Destiny's Marked: Chosen (Book 1)

The Dreamer: Sight

      Ryoko groaned as the darkness of sleep pulled away to light as she groggily opened her eyes, blinking once and then twice. She propped herself up into a sitting position and shook her black hair, not noticing the 2 other colors that now streaked her short hair. Slowly, the teen took in her surroundings, shivering a little at the breeze that blew through the plaza. Her half-awake analyzation of her location was cut short as a small figure ran towards her, screaming, "Run!"

     Now fully awake, Ryoko's violet eyes shot fully open in surprise as the creatures chasing the poor girl came into view. She hopped up and ran after the girl, away from the fanged creatures but the beanie-ed child tripped over some stray rocks and fell flat on her face. Ryoko skidded to a stop and rushed to help her new companion of the moment who was in danger of being overrun by the nightmarish creatures. Quickly picking her up, the two continued to run down a street in the unfamiliar town. Unfortunately for the both of them, they ran right into a dead-end.

     Ryoko spun around and held her hand flat out in front of the little girl to keep her back and protected, glaring at the monsters with her other hand fisted tight. Her grip lessened in surprise when she heard a battle cry above the chittering of the creatures. Flashes of purple swirled into existence in the back of the pack before swirling back out, leaving behind tiny green orbs and yellow diamonds. A purple blur slashed through the middle of one of the creatures in the front. Another but oppositely colored creature aided the girls' rescuer by covering his back that was about to be attacked. Orange hair was the only thing that Ryoko could distinguish of his physical attributes before he jumped into another mini-fight with the remaining attackers.

     A tiny roar blaring in her ear shook Ryoko out of her focused stare at the newcomer to find a rogue flying beast dive bomb towards her. Without thinking and ultimately done with the confusion of the whole situation, she threw her fists down- not noticing the small circles of light that left a little present- before pulling them up into a boxer stance, yelling, "Not to-day, sir!" Ryoko threw a punch full force into its head causing it to fly back before disappearing just like the others. That was when she became aware of what her hands were gripping and opened them palm-up to find onyx black knuckles, dull square spikes pointing outwards for a greater impact.

       A smirk made a way onto her face as she returned her grip and got ready to toss another one at the creature nearest her. However, it disappeared before she could recoil to show the orange head that had shown up. She looked around at the empty street before confidently stating, pointing at herself as the circle of light took back her weapon, "I could have taken 'em." The boy huffed and smirked with a shake of his head before turning to the beanied little girl.

     "Are you ok?" he asked monotonically.

     The girl nodded with a small adorable smile, "Yes, Neku. I'm fine." The boy hissed under his breath at the name and gave the child a warning glare before turning his gaze to the ravenette girl, trying to assess what she is going to do next. Ryoko simply raised her hands in surrender carelessly, "Geez, you're looking at me like I'm a huge threat. I woke up here not like 5 minutes ago, got chased by those thingys, and had brass knuckles appear out of the blue in my hands." Neku scoffed and beckoned the small girl to follow him before sprinting away from the alley. She hesitated but waved goodbye and ran after the older boy as she was told to do.

     "You're welcome!" Ryoko yelled more towards the guy rather than the little girl, a bit peeved at his rude behavior. A sigh escaped her lips as she crossed her arms and muttered to herself, "Alright. So I'm in some random town, where magic evidently exists. I need to figure out more..."

     Ryoko made her way back to the square she woke up in when she froze as her memory of the events beforehand resurfaced.

     "A portal... of light?"

     "Riku! Get off me!"

     "Hiya! I'm Sora! And this is Riku!"

     "Welcome to planet Earth."

     "No time, Sora! The portal's closing!"

     "No!"

     Ryoko's face blanched and she nervously gulped as her mind went into silent panic mode. Taking a deep breath, she shook off the weight of the events happening- not completely as it was nearly impossible to do immediately but enough to stop the world from spinning. She let the silence of the town envelope her for a moment before screaming out at another realization, her hands reaching up to her head, "I JUST MET NEKU AND RHYME!" She gasped and covered her mouth, jerking around to see if anyone was there. The wind blew but it seemed to be the only other presence around. Ryoko slowly grinned and softly cheered for a moment.

     "Ok, soooo... Neku and Rhyme." Ryoko said to herself out loud, "That means Dream Drop Distance. Wait, then where is my actual body?" She looked down at herself and finally got a good look at her attire. It was similar to what she was wearing outside of the dream realm with the occasional silver or purple swirl; the only major change being the streaks of the colors in her black hair. The violet-eyed teen hummed in satisfaction at the color choice and silently thanked whoever or whatever came up with her outfit. A feeling in her heart told her that her physical body was safe which caused her mind to wonder where the others were.

     Clenching a fist over her heart, she closed her eyes and tentatively reached her heart out as she pictured Aira... Luxus... and finally Kai. Ryoko let out a breathe she didn't know she was holding in as her eyes opened a sliver, disappointed in the lack of substantial proof that she could feel their hearts. She looked up at the stars, which glinted brightly at her enticing a small smile to grow onto her face. Three specifically stood out to her as they seemed to glow in and out and be tinted a different color. Tilting her head in slight confusion, Ryoko squinted to get a better look.

     She gasped when her heart thumped once with so much force her balance was affected. Her body thumped again, this time a scene of a blade with its staff gold swung into her sight, the owner engulfed in shadow, flashed before her in a split second. She gasped as she fell to her knees with another thump and another display of a hidden person but this time a dagger spun in its hand before being gripped, a faint outline of a thin wire hanging slight down from it. A third vision appeared this time showing the lower-third of a male face, lying on a smooth surface with his hands reaching out lazily in his sleep. To anyone outside her mind, the entire event happened in less than two seconds and soon she was on her hands and knees with her stomach even more twisted than after she had gone through the portal. She groaned and roughly swallowed down the swaying nausea that was coming up.

     Shaking her head to brush the last bit off, she returned to her feet, muttering, "That was trippy..." She looked back up at the stairs and found them twinkling softer than before but unmoved as if nothing had happened a second ago. She hummed to make it seem like she brushed the entire thing off as something unimportant even though no was around her, but her eyes held a swirl of emotions as she turned back around and walked down the street.