Ch. 1:  Ark's Return

 "Ouch!"
     Elle squealed when the pin of her knitting needle pricked her accidently.  "Why am I so lucky to do this cursed job!?"
     Elle was hard at work making her daily sweater that early morning.  The colors of the sunrise were just beginning to show and the dew on her lawn was sparkling with glory.  It was quite beautiful.  She lived in a cozy hut in the newly rebuilt town of Storkholm.  It was a wonderful town, but Elle felt that it never was quite full ever since Ark left.
     Ark had been sent off to fight his last battle 10 years ago.  She waited patiently ever since thinking he might just come back.  Yet, a feeling of loneliness grew within her and it hadn't stopped since.  She ever so wanted him back it hurt to even think about it.  But she continued on with her life no matter what the case.
     Elle just got finished with her second sleeve when suddenly her door started banging loudly.  She looked up, startled, and headed toward the door.
     "Alright, alright.  I'm coming."  She responded to the impatient knocks.
     She opened the door slowly at first, cautious, never sure what to expect.
     Whoooosh!  SLAM!
     Elle was jerked away from the doorway at such a alarming speed she thought her arm was going to be ripped out of it's socket!  The door slammed behind her and she was quickly speeding away from the house being pulled by what seemed to be a black shadow.  She seemed to be flying past the trees.  She looked at the ground.  She was above it!  The shadow was floating above it carrying her with it! The sun wasn't up enough for her to see her kidnapper's face but she got weird feeling of Deja Vu.  Other than black, she could see the outline of the person.  The top seemed to be out of whack in sort of a random directions of hair.  The outline of the clothes seemed loose and flowing with the wind as they rushed to wherever they were going.
     No, it can't be..., she thought to herself.  The shape was so familiar but she couldn't put her finger on it.
     After about a half and hour of flying through trees at an alarming speed, they came near a lake.  The sun was up, yet the person was still a shadow!  It was getting weirder by the minute!  The shadow put her down near the edge and than what seemed to be floating, went away.
     "Who IS that?"  She asked out loud for some ominous reason.
     "The friend of your former boyfriend, lovergirl."  A voice popped up from nowhere said.  "I do believe you know of him.  Wacky hair, strong body, and the cutest features you'd ever want in a man!"
     Elle twirled around in the direction of the voice to see a pink creature floating about four feet above the ground.
     "Yomi!"  She cried out, "What are doing here?!  I thought you were dead!"  Her shock knocked her back a couple of feet almost into the water of the lake.
     "Easy there, sugar.  The bad Yomi was pulled into the Black Hole Elle of Crysta made.  I'm the good Yomi.  I never died.  Happy to see me?  Ofcourse you are!"  She could almost see a pink line spreading up on his front forming a representation of a smile.
     "Yeah, whatever, fizbrain."  She hesitated than ran up and hugged as much as she could get of him, which was pretty much everything.
     As she was hugging the lovable thing, the black shadow walked up.  Yomi quickly flew from Elle's grasp and went to the shadow.  The shadow faced Elle and than faced Yomi like it expected something.
     "Watch and be amazed, sweetstuff."
     Yomi started spinning.   A pink blur was a what was left after a few seconds.  The blur started circling the shadow at an astounding speed, blowing the leaves off the nearby trees of the lake.  Round and round the pink blur went circling ever faster than before.  A couple of more seconds later Elle saw strands of what looked like yarn come out of the blur.  The strands started covering the body starting at the feet and heading up to the face.  Soon after, the shadow now looked like human covered in pink goo.
     "Allright, Ark.  Start forming your face."  Yomi said to the pink glob.
     Ark!
     Did Yomi say Ark?  Elle was too shocked at the prospect to think about it.
     The shadow's top then starting forming recognizable flesh on it.  Elle looked at the face and saw features she recognized so well.... Ark's!  She fainted.
 
     SPLASH!
     Elle had felt a cold rush on her face.  She sat up, soaking wet from water, suddenly looking around.  What she saw almost made her fade out of consciousness again.
     "No, no!  Elle stay awake, stay awake!" The shadow said to her with a kind of care in it's voice.
     Elle almost did, but luckly she forced herself awake.  She looked at the shadow again.  What she saw wasn't a shadow, it was a human.  It was her Ark.
     As always, Ark's hair had it's wacky, random craziness to it that he always had.  His handsome features stood out and his muscles bulged nicely for a manly effect.  It was nice to see him again!
     "Hi Elle."  Ark said to her with a smile. "It's been a long time."
     He wasn't kidding, Elle thought with a grin.  What the devil was he doing here?!
     "What... how... when...why...."  She stuttered horribly unable to control her shock.  A rush of black came up upon her.  She almost fainted again!
     "Now don't conk out on me again, Elle!  I thought I lost you the last time."  Ark still had his recognizable flare within him, but it was different this time.  She couldn't put her finger on this aspect.
     "Alright.  I won't faint this time.  But why... how are you here?  I thought you were dead.  I hoped you weren't, but it soon became apparant after such a long time."  Elle looked into Ark's face.  She saw the look of a determined man,  that was different too.  This was getting annoying!
     "I'm not who you think I am." Ark started.  He stopped, hesitating, seeming to not want to continue but continued on anyways. "I'm not the Ark you used to know.  I never died.  In fact, I was never alive."
     Never alive!?  This was confusing Elle by the second.  Ark saw this and continued with his story.
     "I am what you'd call the opposite of the other Ark.  The Good Ark if you will.  Your Ark, the one with the will to fight, saved the world. But disappeared himself because of it.  I am his other self resurrected to survive in your world from spirit.  As Fate has made, I'm needed here.  A problem has arisen and I'm the only one who can stop it."
     Elle just stood and stared.  She had her Ark back, but yet, it wasn't her Ark.  She felt lost, confused, and lonely at the same time.  Another problem?  What was it this time?  Why Ark?  The questions kept rolling in her head but only one came out.
     "What problem are you talking about?  The Bad Yomi is gone.  Dark Gaea was destroyed.  What else can happen?"  Elle was starting to get a little angry.  She never had a good temper, now was not the time to test it.
     "Yomi'll tell you that later, in the mean time,  why don't you and I go find some breakfast.  I'm new at this mortal stuff but there's one thing I know and food is that thing.  Let's go!"
     Ark started walking towards the woods.  He had his spear confidently held in his hand as he walked.  Elle never noticed the spear until now.  She was reluctant but went anyways.
     "You owe me an explanation, fatty." She said to Yomi as she walked off.
     "Sure thing, toots, once you get breakfast I'll explain the whole thing."  Yomi called off after her as she ran towards the outline of Ark in the distance.

     Considering Ark was supposed to be the "Good" Ark, he didn't hunt like a "Good" Ark.  He had cunning and his skill at throwing the spear was unmatchable.  He did it with such a bloody taste to it that you'd think he was worse than the former Ark.  They went quite a ways into the mountains until they found a suitable breakfast, skinned deer and some wild berries.
     The woods that they found them in, were, beautiful.  The trees were a luscious dark green, making the plants below more green with envy.  A quiet, cool stream flowed by them as they walked through a field of flowers.  Elle didn't recognise the flowers, but the mixture of blue and pink made them as beautiful as ever.  A mountain range loomed up in the distance making the mountains have an evil tint to them.
     Elle had a nice little chat with the new Ark about human life and how he should go about learning how to be one of them.  She also told him the story of how her former Ark saved the world from destruction from Dark Gaea.  Ark enjoyed her stories and her company as much as she did his.  At about noon, they walked back to there spot on the lake.
     "There's the two love birds," Yomi piped up as he saw them approaching. "What took you so long?  I'm starving!"
     "Yomi, you don't eat." Elle broke to him.
     "What....?  You're right.  Must have been sniffing too many weeds..."  Yomi faded off into the trees grumbling.  Ark and Elle were alone.  Ark built a fire while Elle made a grill to fry their lunch on.  She put the deer meat on the grill and started to cook it.  About an hour of cooking, Yomi returned with a bunch of berries rapped in deer skin.  He looked happier than before.
     "Well, I haven't told you why I resurrected the Good Ark have I Elle?"  Yomi happily chattered.
     "Well, no." Elle, almost bored with turning the meat, barely answered.  Ark was taking a nap in a sunny spot on a small beach nearby.  He looked very comfortable.
     "Well, like you said, I owe you an explanation so here goes."  Yomi took what seemed to be a deep breath and continued.
     "After Ark destroyed Dark Gaea, the world was at peace and the people of the world lived in harmony.  But that didn't last long.  As it turns out, there were still some Magic Rocks that were left from the time before Ark.  This was bad news for Earth.  An evil  human, named Ranchett, found these Magic Rocks and studied them.  Since technology was high that day, Ranchett found a way to create a magic creature.  Since his heart was coalesced with evil, he had the idea of taking over the known world.  Like most geniuses he found a good way to do it.  What he did was he used the Magic Rock to create a magic creature to do his bidding.  This would have been a very good scheme had one little thing been noticed.  There was a leak in the Magic Rocks.  I'm guessing after so much time, Magic Rocks can't stay stable, so they leak.  When they leak, anything can happen.  Well, what happened is Ranchett had almost fully created this creature, he had the body and everything, but not the life.  When he used the Magic Rock, the leakage made the creature alive. He made it alive, alright... With a will of it's own.  So all in all, we have an extremely powerful creature of great magic roaming this planet.  No doubt going to start destroying everthing in it's path."
     Elle was looked at Yomi with a surprisingly calm look on her face even though she was screaming on the inside.  Elle looked away from Yomi for a few minutes at Ark.  She turned back to face Yomi.
     "What does Ark have to do with this?"  Elle asked with a hint of extreme worry in her voice.
     "Ark was destined to be the hero that saved Earth the first time.  And he did.  But now a second crisis comes up and that Ark isn't here.  So the only option is to bring in the exact copy of the hero himself, the Good side of Ark.  And that's what he's here for.  He's the hero destined to save Earth once again."
     Yomi floated up closer to Elle.
     "But that's not all... He knows nothing about love, life, or anything.  You need to teach him that.  When he learns these things will he be powerful enough to destroy the beast.  You alone can teach him this because you are his love.  No matter which side."
     Elle looked away shocked.  She didn't figure that she would have so much responsibility.  The world depended on her to save it.  Indirectly at least.  Her life was turning out to be more interesting after all!