by 
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Venomu’s blood shot eyes lingered on the small page that was rolled out before him. To anyone that passed by his cell it would appear that he was only taking his time to think out his words, but this was not the case. On the inside, a small war raged on in his head; between him and the voices. He had noticed them a few weeks ago and even though they had started out a faint whisper, they now grew into screams that never ended. His hand started to move swiftly across the paper, he was determined to tell the truth. The truth of everything that he knew, it was just a shame that no one would listen. He only had two people in his life, his step brother endless and his daughter who endless looked after.
Venomu was a convict, his brother wanted nothing to do with him and his daughter knew little to nothing about him. This did not stop him however, his hands moved like lighting as the voices told him to stop. With every word he wrote he felt his mind slip more and more into nothingness. The voices took hold more and more trying to stop him from completing his goal.
“Who do you think would even care about the words of a convict?” The cold voice of a man came from behind him. He put his hand on Venomu’s left shoulder “Forgive me; I had hoped you would join us of your own free will but I see that will not happen.”
Venomu’s eyes became heavy with sleep and the voices claimed into nothing. His head came down and his hand stopped abruptly causing it to slip, a long line of link running down the page. Another figure entered the cell leaning up on the wall. Her arms where crossed as well as her legs, “Well?” She questioned.
“In his slumber his mind will become lost to him, for good. He will be mine to command.” The man said smugly as he ripped the note from the desk and started to read. A few seconds of silence passed by before his laugh filled the cell; it made the women jump a bit. He threw it at her “Make sure this gets to where it needs to be.”
“That is?” She asked reaching out and snatching it from the air.
“Don’t you see who it’s addressed to?” The man spat. “Make sure it gets there!”
“This letter, tells them everything, If a Kage gets it.”
“By then; it shall be too late. Just make sure the little girl gets it.”
The women nodded as she disappeared leaving the sleeping Venomu to the fate of the other man.
---
Raz lazily smiled as the door to her room was pounded on again. That made the fourth on in an hour, they came every fifteen minutes. “You can’t sleep all day!” The sturdy voice of Endless shouted. Raz agreed to this in her mind, and this is why she was not sleeping. Feeling like a real smartass she clapped in a small but sure victory like way.
It was the first day of summer and the heat was already to the point of melting the skin. It also meant that the traders from all the other countries would be here and that her best friend; Thicup, would be in the shadow village. As much as Raz wanted to just lay in bed with the covers half off all day, she knew Cup would be angry with her. Raz had made sure to always buy something every year from each country, but she knew Cup would have something for free with her name on it. The thought brought a smile to her face as she pulled herself up and rushed to get dressed.
Another round of bangs at her door made her jump, she grabbed the nearest object she could find and threw it at the door. It hit with a load thud and fell to the floor with another. Raz jumped to the open window by her door and jumped for it, she landed the bushes right under it.
She dusted herself off and made a break for it full blast, off to find Thicup. She could not wait to see what her friend found for her this year.
---
Thicup opened and dug into the last box, she had been panicking for the past ten minutes. She had picked out the perfect gift for Raz, but she could not find it anywhere. As she reached the end of the box, a bit of sadness hit her. It was gone; her perfect gift had grown a pair of legs and walked off. Which meant Raz would have to settle for a seconded less than perfect gift. She shank even lower into a pit of depression as her mother called out Raz’s name welcoming her. Cup turned around faking a warm smile running up to her friend. They embraced in a hug and welcomed each other making a joke about the others cloths.
“I know your country is called Inferno, but do you have to wear all red and dress like that?” Raz joked pointing out how little her friend had on. A shirt that just covered her chest and pants that did the same to her stopping just before they hit the knee.
“And yours?” Cup questioned “It’s not freezing here, but you’re covered to head to toe, and in black!”
“It’s not always this hot.” Raz shot back thinking her argument unbeatable. She wiped away the sweat from her brow as Thicup went on.
“Well, it is now! That’s why my gift would have been awesome.” Thicup said a bit slowly kicking herself over it.
“Would have?” Raz raised her eyebrow.
“Well, I kind of lost it and-“
“Thicup!” Her mother yelled at her, Raz just snickered taking a step back. She knew that Thicup was in for a lecture that would end with her mother sighing and hugging her daughter, then an apology to Raz for having seen it.
Just as she thought, the rant ended in no time and Thicup’s mother had pulled her into a hug and patted her head with a sigh. “I’m sorry that you had to see that, Raz.” Raz just smiled as it played out like she knew it would. Thicup had always got them, even from day one. It was how they had met, Thicup ran into Raz not watching where she was going and her mother gave her a good talking to. The two had been friends from there on.
“Besides, you did not even lose it. I told you that I was going to make sure you did not lose it and I made a few changes to it to make Raz like it more. I told you that, but you were too busy going on about how you would not lose it.”
“Oh…” Thicup thought back to her mother doing this and just dead “Opps..”
her mother sighed again “What’s a mother for?” She walked over to a big red bag lying on the floor not too far away and pulled out some clothes that looked almost similar to Thicup’s. They had been modified a bit just to fit the taste of Raz. They came with longer pants and had some sleeves, Raz looked at them, they did look nice and they would help in this heat. Thicup pushed her behind a set of boxes that were stacked high and handed her the cloths “Change change!” she said in a happy tone.
“Here!?” She asked, her face going red.
“Don’t worry! I’ll keep guard!” Thicup said putting her hands on her hips and turning around with a playful tough look on her face.
“Great, I feel safe.” Raz said a bit embarrassed
---
A few moments latter both Raz and Thicup walked side by side down the crowded road. Both of the teenage girls were barefoot the rocks digging into their feet.
“Alright, the goal is to get something new from every country.”
“As always!” Thicup sung. “So, five things, one from Sand, Mist, Mountain, Storm, and Glacier!”
Raz nodded at her friend as they slowed and came to the first of many stands. The man behind it had on darkish blue clothing, a sign that he was from the Mist country. He welcomed the two girls with a smile; he showed them a few things he thought they would like. He started with a few dolls they both Raz and Thicup disliked. Then a few books, again, they both disliked it. They flipped through the books and they all seemed to be about the ‘Arts of War’. They shook their heads and he moved one once more. Raz and Thicup were shocked when he pulled out daggers. He had jumped from books to weapons within seconds.
“They are dull, I assure you, only for show! I’m not crazy enough to sell something so deadly to little girls.” He said with a worried laugh after seeing the looks on their faces. Raz picked one up and examined it; she ran a finger along the blade. It was indeed dull and the markings on it made it look lovely. “The markings represent the honor of a Mist warrior.” Said the man.
“I’ll take it, how much?” Raz asked.
“Hmm, five gold coins should do it.” The man smiled.
“That seems a bit much...” Thicup commented but she was ignored has Raz threw the gold on down and started to move on thanking the man. Thicup rushed after her with a ‘Hey wait up!’ look on her face.
“It can’t be…” Raz said stopping short, Thicup bumping into her.
“Don’t stop like that!” She whined rubbing her forehead. “What is it?” Thicup looked past Raz to a see another trader stall in the middle of the street. A young women behind it; Raz shook her head as she ran up to the stall. “Titan; what on earth are you doing!?”
“Hm?” Titan looked at Raz, “Oh! It’s the time of trade my good Raz!” Started Titan her finger pointed in the air with a wise look on her face.
“Yeah, but you’re from Shadow, you can’t trade to your own people Titan!”
“And who says?”
The young women behind the stall had won in a way, there were no laws about it, she could do what she wanted, and people were stopping by, even if just for a look.
“I want something!” Thicup said looking at the many random things Titan had for sell.
“You came to the right place little red one.”
---
The sun was setting and Raz and Thicup had had their fill for the day. Thicup hugging her new and loveable Titan toy doll, and Raz with a bag full of things she had bought through the day. Thicup ran ahead of Raz up to her mother and father to show them the doll. Raz could not help but smile, her friend was such a mommas girl it was funny.
“She said it could talk…somehow” Raz could hear Thicup comment as she caught up with her.
“That’s great dear.” Her mother said hugging her.
“Well-“Raz started trying not to cut in on the moment they were having. “It’s getting late, I should head home.” Thicup rushed from her mother’s hug into one with Raz “Tomorrow night, meet me her, I’m going to let this be our only time for some fun.” She whispered into Raz’s ear before letting go. Raz nodded at her and rushed off for home.
---
Raz had no motive to see Endless or hear his rants, so she climbed the wall back into her room. The sun has set not too long ago but it has dark as a moonless night. She turned on the light to a dim glow, just enough so that she could see without anyone from the outside being able to notice any light that may slip under her door. Her room looked somewhat different to her; something was out of place or had been moved. Unsure of what she sat down on the edge of her bed and looked around; she felt as if someone had been in there not too long ago, that lingering feeling that you were being watched. After some thought put into it, she was able to shrug it off and fall over onto the bed. She closed her eyes and was soon off to sleep. The light of course was still burning dimly well into the night along with the cool breeze of the night air rushing into the bedroom from the still opened window.
---
“Who is your master?” Said the dark voice of the man hiding in shadows, a hint of pleasure hidden within.
“You” the cold emotionless voice of Venomu rang out; his eyes were nothing but cold black orbs.
“I have a plan for you Venomu, and you will carry it out.” The body of Venomu sat there not moving so the man went on. “Tonight, I’m going to set you free of this prison, as a test of how well you follow my orders. You’re going to kill your own brother.”
“I even added a bit to the letter, when the girl reads it, she should be happy to help, pervaded she believes my lies of how big and bad Endless really is.” The women laughed as she entered the room.
“Then everything is ready to go.” Said the man with an evil smirk, “You have men set up to take him out if he tries to break free of my hold?” he asked the women who only replied with a swift nod.
---
Raz had avoided her brother for another whole day as she stood in the dark waiting for Thicup to be ready. “I’m not sure what you want to do in the dark” She said with a sigh.
“Everything is more fun in the dark!” Thicup sang a skip in her step. “Now let’s go!” She pulled on Raz’s arm as she ran forward in the dark.
---
Two hours later the two friends found themselves sitting on a part bench with nothing to do.
“This village is more fun when the suns up.”
“You’re kidding, right? What did you think it was like?” Raz sounded annoyed.
“Well, where I’m from, it’s very different. Someday I’ll have to show you.” Thicup kicked the ground, her boredom overcoming her. “It’s hard to describe it, but it’s beautiful”
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Raz was even more annoyed. Thicup only sighed
“You okay?” She asked Raz, but she was ignored. Raz looked lost in thought, worried about something that seemed to be overwhelming her at the moment.
“I…just want to go home, and go to bed, I don’t feel good.” She said pushed herself up from the bench, Thicup following her. “I don’t need your help to get home Cup.” Raz glared at her.
“I’m just being a good friend, sleep over! I’m not letting you out of my sight until you feel better!”
Raz’s sigh was deep and load. Her mind had been on a letter she had found in her room, the things it said were insane. She wanted to be alone to read it again to try to make sense of it, but Thicup would not let the happen tonight.
- - -
“Now is the time!” Said the voice in Venomu’s head as he slipped into the house unseen ready to put an end to his brother’s life; a freshly sharpened dagger in hand. He crept along the wooden floor, it creaking with every two steps. He found the stairs and slowly moved up in search of his brother’s room. He wanted nothing more than to end it without a fight. When he reached the top of the stair case he heard the front door slide open and a very unaware Raz shush her very loud friend. Venomu cussed under his breath and slipped away into the shadows as the sets of footsteps were rushing his way. Both girls made their way up the stairs, as Thicup passed right by Venomu’s hiding spot, the voices pushed him into grabbing forward. His hands swiftly around the girls mouth, her muffled yell was enough to where Raz could hear. She turned around confused; shock came across her face when she saw Venomu holding her friend. It all turned horrid for her when time slowed down as Venomu brought his dagger up and then with a thrust, into Thicup’s shoulder.
Both Thicup’s and Raz’s yells of pain and fear were enough to wake the dead. A loud thud came from down the hall followed by the door almost being ripped off the wall as Endless rushed into the hallway. It did not take long for him to get a grasp of what was going on, even if he did not understand why or how. With lighting speed he pushed Raz out of the way and rushed at Venomu, who only threw Thicup at him.
Endless caught the young girl, blood proud from her wound, but Endless could not help her. He placed her gently next to Raz and looked up ready to fight his brother who had been kind enough to wait for him. Endless, was not as kind he ran forward ready to beat his brother into a pulp. He threw two fists that Venomu easily dodge; he came back at Endless with his dagger, slicing at his throat. Endless could not evade the attack, but he threw up his hand to deflect it. It worked, but not without it cutting up a good bit of his hand in the act. He stumbled backward, clutching his cut hand with his other. Venomu took the chance and jumped at his enemy; Endless was the faster of the two and countered with a roundhouse kick. It sent Venomu flying to the side. Endless swiftly acted stumping down on Venomu’s wrist forcing him to let go of the dagger.
“Get my swords!” He called out to Raz who was now crying over Thicup’s body, she had tied off the wound to stop the blood flow but Thicup was still in a lot of pain. “Now!” he yelled at her as he stumped down again on his brother; Raz rushed to his room and found his double swords hung up on the wall. She picked them up and stop to think about it. The letter she had gotten, and now this. It had told her a lot of things but the main thing was that it was from her father, Venomu who now fought with Endless just a few feet away. Something was controlling him, they had to help him, but the letter also told her Endless had set her father up to go to Jail; out of hatred. Why would he want to help him; a crash rang out and Endless came flying into the room crashing into the bed by the wall.
Endless pushed himself up from the wreckage with a grunt. “Give me the swords, now, Raz!”
“No!” She cried at him “Something is wrong with him, we have to help him.” She said
“Raz!” Endless made his way over to her; he pulled his swords away from her with her kicking him in the leg fighting all the way. Endless turned ready; a dagger found its mark into his gut. A smirk plastered on Venomu’s face.
“No!” Raz cried again as Endless toppled over; Raz jumped over him and started beating on Venomu. He did not reply at all, as if he did not care or even notice her. She looked up into his eyes and saw the emptiness in them, and she knew everything in the letter was true
The voices again started up, they wanted more blood. Venomu looked down at Raz now beating on him, crying her eyes out. She seemed confused and lost, unsure what to do. Seeing her seemed to bring back some human to him. He pulled up his arms and hugged her.
---
The man saw it all from his hiding spot, the woman stood next to him. “My control over him weekend; he’s not worth it, kill him.”
---
Three men appeared out of nowhere, Venomu saw them first. “I love you” He said to Raz as he pushed her away and dratted from the room. Two of the men followed but one stayed. He glared at Raz; pulling out his sword he advanced on her. Raz tripped over herself and fell backward; the man came on even more. He stepped over Endless to stand over her, ready to end her life. He brought up his sword and all kinds of questions came to Raz. Such as ‘who was this man’ and why he wanted to kill her, she had been pulled into a mess she did not understand.
“You’re a witness, you know the plan. Nothing more.” The man said almost reading her mind. She closed her eyes and accepted it all, the man yelled in pain and a thud hit the floor. Raz opened her eyes to see a heavy breathing Thicup standing over the man; a dagger placed into his skull.
“Brutal” Raz said a bit stunned.
“I have no clue what’s going on, but I just killed a man, I don’t want to stay.” She fell to her knees.
Raz pulled Thicup’s arm around her and pulled her up. “I’ll tell you all about it, but I don’t think that’s the only man that will want to kill us.”
“Take me up on my offer to come see my home then?” Thicup coughed with a weak smile
“yeah.”
---
The sun peaked over the horizon as Thicup’s mother looked at her wound; Raz was sleeping just a few inches away. The two had rushed back and forced them to leave the village and head for the Inferno country. Seeing the wound and how bad the girls were, they did not question it, for now anyway. Thicup looked over at her sleeping friend trying to make since of the night. There were a lot of things she was not telling her, but in time she would. All Thicup knew was that Endless was dead; Venomu was running away from people that wanted to kill him; and lastly the same people after Venomu was trying to kill Raz and possibly her as well for being a ‘witness’ and knowing ‘the plan’ They hit a bump in the road that made Thicup hit her back on the wagon, not showing the pain to her mother she smiled as she was handed some water.
“Get some sleep.” She said as Thicup finished her water. She nodded and laid her head down next to Raz and passed out from the stress. When both Raz and Thicup woke they would need to have a big talk, Thicup did not even care that her friends, whole life had just changed; they were both being hunted and she wanted to know why.
- - -
“Boy oh boy.” Titan sighed as KoB examined the cold body of Endless. With his own sigh he let the sheet fall over the dead body. “One hell of a show must have gone on here.” He said shaking his head.
“How long has the body been dead?” A sharp voice cut in.
“My lady.” Both KoB and Titan bent into a low bow as Death entered the room. Her arms crossed and her eyes narrowed deeply, anger covered her face. “Well?” She grunted at KoB.
“All I can tell is that Endless died sometime in the night, the cause…well.” He held up the dagger.
“What about the little one?” Titan said “Raz”
KoB shook his head “Gone; no idea. She could have ran away?” He shrugged at Titan
“And Venomu?” KoB shrugged again.
“We can send a hunting party out-“
“No need.” Death cut him off “I’m going to go get my sister and I’ll go after him myself. Titan!”
Titan stiffed up “Yes ma’am?”
“You’re in charge of my village until I get back.” As Death left KoB’s eyes locked on the spot next to Endless. The way the blood pooled seemed to tell another story of what had happened. Only one body had been found, but it looked like two had once been here. “Hm”
---
A few days had passed by and everything seemed to have gone back to normal for the two girls. Other then the fact Raz now wore an all red robe trying to fight off the cold night air. She found herself in a new country surrounded by things that were far different than her own. She had always loved her home and it was all she knew but the past few days Thicup had shown her a new world. Thicup had always been on the inside of a trader family that had gone all over the world. She was open to all the different cultures of the world, but she never seemed so happy before.
Raz sat on the sidelines, her back to the stone wall as Thicup danced around a fire. Raz had learned what Thicup had meant by it being fun at night. The Inferno village never seemed to sleep, always bursting with life, even long after the sun had gone to bed. A man came and sat beside her, he smiled at her. “Enjoying life here?” he questioned.
“I miss home just a bit, but I’m fine master.” Raz said unable to shake the sleep in her tone. The man had taken her in as one of his own, he was the leader of the Clan that guarded the village. Thicup was his student, and had begged for him to help Raz. The man who they both called master now told her he would teach her about the village but not the secretes of their clan as he did Thicup.
“She has more passion then anyone that I know, but something has been holding her back the past few days.” His eyes flickered to the scar on Thicup’s shoulder. “She is scared about something, her dance is off.” Raz could not tell, but then she had never seen Thicup dance before.
“I’ll talk to her about it.” Raz said her head shank with worry as she held the letter under the robe tightly.
“Take your time.” The master said trailing off his body moved somewhat with the music. “Have you tried to take up the dance?” He asked
“I did try the second night, but I failed big time. I could not keep up with Thicup.”
“I told you, it’s the passion” He laughed.
---
Thicup gripped Raz’s wrist as she pulled her passed the village border.
“Thicup, where are you taking me?” the sharp rocks cut her feet and she cringed in pain.
“You’ll see!” She laughed unaffected.
They had only been walking for a few moments before they came to a cliff. Raz looked over and it was just a small jump down to a large open field.
“I always love it here. There is no better place in the entire world.” Thicup muttered. “You know, I think its fine that you hide a few things from me. I never told you I was in the clan or that I knew how to use AMP.” She started a bit slowly, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“That’s the magic stuff right?”
“It’s not magic!” Thicup shot back.
“Then what is it?” Raz sighed.
“Energy; every element has a different energy. Think of it like a finger print, you match the energy to that of the element and reach out and take hold of it.”
“And that allows you to move fire?”
“Mhm, I want to master it all one day, all seven. “ Her body sawed from side to side. “I’ve seen Kajikage move the earth as well as summon a mighty sand storm.”
“Sounds neat.” Raz commented as Thicup’s eyes seem to drift off into a daydream.
“And you Raz, don’t you want to know how it feels to use AMP. I’ll teach you fire.”
“What’s the price?” Raz knew her friend would never teach her for free, it was something to holy to her clan.
“You tell me what was on the letter you keep trying to hide.” Thicup said coldly but before Raz could do anything, Thicup had pulled her by the neck and threw her over the small cliff. She jumped down after her and helped Raz up.
“What the heck are you doing?”
Thicup shushed her friend and grabbed both her hands, locking their fingers together.
“Just stay still, this is the perfect spot.”
A few seconds later Raz could feel a low vibration in her feet followed by a rumble. A wall of lava shot up from the ground and trapped them in. Raz understood now why Thicup held her arms, if she had freaked at all she could have been burned.
Even the heat of the lava was enough to make Raz want to back away, but she could not.
“Alright, now you’re going to tell me everything I want to know.” Thicup let go patting her friend on the shoulder.
“Why?” Raz shrugged not really sure why she had to.
“You don’t get it do you Raz?” Thicup said a bit upset by her friends attitude. “I killed a man to save you! You’re ‘father’ gave me this scar and I jump at every little sound now. I’m scared that someone is going to jump out and try to kill me and I don’t even know why.” Thicup eyes started to water as she fought back the tears. Raz understood it must have been hard for Thicup, but she was not even sure what to tell her at this point. She shook her head and pulled out the note. Unwilling to really give it up, but not wanting her friend to feel lost in the dark she handed it over.
It took Thicup a few moments to get a hold of herself and read the letter.
“To be honest Raz…He sounds insane. This letter says someone is trying to take over his mind and her hears voices.”
“It also says whoever this someone is, they are trying to take over and get ‘revenge’ on the Kages. It talks about control over the elements too. I’m just not sure what to make of it. It’s in fragments.”
“Yeah, he wants nuts. That’s why.”
“Or…They could have been taking over his mind and he was fighting it off, they were trying to kill him that night.” Raz’s mind went back to the last night she saw her father.
“We can’t learn much with this…” Thicup said.
“I know.” Raz sighed.
“We should give it to the Kajikage, She would know what to do.”
“Yeah, let’s walk right into her throne room and do that.” Raz said laughing at the idea.
Thicup rolled her eyes “Clan member?”
“Does not matter, my father was a convict, no one will believe it.” Raz pulled the note from Thicup and threw it into the lava, it burned even before hitting it.
“Well…not anymore.” Thicup frowned.
“I don’t care. I showed you, teach me how to use AMP. I want to move on, if we don’t try to start anything or stand out, the better we are.”
“If that’s what you want-“
“It is.”
---
“I don’t feel good about this.” Raz said as she stood in the garden
“It has to be done. If you want to learn, the Kajikage must allow it.”
This was all well and good for Thicup but not for Raz, but it felt like she was being judged as Clair, the Kajikage looked into her eyes.
“So far from home.” Said the Kajikage a bit slowly. “I don’t really care as to way, I’m very busy and I don’t have time to listen to a life story.”
“Is that a yes?” Raz said lazily and she got a swift jab into her side from Thicup’s elbow, she gave her a glare. “Show respect.
“Forgive me, ma’am.” Said Raz with a bow “Please allow me to study the arts that you yourself hold true, it would be an honor.”
“My master will teach her.” Said Thicup in almost a whisper, she almost sound scared of the woman.
“Very well, Raz of shadow, I’m allowing you full teachings of any Clan member, as long as you fight with them when I call for it.”
Raz just nodded, but Thicup was ecstatic “Let’s go let’s go!” She yelled pulling Raz off to find their master.
Last edited by Banouin on Thu Jul 15 2010, 20:32; edited 6 times in total
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
^_^
