AC/DC'S_LVR's stories

Ch. 2
Field work was slow in process, but the rewarding gold to aid in upgrading her home and building homes for future animals to be raised was well worth the blisters and sunburn. On her second day on Sunshine Islands, she went around the other two main islands and introduced herself to the rest of the inhabitants. Plus it was a good excuse to forage for various grasses and more weeds plus lumber and material stone. She purchased a couple of Yellow Wonderfuls for her hammer and axe to rid her field of the pesky boulders and stumps. She also bought seeds to grow crops and grass and a fishing pole to help bring in extra money. By the end of the day, she was exhausted and knew the names and stories of every villager.
There was Taro’s family who lived in a house near the bridge. They shipped crops and other things to neighboring villages and towns on the mainland. Felicia was Taro’s daughter-in-law and mothered Taro’s two grandchildren, Natalie and Elliot. Although Elliot was a bit timid and shy, he was kind and good natured, and his sister was a real tomboy but was still overjoyed to know there was another girl her and Julia’s age on the islands.
Julia lived with Mirabelle and helped to take care of the animals they sold. Charlie mostly hangs out with Eliza, Gannon’s daughter, either on the beach or in Chen’s store. A fisherman lives by the dock and goes by the name of Ray; most of his days are spent on the beach catching fish for a living. Running the diner was Nick who promised to give Kiriel recipes for ingredients she found and brought in.
On Sprout Island, Carol owned and ran the Inn, which was built a long time ago and left to her in the family will. Halia ran the little café where she too promised recipes for ingredients. Gannon lived across from another fisherman named Martin who spent most of the time with his pole in the water behind his home. Beside Gannon lived a former pop idol, Lanna, who came to Sunshine Islands to escape the pressures of stardom and enjoy her days fishing alongside Denny, yet another fisherman, who lived in a small shack on Sprout Island’s beach. Beside the beach in a lavish mansion was Regis, a mining mogul, and his extremely shy daughter, Sabrina. Then of course there was the boat operator, Kirk, who took people too and from Meadow Island.
On the first Monday of the year, Kiriel met the final villager, even though he wasn’t technically a resident. He was an animal trader who came into Mirabelle’s shop every Monday and Tuesday to shepherd animals from the mainland to Sunshine Islands and back again. When Kiriel walked into Mirabelle’s shop to drop off a freshly picked flower and a freshly caught and cooked fish for Julia and Mirabelle, she immediately laid eyes on the silent cowboy.
“Hey, Mirabelle,” Kiriel asked in a whisper. “Who’s that? I don’t think I’ve met him yet.”
“Oh that’s Vaughn, he brings animals from the mainland every week to be sold here in my store,” she said as she placed the Toyflower in a vase filled with cold water on the counter. “He’s a very nice boy, but he likes to keep to himself. Tomorrow’s his birthday, now that I think about it.”
“Really?” Kiriel asked, her interest peaked. “Do you know what he likes?”
“Well, I know his favorite thing is porridge, but Rice Island is long gone, he also likes Mushroom Clusters, but Mushroom Island is with Rice Island at the bottom of the sea. I guess you can just give him some chocolate from Chen’s store. Who doesn’t love a good candy bar?”
“Thanks a lot Mirabelle,” Kiriel said leaving the store for Chen’s.

w00t for a welshie character awew00t
Ch. 1
The rain poured and the wind howled. It was the stereotypical scary night you see in all horror movies. Except this time, it wasn’t a movie. Over the blowing wind came a sadistic cackle, and then I felt the white hot pain in my chest. I looked down to find blood pouring out of me. In the freezing rain it was warm and sticky on my hands as I tried to stop it from flowing. My knees buckled under me and I found myself on the frozen concrete. As my consciousness wavered, the laughter grew louder and louder in my ears. It filled my senses until I couldn’t think anymore….
I bolted upright in my bed with the laughter still fresh in my mind. My hands flew to my chest but instead of the warm blood, they only met the cotton front of my nightshirt. Soon the laughter faded and turned into an alarm. Above me flashed a red light sitting in the middle of the ceiling and in time with its flashing was the alarm. The door to my cell whirred and opened to reveal a steel gray room. Through the glass dome in the ceiling the moon shined big and bright. Right in the center of the room sat a metal tab bolted to the floor with inch thick bolts and on top of which were four bowls. On either side of me I could hear three other doors opening with the same whirring sound.
“Hey there, Alessa!” a cheery English accent greeted me.
“Morning, Rose,” I responded groggily.
“Come on, you have to wake up and smell that evening dew,” Rose chirped happily.
I see myself as a cheery person, but as cheery as I am, I might as well be a Sour Patch Kid when compared to Rose’s cheeriness. She could give a person with dentures cavities if they talked to her for too long. Me, I’m sort of a mellow happy. I’m perpetually content with the way things are as long as I’m not in the middle of a fight or something. Rose skipped and twirled away from my door and made her way to the table to take her seat. A shuffling noise came from the left letting me know Lester was awake. He was the oldest of us, even though he looked as young as the rest of us.
“Hello, Alessa, are you ready for the day ahead of us?” he asked me when he passed my room in his dried out voice.
“Yes, Lester, and good morning to you too,” I said.
That left Ruslan to walk through the door and flop down onto my bed beside me.
“Good morning sunshine, the earth says hello,” I said trying to break the frown on his face.
Instead of laughing or even smiling, his brow furrowed and his hazel-blue eyes clouded. When he finally spoke, it was through a heavy Ukrainian accent.
“You had that dream again, huh?” he asked.
“Did I scream?” I asked with a grimace on my face.
“No, you were talking this time,” he informed me.
“And it was loud enough to wake you?” I raised a brow. “You sleep like a rock.”
“There was a lot on my mind,” he said sitting up.
“Stalker,” I said in a jokingly accusing tone.
That finally made him smile a bit and we went off to eat our breakfast. Inside the bowls were perfectly warmed pools of blood. The smell of iron and salt filled our noses as we sat down to join our companions for our breakfast. The bowls were specially made by the same people keeping us here. They had tiny little motors at the bottom of the bowl to keep the blood circulating like it was still flowing through veins and were heated to the perfect body temperature of 98.6 degrees. If you haven’t figured it out by now, we’re all vampires. We each have our own stories as to how we came to be vampires, but in the end when you look at everything, we’re vampires.
But we aren’t the only dangerous myths living here in Area 66; there are also werewolves, shape shifters, gnomes, fairies, centaurs, satyrs and just about everything else you can imagine popping out of a book of fairy tales. I heard once there’s even a dragon or two in one of the lower levels, but you didn’t hear that from me. We’re kept here for our own good, or at least that’s what the scientists tell us. For the past seventy years we’ve sat in this boring room doing nothing but eat, sleep and pass the time away. Then once a week one of the good doctors comes in to have a sort of therapy session with us. Fun. Today was one of those therapy sessions, it turned out. Even more fun.
“How is everyone tonight?” Dr. Marra asked.
“Good,” we all chimed in unison.
“I have some good new for you,” the doctor informed us. “You have a new friend.”
Ruslan looked away from the fascinating spot on the wall that had had his attention for the past ten minutes, Rose clapped and bounced in her seat with joy, Lester’s eyes widened to the size of saucers and I leaned forward to rest my elbows on my knees. In the past seventy years, this was the most exciting thing to happen to us since one of the werewolves broke free of his chains and crashed through the glass dome only to be electrocuted by the current running halfway between the one hundred foot high ceiling and the floor. Dr. Marra had successfully got our attention.
“You’re shitting me,” I said with a smirk.
“No, I am not kidding you,” he said with a stern look.
Despite the fact all of us were over the age of twenty, both literally and mentally, Dr. Marra was one of those people very much against the use of curse words. This made him very fun to play games with. Like seeing how many cuss words it would take on a particular day to send us to our cells.
“Well holy shit on a shingle,” I replied.
That got an eyebrow twitch and a note on his clipboard. He pulled back the sleeve of his starched white coat reveal the Bracelet on his arm. This little gizmo was used to pinpoint his location, communicate with other personnel, open and close doors, it had a calendar, a stopwatch and it even told time. He gave the order for the guards to bring in our new “friend”. He came in on a trolley, tied up Hannibal Lector style with a muzzle over his mouth and his arms bound in a straight jacket. I know what most of you are thinking, it’s just a straight jacket, why can’t he rip it apart with his super duper vampire strength? The answer is silver and titanium woven into the fabric. The silver drains away at your strength making the titanium strong enough to hold even the burliest vampire still. Very affective on werewolves, too I’m told.
“Hello, new friend,” Rose greeted in her cheery, lilting voice.
His eyes darted back and forth looking form face to face. Underneath the bloodshot whites, I saw his eyes were a vivid green. He looked first at Rose and in return she smiled and waved. Next he looked at Lester to which he looked at for a brief second before moving on. Lester in turn cocked his head sideways and continued watching the man with interest. He then looked at Ruslan to whom he narrowed his eyes menacingly at for some reason. Ruslan merely scoffed and rolled his eyes. Finally, those vivid green eyes stared at me, where they stopped and watched for what seemed like forever. When I was unable to take it any longer, so I crossed my eyes and stuck my tongue out at him. I expected him to growl or make some sort of face back at me, but instead, I could have sworn he smiled at me from beneath his muzzle.
“This is Michael, everyone,” Dr. Marra informed us. “Boys, why don’t you take Michel into his room and give him a sedative. That should give him time to adjust to his new life.”
“Where does Michael come from?” Rose asked.
“New York, I believe,” the doctor replied.
“Well that explains the stares he gave us,” I said.
“And why’s that, do you think?” the doctor asked.
“He’s eyeing up who the head honcho is. To see who he can **** with first,” I responded.
A vein pulsing on the left side of his jaw bulged slightly.
“And the winner is, Ruslan! How does it feel to be the target of an overly testosteroned, beefhead, vampire?” I asked in a game show host’s voice.
“Like a million ****in’ bucks,” he said puffing up his chest as if he had won the grand prize.
“A million ****in’ bucks,” I repeated turning to Dr. Marra. “Did you hear that doc? A million ****in’ bucks!”
“I think you’re finished,” Dr. Marra said loudly and quickly like a parent trying to talk over their kids.
“Oh come on doc, you almost broke the god dammed record,” I pleaded.
“Goodbye, Alessa!” he said with finality in his tone as he pressed a button on the Bracelet.
“Well, god damned, mother****er, can you believe this shit?! It’s a ****in’ shame I can’t stay with my friends cause of one *******,” I shouted as the orderlies dragged me to my cell.
“That was eleven! You win!” Ruslan called.
“Yes! I’m the luckiest ****in’ chick on earth!” I whooped. “What’s my prize?”
“A night in the nuthouse!” he responded.
“Just what I always wanted!!!” I cried.
That’s a lie, you know. There’s something I want even more. When the orderlies had left, I looked out of the little window. Ruslan and Lester were cracking up while Rose sat with her arms crossed and her lips pouted. The doctor was giving orders into the Bracelet. Satisfied with my work that night, I laid down on the hard military issue cot and slept.

Ch. 2
The forest floor was rough under my bare feet; I could feel the leaves and twigs as I moved swifter than the wind. The moon was absent this chilled night leaving my path bathed in darkness. Nonetheless, I never once hit anything bigger than a low hanging branch. My heart was beating at the pace of a normal human’s, which was an overexertion for vampires. Our hearts beat very slowly to conserve blood and energy, beating at about a beat per minute. When a vampire gets worked up, our hearts begin to move faster to give us a boost in energy if a fight broke out or we were being chased. The pace at which I was moving told me I was being chased by something almost as fast as I was, and even more dangerous.
Then the cliché of all dream clichés popped into my path. A cliff. The footsteps of whatever was on my tail came hard and fast, but I could barely hear them over my heavy breathing. Then out of nowhere, I jumped. I didn’t contemplate it or hear a voice tell me to do so, I just did it. I couldn’t see the ground coming up at me, and that notion that the earth could come up to give me a jolly hello at any moment didn’t scare me one bit. I welcomed it.
Until I rolled out of bed and the cold steel floor gave me a jolly hello instead of the warm earth. Somewhere beside me a low chuckle met my ears as I tried to turn my face from pancake form back to 3D form. Silently I cursed his laugh making my heart pound twice as fast and as soon as I did I regretted it. Another little fun fact about us bloodsuckers is that we can all read each other’s minds. Well, it’s not really mind reading in the way you think of it. It’s more like we get a general idea of what other vampires are feeling and thinking. It works best when you’re looking at the vampire, but I didn’t need to see Ruslan’s face to understand perfectly what that guffawing laugh meant.
Since we can all understand each other and we four have been cooped up together for seventy years, Ruslan and I both realize full and well that we have a thing for each other. We just haven’t acted upon those feelings just yet, so it’s kind of funny when one of us causes a certain reaction in the other. Like now for instance. The crack of locks being disabled and the whoosh of my door opening filled my cell letting me know I woke up just in time. As soon as I passed close enough to Ruslan, I took the opportunity to land a solid blow on his arm, but that only made him laugh again so I settled for sticking my tongue out at him and walking away to take my seat.
“C’mon, man! Why do I have to be cuffed?!” a very loud New York accent grated on the throbbing pain in my skull.
“Cause they don’t trust you, man,” I informed him mimicking his voice perfectly.
At first, the look he gave me a was slightly startled, which is to be expected since mimicking voices is my specialty, but then his features softened and he turned into the classic “smooth player”.
“And why is that, doll?” he asked in a voice that would seem silky smooth to any human girl.
I turned my face towards Rose and made a gagging motion and she in turn giggled behind her hand.
“Cause of what we are,” Rose answered for me.
“Vampires?” he asked cocking his head to the side.
“Give him a Nobel Peace Prize people, we have a genius in our midst,” Ruslan commented over his Type O Negative.
Mike’s arms strained against his restraints and a fire burned in his eyes. After a few seconds of flared nostrils and bared teeth to which Ruslan paid no attention to, the kid finally calmed down.
“Still doesn’t answer why I’m chained down,” he said in a low voice.
“Well, from the looks of it, you’re fresh out of the oven,” I observed then read the way his mind was going an regretted it.
“You could say that,” he said as smooth as silk.
Beside me, Ruslan’s fingers tightened around his spoon and I facepalmed until someone else took over.
“She mean’s you were just turned into a vampire,” Lester piped up. “You’re first instincts as a newly made vampire is to bite everything with a heartbeat and to fight at any opportunity. It’s just the way it is until you calm down and learn self-control.”
“How long is that?” Mike asked.
“Indefinitely” Ruslan and I said together.
“About a week or so,” Rose corrected for him.
“Okay, I can hold out until then,” he said perking up a bit. “Especially for you, babe,” he told me.
Five minutes later, he was still tied to the table, only now he was tugging at his restraints as hard as his vampire strength would grant him, but to no avail.
“Let me out of here!” he shouted to no one in particular. “I don’t belong in here!!!”
“That isn’t a good idea, you know,” Ruslan said from his seat across from me.
“What isn’t?!” Mike roared.
“That freaking out thing,” I said when Ruslan rolled his eyes without breaking eye contact with me.
We were playing our favorite game, besides Cuss Word Counter, which was our own little variation on a Staring Contest. We kept eye contact and utilized the vampire mind reading gift to project the most outrageous and hilarious pictures we can think of and the first person to show any emotion loses. This could literally go on for days at a time with us only taking breaks when absolutely necessary. So far the odds were in my favor because as things progressed, I just kept drawing inspiration from whatever picture was used before. That is until Michael decided to put a nice dent the size of his fists in the table. The sound of his fists crashing into the table and the screech of the metal bending cut straight through my skull, which was pounding after listening to him going on and on. I gritted my teeth, looking away and breaking the rules of the game.
“Ah, shit,” I cursed when I realized what just happened.
“Ha haa! Tomorrow I get some of your AB Positive,” Ruslan said victoriously.
“****in’ New Yorker vampire having to go on screwed me over,” I said folding my arms and leaning back on my chair.
I heard Ruslan's scrap across the floor to move beside me. He leaned in close to me until I could feel his breath warm on my face.
“Are you ready to forgive me for laughing at you this morning?” he asked in a low voice.
I opened my eyes and looked into his. I felt my mouth pull up at one corner into a smile and I pinched his round face.
“How can I stay angry at a face like what you got?” I told him.
That cause a smile break out onto his face, and you would think that would be the perfect moment for us to finally act out those feeling we had for each other. But that bull in a china shop of a vampire ruined it by tearing a nice chunk out of the side of his chair. We both sighed and pulled away.
“I’d stop that if I were you,” I called out to him.
“And why is that?” he asked.
“Cause if you keep it up, you’re gonna end up with a shot right up the ass,” I said mimicking the motion of a needle.
“Maybe you can give me that shot,” Mike suggested. “Or I could give it to you. Whichever you prefer.”
I felt Ruslan tense up beside me and I took a hold of one of his hands, which was clenched in a fist. I turned his face to me and held up three fingers, then two, and finally one. Right on cue, a pair of burly orderlies burst through the door carrying the infamous straight jacket and a needle. Once they had pricked him with the needle to settle Mike down, they wrestled him into the straight jacket and carried him off to his cell.
“Ahhh,” I sighed contentedly. “Peace at last.”
“It’s a beautiful thing,” Ruslan agreed.
We sat like that with our hands entwined and leaned back to watch the stars roll on by until the sky around them turned from inky black to a dark blue that was gradually getting lighter and lighter. When that time came, we silently walked to our cells for the night… morning… whatever.

Ch. 3
Life went on a lot smoother after that night. Mike calmed down and a few more days afterwards was freed from his chains, which meant the scientists trusted him not to try and bust down the doors or anything to try and escape. Instead of constantly howling and growling, he would sit calmly and stare off into space unless spoken to. And yet he seemed to still retain that same creeper attitude towards me, always flirting and trying to get a raise out of Ruslan when Mike didn’t have that that glazed look in his eyes. It was nice and peaceful, but Lester was suspicious.
“I don’t trust that boy,” he confided in us one night while we were playing poker.
I glanced over at Mike who was sitting on one of the black leather couches pushed against one of the walls. He was laying on it like he was in a shrink’s office, telling a therapist about cousin Arty who made him play house with poor little Mikey playing the role of the wife.
“I ain’t too fond of him myself, Lester, but why don’t you trust him?” I asked.
“Six weeks of him just sitting there staring off into space like that, I know he’s planning something,” the elder vampire said as he shuffled the cards.
“You’re just paranoid, Lester,” Rose chided. “Now, are you going to deal or what?”
From that point on, Lester kept a weathered eye on Mike. Who knows what that man was thinking, but he used to be in the Marines before he was turned into a vampire and brought here a good twenty years before the rest of us. For those twenty years before we came along, they did a lot of experiments in order to prepare themselves for what the rest of the vampire population has in store for them. He’s the reason that the straight jacket is so affective and how they came up with the bowls we eat out of. I have a lot of respect for the man, so I respected his opinion on the young gun. And no, it wasn't because he was constantly hitting on me and always trying to start a fight with the man I loved…. Okay, maybe it was, but you have to admit, those are some pretty decent reasons.
“Maybe he’s just gone wacko,” Ruslan suggested. “I mean, when you think about it, he’s either completely silent or absolutely obscene.”
“Like bipolar-mania or multiple personality disorder?” I asked.
“Something like that,” he shrugged.
“Who knows, maybe being locked in here with a bunch of creatures of myth and legend cause some sort of break in his psyche,” I shrugged back.
“Except that he’s one of those creatures of myth and legend,” Rose pointed out.
“True, so he’s probably just in denial of the situation. Give him a few more days and he’ll most likely come to accept not only what we are, but what he is,” I said.
“That’s some deep shit there, Alessa,” Ruslan said picking up his cards.
“Well I might’ve minored in psychology,” I said picking up my own.
“Might’ve?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I shrugged.
“You two are just too cute, you know that?” Rose said with a dreamy look in her eye.
“Well, maybe a nice English fellow will come in here and sweep you off your feet one day, Rose,” I said.
“First we have to get rid of this thickheaded fellow first,” Ruslan mumbled.
I elbowed him in the ribs. “Not get rid of,” I scolded. “We just have to… convert him over to a new way of thinking.”
“Or we can get him sent over to solitary,” he said scratching his chin.
“Well, well, well, Ruslan,” I smiled. “Is little old Mikey getting to the big bad Ukrainian?”
“No, just… he…,” he stammered.
“Just what?” I asked.
Then I saw it.
“Ohhh, that,” I sighed. “You don’t have to worry one bit about that.”
“I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but can we play now?” Rose said bouncing in her seat slightly.
“Fine, if you think you have that good of a hand,” I said rolling my eyes.
And she did, which ended up kicking our asses in lickety split. By the time we had to turn in for the night, Rose had won most of the hands and ended up with most of our currency, which were nuts and bolts taken from the table and chairs. The janitors were going to have a field day putting that all back together.
“Hey, Alessa,” a voice whispered as I walked to my cell for a good day’s sleep.
“Can I help you, Michael?” I asked hesitantly knowing fully well what the answer could be.
“I’ve got a plan,” he said.
I looked at him and leaned against the doorframe to my cell. His eyes were bloodshot and had dark circles under them. His hair was a rat’s nest, meaning it was a complete mess, and his clothes looked as if they had never been washed, which I suspected they never had.
“A plan for what?” I asked raising an eyebrow.
“To bust out of here,” he said with an excited smile.
My breath caught in my throat and not in the good way either. That subject was taboo around here after the trouble it cause many others outside our little steel grey room many a year ago.
“You better keep that little plan of yours to yourself,” I said in a low tone.
I didn’t feel bad for the crestfallen look he had on his face as I went inside and the door whirred shut and locked with a crack. I spent most of that day thinking about how the hell he would’ve figured out a way out of here. More importantly, why the hell he would want to leave. I mean sure, it’s boring as hell in here, but compared to living on the streets as a rogue vampire, this place was like a Shangri-La.

Green Planet
For many thousands of years, man though they were the only human beings in the universe. They believed their god had put them there and made them all in his image because they were special. It wasn’t until the year 2012 that man found that they weren’t alone in the universe. While many religious fanatics scrambled because they thought the end of the world were coming, scientists continued their work as if everything were okay. When the fateful date of December 21st rolled around, the world didn’t blow up, nor did a deadly plague wipe out all life. Fire didn’t rain from the sky and four horsemen didn’t ride. Instead, those scientists who worked so hard all year were able to establish communication with intelligent life from another planet.
It turns out that the Mayan’s had built their calendar to mark the return of the aliens who they had met long ago. The aliens were to bring forth a new era in humanity and give the humans new knowledge of the universe. Knowledge that allowed the humans to conquer space travel, build space colonies among the stars and solve the energy crisis now plaguing humanity. With most of the world in ruins due to the panic everyone felt at the thought of the end of the world and a major boom in population, the people of Earth graciously accepted.
Once the world was rebuilt and the problems plaguing the humans now solved, humanity joined the Intergalactic Council among the other alien races. It was then that they learned of more planets supporting human life in the many solar systems throughout the universe. Now the next mission was to establish peace with these people and have them join the rest of humanity. In total, there were four planets like Earth. Taran was a desert planet circled by two suns where the people lived underground in cave systems, growing their food in special rooms that could only be harvested once a week when the suns eclipsed each other for half an hour. Cascata where the entire planet was flooded and the people lived on floating islands. Spirare was a planet where the people lived high in the mountains amongst the clouds for the planet was covered in water, much like Cascata.
The last planet to be discovered was named Eithne. For many millennia, the planet was uninhabitable because of a constant lava flow that scorched the land. But once the fires died down, the earth on Eithne became very fertile, springing up life all around and turning the planet into a rainforest. Only one body of water was visible on the planet, a single river that wrapped around the planet and was wider than California was long. It was this body of water that separated the two tribes of people on Eithne, and it was here that the entire world’s water cycled back into after flowing through streams and in rainfall.
Now, in the year 2566, a small team of peacemakers venture forth to join a group of missionaries who have been working to learn the ways of the Eithnians. The only problem is that the two tribes have been at war for many years, and a peacemaking mission quickly turns deadly as a group of bandits looking to drain the planets resource of precious gems land….

Chapter 1

“How much further until we can land?” Nick asked.
“Not far, the landing strip is just ahead,” Rochelle responded without looking away from the HUD.
“Okay people, let’s get ready, we land in five,” the Lieutenant Commander ordered over the intercom.
A small group of missionaries that had come along for the ride to restock their supplies in the missionary camp. A different ship was headed in the opposite direction as the USS Graceland where they would go about the same mission in the southern tribe. Nick didn’t know what he was going to be facing, but he was prepared for anything. He knew that bursting into the village, guns a blazing would be a very bad idea, but he also realized that they could turn on him at any time, so he kept a small concealed pistol in the belt of his uniform. The plan was to make contact with the tribal leader, and try to work out why he was feuding with the southern tribe. Then he would speak to the soldier who was sent to the southern tribe and make a plan to settle the fight.
He hoped that by the end of the week, everything would be resolved and he would be able to return to his seaside home on Earth. The rest of his team from his time in the Navy was Rochelle, the pilot, Ellis, a mechanic, and Christopher a.k.a. “Coach”, the demolition expert. Sure, the team was small, but they had battled through everything from space bandits to a rabies-like pathogen that temporarily engulfed an Earth colony. They had saved each other’s lives countless times over and knew one another inside and out. Their adventures were numerous, but this was stated to be their last as those countless battles had taken their toll on their health, and now even Ellis who was the youngest of the team at the age of twenty-three was in desperate need of retirement.
The ship touched down along the strip of cleared out land, splashing mud that had been kicked up in the constant downpour all over the plants and shrubs lining the path. At the end of the strip was a hangar where the ship would dock and undergo any repairs or upgrades Ellis deemed necessary. Rochelle eased Graceland into the small opening without any visible effort, as if she had been born into that pilot’s chair. The missionaries unloaded the crates of fresh fruits, vegetables and other basic necessities that weren’t found in the Sayan tribe.
“So then, welcome to Saya, everybody,” the guide, Dr. Jillian Grier, greeted once the crates were opened and their contents distributed to the missionaries.
“Hello, Dr. Grier, nice to finally meet you,” Nick said shaking her hand firmly.
“I hope you enjoyed your last view of the sun circling Eithne, because that’s the last view you’ll get of it until you leave,” the doctor forewarned.
“So it’s always raining like this?” Ellis asked in his southern drawl.
“Oh yes, all the time. But once you reach the tribe’s village, you’ll hardly ever know it was raining because the foliage is so thick that barely any water makes its way through to the ground,” a missionary confirmed as he carried his load into one of the small shacks outside the hangar.
“We have established a sort of status amongst the Sayans,” Dr. Grier explained. “We remain completely neutral when it comes to the feud between them and the Nameks, as long as they allow us to study their culture and learn their ways.”
“So you understand them,” Nick inquired.
“To a degree, yes,” she said with a small nod. “I have been studying their ways for many years now so it’s natural that I can understand them. Some of the missionaries have even gone far enough to teach some willing Sayans some of Earth’s languages, most commonly English.”
“That should make some things go smoother,” Coach said. “Better than the old shoot now ask questions later method if you ask me.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve gotten tired of pulling a trigger, Coach,” Nick asked.
“I’m gettin’ there, I’ll tell you, I’m gettin’ there,” he said wiping his dark brow of sweat.
The shacks came to an end as the guarded entrance to the Sayan’s village came into view a few dozen yards between the missionaries’ temporary homes and the Sayan’s permanent one. The doctor greeted the two guards at the entrance in the native language and they stepped aside to allow her and Nick in, but only those two. Rochelle opened her mouth to protest, but a look from one of the guards made her close her trap tighter than a drum.
“They only agreed to let me and your leader in to see the tribal leader,” Dr. Grier explained.
“If you wanna call Nick our leader,” Coach snickered.
“Hey! If you don’t mind, why don’t you three get comfy while I sort this out,” the Lieutenant Commander suggested.
“Whatever you wanna say, fearless leader,” Rochelle laughed and gave a mock salute.
The other two men burst into laughter and followed a missionary to a newer looking shack on the far edge of the small town. Nick gave a small scowl and followed his own guide into the village. Inside the village, he found not only small huts made out of various fauna that were pulled out of the surrounding area to create four walls and a roof, but also huts up in the trees. But there didn’t seem to be anyone up in those structures, for everyone had gathered around a large fire pit in the center of the village that served as a cooking pit. All of the villagers were busy stripping fur from meat and meat from bones and slapping those pieces of meat either on stone slabs sitting along the edge of the fire pit or on metal spikes that hung over the fire to cook slowly.
Now Nick saw why they only brought fruits and vegetables for the missionaries, it seemed that the villagers only ate meat. As the doctor walked him past the activity in the center of the village, the people slowly looked up from their work to glance at the new human who looked so like them, and yet so differently. While Nick’s hair was black and sleeked back and his green eyes darting this way and that, their eyes were a sort of brownish-gold and their hair varying from shades of light brown to blonde. A small group of children were kicking around a soccer ball no doubt given to them by the missionaries, but immediately stopped once one of them caught eye of Nick.
They reminded him of Native American tribes he had read about while in school; only the Sayan’s skin was very pale from lack of sunlight filtering through the trees. The largest and most lavish hut loomed in front of Nick and his escort, decorated with even more fauna than the other huts as well as gems that sparkled in the firelight. Nick couldn’t help but stop and admire these gems, for they looked ten times more beautiful than the largest, rarest and purest diamond created under the great pressures of Earth’s volcanoes. Seeing as Eithne was formerly covered in bigger and badder volcanoes than even one of Jupiter’s moons, all those millennia under extreme pressure and heat would create precious gems such as these.
Finally, he was able to tear his eyes away when Dr. Grier pulled aside the curtain of plants serving as a door. Inside the large hut was an even larger man than Nick had ever seen in all his years. The tribal leader looked just like a picture of other tribe leaders on Earth who were able to indulge in as much food and drink as he pleased and so became the largest member. His stomach was round and painted with red and yellow symbols that represented his status as well as the volcanoes that lay dormant beneath them.
The doctor greeted the leader in his native tongue and bowed forward graciously pulling Nick down with her. The king responded to her and struck his staff on the ground sharply. The two stood straight up and out from a doorway carved into the stone walls came two young women carrying two small baskets. The older looking one had confident golden eyes like her father and hair that was tied back in a medium brown braid. The other, whom Nick guessed was the youngest of the pair, had soft blue eyes and golden hair that shined in the firelight filtering in through the small holes acting as windows behind him. She inclined her head forward slightly and pressed her basket into Nick’s hands.
“Lieutenant Commander, these are the tribal leader’s two daughters,” Dr. Grier’s voice interjected into his thoughts.
“H-hello, girls,” he managed.
“Sitting beside the king is his eldest and only son,” she explained pointing to the young man clad in dark brown paint.
“Uh, what are their names?” Nick asked.
“Well… save that for later, shall we? For now, let us sit,” Dr. Grier said nudging him forward.
On the floor at the king’s feet were four pillows, two of which the princesses took up, facing the guests like their brother and father. This left the other two for the doctor and lieutenant commander to sit facing the royal family. The elder daughter sat with a regal grace with her back straight as an arrow and her hands folded respectfully in her lap. Meanwhile, the youngest daughter leaned a tad bit forward with eagerness to know more about her new guest and an expectant smile on her face. The king spoke to the doctor and she answered in turn, clutching the small basket the older daughter had given to her in her lap.
As they spoke, Nick noticed the large gems embedded in the tiaras on the princesses foreheads. The elder princess had a black stone in hers while the younger princesses held a blue green stone not too different from her eyes. Looking to the king and prince, Nick spotted a bright yellow and fiery red stones embedded in golden disks around the men’s necks. Nick also noticed the absence of a queen, but he chose not to put much thought into it. The younger daughter continued to watch Nick as he looked around at the servants and guards crowded in the hut with the royal family. Meanwhile the older princess kept her eyes locked on a fascinating spot on the wall behind their guests. At long last, Dr. Grier stood and bowed; motioning for Nick to follow her lead and out the door they went.

Chapter 2
It turned out that in the two baskets were amulets made of a dried and woven plant to form the string and one of the many precious gems colored gold and carved into an image of the sun. The missionaries explained that they were accepted into the tribe but not as members. The amulets allowed them safe passage into both tribes as long as they stayed neutral to the affairs of the people.
“Why the sun though? You can’t even see it through the trees,” Rochelle asked.
“The Sayan’s have a sort of worship to the sun, like the Mayans of Earth. I’m not exactly sure what that belief is, because like you said, most of them haven’t even seen the sun,” the missionary, named David, explained.
“You mean… they never leave that village?” Ellis asked.
“Only a select few like the king and warriors, like the ones standing guard outside the gate.” David pointed to the two men.
“Where was the queen?” Nick asked suddenly.
“I’m sorry?” David inquired.
“The queen. The two princesses were there, the prince and the king, but not the queen,” he explained.
“That I don’t know, I just came here a month ago and I’m not allowed to enter the village yet,” David said twiddling his thumbs. “Now, if you’ll please excuse me. Enjoy your stay, and another missionary will be around with your meals soon.”
As soon as the door had closed, Rochelle reached over and sucker punched Nick in the arm.
“Hey! What the hell was that for?” he asked.
“You scared the poor man, Nick,” she scolded.
“How did I do that?” he scoffed.
“Who knows, but you can be an ******* you know,” Coach said stroking his stubble.
“Whatever you say, guys, I’m goin’ out for a walk,” Nick said opening the door to the blistering heat.
Even though the sun had set, the air outside the air conditioned shack was like an oven. It seemed to be rising from the ground and into the air, which Nick didn’t fully understand. He knew that the whole planet’s crust was suspended over a torrent of lava, but to be able to feel the heat so intensely rising up from the lava was surprising. He was walking through the small makeshift town the missionaries and other personnel had built when he noticed that he wasn’t the only one out for a nighttime stroll.
“Princess?” he asked quietly.
The youngest daughter to the tribal leader was ducked under a window where figures moved about inside and voices were barely audible. Despite his hushed tone, she still was able to hear him, miraculously. She turned toward him with wide eyes that relaxed once she saw him. A smile broke out onto her face and he bowed slightly to show respect.
“Hello, sir,” she said in accented English.
“So, you understand me?” he asked.
“Yes, I learn from the missionaries and scientists,” she said walking a bit closer to him.
“That must have taken a long time,” he commented.
“Oh, yes… very long,” she said nodding.
In the light from the window on the shack and the fire light from the village, he could make out her blue-green eyes shining with anticipation. He also saw the patterns of what seemed to be flowers blossoming up her arms in a spiral pattern as well as numerous other tattoos on her shoulders, stomach and chest. Nick forced his eyes away from the many different patterns and images on her pale skin and looked over at the village entrance. The guards were still standing, looking straight ahead into the Missionary Town as they had been all day long.
“Do you want to join me on a walk?” he finally asked.
“A walk? To where?” she asked cocking her head to one side in curiosity.
“Just… around the village and the town,” he said waving his hand to indicate their surroundings.
“I would like to, very much,” she said smiling even wider, if that was at all possible.
“I didn’t catch your name earlier, when we first met,” he said trying to strike up a conversation.
“It is a very long name,” she admitted blushing.
“I’ll try to remember it,” Nick promised.
“Anjelquantakwolash,” she recited looking up at him to see if he understood.
“Hmmm, you’re right, it’s a pretty long name,” he laughed.
She joined in his laughter briefly. It sounded like a bird’s song to him.
“How about… I call you Anjie,” he suggested after a few minutes of thought.
“Anjie… I like that name,” she agreed. “And what is your name?”
“Nicolas… but you can call me Nick,” he proclaimed.
“It is nice to meet you, Nick,” she said turning to bow at him.
Nick returned the bow then took her hand in a handshake. “Where I come from, this is how we greet people,” he explained.
She grasped his hand firmly and mimicked his movement.
“Nice to meet you, Anjie,” he said softly.

ACDC chick oh thank god I found you my friend mikey dude told you could help me with my code lyoko story because I barely get time to write please help me

Originally posted by OddDellaRobbia
ACDC chick oh thank god I found you my friend mikey dude told you could help me with my code lyoko story because I barely get time to write please help me

Well i have a ton of ideas but that's for other stuff I spend to much time on this because I have to do other stuff and the only times I do write on this is at night and some other times during the day.

Originally posted by OddDellaRobbia
Well i have a ton of ideas but that's for other stuff I spend to much time on this because I have to do other stuff and the only times I do write on this is at night and some other times during the day.

is there anything else?

Well I don't use a laptop I have an I phone and I write on it I want a computer but that won't happen.......yet

hmmm, well, until you can get a laptop, just write by hand
thats what i used to do until i got one
i would carry big old filled with loose leaf papers and i would just write on that, its very handy, although you have to get used to hand cramps

Chapter 3- Bandits

“Did you enjoy your little stroll?” Rochelle asked the next morning.
“Yes, why do you ask,” Nick replied warily.
“I saw you walking with one of the villagers,” she said.
“That was one of the princesses,” he explained.
“A princess?!” Ellis exclaimed.
“Shh! Quiet, will you?” he shushed.
“Aww, Nick, man, we aren’t supposed to get into the villagers affairs, that includes getting into affairs with villagers, especially the princess,” Coach groaned.
“It’s nothing like that, it was a simple introduction,” he explained quickly.
“Yeah, you just so happened to bump into the princess on a midnight stroll,” Rochelle scoffed.
“Fine, don’t believe me,” he said dismissively.
That afternoon, they established first contact with the team sent to the Namekian tribe on the southern end of the planet. The leader, a gunnery sergeant in the Marines by the name of Richard, told them that the people had accepted them into the tribe easily by giving the team a set of silver colored moon amulets.
“That’s like the complete opposite of what these tribal people gave us,” Ellis pointed out holding up the golden sun around his neck.
“Well it’s only natural because the Namekians worship the moon while the Sayans worship the sun,” a red-headed woman sitting behind Rick concluded.
“Really?” a voice asked from behind the northern team. “That really is fascinating. So you mean that they’re bathed in darkness down there?”
It was Dr. Grier who had popped in to check on the team. For a few minutes, everything was silent until she apologized and left. When she was gone, the conversation resumed, the two teams filling each other in on the status in each area. Halfway into the discussion of possible departing times, a loud crash was heard, followed by a gunshot.
“What was that?!” Nick asked loudly.
“Trouble, looks like some local wild animals wondered into camp! We gotta go!” Richard cried out signaling for the feed to be cut.
“Shit!” Nick shouted banging a fist on the desk.
“You think we should head down there?” Ellis asked inching towards the ship.
“No, they’re trained just as much as us, son,” Coach comforted. “They don’t need us just as much as we need them.”
“He’s right, c’mon guys, let’s go make friendly with the villagers,” Nick suggested.
“You’ve already kicked that off, though, haven’t you?” Rochelle teased.
“Yeah, I’m sure he made real friendly with the princess last night,” Ellis snickered.
“Ha ha real funny, guys,” he replied to the remarks.
“Nicolas! Good morning!” Anjie cried running from her hut.
“You must’ve made an impression on her, Nick,” Coach chuckled.
“Shut up,” Nick hissed feeling his face turn warm.
“Ah, and good morning, friends of Nick,” Anjie said inclining her head towards Rochelle, Ellis and Coach.
“We’ll leave you two alone to-” Rochelle held up finger quotes. “‘Make friendly.’”
They left laughing at the confused princess and scowling Nick to join missionaries around the village in their daily chores. Anjie’s brow furrowed as she watched them leave.
“What did she mean… make friendly?” she asked attempting to mimic Rochelle’s gesture.
“Uh, nothing, she was just joking around,” he said quickly. He placed an arm around her slender shoulders and steered her away from the village. “Why don’t we continue our walk from last night?”
“Okay,” she agreed nodding enthusiastically.
If he was going to get insight about this feud between the two tribes, he’d have to endure all the taunts and jibes they threw at him.
‘So be it,’ he shrugged internally, ‘but I think there’s no better insight into this war than from the point of view of the tribe’s princesses.’
The fact that she seemed to be infatuated with him was a plus in Nick’s eyes. She could help him develop a sort of status within the village and possibly even with the king. Now all he had to do was put on the old smooth guy routine to get Anjie to tell him everything she knew. It always worked like a charm when he was sent into sticky situations in the Navy and he had run out of ammo. The trick was to get them comfortable and then make up some kind of mumbo jumbo that makes the other party willing to talk.
“So, princess-,” he began.
“Please, call me Anjie,” she insisted, “and I shall call you Nick, yes?”
“Okay then,” he said. “Anjie, why is it that you only eat meat? I mean, there’s so many plants around you, and yet you only use them for your homes.”
“That is because many of the plants are… how you would say… deadly. You cannot eat them,” she explained. “Some are poison to humans while others are too tough to eat, and still others will try to bite back when you get too near them.”
“Interesting,” he commented.
“What does that word mean?” she asked.
“It means… that… well.” He stumbled over the words. “It means that’s curious. On my planet, there’s an abundance of plants that we can eat. And there are even some people, who will only eat the plants.”
“Really?”She asked looking up at him. “That is… how you said… interesting.”
“Yes, they hate the idea of killing an animal for food or clothing,” he went on.
“Haha, if they came here and met a Meridanjyan, they would think very differently,” she mused.
There it was, she was comfortable around him already. He could feel it in her shoulders and the way she was leaning against him.
“So tell me about this feud between you and the Namekians,” he suggested.
Her nose wrinkled slightly at the name of the sister tribe.
“They are barbarians,” she spat. “They refuse to admit fault on a simple matter.”
“What simple matter is that?” he asked.
“Admitting that they killed my mother,” she growled.
“Well that’s why we’re here,” he said trying to sound uplifting. “To get the others to admit their mistake.”
“It was murder,” she insisted.
“Yes, I understand that.” He stopped and placed his hands on her shoulders. “We are here to help you. And we won’t leave until this issue is resolved.”
“Thank you,” she sighed with the slightest hint of a tear in her eyes.
‘Hook, line and sinker,’ he recited.
“You wanna start heading back?” he asked softly.
“Okay,” she said nodding.
They were so deep into their own personal thoughts that they didn’t notice the group of bandits following them. Nick was pondering how best to tell his comrades about his newfound knowledge when everything turned black. Anjie was too busy enjoying the feel of his arm around her shoulders to hear their footsteps. By the time she felt his arm go slack and saw him fall to the group out cold, they had already begun to bound an gag her. She found as best as she could, but the bandits pricked her in the neck with a sedative to knock her out for the hour long trip back to their base.

Chapter 4- The Temple

“Nick! Can you hear me?! Nick!” a voice shouted through the haze.
A flashlight was being waved around his eyes and there was a throbbing pain on the back of his skull. He pushed the flashlight away from his face and took a look at his surroundings. Once the haze finally cleared from his mind, he saw that it was Dr. Grier who woke him and that he was back at the hut on one of the military issue cots. The sky outside was turning from pink to red, but he couldn’t tell if it was sunrise or sunset. Then he remembered about the princess.
“Anjie! Where is she?” he asked sitting up suddenly and regretting it.
The room spun and a particularly painful throb sent a wave of agony through his head. With reluctance, Nick lay back down and waited for the pain to pass and the room to stop spinning.
“What happened out there? We found you out cold on the ground,” Coach said.
“I was walking with the princess, we were just about to head back, when I blacked out,” he explained. “So she isn’t here? What could have happened?”
“I’m afraid I have the answer to that,” Rochelle answered from the doorway.
She walked in carrying a handheld holo-screen, on it was an image from one of the many UAVs flying around the planet. She walked over to the bigger holo-screen and plugged the handheld counterpart into it to blow up the image. It showed what seemed to be a pyramid or temple like what the Mayan’s had built many thousands of years ago. Its structure was made of a grey granite-type rock that was slowly being overrun by the surrounding fauna. On top of the pyramid was a ship that had seen better days. It was sitting under a tarp to protect its metal shell from the constant rainfall, but even that couldn’t hide the dents and markings all along its body. The tarp also failed to hide the name and insignia on the nose of the ship.
“The Pandora,” Ellis read aloud. “Oh no… space bandits.”
“Not just any space bandits,” Nick realized. “They’re in the gem business.”
“How can you tell?” the doctor asked.
“Well, A: they came here, one of the richest planets in the galaxy when it comes to precious gems,” Nick explained trying to sit up again. “And B: the insignia. It’s a diamond indicating their preferred market.”
“How many different markets are there?” she asked.
“A lot. Weapons, gems, animals, drugs, ship parts… people,” Coach said counting off on his fingers.
“You mean slavery? But that kind of thing was obliterated by the I.C. a hundred years ago!” Dr. Grier exclaimed.
“There are still planets out there that employ slaves in mines and sweatshops,” Ellis said with disgust. “My guess is that they’re trying to enslave the people here to mine the gems, that way, they get their “product” and have to do little work to obtain it.”
“Take a look at this, guys,” Rochelle said after examining the image a bit closer.
She pointed to a spot amongst the grey and green of the temple. There, tied up on the ground was a pale figure with long blonde hair.
“The princess!” Nick exclaimed.
“Who’s going to go get her?” Coach asked.
“I will,” Nick replied.
“No, you need to rest, you could have a concussion,” the doctor insisted.
“I was with her when they took her, it’s my responsibility,” he explained.
“You two must have gotten pretty close, huh Nicky?” Rochelle observed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded as he stood up and grabbed an empty bag.
“Nothing,” she said smiling slightly.
“If anyone else has nothing to say, I’ll be leaving,” he announced. “Ellis, I need an ATV, you got one that’ll get me up that temple and back?”
“Oh, yeah, brother,” the mechanic smiled.
“Doc, where’s this temple at?” he asked.
“It’s the Shukuiri Temple,” she explained. “It’s very close to the Great River or Miyahari as they call it.”
“You mean that big ocean that wraps around the equator?” Nick confirmed.
“That’s the one,” she said. “There’s a smaller sub-village that lives on the banks of the Miyahari. They catch fish and bring it back up here to the main village to trade.”
“So if we need any help, you’re saying to go to them?” he asked.
“Exactly,” she said.
“Ro, can you draw me up a map of some sorts and download it to the ATV’s hard drive?”
“I sure as shit can,” she said with a wink.
“Coach-,” he began.
“Already two steps ahead of you, boy,” the older man announced handing over a gun bag no doubt filled with weapons, ammo and explosives.
“Well I was gonna say keep an eye on those two, but thanks, old man,” Nick said with a chuckle.
“Get your ass moving!” Coach ordered.
Five minutes later, Nick was speeding through the forest on a path Rochelle had marked for him on the system’s GPS. He didn’t exactly know why he was so intent on rescuing Anjie, but at least the part about him feeling a little responsible was true. It was something that had stuck with him from years of being in the Navy, always feeling responsible for those around him. A stupid instinct that was troublesome and that he had worked for years to get rid of… only to fail every time. Now here he was, speeding off to save the princess like he was in some 20th century arcade game. He half expected to get there and for some little mushroom-headed guy to tell him Anjie was somewhere else.
“What the **** did I get myself into?” he asked himself as he dipped and dodged through the trees.

Chapter 5- Into the Jungle
Anjie was tired, just plain tired. They had brought her to their base atop the Sayan’s sacred temple after they knocked Nick out and drugged her. When she had woken up about halfway up the side of the temple, she had fought back so they smacked her around. That made her sore and it added to the fatigue from the drugs, making her even more tired. Once she got away from these guys and back to her hut, she knew she would be able to sleep for days and days. She just hoped that Nick and his friends got there soon because the restrains they used on her were beginning to cut into her skin, making her wrists bleed and that was attracting some of the insect life, forcing her to lay on her back to keep them from getting to her bleeding wrists.
The bandits, all men of different alien races, walked around checking equipment or unloading cargo. She couldn’t read what the labels on the crates said because they were in strange symbols and letterings that she was unfamiliar with. And so, all she could do was wait, and fortunately, life had turned her into a patient person. What with her mother dying and the long and drawn out war that has ensued because of it. Really, the war between the two tribes had been slowly escalating over hundreds of years, and when her mother was murdered, that was the breaking point. Just like that bullet that had taken Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s life to ignite World War I, it was the taking of the life of the Sayan queen to finally burst all that tension into flames.
But instead of going into an all out war between the two tribes, the kings instead decided to part ways forever more, or at least until an arrangement could be agreed upon. Now an invisible line existed smack dab in the middle of the ocean that was called the equator by the English missionaries. This marked the dividing line between the tribes, and anybody caught in enemy territory was subjugated to the king’s whim. Luckily, it was on a very, very rare occasion that something like this occurred, and so she couldn’t even remember what happened to the last trespasser caught.
Anjie laid staring up at the brief glimpses of blue sky that she could make out between the leaves of the canopy. Even though she could see the clear blue sky between the branches, water still drizzled down from the branches and gave everything and everybody a perpetually slick surface. The granite from which the temple was made of was constantly covered in a film of water that anyone who didn’t watch their steps ended up on their backsides. This happened more than once as her captors moved about between the inside of the temple’s topmost rooms and the ship. Each time a bandit took a spill on the hard granite ground, sniggers and laughs would ensue afterwards. Then a string of low spoken curses would follow, either in English or some other foreign language.
She became so peaceful in her position that a small smile spread across her lips, which of course, didn’t go unnoticed by her kidnappers.
“You finding something funny over here, *****?” an angry voice growled from right above her.
Anjie’s eyes flew open and the smile disappeared when she saw the man’s face a mere inches from her own. She immediately tried to fling her hands up to protect herself, but it was only then that she realized that she was still bound. The man smiled maliciously and lifted her up by the strip of animal hide wrapped around her chest so she would meet his eyes. A snarl ripped through his teeth like a wild animal and she cowered away as much as she could in his grasp. Then the snarl turned into a chuckle when he saw the fear in her eyes.
“I don’t give a **** what the boss says,” the man said loudly so the rest of the bandits could hear. “We’ve been in stasis for what seems like an eternity. Do you know what that does to a man?” he asked her, stroking a calloused finger down one arm.
She tried to shy away from his touch, but that only caused his grip to tighten. He pulled a knife from his belt and pressed it to her skin. A small whimper of pain escaped her throat as the knife’s edge drew blood. He reached behind her and cut the bands that bound her wrists, but although she was free, she was far from being out of danger. Then a gun shot split the air and the man’s grip slackened until she fell to the ground alongside the man who was now dead. Shouts and more gunshots erupted from around her as an intruder gunned down each one of the bandits with a carefully placed bullet into their most vulnerable areas. All was going well until a few stragglers from inside the temple drew their guns and began to fire back. Then one of them picked Anjie up from the ground and pressed a knife to her throat hard enough to draw a drop of blood but not so hard that it cut any arteries.
A smug smile spread across her captors face and he began goading the intruder on in a foreign tongue Anjie didn’t recognize. The man who had invaded the bandit’s base pulled the camo-hood to reveal himself to be Nick. Anjie’s heart skipped a beat and relief flooded her system when she saw the determined and hardest look to his jaw and brow. The man readjusted his grip around the princess’s wait and eased up a bit on the knife. He began to back up step by step, all the while spewing words in that foreign tongue that neither Anjie nor Nick understood. A few of the other bandits had wary look to their faces as the man reached the edge, one foot trying to find purchase on the slippery granite.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, man,” Nick said in a calm and steady tone.
The bandit continued to rant on, even though no one understood him. Now she could feel the man’s knife hand shake slightly as he readied himself to throw the knife and pull out his pistol. His fingers dug into her side, but she was sure she could break his grip in an instant. Everything was slippery with a film of mist drifting through the air, and the man’s shaking foot slipped off the edge causing his grip to loosen enough for Anjie to slip away. Nick fired off a shot that hit the bandit in the shoulder and propelled his already unsteady stance backwards and off the temple. A flailing arm, however, was able to catch the princess’s hair and drag her down with him. His fingers slipped through the soft strands of her hair and his scream was lost in the dark leaves of the forest below, leaving Anjie to continue her fall over the edge.
Luckily, Nick had already begun to charge forward as soon as his finger pulled the trigger. On the way, he flung out the climbing spikes in one of his gloves and boots that he had used to climb his way up the pyramid. He stomped a spike into the granite and grabbed onto the princess just as she started to tip over the edge while ducking and stabbing the other spike into the ground to give himself purchase. The pull of gravity trying to drag Anjie down with the bandit strained his arm and leg, but still, he was able to hold on. She clawed at his sleeve to try and get a grip as he pulled her back up over the edge. Her cries in her native tongue were lost to the sound of a thunderclap as rain began to pour from the sky.
“You’re okay, everything’s gonna be fine,” he said trying to sooth her.
Finally, she was back on the solid ground of the pyramid. All of the bandits at the camp had either fled or were dead. Not wanting to suffer their wrath when they returned with ample reinforcements, Nick pulled her along to the ATV he had stashed away with a camo tarp and sat her in front of him on the seat. Everything was too wet and slippery for Nick to feel comfortable placing her behind him to hold onto his jacket for dear life when she had most likely ridden an ATV before. She curled up into a ball against his chest as he reached around her shaking frame to grasp the handles and kick the All-Terrain Vehicle into overdrive and off the blood bathed mountain of granite.

been a while since i posted anything in this thread haermm
but i recently began writing an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic, basically a continuation of the series following the life of the next avatar born in the Fire Nation
cause im such a ****ing nerd awehuhs

Prologue
The night was dark and stormy as Avatar Sen lay on his deathbed. He couldn’t believe that his time had finally come. So much work had to be done and it would be far too long before the next Avatar would be ready. His grandchildren had already hidden the pieces in the right places. The secret they revealed was a very dangerous one, and he could not let the wrong eyes read their hidden message. All Avatar Sen could do now was to slip into that final sleep and become reborn, but his mind refused. Maybe it was because of the nature of Earthbenders who were so like the earth itself that they refused to give up without a fight. The next bender in the cycle was to be a Firebender, and a female one at that. He wondered if his spirit would be around to help her or maybe Avatar Aang’s spirit would aid her as it had aided him.
Finally, that last spark of life left his body. Deep in the deserts of the Earth Kingdom, the light in the crystal indicating the previous Avatar’s life faded away from the Avatar Temple as the one in the Fire Nation grew brighter. The Fire Sages chanted their ritualistic chants to welcome the next Avatar into their nation. Word was sent out to every midwife telling them the exact date and time Avatar Sen passed on and the hunt for the next Avatar began.

Ch. 1
Kenna hid behind the bushes and quietly waited. She could hear Taymour long before she saw him as he ran over the hill and took a fighting stance. She couldn’t suppress a giggle as he stood as still as a statue. Suddenly a ball of flames flew in her direction and ignited the bush she was behind. Kenna had already jumped into the air and caught hold on a branch. She kicked her feet and swung higher into the tree where she fired back before hopping over to another tree. She narrowly avoided another fireball before finally jumping out of the tree and sent two shots of fire Taymour’s way. Taymour dodged the first but the second one set the grass beside him on fire and he tripped trying to get away from it. Kenna picked the flames up in her hand and stood over Taymour with the fire pointed at him like a spear.
“Fine, you win,” he grumbled.
“As always,” she smiled.
She let the flames die out and held out a hand to pull him up. As Taymour brushed the dirt from his clothes, a growl hit their ears like an explosion. From over the mountain came a barrel chested, black dragon. His triangular head cut through the air as his paper thin wings pushed him forward.
“Bartimaeus?” Kenna asked.
The dragon landed softly on the charred grass and looked into her eyes.
“Something’s wrong,” she stated.
“At the village?” Taymour asked.
“Yeah, let’s go,” she said climbing one of Bartimaeus’ strong arms.
“I hate flying,” he grumbled.
“You’re welcome to walk,” she smiled sweetly. “I’m sure you’ll get there by tomorrow morning.”
Reluctantly, Taymour climbed aboard and held on tight. Kenna gripped the reigns tied to Bartimaeus’ horns and gave the command for him to jump into the air. Taymour’s death grip around Kenna’s waist took her breath away, and not in the good way.
“Taymour!” she shouted over the roaring winds.
“What?!” he shouted even louder.
“I can’t breathe!” she screamed.
“Me neither!” he replied loudly in her ear.
A few minutes later they landed in the small field behind Kenna’s house. There, Bartimaeus let them down and ran off to hunt Antelope Deer in the forest on the edge of the field. They ran in the opposite direction into the cottage.
“Mom! Dad!” Kenna called out as they ran.
“Kenna! Taymour! There you two are!” her father said from the front room.
“What’s the matter?” she asked running through the door.
“Kenna… meet the Fire Sages,” her mother said.
Standing around the front room were three sages. They bowed respectfully in the Fire Nation style before speaking.
“Kenna Fon, we are humbled to meet the next Avatar,” the Sage in the middle announced.
“A-Avatar?” Kenna asked.
“Yes, you are sixteen years of age, and the time has come for you to begin your training in the other arts,” the Sage explained.
“This is a mistake,” she whispered.
“I assure you, this is no mistake,” the Sage on the right corrected.
He pulled a wrapped bundle from under his robes and untied the leather string holding it together. Inside was a crystal in the shape of a lily, it was dark red like a ruby and tied to a golden chain. The Fire Sage walked forward and held the crystal by its chain. It swung in midair in front of Kenna in a hypnotizing way. Then, even though the sky outside was cloudy and the light in the front room was dim, the crystal began to glow. This captivated the Fire Nation girl to the point that she forgot where she was or even who she was.
The next moment, she was in a sort of swamp. It was warm and muggy, and light danced on the water although no light shone through the trees. Kenna had no idea where she was, but that notion didn’t scare her one bit. She looked down at her reflection in the swamp water. Her dark brown hair flowed gracefully over her shoulders and on top of her head was a traditional top-knot worn by many Fire Nation civilians including Taymour and her parents. Her eyes, however, were a very non-traditional grey that never failed to put people off the first time she met them. She wore a red sleeveless dress with black lace swirling around the bodice and black boots that aided in combat.
Suddenly, the waters swirled and her reflection changed. It became that of a man around the same age of her father, with long black hair tied back and a pointed black goatee. Even thought this startled her, she didn’t gasp. She watched calmly as the man’s reflection became more and more real until he finally rose up from the water and stood before Kenna.
“Who are you?” she asked calmly.
“You know who I am, Kenna,” the man said.
She stared deeply into the man’s brown eyes for a moment.
“Avatar Sen,” she said at last.
The man smiled and nodded.
“So it’s true then… that I’m the Avatar,” she confirmed.
“Yes,” Avatar Sen said.
A moment of panic rose up in her chest and Kenna took a staggering step back.
“Do not worry, I and the other Avatars will always be here to help guide you,” Sen comforted. “Plus, you have your animal guide to aid you in your travels and in battle.”
“Bartimaeus?” she asked.
“Yes, every Avatar has an animal guide to help them in their lives,” he explained.
“What was yours?” she asked.
“A Badger Frog,” he said with an affectionate smile. “There is something extremely important that I must explain to you, but I cannot just yet. Follow the Fire Sages back to their temple on Crescent Island and learn their lessons. Then, when the Solstice comes along, go into the sacred chamber and wait for the light to hit the statue of Avatar Roku.”
“What will happen then?” she asked.
But Avatar Sen was already fading away, as was the rest of the swamp. She heard the muffled voices of her parents calling for her. Finally, she awoke from the dream on one of the pillows in the front room. Taymour and her parents stood over her with worried looks on their faces. The Fire Sage who held the crystal was wrapping it back in its bundle and placing it back under his robes.
“What happened? What did you see?” Taymour asked.
She sat up and clutched her head.
“The Avatar that came before me,” she said.
“Then it’s true,” he whispered in awe.
“Yes,” she said quietly.

Ch. 2
“Kenna! Kenna where are you?!” a voice called.
It was the morning she was supposed to leave for the Avatar Temple on Crescent Island. Even though she knew in her heart that she had to follow Avatar Sen’s instructions and go to the temple, she was reluctant to leave. The whole business of finding out she was the Avatar had thrown everything off balance. More than once she had been lost in a fit of laughter because her life was off balance but it was her purpose in life to keep balance in the world. As the Avatar she had to act as a medium between the physical world and the spirit world and keep the four elements at even odds with each other. Now she sat by a bubbling brook that merged with a river a few miles south of the village.
“Kenna!” that voice called again.
Even though she was to learn Earthbending last, she already had the mentality of one, staying rooted and unmoving in her spot. Finally, footsteps crashed through the forest and Taymour walked up behind her. She heard him sigh in relief as he joined her on the rock.
“Kenna, everyone’s waiting for you,” he said quietly.
“I know,” she whispered. “I was just saying my last good bye. This is where we met.”
“I remember,” he said with a smile.
“You were trying to do the Fire Whip,” she reminisced.
“Yeah, and it kept on blowing up in my face,” he said.
“Literally, you almost set the whole forest on fire,” she laughed.
“Which is why I came to this brook, in case I set myself on fire,” he said.
“And naturally, when I tried to help you, you pushed me away,” she continued.
“Then you did a proper Fire Whip, making me fall into the brook,” he said.
“I don’t want to leave,” she sobbed wrapping her arms around him.
This caught Taymour off guard. She had always been strong and resilient when no one else was. It was what had attracted him to her in the first place, even before they actually knew each other.
“You’re not leaving, not really,” he said. “Even if you’re on the other side of the world, we’ll be with you.”
“That’s the corniest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” she laughed punching him lightly.
Even though she was laughing now, he knew that made her feel better.
“We’d better get going before my parents have a Horse Cow,” she sighed.
Draco Square was situated in the center of Hoshiko Village surrounded by small shops and restaurants to aid the many weary travelers that pass through on their way across the mountains. In the middle of the square was a fountain featuring a pair of dragons twisted around each other with their gigantic square heads pointing towards the heavens with spouts of multi-colored fire streaming from their mouths. It was what attracted most people to the small, mountainous town. Right now the square was packed full of people looking to get one last look at the Avatar before she journeyed off to finish her training. Kenna heard whispers as she and Taymour walked through the crowd. She recognized two of them as other students training under Master Hephaestus.
“I always knew she was a bit strange,” Jenar whispered to one of her friends.
“Not to mention she’s always hanging around with that boy,” Zendra replied.
“Well there’s no question as to how close they are,” Jenar giggled.
Kenna growled softly and tried to turn and confront them, but Taymour’s strong arm steered her in the opposite direction.
“Just let it go,” he advised.
“How can I when they’re being so arrogantly annoying?” she asked looking back at the two girls.
“You don’t have to worry about them anymore,” he said.
“But you still do,” she grumbled.
“I’m a big kid, I think I can take care of myself,” he laughed.
“Yeah, but… she’s like an evil Viper Monkey,” she said making a face and claws, “you never know when she’s gonna strike.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he laughed as they reached Bartimaeus and Kenna’s parents.
“Kenna,” her father said.
“Sweetheart,” her mother choked out.
“Mom… Dad, I’ll miss you both more than you can ever know,” she said.
They stepped forward to embrace her, leaving the crowd to awe.
“Kenna,” a gruff voice said from behind her parents.
“Master Hephaestus,” she said with a respectful bow.
“You were always the greatest of my students,” he said returning her bow. “I know you will make an excellent Avatar.”
“You were always an excellent teacher,” she said with a smile.
“Uhh, here, take this with you,” he said producing a small leather pouch from under his sleeve. “If you ever run into trouble, look for this symbol and show this to someone near it.”
“A… Pai Sho tile?” she asked examining the White Lotus engraved on the mahogany playing piece.
“Keep it with you always,” he said firmly.
“I shall.” She tied the small pouch to the belt of her dress and turned to climb aboard Bartimaeus.
Taymour helped her as she climbed up the muscled arm of the dragon and settled herself onto the saddle her father carved. It was in the shape of a U which she straddled and held onto the reigns tied to Bartimaeus’ horns. Behind her were all her things she would need along the way, a map of the world, money from the Fire Nation, food, water, a tent and a sleeping bag. Once she was settled in, she turned back to take one last look at the village, then she realized she was still holding Taymour’s hand and let go with an embarrassed laugh.
“C’mon, Barty,” she said at last.
With a mighty roar, Bartimaeus leapt into the air and started to beat his great wings. They lifted higher and higher above the village until they were high enough to fly over the mountains to the north. Kenna looked back one last time as the town and its people grew smaller and smaller. Stray tears fell from her eyes as they flew over the mountains and towards the Avatar Temple on Crescent Island.