Tales of a Journey (Private!)

"Oh, come on Kinta. Don't think like that!" Audri commented as she squeezed her boyfriend's hand lightly as they walked along the alleyway, "It's actually their way of living really. I asked Riri a while ago since I was curious on what the other tribes like Riri and Matthew's ate."

The smile on Audri's face quickly dissapeared as she came to a slow stop as he held onto Kinta's hand, almost trembling a little as she stood there looking down for a slightly second before looking up at Kinta.
"Kinta I.... Can I ask you something? It's... something important I think we should kind of talk about," Audri asked as she stood there, trying to take the moment seriously. Hoping that there be no other distractions, she had to ask him now before anything else happens from this point forward.

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"Oh, well it's nice to meet you Malisa. I'd say the same to your brother, but he's well... outcold," Xander gestuered to the man on the floor as he took a seat down on the floor, not really wanting to stand up anymore.

"But, before you were mentioning that your brother would get mad at you for knowing how to perform powerful illusory magiks. Why don't you just tell him and explain that you can do this because you have the potential," Xander suggested, trying to make the situation come to light of what the siblings could do instead of arguing and fighting.

"I... kind of have a sister of my own, and there's this guy she is dating, but I hate his guts! Stupid sister choosing that demon instead of listening to... Oh, crap. Sorry, getting off topic here. What I'm trying to say is that siblings fight, but if you keep fighting, you might not ever come to any conclusion," Xander said crossing his arms over his chest as he continued, "I think that maybe you should talk with your brother, and maybe we can convince your brother in trying to treat you like a little girl because sooner or later, you're going to grow up."

 

Audri bit her lip for a second as she shook her head trying to reassure the silver-haired man. "It's not about Ranma, or anything about Ranma for that matter. I.... I kind of wanted to talk about you, and more importantly, that ring of yours," Audri commented taking a few silent deep breaths so that she was panicking, or about to try.

"Kinta I... I don't know what's happened the last few.... days, maybe week or so, but after you put those rings on.... Mostly the other one, not the Cu Sith one, you've been... different," Audri said as her eyes glanced down to the ring on his hand nervously.
She flickered her gaze back up to Kinta before speaking, "I'm just worried about you, and it's even worse that you're not telling us anything about this! All that... the others know is that there's something dangerous going on, and I just don't want another blowing-up-the-castle incident! And the others are sort of right, you've been... a bit more agitated, angrier and frustrated whenever things happen these days.."

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Xander just looked at the white haired girl before scratching the back of his head, "I might not know anything about parenting, but being siblings is the only thing I've got. I... I think that if you talk with your brother and try to explain that he even is being a bit too much of a parental figure, maybe your worries will soon diminish."

Xander got up to his feet as a sudden question popped into his mind as he wandered over to the 'trees' before glancing back at Malisa, "Wait, if your brother is the parental figure, where are your parents? I mean, the ones that pretty much gave life to you and all?"

 

Audri tried her best to blink back her tears, but the tears just kept falling down her face as Kinta spoke and held her by her shoulders.
"T...There better be nothing wrong or I'm going to be mad that you lied to me," Audri's voice cracked as she started to sob, finding herself wrapping her arms around Kinta's waist and burying her head into his chest.
"D-Damn it Kinta, you know that I get emotional when this type of shit happens," Audri sobbed through her tears as she held onto Kinta tightly, having this small fear of losing more people she loves spark up as she just let all of her crying out.

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Xander noticed Malisa and Neli's uneasiness as the three of them stood around as the illusion disappeared around them.

"If.... If you know where your mom is.... Malisa, what happened to your mother which is making Isilma take care of you the whole time?" Xander asked, feeling very uneasy of asking the little witch the question, mostly because he didn't know how to handle this situation anymore lightly..

 

Audri's sobbing soon slowly ceased as they stood there for a little while longer. Audri looked up at Kinta with puffy eyes and a tear stained face that was tinted by her pink blush as she spoke up.
"S-sorry about getting your shirt wet Kinta. I'm also a little sorry of how I acted up," Audri said a little embarressed by her sudden actions as she grabbed Kinta's hand again smiling, "So how about we go find Neli, Scarlett and that idiot Xander so we can head back.... to the others to help out Ranma and Riri?"

Audri had stopped herself in the middle of her sentence as the word that wanted to come off her tongue was a word she hasn't used in years - home. She knew that her sudden stop was probably obvious, but it's not like she was trying to make anything terrible out of the sentence, at least trying to look at the light part of the situation.

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Xander stood there a little stunned, but not surprised. He really didn't know how the situation was going to go, mostly when he's acting the odd witch girl about her mother even though it looked like a touchy subject.
He quickly pulled his thoughts together as he walked over the the house made up of books and helped Neli put the remaining books away in their rightful place.

 

Audri looked at Kinta confused as she made herself able to keep up with him as he held her hand as they walked along their path. "W.... Why do you think that Ranma would want to kill the bird? I know she might seems a little scary, but she seemed or tried to be nice and helpful," Audri commented as she scratched the back of her head as she thought that she heard some type of rustling behind her.

It's probably just a cat or some kids playing a game of hide n' seek, Audri thought to herself trying to reassure herself by trying to bury her fears away with her odd yet simple nonsense.

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Xander glanced over at Isilma carrying the remaining books as he nodded a little, "Yeah. She did get you real good." After a quick yet silent moment, Xander pipped up, knowing that he shouldn't be asking, but he wanted to know.

"Um, look... Isilma, right? I... was talking with your sister, and she had mentioned something about you being her parental figure and something about your mother being ill. I.... Is everything ok with your mom or what? Malisa was... very upset when I had asked her," Xander said trying to poke lightly around the situation as he stood by a nearby shelf and putting the books away.

 

"I don't think so, but it really should be that hard to find, right?" Audri asked with a smile. "Maybe it's just around the other side of this building, come on Kinny!" The blonde girl said with a smile about to take a step forward before something crashed through the window of the shop and lying there in the dust was Scarlett with a few scratches on her.

"Oh crap, did Xander do this to you?!" Audri asked baffled if Xander was beating her up as Scarlett sat up and coughed a little bit, "N-no. Xander went to go find Neli, but I ended up finding Lizabeth and Justis. They're in the shop fighting about something with Florence and I tried to stop it, but now I'm here." Audri helped the Sin up to her feet as she glanced at Scarlett, "Just out of curiosity, where's the front door?"
Scarlett gestured with her hand to the end of the building and shrugged lightly, "It's on the other side. You really can't miss it with all of the books lined in the window."

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Xander followed after the odd man with Neli at his side as they traveled through the area heading for their said destination. "A disease? If it's coming from the crystals, how come you have not tried to destroy or take out the crystals if they were causing harm to others instead of sealing them away?"

 

Scarlett shurgged as she stood there propped up by Audri as she spoke, "Well, I didn't want Audri to go on a 'motherly rampage' but Neli has been missing since we got here. That's why I was trying to run off with Xander when we first got here so we could look for Neli. We had got interfered because of Matthew looking for his brothers or something like that. Then we kind of bumped into Audri with her trio of furry foxes. By the way, where is the furry little creatures?"

Audri blushed faintly as she commented a little to Scarlett's question, "Let's just say that the foxes grew up very quickly." Scarlett just raised an eyebrow at her as she continued to speak, "Then me and Xander split up. I came to Florence's to get the book or whatever we needed to help Ranma out, and walked into Lizabeth and Justis making out on the couch while Florence was fixing up the store. I haven't heard or seen Xander yet, so I'm going to figure that he hasn't found Neli or something yet.."

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Xander looked at the crystals before he asked looking over at Isilma sighing. "If the crystals are what you guys are pretty much having to use to live off of, what... type of disease was spreading from these crystals? Like, is it life threatening or something?" Xander asked as he did wonder the whole issue behind these crystals instead of poking around all of this stuff.

 

"You might as well. Not like standing out in the cold is going to make things any better inside," Scarlett muttered as she slowly got off from her support from Audri as she stumbled to the front of the shop. When Audri got a good look at the front of the shop, it didn't look like anything stood out from the place expect for the furniture that was broken out front of the shop.

"What's with the furniture?" Audri asked as Scarlett walked over as she grabbed hold of the front door's handle as she scratched the back of her neck, "This was part of the mess Lizabeth and Florence started a little earlier before I intervened. Or tried to." Audri laughed nervously as she walked over when Scarlett opened the door and walked inside the homely shop.
"Florence, Lizabeth, Justis! Stop your snipping for crying out loud, besides this isn't much to fuss about!" Scarlett barked annoyed with the three that were argueing on the other side of the room. From what Audri could see, there was Lizabeth and the red headed man Florence yelling at each other about something that she couldn't quite make out. And then there was a man with short cut blue hair as he sat by the nearby desk as he was flipping through the pages of some book he was reading.
Just when Scarlett was walking over to the bickering two, a book came flying from their direction and smacked Scarlett right in the face almost sending her crashing to the floor.

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Xander walked over to the woman as he was a little amazed at the work of the crystals and blushed at how young Isilma and Malisa's mother looked. Must of married young or something, Xander thought as he glanced back at Isilma with a confused look on his face, "What does a green aura mean? If... she's lucky, then why is she in this... deep slumber of a sort?"

 

"I think it might be my uncle Justis, but I'm not entirely sure," Audri said as she hid behind Kinta as she saw another book flying ahead. The curious blonde quickly made for cover to where the desk was while Scarlett was fuming and stopped the heartless girl and Sin from fighting anymore.

Audri peeked over the desk like a child as she looked up at the blue haired man seeing that he was real deep into his book. He had short cut blue hair that had these strange lighter blue hightlights swept throughout his hair. He had the same menacing golden eyes like Altessa, but his at least looked a bit gentle and softer. He looked a little pale like he hasn't gotten any sun in at least a while, but from everything else, he looked like her uncle from how Xenlo described him. Not pointing out that he has this striking resemblance to the mad woman Altessa.
"Um, uncle Justis?" Audri asked as she stood up before she placed her hands on the desk as she looked down at the blue haired man. He seemed to have reacted to his name as he looked up at Audri with a curious look on his face before he fell out of his chair shouting. A stumble and a crash later, a hand found its way gripping the edge of the table.

"For the love of god Audri, don't scare me like that!" Justis groaned as he slowly pulled himself up and looking down at the blonde girl on the other side of the desk. "I... Wow, you really aren't anything like Altessa at all, are you uncle?" Audri asked a little confused as to why the man was so jumpy as Justis sighed closing the book that he was reading as he looked down at her.

"Nope, and I am very VERY sorry about the whole thing with Altessa. I'm sure that I had locked and hidden everything away so many years ag- Wait, what the hell is going on?" Justis said now realizing that Lizabeth and Florence were still fighting, but now they were throwing books at Scarlett.

"Oh dear, Lizabeth. Sweetheart, please don't throw books around since you might get then damaged, and then Dietrich will kick my ass because of it," The man commented as he walked over and pulled Lizabeth away from the pile of books that she and Florence were using as ammo.
"B-but, why??" Lizabeth asked innocently before she noticed Audri standing nearby in the shop. "Audri! What are you doing here?" Lizabeth asked as Audri sweatdropped having a facepalm moment of her own, "And I thought that 'Idiots in love' was just an expression. What are you fighting with the ginger girl about?"

"I'm a boy, and who would you happen to be sweetheart?" Florence asked as he trotted over to Audri with a big grin on his face as Justis whacked Florence on the back of the head and pulling him away from Audri, "Don't be a creeper!"

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Xander looked at the woman in the crystal before looking back at Isilma with a sadden expression on his face, "So, she's been here all this time and your sister doesn't know? Then... Where's your father been all these years?"
Something about the situation was starting to get to the Nobody, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly was getting to him. Maybe it was the fact that they were talking around a woman in a coma, or the fact that there's a disease that affects people coming from the crystals.

 

"He's my brother-in-law, cousin and Chaos' brother! At least try and get in right," Scarlett groaned from the pile of books that she crawled away from as Audri turned her attention to the swaking red haired boy with a smile on her face, "Really? Well, that would explain why Ranma gets flustered when we talk about someone mentioning Florence."

Florence's head turned as he heard Audri comment with a sparkle of love in his eyes, "Has Ranma finally decided that we can be together forever until he dies then in a very pretty and flowerly relationship??!" Audri just stood there confused as she took a small step back nervously, "Um, no and I think that whatever gay sparkles your giving off are going to make you explode."
Florence immediately blushes as he looked down apologetically as Justis and Lizabeth helped Scarlett off the floor. "Oh, how rude of myself, but I'm Audri White," Audri said with a toothy smile as embarrassed Sin turned back on his charm as he grabbed her hand shaking it, "Lovely to meet you Audri."
"Yeah, yeah Florence. We all know how this road goes in the end. You try to hit on her or set her up with your brother Chaos, and then Kinta beats you to a pulp because Audri is his girlfriend," Lizabeth whined as Audri looked up at Lizabeth curiously, "Now that you mention it, why were you and Florence fighting earlier?"

Lizabeth suddenly stopped her banter as she looked down with a deep red blush on her face as Florence popped back up looking at her smiling, "Well, she found out that I had wrote this mini porno on you and-" "WE'RE NOT DISCUSSING THAT AT ALL!" Lizabeth barked making the man hide behind Audri before hugging her waist from behind like a lost child and sticking his tongue out at the heartless girl.

"You write porno? Oh, wow. No wonder Xenlo says that my family is so into the whole sex thing. I would figure that Dietrich is rubbing off on people," Audri commented as Justis blushed furiously as he commented, "N-not all of us! It's just your grandparents and Xenlo's brother Dietrich! B-besides, you're still a virgin, right Audri??" Audri looked away sheepishly with a grin on her face, "Welll, there was that one time in the Organization where I was talking with 'Akira' since he brought up wet t-shirt contests and then one thing led to another..."
"AUDRI!?!" Scarlett and Lizabeth shouted in shock as Audri laughed nervously, "Geeze, I'm kidding. Can anyone take a break?"

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Xander nodded as he held onto Neli's hand to make sure that she didn't go off wander again.
"That's.... It's kind of depressing that your's and Malisa's father left years ago, but... do you think that he's still out there looking for a cure? I mean, I don't want to be rude here, but do you think he's still alive and trying to look for something to save all of these people, or that he's... had no luck and was too ashamed to come back home?" Xander asked as he wondered of what made Isilma and Malisa believe that their father would return to them in the later days.