Post by C&J on Jun 2, 2006 13:45:44 GMT -5
Not technically a fanfic,
mostly just a chance to
play around with some
characters from another RPG
who have been left behind
on other worlds!
"Ink" and Tiay
mostly just a chance to
play around with some
characters from another RPG
who have been left behind
on other worlds!
"Ink" and Tiay
"Don't touch him, Brat! You don't know where he's been!" The little boy says, pulling his younger sister back from the body in the weeds.
"D'you thinkees hurt?" The girl asks.
Maki groans and reaches up to feel the back of his head, absolutely terrifying the poor kids.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" The boy gasps, grabbing his sister's hand and pulling her behind him. "Mom'll kill us if she finds out we came so close to the Psycho Woods!"
Maki sits up, rubbing the knot on the back of his head. He watches the children run off, then looks up and around at the tall steep ridge he'd tumbled down in the middle of the night. It was midday now. He'd been lying in the mud for hours, his white clothes turned dark and smudgy with dirt and scratches. This and the tall weeds surrounding him had most likely saved him from detection, but there was no doubt his pursuers would double back once they realized they had lost him.
Now... I need a place to hide... Maki thinks as he stands up. Almost instantly, a wave of dizziness threatens to put him right back on the ground. The back of Maki's head throbs as if an angry badger was gnawing on it. He winces and stumbles forward, putting his hand out to lean against a tree.
"C'mon, I can't..." Maki says, then frowns and looks down at a small dead branch on the ground. He focuses, willing it to rise up into the air and snap in two. The branch barely twitches as the angry badger pain intensifies, black spots blurring Maki's vision. "Owwww! Goddess dammit, I can't even protect myself! How am I supposed to... okay, hide, just hide..."
He takes a deep breath and pushes himself away from the tree, picking a direction and wandering through the woods. After pushing through bushes and brambles for about three hours or so, an old overgrown trail breaks through the woods and he follows it, soon passing withered trees and shattered stumps. The blighted foliage gives this part of the forest an eerie quiet sense of foreboding.
"Juuust dead trees," Maki starts to mutter to himself as the sun begins to set, the woods slowly darkening around him as the sky turns from blue to gold and purple. The sound of his own voice soothes him somewhat. "Trees can't hurt you, they just grow... trees just-"
"AWK! AWWWK!"
Maki spins and stumbles, falling on his butt as he searches for the source of the horrible cry. Perched in the sickly tree branches behind him, a single crow glares down at Maki, a sullen and scornful look in it's beady eyes.
Laughing in sheer relief, he turns around and pulls himself to his feet by a rough knot on a blistered stump. As he looks down, the empty eye sockets of a long dried skull stare back at him, the head impaled onto the stump by a rusty pitted sword shoved with great force straight through the nose.
Maki screams, back-peddaling swiftly. He smacks into a rotted tree branch and knocks it over onto the trail ahead, springing a hidden trap that fires at least two dozen sharpened wooden stakes up through a layer of leaves.
"AWK!" Screeches the crow.
"NYAAAAAAAAAH!" Maki screams, then takes off running through the trees, leaving the dangerous path behind. He dodges past bushes and narrowly avoids low hanging branches in the failing light, not even trying to pay attention to where he's going. Lost in a dead forest filled with bodies and crazy traps! How much worse could this possibly get?!
For the second time in less than twenty four hours, the ground slips out from under Maki's feet. He yelps as he tumbles down the short slope, flopping over headfirst and landing on his back in the middle of a shallow frigid stream. His head screams with agony as the world spins around him, freezing cold water soaking into his skin and chilling him to the bone as he struggles to divine which way is up.
"Goddess... dammit!" He winces and slowly pushes himself up out of the stream, shivering in the chilly air. It was finally night. The moon was visible, a shining half sickle hanging in the darkness above. Maki turned and staggered across the stream and away from the forest into a small clearing, then looked up. "Oh... wow..."
Tall, silent, dark and ominous, an old weathered mansion filled the center of the forest clearing, windows shuttered tightly. The eerie feeling that had permeated the forest since he had discovered the trail practically oozed from this shadowy old building.
"Why... in Heaven's name... would I EVER want to go in there?" Maki asks, then gasps and wraps his arms around himself, teeth chattering as a bitter breeze blows through his sodden clothes.
As he stands there, shivering indecisively, a familiar sound begins to echo through the night. Distant at first, the humming sound of the skylifts grows louder as they get closer. Golden beams of light criss-cross through the forest, lights searching for the Sacrifice.
Maki puts a hand to his head, feeling the huge bump there. The pain starkly reminds him of his absent powers. He looks up at the light beams weaving through the woods. He looks back at the darkened mansion. He bites his lip and heads straight for the front stoop of the building. Goddess, PLEASE, let it be abandoned... He thinks.
The door, which Maki had almost been hoping would be locked, creaked open slowly under his fingertips. The parlor beyond was dark and solemn, not a light to be seen. He creeps in timidly, imagining faintly that the building was angry at the presence of a stranger in its halls.
"He... Hello?" Maki whispers into the dark, then quickly stifles another scream at the sound of the loud "AWK!" from behind him.
"G-Goddess! Bird!" He hisses, running back to close the front door, leaving the freezing wind and the obnoxious crow on the front stoop outside.
The darkness of the parlor becomes complete with the moonlight shut out. Maki fumbles blindly for the wall, feeling his way along and working around shelves and old chairs. He nearly trips over the stairs at the end of the parlor and kneels to climb them on all fours. Cold hard marble. The house is so silent around him, he finds himself subconsciously holding his breath as he climbs.
As he reaches the first landing and follows the wall around to find the second set of stairs, a thin glimmer of light catches his eye. Up at the top of the staircase, a warm glow trickles out from below the first door in the hall.
"Someone's here..." Maki whispers, hardly believing his eyes. Will they help me or hurt me? He thinks nervously, Or will they just throw me back out into the woods to make my own fate? Within moments, he stands at the top of the stairs. Almost not wanting to, he creeps closer and reaches out to knock.
"Just come in." A voice calls from beyond the door. "You've already let yourself into my home without asking permission, honestly, what good would knocking do now?"
Maki freezes, his face turning bright red. I did. I did just break into a stranger's house. Without a second thought!
"I'm sorry!" He blurts and turns away, about to tumble down the stairs headfirst.
"Where are you going now? I told you to come in," The voice says firmly.
Maki's arm reaches back on its own and grabs the doorknob. He pushes the door open and stops inside the room, blinking in the light coming from the fireplace. "Hey-" He gasps as his hand releases, returning to his control, then he stiffens at the feel of a cold blade against the back of his neck.
"You're either the worst assassin I have ever let past my deathtraps or you're just some poor lost kid about to have the worst day of his life." The speaker says from behind Maki, closing the door again gently. "Who sent you here?"
"Whaaa?" Maki swallows. "N-nobody, I just... I was running... Please don't make me go back outside!"
"What makes you think it's more dangerous out there than in here?" The speaker asks with a smile in his voice as the blade lifts away from Maki.
"I don't know," He stammers, peeking back at his host, "They... you're..." He wobbles on his feet as his head throbs painfully. "I feel very diz-" His words cut off as Maki thumps to the carpet, face first...
Continued at a later date...
