Goodbye?

[chameleon]

Cham sat in a pub in Caranda, on the outskirts, nursing a very nice cup of a long overdue milk. Cham wasn't one to drink, and he certainly wasn't going to start now. There just wasnt a point in his thought process. He was sitting there, waiting for Kihaku to show up. He left Kihaku a message telling him to meet him here, and hoped Kihaku would come as soon as possible.

Cham wasn't dressed in his usual gear but was now in a very dark green cloak that covered most of his face, though his bright eyes still shone through, one green, one purple. Cham decided that this would be appropriate attaire for him for a little while, not sure exactly what he was going to do.

Cham thought back to the large battle he had not too long ago. Fighting against Dramanius, the Will of Chaos, harmonizing his Channeled and Chaos Energies together. He was a powerful warrior now, though he really didnt have the lust for being one. He wanted to become stronger so he could protect the things he needed to protect, but he still felt horribly inadequate as a fighter. Deep down inside, no matter how many battle Cham will fight, he will always be the Elicoorian healer. The timid, always happy, innocent boy that used to be within him seemed to become lost in all the violence. He would have to go on a voyage of self discovery, to figure out where he is in his life and what he should do.

Cham though of Shizuka, the girl he had such a crush on, now seemed so far away. It felt as if she had been gone for years. She was a good girl, and he would miss her, but something deep inside told him that he may never see that winged angel ever again. Every time Cham's mind wandered to Shizuka, it wandered back to another face. The face of a girl he met not long ago, not sure of where she was. The Chaos Spirit Elena.

Chaos Spirits... Kihaku, Reiaz, Elena, and Draconias, the later one purged from this world. Cham's hand rubbed the part of his arm where the mark of the Gate of Chaos sat, purple and green.

[glow=green,2,300]"And Chameleon, the Bridge Between Worlds"[/glow]

[kihaku]

Kihaku had already been in a foul mood, even before stepping foot into the bar. He'd taken so long arriving due to an unforseen tirade delivered at much exense to his dignity from his sister spirit. Apparantly, she'd had a few choice words for him regarding his treatment of the young boy he'd taken on as an apprentice. Kihaku, for one, wasn't about to take a lecture from some smart-mouthed girl just sitting there, so he got up from his chair and left his room... with that same smart-mouthed girl following him. So, he got his lecture walking instead.

When his immense figure finally breached the threshold of the pub, every eye turned towards him, his foreboding facade causing much trepidation amongst the more jittery of the crowd, and the semi-smashed nudged one another, pointing with wobbly fingers at someone they believed would be easy to start trouble with. Crimson eyes glowered from within the depths of his hood, and nothing would have been done about the looks he was getting, until a lithe young female stepped out from behind him.

The instant her curvaceous figure came into view, there were cat-calls, hoots, and hollars for attention. She took them in stride, planted herself in front of Kihaku, set her fists against her hips, and spoke in a loud, commanding voice.

"Oi! We're here to relax! If anyone wants to start something with my buddy here," she jerked her thumb over her shoulder to Kihaku, "Then you go through me!" She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the crowd with a deadly serious face. The only sound that could be heard in the silence after, came three seconds later, a deep chuckle, coming from the dark figure right behind her. She turned and flashed him a dirty look. She whispered, "Shuddup! You're ruining my street cred!"

She strode forward confidently, a bounce her step, a wide grin on her face as her eyes fixated on a familiar form, and her black hair jouncing about her face. When she reached him, she held out her arms, flopped against his back, and wrapped said arms about Chameleon's waist from behind. "Hey der Cham-cham! How's it floatin'?" Kihaku, on the other hand, took an empty seat right next to the pair, staring at the barkeep, pointed to the strongest thing he sold, and raised two fingers.

[chameleon]

Cham smiled and removed his hood when he saw the pair enter the bar and Elena threatening every head in there, not that she'd have a problem following through with her words, but it was the matter, this little teenage girl just threatened a bunch of older men. Cham chuckled as he took a drink, awaiting their arrival to his table.

Cham felt arms wrap around him and smiled to Elena. "Hello Mis... Hello Elena, how are you?" He said with a smile, looking to Kihaku, "Hello Master, thanks for coming, I really appreciate it." Cham said folding his hands over one another.

Just the look in Cham's eyes said it all. They were battle hardened, tough, not much of the young Elicoorian seemed to be left, though Cham was still there. He just didnt seem the same ol' Cham that first landed here. Weak, innocent, ignorant to almost everything.

"I wanted to talk with you about were you and I are going from here." Cham said looking down at his glass for a moment then back up to his master's eyes.

"Since I've landed here on Dragonia, I've been pretty much with you the entire time. You've trained me to become strong enough to protect myself and those I need to protect. But since then, I've felt different. Something inside me feels different." Cham said looking down at the table.

"I think we need to separate for a while Master. I think I should travel on my own around this world and see where it may lead me. This is really important to me sir, and I wish to have your blessing. I appreciate so much of what you've done for me. You've done more than anyone has ever done for me."

[kihaku]

Right when Cham's voice sombered, Kihaku's fingers dropped, Elena loosened her hold on his waist, and both sets of eyes fixated on his face. They listened intently, making sure to hear every single word as it was spoken, digesting it as soon as it came. Right when Chameleon let on that he felt something changed, Elena fixed Kihaku with another dirty look, before looking back to listen even more.

When he spoke of parting ways, only Elena gave any sign that this was a surprise. Kihaku had his drinks handed to him, two shot glasses of a pitch-black liquid, runny as water, and one could swear they could see smoke rising from it's surface. He delicately picked up one of the glasses, lowered his hood, and revealed stoic, gaunt features that gave off nothing of the thoughts slowly running through his mind. Elena, however, slowly slid off the young man, and sat in the seat on the other side of the boy, so that now Cham sat in the middle.

"So... so you don't want to stay with us? I mean... we've been through so much and-"

"Elena." That was all he had to say to make the young girl stop dead, a look like she'd been slapped by surprise plastered onto her face before she quickly turned herself towards the bar, swiveling until her face was hidden behind a curtain of silken black hair. Kihaku downed the black liquid without flinching, setting the glass down as easily as he picked it up.

"Chameleon... when we first met you were absolutely pathetic in every sense of the word. You couldn't fight worth crap, your mind was set in stone that good and evil were black and white, and to top it all off you latched onto the first person to not decide he hated you." His face, at this point turned towards the boy, the same granite-hard mask in place. "Still... under the strictest order of complete obedience, I undertook the task of fixing these mistakes. You've blundered your way through, and come through... brilliantly."

Kihaku set his right hand on Cham's shoulder, not hard like he normally would have, but gently. "You've grown so much. You're stronger, smarter, can defend that which you hold dear," Elena suddenly shuddered without making a sound, "and come to realise that to defend your life and those you care about is not only not evil, but the most righteous and justified decision you can make. I have nothing more to teach you but hard lessons about life, which you're better off learning alone."

Leaning back, he rested his left elbow on the wood of the bar, grabbing his right wrist with his left hand and looking, with an uncharacteristic warm grin, at the young Elicoorian. "From now on, don't ever call me 'master.' You call me 'Kihaku' now, got it?"

[chameleon]

Cham smiled, a hint of his old self seeming to shine, his green eye shone brightly in the contrast of his Chaotic purple eye. Cham looked down at the table as he held back tears and sadness for he would leave the only person to whom he could call family.

"I'm not sure how long it will take before I see you again Kihaku," Cham said with a nod and he looked over at Elena and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Elena," Cham spoke to her ear as she was facing away from him. "I will miss you for the while that I am gone. I'm sorry you've lost someone you cared for in the past, and I know how you feel. But just make sure you know that you haven't lost me. If you do need me for anything, just raise your power level in two quick spurts. By now I know your auras enough to find them almost anywhere. I'll come as quick as I can."

[kihaku]

Kihaku nodded his acceptance without saying a word. He knew that a time like this wouldn't be far off, especially with such a traumatic event as the past battles had been. He wasn't about to try and delude himself and say it was easy letting the boy go... it wasn't at all. Cham looked upon the Chaos Spirit as family, a father-ish-figure in his new life here on Dragonia, and Kihaku wasn't exactly apathetic to those emotional ties.

Elena, on the other hand, didn't move at all when Cham touched and spoke to her. She just held her peace until he'd fallen silent, giving herself a few moments to catch the thoughts swirling within her mind. Finally, she took a shuddering breath, and spoke, "Yeah... whatever. It's not like I actually expected we'd stick it out. You don't need us."

Elena sat up and moved around him without looking right at the young boy, grabbed Kihaku's last drink, and downed it just as easily as he had, only when she put the glass down it was with a solid 'thunk.' Turning her head towards him now, her liquid brown sugar eyes were glistening with tears, little rivulets running down her cheeks. "You have no idea how I feel. About anything." Swiveling on the spot, she shouldered roughly past Kihaku, who offered no resistance, and trudged out onto the back patio, stares from every man in the room directed directly at Cham.

"Asshole." came from somewhere in the room, before dozens of grunted agreements came sporadically around the bar. Kihaku picked up his recently emptied glass with something akin to a pensive gaze, a slight smirk on his lips. "Like I said... Hard lessons about life."

[chameleon]

Cham sorta just stared blankely, not entirely sure what had just happend. "Why... is she so angry?" Cham said looking to Kihaku for a moment then standing up. "Maybe I should go speak with her," he said more to himself then Kihaku.

Cham glanced at him and for a moment it looked as though his green eye flickered like a light, turning gray for a moment then back to green. An oddity that had never happend before but Cham didnt notice it. Could it have merely been a trick of the lights?

Cham moved away through the crowd of staring people who were giving him looks of anger an annoyance. One man gave a small chuckle saying the he wasn't getting any tonight. Cham shrugged that off, not knowing what he was expected to get that night but now wont. Food?

Cham exited onto the back patio and walked to besides where Elena was standing. "I like pie, do you like pie?" Cham said leaning onto the railing, staring at a few of the buildings and people passing. "When I was young, I hated to eat the crust, it was dull, dry, and not even close to as tasty as the rest of the pie. As I've gotten older, I eat the crust, even without a parent to tell me I have to. I guess I've learned to appreciate the whole pie, crust and all." He said looking over to her.

"I dont know if Kihaku told you the story about where I come from. I'm Elicoorian, I come from a group of people that believe that any act of violence is evil, no matter the cause. Protecting oneself or one that someone loves by commiting violence is also considered evil. I killed two people on Elicoori that came to hurt my people and everything I cared about. In response to this, the Elders of my village consulted with the Elders of all the villages in the lower continent and I was deemed evil, and banished from Elicoori entirely. My family wouldnt so much as look at me when I left, I wasn't their child anymore in their eyes."

Cham didnt look saddened by this, not in the least bit anymore. "But when I arrived on Dragonia, I found a new family. Kihaku took me with him, trained me how to be strong. Taught me how to protect the ones I need to protect. But above all else, he taught me to protect myself. I can't protect others if I can't take care of myself first."

"I'm not leaving because I dont like you Elena, or that I dont care. I feel something in my body that wasn't there before, and it scares me. I'm not sure what it is, but I feel it. I believe that I should take some time to myself, travel Dragonia and see what's out there, maybe then can I get rid of this feeling deep down inside. I really hope you can understand this." Scooting in closer to her so no one could walk between them. "I really do care of you Elena."

[kihaku]

Elena heard him out, though it was a grudging peace at best. It wasn't easy for her to put her emotions into words in any sort of a coherent sentence, which probably accounted for more than three quarters of the stupid stuff she did at random. She never planned anything she did, nor did she ever expect herself to. Only here, on the back porch of some random bar, she gave the most careful thought to her words before forming them into phrases she could speak without putting her fist through a wall in frustration.

Still, at first, all she could manage was a sniffle. Closing the distance between them, she scooted close enough for their arms to be pressed up against one another, and leaned her head against his shoulder, with a quiet, "I know." Gently, she slipped her left arm around his right, taking his hand with her free one. Now snuggling close, she had a better handle on her emotions, and started to explain herself.

"I grew up on a planet called Earth. It was peaceful, quiet. I lived on the coast, a fishing community, and was such a great fighter out of all the other kids my age that I became somewhat of a legend on the streets. I fell for a boy, the only boy who didn't run from me whenever he saw me... and his name was Joshua." She sniffled again, tightening her grip on his hand.

"He ended up joining a gang of older boys, and he didn't know they had a grudge against me. It wasn't until he held a knife in his hand that he realized the target of all his hatred had been me. He came at me, angry, confused... and I had to kill him in self-defense." She looked up to his face, resting her chin on his shoulder now to gaze into his eyes. "Kihaku was a spirit before me, and he taught me everything about the universe that I know... and one was that there are always second chances."

She slipped in front of him, between the railing on the porch and him, so close as to be able to wrap her arms around his waist, but nothing invasive. "I'm sorry for overreacting. Just know, that my loss of Joshua is long past, and my feelings toward you are genuine, and original. You need to rediscover yourself, and I will never stand in the way of that."

Straightening up, she drew close enough to him to where he could smell the soft, sweet fragrance in her hair, see his reflection in her deep eyes, and she could feel his warm breath on her skin. "I care for you very much. When you've found yourself... I hope you find me there too." She pushed herself up onto her toes, and eternity hit with a soft whoosh. Their lips met only breifly, but the warmth, the tingling, the flood of emotions she felt carried her away, and when they finally parted, her eyes opened slowly, hoping to see at least some sort of reciprocation in his face.

[chameleon]

Cham still felt surprised and rigid when she kissed him, though he did like her, it was still an odd sensation for him. He stood there for a few moments with a dumb smile on his face before he spoke.

"I'm still new at all these things. On Elicoori, we are assigned who we are to love and merry, have children with, and the such. Choosing your own mate is unheard of. But here on Dragonia, it's normal, I found this odd at first but now I realize that it's better for everyone if you can merry someone you already love."

Cham's green eye did another flicker, again, like there was a lightbulb behind it that was going out before it came back to normal.

The thought finally came through to his head again as he stared at her. On Elicoori he was expected to have 3 children... but how on Dragonia did one... make... children? Cham thought about this for a moment, his eyes wondering to the horizon.

Cham quickly broke out of the trance and looked back at her. "Am I gunna get 'some' tonight?" he said without thinking. "A guy in the bar said I wasn't 'going to get some'. Did he mean food? I'm kinda hungry," he said and with perfect timing his stomach have a large rumble.