by 
“Well, the path we started out on must have changed its course over the years,” Pein said, shrugging. She seemed far less concerned than Darkflame did. “It happens all the time; a path that leads somewhere for years will suddenly change destinations.”
“That doesn’t even make sense!” Darkflame shouted in response, throwing his arms in the air. His dragons scampered away to avoid being struck on accident. “Paths don’t just decide one day to move around and lead to somewhere else!”
“How would you know?” Pein asked, turning on the young man, looking him in the eye for the first time since they had started traveling together. “You’ve never been in Storm before. You’ve never been a path before. You don’t know what Storm paths do.”
Darkflame spluttered in frustration then roared. “Paths don’t move! They stay in place. If they change it takes years of walking on them to change them, and even then they don’t change that much. You don’t know where you’re going!”
Pein looked as though she had been slapped. “I do so know where I’m going! The path just changed directions. It’s not a big deal, so calm down.”
“This is a big deal! If we don’t get there in time, the world could be in danger!” Darkflame cried.
Thicup placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll get there in plenty of time, DF. Just calm down and we’ll find which way we need to go.”
“Calm down? Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down when our ‘guide’ doesn’t know where we are?” he shouted, turning his anger on Thicup.
“There’s no need to yell at her, smart pants,” Pein said. She used her bow to turn him back toward her. The fireflies that had followed her the entire day began to fly in circles above her head. “But she’s right; just calm down and everything will be okay.”
Darkflame glared at Pein then suddenly smiled. “Oh, yes, of course. Calm down and magically find our way out of this forest. Why didn’t I think of that? We’ve only been wandering around for hours. It will take no time at all to find out where we are. What kind of fool do you think we are, Storm? It’s clear you’re working to stall us long enough to let your Kage do whatever it is she’s trying to do. They’re probably hiding contraband or something while we’re being led on a wild goose chase in this God-forsaken rain. You and your weird fireflies are just stalling.”
Pein calmly punched Darkflame in the face. “Take that back.”
“Take what back? That your Kage is a traitor to the other Kages? That Storm is doing illegal things? Or perhaps you read my mind when I thought that you are incompetent,” Darkflame retorted, rubbing his jaw.
“Take back your insult to the lightning bugs,” she said, aiming her bow at him.
Darkflame drew his short sword and shook his head while laughing. “Not a chance, Storm. You’d better hope you’re a better fighter than you are a guide.”
He took a quick swing and stab at Pein, but she leaped nimbly out of the way. She fired an arrow at him; he ducked and it flew harmlessly over his head. Darkflame ran at Pein, making short, quick stabs at her. She danced out of his reach and fired three more arrows in rapid succession. He knocked all three out of the air using his sword and began closing in on Pein, again. Another quickly fired arrow forced him to dive to the ground, rolling sideways until he came to his feet again.
The two warriors stared at each other, circling and waiting for their chance to strike. Pein made the first move; she pointed a finger at Darkflame. The fireflies that had followed Pein circled a moment before flying at Darkflame. They flew around him at dizzying speeds, zooming in and out repeatedly. They circled him, then, and began to glow; this lasted but an instant before lightning encircled Darkflame, causing him to fall to the ground as Silver had not long before.
“What was that?” he coughed, struggling to his feet.
“Those are Storm’s finest allies,” Pein replied, grinning broadly. “Lightning bugs that have been trained in the use of electricity, much as your dragon can use it.”
Darkflame nodded and smiled. “I see. Speaking of dragon, Kiiro, go find yourself a snack.” The yellow dragon flew to Darkflame, circling his arm which he had aimed at the fireflies circling overhead, and launched himself into their midst. A wild game of chase ensued, lightning crackling through the air along with the creatures.
Pein growled in anger as Darkflame raced toward her, sword prepared to strike. Pein raised her bow and released an arrow. As it whizzed toward Darkflame, he dropped to the ground. The arrow missed him completely, landing between Thicup’s feet.
“Hey, you just made me almost shoot the girl!” Pein shouted at Darkflame. She ignored Thicup’s annoyed shout and continued. “Watch where you’re dodging, stupid Mountain!”
“You watch where you’re shooting, Storm,” Darkflame retorted, sitting up. “I tripped over something.”
“Someone,” Pein corrected as she walked over to Darkflame. “I think that’s the former Raikage you tripped over.”
Darkflame stared in shock at the still form of Silver at his feet. Silver let out a great snore; Thicup giggled slightly. “We went in a circle. We went in a circle?” he shouted. He stood and grabbed Pein’s shirt, drawing her close. “You led us in a circle and wasted an entire day?”
Pein forced Darkflame to let go of her shirt. “I simply followed the path. It’s not my fault it changed directions.”
“Can we just move on?” Thicup interrupted, holding the arrow Pein had inadvertently shot her direction. “I’d really love to get out of the rain soon.”
* * * *
Toshii opened her eyes and looked around. She was standing in the middle of a small clearing in a forest. Sunshine filtered lazily through the leafy canopy above her head and a cool breeze caused a bunch of wild flowers in front of her to dance. Somewhere in the distance, she could hear a brook flowing. Toshii spun around slowly, taking in every aspect of this beautiful clearing. The air was fresh and clean and all seemed to be at peace. Once she came full circle, she realized that not everything was as pure as she had thought. Before her now was a disturbing sight.
Q stood in front of her, his back to her. Blood was smeared up his arms and his famous sword was red from blood instead of its natural silver-gray. Around him lay the bodies of the warriors from various Villages. She recognized the clothing of some to be those of their current enemies, the Mist. Others she knew by face alone from Storm and Shadow. Still others were close friends; Bano lay near the top of a small heap to their left.
Toshii covered her mouth in revulsion, the smell of metal and blood filled the air. Worse, the repugnant odor of death tainted the once clear air of the clearing. Q turned slowly, leading with his head, to face Toshii. Blood was splattered all over his front; his face was twisted into a sneer of perverse pleasure. He began to move toward her, his hands gripping his bloodthirsty blade; Toshii was so frightened and confused that she could not move.
An almost imperceptible whistling sound echoed through the clearing. The sound of metal on metal rang in Toshii’s ears, but she was unable to focus her eyes on what was going on before her. Blurs of red and black rushed from one side of her vision to the other and back again. Warm blood splashed on her face, bringing her back to reality.
Finally able to focus, Toshii looked at the scene before her. Q lay on the ground, blood pooling quickly around his still form. Yoyo stood over him, the red liquid dripping from both of her katana. Yoyo looked up at Toshii, her expression the same as Q’s had been moments before. This time, however, as the murderous warrior approached, Toshii had no one to protect her. Yoyo took a few steps toward Toshii, then leaped forward, her swords flashing in the air.
Toshii sat up, a scream trapped in her throat. She was breathing heavily, her heart pounding in her chest. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision. When the world around her came into focus, she realized that she was in a clearing in the forest. She had been lying on the bedroll she had brought along for the trip to Mist. The smell of food washed over her and her stomach growled. Near her was a low fire with a pot of food set over it; probably more of the stew they had eaten on their trip thus far.
“Q?” she whispered when she found her voice.
The clearing was empty except for her and the food. Toshii stood up, albeit somewhat unsteadily, and wandered the clearing, watching for any signs that Q was nearby. Her search resulted in one set of human footprints that she assumed belonged to Q; they led into the clearing to where Toshii had woken up and then left after stopping by the fire. The only other footprints in the soft soil were strange, animal prints that she did not recognize.
Toshii walked back over to the fire, her stomach angry with her for delaying her meal. She scooped some of the stew out of the pot and was about to begin eating when a strange sound reached her ears. It sounded like rock scraping on rock, but it also had a metallic ring to it. Toshii slowly drew one of her many knives, prepared to fight whatever enemy came into view. What emerged from the trees shocked Toshii.
“A giant scorpion,” she breathed. The large creature stopped as it entered the clearing, watching Toshii before continuing forward. It stopped once again several feet in front of her. Its head reached her waist; its tail, which was lowered close to the its back at the moment, easily would have been taller than Q. Toshii stared at it, trying to figure out what to do. It was several moments before she recalled something Bano had told her before they had left Mountain.
“You’re Q’s ally,” she whispered, as much to the scorpion as to herself. The scorpion seemed to understand, for it turned slightly to reveal a bag hung on its side. A large Q was embroidered on the front of this bag.
Toshii reached into the bag, wary of the creature though she was certain it would not harm her. Inside, she found a small package with a piece of paper wrapped clumsily around it. The scorpion backed away once these items were removed, disappearing once again into the forest. Toshii sat down beside the fire and took a few bites of stew, staring at the package.
Curiosity overwhelmed her finally and she removed the paper on the package. It was a note penned in Q’s messy handwriting. She opened the package to find a beautiful dagger; the metal shone brilliantly silver and the pommel was wrapped in gold-colored wire. The end of the handle held a stone that looked like a ruby. Toshii stared at this weapon in fascination, forgetting the message Q had written for several long moments. The sound of the scorpions walking just outside the clearing broke the spell the dagger seemed to hold on her. She scooped up the note and read it quickly.
Hey, Toshii! Hopefully you’re feeling alright. You took a pretty hard knock to the head. You shouldn’t have to worry about your safety for a while because I’ve set Doku (my scorpion) on guard duty while I’m away. (I’m scouting by the way! I’ll be back soon so don’t worry about me.) Go ahead and stick around in this area so I don’t have to try to track you through the forest. Have fun, enjoy your new dagger, and don’t eat all the stew!
Q
Toshii shook her head in amazement. “He fights me and knocks me out then leaves me, still unconscious, to go scouting! Oh, but he left me with some protection,” she added, glancing at the dark shadow circling the clearing. She ate a few more bites of her stew, mewling the situation over, then stopped, nearly choking on it.
“My dragons!” she shouted, involuntarily rising and hunting for them with her eyes. She had not heard or seen them since she had woken up and now she was worried. “Kimu! Shiroi! Gurin?” Toshii was on the verge of panic until a small squeak sounded from behind her. All three of her dragons were lying on her bedroll; they had been sleeping this entire time.
“Or unconscious,” Toshii muttered, rushing over to check on them. They all seemed to be perfectly healthy and uninjured, just asleep. She sat down on the blankets that formed her bed and examined the dagger Q had given her, her thoughts erratic from a headache, but flowing in the same general direction.
“Q’s kind of insane, isn’t he?” she asked the air.
* * * *
It was quiet. No words were spoken; everything was communicated through hand signals. The frost-covered grass crunched softly beneath otherwise silent feet; they were in the north and snow, frost, and ice were becoming a common sight. A few animals, birds and squirrels mostly, chirped occasionally in the ever-decreasing foliage. A gentle wind blew among the rocks causing a constant whistle. The only unnatural sound to be heard was the constant rustling of a brown paper bag.“Would you keep it down?” Clair motioned in frustration. “Someone will hear that.”
SSS’ only response was to reach into her bag and pull out a handful of marshmallows. She smiled at Clair’s reaction which was to throw her hands in the air in surrender. Zergio had gone ahead of the group to scout and ensure that no enemies were around. They suspected that they were being followed; this is why they were now being as silent as possible.
“We get rid of one nuisance only to gain another,” Clair thought grumpily, throwing a glare SSS’ direction. “At least marshmallows are quiet.”
As one, SSS and Clair stopped walking. Both looked around warily, aware of a new presence nearby. They were in the middle of a shallow valley between two hills on the border of Mountain and Glacier. There was nowhere for them to hide and few places for this potential enemy to remain hidden. It only took a few seconds to locate the newcomer.
At first glance, he looked like a clown. He wore many mismatching pieces of clothing of all colors and his hair stood out in every direction imaginable. A closer inspection revealed him to be a sad creature. The clothing he wore were bits and pieces of clothing from throughout the seven Villages: Mist’s blue, Storm’s purple, Inferno’s red, Sand’s brown, Mountain’s green, Glacier’s teal, and Shadow’s black. It looked like he had stolen each piece from another Village’s trash.
“Who are you?” Clair asked. She then pounded SSS on the back; she had started laughing when she saw the creature and choked on a marshmallow.
The mismatching man stood proudly before them. “I am Amaterasu, destroyer of villages, traitor to all! All who see me cower in – Hey! Where are you going?”
“Away from here,” Clair responded. She had started walking away as soon as she learned his name; SSS was still laughing and choking at the same time. “I have no time for traitors and clowns.”
Amaterasu glared at her angrily. “How dare you leave without at least telling me. You will pay for that!” That said, he closed his eyes and began swaying.
SSS shook her head in amazement. “He plans on fighting, it would seem. Care to take out your frustrations on him?”
Clair was already pushing up the sleeves of her insulated robe. “Unfortunately, this won’t take long. Let’s see what he’s got before I kick his butt, shall we?”
SSS just smiled and sat on the chilly ground to watch the fight and eat more marshmallows.
Ama had begun humming as he swayed. It was a tuneless noise that soon became muttering. His muttering became louder until he would have been speaking had he not been uttering gibberish.
Clair, who had been expecting an attack, could only stare in shock as this progressed. Silence from SSS’ direction told her that she was also dumbfounded or had been killed via laughter and marshmallows. She watched the strange performance, unable to overcome her complete confusion to shut the man up. She continued to stare until something soft bounced off her head. She blinked and saw a fist coming straight at her face; she barely had time to side-step the attack.
Ama backed several steps away to regain his distance, still swaying and jabbering. Clair cast a glance to her feet to see what had hit her. A marshmallow in the grass confirmed that SSS had not laughed to death.
Clair nodded. “That’s a dangerous ability. Better not let him keep it up.” She planted her feet firmly on the ground and took a few steadying breaths. She put her hands out in front of her and moved them apart, as though parting a curtain before her. As she did this, the ground directly in front of her split apart. This crack spread forward stopping short of Ama by mere inches. Clair quickly brought her hands together in front of her face. At once, a column of fire shot into the air from the crack at Ama’s feet. The confused man reeled backwards in shock, tripping over himself and falling to the ground.
The fire disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Clair took one final breath to calm herself, then turned to SSS. “The suddenness of the extreme temperature change probably sent his body into shock,” she explained, pointing at the unconscious form of Ama with her head. She then smiled and shrugged. “Although, the fact that he hit his head on the way down probably plays a factor as well.”
SSS nodded and popped another marshmallow in her mouth. She was used to such attacks because of her experience with Q; however, Q used wind so this fire attack was still a unique sight. She tilted her head in thought as she tried to sort out how the attacked had been formed.
“How did you do that?” a voice asked behind Clair. She turned to see that Zergio had returned in time to see her attack. He seemed genuinely interested in it.
“I just brought the fire in the earth to the surface. All I really did was create a path for the fire to go through; the fire did most of the work for me. I just moved the earth itself to make this path. Surely a Mountain warrior of skill can do that.”
Zergio shook his head. “We can move the earth, yes. That is one of the talents of more powerful Mountain warriors. However, we have never summoned fire from the earth like that. I supposed we don’t go down far enough into the earth.”
“It’s not that far down, really,” Clair said, surprised. She paused a moment to think before continuing. “Perhaps the problem is that you don’t know where the fire is.”
Zergio was quiet, his arms crossed in front of him as he thought. He finally looked up at Clair and asked in the most sincere voice she had ever heard him use, “Could you teach me that technique?”
* * * *
“Did you hear that?” a voice called through the darkness.“Did I hear that?” a second voice scoffed. “Do you smell the wind that boy over there just broke?”
“Gin, even the other humans sense that,” a third voice added. A cough from the other side of the clearing was followed by a groan of disgust, proving this point.
“I stand by what I said. Humans tend to be oblivious to some things,” Gin muttered. He was silent a moment before he began speaking again. “We just have to do our best to keep them on the right track until they figure things out on their own, Akai.”
Akai nodded, understanding the unspoken change in topic. “It would be so much easier if we could just tell Bano,” she complained. She laid down on the ground and pouted.
“Our laws state that we can not betray news and messages other animals pass,” the first said, though a hint of sadness was heard in his voice. “So, even though we now know who to stop and how to do so, we can’t do anything about it directly.”
“Sosai, why did we even add that rule?” Akai whined. “It could end very badly if we don’t do something drastic.”
Sosai growled, but it was Gin that responded. “When the animals – scorpions, snakes, dragons, elephants, all of us – began working with humans, we decided to simply aid them when asked. We did not want to be involved in human affairs at all if we could manage it. We made the law to keep that from happening.”
“There are always ways around laws, though,” Sosai said, a sly grin on his slender face. “We leave clues and draw attention to important things that would otherwise be missed. That’s also why we warned Shiroi, Kimu, and Gurin. At the rate this is going, all the Keys will end up in that man’s hands.”
“We warned them because Toshii and Q are going to Mist, right?” Akai asked.
Sosai nodded. “He has three already and he’s prepared to fight for the rest. War is going to break out and he will get them all in the confusion. We have to keep that from happening as best we can.”
The three fell silent. This topic was a common one that they had gone over many times before. Nearly every conversation they had managed to lead back to the topic of what to do about the one chasing the Keys.
“So, did you hear that?” Sosai said again some time later. Akai and Gin looked at each other with knowing smiles. They had just received news from their fellow dragons.
“Yes, Sosai, we heard,” Gin said with a laugh. “Congratulations!”
Sosai swayed happily. “I’m a daddy!”
* * * *
The Sand Village had always been a major power in the world. When the Villages were first forming, Sand grew fastest and grew to be the largest despite its more remote location. While Sand’s army was not the strongest, the sheer size of it scared most of the other Villages. Each Village had their difficulties to overcome and Sand was no exception. Because of their location in the desert, Sand had to deal with extreme temperature changes, sand storms, and the deadly creatures that made the desert their home. They quickly learned how to protect themselves from the weather, but the animals made life difficult.
Scorpions in particular caused the most problems for Sand. Some were small and avoided easily enough. Some, however, had grown quite large; some were the size of a full-grown horse. The deadly poison in their tail brought about the death of many people in their first few years of living in the desert. They were aggressive creatures, too, attacking any human that came near them. Scorpion Raids became common; people would get together and attack scorpions. Finally, a small group of people came up with a solution to their scorpion problem.
After years of work, the people of Sand tamed the creatures and were able to live peacefully beside them. Some of the more powerful members of both Sand and the scorpion community became allies, working together to protect the land they both called home.
* * * *
Yoyo was bored. Even though they were still in Mountain and friendly territory, when they stopped for the night, they had set a watch to ensure that no one snuck up on them. Being on watch was always a boring task unless someone actually attacked. She was also tired; it was late and she would have preferred being asleep. Bano’s dragons were huddled somewhere near him having a meeting or something, so they were not even available to talk to. There was an annoying buzzing in the back of her head that would not go away and she was fully prepared to give up and just sleep, but there was still half an hour left of her watch.She coughed, a disgusting smell traveling to her nose on the wind. She grimaced and groaned. “DR farted,” she thought. She glared in the direction of the perpetrator. All she could see was a lump huddled beneath the blanket nearest their long-dead cooking fire. She had let it do out some time earlier to avoid being found.
She found herself sorting through her memories, mostly those pertaining to growing up. She had grown up in Sand, becoming friends with Q early in life. He introduced her to Bano and the three quickly became good friends; Bano lived in Sand at the time because Mountain did not exist back then.
They remained a close-knit group as they rose through the ranks of Sand’s military. One day, they blinked and Q had become the Kazekage with Bano at his side; everyone knew that Yoyo was third in command in everything but name. Then, the three made the mistake of blinking again. Bano moved out of Sand into the newly formed Mountain and used his abilities to become the Yamakage; Yoyo took Bano’s position in Sand.
Yoyo shook her head. She, Bano, and Q were all still very close, yet this strange adventure had begun because Bano had tried to keep something hidden. She trusted both of the Kages without question and understood why he had wanted to keep it a secret, but she was starting to wonder what was really going on with all of this business with the Keys.
A sound from Bano’s direction brought her from her thoughts. At first she was concerned that someone had entered their camping spot without her knowing, but she quickly recognized the sound. Two of the dragons were laughing as another swayed to and fro. The sound of their laughter woke Bano up; he took her position and Yoyo laid down, images of dancing dragons and childhood games leading her to sleep.
Toshiro~ ^_^ x3
