“You sure you’re comfortable with that?”
“Look, if I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t have. Besides, I want to see the look on his face.”
“If you say so. Bonehead is here, right?”
“Yeah, already went on ahead of us.”
__________________________________________________ _______________
Deep inside an abandoned building did three figures crept. Floor boards squeaked and the howl of wolves could be heard in the distance. Some of them even growled nearby, outside of the hallway. In the wake of the full moon, three figures slowly yet swift, hugged up against a faded blue floral wall while passing through powdered moonlit beams. Leading the group, begrudgingly to the girl behind her is Kreszentia. Hand on white katana kilt, wearing tight grey jeans, an orange shirt and a black leather jacket; she didn’t question the sudden change of attire or why her silver hair shimmered in the moonlight in the first place.
A shimmer that made Yoshiblue, the much tanner girl behind the newmen, wince and scowl with every passing. Unlike her friend, she didn’t have the luxury of wearing a cool jacket. Instead she wore a bright pink dress and held onto a staff. A flimsy staff that didn’t look like it would hold well in a melee fight, nor did it cling to her back. Something she normally sees her weapons do. So instinctively she carried it in hand. Sometimes moving it at same pace as her leg, sometimes pointing it around whenever she talked to the boy behind her.
A human boy of black hair much spikier than usual, wearing a dark grey long coat and dark brown pants. Like Yoshi, Kazamir also lack his usual weapon of choice. Instead of holding his usual rifles, he held a six inch silver revolver. One that had his name conveniently etched upon a glimmering barrel. Like the newmen girl, Kreszentia, he didn’t question his attire. He just rolled with it.
“Out of all the people with different attire, why do I have to the one wearing the dress?” groaned a disgusted Yoshi, tugging at her oversized skirt. “Hey, Kris, trade with me.”
“No,” quickly said the newmen without looking.
“Oh, come on. Help me out here.”
“It would never fit you anyways.”
“I’ll show you it wouldn’t fit.”
“Quite, someone might be in there,” Kreszentia silently barked. A leather finger pointed at the door. “Kazamir, breach maneuver b.”
Kazamir moved forward. Back pressed against the wall, face near the crystal doorknob, the boy stared at the newmen and whispered back, “But I don’t have any grenades on me.”
Lighting struck. Thunder roared and tore through the air. Window by window, the beams of moonlight disappeared and were replaced by hard rain. Kreszentia took the other side of the doorway. Yoshi sat behind her.
“That’s maneuver c. B just uses the gun,” she replied.
“Oh, right,” said the human, rubbing the back of his head. “Going in, in three.”
Three fingers lifted into the air. One by one they folded down. Once the last finger disappeared, Kazamir opened the door and stormed inside, pistol at the ready. Kreszenia followed after, backed up by Yoshi whom pointed her staff towards the hallway and until she hugged the other side of the wall.
“All clear,” Kazamir whispered.
“Clear,” Kreszentia confirmed.
The door slammed shut by itself. The three of them quickly looked backwards to see a the door lock itself.
“I didn’t do it,” panicked Yoshi.
“Keep your guard up,” commanded Kreszentia. “Sweep the area.”
The three of them assumed a line formation and swept the maroon themed room. Yoshi checked the decorated gold goblets, polished golden plates, detailed jars and cobweb covered pots. Kazamir kicked at the wooden molding, looked inside a dark wooden cabinet and behind a dusty grandfather clock. Kreszentia checked the bookshelf, the fireplace and the ancient picture frames littered all over the wall. By the time they reached the other door, they reentered into their breaching formation and looked at one another.
“Not a secret switch to be found.”
“Pretty dusty place,” commented Kazamir, looking around the room as he did. “Lots of nice things too.”
“Focus, Kaz.”
“Right, sorry. Opening the door.”
The newmen rolled her eyes. “Just alert it to the world, Kazamir,” she sassed.
Kazamir opened the door and halted mid entry.
“Stairs- wood- looks a little worn here and there,” spat the boy.
“Enter slowly. Yoshi, be ready to use techniques. We’re going to need a source of light.”
“I’m wearing a dress and am assigned the team’s support mage. Great, this is just great.”
“So Kreszentia, your birthday is coming up soon. Did you ask Yoshi’s father yet?”
Yoshi bonked the boy’s head with the bottom end of her staff. “Boy, we’re in ooky spooky haunted mansion land and you’re talking about birthdays right now?”
“Was just trying to pass the time,” the boy shrugged.
“No, I haven’t,” the newmen calmly replied. “Eventually I will though.”
“Have you tried asking your mom how to show emotions instead?”
“No. She will never know what it’s truly like, to have a condition like my own.”
“I don’t know, Kris. With the things ive heard-.”
“Zip it Yoshi, I see water.”
In the faded fire light, emerald green waters gently caressed the edges of a stone tile platform down below. In an effort to see what waited ahead, the tan girl pointed her staff forward so that the flames flicker in front of the group. Upon doing so, Kazamir froze in place. The melting darkness had revealed a gazing robed figure standing on a boat. Neither of them could see his face but judging by how he hunched, he must have been old or hasn’t stood straight in a long time.
“Ah, more lost souls wandering the villa,” an old man gently said. “Come, come, I shall take you across. If you three are fast enough, you can catch up to the others. Yes.”
The robed figure slowly turned away and circled his paddle in the water. Kazamir looked to the newmen with a face of concern. Kreszentia pointed her chin forward in response. Seeing this, Kazamir continued forward. Step by step, he waddled down the stairs and onto the moist tiled platform. Being the first there, the robed figure guided him into the row boat and the other two second, leaving Yoshi to sit right beside him.
“So, tell me about these other lost souls,” asked Kreszentia, a foot resting on the seat, an elbow on her knee, looking forwards while the row man pushed away.
“Warriors from all over. Each here for a common purpose, to defeat what awaits over on the other end of this underground lake. From there will be another stairway leading to the surface. Where you go next is up to you.”
Yoshi dipped her staff into the water upon seeing something move underneath them.
“Careful,” warned the robed figure. “Only death lies within those waters. You wouldn’t want to be snagged by something.”
Yoshi retracted the staff and waved the water off of it, simply saying, “ew,” in the process.
“What monsters will we be facing?”
“I do not know. I am only the ferryman, faithfully doing my role for the family as I always have.”
“I see,” replied a puzzled newmen.
In the silence, Kazamir looked back and mouth at Yoshi, “trade with me.” Without hesitation, Yoshi and Kazamir crawled around the boat and took each other’s spots.
“A curious decision,” remarked the robed man.
Now becoming the person sitting up front, Yoshi relit the staff and pointed it ahead of the boat. Nothing, she could see nothing; just more darkness, green water, a few stalagmites and a few stalactites here and there. During this time, Kreszentia didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, she continued to stare outward with her foot still raised foot. Yoshi kept the staff forward and Kazamir made sure he had enough ammo on him for the coming fights. Every so often he would take a clip out of his pocket, spin it around on the back of his hand, toss it up in the air, and re-pocket it whenever he got bored. After a few minutes of waiting, something finally appeared up ahead, another stone platform. Only instead of it being made up of large think slabs of decorated stone, this one was made up of several pebble like stones glued together to create a walkway. Fill with joy, Yoshi silently bounced around in her seat, pointing outward while staring at her friends. In response her newmen friend looked down with her eyes and Kazamir gave her a thumbs up.
“Finally,” stretched Yoshi, stepping off the boat.
“Thank you for allowing us to cross,” said Kreszentia to the robed man.
“Don’t thank me just yet,” he replied. “There is still one matter you must concern yourselves with?”
The newmen lifted a brow. “Oh?”
“The fee. And a very costly one at that.”
Before any of them could respond, the robed figured grabbed Kazamir by the waist and plunged backwards. In an effort to save her friend, Yoshi grabbed at the boy’s arm but lost her grip. Kreszentia in turn gripped Yoshi by the shoulder to keep her from falling. Kazamir wanted to scream, but no sound came out. Soundlessly, he melted into the water and vanished.
“Kazamir,” Yoshi screamed.
“No,” the newmen shouted.
Yoshi continued to call out for her friend. Kept just away from the water, three pale green arms flailed out of the water and grasped at the tan girl’s dangling arm. Upon seeing this, the newmen pulled her friend away and threw her onto the stairs.
“We leave at once, Yoshi. There is nothing we can do for him.”
The girl wouldn’t move so the newmen kicked her rear to make her.
“Now, Yoshi,” she cried, holding back her tears. “Before I drag you up there.”
And so she did. She pulled the girl in the pink dress up the cold, moist and slightly mossy stone stairway until they walked into they came across a heavy looking wooden door and into an open courtyard. A wide courtyard walled off by windows and doorways, covered with a layer of grass and a tiled off center were a large fountain laid in the center. Surrounding the fountain were four quarter circle plant stands, several bushes along the walls and plenty of trees. Judging by the amount of ivy covering the courtyard’s walls, this place has been around for a long time yet still maintained a proper appearance. The bushes have been recently trimmed.
“If I am not mistaken, it appears that we are in a castle of some sorts,” the newmen said under her breath, wiping an arm over her eyes, a hand still attached to the girl’s collar. “On your feet, Yoshi. We head to the other side, okay?”
“Yeah.”
Yoshi picked herself off the floor and looked up into the rain. In the next instant, a bolt of lightning stuck a nearby tree and lit it on fire. Startled by this event, the two of them hurried across the courtyard and quickly entered the castle. Lucky for them, nothing popped up along the way. Just another bolt of lightning that struck nearby.
Once inside, Kreszentia scanned the area.
“The ferryman was right,” she said to Yoshi. “There are other people here. Candles freshly lit yet no water or signs of footsteps to be seen. The red rugs are clean as well. Odd is it not?” Yoshi didn’t answer. Instead she examined one of the may candle stands and the melting wax on top of it. “I also see a second floor, yet I do not see a stairway. Let us continue into the other room.”
Without a word, the two crossed the open room and into the other. Still nothing showed up, but the room was different from the last. Only instead of being as fancy and clean as the one before, this one showed its sign of age. The walls looked worn down walls, covered in flaking paint and chipped stone. Battered candle stands, faded and discolored, neatly lined the floors, but some of them were knocked down. The red rugs are now dark maroon in color and suffered several rips and tears all over it. Above all else, this room lacked a second floor, only barred off doorways.
“Fascinating yet redundant layout,” stated the newmen. “I wonder why they have doors up there?”
Yoshi held Kreszentia back and pointed upwards. “Kris, watch out,” she whispered.
The two of them looked up at the ceiling and noticed something waiting above. A brown cat like creature waited above, which fell down and landed on all fours. Unfazed by the fall, the face of human like woman looked up at them with piercing cat like eyes and smiled. The girls readied their weapons and glared.
“Well, well, look what we have here. More dinner for me. I must say, you two don’t look half as appetizing as the last batch that came in here.”
“It is time you breathe your last then, monster.”
“I’m going to make you pay for what your people did to Kazamir.”
“I’d like to see you try,” the cat woman grinned.
In a blink of an eye, Yoshi drew out the pistol and open fired. Before they knew it, the battle ended as soon as it began, leaving only a bloody corpse on the floor and a heaving Yoshi.
“Where did you get that pistol?” asked her friend.
“It dropped on the floor… as soon as the man grabbed Kaz,” panted Yoshi.
“I hope you managed to salvage more ammo as well.”
“Nope,” laughed Yoshi. “Wasted all seven shots.” After that, Yoshi tossed aside the pistol and continued onwards. “More blood for the blood gods,” she continued.
Kreszentia frowned and studied the discarded pistol. “For the sake of our friendship, I hope you are well in the head.”
“Perfectly fine,” Yoshi replied. “What could possibly go wrong?” she laughed.
Yoshi grabbed the handle of another door and jiggled it, then struggled with it. The door wouldn’t open. They traded places. Kreszentia fought with it. No luck. They both looked at each other and nodded. Just as they were about to blast down the door, the room began to shake. The girls looked around.
“No signs of the roof collapsing,” determined the newmen, looking for signs of falling dust.
“An earthquake?” asked Yoshi.
The two of them looked down at their feet. The floor collapsed on them. Fearing for their lives, they clung to each other and didn’t realize that they didn’t fall very far. Something caught them midflight. A pillar of some kind, one that collapsed a few seconds later, leaving them on the floor covered in dust and rubble.
“Well, well, so kind of you to drop by,” said a sitting man with a deep voice.
The girls looked up to see a man in fancy attire sitting on a throne while holding a goblet between his fingers. Before they could get up and recover, the man snapped his fingers and made Yoshi disappear.
Kreszentia looked to her left and uttered, “Yoshi.” Afterwards she looked at the man. “That was cheap,” the newmen shouted in rage.
“Yes, well, if it worked on two people at once, this wouldn’t be so much of a problem,” the man replied, tossing aside his cup. “But as it stands, that just leaves you and me now. En garde, young warrior.”
Kreszentia glared at the man. The man smiled at the newmen girl and preformed a confident shrug. Just as the two were about to engage in battle, everything went dark and the room disappeared. The man’s costume dissolved away and revealed its true form, Yoshiblue’s father staring beyond the newmen girl. Now standing in black room covered in a grid, Kreszentia could Kazamir, Kazamir’s mother and Yoshi all sitting on the side with smiles and confused gazes. She also noticed her dad in robes standing behind Yoshi’s father. Finally a newmen woman stormed in and shouted,
(*silence*)
“Of course you had to be involved.”
Kreszentia stared at her dad with a shocked expression.
“Going to back me up on this one?” asked Yoshi’s father.
“Nope,” replied her dad, tightening the hood of his robe.
“She’s your wife though.”
“But it’s not my problem,” her dad countered. “So, buh-bye.”
“Go with your father, Kris. I’ll handle this,” Yoshi warmly continued before walking forward and saying, “Ah, good of you to come. I’ve been meaning to ask for my launcher back.”
“Stay on the- No, I will not give you back the launcher. How ignorant must you be to give a child a modified launcher?”
“Hey, you didn’t complain when you asked me for one.”
“That was for a different reason and I am not a child!”
Meanwhile back with Kazamir and Yoshi, Kreszentia met up with the two and gave them a sheepish smile. Upon meeting with one another, they all entered into a group hug and smiled.
“Kaz, when you switched seats, did you know?” asked the newmen.
“Yeah, I noticed your emotions. You noticed something too, right?”
“It’s very unusual to allow students to take naps in class.”
“Come on,” said Kazamir’s mother, wrapping her arms around all of them. “We should escape the drama while we still can.”
“Yeah,” said Kreszentia’s dad. “Let him deal with her wrath.”
“Oh you’re so mean.”
“How dare you scare my child like that,” screamed Kreszentia’s mother in the background.
“Hey, your husband was in on this too you know.” Both of them looked towards the exit. Just as he said that, the robed man flipped him off and left the room. “Yeah, you thought you got out of it, didn’t you?” yelled Yoshi’s father. After that, he looked at the newmen woman and held back his laughter.
“What’s so funny,” screamed the flushed newmen.
“Sorry, I’m still not use to you expressing so much anger.”
Originally Posted by Zorafim
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Dimitri doesn't seem quite as bad as I expected. He's tough, sure, but he hasn't gone out of his way to torment Yoshi. I guess I'll say that at least he has enough sense to keep his priorities straight.
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