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LP Chapter 19

Page history last edited by Volkes_Wagon 13 years, 10 months ago

What'm I S'posed To Do With This Guy

 

     By the time Kuchiha reached the seventh archer, she had figured out that the masked figures she had seen trying to break open the coach weren't masked at all. Their faces were painted, smeared all over with red, brown, and white paste. Some strange ambushers.

     Well, the last one was about to get ambushed himself. He was perched on a sturdy tree branch, just like the other six, with a quiver slung across his shoulder and a bow ready in his left hand. As his right hand slid back to reach for a feathered arrow, Kuchiha sprang lightly behind him and brought her already drawn Wsword down. A black snake lashed past her and coiled around the blade, stopping it inches from his neck.

     "I told you not to kill anyone!"

     "What!!?" The archer sprang to his feet upon hearing Kuchiha and Runo's voices, in a flurry of blind shock. Runo knocked him back down with his whip. "What're you doing!!? He's mine, you want to kill him, you're asking me for permission first!!"

     "I don't want to kill him! I don't want him to die! You ask me for permission before going around murdering people!!"

     "Hey! He's the murderer here!! I'm just returning the favor, aren't I!!?"

     "Since when did that mean killing someone you don't even know did anything!?"

     "Of course he did something, he stuck the coach full of pincushions, didn't he!!? He killed the Sheemah, didn't he!!!??"

     "Whatever!" Runo hissed, maneuvering towards her from the tree beside them. "How many've you taken?"

     "Six."

     "Then you've already done more than enough repayment, haven't you? Killed six people, and nobody in the coach died. It's too late now, but next time I tell you not to kill--"

     "No you didn't!!!"

     "I did!!"

     "No you--"

     "Agh! Whatever! Just don't kill anyone again, okay!?"

     "Why!!?"

     He slid onto the mossy bark in front of Kuchiha and looked at her in surprise. "Why...?"

     An arrow nicked her cheek. "...Nevermind. So what'm I s'posed to do with this guy, your wussiness?"

 

     The archer had recovered from the blow and was scampering clumsily away from the two, slipping and tripping over the wet leaves. He had shot the arrow hoping to take down the more menacing of his enemies by surprise, but it had only grazed her skin. He never was the best shot; but to think that he had missed at such close quarters!

     "Jeez, do all long-distance people suck at running?"

     The archer realized Kuchiha was staring annoyedly [what was the word again? doesn't have annoying in it, but same meaning...] at him an inch away and had a second heart attack [figuratively speaking] in less than a minute. His body freezed and he instinctively jumped away from her. He landed in air.

     "You said not to kill him, but...jumping off a tree by himself doesn't really count, does it?" She stopped running and surveyed the ground scenery as the archer flew down, flapping his arms and yelling. Runo leaned against the base of a tree and put his hand to his forhead in reply.

     The archer felt the black leather coil around his waist and lurch him to the side. His feet skidded across the grassy turf, sending mud splaying in his tracks, and miraculously he slammed into a tree perfectly upright. Pulling his whip back, Runo twisted it so that it wrapped around his arm in a fluid motion. A shaky failed ambusher pressed himself against the slippery bark, hoping that the dark paint covered how pale his face must have been.

     "You still haven't answered my question, Ruru!"

     "Runo."

     Kuchiha hopped down from the branch. "Argh, toothbrush!!" The mud splattered all over her already soiled clothes. "So what'm I s'posed to do with this guy?"

     "'What'm I s'posed to do with this guy?'" the archer echoed. For some reason it really annoyed him to not be called by name.

     "Hey, you! The archer!" Runo prefered to answer questions through actions rather than words. "What's your name?"

     The archer jumped out of his daze. No matter how annoying it would be, he had sworn. Licking his lips, he recited the speech that all of his tribe members were required to know. "Do what you will, but I swear on the pride of the Navi that all secrets lie safe with me. Neither--" Kuchiha yawned. "--Neither--uh--sun nor earth will f-falter me..." He completely lost confidence under Runo's inquisitive and condescending gaze, and the rest of the recitation was carried away by the wind. "My lips are sealed..." [that was the rest of the recitation.] Runo could still hear it, though.

     "Your name's too long, shorty."

     "!? I-I'm not short! You're just tall!"

     "Well, they do say height's relative--the other archers were all about the same..."

     "My regiment's not short, either!"

     Kuchiha piped up. "Hey, lookit! He already--"

     "Shush. Watch and learn." Runo turned back to his interrogation, leaving Kuchiha looking like a bomb in the middle of exploding. "So, shorty, where're you going now?"

     "Huh?"

     "I said, where're you going now that this crazy she-wolf--" "Hey!" snapped the she-wolf "--killed six of the other archers?"

     He didn't know how to answer.

     "Then you don't have much choice but to be taken prisoner, seeing as you apparently don't know your own way back home."

     "O-of course I do! And besides, there were eight archers in this mission!" He realized he had said too much and shrank back against the tree.

     "Ah. So there were eight. Looks like you missed one, Kuchiha."

     "That's your fault!!! I would've found all of them if you hadn't interfered!!!"

     "Hmnn. Speaking of which, how'd you find the first seven, anyways?"

     "Instinct."

     "...Right." He suddenly uncoiled his whip from his arm and swung it towards the archer. It wrapped around him before he could even blink.

     "W-Woah!!?" Then Runo was before him and tying a knot in the whip. "What're you--hey! Stop it!" He tried squirming away, but the leather pinned his arms against his sides firmly.

     "Jeez, calm down. I won't do anything to you, just that you looked kind of reluctant to follow us."

     "Follow you!? T-To where!?"

     Runo yanked the whip handle, lurching the archer forward. "Where else?" He smirked over his shoulder. "To your interrogation site."

 

Table of Contents

Chapter 18

Chapter 20

Comments (3)

Volkes_Wagon said

at 3:41 pm on Apr 27, 2010

*sigh...okay i'm taking a 2-week break in this to work on those projects piling up. the star test's coming up too...but instead i'll work on m & m so don't eat me.

Volkes_Wagon said

at 9:51 pm on May 17, 2010

make that 2 and a half weeks
i'd like to eat some m & m's myself...

Ava Knight said

at 5:31 pm on May 26, 2010

i want chocolate now...

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