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[Skylar]

This preview isn't directly a fan fiction, but if you nitpick all the refrences, it's a fanfic alright. I know, there are a lot of bugs, but please try to ignore them. I'll fix it as I go.
The Preview starts when the font changes. The disclaimer is in fact part of the story. Thank you, and enjoy!


This book contains real events. Places, names, and dates may have been changed to protect the identities of those involved. Any names that may seem that are any form of trademark or celebrity is completely coincidental. This is a preview, and is subject to changes. I take no responsibility of interpretations of this writing.

War. Well, war just never changes; always for money, power; for the stupid things of life. For what can easily be resolved, but instead is fought over for years and years. This is human nature, to want, and want, but never to give anything of benefit to one you don’t know. Those who do the opposite are defying human nature, and thus are helping to save the word from the ever-lurking darkness that looms to destroy it. Those who have common sense know the burdens that will hold them down in the everlasting days in their life after death will try and try and try endlessly to fight against human nature. However, war is not always about power, depending on which end of the blade you are. If you are on the offensive end, you simply want money, power, popularity, or any other way to satisfy your endless greed. If you are on the defensive end, you are fighting to maintain yourself alive; you try to bring order and sense to those who are on the offensive side.

However, right now, I need for you to understand better the gravity of the situation at hand, and this situation is about war.

I’m going to tell you about a group of children who managed to pull off the impossible. I was one of these. They actually, accidentally threatened to destroy the world, in the perspective of some, yet ended up saving us all, or at least are trying to in their dimension. Yes, this story may sound rather typical, but trust me: in the story I’m about to tell you, the word “typical” does not exist.

“So, what are we going to do again?” asked a 12 year old child. His name is Noctus… well… Noctus, and that’s pretty much all of his name. Much like his friends, he doesn’t have a last name. If anything, his friends are his only family left, so he doesn’t need a last name. He wears a blue jacket with draw strings that is zipped almost all the way up so that you could just see his white shirt that is under, which barely looks like white anymore. He has white shoes, or at least that’s what they are supposed to be like. Instead, his shoes have been covered in mud and dirt because of what he had just been through. His hair is rustled, and so he has a bed head style. He has light blue eyes that are almost never seen anymore.

“We aren’t going to do anything,” spoke the eldest of them all at 20 years old. His name is Gatege. Since he’s the eldest, the rest of the children in the group often look up to him for advice or leadership, so you could say that he was their leader; he kind of was. He wore a black sweat shirt and dark blue jeans. He has a silver molar, but that is everything he has that distinguishes him. He has a curly mullet, and wear is supposed to wear glasses, but almost never does.

“Okay.” This was said by Menae; 11. She has short hair; most of the time, and has her hair brushed off her face. She also has a blue shirt on with white seams, and dark jeans. She wears white sneakers that are much whiter than Noctus’s, though they do have their fair share of dirt and mud.

“What if we starve?” demanded Cooro at 13. He also wears a green schemed camouflage jacket that has a lifted collar. He wears jeans for bottoms, and is the only one of the group of adolescents who wears a belt, apart from Noctus. His hairstyle is a black, regular cut, though his hair is fairy rustled.

“What do you think, Tenemae?” asked Noctus.

Her hair is spiked with a black tint and hazel eyes. She wears a black turtle neck with a lifted collar, and a scarf covers his mouth, which makes her look like a ninja from many Japanese animes. She bares a black jacket and dark back sweat pants with black boots.

“Gatege is right. If we run for it, they will stop us, turn us in, and when they find out who we are,” she made her hand look as if she were holding a gun to her temple, with her nose still in her ever-present book. She then lifted her fingers off the side of her head with a soft gunshot sound, signifying that the police would kill them, needless to say, still stuck in that book of hers.

“But aren’t they usually the good guys?” Menae asked.

“Have you ever heard of police brutality?” Noctus pointed out.

“Can’t I convince them to let us go?” Cooro asked, looking rather scared at the thought of imminent and inevitable death. Then again, anybody would be scared out of their mind if they knew that death was imminent, and inevitable.

“You can’t negotiate as the criminal,” Tenemae stated.

“If we stay here, won’t the police find us anyways?” Noctus wondered out loud.

“That’s why were staying here, so that the police don’t find us.” Tenemae snapped.

“Look, everyone, we’re staying here, and that’s final.” Gatege yelled loud enough for everyone to hear, but low enough so the police searching the streets wouldn’t.

“Fine by me.” Menae stated, and walked back into her room.

“If we stay here, how are we going to feed ourselves?” Cooro asked.

“We won’t resort to cannibalism, if that’s what you’re afraid of. It’s time we all felt a bit of hunger for change,” Gatege said, standing his ground with his decision.

After this, Tenemae went to the attic, where he somehow prefers to sleep, and began to make preparations to go to sleep. Gatege went to his room, while Cooro and Noctus both went to sleep in the living room. Noctus and Cooro both went to their rooms.

How did everything end up this way? Noctus asked himself before he went to sleep. Why do they want us dead so bad? What have we done that deserves death?

The next morning, Noctus awoke to the shaking from Cooro.

“Wake up,” He told Noctus “It’s time.”

"What for," Noctus asked. We aren't going to do anything; Gatege said so."

"Well, he changed his mind. Let's go or we'll miss the briefing." Cooro stated, waiting for Noctus impatiently.

Noctus didn’t want to wake up, but knew he had to. The meeting to commence the raiding on the warehouse was going to begin, and he needed the full briefing. Luckily, by the time the two friends reached the area where Gatege was beginning to give the briefing, Gatege had waited for the two to arrive.

“Okay, now that everyone is here, let the briefing commence.” Gatege stood up on his feet, and so did everyone else. Tenemae was already standing, but looking away; keeping watch, while at the same time still listening. “We need food, I’m well aware of that. In the warehouse across the street, there’s food; plenty of it. We’ll need to make the supplies in the warehouse last before we have to move again.”

“Didn’t you say we were going to stay?” Menae asked.

“Yes, but I was thinking about how this situation would play out if we stayed here,” Gatege admitted. “If we are going to make it out of here, we need food, that’s a given.

“We’re going to be nomads?” asked Noctus.

“I’m not going to lie. Yes, we are,” Gatege sighed.

“What if someone already has raided the warehouse?”

“Then we move again to another place.” Gatege stated bluntly. “But look, if you find anything, do not take it for yourself. If you do take anything you find for yourself, and we can prove so, you are going to go without eating for today. Are we clear?”

“Yes!”Almost everyone yelled, except for Tenemae, who simply blinked, and Noctus, who simply nodded in acknowledgement.

“Then let’s go.”

Everyone was following Gatege’ lead. Before they could reach the warehouse across the street, a faint, voice could be heard. The voice said “near the one”.

“Did you hear that?” Cooro asked Noctus.

“Yeah, but I can’t understand what it said. ‘Near the one’ maybe?” Noctus asked, skeptical of his own understanding.

“Maybe…” Cooro echoed.

As the group was closing the distance between them and the warehouse, the voice was now saying “hear the drum”.

“Hear the drum?” Menae asked. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Noctus answered.

When the group could finally make out what the voices were saying, it was too late. The voices were screaming “here they come, here they come”.

“Menae!” Noctus and Cooro both screamed as they both broke into a dash. Moments before, the second was fired, a voice from the top of the warehouse laughed, saying “I never miss”. Noctus managed to push Menae out of the laser aim, but put himself in the aim in the process. There was a sharp pain in the right side of his head, but the pain left almost instantly, replaced by panic and adrenaline.

I then sat up on the ground. The ground. In the house I lived in, along with everyone else. How I ended up having such a dream, I can’t say. But what I could say is that the whole experience was a dream. There was no police after us, there was on sharpshooter at the top of a building, and most importantly, Menae and Cooro were untouched.

My skin was sweaty, so I needed a shower. I picked out a pair of underwear and a yellow shirt from the drawer in the living room. Then, I went to the shower, and washed away all my worries. Afterwards, I pulled out an MP3, and bean to listen to my favorite tunes. As I was drifting away into sleep, I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure in the room as well. I pulled off my headphones, and turned to the figure. The darkness of light didn’t let me see her much, but I knew well enough who she was.

“Hi, Sanae.” I greeted, still rather groggy. “Can’t sleep?”

“No. I heard the shower on, so I decided to see who was still awake.” Sanae told me.

“So, you stayed up all night just to see me?” I teased, though Sanae couldn’t tell.

“It’s not like that,” she muttered. “I woke up with the sound of the shower.”

I knew she was lying, so I pressed on with, “Why were you awake?”

She hesitated a little, then answered “I-I needed time to think,” in a quick rush.

“What’d you need to think about?” I asked and repositioned myself; intrigued in the conversation.

“You know, stuff…” she attempted to explain. I now knew she was trying to hide something, but I simply let the situation slide.

I was too tired to continue with continue with this conversation, so I simply ended the conversation by telling her how tired I was, and that I needed to sleep. She seemed suspicious at what I had said.

When Sanae left, I looked around in my thoughts and in my room, for what had made Sanae so suspicious of what I had said. Eventually, I found what I was looking for: a clock. The clock read ‘6:02’. I never go to sleep so early, so I guessed that was what made her so suspicious. If I was going to tell Menae about Cooro, I needed to make sure there were no witnesses. Not that I’m going to ‘take out’ Sanae, but that I needed to make sure she didn’t know about Cooro’s feelings towards Menae. I needed to be careful.

The next morning, Gatege was making a breakfast for everyone, with help from Emanuel. The meal was scrambled eggs with hot dogs. I simply let Cooro take my hot dog; I can’t eat red meat (or I get food poisoning), and finished what I could eat.

Since I’ve mentioned Emanuel, I might as well explain him. As far as I know, this particular person brings up everything bad there is to bring up about a situation. He claims it’s to make sure nothing will go wrong, but everyone else still looks at him like a pessimist, because he is a pessimist and a horrible liar, meaning he can’t lie that well, almost because he never tries. He has blonde hair with freckles on his face. His hair his greased back slightly, but not so much that he looks like a ‘hotshot’. He wears jeans that are worn on the front, but are perfectly fine on the back. He wears black cloth sneakers with white tips.

Anyways, as I was saying, Afterwards, I needed something to do, so I went to my room.

After reaching my room, I gave a quick look around. I gave a quick look in the mirror that turned into a long stare.

The image that stood before me was a being like none other that I could remember. This figure was averagely tall, skinny, and insignificant. Manipulate able hair, much like his being. Light blue eyes that no one seemed to have. Average fingers accompanied by average hands. Pale skin, though inside I hide traces of Spanish heritage. No one was like me, I realized. I’m my own being, but why do I seem so insignificant? What do I have to do in this life? With this group of “wandering” kids? How am I any good to anybody?

Depressed, I popped myself on my bed. I delved myself into deep thought, and I eventually overcame my depression to continue with the day.

The rest of the evening was actually really pleasant. I actually managed to sleep, even after I had just recently awoken. Just goes to show you how much of a procrastinator I am. I should be trying to bring Cooro and Menae closer, but instead I am simply seeping the days away. I needed to grab a hold of myself, but sleep grabbed me first.

In a cave…dark, damp, musky… nowhere to go to; lost. Why is he to be here? Why can’t he be somewhere else? Can he not be in a peaceful pasture like the others? Here, the cave walls… bare, rigid, cutting edge, dangerous…deathly. A liquid ran cold through his feet. He had no sense of sight, due to the pure darkness of the area, but this allowed for his sense of smell to flourish. After sniffing the air, he came to a startling conclusion: the liquid that ran past his feet was blood. Only blood. Rivers of blood coming from some end of the cave.

If liquids go down, I must follow the blood “upstream” to find a way out, he thought.

However, what is giving off such quantities of endless blood? Whatever the being may be, he may share its fate.

I awoke in my bed, heart racing, still adapting to the fact that I’m in reality now. I had no real fix as to what I was going to do for the day, so I needed some sort of activity. Then, I remembered what I had set out to do: Tell Menae about Cooro.

Sliding out of bed took some real will power, though I know there are others with better mind power than me, this was a new record for me. I rolled out of bed, and landed with a smothered thud, thanks to my blanket that fell before me. Because of this, no one was aware that I had awoken yet (I usually wake late, and so the others had grown accustomed to wait, because eventually, I would wake up). I woke early today, much earlier than usual, so I had the advantage of surprise on my side.

I walked down the stairs without making the slightest sound. When the wall became the hand rail, I lowered myself to a prone position so that the base of the rail covered me. Of course, the rail only covered me from the right, so I was exposed from above, the left, behind, and in front. Thankfully, no one was present in any of those directions. I gave a brief thanks to God, and continued my crawl.

At the base of the stairs now, and I am at a loss. I didn’t know where to look first. This just goes to show you how much I lack the ability of planning. I tried the dining room, but heard voices before I entered. I couldn’t blow my cover, so I decided not to go that way. I could’ve checked her room, but that would call for turning around, and going back up the stairs. Doing that could cause unwanted noises, and bring unwanted attention. The left was empty. At least the room was before Tenemae entered. She grabbed a book, one that she usually reads, regardless of the infinite amount of times she’s probably already finished that book, and sat down in front of the fireplace, and read away at her usually ever-present book. Maybe I would look into what that book contains, but I decided to do so later. What I had set out to do what more important to me that what a book contained.

These circumstances left only one direction: forward. Luckily, the door was just recently oiled, so no annoying squeaking would happen. Another brief prayer of thanks to God, and I started for the door. I crawled slowly, but with progress. Eventually, after a grueling and exhausting 3 seconds of crawling, I finally reached the door. I turned the knob of the door, slowly to open the door, while the door knob gave off small, annoying squeaks. Fast fact: although the door had been oiled, the door knob had not. I pulled open the door, with the knob still turned, and went outside the door. On the other side, I pushed the door back into its original position, and slowly turned the knob so that the knob eventually came back to its original position as well, without making the usual ‘click’ sound. I walked off into the adjoining forest, looking back every once in a while to look at how…um…shrewdly I had snuck out of the house.

I had spied on Cooro and Menae once each. Cooro likes to have things done quickly, but peacefully and is always working on something, but is usually in his room. Menae is more liberal, and usually goes out into the forest to draw sketches of the things she sees. I’m after Menae right now, so I need to find her before I can find Cooro.

I walked further into the forest, and heard some natural sounds. Birds singing, leaves being blown, the trees looked so magnificent. I was, for some reason, completely oblivious to everything around me. I only took a few more steps before I fell into realization: I was reliving what I had dreamt. This wasn’t new to me, but every time this happens, I become stunned, for some reason. I simply shook for the vision, and kept walking.

I saw a shadow in the distance. Instinctively, I lowered my body to a prone position. Too late, I inferred, because the shadow was now walking towards me. I BLEW MY COVER! I needed someplace to hide; quickly. I was a great climber, but climbing a tree now would make me more obvious than a black rock on a white bed sheet. I could run, and that was my best bet. I stood, and began to run as fast as my feet would take me. Once I used all of my energy, I threw myself onto the ground, exhausted, right back into a prone position. I had lost the shadow’s line of sight. I was in the clear. Still in a prone position along the ground, I lifted my head so that I could barely look over the leaves and the grass that were on the ground. The shadow was gone. Good. Chances were that the silhouette was Menae, and so now she knows someone is following her. I really had to keep my head low then.

I continued to crawl, and had no sight of her. However, when I was getting closer to a rockier ground, I saw her. She seemed rather paranoid. I couldn’t blame her; I’d be freaked out as well if I knew someone was stalking me, but didn’t really know who- or what, for that matter, was following me. Sooner or later, I had to expose myself to her, and let her see that I was following her. That way, she wouldn’t do something that I would call stupid, because if you compare what I call stupid to what you call stupid is like comparing a rock to air. Yes, that is how different our opinions are.

So, as I was saying, I needed to expose myself, but earlier was not the best time. I could see Menae; clearly. Unfortunately, for Menae, she had no idea where she was, given the fact she was running all this time, close to The Cliffs. I came in closer, careful I didn’t come too close to startle her too much. Now, I stood, and spoke.

“Hi, Menae,” I greeted, acting as nonchalant

Menae jumped startled, as she tried to look around for whoever spoke these words; yours truly. This was when she came far too close to the edge of The Cliffs.

“Menae, be careful!” a voice yelled.

I turned to see who spoke, but heard Menae scream. I turned back to look for Menae. She was nowhere to be found, but I could easily hear her voice. She had fallen over the edge of The Cliffs.

“No!” that voice yelled again. “Menae!”

A figure came dashing out of the bushes, with an arm outstretched. I could guess who the figure belonged to, but I don’t like to make assumptions. I heard a splash, as the figure jumped over the edge as well. I was surprised, yes, but curiosity took over, and I ran to the edge of The Cliffs as well. However, I was the only one of the three who didn’t fall over the edge. I looked over, and saw the figure still falling, but soon enough broke into the river down below with a splash. There was a slight delay before I heard the slash. Me being a small safety nut, I decided it wasn’t worth it to jump down with Menae and the other person, so I decided to run as fast as I could, which is not as fast as I would like, but is suitable for this situation, to the river mouth. Hopefully, the two won’t implode because they had to break the surface of the water, so I would probably meet up with them at the river mouth.

I turned to dash towards to direction of the river mouth; and dash I did. I eventually reached the river mouth, and began to look for Menae and the other figure. No sign of the two, so I decided to go up river. Along the rugged river bank, I couldn’t see anything that could lead to the duo, so I was about to quit. About to. That was when I heard voices in my head:

“Shut up, and stop you’re moping; you have a mission, and you need to carry out your mission.”

I saw no person who pronounced these words, but I clearly heard these words pronounced as my own voice. I pondered on these words for a short while, but later shoved these words to the back of my mind. Unlike most of my dreams, these words had some use to me on the spot, so I gathered my will, and continued to search.

Destination reached: The Rapid’s Delta, or RD for short. I could clearly see Menae and Cooro clung onto some rocks in the RD. I wanted to dash toward them and offer them help, but Cooro slipped.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Menae screamed over the rushing waters, and grabbed Cooro’s hand.

“Don’t let me go!” Cooro screamed in terror.

“Are you crazy?” Menae screamed. “I wouldn’t let you go unless knew were you were going.”

I didn’t know the area much, so I had no idea what the two were so worried of.

“Oh…that’s it,” I sighed as my shoulders dropped and sagged. Further down the river was a waterfall. By the way the water sounded, the fall was fit for a giant. How was I to save them in a situation like this? Not that they are a burden to save; like I said, I’m new to this area, but also to this group of children. I don’t really know how many times these two get into life-risking trouble, so I can’t judge them, especially Menae, because Cooro doesn’t get himself in problems like these often.

“There’s a rock further down the river,” Menae yelled to Cooro, which also got me out of my thoughts. “I’m going to let you go, and you grab onto that rock.” She whipped her head towards the direction of the rock as best as she could. “Then, there’s a branch past that rock. Grab onto that branch, and pull yourself to the bank.”

“What about you?” Cooro protested loudly.

“Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine.”

I looked further down the river, and there were the rock and the branch Menae mentioned. My shoulders rose a little. Maybe the two could save themselves. Maybe I wouldn’t have to risk myself.

Menae let go of Cooro. Cooro flailed for a little in the water, but mustered his nerve, and swam as best he could against the current, in which I won’t lie; his ability to swim was better than I expected. Maybe this was because he knew he could die if he was pulled over. He reached the rock, but slipped, and decided to swim towards the branch further down the river. He latched on. Success! His left hand slipped. Failure! The branch was now beginning to flex.

“Cooro, pull yourself to shore!” Menae screamed, partly of worry, partly of fear.

Cooro turned his head to Menae. Too late. The branch gave way with a sickening snap, and splinters flew, though none reached me. 3…he tried to swim, but couldn’t. 2…he tried to yell something, but water filled his mouth, though I could guess what he said. 1…I couldn’t see his head anymore. 0…Cooro was over the edge.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Menae yelled, and let go of the stone she was latched onto. She then swam to the edge of the water fall.

“Menae!” I yelled, though a little too late. “Don’t do it.” She turned, but already fell over the edge.

Without a doubt in my mind, I jumped in the river after her. The moment I jumped, doubt surged into my mind. I tried to swim to anything I could hold onto; anything at all. Failure. I was facing the fact that the icy cold waters of winter were going to pull me out into my possible end.

“No!” a voice yelled. I tried to turn, but I’m not that great of a swimmer. My head was alternating between above and below water level, which made it a complete miracle that I heard the voice at all.

“Wha-” I tried to say, but then became a scream once I had fallen over the edge.

I was falling I knew that much. All I could hope for was that I didn’t belly flop so that I don’t implode. Wind screamed past me. Everything blurred past. Everything was slow, yet swift while I braced myself for impact.

Break! Water filled my nose, and ears. Everything was black and blue. No air, no way to breathe, no way to survive much longer. My skin stung and burned. Maybe I was already dead. Maybe I was still alive. What if I was somewhere in between? I needed air. Air; now. Again, as I had said, I’m not a good swimmer, so I used ton of effort to reach the surface. A huge gasp, and my lungs were satisfied once more, but I sunk once more. Another surge of force, and I was above water level, but not for long. I sank under again and with one more surge, I was above water again, but this time, I could feel land. I could feel land! Land! Finally, land! Grabbing on quickly, I pulled myself to shore. I laid there for what felt like hours. I needed to recover my strength to complete what I had set out to do for the moment: survive. I closed my eyes, and quickly went to sleep, tired after the force I had placed into swimming.

In the middle of my sleep, I saw a group of children; 3 to be exact. I couldn’t tell who these were because these were facing away from me. Two were holding hands, but one was crying, but whenever it would cry out, no sound came out. I walked towards the two who were holding hands. Weirdly, a thud sounded, though that seemed to be rather insignificant. But, the crying one was also being pushed further away while the two holding hands were being pulled closer to me. I decided that the one crying was more important, so I began to walk towards the crying one, and so the crying one was pulled closer to me, but the two holding hands were pushed further away. I walked around the being, but when I tried to look at the being’s face, I saw no face; no mouth, no nose…no eyes, yet tears still streamed its face. I fell to my knees, and fell completely over.

I awoke in the same position my dream ended: on the ground, needless to say, nonetheless. I sat up, and looked around to get a feel of my surroundings. Everything was the same, except for one thing.

“Hey…” I whispered. “Wake up…” I shook the body on the ground. The body moaned, but neglected to awake. “C’mon, wake up.” I said with a sharper edge. Another moan, and another denial to awake. “Wake up!” I yelled, almost slapping the figure, but holding back. The figure moaned one final time, but decided to wake.

The person’s face was filled with mud, but, I could read the identity of the person like a book.

“Sanae!?” I asked taking care not to yell. “W-what are you doing here?”

She looked embarrassed, and turned away her face. “I-…” she began, but couldn’t continue.

I stared at her, expecting some sort of an answer. I even craned my head to the side, much like a dog, still expecting an answer.

“Never mind…” she concluded, but I wouldn’t let her win; not this time. I wanted to know why she had come down too. I could guess, but again, I don’t like to make assumptions.

I rolled my hand, as another attempt to receive an answer. Failure. I decided to use reverse psychology, and try to leave. Maybe, this would drive Sanae’s mind to tell me she came.

“Well, if you aren’t going to tell me, I have business I need to attend to.” I stood myself up, brushed off any mud that I could, fixed my miniature sideburns, and went on my way.

“Wait,” Sanae demanded. Success. About time I made some sort of a success.

“What?” I said with a slight edge of annoyance, simply to add to the effect of realism. I needed to look as genuine as possible.

“I…I wanted to know if you were okay…” Sanae said. Then, she seemed rather confused, and asked, “Why do you want to know?” which caught me off guard. I’m used to being on the offensive side of an interrogation, not the defensive side.

“It’s all about science: to know,” I explained, hoping that this would make any sense at all. “I just want know.”

“Well, maybe I just don’t want to tell you. Maybe I don’t want you to know. How about that, hmm?” she was being defiant, needless to say, though it’s not like I have some sort of an authority over her, so I guess she’s not necessarily being defiant, but ‘hard to work with’ or ‘difficult’ as Cooro would say. Regardless, I had to seem genuine, and thus I couldn’t continue this interrogation. Otherwise, it would seem like I was begging for her to tell me, which would kill the purpose of this whole reverse psychology scam.

“Eh,” I began, “fine by me.” I turned to look, for a way to see if I could find Cooro or Menae. Failure. I had no idea where I was, and less so of where Cooro and Menae were. My chances of finding Cooro or Menae were zero to nothing. Only one thing-err, person could help me out of this.

“Hey, Sanae,” I said “do you know where Cooro and Menae are?”

“What?” Sanae asked. “Why do you want to know where they are?”

“Because that’s the only reason I jumped into that river in the first place!” I yelled, but realized too late of how harsh my tone was. “Oh, uh… I’m-I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean it that way.”

“No, no, no.” she began as nonchalant as she could. “I understand.”

“But seriously,” I began, attempting to change the subject, “do you know where Cooro and Menae are?” A spring of hope was filling in me.

Sanae sighed, and said “No” in a sort of disappointed voice.

“What’s with that tone?” I asked.

“Can you stop with the questions already?!” she asked in a tone as sharp as my own. She also realized how sharp her tone was.

“Oh, I’m-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you. It’s just that all this stress, and your questions; It’s gonna make my hair fall out…”

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “I understand,” I said, quoting her words back at her. I managed to crack a smile on her face, yet I couldn’t read the type of emotion that was on that smile. I looked up to see if we had any time to look, or if we had to prepare for a shelter. The sky was turning red and orange.

“We’re going to need to make a shelter soon.” I said.

“For what?” Sanae asked. “We aren’t animals.”

I chuckled at the irony of that quote.

“There are plenty of things that are in the wilderness that can kill you. I’ve lived in a forest fairy far from here that was filed with constant threats with Cooro, so I know how to live out in the forest. Simply follow my directions, and we’ll have a shelter in no time.”




...



“Are these sticks okay?” Sanae asked, coming up from a distance behind me. I turned to look at her ‘haul’.

“Yes, those are fine.” I turned back to the shelter Sanae and I had had made. “And I think that’s enough.”

Sanae looked at the shelter, and knowing nothing about living in the wild, she simply had to take my word as final. I mean, sure I wouldn’t mind any extra sticks, but these were enough.

“So, Noctus, what do we need a shelter for?” Sanae asked.

“To protect us from rain, and anything else of the sort. This won’t do much, but if we work the moss in thick layers, no water will get through.”

“Will it rain?”

“You do know we are right beside a river, right?”

“Oh. That’s right.” Sanae thought for a moment, and then continued. “So, will we both be sleeping under the same shelter?”

“Yes, unless you want to be singing in the rain. Why, are you claustrophobic?”

An undeniable stare of confusion told me everything I needed to know.

“Are you afraid of tight spaces?”

“What? No, why.”

“Just asking,” I said, and then turned back to the shelter. I just needed to patch and tie on extra layers of moss to make sure we don’t get wet when it rains. I also needed some sort of bedding for inside the shelter; more moss.

“Are we going to sleep in there?” Sanae asked. She sounded insecure, though I don’t think that ‘insecure’ is the right term.

“Yes, unless you can find a better place to sleep.” I couldn’t contain myself any longer. “Look, if you’re going to criticize what I’m working with here, you’re welcome to sleep outside. I know we aren’t in Kansas anymore, so just deal with it and try to survive. A shelter is our best bet, and it’s going to rain soon.” My tone was harsh, yet true, which made my tone even harsher.

“Oh my, I-I didn’t meant to yell. It’s just that I hate it when people criticize my work. I just hate it,” I said regretfully.

“It’s fine. You burst, I burst, and we all burst at some point or another.” She said nonchalantly.

I felt small droplets plop on my pelt. Rain had begun to fall.

“It is time. We needed to get inside.” I said bluntly.

“But it’s not done yet,” Sanae complained.

“We have to deal with what we have, but I’ll finish the final layers from the inside.” I crawled into the shelter, and felt quite at home, given my history. But you’re going to have to come in as well.”

Sanae came in as ordered, and I began to place the final layers. Hopefully these layers would hold.



Rain was pouring like liquid hail. I was lying down face up with my left hand behind my head, and I used my free hand to do miscellaneous things. Sanae was to my left lying on her side, supporting her head with her right hand, having her left hand as her free hand. I began to hum to one of my favorite songs:





Da-ango, Dango, Dango, Dango


Da-ango, Dango, Daikazoku


Da-ango, Dango, Dango Dango


Da-ango Daikazoku



“What song is that?” Sanae asked.

“It’s called ‘Big Dango Family’,” I began. “It tells of a family of 100 and how happy that family would be. Sadly, no one has ever reached such a number. Not even my father’s Militia could meet such a great number.”

“Where’d you hear that song?” Sanae asked.

“My mother would sing to me when I was little. As I grew, she still sang that song to me. Even after her passing, it’s as if that song connects me with my mother and father,” I explained.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Sanae said sadly.

“No need,” I said. “I know that they’re in a better place now.”

“So, how do you know so much about survival?” Sanae asked.

“After my father was…well…murdered and turned into a part of a weapon of mass destruction to irradiate the Militia my father was a part of, my mother couldn’t bear the news. The rest of the Militia couldn’t help her with her depression. This was after I was born just so you know, because that was when she committed suicide. The Militia broke up, and everything fell apart. A friend of my father’s who I can’t remember his name, took care of me. When I had learned about what happened to my mother and father, I was afraid, and ran away. That was when I met up with Cooro. As far as I know, Menae is fine with Cooro by her side, though he always was the ruthless one. Then, I noticed Cooro was missing. I looked around, and there was the house. Not even a week later, and I’m back out here again.”

“What is it with you and Cooro and Menae?”

“Sorry, but I took an oath of verbal silence on that,” I said bluntly and quickly.

“Is Cooro in love with Menae?” she asked in astonishment.

“Well, at least I didn’t have to break my oath.” I noted.

“How come you haven’t told Menae?” Sanae inquired.

“I’ve been trying to tell her. That’s the real reason I jumped into the river.”

“Oh, Okay. Well, I think I should be going to sleep.” Sanae noticed. “Goodnight, Noctus.” She settled in closer to me, and hugged my arm. She fell asleep that way. Probably just to share body heat, I excused because didn’t want to believe something without some sort of proof. Maybe her own words.

“Goodnight.” O said softly, brushing my fingers through her hair. Her hair was clotted with mud, twigs, and moss, so sometimes I would pull on a piece of debris to hard, and wake Sanae from her sleep. ‘I won’t believe it.’ I thought to myself. ‘No matter how obvious it is, I won’t believe it without proof.’ I then fell into a deep sleep.

I was back where I was in my last dream, but the being that was crying stopped crying, and the two figures that were holding hands were now hugging. The being that was once crying now had a mouth. The lips were familiar, but I couldn’t nail whose lips those were. The lips moved in the English language, but spoke in a foreign language. What the being said, I cannot say, but it said something. This pushed me closer to the being which now smiled. The smile was not creepy by any means, but the environment around me made the passionate smile on faceless face creepy. The pushing was making my knees quiver, and so I fell to my knees. I then fell over, and was pulled back into the real world.



I looked around for Sanae, and of all places, she could be, she was under me. I yelped in surprise, which woke Sanae. I was looking into her eyes, panicking.

“We didn’t…” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t have to finish the question.

“I sure hope not…” Sanae answered, with a slight hint of disappointment. “Well, that is if we are talking about the same thing.”

“I’m talking about the ‘Special Hug’,” I told her.

“Oh,” she replied. “Then we are thinking of the same thing.” Her face was turning red with blush. She looked cute with the blush, so I didn’t comment about it.

“Were you hoping we did the ‘Special Hug’?” I asked.

“No!” Sanae answered, flashing a look to the left.

“Well, anyways, we need to get back to looking for Cooro and Menae,” I noted.

“Do you think they can find their way back?” Sanae asked.

“I don’t know, and so that is why I am going through with this.” I answered.

“Can we do something else?” she asked.

“Well, I don’t want to do the ‘Special Hug’, so that’s out of the question.” No argument from Sanae. “If you want to leave things to chance, be my guest, but I’m still going to look for them.”

“So, what are we going to do?” Sanae asked.

“We look for a way back. I’m starting to see your point. After all, Cooro did find the house before me, so he has a better idea of where the house is than what I do. So, we are off to look for a way back to the house.” I explained.

“Great! Can I take the lead?” Sanae pleaded.

“Do you know the way?” I asked.

“Like the back of my hand.” She bragged. I hoped her arrogant words matched her sense of guidance.

“Good, but we may have to stop at the shelter again; it’s getting dark.” I mentioned.

“Okay.” She seemed to accept the fact that the night hours were coming. “I guess we could do with a good night’s sleep.”

We set off to where the shelter we had left behind was. Luckily, for us, no wild animal had come by to take that shelter from us. We went back inside, and lied down.

“Noctus, when do you think we’ll be back home?” Sanae asked.

“I don’t know,” Responded. There were various x-0factors that could cause us to slow down, so I wasn’t ready to give an exact time. “Tomorrow, hopefully.”

“Do you think that Menae will ever realize Cooro’s feelings for her?” Sanae asked.

“I’m not going to make any assumptions or predictions, but so far, I think that Cooro may have told Menae the truth,” I responded.

“Maybe I should say the truth,” Sanae muttered in a volume too low, I almost didn’t hear her.

l'd say the truth,” Sanae muttered in a volume too low, I almost didn’t hear her.

“Never mind,” she said. A long disturbing pause followed, and Sanae freed us from that by speaking again. “Do…Do you think we might meet up with your father?”

“W-what!?” I asked in surprise. “My father has been dead for as long as I’ve been alive! Why do you think he’s going to come back?”

“I don’t know, okay?” she protested. “It just slipped out.”

I let the predicament go past, though this for some reason caused me to raise my guard.

“You should be going to sleep,” I told her, and later fixed my words. “Then I’ll follow.”

“Okay,” she said, and curled up closer to me. This made me rather uncomfortable, but I didn’t protest. Why, I had no idea.

“Hey, Sanae,” I called silently.

“Hmm?” she responded. Trying to go to sleep I would presume.

“What have you thought about this venture?” I asked. I instantly doubted my selection of words, but Sanae took over the conversation before I could.

“I would this has been different,” she said.

“What made this different?”

“I-I dunno…” she stuttered. There was something else on her mind. I should be careful as to how hard I squeezed for the information.

“But what made this different. Something must have been different,” I said.

“I guess it’s just that we’ve been outside for so much time…this all is just so new to me…” she said hesitantly.

“Anything else?” I pressed on.

“This has also been the most time I’ve spent with you,” she noted.

I realized this was true, and so I recoiled slightly. I tried my best to not show surprise, even by hiding my face from view, but my cheeks being the color they are, I couldn’t help but blush a little. Not that I wanted to, of course, but I didn’t want to give away my feelings. I don’t like giving my feelings away. Directly, at least.

Anyways, point being that I didn’t want to show anything that could be interpreted as ‘affection’. This is why I tried my best to hide my face.

Regardless, we can’t dwell on this any longer. We are near to the area that I needed to show you.



“Who are you?” I asked the figure at last.

Figure’s mouth moved, but no sounds came out of that mouth. The figure did have a nose, and was gaining facial features. The being then smiled at me. This was rather creepy, given that it had no eyes. Nonetheless, I returned the smile with a forced smile of my own. Now it was waving at me, and I waved back. The being was content; happy, and walked around as if it could see. This is a strange world that we’re living in today…but something got a hold of me. Something heavy was pulling me down, heavier than anything that I had ever tried to lift. This enormous weight pulled me down easily, because I knew I couldn’t lift such a thing. I fell into a prone position on the ground, and was now fast asleep.

“Wake up!” a voice called. The voice was a distant echo, but as the voice continued to call, the voice grew closer and more solid. “Wake up Noctus!”

“Gah!” I cried when I was startled to know that I was back in the real world. “What’s going on?” I asked bewildered.

“I don’t know, but something is going on outside!” The voice belonged to Sanae, and she seemed tense and anxious.

I crawled out of the shelter, and looked or where the house was. There was no doubt about it: something was going on over at the house.

“Did you go over there to see what was happening?” I asked.

“No, why? Did I do the wrong thing?” she asked, hoping otherwise.

“No, no, no,” I assured her, and continued with “you did well.”

“So, what do we do? We can’t just stay here, we have to help them!” Sanae proclaimed. She was right; we couldn’t just sit back and see what happened. But there was one problem, and calling the problem small would be understating it; drastically.

“I see your point,” I agreed, “but how do you propose we scale that wall?” I asked point to the edge from which we fell, which also had the waterfall.

“I…I didn’t think that far ahead…” she admitted.

“That’s okay, we’ll figure something out,” I assured, though that assured Sanae more than me.

“Noctus,” Sanae began, “are we trapped?”

My eyes widened at the hearing of those words. “What!? We are NOT trapped. There IS a way out and when we find that way out, we will escape this wilderness. Until then, we are not trapped. We are simply…contained in a specific area.”

“Trapped…” Sanae said, pretty much restating what I had said just a second earlier.

“No, we’re not.” I said, and then asked “Can you climb?”

“I’ve had my share of training, but I’m still not that good…” she admitted.

“Well then, we better practice,” I proposed, and pointed at a tree that was fairly tall. “Climb that tree.”

“That one?” she said, doubtfully, pointing at the one I was pointing at.

“Yes, that one,” I confirmed.

“Okay…” she said and walked up to the tree.

She placed one hand on the tree and another on the tree as well. She then hopped onto the tree, placing both legs on the tree. She then began to scale the tree using both arms and both legs. She was scaling the tree faster than what I remember I could. She had some astounding grip on the tree, and the branches only made the tree easier to climb for her. I mean, sure, she rested every so often, but she climbed the tree fast. Soon enough, she reached the top.

“Good,” I yelled from the ground while Sanae was still atop the tree, “now climb down so that we can get out of here!”

“This is the part I was talking about when I said that I couldn’t climb trees very good. It’s not the climbing part, but the getting down part!” she yelled back.

“Just climb down to the last branch, and drop down,” I said.

“Okay,” she said, and began to climb down using the branches slowly. Then, she stopped.

“Why’d you stop?” I asked. There was no need to yell, since she was much closer now.

“I can’t jump that drop,” she complained.

I sighed silently in annoyance, but hid my annoyance and said “Don’t worry, just jump; I’ll catch you.” I had regretted saying those words. I’ve read my share of books, so I found this situation ironic. However, I regretted the words because I knew that I was opening myself up to her.

“Okay, you sure?” she asked.

“Yes, now just jump, everybody’s waiting.”

Sanae jumped, and I positioned myself to catch her. Success. I caught her, and I didn’t falter surprisingly. Sanae and I stared at each other for what felt to me like an awkward moment, so I let her down, hoping I wasn’t being rude at all.

“Now, let’s climb that wall,” I said. Sanae gave a brief nod of approval with a stern look.

We walked to where the wall stood strong. The wall was going to be hard to climb, but not impossible.

“If we climb on the area of the water fall, we’ll be safe from a fall, but the rock will be weak and slippery. If we climb from the ground, the rock will be hard and easy to climb, but if we fall we could die…” I mumbled considering our options.

I finally came to a conclusion and said “We’ll climb the dry rock.” I turned to Sanae after examining the wall and said “there are a lot of thorns coming out of the wall. You’ll want to be careful of where you put your hands.” I turned back to the wall. “Okay, here we go,” I muttered to myself, and placed a hand on a protruding rock. I placed my other hand on a higher crevice, and pulled myself up, which I placed both feet on different footholds. I continued like so in a grueling, but progressive climb.

Halfway up, and I was having some problems with not only my energy, but also my will. Sanae was also having problems with her strength.

“I’m getting tired…” she complained.

“So am I, but we have to continue,” I ordered.

Almost there, and I was doubting if what I would find would be friendly enough to even let us reach the top. 3…I placed one hand on the ledge, and pulled myself up, but still couldn’t see over. 2…I placed my feet on two new foot holds. 1…I place my second hand on the ledge, and pulled myself up. O…I looked over the edge. I saw nothing, but a figure on the ground, breathing heavily. I climbed completely over the edge, and raced towards the figure.

“What happened?” I asked the dying person. He was Emanuel.

“SWAT…came after us…I was…in the way…others fled…I’m dying…” his voice was scratchy, but a voice was still a voice, and I could still hear him loud and clear if I put my ear to his mouth.

“Where’d the others go?” I asked.

“Not far…bushes after…the boulder…there’s a cabin… Ga-tege was shot…still alive…last I saw…Menae…Cooro… holding hands…happy…” he said, with a smile on his face that showed happiness, but lost regret. His last breath was slow, but meaningful. If I didn’t act fast, the pretty picture Emanuel had placed in my head about the Coo-nae couple would be ruined; Coo-nae being the couple of Cooro and Menae.

I pushed down his eyes, so that they were now closed, and hid his body as a makeshift burial, but a yelp for help told me Sanae was in trouble. I rushed to the ledge to see if there was anything I could do.

“I-I can’t go on,” she said. “I just can’t go on.”

“What, what is the matter?” I asked.

“If I climb up, you’re going to see me,” she complained.

“What a silly excuse. Come on now, climb up, and let’s be over with this.”

“You’re going to see me,” she continued to plead.

“What makes any different now what I am going to see of you than what I saw of you 25 minutes ago when we began to climb that wall?”

“My…my pants were caught on a thorn…” she muttered, though loud enough so that I could hear her.

“So how come you didn’t go get your pants?” I questioned.

“I already told you, I’m good at climbing up, not down. By the time I had realized the thorn had caught my pants, it was too late, and they began to slip. I can’t climb down to get them…” she looked like she didn’t know what to do.

“So what are you suggesting, that I go down and get your pants?” I suggested, but thought carefully about what I just said.

“That’s not a bad idea; I’m not going to deny it. Unless there’ someone else who can seem to grab my pants, you’re the only person that can grab my pants.” Although for me this sounded kind of multiple meaning, but everything is a game of perspective.

I jumped back at her offer. Me? Go under her to retrieve her pants? From UNDER her!? Was she mad? I don’t know what had gotten into her, but whatever the case, her story ringed true, and if I could lean just far enough over from the edge, I could see one of the leggings flapping in the wind. I guess a thorn really did snag her pants. But as far as why her entire pair of pants were still clung onto the thorn, I had yet to look into. Regardless, Sanae seemed solid on letting me climb down, and grab her pants, so I was going to do so.

I swung my legs over the ledge, and turned myself around so that I could climb down. After a couple of stones of climbing down, I was side by side with Sanae.

“Please, don’t look up,” she said. I looked up, and saw nothing but a blue sky. “Not now, but when you are under me…”

“Really?” I asked. “No undergarments?”

Sanae simply looked down as if in shame, but when she looked back up at me, some sort of emotion was on her face. I don’t know what the emotion was, but all I could saw was that this emotion was some weird form of love. This made me uncomfortable, so I hastened to complete the task at hand.

I climbed blow Sanae’s level, and there were her pants. In order to keep my promise that I wouldn’t look up, I tried to be as far away as possible from being directly below her, so that curiosity, wouldn’t drive me to look up. Unfortunately, the pants were just out of reach. I needed to be closer. I moved one rock closer, and looked up to make sure I wasn’t directly under her. I wasn’t so I went against to reach out for her pants still too far. I moved one rock closer, and looked up to make sure I wasn’t directly under her. Failure. I quickly grabbed the pair of flailing pants that were still on the thorn, and climbed the wall again. I reached the top, and waited for Sanae to reach the top. She stopped mid-way.

“You’re going to see me half naked,” she protested.

“Oh, come on, just put on the pair if pants already. Besides, I already saw what you wanted to hide, so there’s no point in hiding it any longer,” I pointed out. I was surprised at my own words. Why was I being such a pervert? Since when was I ever like this?

“Fine, but go into the bushes or something. I just don’t want you to see me like this,” she said.

I complied, and left the pants near the ledge for her to take. Then, I went to some bushes that were not where the rest of the group was hiding, so that she could put on her pants. After she had said that she was ready to continue, I came out of the bushes. Luckily, she had her pants on this time.

“Thank you,” she said, snagging her pants from my hand. Why don’t girls wear underwear anymore? I mean, seriously? What good does doing such a thing do to you?

“So, can we go now,” I said, after Sanae had slipped on her pants.

“Yep, let’s go,” she said happily, contrasting her emotions a minute before.

We both walked to the cabin, and looked around for anything suspicious. Nothing was suspicious, but visions of what I had just seen were still stuck in my head. I tried shaking these out, but nothing would get these sights out of my head. I felt like I was going crazy. What is happening with me?

“No, I won’t let that happen…” I muttered to myself.

“What?” Sanae asked. She had heard me mumble, but not what I said.

“Oh, i-it’s nothing,” I threw up.

She shrugged, and I went on the follow the path Emanuel had told. Eventually, like Emanuel had said, there was a cabin. The cabin was run down, but it was a cabin nonetheless.

“So, this is where the others are supposed to be?” Sanae asked. I had forgotten to tell her about Emanuel. I had hidden the body, and so Sanae never saw the body. I then explained to Sanae what Emanuel had told me.

“So…so Emanuel… Emanuel is dead?” she asked, trembling a little in fear.

“I’m not going to lie to you; he is dead,” I confirmed.

Sanae placed her hand on her mouth, and her eyes welled with tears. She began to cry, and loud wails were sent echoing through the air, as she fell to her knees. Not to be rude, and not to rain on this dramatic parade, but why was she so sad over his death? Personally, he was just another pessimist who bit the dust.

“Ha-had I ever t-told you about my brother…?” Sanae asked. I already guess where this conversation was going, but I just wanted to be sure.

“No,” I said. “Never,” I corrected myself.

“Well,” she said, seeming to be more calm now, “ w-when I was born, I had one brother. My mother was very religious, so she named my brother Emanuel, after Emanuel the Baptist in the Bible. Since I was the younger one, my mother had told Emanuel to be good; to always follow the path of the lord…then my mother passed away, and my father remarried. My brother never liked the idea of adultery, so he was distant with my father ever since. The only thing that kept me close to Emanuel was that we were of the same blood. Although it never seemed like it, he was always very proactive of me. You just weren’t long enough to see him do so…”

Her words rang true; I was only her for about a week, so I never knew that Emanuel was even related to Sanae.

“If only I’d known…” I spoke to myself, actually feeling guilty of his death.

“You can’t feel bad. He always just wanted make everything as perfect as possible. Because of this, and his love of God, he didn’t have many friends.” She wiped her eyes, and stood herself up in an upright position.

“Well, he’s dead, and that’s all there is too it. If he died for me, I’ll die protect what I have left,” she said sternly.

“If you want, I can help,” I offered. I had grown fond of Sanae, and was used to her company.

“Okay, but don’t hold me back if you think I’m going to be doing something stupid, okay?” she said turning to me, her face as straight as I would ever see her face.

“I…don’t know about that…” I admitted. I already saw one person dead; I don’t think my mind could withstand another.

Weirdly, Sanae smiled, as if she knew something I didn’t and she was just mocking me.

“Okay, I won’t blame you,” she said, and went beside me to follow me.

WHAT A HYPOCRITE! She just said she didn’t want me to her back, and two seconds later, she okay with it? What is going on here?

“Okay then, follow me.” I commanded. “We need to help the others.”

I walked towards the cabin, and around the cabin. Sure enough, there were the bushes Emanuel had spoken about. This is where the rest of the group must be. We pushed aside the bushes, and looked into a deep, dark cave. Only the sound of whistling air came out of the cave.

“After you?” Sanae offered.

“Gee, thanks,” I said sarcastically.

I guided myself with my hands and Sanae had a finger in one of my belt loops to guide herself. This made me uncomfortable, but I just had to abide this situation a little longer. I would soon be out of this. Hopefully.

A couple more paces, and I saw a light. A light at the end of the tunnel, but this was real, and literal.

“I see a light!” I shouted in excitement, happy that Sanae would soon have to let me go.

“Let’s go in!” Sanae shouted, also exited.

The light was blindingly bright, but was also relieving. I went to enter, and everything came into distinguishable pieces of matter.

“We’re…” I began to say, but instant memory cut me off. “We’re in the cabin!”

Wood floorings and wooden walls was what made up the cabin. Some windows were broken, so shards of glass were on the ground. I needed to watch my step. One wreath was hung: in the center of the room.

“And there they are!” Sanae shouted, and rushed to where Tenemae, Gatege, and Menae and Cooro were. I rushed to where Cooro and Menae were.

“By God, I though you two were dead; you had me worried sick!” I complained, but still happy to have this reunion.

“Us?” Menae shot back. “Don’t you remember it was you who pushed me off The Cliffs by startling me?”

“Correction: you fell over on your own because when I spoke, I startled you, then Cooro jumped over, and I followed,” I said. I didn’t mention Sanae’s name just to not arouse any weird interpretations or suspicion.

“Don’t forget that Sanae went ‘overboard’ as well,” Cooro added. I recoiled.

How did they know about Sanae? They would only know about Sanae if…if…if they planned everything out! This was all just a scam!

“Now, now, don’t be surprised,” Menae said. “Sanae already had told us that she had a crush on you, so we took it upon ourselves to bring you two together.”

“What!?” I shouted. “But I’ve spent all this time trying to bring YOU TWO together!”

“That’s why we thought that this would be a little tough to pull off and to understand, but right now we can’t talk,” Menae said. Cooro pointed out the window, but advised me not to look directly outside. So, I picked up a shard of glass that was already on the ground near the entrance, and used its reflection to see outside the window without peeking out.

Outside the window, I saw men wearing black bullet proof vests with the letters “S.W.A.T GROUP” painted onto them in white. These were equipped with pieces of equipment that I had never seen before. The men outside, although some were women, were waiting for us; guns pointed at the window. Some scrambled around to try to get the best view, while others were slowly closing in.

“We can’t just let them in!” I protested in my lowest voice possible, just above a whisper. “We have to do something!”

“We all were part of a Militia, Noctus,” Gatege spoke. “Not the same Militia, but a Militia nonetheless. These Militias have always fought against the S.W.A.T Group for as long as the Malumtis Empire was created. I fought against the S.W.A.T Group once, and I had to flee. I was the only one left alive at that time. But now, we out power them, even though they outnumber us. Because we were all part of a Militia, we all have special abilities. I, for example, can block anything, including bullets, but only if I can withstand the pain. Emanuel…” Gatege said, with a deep regret in his voice. “Emanuel could set himself on fire, and now burn himself, but if her gets to angry in that form, then her begins to burn for real. Tenemae can move swiftly enough so that we don’t see him, but she tires easily. Menae can use her TK (telekinesis) abilities to move anything within her 10 yard reach, or decide to cut anything in her range. Cooro, from what he’s told me can break anything with just touching it, or he can use brute force and destroy anything he wants to. Now, as for your abilities, I don’t know. You were part of a well known Militia, but no one ever said anything about two survivors from that Militia.” I jumped back a little in surprise. Everyone died in a battle but me? “Do you know what you abilities are?”

I shook my head no., and Gatege gave a sigh.

“Okay then, we’ll just deal with what we have. If you find out you ability, tell me after this battle, okay?” Gatege asked of me. I gave a brief nod of confirmation, and delved into my thoughts.

I remembered being suspended in the air, but that was about it. I don’t know if I can do anything as helpful as the others. I don’t think I’m as significant as the others, in fact.

“Wait, so we’re going to fight them?” I asked.

“Yes, but not now. We’re going to fight them when night falls. The S.W.A.T Group can break their heads trying to break in; they won’t,” Gatege assured me.

Something had been nagging at me ever since Gatege mentioned everyone else’s abilities: he hadn’t mentioned Sanae’s ability.”

“Hey, Gatege, does Sanae have ability?” I inquired.

“Yes, and no,” he said, but later explained himself. “You see, she knows what the ability is, she just hasn’t developed the ability fully yet. If you want more details, you best speak with Sanae yourself.

I nodded my thanks, and walked to Sanae. She was talking with Menae in a separate room in the cabin. I walked into the room. Failure.

“Hi, Noctus,” Menae greeted. “Did you and Sanae get together yet? You haven’t told me.”

“I don’t know what you’d consider ‘got together’.” I replied bluntly, wanting to simply know what ability Sanae partially had.

“You know,” she said with a smile on her face I usually see. “If you two have kissed yet.”

“W-w-what!?” I screamed.

“Shut up before they hear you Gatege scolded me

“Sanae, do you know what your ability is?”

“No, not really,” she answered, sounding as frank as possible.

“Oh, okay,” I replied, disappointed.

Night fell, but I could still se because of the light. We could all see because of the light, yet the light was dim. The S.W.A.T Group was camping outside of our cabin. The light was dim, but I could still see as if the light were bright as day. Some even began to sing army songs, while others still had handguns and rifles pointed at the windows.

“What are we going to do now?” I asked.

“We wait until the rest were asleep,” Gatege said.

“Then what?”

“We fight, and kill them all,” Tenemae said, as if that didn’t matter to her.

“W-why do we kill them all?”

“Why let them kill us? It’s either us or them.”

I had to admit, he had a strong argument there.

“Now,” Tenemae continued, “shut up and follow orders.”

I looked outside, and the S.W.A.T Group was slowly going to sleep. One by one, their heads fell to the ground with drowsiness. The campfire was still on, so we could clearly see them.

“Their trained to attack and kill, not to stay up longer than their enemy,” Tenemae explained. “That’s why we waited for night.”

I had to hand it to them: they knew their ways to taking out enemies.

“Okay,” Gatege address all of us in a soft but assertive voice, “we strike now. Be careful that none of them are still awake. Grab a shard of glass from that window that’s broken, and use that to kill as many as you can, without waking up any of them. Are we clear?” a low chorus of ‘yes’ answered his question. “Then let’s move.”

We all stepped out into the cave that lead into the cabin, Sanae grabbing hold of one of my belt loops on my pants. I’ve grown to accept her company, even if that means to be this close to her, but right now was not the time for any love stories. Right now was the time to kill or be killed.

Once we were all past the bushes, and well into the camp, one Malumtis Empire member yelled ‘Now!’ and another member placed a pot on the campfire in an instant. The fire was out. Without fire, there was no light. We couldn’t see. Failure. That was when I realized I could still see. I, of all people, could still see.

“Look at Noctus’s eyes,” Menae said.

“They’re like stars in the night…” Tenemae said, for once surprised.

“Watch it, some of these have Night vision goggles,” I warned.

Sure enough, two Malumtis Empire members got up from the ground, and were sneaking up behind Cooro.

“Cooro, look out behind you,” I screamed, instinctively running towards him.

Cooro turned around in one quick move while swinging his arm around to perform a straight punch that, from what I saw from my position, literally imploded the member’s head into shards of skull, but still managed to send the now dead body over the edge of the cliff in the same punch. Tenemae quickly pulled off the legs of the other member in a splashing of blood, and a weird creepy laugh from Tenemae, who seemed to be enjoying her killing spree. However, when the member Cooro killed was punched, the gun he was holding was flinging out of his hand in the same position that he was when he was killed. The gun flipped various times, and then landed on the hammer. The gun fired. Failure. A wail of pain and distress told me that someone was shot by that stay bullet. I turned around and saw Menae falling to the ground, holding her left leg.

“Menae!” I screamed, running towards her.

“Menae!” Cooro screamed more sadness than anger in his voice since he could not see where Menae was. I remembered that no one could see but me, so I quickly guided Cooro to Menae. Tenemae was doing a good job of finding where the other awake members were, though I had no idea how, and so I had time to tend to this situation.

“I don’t know how to cure this other than amputating the leg,” I admitted, feeling useless all over again.

“D-don’t worry I’ll be fine…” Menae said. Her leg began to stretch ever so slightly.

“No, no, no,” I pleaded, “don’t do this.”

“If I don’t do this, I’ll die. Last time I checked, I’d prefer to have life than be as dead as a door nail!

One S.W.A.T Group member was getting close to us, and I warned Cooro of his coming. Cooro turned around, punched through his abdomen, threw the body so that the soon-to-be lifeless figure would live its final moments away from us. Cooro turned back to Menae, and continued to tend to her.

“Noctus, where are you?” A voice asked. I’d know that voice anywhere by now; Sanae.

“Over here,” I said, and rushed to her. Once I reached her, Menae let out a large, ear piercing wail of pain. If I’m not mistaken, she was biting on Cooro’s hand, but Cooro’s hand was not bleeding at all. I mean, yeah, I can’t really see colors in the dark, but I can see the blood shine if there was any, and there wasn’t.

“I heard a gunshot; I wanted to make sure you were okay,” she explained.

“Menae was shot and I was just tending to her,” I said.

More gunshots came from the darkness. I looked to see that Gatege had stolen a weapon from a Malumtis Empire member, and was now shooting this weapon to other members. The clip of the gun ran out soon, but he simply took another gun from another dead member, and continued to shoot out his rage.

“I think I can help her,” Sanae offered.

I nodded, and grabbed her hand to guide her through the pitch black darkness except for the flare of the firing guns. We needed to reach Menae if Sanae was going to help her at all. I took her to Menae who was still dealing physically and mentally with her recent amputation.

“Okay, Menae, I’m here to help,” Sanae informed gently.

“W…what can you do…?” Menae asked woozily.

“She’s losing too much blood; I’ll have to work fast,” Sanae said, rubbing her hands together.

Sanae placed her hands on Menae’s leg stump. She whispered something that I didn’t understand because I was paying more attention to Menae’s leg. Menae was screaming in larger amounts of pain now, but if my eye weren’t tricking me, Menae’s leg was slowly, but surely growing back. Yes, I’ve read books about people having the ability to heal, but to re-grow entire limbs? I don’t think there have never been any record of that, let alone doing so in under one minute. After about forty seconds of screaming that seemed as though Menae was giving birth, Menae fell back.

“W-what did you do to her!?” Cooro exclaimed.

“She’s been through a lot,” Sanae explained. “She’s going to need to rest.”

“It’s true,” I said. “For now, Cooro, take her back to the cabin, and make sure nobody follows you through the cave.”

Cooro nodded, and picked up Menae in a bridal position. He then carried Menae’s semi-lifeless body to the bushes that led to the cave into the cabin.



“Fight?” Sanae asked, recoiling in surprise.

About time she was the surprised one, I thought.

“Yes, we fight like Emanuel fought: to the death. Fight for freedom or die trying.” I turned to face the battle ahead of us. “But not you. You may want to stay back. If one of us gets injured, we’re counting on you to heal that person.”

Sanae gave a stern nod, but worry was on her face. Then she turned to walk towards the bushes to enter the cabin to tend more to Menae.

“Okay, let’s go,” I said to myself.

I snuck up behind a Malumtis Empire member, and wrapped my arm around his neck. He flailed, and tried to shoot me various times, but he panicked, and because of this, I subdued his even more easily. Then, I took his weapon, a handgun, and ran in a low crouch to where Gatege and Tenemae were fighting hard. Bullets were bouncing off Gatege, but he was beginning to look tired. Tenemae was not moving as fast as she once was. These two needed as much help as possible. I turned around, and saw Cooro by the bushes. He punched the ground and caused a small earthquake while lobbing himself in our direction. He landed with a punch the ground that cracked the ground. A bright flame of fury was in his eyes, and rage over powered his fists.

“You people almost killed Menae!” Cooro spat. “Now you’ll all pay!”

He ran towards the front lines of the Malumtis Empire, and began pummeling the members into a bloody oblivion. Gatege was puzzled as to why Cooro was so brave all of the sudden. He turned to see me, and saw my bright eyes.

“Noctus, your eyes…” Gatege said.

“Yes, I know, Menae told me. I can see perfectly fine in this dark. But right now, there’s a battle to finish,” I said with a slight edge in my voice but not too much so that I didn’t sound too rude.

“What happened to Cooro?” Gatege asked, spinning a finger near his temple.

“Someone’s gun went off and accidentally shot Menae; he went berserk

“Die, you fools,” Cooro screamed, enjoying himself as much as Tenemae, though Tenemae seemed to be moving even more slowly now.

“Well, we won’t leave all the fun to them two, right?” Gatege asked.

“Not by a long shot. I’m my father’s legacy, and if this is what he did on a daily basis, I’ll do this as well, 24/7, seven days a week,” I calmly admitted.

I ran to the frontlines, managing myself past Cooro’s random wayward fists. I came up behind another member and used the gun I had looted from another dead member earlier to blow a hole into his head. This was the first time I had used a gun, and the slide of the gun cut the webbing of my hand. I repositioned my hand on the handle of the gun, and shot another member. He turned to look towards me, and was about to shoot, but Cooro got him before he could kill me.

I looted the knife from the member I had killed, and ran to another member. Now, knives were weapons I had plenty of experience with, sine I used them on a daily basis in my forest life, the life I left behind. I ran up to one member, and easily slit open his throat. He tried to yelp, but his trachea was already overflowing with blood. I ran to the next member, and stabbed him in the gut. He saw me coming at the last second, but by then, I was already piercing his abdomen. I let him fall and let him die, as I went to finish off another member. I struck the knife through one member’s helmet, and left the knife in his head while I looted the knife off the member I had just killed.

“Look at that,” Sanae yelled, and continued with “a lone star in the sky.”

“I-I don’t think that’s a star,” I said, and began to back away towards Sanae and the cabin.

“Is that… Is that…fire?” Sanae asked.

What seemed to be a star in the sky gave one last bright shine before its true form could be seen.

“It’s a column of fire!” Sanae screamed.

The column struck and shook the ground so that an earth quake went off. The fire spread through the battlefield, killing everything in its path. Soon, the tidal wave of fire was near us. I turned and hugged Sanae to protect her, but this knocked us both done. Nonetheless, I was still protecting her from our imminent death.

1 second. 5 seconds. 20 seconds. I was still alive, and so was Sanae. Either we were dead, or we never died. I felt the heat, but was I really dead? I looked around the battlefield. Every Malumtis Empire member was on the floor; dead and charred. However, every Militia member was still standing. Sure, they were still wondering how they survived, if they were alive, but so was I.

“We didn’t…we aren’t dead…?” Sanae asked. For a moment, I had forgotten that I was still holding Sanae. I stood up and tried to act nonchalant.

“Well, no, we aren’t dead. I think…” I said.

Sanae pondered for a moment how we could’ve survived such a phenomenon. The bright rays of dawn were now beginning to appear on the sky. Then, Sanae looked at the sky and whispered “Emanuel…”

“O-of course. He’s with Jesus now, so Jesus and God can help him with everything he needs. Like I said, he’d never do anything if it meant hurting me, so that column of fire must have been sent down because he asked God to do so. He must have also asked God to have the fire kill everyone but all of us, the Militia members. If that doesn’t explain the fire, I don’t know what does…” Sanae said with a serious voice.

“I guess that’s the only way you can explain a phenomenon like that,” I said, admitting that I had no better explanation for what just transpired.

“Noctus, do you have any idea as to what had just happened?” Gatege asked walking up to me.

“Where’s Tenemae?” I asked.

“She’s on the ground over there,” Gatege said and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. “He’s resting right now; he’s very tired from running so much.”

I looked past Gatege, and there was Tenemae on the ground face up, and her chest was heaving. I looked at Gatege and told him that he should ask what happened just now to Sanae. When I had looked over Gatege’ shoulder, I saw Tenemae. But I was more worried about what I didn’t see. Where was Cooro?

I walked past the bushes, through the cave, and into the cabin, and saw Cooro tending to Menae in more than one way. I wanted to leave them in peace, and let them be, but Menae pushed Cooro off her, and spoke to me.

“I’m just grateful I’m alive, that’s all,” Menae said. “But I really have to show you something.”

She reached for the legging of her leg that had re-grown, and pulled up the legging to reveal her renewed leg. However, this wasn’t what I was expecting of a re-grown leg, though I’d never thought I’d see one, so I guess I can’t really judge as to what a re-grown leg should look like. This leg had strange markings on it. I could read some of the symbols which meant “material”.

“All I can say is that some of the symbols mean ‘material’,” I admitted. “But for more information, you’re asking the wrong guy.”

Sanae walked into the cabin. She saw Menae’s leg, seemed puzzled for a moment, but then her eyes went wide, and she began to dance with happiness.

“W-what’s going on?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t being rude.

“I know how to read Hebrew,” Sanae said. “And what those symbols right there on her leg say: ‘holy material’.”

Sanae continued to dance, but eventually stopped, knowing she was out of place. She whispered something in her ear, and left.

“I’m going to go help Tenemae,” Sanae said, and walked through the cave. I waved Cooro and Menae goodbye, and went to the cave. I went out through the bushes, and looked around for Sanae. She was walking towards Tenemae, probably to see if she could help Tenemae in any way. I followed her to where Tenemae was.

“So, are you okay, Tenemae?” she asked.

“I’m… just… tired…” she said through heaving breaths. “Leave… me… be… ”

“Well, there’s nothing we can do for her here,” I said, partially surprising Sanae that I had followed her out.

“True, but we can take him to the cabin so that he can rest easily there,” Sanae suggested.

“Okay, I’ll carry her,” I offered and tried to lift her, mindful of where I grabbed her. Tried. Failure. For a person who’s supposed to be lightweight on her feet, Tenemae was heavy as a boulder.

“It’s… because… I’m… tired. When… I’m… tired… I’m… heavy. It’s… why… I’m… tired. Leave… me… be,” she pleaded. We answered her plea, and left her on the ground, not because we wanted to, but because we couldn't do anything more for her.

We were walking towards the bushes to enter the cabin, and went inside the cabin. I looked around, and Cooro was still tending to Menae, again in multiple ways. Gatege was talking to himself in a corner, and we were the new arrivals.

“So, what do we do?” I asked.

“We recover for the next battle, and the battle after that, and the battle after that,” Gatege answered. “Will against guns. As far as I can tell, that is totally fair.”

Gatege went to the pantry to look at the reserve of food that was still in the cabin.

I was tired after so much fighting and killing that I dropped to my knees, and fell over. I instantly went to sleep.

I looked around for anything that could be considered a reference point as to where I was, but nothing could be seen. I was in the same…area as I was in my previous dreams. The two holding hands were now gone, and I didn’t know where they had gone. I then realized that something was squeezing my hand. Not harshly, but gently. I looked to my hand, the other arm holding my hand, and went up to its face. Just a mouth, and a nose, but something was taking form. After about 30 seconds of creating the eyes, I realized the eyes belonged to someone I knew very well. And with the whole face now put together, I could clearly see, without making assumptions, what had happened.

“Sanae!” I gasped to myself. “I get it now!” I yelled in happiness.

The figures holding were shadows of the future which eventually became Sanae and I, in my second dream.

I awoke suddenly, and saw than I hadn’t dreamt much except for the fact that Tenemae was now with us in the cabin. He was tired still, but she finally found the energy to walk into the cabin, and find a place to sleep. We were all here; everyone. Even Emanuel was here, though we couldn’t see him, he found a place in Sanae’s heart. I sat down against the wall in the living room of the cabin. Sanae came to me, and sat down beside me, leaning on me.

The cabin was old, but just because of this doesn’t mean the cabin didn’t have any surprises. Christmas was just around the corner. Sanae looked up as if seeking guidance from Emanuel, Jesus, or God, but when she saw something else, she urged me to look up.

Above us was what looked like green leaves with red cherries. Of everything that what I could have seen, what I saw was a mistletoe. A MISTLETOE! I didn’t know much about Christmas tradition, but what I did know was that if you were caught under the mistletoe, you had to kiss the person closest to you. Everybody else in the cabin, including Tenemae, which was surprising, noticed that we were under the mistletoe as well, and were waiting with anticipation of when we would kiss.

I’m screwed, I thought.

And thus, the legacy of the Militia is passed down from generation to generation. Most babies, when born, are taken from their actual parents, and are given to foster parents who have also just recently given birth. Ever wonder why you don’t immediately get to see your baby when it’s just born, and why doctors don’t recommend at home births?

Anyways, the Malumtis Empire has the power to change legal documents. With this, they can change the whole of your birth certificate, and make it seem as though your foster parents are your real parents. The Malumtis Empire does this so well, that not even the foster parents know this is happening. The wars still continues in some dimensions, like ours.

In some dimensions, the MALUMTIS team has won the war, and in other dimensions, the Militia team has won. In other worlds parallel to ours, the same battle has been going on. Also, in other worlds, since the Militias where eliminated, some dimensions are in political and governmental war.

The S.W.A.T Group have tried to disguise this war as a war between Assassins and Templars, others saw this as Rebels against Tyranny; Patriots against Kings, but when all you see is black and white, you only see the Malumtis Empire, and the Militias fighting against each other. However, political propaganda colors and sugar coats everything that is happening, even if you think otherwise. If this document is altered, that means that I am most probably dead, and that is another dead warrior for this cause.

What I ask of you is that if the Malumtis Empire has won this war in your dimension, don’t worry; there is nothing that can be done, and your dimension is most probably lost in a war of governments. To find out whether the Militias have lost the war in your dimension, simply try to look up any document about the Militias. If you find any pure documents that are not disguised as any other wars, then the Militias are still fighting. If you find nothing, then that means that your dimension is lost.

I will most probably be killed for writing this, but if writing this means I’ll perish, then I’ll perish if it means saving the lives of millions. I conclude this excerpt of my autobiography by saying goodbye. Salvation is individual, and thus I cannot help you any further.

[Skylar]

Finally! I have the preview done! Yes! Now I can work on the full thing...

[ILOVEVHS]

Wow. That is big.

No wonder your page wouldn't load.

[Skylar]

It is going to be a full blown novel, and so a full blown novel deserves a full blown preview. ^-^

[ILOVEVHS]

Oh, yeah.

[Skylar]

^-^

[Skylar]

Feel free to comment. Frankly, I don't really care what kind of criticism you give me, so long s it is some kind of criticism. Thanks you. ^-^