Chapter 3 - Chapter 3

Sarah excitedly changed clothes in the woods away from the boys. She had never chosen her own clothes before since there were people at the palace who did that for her. She pondered what words she would replace with others as she pulled her short white pleated skirt over her hips. “I suppose shall be replaced with I guess… and quite possible could be changed to maybe… I fear I shall never get this down.” She sighed tying her green corset like vest. She really liked the way the tail of it flowed down to her knees. All she had left was to put on and tie her brown hiking boots.
Matt hid behind a tree craning his neck trying to get a better view as he attempted to catch a glimpse of Sarah changing. But she was out of his sight and he didn’t dare try and get closer. He thought she was really cute and since he helped save her life maybe she would fall for him. “What do you think you’re doing?” Someone hissed hitting him on the head. He turned to see Ash standing there. “Nothing really… I didn’t pick very good seats…” Matt groaned pouting slightly. “You’re trying to peak at Alexia.” Ash growled. “Maybe… what like you haven’t tried?” Matt shot back. “Well to be honest I did when I was younger… but I almost got murdered by her nanny… Kyla didn’t really get what I was trying to do…” Ash admitted blushing. “So there you go. Oh yeah. Try and remember her name is Sarah now. That’s the least you could do if you don’t want us to get thrown in prison. I guess not everyone is cut out to be an adventurer.” Matt said folding his arms triumphantly. Ash gritted his teeth as he started to get angry. In a rage he snatched Matt by the ear and started dragging him. “Ow OW where are we going!?” Matt squealed following his ear. “Back to where Kyla and Felix are waiting.” Ash barked pulling him all the way back.
“Ash, Matt, have fun in the woods? Why are you dragging him by his ear?” Kyla asked as Ash and Matt rejoined her. “I caught this little pervert trying to sneak a peek-” Ash started. “Pervert look who’s talkin!” Matt interrupted. “Hey I was only a curious little boy!” “Ha what’s changed!?” The two continued to argue. “Hel-I mean-Hi!” Sarah greeted walking out of the woods in her new duds. Both Ash’s and Matt’s jaws dropped. “Wow just wow.” Matt commented. “Y-you look a lot different.” Ash added gulping. Felix scoffed and rolled his eyes as he turned his back in order to find something more worth his time. “Come on boys. Better close your traps or you’ll catch some flies.” Kyla cackled standing between them and pushing their jaws up. “So do I look grand… I mean good?” Sarah asked twirling around. “Yeah that looks good on you. Though I hope you don’t plan on doing much fighting. White gets dirty easy… and if you did one kick we could see right up your skirt, so it’s not really my style.” Kyla critiqued. “Sounds good to me.” Matt grinned, imagining Sarah trying to do martial arts. He gasped as Ash elbowed him in the side. “What are you doing with clothes like that anyway? It’s not like you could wear them.” Ash interrogated Kyla. “Come on not all my friends are my height. Believe it or not most of my friends are long legged and pretty tall.” Kyla replied.
“These are for you also.” Kyla said giving Sarah a pair of twin pistols. Sarah examined them taking note of the fine detailing in them. The keychain with a tiny doll on it hanging from one of them down to the trigger crafted into the shape of a panther. “They’re beautiful, such wonderful craftsmanship.” Sarah said forgetting to edit her words. “Thanks but I don’t like to give myself too much credit…” Kyla giggled. “You made these!?” Sarah questioned astonished. “Yeah I learned weapon forgery when I lived in the mountains. I made those for a friend of mine but I haven’t had the chance to see how well they work so you get to take them for a test run until I can make you your own. Please don’t tell her though. She’ll hate me if she finds out.” Kyla told her before picking up some more weapons. “Now what?” Felix growled watching her. “Hold on everyone needs to be armed you know how all those random battles occur when you’re not in a town. You have your sword and I have my whole arsenal of weapons.” Kyla replied patting her travel pack. “I have my fists.” Matt chipped in. “Now Sarah has some guns I need to give Ash something.” Kyla added turning to Ash and handing him a beautifully carved pair of tonfa. “That’s my own personal pair… Don’t worry you’ll have your own soon.” She told him smiling. “Thanks.” Ash said smiling brightly.
“When are we going to leave?” Felix sighed glaring at Kyla. “Hey don’t be in such a hurry. We’ll get there before the inn closes no problem.” She told him walking into the woods. Felix growled and hit the ground in frustration. “What’s with him?” Matt asked. Ash shrugged. “Guys these are for you.” Kyla chirped coming back holding the reins attached to several horses. She walked around giving a different colored one to each person. To Ash a dapple gray horse, Matt, a black and white paint, Sarah a solid white mare, and Felix a black stallion who had a splash of white on his forehead. Each of the horses had been saddled and was waiting for them to climb on and ride.
“Now what are you doing?” Felix questioned Kyla as she was strapping a saddle to her horse. “I’m looking for the great wall of China… What does it look like I’m doing?” Kyla replied wittily. “What’s the great wall of China?” Ash asked. Everyone shrugged. “It looks like your saddling a horse… but why?” Felix growled. “Well I just don’t think it’s fair for all of the other horses to have to have saddles while she doesn’t.” Kyla replied looping the strap one last time. “Well just-” “Are you coming? We don’t have all night you know.” She interrupted him. He looked over to see her already sitting on her horse gripping the reins. Matt hopped easily onto his horse, while Ash helped Sarah climb onto hers before boarding his own. Felix rolled his eyes with a scoff and spat at the ground. He started running for his horse he jumped and did a handless cartwheel. Landing on his feet he jumped high into the air flipping gracefully and landing smoothly in his saddle. “Dude doesn’t that hurt.” Matt squinted. “Show off…” Ash glared. Kyla giggled as she rode past them. Felix took the lead as they rode down the trail on their way to Caim.
Sarah rode up beside Kyla. “Is it just me or does something seem strange about Felix? Didn’t he used to have a cape?” She asked noticing for the first time that he no longer was wearing his bright red cape. “Well he kinda lost it.” Kyla replied holding back a giggle. “What happened?” Sarah inquired “See what happened was I woke up hanging in a tree. The back of my shirt got caught in the branches. I looked around trying to find Felix and saw him running around below me with his cape on fire. He was trying to tear it off. I kinda kept laughing at him so when he finally did get it off he was kinda miffed at me.” Kyla recalled working hard to prevent from braking into laughter. “What happened next?” Sarah requested. “Well I asked him to help me down but he refused to help and told me to get myself down. He started mumbling something about if I was so strong and could fly and everything then I wouldn’t need anyone to help me. I couldn’t really hear what else he said; I was too distracted by the sound of the branch breaking. I fell from the tree but used the other branches to flip back onto my feet. After that we came to find ya’ll.” She told Sarah her laughter became too much to hold back and Sarah found herself laughing along with her. Felix glared back at the two of them. “Sorry if our laughter disturbed you… we won’t to it again.” Kyla told him quieting her laughter to a quiet smirk. Sarah did the same and looked ahead to where they were going. Many new questions were filling her mind. She could sense that something had passed between Kyla and Felix, but she was afraid to ask either of them about it though.
The sun had fallen behind the horizon; dark blue was starting to engulf the sky. Stars we coming out of hiding to play upon the night sky and lights were twinkling on in the distance. They were moments from arriving in Caim. Kyla gave a soft click with her tongue and rode ahead of everyone, up to the gates of the village. A man opened a slide in the gate and peered out at Kyla and her troupe. “Hey we need to spend the night at the inn.” Kyla said smiling brightly. “Might I ask who you are?” The man inquired an accent in his voice. “It’s me Kyla.” She replied. “How can I be sure that it is you?” The man questioned. Kyla’s smile faded as she was starting to become annoyed. “Frank you know darn well it’s me. Are you goin to open the gate or do I need to hop over there and do it myself?” Kyla retorted. “No need to get in such a tizzy… I’ll open the gate. You can’t be too careful these days though.” The man told her closing the peep hole and opening the gate itself. Everyone started riding through the gate. As Kyla went by she paused and leaned down to where the Gates-man could whisper something into her ear. Whatever it was it brought a grin to Kyla’s face. She nodded and thanked him as she continued with the group on the way to the inn.
“Hey go on ahead in. I’ll be there in a little bit after I stable the horses.” Kyla told everyone as she jumped down from her horse. “Hey Matt have you ever been here before?” Sarah asked as she slid off her horse and bowed to Kyla as she gave her the reins. “Yeah… a couple times.” Matt replied looking up at the inn. “What kind of place is it?” Sarah asked as they made their way up the steps. “Well this is a town that was built because of people traveling though now days people have hover cars and everything so they get places much quicker and often bypass here. So over the years it’s become more of a place for fighters to come. People come here to compete in their weekly mini tournaments. Though for the most part it’s only people who think they’re tough and wouldn’t recognize a good martial artist if one punched them in the face.” Matt explained.
“Get a load of this place. It’s packed we’ll be lucky to even get a seat in the dining hall.” Ash said walking close behind Sarah. “Wow I wouldn’t have thought this many people would be here to fight in a miniature tournament.” Sarah commented as people pushed by her as she tried to keep up with Felix as he weaved his way through the people towards the front desk. “People just seem to like going out of their way to prove they’re a tough guy.” Matt sighed. “Like you’re not one of them…” Ash criticized. Matt didn’t reply but just glared back at him.
The three of them relaxed close to the wall, and out of the way, as Felix checked them in. “You’re lucky, you just got the last room available.” The owner said. “Now where is that slacker? Billy where’s Ralph to show them to their room?” He questioned a young boy who was walking through the room with an armful of dishes. “I don’t know sir. Last I seen him he was going to the stables.” The boy replied scurrying off to the dining hall. The door opened and Kyla walked into the room along with a tall, slender, clumsy looking boy. “Ralph there you are, show these people to their room.” The owner commanded. “It’s ok Mr. Johnson. I know where everything is.” Kyla said walking up to the store owner. “Miss Kyla it is good to see you again.” Mr. Johnson greeted. “My pleasure. I assume business is going good.” Kyla returned bowing politely. “Yeah… too good. We can’t even take a five minute break for all the people we have here.” Mr. Johnson told her. “Well then I won’t keep you. We’ll go to our room real quick before going to the dining hall. I assume since there are no more rooms you’ll be helping out in there.” She said twirling around and smiling. “See you later then.” He said waving. She waved back as she pranced away leading everyone up the stairs.
“And this is our room. Now if everyone doesn’t mind I’m getting hungry.” Kyla grinned opening the door to the room then turning to look at everyone. “I’ll come too.” Matt chirped patting his stomach. “How about we all go?” Sarah suggested smiling.
Everyone walked down the stairs, even Felix followed them. They filed into the dining hall managing to find a table in the crowded room. “I’ll be back.” Kyla chirped prancing off to explore. Felix wondered off to sit in a corner by himself. Sarah, Ash, and Matt gathered around the table and watched the people around them. “I want one of those!” Matt shouted watching a large bearded man walk by with a large pitcher of beer. “As if you were old enough to drink.” Ash critiqued grabbing Matt’s shirt before he could run off to purchase alcohol. “Awwww.” Matt pouted. “Hey is it just me or does it seem like there’s something going on between those two?” Sarah asked lowering her head to glance towards Felix then to Kyla who was looking around the room. “What do you mean?” Ash inquired glancing at the two as well. “It just seems like there is some past between them.” Sarah replied. “Who knows they’re both closed books…” Matt sighed.
After a while they ate dinner. Kyla made her way back over to them and stood there looking slightly disappointed. “Were you looking for something?” Sarah asked her. “Yeah… I thought someone was here but it seems not…” She sighed. The same large bearded man from earlier started to walk by, his pitcher half way full of beer. He walked into Kyla. She gasped as she stumbled forward a little; the man dropped his pitcher causing the beer to spill all over her. She started to cough as she tried to shake off the coat of alcohol. “You little runt look what you made me do!” He yelled at her. She turned to look at him, shock flashing across her eyes as the man grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and lifted her off the ground to where they were face-to-face. “Dude you’re the one who ran into me, making me smell horrible.” She growled looking him dead in the eye. “Are you looking for a fight?” He barked back at her. “I should be asking you that…” She mumbled. He gritted his teeth angrily as he tossed her across the room. She did a flip landing lightly on a table. Everyone in the room clapped at her “performance.” “Don’t go ruining my place! You break it you by it!” Mr. Johnson yelled running out onto the dining room floor. “Yes sir. Hey if you think you’re so tough let’s take this little brawl outside.” Kyla suggested hopping down from the table and running swiftly out of the room the man chasing her. Everyone started piling out of the door at once eager to see the fight.
Ash, Sarah, and Matt managed to get outside and close to where they could watch the fight. Felix even trudged out and stood under the shadows of the porch interested in seeing some of Kyla’s fighting. Kyla and the man stood in the middle of the crowd. Kyla stretched a smile playing on her face. The man took off his shirt and passed it back to one of his friends. She looked him over measuring up his strength. A smirk came to her face. “How would you like to spice this up?” She asked. He glared at her waiting for her to talk again. “I’ll fight you blind folded.” She suggested. He smirked and started laughing everyone around doing the same. “I’m serious. This cloth is too thick for me to see through. You can’t even see my eyes glowing behind it.” She told him taking a cloth and trying it around her face, over her eyes. She was right her glow in the dark eyes were in no way visible behind the cloth. Everyone around started placing bets, most of them on the guy. “I want 50 on the shorty!” Matt shouted pulling money out of his pocket and handing it to the girl who was accepting the bets.
Kyla took in a deep breath and took a fighting stance. The man ran at her. She leapt in the air and flipped over him landing behind him, a smile playing on her lips. He charged at her time after time trying to strike her but she easily dodged each of his punches. After a few moments of toying with him she stopped playing. He punched at her and she jumped back planting her feet firmly before fighting back. She jumped through his defense landing a strong knee under chin. He started to fall backwards. She kicked off of his chest doing a back flip as he collapsed on the ground. “Well that should do it.” She chirped peeking out from under her mask to see the man lying on the ground groaning. “Kid you just made me richer.” Matt grinned walking over to Kyla and patting her on the shoulder. She giggled and looked back up at him. “How did you know when he was near you?” Sarah asked bending down close to her shoulder. “He sounded like a freight train coming at me and smelt like a distillery.” Kyla replied chuckling.
After the eventful evening they retired to their room. It was a small room with only 4 tiny beds. Kyla would have been glad to sleep on the floor but Felix had already claimed a chair in the corner of the room propping his feet up on a table and leaning back with book in hand. “You sure you don’t want the bed?” Kyla inquired he just waved it off dismissively.
Sarah dreamed. She was in a burning village in front of her she could see a ring of fire with 4 children inside. She wanted to do anything to help them. The brown headed girl looked up at her with pleading eyes exactly like her own. The smallest child with white hair stood protectively in front of them looking for some way to shield them from the flames. The boy who was almost identical to the brown headed girl hugged her tightly to him he didn’t want to lose her. The white haired boy stood there indifferently. He didn’t fear the flames. Sarah watched them when a quick movement flashed across the sky, catching her attention. She looked up to see a dark blue dragon hovering in the sky above them. It opened its mouth wide, a bright orb of electricity forming. It gripped the orb, its claws cutting into it releasing some of the static. Fear started to grip Sarah. She didn’t want anything to happen to those kids. She started to run but not away, towards the ring of fire. The dragon arched back his and threw the electric ball at them. It reached them before Sarah could she held her arms out in front of her as the wind started rushing past, nearly knocking her off her feet, the large boom of the explosion sounding in her ears.
She sat up straight the sound woke her from her dream. She was breathing heavily as she convinced herself it was a dream. Suddenly there was another explosion lighting up the sky and shaking the room. She stood up and looked out the window seeing everyone out there fighting. She gasped and quickly searched for her pistols locked away in the night stand. Gripping them she ran out of the room and made her way for the exit of the building. She ran out the door and saw Kyla a smile coming to her face. She went to run for her friend when something caught her eye. She looked up to see girl on a hover bike. The girl was a fox-demon with black and pink hair with matching ears and tail. The hover bike was heavily customized. Mechanical arms came out of a compartment on the front, and the hover bike was headed straight for Sarah. Fear gripped her as she raised her guns but she was having difficulties getting a good aim. The arms were about to grab her when everything seemed to move in slow motion. Kyla shouted her name as she jumped swiftly in front of her. The mechanical arms gripped Kyla’s right arm awkwardly behind her back. Pain filled her eyes as she was yanked back the hands doing a twisting motion. A horrible cracking sound filled the air before a final snap sounded. Kyla’s eyes clouded over as she fell unconscious from the pain.
The girl flew the hover bike high into the air pulling the unconscious girl with her. The fox-demon’s cackles filled the night as she flew off leaving the rest of the group behind. She flew a couple miles out of the town. Sarah watched as the tiny dot she knew was Kyla dropped from the sky. She tried to chase after but a girl bounced from the house tops and landed gracefully in front of her holding out an arm to stop her. She had shoulder length dirty blond hair a red head band decorating it. For clothes she was sporting a red tank top under a tan jacket and blue cargo Capri’s. The girl was 18, three years older than Kyla, and around 5’6” in height. Something crashed in front of them sending dust into the air. It was curled up in a large ball at first but quickly unfolded to reveal a large three headed dog. Everyone gathered around the creature ready to fight.
Everyone attacked it though it didn’t really seem to faze it. Finally the blond headed girl jumped in the air landing on the dogs back. The dog started thrashing around trying to knock her off but she held on tightly until it tired out and fell to the ground breathing heavily. A pink light surrounded it as it turned into a tiny glowing orb. The girl fell to the ground landing on her feet and watched as the orb flew off into the distance. Sarah fell wearily to her knees as she remembered Kyla was now lost out there in the wilderness. “Hey don’t worry about her. We have friends out there that will take care of her. Let’s sit on the porch.” The blond haired girl suggested placing a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. Sarah looked up at the girl, looking into her gray eyes that showed little emotion. With a nod Sarah got to her feet and fallowed the girl to the porch. She took a seat on the steps the girl sitting beside her. Matt and Ash stood on the porch looking out into the distance. Felix just scoffed and walked back inside the inn.
“Ummm do you mind me asking who you are?” Sarah inquired glancing over at the girl again. “Oh I’m Britt. I’m an old friend of Kyla’s.” She told Sarah scratching through her hair as she attempted to give her a smile. “I’m Sarah and these are my friends Matt and Ash.” “Nice meetin you.” Britt greeted. Ash waved at her as Matt gave her a bright smile. “Are you sure that Kyla will be alright?” Sarah inquired. ”Yeah she’s tough. Besides some friends of ours went for a walk and of course with this kind of situation they will conveniently find her.” Britt groaned placing her head in her hands with boredom. Sarah watched the road eagerly hoping to see some kind of sign of these “friends” that Britt was speaking of. After 10, 20 minutes figures could be seen in the distance. Slowly they became clear revealing two boys and a girl. And in one of the boy’s arms was a sleeping Kyla.
The boy carrying Kyla was short, a couple inches taller than Kyla. He was wearing a pair of loose fitting blue jeans and a turquoise shirt, and he had black hair the bangs coming down over his eyes in the shape of a heart, the length of his hair coming around chin length maybe longer. The other boy looked almost identical to the first, the only differences were he was wearing a white button down shirt and a pair of black jeans, that his bangs came down in sharp spikes, and the top half of his hair was a lovely green color while the bottom was black. The girl that walked with them was a smidge shorter than them and had shoulder length reddish brown hair. All of them had eyes that changed color, all of them were 15 years in age, and all of them had a brown monkey tail swaying behind them.
“Kyla!” Sarah called running out to them. She knelt down to where she was to their level and ran her fingers through Kyla’s hair. Felix actually came to the door way and look out from the shadows. “Don’t worry she is ok. It seems that her arm was broken so we’ll need a doctor to come look at her.” The boy with the pure black hair said. “I’ll go get one then meet everyone back in the room.” Matt said running off. “Come on let’s go back to the room.” Ash said walking up behind Sarah and putting his hand on her shoulder. Sarah nodded her head and stood up. She smiled down at the boys and girl able to tell that they were also monkey-demons. She also recognized the green and black haired boy; she had seen him in the video.
“So you’re Kyla’s brother, correct?” Sarah asked the green and black hair boy as they all traveled back to the room. “Yeah I’m Rikku. How’d you know?” He replied looking up at her his eyes turning purple with curiosity. “I kind of watched a video on what happened to your home…” She admitted feeling nervous suddenly. “So you know!?” He asked shocked. She nodded solemnly. “She told me a lot of other things as well.” She added. “Wow I can’t believe she actually told someone. She never told anyone about our home and definitely never said a word about what our older brother used to do…” He said dropping his voice trying to prevent his companions from hearing. “How did you know she told me all that?” She squeaked her face turning red. “Oh sorry… I guess I read your mind by accident. I would recommend not saying anything about that to anyone especially not to those two.” He suggested gesturing towards the boy carrying Kyla and the girl. “Don’t worry I don’t plan to.” She told him nodding in understanding.
They entered the room and the black haired boy walked over and placed Kyla gently on her bed. He looked down at her and brushed the hair out of her peaceful face a smile coming to his. “Are they close?” Sarah asked the red haired girl, crouching down and wrapping her arms around her knees. “Yeah really close, Kyla is Domon’s GIRLFRIEND!” She teased giggling. The boy twirled around to glair at her his face completely red. “She’s not my girlfriend.” He denied. “So you don’t like her then?” Sarah inquired. “N-n-no it’s not that… It’s just that we’re not officially dating…” He stammered twiddling his thumbs. “By the way I’m Rain.” The red haired girl said turning and smiling at Sarah. “Oh yeah, and I’m Domon. We’re good friends with Kyla.” The black hair boy added. “It is nice to meet the two of you. I’m Sarah.” Sarah greeted. “And I’m Ash.” Ash chirped. Felix just ignored all as he sat in his corner reading his book. “That’s Felix… And the boy that left earlier was Matt. He should be back any minute.” Ash added. “It’s nice to meet you. Kyla said a lot about you. I’m Rikku.” Rikku introduced himself to Ash and Felix. “Hey here’s the doc!” Matt shouted running into the room dragging an elderly man with him. “Kids these days always in such a hurry…” The doctor grumbled cleaning his glasses as he worked to catch his breath.
“So where is the patient?” He asked looking around the room. Everyone looked at him in disbelief. Felix just scoffed and continued flipping through his book. “She is.” Domon replied recovering from his stupor and pointing at Kyla. “Right… right… Well let’s see here. What seems to be the problem?” He questioned walking over to her. “We are pretty sure her arm is broken so if you would put it in a cast and everything that would be great… And I would recommend doing it before she wakes up. She doesn’t really like Doctors.” Rikku suggested.
The doctor took about an hour to prepare and cast the arm. Kyla remained asleep for the whole thing. “Hey we’ll see you in the morning. Please have a good night.” Domon said bowing to Sarah before walking out of the room with their entire group. “Night.” Sarah returned closing the door behind them. She and the others went to bed as well gathering sleep for the next day.

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