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“Wake up!”
Mmmm… Who’s yelling? I’m just trying to sleep…
“WAKE UP!”
The next thing I knew, I was thrown to the cold wood floor.
“What? What happened,” I scrambled out of my sleepiness and found Terra in a panicked expression. “Terra?”
“It’s… It’s… It’s Aqua,” She stuttered.
“What happened,” I placed my arms on her shoulders. I’ve never seen her so shaken in my life.
She merely pointed to window, and my gaze turned toward it. The library was filtering out a frigid blue light that froze the water surrounding it, while all of the townspeople gathered in confused fear.
I rushed out of the room, down the stairs, and out the door onto the wood walkways of Torrentia with Terra right behind me. Then we made our way through the crowd of people right before the library doors. I was shivering from the freezing cold. Even the armor I was wearing began to become covered in frost.
“You two should bundle up in these,” Ruby’s shaken voice came from behind us. We turned to find her in a thick black winter coat and holding two more for Terra and me. “Here you go.”
We took the coats and slipped them on.
“Where’d you get the coats, Ruby,” I asked her feeling so much warmer.
“When the library got like this, everyone started bundling up, and the shopkeeper of the shop we were at threw us these and said, ‘on the house.’”
I guess Kane wasn’t kidding when he said that there were literally two sides to this world.
“Did you find them,” Terra asked a lot calmer.
“Yeah,” Chris’ came voice from the crowd. “She found us, alright, and just before I was about to get a few up on Eric.”
“I still got more of those giant lizards than you,” Eric emerged from the mass of people, “and I even got one of those strange bat things.”
They were still holding their weapons and wearing thick coats like ours. I still can’t believe they went out just to do that.
“And, I brought something back too,” Eric smiled as he raised a large piece of lizard skin and what looked like a giant bat wing.
I stood there with a stunned expression. “I thought the Kaijin were supposed to disappear after they were killed.”
“Yeah, but you know,” Eric answered with a smug smile.
“Oh, lizard skin,” came a cheerful voice from behind me, “and a great bat wing! Those would make great accessories!” Then a woman wearing a swimsuit, sarong, fluffy white coat, and a pair of glasses stepped forward.
Chris cringed and curtly replied, “Who the hell are you?”
“Chris,” Ruby instantly responded solemnly. “Right now, you are very fortunate that I am not in the mood to chastise you right now.”
Chris silenced himself before Ruby’s gaze.
“Oh, sorry, I’m Jane, Torrentia’s very own personal artisan!”
We stood there dumbfounded for a few seconds in silence.
“You guys must be new then.” We nodded. “Well, hand over those little things, and I’ll turn them into something special!” Eric absent-mindedly handed her the lizard skin and bat wing. “Thank you! I’ll be a while, so come see me later at my shop near the inn. Oh! This is going to be so much fun!” Then she ran off in her flip-flops.
“I hate this place,” Chris muttered.
“She took my stuff,” Eric said blankly.
“Now, what about Aqua,” I asked snapping out of my dazed state.
“That’s right,” Ruby snapped. “She ran into the library!”
“She’s in there! Why is she in there!?”
“We don’t know,” Terra answered. “We were in the shop then she stared into space and ran out the door. Then the next thing we knew, she ran into the library, and it suddenly froze over.”
What did she see? This can’t be good. We have to find her now!
“You’re going in alone,” Ruby asked out of shock. “Wait for me!”
“HEY,” Chris yelled. “You’re not leaving me here with these guys!”
“Come on,” Terra said to Eric. “Let’s go.” She pulled him along.
Then we ran through the open doors of the frigid library, and found the inside completely covered in frost and ice. But, Aqua was nowhere in sight.
Where did she go? The stairs…
We ran to the stairs and rushed are way down to the lower part of the library where it became colder and colder. It was a never ending spiral flight of stairs with books lining walls all the way down lit by glowing crystal balls spaced perfectly along the railing of the stairs covered in a light frost.
“Man, talk about a reader’s paradise,” I said in awe.
“LESS TALKING MORE RUNNING,” Ruby yelled as everyone passed me.
We ran down the stairs, past books, glowing crystals, and a door. A door?
“HEY GUYS,” I shouted. “Hold on a second.”
They stopped and turned as I approached the door. It had the words “Shrine Room” engraved into its wood. Then a voice came from behind it.
“Who are you,” Aqua’s voice demanded.
“And you’re supposed to be smart,” replied a smug woman’s voice.
“What the heck is that supposed to mean!?”
“Aqua,” I burst through the door and everyone followed. “Who the heck…”
A woman dressed in a dark blue robe wearing a breast plate, a deep blue cloth headband, and a metal mask that covered her face from the nose down stood before us.
“Are you a friend of Kane’s,” Eric asked.
“You must be Eric,” she replied. “You’re more annoying than I thought.”
“I’ll take that as a no,” Eric took a step back.
I feel like I know who this person is, but I don’t like something about her. It’s something dangerous.
“I don’t know who you are,” I drew my sword from my bag, “but I know that you’re not like the people in Torrentia. You’re… You’re…”
“Evil,” she finished my sentence. “Well, aren’t you perceptive,” she said smugly. “But, I’m not here to fight you,” the air began growing colder and collected in her right hand. Then a spear of crystal clear ice formed in her hand. “I’m here for her!” The air started growing colder again as frost began collecting around the blue robed woman. Then a gust of freezing air lashed at us like a blizzard blowing us back out the door leaving Aqua left in the room.
 Levias · Thu Nov 16, 2006 @ 05:57pm · 0 Comments |
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