eyes, but closed them quickly in reflex to the sun’s brightness.  He put his hand up for shade, and slowly sat up and yawned, stretching and feeling the cramps he had in his arms and legs from the events yesterday and sleeping on the ground.
            “So, you’re finally awake?” a dull voice from behind him remarked.  Jeremy turned around to see the older brother, still in his pale red shirt as before, sitting against the tree and looking over at him.  He looked up at the morning sky, “So?  Did you sleep well?”
            “Yeah…” Jeremy felt a dry, stale sensation in his throat that made it hard for him to talk at first.  He swallowed a few times to get rid of it.  “I guess so,” he replied finally, still in a sleepy daze. 

He waited for the older brother to respond, but he didn’t say anything.  After a while, Jeremy turned around to look at the sky where the brother was looking, and he spotted a bird in the distance.  The older brother slid his back up the tree so he was now standing up against it.
            “Well, see you later,” He said tactlessly as he slowly phased into the tree.
            “Uh, thanks for watching over me,” Jeremy said.
            “Ah, no problem,” the brother responded.  Right before his face disappeared, he added: “oh, and you have company.”  Then he was completely gone.
            Jeremy turned around to see a person standing only a few yards away.  Dressed in a simple but dirtied black and white dress, with dirty green hair and long nails; she stood staring at him, and a devious smile slowly grew over her face as she thinned her eyes at him.  She took a step towards him and her smile turned into a grin to one side of her face, showing a row of sharply pointed teeth. 

“Goody, now I don’t have to look for breakfast,” She said, chuckling to herself.
            Jeremy quickly stood up surprised by her words, but cringed at a sudden pain in his left knee.  He reached for his knee, but decided to put up his hands instead, and stuttered in his defense, “No no no, I-I’m not really tasty at all, I mean… I was sleeping on the ground and am all dirty and stuff.”  He was wavering back and forth on his legs, unable to keep his full balance, as she slowly stepped forward.  “A-anyway it wouldn’t be too good an idea to eat someone like me.”
            “It doesn’t bother me; I’m a messy eater,” she laughed back, “now just stand still and I’ll make it quick.”
            She threw her body forward and started to run towards him.  Jeremy spun out of her way, jumping to her left, causing her to barely miss, and fumbling a little, almost falling over as he landed.  She had to put up her hands to stop herself from running into the tree after going so fast. 

“I told you to stay still!” she yelled angrily, turning halfway and looking over her shoulder to face him again.
            Jeremy’s other leg suddenly cramped and gave way, causing him to fall down to one knee.  In spite of trying to balance himself with his hands, Jeremy lost his balance in this and fell over, sliding down a slight incline only a few yards away from where he started.  She turned fully to Jeremy, who was now sitting up on the ground and holding his knee in pain.

“You can’t get away now, human,” she smiled wider and raised her hand towards Jeremy.    “I feel like having fried food this morning,” she pondered out loud, but a sudden strike to her shoulder knocked her off her feet and threw her to the left.
            A mostly black figure sped past Jeremy, landing and sliding on the ground a little after the person who was hit landed.  She had large black wings, long black hair, and a black shirt with red elements to it.

“I see you know how to find the wrong people,” said the new arriver.  “We might want to get out of here, it’s dangerous,” she said as she walked up to him and grabbed onto his shirt.  “Oh, and if you don’t remember, my name’s Cara.”
             “Nice to meet you… I guess,” Jeremy responded as Cara pulled him up. The name sounded familiar, but he could not think from where, and assumed it could be explained later.
            The woman who was hit got up, holding her left shoulder with her other hand, “I won’t let you get away!  Die!  Both of you!”  She put up her right hand and shot a stream of green bolts at them. 

Cara dodged the first few, and then focused on her left hand, making it glow a noticeable tint of red.  The shield was visible only by the faint ring around it, and an odd, constant red aura coming from the area around her hand.  With it, she slashed three other bolts, causing them to suddenly bounce off in different directions.
            “Hold on,” Cara ordered Jeremy.  He put his hands onto her shoulders and held on as hard as he could with what strength he had.  She put her right hand on his back and grabbed his shirt.  With the shield still up, she forced her wings down, pushed off of the ground and took off. 
            “Don’t you dare leave you weakling!” The woman on the ground screamed angrily, and sent another volley of bolts flying towards them in a long arc; there were many more and larger ones in a slightly different pattern this time. 

Cara dodged two of them, and then suddenly dropped down as a pair of them got too close, slashing one she could not dodge with Jeremy with her.  She dashed to the right and shot red bolts of her own down at the girl’s feet, exploding the dirt so it would fly up into her face.  Cara took the opportunity, and quickly flew away with the green-haired woman cursing behind them. 

            Cara and Jeremy were flying above the trees, still holding on to each other so Jeremy would not fall, in a less precarious position known as the ‘bridal carry’.  The shrine was off to the left, and the town was further ahead of them, which was the direction they were heading in.
            Cara spoke up first: “She’s a spirit,” she stated, “one that doesn’t mind to eat humans either.”
            “I’ll… be careful next time.” Jeremy responded.

“I’m a spirit too,” she spouted quickly and with unease.   “But eating people isn’t my thing.”

Jeremy looked at her out of the corner of his eye.  She looked very uncomfortable, as if something was bothering her.
            “We’re heading to town” Cara spoke again, “I’ll drop you off there then go get Soro and the others.  Stay in the shop until we get there.”
            Jeremy looked past her and behind at her wings.  They looked just like larger versions of a black bird’s wings.  Her long hair was tied behind her near the end.  It was waving in the wind and began to float upwards on the current as they were beginning to descend.