Flames of the Past [Exam | Kite]

"Gonna have to be faster than that!" Narumi yelled with a chuckle as the wagon raced down the old rocky canyon path. A wall of rock to her left and a straight drop into a pit of darkness on her right. "Cmon fella! Don't fail me now!" She mumbled as the horse pulling her wagon sprinted down the path. Behind her, near 20 feet, another wagon gave chase! It was loaded with angry ruffians! "GRR DON'T LET HER ESCAPE!" One of them yelled as he whipped the reigns harder, the over sized, but actually quite fast, pig beasts squealed and began gaining! Narumi looked back with caution as the wind blew her ears and hair with it. Finally the cart got close enough, and two men jumped from their wagon, grasping onto the edge of hers! "Oh you gotta be kidding me!" She grimaced. "You got this?" She asked the horse, but then remembered he couldn't speak. Sighing she quickly put down the reigns and vaulted onto the back of the wagon which was holding many large crates. The two men clambered to their feet just as Narumi came charging in with a magic infused punch! "Take this!" The bandit quickly sidestepped the blow, but the sheer force of magic power behind it caused a large wave of void energy to explode from her fist, the pig beasts squealed and ran in a zig zag pattern in a frightened panic, and the men on top were forced to hold on just to stay balanced as one of the wheels nearly clipped the edge of the cliff! the two bandits in front of the Kitsune began to fight themselves! Pulling out their swords, one slashed straight for the fox! But she was quick, stepping back just as the sword rang past her. This time she grabbed his arm and swung it over to block a strike from the other bandit, before lifting her leg and kicking the man! He staggered, giving the fox enough time to elbow jab the bandit who's arm she had been holding, causing him to wheeze in pain. She then lifted her head for a headbutt and he as well staggered, holding his nose, letting go of his blade.

Now armed the kitsune smirked as the bald man in front just regained his balance. He growled at her, and lunged forwards for a strike. Narumi quickly parried his blow, and the next, and the next before ducking underneath his swing and tripping him! He fell on his back just as the carriage hit a large bump! Narumi fell to her knees, but managed to grip a crate in time. The other man, not so lucky! The impact caused him to roll right off! He fell onto the rock path and rolled several times in the dust, only NARROWLY avoiding getting run over by his friends. The 2nd bandit, now with a bloody nose had also managed to grab hold of something to keep him from falling. Narumi grimaced but wasted no time getting to her feet and rushing forwards! He blocked her overhead slash just as she predicted, and then let out a powerful magic infused kick straight into his chest! He went tumbling backwards until he rolled right off the cart! Smirking at her skills, Naru looked back to the wagon behind... That's when she noticed something odd. The men were frantically all grabbing the reigns of the pig beast and pulling them back. That's when she looked forward to see the cliff edge. Her cart was heading right for it. She knew there was no time to stop her horse, so she quickly turned and sprinted towards the end of her wagon, leaping through the air off of it! She rolled right onto the wagon of bandits, but it seemed they weren't having much better luck. All of them stared forwards in horror just as Narumi's horse turned the corner, detatching itself from the wagon as it tumbled over the edge! Their's was next! They all yelled as the pig beasts ran right over the edge, the wagon falling through the air into the forests below!

Her ears flicked back to life, as her droopy eyelids started to flutter open again. Her golden gaze was hazy, but she could see that they were now inside the forest near the bottom of the canyon. All around Narumi wreckage from the two carts were strewn. The pig beasts were on their sides, surprisingly still breathing, but most certainly out of it. The bandits also lied all across the forest floor, most were knocked completely out. Narumi finally found the strength to lift herself up, and much to her surprise, she was unharmed! Guess she must've been built as tough as nails! She shook her head and slowly got back to her feet. Now her only goal was to fade into the forest without the bandits knowing. She'd begin to walk slowly, her tail hanging low, heading for the treeline... But that's when something strange happened... Her head suddenly throbbed with pain! She grunted and fell to one knee, holding it. What was this sensation? It wasn't some sort of head wound from the crash was it? However, her thoughts were split with sudden pain, and her vision flashed! She saw something.. Images? for very brief moments, her mind flashed in between the real world.. And a completely different one. Where there was living trees and green grass.. They were briefly replaced by dead ones and mud... The blue sky turned from blue to black constantly and that's when she saw it... Ahead of her in the woods. The vision showed her... A beast of shadow.. Surrounded by fire. And a blood curdling howl! Narumi screamed and held her head! What was this!? What was happening to her?! The world constantly shifted in and out between the forest... and a Hellscape! She sweated intensely as her ears and tail drooped far too low. Her golden gaze wide with fear... And it wasn't long until her little incident attracted attention.

A man, one of the bandits, came lumbering around the corner of the destroyed wagon. His face filled with rage. He saw the kitsune. "Y- You! You'll pay for this! You'll burn!" He yelled. Narumi was barely able to register the man's presence.. She turned her head towards him, her face filled with fear as the man also distorted between a regular human.. And a black abomination. The bandit lifted a hand and screamed. "FIRE PULSE!" And with that, his hand exploded in red hot fire... All of it rushing straight towards her.. What could she do, but stare in terror?

The darkness took her, the only light she saw was the intense fire coming towards her... Meant to swallow her whole. She could've never predicted that she'd be beaten by fear... But there was something she couldn't explain happening. Something in her mind made her be afraid. And whatever it was, it was giving this nightmare land form before her...

That's when something happened. From the sky above a light came down... She noticed it a moment before the flames got too close, and as it slammed into the ground in front of her, Narumi's vision was instantly restored to the world of light! It was a man! But no Bandit she remembered seeing... Who was he? Narumi watched the new take the hit for her, using his body to protect hers. The fire had no effect on him... Narumi was still too shaken from the experience to speak, all she could do was stare at the situation unfolding before her, breathing heavily as her mind still pounded with pain.. But it seemed the arrival of this man halted the nightmarish visions. For a time anyways.

The bandit seemed to be no match for him. His magic was far superior than any sparks the bandit could hope to conjure. Seeing him eat the flames of the man, her eyes widened slightly. She may not have been in this world long, but Narumi had never once seen anyone EAT anyone else's magic? And like she could predict, eating fire added power to his own. ANd with one massive strike, the bandit was down. The power of this newcomer was far greater than she could've expected.

Finally he turned back to Narumi and kneeled down, asking if she was hurt. Her golden eyes stared into his for several moments, taking loud breaths before closing and putting a hand to her forehead. "N- No.. Thanks." She muttered somewhat quietly. "I uh..
I'm Narumi." The kitsune said again, opening her eyes and putting on a small smile. She decided she had enough being wounded, and decided to get up. The fox slowly stood to her feet, still keeping a hand on her aching head as she squinted at her surroundings. Everything was back to normal. "Those jerks just don't know when to quit.." SHe chuckled looking at the destroyed wreckage around them. The fox then turned back to the man with a bright, but equally mischievous. "So mr. Hero! What might your name be?" She seemed to have forgotten completely about what had just happened, and returned to her regular self. The effects of the vision wearing off, she was now more curious as to who her savior was.

"Kite Whilhelm." Narumi had said aloud trying to see how the name sounded in her own words. Interesting. He denied the fact that was a hero, in spite of everything that had just happened. Why would he say something like that? Narumi wondered, but couldn't come to any conclusion. Perhaps she just didn't know him well enough to take a guess. Something personal she reckoned. Either way, it wasn't really cause for concern. Not to her, anyways. Of course Kite had then asked what the reason as to why those bandits had been chasing her in the first place. The fox's ears twitched as she stared at him for a moment with a look of confusion. That's when her memory snapped back into place. "Hm? Oh, yeah!" She chuckled. "I maybe, kinda sorta blew up some of their weapon caches..." Narumi couldn't help herself but snicker as she remembered the look on those bandit's faces when their stores when up in flames. Narumi of course, at the time, couldn't hold herself from laughing and the whole camp knew exactly who had done it. So that's how the chase began.

With that out of the way, Narumi was a bit more curious as to who this Kite person was. Where did he come from, and why was he here? "You just happen to be strolling by?"

The man went on to explain the reasoning as to why he didn't view himself as a hero, or how he thought his actions were heroic. Not that it mattered much to the fox, she still was glad he was there to save her sorry hide before things turned out ugly. He was just being a good fella, as he put it. She needed help, so he obliged. Although most people in the world would try and stay out of what Narumi had gotten herself involved with. Most people weren't capable wizards who could stand up to a group of angry bandits. She was lucky one happened to be nearby.

"Hehehe, They were stashing up for some big heist or raid operation. Luckily I put a stop to their plans before they even got the chance to use any of those weapons." She snickered again. The whole situation with the bandits was something Narumi couldn't help herself but laugh at. Despite being chased and almost killed, she still found something exciting about the whole thing. She couldn't quite explain it, but it just filled her with so much adrenaline. Kite told her that he had been flying above when he noticed the chase she had gotten herself into. At this, Narumi raised an eyebrow and gave the man a confused expression. Flying? He didn't appear to have any sort of wings. She scanned him up and down for a moment when he said another strange word. AI? Now what was an AI? Some sort of pet? Was he riding this AI?

And that's when Kite asked about Narumi's reasoning for being frozen in place. At this question her mind snapped back into action and she remembered the horrors she had witnessed. Her ears lowered slightly as she turned her eyes away from Kite's. "I uh... Not sure... I saw something." She started, her voice noticeably quieter now than before. It was like... Some sort of nightmare. I seemed to be trapped between two different worlds. I have no idea what it meant, but I was too scared to even move." She said truthfully, her tail lowering as well as she thought about it. "Some sort of vision. It hasn't happened before. Luckily when you intervened it ended." She said again, smiling slightly at Kite.

Narumi couldn't help but smile nervously at the end of her explanation, like she wasn't entirely confident in herself or the reasons she had given. Which to be perfectly honest, she wasn't. Put simply Kite now knew as much as she did. In fact, judging by his interest in the topic Narumi wouldn't be surprised if this sort of thing had happened to him before. It was quite possible that the fire demon knew a lot more than he was currently letting on about this specific topic. Not that it mattered much to Narumi, though. The nightmare seemed like it was over, and she didn't really want to think about it that much... At least until Kite told her that he'd like a more detailed explanation. This prompted a more insecure and uncomfortable look from the Fox. Even thinking about it made her nervous. However, he did seem like a decent person. Like he was actually trying to help. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea after all to tell him what she saw exactly. Maybe he could help her.

Kite proceeded to look up towards the sky and speak... But it wasn't towards her. She looked at him with a curious glance as her ear twitched. Who was he speaking too? He mentioned something named EDI? Before Narumi could question his strange actions, however, a new sound hit her ears. Narumi turned her head skywards as well to see a massive object float through the air straight towards them! Her eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly in surprise. She knew this world was magical, but she had yet to see anything like this. A flying piece of metal that took orders from people? And Narumi thought SHE was the odd one. Soon the metallic monster opened up some sort of ramp, and her companion stepped on it. He turned back to her and offered her a 'lift' as they discussed the nightmare. But before Narumi thought this thing couldn't be any stranger, it then spoke!

"Uh..." Was all she could say. Kite answered the strange voice and explained that Narumi was a friend and told her that the voice was named EDI. He said it was the AI he had been speaking of earlier. Hell if Narumi knew what any of those words meant. Narumi hesitantly followed him inside the metal monster as he then shifted the topic back to her Nightmare. Narumi carefully gazed around the interior of the ship as he spoke, a mixture of fear and utter awe in her expression. It wasn't until a good 5 seconds after Kite had finished speaking that Narumi's attention finally shifted back to him. "Uhh... Huh? Oh! R- Right!" She blurted, chuckling and nervously scratching the back of her neck, her ears lowered. His questions seemed oddly specific, although Narumi supposed that was for the best. She cleared her throat and tried to answer them to the best of her ability.

"It uh.. Started as soon as I woke up from the little crash I had taken off the cliff edge." She began. "It was kind of sudden... I was just walking towards the woods, trying to escape the scene when all of a sudden..." Her voice quivered slightly as her eyes widened and stared off into space as she remembered the horrors she saw. "The.. The forest changed.... Everything was dark... And dead." She said. "I wasn't taken to a different place... But everything was different. The sky was black, and the trees were nothing but dead planks of wood... The ground was muddy as well." Her gaze shot towards her feet now. "The nightmare flashed in and out of existence... It was like one moment I was in this world... And the next I was in another one... One that reeked with death." Narumi stopped speaking for a moment, but it was obvious that wasn't the end of the story. "BUt then I heard something..." She looked up straight into Kite's eyes with her golden gaze... True fear inside them. "A bloodcurdling howl..." She said softly. Her hands were clasped together and sweaty as her entire body shook slightly from the experience... Indeed. It was not something she liked to remember.

Narumi stared at Kite with hopeful eyes, hoping that he may have the answers to Narumi's many questions. For a moment, Narumi thought the demon slayer might have known what was going on, but she wasn't entirely sure yet. To her, Kite was still a very mysterious figure. The fact that he had shown up just in time to save her and owned some sort of flying machine were all strange factors to the fox. However, he seemed nice enough. She could tell he was concerned about her, and wanted to discuss this more, even if Narumi wasn't keen on remembering what had happened... But she knew whatever it was it wasn't a normal event. This had never happened to her before, so she figured the vision had to do with her lost memories. Although the question still remained on what the vision had to do with the current spot she had been in when it appeared. She had never once been in this forest before, and certainly not whenever it looked like that. At least she had hoped so anyways.

Soon Kite informed the machine to move upwards, and he offered to take the fox upstairs. She carefully accepted the offer, following the demon slayer through the strange metal creature, still gazing around it in awe. Finally the two had reached a larger room with a long table in it. He pulled out a chair and offered the fox a spot to sit. She nodded at him and took a seat, putting her hands together in her lap as she watched him move towards the fridge. Finally he asked about the vision, specifically the howl. Narumi's ears lowered slightly as she tried to remember. "Uhh... Closer to the end, I think.. Yeah. Right before you showed up I heard it, and then the vision ended..." She said truthfully. Although from the tone of her voice it sounded like the kitsune was trying to decode it herself, her eyes lost in thought for another moment until the demon slayer spoke again.

Her past. The most frustrating part of this entire event. Narumi had no idea. She didn't know who she was or where she came from exactly. This vision was probably in relation to something Narumi forgot, but what could it have been? She figured there was no use in keeping that piece of important info from Kite, so she spoke up. "Funny thing is... I have no idea." She put simply, looking back towards him. "My memory... It's gone. I have been wandering this land for a few weeks now with no notion of who or what I am." She told him with a nervous chuckle before it quickly turned back into a deep frown. "The vision would probably have some relation to my past.. But I honestly have no idea what. The first thing I remember is waking up naked, on a sandy beach..."