Strena Animéga Part Three

 Picking Up Strange 

Companions 

They walked on and on and on. They started to walk through a cherry blossom forest with bark darker than usual, almost black and the petals were paler than average, almost white. Yet as they dropped they made a layer of petals like a carpet on the floor of the forest making it look like it was covered in pink tinted snow.  

Strena be Leonardo looked around in awe of the beauty of the forest. Strena had never seen such beauty before as she wanted to dirk it all in. She could not help but feel a tear fall as she felt the appreciation of the beauty penetrate her mind and rest upon her heart like the odd falling petal. She smiled as her jaw dropped. Her mind felt calm as she looked around. She felt a sense of gratitude. Grateful that she could see such a stunning place. Yet as she walked in further, she felt more tears falling. She would have wiped the tears away, afraid that Zaryb would have hit her and told her to pull herself together and stop crying, if she was not just so awestruck. 

Her eyes darted all around as she drank in every inch of the forest. She just did not want to miss a single centimeter, that was how she saw a wooden and paper umbrella. It had a light brown wooden pole and a pale coral red canopy. She looked down at the handle and saw that it was in the shape of a single wooden foot. Yet as she looked up at the tip she saw eyes, eyes that blinked.

Her eyes widened.

“Help!” Came a voice. “Please travelers, help!”

She looked around.

“Help!”

She looked down at the umbrella and saw it had a tear in the center of the canopy.

“Help! I fell over and I can not get up!”

She looked down at the tear as it moved.

“I need to get up!”

She walked up to the umbrella and picked it up.

“Thank you!” It said as it bowed.

She jumped back and pulled out her blades as she screamed.

“What is it girl?”

“That umbrella just spoke!”

“It did?”

“Have you gone mad?”

“No. She has not.”

They all looked at the umbrella with a frown.

“What are you?”

“I am Amagosa, an umbrella. I am from Ikita Buttai. It is a small secluded village, which I did not like. I went to explore the world, but people kept on screaming. One hit me and I landed on my side. Yet as I tried to get up I found that I could not. So I spent a long time on my side. I saw people but when I asked for help people screamed again and one kicked me and I flew to where you saw me. I asked people for help but they screamed too. Now I just want to go home.”

Strena picked him up and looked at Chashathrophogh. He closed his eyes for a moment then opened them.

“Well it is on our path so we will take you. If you do not become an annoyance to us or our mission.”

“It is alright. I will try not to, Sir.”

So they continued to walk on, yet Amagosa hopped as they walked on and on and on. That was when something landed upon Strena’s shoulder. As she wrote down the living umbrella’s tale. Her head whipped to the shoulder. She saw a cat with a coat the colour of Cerpheres’s emerald eyed hair with lilac stripes like a tiger. One of the cat’s eyes was emerald and the other amber.

“Oh hello!”

“Hello young one.” He purred in a low pitched voice, looking at her face and looked down and up again.

“Hold on, you can talk too?”

“Why, yes! I am Niko the cat.”

She smiled as she dried her ink and wrote down the cat’s name and drew Niko.

“How can you talk?”

“Why! I’m a speaking cat. One that has many uses.”

She wrote it down.

“Now tell me, what are two Destined Deathless doing, walking in a place like this?”

“We are here for Kistuné Ryu.”

“Ahh!” He purred as his eyes lit up.

“I think that I should ask you the same thing.”

“Well, I’m here because my village kicked me out for a bit of mischief!” He purred with a wink.

“What kind?”

“Well I was in Nekoshiro Village, a hop and two skips next to Inu Village. I was curious so I took a trip there when I was young. I found all the talking dogs there so boring. So I left. Then I made my way throughout my village hoping that it would be more…interesting but I found it bored me out of my mind! So, I made it more interesting. Yet for a year I was able to buuut then I got caught and kicked out.”

She nodded as she wrote it down. Neko looked at the book and smiled widely.

“I see you’re a good Chronicler! I think that it will be good for you to do it.”

She nodded as she was slightly stunned as the cat looked at Cerpheres.

“Whhyyy! If it isn’t my old friend the Prince Captain. How are you these days?”

“Weeell! If it isn’t my ooold friend, Neko Sakichi! Well you’ll be glad to know that I’m doing fine!”

“Did Captain Gerald do it for you?”

He shrugged.

“At first!” He purred as he stretched. “But after Captain Herlock he became boring very quickly especially after losing his crew.” Then he draped himself over Chashathrophogh and Bash. “Aaand after finding these two beauties!” He purred, kissing them both on the cheeks earning him a punch.

“Oh!”

“See? I had to ditch him!” He laughed as he flipped to his feet and the next moment he pulled her and Zaryb. “And following those two let me to these two beauties! So-so I’m doing great.”

Zaryb’s eyes widened as he punched him in the face and Strena kicked him in the loins.

“See!?”

The cat nodded as his eyes dropped to Strena’s swords.

“My dear girl, are those the swords that I think they are?”

“If you mean Darkector and Orion. Yes!”

“Ahhh! So you’re the one known as Strena!”

“How do you know?’

He let out a lighthearted chuckle.

“I go around the worlds and hear things. One is of the youngest bounty hunter…another’s of the youngest assassin. Yet…there’s another of the youngest slayer and the last is of the youngest Dark Lady. Which is being spread by Dark Lady Grasharlo herself!”

Of course she is!

“And do you know what they all have in common?”

“What?”

“The one that they’re all about is Strena!”

She nodded.

She was about to ask further when an old man turned to join them.

“Who are you?” Asked Chashathrophogh, almost moaning with a deadpan look in his eyes.

“Yukino Hikari.” He panted. “What are you foreigners like you doing here?”

To find a Dark Lord and Dark Lady. You?”

“Returning home.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Bed leader. Left to get power.” He panted as he caught his breath.

Strena nodded.

“Where are you going? Ryugo Town?”

“That is on the road. So why don’t you travel with us?”

“If so, Cerpheres, you can carry him.”

“Alright!”

He picked the old man up. The old man looked at Zaryb for a moment. Strena saw his eyes change to blue and cat-like, then returned to the usual black.

“Why did?”

Suddenly he looked at her and her mouth shut as she returned to her writing as they left the forest.