Of Beginnings

Chapter 2

 Itazura sighed and wiped some more sweat off his forehead. He had been traveling in the forest for at least two hours and the heat had increased dramatically. Looking down at the map, he smiled devilishly. After a lot of wandering through some pretty dry looking trees, Itazura came across a considerably more lush portion of the forest. After more walking, he found a good-sized pond that was hidden behind the happiest looking trees he had ever seen. Relieved and excited to see a water source, Itazura removed his teal jacket and wadded into its bay. As he relaxed with the water's cool shores washing over him, A strand of water rose up and covered his mouth.

Suddenly, chains made of light wrapped around him, chaining his arms to his side. As Itazura looked around himself wildly for his attacker, a soft and sweet young sigh entered his ears. "Good Day." The voice said. "What brings you to this pond?" Itazura's mouth dropped underwater, allowing oxygen bubbles to float out. Just across the pond from him sat a girl who, although was gorgeous seemed very young. In fact, she looked at least ten years younger than himself. 

   She had short, fluffy hair that was a little bit darker than the color alice blue. Her eyes were a royal blue, and they seemed slightly slanted, and an odd dark blue dust seemed to be on the bridge of her nose and the sides of her eyes. Her skin was the palest he had ever seen. She had a simple white dress on,  with a string of thorns that clung to her like ivy to a pillar. Blue roses and rosebuds were peppered all over the thorns.She also had disconnected sleeves from her fore-arms down. She was small and skinny, and she just about topped 4'8

     "Who are you?" He mouthed under the water. The girl smiled and she stood up from the root of a gigantic tree, which seemed to be fashioned into a chair. She gently stepped onto the face of the water, and did a tiny bow. "Nice to meet you! I'm Runa!" Only silence followed, since Itazura's mouth was underwater. Awkwardly Runa straightened up, and there was an odd look on her face. "Yo-You're supposed to say your name, too." Again silence. He gave her a look, a bland one, until finally she understood. "Oh! The chains and water! I'm so sorry!" Immediately she dropped onto her knees and began untying him. "It's a rule from Homeworld, we need to constrain all the intruders whenever they enter our pond! Ever since the Sun Mother overthrew the Moon Father, we've been needing to do all these self-defense strategies, weird, huh?" Now free, Itazura gave her a questioning look. "'I have so many questions. How am I not falling through the water? What is a 'Moon Father' and 'Sun Mother'?" Runa returned him a confused look. "Do you not know about the Sun-Moon War?" She asked, her voice quite airy on the word 'war'. He shook his head. Her face was blank with thought, but then she perked up. "We can talk about it later! Anyway, the reason why you aren't falling through the water is because it's in a state called 'Solid'. You're still technically in water, because Solid acts as a strong glass floor with an inch and a half still on top of it, but you also aren't in the water because you aren't falling through the surface!" All Itazura could do was stare at her silently. "Anyways," She continued.

"What are you doing here?" Itazura opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. What if she's guarding the 'foreign treasure'? He thought. No, I won't tell her the truth. Itazura looked at her again. "I'm just a traveler." Runa smiled "Oh, good!" She answered.

She giggled playfully then stood up. As she did so she immediately stopped. "Oh no..." She breathed. Itazura turned around.

Before him stood a woman with long, unkempt maroon hair. Her eyes were golden, and the same dust that was on the bridge of Runa's nose was on hers too, except that hers was red. She wore blood red eyeshadow and lipstick, and her thin lips were curved into an evil smile. Her skin was a dark tan color, showing that she had been in the sun a lot. The collar of the cloak she was wearing was a light yellow, as well as the skirt she had underneath it. The actual cloak itself was red, closed by a light yellow rose. The orange shirt she was wearing stopped short and revealed her stomach. In her right hand a swirling mass of fire twisted and curled.

"Why are you here, Kaen?" Runa called in a more confident and less sweet voice. Kaen's smile widened. "You know why I'm here, Runa. Time after time, I send Sunbeams to come attack you, Destroy you..." Kaen's eyes glowed at the thought. "...and they all somehow go missing, never getting a chance to tell me about you." She walked closer to Runa. "Why is that?" Runa stayed silent with a confused expression. "Well, if you're implying that I murdered them, You're wrong. I don't even know how to hold a sword." The fire in Kaen's hand twisted to form a sword. It hardened until it formed a real one made from metal. "I'm not saying such a thing." She said, her expression changing oddly. "I'm trying to tell you that I'm going to kill you!" In one swift motion Raen forced her sword forward in an attempt to hit Runa. Instead, There stood Itazura with the sword through his chest.