Natural Binds

Dislcaimer: I own all characters, the plot, and everything else in the story. If there is anything that I do not own in future chapter\'s I\'ll tell you. Thank You.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Natural Binds

Chapter 2: Lariel

Justin felt a pull on his body, and everything around him suddenly went black. He felt the floor beneath him disappear, and soon found himself in what looked to be a spiraling tunnel. His eyes were shut tightly as he mumbled curse after curse. As soon as the feeling of nothingness was there, it stopped. His feet touched land harshly, and he stumbled and fell down.

Justin opened his eyes to see a beautiful meadow, with flowers that popped up everywhere. He sneezed, and covered his face with his shirt. The flowers looked nice, but he was allergic to them. The place was beautiful though, he had to admit that.

Lariel was a beautiful place, a place of peace and harmeny...well, that\'s what it use to be. Now Lariel was nothing more, but a war ridden place, filled with violence, and death. Of course, the only safe place to be at this time would be at the huge castle\'s, or the side that was winning.

The place that Justin was currently sitting on was a castle that belong to a king who had long ago fled from the war. The king had fled for one reason, he was on the oppisite side that was winning, and just as he had been informed, a shot was heard in the distance.

Justin turned his head quickly to see a large mass of brown, and black running at him. His eyes widdened at the sight, and he quickly got up, and ran into a forest that was near by.

~&~

Zepth looked out the large glass window that adorned the wall of his bedroom. He could see smoke rising from the neighboring castle, but he wasn\'t at all frightened. The group of fighters that were over there right now, were on his father\'s side.

Zepth looked away from the window, and walked over to his Four-Poster Red Oak bed. He grabbed a coat that was lying on it, and put it on. He headed towards his door, and down the winding staircase. When he got to the bottom of the stair case a high pitched voice was heard from behind him.

\"Brother...Brother, wait up.\" A girl who looked to be around the age of 8 or 9 came bounding into his view. She looked a lot like Zepth, her hair was long, and the same kind of red as her brothers. Her eyes were a vibrant gold as her brother\'s were, but held a more gentle and innocent look to them. She had two red ears poking out from under her hair, and a tail that was wagging slightly at the sight of her brother.

Zepth turned around to see his sister running up to him. \"Evet, what are you doing down here?\"

\"I was trying to find a way out of this boring place. I hate the war. I also hate how father won\'t let me do anything saying that he\'s \'protecting\' me from the fighting. I don\'t see what he\'s trying to protect me from though. We are winning the war...right?\" Evet looked at her brother, her eye\'s held that curious glint to them.

\"Yes, Evet. We are winning.\"

\"Ok, so where are you going? Where ever your going I\'m coming with.\"

\"Evet wait...you can\'t come with me. I\'m going into the Dark Forest.\" Zepth looked at his sister, and then out the window. A forest was at the edge of his father\'s land. The forest was dark, and it looked to be haunted. A snort came from where his sister was standing.

It seemed that Evet was holding back her laughter.

\"What\'s so fuuny?\" Justin gave his sister a harsh glare.

\"It\'s just...father told us not to enter the forest...he also told us that we should stop calling it the \'Dark Forest\'.\"

\"I\'ll call it whatever I want. Now, off with you. Your not coming and that\'s final.\" Zepth looked away from his sister, and started on his way again. A pitiful whine could be heard from behind him, but he ignored it, and opened the giant wooden doors that were his front doors.

~&~

Justin was running through the forest, it seemed dark and he was quickly becoming scared of the place, but he didn\'t dare stop. He didn\'t know what was going on, but he wasn\'t going to get caught while in a weird place.

After a while of running, he stopped. His heart was racing, and his breath was ragged, and wheezy as he tried to catch his breath. He had lost the fighter\'s awhile ago, but he wasn\'t about to try his luck of going back.

Justin sat down on a root to a tree that looked hundreds of years old. A little pond sat by the tree, it\'s water glistening to the little sunshine that came through the thick tree\'s overhead. His breathing was still a little ragged, but he was calming down. He looked at the pond as he milled over his thoughts of where he was at, and what was happening.

\'This place is so wierd...like a Fairy Tale. I wonder if there are princesses here or weird creatures.\'

A few hours later, Justin was asleep on the root, his head was against the trunk of the tree, and his breath came out nice, and even.

~&~

Zepth walked quickly through the large grounds. He didn\'t want to get stopped by one of his father\'s stupid goons. As he approached the Forest, he saw a sign that red:

Derro Forest

Zepth laughed at the sign, and entered. The forest was dark, sunshine trying to make it\'s way through the clutter overhead. He made his way through the forest looking for the place that he dubbed his \'Thinking Spot\'.

As he approached the place, a smell invaded his sense\'s. It wasn\'t the smell of a warrior, or the smell, of a Larielon like himself. It was a smell that he had never met before.

He slowed his pace, and finally stopped behind a bush that covered his body. He peered through the bush to see a boy lying alone on a root. Zepth caught his breath at the sight before him. A boy that he had never before incountered was lying on the root, and it looked as if he was sleeping.

Zepth shook his head in shock, and got up from behind of the bush, he then made his way towards the boy, taking in the details. He couldn\'t see any tail, or ears on the boy, and he didn\'t have the sent of an animal, but more like nature. Zepth came so close to the boy, that if he were to put his hand out, he could touch the boy\'s face.

Said boy stirred in his sleep, and rolled over a bit, falling from the root, and flat on his face.

Zepth couldn\'t help, but laugh at the scene. He had never seen anything so funny in his life.

Justin groaned as he hit the forest floor, but froze when he heard laughter. He quickly got up and turned to the sorce of the laughter, and nearly fainted. A man stood there, a man with a tail...and ears. The man was holding his side\'s laughing, tears running from his eye\'s. Justin opened his mouth about to let out a scream, when he thought better of it, and closed his mouth sharply, with a small \'click\'.

Zepth looked at the boy when his ears picked up the soft click, and his ears perked a little. He looked the boy up and down, soaking up the feature\'s of the boy.

Justin looked stunned as the man looked him over, and he squirmed over the scrutiny. Maybe the man knew something about the world he was in, and the force that brought him here. He thought it was a chance to try and talk to him. Hopefully he would understand his language.

\"Excuse me sir...do you know where I am?\"

Zepth jumped as the boy started to talk to him. He took in the boy\'s words, and took his time anwsering.

Meanwhile thought\'s where running through Justin\'s head and he he thought them outloud.

\"Great, I came to a world where no one can understand me. I wonder what the man is though. He has fox ears...and a tail. He looks sort of weird.\"

Zepth coughed when he heard the boy talk to himself, and about him.

\"Excuse me \'Boy\'. I happen to be the best looking person in all of Lariel, and I happen to be Prince Zepth.\" Zepth held his head high, not expecting the words that would come from Justin next.

\"I\'ve never heard of Larul or something like that before...come to think of it, I\'ve never heard of you before either.\"

Zepth sputtered and nearly fainted. How could this person never hear of him before...EVERYONE knew who he was. He was so caught up in his thoughts that it took him awhile to take in the words the boy said next.

\"Zepth is a funny name. Well anyways, my names Justin.\"

Zepth eyed the boy warly at the comment, but decided to anwser him anyways.

\"Justin is a weird name too. This place is not \'Larul or something\' either...it\'s Lariel. Anyways, what are you. Your defintaly not from Lariel.\"

Zepth looked Justin up and down, then proceeded to pounce the boy to check and see if he was maybe hiding his tail and ears.

Justin sputtered at the pounce and tried to push Zepth off, but Zepth held his ground and continued the examination. When he finally got off, he sat back on his feet, and waited for a reply.

\"Thanks ofr getting off, oh and by the way I\'m a human. What are you?\"

\"I\'m a Kitsune!\" Zepth had never heard of a human before, but he didn\'t want the other boy to go into detail.

\"A kitsune...\" Justin thought of what the other man had said. He had heard that word before, and it hit him like a bag of bricks. Kitsune was Japanese for Fox Demon, and that defintaly was the description of Zepth.

Zepth looked at Justin, and then heard a low grumbling, which emmited from his stomach. He hadn\'t eaten since last night, and his stomach was giving him hell about it.

Justin looked over at Zepth, who had gotten up from the postition he was in, and was now heading the other direction. He turned around though, and yelled,

\"If you\'re hungry, and have no place to stay, then you can come with me!\"

Justin quickly followed suit, also feeling the hunger gnawing at his stomach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well that\'s the second chapter. I hope you liked it. Well please review.