The Start of a New Chase (Chapter 16)

"Fala?" a voice made its way into my head. It took a while for the word to make sense in my mind. When it finally did, I blearly lifted up my head, trying to open my eyes.
"Mmmnn?" I mumbled, trying to remain awake.
"Would you mind letting go of me?"
"Hn?" My mind still wasn't working properly. I looked down to see my arms wrapped around something...or maybe someone. Then I looked up. I was hugging Faalan.
"Oh, yes!" I yelped, letting go of Faalan, my face flushing.
"Thank you." A amused smile crept its way onto Faalan's face before he turned away to do whatever it was he wanted to do.
I covered my mouth. I could feel my face heating up and I was sure that I was blushing madly. My only explanation for what I had awoken to was that I hugged Faalan in my sleep. I had never done anything like that before. I wondered what had driven me to do such a thing.
I sat in this position for a while, desperately trying to cool down. By the time Faalan came back with some wild fruit in his arms, I was completely cooled. He sat down in front of me, spreading out the fruit.
"So..." he began.
"So...what?" I asked, picking up one of the strange round orange fruit.
"You don't mind if I ask you a slightly embarassing question, do you?"
"Uh.... Depends on what the question is..." I took a bite of the fist-sized fruit, purple juice spilling down my chin. It was a very interesting fruit that I had. I examined it as I chewed. It had smooth orange skin that was easily broken, and soft purple flesh inside. Though, it wasn't exactly soft. It had a slightly crunchy texture to it, but was squishy at the same time. The sensation was extremely strange and new to me, but I enjoyed it. I took another bite, closing my eyes and trying to pick out the flavors of the fruit. It had a strange flavor. Though it tasted a bit like a plum, it tasted a bit like a hybrid between a peach and an apple. Surprisingly, the combination was very good and I took a couple more bites before looking up at Faalan.
"Well... Did you like hugging me?" He averted his gaze and fiddled with his fingers before grabbing one of the strange fruits and taking a bite.
"Um. Ahem. I guess. Sure. I like hugging you. And what did you think of it?" I laughed inwardly. Since he asked me that question, I suppose it was fair to shoot the question back at him.
"Erm...." He looked down at his hands, and then took another bite of his fruit. His cheeks were tinged a slightly darker shade of pink than usual. Was he blushing?
"Yes." he said simply, his face exploding into an even darker shade of pink. I resisted the urge to laugh out loud. He was so cute when he blushed like that!
I continued eating the fruit, and much to my surprise, there was no pit in the middle. Where was the seed of this fruit? Glancing at Faalan, I could see that he was trying to hide his flushed face. I choked back a giggle and finished the last of the orange and purple fruit.
"Faalan?" I asked.
"Hn?"
"What is this fruit? I've never seen anything like it."
"Eh? Oh, that. It's called a zinka."
"Zinta?"
"No, zinka, with a 'k' sound."
"So, a zinka?"
"Yes."
"Where is the seed of zinkas?"
"Uh.... Hm. I never thought about that before. I don't really know."
He and I shrugged and we both sat silently for a while, just eating the strange fruits that were called zinkas. Afterwards, we wiped our sticky hands on the grass. As for our mouths, Faalan had his cloak to
wipe his mouth, but I didn't want to use the hem of my, well, Faalan's mother's dress, to wipe my mouth. Plus, it would lift the skirt of the dress up, which would be way embarassing. I desperately looked around for something to wipe my mouth with, but I really couldn't find anything.
Faalan evidently saw my problem after a moment of confusion, for he
walked towards me, lifted the edge of his cloak, and gently wiped away
the juice. I flushed a little, lowering my eyes.
"Thank you." I murmured softly.
"You're welcome." he replied, turning away and gathering his things. I followed suit, strapping my lyre to my side and slipping my flute into place.
"Well, let's go!" Faalan said cheerily, a smile spreading across his face.
"Okay!" I couldn't help but smile when I saw him smile. Though I wondered how he could be so cheery, it didn't really matter. It was good to see him happy. But we really did have a lot of problems on hand.
Kaija was killing people and we had to stop him. The only problem was that Faalan was still thought of as a killer and knights were still hunting him. Having been dropped into this unfamiliar land, I didn't really know my way around. I didn't even really know my way around in my own time, let alone here!
I gave a small shrug as Faalan broke out into a run. A grin crept its way onto my face and I speeded after him. I reached him in a moments. I'd always been the faster one in training. He grinned as well, and began to run faster, to match my pace. We raced through the woods like this for sometime, though I watched Faalan carefully to make sure I was going in the right direction. As fun as racing him was, we still needed to make our way to the nearest village.
The wind whipped through my hair and leaves crunched underfoot. Trees became a blur all around me. The only thing that stayed in focus was Faalan, who was moving at the same speed. I wanted to go faster, but I knew that this pace was better for Faalan and less energy consuming.
After what seemed like hours, Faalan and I stopped at the edge of the forest, nearby the village. We took a few minutes to catch our breaths, and Faalan flopped onto the ground, leaning on a tree. I chose a tree across from him and sat down in a slightly more gracefully manner than his.
"How are we going to go in without you getting caught?" I asked, looking at the boy in front of me.
"Well, we could choose a disguise, which would be better. Though you could use your gift, it would be better to not have people under your spell for conversation purposes."
"A disguise sounds good, but how are we supposed to do that? I don't have anything else on me except for some dried food and my instruments."
"Hm... I still haven't looked at Kaija's bag completely yet. Let me check and see if he has anything worth using."
Faalan turned the bag upside down and a couple items fell out. There was a coiled rope, three daggers in sheaths, two waterbags, a flint and striker, and a set of clothing, including boots.
"The only thing I can think of now is for you to change clothes, keep the cloak on, and hope to find some sort of plant to use as dye for your hair. If we change your clothes, we might be able to mislead a few people. The cloak will be good to hide your face, and for extra security purposes, dyed hair will come in handy."
"Alright. Let me change and then we'll see."
He stood up and walked deeper into the woods with the change of clothes. I felt my face heat up slightly and I turned my head away from the direction he was walking. There was some rustling and momentarily, Faalan was sitting across from me again, his old set of clothes in his arms.
"How do I look?" he asked, looking down at himself.
"You look...sorta different. But not much."
"Wonderful. Now what?"
"Hm.... Let's try to find some dye for your hair."
"Sure."
We searched for a long time, taking out the juices from plants and trying to see if they would work as a dye. We failed miserably. There just weren't any plants that were really suitable for dying. His hair was a little too dark for dying anyways.
"That failed." he said, slumping against a tree in defeat.
"Yup. No kidding." I sighed, putting my head in my hand.
"What else could we possibly do?"
"I suppose I could try to cut your hair. Though I will probably do an awful job."
"There's nothing else we can do, right? Might as well do it."
I picked up one of the daggers on the ground and unsheathed it. He sat down and I stood over him, staring at his hair for a while.
"Here goes nothing..." I muttered to myself, picking up a lock of hair.
After a while and much struggle to cut his hair properly, I was done. I took a step back to admire my handiwork. Or rather, my disaster. It didn't work out so well. His hair came out shorter than I wanted and was a little uneven on the bottom. But then, he shook he head, and bits of hair flew into the air. As I looked again, it didn't seem so bad. Maybe I didn't do so bad after all.
"How do I look?" he asked, looking up and trying to see his hair.
"Well, it looked kinda bad before, but now it actually looks okay." He gave a little smile of thanks and then our attention went to the other items in Kaija's bag.
"Do you want a dagger or two?" I looked up and saw Faalan looking at me.
"Only if you don't want them." I never had really found a need for weapons, considering that I was always holding instruments when I was fighting, though I had learned how to use them during training.
"Well, I already have a dagger, but if you take two and I take the remaining one, we both have two. Plus, I don't really see the need to have four daggers."
"Alright then." I picked up two of the daggers. Then I realized, where was I supposed to put them?
"Having some problems?" Faalan asked.
"Yes. Where am I supposed to put them?"
"Considering that you don't have a belt, the next best place to put them would be..." He took the daggers from my hands and knelt down. I blushed a little, but watched patiently. Carefully, he looped the bit of leather on the sheaths that normally went around the belt around the sandals I was wearing.
"How does that feel?" he inquired, looking up at me. I took a couple steps back and a couple steps forward. I couldn't feel any difference, even though I had thought it would have created some heavy weight on my legs. I couldn't even feel the daggers move around.
"I don't feel any difference at all! Thanks, Faalan!" I smiled and gave him a quick hug. Upon letting go, I sat down and turned my attention back to the leftover items. It seemed that Faalan had already taken the third dagger, for it was nowhere in sight. Now there was the coil of rope, the waterbags, and the flint and striker.
"I can carry all the things except for the second waterbag. Can you take that?"
"Of course." I picked up the water bag and connected it to my side belt. Though it was an extra weight and was a little too close to my lyre for comfort, it was better than having no waterbag at all. I'd have to tune the lyre more often, but it was worth it. Becoming dehydrated was not a pleasant prospect.
Upon looking up again, I saw that the other items had disappeared.
Where did all that stuff go? I could understand that Faalan was quick, but there was no significant bulge in his cloak from all the items. How did the boy carry all that stuff?
I didn't dare ask him, so I shrugged and waited for him to decide on what to do.
"You ready?"
"Yes. Let's go." I looked at him expectantly, and after a moment, he realized that I was waiting for him to go.
"Oh, right. Eh he..." He turned and made his way to the village.
"Faalan! Your hood!"
"Hood? Oh, yes!" He flipped up the hood of his cape and lowered his head slightly so that most of his face could not be seen.
"Is Faalan a common name?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Because if it's not very common then people might be able to figure out who you are if I call you Faalan."
"Faalan is a fairly common name, so it shouldn't present too much of a problem."
"Good."
By this point, we were almost in the village. Only a few more steps and we would be on the dirt roads of the village.
There were a few suspicious looks at us, but nothing that told of a possible attack. I was a little tense at first, becoming nervous from all the stares, but when I looked at Faalan, he gave a reasuring smile, the only thing that I could really see under that hood, and I relaxed.
"Excuse me, sir?" Faalan had made his way to an elderly man watching us with no suspicion.
"Yes, young man?"
"Have you heard any rumors about the-"
"Di Zuce attackings?"
"How-?"
"Everyone's been asking. It seemed only natural that you would be asking too. Are you hunting the di Zuce like all the others?"
"Um...."
"Thought so." The man laughed, his voice raspy and cracked. After a moment, he began to tell of what he knew.
"Well, so far, we've heard the the di Zuce is moving north, and quickly. If he continues at that rate, he'll make it to the ocean.
We're assuming that he'll turn around and head back, attacking other villages. From what we do know, he's trying to wipe out humans in general."
"What do you think he will do about the islands?"
"When he finishes with the mainland, he'll most likely get himself a boat and head out to the islands."
"Do you have any idea on what his motive is?"
"No clue, but if he wants to destoy the human race, what does he think he's going to do after that?"
"Is there anything else you know?"
"Nope. That's all I know. Is it sufficient?"
"Yes, thank you for your time."
Thoughout this time, I had remained silent, letting Faalan do the work. But I felt slightly guilty. I made a silent promise that I would try to help with the questioning of the next person. Faalan moved on, going to an elderly woman. I helped to ask this time, but she knew no more than the man. We moved from person to person, gathering all the information we could. But all that we could manage to dig out was that he was moving north and quickly. It was very frustrating, for we couldn't find any specifics as to where he was. I worried about how many deaths Kaija had already caused.
We thanked all the people we had asked and then made our way out the village, taking shelter underneath the trees. The sky was beginning to get dark again.
"Well, that was really successful." Sarcasm laced his words.
"At least we got some information, right?"
"I suppose so. But it's still annoying. We weren't able to get any specifics and it will take too much time to just move north and search all the villages north of here. Can you imagine how many villages there are?"
"A lot?" My remark just seemed to make him all the more angry.
"Yes, a lot! Gah! What are we going to do?!"
"Um..." I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to make him more angry, but I felt as if I needed to respond somehow. He paced around angrily, punching trees while he was at it.
"I've got it!" he cried out, making me jerk up in surpise from my sitting position.
"Got what?" I asked, unsure of what he was talking about.
"I've got an idea on how to cover more ground in less time."
"And how are we supposed to go about executing your idea? Whatever this idea of yours is?"
"We can travel at night, and I can carry you with my powers while you sleep."
"And what about you? You need sleep too. As much as you wish you were, you aren't a superhuman. You'll collapse from lack of sleep quickly if you try to do that. What I suggest is that you project your mind and search for Kaija's mind. As soon as we figure out where he is, you can teleport a bit and we can walk the rest of the way to him."
"Oh. Why didn't I think of that before?"
"I dunno. I didn't think of it earlier either. It might have saved a lot of time..."
"Well, let me try it then." Faalan closed his eyes and his brow furrowed with concentration. I held my breath, hoping that it would work.
"I've found him. He's many miles north in a village. He's...killing people right now. He has such a twisted mind. He's enjoying the killing. His pulse is racing with excitement. The scent of blood exilerates him. He's tasting the blood and liking it. And then he's killing more. And more." Faalan shivered and his eyes flew open. I trembled at the thought of being in Kaija's mind. It must have been awful for Faalan to be in there.
"So... Should we try to teleport now? Or do you want to rest first so that you can store up your energy? He's sounds pretty far away."
"Yes... I think I'll rest for now and tomorrow morning I'll teleport us." Faalan seemed a little out of it as he said that, and he sunk to the ground, collapsing in his exhaustion against the nearest tree.
Within moments, the boy was fast asleep. I gave a little smile and then put my lyre and flute into the tree he was sleeping under. Then, I settled down beside him and slowly, I fell into the dream world.

AN: I like writing fluff. ^_^ Originally, I was going to stick with the whole Kaija and Fala thing, but someone told me it would be boring and that she really wanted Falaan and Fala together. So... With some help with the twist in plot, we now come to the current stage in the story.