Bellow the Surface Chapter 2

[Kayame]

Malaya’s scream slowly died away when she heard her name being called. Her vison blurred once more and her bloodied arm fall back to the ground with a soft thud sound. She saw five people standing over her. Three were men. One being Lord Hitoja, the second Hiko, but the third man’s face was blurred. The others were women. One was Tama and the other’s face was blurred as well.
“Malaya, hold on, please. We are getting the mages to come and heal you. They should be here any second now.” She felt the darkness began to grasp her mind once again, but it didn’t full engulfed her. Not until she heard the world that would echo through out her mind forever.
“Finally, the last of the Shinome have fallen.” The darkness then completely consumed her, blanking out her mind. After a few minutes of mindlessness she awoke.

It had been three days since Malaya’s encounter with the Lord, Hiko, and Tama. Her dreams since then had been the same when she was waken up by Ala the night she was told to speak with the three, but every night a little more of the dream began to reveal it’s self to her. She had yet to figure out what the dream meant, but every night she would write down her dream and compare them to what had happen that day, but had yet to find anything to show what this dream meant.
She had been summoned to speak with the head mage, Lash. Not only was she the head mage, but she was also the angel of nightmares. She was blind, but saw more then anyone else with perfect vision, plus she controlled the aspects of reality. What ever she made someone dream, that would happen in real life the next day or so. This has caused her to be known as Naku, or Death Dreamer.
Once she was dressed, Malaya walked down a dark cold hall, completely different from the one she walked down three nights ago. Screeches were heard, and the sound if blood splattering on the ground echoed against the black walls. These mages practiced the art of dark magic. Evan the alchemist were evil in some way. That is why no one, not even the Lord, would come down here. The only one brave enough was Malaya. To be honest, most of her friends were the mages and alchemist. As she walked down the hall, not caring about the screams that filled her ears, she passed by one of the alchemist.
“Hey, Josu. What are you doing?” Malaya asked waving to him.
“I’m looking for Nuru, have you seen him? He has my chimera and I need it back for further experiments.” Josu answered hastily.
“Uh..didn’t he have a meeting today about rather they should try to bring Jörmungandr to the surface or just keep trying to create baskalis. I believe his meeting will end around noon time.”
“Ah, ok then. I shall talk with him later. What about you? I’m sure your not down here for no reason.”
“Lash wanted me to see her for some reason. Do you know anything about it?”
“No sorry, I haven’t talked to her for a few days now. I think she made this big discovery or something. You know how she is.” Josu laughed slightly, his voice rough and it cracked every other word her spoke. His long, midnight blue hair, that was pulled back loosely with a rubber band, swayed as he laughed .
“Of course, well see you later, and um...maybe you should cut your hair before it catches on fire in one of your experiments.” Malaya laughed then turned and continued down the hall.
When she came to the last door she stopped a few steps in front of it. The door had blood stains that had soaked over from the other side. This was to first time in a long time that Malaya seen Lash. Come to think of it, this was the first time she had ever been into Lash’s room. This made her think, but she didn’t have enough time to even blink when the door cracked open and a hand shot out, grabbing her and pulling her inside.
The one who had pulled her in was a young looking woman, around her mid twenties, with blood stained bandages wrapped around her eyes. She wore a grey silk dress that looked as if it was brand new. Her hair was a grey silver color and fell down her back like a water fall. On her feet was nothing, and there were no other thing on her, besides a bracelet of the seven gods. This was Lash.
“You wanted to see me Lash?” Malaya said quietly.
“Ah, yes Malaya. Lately I have been feeling...something strange going around the palace and mostly around you and your room. Tell me, has anything happened to you lately?” Lash spoke coldly, but she spoke to everyone like that, even the Lord. As if she resented everyone.
“Well.......” Malaya hadn’t told anyone about the dreams she had been having, but it seemed that Lash knew what was going on, well at least knew something was up. “I have been having these dreams...”
“Dreams...? What kind of dreams?”
“Um...well....” Malaya explained her dreams for the past three days and what had happen on the first night about being accused of being a Shinome, not that she knew what a Shinome was.
“A Shinome you say? I must have a talk with Lord Hitoja. Ok, well you are dismissed. Oh, and tell Josu that I have his chimera so he can stop worrying that Nuru killed it or something. I swear sometimes that kid thinks that his chimera is more important then his life, or pride at that.”
“I shall.” And with a bow, Malaya walked out of the dark and blood stained room.
Despite the fact that most of her friends were the corrupt alchemist and dark mages, she hated going down there because she feared what she might see them doing. For, one time she saw Josu create, what was called a chimera, and she could believe what she saw. Then when he tried to separate it, the body exploded and the blood scattered everywhere, some landing on her face. So since then she always looked down at the floor as she walked down the hall.
As she reached the door to go back into the main room she stopped when she heard someone calling her name from behind her. She turned slowly around, afraid to see who it was, or what it was for that matter.

[Kayame]

The figure was tall with short black hair, and a black cape on his back, covering up anything that was he was wearing. They had glasses, with square frames, that were slightly bent in the middle to keep them from falling off. It took Malaya some time to figure out who she was looking at, but as the figure came close it hit her.
“Oh, hello Kyo. What is it?”
“I need to show you something, but you can’t tell Lash about this or she will kill. The stupid blind bat wouldn’t dare let you see this, despite the fact that it could save your life.” Kyo spoke softly, his voice barely heard, even by Malaya who was only a foot away.
“A blind bat am I? Well I’m sure you remember this ‘blind bat’ saved you how many times? Or is it you can’t count that high?” Lash appeared behind him, her tiny grey wings spread out, which only ranged half a foot each. Malaya could hear Kyo cursing under his breath as he turned around and forced a smile.
“Well at least I can see if someone is flicking me off.” Kyo spat back at her.
“At least I have a back bone to where no one would even think about flicking me off you jellyfish.” A silence fell over them. Out of no where Lash and Kyo began to laugh while Malaya just stood there trying to figure out what she missed.
“Now, what were you going to show Malaya that you know I wouldn’t approve of?”
“I was going to show her what her parents looked like, and...what they were.” Kyo took a step back, looking at everything but Lash and Malaya.
“You will not do such a thing! Are you out of your mind or do you even have one?!” This was the first time Malaya, or Kyo for that matter, ever heard Lash raise her voice unless she was yelling at someone for trying to trip her or something.
“I want to see my parents though...”, Malaya said softly.
“I do not care if you want to or not. You will not see who or what they were. Do you both understand me? Now, I will not hear any more of this. Kyo you will find that chimera that Josu is ranting about and give it to him, then you will came with me to speak with the “Grand Lord Hitoja” about a few matters.” Kyo nodded and walked off, looking in different doors to see if the chimera was in there. Lash then turned to Malaya.
“As for you. I want you to go into the garden and bring me those four money demons that has been stealing our ingredient. Do not return until then. And also, I better not get any word of you going to the library to look up anything until I say it’s ok.” With that said, Lash turned on her heels and took off back to her room.
Fine then, I didn’t want to read anything anyway. Gah! Sometimes the people here get on my last nerve, Malaya thought to herself as she pulled open the door. Taking a few seconds to blink as her eyes got used to the light, she stepped back and tripped over something behind her. Fed up with people sneaking up on her she turned swiftly.
“WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW!” Her voice bounce from wall to wall, causing everyone to open their door and poke their heads out to see what was going on. Before her, she saw an odd creature, that looked part lion, part human, and part wolf demon. Her eyes widen as the creature began to speak.
“Help.....me....help....me...” The creature repeated over and over. Stunned and horrified, Malaya just stood there, her mouth hanging open and her eyes each a fist wide. Josu came running down the hall and grabbed the creature by the mane, making it roar out in pain. Malaya flinched and fell to her knees, covering he head.
“Ha! I found it. I guess Nuru didn’t have my chimera, anyway. Well, sorry if it scared you. He must have wondered out of my room.” Josu smiled as he pulled the creature away as it kept calling for help. Everyone went back to their room muttering something, most likely relative to ‘I can’t believe she screamed just because....’ type of stuff. Scared out of her mind now, Malaya jumped up and ran out of the hall, blinded by the bright light. She ran until she was out of breath and looked around finding herself at the door to the gardens.
“I may as well do what Lash said and go find those monkey demons.” For the rest of the day Malaya was out smarted by the monkey demons, will making a fool out of herself.





Words to know
Chimera- A creature that was created by putting two or more creatures together. Anyone who has seen that episode of Full Metal Alchemist knows what I mean.

Jörmungandr- Norse mythology. He is the son of Loki, the god of trickery, who was sent to Midgard, or the middle of the Earth, and he grew so large he in circled the Earth and bit his own tail.

Baskalis- A dangerous small snake like creature.

Seven Gods- Norse Mythology. The seven gods, are those of Norse Mythology and are as followed, Thor, Loki, Odin, Freyr, Freyja, Frigg, Hel. There are more then these seven. These are merely those of which the characters of my book recognize as try gods.