Chizuru vs. Cadence
Cadence walks over to the water's edge and kneels down. Pulling two sticks from his mess of purple hair, he gently beats them together only inches from the water's surface. The enchanting rhythm just barely reaches your ears. The first thing you notice is the whistling of a strong wind hitting the cave opening. Then you see that the water level of the lake is beginning to rise. The crashing of big waves can be heard, but they can't yet be seen. The water rises very quickly, and you find yourself knee deep. A strong undercurrent seems to have already developed, and the waves seem to be breaking toward the lake. You notice that the water isn't leaving the cave, and you begin to suspect that this might have something to do with the unnatural wind you heard. Soon the water has risen all the way up to your chest. If drowning weren't bad enough, you spot large shadows swimming about in the water. Cadence lounges about laying on his back on the water's surface calling out in a sing-song voice, "Here sharky sharky sharky...here sharky sharky sharky."
Chizuru stands as prepared for anything as she can be near the edge of the lake. The tapping of Cadence's sticks is the first indication that something is starting and very quickly Chizy begins her low hum, almost to the rhythm of Cadence's beating. Her eyes slip closed and an image of the cave, the lake, all of it stays first and foremost in her mind. She allows what is happening to creep into her thoughts, alarming pictures of the water rising and spreading throughout the cave to swallow her. She lets her body fall limp, relaxing as the current swirls about her ankles, her waist, and finally around her chest, and then she spies movement at the edge of her sight. “A shark?!” The young mage can feel the presence of the creature coming swiftly toward her. Her thoughts spin around in her mind, searching for someway to escape, and a thought strikes her. She tilts her head downward, as if to stare through the water and to the cave floor, though her eyes remain closed. In her head an image forms of a rather large plug, like one from your everyday bathtub, a chain attached to it’s top. In but a moment, this image is made real, popping from her thought and into reality. Chizuru now bends down to grab hold of the chain, eyes flying open, pulling with all of her might. A few tugs and the plug is suddenly free! She then turns and starts to swim for her life, reaching out to grab hold of a jagged edge of the cave wall as the water swirls down into a now open hole. It spins crazily, hopefully dragging the shark creature, and the floating Cadence down with it.
Cadence giggles as he starts to slowly spin around and around with the little whirlpool created by the drain. Gleeful shouts can be heard as he begins to spin faster. All of a sudden, as he nears the drain, Cadence realizes that he's in danger of being swallowed into the plumbing of this newly created drain. Looking around, he grabs the first thing that he sees: an old rusty chain. He holds on for dear life while the water tries to wash him away. As the last little bit of water slurps through the drain, Cadence can be seen sprawled out on the damp rock floor clutching at the chain, his knuckles a very pale green from the exertion. It takes several moments before the little green man looks around and realizes that he's safe. Cadence stands up and shakes his head, water flying every which direction from his now afro of messy purple hair. Grasping his dripping wet twigs, Cadence creates the sound of a heartbeat. After a few beats, he takes his sticks and starts beating out the sound of another heartbeat, the first one remaining. After continuing this process many times, Cadence pulls out another set of drumsticks and sets them about doing the exact same thing. Fairly soon, all you can hear is the deafening noise of thousands of heartbeats. Suddenly an elephant pops into the room, and then another, and another. Then you notice a wolf, and a pack of wolves, a fox, a rabbit, maybe a hundred, then there's a tiger, no, make that two tigers, wait five... a couple of people show up. Things are starting to get a little crowded. Then the fox notices one of the rabbits. After that it's just a disaster. Cadence begins to talk as he continues to bring in more creatures simply by creating their heartbeat in this place. You hear him recall the story of the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat. What an understatement!
Chizuru clings to the wall until she hears the last drops of water slipping down the drain and with a loud sucking sound the hole closes as if it were never there, everything restored to as it was before. She jumps down from the wall to land lightly on the floor, and at this time Cadence begins to create the beat of a heart. Chizuru frowns at this, her body tensing at the sound, breath becoming unsteady. Then Cadence begins another heartbeat, and she knows what she must do. Her eyes close once more as she seems to shut the rhythms out, focusing on listening to only one beat, that of her heart. This brings the girl back into her trance like state, the image of the cave staying with her like a dream. The scene now changes quickly, her thoughts becoming as crowded as the cave. As things suddenly begin to get hectic, Chizy sees where this is going and ponders what to do as a rabbit collides with her legs and nearly knocks her off balance and into a lion who seems to have just appeared. The jolt jolts something in her brain though. An idea! A smile plays on her lips as she can hear it in her mind, a vicious roar, louder than the sound of the fighting crowd in the cave, reverberating off the cave walls to increase the volume. Again the mage envisions this sound, and at that moment you can hear it as well. All of the creatures stop in their track, looking toward a dark corner of the cave. The roar sounds for a second time and everyone, all the tigers and rabbits, wolves and foxes, as well as each person, turns tail and runs from the cave! Chizuru stands chuckling as a fearsome creature steps out of the shadows, it’s sight set on Cadence. It is a dreaded chipmunk! It bears its little teeth and makes a mad dash for the rhythm master as quick as lightning!
Cadence grins at seeing the cute little chipmunk...but then he remembers the deadly rabbit he heard about in a story once. Not having enough time to think, Cadence yells "STOP" at the top of his lungs. The chipmunk freezes mid leap and hangs in the air. Having bought himself some thinking time by slicing into the subtle rhythm of time, Cadence sits down to ponder his situation. After a few moments, Cadence jumps up, remembering a poem he heard some time ago. In a rhythmik tone, he begins to recite a few of the lines, "Oh!, don't be afraid of me," he said. "I am the Chocolate Chipmunk," he said. "There is no reason to be afraid of me," he said. Just as Cadence finishes the last line, time returns to normal and the chipmunk, now bittersweet in flavor, comes flying at him, chocolate claws and teeth poised to kill. With a loud thunk, the candied beast hits Cadence in the forehead and falls to the ground with a clatter. Rubbing his head, Cadence turns to his opponent, and takes the liberty of editing this fantastic poem. "Oh!, don't be afraid of me," he said. "I am the Chocolate Chizuru," he said. "There is no reason..." With a grin, Cadence rushes to finish his sentence and turn Chizy into a yummy milk chocolate statue.
Chizuru remains in her trance like state this time, uninterrupted as she watches what Cadence chooses to do to evade the small rodent. She feels a small twang of disappointment as her thoughts show her the fate of her conjured creature. As her combatant again begins to recite the poem, Chizy’s thoughts fly around her mind in a panic, not wishing to be turned into chocolate! She concentrates hard, her mind focused on Cadence’s lips. The mage of envisioning sees a zipper slide shut across the green-skinned man’s mouth, and hopes that this will come true. Upon completely the zipper vision, Cadence says the last word of the poem and all thought is lost to Chizuru, now standing there, no longer a girl, but a chocolate girl statue.
Cadence falls over as he suddenly finds himself all zipped up and standing across from a chocolate mage. In a panic, he searches for a solution to his problem, and the one he just created. He doesn't even want to imagine Ary's face when she finds out that he turned a perfectly good mage into food. Pondering, he sits up and pulls out his sticks. Not fully knowing what he's doing, the distressed and traumatized master starts beating the sticks together. With a brilliant idea, Cadence unzips his zipper-mouth and starts to talk, "em fo diarfa eb ot nosaer on si erehT .dias eh "uruzihC etalocohC eht ma I" .dias eh ",em fo diarfa eb t'nod ,!hO" Chizuru turns back into her living, breathing, inedible self. With a big sigh, Cadence plops back to the ground, not even remembering that he now has a zipper-mouth.
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