Chapter Five: A Single Day And Night Of Misfortune



"MRWAAAAAA!"

The bancka underneath Tymen screamed as he bucked up in the air.

"Whoa, Timmer, calm down!" Tymen cooed, stroking the lizard's jade and gold scales. Hot air puffed out of Timmer's nostrils, but she was soothed. All of them, except for BlackSheep, were dreading through the desert on the reptilian beasts. The former was, ofcourse, above in her fighter. They had wanted to travel in it, but she insisted there wasn't enough room. Tyio sighed, his head falling back, onto his velvetish bancka.

"What is the name of that infernal city we're going to again?" Tyio asked.

"Arean Daroth."

"Ah, yes......and why are we going there, again?"

"It's the nearest city. We need a place to stay, that blaster totalled my house. We were also going to sell that computer. Oh, and you wanted to track down that assasin." Tymen said in a most ordinary manner.

"Oh, right." The demon couldn't speak in a more exasperated tone. Silence passed between them, beside the

humm of the fighters engines and the occasional grunt from the banckas. Everyone was absorbed in something else, or atleast trying to appear to be, not wanting the company of the others.

"You know, the--" Tymen began what would appear to be a informative information nugget.

"Shut up." Tyio sighed.

"But it--"

"I SAID shut up." Tymen was about to swear out the pompus demon, but thought better of it.

"Well...you don't have to be rude."

"La de da, excuse me, but today hasn't exactly been happy fun time for me...first I have to escape from that station, and then I fly through a maelstrom of sand and rock, and then I have to eat thease nasty roots, and that person attacks us..."

"Well, excuse me, but would you rather have rotted in that prison? Not even that, the blast would have incinerated you." Ducky quipped, from her aqua bancka across from Tyio.

"You know what? I would, better than having to listen to you people."

"Ungrateful....why'd I even bother...." Ducky grumbled under her breath, then subsided. Tyio too subsided, to the churning of his own mind.

"Oh...I can't wait to return to Akael." He wishpered.



"Oh, what, what am I doing here?" Asari thought to herself, as she hid in the shadows of a bush, the bright sun warming all in the lush, royal garden, filled with plants from a thousand worlds.

"I stalking that boy, that's what I'm doing." She sounded frusterated, at herself. But then, the insane part of her brain overtook the rational part of her brain, by reasoning with it.

"T-that's not it...I've got a good form, right? I mean...it's not REALLY stealing if I just...distract him while I take a little change, is it? I mean, it's not like he is going to miss it, right?" He mind waged war over the body, over which impulse would control which.

Tymen stood over the perfectly smooth waters of the pond. It's blankness was a window into his own, turmoiled soul. He knew his father had made arrangements to overthrow the throne...but was he really going to go through it. Now? Right now?? A coup d'etat could be especially dangerous now. The whole planet was a powder keg waiting to be set off. As long as things remained normal, it was like the emperor said, they don't bother us, we don't bother them.

A sound drew Tymen's attention. A rustle in the bushes.

"Curse it! He heard me." Asari again mentally slapped herself. Then she noticed a glint of steel. A sword, tucked neatly in the waistband of Tymen's morningrobe, one which Tymen now drew.

"Hmm, maybe it's not all a loss, I bet I could get a couple hundred credits for that piece of work." She thought.

"Who's there, show yourself!" Tymen shouted, waiving his sword infront of him, using a technique his mother had taught him for detecting things.

"Curses! There's no guards in here...I'm all on my own..."

Asari scanned the garden, rationing her precious time before Tymen spotted her. To her luck, there were no guards.

"Yes, this must be the boy's private garden, no guards! Brilliant." She waited, until Tymen was just in the middle of a breath. And then she sprung from the bushes.

"Ya!" Tymen slashed his sword down, but Asari kneed him in the stomach, then slapped the sword out of his hand and into her own.

"Thanks, be seeing you." Reaffirming her grip on the blade, she began her get away. It only took a moment for Tymen to recover, and then he gave chase.

Plants of miraculous colors sped past Asari, her only focus being the stone wall, the way out. After lopping a few branches of her and there, she made the leap, standing at the threshold, the way out.

"Move, and die." A soothing voice whispered in her ear, and she felt cold steel touch her throat. All she could see was a glint of metal, a knife obviously.

"Even try it and I'll...i'll...i'll scream." Asari thought through her barganing chips.

"Oh really. Hmm, let's see. You, a commoner," He well emphasised that word,"in the hier to the House's private garden. Holding his sword, about to jump to the way out. Who, honestly, looks like the guilty party here?" Tymen could not help but chuckle.

"Now, be a doll and drop the sword." With a gulp, she did, and Tymen caught it as it fell. Satisfied, he removed the blade from her throat and led her down, as he turned and sat on a white marble bench.

"You're...not going to call you're guards?" Asari stammered. Tymen whiped out his sword and pointed it just an inch from Asari's face.

"No."

"Are you...going to kill me?"

"No, ofcourse not."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Have a little fun." Tymen smiled, whilst Asari's eyes went wide with fear.

"No," he chortled," not like that. I'm lonely, and bored, and you happen to have a sword stuck at you're face. Let's talk."

"Uhm...*gulp* o-okay, what should we talk about?"



The sun was setting over the barren deserts of Carrotous, giving the sand a haunting orange glow. The moons were up, but they weren't refracting there unquie glows yet.

"Ah! How much longer to this Arean Daroth place, eh Tymen?" Ducky asked, exhausted from her day's long exploits.

"Hmm, about twelve more hours." Tymen replied.

"Twelve hours! I mean, shouldn't we set up camp, aren't there some hideous beasts that prowl the sands that we should worry about and find shelter to hide from??"

"No, not really."

"Oh, well...okay then."

"But if you're tired, we can set down camp."

"No, I'm fine."

"I think you're tired, we should set down camp."

"No, we need to get going to arrive in time."

"But we also need our rest."

"We can rest when we get there."

"Alright...I suppose."

...

"But it will get rather cold." Ducky said.

"We have to keep going to get there in time!"

"But we'll be exhausted and won't be able to do anything until atleast nightfall tomarrow."

"But...we might have a better chance of selling the computer tonight."

"You're right, we should keep going."

"But then again...there are mites that go out at night."

"We need to get there as soon as possible."

"I'm not sure, the mites--"

"WOULD YOU TWO JUST PUT A SOCK IN IT AND SET DOWN THE CURSED CAMP!!!!" Tyio screamed, irriated beyond belief.

"F-fine, will do..." Tymen seemed rather frightened by the demon.



Asari sat in the comfrot of her lair, hidden in a cozy pocket in subspace. The medical droid had long finished it's work, and went about to other duties. Asari merely sat in the emergency chamber chair, eyes closed, half asleep, remembering every vivid detail of that week so long ago...



The meetings had continued as such for five days, except no more were held at swordpoint. Asari would sneak in, around midnight, and Tymen would be there, in the garden. Tymen had found he had sympathy for Asari's hard life, and Asari had sympathy for Tymen's terrible burden.

The night was cool, this time, and sharply blue. The forward two guardposts Asari passed easily, and now

all that was left to do was scale the final barrier into the garden with a jump. As she did so, she savored the way the long, trailing cape in back of her fluttered in the wind, and her sword rocked back and forth. A new costume, gift from Tymen. Upon landing, she immediatley felt the soft moistness of the ground, and the cool, damp breeze of the garden. Artificially generated ofcourse, but that didn't matter. And she could see the multitudes of nightfaires out, and the low whhhhhsss, of the tiny waterfall. But her companion was no where to be found. She dared not to shout his name, that would alert the guards, so she began prowling around the lush place. After trodding around a minute or two, she spotted a silhoutted figure, sitting on a bench by the pond, staring into it's waters.

"Tymen." She wishpered, as she ran up to Tymen and sat beside him.

"Dehmali." That caused a twang of pain in Asari, how she lied to him about her name.

Asari knew Tymen was never this glum, something must have happened.

"What's wron--"

"My mother has been killed. With a knife in the back." Silence.

"Oh my God...I'm so terribly sorry." She embraced him strongly, trying to absorb atleast a little pain.

"Who..."

"My father killed her, I saw him at the scene, just after she screamed. And everyone else knows it two. But no one dare arrest him, for his legions are loyal only to him, and would have is captors slaughtered within a day."

"But...why would he kill his own wife?" Now Asari dipped her head further in, sad and intrested in the going ons.

"Because she was going to warn the Emperor about the coup d'etat. She knew how violently it could upset this world." Again, silence.

"Tymen...." She found it hard to stare in his face, and, as such, his soul, twisted with pain. But yet, she found it harder still to look away.

"Tymen...her death may not have been in vain. Now the Emperor knows to send his forces to intercept you're fathers. The coup may yet be avoided." Without pause, Tymen kissed Asari then, for a long while, only after a minute or so was it broken. No passion, just saddness. Sadness from Tymen. They had not known each other very long, but they were kindred souls. Indeed...then there was another long, awkward pause.

"Get out of here, Dehmali, get out of here as fast as you can." Tymen said grimly.

"Why?"

"If you don't, you'll die." The low breeze in the garden was turning into a roar like wind, and this was not artificially generated. Two large, sword shaped ships passed through the air. Knn Deahtflies. Large blast poured from there tips, all crashing through the city with terrible destructive might. And in the streets were running hordes of Daroth soldiers and Knn warriors, working in tandem, killing all.