夢路の帝王. Emperor of the Dream path

CHAPTER 10 第十章

What just happened? Me and Yui stared open mouthed at this creature before us. Should we really be surprised? Nothing has been normal since we left home. The bird began transforming before us, smoke started surrounding the air around it. It swirled and swirled, like a tornado without the destruction. The smoke became larger and it swirled faster. Faster and faster to the point that I thought there would be a tornado but then it calmed. The smoke began to dissipate and where just a few seconds ago, there was a bird, now stood a monstrous being. This being stood upright on two legs, he looked like a normal human, yet, wings sat on his back, he had a red face with a yellow long beak. His wings were black as night with red highlights. He had blood red eyes that seemed to catalog our every move, our every breath, those were the eyes of someone who never missed a thing. Dawning a red, black, and white Hakama. We didn't know much about this creature but one thing was quite obvious, he was dangerous and right now, we were mice caught in his trap. He was a Tengu.

I stepped in front of Yui in hopes of shielding her and I said to him, "Who are you?" He laughed at this but it wasn't humorous, it was devious. "That's always the first question, isn't it? Come on, test me a little! Give me hader question!" Yui moved out from behind me and said, "We don't have time for your games." He laughed again and said "No games? Well you really are little miss no fun, aren't you Yui?" I tried to shift in front of Yui again but she shot me a look that told me to trust her. So that's exactly what I did. She looked him dead in the eye when she told him, "Fine. So you want to play games? Let's play. To start off with, it's a little unfair that you know our names but we don't know yours, wouldn't you agree?" Anger flashed across the beast's face as though he couldn't believe someone would dare to try and one up him. But the anger was gone as fast as it came and in its place was a mischievous grin. "You dare try to patronize me? I would watch what you say, young mortal." This time it was Yui who laughed but I could tell it was forced. She is trying to beat this guy at his own game so she doesn't look weak.

On the inside she was panicking. "Mortal? If that's what we are, then how are we in a whole new dimension, hmm?" She was pushing too far, I could see it in his eyes. "So you know about that then? Interesting. I'm getting bored, how about let's play a new game! It's called....see how fast it takes for the mortal to die." Didn't he just hint that we weren't mortal? Looks like I'm not the only one who caught onto that because Yui said, "Kill the mortal? First of all, didn't you just practically say that we weren't? Second, we have no intention of dying today. And third, fix your grammar. You said "mortal" instead of "mortals" . There are two of us, pig brain." I had to force myself not to laugh at that. Pig brain however, as Yui called him, did not like that. At all. He let out a fierce roar that shook the leaves around us. Yui leaned over and whispered to me, "Maybe I went a little too far." "You think?!" I hissed. Then we looked back at the Tengu, he just looked done with us. "Can you two stop bickering, I mean, I need to fight yall to show you guys your true..." he stopped. Then drew his sword and swung.

We quickly dodged, and ran forward. Dropping a few sticks on the way. The Tengu raced towards us at frightening speed! I decided to just say screw it, I dropped the sticks I was holding on to, Yui did the same as well as drawing her bow and arrow. We were going to have to fight to survive. I locked eyes with Yui and could see the same conclusion had occurred to her too. We charged the Tengu, Yui darted directly in front of him, distracting him. This gave me the opportunity to run behind him unnoticed. I noticed a nearby tree that I could jump off of and have a chance of hitting him in the face. I quickly grabbed a nearby stick and used a rock to turn it into a sphere. It wasn't hard since the stick already had a jagged shape to it. I started climbing the tree as fast as I possibly could. I looked down at Yui to check on her, her nose was bleeding heavily but she was fighting strong. Her efforts, though great, were no match for Tengu. He laughed and grabbed Yui, throwing her back onto the ground. She hits with a hard thud.

All the wind clearly knocked out of her. I climbed faster and faster. I made it to where I needed to be. Yui spotted me but didn't hold my gaze long before she charged Tengu again, this time though, instead of going directly at him, she slid between his legs, forcing him to turn around. That gave me all the advantage I needed, I jumped down from the tree, aiming my sphere at his eye. He looked up a split second too late and my sphere made contact. He let out a cry of pain and brought his hand up and hit me to the ground. My sphere was still lodged in his eye, which was now oozing with blood.

"No! This is not how you are supposed to play the game!" And with that, he took another swing. His fist connected with my face. The impact knocked me down several feet. My head cracked against the ground. Suddenly, everything went dark for me.

I felt encompassed by something. It felt like paper. My entire body felt stiff and sore. I felt like I had been trampled by a herd of horses over and over again. My head was pounding. I tried opening my eyes and the light seared into my eyes, it burned. Although there was pain, I forced myself to open my eyes. I'm back in Himas house. "Mommy! He's awake!" yelled Junpei. "Oh, good. I have the tea ready." Hima responded. I then heard the door slide open. There, Hima sat next to me, pouring tea into a cup. "Drink up when you can." I raise myself up a little. I winced as every muscle in my body protested and my head spun. A bandage is across my body. "Where's Yui?" I ask. Just then, the shoji door opened up. It was Yui. She looked at me and relief appeared to flood through her. Surprisingly she was barely hurt. Even for such a horrific battle. Around her, though, was a small brace on her back.

"She sprained her back. I'm surprised it wasn't worse. You, however, seemed to bear the brunt of it." The words "bear" circled my mind. Yui chirped up. "Speaking of which, when I woke up, I seemed to see an unconscious bear next to the Tengu. I went to make sure it was dead when..." Yui stopped. And went to the next room over. "I'm going to clean up before lunch." And with that, the door shut.