Ch. 2: The Journey
part 1
      Later that day, the triumvirate got their stuff and supplies ready for a long 
trek Yomi said was most important. Ark was new here and he didn't know much about 
the land itself. He left that to Elle and Yomi. Ark was everything the last Ark was 
except memory of places. He had his skill in weaponry, and his cunning. He also had 
a taste for life, a major thing the other Ark had. What he lacked was a taste for 
fighting. He didn't like fighting. He didn't want to do it, but considering the 
trouble Earth was in now, he had no choice.
      It was late in the afternoon when Ark realized that he no idea where Yomi was 
taking them.
      "Hey Yomi." He asked in the middle of a brief silence of the three.
      "You spoke Ark?" Yomi responded sort of lazely.
      "Where are we going? I'm not being lead to some sort of death mortals usually 
fear, am I?" Ark seemed a bit worried. Yomi saw this in his eyes.
      "Ark. Just bringing you on the mortal coil is death to you. You're saving the 
world from an evil we barely know about. Ofcourse you're in danger of dying. But 
where we're going is not for death, but for answers on how to live. We're going to 
see Kumari in Lhasa."
      Elle piped up for the first time in about an hour. She looked hot and sweaty 
and in dire need of a nice soaking.
      "Lhasa? Isn't that in Europe?"
      We'll make it there in no time." Elle grunted with satisfaction walking on 
not knowing her satisfaction was false.
      "Elle..." Yomi piped up, "do you know which lake Ark took you to?"
      "No, why does it matter?" She replied.
      "Because we're in North America. That lake was one of the Great Lakes. We've 
got a LONG way to go until we reach Lhasa."
      Elle stopped suddenly in her tracks. Shock filled her eyes. It was a scary 
sight for Ark.
      "N...North A... America? Why the HELL are we in North America Ark!!?" Her 
voice rose to a deadly scream. Some creatures scittered away from some nearby 
bushes. Yomi fell a couple of feet almost crashing to the ground. Ark's muscles 
suddenly refused to work. The woman was gripping him with her ice cold stare 
awaiting an answer. He turned to her, slowly.
      "The lake I t..took you to was the most isolated spots I c..could find at the 
time. It was necessary for.... For crying out loud woman stop staring at me!!" 
Ark's voice rose to about the same level as Elle's did. Elle stared a moment more 
then released him from her icy lock of eyes.
      "Then continue." He did, nervously.
      "Like I said, it was necessary to take you there so Yomi could concentrate on 
my revival. Sorry if this bothers you but it had to be." Ark almost felt sorry for 
her. Elle looked at him and just smiled. An apology crept across her face. Ark 
smiled back. The three continued once again.
      They approached the town of Freedom when nightime fell upon the group. Ark 
lead the party onto Freedom's dock to get the boat. Ark and Elle wanted to stay in 
the inn but Yomi said they couldn't waste time. When he approached the sailor, he 
fell back a bit. The sailor had a very blank look in his eyes while he stared off 
into space.
      "Stay back." Ark warned the two. Elle nodded and Yomi stared at the sailor 
with an erie silence. Ark neared the sailor with extreme caution. He waved his 
hand in front of the pale face. Nothing happened. Ark felt a rush of relief flow to 
his knotted stomach. He turned to ask Yomi something when suddenly a mist started 
appearing out of the sailor. The mist kept flowing out until the sailor collapsed. 
The mist swirled around for a second or two than formed a well-defined shape of a 
ghost.
      "Get back!!" Ark frantically yelled at the two while he whipped out his 
weapon in an attack stance. The ghost stared at him than poofed out of existance. 
Ark turned every which way searching for the reappearance of the ghost. A white 
mist started forming around Ark. Ark slashed cleanly through it.
      It dissapated.
      Ark spotted a cabin nearby. "Go in the cabin! Wait until I call you before 
you come back out."
      The two obeyed him silently, running/floating as fast as they could to the 
cabin. Elle looked extremely scared. Ark feared for her the most. The ghost 
suddenly appeared again by the boat.
      Ark ran up to the ghost, jumped and arked his weapon for a sharp cut into the 
ghost's ethereal body. The ghost's somewhat shaped mouth shaped in pain and 
disappeared again, appearing again near the shore. Ark looked at it, his brain 
whirled trying to figure out how to destroy the thing. The ghost just floated in 
one spot as if waiting for him to approach. It stared into his eyes.
      Ark started getting a strange feeling. His body moved when he had not 
commanded it to, toward the cabin. Ark raised his spear in order to strike at the 
cabin. He wasn't controlling it himself. What was? Then it hit him. The ghost was
controlling his movement via telepathy! Ark fought to regain control. He did. With 
a sudden lunge, Ark rushed toward the ghost then suddenly sticking out his spear, 
he glided cleanly through just to find that the ghost had disappeared again.
      Ark was gettin tired. After a day of walking, he had to start fighting. Being 
mortal was tiring! And what about Elle? She was probably scared out of her shoes! 
The misty reappearance interrupted his thoughts. This time Ark took a brief look to 
see where the ghost was, then quickly closed his eyes to prevent control of his 
body by the ghost.
      With his eyes closed, Ark stumble around slashing in sloppy arks trying to 
hit anything he could. He sliced open a barrel and a few planks of the dock but no 
ghost. Ark was getting mad. He opened his eyes only to see nothing! The ghost was
around his face covering up his eyesight! Ark felt pressure at his throat that was 
slowly constricting tighter and tighter like a Boa. His breath grew short.
      Suddenly the door of the cabin opened and Elle appeared. She seemed to be 
holding something in her hand. Ark motioned her back frantically but she didn't 
heed attention.
      "Catch!" She screamed as she tossed the object to Ark. He caught it. He took 
a look at it and found it was some sort of cloth. Suddenly the ghost started 
writhing around like it was being burned by some hellish fire. Ark ran to Elle 
bringing her back to the door of the cabin as the ghost melted out of existance. It 
wasn't a pretty sight.
      "What is this?" Ark asked holding up the object, amazed. Elle smiled proudly.
      "Holy Seal." She said with a confident smile. "I found it on the table of the 
cabin and recognised it instantly. Lucky for you, the ghost hadn't controlled you 
into drowning yourself." She hugged him tightly, taking away, again, most of his 
air.
      "T..h..a..n..k..s... for... caring... Eakkk! You're... choking.. me..." Ark 
managed to get out. "Oh. Sorry." Elle looked up at him and smiled then went back 
into the cabin. Yomi came out with her.
     "Oh, thank God you're alright, Ark. I thought you were a goner!" Yomi said 
with a sly smile.
      "What was that, Yomi?" Ark asked clutching his throat.
      "That my friend was the ghost of the sailor. I have a feeling that ghost 
didn't come out just because it didn't like your hair. Something else made it do it." 
Yomi seemed a tad worried. "But since that's over why don't we go to sleep? We've 
gota long day tomorrow."
      Ark had to agree. Elle seemed to agree too.

      Early the next morning, Yomi, Ark and Elle took off for the shore of Europe. 
They planned to stay at Litz there. The morning air was fresh and smelled like fish. 
Ark liked it.He took a deep breath as he took a look at the pink glow of the rising
sun. How beautiful Earth could be sometimes!
      Ark took a look at the Holy Seal. It was a cloth of a deep red and didn't 
look like much. So he through it away. But before he had the chance to, Yomi 
stopped him.
      "Ark, STOP!" Yomi sounded strangely worried. "That Seal might come in handy 
in the future. As we've learned, it can stop ghosts. And I have a feeling that that 
last ghost isn't the last one we're going to see." Ark looked curiously at Yomi. His 
pinkness had a cute tint to him. Strange he was a couple of lifetimes old and 
looked so young. He tied the Holy Seal around his neck.
      "Hey Ark," Elle called to him from the bow of the ship. "Come here. I want to 
show you something." Ark went to Elle. She looked so beautiful with the suns new 
rays shining on her.
      "Yeah. What's the matter?" Ark walked up to her with a smile.
      "Nothing's the matter just wanted to show you the horizon." Elle stared off 
into the distance. The sun was now half way up in the sky. An orange glow shined on 
the boat.
      "What about the horizon? It's where the sun goes up and comes down. As we all 
know, this is because the sun circles the Earth. Right?" Ark tried as hard as he 
could to seem smart. He had a feeling he failed this time.
      "No, silly! The Earth circles the sun. That was proved about a thousand years 
ago! Where were you?"
      "I was a big ball of ethereal substance floating around the Nether Relm. That 
ghost is made out same stuff I was. But the sun LOOKS like it circles the earth. So 
why doesn't it?" Ark was getting himself confused. Elle just looked at him and 
laughed. She took hold of his arm and moved closer. Ark felt a bit odd when she did 
this.
      "Don't worry about it, my hunk of ex-ethereal substance. You'll heat up your 
brain to the point of explosion if you think about too much. Leave that thinking to 
me."
      Ark just looked at her and nodded with a bigger smile. He held her too. The 
feeling got a bit larger. It was a strange feeling, yet it was a good feeling. 
Something he'd like to feel more often. He'd have to ask Elle what the feeling was, 
but decided not to ruin the moment.
      It was about noon when Yomi decided to stop and eat lunch. Ark still didn't 
understand why Yomi wanted to eat when he didn't need to. He then thought about 
what Elle said and dropped the subject. Yomi had brought out, from who knows where,
some cheese a loaf or two of bread, butter and honey. Some meat was sitting out but 
Yomi said to let it heat up.
      The afternoon was nice and warm so they all enjoyed lunch. Elle explained 
more about the human race and Yomi helped a bit by adding some rude comments on the 
nasty quirks they had. Ark enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was shining on Elle's 
face when she was telling about how the human mind was complex and confusing. He 
listened half-way this time concentrating on her face. The feeling rose up again in 
his stomach like lava from an active volcanoe. What was this wierd and wonderful 
feeling he kept feeling when he looked at Elle? The question was biting at his 
brain like a ten pound mosquitoe. Suddenly Yomi headed for the starboard of the ship.
      "There's a storm heading our way Ark. We've better take down the sails." Ark 
only agreed happily. He looked at the storm when he walked to the nearest mast. It 
was closer than before.
      Odd... he thought. That storm wasn't there before. Ark continued on the mast 
when rain started to fall.
      "Wow... That cloud travelled about 20 miles in one minute!" Yomi exclaimed 
shocked. He was right. The cloud moved way to fast to be normal. Ark started to get 
a worried gut feeling about the cloud. The cloud itself was black and ominous. Ark 
didn't like the look of it. Lightning struck the sky in a clash. Elle jumped. Ark 
continued working on the mast as the rain came pouring down.
      "We can't work in this rain!" Ark shouted to the others over the loud pounding 
of the rain. Elle nodded to him. "You're right. Yomi agrees. Let's go in the cabin!" 
She too had to yell over the rain. They all gathered together and went inside. Yomi 
made a fire appear in the stone fireplace. The cabin was nice and warm after a 
minute or two.
      A fireplace on a boat? Ark thought this was mighty strange but accepted it 
anyway because he was warm.
      "We'll have to wait the storm out," Yomi said as he listened to the rapid 
pitter-patter on the roof.
      Ark agreed, "Yes, but how long will it last?"
      "Considering that we're most likely in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, I've 
no clue. These waters are unpredictable."
      Ark nodded gravely and lay down to get some shut eye. He fell asleep quite 
quickly listening to the rain splatter on the roof. He drifted out of consciousness.
      CRRRRAAAAACCCK!!
      Ark woke with a start when he heard a humongous tearing sound. Wind was 
rushing around him causing rain to pelt his face in huge droplets. He looked over 
at Elle and Yomi to see them staring up. He looked up too. He was shocked with what 
he saw. The roof was completely torn off! He jumped to his feet and ran over to the 
others. He held Elle to his side closely. She held him back even more closely.
      "WHAT TORE THE ROOF OFF!" Ark screamed at the top of his lungs.
      "I'M NOT SURE!" Yomi responded barely being able to be heard above the rushing 
wind and water. Ark was scared, but didn't have time to be too scared. The boat 
started to teeter side to side. The party were thrown from wall to wall. Ark had 
to jump the table a few times in the confusion. Suddenly the boat tipped upward, 
the bow of the boat in the air. The momentum of the quick thrust up the boat made 
through them high into the air. Ark sailed through the rain desperately searching 
for Elle. He saw a part of an outline and knew it was her. The ocean was closing in 
on them quickly.
      BAAAAAAAMMMM!!
      They hit the surface of the water hard. Ark looked up as he faded from 
consciousness. The last thing he saw was a dark pair of eyes laughing at him. He 
blacked out.

      "Welcome back, gorgeous."  Ark woke with sound of a female voice in his ear. 
He opened his eyes and saw the face of an excruciating beautiful woman. Her face 
was like milky cream and her bosom was as full as it could be maybe even bigger, 
covering the nipple with a small shell held up by seaweed wrapped around her body. 
Her hair was a deep brown and a fin made up for her behind.
      "Where am I?" Ark was still dazed and quite confused.
      "Mermaid Tower, sugar pie. I'm Leena, you're caretaker of hospitality of our 
tower. You almost died out there." She breathed in, her breasts growing oddly 
bigger than before. Ark suddenly wanted to take her and do things he knew were not 
aloud in any society. He refrained and just tore his glance away.
      "Elle!" Ark suddenly remembered her outline frantically.
      "Your ladyfriend is safe in another room along with your pink pal. I was 
assigned to you, so I'm going to do my job." She took another deep breath, forcing 
Ark to look away.
      "Take me to her."
      "Ah, ah, ah. No can do. Besides I could do things that she couldn't do for 
you in a million years." She started removing her seashells.
      "No!" Ark put his up to stop her from removing it all the way.
      "That's right, baby. Feel as much as you can. You'll be needing the experience."
Wow, she was some horny creature. Ark's lust was getting a hold of him but he knew 
deep down that it was wrong so he just turned away.
      "How long have I been here?" He turned again seeing her fully naked.
      "Well hon, you've been here about 2 years. I've been trying to awake you so 
I could brush up on my techniqes. You're just the guy I've been wanting to try out." 
Her fins turned into legs as she spread them out revealing a truly unknown sight 
to Ark.
      "Come on, baby. Explore the unknown. I'll be the New World, you be Columbus." 
She beckoned toward him. Ark almost couldn't help himself, he slowly walked toward 
the magnificent creature.
      Suddenly a door opened and Elle rushed in only to be caught be two strong 
looking Mermaids.
      "Get her out of her!!" Leena screamed at the two Mermaids. One Mermaid 
clasped her hand on Elle's mouth and one took her hands and arms. Somehow Elle 
managed to shake free for a moment. She tried to speak but the Mermaids clasped her 
mouth before she could say everything.
      "Ark! They're going to seduce you! They're de...." She was cut off and 
dragged off. Ark suddenly got extremely angery. He took out his spear only to find 
it wasn't there. "Don't you even think about harming Elle, you evil bitch!" Ark was 
furious! Leena backed off a bit. But not all the way.
      "Don't worry, loverboy. She's not going to get hurt. You're the one that's 
going to get hurt if you don't do what I say. Now take me. Take me now!"
      Ark still couldn't believe what was happening, but he understood it. The 
beautiful Mermaid was a seductress. She was trying to seduce him for whatever 
reason. He was sure of one thing, whatever she was planning, it was evil.
      "I'd rather screw a worm!" Ark knew that whatever he does, he should never 
get in her. He still didn't know why he thought this. There had to be some logical 
reason.
      "Ok. Have it your way baby doll..." Leena face turned sour. She stood up and 
walked to the door of the room. She unhitched a peephole that was on the door.
      "Burn the girl. Do the same to the pink freak. Our man's not cooperating, so 
he must be taught. Do it now!" Leena turned back toward Ark. Ark's face was twisted
with horror. Burn Elle?! He had to do something quick. He was about to jump on the 
seductress when something clicked in his brain. Something was fishy about what 
Leena did. He held back his action of jumping. Leena walked toward Ark in the 
sexiest manner a non-mortal could. Ark looked at her body again. He scanned her 
features and looked at her beautiful face. Her eyes were a beautiful pearl white, 
no pupil just whiteness. Another big click popped up in Ark's head.
      No pupils!
      Elle said they were d... What was she trying to say. Ark looked at Leena's 
eyes again. The whiteness shone like a full moon in the pale light of the room. An 
incandescent glow! Now Ark was sure she was sure what he saw.
      Leena was a Demon!
      "Like what you see sweet stuff?" Leena acted innocently like nothing happened. 
Ark was burning with rage!
      "Go away Leena. You can't hurt me. You definitely won't hurt Elle." Ark 
turned away. "Oh, how you're wrong baby face. I'll not hurt Elle but I will hurt 
you! Do what I say and I'll think about refraining from the painful activity that 
will happen if you don't." Another familiar click in his head went off. He wouldn't
hurt her but would hurt him. She said burn the girl... Burn with what, they were 
underwater! She could hurt him by making him believe she and Yomi were dead! What a 
kniving whore she was! But she was a demon, that made a world of difference. Demons 
possessed souls as they chose. Sometimes by their own wills but mainly from some 
higher power. Demons tried to hide themselves in the host, making there existance 
as conspicuous as possible. They can emulate their host perfectly except for one 
detail... Their pupils. Since the host's soul is being taken over by a souless being, 
the pupils disappear. That's how Ark knew. And the one way to get rid of a demon is 
to make it aware that another being knows of it's existance in the host. It thrives 
on secrecy. Once that secrecy is broken, it's source of power is dead. So Ark had to 
let it know he knew it was there. How was he to do that? 
      Demoness Leena walked closer to Ark, breathing in deeply, enhancing her 
features again. Ark had to get rid of this Demon quick!
      "Well, Leena. What's it like to be souless?" Ark asked with an idea forming 
in his head.
      Leena stopped suddenly. She started shivering a bit, like she was naked in a 
cold, cold house. "What... what are you talking about?" She sounded a bit nervous.
      "You don't know? Well I'm asking if the host... I mean you enjoy the feeling 
of loveless lust. You know what I mean right?" Ark looked at her. She was shaking 
quite a bit now.
      "I-I-I d-d-d-don't k-n-n-now wh-wh-wh-what you're t-t-talking about..." She 
was really nervous now. Ark was getting closer to victory!
      "Oh you should. You know it all goes. You screw me, you get my soul, I become 
souless like you and become mortal. With feelings and everything. The dream of all 
demons. Right?" Ark was ensuring his victory even more now. Leena was quaking, 
literaly. Ark looked into her eyes. Small black dots were growing in them. He was 
winning!! The demon was losing power over her!
      "Ark...." Leena cried out as she shook with fury.
      "Hey demon," Ark attempted to seal the demon's defeat, "What's up with 
choosing her? Is she that pretty that your master wanted her so bad? Or is it 
because she's the queen of Mermaids, your lust for power was too great? What is it? 
It's one of those for sure... You count on it!"
      Leena was now vibrating at a very high speed. Ark saw smoke rise off of her 
body. There was a high pitched sound eminatting from the smoke. The demon was dying! 
More and more smoke rose off of Leena until it was suddenly all gone. She collapsed
to the floor. Ark ran to her and put on her shells so not to embarras her when she 
awoke.
      It was about an hour after the demon left when she awoke. She looked at Ark 
and suddenly hugged him.
      "Ark! Thank you so much for saving me!" She then stopped and cringed back a 
bit. "I'm horribly embarrased at how I acted toward you. I was conscious, aware of 
what was happening but I couldn't control anything. I'm sorry Ark!" She started
crying into her dainty hands.
      Ark didn't like to see her cry. He went over to her and put his hands onto 
her shoulder.
      "Don't worry about it Leena. You couldn't help yourself, that Demon had total 
control over you. Besides, you're a very, very beautiful Mermaid. I had a feeling 
something wasn't right, so I didn't attempt anything. No matter how much you 
enchanted me with your beauty." Ark looked into her eyes when she looked at him. She 
had full pupils again. Ark now appreciated pupils more than ever now!
      "We must go and find the others." Leena said after a bit, "The Demon inside 
me was the master Demon. Once It's gone, the others go too."
      Ark agreed. They headed out the door in search of the other Mermaids and Elle 
and Yomi. After a bit of searching, Ark finally found Elle and Yomi.
      Elle was tied up to a chair an Yomi was tied up in a net of some sort. Ark 
untied them both. Elle leaped into Ark's arms.
      "Oh Ark! I knew you'd come to the rescue! Yomi had his doubts but he finally 
believed!" It was a joy to see Elle again, Ark realized.
      "Yeah, Ark. Good to have you back, but I hate burst bubbles, but we've got a 
journey to finish and we've no time to dilly-dally!" Yomi seemed serious so Ark 
agreed.
      Ark made one last stop to say good bye to Leena, who had found the other 
Mermaids.
      "Bye Ark. I hope you'll visit us again! You're welcome to stay as long as you 
like in our palace." Leena was still a beautiful Mermaid, standing out above the 
rest.
      "I will Leena. I'll make sure of it. We've got to go now, some journey to 
undertake or something." Ark was about to leave when Leena grabbed him from behind.
      "Hold it... I owe you something." She put her lips to his mouth and kissed 
him passionately. Ark was to surprised to respond.
      "Thanks for not taking advantage over me when the Demon was in control. I'll 
never forget that." Ark could only nod in shock. Leena laughed and sent him off.
      Ark joined his friends as they boarded a new boat the Mermaids provided them. 
They were off yet again. How many more obstacles would they face? Ark had no idea, 
but he was glad that he was with Elle and Yomi. He had a feeling that his adventure
was just beginning. He ignored this feeling and joined Elle at the bow of the boat 
and watched the sunset feeling better than he ever did before.