Stir of Shadows
by Queen of Sarab
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Chapter Eleven

They dropped forever.

White light wrapped around them like a blanket, smothering them. Rowen could feel Kurai's amulet, hung around his neck, began to glow and heat up. He felt the air begin to leave his body, and his heart began slowing down. Right before the blackness that threatened to envelop him covered him completely, he hit the ground.

"Well, that was fun," Ryo groaned.

The 3 ronins took a moment to take in their surroundings. They sat in a meadow of lush green grass, dotted with blue and yellow flowers. About 20 feet away rose a tall apple tree, covered in perfect red and green apples.

"Ok, um, what exactly's going on here?" Kento's loud, familiar voice rang out from behind them.

"Kento?!" The three ronins whirled around to face their friend.

"Yeah...who else would it be?" he laughed. "Hey, you guys don't happen to have any food on you, do you?"

"Yeah, it's Kento, all right," muttered Sage.

"I guess you probably want to know what's going on, huh?" Ryo couldn't help grinning as he began to recount the recent events. Kento's eyes wandered slowly around him, fixing on something beneath the apple tree.

"Hey! Food!"

Ryo shook his head. "Kento, you need to hear the rest of the story so we can...wait, why is their a plate of food out in the middle of a field?"

Kento had quickly kneeled to the ground, reaching for a plate full of an assortment of steaming food.

"This is his dream, remember?" Sage said in amusement. "I mean, 'nightmare'...but I don't see how food can be involved in a nightmare of Kento's..."

As if in answer to his question, Kento suddenly let out a squeal of pain, looking at his food in dismay. "I think this carrot just bit me..." he moaned.

Suddenly, the food on the plate began to warp and grow, shooting up to 1 foot tall...3 feet...5...

"What the..." Kento began to back away from the food quickly.

"Kento! Armor!" commanded Ryo.

Kento obeyed, eyes locked on the food, which had sprouted mouths filled with razor sharp teeth.

"Leave it to Kento to have nightmares about attacking food," Rowen muttered as he aimed an arrow at an extrodinarily large fried chicken leg. Next to him, Sage and Ryo charged forward, jabbing and slicing through the assorted food. Kento stared at his snack, transfixed. Rowen glanced back.

"Kento!"

Kenot didin't answer. No longer transfixed by the food, he looked about him wildly.

"C'mon, Kento! We need your help!"

Rowen looked back at the warrior of justice desperately. "Kento, it's just food! You love food! You eat it constantly! So get over it and defeat them so we can get outta here and aren't stuck here forever!"

Blinking, Kento slowly shook his head, then gathered himself together and summoned his full armor.

"Hang on, guys! I'm coming!" he roared, diving into the fray. After a moment, he called out, "Let's get this over with quick– IRON ROCK CRUSHER!"

The earth trembled around them, and a vortex opened in the earth beside the tree, swirling the air around the ronins furiously.

Kenot looked at it in alarm. "That never happened before when I used my attack," he mused.

"It must be our way out," Rowen yelled over the wind. "We gotta at least chance it! We don't have much of a choice!"

Loking back over their shoulders, the ronins could see the now dazed edibles began to snarl and advance again.

"Here go's!" shrieked Kento, taking a deep breath and jumping in. Looking at one another, the others closed followed, into the black void of nothingness.

Author's note- I have to thank my best friend ever, Emily (AKA Saimone Torrens) for giving me the idea for this nightmare...And of course, e-mail me! [email protected]