Chapter 4

 

Monkey Business

By dusk, Ryu and his companions were well past Coursair, and had reached the fork in the road Ryu had been at only days before on his way to the Tag Woods. Instead of taking the right fork, they took the left one, a well-travelled road that curved westward. Past expanses of plains, and isolated thickets of trees, they walked, each one deep in his or her own thoughts.

Ryu tried to concentrate on the road, on avoiding nests of Red SnipHeads, yet another variation of the GongHead, but found his thoughts drifting to the girls in his group. There was Katt, the tough, personable, enthusiastic Woren who he’d defeated in battle a little while ago. Nina, the quiet, introspective Windian with the mysterious black wings that she seemed sensitive or embarassed about, and her little sister Mina, whom Ryu knew from when she visited his hometown. He hardly knew any of them, really, and they barely knew him, but yet they followed him for no real reason.

He shook that thought from his head. They weren’t following him; He was escorting Nina and Mina back to Windia, and Katt was with him for no real defined reason. Still, the darker side of his imagination was already in play, creating fantasies about the girls, as he watched them while they walked and talked. He let it entertain him for a bit, but quickly ended it. He wasn’t that type of guy; Honourable, strong-minded and willed. A pervert he was not.

Even so. . .

***

Katt considered her companions; Ryu, the man-child who had bested her in battle and whom she had a slight crush on, one she tried to hide. She sensed there was something special about him, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was his unreal strength and rock-hard confidence in his abilities. Or maybe it was his roguish grin and merc attitude. The more she thought about it, the more it made her head hurt. So she thought of something else. Nina.

This new girl, Nina, presented Katt with a problem. She knew Ryu sort of liked her, in a buddy-buddy kind of way, and given time, there might be more than just friendship, but Nina’s prescence threatened her plans. Nina was much older and mature-looking than she was, was a scholar of magic, while Katt was a young street girl with only her raw skill to help her, no education to speak of beyond literacy. In many ways, Nina was more appealling than she was, making Katt feel dumb and jealous. She hoped Nina would leave their group once they reached Windia. She knew nothing of the recognition of Mina by Ryu.

***

They pitched camp at the shores of lake, almost within striking distance of the lights of Windia. In the morning they would use the famous Windian Bridge to cross the continental divide, but until then, they would spend the time by this serene body of water. They sat around the fire, each still absorbed by their own thoughts, staring into the flames.

Finally, Katt broke the silence. “. . .What are you thinking of, Ryu?”

Without breaking his gaze away from the flickering fire, he answered in a flat but not condescending voice. “My family. . . My old town. . . Just stuff.”

“Hmm. . .” Katt murmured, then turned to Nina. “What about you? What are you thinking of?”

The questions seemed to snap Nina out of a hypnotic trance put on by the flames. She blinked at first, confused. “W-what? I’m sorry, but what did you say?”

“What were you thinking of right now?” Katt asked again.

Nina’s expression hardened and she looked back into the flames. “Sad memories. Nothing anyone wants to hear.”

Mina realized what her sister was thinking about, and put a gloved hand on her forearm. “Nina. . . Please, don’t. You know it hurts you. . .”

The girl with black wings patted her sister’s hand and offered her a tired smile. “It’s alright. I’m. . .alright.”

Katt looked at the depressed and haunted expressions on all three and raised an eyebrow. “Jeez. You’re a pleasant bunch to be around. Cheery and talkative too.”

“If you want to talk, maybe you should suggest a topic.” Ryu pointed out. The flames reflected strangely in his emerald green eyes.

“Okay. . .” Katt thought for a moment. “I know!”

She cast a devious grin at Ryu. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

That broke both Nina and Ryu’s concentration. Nina’s eyes shot up from the fire and locked onto Ryu, across the flames from her. Ryu’s face went from no expression to bitter longing, and he let his breath out in a frustrated rush, stood up and walked off in the direction of the lake.

Katt turned to Nina and shrugged. “Did I touch a sensitive nerve?”

“Perhaps.”

Nina found herself on the Ryu’s end of Katt’s crazy grin. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

The Windian girl felt her face flush with the heat of embarassment. She too, didn’t answer. Instead, Nina stood up and floated her way to a point on the shore, more than a dozen meters from Ryu.

Katt watched her go and then turned to Mina, the only one still present. “What? Is everyone here oversensitive?”

Mina shrugged. “Maybe they are? I’m not embarassed to answer your question. I have no boyfriend, but there are a bunch of guys who want to go out with me.”

“Really?” Katt asked shifting over to sit next to her, the grin still present. “Tell me about them. . .”

***

While Katt and Mina sat talking about all the guys they had wanting them, Ryu was busy skipping stones across the lake. He was still thinking about his missing father and sister, and about how those in Gate had suddenly ceased to recognize him. The fact that they had been so rude, and that his father’s good deeds and saving the town were so utterly erased from their minds angered him in a way he never thought possible. An anger and pain nestled deep within his soul, festering like an open wound; He let out his rage on the stones, throwing them harder and harder until none of them were skipping.

Across the way, Nina noticed how Ryu suddenly began increasing the force with which he threw the rocks, and was making her way over to him. She got there just as he threw a particularly flat stone; as it left his hand, something from him passed onto the stone, like a spark of static electricity, and the stone shot off into the darkness over the water. It didn’t skip, but when it finally did touch the water, out of eyeshot, there was a muffled whumph and a low yellow glow from its general direction.

“Quite a throw.” She commented, gazing out over the water at the incoming impact waves. They were fairly large; nearly a foot high, though the stone that made them was only the size of a saucer. Such power in that throw.

Ryu sniffed in disgust, not at her though, a wry look on his face. “Yeah.”

She crossed her arms as a cool wind came over the lake. “So, what’s bugging you, Ranger?”

He threw another stone, not as hard or with the energy of the previous one. “Just been thinking. My friend is a fugitive for a crime he didn’t commit. And I don’t know how I’m gonna catch the real criminal.”

“Is that why you’re escorting Mina and myself to Windia? To search there for the thief?” If it was, then she was going to be slightly disappointed, perhaps even annoyed.

“Only partly.” He replied, and threw yet another stone. This one landed in the water about ten feet out with a ploop! “Yes, I want to search Windia for the criminal, but no, I’m not just going there with you just for that. As a Ranger, I’m obligated to help those in need. You were in trouble, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to leave you without seeing you home. By the way, just call me Ryu. I only use my Ranger title when I want fast answers from undesirables.”

“Oh.” It wasn’t the answer she had hoped for, but it was logical. The bit about ‘home’ saddened her. “Windia is Mina’s home. I. . . I live at the Magic School back in our hometown.”

That stopped Ryu mid-throw. “What? What do you mean? The home of all Windians is Windia. Has been since before. . .whenever! I thought you were just a transfer student to the Magic School!”

Nina shook her head sadly. “I’ve never left the grounds of the school except for field tests and to save Mina just recently. My parents gave me up to the school when I was seven. I’m an orphan of sorts. I doubt you’d understand.”

Ryu stopped throwing stones and faced her, his face displaying such utter sadness. “I know all too well. . .”

He told her all about his mother’s mysterious death, and then his father’s and sister’s disappearnces, and how the town’s people failed to recognize him. By the end, Nina felt sorry for him, but also felt glad that she had found a kindred spirit. Though he didn’t know it, Ryu did too.

Topic change. “So, how’d you meet Katt?”

“In my search for the winged girl, I ended up fighting her in Coursair. She’s been following me ever since.”

Nina raised an eyebrow and gave him a sly smile. “You know, I think she has a crush on you.”

“You think so?” He cast a glance over to where the Woren girl was laughing it up with Mina. “I wondered about that. I might grow to like her more, but in all honesty, I don’t think I could really fall for her.”

“So you admit you have a bit of a crush on her?”

“Uh,. . .um. . .I guess. I mean, we’ve kissed.” Ryu replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. His face was red with embarassment. “Before we rescued you, we got kinda close. I guess maybe I like her more than I know.”

“Not to be pushy, but, when you first saw me, back at the school, what did you think?” Nina traced a line down his shoulder, sending a shiver down his spine.

“Honestly?”

“Honestly.”

He took a deep breath. “ My first thought was ‘Is this the winged girl I’ve been hunting for, so close to home?’. But when I saw you, . . . I guess ‘Wow!’ would be the best way to describe it.”

“‘Wow?’” She considered it. “That’s all? I’m almost disappointed. Pretty bland. Nothing more?”

Ryu looked around uncomfortably. “Look, we’re getting into pretty dangerous territory here, so let’s just leave it at Wow. I’m still confused about how I feel for Katt, and how I feel about you just complicates things. You see my dilemma, right?”

“I do.” Nina nodded and began to walk back to the fire. She stopped and threw him a wink over her shoulder. “When I saw you, I thought you were pretty cute.”

Ryu realized he was holding his breath and let it out in a rush. Hoo-boy. This was going to be an interesting journey, no doubt about that. . .

*****

The next morning, they followed the lakeshore north, and crossed the revered Windia Bridge. Looking over the guardrail Ryu marvelled at the tenacity of the builders; The bridge had existed in one form or another over the past twenty thousand years, either as a simple wooden bridge, or the steel and concrete monolith that they now walked along. He looked over the rail, down more than a hundred and fifty meters down to where the cliffs of the two continents met the ocean.

“Jeez. How high up are we?” Ryu wondered aloud, just as the girls passed by him.

“High enough that a fall could kill you. Three times over.” Nina pointed out. Immediately he backed away from the guardrail.

They walked for twenty minutes in silence before anyone spoke. It was Katt who broke the hush.

“Hey Nina, how old is this bridge anyway? I’ve heard rumors its been here since before the Dragon War.” “It was.” Nina replied. “But it didn’t always look like this. It’s been rebuilt at least a dozen times in this century alone. Our world’s geology keeps changing, forcing the divide wider apart, or closer together, and sometimes the bridge just can’t handle it, and it breaks.

“I’ve seen pictures of what it used to look like, in the Magic School’s library. Long before the Great War, when Windia was ten times the size it is now, when great machines traveled the ground, flew through the air, under the seas, even beyond the atmosphere, the bridge was a marvel of ‘technology’. It was built to withstand forces we can’t even comprehend, or understand, built to last for hundreds of thousands of generations. It would have, too, but something terrible happened. No one knows what really happened, but Windia and almost every city on the face of the earth was wiped out. Millions of people just vanished, for no reason. The world sunk into a dark time.

“Windians rebuilt the bridge as best they could, given their technology, but every time it collapsed, more of the original bridge vanished forever. Over the course of the millennia, it has been completely replaced, bit by bit until all you see is what you see now.”

Katt stopped and her shoulders drooped. “Cripes! I didn’t want a lecture! I only wanted to know how old the friggin’ bridge was!”

“Well, now you know.” Nina answered her with a look of smug satisfaction. She gazed down the expanse of the bridge, and melancholia filled her expression. “I haven’t been back in a long time. . .”

Mina placed a hand on her older sister’s shoulder. “Don’t be sad, Nina. You’re home now, and we’ll stay together.”

Nina gave her a strained smile. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to stay in Windia long. Not long at all. All because of the Curse. The more she thought of it, the more it depressed her, so to take her mind off it, she began practising her magic spells. Behind her, Katt watched the lightshow of magic with deep interest. If she was going to learn magic, she’d better start observing a mage in action.

Unbeknowst to either of the girls, Ryu had caught the look on Nina’s face, the expression of sadness and inner misery. He reached into his shirt collar and pulled out his silver Dragon’s Tear necklace. It was orange, as usual. He aimed it Katt first, and the stone flared and went red-orange. Katt still had a lot of pent-up emotions, and it showed in the stone. Then he turned the stone to Mina; it turned a green-yellow. Apparently Mina was happy, and believed in what she said. Finally Ryu aimed the amulet at Nina.

A pale blue glazed over the mood-sensing rock. Ryu knew what it meant only in an ephemeral sense; nothing he could make into words. The colour meant Nina’s soul was plagued by guilt, forced responsibility, and loneliness, all rolled in a tight little package and wrapped with sadness. He suspected that she was hiding some deep seated-pain, one that ate at her, but what could it be?

An hour later, they would reach the underground gate to Windia.

*****

Over the course of the years, the original passage into Windia had been enveloped by the Royal Castle. The castle had effectively been built on the ancient ruins and passages of the original Crossing Station, and later generations converted the empty and unused corridors and stairwells into a labyrinthian maze under the guise of an anti-invasion trap. Invaders would have to make their way through the maze, possibly never make it, and then fight their way past the Windian Guard stationed at its exit in order to take the Castle.

Now, the two windians, one woren and one human stood in front of a locked gate, with a guard on the other side.

“We would like to pass. Please open the gate.” Nina told the guard, giving him a cold stare. The man shoook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot do that. You need a passport or be one of the Royal family in order to pass through the maze.”

Mina peeked out from behind her sister and gave the man the same look Nina gave him. “I am of the Royal Family. I am Princess Mina. Open this gate. Now.”

The guard did a double-take and his jaw dropped. “Princess?!? Is that you?!” He caught himself when she nodded, and straightened up, eyes foreward. With lightning speed he flipped the switch that dropped the gate into its floor groove. “Yes ma’am! I apologize for not recognizing you, my liege.”

Mina’s expression softened and she smiled. “It’s quite all right, lieutenant. My entourage returned without me, so I enlisted the aid of this Ranger and his ally to return me and my sister back home.”

“Yes, Princess. I understand perfectly.” With that, Mina and the rest entered the maze, with Ryu trailing in last. Just before he turned the first corner, he heard the guard ask himself. “The Princess has a sister?”

At the first intersection, the group had a choice of going straight ahead, turning left, or turning right. Noticing these choices, Mina scratched her head.

“I can’t remember which way to go.” She finally admitted. Ryu gave Katt an uneasy look.

“Let’s split up.” Nina suggested. “One group takes the left path, the other the right. If one path ends, that group comes back here and goes on the other groups path. If both paths are dead ends, we’ll meet back here and go foreward. One way has to be right.”

“What are the groups?” Katt asked. Everyone’s gaze travelled to Ryu, the Ranger from the guild.

“Oh, great. No pressure.” He muttered, and frowned. “Fine. I’ll choose the groups, but no griping, okay?”

He sent an accusing glare at Katt. She shrugged. “Fine. I won’t say a word.”

That cleared up, Ryu decided. “Me and Nina will take the right path. Katt, you and Mina will take the left path.”

Katt opened her mouth to object, but seeing Ryu’s eagle eyes lock onto her, she quickly stifled her arguing. Instead, she sniffed angrily. “Let’s go Mina.”

The group split up, going their separate ways, each hoping theirs would be the right one.

***

Ryu and Nina followed the twisting, turning corridors for a while, finally ending up in a small alcove-building that had been joined to the labyrinth by a length of carved tunnel. As they approached the small room, they heard a tired, elderly voice call out. “Who’s there?”

The blue-haired Ranger stopped at the open door and knocked, examining the room beyond. Sure enough, an elderly woman lay in a bed next to a writing desk. The room was rather spartan in appearance, with nothing else in the room.

“Just looking for the exit to the maze.” He informed her, proffering her a polite smile. He walked into the room so that she could see him, Nina following cautiously behind him. “Sorry to disturb you.”

“It’s quite alright.” The woman sighed, laid back in the bed and gazed at the ceiling. “I don’t get very many visitors around here very often.”

She looked him over, sizing him up, then caught sight of Nina behind him, looking around the room. Ryu saw the shocked or awestruck look on her face, and asked her what was the matter. She didn’t really answer him.

Instead, she asked him a question. “Would you like to hear a story about the Royal Family?”

Nina caught this, and immediately her attention was rivetted. Not noticing, Ryu knelt down beside the bed and nodded. “Sure.”

“A long time ago, the King had a daughter, whom I took care of.” The woman began. “I was her nurse and nanny until the day she received her wings. That was around her seventh or eighth birthday. . .”

***

Down another passageway, Katt and Mina had run into a dead end. The tunnel opened up into a room lined with prison cells. The two girls continued in, hoping for another door, when an old woman in one of the cells noticed them.

“Hee hee hee. . . what are you doing here, children. Do you not know?” She asked, her eyes wild and a psychotic grin on her face. “This is the place of the damned of Windia. Ones such as you should not be here. . . Hee.”

“Creepy.” Mina said, backing away from the cell. She nearly backed up into another cell’s door when a man’s voice stopped her.

“Ah, just ignore that one.” He said. Mina turned around and found a man dressed in a soiled military outfit. He looked like one of those soldiers went bad after the last war. He was busy whitting a piece of wood into something.

“What do you mean?” Katt asked.

The man stopped whittling just long enough to push back his cap to look them in the eye. “That old woman was put down here because she was spreading dissent and propaganda. Supposedly, she put a curse on entire Windia to cause destruction.”

“One with black wings was born to the Royal Family! Windia will soon be engulfed in the fires of death!” The old witch cackled. “Everyone will die, and its all thanks to me! Ah hahahaaaa! . . .”

The man shot to his feet and banged on the bars, startling the girls. “SHUT UP, YOU OLD BAT!!! I’m tired of hearing that!!!”

He looked down at Mina with an expression of apology. “Sorry if I scared you. It’s just that, if you had been down here as long as I have, with that always cackling and ranting and stuff, you’d snap too.”

“It’s all right.” Mina smiled politely. “You just startled me. What are you in here for, by chance?”

“I used to be of the Windian military, but of one of the human units. After the last war, I was discharged, with no money at all to my name. I tried to get a real job, but the soldiers who returned from that war weren’t welcome by society. They viewed our actions during the war as unneccessary and intrusive. Many others like me couldn’t get jobs, and most of them turned to crime to survive. I wasn’t very good, and I got caught when me and some others raided a marketplace.”

He shrugged. “Just as well, too. Here, I get three meals a day and a roof over my head, for the price of having that witch across the way.”

“Well, you seem like a pretty nice guy.” Mina said. “I’ll see what I can do about having you reenlisted, and helping you get back on your feet.”

“That’s mighty nice of you little lady, but I don’t think you can convince the king to let me go without a serious amount of help.”

Mina winked at him. “I have a fair amount of sway in the Royal Court. Just tell me your name, and be ready to work.”

“Coleman. But, how could you have that kind of sway? You’re just a little girl!”

“. . .And the princess of Windia.”

***

Ryu listened to the elderly nanny’s story with deep interest. She told of the first daughter of the Royal Family, a girl who would be his age by now. Of how when she reached the age where Windians get their wings, there was something wrong. Apparently, this mystery girl’s wings were not the colour they should have been, and their appearance had fulfilled a prophecy made by a witch(The witch Mina and Katt had found in a cell a few passageways away).

“When it was discovered the princess had the Cursed wings, the King was forced into an ultimatum;” The nany explained. “Either keep the child, and have the kingdom fall into chaos because of fear of the curse, or kill the child and prevent the curse all together. A terrible choice for any parent to make.”

“What did the King do?” Ryu asked, though he already guessed the answer. He noticed that Nina was becoming increasingly depressed and pale.

“He chose the third option.” The nanny sighed, smiling. “The princess was sent far away, far from the rumours of the curse, and far from would-be killers. Her little sister was inducted as the new princess of Windia, and no one knew better. I’m glad I could tell someone before I die; I no longer have the strength to move from this bed, but compared to the suffering of the King, my pain is nothing.”

“Thank you for telling us. I hope one day, the real princess will return. . .” Ryu said, sneaking a look at Nina. She caught it, but said nothing. “We must be going now.”

As they were leaving, Ryu felt Nina drop back. He stopped just outside the room and watched from the edge of the doorway. Nina knelt down next to the bed, and whispered something to the old woman. The woman’s eyes widened, and then she laid back and smiled.

***

They met back in the main hallway. Obviously, neither group had found the real passage, so they took the only route left; the one straight ahead. Figures. Ryu thought wryly.

Left. Right. Left. Right. They followed the passages, turning back to the previous intersections when they hit a dead end. That happened more than once.

“Everyone will be so surprised when we get home.” Mina smiled at her sister. Nina couldn’t hold her sister’s gaze, looking away sadly.

“Do you think you’ll be able to stay, Nina?” The younger sister asked. They turned a corner and found a staircase. “OH! We’re here!”

Ryu ascended first. He emerged in an indoor courtyard, complete with garden, ponds, and other outdoor life. Surrounding the staircase was a small troop of guardsmen. Upon spotting him, they drew their weapons.

“Who are you?! What are you doing here?!” The commander demanded. Ryu frowned as and stepped aside as Mina burst up the stairs and between the guardsmen.

“I’m home!” She declared.

“Princess Mina!” A woman’s elegant voice came from behind a guardsman. A regal looking woman with a royal crown gracing her head stepped foreward. It was the Queen of Windia. “You’ve returned! But how? . . .”

“Oh, Mother!” Mina gushed, and ran up to hug the queen. “I had my older sister bring me home. Can Nina stay with us now?”

“Nina?” The queen tried to hide her surprise and horror, but Ryu, Nina, and Katt caught it. “I don’t know about any older sister, but . . .”

Now it was Nina’s turn. She stepped into the queen’s view and inclined her head slightly; a small nod, but with a bitter look to her. “We heard your princess was missing, so we found her and returned her.”

The queen’s jaw dropped. Nina gave no sign of emotion, even as the guards began talking among themselves.

“The princess has a sister?”

“What’s going on?”

“Your Majesty, what is that woman talking about?”

The queen’s surprised melted into stoicness. With a firm tone, she answered. “Mina has no older sister.”

Mina gazed up in confused horror. “Mother? What are you saying?”

The queen brushed her aside. “These people have been kind enough to return the princess and not demand any kind of reward. Please see to it that they are thanked properly and escorted out of the castle.”

***

A few minutes later they we standing outside the massive wooden gates of the castle with Katt arguing with the on-duty guard. It was a battle that was going nowhere.

“I’m sorry.” The guard was saying, quite stubbornly. “We cannot allow every kind of riff-raff to just walk into the Royal Castle and use the bridge. It is not our policy.”

Katt was practically fuming. “Whaddya mean, ‘riff-raff’?! We brought the princess back! Saved her from a bunch of no-good goons, and you call us ‘riff-raff’?!”

“We thank you for finding and returning the princess, but even so, it does not grant you special privilege. You must understand. . .”

“That does it! Ryu, I’m gonna punch his lights out!” Katt warned, winding up with one small but powerful fist. Before she could swing, she felt a soft, feminine hand close over hers.

“No Katt.” Nina told her softly. “Don’t. I don’t want any trouble. I think it’s my fault.”

She began to walk down to the main street. Katt caught up to her and matched her pace; Ryu was already down at street level, watching some kind of commotion near the town square.

“Nina, when we were in the maze, I heard a story from a crazy old lady stuck there. She said something about someone in the Royal Family was born with black wings. About a curse on those wings. . .”

“I’m sorry,” Nina began apologizing. They hit street level and stopped near Ryu. “I’ve made you uncomfortable...”

“No no NO!” Katt stopped her. “I think your wings are beautiful! Don’t you Ryu?”

Ryu pulled his attention from the disturbance to answer. “Yeah. The colour is really something to see. You should be proud.”

“Thanks you two.” Nina smiled. Then she noticed what Ryu was watching. “Hey, what’s going on?”

It was a Highlander, a monkey with long arms, short legs, from the military town of High Fortress. Dressed in a simple pair of shorts and a vest, he was flipping and twirling, trying to gather spectators around a seven foot tall blue box with a massive question mark painted on it. He clapped his hands, hollered, cajoled, and irritated; anything to draw a crowd.

“It’s a novel magic show!” He was pitching. “See acts of magic unknown in this section of the world. Watch as I make one lucky member of the audience vanish into thin air, and then bring him back for your applause!” “He’s a street performer.” Katt observed. When a sufficient crowd had gathered, the monkey proceeded to perform elaborate card tricks and levitation acts (Not very hard when the subjects had wings!) and ended up drawing a larger crowd. Once the crowd was big enough, he pretended to choose a subject for his finale, though he had already chosen in advance. Unbeknownst to Ryu.

“I need a brave soul to help me perform this next trick!” He said, pretending to look through the crowd before zoning on Ryu. “How about you, tough guy?”

“ME?” Ryu asked, thumbing himself. The performer came over and pulled him out of the crowd and away from the girls.

“Yes, you.” He turned to face the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, please give a big hand to . . .(psst! Hey, what’s your name anyway?)”

“Ryu.”

“Let’s give a big hand for Ryu for being brave enough to step into the Box Of Mystery!” Applause followed.

Ryu reached down and picked the monkey up by his vest. “Why me?”

“Hey, you’re not scared are you?” The four foot tall ape said loudly, so that everyone could hear. “You don’t wanna look scared in front of those gorgeous companions of yours, do you?”

One look at the expectant faces of Katt and Nina told him the answer; Ryu stepped in the box. When the door closed, the monkey began to concentrate. With a sudden leap, he yelled, and box was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. From where the box was there Ryu cried out in surprise as something unseen happened. When the smoke cleared, the box was gone, with no sign of its previous existence save for a bare spot in the grass “Thank you! Thank you!” The monkey stage-bowed as people tossed coins into his open money sack. When the crowd dispersed, and the man was counting his money, Nina and Katt came closer.

“Hey, you!” Katt called to him. He didn’t even look up from his money. “I’m talking to you monkey-man!” Now his head came up. “The name is Sten, little girl. Sten Legacy.” His head dropped back down, and he frowned. “Cheap-ass cheapskates. Not even enough to buy a drink.”

"Where's Ryu?" Nina asked, a little worried. The blue-haired teen was nowhere to be seen.

“And you would be? . . .”

“Nina, and this is Katt.” Introductions were dispensed with. “Where is Ryu?”

Sten gave her a very appreciative once-over. “Would you happen to be his . . . girlfriend? Or girlfriends?”

Both Nina and Katt sputtered for a second, caught totally off guard. They looked at each other in shock.

“I. . .Uh. . .um . . .” Neither of them knew how to respond.

***

Ryu groaned and tried to move. His head hurt, and he couldn’t see. One moment he was in the Mystery Box, the next he was . . . where was he anyway?

***

Katt took a threatening step toward Sten. Her hand was balled into a fist. “Bring Ryu back! NOW!”

Sten held his hands up in supplication, backing away a bit. “Hey, if I could, I would.”

Nina stopped Katt from the imminent pummeling. “What do you mean, if you could?”

“I mean, the trick has always been a bit of a failure.” He turned from them, hands behind his back in thought. “I really should stop doing. . .”

The monkey turned back to face them, face stern. “The thing of it is, I don’t know how to bring Ryu back. I’m afraid he’s vanished into another dimension!”

Nina gasped in shock, one hand to her mouth, while Katt simply tilted her head to the side, not understanding. “Another dimension? What the heck is that?”

“I’d be happy to explain it to you over a spot of tea. . .”

***

Ryu was completely awake now, and still didn’t know where he was. He could hear a conversation going on, a heated one at that, somewhere nearby, but had no idea how to get there. Then suddenly, a point of light appeared above, making a dim spotlight on the dirt floor he was standing on. He smiled and began to climb; it wouldn’t be long now.

***

“So, your not Ryu’s girlfriend, hmm?” Sten asked, very smoothly. “Then I suppose you’re free?”

“Well, I. . .” Nina didn’t really like this guy. Katt was pacing back and forth angrily. She was getting more irritated by the second.

“C’mon, c’mon, C’MON!” She finally blurted out. “Help Ryu! Do it, or I get rough on you!”

“I’ll play with you later, little lady,” Sten replied in a calm, condescending tone. “After my date with Nina.”

Nina was really getting tired of hearing this guy trying to pick up on her. She glanced away for a second to see if anyone was watching, and that’s when she saw a hand poke out of the ground and wave. A second later, the hand was followed by an arm, and finally by Ryu. Seeing him, Nina was happy, relieved to see him, and angry at Sten.

“. . .Unless you want to go out with me too?” Sten wondered aloud. Nina signalled Katt from behind Sten’s back; he was lying. Katt frowned in disgust. “Come to think of it, I think I want a date with both of you. If you do not, I will not save Ryu from the horrors of the other dimension. . .H-huh? What are you doing?!”

He began to sound scared when Katt pulled her battlestaff off her back and poked him in the chest. Hard.

“You lying little flirt!” Katt snarled. “Ryu was safe the whole time! You just wanted to take advantage of us!”

She pointed with her staff over his shoulder to where Nina was helping Ryu pull himself out of the hole. Sten saw it and went pale.

Katt wound up for one of her block-buster punches. “Boy are you gonna get it! Take this!!!”

“No please! I beg you, don’t hurt . . .!!!” The punch blew him off his feet, in all reality probably loosening a few of his teeth.

***

“I’m sorry. I really am.” Sten apologized for the umpteenth time since he’d been hit. “I didn’t mean any harm.”

Sten had the most pathetic look on his face, like a little lost puppy, but it looked so out of place it was hard to keep a straight face. Katt turned to Ryu.

“Y’think he’s apologized enough, Ryu?” Sehe asked, though she knew the answer already. He knew it too, but took the time to make Sten sweat while he pretended to consider. Finally he nodded.

“Yeah, I think he’s had enough.”

Sten was overjoyed. “Oh thank you, so very kind and benevolant leader. I shall do my best to make it up to you!”

“What are you planning now?” Nina mused. Sten looked like he had been slapped.

“Nothing! Nothing at all! I simply want to make up for my fraud by going with you, helping anyway that I can!”

Katt adjusted her glove and made a fist. She grabbed him by his shirt front and wound up.

“Katt! NO!”

“Don’t, Katt!”

She looked straight into his wide brown simian eyes. In a low voice she threatened. “You better not be planning anything, or I’m gonna hit you again. You got that monkey-boy? No trying to get with me and Nina, got it?”

Sten shook his head vehemently, then nodded quickly. “No Ma’am! Yes Ma’am! No plans, or trying to flirt with the women! Got it!”

Katt dropped him, which was surprising in itself; Katt was actually a little shorter than Sten! “Good.”

She turned to her teammates. “So, now that that’s settled, where are we headed Ryu?”

“To be completely honest,” Ryu admitted. “I don’t really know. I thought we could search around Windia for the girl with bat-wings. Maybe she commited some crimes here too?”

“Girl with bat-wings?” Sten asked. He rubbed his furry chin. “I thought I heard of a robbery here about a week ago. If you want, we can go over to the scene of the crime and ask?”

“Good idea Sten!” Katt clapped him hard on the back. “I knew we should keep you around!”

Sten led the way to the house that had been burglarized.

***

“So, why are you asking about the crook? She’s long gone.” The owner of the house asked. She thought the four strangers were a little stranger than normal. A human with blue hair, a Woren, a Windian, and a Highlander. What a motley crew.

“The criminal you speak of has commited crimes in the region my Guild is stationed in. She’s framed another Ranger, and I’ve been charged with finding her and clearing the Ranger’s name.” Ryu explained. The rest of his cadre were out combing the grounds and interviewing the servants. This person was one of the wealthiest people in Windia, second only to the King himself. “Any information you can give us is of great help.”

The owner crossed her arms and thought about the incident. “Well, I caught her trying to steal my precious Ming Vase. It’s one of the oldest things in the world, you know?”

“Of course.” Ryu had no clue, nor did he care about a piece of ancient ceramic.

“Anyway, before I could catch her, she leapt out a window that was too small for me to follow.” She let out a hearty laugh. “If I were a little thinner, I would have caught her!”

“Do you know which way she was headed when she left town?”

“Not really. I thought I heard her mutter something about ‘better luck east’, or something. The only thing to the east is Capitan. Terribly sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

Capitan, Ryu memorized the name. “It’s all right. I think you gave me enough to find her. Thank you very much.”

***

“So, where are we headed?” Sten asked, quickening his step to match Ryu’s. They had spent the night at an Inn, and the following day hiking through the wilderness to the west. About an hour ago they past a sign all by its lonesome on the side of the road. It said ‘See the amazing Whale Cavern! Come to Whale’s Cape!’. No one knew what to make of it.

“Well, we’re headed to Capitan, the port on this side of the continental divide between Windia and Sima. With any luck, we’ll catch our thief and be home in a month.” Katt and Nina had dropped back to chat it up. Occasionally, he heard them giggle like a pair of school girls, and when he’d snuck a look back at them, they quickly averted their gazes. They’d been staring at him. “I know from my training as a Ranger that there is a halfway house somewhere west of here, between Capitan and Windia. We Rangers use it as a secondary base and a resting spot. Everyone who travels is welcome there.”

“Hmm. . .” Sten looked around suspiciously, making sure the girls were out of earshot. “. . .So which is it, Nina or Katt? You can tell me.”

Ryu nearly stopped. “What are you talking about?”

Sten gave him a sly grin and waved it off. “The one you have the hots for. Is it Nina or Katt? I mean, Nina is beautiful, and she has the kind of body other girls would kill for, but Katt is cute too. She’s tough on the outside, but I have a sneaky suspicion she’s a fragile, mushy shoolgirl at heart. She just don’t want to admit it. So, which is it boss-man?”

“I. . .uh. . .” Ryu stuttered. He hadn’t really given it a lot of thought. No, that wasn’t true. Ever since he met Nina, it had been on his mind constantly. The problem was, he couldn’t have both, could he? “I’ll have to get back to you on that. . .”

“Oh. . .” The simian wearing twin Zip-Daggers sounded disappointed. He flipped the blades in and out in a nervous fashion as he walked. Ryu had never seen devices like that before. They were pretty cool.

“You’re from the Highlander Fortress, south of Rhalpa region, aren’t you?” Ryu asked. “I thought everyone in that town was a soldier, or a mercenary and the like. You don’t seem to be like them.”

“Uh, yeah. . .I didn’t cut it as a soldier.” Sten lied. No one need know the truth. About his past. His terrible shame. “Look, man, I really don’t wanna talk about my old hometown, alright? It makes me. . .uncomfortable.”

“Okay,” Ryu said, unsuredly. Sten seemed pretty bummed by the mention of his Clan. “I think I undertand.”

They walked in silence for a long time, but when they came over a rise, Sten broke the silence. “I think that’s the halfway house you told us about.”

It was getting dark, and they’d have to take shelter soon. Things that came out at night around here were pretty nasty. Best to camp the night in the longhouse. They made their way down the incline and to the door of the longhouse. Boots sitting on the mat outside told of four Rangers making their home inside.

Ryu knocked on the door, and a slit opened at eyelevel. He flashed his Ranger ID, and the door was opened; after dark, no one was allowed in for safety reasons, but Rangers had special privilege.

“Hey Ryu.” The man at the door greeted him, voice bored, but kind. “Long time no see.”

“Hey Vory.” Ryu responded, clapping him a tired high-five. “Caught anything interesting lately?”

“Nahmuch.” Vory shrugged. “Nothing out of the ordinary. You and your friends spending the night?”

“Yup.”

“There’s a couple of billets further back. Make yourselves at home.” He bowed to Ryu’s guests. “Any friend of a Ranger is a friend of all Rangers.”

Katt was the last person in, but when she came in, she heard Vory suck in his breath. She heard him mumble something about welcome, and he quickly left the room. Nina saw the scene, and raised an eyebrow.

“What was that about?” She asked. Katt shrugged, one ear tipped sideways.

“I didn’t say nothin.”

Sten leaned in, cupping his hand to whisper conspiritorially in Katt’s long, feline ear. “Maybe he was stunned by your beauty.” Katt responded by elbowing him squarely in the gut.

“Whatever.”

***

“Ryu, is that what I think it is?” Vory asked. He seemed shocked and excited all at once. “Is one of your companions what I think it is?”

“What? So I’ve got a Windian, and a Highlander. What’s the big deal?” Vory’s tone made Ryu a little uneasy. “You’ve got a Woren Clan Female! Do you know how rare those particular clan members are?!” Vory was practically foaming at the mouth with envy and excitement. “The last census pinned down only four dozen. World Wide! That’s like one for over fifteen hundred kilometers in any direction! And you have one in your group!”

“. . .and your point is? . . .”At that moment Katt walked up.

“What’s up?” She asked. Vory didn’t appear to notice her, or register her as a person. Instead he whipped out his wallet and began leafing through the dollar bills.

To both Katt and Ryu’s surprise, and her ultimate displeasure, he reached out and tugged on her arm. “How much do you want for it, Ryu?”

“What?!!” Katt cried out. She looked with wide eyes at Ryu. “What’s he talking about! What’s going on?”

Ryu, obviously displeased, and slightly angered, crossed his arms and glared at Vory. “He wants to purchaase you Katt. Like you were a piece of merchandise.”

“He wants to BUY me?!” She screwed her face into a lemon-eater’s, and yanked her arm away. “I am not to be bought! Besides, you wouldn’t have enough cash, your not very handsome, and most importantly, you are NOT RYU!”

She stepped behind Ryu, her hand touching his arm as she glared over his shoulder at Vory. Ryu stiffened with territorial pride; having Katt this close felt good. “Your offer has no value with us, Vory. None of my friends are for sale.”

Vory shrugged, put his wallet away and walked away. “Your loss. You woulda made a mint, selling her.”

When he was out of earshot, Ryu turned to Katt. “You know I would never sell you. You’re too much of a friend for me to do something so lowdown like that.”

Katt hugged him. “I knew you wouldn’t. Besides, if you did, I’d run away and hunt you down to make you pay.” She gave him a devious smirk. “Wanna know what I’d do to you?”

Ryu thought about it a second. He looked around; no one was in the room. Nina had gone on to the bedrooms, and Sten was reading a book next to the fireplace, his back to them. When he was sure the coast was clear, he nodded. “What would you do?”

“Do you remember my scarf dance in the pub?”

“Yeah. . .”

“Well, first I’d. . .” She stood on tip-toe to whisper it in his ear. First, Ryu’s jaw dropped, then he smiled, and he blushed a little bit. When she was done describing, she looked up at him with an roguish, playful glint to her eyes. “Think that would do it?”

He raised an eyebrow, the smile still on his face. “Hmm. . .I’m thinking you wouldn’t have to hunt me down for that. Just pop by my place back in the Ruined city.”

She gave an amused chuckle. “Maybe. Next time we’re back in town. . .”

They went into the barracks-styled bedroom and retired, though neither of them fell asleep for a very long time.

*****

“How much farther is it?!” Katt whined, dragging her staff behind her. After they left the halfway house that morning, they had been ambushed by a troop of Lizard archers. Katt and Ryu had taken the first few down, Sten slit the throat of another, and Nina had finished the rest off with a lightning blast that left everyone slightly singed.

The Lizards had been part of a mercenary/terrorist group trying to spread unrest in the Windian Empire. Ryu suspected that once word got to the King of their extermination of the brunt of the Lizards power, he would grant any wish he had the power to grant. If that happened, Ryu would ask for the privilege of using the Windian bridge anytime he wished. That would cut the time crossing the Divide by half, if they could just avoid all the red tape.

“Jeez, Katt. Give it a rest!” He muttered to himself. Aloud to Katt, he called back. “Keep your top on, its just over the next rise. . . I think.”

Katt planted her hands firmly on her hips, stopping in her tracks, and gave him the biggest raspberry she must. “Whaddya mean, ‘I think’? Is it or isn’t it?”

“I mean, I don’t know.” He exasperated. Now he stopped on the incline and looked back at her. “Let’s just get to the top of the hill, and see where we go from there, alright?!”

Sten shuffled past him. Under his breath, he muttered to Ryu. “Just keep walking, man. She’ll eventually follow once we get to the top.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ryu resumed walking. Sure enough, when they reached the top of the hill (Nina using her wings so as not to tire her legs out), Katt growled and hauled her tired ass up the final stretch. At the top, she flopped on her back and collapsed, being sure not to put too much pressure on her sore arm; a Lizard arrow skimmed the flesh, so her arm was really sensitive. The others flopped down as well; Sten fell flat on his face, butt high in the air; Nina sat with her legs beneath her, as she wasn’t really that tired. Ryu sat facing them all.

“I wonder how far we are from Capitan.” Nina wondered. Ryu didn’t answer, taking a swig from his canteen. He offered it to her; it was a really hot day, and the air was really dry. Nina gratefully took it and drank in small, feminine sips. Sten pulled out a hip flask out and took a couple shots of the booze inside.

“I don’t know.” Ryu finally answered. “From what the other Rangers at the halfway house said, we should be there already. Do you think we passed by it and didn’t know it?”

Katt opened her eyes and looked the way they were headed. Granted, everything was hazy from the hot sun, and from her position the world was upside down, but something began to take shape out of the roiling heat. A walled city, with shipyard. Not that far away, either! “No, I don’t think we passed by it. Look over there!”

She pointed at the mirage-like city. Everyone saw it.

“All right!”

“Finally!”

“I’m so thirsty. . .”

They rested for a while longer, then began to make the final trek across the sun-heated plains.

*****

Something was wrong. Ryu could almost sense it when he stepped through the town’s main gate. There was almost no one on the streets, save for the elderly and some women. Where were all the men?

Capitan was not only a intercontinental trade center, but was also home to the largest population of carpenters the East had ever seen. Their presence was evident in the incredibly different building designs used in construction. Some looked like miniature Taj Mahals, complete with small towers just off the main building, while others had a more rustic feel to them. And then there was the normal style he’d seen in every town thus far, a sort of comfortable looking splitlevel.

“I woulda thought a port city would be a little busier than this. . .” Katt muttered.

“Yeah,” Sten noticed the strange feeling of tension in the air. “Something is . . . amiss.”

“I don’t care.” Nina said, rubbing her throat. “I’m really thirsty. Where can we get a drink of water?”

The began to wander the streets, but hadn’t gotten very far when they came upon a young woman pacing back and forth rapidly, form one side of the street to the other. When they approached, she stopped and looked up. Her eyes filled with fearful hope.

“You are travellers? Are any of you warriors?” She asked nervously. “Please say you are warriors!”

Ryu raised an eyebrow and looked to his companions. One after another, they shrugged. For all of them he answered. “Well, I’m a Ranger, Katt’s a warrior, he’s an . . .assassin? Sten?” Sten shrugged and nodded. “And Nina is a black mage. Is that all right?”

“Perfect!” The woman cried. She grabbed Ryu by the arm and began pulling him in the direction of the town square. “Follow me! Please! It’s really important!”

Nina looked to Sten, Sten to Katt, and Katt to Nina. They shrugged, and then charged off to catch up with Ryu.

***

Ryu’s abductor dragged him to the well in the center of town, and to a crowd gathered around it. They were all staring into the hole and muttering ominously among themselves. The woman pushed her way to the front, dragging Ryu behind her. Once she was in front of the well she, addressed the villagers.

“Friends!” She appealled to them. “We have with us three fine warriors and a Ranger! The Ribabu child will be found soon!” The air filled with cheers of happiness and gratitude. Ryu leaned down to ask the woman, very quietly, just what the hell was going on. The well behind him was empty of water.

“Our town has been plagued by disasters as late.” She explained. “First, the well here dried up, so we had no water, and no explanation as to why it had gone dry. Then a child of the Ribabu family mysteriously vanished, we assume down the well. Naturally, we sent a search party down there, but none of them returned. A few hours ago a priest from St. Eva’s Church went down there, and he too has not returned. . .”

“Wait. Wait one moment.” Ryu interrupted. The rest of his friends finally caught up with him. “A man from St. Eva? Was he my age, with long brownish hair and dressed as a paladin?”

“Why yes.” The woman seemed surprised. “Do you know Father Ray?”

“Who’s Ray?” Nina asked. Katt told her.

“Ray’s a missionary from St. Eva. He’s like Ryu, but a little different.” Katt gushed. She sighed like a schoolgirl. “He’s soooo hot too!!”

“Mmmm?. . .Really?” Nina asked coyly, meeting Ryu’s eyes with a roguish smile. “I should like to meet this Ray.”

“So, what’s the consensus?” Ryu asked. He pulled his sword out and ran a finger along the edge before putting it back. “Do we go down? Find the others and Ray?”

“Definitely.”

“Yes.”

“Damn straight!”

With that finished, they descended the rope ladder that had been lowered into the well and entered a dark, dank, and dirty world.

***

“Yech.” Katt spit out as she finished climbing down. She lifted her bare-soled boots to make sure that all she was stepping in was mud. “I HATE wet! I hate mud! I shoulda borrowed some real boots. . .”

“Oh, get over it.” Ryu muttered, helping Nina down from the ladder. It ended a good three feet from the bottom of the well. He hollered up the well. “C’mon Sten! We ain’t got all day!”

“Just a second!” Came back, just before Sten leaped down the hole. He didn’t even bother using the ladder. “Al right. I’m here. Let’s get this over with.”

Suddenly there was a high, keening shriek/wail from a tunnel near the ladder. Before anyone could do anything, something massive and vaguely insect-like charged out of the darkness. It plowed through Ryu, knocking him aside, before stopping in front of the terrified group.

“What is it?!” Nina cried as a fireball she hurled at it bounced off its chitinous armour. Sten leapt on its back in hopes of finding a soft spot in its armour to stick his daggers, but was mashed into a soft mud wall as the bug reared back. Katt tried to crush its head, but her staff didn’t even dent its armour.

It seemed the bug was going to finish them off, but when it reared up, something like a rainbow streak smashed into it, knocking it back into the wall. The rainbow streak resolved into Ray, the missionary from St. Eva. He raised one hand and sent a beam of pure energy into the creature, splitting it down the middle and setting it alight.

When the beast was dead, he turned to them, to take stock of them. “Are you all right? Is there anything I can do for you all?”

“You can tell me why you came down here alone?” Ryu said, stepping into the light. Ray’s somber face brightened at the sight of him.

“Ryu!” He beamed. They clasped arms. “It’s been a while. Are these your friends?”

“Yeah. You already know Katt, from the arena, so I’ll introduce the rest.” He stood between Nina and Sten. “This is Nina, from the magic school in my hometown, and this is Sten Legacy. He tried to finagle the girls into going out with him, but we stopped him.”

Sten shrugged and offered the priest a sheepish smile. “I’m coming along with them to make it up for my transgression.”

Ray nodded in approval. “It is good to see you are trying to make right your mistakes.” He gazed around at the fetid tunnel walls, the smoldering bug, with mild disgust. “I came to this town, hoping to find an acolyte or two for St. Eva, but instead I discovered it was being overrun with these. . .insects. I’ve never seen creatures such as these before.”

Nina knelt next to the burning creature, and lifted one of its clawed legs. “I’ve read of insects like this in my history books back in the magic school.” She stood up and faced them. “Its called a Creon; an ancient breed of enormous termite. To my knowledge, none have ever been seen alive. They died out eons ago.”

“Well, looks like they’re back.” Sten pointed out, crossing his scrawny, hairy arms. Then a terrible thought entered his head, making him pale. “Wait a minute, termites have workers, and then a queen termite. Are you saying there’s a queen Creon?”

“I’ve been down here for hours, destroying these insects.” Ray said, face grim. “This is definitely a nest for these creatures.”

“The queen is called a Terrapin.” Nina added.

Ryu cracked his knuckles loudly. “The way I see it, we exterminate the bugs, find the townsfolk, and then find someway to bring back the water. How about you, Ray?”

The holy warrior nodded and pulled a katana off his back, the blade gleaming softly in the half-light of the well. “I agree. Let’s save this town.”

***

Ray showed the others the passages he’d already cleared, and directed them into the still infested deeper sections. Farther and farther down the sewer system the group of five travelled. A few times, a bug leaped out of a tunnel, or rose up out of the ground in front of them, and they quickly discovered the Creon’s weaknesses. At one point, Nina fashioned a magical blade of fire energy and lopped the head off a gargantuan termite, the fiery blade slicing the soft flesh between chitnous plates. She dispersed the blade and looked at Ryu and Ray.

Ryu raised an eyebrow, as did Ray. From Nina’s point of view, they were so different, yet their behaviors were so similar it was like they were twins. “Neat trick, huh?” She asked.

The two men shared a look. Finally Ray said something, though not to her. To Ryu he commented. “A creative mage, as well. She is quite talented.”

Ryu made an approving noise. “Yeah. She is.” Nina frowned and walked down the tunnel to join up with Katt and Sten around the bend. Then Ray turned to Ryu.

“She had an odd look on her face a moment ago. Did you see it?”

“Yeah.” Ryu nodded. “She looked like she saw a ghost or something. I wonder what she was thinking?. . .”

***

They eventually left the tunnels, arriving at the edge of an underground lake. Phosphorent mould lit the entire area in a kind of unearthly green glow. Even from where he stood on the shore, Ryu could see in the half-light of the mold that the walls were covered in bizarre, shell-like secretions; the Creons were building a nest, and this was the central chamber. No doubt, the Terrapin would be somewhere around.

“Can we rest for a minute?” Katt asked, a whiny tone to her voice. She plopped herself down on some water-worn rocks and pulled off a boot, shaking the soil from it and massaging her heel. “My feet hurt. . .”

Ray shook his head. “You might want to move from there. . .”

“Why?”

“Those aren’t rocks,” Ryu finished for Ray. He adjusted his gloves and then looked at her. “They’re eggs.”

Katt’s jaw dropped, and she suddenly wasn’t sitting on the strange objects anymore. Instead, she landed in Ray’s arms. “EGGS?!? What kind of eggs?!”

To answer her question, one of the pale, smooth ovoids split open and a Creon larva emerged, squealing in hunger and fear. Nina gasped when she saw this, and pulled in behind Ryu. He just gave her a half-smile. “Looks like we’ve found the egg chamber.”

“It would seem so.” Ray nodded, putting Katt down. “Do you want to do this, or should I?”

“I think Nina should do it.” Ryu said. “She’s the only real magic user here.”

“Not completely correct.” Sten interrupted. “I have some magic tricks I picked up in the service. Allow me?”

Ryu stepped aside. Sten stood in front of the pile of eggs, and closed his eyes. He brought his hands in so that his hands formed a triangle; thumbs touching, and finger tips forming the apex, and concentrated. When he was ready, he pushed out with a “HAA!”, and all the eggs in front of him splattered. Explosively splattered.

“Eewww. . .” Both Nina and Katt groaned, as green chunky bug goop rained down on them. Ryu and Ray shielded their faces from the flying gore, and then laughed loudly and deeply when they saw Sten.

He was still standing there, arms still out, only he was covered head to toe with bug goo, blinking dumbly. He turned around and shrugged. “I guess I need to work on it a little?”

Ryu and Ray continued laughing and backslapping as they began hopping over stepping stones on the lake surface. Nina followed with a “I’ll NEVER get this stuff out of my hair. . .”

Katt, splattered in the face by a bug chunk, leaned down to Sten and made him recoil by showing him the back of her fist and a very cold glare. “I’ll get you for this Sten. Mark my words, you’ll get yours someday. . .”

***

About half way across the underground pool, Ryu spotted something on one of the islands.

“Hey, is that one of the villagers?” He asked. He cupped his hands to his mouth. “Hey! You!”

It was a man, and it seemed as though he was agitated. At the sound of Ryu’s voice, he spun around. “Hello! Have you seen my child?”

The group stone-hopped (all right, Nina flew!) Closer, until they were within a few yards. Ryu answered the man. “No, we haven’t. We’re here to end the infestation. How did you end up here?”

“When the water disappeared, and my son vanished, I came down here looking for him.” The man, Mr. Ribabu replied. “I only got a few meters in when I was ambushed by those overgrown insects. They brought me to this island and left me here, I don’t know why.”

Katt leaned over and whispered to Nina. “Probably as food for the bug queen. . .” Nina nodded in agreement. “Sir, if we find your boy, we’ll bring him back.” Ray promised. “But, please, for the sake of St. Eva, get to safety. It’s very dangerous here for civilians.”

He gave Ribabu directions on how to get out of the nest. The man nodded and went to hop back across the stepping stones when he stopped and turned back. “But what about you? Will you be okay, Father?”

“Do not worry.” Ray smiled benignly. “St. Eva will protect me and my companions. We will be fine. Just get out of here, and take any villagers you find with you. I suspect the hive will be irritated by our invasion, and may take it out on non-combatants.”

“Can do, Father, and . . . good luck.” The man hurried back to the tunnel where the team had come in. Ray turned back to Ryu. “Well, shall be continue the search?”

“For which? The Terrapin, or the child?” Ryu asked. Both were equally important; find the child and save him, letting the hive alone to grow and pose a larger threat, or eliminate the hive queen and her warriors, possibly never finding the boy and letting the village down.

“Both, if possible.”Ray replied. “Perhaps the boy is somewhere near the queen’s chamber. Maybe he was to be a gift like his father was?”

They continued stone-hopping until they reached the other side of the lake, where they came upon a pair of Creons guarding a massive tunnel. The insects hissed and snapped at them, but never moved more than a few feet from the entrance. Their half-foot long talons raked the soft dirt floor, and they drooled a viscous green saliva that seemed almost like partly-solidified gelatin. Ryu considered this two warrior bugs.

“These two bugs are different.” He finally said. “The headgear is different, more pronounced. And they’re larger than the others.”

“As I recall, after the queen, there are two more kinds of Creon.” Nina explained. “There’s the worker/warriors that we’ve been facing all the way here, and then there were the Terrapin’s bodyguards; her praetorian guards. You can tell they are stronger and more powerful by their heavier armour plates and distinctive headdress. I think these two are praetorians, don’t you?”

“Agreed.” Ray nodded with contempt. “I hate to say it, but we must kill them to get to the queen. They won’t just let us through, you know. . .”

At that moment, one of the guards stopped fidgetting by the enterance. While its companion continued to spit and hiss and clack its multiple mandibles in defiance, the other drew its head back and cut loose with a baseball-sized glob of insect drool.

“Look out!” Nina cried out, and everyone dived out of the way. Everyone but Katt. Already having her face speckled by remains of the bug eggs, she could only stare in horror as the goop ball flew at her. It hit her face with enough force to knock her off her feet. Everything went silent, even the bugs, as she hit the ground.

Ryu was immediately by her side, reaching out but not touching her. He didn’t know, couldn’t know if the goop was poisonous or a sedative, and if Katt needed medical attention or not. “Katt. . . are you alright?! Please, speak to me!”

Katt didn’t say anything at first. She opened her eyes, but didn’t look over at Ryu. Instead, she sat up and wiped the goo off her face with her gauntlet, glaring at the two bugs. Finally she said something, just a low rasping whisper. “Goddamn overgrown termites. They’ll pay for that.”

Then, suddenly, she wasn’t there anymore. It took a moment for everyone to realize, but she had charged the Creons and was in the process of taking them apart.

She took out the one who spit on her first, seperating its head from its body with a blade-edge cut to its unprotected neck. The other tried to crush her by leaping on her, but she was already gone, and it ended up falling on its deceased partner, crushing its severed head.

Ryu couldn’t believe how fast Katt was moving; if she had had this speed during their first encounter in the arena, Ryu wouldn’t have survived. With lightning speed, Katt was standing on the remaining bug’s head, staff on her back. As the Creon’s eyes found her and it began to reach for her, Katt demonstrated a new move by winding up with her staff and swinging, but at the same time leaping back down the length of the large insect. The bug froze in its actions.

Katt landed near Ryu and spun her staff likea baton. When she finished, she brought the bare end of her staff down with a kind of finality; when the staff end hit the ground, the bug suddenly burst with green blood down its center, head to tail, and fell in half.

She looked around at all the stunned faces and shrugged. “I was getting sick of bugs anyway.”

Ray took a look deeper into the tunnel the Creon guards were patrolling, an energy ball at the ready in his hand. When no bugs rushed him, he came back. “There are two tunnels in there. A fork in the road. Do you think you four will be alright without me?”

Ryu gave him a smug grin. “I guess we can manage. What do you intend to do?”

“Find the boy. You guys go one way, and I’ll go the other. We have a fifty-fifty shot of finding the bug or the boy.”

“Are you sure you want to go it alone?” Katt asked. “Maybe one of us should go with you to watch your back?”

“That. . .won’t be neccessary.” Ray hesitated. What he wanted to say, he couldn’t. “I have an ace up my sleeve I can use if I get into any real trouble. Don’t worry about me.”

Ryu looked into the eyes of the man he felt more like brothers with than like friends, and spotted a strange but familiar light. “All right. I understand. But just remember, if something happens, get your holy ass back to the entrance to the well.”

“You too, Ryu.” Ray warned him. “I don’t want to have to worry about you too.”

They clasped arms, and then the group split up.

*****

Ray snuck along the dark, deserted passageways, light on his feet, hand on the sword of his katana. With eagle-like eyes he scanned the walls and floors as he dashed through them, and he listened intently for the child. Then he heard a whimper. He stopped and got a bearing; to the right, and down in another chamber. He was about to go that way when a pair of Preatorian Guard Creons dropped from somewhere above, hissing and clawing and drooling a noxious goo.

Too big to fight normally, Ray thought grimly, and resheathed his sword. He brought his hands together, as if in prayer, steepled his index fingers, and concentrated. I didn’t want to have to use this, but I have no other choice. . .

The two ten foot tall Creon warriors screamed in anger and fear as a flash of light enveloped the human before them. They had no idea what they were getting into, and never would.

Several seconds later they would die.

*****

A distant roar of power echoed through the labyrinthian bowels of the nest; Katt stopped in her tracks, ears pricking at the strange sound.

To Nina: “Did you hear that?”

Nina shrugged. “No.” Another, but more alien scream echoed from some distance in front of them. Nina pointed mildly in that direction. “But I did hear that. . .”

“Girls! Get your pretty butts up here!” Ryu hollered from the chamber where the scream had come from. “We got trouble with a capital TERRAPIN!”

Sure enough, when Nina and Katt rounded the corner, they found Ryu and Sten staring in horror at the monstrous creature. The Terrapin was over twenty feet tall without the thirty foot egg sack on its back. Its head gear was even more elaborate than the praetorian’s was, arcing back over the egg sack and flaring like antlers around its edges. Multiple sets of jaws snapped and chittered at their prescence in this sanctum sanctorum, this inner sanctum of the queen. It lowered its head to ground level, not hard, considering the egg sack was sitting in the water, as was half the bug. Ryu assumed that in order to keep the eggs viable until they were ready to hatch The Terrapin wouldn’t be able to come completely out of the pool of water they found her in.

From somewhere in his mind, Ryu heard an alien voice, very similar to the hissing of the Terrapin. The mindless hissing resolved into words in the minds of all those present.

Hhhhoww dare youuuu. . . . The bug queen hissed into their minds. You hoo-mannnnnsssss exterrriminattedd ussss mannyy cyclesss ago. . . Now you come to kill usss againnn!!!

“No! That’s not true!” Ryu hollered at the giant insect. “We only came looking for a child you took! And to return the water to the village. Your nest is blocking the water to the village well!”

Liarrrrr. . . The queen accused rearing back on her back legs. Her massive, blood red eyes narrowed in rage. You hoo-mans seek to desssstroyyy usssss. . .The lassst of the Creon race. . .

“He does not lie.” Nina stepped forward. The Terrapin’s eyes were immediately on her. “We came for the child and the water. We did not know that you were building a colony here. We will leave peacefully, but we only ask for you and your drones to move your colony somewhere else, and to return the boy and the town’s water. We can all live peacefully if we compromise. . .”

No. . . We will never sssubmittt to the lowerrr lifeformssss. . . Prepare to die. . .

*****

Elsewhere, Ray gazed mournfully at the charred and smoking remains of the two Creons he’d dispatched. With a final shake of his head, he slid his katana back into its back sheath. Then, swiftly and silently, he raced through the dimly lit nest passageways, searching for the Ribabu child. Finally he heard the boy cry out.

“Is someone out there?” The boy cried out from one of three rooms attached to the corridor. “Help me!!”

“Keep calling out!” Ray hollered. “I’ll find you, just keep talking so I can get closer!”

The boy understood and kept on talking, and eventually Ray narrowed down his search from three large rooms to one large room; Ray found him in the furthest one, stuck to the wall by Creon saliva secretions that made rock-like formations unlike anything he’d ever seen. They were slightly moist, but as hard as and unyeilding as stone, holding the child a few feet above the ground. Ray did a quick test to see if the stuff wouuld break when he pulled on it, but the dried saliva didn’t.

“Turn your face away and close your eyes,” He told the boy, drawing a few feet back and concentrating. “And for St. Eva’s sake, DON’T MOVE.”

It had to be exact, otherwise, the boy risked having all his limbs blown off by Ray’s attempt to free him. Just the right amount of energy, on the right spot, or else. . . Ray thrust the thought aside. From his steepled hands, a ball of blue energy formed, quickly subdividing into five small ones. They hovered for a few moments, a square with the five ball in the center, before Ray let them go. The balls forming the square vanished in puffs of blue-gray smoke as they vaporized the saliva secretions on the child’s arms and legs; the fifth one destroyed the harness-like secretion across the boy’s chest, dropping him to the floor.

Ray was at his side immediately. “Are you all right? I didn’t hurt you did I?” He could never forgive himself if he’d hurt an innocent. He flooded with relief when the child smiled and gave him a hug in thanks.

He took the boy’s shoulders and held looked him in the eyes. “Now listen to me: I want you to go up this corridor, across the lake, to the tunnel there. Then I want you to get out of the well as fast as you can. Do you understand?”

The boy nodded vigorously, and sprinted out of the room and back up the way Ray had come. Ray paused for a second to consider his next move when he heard the screams and screeches of the Terrapin echoing through the would-be hive. “Ryu!”

He ran to where the battle was happening.

***

Ryu was slammed into the wall of the cavern by a massive Terrapin fist, the stone buckling behind him from the force of the impact, as he was pinned at the shoulder. The first attack had been a surprise; the queen Creon had lunged into the group, limbs flailing as she tried to crush the intruders to her hive. The team had broken up and was trying to take her down without getting crushed, stabbed, gored, or otherwise killed by her seemingly mindless attacks.

While Ryu had begun a head-on assault, Sten had leaped on the Terrapin’s antler-like head and over onto the egg-sack before she could do anything. He was in the process of ravaging the unhatched eggs and the monster’s fleshy parts with his lightning quick dagger slices and blade spins. From a pocket, he’d produced an old grenade which he tossed into the thickest cluster of eggs and leaped away. The blast took out dozens of unhatched Creons.

Katt and Nina had teamed up to try to disarm the bug queen itself while Ryu distracted it. Nina had managed to meld the Sorceror’s Blade spell to Katt’s staff, making it a magical weapon. While Nina supplied the magical kick, Katt supplied the sheer force neccessary to have the blade of fire cut through two of the bug’s four arm/limbs.

Just as Ryu was being slammed into the wall, Ray came running in, pausing in sheer horror at the size of this adversary. From his painful position, Ryu spotted Ray and tried to be casual. “Did you get the boy?”

Ray, still staring at the massive carapace of the bug nodded slowly. “Uh, yeah. He’s safe now.”

“Good.” Ryu grunted, shifting his arm from his compromised position. The queen’s head came closer, seemingly oblivious to the damage being done to the rest of ehr body and her unhatched brood. The multi-mandibled mouth opened wide, hissing, moving in to bite his head off.

Ray had shaken off his momentary stupification, but now he realized Ryu was far to close to the monster for Ray’s spells to be of any use to save him. The blast would kill man and monster alike. Even Ryu’s allies realized this; they stepped up their assault on the Terrapin’s back. But it was too late to save Ryu. Or was it?

An instant before the queen’s head reached Ryu, Ray saw his friend’s face contort in rage, and a blinding light shot up around him, like a divine wind, making his blue-hair turn gold and stand on end. There was a blast of power that flattened everyone in the room, and then silence.

Ryu was standing in front of the ruined arm and body of the Terrapin, a gaping hole where its head and neck should be. He was oblivious to the gore before him, staring at his hands; they arced with small energy discharges, but the effect was short lasting. “W-what did I do?”

The battle had been brought to an sudden end, but by no means were things normal. Ray could only stare. But. . .I thought I was alone. . . Is it possible. . .Is he. . .like me? None of the others had seen Ryu’s strange power; all they saw was that strange light before the terrapin fell limp, but Ray noticed Nina giving Ryu the strangest look. Not a look of curiousity or wonder, but of a darker, worried type. Perhaps she wondered about Ryu’s power as Ray did, if not for the same purposes.

Suddenly, a low rumble began to fill the air. Sten, standing on the crushed eggs on the Terrapin’s back saw a cluster at the end near the wall shift, and a trickle of water begin to pour in from somewhere. “We got trouble! I think the water’s gonna be coming in real quick!”

Ryu turned his mind away from the power he’d released, and began to issue orders. “Let’s get the hell outta here!”

They quickly retraced their steps through the hive, across the underground lake, and were almost back to the well when the dam broke. Thousands of tons of water blew the Terrapin’s eggsack to shreds, and ripped her body apart, filling the chamber in seconds. A few seconds later, the surge of water hit the lake and filled that chamber.

Ryu’s group was in a corridor when the wall of water came rushing at them. In an instant, the water stopped, held back by a wall of sheer power Ray had erected. Now he stood before it, one arm upraised, supporting the wall with all the psychic energy he could, but even Ryu could see this was a strain he couldn’t handle for very long; beads of sweat were already forming.

“Ray!”

“Hurry. . .” He gritted back to them. “Go make sure the villagers that got captured trying to find the kid get out. Come back when you get them all out. . . I can hold the line here for a while, but not that long.”

Ryu reached forward and squeezed Ray’s shoulder in assurance, before the whole group sprinted back into the tunnels adjoining the main ones.

***

When Ryu had yelled “Split up!” Katt had dashed into the first opening she saw. Down the dark, dripping dirt tunnel she ran, until she ended up in a kind of closet cul de sac. At the far end of the cul de sac was a man, standing with his back to her.

“Hey!” She called to him. “C’mon! We gotta get you outta here!”

No response. The man simply stood there, wavering slightly where he stood. Katt frowned and stomped up to him.

“I SAID Come on!” She growled, taking him and spinning him around by the shoulder. “We gotta get. . .”

Something was wrong with his face. Actually, there was something ON his face, covering it. A spider-like creature had latched itself onto his face and was completely obscuring his features. As Katt watched in a kind of shocked, disgusted horror, a quadruplet of black eyes opened in an inverted chevron along the thing’s top half.

“What the hell?!. . .” Katt muttered, as creature hissed and lashed out with a prehensile tail she hadn’t noticed wrapped around the man’s neck.

***

All throughout the underground maze, Ryu’s team found citizen after citizen with those strange, face-hugging arachnid-like creatures hooked to their heads. Each time, the person with th bug on him lashed out like the bug was the person. Ryu was at a loss, faced with one of the citizens himself.

How can I save this guy, if he’s trying to kill me? Ryu asked himself, dodging a lunging punch from the possessed man, the bug pulsating angrily on his face. The punch barely skimed his ear as he sidestepped, dropping his sword.

As he dodged haymaker after haymaker, a random thought flitted through his mind. The bug! Destroy it, and the person is free! He wound up and prepared ot deliver his coup de grace. Gotta do this just right, or I’ll kill the human.

He saw his opening as the controlled man swung and missed, leaving his front open to an attack. Ryu lashed out with a punch, but at the last second opened his hand, a strange glow surrounding it. His open hand latched onto the bug just as the bug was latched onto the man’s face, and it screamed as the energy in his palm discharged into it. The body it controlled went limp and remained standing as the knees locked. He cut the blast short, as not to injure the man, and pulled his hand away. The bug barely resembled its former self; smoking and scorched, it barely had enough body left to hold its legs on. It released its deathgrip and fell away, revealling the startled face of the man Ryu had very nearly killed with the blast.

“W-what happened? The last thing I remember is going after the Ribabu child.” The man asked, touching his face and dropping to his knees. Ryu knelt beside him.

“You have to get out of here, it’s not safe here.” He told him. The man nodded, and ran out of the chamber, back towards the well’s mouth.

Ryu continued with the search.

***

Within twenty minutes, Ryu’s team of four had gathered just outside the corridor where Ray held the water back. They had finally found all the citizens.

“I need a count.” Ryu said. “I got two people and three bugs. You guys?”

“One person, two bugs.” Katt boasted, scuffing her fingernails on her tunic.

“One person, no bugs.” Nina replied.

“Two people, four bugs.” Sten said, his natural humour replaced by his soldier’s discipline. Katt gaped at the number. How could he kill that many in so short a time?

“All right.” Ryu said, oblivious to Sten’s kill count. “Let’s get to Ray with our results.”

They ran into the corridor, and Ryu relayed the reports to the very strained and sweating Ray. “. . .so that’s six people saved, and nine bugs exterminated.”

“Six. . .plus the father and child. . . that’s eight.” Ray gritted. “I believe that’s all of them, yes. Get ready to run, everyone. . . Going to drop the barrier. Three. . .Two. . . One. . . Now!”

Ray’s hand came down, along with the energy wall he’d provided. As soon as the wall was down, both he and the rest of the team sprinted back towards the entrance to the well. Behind them, the wall of water hesitated for a quarter-second, before hundreds of tonnes of liquid death came surging through the passageways. Ryu thought they were going to make it, but a quick look over his shoulder told him they’d never reach the ladder in time.

The tidal wave of fresh water raced in to envelope them. . .

*****

“That was way too close.” Ray commented, wringing out his long brown hair with his hands, before swinging it back behind him. “We barely made it out.”

The team stood before him, water-logged, grateful that they were alive, but irritated that they’d gotten wet. Katt complained about her fur needing a week to dry out as she squeezed the water from her tail. Sten looked like a monkey that had gotten caught in the rinse cycle of a laundromat, and Nina looked like she was about to cry, drenched head to toe, her long blonde hair plastered to her head and her wings dripping well water. Ryu didn’t look much better; his normally punked-out hair was slicked back and hanging loose, giving him a caught-just-out-of-the-shower look. Ray was less wet; he had been the first one to the ladder, even though he had been the one closest to the wall of water.

“Did we get all the townspeople out?. . .” Ryu asked breathlessly, chest heaving. Once again, that mysterious power of his had dried his clothes as soon as he had gotten out of the water.

“I talked to the mayor.” Ray replied. “We got them all, luckily.” Anyone else who might have gotten caught in water blast might have gotten killed. As if to illustrate his point, the well burbled loudly, and the severed head of the Terrapin surfaced, before sinking back into the depths. They all stared at the smooth-glass surface of the water for a moment before anyone spoke.

“Thank you for aiding me.” Ray said. “I would like to help you in any way I can, but. . . how?”

Ryu shrugged. Ray paced for a moment, thinking deeply. Suddenly, inspiration hit him.

“I know! I’ll give one of you St. Eva’s special blessing! Just tell me who wants it, and I’ll teach them the Renew spell.”

Ryu turned to his companions. “So, who wants the spell? I don’t really want it. I like working with my hands.”

Sten raised his hands in front of him in a whoa-wait-a-minute gesture. “I don’t want it. I’m only good at air and fire spells.”

“I don’t think I’d understand it.” Katt said off-handedly, shaking her head.

Ryu looked Nina in the eye. “What about you Nina? The others are too far away.”

She seemed a little uncomfortable, her black wings fluttering uneasily. “I guess. . .It’s just that I’m so much better at offensive magic. I don’t know any curative or defensive magics. . .”

Ray stepped foreward and placed his hands on her slim shoulders, making her heart beat a little quicker. He leaned in to stare her directly in the eye; his hard, determined gaze versus her somewhat bewildered, surprised one. She saw a faint light emerge form his eyes, but nothing else. The others however, saw a pencil thin, almost intangible beam of faint light cross the gap between Nina and Ray’s eyes.

Finally the tiny display of power ended, and Nina stepped away, blinking, while Ray shut his eyes from the vertigo. Doing something like a spell transferal, or anything requiring intense concentration always gave him a headache and left him dizzy. With the bridge of his nose pinched between index and thumb, eyes closed tightly, he turned away. “I have to go report to the nearest St. Eva church. They must know about the demons that tried to infest this town. If you’ll excuse me. . .”

Katt looked to Nina expectantly. “Well? Did you get the spell? Huh? Huh?!”

She shook her head to rid it of the cobwebs. “Uuhhh. . . I think so. . . My head’s a little fuzzy, though. . .”

“Give her a minute, Katt.” Ryu said, moving to Nina’s side and letting her lean against him. The group began to walk towards the inn.

Katt caught Nina’s smug smile, the one she’d hidden from Ryu by placing her wing between them. She leaned in close enough for Nina to hear, but not Ryu, whispering in a threatening tone. “I know what your up to. Don’t think you’ll get away with it. He’s mine.”

Nina offered her a bemused smile. “We’ll just see about that. . .” She replied kindly, leaning further into Ryu, making Katt fume in silence.

 

 

Chapter Five: Dragons, Dreams, and Machines… Oh My!