Fushigi Yuugi Fan Fiction ❯ In Dreams ❯ Chapter 19 ( Chapter 19 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Disclaimer: I own no Fushigi Yuugi Chararcters, Places or Ideas.

In Dreams
Chapter 19

Jennifer felt herself falling and put her hands in front to brace herself. She luckily landed on top of a thick feather bed which, thankfully, was empty at the time. She didn't know if she could cope with landing on top of someone like that. She blinked a few times as she examined her surroundings. Tapestries and mosaics covered the dark green stone, or so she thought it was, though it didn't fall in with her recent location, and a thick black rug covered the floor. Just as her eyes were adjusting themselves to the strange surroundings, which were way too western to fit into her current situation, the painted wooden door on the far side of the room opened.

"Ah, Princess Kamali, you're finally back, though by the looks of you, you won't be staying for long." A drab looking young woman bustled in and began fussing with her clothes and moving things around the room. Jennifer guessed that she was a servant, though why a servant would call her "Princess Kamali" was beyond her. Sure, her name meant "spirit", as did Kamali, but still, that was no reason to call her "Princess" in any case.

"Uh.. What are you talking about? I'm not "Princess Kamali". I'm not even sure where I am, much less who she is." She said hesitantly when the woman, who was acting very matronly, put her hands on her hips and gave her an exhausted look. A thought passed through her head at the look, 'I thought servants served their masters, not gave them commanding or condescending looks.'

"I guess you're not ready to come back yet. His Majesty, your father, said that you would remember when the time came, but the question is, then, why are you here, if it's not time?" The servant gave her another searching look, "You should probably talk to Torii while you're here, that foolish girl must've brought you." The servant woman, who was taller than Jenn by a fair measure, but probably younger, pulled a large hand mirror out of one of the wardrobes that that were pushed against the wall.

"The day that that girl finally gives up, will be a happy day for the empire, indeed. She has more power than His Majesty and flaunts it around as much as she wants. My question is, how long has she been around? That girl was there right along with Baynar, and he's long dead. I'll tell you what, Highness, no matter how old she has to be, did I not know better, I'd say she was younger than you. Running all around the empire in those boys clothes." The servant tutted before making her way to the door, to leave Jennifer alone with her confusion. Jennifer took it curiously and stared into its depths as the servant left the room, closing the door behind her. Jenn had wanted to keep an eye on the girl, but for some reason the mirror drew her and she couldn't tear her eyes away. Slowly, a gray mist appeared, blocking out her reflection. The mist began to swirl counter clockwise, but Jenn had to picture a clock in her mind to know that, stupid left-right impairment. Finally another girl's face began to appear within the mirror. She had a cheeky smile and black hair that Jennifer envied.

"Hello there Jennifer. I'm Tarie, the Priestess of Kælar. I think you might be a little confused because all of the people in the palace, which it where you are, by the way, call me Torii, something that gets on my last nerve. So what if my name is in another accent, that doesn't mean that they are allowed to butcher it. But anyway, I just wanted to make sure that you were still alive and on task. Oh! And Kælar wanted me to remind you that you have to save all of the Seishi, including Nakago, whoever he is." Jennifer blinked a few times at the girl in the mirror before dropping it in shock and scooting away from it slowly.

She heard the girl sigh, even though she could no longer see her face. "Oh come on, Jenn. Don't make this hard. I'm just talking to you through a mirror. I know that they have scrying in that world that I sent you too, and I am sure that they have it in the world you're in now, don't act so surprised." Another sigh came from the mirror. "Oh well, at least you're alive. You'll remember me and the rest in time and then you can come home. I hope it's soon, your father is getting antsy and so are Lares's parents. They want this marriage to go through soon. You're not even listening anymore, I might as well send you back."

The last thing Jennifer remembered before her sight blacked out again, was another sigh coming from the mirror on the bed.

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Jennifer sat up on the pallet with a gasp. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dim early morning light and she saw Miaka sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Despite Jenn's deep seated hatred of the other girl, she decided, once again, that she should at very least try and be nice. "I didn't wake you up, did I, Miaka?"

The other girl simply rubbed her eyes. "No, it's okay Jennif- What?!? When did you get here?" Jennifer giggled at her surprised look. She gave Miaka a smile.

"We all arrived last night. See? Soi and Yui are still asleep. Suboshi had to carry her most of the way because she fell asleep on the way here from the Kotou camp. It was really a cute sight, especially since he was blushing the whole time." She pulled her hair in front of her and began to rake her fingers through it. She split it into two parts and then held one in her hand while digging through her bag, which Subaru had placed ever so nicely next to her. She finally pulled out a comb and ran it thorugh her hair.

She watched from the corner of her eye as Miaka stood up and looked over at Yui's still form. "I think that you should tell her." She stopped mid way through her stroke to look the other girl in the eye. "It is not that she won't believe it coming from me, I just think that she should hear it from you. It might make her trust you a little more. She still doesn't truly believe you. She only came out of hate for Nakago."

"Hate for Nakago? But... Didn't she love him?" Miaka had a lost and blank look on her face. The typical stuipd Miaka look.

"Yes, she did, but then when Yui realized some of his lies, not hardly all of them, she hated him. She was mostly upset about his being Soi's lover. I assume that that revelation was an amusing sight." She snickered and then continued with her hair. Miaka gave her another blank look, before blushing and then turning away and then looking confused. Jenn finished her hair and then stood up, leaving the room quietly, so as to not wake the others.

She really couldn't handle Miaka's stupidity, or naivety or whatever it was, this early in the morning, especially after that dream... She walked on light feet, trying to find the kitchen, when she saw several lights. She followed them and found herself in the kicthen. She blinked a few times in the bright light of the candles... Which didn't seem to be burning down. She looked around and saw Subaru making some tea at a large stove.

"Wow... You're awake already? And you were up most of the night helping us too..." She commented, sitting down. Subaru brought the pot over and set a small cup in front of her.

"Oh, it was nothing. I was a sorceress for Byakko, so I still have a lot of extra ki floating around inside of my that gets turned into energy, I'm fine really." The kind, and slightly matronly, woman said as she poured a tired Jennifer a cup of nice scalding tea. "My concern is for you. You looked like death warmed over last night and then you were tossing and turning with dreams for most of the night."

Jennifer nodded and took a small sip of the hot strangely flavored, tea. "I was in some western style castle, I think... And there was this strange girl in a mirror. She mentioned something about some other girl needing me for her wedding... Laren or something..." Jenn sighed and rubbed her temples, fighting off a small headache that thinking about the dream invoked.

"I don't think you should worry about it, dear. If it meant anything important, than you'll know in time. Don't hurt yourself trying to come up with an explanation for it." Jennifer nodded again and took another small drink of her minutely cooled tea. Subaru gave her a small smile before leaving the kitchen, off to do more matronly things.

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. Her mind was still clouded with flittering thoughts and memories awoken by the dream. Deep, dark rivers, flowing through an almost black forest. Pillars of stone being slowly taken back into the earth by the creeping moss. The crisp scent of frozen ai- The image was shattered when she heard someone call her name and saw wave a hand in front of her face. "Gah!!"

She was so surprised by the sudden appearance that she flinched back and knocked her chair over. Unfortunately for her, she was still sitting in it at the time and she hit the floor hard. "Ow...." She rubbed the back of her head and closed her eyes. Gods above, she was never going to be rid of this headache at this rate. When she opened her eyes again she was unsurprised to see violet ones hovering right over her. She took the hand that Amiboshi offered down to her and dusted herself off while he righted the chair.

"I'm sorry about that, Jenn. I never thought you'd fall over like that, though, knowing you, I should have expected it." She gave him a curious look while she sat back down and rubbed her head again.

"What do you mean "knowing me"? Nothing against you or anything, but to be entirely realistic about this, which is something we've been avoiding, you haven't even spent an entire day in my presence, so, you hardly "know me"." She tried her best not to sound to mean about it and just as straight forward as possible, but even still, it sounded harsh.

Surprisingly, however, Amiboshi's expression didn't change in the slightest, or at least not in a sad way, if anything, it got an evil-ish, playful-ish glint that, when seen in Amiboshi, made Jenn wary, if only because it was horrendously out of the character she knew. He pulled a chair up and sat down next to her, a small smirk playing across his lips. She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. He lightly tapped her on the nose, an action that only served to throw her farther off balance, probably part of the plan. "That, Jenn, is where you're wrong."

He snatched up her tea cup and drained it, "Hey!" He held one hand in front of her face to stop her comments until he was finished. Jenn gave him another crooked look. He wasn't acting like himself, but he was acting in a familiar way... Familiar as in-

"You see, when Miboshi was digging through Mark's mind to erase all traces of this world, he unwittingly opened Mark's memories to me." Jenn gave him a horrified look. There were a great deal of things that Mark knew that she would have been very happy if no one else had ever found out about... He grinned and leaned close to her, speaking in a secretive manner. "Don't worry, Jenn. I won't tell anyone about how you tripped over your clothes... That you were wearing at the time."

Jennifer turned several shades of red and Amiboshi just laughed standing up and moving behind her. She turned her head to watch him, "Oh, no, what are going to do now?" He smiled impishly at her and put a hand on top of her head.

"I'm just going to make sure that you didn't mortally wound yourself when you fell." She pouted at him, but the only purpose it served was to cause him to kiss her on the forehead before he began feeling the back of her head, searching for lumps or cuts.

"I could have done that myself, you know." Jenn said still pouting. He stopped and moved again, pulling her chair out from under the table so he could stand in front of her.

"I do know that, but despite my terribly sadistic nature, picking you up off of the ground was not my ideal way of greeting you and I felt that I at least needed to be of some service before I disappeared out to find a bath." He kissed her lingeringly on the lips and was halfway across the room before Jennifer could react. "Don't hurt yourself while I'm gone!"

"Just make sure that it's Amiboshi that comes back!" He smiled at her from the doorway and chuckled before leaving her sight. When she heard his footsteps recede, she relaxed into her chair with a sigh, raising a hand to her lips. "Well, that was certainly an interesting encounter. Guess that's what you get when you mix Mark and Amiboshi together, not a very safe combination, if you ask me."

She smiled foolishly, despite her own words. Well that solved one problem at least. Now they were on basically equal footing with how much they knew about each other... She let her thoughts drift off as she stared blankly at one of the whitewashed walls. She was startled out of her thoughts, once again, when someone sat down across from her at the small table.

"What were ya' thinkin' 'bout? Starin' off inter space like tha' an' people'll think ya' lost yer mind." She blinked and tilted her head at Tasuki, whose ruffled red hair actually looked better now than it usually did, or at least more orderly. A wonder that his hair looked nicer before he tried to do things to it. She had to think for a few minutes to pry the meaning out of his thick accent, but finally came up with a suitable answer, it spilling from her lips before she could really think about it.

"Nothin'. Jus' wondrin' what'll 'appen next." She turned away from him and looked at the table with wide eyes. What in the seven hells had she just said?! She didn't speak like that! She felt a prick on the back of her neck and raised her hand to it. She felt the raised skin and pulled her hand back when she felt that it was warmer than it should be. She shot a confused look at Tasuki, who just shrugged.

"Hey, Tar-uh, Jennifer, why's your neck glowing?" She turned around and saw a disheveled Suboshi leaning on the door frame, his hair sticking up every which way and his hand covering his mouth as he fought back a yawn. Before answering him, Jenn took the precaution of looking at Tasuki, who was glaring and seemed to be pouting, or whatever the bandit version of pouting was, but thankfully he didn't look like he was going to tear the younger seishi's head off his shoulders anytime soon.

"I don't know... I was just sitting here and then all of a sudden I'm talking like a bandit and my neck's heating up." She watched and Suboshi pulled away from the door, shrugging and yawning again. He went over and poured himself and Tasuki a cup of tea, setting them both on the table before plopping unceremoniously into one of the other chairs. She smiled when Tasuki gave him a surprised look, before nodding his head in thanks and drinking the tea.

"Could it be... That you were using your seishi power? That's the only time my symbol... Lights up." He yawned twice in his response and Jennifer was glad to know that she wasn't the only tired one around. She finished her own tea and then sat back up in the chair.

"It might be... I thought that my power was just sensing other seishi, but I guess that it might also be languages because the gods only know that I've never spoken in that sort of brogue, even in my own language." Tasuki and Suboshi both gave her looks that clearly said "what are you talking about?"

She blushed and tried to think of other words for brogue... It was an obscure term, after all. "Uh... Jargon, cant?" At the continued blank looks, Jenn gave a nervous laugh and racked her brain, "Uh... Dialect, accent?" She put her hands up in a helpless gesture.

Finally Suboshi's face lit up in understanding, "Oh, you mean you were talking like Tasuki!"

Jennifer slammed her head on the table in defeat and sighed. Though she couldn't see it, she knew that the two were trading confused looks and shrugging it off.

------------------------------------------------------------- - "This chapter was evil and I had to sit on it for hours before it got anywhere. Tasuki speech is hell, I don't recomend it to anyone. Thanks to Mari-chan for Beta-ing and Lirael1, Rockie-chan, Shini no Tenshi, Ryochan8, Noodle8, and Lady Light for reviewing. -faints- I really need sleep... -gives ryo-chan8 another Mark plushie- Yes, Mark was going to die, but now the plot is much more realistic. The last chapter of this story is already comepletely planned and is going to be a song fic to a small duet written by Sarah Moss, who is nice enough to let me use it. If you'd like to read it, I know that Rockie-chan already has, just email me and I'll send it to ya."-Muse Tk