Two sides: Part Three

Chapter three:  The old Tao palace

“Here we are.”

The old Tao palace sat on the southern edge of china, or the China-Tibet boulder.  It was tall, and a little run down because of ill use, but it was still amazing looking.  It was made out of red wood and stone, three central buildings and a few smaller ones.  There was a stone wall around the buildings but the gate was hanging in a strange way because the hinges were broke.  Dark Ren walked over to the gate and pushed it aside so they could get in.

“Why did they leave this place,” Pirika asked as she walked inside with Gray Ren followed quickly behind.  Dark Ren narrowed his eyes slightly and then continued walking.  He didn’t seem to want to answer her question but Gray Ren answered her answer.

“Long ago, the Tao family was pushed far away from the Forbidden City and they were pushed so far that they ended up here.  Life was hard here until the palace was build, then the training for the next Shaman tournament began.  One day one of the Shamans turned against his brothers and he killed many people before he was killed himself.  They left this place because they thought it was cursed.

Pirika shivered and nodded.  “Sounds horrible.”

“It’s not as bad as what they experienced in the Forbidden City.”  Dark Ren hissed darkly as they entered the large red palace tower.

Pirika had heard tales of what happened to the Tao family in the past from Ren himself, when he was in a mood to tell it.  Pain and suffering, she remembered that much.  He wouldn’t tell much about what happened and he would also only tell those tales when he was depressed.

There were three directions to go in when they got inside the palace tower.  Dark Ren looked around for a moment before walking down the hallway to his right.  The floor was covered with a long, wide rug that nearly touched the walls.  There were still paintings on the wall, most of them were warriors dieing in battle.  There was beautiful painting of a woman thought, sitting in a wooden chair in her painting.  She was English though from the look of her.  She had long blond hair that trailed down to her waist.  She had blue eyes and also and she was wearing a dark blue dress, a warm smile on her face.

“Who’s she,” Pirika asked as she stared at the painting.

“How am I suppose to know,” Dark Ren asked.

----

Dark Ren leaned against the wall, his breath labored.  He had been separated from the others and didn’t know where he was.  On top of that he was beginning to feel sick.  He ran a hand threw his hair and continued down the hall.

Stopping, he looked around the area.  He thought he heard something, like heavy foot steps behind him.  When he didn’t hear it again, he continued walking.

Thump.

He heard the damn noise again.  He stopped and looked back.  Blinding light and confusing noise filled his mind and the pain sent him to the ground.  He tried to see but all that was there was white.  Presently he heard a voice.  

“Trying to stop me, aren’t you,” it asked.  The voice was like someone he had heard from someone before, but it was warped that he couldn’t be sure.

“Who are you,” he yelled out, trying to stand but falling to the ground for the effort.

“I am the shadow you have been chasing.  I found you first it seems.  You can’t beat me, you know that.  Your friends are doomed, you will fail them.”

“No I won’t.  All I have to do is expose you to them before you reach full power.”

“I would say your too foolish.”

The voice hissed something in some unknown tongue and then the light disappeared and Parka and Gray Ren ran over to him.  When Pirika tried to help him up he pushed her away and got up himself.

“Damn Aniu, I can handle myself,” then he walked off.  

“His so insensitive, damn it,” Pirika said, crossing her arms.  She looked at Gray Ren and sighed.  “At least I have you around to talk to.”

He smiled and grabbed her hand.  “Come on, we got to follow him.”

----

“Okay,” Gray Ren said, “we’ve found nothing so far.  Let’s keep looking.”

“What the point,” Pirika asked as she threw up her hands, “we’ve found nothing, let’s go.”

Dark Ren rolled his eyes.  “We’ll find something.”

“No we won’t.  The only thing we found is an over sized ego and -ahhh!”

She had been leaning against a wall when it broke and sent her rolling into a room where she came face to face with a skeleton.

“Ahhh!”

“Stop screaming loud mouth, can you believe her,” Dark Ren asked before going through the hole.  Gray Ren sighed but followed.

“What the hell, who leaves the dead laying on their death beds,” Pirika asked as she stood up, brushing herself off.  Dark Ren shook his head.

“Someone in a hurry.  She must of either died before the shaman went insane or after.”

“How do you know it’s a girl?”

“The cloths, I don’t think men wear dresses.”

Pirika took a deep breath and touched the woman’s forehead, and had a vision.  This is what she saw;

~*Vision*~

The woman from the painting was pacing around her room (the room they were at presently), waiting it seemed.  Her blond hair was held out of her face by being put up in a tight bun in the back of her head.  She looked around outside, into the busy courtyard, before the door opened.

A man was standing there, tall for a Chinese man, a Kon dow held tightly in his hand.  He was shaved, and there were strange markings on the top of his head.  His eye brows were
violet thought and his eyes were gold.  He wore a red traditional Chinese robe with lighter red pants.  When he saw the girl he dropped his weapon and ran over to her.  She fell into his arms.

“Yang, I’m so worried,” she said, holding on to him tightly, “what is going on?”

He tightened his hold on her, “There worried about Ting, Alexandria. They think he is unstable.  They want to destroy him.”

Alexandria looked up at Yang, her bright blue eyes shining  unsurely.  “They won’t will they?”

“I’m not sure, they won’t talk to me.”

“I’m sorry.”

~*End vision*~

Pirika shook her head, running a hand through her hair.  “What was that?”

Gray Ren put a hand on Pirika’s shoulder.  “Did you see something?”

“Yes.”  And so she explained her vision.  At first both of the Ren’s didn’t say anything, but finally Dark Ren said they should see if she had anymore of her visions.

“Maybe they will give up a clue to why this is happened to us.”

She just nodded and thought, ’Who was that girl, and why was she in China?”

End Chapter three…