Made For Each Other
~*~
Part XIII
The teens' retreating forms finally vanished from his view, and Luka stood there still, his mind awhirl and his mouth hanging open. "Loyal, ain't they?" Turning to face the speaker, Luka was surprised to find an ancient woman, her dark eyes unblinking as she stared at him,
"What do you want, old woman?" he asked. "If you've come to challenge me also, then I will be forced to-"
He was cut off by cackling laughter. "Fight a young buck like you? I think not. But I must warn you…"
She trailed off and Luka found himself unwillingly pulled into her trap. "Warn me about what?!" he exclaimed, exasperated that he let himself be tricked by such an old ploy.
"About Hiryuu! The Golden Dragon, the Savior of the World; the one who was to rescue an entire population of magic users and set them free from the confines which have bound them. The Falcon and the Serpent were to give birth to the Golden Dragon, whose magical prowess would surpass all and be outshined by none. It was this child who would supposedly save the world by her union with the darkness. For, to save the world from the dark, the Dragon would have to marry the Child of the Shadow. The Light would unite with the Gloom and a new union would be born; one that would rock the foundations of our very world and create a new life for all in it's stead," she intoned, her voice fluctuating not only with age, but also with the magnitude of the words she was speaking.
A little leery of the strange old woman with the hypnotizing voice, Luka shifted slightly and felt for his magic. "What the hell are you babbling about? What does any of the gibberish have to do with me?!"
"Everything!" she cackled again. "For Hiryuu is the Golden Dragon, and you-" she pointed a gnarled hand straight at the wizard's chest, "are the Child of the Shadow! It is you of which the prophecy speaks!"
Mouth agape, Luka could only stare as the woman shrieked with laughter again. "But you unknowingly upset the balance and thwarted the prophecy, forcing it to chance its ways so the world could still be saved! Child of the Darkness, you have fallen!"
Scared for the first time in his life, Luka turned away from the woman and stumbled towards his car. "The Dark has been overthrown! But a new union must still be created! The child of the sacred bonds between Light and Shadow must come into existence for the salvation to last! The Golden Dragon and The Child of the Darkness must yet become one!" Her voice followed him, ringing in his ears and blocking out any other sounds he might have heard.
"You will succumb to your destiny! There is no escape for you!" Her laughter was cut off from hearing by the slamming of his car's door. Gasping as if he had just run ten miles, Luka grabbed for the pack of cigarettes taken from the trash before he had left. But his hands were shaking so badly, he could barely put the stick in his mouth.
Resting his forehead against the steering wheel, he closed his eyes and tried to calm his roaring blood.
The next thing he knew, there was a loud, rather rude pounding disturbing his serenity. Blinking, he sat up on the seat and found one of the teens from before knocking on his car door. "I must have fallen asleep…"
Rolling down the window he addressed the single triplet, not quite sure which one it was. "What the hell do you want?"
Haughtily, the boy replied, "Aviana Truthliver, The Falcon, and The Serpent wish to speak with you." He turned and stalked away, obviously displeased with having to speak civilly to the wizard.
Head still fuzzy with sleep and muddled with fragments of the woman's prophecy, Luka stumbled from the car to find three people approaching him, one of which was the woman from before.
A wild look in his eyes, he took a step back, much to Aviana's amusement. "You are Luka Guillaume Reinhardt, are you not?" the other woman asked, her voice soft.
Mute, he nodded and looked at the man with them. He looked livid, to put it mildly, and Luka found the remnants of his earlier anger seething in his veins once more. He hadn't done anything to these people! What right had they to be doing this to him?! Arrogantly, he straightened up and looked the man straight in the eye, surprised to find satisfaction flashing in their piercing depths. Piercing eyes … "They remind me of a hawk's eyes." Remembering the prophecy, the mage amended, "Or a falcon's… These must be Hiryuu's parents."
"Are you the Child of Darkness, whose life and destiny are so intertwined with my daughter's?" The Serpent asked suddenly, her slender form and face reminding Luka of the animal that was her title.
"So I've been told," he replied shortly, glancing at the old woman, who only laughed again.
With an air of satisfaction, the woman stepped forwards and, much to Luka's surprise, hugged him, like a mother would hug her son. "You are welcome in our house, Chosen of the Prophecy."
Bewildered, Luka watched her walk away, her face serene and her posture straight as a rod. "You'd just better fix things and fulfill the prophecy right this time," the man growled in a low voice. "Or there won't be a Child of the Shadow anymore." He walked away also, his face turbulent, unlike his wife's.
"Pay him no mind," the old woman said gleefully, as if she enjoyed interfering with other's lives. "He's just upset because you hurt his daughter." Her eyes were knowing as Luka glared down at her.
"And just how do you know?!"
But the woman merely smiled her infuriating smile and took her leave also; though she did not look back, Luka could not help but feel that she watched his every move. Shivering once she disappeared into a house, he glanced around and saw several more people staring at him.
Scowling, he grabbed his bag from the car and slung it over his shoulder, heading not to the house where Hiryuu's parents had gone, but in the other direction, towards a wide, open field. The glint and sparkle of water caught his eye and he headed towards its source, intending to sit and have a smoke before deciding whether or not to stay in Hiryuu's village.
A few minutes later he was seated on a large flat rock, his bare feet dangling in the water and his typical cigarette hanging from his mouth. He sighed and let his head fall back, ivory hair hanging down his back and pale face being warmed by the sun. It felt so nice to just sit and do nothing for once. So…nice…
"That's Hiryuu's rock."
Startled, he jumped and turned to see the innocent face of a little girl staring back at him, a stick clutched in one small hand. Remembering that this was only a small child, Luka reigned in his rage and asked as calmly as he could. "Who are you?"
But the pigtailed girl only repeated what she had just said. "That's Hiryuu's rock."
Sighing, Luka ground his teeth together and remained as collected as he could. It would do him no good to shout at a girl as young as this. "So you've said," he replied, smiling through tightly stretched lips. "And just what, pray tell, makes it her rock?"
Much to his surprise, the girl sat herself down next to him on the rock, setting her stick down on the ground gently, as if it were a valuable treasure and not just a piece of dead kindling. "This is her rock. She always comes here," the child said, one hand going to rest on the rock, the other latching onto the wizard's arm.
"Oh great," he thought sarcastically. "I hate kids…"
"She used to tell me, that when she was little like me, she'd come here all the time and play. That's why I come here, to be like Hiryuu," the girl said, obvious awe in her voice.
Startling himself once again, Luka felt his lips twitch in a real smile. "To be like Hiryuu…how naive…" "Just who are you?" he asked aloud, throwing away his smoke.
"I'm Kyatto!" the child said proudly "Hiryuu's my cousin! And you-" she gave him a sidelong glance, "are Hiryuu's husband!" She giggled as Luka's face morphed through several shades of red and purple.
"WHAT?!?!?!" he shouted, leaping up from the rock.
With a squeal and some more giggles, Kyatto jumped up from the rock also, skipping off across the field where she was joined by about six other children. All of them kept throwing glances back over their shoulder at the mage, their faces split in half by wide grins.
"You little brats!" he shouted after them. Muttering curses that could have burned the ears off of the children, he plopped himself back down onto the rock and stared into the river once more.
The crystal waters trickled slowly by, and as he stared at their shimmering depths, and allowed his overloaded mind to wander, he almost thought he could see the slender form of Hiryuu dancing in the glittering droplets. Sighing, he frowned, but the image did not go away.
His stomach doing backflips, he looked up only to find Hiryuu seated across from him on the other side of the river, her unbound hair rippling across the ground in waves around her. He could only stare as she watched him intensely, her eyes boring through his body and into the very depths of his soul.
Paralyzed, he found himself unable to say anything, and only gaped in soundlessly as she stood, her hair swirling around her. "Do not mind what Kyatto says," Hiryuu told him, her voice flat. "She is a wishful dreamer, nothing more."
The Dragon Girl turned and began to walk away. Something in the back of Luka's mind screamed at him, and suddenly, he found himself free of the spell that had bound him. "But…WAIT!" he finally managed to get out, jumping up.
But her body shimmered and evaporated into the hazy summer air, leaving nothing but a swirl of wind, and the smell of lilac in her wake. Frozen once more, Luka stared at the spot where she had been, his heart feeling like it had been covered in lead.
