Amulet Chapter 4

Plantera was a beautiful town. Yes, a town. Not big enough for a city, but it had too many people to call a village. It was very popular for its weaponries and many breweries. Hence the reason it was protected by those darn ulisps and minx from the north of it. It also had its' sandy white beaches that provided a stunning sunset for those sappy kinda couples. I remember one sunset I wish I could barf on right now. On the other side of Plantera was a lush forest. Hardly anyone ventured in. As radiant as it was, it was immensely thick. Anyway, the point is; Plantera is a town nestled on the bottom of the western continent. With a giant white house always watching the sun when it finally sets.

"Mommy! Mommy, that over there! What's that?" "That's a cheese grater, honey." "-and ooh! Ooh! What's that? What is it?" "That's a bicycle, dear." "Bye-icicle? That sounds funny! Oh, mommy! Look! Look at that lady! Is she sick?" The little girl's mother turned in the direction her daughter was pointing.  There sitting on a bench in the Wingward was a person slumped lowly with their face in their hands. The woman's daughter was still tugging at her mother's sleeve. Their long black hair would have immediately told her it was a woman but their build was to manly and muscley that she was indeed confused. The woman dismissed it and pushed her daughter along with her to the counter.

His mind was in a complete state of shut down. He called. He called again. 'Where could it be?' calling... 'No go!' "Excuse me, miss?" 'Who could have it?' "Are you all right ma'am?" Ryuu looked up and glared at the little girl in front of him. He was in no mood to be bothered with the likes of anyone. So, he released a low growl under his throat. She, immediately frightened by the now obvious man, ran back to her mother, tucking away from the danger one the bench.

He'd only begun to sulk. 'I can fight without my amulet, but if I get hurt in a fight, I'll need it to heal myself.' He sighed. 'I guess the best I can do is to find my master,' He started off into the direction of the Mansion of Aktash, his old master and guardian. Aktash raised Ryuu since he was a little boy when his parents were assassinated. The very thought of it made him cringe. He could vaguely remember much about Mr. and Mrs. Langaster. The world renowned assassins and guineses of the arts were killed in their mansion years ago, leaving year old Ryuu in the care of his father's best friend, Aktash, who saved the youth and raised and trained him in the way of the hunter. The idea of being a hunter did not come from Aktash but it was Ryuu who begged become an apprentice hunter under the man. For years the anger and the fiery want for revenge grew with each passing moon. He couldn't wait to taste the blood of the killer upon his ulispy fangs, juggle their head on his trokish hand, and feel contentment that for so long has eluded him in his human heart that they, his parents, would be proud that he, Ryuu Langaster, their son, had avenged them.

*Crunch* "What the?" The strange sound under his feet snapped him out of his deep cynical reverie and revealed to him a sandy shore and a long ocean that stretched for miles on end. "Oh," he dimly around, "I guess I passed it a couple of hundred blocks away." As he was about to turn around and go back from where he came, a roarish shriek lined the edge of his hearing. He jerked his head back around towards the ocean. Nothing. "Umm, Okay." His heartbeat rose only a notch when the water then eventually the sandy beach began to vibrate and tremble. Reflexibly, he slipped into camouflage mode where the trokish scales on his skin would blend in with the sand in the orange-red light of the sunset.

"Sunset..." In a flash he was remembered of a small moment. A woman, cooing to a baby. Humming. Darkness. Then, a bright, orange sun. "You like sunsets, don't you Ryuu?" The woman's chest rose and fell as she sighed. "I always loved sunsets."

"Hmm." 'I wonder what she looked like.' He'd asked Akatasch many times what they BOTH looked like. And he did, but in time. Akatasch only gave him bits and pieces of their appearance every time Ryuu came. He said it was, 'A gift for surviving,' a privilege he could attain if he fought for his life. "That old fart, what do I look like? Some week fool?!" The sun was almost completely down. There was sudden ripple through the water. "Or maybe...He thinks that, one day...yeah right! Like I'm really gonna off myself!" There was another large ripple, but bigger. "It took him 'til I was 14 to tell me their friggin names." Then another, larger ripple. "Lockette Langaster; the Crimson Rose, and Lao Fang Langaster, Red hair and black hair. Red eyes and green eyes. A gun and a sword. That's all I got so far.

With a new ripple came a rumble. Ryuu turned around and gazed upon the ivory building. There was a window, closed with dark blue-green drapes. There were vines growing on the side of the structure. The mansion was beautiful. It was a pearly ivory with windows on every other wall. Every window had forest green sills with royal blue drapery except for that one window pointing towards the sea. The glass reflected the last slits of the sun. A louder rumble resounded through the sand beneath his feet. He looked towards the sky, scanning it, but there were only blue and purple clouds. Another came. "Sigh. Now what?" He turned towards the shore. He guessed right; with every rumble there was a ripple to match its' size, and the intervals between them were getting closer. Instinctively, he spread his scales and camouflaged, with the blue sand. Though, due to his half blood, he couldn't camouflage completely unless he concentrated hard, so that's what he did. His wild red eyes took in the roughness of the sand, illuminated by the coming moon, and mimicked it. As the moon grew stronger, so did his cover, all in time while the rumbling and rippling of the water also grew. An ordinary person would have only felt small trembles, but his ears were sharper, and boomed at the resounding batches of air. 'Whatever this is, it's big and its coming closer.

And it came.