Drop [On hold]

Coco

Annavi gripped the large hand that pulled her up, and soon felt the rocky cliff edge just under her feet. For once, a friendly new face greeted her. A women with teal hair and skin as pale as a bed sheet. Her hair was back in two braids that brushed her shoulders. She wore a mischievous gap toothed smile between her cherry red cleft lips. Her eyes were like rubies embedded in porcelain. Annavi became aware of how tight her grip was, and how large her arms were. As a matter of fact, her whole body was rather large. Her mantle covered her shoulders and elbow length gloves covered her arms, in a dark red velvet with gold trimming. Her massive thighs had been shoved into high white socks.
The girl let go of Annavi and reached over her shoulder. She grabbed the handle of a large sword on her back and drew it. It was almost her entire height from what Annavi could see, and had an incisive edge. Luckily for Annavi, the girl had no intention of hurting her.
The red phantom flinched at the sight of the weapon. The women reached for a leather pouch that hung from her belt, and pulled its drawstring. She reached a fist in, and when she pulled it out it was covered in a dusty white powder. The girl smacked her hand against her huge blade, and a puff of dust dispersed through the air. She ran her hand up and down the the blade and raised it, holding it with both hands. Annavi was surprised by her inhuman strength.
The phantom's eyes widened.
"I suggest you leave," the girl said. The phantom grumbled something under his breath. He turned around in a huff and went back through the tunnel, fading into the dark.
Annavi stared in disbelief at the girl. The teal haired girl pulled the drawstring to close the pouch at her belt again. She wrung her wrist to shake the rest of the powder from her hands. She sheathed the sword again and turned to Annavi with a bright smile.
"Hey! I don't think I've seen you before. What were you doing outside of the village?"

......

The girl introduced herself as Coco, and walked with Annavi through the winding tunnels of the cavern. In the time it took for them to reach their destination, Annavi explained her arrival, hoping for any sort of answer as to where she was. When she mentioned falling from a land far above, Coco gave her an odd look, but offered no comment. Something told Annavi that Coco knew something about such a place. It atleast had to have sounded familiar judging by the way she looked at her. Annavi continued her explanation, finishing with the bridge incident.
Coco nodded slowly. "Those two were trying to kill you." She didn't say it like she was asking. She was stating it.
Annavi thought back to Jacque. All of his strange behavior, the things he hid, his suspicious way of covering every inch of his body. He may have been a thief, but Annavi didn't see him as being a killer. Besides, if he intended to kill her, why hadn't he yet? There had been countless opportunities for him to do so while they had been working on the boat.
Back when she had believed he had been her friend. Back when she hadn't known he was using her to finish his work twice as fast.
Then she realized something. It was entirely possible that he had planned to kill her after she helped him. The storm had just gotten in the way. Maybe he had wanted to get down here in the first place. Was that it? Was he just trying to get back to serve whoever it was that the red phantom served? That begged the question on how he even got up there in the first place.
Annavi's head hurt. This was all too much to think about. "I think so," she replied. Coco nodded again.
"Get used to it. The only safe place down here is the village."
Annavi frowned. The village. Singular. "Is there only one?"
Coco paused, pursing her plump lips. "Two. The other one...is for phantoms and other spirits."
"Other spirits? There's more than just those phantoms?"
Coco gave a dry smile. "There's....a lot more. And they're all under the command of one person. She provides them shelter and protection near her palace."
"And they all...try to kill people like you?" Annavi refrained from using the word human, because with the unnatural coloration to Coco's hair, eyes and skin, she wasn't sure.
"Humans, yes."
Annavi sighed. "Who is this....person?"
Coco didn't reply long enough for Annavi to consider apologizing for even asking. Before she could open her mouth, Coco replied.
"There's someone who could explain it better than me."
Annavi sighed. This game of explanations being put off was getting old. Atleast for once she was semi aware of what was going on.
"How much farther is the village?"
"Not far. Once we get there I'll help you get cleaned up. You look like you took a beating."
Annavi realized that she probably did. Dirty, bloody, torn clothes, cut up, disheveled hair, bruises and dark circles under her eyes. It dawned on her how tired she was.
"Thank you..." she replied.
Coco smiled. "Of course. I take it you're hungry?"
Annavi didn't realize how hungry she really had been until Coco mentioned it.
"I am."
"Good. It looks like I'm feeding you when we get back too."
Spirits slightly elevated, Annavi followed Coco with a bit more spring in her step. As always, she thought back to Jacque. She wasn't worried, though.
He would definitely be back. There was no way to get rid of him.

Authors Note: These chapters seem to be getting shorter...should I try to push to make them a bit longer? If this book were to be published professionally, it would need at least 60,000 words to be considered a proper novel. At the moment I have roughly 12,000. What do you think?

~Andesite Lyacon