Fluffy's Futures: Cara Ch. 10

Two nights after Meele's startling revelation, I perched atop the chimney at Samu's house, alone in the darkness. Samu was off on a three day trip to Okinawa with Danny and Meele was pleading for more time from the Yukoi Council of Elders. They had this lovely idea that it would be nice for me to come visit again and both Meele and I disagreed. The fact I couldn't move my back through my range-of-motion exercises without hissing in pain and tearing the skin open again was all the reason we needed though we couldn't let on to that. Might be seen as a weakness I could ill afford. I was getting pretty damn tired of yukoi politics.

Above me the night sky was lit only by distant stars, the moon shrouded by the Earth's shadow. Reminds me of life at the moment, I thought with a rueful smile. Shaking my head, I stood, stretching my hands to the stars and breathing deeply of the crisp night air. Bundled up in long sleeves and jeans with boots as I was the chill in the air didn't bother me.

Looking around me I was suddenly struck by how odd it was not to see Trick-or-treaters bouncing from house to house on a candy gathering high, chased through the darkness by well meaning parents and older siblings. Halloween doesn't have any real meaning for the Japanese, though it had one for me.

On this night, of all nights, when the gate way between this world and the next is at its thinnest, even I could feel the cry of those dead and buried within the mountain Samu's ancestral home stood upon.

Samu had told me the entire mountain was owned by his family, from the very base up to the tip top very his home stood. Distant cousins now, true but family non-the-less. Generations of hanyu, humans and yukoi tied to the Tigushi family lay buried here in marked graves, sacred caves and raised carrions deep in the trees. Every body was a nail in the mountain's defenses, if one knew how to use them. Meele had told Samu and I of holy mikos, priestesses who could invoke the wards placed with the dead bodies, raising a protective barrier over the entire mountain. Apparently that ability was lost though, for Samu had said while he'd heard of it from his great-grand father as a child, it was thought to be legend, not fact.

What I could feel around me was not legend, it was fact. I wasn't sure if it was my familial ties to Meele and his kin or the fact that I was a hanyu, but the dead here clamored for my attention. I closed my mind off, steeling them outside to whisper through the trees instead of within my head. Even I cannot appease the dead who seek to talk to those dead and gone to ash longer then I've been on this world.

I think that was part of why Meele had left, not to say that placating the counsel wasn't important but avoiding the voices of those long dead may have been a larger factor the he let on.

It is often quite difficult to tell with dragon yukoi. They play their emotions close to their chests. Sometimes as a protective measure, sometimes just to be secretive bastards and others because they don't know any other way. Meele's rather emotional outburst was, at least for him, a startling new facet of him that even I had never seen.

This job had brought on so many strange things, Meele's outburst, me falling for the mark's best friend, seemingly prophetic dreams….

I laid a hand upon my chest, remembering the dream and the bullet that slammed between my breasts in it. The sensation memory was so great I half expected my hand to come away bloody.

Of course it didn't, just my imagination running wild, from the whispers of the night, the fact it was All Hallows Eve, Samhein, or from simple nerves I didn't know, nor did it really matter.

A sound in the almost liquid darkness drew my attention, a child's cry in the dark, terrified and shrill. I sighed, knowing full well it might be a trap and activating my bracers anyway. My hair was already pulled into a solid black hair wrap to keep it neat, body covered in the same monochrome color scheme, a regular thing when I'm in charge of my own wardrobe. The bracers added some additional protection plus extra power recourses- two full weeks of charging without use had left them almost overly full of magic and begging to be used. As was my kitana, strapped to my back, vexed with me for not risking it within the Counsel walls.

One doesn't take a magical kitana forged by a man hunted by the yukoi for such things into a whole den of the monsters and expect to walk away without answering where it was gotten. The sword's forger was hiding in America for a reason- he was retired and didn't want to be bothered. So I kept his secret, killed who he wanted me to, and he repaired my blade when it needed it. Pretty fair trade, far as I could tell.

I carried the kitana tonight because the guns seemed a bit overkill for a home in the mountains. Not sure why the sword seemed more appropriate but it did. Like taking a gun to a knife fight, the sword was also supposed to be overkill for anything I'd expected to find on this mountain.

Again the child's cry sounded, urgent in the dark, pushing away any other thoughts. It was closer now, as were the sounds of breaking branches, as if it were running away from someone or something large and fast.

A single leap took me to the soft ground of Samu's garden, a vault over the garden wall and off into the trees that covered most of the local terrain. I got about ten meters before stopping and listening closely, searching by sound for what I could not see, the child and its pursuit.

"Save me," came a cry from about fifteen meters ahead of me to my right accompanied by a crash and a shrill squeal of pain. "My ankle… help me! Someone… anyone…."

I crept closer, eyes straining to see in the near dark of the trees, ears picking up sounds of both the child and whatever was after it. A shake of my head and I moved further forward, far enough to see a small clearing. In the center of the clearing, sprawled across the lush grass, was a small boy on the ground with bright orange hair wrapped in a now rather tattered blue cloak with flames along its bottom edge.

It was the cloak that told me who the child was, Akihito, son of Dokkasomaru, Leader of the Fire Yukoi Clan. Not that it mattered, I was going to try to save him anyway, no matter who his parents were.

If I could, I thought, staring at the monster that now hunted the little boy. A rolling mass of crimson flesh, writhing in upon itself, with a gaping maw full of razor sharp teeth. Human-like arms, legs, hands and feet stuck out of the beast at random intervals, giving it movement. It was a nightmare, plain and simple.

A long tongue whipped from its mouth, wrapping around Akihito's right ankle, causing the boy to howl in both terror and pain. A flash of moonlight showed the ankle to be broken and swelling already.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," I mused in a whisper before darting in, sword drawn. I managed to get a good cleave in at the monster's tongue, lopping off the part wrapped around Akihito's leg.

The thing reared back, tongue thrashing around like a headless snake, howling in pain and anger. It turned most, if not all of those strange eyes on me, glaring I think. It was hard to tell with little light and the thing having more eyes then I could count on the fly.

It was a monstrosity, as if someone had taken the bodies of humans, yukoi and whatever else it could find and melted the torsos together, forming a mass and leaving only the eyes and that gaping maw as its features. The limbs that seemed to erupt from its flesh varied from muscular and male to delicate and feminine to slimy and so not human. Just looking at it made my stomach give a jerk though I managed to ignore it for now. Could vomit later, life saving first. Priorities.

Akihito lay behind me now, crying but soundless, shrinking away from me as well as the monster.

"Akihito-kun," I hissed, moving into a crab-like crouch, getting ready to attack the monster. "On my mark, get away. Follow my scent trail back to the house and lock the doors once you're inside, okay?"

Brave little lad that he was, Akihito managed to answer, "Okay… I think I can. Is that you, Cara? The one Momi-chan wants to talk to, from the Council?"

"Yeah, its me," I answered and the creature paused and studied for a moment, tilting its head, as if it could hear something I couldn't. I didn't care what it could hear, I just wanted it dead. Attacking children should be against the rules of the universe or something, at least in my book. I took a deep breath to steady myself and threw up a mental pain block. This was going to hurt, a lot and the block would only last for maybe ten minutes tops. But it would keep me from being distracted by pain.

"Now, Akihito!" I yelled as I launched myself at the monster in a roll that brought me under it. I didn't look to see if the boy had moved or not, I had bigger problems to deal with.

For every limb I hacked off the bottom of the creature, three more were there, clawing and kicking at me. At my best I could have avoided the majority if not all of them. But I was no where near my best right now and I was in trouble.

A well placed kick caught me on the hip and sent me sprawling out from under the creature, landing in a heap about ten feet in front of it, where Akihito had been. From the sound of things, he was moving toward the house as fast as he could.

The limb-monster knew this too and abandoned me, chasing off into the forest after Akihito.

Now I'm a patient girl, but to turn your back on me during a fight as if I'm not a threat? That's just more then any healthy girl's ego can take. And mine had gotten quite a bruising lately between being cut up by the ice cat and being told to stay home and behave by Meele earlier that evening.

Embracing my anger and letting it fuel my change into my full yukoi form, I yelled aloud as I ran after the thing, "I'll be damned if I let some squalling, putrid, piece of shit conglomeration such as you get the better of me! Turn around and fight like a man… er… a Yukoi! Yeah, that's it, fight like a real Yukoi, you idiot limb monster."

Though it didn't seem have ears, I can only guess that the thing heard me because it changed direction with a speed that surprised me, rushing toward me once more. Taunting had worked a bit better then I'd planned for.

"I'm in for it now," I whispered before bringing my sword up once more in a fighter's defensive stance, feet planted but ready to move. Like a matador with a raging bull, I called to the beast, hoping its fury would make it stupid. "Come here, you monstrosity. Come on, how many females invite you to do anything? Must be hard to get a date, though you must come in handy occasionally."

The screech that came from its mouth was a mix between a human woman's scream and a lion's roar. It grated on my ears and made me wish my hearing wasn't as sharp as it was. Grass, sticks and the earth itself crunched under its limbs as it rushed toward me, mouth wide, that long tongue lashing out at me.

I was ready for the attack this time and parried away the tongue, slicing off another two feet of it, opening another wound that bleed furiously onto the forest floor. Of course, its thrashing also got a good deal of blood on myself, but that was okay. Long as it wasn't my blood that soaked my clothing things were going well.

Rolling in its tongue, the thing tried a new approach. Grab and bite seemed to be its new game plan and it seemed determined to make this one work where the tongue had failed.

I darted out of reach and back in, sword flying, arms falling around me like grotesque hail in a storm of blood and thicker things. How many kicks exactly it managed to land while I darted about I wasn't sure but it was quite a few. The monster couldn't seem to grab me though, sword slicing at its arms.

I concentrated on the arms because frankly they could grab me and the legs couldn't. Also seemed to hurt more when I took off an arm instead of a leg.

Soaked head to toe in blood and heaven only knows what else, I whirled around the monster, heedless of the pain that wracked my body, driven by a battle lust to see the thing bleed more. It had hurt me, hurt a child and it had to pay, said my primitive mind, the part of me that is almost an animal with fewer higher brain functions. Since the rest of me agreed, I kept to that plan, hacking off arms as fast as I could, dancing around the limb creature until there were no more arms.

The lack of light made it impossible to tell if it was paling due to blood loss but its movements were becoming slower, less organized. The rare kicks it did manage to land now were light, a mere taste of what it had thrown at me earlier.

Finely, there were no more arms left on the creature, only legs and blood-gushing holes, eyes and that gaping maw, howling in pain now. The legs were no longer as much of a threat as they had been so I concentrated on the eyes, sword gouging out large tracts of flesh with each sweep. I was truly lucking in the sword I wielded for it was a truly magical blade that adapted to whatever work the owner was doing.

So from a cutting broadsword it shifted into a gouging scimitar, wickedly sharp to slice whole pieces of flesh from the creature's main body mass. I hacked and sliced into it until the limb monster finely gave a final, soul grating howl before collapsing to the ground, apparently dead.

I stepped back, flicking my wrist to knock some of the blood from my sword. The droplets hit the ground in a staccato hiss of sound. As I watched, the monster began to smoke, its body slowly dissolving as only the body of a true yukoi could. Made clean up a lot easier, I mused as my skin tingled with the dissolving fluids. I shook my hair, releasing the vapors trapped there and took a deep breath.

Well, I thought, thank goodness that's over. Now to find the little lost boy.

I found Akihito as he reached the garden gate, limping and crying in pain but still trying to do as I'd told him. I called out to him before I cleared the trees, to be sure he knew it was me and not the monster. "Akihito-kun, are you okay?"

"No," he said and his voice carried pain and fear. "I can't walk… my ankle, I think its broken."

"It'll be alright," I said, walking up to Akihito and scooping him up in my arms. He was a solid little boy and I was glad of the extra strength I had in my yukoi form. "Lets get you inside and get some ice on that ankle."

We went inside and I set him on the kitchen countertop I had so recently vacated myself. "While I'm getting your icepack together, tell me, what are you doing out here?"

"Are you sure the monster's dead," he asked instead of answering me, his blue eyes wide.

I nodded. "Yup, dead, dissolved and no longer of this world. My word on that, Akihito-kun. Now, why are you on this mountain? According to Meele the Fire Clan's home is further south."

"It is," Akihito said, hissing in pain as I lifted his foot and set it down on an ice pack then put another on top of his foot. He went on though, his voice betraying none of the pain his face showed. "I wanted to talk to you about something so came looking for you. I'd heard you were in this region and thought I could find you. But as I was looking, that thing came out of no where and broke my travel spell. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there…."

He trailed off, leaving unspoken the fate he would have suffered if I hadn't intervened when I did. I smiled at him and leaned back against the fridge, thankful for its cool surface against my back. "Its okay, Akihito. I'm just glad I was there to help in time. How's your ankle feel?"

"Better," he said and sounded surprised when he said it. "It doesn't hurt nearly as much anymore. Thank you."

"No problem," I answered with a shrug. "So what did you want to find me for so badly that you left your parents protection?"

"Its about Momi-chan," he said in a whisper, as if someone could be listening. "She needs help and I think you're the one that can help her."

My gut was telling me to say no, can't help, I have a job to do then I'm going home. But since when did I ever listen to something that sensible and still have fun? "What's wrong with her?"

"Its her body, I think its falling apart," Akihito said, not looking at me.

It was then that my pain block faded, leaving me alone in a sudden sea of agony, back and sides aflame in pain. I reached a hand to my back and it came away bloody. Great, I'd reopened my wounds. I forced myself out of the sea of pain, surfacing enough to concentrate on what Akihito had said as I grabbed a chair, spun it around and sank into it backwards, straddling the back of it.

"What do you mean," hiss of pain, "falling apart?"

"I think she's got more power then her body can handle," Akihito said, eyes wide, staring at me now. "Are you okay?"

"Nope," I said with a sigh. "I'll heal though. These bracers I wear let me store extra power, I'll just use some of that to heal myself."

I put actions to words, releasing some of the still brimming energy from the bracers, sighing as relief washed over my back in a cool healing rush. Only in my full yukoi form could I use sheer energy to heal like this. My hanyu form couldn't and my human one was useless almost in healing things. I was suddenly glad the monster had gotten me mad enough to allow me to use the rage to push into my yukoi form. Would have hurt a lot worse if it hadn't.

"I'm glad you're alive," Akihito said with the innocence of a child. "I'm sorry you got hurt on my behalf."

"Its okay," I said softly. "I needed a work out. Not that much of one mind you but still needed one. Now, how do you know Momi's hurt?"

"She's so pale," Akihito said, staring at his hands now. "I mean, she's pale normally, but even at her wrists she doesn't have any color. Its as if her entire body is bleached out except her hair. And she's been glowing constantly the last two weeks, like a candle in the dark or something. She usually glows when she's using her powers or very angry but I've never seen her glow while sleeping."

I nodded. "Sounds like she needs to use more of her powers then she's using or stop producing as much."

"She can't stop, least that's what Mama said," Akihito protested. "She said that Momi's hurting because she's an old soul and too strong to be so young. That she should have been placed under limiting spells as a toddler or something."

I looked at my bracers, the limiting spell I still used. "Maybe if we could find another set of Bracers like mine, she could siphon that extra energy off and not be so glowy."

"That would work," Akihito said, looking at me now, hope shining in his sky-blue eyes. "I'm so glad."

"That done, do your parents know where you are?"

"Um… not exactly," he said evasively.

"That's a no," I said with a sigh. "Your mother's going to be worried sick about you."

"Nah, Mama and Dad are at the Council meeting tonight along with Momi. I snuck out earlier, after Meele came in and started arguing with them about how you have a job and can't come play." He studied me for a moment. "But that's not the reason you're not coming, you're too hurt to go to the Council, aren't you?"

I sighed and stood, flexing my back. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much anymore, as if that overflow of power had healed my back completely. "I'm going to go get cleaned up, grab a shower and take you to the Council meeting spot to your parents."

He started to protest and I held up a hand. "I cannot let you go back on your own and if I wait for Meele to get home, your parents will be frantic. I have to go back. Will also give me a chance to see Momi-chan and judge how bad she is."

"Okay," Akihito said with a sigh that was older then his 11 years. "I just don't want you to get hurt tonight."