From: Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1998 22:48:54 EDT Subject: loose ends and lost friends "So." Stana repeated "What's going on with you two?" She decided to break her last two questions up. One she wanted to know the answer to, and one she'd rather not know but figured she had to anyway. Teri blinked owlishly. "Well- I told you-" "The highly caffinated version yes." Stana answered in her most clinical voice. "Now what happened to you? Or do you normally go hitting wounded guys that you think are cute?" she held up a hand "serious answer to that please." "I dont' think he's cute," Teri began petulantly, then twisted her mouth into a wry grin at Stana's raised eyebrow. "Fine... well... It was like a big flash of light after I opened this stupid Fushigi Yuugi picture that was sent to me after I'd.." Teri's face drained of color. "Oh no," she breathed. "What?" Stana waited. "WHAT?" "I forwarded that pic to Emily even before I downloaded it..." Stana blinked. "Would she have opened--" Teri was nodding ruefully. "Well then." Stana rocked back on her heels and bit her lip. "Shit. ANyway..." Teri raked her bangs back from her face, "It all really started on the road.. I was filthy, and riding in this wagon with this lecherous old man and this stinky gunslinger guy and then these bandits attacked... i don't know. Next thing I knew, their brains were kinda fried and I was waking up from being unconscious for a few hours." She coughed delicately and continued blithely on. Stana blinked and chewed on a minty leaf. "Ummmm... ok.. uh, so we got to this town and went to this big ugly temple thingie, and this old guy tells me that i've got some sort of empathetic power that'll kill me if it's not trained, and that it's just gonna get worse... Basically I can feel what people are feeling if they're not keeping it inside. Sense things, read people better. Um.. but the bad part is that it's kinda strong, and well.." Shinji stuck his head out from behind a tree, "SHE HAS FITS AND EXPLODES AND THEN FAINTS!" he screamed, and then retreated beyond hearing distance, dodging rocks Teri threw for a moment. Teri turned back to Stana, smiling hesitantly. "I kinda.. explode wahtever i'm feeling at the moment into the people around me." "So that answers that. I was right I'd rather have not known. So-" she stopped and shrugged, how could she say that she didn't even think they were on the same PLANET her and Teri came from. Answer: you couldn't. "So what's with him?" Teri inquired, looking at the again sleeping Clip. "I found him injured." she replied shortly,"Natural healing seems to work here for some odd reason. Not that I know alot, cause I don't." she pulled a face "I feel like God does love the fool cause you and he are still alive." "That inspires confidence." Teri replied wryly, rubbing her forehead. "Hey I make no pretensions. whatever you're tripping on I couldn't guess. But that sedative I got is keeping you pretty dopey albeit calm. You haven't hit anything in several hours." "Keep talking ..." she warned. "I think we should sleep." Shinji intruded diplomatically, on the lookout for rocks. "I'll stay up." Stana offered, reluctant to turn her back on a stranger. Besides, both Clip and Teri needed to be taken care of. "No need," the other replied. "I will take watch." "Not in this lifetime buddy." she muttered under her breath. like she could actually sleep. The group had started off again after Stana had reluctantly cleared both Teri and Clip for travel. Her patience had been tried to the limit by Clip who had demanded early on that he was FINE thank you, and needed to get on with is buisness. Stana had cornered him once and asked if that buisness had had anything to do with the crying child she had heard, and after an increadulous look he had clammed up. Stana had decided there was nothing worse than a brooding Unicorn, and stopped being patient. After trying for quite some time to get up Clip had agreed finally to stay put. He certainly pushed her buttons, this guy. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded in a whisper after he chose to disregard her warning to rest. "You aren't a Unicorn right now Clip! And if you ARE going after your Alicorn and that kid then you are no bloody use to them like this! Why did you bother trying help me to save you if all you are going to do is throw your life away?" "This does not concern you." he replied stubbornly "the understanding of this matter is beyond-" "OH PLEASE!" she shouted, drawing Shinji's and Teri's glance. She lowered her voice and turned her back to them "if I hear you tell me one more time that the affairs of Unicorns transcend that of we mere mortals I'll...-I'LL hit you with Teri's bag!" Stana stormed off. To the other humans, Teri and Shinji, he had said not a word if he could help it. If he couldn't he made it very clear that he had no use for them at all. That he was with them at all was the fact that he was heading in that direction to begin his search. If he looked all the more hostily at Shinji than the others noone mentioned it. And the unspoken decision had always been to keep Clip's true origins secretive. Teri, on the other hand, had taken a bit longer before she was travel- ready. Her collapse had drained her of whatever strength she had left, and Stana's herbal potions weren't doing the greatest job of rejuvenating her. Half the time she was groggy, while the other half she was either asleep, or unconscious, or both. Stana joked that her exhaustion was due to her neglected coffee addiction, which almost always sent Teri into quiet coffee-daydreams for the next few minutes, during which she was near useless. All in all, it had taken the group the best of two days to get everything together, using the small cave as a makeshift shelter. After her initial attack, Teri hadn't shown any more violent tendencies, so Stana had stopped keeping her sedated while Clip was awake, and vice versa. Teri had explained that though she didn't remember hitting him, she was sure she had done so only to stop whatever he had been broad-sending. Stana seemed as dubious of her talent as Teri did, but Shinji nodded confidently and told the older girl of their plans to go to a Sage for help. Teri had then stiffened, grit her teeth, and shot a scathing glance in Clip's direction. Stana wondered whether it was a good idea to keep them both awake-- but figured they'd have to deal with it. No telling how long they'd be together. Shinji, on the other hand, was a different matter completely. Stana's apprehensions about him compounded whenever she caught Clip sending a glare his way. Clip hadn't liked any of them-but was growing more and more hostile to Shinji every day. His aggravation with Teri was another level altogether. Later that night when Shinji had gone on a scouting of the surrounding forest, Stana planted herself in front of Clip and demanded an explanation. After Much verbal wrestling Clip had admitted to feeling skeptical of the man, not in least of his talents as a scout. Stana had to explain AGAIN that while Clip MAY knwo these woods better, Shinji wasn't injured. Fortunately Teri had been asleep, her two Jiy (which had simply astounded Stana when Teri brought them out), were seemingly out of it too. "He doesn't look like he would be dangerous." she replied doubtfully, turning the subject back to Shinji. " And Teri trusts him." she concluded, a little too loudly than she would have wanted. The forest seemed to be listening, eavesdropping...... "A mortal judging another mortal for integrity?" he began at which point she told him to shut up and walked off. As for Shinji, he hadn't come back till dawn was creeping up over the horizon. * * And so things were. The group made their way through the forest, using the simple knowledge of terrain that Shinji had been able to garner on his midnight excursion. The forest was very much alive and had lost the silent, ominous visage it held several nights previous. Now, squirrels bounded up trees, going about their work and playing in the tree tops above them. It was such a simple thing, yet it eased the minds of the two other-worlders. At least some things hadn't changed, even here. "I hate squirrels," Teri mumbled, and Stana chuckled. "How can you hate squirrels?" she said. "I just do. They're.. i don't know. My dog caught one once." "Yeah?" "I was suntanning in the backyard on my folding lawn chair and--" Shinji frowned, "Lawn chair?" Stana and Teri shared a glance before Teri said very dryly, "Nevermind." Shinji frowned as Teri continued. "I was reading, and I hear this dragging sound-- and he brings the dead squirrel right up by my feet--" Teri giggled at Stana's sorrowful expression. "That's horrible-" she began. "Killing is no laughing matter," Clip interrupted icily, a few feet apart from the others. Teri's eyes hardened defensively. She still felt his annoying, infernal emotions now and then, rolling over her. They tried to claim her through the thick fog that was Stana's morning tea. She tried to smother her resentment that he would so thoroughly plague her, invade her moment after moment-- and remained silent. "She didn't mean it that way," Stana said, trying to soothe ruffled feathers between the two, nevermind that she hadn't liked the story either. They trudged on in silence, stopping frequently to rest and plan. At each stop Clip seemed more impatient, more agitated, which only made Teri seethe more. Stana and Shinji could see the tension between the two begin every time Teri faltered, every time they had to stop. She was just as frustrated by her weakness as Clip was, and she spent the rest stops flushed with fury as she caught waves of his anger. Teri's Jiy were dancing in the air around her shoulders, defying the gravity which regular mortals abide by without question. It hadn't taken long before they had reached something Shinji hadn't come across on his trip. A huge lake lay shimmering before them, it's mirror-like surface cut evenly down the center by a long, natural walkway of grass and mud. They paused in awe.. but the feeling of grandeur was lost when they noticed the eerie silence that draped the lake. No birds, no insects. No animals whatsoever. "Do you hear that--" Stana whispered, worried. Teri, cross but grateful to be resting, folded herself onto the ground. "hear what?" she said. "There's no sound.." Stana was frowning at the water. Teri looked around, herself, and was startled when she realized that she felt suddenly freed, unfettered. She unfurled her mind, though still fogged with the tea, and closed her eyes, pleased. A soft wave of fury rolled over her from Clip, and her face twisted until it had passed. "Could you please cut that out!?" she snapped at him as the peace filtered back into her. But this was a different peace, here... she felt nothing save the occasional waves from Clip. The rest of her mind was clear, unlike in other parts of the forest where she would pick up strange vibes as the wildlife moved. "I might ask you to do the same thing," CLip said levelly. Stana and Shinji looked confused. Teri narrowed her eyes. "I swear I'll pull you off that self-efficacious, high-righteous, high-falutin..." she continued mumbling complicated vocabulary under her breath... but soon her annoyance was replaced with unease, as her new-found senses remained still. Still, Shinji just shrugged it off and stepped tentatively forward. He peered around the lake, searching for anything that might be a sign of a threat. Nothing. The lake was vacant, save for them. He turned to face his companions. "It's okay. I think it will be safe enough to cross,." Still, he had his doubts. As for Clip, he had a different suspision. Untrusting of humans as general, he trusted this one not to lead a lamb to slaughter. Which this had begun to feel like. Before he could say a word, Shinji had started across the lake. Teri made to follow him, but stopped dead when she saw what had happened next. Just as Shinji was walking across the seemingly pleasant body of water, two ugly fish-like things leaped up and grabbed him. He had growled in both surprise and anger, trying to fight off the two hideous creatures as they clawed and scraped at him. Stana cried out in alarm, Clip drawing his sword and brandishing it in front of him. Teri stood still, foot frozen inches from the land. The two monsters, some devil-born hybrid of man, fish and frog, were slurching around in the mud, trying to drag their prey into the water. Shinji finally got an arm free, and hurled a fist at one of the creatures, sending it back into the water. The other, however, snarled in fury, and grabbed Shinji from behind in an arm-lock. Pulling back hard, it flipped under the waves, bringing Shinji with it. The water was suddenly calm. "SHINJI!" Teri screamed, and made to leap in after him. Stana grabbed for her, and then Clip too, and held her fast. "If you go in there, you'll just be dragged in too," Clip said calmly, watching the water. "Your life isn't short enough as it is then?" "I'm a lifeguard, goddamnit! Let me go!" Teri struggled against Clip's arm, trying to shake him off. She looked at the surface and stopped-- it was flat. Teri sagged wearily, supported by the man behind who, for once, had stopped broad-sending. Clip was right. They couldn't help him now. She looked to the water, her eyes slowly glazing over. The water, once beautiful and enticing, now looked cold, and terribly, terribly murky. She clenched her eyes together tightly as they stung. As she had in so many cases-- she slowly closed off her grief. "He can't be dead," she said, frowning. She opened her eyes. The water was now bubling dangerously, as if the very lake was on fire . It wasn't of course, there was no steam, but the horrible, churning of the water made it seem so. Clip had slowly let go, equally puzzled by the strange reaction, and Teri was startled by the sudden chill she felt where his arms had been. She watched him, frowning in confusion as he watched the water intently. He didn't move. Not a muscle. He had a way of standing perfectly still... she wrapped her arms around her waist where his had been, and shook her head... Suddenly, the two bodies of the monsters hurled up from the churning water and landed on the shore, flapping like mackrel on the chopping board. They jumped back when the monsters suddenly straightened, then stopped and lay stiffly on the ground. From her vantage, Stana could see the chests of the monsters. Their scaly hides had been burned black, leaving the imprint of an inhuman, monstrous claw on their ruby skins. Just then, Shinji came out of the water. * * *