Haunted and Hunted

Cirven and his sister had set off on a job in the Sakiri Desert. The Sakiri was a desert that had a low population and was an area that was untouched due to its weather and climate. This still did not stop a few villages and small towns from settling in its environment though.

Cirven wore a sleeveless black shirt and black pants with his red scarf which he was somewhat regretting once they landed in the town their job called them too. The air changed harshly from how it felt before Zinnath stopped and landed. So much so that he felt like he could barely breathe.

"Aalya, can we get this job over with quickly? I think I might die just from the heat itself in this area." He walked with his sister through the town as he complained. He made sure to give a wave to Zinnath in the midst of complaining as they left her to fly away.

Aayla gave a mocking roll of her eyes and a smile as she moved closer to Cirven, lifting her hand and getting up onto her tippy toes. She put her hand on his head and giggled lightly as she created water, letting it pool over Cirven and drip all the way down his body. She quickly bounded out of arms reach for fear of a counter attack from her brother.


"You won't die from heat. I'll keep you cool. And I don't think this will be a fast mission... if there IS a dragon in the area, we might be here a while... the villagers will have to be relocated, and we'll need to call for reinforcements... and I really want to know if it is Hydrianna or not..."
She muttered the last part sadly, her happy tone turning sour as her eyes grew distant. Lately, as she returned to their nest, she hadn't been able to find her adoptive mother... she had assumed Hydrianna had just been out hunting... sometimes she would be gone days at a time but... she had been missing for 4 of their training sessions, and Aayla was worried...

"Cirven... what if it is Hydrianna... now that people know she's alive... they'll hunt her..."
She muttered sadly.

Nakiya traveled the town nestled within the Sakiri Desert. It wasn't a very large town and therefore, she could safely assume their contact with the outside world was limited. She took advantage of this to train herself and her magic. She had no problem summoning her regular spirits, in fact, Leo was by her side as they walked. They were both drapped in a brown cloak that was drawn over their heads to protect them from the sun.

No, the spirit she really needed to practice summoning was Zargan. Zargan was the king of black dragons, and by no means was that simply a fancy title! It took a lot of energy out of the Celestial spirit mage to summon him, and even more to keep him in this plane. She had to get stronger to keep him in this world, for he was now a major player in the fight against the Light Celestial Spirits. He was a leader, and he would lead them to victory... without a doubt.

"E...excuse me sir... miss... you two aren't from around here... a friendly word of warning... there's a dragon in these parts... please be careful..."
An old lady walking passed the pair said gently as she stopped in front of the pair.

"Oh my! A dragon!? Is that even possible in this day and age?"
Nakiya stated as she brought her hand to her lips as if utterly shocked at the news, when in truth, she was hiding the smirk she bore.

He let his sister touch his head and put on a soothed look as the water formed on his head. She always had found a way of helping him to feel better about something just like she had down in the past. "Thanks.." He mumbled to her.

He listened to how she felt about this dragon sighting they were investigating. Their job was pretty simple. Find any evidence of a dragon and call for help immediately if they found anything. He knew they weren't strong enough to beat a dragon at all so he planned to stick to their orders with the assignment.

"I'm sure she is fine. She is a dragon after all so I'm sure she wouldn't be dumb enough to be caught or even cause enough of an issue to be hunted for." His attention drew to an old woman nearby who was warning two hooded people of there being a dragon around.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Did you say there is a dragon around here? We are mages." Cirven showed the tattoo on his upper right arm. "From the wizard's guild Sabertooth and we are investigating the sightings. Any info you have can help us with dealing with this threat quickly."

"I... I hope so Cirven..."
She said with a light sigh when her brother ran ahead to talk to some old lady and two passers-by. Aayla raised an eyebrow but followed, and caught up just in time to hear what her brother was asking the old woman.

The little old lady looked up at the two new comers with some surprise. There were so many strangers coming to this town lately it was worrisome... the town didn't need any tourists hovering about... they had their own problems without getting the guild mages involved.

"Yes boy I said a dragon... and if you know whats good for you, for all of you, you'll stop looking for this dragon and be careful! They are not to be triffled with... no sirree... you know a few years back there were a bunch of dragons! yup all over Crocus I hear... oh bless my heart I never thought  they would still be around...  thought the dragon slayers did something about it..."
The old lady began to rant as she stepped away from the group that had gathered to listen to her story. No doubt the woman had gone a little bit senile...

Nakiya's eyes darted to the legal guild mage that approached them. At first, she thought nothing of the blue haired man and his little companion. However, when he approached the old woman and introduced him as being a part of Sabertooth, her blood began to boil. She absolutely detested light guild wizards. She would have blatantly attacked him then and there, however her last lesson was a hard earned one... she didn't know anything about him, he could easily over power her, even with Leo at his side.

"You don't plan on taking on this dragon do you? That would be insane. You would need to be a dragon slayer to even consider taking one on by yourself."
It wasn't Nakiya that spoke, instead, Leo stepped forward, drawing the hood from his head and letting it fall back. His hair was an ashen grey and his eyes a deep crimson red. He pushed his sunglasses up more to obscure them however as he spoke.

"Forgive me. My name is Leo...nard... Leonard. And this is my wife... we were walking through the desert when we first saw the dragon... we thought it was a mirage but... if you are here then it means we're not the only one's to of have seen them."
Leo continued as if genuinely worried about a dragon in the area. Nakiya smiled behind her cloak, Leo had definitely been quite the catch... He and Vulpix where the brains to her insanity. Where she would have just flat out attempted to murder them, they were there to make sure she could do so without fear of repercussion.

He laughed at the old woman's comment and pointed back to the guild insignia on his arm. "This symbol stands for the strongest wizard guild in Fiore, ma'am. I'm not too worried if a dragon were to show up with our power." He thought twice about mentioning that Aalya was a dragon slayer because he couldn't completely trust the randoms they were around.

He turned his focus onto the gray-haired man with sunglasses as he spoke out and revealed himself. "You guys are crazy... Its over one hundred degrees here and you and wearing dark cloaks like that. I thought I was being dumb with my scarf but you guys are a lot further over the rainbow." He caught himself and changed the subject. "Uhh.. Yeah... Dragon. We are after the dragon."

Aayla gave her brother a nudge in the ribs as he was starting to become rude to the man that had jurt revealed himself to them, no doubt the woman at his side was his girlfriend or his wife. It didn't take long for Cirven to get back on track though, muttering something about a dragon, causing the young girl to sigh and bow apologetically to Leo.

"I'm sorry for my brother sir... We are actually looking for that dragon... would you remember where you saw it?"
She asked curiously, hoping they hadn't actually passed the large creature off as some mirage and couldactually help them find Hydrianna... or whoever this dragon was.

"Actually these cloaks are quite nice. They stop the sand from getting in our eyes and protect us from the sun. It seems stupid but trust me, im sure it's breazier with this than walking around naked."
He said with a smirk. Behind him, Nakiya cleared her throat to shut Leo up before stepping up beside him and taking her turn to address the pair.

"We could take you to the dragon if you would like... at least to where we saw it... but I can't promise how safe it will be... the desert alone is a treacherous place."

Nakiya offered, removing her own cloak which let her hair fall in red cascades over her chest. She was an absolute beauty to behold in a desert such as this, her face was beautifully made up, just barely managing to hide the scar that ran up across her cheek.

"Oof!" He let out a sound to reflect his sister hitting him. "Sorry, sorry. I can get carried away. I'll trust you on the cloaks." He then changed his focus to the beauty that showed herself to them. "Whoa.. Uhh.. Yeah.. I'll follow you where ever.." His eyes widened as he caught himself saying that aloud. "I mean, yeah. Lead the way miss."

His face was as red as his scarf after speaking and he hoped that they somehow didn't catch onto his mumbles. "Ready when you are to lead. We have to confirm this for the guild. If not then we will just head back empty handed."

Aayla tilted her head as her big brother began to stumble on his words as soon as the red head showed her face, wondering what had taken the words from his mouth. He looked over at Nakiya, trying to figure out what it was about her that caused him to act that way... Maybe he was having the same reaction she had whenever Sky had summoned Cetus? She pondered the thought for a moment before shrugging it off and following behind her brother.

Spoiler:

Nakiya gave a light smile towards Cirven, no matter how fake it was, she was sure to make sure it would tempt the young man into following her, and ignore her Celestal Spirit as he began to follow them, walking alongside Aayla as he began to strike up a low conversation with the girl.

"This way... He was very impressive I must say... have you ever seen a dragon before mr Sabertooth wizard? Do you have a plan?"
Nakiya asked of Cirven, glancing back to the blue haired mage with a look of total curiosity about her.

Behind them, Leo began trailing behind with Aayla, the two walking at their own pace as Cirven and Nakiya walked at their own. They were always within ear reach, but well out of arms reach.

"I'm curious, you're so young for a wizard. What kind of magic do you use..?"
Leo asked the small girl innocently.

He followed the woman closely with his sister behind him along with the man. He had a sort of uneasy feeling about things but figured that was the fact he was near such a woman. He kept catching himself from checking her out after remembering that her husband was behind him.

"My plan at this point is to hold off the dragon if needed while reinforcements come or to just find the dragon and stay a safe distance while we keep an eye on it and wait for the others." He sighed. "And in the boring event that there isn't a dragon we waste our time here confirming its fake and leave. How close are we by the way?"

"Oh... It's not far now..."
Nakiya said just as gently, moving her hand from underneath her cloak as if she was going to bring it to her face to shade her eyes from the sun. However, when her hand emerged she had a key in her grasp, a dark key.

"Leo."
She said before stopping and turning to the Spirit of the Zodiac. Leo was quick to respond before Aayla even had the chance to tell him what sort of magic she used. He grabbed her small wrist forcefully and pulled her close. The girl gasped but Leo only smirked evilly down at her.

"Close the gate!"
She commanded with a wave of the key and both Leo and Aayla disappeared into a cloud of shadows. Her attention then returned to Cirven, a crooked smile now playing her features as she returned the key to her chain and grabbed another, the key of the Fire Fox, Vulpeca.

"Vulpix!"
She then called out, raising the key high above her head as a tornado of fire arose from the ground, shooting towards the sky and leaving behind the form of a man. He had hair as white as snow, ears on his head of the same color. He wore a white and red kimono and held a fan to his face as his tail whipped away gently behind him.

He raised an eyebrow as he saw the black key in the woman's hand. He hadn't seen anything like it and before he could react the woman called out to the man behind him. Cirven turned around quickly and saw the man grab his sister. "AALYA!" He ran towards her and reached his hand out but was too far to stop anything as she disappeared with the man.

"What did you just do?!" He pulled out his sword from its sheath and stared at the woman barely caring about the fact of the flame tornado that formed next to him. His glare was strong enough to shoot daggers through her heart. "Bring her back." He said sternly. "Bring her back or I will give you matching scars all over your body to compliment your face."

Nakiya couldn't help but laugh at the blue haired man's anger towards her. Her grin was suddenly quite sadistic as her eyes bore into his.

"She's in the Celestial Spirit World now. Do you know what happens when a non spirit travels there? Well, first off you can't breath.. there's no livable oxygen. So while my dogs tear at her flesh, while Wrath beats her senseless and while my dragon slowly eats her alive, she will have nothing but the last breath she took here. Hahahahahaha"
She laughed psychotically as Vulpix stepped forward, both his hands igniting into flames as he put his fan away and braced himself into a fighting stance.

"Mistress if I may... this man... haven't we fought him before?"
The fox asked with a voice that seemed rather uncaring.

Nakiya's eyes took in the man's form, stopping at his red scarf, and then looking at his pointy ears before looking once more into his eyes.

"I would remember eating a corpse as fine as this... no. I don't believe we've had the pleasure, Vulpix. Now, take him down!"
She ordered as Vulpix nodded gently before leaping forward, towards Cirven with both fists raised. When he got close, instead of swinging his fists, he opened his mouth and released a great fireball drectly at Cirven's head.

Civen grew angrier as she put on a sadistic smile. His thoughts became swarmed with beating the woman senseless until he somehow got Aalya back but he had to think against it as he thought that the woman might be the only way of bringing his sister back and would need to be conscious to do it.

"You are annoying." Cirven used his speed to duck out of the way of the blast coming towards him. He then reached into the dimension storage the Kukan carried and used the wind dragon scale on the hilt of the sword. After a flash of light the katana changed into a black hilt and the wind around Cirven became stronger. "Fujin." He quickly pulled the hilt from its sheath in a slashing motion and summoned blades of wind to attack the fire spirit. "Out of the way!"

Nakiya's eyes grew wide with excitement at the sight of the sword and how it had transformed. Vulpix had been right! she had previously fought someone very similar before... that sword, she remembered it well, it was the reason she carried a certain scar on her back, and was the reason that man now found himself, and his family dead. The thought of it only made her laugh even more.

"Oh this is too precious! Tell me tell me tell me! Where dd you get that sword... oooh how it likes to mock me, the Kukan! haha!"
She had been younger back then, in fact only a child but that didn't stop the man from attempting to kill her. She was a dark wizard after-all, even at such a young age.

Vulpix scoffed as he was forced back and away from Cirven, his fire growing with the wind. He was pushed back however and the sleeves of his kimono had been cut by the blades of air, causing the fire fox to sigh deeply.

"of course this kimono would be ruined too..."
He said in exasperation before a tower of flames shot out of the ground again, engulfing the form of the man until his body morphed into that of a small red and white fox. Vulpix opened his mouth again as another stream of fire shot out at Cirven.

He heard the crazy woman talk about his sword as if she knew about it. He didn't know how she would know anything about a sword that his father had searched for. It was a one of a kind weapon after all. He watched as the man jumped back and barely dodged his attack. The man then changed form in a wave of flames and attacked with fire again.

"I'll tell you after I beat this fox and you and get my sister back. Either after you are near death or after you are in a cell." Cirven lifted his hilt above his head and channeled the wind and then cut down the hilt as if it had a blade. Two blades of wind flew towards the fire coming at him. "Tempest!" He spoke out as the blades flew.

He then moved to the right of both attacks and tried to move closer to the fox and the woman, calling onto more of the wind and sending out two more blades towards the crazed woman.

Spoiler:

"Tch"
Vulpix leaped backwards and up, away from the first blade of wind that cut through his tunnel of fire, barely managing to avoid the second strike. The wind itself however was enough to flow the small fox backwards, even as he landed into the sand, he slid back before coming to a full stop and growling at his enemy. The fox's tail raised itself up above his head and when the spirit leaped up into the air he began to spin forward, creating a wheel with his body that suddenly erupted into flames and shot forward towards Cirven.

"Ohhhh you want your wittle sister back?"
She taunted as she drew what looked like a katana hilt from her side and drew it before her. She channeled her Celestial spirit magic into the blade, extending a blade of pure energy to a 60cm length. She brought the sword n front of her and slashed down on the oncoming wind. The balde wasn't quite powerful enough to stop the spell, but enough to make it much less damaging. The wind dispered, managing only to create small cuts in her cloak and clothing. Her left arm became visible and the tattoo of Savage Skull now visible to those who looked at it. The wind forced her back into the sand a bit, but she quickly regained her step.


"awww well, I might be able to indulge that... I imagine my spirits are almost done.."
She said as another evil cackle escaped her lips, causing her to grin more as she reached for her next key, still holding onto Vulpeca's key within the fingers of her right hand.

Cirven's focus was on how well his attack went against the woman which caused him to forget about the fox long enough for the fire attack to get to a range where he couldn't dodge it. He quickly swung the hilt in the way of the flames in an effort to lessen the attack hitting him. Wind blades flew out just before the blast of fire could make contact with him but only made the blast go in different directions. Some of the flames still hit his left shoulder and his right leg.

"Ugh!" He grunted in pain but then used the power of Fujin to extinguish the flames on him. "You are really starting to piss me off fox!" He charged towards the fire fox in an attempt to get closer for an attack to get rid of him. Once close enough he would summon out blades of wind again but this time would send them out at spinning angles and close up so that the fox couldn't dodge them without being hit.

Za'cha's body stood atop a dune in the sand as the battle between Nakiya and the swordsman progressed. His left eye glowed blood red as he observed, a frown on his features as the fight continued. "A shame... would have been interesting to watch her test herself against multiple opponents... A test for her summoning abilities to call forth two at once." he said, his voice echoing slightly. In his field of vision, an identical person stood next to him, or rather, sat on the sand like a child pouting. Only this Za'cha didn't have a glowing eye.

"Seriously Pride, you have me trail the girl, and then when we get to that town you fucking take over without a damn warning. And for what?" he asked, gesturing to the duel. The body shook its head as Pride sighed. "I sensed a power that could rival my own on her person... one that dwarfs even that of a Wizard Saint in mortal comparisons. Given the arena, I wonder if she will call it forth." said Pride musingly before shrugging. "Besides, I did give you warning."

"An electrical shock to my entire damned mind is not what I'd call a proper warning you jackass!" complained Za'cha before he sighed and looked out at the school-girl red head against the blue-haired elf. "Gotta admit though... cheap tactic using Leo like that. Viable yes, but... damn if it ain't just plain lazy, boring and oh so clichéd." he sighed, Pride only nodding fractionally in agreement.

"Let us hope then that she shows far more promise than that. If she is to claim all Seven Dark Keys..." he mused, Za'cha smirking up at him, causing the Dark Spirit to raise his hosts eyebrow. "And what are you smirking at?" he asked. "Just realised that tone in your voice there... you're scared at what the school-girls got hidden up her skirt, that little mysterious spirit you don't know about." he said with a chuckle as he looked back at the fight. "I am not!" yelled Pride before he sighed and returned to watching the battle.

Vulpix landed on the ground, stumbling slightly before leaping back, though not in time to properly avoid the blades of wind that came crashing into the fox's form. The small fox whined lightly at the strike, fading into an 'explosion' of shadows stepping from where the fox had been summoned.

"You came looking for a dragon right? and your sister, you want her back right? RIGHT? WELL, HERE, HAVE THEM BOTH"
She yelled as she laughed insanely, drawing the dark key that held the spirit of Zargan and drew it in front of her. She needed no words to summon the Dark Dragon, as the power form the key alone sharply over shadowed her own. A very large magic circle surrounded Nakiya, even growing so big that Cirven would be stepping on it. The circle grew and grew until wings burst out of it. Shadows followed the immense wings, darkening the area until the wings bent and blotted out the sun. The form attached to the wings continued to grow, and grow, and grow until a full fledged Dragon soon stood before Cirven. 

Spoiler:

Nakiya was standing a top of the dragons back, placing her blade back to her side as she continued to laugh loudly, her arms soon by her side, raised in a classic "hey im a bad guy and about to win" pose.

Soon, a small human frame was thrown from the dragon's clutches towards Cirven at high speed.

Aayla was barely holding onto consciousness as she was flung from the dragon's claws. The intent was never to hit Cirven, and so she went crashing into the sand at painful speeds. She let out a scream as she landed, the salt slipping into her wounds and serving to make them grow larger. She looked like a mess, her clothes were torn so severly she had barely anything on at all, and what remained was soaked in her blood. There was a cape hanging around her neck which remained untouched other than the spatters of blood all over it. This cape, was clothing from the celestal spirit world, which had allowed her to breath and exist there when she had been taken over. The dogs, they had said it was to hear her scream, and scream she did... the fight she put up was pathetic, she hadn't been able to do much against the spirits before the great form of Zargan appeared before her... her dragon slayer magic did very little against the king of dark dragons.

She had cried, begged and screamed to be released, but they never did... there were deep gash marks in her legs where the dogs had bitten her, deep cuts where the shadows of wrath had pierced her skin and large dragon claw marks across her chest.

When she finally stopped skidding in the sand, she had left behind a long streak of blood that was slowly pooling around her, sinking almost just as quickly as she cried and continued to cry out in pain, the pain was the only thing keeping her conscious... they shouldn't have been able to cut her up like this with her water body...

He watched as the dragon came out from the large magic circle in annoyance. It was as if they had been pulled into a trap without knowing it. A trap they would have never gotten into if he didn't speak to the woman and her spirit. A trap that he felt the full blame for. He stared up at the woman and was about to ask where his sister was but was cut off as he saw the dragon throw something just passed him.

His eyes opened up in horror as he realized just what it was that the dragon threw. His emotion changed to pure anger and thoughts of revenge swarmed in his mind. He wanted to cut the woman up so that she felt the pain his sister had just gone through times ten.

His sword changed to its regular form but he reached into its dimension to grab the thunder dragon scale and placed it into the hilt of the Kukan to change it into six electric blades that he held in both of his hands.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" He yelled out as he charged the dragon slashing one hand full of blades to send out a stream of electricity. "Kiren!" He trailed behind the stream as he charged the dragon with complete disregard for anything but revenge even forgetting the fact of having to call for reinforcements.