Fan Fiction ❯ Spellbound ❯ Peace Valley ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: Peace Valley

 

A/N: First story! Please review and don't be too hard on me!

 

The sun was shinning brightly from its place in the sky, warming the springtime air of Celestia. Silverwings, large silver birds with shimmering silver wings, where teaching their young to fly. Howlers, enormous wolf- dogs with fur the shade of the dirt itself and fierce tamable temperaments, were going into mating season. Those who already had pups were currently teaching them the fine arts of hunting. Birds of all colors and sizes were singing on their perches high in the trees. All creatures were either mating or having offspring. This would have been the perfect picture of spring, if it weren't for the angry travelers disrupting the peace.

 

“Dammit, Kenji!” A teenage girl with raven hair exclaimed as she flipped out her Watazashi. “That was one insult to many!”

 

“I was merely stating a truthful fact,” A phoenix demon stated with a calm voice with his arms crossed in an uncaring fashion. “You are a frail human wench.”

 

“Fledgling!” Kiki retorted while blue purification magic swirled around her Watazashi.

 

Any passerby who saw this fight could just feel the love between these two. Especially when Kiki threw her Watazashi like a dagger aimed at the demon's head. He made a quick step to the right and the throw only removed a few long silver hairs on his sea of silver hair. With a swift motion, the demon grabbed the watazashi and moved over to Kiki.

 

“You're not in the position to be insulting me,” he warned as he held the watazashi blade to Kiki's neck with his right hand and supported her by the small of her back with his left hand.

 

The demon lord dropped the teenage girl and threw her watazashi to the ground before walking off at a calm pace. Kiki picked herself up off the ground, sheathed her weapons and walked off after the demon that was already several paces ahead of her. The two animal demons, Yuki and Okuni, looked at each other and shook their heads at the folly of their holders. Once they realized how far off the odd pair was, they immediately hurried after them.

 

Kiki frowned and narrowed her coffee- colored eyes, giving her face a pout- like look while she recalled the embarrassing defeat that Kenji handed her a few minutes ago. Why did she have to travel with him? Why? Did the fates plan to torture her for crimes she did not yet commit? Was she placed in this world to suffer? Buddha probably thought so. The best thing she had going for her was Okuni, her feline companion who mewed to announce her presence.

 

The beautiful, hot, sexy demon lord, Kenji growled narrowing his crimson eyes that depicted nothing but annoyance with a touch of anger. He asked himself almost about five times a day why did a powerful demon such as himself have to stoop so low as to ally himself with a lowly human wench, even if it was for mutual purposes. What was he, a charity fund? No, he was Kenji, Lord of the Southern lands, the most feared and revered of all demons!

 

Unfortunately for both of them, the pleasant spring day soon became a usually hot afternoon. The blazing heat from the sun beat down on the odd traveling group, causing three members to fall weak. The only one who remained unaffected was Kenji, who didn't seem to care or notice that the majority of the group was tiring. Kiki came to a complete halt when Okuni collapsed from heat exhaustion.

 

“Hey! Why don't ya stop so the rest of us can rest?” Kiki asked in a shout while she tended to her fallen cat.

 

The demon lord snorted softly and plopped down onto the grass. He lay back in the cushiony grass with his clawed hands folded behind his head, left leg outstretched and his right bent. The small albino ferret by the name of Yuki ran over to his master and dropped at his side. Kiki dug through her black backpack and found two bottles of water. Although warm, they would help Okuni stay hydrated.

 

“Here you go, Okuni-chan”, Kiki chimed wearily as she emptied the contents of the first water bottle into a water bowl she found in her pack.

 

The small white cat with black tiger stripes on her back dunked her head into the water bowl and greedily drank every last drop of water. Kenji watched the entire scene with perplexity while the ferret demon slept peacefully at his side. He couldn't understand why Kiki would so easily give most of her water to the weakened feline. He thought helping the weak would only bring a person that much closer to their own demise.

 

“For Yuki,” Kiki informed as she threw Kenji the last of her water bottles that she secretly laced with a cooling spell to keep it cold until it was opened, “when he wakes up.”

 

“What are you doing woman?” Kenji asked in unseen or unheard confusion by her forwardness when she removed her shirt, leaving her in a black sports bra, black cargo pants and black leather boots.

 

“Feh. Don't get excited,” Kiki warned, watching his movements closely as she folded her black shirt and placed it in her pack. “I'm not that easy.”

 

“What is there to get excited about? It's apparent that you stuff it,” the demon lord stated flatly from his sitting position.

 

“How would you know?” the offended teen questioned angrily as she got up close to the phoenix demon with her watazashi at hand.

 

Unfortunately, she lost her balance and fell on top of Kenji who caught her by her arms. While lying on the grass, Kenji caught a glimpse down her sports bra and saw her breasts.

 

Gasping he uttered three words slowly, “Those are…real?”

 

“No duh, you damn pervert!” the deeply offended sixteen- year- old retorted as she gave him a roundhouse kick that sent him flying off a few feet onto his side.

 

After Kiki went off to tend to Okuni, Kenji went to recover the water bottle that fell from his red sash. He picked up the odd container that he was sure contained water and moved it about in his hand. The material that held the water felt somewhat hard and it was see through. Odd, he expected the water to be warm, but for some reason it was refreshingly cold. The young lord thought no more of it and paced the water bottle back into his sash.

 

After about thirty minutes, the group was back on the road. Kiki walked down the path with one eyebrow twitching and her fist curled into a ball, ready to strike the perverted demon lord. Kenji wore a look of slight shock as his mind was running rapid with unclean images. Since Okuni still wasn't strong enough to walk on her own, Yuki decided to carry her.

 

What Kiki saw as the worst possible situation that she could be in soon became much worse. Once the scorching star of intense heat reached the highest point in the infinite blue sky, the weather didn't only get hotter but much more humid. The air became so unbearable that Kiki begin to formulate thoughts of stripping down to a bikini, but the presence of a certain gutter- brained demon prevented her from doing so. Poor Yuki was sweating so badly that he looked like a cat that had been outside during a monsoon. He was so exhausted from carrying Okuni that he had been reduced to crawling on the heated ground that felt like a frying pan to his sallow paws. Kenji, being a phoenix demon, was used to intense heat, and therefore was unaffected by it.

 

“Please Buddha… let it rain… please,” Kiki pleaded in her head as she forced her body forward through the muggy field and then complained in a groan, “I hate this place.”

 

“I quite like it here,” Kenji stated simply as he walked ahead.

 

“You're just looking for an excuse to watch me strip.”

 

“I am not that desperate.”

 

“You didn't seem to mind two hours ago!” Kiki shouted at his back.

 

“That was a misfortune caused by your inelegance,” the annoyed phoenix declared in his clam monotone voice.

 

“And your curiosity,” Kiki thought as she decided to drop the subject.

 

 

Some time later, judging by the sun's position in the sky at about three pm, the odd travel party had arrived at a fork in the road. This was a sign for absolute trouble because Kiki and Kenji couldn't agree on a single matter if their lives depended on it. If one desired rest, the other wanted to keep going. If he didn't want to fight, she'd try to start something. They are complete opposites, like fire and water, hot and cold. It was just nature's way to have them disagree on this simple matter. When Kiki chose right, Kenji silently took his path to the left.

 

Kiki, by nature, just felt the need to ask, “Hey, bird- crap! Where the hell are you going?”

 

Deciding not to take such a slur, Kenji stopped and came back with one of his “classics”, “A woman shouldn't use such foul language, and that is no way to address your superiors.”

 

“Who does this guy think he is? My mom?” Kiki mentally questioned herself before retorting, “My mother's been dead for a long time and I don't need another one!”

 

With renewed strength, Yuki hopped out of Kiki's arms without his master's command, much to the hatred of the girl who had been carrying him for the last few miles. At least her feline companion would remain loyal. After all the mess they'd been through together, why wouldn't she? Right after Yuki had jumped ship, Okuni magically woke up and followed suit, leaving Kiki alone and pitiful.

 

“No, Okuni-chan! Not you too! Where's your loyalty?” she began in a desperate plea that only made her look like a retard. “Fine! Go ahead! Yeah, keep walking, but when he perverts you, you'll wish you went with me!”

 

That worked out well because Okuni looked back at her pitiful owner and gave her a look that questioned her state of mental health. Feeling completely hopeless and alone, Kiki sat on the grass next to the dirt path that they'd traveled upon. Besides all the yelling and perverted actions, today had actually been one of her few good days. She closed her eyes for a bit, thinking of the look Okuni shot her. There was no way she could leave her! Not after going through all the crap their old lives held! Yeah, Okuni would come walking right back to her, like she always did! She'd never abandon her holder, right?

 

Kiki sat in the same spot for a few more minutes with a hopeful look on her face that was just beginning to fade. The sun gleamed brightly making the sixteen-year-old wish she had an umbrella, a hat or a glass of water. In a few minutes, she knew she'd start to see mirages, a gift from the heat. A few birds chirped overhead and a thorn bush rolled by nearly ten minutes later. It was the howls from a pack of howlers nearby that convinced Kiki to give up and run to catch the trio.

 

 

Angry clouds of black and gray gathered in the distance and looked as if they were increasing in size, a sign of a developing thunderstorm. Okuni noticed this and scowled because she despised the rain while Yuki livened up a bit because of the impending rainstorm. The humidity level rose, yet another sign of a storm, accompanied by the thick scent of rain. Kiki was glad that she would get her wish for rain, but upset that her sports bra and cargo pants clung to her body, showing off her body even more. She just hoped Kenji didn't look back at her. The said demon, on the other hand, wasn't too pleased with the coming of the storm. He didn't mind the rain or the tremendous boom of the thunder, but with every thunderstorm there was… lightning. He bore no fear of the sky born electricity, but he sure as hell was allergic to it!

 

The irritating scent filled his nose and he knew it was pointless to hold it in, so he released it in one gigantic sneeze, “AACCCHHHEEEEE!”

 

“What in the seven hells was that?” Kiki questioned eyeing the young phoenix who suddenly found a worm on the ground very interesting.

 

“Rain approaches,” he responded in hopes to divert Kiki from the subject of his embarrassing sneeze while thanking nature that she wasn't that smart.

 

Just as he predicted, the clear skies blackened quickly and let a gentle flow of rain grace the dry lands of Celestia. Neither lightning nor thunder came, for which Kenji was glad of. Okuni mewed indicating that she wanted to go into Kiki's black backpack and she granted the cat's wish. Yuki walked alongside Kenji enjoying the rainfall and the pitter-patter sound it made when it hit the ground.

 

A low rumble from the darkened skies above signaled the start of an all out downpour. Kenji grew disappointed because he knew it was just a matter of time before the lightning came. Being a phoenix demon, like any other bird demon or natural born bird, he wanted to find a place to roost until the storm passed, but he resisted it. Even though it was in his nature, he regarded it as weakness, but he knew by staying out in the rain that he wouldn't be able to transform or use any of his demonic powers, besides brute strength. If Kiki were to discover his weakness, she wouldn't hesitate to exploit it and it would mean his defeat. Getting into a fight period would pose a problem for him because he'd have to ask the guardian woman he traveled with for assistance, which he wouldn't do even if he was on the brink of death. At least the rain made him look even better than he already did, with his red long- sleeved cheongsam clinging to his lean well- muscled upper body.

 

Groaning, Kiki now knew the meaning of the phrase, “be careful what you wish for.” Her all- black attire now clung to her body even more, making her look more appealing to just about any man in his right mind. Her black leather boots squished with every step she took and her long dark hair was plastered to her face, making sight difficult. She was positive that things couldn't get any worse than they already were.

 

The forces above soon gave her an answer in a loud rumble of thunder and lightning streaking across the dark sky which resulted in another explosive sneeze from Kenji. The rain came down so hard that it felt like small pellets of hail. Wait… that was hail! For each several hailstones that hit her, a red bruise formed on her skin. Kiki tucked her hair behind her ears, revealing red marks on her neck that were caused by the hailstones, but could easily be mistaken for hickeys. Kenji, being a demon, received no such injuries while Yuki just shook it off.

 

“Me and my big mouth,” Kiki thought with abhorrence for the fates while wincing from the pain the ice pellets caused her.

 

 

The demon and guardian carried on like that for at least two more hours and the sun was beginning to set in the western horizon. The sky had turned a brilliant orange- red color as they came upon a valley surrounded by large mountain peaks topped with snow. The storm had cleared and took the painful pellets along with it. Okuni emerged from the backpack with knowledge of the storm's end.

 

“Civilization!” Kiki exclaimed as she dropped to the ground with her arms in the air.

 

“Get up,” Kenji ordered the teen who was currently kissing the ground.

 

A/N: How was it? Good? Bad? If there's anyway I can improve it, please tell me!