Nusac

Chapter 18

Faith’s POV

Okay I feel really stupid. No one ever said that ‘charging up’ for these power things would make me feel stupid. I’m standing on the rock at the top of the waterfall, which divides the water at the top. I’m bare foot so I can allow the earths natural power to flow into me, or some such crap.

I’m cold I’m tired and I’m hungry but no fuzzy feelings that the earth is sending me yet. “Can we go now?” I shout over the roaring of the water passes at great speed.

“Do you feel anything yet?” Namine shouts back.

I feel a shiver run through my body. “Yeah early onset hypothermia.” She has no idea what that is so my sarcastic comment is lost on her.

“So no tingles?” She shouts back. She’s learned not to ask when I say something Earth like.

My feet are numb and tingling does that count? “Well I can’t feel my feet any more.” I just want to say for the record I was totally against this charging up experience from the start. “So can we go now?”

“When you’re not even trying?” I was trying for like the first hour or so. Now though I’m beyond frustrated.

“No I’m not trying any more.” I try moving from one foot to the other to work some heat back into my toes. “I’m soaked through. I’m cold and I just want to go to bed okay?”

Even over the sound of the rushing water I can hear her sigh in frustration. Just because she picks this sort of this up so easily doesn’t mean that I do. “Yeah, that’s enough for today.” Finally. I jump from my large rock along the smaller rocks to the riverbank and wrap my arms around myself to try and warm up a little. I may be out of the spray of cold water but I’m still socked and high up and the wind is bitterly cold up here.

She holds out a large blanket and I step into it and she wraps it around me beginning to rub up and down my arms. Neither action works in chasing away the shivers that rack my body.

“Come on lets get you back in front of the fire to warm up then you can meditate for a while.”

My neck snaps around to look at her. “Excuse me? I have been out here for over three hours and now you want me to go back and do more!”

All I get is a sweet smile, batting eyelids and something I was dying to hear. “I’ll make you food first.” And with that a whip sound goes off in my head… yeah, yeah I know… but she is so cute when she does that.

Mmm all warm and wrapped in a big woolly blanket in front of the fire… with food I might add, life is good!

I attempt to eat as slowly as I can, which isn’t all that slow actually so my plan isn’t working too well. I figure if I eat slow then it becomes light outside and that means that I can go out and kill stuff and not mediate, good plan yes?

“Ready now Faith?” She asks from her perch on the edge of the table.

The look of panic in my eyes wont go away so instead I look away out the window. “Ooh would you look at that… the sun is coming up, I better go slay now.” I say throwing the blanket off myself. I am out the door running before Namine realises what’s going on. As I sprint away from the house in the direction of the woods I hear a shout behind me.

“Fine then, you will just have to meditate when you get back!” Grr that woman doesn’t give up easily.

I shake my head and make my way into the dense forest, my senses already making my spine tingle. Looks like I should be able to have some fun before I have to go back and mediate. Why am I so whipped? This has never happened to me before and I haven’t decided whether I like it or not yet.

My senses lead me into a small clearing as it usually does. Why demons seem to like being in these clearings is beyond me. If they want some wide-open space why not just go out into the field. There are lots of people out there to eat. No one ever comes into the forest because they know that demons are here. But I guess we had the same thing back on Earth, demons with an obsession with old abandoned warehouses.

Well apart from this idiot. There’s always one that has to spoil all of my theories. He’s also wearing nothing more than a pair of leather pants and thick wrist guards. It’s advisable to wear a little more when you go demon hunting. “Hey!” he doesn’t turn around or even acknowledge my existence. “Hey you. It’s not safe in here at this time of day.”

He turns; well at least he’s not deaf. My sign language is a little rusty. By rusty I mean nonexistent. I approach him and my senses go off the chart. It’s not a vampire so I don’t think it’s this guy in front of me. Somewhere out there a demon is getting mighty close. A really big demon. Fighting said really big demon while I have to protect a human who was stupid enough to go wandering into the wood is not high on my to do list.

“Come on let’s get out of here.” Why is he smiling at me like that? Doesn’t he know the dangers out here? He looks to be in his mid twenties so he should know this stuff by now. Rule one of Nusac. Don’t go into the woods unless you have to. Or you’re dragged there whichever comes first. “Didn’t you hear me?”

Can normal people have black eyes? I don’t mean that there isn’t enough light and his pupils have dilated I mean all of his eyes, even the bit’s that are supposed to be white. It’s possible for a human to have that kind of eye right?

He brings his arms up and looks down at his palms. Okay this is getting a little weird now. His hands clench into fists and fire erupts from them. The flames lick at his flesh and travel past his wrist and half way up his forearms. Okay… that’s not normal. So, not human then.

Without giving me chance to process his suddenly flammable arms he goes to punch me in the face. As I haven’t got much time to think my slayer skills go on auto pilot and I catch his fist in my hands and I think my skin is actually going to melt off.

I resist the urge to flinch and push him backwards and away from me. Looking down at my hand I discover that it is actually as bad as it felt. The skin of my palm and part of my wrist are severely burned. I try to clench it into a fist but can’t hold it there. Trust me to come across a demon that can create fire around his hands.

He swings at my head and I have to duck down using the opportunity to sweep his legs out from under him.

If I can’t block what’s coming I’m just going to have to stay out of the way. I reach for my sword and the moment my burned hand makes contact with the metal I have to flinch. Looks like I’m going to have to fight left handed as well. This can only get more fun.

I awkwardly pull my sword from its sheath with my left hand and hope that my shoulder doesn’t pop out at any point. Having both arms out of commission. Things could start to get pointless.

He’s managed to right himself and takes a run at me swings his arm as he does. I’m not quite quick enough with my weaker arm and his fist connect squarely with the side of my head. As I hit the floor I can smell my burning flesh and can hear the skin sizzling. My right eye has started to close. Well that’s fucked up my depth perception.

I use the blade to push myself back to my feet and ready myself for his next attack. I won’t be caught like that again.

He comes at me again and I push the flat of my blade against his arm. It worked in deflecting him from attacking me but my sword has started to glow red. When metal does that it tends to be a lot easier to bend. This is getting really old really fast.

While I have my eyes on those flaming hands he decides to bring those rather large boots on the end of his feet into play. How do I know this? Well that an easy answer. He uses the flat of the boot against my knee and it bends backwards.

The scream ripped out from my vocal cords hurts almost a much as my knee facing the wrong way. I think he broke me. I drop onto the floor on my side still clutching my sword. Starting to see Nam’s point of view with the magic thing. Doesn’t look like I’m ever going to be able to tell her she was right though.

He comes to my side standing over me and my burnt hand clutches my broken knee. Neither injury making me any more comfortable.

That smile is starting to really piss me off. One thing I’m going to teach him is that you don’t piss off a slayer. Even if it’s the last thing I ever do. I swing my sword around and catch him with the part of the blade that hasn’t been melted yet right next to the hilt. The sharp edge digs into his side and the look of surprise on his face was all I was going for. The fact that he’s now going to bleed to death is just a bonus.

He steps away from me and I lose my grip on the hilt. My left side isn’t exactly my strong side. He roars at me run’s away. Well I’m still alive. That’s always a plus. How I’m going to get home is anyone’s guess.

I rest my head against the carpet of leaves across the forest floor just to give myself a little time to rest. When wind begins to rush past my ears.

I open my one good eye to see the carpet of leaves caught in a spin of wind, static electricity running around them and starting from a small pinpoint a white hole begins to open in midair.

“You have got to be shitting me.”