Len looked at the back of his door questioningly

AN: Once again, another lovely look into the world of fantastical relationships and dream world reminiscing. This is your host, Salem the Banshee, and I’ll be happy to answer any and all questions you may have about our newest escapade. Please keep all arms and legs inside the fantasy at all time and plz enjoy. Oh, and a personal note from the author, don’t forget to read and review!-Salem

Chapter 6

Snoop

Len looked at the back of his door questioningly. A shrill scream came from down the hall. He jumped from his bed, pulling on a shirt and yanked open the door. He followed the scream to Salem’s room. He rapped a couple times more than needed as he stood in the dark hallway.

“Open up!” No answer. He knocked louder this time.

“Salem!” He called. No answer. He sighed and rammed the door in with his shoulder. It flew open on its hinges, swinging back and forth quickly as he ran to her bed. She was still there, and no one else seemed to be in the room. He looked at the girl in question. She was panting and sweaty. She continuously tossed and turned in her sleep.

“Salem!” Len tried shaking her.

“Salem!” Her eyes immediately flicked open and searched the room quickly. She flicked out a dagger from under her pillow and held it out as an automatic reflex.

“Relax, it’s me. Len,” He said softly. The room was eerily quiet in that instant where neither of them spoke. She dropped the dagger and sat up, running a hand through her long, black hair. She stood up. Len had never seen it let down. Now it was even longer and reached the top of her thighs. Its black strands were slightly skewed from all the tossing she had done in her sleep. She pushed it out of her eyes and looked at Len.

“Thanks. I’m fine, you can go back to bed now,” She said quietly.

“Nightmare?” He ignored her suggestion.

“Yah. That obvious?”

“No, not really. You completely strike me as the type of girl that would scream all the time.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. She gave a small smile.

“What was it about?” He asked curiously, leaning against the opposite wall of where she was.

“My family.”

“Oh, is everything all right…I mean, in real life with them?” Her eyes dropped to the floor, examining the wooden boards.

“They’re dead.” She replied solemnly, her voice completely wiped of emotion.

“I’m sorry. What happened?” Salem looked back up at him.

“They and my village were destroyed in a raid by Phoenix. She burned down everything within sight. I can still see my parents…their mangled faces…that woman’s horrible black eyes…” Salem sounded like death was gripping her as she talked. Len noticed something that he hadn’t really noticed before. Her eyes had changed to a reddish color. At first he had thought it was because they were hazel…but no, they seemed…almost to reflect her emotions. Almost like they changed depending on how she felt. Maybe that’s why she acted so emotionless.

“Alright, well, I’ll let you get back to sleep.” He walked to the door, in an attempt to break the awkward silence. He opened the door and shut it gently. As the door shut, he could see a quick image of Salem sitting on her bed, clutching her knees to her chest and somewhere, Len felt something twinge in his gut.

As Len climbed back into bed, his eyelids immediately dropped over his eyes, and he slipped unconscious.

“Mum! Dad!” A nine year old boy with dark brown hair called. He ran into the living room of a small cottage.

“Len!” His mother smiled at him as he entered and gave her a tight hug, “How was the training?”

“Great! I’m going to be the most amazing warrior when I grow up! I’ll be the best!” His mother laughed again just as Len’s father walked in. He set down his jacket on the arm of a chair and kissed his wife on the cheek, sweeping her into his arms. Len made a disgusted face and his father laughed.

“We’re very proud of you my boy!” His father beamed. The sound of rain echoed throughout the house.

“Come on, I’ve already gotten supper ready.”

“Guess we came back right on time.” A knock came from the door.

“I’ll get it,” Len’s mother said, wiping her hands on her apron. Before she could walk to the door, however, it flew open and a woman stepped in, along with three black-cloaked figures. She had, long red hair and cold, black eyes. They let off a feeling that if you were to look straight into them, you would be in perpetual sorrow.

“What do you want?” Len’s father growled.

“Markis and Jeana Naedre.” The woman said calmly. Jeana pushed her son behind her instinctively.

“Give me the boy.”

“No!” Markis roared. The lady nodded to one of the black-cloaked men, who immediately flicked his wrist and three daggers flew into Markis’ chest. He staggered and coughed out blood.

“Dad!” Len screamed. Tears were splashing the floor.

“Leave-him-out of this…Phoenix!” Markis fell to his knees on the floor, trying to breath, his voice coming and going in gasps.

“Jeana?” The woman, Phoenix, turned to Len’s mother. Her voice was overly sweet and falsely cheerful.

“Stop it! You can’t have him!”

“Mum! What’s going on?” A scared Len whispered.

“I can’t? Oh, how wrong you are.” The cold voice she had had from before was back. It wormed itself around everyone in the house, making their blood run cold and the hairs on the back of their neck stand up. This woman, this entity, was the very definition of fear.

“After all,” Phoenix continued, “I’ve already destroyed your family, your husband, your village, your throne…your son will simply be one more on the list, after you, of course.”

“He has no fight with you!”

“Of course he does,” she gave a small laugh and stepped toward Jeana, “after all, he is the son of two rebels, two important and very annoying rebels. I don’t want some half-cocked idea of revenge against me, now do I? Besides, with the so called “gifts” he has, he would be a threat and we can’t have that, can we?” Phoenix held out her hand and a ball of fire swelled up on her palm. She thrust it through Jean’s stomach, who was then thrown across the room, immediately knocked unconscious. Markis crawled to her.

“Die already! Enough with this love nonsense!” She held her open palm towards Markis and flames danced across his back. He stopped moving. Len ran over to them.

“M-mum? D-dad?” His voice was shaking in panic.

“Kill the boy!”

Len gasped, his eyes opening quickly. He stood up and leaned on the doorway, panting.

“I told you I’d avenge your deaths and I never go back on my word.” Len whispered fiercely. The room was silent.

……………………………………………………………………………

A knock came from Fyra’s door. She stood up, half asleep and opened it. She saw Len standing there so she leaned against the doorway and closed her eyes.

“Fy.”

“Mm?”

“We need to go soon.”

“Why?” She complained and opened her eyes.

“We need to get to Phoenix! We’re wasting time here!” He hissed, annoyed.

“Today?” She whined. Len let out a gush of hot air as a sign of annoyance.

“Can we at least train then?”

“If I must. Who needs sleep anyway?” She said sarcastically. She tried to shut the door.

“One more thing,” Len said, holding the door open with his foot.

“What?” She moaned. He sighed.

“Never mind.” He dropped his foot and walked off. She heard him mumble “I suddenly feel bad for Ash, especially if she’s always this cranky.” Fyra shut the door and sleepily walked over to the bucket of water she had by her bed. She dunked her head into it and immediately, her senses jolted awake. Her hair made a sizzling noise as it touched the water. She pulled her head out and blinked a couple of times. She touched her hair and the water evaporated, then walked over to the couch in the next room over.

“Ash.” The silver-haired elf turned his head towards the sound of her voice.

“Ash!” His ice blue eyes flicked open.

“Come on, let’s go. Len wants to train.”

“Fy?” She left to go change in her black outfit from her night clothes.

“I’m in here!” She called.

“What time is it?” Ash asked softly as she reentered the room. He finished pulling on his shirt.

“A bit after dawn, by the look of your eyes.”

“That means?”

“That you usually rise with the sun, so when you don’t, it has to be after.” She laughed. Ash wrapped his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck.

“I hope you don’t give your sleep habits to our kids.” She laughed.

“Yeah, our kids. Wait, what?” Ash’s head shot up.

“Oh, come on. I want to get married eventually, and since you’re the only one I’d want to marry, I assumed we would sometime in the next two or three centuries.” The demon’s gold eyes sparkled with laughter. Ash smirked and kissed her, pulling her closer to himself. He stroked her hair with his fingers. Her hair always smelled like ashes and snapdragons, and not in the bad way. An entrancing sort of way.
“Guys! Rea- Am I interrupting something?” Len said as he opened the door impatiently.

“Yes.” Fyra laughed and continued kissing Ash.

“Definitely.” The elf replied and smirked.

“Ha. Ha. Let’s go. We still have to get Salem.” Len left the doorway.

“Alas.” Ash smiled and wrapped one arm around the demon’s waist as they followed Len out the door, locking it behind them.

“You two just get more serious everyday, don’t you?” Len said, slightly disgusted, but happy for the two.

“About three decades and you really have no choice.” Ash replied.

“Three decades?”

“Yeah. When Ash left for Acheron, I ran into him while I was trying to avoid the thieves guild and Phoenix along with them. We saw each other off and on, inbetween Ash’s elf stuff, and my deaths and whatever else happened.”

The three came to Salem’s door. Len knocked. No answer.

“Does she never answer her door?” He asked in bewilderment. Fyra looked at him curiously, but he decided not to explain further.

“Salem? Hello?” He knocked again.

“I’m kicking the door in.” Fyra stood in front of it.

“Fy, maybe you should wait-” BANG! The door hit the ground inside the room.

“A minute,” Ash finished exasperatedly, “or don’t.” They all walked in. Salem’s bed was made, her bag was packed and sat in a corner of the room. There was no sight of the girl though. Fyra walked over to Salem’s bag and kneeled down by it.

“Fy, what are you doing?” Ash raised his eyebrows.

“Eating her clothes. What does it look like I’m doing?” She retorted sarcastically.“Fy, I don’t think you should be doing that.” Len said uneasily. He looked around the room apprehensively.

“Why not?” She countered, opening the bag and leafing through the contents.

“Look at this! Bottles of poison, knockout gas, black clothes. She’s got a ton of animal cures and healing potions too. She’s almost got as many vials in here as I carry on me. But then, hers are mostly healing potions and defensive stuff, mine are more…damaging. Whatever she is, she’s certainly prepared. Hold on…” Fyra reached deeper into the bag but something stopped her from fishing it out.

A deep growl came from behind Ash. All three turned around to see a snarling black tiger. It jumped over the door and ran to the bag, guarding it. Fyra quickly dropped the object back into the bag and moved next to Ash. The animal curled its lip and growled at the demon.

“What-what is it?” Fyra asked, tentatively.

“A tiger.” Ash whispered.

“I can see that! I mean, who’s? Is it wild?” The red-head stepped back.

“I’m guessing that’s probably Salem’s guard or something. I told you, you shouldn’t have messed with the bag.” The creature flipped the bag onto its back with its teeth.

“What are you doing?” Fyra said, somewhat accusingly. The tiger’s back legs grew longer, changing to human ones, the stomach turned into a black shirt and the fur dissolved away into long, black hair. The tiger’s face smoothly changed to someone familiar and Fyra winced.

“More like what are you doing?!” Salem asked harshly, her eyes blazing angrily, the normal dark brown was now partly red.