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Chapter 11
Well! New chapter up! Sorry it took so long. I admit, I got really lazy. But if you think I'm bad here you should see me on fanfiction xD
Anywho, read on!
“SURPRISE!” several people shouted from behind Skie.
She whirled around to see a big elegant looking table with several people sitting at it on chairs that looked like giant mushrooms. “Omigosh I’ve been sucked into a video game.” Skie said, eyes wide.
“C’mon,” Reilly grinned and took her hand again, pulling her towards the largest mushroom seat at the head of the table.
“Awww!” Arenah cooed, sitting at a seat between two empty mushroom chairs.
“Shaddup!” Reilly barked.
Arenah stuck her tongue out playfully.
“I’ll be right back!” Elien said suddenly, running off and disappearing into the foliage surrounding the clearing neatly.
“Okay!” Arenah waved after her cheerfully.
Reilly stopped next to the giant mushroom seat, “Sit down,” he smiled.
Skie stared at the mushroom as if she was staring at a rhino that somehow got into her closet. “I am not sitting on that,” she said.
“Why not?” Reilly tilted his head to the side.
“’Cuz!” she poked it, yanking her hand away, “It’s all squishy weird!” she said,”
Reilly glanced at a girl sitting across from Arenah. She looked maybe two years older than Skie, her golden blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She had a dark blue vest on with bright blue stripes stitched down the sleeves, her undershirt a dull gray with some sort of yellow rune on it that looked like a cartoon picture of the sun. There was a jet black short haired cat sitting on her lap, his tail curled around his front paws.
“Julia, could she have a chair?” Reilly asked.
“Hmph. She’s afraid to sit on the mushroom?” the cat said.
“AAAH! TALKIN’ CAT!” Skie yelled, flinching away from the little black animal.
“What’s wrong with you?” the cat hopped up onto the table, Skie just noticing it was covered in all sorts of food, including a roast chicken that made Skie hungry all of a sudden, but she forgot about that almost instantly as her attention switched back to the cat.
“Reilly, the cat’s talking.” Skie said.
“You seemed more surprised about the cat then you were about Jeriesh.” Reilly commented, smirking.
Skie huffed and glared at the cat, “I am not afraid to sit on a mushroom!”
“You could have fooled me.” the cat grinned.
“Red! Stop it!” Julia scolded, “Aren’t you glad to see her?”
Red turned to Julia and gave her a look that said, ‘Duh’. He turned back to Skie, “Well, Skie, then sit on the mushroom Julia was kind enough to make you.”
“She made a mushroom? What?”
“Just sit down, I’m afraid your head will explode if you try to think anymore.” Jek said, sitting down next to Arenah lazily.
“Shut up, Bush-Head!” Skie barked, “I can think just fine without my head exploding!”
“Bush-Head? That’s a new one.” Red grinned at Jek, who tossed a chip at him, Red ducking to dodge it.
Skie slowly sat down on the mushroom, the expression on her face making her look like she expected the mushroom to explode at any second. Once she sat down on it, she found it was really comfortable. “This isn’t so bad,” she smiled, crossing her legs like she always did when she sat on a chair.
Reilly grinned and sat on the mushroom next to hers.
Skie looked around at everyone at the table. The people she knew so far were Julia, Red, Reilly, Arenah, and Jek. There were three other kids there also. There were two boys who maybe looked about ten or twelve, and there was one girl who looked maybe a year younger than the youngest boy.
“Oh! You haven’t met everyone yet…” Reilly said, his voice trailing off as his eyes seemed to zone out.
Arenah stood up, “Skie’s forgotten about us,” she said, “When she died, she was reborn in the next world and forgot everything about here. Remember what we told you? We went over there and rescued her, brought her back home.”
Everyone grew quieter.
“I believe the correct term for that is ‘kidnap’.” Skie mumbled.
“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Julia said, “Why didn’t you tell us Skie lost her memory?”
“Truthfully, it slipped my mind completely,” Arenah said.
“How could something that important slip your mind completely?” the youngest boy at the table shouted. He was about ten, and had a helmet on his head with the straps hanging down in front of his ears, a large pair of goggles were on his forehead. On the side of his helmet, ‘Choc’ was written on it in dark ink. His bright orange hair was sticking out at odd angles under his helmet, and his bangs were a mess. His ears were nearly six inches long and pointed.
“Choc, calm down.” Jek said unenthusiastically.
“I’m sorry, alright? I was just happy to have her back,” Arenah said.
“Are you purposely all trying to put me on a guilt trip or something?” Skie said, narrowing her eyes, “I wanna go home and watch TV, dang it!” Skie yelled.
“Something is definitely different about her,” Red said.
The other girl nodded in agreement. She looked about nine and she had bright orange hair that was just as spiked and messy as Choc’s hair. Her ears were also long and pointed.
Siblings, probably, Skie though, staring at their ears.
“Skie,” Arenah’s voice snapped her out of her ear-staring moment, “Let me introduce you to them,” she smiled and pointed at Red, “This is Red, he’s always following Julia around.”
“Look, she’s following me.” the cat protested.
“And this is Julia, she’s an elemental. One of the few who have control over all of them. Although, earth is definitely her strong point…”
“I’ll say. She can’t even light a candle without threatening to burn down the forest.” Jek mumbled.
Red yowled and jumped at Jek, knocking him off his mushroom chair and onto the ground where they were wrestling. Skie found it funny when she saw Red was winning.
“He’s Choc." Arenah motioned to the helmeted orange-haired boy. "He got his nickname because he tried writing ‘Chocolate’ on his helmet, but ran out of ink.” Arenah smiled as Choc grinned.
“That’s cool.” Skie said, being a huge fan of chocolate.
Choc grinned even wider.
“And this is his little sister Anya,” Arenah pointed at the nine-ish year old orange-haired girl. “She can’t talk, so she uses sign language.”
Anya moved her hands in a quick succession of movements.
‘Hello Sk-’
“What?” Skie tilted her head to the side, she could’ve sworn she heard a voice in her head.
Anya did the same movements again, and this time, she heard the voice perfectly.
‘Hello Skie, welcome home!’
“Whoa. You didn’t tell me she could do that!” Skie said
“It’s a bit of telepathy sorcery she learned from Red.” Choc said.
“Red? The cat’s a magician?” Skie looked confused.
“I’m not a magician! They’re fakers who’s greatest breakthrough is pulling a poor little rabbit out of a hat by its ears.” Red huffed, “I’m a sorcerer, thank you very much. But I can’t do any sorcery…” Red hopped back up onto the table and Jek climbed clumsily into his seat, numerous little red scratches on his arms.
“Well, that’s sort of a setback for a sorcerer, wouldn’t you say?” Skie said.
“Hmph.” Red hmphed.
“This is Joey,” Arenah continued, pointing to the oldest boy. He looked twelve and had his head down on the table, snoring. “He’s constantly falling asleep.”
“Is he narcoleptic?” Skie asked.
“No. He’s just lazy.” Reilly sighed, then thought for a moment, “Actually, he might be narcoleptic…”
“Ah.” Skie looked around, “Hey…did Elien go? And where’s Jeriesh?” she looked around the grassy clearing they were in. It was surrounded by trees that were stunningly tall, a perfectly round hole in the trees matched up with the sun perfectly so a patch of light illuminated the clearing brightly.
She must not have heard Elien when she suddenly bolted from the table.
“I don’t know. Elien likes to run off and kill things every once in a while,” Choc shrugged.
“…” Skie had the expression of a goose staring at an oncoming airplane.
“Oh, she’s not the murderous type if that’s what you’re thinking.” Reilly laughed.
“…” Skie didn’t move, afraid she’d get shot or stabbed by the sword-happy Elien (who would suddenly appear in a horror-movie type way) if she did.
“The stuff she kills are things like the Shadows and stuff like that,” Reilly attempted to explain.
“Shadows? Wow. Elien really is insane then if she’s swinging her sword at freaking shadows.”
Something that Jek had been drinking bubbled out of his nose as he started half laughing half choking.
“And Jeriesh?” Skie asked.
“He’s probably out hunting. He likes to keep his senses sharp and alert.” Reilly smiled.
Skie nodded. She looked at the table, covered in food that made her extremely hungry, her eyes narrowed as if she was angry at it for not just jumping down her throat and into her stomach. “Can I eat now?” she asked impatiently.
“Sure! No need to ask, Skie.” Arenah smiled.
“Good! Nyah!” She basically dove forward, snatching a plate with what looked like a slice of apple pie on it away from Jek, who was about to stab it with a fork, and he ended up stabbing the table.
“Hey! Give that back!”
“Bah humbug to you!” Skie said, “I haven’t eaten since lunch, lemme alone!” she growled, digging in like a starving savage monkey.
Reilly grinned cheerfully and started eating as well.
“Mine!” Skie hissed as Jek tried to sneak a lone apple slice back, Skie smacking his hand with the flat side of her fork.
“Ow! You’re gonna stab someone with that! Gimme!” Jek grabbed for the fork and Skie put it up over her head.
“No! It’s my fork!” she barked, waving it back and forth as Jek tried snatching for it again and again.
“It’s so nice to have everyone back at the table!” Choc chirped happily.
Anya nodded, nibbling on a cookie.
Red was gnawing on what looked like a giant turkey leg, and Julia was eating a salad while grimacing at her cat’s ferocity in eating the meat.
“Gimme the stupid fork!” Jek said, reaching and missing again.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Skie said, saying ‘no’ each time Jek missed grabbing the fork she held away from him.
Reilly looked between Jek and Skie, sighing heavily.
“D’you suppose Elien ran into Jake?” Choc asked anyone who had an open ear at the table (AKA everyone other than Skie and Jek). He balanced a glass of water on his head while waiting for an answer.
“If she is…” Arenah started, “Poor Jake…”
“Poor Jake! Tell that to Jeriesh and he’ll bite your head off!” Reilly snapped, his cheerful disposition scraped off.
“Why?” Skie blinked. Jake seemed pretty okay when she first saw him. And he was cute…that helped.
“Jake and his band of idiots are dragon slayers. They make their living slaying rare monsters and selling their scales, fur, bones, feathers, claws...that sort of stuff. We heard he wants to kill Jeriesh for his scales to make himself a new armored vest. The jerk.” Jek growled, leaning over the table and reaching for the fork that was held at Skie’s side away from him.
“Really? Jake’s a dragon-murderer? The fiend!” Skie stood up, slamming her fists on the table, making Jek yank his arm backwards as he was almost stabbed by the fork still in Skie‘s hand. “I’ll kick him where it hurts so hard he’ll sound like a squirrel on helium for the rest of his life!” she barked.
Every guy around the table flinched visibly at the mental image. Except for Joey, who was still sleeping.
A ‘pfffft’ noise was heard from a nearby bush. It was the kind of sound someone made when they would try not to laugh, but failed miserably at it. Elien rolled out of the bushes a second later, her arms wrapped around her gut as she laughed out loud.
“Elien? You okay?” Arenah asked, raising an eyebrow.
Elien kept laughing for about two minutes, then got up, staggered over to the table, sat down, and continued laughing with her head down. She took a deep breath after another minute of laughing, “It’s just…it’s just-” Elien gasped for air, “Skie said she’d kick Jake right in the-” she chose this moment to continue laughing again, harder than ever.
“I take it Elien doesn’t like Jake a lot.” Skie noted out loud.
“Yup.” Jek said. “Jake first came here around a year, almost a year and a half ago. He and his cousin Jerrad were out looking around for the dragon they’d heard lived in this area,”
“Jeriesh?” Skie cut in.
“Yes. Anyway, they stumbled upon Elien hacking up one of those Shadows that like to lurk around sometimes and apparently he fell head over heels in love right there. He tried flirting with her, but Elien doesn’t know what flirting is so she thought he was just a weirdo and edged away until he was out of sight.”
“Actually, the edging didn’t work.” Elien said, her giggle-fit done and over with, “I had to lie and say I was too covered in Shadow blood to stick around and ran off. Shadows don’t even bleed! Idiot. And Jek, I do so know what flirting is!” Elien smacked the top of Jek’s head from across the table.
“That was uncalled for.” he muttered, rubbing his skull.
“On with the story, yes?” Skie piped.
“Well, he tried flirting with her for around…a month was it? Yeah, a month, and around this time, we had found out what he and his two older cousins were doing here.”
“Were Wolfe and Redge his older cousins?” Skie asked.
Everyone looked at her. “How do you know them?” Arenah asked.
“Apparently they snuck in while we were out.” Jek said, “Already asked her about it. But no, those weren’t his cousins. His cousins are out on a different hunt for a phoenix somewhere. They’re twins, Jerrad and Emma. Yellow blondes, really clever, and Emma’s a shape shifter. Jerrad can just tell where you need to hit something to kill it.”
“That’s creepy.” Skie said.
“Not really. I mean, I know that if I stabbed you through the eye, you’d die. He just knows the weak point in other monsters. Like dragons. I think it’s their neck, but I don’t know.”
“It’s different for every species, Jeriesh told me.” Reilly told them.
“There’s different species?” Skie asked eagerly.
“Let’s finish the first story, shall we?” Jek sounded impatient. “Realizing she seriously hated him, Jake decided-”
“To be a complete idiot and slip a love potion into my favorite cup full of apple juice! I loved apple juice back then, but I HATE it now!” Elien roared.
“Yes, well, she fell head over heels for him, and they were all hyper and annoying and bleh.” Jek stuck his tongue out. “I’d catch them making out like five times a day.”
Elien’s head hit the table.
“They were skipping all over the place, holding hands, and Jake would write love poems about her. He even woke us all up once because he was singing some sappy dumb love song to her from the ground.”
Elien’s head hit the table again.
Skie’s face was twisted up in her sad attempt not to laugh. “That’s…” she really didn’t know what to say.
“Interesting? Yup. Well, the potion wore off about three weeks later…and…let’s just say Jake couldn’t really walk right for a couple days.”
“She almost killed him,” Reilly joked.
This got Elien’s shoulders shaking as she started laughing again. “I like that part of the story.” she said into the table.
Everyone started talking after this. Skie quited down, staring down at the table, her eyebrows drawn slightly together as she was drawn deep in thought.
Where was she? Why was there a talking cat in front of her? And the dragon? What about the dragon? And the pointy eared kids? Was she really in another world? And if she was…did that mean she really was murdered here…?
Reilly noticed her change in character first and tapped her shoulder, jolting her out of her thoughts.
“Skie? What’s up?” he asked.
She stared at him, her hesitant answer drawing everyone else’s attention. “Reilly?” she said finally, “Could you tell me about the person who killed me?”
Readeth up on the villain next chappie!
Read and Reveiw! ROOTBEER AND ROCK!
