Ethernu and I agreed on using the same location for our fights to take place in.
Spoiler (Click to Show)
“I need to find shade.” Ethernu thought as sweat poured out of him.
After hours of hiking, he finally saw that he was approaching a forest, Eager to reach it quicker, he unsheathed the Morph Blade and morphed it into a grapple gun.
“Why didn’t I think of this earlier?” He thought as he fired his grapple gun towards the nearest tree.
Meanwhile in the very same forest, we can observe nature at it’s finest. Ahhh, feel that cool breeze flow by. The fresh smell of pine cones and mountain air makes any creature feel alive and energized. Look over there yonder, by the bridge over the rushing river. A ferocious mountain cat and a pack of cute, black bunnies. Here, we can observe the natural balance between predator and prey. Of course you may be thinking: “Sharpiro, that’s sad. How could you talk so calmly about a bunny massacre.” To which I reply: “In this case, the bunnies are the predator, not the prey.” These bunnies will make an excellent meal out of that mountain cat, but one of them stands out from the rest. She looks like your average teenage girl (well, except for the pink, rosy eyes).Her golden, silk hair flowed in the forest breeze. On her chest, lies a light pink shirt with the words “I love your EVERYTHING!” written on it with bright pink sparkling gel. The ‘o’ in the word ‘love’ has been replaced with a simple, but meaningful heart. Her more “interesting” part was the bottom half of her body. Where her normal human legs should be, are replaced by bunny legs. Her name is Leelee, quite a fitting name.
***
Ethernu sat awhile on a stone, with his eyes closed, feeling a pleasant breeze flow under the tranquil and shaded forest. The sound of birds chirping, and sound chattering made him feel…...happy. He smiled a little, but that smile was short-lived. His heart ached, his mind was flooded with guilt, the thoughts had haunted him day and night after that battle: “It was my fault, Vamprina could have been enjoying this scenery right now, why was I such an idiot for challenging her?” He felt a single, crystal droplet sliding down from his right eye. The droplet fell from his face down onto his blue sweater, shattering instantly, just like his heart. “I have committed a terrible sin, it’s unforgivable.” Another droplet slide, making a dark spot on his white shirt, like the darkness that consumed him..
“Hello! Are you crying?” said a cheery voice
Surprised, Ethernu immediately opened his eyes to reveal a teenage girl with bunny ears. He looked down at her feet and realized she wasn’t human.
“Wh-Who are you?” He asked, not fully recovered from the shock of her sudden appearance.
The girl giggled, “I’m Leelee, you’re not from the forest are you?”
Ethernu passed a sigh of relief, “I’m Ethernu, Sharpiro told me that he challenged Cassandra to wRHG battle.”
Leelee gave a big smile and said, “Oh yeah, Cassandra told me about you. I almost forgot! Today’s our playdate!”
Ethernu looked confused, “Ummm, playdate?”
“We’ll have sooooooo much fun today.”
At the word fun, she protracted her claws from her oversized paw gloves; which made Ethernu take a step back. Ethernu unsheathed the Morph Blade and pointed it at Leelee. Unsuspectingly, Leelee burst her paws into fire which forced Ethernu to reel backwards, temporarily blinded. He tripped over some sort of object and fell backwards. When his vision came back, he got up only to realize his opponent was gone. Ethernu picked up his sword and gripped it. He listened carefully to the surroundings, a river was flowing and some birds were chirping, but other than that, all was completely silent.
Leelee looked safely from a bush. What was Ethernu doing? It didn’t look like he was looking for her. He was just standed still with both hand gripping the blue-gemmed sword
“A perfect opportunity to surprise him!’ She thought.
She tried to restrain herself from getting too excited, but that failed. She took a few excited hops inside the bush.
Ethernu, hearing the sound of a bush rustling, morphed his sword into the familiar shape of a net gun.
“I’ve got you now….”
He quickly twisted himself in the direction of the sound and fired. He heard a shriek and then a loud thud. He rushed to the scene only to discover the net had been slashed open.
“W-what? How did she get out so quickly?”
He turned around just in time to see Leelee rushing at him, no time for questions now. He hit her head with the flat of the sword. In return, he received a full kick in the stomach. Normally this type of attack wouldn’t be too bad for Ethernu to handle, but Leelee kicks really hard and has claws on her feet, imagine how painful that is.
Ethernu went flying and hit his head on a pine tree. The pain was throbbing, Ethernu tried his best to ignore it. “This is not a game anymore.” Ethernu thought, This was definitely a fight now. Time for a change of tactics, Ethernu morphed the goddess’s sword into Joy, a weapon that had a connection to his past. The trusty phaser gunblade had always been there for him. Its infinite range and ability to rocket jump has saved his life several times before. Leelee came to locate Ethernu, only to discover he vanished. Then, she felt a shock of pain from her foot. She looked down see some blood caking her foot. She sensed an object approach her. She step-sided just in time to dodge the sword hilt of the Morph Blade. She charged at a weaponless Ethernu. Expecting his opponent to anticipate his supposed weakness, he motioned the Morph Blade to return to his hand. It moved slightly, but it was stuck in a tree trunk. HIs face went white, it didn’t go as he planned.
“Oh boy…”
He got pinned to the ground by Leelee, he struggled to free his hand it, was of no avail.
Leelee smiled, “I got you now!”
He struggled again, this time his left hand came free and her punched her in the face. She reeled for a moment letting her opponent stand up. He prepared to throw another punch but then looked at her face. He had given her a nose bleed. A sickening feeling spread through his mind.
“Sorry…..” He said weekly
Leelee did not reply, either she didn’t register the message or she didn’t want to talk to a man that just gave her a nose bleed and an injured foot. She kicked Ethernu again who was inert and didn’t notice a clawed foot kicking him again in the stomach. He went flying again but this time, he fell into the chasm where the river was. He quickly grabbed a conveniently growing tree root and hanged on for dear life. He looked down and saw how high he was in the air. He swallowed, the tree root snapped. He screamed as he fell down to a possible watery death, no tree root or Morph Blade was going to save him now. He felt as if his head smashed on concrete when he reached the water. The pain was too much to take, the fact that he had another head injury didn’t help. The world went black for Ethernu as he sank under the water
***
At first there was white, then an image began to form. There was music, it sounded like the music he enjoyed… as a child? The image cleared to reveal a familiar face.
“Mother?”
“My child, you should rest a while.” said a soothing voice
“Mom” He croaked
“Yes deary?”
Ethernu thought awhile about the question he was going to ask.
“A-am I dead?”
HIs mother laughed “Oh son, you were always the crazy one. You’ll not be joining me yet. You are in a sort of…limbo mode.”
“Limbo mode…” He repeated
“Don’t worry child, you are in good hands now. Leelee saved you.”
What his mother just said shocked him, “How...did you know her name?”
“I have my ways son, I have my ways…You really must go now.”
“Wait! Before I go! Am I dreaming this, or is this real?”
His mother laughed. “Of course you dreaming this, but why on Darmania would it not be real.”
Darmainia, why did that word sound so familiar? There were so many unanswered questions, but he knew his mother could not answer them all now. He had to find out for himself…
Ethernu’s radiant eyes opened and he wheezed as he struggled to receive oxygen.
“You’re awake!” a familiar voice said.
He sat up and saw the cheerful face of Leelee. It looked free of injury. He looked at her foot, it was also fully healed. He felt the back of his head, it was painless now, his wound has all disappeared
“Why did you save me?”
“I wouldn’t just let my new friend drown, would I?”
Friend? She barely just met him and he caused her a lot of injuries. She still considered him a friend?
“I’m sorry about kicking you into the river…”
Ethernu smiled, “I forgive you Leelee. If anything, I should apologize for hurting you.”
“I’m so glad!” She gave the most toothiest grin Ethernu has ever seen.
He stood up and shook hands with Leelee, “I’ll see you again sometimes, I got to go.”
“Awww, but you haven't even met my bunny parents or my other friends yet!”
“I’ll meet them next time Leelee, I promise.”
“Promise?”
“I swear.”
He watched as leelee hopped queitly and quickly through the forest.
“Wait!’ Ethernu yelled.
Leelee came back,” What is it friend?”
He thought for a while and finally said, “NIce play Leelee. That was...fun.”
“Thanks Ethernu!”
He waited for Leelle to disappear and continued on his journey towards the heavens. Then he sat down and cried for a long time as the sun set, letting the moon take his place.
“I’m a monster.” He thought, letting it haunt him as he slept.
[/spoiler]
Spoiler (Click to Show)
Ethernu scratched idly at the neck of his sweater, wondering if it had been a good idea to bring it with him. For now, the shadow of the trees gave him relief from the sun’s heat, but later on, with all the moving he had to do, he’d be quite warm indeed.
Just across from his position was a wooden bridge; an old thing that was made out of a type of a rich reddish wood. Every knot in its swirling grain was ringed with a golden sheen; causing the material to sparkle when the sunlight hit it. Despite all its beauty, the builder hadn’t given the wood enough credit. After all, the bridge was not much to look at, just a simple, box-like structure; a design that looked as though it had come from a child.
On the other side of the bridge was a plain, grassy clearing, free of rocks and obstructions. This area was almost completely ringed by trees, except for the “path” straight across from the bridge’s end. If someone stood right on the bridge and looked at the clearing, the trees straight ahead split apart. Beyond the split was a cliff; like an exit to doom.
Around the weapons-master was more grass, except this clearing was dotted here and there with boulders, and was also ringed by trees. East of his position, two giant cliffs rose above the treeline, each one a haphazard mountain of massive boulders. The river ran between the two rock faces, splitting the pair with its lithe, frothing form.
All around him, Ethernu could hear birdsongs, and a cool breeze rushed by his ear, suddenly causing him to shiver. The weapons-master shifted his legs on the rock, finding a different position, and continued to wait. Ethernu frowned. Where was his opponent? Had she perhaps forgotten the fight was today? He sat still awhile, and eventually allowed his senses to get lost in the ambient hum of the forest.
***
He was looking away from her. Leelee crouched low to the ground, creeping through the bushes without even disturbing them a little. The human was an intruder here. She’d tell him to go away nicely…after surprising him.
The girl resembled a human female at first glance. Her long blonde hair was tied up in a lengthy ponytail, which was wrapped around her neck like a fur boa. Her eyes were a vibrant pink, with curious black pupils centered in them. She had faint pink heart shapes on her cheeks, and delicately formed facial features. Her ears though, were those of a bunny, covered with light-blonde fur. The rest of her soft-peach-colored skin on her upper torso was not furry, aside from her arms. These were furred from elbow to fingertip. Her hands were covered with oversized light blonde paw gloves, each one with four fingers (including the opposable thumb). Beneath the paws, their pads were shaped slightly to resemble hearts. The hands they contained had five fingers each (thumb included) as was normal, but the gloves were special and acted like Leelee’s real hands whenever she had them on.
From her waist down, the bunny features took over. Leelee’s legs were shaped exactly like those of rabbits, and her rear sported a large fluffy bunny tail. The fur on her lower body was all light blonde; the same shade as the fur on her arms and ears. Leelee wore a pink shirt that said “I love your EVERYTHING” on the front, written in bright pink glittery gel. The ‘o’ in the word ‘love’ was drawn in the shape of a heart. The words were set in the center of a faint red heart shape, which took up most of the front of Leelee’s shirt. She also wore a pair of light-blue jeans which cut off just before her knees, the edges ragged with wear.
The bunny girl crept closer to Ethernu, her body tense with excitement. However, just as she was about to reach him, she noticed something. His beetle-shell-brown cap was covering most of the top of his head, and didn’t let any hair stick out of underneath it. For a moment, Leelee considered the fact that he was bald, and the idea caused her to giggle.
Ethernu sprang to his feet at the sound, whirling around and drawing his blade. The weapon rang as it sliced through the air, flashing in the sun. He pointed it right at Leelee’s face, tensed to strike. The bunny girl giggled again, her smile revealing needle-sharp white fangs. She looked at Ethernu’s blade tip, her eyes crossed for a moment, and then she sat back on her haunches. Leelee cocked her head.
“Hi!” she said, giving him a friendly wave. “I’m Leelee!”
“Ethernu.” the weapons-master replied, withdrawing his blade slightly.
Leelee sniffed, and then ran a circle around Ethernu once before sitting again. Ethernu blinked. She was fast.
“You smell funny.” she stated, straightening up to her full 5’6” height. “You don’t live in the forest, or you’d smell like moss and trees and stuff.”
Ethernu raised his eyebrows, and then gave her a stiff nod.
“You’re right.” he answered. “I’m not from the woods.”
Ethernu paused for a moment, peering critically at her legs.
“Um…what are you?” he asked.
Leelee giggled, posing like a velociraptor ready to strike.
“I’m a Leelee!” she replied, clapping her soft paws together. She stopped and