Charge

     Kuchiha pressed her back against a tree and peaked at the half-concealed village through the thrashing leaves, squinting against the pelting rain. "Looks like Jay's there. I'm going in, you coming?"

     "Ya kiddin'? Not in the rest of mah lifetime." Merl slowed Violet from an eager trot to a stop.

     "Fine with me, just get off the horse. So how do I get in? You should know, you lived here."

     "Normally we go in through the front gate, since ev'where else's srounded by traps an' fences, but--"

     "Argh, forget that. What's the fastest way to the tribe's head?"

     "What? The front gate o' course, go straight 'till ya reach the big tent--"

     "Alright!! Let's go, Violet!!!"

     "Wait, wait, I'm not offa her yet!!" Merl's frantic voice was completely ignored as Kuchiha scampered around the tree and charged towards the front gate--two red posts and a golden door, just like Angel City's gate. Except this gate was closed. Violet hesitated in the cover of the trees, and Merl snatched the opportunity to try to unstrap himself from her saddle. Since when had that crazy wolf strapped him in? He reached for an arrow to saw at the straps before realizing that Runo had taken his quiver. "Don't tell me she gonna make us charge in that place like mad bulls...How d'ya get outta this!? Hey!! D'ya hear!!?"

     Apparently not. Kuchiha drew her Wsword and slashed down the center of the door [it's like those doors in ancient castles, that come down f/ above to close], then cut right and down again to form another much smaller door. As she kicked it down and ducked in, arrows began to whiz down at her from inside.

     Violet meanwhile seemed to have taken heart at Kuchiha's actions and sprang towards the opening. Merl yelped and pressed himself flat against the horse's back, screaming insults at each arrow that found its way out of the hole in the gate and hissed towards Violet. Her dodging and swift movement got them through the gate safely, but the jolting was making Merl's stomach flip. After the qualms of nausea subsided, he cautiously raised his head and looked for Kuchiha.

     "Sh--uh--she-wolf!?"

     Not even an arrow answered him. Violet stood still in the storm, pawing the ground with a nervous hoof. Then she suddenly pricked up her ears and turned around, whinnying gleefully at the door. It was almost as if Jay was standing outside, and coming towards them.

     Kuchiha tried to "go straight," but somehow walls kept getting in the way. After jumping over a few, she concluded that the idiot Navi must have made a mistake, so she started looking around for "the big tent." Some directions.

     All around her were sturdy leather tents, some with white lights glowing from inside. They looked like a canopy of soft white snow, almost the same as in Angel City. The pools of light made the muddy roads shine like day, incongruent with the blinding rain thundering down from the sky. After every seven or so tents was a red brick wall. Kuchiha jumped over one again and stopped. Why hadn't she thought of this earlier? She found an unlit tent with a rope ladder half-concealed at its side and got ready to climb [in other words she sheathed her swords], hoping that getting her head above the white sea would help her find this "big tent" thing. Eagerly she leaped onto the ladder.

     A silver-tipped arrow whined out of the darkness behind her and slashed through Kuchiha's hair, causing her to flinch back and fall from the ladder, twisting in the air to land on all fours. A glint of stone on the top of a nearby tent caught her eye, and--still on hands and feet--she leaped around like a tiger to dodge two ensuing arrows. Out in the road, she was a far too easy target. Slipping in the mud, she scrambled to her feet and dashed back towards the swinging rope ladder. Quickly she hoisted herself out of the naked light and into the hazy dark of the tent roof, leaving the splashing arrows behind her, and found herself face to face with a Navi.

     Kuchiha yelped in surprise and almost fell off of the ladder again. Her second impulse was to draw her swords and attack, but something hissed in the back of her mind and swallowed her stomach. She only made it past the first step before the Navi had at arrow pointed calmly at her face. Kuchiha froze in the middle of stepping onto the roof. No way. She was going to die here because of one lousy arrow?

     But the arrow slowly began to retract, until it rested harmlessly by the archer's side. "I have a request."

     "...Huh?" Kuchiha squinted at the figure before her. "Wait...do I know you?"

     "We've met before, yes. I am Imaelka--Emily in Northern tongue."

     "Oh. Oohhh, that-!"

     "Please keep your voice down! We've already wasted too much time--I came to you to ask for your help. You are a friend of Soui--of Jay, correct?"

     "Uh...sure..."

     Emily hesitated for a moment. "Please..." She gritted her teeth and looked down, the frustration and embarrassment shining on her white-painted face. "Please save him for me."

     "Huh?"

     Everything started pouring out of Emily's mouth in a great torrent of words, faster than Kuchiha could catch on. "I have known him since he was born, and he used to visit this village every day with his parents to play and trade. But the city people burned the Blue Riders to death for their own strange reasons. I was watching, but I couldn't do anything. I saw it. My rage drove me mad; but my father doesn't seek revenge, he seeks power, and no Blue Rider would be able to stop him. Now Souiryuu has come back, as if from the dead, but I fear for him. He has become attached to the city and wants to stop my father from destroying it. At this rate, he'll be killed; truly killed." Emily glanced up and met Kuchiha's eyes for an instant. "I don't want to watch my friend die again."

     Kuchiha stared back blankly. "...That's it? Hah. Pretty ridiculous mess if you ask me."

     Emily flushed so deeply that Kuchiha could see the red through the paint. "That's it! I will speak no more! I spare you your life, so begone!" She turned to leave.

     "Wait! Wait, wait. Sheesh, you've got some temper. At first I thought you wanted me to dig a ditch and bury the city in it or something." Emily started to walk away again. "Hey--hold on! You can't just leave without explaining everything!!"

     "Didn't I just--Jay--"

     "Yeah, yeah, I got it. Who cares?" Emily's face twitched into an angry smile. "How come you can't just charge in and save him yourself?"

     The smile disappeared.

     A voice from a nearby rooftop suddenly intruded upon their conversation, hesitant and concerned. Both heads turned to see, but the owner of the voice was masked by dark and rain. She was approaching rapidly, speaking Southern. Emily hissed and, to Kuchiha's shock, pointed her arrow at the main supporting beam of the tent. [well i have the basic design of the tent things, but i'm too lazy to decribe everything...i'll just say that the leather stuff is held up by wooden beams, and all the beams connect at the center, straight from the ground up to the middle of the roof. the main supporting beam--it's thick, too!]

     "Wai-"

     The whole structure gave way in a tremendous explosion and cracking sound. There was no way that was a normal arrow. The roof they were standing on caved in and ripped in the center, and Kuchiha and Emily slipped down into the tent like two marbles down a funnel. Kuchiha landed hard on her back and couldn't breathe for a moment.

     "Imaelka! Daimonkule!?" The archer could be seen scrambling down the rope ladder. Just barely through the wind, Kuchiha heard an arrow screaming and rolled over. The arrow landed at least a foot away.

     "Porru!! Ciandes te melando!?" Another archer seemed to materialize from the black sky and positioned himself on the side beams, weapon aimed. A trickle of static sparkled on his arrow. Kuchiha picked herself up as the first archer burst through the tent's front door [which is, actually, a wooden door] and rushed towards Emily, who was just recovering from the fall. The static was intensifying in frequency, little blue lines in the musky blackness zipping wildly and too fast to follow. The first archer yelled something in Southern and aimed her own arrow. Kuchiha felt two golden flames boring into her back, watching her movements, weighing her heart on a scale. The arrow launched into the air, static spiraling in a mad dance. Her swords shivered in the gales.

     A black snake coiled around Kuchiha's waist and stretched taught with a snapping sound, making her gasp and yanking her body into a semicircle. A similar fate had befallen the second archer, except he became unconscious [how is this possible i don't know maybe ruru had the whip around a post or smth]. Between them stood Runo, gripping his whip handle in one hand and the arrows in the other.

     "You failed."

     Kuchiha scowled at the terse and reproachful voice. "What was that!? Failed what!?"

     "You were going to break the promise."

     "What promise!?"

     "Don't tell me you've forgotten."

     "I--I didn't break it!!"

     "You were going to." And who wouldn't have, Kuchiha thought. "You've got to pay, you know."

     "What?"

     Runo released the archer and let him fall to the ground. In a series of wrist flicks, the whip writhed to life and forced Kuchiha to sheathe her swords. She immediately raised her voice to protest. He tied her arms to her sides in response. "Come on. I've got a headache already, in this mess." He started to lead her with the whip.
     "Hey--whatcha doing!!? Where're we going!!?"

     "You'll know when we get there."

     "With you!!? Hey, wait!!"

     Jay gingerly slid along the wooden beams, gripping the wiry ropes for moral support. Kake was right--nobody was watching the eastern side of the main tent [cuz it's facing a mountain, away f/ angel city]. He slid his feet carefully, first the left, then the right. Then came the knob where the rope was attached to the beam. As slowly as possible, he raised his left foot and stepped over the knob, gently setting it back down. His eyes travelled along the rope, from his hands so numb they were turning blue, to the knob with the rope tied in a devil's tongue, and further--to the tall sloping sides of the tent, its wooden supports concealed by Dorali [deer/bear--plentyful around forest of angels, with speckled, waterproof, durable skins. watch out--they bite, and have horns. but they're normally docile omnivours] skins--the bare stairs from which he had come, spiraling up along the sides--the lone stone-and-wood building in the center of the open tent [and since it's not gonna come up again i'll tell you here: it's something Angel City made for the Navi, after the peace treaty, to "demonstrate their friendship" or smth]--all the way down to the hazy white ground, inside and out. He lifted his head sharply to stop the swooping of his stomach. It certainly didn't feel like two murals--more like four.

     He took a deep breath and moved on.

     Keeping his eyes staring straight forwards, he planted his left foot firmly on the wet wood and lifted his right. It bounced against the rope, sending shivering vibrations magnified against his hands. Jay panicked. He swung his foot round, so that instead of facing the inside of the tent like before, he faced the outside. Because of that his balance was thrown off, and just before his right foot could land, his left foot slipped. His heart almost fluttered out of his rib cage.

     He was saved by holding on to the rope and eventually pulling himself back upright, but sweat was pouring out of him almost as hard as the rain [that was an exaggeration lol]. Next was the hardest part, though. In order to reach his destination, he would have to let go of the rope. There was another one only three arm-lengths away, but his legs felt weaker than ever. 

     "Calm down," Kake had said. "Don't worry, just breathe. That's it. Breathe. You'll be fine, you're the one and only Blue Rider! They're famous for their arrow-shooting, aren't they?"

     "But--but that was hundreds of years ago. Besides, I'm weaker than the other Riders, and not even a Blue Rider can just charge over there and--and--"

     "But you're better than them. You should know. Blue Riders are superior to the Navi--didn't anyone ever tell you that?"

     "...But..."

     "Trust me on this. Just get rid of our biggest obstacle and make a distraction, and I'll save Kucabara. That's the deal."

     Breathe.

     Jay slid his foot forward.

Table of Contents

Chapter 24

Chapter 26