Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Just Visiting ❯ Spat ( Chapter 9 )

It didn't take long for Hikaru to realize that Lantis' stallion was much like her mashin Rayearth, in the sense that both creatures were extensions of their masters.

Currently they were traveling over rather harsh terrain. The dried out dirt cracked and crumbled beneath Rayearth's paws and jagged rock protruded out as if it were trying to grab at them.

Lantis still held the lead. His beast sped quickly and gallantly with much ease, while Hikaru struggled to keep Rayearth from losing its footing. Lantis acted and reacted by memory. Where as Hikaru acted and reacted based on her instincts.

`Hikaru? Are you tiring?' Her mashin inquired.

"I'm fine let's keep going."

She then found that Lantis had slowed in his pace and was falling back to where she and Rayearth were, "Are you all right?!" he called over the noisy clatter of his beast's hooves.

She smiled. "I'm fine!"

"Follow me, there's a spot coming up where we can rest."

"But I'm fine!"

"Trust me. It would be wise for us to take a break." He said as he began to herd Rayearth over to the on coming rest stop.

They slowed and when they'd come to a stop, they dismounted. Hikaru walked around; stretching out her legs. Lantis appeared to be surveying their surroundings. He mumbled something to himself but Hikaru was unable to decipher what he'd said.

Rayearth stood silently; fondly watching his mistresses every movement. He then observed the Kailu as he covered the short distance between himself and the young magic knight. The mashin paid close attention to their interactions. He noticed that Lantis tended to play with the loose tendrils of her hair, or he'd stroke her face or cup her chin. He had to admit that he felt remotely jealous of Lantis but simply being around him made Hikaru so happy…

"So, how far are we?"

Lantis looked off into the distance. "About half way I suppose."

"We should head out again."

He nodded in agreement. "Be alert. We will be approaching the monsters soon. He stood by his stallion and waited until Hikaru was mounted on Rayearth before mounting his horse.

* * *

"Lightning, Strike!" Lantis bellowed. Within seconds, wild bolts of lightning shot out at the charging monster.

The creature was thrown back, frozen in paralysis. The searing heat of Hikaru's blade finished the beast off.

She turned to see him battling against another that had already been disfigured as a result from fighting the swordsmen. It howled and cried out in pain. It attempted to slash at Lantis, only to have its arm severed. Lantis then slashed across the monsters mid section splitting the creature into two halves.

"Hikaru! Behind you!" The kailu called out before contending with another monster.

She looked behind her to see the bulky, thick scaled creature making its way over to her. Automatically, magic gathered between her hands. "Ruuubyyy Lightning!"

The monster stopped its charge, wreathed in pain and after a moment, it fell to the ground, charred dead.

Another lightning attack sounded and another monster fell to the ground, lifeless.

Hikaru grinned as he walked up to her. "Fighting monsters is really tiring."

He lightly grabbed a bit of his pallid cape a draped it over his loves shoulder "If I recall correctly, you were the one who insisted on coming."

"I'm just stating the truth, I'm not complaining. The exercise is good for me."

He stared blankly at her.

"What?"

"Most people wouldn't regard battling monsters exercise. And they most certainly wouldn't be able to say it as though it were nothing."

"I'm sorry."

"An apology isn't necessary." He said as they started walking again.

As they strolled further through the forest, Lantis inquired about her life in her world.

"It's fairly normal. I go to school, I study. I help my brothers out with the chores around the house. Like I said my life's fairly simple."

"How many brothers have you?" Lantis asked as he surveyed the area.

"Three. Satoru, Maseru, and Kakeru. Satoru's my eldest brother. He runs our kendo school Maseru and Kakeru are a year apart and they assist Satoru with a few of his classes. Maseru has competed in the past in tournaments. He's second don. Kakeru's the younger of the two. He doesn't really compete. He's more into soccer, ironically though, he's considered to be third don."

"What is this "don"?"

"Basically, it's a ranking system."

"I see."

"Oh! By the way, how's Geo? And Zazu?"

"The last time I spoke with them, they were doing well. Zazu had a slight cold, it was nothing serious though." He stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"Shhh."

She was silent. After a moment, she could here it too.

"It appears we'll have to finish this conversation later."

Hikaru withdrew her sword and took up a defensive position, "Agreed."

* * *

It was late in the after noon. Shortly after speaking briefly with the kailu, Umi had run into Fuu. She'd explained that, for at least the time being, the extent of Hikaru and Lantis' relation ship should remain unknown to those who still didn't know. And so they'd spent much of the day hunting down the women who had been dinning with them at breakfast. The only one they had ended up not talking to was the small pixie. They weren't too worried though. Primera didn't really speak to anyone other than Lantis and perhaps Mokona. Umi and Fuu had somehow ended up in the large Cephiro bath with Caldina and Presea and for the longest of time, the four of them had relaxed; unwinding with the assistance of the warm bath water.

They had only recently returned from the baths. Fuu sat on Umi's bed combing out Umi's hair as she sat on the floor.

"I wonder where Hikaru-san went." Fuu questioned at long last. They hadn't seen her for a good portion of the day.

Umi frowned, "Where do you think?" she said with venom.

"Why are you so upset over this?"

Umi's right brow twitched. She wanted to say that it was obvious. However, now that she was actually thinking about it, she didn't know. She didn't respond.

Fuu tried again. "Why are you so upset over the uh, recent revelations regarding Hikaru-san?"

Again there was a long silence.

"Umi-san?"

"Can we talk about something else?"

"I would like to know."

"Fuu…"

"W-Would you be this upset if it were Sir Ferio and myself instead?"

She stood up, towering over the Wind knight. "Do we really have to talk about this right now?"

"Not if you don't want to. Forget I said anything. I think I'll go for a walk." Fuu snapped. She was approaching the end of her tether in regards to Umi's attitude towards Hikaru's love interest. She stood up to go.

"Hey Fuu, wait a minute."

"What?" she asked.

"I-to tell you the truth, I'm not entirely sure," She said at long last. She sat down again. "I guess-among other things, I'm just not comfortable about the whole Hikaru and Lantis thing..."

"That is rather obvious."

"Aren't you the least bit freaked out? We hardly know anything about Lantis-neither does Hikaru. She rushed into this way too fast."

"I find this situation unsettling as well, but what goes on behind closed doors really isn't any of our business; even if the one behind the door is Hikaru." Fuu announced.

"She's too young though Fuu. And Lantis is at least two or three times older than her. He told me so himself." Umi had stood up (again) in mid sentence and started pacing around the room. "It's not right. Not right at all. What if she ends up pregnant? Birth control probably didn't occur to her. What would her brothers think? Further more how do you think she'd feel if they found out? They've such an innocent image of her; I bet Kakeru would die-I'm not joking."

Umi rambled on for a few more minutes. By now the wind knight had sat back down as well and was sitting, watching her fellow knight pace back and forth. Fuu said nothing until Umi had finished. She figured it best to let Umi get it off her chest. "I understand your sentiments Umi-san. Hikaru-san can be child-like and very naive, however she can also be mature-more mature than she should be as a matter of fact. Long ago she chose to live her life without anymore regrets. Obviously she feels that sharing her life with Sir Lantis-even prematurely, is something she will never regret. She's following her heart entirely. I must respect and admire her for that. Though I must admit that I feel a tinge of jealousy... I'm jealous that she's been able to act so truly towards her emotions-it's funny, but I also feel a horrible pain…"

Umi nodded. "Feels like she was stolen from us-or that we've somehow lost her..." It was Fuu's turn to nod.

There was an awkward moment; something that rarely happened between the two girls. Both seemed to be contemplating what had recently been said.

* * *

It was roughly an hour before dusk, when the Magic Knight, and the Kailu entered the small village located just slightly north of the monster infested woods.

Hikaru had noticed almost instantly that few people walked the dirt paved streets and many shops seemed to have been recently abandoned. The few people who still roamed about under the setting sun stared at them cautiously. No one approached them.

She shuddered under the icy cool wind that nipped at her. The sudden drop in temperature hadn't been anticipated. She rubbed her hands together but it helped very little.

They'd walked nearly ten minutes before Lantis had noticed this stopped, being that he was a head of her. He stopped and unhooked his cape. Hikaru's eyes shifted from one side to the other as she watched him drape the now slightly tattered and dirty cape over and around her shoulders.

"Better?" Lantis asked.

She nodded with a warm smile of gratitude and they continued on. The wind was blowing on their backs. Hikaru noticed that Lantis now had his arms folded as they walked. She raised some of the cape up and over her head like a hood to keep the wind from blowing against the back of her neck.

Neither spoke much as they searched for an inn still opened for business. Weariness was setting in and all they wanted was to find a place to rest for the evening.

At long last they'd finally come across one. Though their vacancy sign hung ajar, and there were large cracks running up along the outer walls they proceeded inside.

An elderly man, with a receding grayish white hairline sat behind a surprisingly tall, wooden desk. By appearance it looked to be about the same age as him; nicks, deep scratches and even a few burn marks adorned the wood.

He looked up to see Lantis approach.

"Ah, welcome young man." His aged voice said in a rasp, as he looked up from what he was doing. "I hope good health has followed you on your travels."

Lantis gave a curt nod. "A room."

The old man picked a key off a nearby rack as he glanced over the dark armour Lantis wore and the few cuts and bruises visible from what little flesh wasn't covered in clothing and armour. "I take it you're here to take care of our monster infestation?"

Lantis nodded again as he took his room key. It read thirteen. "Have they become bold enough to enter the town?"

"They've breached the outskirts once or twice so far, but they haven't actually come in. I suspect that may be the case soon, however if this isn't dealt with soon. A fair amount of the towns people have temporarily vacated because of this. I'm sure you noticed."

"Indeed." Lantis said as he headed towards the door past the desk. Hikaru scuttled along behind him.

"I don't think he noticed me." Hikaru said as Lantis fumbled with their room key. They were now standing in front of room number thirteen. A moment later the door was open and they entered. She took off his cape and draped it over a chair beside a table with a wash bin and folded towel a top it.

Lantis immediately searched in the dark room for lanterns to light. There was a total of five but he only lit three; One that hung under the ceiling and two that hung near the beds-apparently the old man had seen her.

Now that light filled the small room, Hikaru walked about. Making sure everything was clean and well kept. She suddenly couldn't help remembering an article clipping Umi had shown her from some American paper; showing just how disgustingly dirty even five-star hotels could be. She remembered that they'd checked rooms of various different hotels and found blood stained mattresses-unseen by the naked eye, but with the aid of a florescent light and the chemical, Luminal, the stains became quite visible. And semen stains in various places of the rooms-not to mention other, substances that one wouldn't expect to come across in a hotel room. Unfortunately, she didn't have florescent lights or Luminal. A thought came to her though. Cephirians seemed to have very well cleaning habits, and she doubted that she'd come across anything like that here. What a silly thing to think about though. Especially considering how tired and worn she was from battling monsters for a good part of the day, and without hardly any food either.

Lantis was over by the wash basin slipping off his turtle neck. Hikaru noticed he'd grunted when he raised his arms. When she'd looked over to him, her eyes instantly fell upon the large red, purple bruise just under his shoulder blade.

"Oh my God!" She yelled and he jumped at the sudden noise.

He turned to her, "What?"

She quickly came forward. "Your back, it's all-" He turned again as she went to examine his back.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"But, it's-how'd it happen?"

"One of the monsters repelled me back against a tree trunk while we in the forest," he said coolly.

"Let me see."

He moved again; keeping his back from her. "Hikaru," He said with a tone not quite in agitation.

"Don't be a baby, just let me see it." She ordered.

"Then don't baby me!" He spat back. "I don't need a mother."

Hikaru took a step back. "I-I'm sorry."

A look of pain etched her face, she took another step back. "I just wanted-I didn't mean to make you mad."

Without thinking she'd made for the door and just as she began to open it, it slammed shut. "Where do you think you're going?" she'd heard him say in a gruff voice. She could feel him just inches away from her. She didn't know. She hadn't even realized what she was doing. She didn't answer. In that instant she was afraid to do or say anything. She didn't know what he was going to do.

For a moment they'd stayed there; him waiting for her to say something, her waiting for him to do something, but neither did anything. Finally he turned her around. He had her look up at him. "Why are you crying?"

It was then that she felt warm liquid running down her face. She hiccupped and looked away from him. Hating herself for crying. Hating herself for crying in front of him, especially when she didn't know why. He was grateful Nova wasn't around. No retort came from her doppelganger. She must have been sleeping.

"Relax." He said as he tilted her head up to look at him again. He wiped away a tear but her eyes were still looking to the side.

His lips pressed against hers and again she didn't know what she was supposed to do. At any rate he didn't appear to be cross with her any more.

"I just wanted to help." She said quietly when he pulled back.

"I didn't mean to yell, I just-" he whispered as he held her against the door. "I'm used to looking after myself. I'm a grown man after all, and to have a little gir-" he stopped himself, choosing his words more carefully. "To have someone fuss over me, it's, it's embarrassing." He said as his cheeks reddened.

She couldn't stop the grinned curling up on her face. Seeing Lantis blush was-it was hard to say what it was but she grinned all the same. "I'm used to looking after people, Umi, Fuu, even my brothers-"

"So I take it you were offended by my defiance. I honestly didn't intend to upset you Hikaru." He said again in the utmost seriousness.

She yawned in response. "Oh, sorry, I-"

"We should go to bed." He interupted.

She nodded, "Probably a good ide-hey!"

He'd picked her up, "which bed would you care for?"

"Uh, I guess the closest one. But aren't you going to sleep with me?" she asked as he walked her over and placed her in the center of the one person bed. He then whipped over to the other bed and pushed it over to hers. He then crawled onto his bed and kissed her good night.

<Authors Note: Well this chapter ending is a bit abrupt for my liking. Sorry. And sorry for taking so long to update. Thank you all who've read and reviewed and don't get too upset at ~ Shadow Knight I can understand his, her, it for badgering for me. If I was following a story and person hadn't updated in quite a while, I'd be hostile a bit as well. As for ~ I'm going to delete all of your posts except for one because they all say the same thing and I got the message the first time round. I have to thank you though, ~ You helped lite the fire under my ass-(so did you Shadow Knight, you kinda put me on the spot ^_^). I mean I'm just so happy that the story's good enough for you to harass me about continuing. Again thank you all for reading and reviewing. Please keep it up. (I'm still working on the next installment of Cross.)