Post by Arissa Warrner on Aug 13, 2009 18:40:46 GMT -5
well, might as well put mine up for opinion x3
Almost a thousand years before the current time there was an Eritha* host named Ssrcuau (Su-sraw-ku). He used his mixed magic to attack the country of Caturefoux and the other Old World* nations. He had many armies at his disposal, though some say that they where mentally imprisoned to do his will. The armies attacked towns and villages throughout Caturefoux, and for some unknown reason they carried more people away captive than they killed. There was a plan at foot that only few knew of.
Then Ssrcuau unveiled his secret. He had used his magic to mix the spirit-lights and bodies of Black Northern Mountain cats with that of the human prisoners the armies had taken. They where called the Shadow Cats, a new People to live in and concur the Land of Secrets. They were built like giant simi-humanoid mountain cats, covered in shades of black and grey fur usually with vivid green eyes.
The Shadow Cats where created for the purpose of fighting and winning battles. They ran faster than horses, tired slowly, and could be perfectly quite. They where suppose to obey orders perfectly, but unknown to Ssrcuau when he chose unwilling prisoners, the Shadow Cats had been given them a longing of freedom. It was time consuming, but they learned how to disobey their creator’s voice.
In the peak of what seemed like the final battle for Caturefoux, when it looked like Caturefoux’s depleted army was going to fall, the Shadow Cats turned on the host’s army, slaughtering them and winning the battle for Caturefoux, then they turned on Ssrcuau himself, a female shadow host, named Arien Warrner, who had been turned into a Shadow Cat, renaming herself Arsvren took up the sword later named Dawndeath, a stormsteel blade that her father had made for her, and killed him with it. She never took another life again after that, but lived in peace for many of the years the Caturefouxian people and the Shadow Cats lived side by side in peace.
A thousand years later a man named Areso (uh-ri-see-o), who believed that Shadow Cats where an evil creation and should be caused to go extinct, gathered an army to him that had similar beliefs, and drove the Shadow Cats out of Caturefoux, Kreta, and the Moresor Islands. He took over the governments of those nations, ruling if from the palace in Rersor, the capital of Caturefoux.
In secret a small force gathers, known as the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’ , Light of the Exiled, determined to kill or capture Areso, free the lands, and bring the Shadow Cats back.
They worked hard harassing the Blues (as Areso's army had came to be known because of their blue uniforms) whenever they got a chance. So the years went by and the fighting continued
Wolfwood blinked and stretched before getting out of bed. He had light brown eyes and poofy brown hair, and was normal height for his age of 18. Moonlight streamed through a high window onto the face of his little brother, who had no idea of Wolfwood’s nighttime occupation. Wolfwood slipped out the door and into the hall of his house.
He lived in Rersor, walking between the tall skinny wood and stone houses on crowded streets as he had all his life, and was sick of Areso’s rule. He had joined the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’. The organization’s leader Sharcry, who was in Wolfwood’s opinion, the best the group had ever had, picked him to travel through the northern part of the Mirrorn forest to the Sressrecara mountains, where the secret home of the Shadow Cats was located, and bring them a message concerning the war. Like Wolfwood, Sharcry and the others, as well as the Shadow Cats, were making a final move against Areso.
Wolfwood slipped out into the dark streets. He made his way in the shadow until he reached an old store-house. He went down the side ally and knocked on the door in what was equivalent to a password. The door slowly creaked open and Darena, a small girl with red-brown hair poked her head out. She nodded silently and stood back to let Wolfwood enter, he could barely squeeze by her into the stacks of crates. She looked about the ally, and then up towards the rooftops, and after ensuring that no one had seen, she shut and locked the door.
Wolfwood walked over to just off center of the middle of the storage-house, where he lifted a section of flooring to drop five feet into a dark tunnel. He made his way blindly forward until he saw a light. He halted and then called out his name. He saw a figure jump out into the light, obviously having been asleep. “oh…uh.. cohme hon down,” the heavily Kretan accented voice called. Wolfwood shook his head and then walked down and greeted Darena’s twin brother.
“A’h’ll quite out there?” her twin asked.
“As far as I could tell it was.” Wolfwood responded. “Though, there where less Blue Guards than normal” Darena’s twin made a face and then rolled his eye.
“R’hally yah think?” he asked. Wolfwood shrugged and then walked down the now lighted tunnel. He came to a plain wooden door and knocked.
“Come in Wolfwood." Sharcry’s voice called through the door. Wolfwood opened the door and walked in. it was a pleasant office, with a desk, two chairs, and the warm smell of beeswax from the candles that where used to light the underground room. One earthen wall was filled with cubby holes that where stuffed with papers and other items. One resent addition was the sword of a Blue Jrkads*.
“How do you always know if it’s me?” he asked. Sharcry raised his eyebrows.
“You knock oddly” Wolfwood inwardly winced, reminded of the childhood accident, a heavy horse cart smashing his hand, that left his left hand’s knuckles oddly rounded. Wolfwood had always known that the only reason that he could still use it was because of a friendly Earth magic host that had been at the scene. “Besides who else would be up at this hour?" Wolfwood couldn’t really think of anyone, anyone sane at least, but that still left a lot of people out there, and then he allowed himself a smile.
“So are we all set to go?” Wolfwood asked, eager to get going, it was only five hours until sunrise. Sharcry nodded and stood, pulling a map out of a cubby hole. Wolfwood leaded forward eager to see the map. It was a map of Caturefoux, Kreta, and the Moresor Islands. It was the kind of map that one would expect to see in a palace school, another prize of a raid, and of course, did not have any Shadow Cat location’s on it. In fact none of the maps had any Shadow Cat locations on them, in case any of them ever fell into Blue hands.
Sharcry pointed to a place on the map, high in the Sressrecara Mountains. “This is where you are going; the path you will take follows along this rout.” Wolfwood memorized the way and retraced it with his finger. He took the note that Sharcry handed to him. Wolfwood took the piece of parchment and put it in a belt pouch.
“Thank you. If that's all, I'll be off then.” Sharcry nodded a good bye. Wolfwood turned to leave. “Oh, and Wolfwood, you know what to do if anyone follows you.” He grabbed his sythestaff, and adaptation of the scythe that was used in the fields set on a long pole, usually used in the cliff farms that where close by on one of the rivers, from out of the weapons storage room. It was never a good idea to just plainly walk around with a weapon like that, though none of the guards would think it was a weapon, they would just think he was a cliff farmer returning to his fields after getting his tool repaired, as it was that time of the year. He walked to the door and then made his way out into the streets.
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Karce sighed and looked around at the stone walls of the houses. He was a tall young man with short dark brown hair and matching bright eyes. He was slender built and was not much of a fighter. However it had been Karce had been picked by his commander to follow the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’ member who was taking a message to the Shadow Cats. He was picked because he was one of the best trackers in Areso's army; some thought that he might even have earth magic abilities.
‘Here are the rules.’ He had been told ‘Number One: remember your job is to track, not to fight, do not engage in a fight. Number Two: If you get caught don't talk.’
Don't talk or fight, ha. Karce thought. He hadn't ever been good at fighting and highly doubted that he would have a chance to talk if he was caught if the things he had heard where true.
Feeling really sour towards his commander he followed the rebel to the northwest gate. Karce had made it so far and not been seen. He swallowed nervously; the realization of what he was doing finally hitting him. Oh, Dawning Grace, please do not let me die, he thought. He did not want to do this in the first place and now, they expected him to follow this man into the Mirrorn forest. Karce sighed, thinking of what would happen if he didn’t, and then stepped out into the trees.
Two days later, Wolfwood looked up at the heights of the Sressrecara Mountains. It was amazing how large they where, reaching up and up into the sky. He could not even see the peaks of them.
Wolfwood smiled as he heard the noise far behind him, which must be the person who was tracking him. He smiled, it was not that the tracker was not good, it was just Wolfwood had very good hearing. If it wasn’t for that, Wolfwood might not even know he was there.
Wolfwood turned and made east along the side of the foothills. It would be easy enough to lose the tracker by using on old false trail Sharcry had told him about that was just made specifically for that purpose. He walked down the trail for a short while then he pulled a short length of rope from his belt and threw it over a ‘branch’ that was really a wooden beam expertly carved to blend in with the tree tops.
He then carefully walked over a hidden pit trap, putting most of his weight on the rope. That should take care of the tracker. If he should survive the fall, then a Shadow Cat patrol could come pick him up. Though he hated having to cause the trackers death, he could not have the tracker following him anymore. Wolfwood carefully looked over the trap before he turned and headed up to the mountains and toward the Shadow Cat place.
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Karce was angry at himself. He should have known that it was a false trail. It was to well worn and treaded down to be a serious trail. Karce had almost ended up stepping on a pit trap! Well, he had stepped on it and had ended up dangling over the side with his boots wedged into the dirt walls and his hands locked onto a tree root until he had finally scrambled out about ten minutes later.
“Why, why, why!" he muttered at himself, while brushing off as much dirt off his front as he could. That trap was probably why so many of the trackers sent to follow the rebels never returned. He walked back up to the beginning of the trail looked toward the north. No movement in the trees, so he then looked at the ground. Hu, he must have some how went around and then went from there. Karce cautiously walked around the trap until he found some boot-prints. He frowned, they where at least an half-hour old, saying that he had wasted time. But all the same, he did not want to get to close. He blinked and looked at the bootprints on the other side of the pit. He had walked across with out… then Karce looked up and saw the branch and smacked his forhead with his hand.
It was late evening before Karce reached the other side of the foot hills. He looked up toward the mountain to see if he could find any movement. There! He found the small grey figure climbing up the mountainside. Now all he had to do was to catch up.
The next day almost half way to the Shadow Cat palace, Wolfwood almost paused when he heard a noise behind him. He blinked and listened sharply as he walked along. Yes, there were footsteps behind him. Surly it was not the tracker that had been following him, but there was always the chance… he made up his mind quickly and hid behind a rock on the side of the trial. He adjusted his grip on his scythe staff, holding it sideways. He waited until he heard noise just in front of the bolder before leaping out, hoping to surprise who ever it was.
Karce, who was looking down, confused, looked up and froze. Wolfwood charged with a yell, his scythe staff upraised. Karce jumped back and barely missed being cut in half by the downswing of Wolfwood’s scythe-staff, nearly tripping over his feet in surprise. Wolfwood smiled slightly. He saw fear in Karce’s dark eyes and features, and inexperience as the Blue backed off.
He was probably one of those sheltered trackers, with a good memory, but no fighting skills. This would not be hard at all. The Blue had no weapons other than a small knife, and Wolfwood doubted that he could throw it.
Wolfwood stepped back and pretended to prepare to swing at Karce’s head, and as Karce made to block as best he could with his arms, Wolfwood used the blunt end of his scythe-staff to trip Karce. Karce rolled out of the way as Wolfwood brought the end of his staff down near his head. He scrambled up and ran, not caring which way he went.
Wolfwood laughed and smiled. The Blue thought that he could just run away. How naïve, it would take more than that, plus the Blue was going the wrong way.
Karce ran on, his feet sounding like a horses as they hit the ground, hoping that he would just be left alone. No such luck, he though as he heard Wolfwood running after him. He ran through a small glade and was almost across when he suddenly found himself falling face first on the ground and his shins hurting. He went to rise, thinking that he had just tripped over a branch or something, but when claws with razor sharp points pressed into his back, he realized that he had been caught by something. Oh, please oh please be a wolf or a normal mountain cat, he thought.
He listened and heard the cat-like noises of the Shadow Cat language. Even though he had never heard it before, it was unmistakable. He looked around from his position on the ground and saw black furred tails and paws. Karce moaned to himself, well, there went his chances of getting away, and probably keeping his head as well.
Wolfwood came running into the glade and slid to a stop when he saw the Shadow Cats. There where five of them in the glade. They where on all fours, inspecting the tracker, who one of the smaller ones had pinned, face-down, into the meadow grass.
“What happened, Wolfwood?” called the smallest shadow cat, one who was grey with a black patch of fur over one eye, as she sat up to an upright position. “Sharcry said you where better than to get followed.” Wolfwood was a little take back that the small shadow cat knew his name, and that Sharcry had said that.
“Well…uh…I...” he stumbled over what to say. The shadow cats laughed a pure happily amused sound, and the female who had spoken to him lost her serious expression.
“That’s alright.” She said, waving a paw for him to come on over. “We know how to take care of things like that anyhow, don’t worry about it!” Karce winced at the wording of the sentence. Wolfwood walked over, an embarrassed smile of his face
“Anyhow I’m Marice Shjra, senior High Captain.” That meant she had passed the status of Weapons Master to become a High Captain, of which, there where only two.
Wolfwood blinked in surprise, wondering what the right way to greet her was. “No, no don’t worry about all of that.” She said merrily as if she could read his mind.
“So, what are you going to do with him?” Wolfwood asked. Marice smiled and said something in her language.
Karce was rolled over on his back with the one shadow cat still pinning him down. He looked into their amused faces and gulped. So, this is what a mouse felt like when it was caught by a cat. He had always wondered that, even though this was not the way he had planned to find out. One grinned at him and laughed, which made him think of how most cats played with what they caught before killing it. Karce felt like he was going to faint, he was so terrified. He turned his head and looked at Wolfwood. He was standing next to the Shadow Cat called Marice talking.
I am dead, I just know it, Karce moaned inside his head and it’s all your fault! as Marice walked over to Karce, standing over him and staring down at him. Karce turned his eyes to one side, not meeting her acid green eyes. Areso never wanted anyone to look strait at him, and Karce had once, but had never meant to, and luckily had not gotten in trouble for it. Funny thing for me to think of, Karce thought sadly.
“What are you doing, Marice?” Wolfwood asked, curious. “Tying to scare him more?”
“No, I’m deciding what to do with him.” Marice said. Karce shrunk back his body pressing against the ground more than before, shutting his eyes and fearing the worst. Mari then smiled at Wolfwood, revealing sharp white fangs, and said, “Arissa, I think.”
Karce glanced at Wolfwood, confused, Arissa…what was that?
“Yes, maybe,” Wolfwood said. He was friends with Arissa, as she was human and could come to the capital without suspicion. She had long dark-brown hair that was hanging braided down her back and emerald green eyes that sparkled happily. She generally dressed in a long sleeved red tunic, and black pants and boots. She was friendly and always seemed to be happy. She was also a Shadow Magic host, and it would be simple for her to get information from this Blue.
Marice said something in the shadow cat language, sort of a mixed “mroww purr” noise. Karce found himself being picked up by the shadow cat that had pinned him, and set on his feet. Marice took his knife and handed it to Wolfwood, who stuck it in his belt. Karce could do nothing but stand there, too scared to try to run, and not being able to because of the Shadow Cats that held his arms. He looked from Wolfwood to the shadow cats, wondering who Arissa was, and how this had anything to do with him.
Wait, they where not binding or blindfolding him. He glanced at one of the shadow cats that flanked him as they moved forward. Did that meant that they…were not going to let him go?! He did not expect to be let go, but if they had there might have been a chance! Oh, no, he thought, no no! Tie me up and blindfold me! I don’t want to be trapped here!
Wolfwood walked down the dimly lit throne room and bowed to the Shadow Cat queen and king, putting the finger tips of his left hand at the base of his right, and his right fingertips to his forehead. The queen rose out of her sitting position to a standing one. Though shadow cats hated formality, for things like this, it was required.
“Wolfwood, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “It really is a silly thing to have to do.”
Wolfwood smiled and said, “It is only polite, Queen Souercot. Besides, I have to be formal before I give my message.”
“Oh, right, Sharcry is big on that” the shadow cat king said, smiling and also rising.
“Shassora, you silly cat! You should’ve realized that by now!” Queen Souercot said, playfully laughing, as she contradicted herself. She looked around and saw Karce, who was standing between two shadow cats. Souercot raised her eyebrows in interest and surprise.
“Now, who’s this?” she asked. Karce stared at the floor silently shivering, hoping that there wouldn’t be too much interest in him.
“Him? He followed me from the foothills. Marice thought that Arissa might like to see him,” Wolfwood said apologetically. Marice smiled and nodded her head
“Yep, that’s right I did!” she chimed.
Karce glanced at them, still wondering what they had in mind for him. Queen Souercot studied him for a moment.
“Well if you say so, Mari, I trust you. So, what’s Sharcry want this time?” she asked, turning back to Wolfwood.
“Okay, hold on a second,” Wolfwood said, pulling out the piece of parchment from the belt pouch, which held an opening note.
‘To Queen Souercot and King Shassora of the Shadow Cats:
Progress has been made on the weakening of His Idiotness Areso’s defenses of the castle. In about four weeks, we can begin our attacks.
The only thing left to do is remove most of the Shadow Cats Gang to your home to add to your army. We also need more yarkaden*.
Yours,
Sharcry Deonven -Leader of the Shadow Cats Gang.’
“And there are some more additional documents. Charts and things. Another coded letter that I don’t know how to read.”
Wolfwood returned the paper to his pocket. Karce’s eyes had widened and where staring fearfully at Wolfwood. Yarkaden, that was explosive, why would they need yarkaden?
“Well, that was informative,” King Shassora said, “We’ll discuss it more later. In the mean time…Raragõne?”
“Yes, sir?” a female shadow cat with dark smoky grey fur stepped out of the shadows by a door.
“Go and get Arissa and Vemestorm and tell them to come here, will you?” Shassora said. Raragone nodded and left through the door.
Karce looked up and scanned the room. The platform that held a mess of carpets that served thrones were set back in a square shaped extension in the wall. Above that was set the tusks or horns of some great animal with curved ends, tied together with tan rawhide. They were white and shone in the dark room around them. The room itself had pillars carved out of the wall going down each side with doors leading to other rooms. All of it appeared black or gray with a lamp of some rock that glowed serving as the only lighting. The reason for this was that the shadow cats could see just as fine in this dim lighting as they could at noon day outside, so they did not bother with more lighting.
Wolfwood and the others turned when the main door opened. A female shadow cat, with all white fur except for her paws, ears, and tail, and a piece of black cloth tied over one eye, came in first. Karce could not help but notice the host pattern* sewn around the edges of the cloth. He hoped that her magic would not be used on him for whatever reason.
Then following behind her, a human girl, maybe 15 years of age, two years younger than Karce, and three years younger than Wolfwood, came in the room. She had long dark-brown hair that was hanging braided down her back. Emerald green eyes sparkled in the faint light. She was dressed in a long sleeved red tunic, and black pants and boots. She also wore a cloak with the host pattern sewn on the edges and the Shadow Cat symbol on the back.
“Vemestorm! How was your trip?” Queen Souercot said with a winning smile, exposing stark white fangs, while addressing the shadow cat.
“It wasss practically perfect.” Vemestorm hissed. Her voice sounded very creepy, as if it had a permanent hiss and made her seem old. It gave Karce goose bumps, and he was only slightly pleased to see that Wolfwood shuttered as well.
“Practically?” Queen Souercot said with a raised eyebrow. Vemestorm inclined her head slightly. “Well, on to a different matter! When Marice went to meet Wolfwood, he had been trailed by him” She twitched an ear to Karce “All the way from the capital. Marice thought that you” she looked at the girl, whom Karce now thought must be Arissa “might have some luck with this one.” Karce swallowed, he did not like the way the Shadow Cat Queen spoke of him.
“What do you think Arisssa?” Vemestorm asked Arissa, who did not seem bothered by her voice. Arissa turned her inquisitive eyes on Karce, observing him rigorously, never missing a thing. He felt uncomfortable, and fidgeted, as if she could see right through him into his head.
Wolfwood smiled at his young friend. He often forgot she was only 15; she was much more mature than most 15 year olds. She was one of the best shadow magic hosts that anyone had seen in the years following Ssrcuau’s death at the hands of Arsvren, the last Shadow Magic host that had any power worth speaking of until current time.
“I think I will have some luck, actually.” Arissa said her tone of voice somewhere between pleased and saddened. “We’ll see.” Karce thought that she had an oddly accented voice. She walked over to where Karce was standing in between the two Shadow Cat guards. He shrank back till his back touched the cold stone wall, his eyes still fixed on the floor. He glanced up and Arissa’s eyes locked on his.
Karce’s eyes widened and he started shaking, trying to look away. What was this girl doing to him! No! Get out of my head! He thought when he realized what was going on, though it was hard to think anything at all. He was being contacted searched. A shadow magic ability, she was sifting through his memories looking for something. He couldn’t imagine what. Why?! I don’t know anything that you want! He thought Please! They did not tell me anything! He knew the girl could hear him, but seemed to be ignoring him.
The only response was that Arissa narrowed her eyes slightly. Karce fell to his knees, trying to break eye contact all the while pleading. His head tilted up, still unable to look away. Arissa knelt down in front of him so he would not have to look up. They stayed that way for a few moments before Arissa blinked, breaking the connection. Karce gasped and fell forward onto his hands, dropping his head and shutting his eyes as hard as he could, his body quaking from the effort of fighting her magic. Arissa stood and turned to Queen Souercot.
“His name is Karce Raltagold. And, he’s seen what we’re looking for.” She said with a smile. This was reflected on the faces of everyone in the room except for Karce. He was still kneeling there, shaking. Wolfwood could sympathize; he knew how it felt to be Contact Searched. When he had first met Arissa she had somehow found her way through a world-port into the Land of Secrets, as she did not originate from his world. She had been wearing a blue shirt and some kind of odd blue pants. Wolfwood had mistaken her for a Blue, only seeing the color, and attacked her. He ended up with his own knife at his throat and her green eyes boring into his brown ones.
At that moment Wolfwood thought he was dead, and the feeling of being dumped in ice water did not help.
Arissa knelt back down and put a hand on Karce’s shoulder, causing him to flinch away. Don’t do that again, please! Leave me alone!
“Karce…?” She asked, her voice was soft, kind and saddened at the same time. Karce did not want to meet her eyes again, fearing the same thing had would happen that had before, but he looked up anyway. When he did he was surprised when she did not do it again. Arissa smiled “Sorry about that. I know it feels weird, but it’s alright you know?”
“A-alright?” Karce whispered, not knowing what she was talking about, mostly because he did not feel alright at all.
“Yes, it’s alright to break the second rule. No one cares.” Karce looked down and then looked up again, then closed his eyes and shook his head. Arissa shrugged and went to stand by Vemestorm.
“If that’sss all you wisshed to s-speeak to ussss about, we sshall take our leave.” Vemestorm hissed.
“Yes, I believe that will be all for now.” Queen Souercot said “thank you for your time.” Vemestorm inclined her head and muttered something to Arissa. Arissa rolled her eyes in playful exaggeration and then they both disappeared in a swirl of black colored magic. Wolfwood started and stared at the place where they had disappeared, he did not know that Arissa could do that
“Hum, now what shall we do with you Master Raltagold?” Queen Souercot said.
Karce continued to stare at the floor, not sure what to say, and not wanting to say anything, but then again not knowing if he was suppose to say anything at all. The shadow cat queen asked various things in their cat-noise language. With the response, Karce found himself being pulled up and set on his feet. He started to look around some, to see what was happening, but then the shadow cat guards that where in charge of him walked him out.
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Wolfwood leaned his scythe-staff against the wall of the room he was staying in. He would stay at the Shadow Cat palace for a couple days while the Queen and King wrote a response to the letter he brought. If the Blue tracker, what was his name? Karce, wasn’t it, odd name, sounded like grease, ha, funny, had really seen what they where looking for, not that he doubted Arissa’s word in any way, then they would have a huge advantage and Sharcry would want to know.
Wolfwood was also curious to see Arissa shadow-jumping* again. He had never seen her do much magic in front of others, but from the tone of voice Vemestorm had used she must have something important to do, something that Arissa did not look forward to doing. A trip, well, probably about some plant-thing that he wouldn’t understand anyhow, he would ask tomorrow.
Wolfwood yawned and then blew the candle out. Well, no use worrying about tomorrow at the moment.
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Arissa, unknowingly simultaneously yawning with Wolfwood, blinked as she tried to stay awake. She sighed as she looked out over the worktable that she and Vemestorm shared, which at the moment was covered in plants, dried and fresh. The organizing part was Arissa’s least favorite thing to do. So, of course, that was what they where doing.
“Arisssa you look tired, why don’t you go to bed?” Vemestorm asked.
“No, no, Vemestorm, I said I would help you if I got to go on the trip with you, so I’ll help.” Arissa yawned. Vemestorm chuckled
“Are you ssure?” Vemestorm said “I can alwaysss finish by mysself.” Arissa shook her head. Then she sighed to herself.
“Vemestorm, when do you think I will get to go home?” She asked. Vemestorm cocked her head to one side.
“You are home, thiss iss where your anccessstor Arssvren, one of your great grandmother’sss where born.” Vemestorm said, looking at Arissa oddly. “and many more before that, you remember?”
“Yes, you told me. She was Arien Warrner in the world she went to, my world. And then she came back to help fight Ssrcuau, and since she had not used her magic, it was hard for her to get started again, and he turned her into a Shadow Cat, one of the first, before she escaped. She took the name Arsvren, a combination of the cat’s name and hers.” Arissa said, paraphrasing the tale. “But, it just, doesn’t feel like home, yah know what I mean, it’s like when you’ve moved to a new city and your house just doesn’t feel right yet?”
Vemestorm shrugged, she had never had to move. She had grown up in the shadow cat palace for the most part, barley two when Areso had driven them out. She heard that a stable stood where her house had once stood in Resor.
“If you wissh to go back, I will help you find a way.” Vemestorm promised “but for now, we need you here. You do undersstand don’t you?”
Arissa nodded, she understood, but that did not mean that she like it.
“Well, may I go to bed now, Vemestorm?” Vemestorm nodded and Arissa rose and went into her room, softly shutting the door behind her. Vemestorm shook her head, sometimes the thought that there was too much strain put on Arissa. Vemestorm closed her eyes and leaned back. She was much younger than her voice made her sound and was nicer that she acted around others. But still, she had a job to do. Vemestorm looked around the room for a moment before turning back to the table, her hands now sparking black magic as she reached for a dark blue tinged plan, while closing her eyes.
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Areso sat strait up in bed his chest heaving. His eyes where still wide from the nightmare he had had, or been given as it seemed. It started out with familiar images, his soldiers bearing down on a small village, yells and shouts in shadow cat. That had made him smile as he remembered putting torch to the houses, then it all went black. It was a swirling blackness he recognized as shadow magic. Then green color spread over the black, not the bright color of the shadow cats, but a dark emerald green.
The laugher started then, Areso knew that laugher that was the laugher of success in something difficult, he had laughed that way many times. But this laugher also held a youthful female tone to it. That probably meant no good will toward him, because that would be the host’s voice, and he did not have any young female shadow hosts at his command, nor did anyone that he knew of.
Then suddenly there was a shadow cat, a dark cloth draped over its hunched form, and part of it over the shadow cats’ face except for one acid green eye “Who are you?” Areso had demanded. “Are you the host that is doing this?!” The shadow cat shook her head, and Areso was sure there was a smug smile on her face. “Well who are you then?!” the shadow cat let the dark cloth fall from it. Areso gasped as he saw white and black fur
“I am Vemesstorm Zandra, and we have found a link, Aresso Marvensssen.” She said “And we will find you next!” Areso had then forced himself awake, bolting upright. Ah well, he thought or hoped, just a stupid nightmare. He laid back then trying to recapture sleep, which was not cooperating.
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Karce curled up on his cot, trying to get some sleep. Any moment he expected that girl to show back up and interrogate him in the same manner she had done before, or just shadow cats showing up to torture him. He rolled over with his eyes squeezed shut, oh don’t think about that! He chastised himself the more you think of it the more likely it will happen! Besides, think about what has happened, you have not been tied up or pushed around or kicked or anything!
To be honest, Karce was not even sure if he was in a cell. He had a nice cot to sleep on and a heavy blanket to go with it, and there was two candles sitting on a rickety table with a chair. If he where at the capital the only thing that there would be in the cell was chains, rats, and wet. He had been down there before with the other guards, and he couldn’t imagine how miserable it would be. Plus there would most definitely not be candles; the only light would be that coming underneath the door. They had also given him something to eat before locking him in, the food remained untouched on the table. Karce was not sure if it would be poisoned or not, even though he was hungry, and that was probably a factor in him being still awake.
He finally groaned and got up and sat in the chair staring at the food for a little bit before deciding that there was no reason that it should be poisoned. It was really good food, better that barracks rations, but then again it was not hard to beat that. He finished eating and immediately felt sleepier. He did not know if this was due to his own imagination or if it was something in the food, but either way he made his way back to the cot and almost was immediately asleep.
Later that night Karce tossed and turned as he dreamed. He was standing outside beside a pool of water, it was not a natural pool, the sides where blue with patterns and the water seemed to clear. At one end there where white steps leading down into a shallow part and the other end some kind of board sticking out over the deep part. He looked out over a large area of green grass fenced in with a tall wooden fence. There where lots of bushes with bright colored flowers, mostly red yellow and even orange! Who grew orange flowers?! Where did you even get orange flowers?!
His head jerked around as he heard splashing and suddenly noticed two people swimming in the water. One, the younger one, was definitely Arissa, maybe a year or two younger, but Arissa for sure. The other one was a boy, about the age Karce was now. He had darker brown hair that Arissa and the same emerald green eyes. He watched them swim around for a moment and play some sort of game where you yelled ‘Marco’ and ‘Polo’, seemed pointless to Karce.
“Kids, time to come in! We’re leaving in about twenty minutes!” Karce whipped around to see a white house with a shingled roof. It actually had glass doors! That was strange. Standing in one of the doors was a lady that had the same long brown hair and green eyes as Arissa and the other boy.
“Yes, mom! We’re coming!” the boy called. Karce looked at him in shock, this was Arissa’s brother?! Karce knew he was dreaming, but could not help wondering if this was happening because of him being contact searched. Suddenly the scene changed so fast it made Karce’s head whirl. They where in some sort of carriage it seemed, but where going at an impossibly fast rate for any horse to go. Karce looked ahead and realized there where no horses, which made him nervous.
“So, Jared, where do you want to go for dinner?” Arissa’s mother asked who was sitting beside who ever was driving. He had Jared’s dark hair but unlike the rest of the family had dark blue eyes. Jared seemed to think as Arissa bounced impatiently in her seat.
“Oh, come ooo-hn!” She whined laying her head on his shoulder and giving him puppy dog eyes, something that Karce did not expect from Arissa “pick already!”
“Uhm… lets go to...” he was interrupted by a loud squealing noise and then everything became a blur with bright yellow and red lights twisting around before everything went black. Karce blinked and looked around waiting for the black to go away while wondering what had happened. Some kind of accident, mayhaps?
Slowly a scene emerged from the blackness, trees, grass, grey stones and Arissa. She was looking at three stones tears running down her face. Karce looked and realized that they where grave stones. His eyes widened and then suddenly he woke up.
He lay there staring at the ceiling. He did not understand what he had just seen, and was not sure if he even wanted to understand. It almost felt like intruding, and if he did see Arissa again he was not going to ask about it. Karce rolled over to his side, his face toward the door with a sigh. I wish I could get out, He thought staring at the door.
Karce jumped when he heard the lock click on the door. He waited for a few moments, waiting for someone to come in. When no one did he got out of bed and walked over to the door. He paused a moment before pushing the door open.
“Hello?” he called, sticking his head out the door, looking up and down the dark hallway. He did not get an answer, and he could not make out any shapes in the hallway. Slowly he inched out of the cell and walked down the hall, one of his hands placed flat on the wall to help him find his way.
“Hey!” a voice called out sharply behind him, which made him jump. “How did you get out?” Karce turned to make out a shadow cat in the dark.
“I was laying on the cot, and the lock clicked, and I...” Karce began.
“Yah, yah.” The shadow cat said with an unbelieving tone, making Karce wince. “Are you a host or somethin’?”
“Wha? Me?” Karce said his eyes widening in surprise “No, no, I’m not! I mean, some people think so, but I've never done anything...”
“Except make the door unlock?” The shadow cat said. Karce nodded weakly, knowing how stupid it sounded. “Humph, well come on, then.” Karce sighed and followed her back down the hall to where the cell door was. “Get in.” As Karce walked in he heard the door close firmly behind him and the lock click in place with a sharp click that made him wince.
Karce sat down on the edge of the cot and put his head in his hands with a sigh. Great, if I wasn’t in for it before, I certainly am now. At least that shadow cat wasn’t to mean about it. She didn’t even seem that mad, just kind of skeptical. He thought staring at the stone floor. After a while, the cold temperature of being underground started to get to him, so he draped the blanket around him. It made him think of the entrance to the ‘Palace’, as he heard all the shadow cats calling it. The entrance was a simple thing, just a normal looking cave entrance, nothing fancy or special about it. Other than the fact that a stone slab could be lowered from the top, hiding and barring the entrance like a gate.
It amazed him that no one had managed to find it yet; it seemed that anyone wandering in the mountains could just chance upon it and wander in. He sighed and finally lay back onto the cot and closed his eyes, drifting off, back into sleep.
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“So, what you told us was true, was it?” Queen Souercot said, looking toward Marice. “About him being clueless?” Vemestorm was also in the room, finished with her earlier duty.
“Whatss thisss about?” She asked, blinking to show that she was not very pleased to be called down here in the middle of the night, and being more nocturnal, had previously been sitting talking to her husband about the future plans of the war, and whether, in her condition, should go out with them.
“Both of them! Clueless, Vemestorm! Him more that her! What Thalet reported as well…what should we do?”
“We sshall ssit and wait to ssee what becomess of it. Who knowsss. We may be ssuprissed!”
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Arissa sat staring at the sunrise. She had never realized before she came here how different a sunrise would look if you where closer to the sun. The only thing she wished was that she could watch the stars disappearing as their own blotted them out of sight, but here that was impossible. There where no stars in the Land of Secrets, as this world was called.
She fingered the violin from where it rested in her lap. Made from maple wood, just for her to use; Vemestorm and Raragone had surprised her two years ago as a present around the beginning of winter after she had explained the concept of Christmas, and even though it was a tad bit to early, she accepted it graciously.
She sighed happily, content to spend the morning in looking out over its first light touching the trees, or what little of them could be seen through the thick mist that covered the tops of them. In sudden inspiration she picked up her violin bow and started to play. What resulted was beautiful, haunting music that entwined over and over again on its self while tumbling down off the rocks of the mountain down into the foot hills, unique and never to be repeated in quite the same way.
Vemestorm smiled, sitting at the door waiting for Arissa to finish. When she did Vemestorm gave a polite cough and Arissa turned with a sigh.
“Mornin’, Vemestorm.” She said, loosening the bow and returning the instrument into its case.
“Good morning, Arissa, are you ready?” Vemestorm asked politely. “Do you remember what we are doing today?”
“Yes, we are re-bonding the supports for the palace.” Arissa said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and pulling her boots on. She stood up and picked up a necklace from her bedside table. It was a simple faux leather cord with a pale pink shell hanging from it. With practiced hands she tied the simple knot that held it in place quickly while walking out the door into the chamber that joined her and Vemestorm’s rooms. She rubbed the shell fondly, her brother had given it to her after he found it on one of their vacations to the ocean, and it was the only thing she had to remember him by.
She grabbed a light jacket off of the back of a chair, something that she had had specially made, not caring for the trench-coat style ‘jackets’ that the Caturefouxian people favored, and shrugged it on. Re-bonding supports, which meant traveling down to the deep underground tunnel system that was the original hiding place for the Shadow Cats. Most of them where natural caves that where there when the Shadow Cats had arrived in the mountains, and it was these dark, cold caves that contained the supports to the current Palace.
Arissa enjoyed traveling underground; she had always been fascinated by caves and crevasses. She laughed to think that in her world the caves she was about to enter would be constantly flooded by tourists. They where full of huge crystals and rock formations, fountains of pure unpolluted crystal waters rushed and gathered in pools to form the caves further. At some places precious ore brushed against the walls of the caves.
The Shadow Cats, who had no concept of money or treasure, had simply lived among rocks worth millions of dollars and left them with out a second thought. She trailed Vemestorm down the hazardously steep spiral stone staircase and descended down to the lower levels of Palace to the lower gate, ready for a day in the deep, dark cool earth.
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Karce awoke with a jerk and sat strait up, not recognizing the room he was in at first. Then he relaxed as the past days events washed over him and he remembered where he was. He sighed and shook his head slightly; he had silently hoped that it was a bad dream. He stretched and looked around; having no way to tell what time of day it was outside.
He looked at the candles, which each seemed to be a ten hour candle. They had been brought down here with him and the one burning now was the one that he had lit just after he had woke up and found the other one a barely burning stub of wax and wick. It had burned about a third of the way down, so perhaps it had been about twelve hours.
Karce thought back to the previous day, it had been early afternoon when he had been initially caught, and it took them about two hours to get to the palace, and then maybe twenty minutes to get to the throne room. He thought, he did not remember that, he was too panicked. Then after he had been ‘dismissed’ from there, he had been taken to the place he was now, which had taken another twenty minutes. Then it seemed to take the chatty shadow cat guard an hour to get him “situated” as the shadow cat had put it. This all took almost four hours, if you rounded it all up, which would put him locked down here about dark.
So, if twelve hours worth of candle had been burned since then, it would be about late morning. Karce groaned and then lay his head back, staring at the stone ceiling. It looked to be a very slow day if that was about the right estimate. He did not think that he could stand to sleep any longer than he already had. If no one was going to bother him today, he knew that he would be indescribably bored. At least the stone ceiling was entertaining; he could pick out patterns in the natural coloring of the stone, and the lines when it had been carved.
Karce soon became lost in the ceiling, and failed to realized how hungry he was, until he smelled food. He instantly snapped out of his trance and sat up on the edge of the bed and stared at the door when he heard a click. The door opened and a shadow cat with cream colored markings on its face stepped in the room. It was in the awkward, upright position, carefully hanging onto a tray with food on it.
Karce’s stomach rumbled when he smelled soup and warm bread, but he remained sitting on the edge of the bed, still slightly wary of the Cats in general.
“Hello! You finally woke up! Do humans always sleep for ever?!” The cat said brightly, in way of a greeting. Karce gave a slight, hesitant shrug, slightly more interested in the food. The Cat set the tray down on the table and walked back to the door. “Hey, hurry up and eat that, k? You get to go out today, so be ready when I come back!” Karce nodded and then went and sat down at the chair and looked at the tray, besides the soup and bread there was a few pieces of fresh fruit and a bowl of water.* It seemed that he was going to be fed the same way he was last night. The Shadow Cats did not seem to mind giving prisoners a good meal, which Karce did not mind at all.
He started eating and watching the door out of the corner of his eye. The Shadow Cat said he was going out today, well, unless it was to his execution, or an interrogation session, he did not think that he minded. He finished eating what of the breakfast he could. He had no idea what kind of soup he was eating, but dipping the crusty, heavy bread in it proved to be quite filling. That along with some of the fruit and water quickly filled him up. He sat the water bowl down and leaned back in the chair waiting for the Shadow Cat to come back.
When the Shadow Cat did return Karce looked up just in time to get smacked in the face with a set of clothes. Karce looked down and the clothes that had now fell in his lap with a confused look on his face, then back up to the laughing Shadow Cat.
“Get changed!” the Cat said through his laughter and shut the door, but did not lock it. Karce looked at the plain, off white shirt and dark brown pants and shook his head. Of course they would not let him keep his uniform. At least they looked like they would fit him. He quickly changed and then knocked on the door. The Shadow Cat opened the door again and motioned for him to follow.
Karce sighed and followed him into the hall and quickly migrated to the wall, like he had the night before. All he had to tell him where the Cat was located as the constant babbling that seemed to emanate from the Cat. He was talking about the most random things that Karce could possibly imagine, and he changed subjects often. Karce finally stopped when his foot bumped the bottom step to the long stair case he had walked down yesterday.
“Well come on, we don’t got all morning!” He heard the Cat say. Karce made a face and tried to find a railing
“You…want me to climb these in the dark?” he asked weakly. He heard the Cat shuffle around and Karce heard a rock strike another and saw a red spark. The spark landed on a makeshift torch, which quickly lit up. The Shadow Cat, illuminated from the torchlight, almost looked forbidding, and would have if he had not had a silly grin plastered on his face.
“Now can you come?” The Cat asked, actually handing him the torch. Karce nodded and then briefly wondered how he could see in the pitch darkness he had just illuminated. As they walked up the stairs, which where steep and spiraling sharply, Karce worked up the courage to ask the Cat about it.
“Uhm… may I, may I ask a question?” Karce finally said. The Cat stopped talking and bobbed his head. “How could you see, you know, with out any light down there?”
“I couldn’t.” the Cat said “I’ve just been down there so often that I know where everything is.”
“Ah.” Was Karce’s reply, he then sighed and focused on climbing the steep long stairs.
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Wolfwood stood on the edge of the Shadow Cats practice ground. The Shadow Cats, nice though they where, could not ever deny themselves the enjoyment of a fight. Thus, in the enclosed mountain refuge, a practice ground was necessary to keep them entertained.
Any person who was anything less than an expert fighter was no anything less than an expert fighter and acrobat would even dare venture onto the chaotic practice ground. Wolfwood remembered a veteran from Kreta say that he had seen battlefields less chaotic than a Shadow Cat practice ground.
There was no order to anything that lay inside the wide ring of ropes that marked it out from the surrounding area. Anybody and everybody was labile to be attacked. It did not matter whether you where fighting someone already or not. Often times “fangs” or a gang of fighters who allied themselves together, a real practice in actual fighting, patrolled and ‘snipered’ a lone fighter or clashed with other fangs. Even if you where ‘killed’ and had to sit out for a half hour, getting off the practice ground was a chore in itself, as you had to dodge attackers and fights.
Wolfwood did not dare set a toe inside the ring of rope. While he was an average fighter, he had never had official training in the art, plus his only weapon was the scythe staff, which would do only as much as encumber him. He scanned the heads of the twisting, hectic mass, trying to locate Raragone. The part time assistant to the King and Queen was one of Arissa’s best friends here, and she might know where Arissa had disappeared to.
Prolog
Almost a thousand years before the current time there was an Eritha* host named Ssrcuau (Su-sraw-ku). He used his mixed magic to attack the country of Caturefoux and the other Old World* nations. He had many armies at his disposal, though some say that they where mentally imprisoned to do his will. The armies attacked towns and villages throughout Caturefoux, and for some unknown reason they carried more people away captive than they killed. There was a plan at foot that only few knew of.
Then Ssrcuau unveiled his secret. He had used his magic to mix the spirit-lights and bodies of Black Northern Mountain cats with that of the human prisoners the armies had taken. They where called the Shadow Cats, a new People to live in and concur the Land of Secrets. They were built like giant simi-humanoid mountain cats, covered in shades of black and grey fur usually with vivid green eyes.
The Shadow Cats where created for the purpose of fighting and winning battles. They ran faster than horses, tired slowly, and could be perfectly quite. They where suppose to obey orders perfectly, but unknown to Ssrcuau when he chose unwilling prisoners, the Shadow Cats had been given them a longing of freedom. It was time consuming, but they learned how to disobey their creator’s voice.
In the peak of what seemed like the final battle for Caturefoux, when it looked like Caturefoux’s depleted army was going to fall, the Shadow Cats turned on the host’s army, slaughtering them and winning the battle for Caturefoux, then they turned on Ssrcuau himself, a female shadow host, named Arien Warrner, who had been turned into a Shadow Cat, renaming herself Arsvren took up the sword later named Dawndeath, a stormsteel blade that her father had made for her, and killed him with it. She never took another life again after that, but lived in peace for many of the years the Caturefouxian people and the Shadow Cats lived side by side in peace.
A thousand years later a man named Areso (uh-ri-see-o), who believed that Shadow Cats where an evil creation and should be caused to go extinct, gathered an army to him that had similar beliefs, and drove the Shadow Cats out of Caturefoux, Kreta, and the Moresor Islands. He took over the governments of those nations, ruling if from the palace in Rersor, the capital of Caturefoux.
In secret a small force gathers, known as the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’ , Light of the Exiled, determined to kill or capture Areso, free the lands, and bring the Shadow Cats back.
They worked hard harassing the Blues (as Areso's army had came to be known because of their blue uniforms) whenever they got a chance. So the years went by and the fighting continued
Chapter 1
Wolfwood blinked and stretched before getting out of bed. He had light brown eyes and poofy brown hair, and was normal height for his age of 18. Moonlight streamed through a high window onto the face of his little brother, who had no idea of Wolfwood’s nighttime occupation. Wolfwood slipped out the door and into the hall of his house.
He lived in Rersor, walking between the tall skinny wood and stone houses on crowded streets as he had all his life, and was sick of Areso’s rule. He had joined the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’. The organization’s leader Sharcry, who was in Wolfwood’s opinion, the best the group had ever had, picked him to travel through the northern part of the Mirrorn forest to the Sressrecara mountains, where the secret home of the Shadow Cats was located, and bring them a message concerning the war. Like Wolfwood, Sharcry and the others, as well as the Shadow Cats, were making a final move against Areso.
Wolfwood slipped out into the dark streets. He made his way in the shadow until he reached an old store-house. He went down the side ally and knocked on the door in what was equivalent to a password. The door slowly creaked open and Darena, a small girl with red-brown hair poked her head out. She nodded silently and stood back to let Wolfwood enter, he could barely squeeze by her into the stacks of crates. She looked about the ally, and then up towards the rooftops, and after ensuring that no one had seen, she shut and locked the door.
Wolfwood walked over to just off center of the middle of the storage-house, where he lifted a section of flooring to drop five feet into a dark tunnel. He made his way blindly forward until he saw a light. He halted and then called out his name. He saw a figure jump out into the light, obviously having been asleep. “oh…uh.. cohme hon down,” the heavily Kretan accented voice called. Wolfwood shook his head and then walked down and greeted Darena’s twin brother.
“A’h’ll quite out there?” her twin asked.
“As far as I could tell it was.” Wolfwood responded. “Though, there where less Blue Guards than normal” Darena’s twin made a face and then rolled his eye.
“R’hally yah think?” he asked. Wolfwood shrugged and then walked down the now lighted tunnel. He came to a plain wooden door and knocked.
“Come in Wolfwood." Sharcry’s voice called through the door. Wolfwood opened the door and walked in. it was a pleasant office, with a desk, two chairs, and the warm smell of beeswax from the candles that where used to light the underground room. One earthen wall was filled with cubby holes that where stuffed with papers and other items. One resent addition was the sword of a Blue Jrkads*.
“How do you always know if it’s me?” he asked. Sharcry raised his eyebrows.
“You knock oddly” Wolfwood inwardly winced, reminded of the childhood accident, a heavy horse cart smashing his hand, that left his left hand’s knuckles oddly rounded. Wolfwood had always known that the only reason that he could still use it was because of a friendly Earth magic host that had been at the scene. “Besides who else would be up at this hour?" Wolfwood couldn’t really think of anyone, anyone sane at least, but that still left a lot of people out there, and then he allowed himself a smile.
“So are we all set to go?” Wolfwood asked, eager to get going, it was only five hours until sunrise. Sharcry nodded and stood, pulling a map out of a cubby hole. Wolfwood leaded forward eager to see the map. It was a map of Caturefoux, Kreta, and the Moresor Islands. It was the kind of map that one would expect to see in a palace school, another prize of a raid, and of course, did not have any Shadow Cat location’s on it. In fact none of the maps had any Shadow Cat locations on them, in case any of them ever fell into Blue hands.
Sharcry pointed to a place on the map, high in the Sressrecara Mountains. “This is where you are going; the path you will take follows along this rout.” Wolfwood memorized the way and retraced it with his finger. He took the note that Sharcry handed to him. Wolfwood took the piece of parchment and put it in a belt pouch.
“Thank you. If that's all, I'll be off then.” Sharcry nodded a good bye. Wolfwood turned to leave. “Oh, and Wolfwood, you know what to do if anyone follows you.” He grabbed his sythestaff, and adaptation of the scythe that was used in the fields set on a long pole, usually used in the cliff farms that where close by on one of the rivers, from out of the weapons storage room. It was never a good idea to just plainly walk around with a weapon like that, though none of the guards would think it was a weapon, they would just think he was a cliff farmer returning to his fields after getting his tool repaired, as it was that time of the year. He walked to the door and then made his way out into the streets.
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Karce sighed and looked around at the stone walls of the houses. He was a tall young man with short dark brown hair and matching bright eyes. He was slender built and was not much of a fighter. However it had been Karce had been picked by his commander to follow the ‘Durven hes hres Urlea’ member who was taking a message to the Shadow Cats. He was picked because he was one of the best trackers in Areso's army; some thought that he might even have earth magic abilities.
‘Here are the rules.’ He had been told ‘Number One: remember your job is to track, not to fight, do not engage in a fight. Number Two: If you get caught don't talk.’
Don't talk or fight, ha. Karce thought. He hadn't ever been good at fighting and highly doubted that he would have a chance to talk if he was caught if the things he had heard where true.
Feeling really sour towards his commander he followed the rebel to the northwest gate. Karce had made it so far and not been seen. He swallowed nervously; the realization of what he was doing finally hitting him. Oh, Dawning Grace, please do not let me die, he thought. He did not want to do this in the first place and now, they expected him to follow this man into the Mirrorn forest. Karce sighed, thinking of what would happen if he didn’t, and then stepped out into the trees.
Two days later, Wolfwood looked up at the heights of the Sressrecara Mountains. It was amazing how large they where, reaching up and up into the sky. He could not even see the peaks of them.
Wolfwood smiled as he heard the noise far behind him, which must be the person who was tracking him. He smiled, it was not that the tracker was not good, it was just Wolfwood had very good hearing. If it wasn’t for that, Wolfwood might not even know he was there.
Wolfwood turned and made east along the side of the foothills. It would be easy enough to lose the tracker by using on old false trail Sharcry had told him about that was just made specifically for that purpose. He walked down the trail for a short while then he pulled a short length of rope from his belt and threw it over a ‘branch’ that was really a wooden beam expertly carved to blend in with the tree tops.
He then carefully walked over a hidden pit trap, putting most of his weight on the rope. That should take care of the tracker. If he should survive the fall, then a Shadow Cat patrol could come pick him up. Though he hated having to cause the trackers death, he could not have the tracker following him anymore. Wolfwood carefully looked over the trap before he turned and headed up to the mountains and toward the Shadow Cat place.
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Karce was angry at himself. He should have known that it was a false trail. It was to well worn and treaded down to be a serious trail. Karce had almost ended up stepping on a pit trap! Well, he had stepped on it and had ended up dangling over the side with his boots wedged into the dirt walls and his hands locked onto a tree root until he had finally scrambled out about ten minutes later.
“Why, why, why!" he muttered at himself, while brushing off as much dirt off his front as he could. That trap was probably why so many of the trackers sent to follow the rebels never returned. He walked back up to the beginning of the trail looked toward the north. No movement in the trees, so he then looked at the ground. Hu, he must have some how went around and then went from there. Karce cautiously walked around the trap until he found some boot-prints. He frowned, they where at least an half-hour old, saying that he had wasted time. But all the same, he did not want to get to close. He blinked and looked at the bootprints on the other side of the pit. He had walked across with out… then Karce looked up and saw the branch and smacked his forhead with his hand.
It was late evening before Karce reached the other side of the foot hills. He looked up toward the mountain to see if he could find any movement. There! He found the small grey figure climbing up the mountainside. Now all he had to do was to catch up.
The next day almost half way to the Shadow Cat palace, Wolfwood almost paused when he heard a noise behind him. He blinked and listened sharply as he walked along. Yes, there were footsteps behind him. Surly it was not the tracker that had been following him, but there was always the chance… he made up his mind quickly and hid behind a rock on the side of the trial. He adjusted his grip on his scythe staff, holding it sideways. He waited until he heard noise just in front of the bolder before leaping out, hoping to surprise who ever it was.
Karce, who was looking down, confused, looked up and froze. Wolfwood charged with a yell, his scythe staff upraised. Karce jumped back and barely missed being cut in half by the downswing of Wolfwood’s scythe-staff, nearly tripping over his feet in surprise. Wolfwood smiled slightly. He saw fear in Karce’s dark eyes and features, and inexperience as the Blue backed off.
He was probably one of those sheltered trackers, with a good memory, but no fighting skills. This would not be hard at all. The Blue had no weapons other than a small knife, and Wolfwood doubted that he could throw it.
Wolfwood stepped back and pretended to prepare to swing at Karce’s head, and as Karce made to block as best he could with his arms, Wolfwood used the blunt end of his scythe-staff to trip Karce. Karce rolled out of the way as Wolfwood brought the end of his staff down near his head. He scrambled up and ran, not caring which way he went.
Wolfwood laughed and smiled. The Blue thought that he could just run away. How naïve, it would take more than that, plus the Blue was going the wrong way.
Karce ran on, his feet sounding like a horses as they hit the ground, hoping that he would just be left alone. No such luck, he though as he heard Wolfwood running after him. He ran through a small glade and was almost across when he suddenly found himself falling face first on the ground and his shins hurting. He went to rise, thinking that he had just tripped over a branch or something, but when claws with razor sharp points pressed into his back, he realized that he had been caught by something. Oh, please oh please be a wolf or a normal mountain cat, he thought.
He listened and heard the cat-like noises of the Shadow Cat language. Even though he had never heard it before, it was unmistakable. He looked around from his position on the ground and saw black furred tails and paws. Karce moaned to himself, well, there went his chances of getting away, and probably keeping his head as well.
Wolfwood came running into the glade and slid to a stop when he saw the Shadow Cats. There where five of them in the glade. They where on all fours, inspecting the tracker, who one of the smaller ones had pinned, face-down, into the meadow grass.
“What happened, Wolfwood?” called the smallest shadow cat, one who was grey with a black patch of fur over one eye, as she sat up to an upright position. “Sharcry said you where better than to get followed.” Wolfwood was a little take back that the small shadow cat knew his name, and that Sharcry had said that.
“Well…uh…I...” he stumbled over what to say. The shadow cats laughed a pure happily amused sound, and the female who had spoken to him lost her serious expression.
“That’s alright.” She said, waving a paw for him to come on over. “We know how to take care of things like that anyhow, don’t worry about it!” Karce winced at the wording of the sentence. Wolfwood walked over, an embarrassed smile of his face
“Anyhow I’m Marice Shjra, senior High Captain.” That meant she had passed the status of Weapons Master to become a High Captain, of which, there where only two.
Wolfwood blinked in surprise, wondering what the right way to greet her was. “No, no don’t worry about all of that.” She said merrily as if she could read his mind.
“So, what are you going to do with him?” Wolfwood asked. Marice smiled and said something in her language.
Karce was rolled over on his back with the one shadow cat still pinning him down. He looked into their amused faces and gulped. So, this is what a mouse felt like when it was caught by a cat. He had always wondered that, even though this was not the way he had planned to find out. One grinned at him and laughed, which made him think of how most cats played with what they caught before killing it. Karce felt like he was going to faint, he was so terrified. He turned his head and looked at Wolfwood. He was standing next to the Shadow Cat called Marice talking.
I am dead, I just know it, Karce moaned inside his head and it’s all your fault! as Marice walked over to Karce, standing over him and staring down at him. Karce turned his eyes to one side, not meeting her acid green eyes. Areso never wanted anyone to look strait at him, and Karce had once, but had never meant to, and luckily had not gotten in trouble for it. Funny thing for me to think of, Karce thought sadly.
“What are you doing, Marice?” Wolfwood asked, curious. “Tying to scare him more?”
“No, I’m deciding what to do with him.” Marice said. Karce shrunk back his body pressing against the ground more than before, shutting his eyes and fearing the worst. Mari then smiled at Wolfwood, revealing sharp white fangs, and said, “Arissa, I think.”
Karce glanced at Wolfwood, confused, Arissa…what was that?
“Yes, maybe,” Wolfwood said. He was friends with Arissa, as she was human and could come to the capital without suspicion. She had long dark-brown hair that was hanging braided down her back and emerald green eyes that sparkled happily. She generally dressed in a long sleeved red tunic, and black pants and boots. She was friendly and always seemed to be happy. She was also a Shadow Magic host, and it would be simple for her to get information from this Blue.
Marice said something in the shadow cat language, sort of a mixed “mroww purr” noise. Karce found himself being picked up by the shadow cat that had pinned him, and set on his feet. Marice took his knife and handed it to Wolfwood, who stuck it in his belt. Karce could do nothing but stand there, too scared to try to run, and not being able to because of the Shadow Cats that held his arms. He looked from Wolfwood to the shadow cats, wondering who Arissa was, and how this had anything to do with him.
Wait, they where not binding or blindfolding him. He glanced at one of the shadow cats that flanked him as they moved forward. Did that meant that they…were not going to let him go?! He did not expect to be let go, but if they had there might have been a chance! Oh, no, he thought, no no! Tie me up and blindfold me! I don’t want to be trapped here!
Wolfwood walked down the dimly lit throne room and bowed to the Shadow Cat queen and king, putting the finger tips of his left hand at the base of his right, and his right fingertips to his forehead. The queen rose out of her sitting position to a standing one. Though shadow cats hated formality, for things like this, it was required.
“Wolfwood, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “It really is a silly thing to have to do.”
Wolfwood smiled and said, “It is only polite, Queen Souercot. Besides, I have to be formal before I give my message.”
“Oh, right, Sharcry is big on that” the shadow cat king said, smiling and also rising.
“Shassora, you silly cat! You should’ve realized that by now!” Queen Souercot said, playfully laughing, as she contradicted herself. She looked around and saw Karce, who was standing between two shadow cats. Souercot raised her eyebrows in interest and surprise.
“Now, who’s this?” she asked. Karce stared at the floor silently shivering, hoping that there wouldn’t be too much interest in him.
“Him? He followed me from the foothills. Marice thought that Arissa might like to see him,” Wolfwood said apologetically. Marice smiled and nodded her head
“Yep, that’s right I did!” she chimed.
Karce glanced at them, still wondering what they had in mind for him. Queen Souercot studied him for a moment.
“Well if you say so, Mari, I trust you. So, what’s Sharcry want this time?” she asked, turning back to Wolfwood.
“Okay, hold on a second,” Wolfwood said, pulling out the piece of parchment from the belt pouch, which held an opening note.
‘To Queen Souercot and King Shassora of the Shadow Cats:
Progress has been made on the weakening of His Idiotness Areso’s defenses of the castle. In about four weeks, we can begin our attacks.
The only thing left to do is remove most of the Shadow Cats Gang to your home to add to your army. We also need more yarkaden*.
Yours,
Sharcry Deonven -Leader of the Shadow Cats Gang.’
“And there are some more additional documents. Charts and things. Another coded letter that I don’t know how to read.”
Wolfwood returned the paper to his pocket. Karce’s eyes had widened and where staring fearfully at Wolfwood. Yarkaden, that was explosive, why would they need yarkaden?
“Well, that was informative,” King Shassora said, “We’ll discuss it more later. In the mean time…Raragõne?”
“Yes, sir?” a female shadow cat with dark smoky grey fur stepped out of the shadows by a door.
“Go and get Arissa and Vemestorm and tell them to come here, will you?” Shassora said. Raragone nodded and left through the door.
Karce looked up and scanned the room. The platform that held a mess of carpets that served thrones were set back in a square shaped extension in the wall. Above that was set the tusks or horns of some great animal with curved ends, tied together with tan rawhide. They were white and shone in the dark room around them. The room itself had pillars carved out of the wall going down each side with doors leading to other rooms. All of it appeared black or gray with a lamp of some rock that glowed serving as the only lighting. The reason for this was that the shadow cats could see just as fine in this dim lighting as they could at noon day outside, so they did not bother with more lighting.
Wolfwood and the others turned when the main door opened. A female shadow cat, with all white fur except for her paws, ears, and tail, and a piece of black cloth tied over one eye, came in first. Karce could not help but notice the host pattern* sewn around the edges of the cloth. He hoped that her magic would not be used on him for whatever reason.
Then following behind her, a human girl, maybe 15 years of age, two years younger than Karce, and three years younger than Wolfwood, came in the room. She had long dark-brown hair that was hanging braided down her back. Emerald green eyes sparkled in the faint light. She was dressed in a long sleeved red tunic, and black pants and boots. She also wore a cloak with the host pattern sewn on the edges and the Shadow Cat symbol on the back.
“Vemestorm! How was your trip?” Queen Souercot said with a winning smile, exposing stark white fangs, while addressing the shadow cat.
“It wasss practically perfect.” Vemestorm hissed. Her voice sounded very creepy, as if it had a permanent hiss and made her seem old. It gave Karce goose bumps, and he was only slightly pleased to see that Wolfwood shuttered as well.
“Practically?” Queen Souercot said with a raised eyebrow. Vemestorm inclined her head slightly. “Well, on to a different matter! When Marice went to meet Wolfwood, he had been trailed by him” She twitched an ear to Karce “All the way from the capital. Marice thought that you” she looked at the girl, whom Karce now thought must be Arissa “might have some luck with this one.” Karce swallowed, he did not like the way the Shadow Cat Queen spoke of him.
“What do you think Arisssa?” Vemestorm asked Arissa, who did not seem bothered by her voice. Arissa turned her inquisitive eyes on Karce, observing him rigorously, never missing a thing. He felt uncomfortable, and fidgeted, as if she could see right through him into his head.
Wolfwood smiled at his young friend. He often forgot she was only 15; she was much more mature than most 15 year olds. She was one of the best shadow magic hosts that anyone had seen in the years following Ssrcuau’s death at the hands of Arsvren, the last Shadow Magic host that had any power worth speaking of until current time.
“I think I will have some luck, actually.” Arissa said her tone of voice somewhere between pleased and saddened. “We’ll see.” Karce thought that she had an oddly accented voice. She walked over to where Karce was standing in between the two Shadow Cat guards. He shrank back till his back touched the cold stone wall, his eyes still fixed on the floor. He glanced up and Arissa’s eyes locked on his.
Karce’s eyes widened and he started shaking, trying to look away. What was this girl doing to him! No! Get out of my head! He thought when he realized what was going on, though it was hard to think anything at all. He was being contacted searched. A shadow magic ability, she was sifting through his memories looking for something. He couldn’t imagine what. Why?! I don’t know anything that you want! He thought Please! They did not tell me anything! He knew the girl could hear him, but seemed to be ignoring him.
The only response was that Arissa narrowed her eyes slightly. Karce fell to his knees, trying to break eye contact all the while pleading. His head tilted up, still unable to look away. Arissa knelt down in front of him so he would not have to look up. They stayed that way for a few moments before Arissa blinked, breaking the connection. Karce gasped and fell forward onto his hands, dropping his head and shutting his eyes as hard as he could, his body quaking from the effort of fighting her magic. Arissa stood and turned to Queen Souercot.
“His name is Karce Raltagold. And, he’s seen what we’re looking for.” She said with a smile. This was reflected on the faces of everyone in the room except for Karce. He was still kneeling there, shaking. Wolfwood could sympathize; he knew how it felt to be Contact Searched. When he had first met Arissa she had somehow found her way through a world-port into the Land of Secrets, as she did not originate from his world. She had been wearing a blue shirt and some kind of odd blue pants. Wolfwood had mistaken her for a Blue, only seeing the color, and attacked her. He ended up with his own knife at his throat and her green eyes boring into his brown ones.
At that moment Wolfwood thought he was dead, and the feeling of being dumped in ice water did not help.
Arissa knelt back down and put a hand on Karce’s shoulder, causing him to flinch away. Don’t do that again, please! Leave me alone!
“Karce…?” She asked, her voice was soft, kind and saddened at the same time. Karce did not want to meet her eyes again, fearing the same thing had would happen that had before, but he looked up anyway. When he did he was surprised when she did not do it again. Arissa smiled “Sorry about that. I know it feels weird, but it’s alright you know?”
“A-alright?” Karce whispered, not knowing what she was talking about, mostly because he did not feel alright at all.
“Yes, it’s alright to break the second rule. No one cares.” Karce looked down and then looked up again, then closed his eyes and shook his head. Arissa shrugged and went to stand by Vemestorm.
“If that’sss all you wisshed to s-speeak to ussss about, we sshall take our leave.” Vemestorm hissed.
“Yes, I believe that will be all for now.” Queen Souercot said “thank you for your time.” Vemestorm inclined her head and muttered something to Arissa. Arissa rolled her eyes in playful exaggeration and then they both disappeared in a swirl of black colored magic. Wolfwood started and stared at the place where they had disappeared, he did not know that Arissa could do that
“Hum, now what shall we do with you Master Raltagold?” Queen Souercot said.
Karce continued to stare at the floor, not sure what to say, and not wanting to say anything, but then again not knowing if he was suppose to say anything at all. The shadow cat queen asked various things in their cat-noise language. With the response, Karce found himself being pulled up and set on his feet. He started to look around some, to see what was happening, but then the shadow cat guards that where in charge of him walked him out.
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Wolfwood leaned his scythe-staff against the wall of the room he was staying in. He would stay at the Shadow Cat palace for a couple days while the Queen and King wrote a response to the letter he brought. If the Blue tracker, what was his name? Karce, wasn’t it, odd name, sounded like grease, ha, funny, had really seen what they where looking for, not that he doubted Arissa’s word in any way, then they would have a huge advantage and Sharcry would want to know.
Wolfwood was also curious to see Arissa shadow-jumping* again. He had never seen her do much magic in front of others, but from the tone of voice Vemestorm had used she must have something important to do, something that Arissa did not look forward to doing. A trip, well, probably about some plant-thing that he wouldn’t understand anyhow, he would ask tomorrow.
Wolfwood yawned and then blew the candle out. Well, no use worrying about tomorrow at the moment.
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Arissa, unknowingly simultaneously yawning with Wolfwood, blinked as she tried to stay awake. She sighed as she looked out over the worktable that she and Vemestorm shared, which at the moment was covered in plants, dried and fresh. The organizing part was Arissa’s least favorite thing to do. So, of course, that was what they where doing.
“Arisssa you look tired, why don’t you go to bed?” Vemestorm asked.
“No, no, Vemestorm, I said I would help you if I got to go on the trip with you, so I’ll help.” Arissa yawned. Vemestorm chuckled
“Are you ssure?” Vemestorm said “I can alwaysss finish by mysself.” Arissa shook her head. Then she sighed to herself.
“Vemestorm, when do you think I will get to go home?” She asked. Vemestorm cocked her head to one side.
“You are home, thiss iss where your anccessstor Arssvren, one of your great grandmother’sss where born.” Vemestorm said, looking at Arissa oddly. “and many more before that, you remember?”
“Yes, you told me. She was Arien Warrner in the world she went to, my world. And then she came back to help fight Ssrcuau, and since she had not used her magic, it was hard for her to get started again, and he turned her into a Shadow Cat, one of the first, before she escaped. She took the name Arsvren, a combination of the cat’s name and hers.” Arissa said, paraphrasing the tale. “But, it just, doesn’t feel like home, yah know what I mean, it’s like when you’ve moved to a new city and your house just doesn’t feel right yet?”
Vemestorm shrugged, she had never had to move. She had grown up in the shadow cat palace for the most part, barley two when Areso had driven them out. She heard that a stable stood where her house had once stood in Resor.
“If you wissh to go back, I will help you find a way.” Vemestorm promised “but for now, we need you here. You do undersstand don’t you?”
Arissa nodded, she understood, but that did not mean that she like it.
“Well, may I go to bed now, Vemestorm?” Vemestorm nodded and Arissa rose and went into her room, softly shutting the door behind her. Vemestorm shook her head, sometimes the thought that there was too much strain put on Arissa. Vemestorm closed her eyes and leaned back. She was much younger than her voice made her sound and was nicer that she acted around others. But still, she had a job to do. Vemestorm looked around the room for a moment before turning back to the table, her hands now sparking black magic as she reached for a dark blue tinged plan, while closing her eyes.
************************************
Areso sat strait up in bed his chest heaving. His eyes where still wide from the nightmare he had had, or been given as it seemed. It started out with familiar images, his soldiers bearing down on a small village, yells and shouts in shadow cat. That had made him smile as he remembered putting torch to the houses, then it all went black. It was a swirling blackness he recognized as shadow magic. Then green color spread over the black, not the bright color of the shadow cats, but a dark emerald green.
The laugher started then, Areso knew that laugher that was the laugher of success in something difficult, he had laughed that way many times. But this laugher also held a youthful female tone to it. That probably meant no good will toward him, because that would be the host’s voice, and he did not have any young female shadow hosts at his command, nor did anyone that he knew of.
Then suddenly there was a shadow cat, a dark cloth draped over its hunched form, and part of it over the shadow cats’ face except for one acid green eye “Who are you?” Areso had demanded. “Are you the host that is doing this?!” The shadow cat shook her head, and Areso was sure there was a smug smile on her face. “Well who are you then?!” the shadow cat let the dark cloth fall from it. Areso gasped as he saw white and black fur
“I am Vemesstorm Zandra, and we have found a link, Aresso Marvensssen.” She said “And we will find you next!” Areso had then forced himself awake, bolting upright. Ah well, he thought or hoped, just a stupid nightmare. He laid back then trying to recapture sleep, which was not cooperating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karce curled up on his cot, trying to get some sleep. Any moment he expected that girl to show back up and interrogate him in the same manner she had done before, or just shadow cats showing up to torture him. He rolled over with his eyes squeezed shut, oh don’t think about that! He chastised himself the more you think of it the more likely it will happen! Besides, think about what has happened, you have not been tied up or pushed around or kicked or anything!
To be honest, Karce was not even sure if he was in a cell. He had a nice cot to sleep on and a heavy blanket to go with it, and there was two candles sitting on a rickety table with a chair. If he where at the capital the only thing that there would be in the cell was chains, rats, and wet. He had been down there before with the other guards, and he couldn’t imagine how miserable it would be. Plus there would most definitely not be candles; the only light would be that coming underneath the door. They had also given him something to eat before locking him in, the food remained untouched on the table. Karce was not sure if it would be poisoned or not, even though he was hungry, and that was probably a factor in him being still awake.
He finally groaned and got up and sat in the chair staring at the food for a little bit before deciding that there was no reason that it should be poisoned. It was really good food, better that barracks rations, but then again it was not hard to beat that. He finished eating and immediately felt sleepier. He did not know if this was due to his own imagination or if it was something in the food, but either way he made his way back to the cot and almost was immediately asleep.
Chapter two
Later that night Karce tossed and turned as he dreamed. He was standing outside beside a pool of water, it was not a natural pool, the sides where blue with patterns and the water seemed to clear. At one end there where white steps leading down into a shallow part and the other end some kind of board sticking out over the deep part. He looked out over a large area of green grass fenced in with a tall wooden fence. There where lots of bushes with bright colored flowers, mostly red yellow and even orange! Who grew orange flowers?! Where did you even get orange flowers?!
His head jerked around as he heard splashing and suddenly noticed two people swimming in the water. One, the younger one, was definitely Arissa, maybe a year or two younger, but Arissa for sure. The other one was a boy, about the age Karce was now. He had darker brown hair that Arissa and the same emerald green eyes. He watched them swim around for a moment and play some sort of game where you yelled ‘Marco’ and ‘Polo’, seemed pointless to Karce.
“Kids, time to come in! We’re leaving in about twenty minutes!” Karce whipped around to see a white house with a shingled roof. It actually had glass doors! That was strange. Standing in one of the doors was a lady that had the same long brown hair and green eyes as Arissa and the other boy.
“Yes, mom! We’re coming!” the boy called. Karce looked at him in shock, this was Arissa’s brother?! Karce knew he was dreaming, but could not help wondering if this was happening because of him being contact searched. Suddenly the scene changed so fast it made Karce’s head whirl. They where in some sort of carriage it seemed, but where going at an impossibly fast rate for any horse to go. Karce looked ahead and realized there where no horses, which made him nervous.
“So, Jared, where do you want to go for dinner?” Arissa’s mother asked who was sitting beside who ever was driving. He had Jared’s dark hair but unlike the rest of the family had dark blue eyes. Jared seemed to think as Arissa bounced impatiently in her seat.
“Oh, come ooo-hn!” She whined laying her head on his shoulder and giving him puppy dog eyes, something that Karce did not expect from Arissa “pick already!”
“Uhm… lets go to...” he was interrupted by a loud squealing noise and then everything became a blur with bright yellow and red lights twisting around before everything went black. Karce blinked and looked around waiting for the black to go away while wondering what had happened. Some kind of accident, mayhaps?
Slowly a scene emerged from the blackness, trees, grass, grey stones and Arissa. She was looking at three stones tears running down her face. Karce looked and realized that they where grave stones. His eyes widened and then suddenly he woke up.
He lay there staring at the ceiling. He did not understand what he had just seen, and was not sure if he even wanted to understand. It almost felt like intruding, and if he did see Arissa again he was not going to ask about it. Karce rolled over to his side, his face toward the door with a sigh. I wish I could get out, He thought staring at the door.
Karce jumped when he heard the lock click on the door. He waited for a few moments, waiting for someone to come in. When no one did he got out of bed and walked over to the door. He paused a moment before pushing the door open.
“Hello?” he called, sticking his head out the door, looking up and down the dark hallway. He did not get an answer, and he could not make out any shapes in the hallway. Slowly he inched out of the cell and walked down the hall, one of his hands placed flat on the wall to help him find his way.
“Hey!” a voice called out sharply behind him, which made him jump. “How did you get out?” Karce turned to make out a shadow cat in the dark.
“I was laying on the cot, and the lock clicked, and I...” Karce began.
“Yah, yah.” The shadow cat said with an unbelieving tone, making Karce wince. “Are you a host or somethin’?”
“Wha? Me?” Karce said his eyes widening in surprise “No, no, I’m not! I mean, some people think so, but I've never done anything...”
“Except make the door unlock?” The shadow cat said. Karce nodded weakly, knowing how stupid it sounded. “Humph, well come on, then.” Karce sighed and followed her back down the hall to where the cell door was. “Get in.” As Karce walked in he heard the door close firmly behind him and the lock click in place with a sharp click that made him wince.
Karce sat down on the edge of the cot and put his head in his hands with a sigh. Great, if I wasn’t in for it before, I certainly am now. At least that shadow cat wasn’t to mean about it. She didn’t even seem that mad, just kind of skeptical. He thought staring at the stone floor. After a while, the cold temperature of being underground started to get to him, so he draped the blanket around him. It made him think of the entrance to the ‘Palace’, as he heard all the shadow cats calling it. The entrance was a simple thing, just a normal looking cave entrance, nothing fancy or special about it. Other than the fact that a stone slab could be lowered from the top, hiding and barring the entrance like a gate.
It amazed him that no one had managed to find it yet; it seemed that anyone wandering in the mountains could just chance upon it and wander in. He sighed and finally lay back onto the cot and closed his eyes, drifting off, back into sleep.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So, what you told us was true, was it?” Queen Souercot said, looking toward Marice. “About him being clueless?” Vemestorm was also in the room, finished with her earlier duty.
“Whatss thisss about?” She asked, blinking to show that she was not very pleased to be called down here in the middle of the night, and being more nocturnal, had previously been sitting talking to her husband about the future plans of the war, and whether, in her condition, should go out with them.
“Both of them! Clueless, Vemestorm! Him more that her! What Thalet reported as well…what should we do?”
“We sshall ssit and wait to ssee what becomess of it. Who knowsss. We may be ssuprissed!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Arissa sat staring at the sunrise. She had never realized before she came here how different a sunrise would look if you where closer to the sun. The only thing she wished was that she could watch the stars disappearing as their own blotted them out of sight, but here that was impossible. There where no stars in the Land of Secrets, as this world was called.
She fingered the violin from where it rested in her lap. Made from maple wood, just for her to use; Vemestorm and Raragone had surprised her two years ago as a present around the beginning of winter after she had explained the concept of Christmas, and even though it was a tad bit to early, she accepted it graciously.
She sighed happily, content to spend the morning in looking out over its first light touching the trees, or what little of them could be seen through the thick mist that covered the tops of them. In sudden inspiration she picked up her violin bow and started to play. What resulted was beautiful, haunting music that entwined over and over again on its self while tumbling down off the rocks of the mountain down into the foot hills, unique and never to be repeated in quite the same way.
Vemestorm smiled, sitting at the door waiting for Arissa to finish. When she did Vemestorm gave a polite cough and Arissa turned with a sigh.
“Mornin’, Vemestorm.” She said, loosening the bow and returning the instrument into its case.
“Good morning, Arissa, are you ready?” Vemestorm asked politely. “Do you remember what we are doing today?”
“Yes, we are re-bonding the supports for the palace.” Arissa said, sitting down on the edge of the bed and pulling her boots on. She stood up and picked up a necklace from her bedside table. It was a simple faux leather cord with a pale pink shell hanging from it. With practiced hands she tied the simple knot that held it in place quickly while walking out the door into the chamber that joined her and Vemestorm’s rooms. She rubbed the shell fondly, her brother had given it to her after he found it on one of their vacations to the ocean, and it was the only thing she had to remember him by.
She grabbed a light jacket off of the back of a chair, something that she had had specially made, not caring for the trench-coat style ‘jackets’ that the Caturefouxian people favored, and shrugged it on. Re-bonding supports, which meant traveling down to the deep underground tunnel system that was the original hiding place for the Shadow Cats. Most of them where natural caves that where there when the Shadow Cats had arrived in the mountains, and it was these dark, cold caves that contained the supports to the current Palace.
Arissa enjoyed traveling underground; she had always been fascinated by caves and crevasses. She laughed to think that in her world the caves she was about to enter would be constantly flooded by tourists. They where full of huge crystals and rock formations, fountains of pure unpolluted crystal waters rushed and gathered in pools to form the caves further. At some places precious ore brushed against the walls of the caves.
The Shadow Cats, who had no concept of money or treasure, had simply lived among rocks worth millions of dollars and left them with out a second thought. She trailed Vemestorm down the hazardously steep spiral stone staircase and descended down to the lower levels of Palace to the lower gate, ready for a day in the deep, dark cool earth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karce awoke with a jerk and sat strait up, not recognizing the room he was in at first. Then he relaxed as the past days events washed over him and he remembered where he was. He sighed and shook his head slightly; he had silently hoped that it was a bad dream. He stretched and looked around; having no way to tell what time of day it was outside.
He looked at the candles, which each seemed to be a ten hour candle. They had been brought down here with him and the one burning now was the one that he had lit just after he had woke up and found the other one a barely burning stub of wax and wick. It had burned about a third of the way down, so perhaps it had been about twelve hours.
Karce thought back to the previous day, it had been early afternoon when he had been initially caught, and it took them about two hours to get to the palace, and then maybe twenty minutes to get to the throne room. He thought, he did not remember that, he was too panicked. Then after he had been ‘dismissed’ from there, he had been taken to the place he was now, which had taken another twenty minutes. Then it seemed to take the chatty shadow cat guard an hour to get him “situated” as the shadow cat had put it. This all took almost four hours, if you rounded it all up, which would put him locked down here about dark.
So, if twelve hours worth of candle had been burned since then, it would be about late morning. Karce groaned and then lay his head back, staring at the stone ceiling. It looked to be a very slow day if that was about the right estimate. He did not think that he could stand to sleep any longer than he already had. If no one was going to bother him today, he knew that he would be indescribably bored. At least the stone ceiling was entertaining; he could pick out patterns in the natural coloring of the stone, and the lines when it had been carved.
Karce soon became lost in the ceiling, and failed to realized how hungry he was, until he smelled food. He instantly snapped out of his trance and sat up on the edge of the bed and stared at the door when he heard a click. The door opened and a shadow cat with cream colored markings on its face stepped in the room. It was in the awkward, upright position, carefully hanging onto a tray with food on it.
Karce’s stomach rumbled when he smelled soup and warm bread, but he remained sitting on the edge of the bed, still slightly wary of the Cats in general.
“Hello! You finally woke up! Do humans always sleep for ever?!” The cat said brightly, in way of a greeting. Karce gave a slight, hesitant shrug, slightly more interested in the food. The Cat set the tray down on the table and walked back to the door. “Hey, hurry up and eat that, k? You get to go out today, so be ready when I come back!” Karce nodded and then went and sat down at the chair and looked at the tray, besides the soup and bread there was a few pieces of fresh fruit and a bowl of water.* It seemed that he was going to be fed the same way he was last night. The Shadow Cats did not seem to mind giving prisoners a good meal, which Karce did not mind at all.
He started eating and watching the door out of the corner of his eye. The Shadow Cat said he was going out today, well, unless it was to his execution, or an interrogation session, he did not think that he minded. He finished eating what of the breakfast he could. He had no idea what kind of soup he was eating, but dipping the crusty, heavy bread in it proved to be quite filling. That along with some of the fruit and water quickly filled him up. He sat the water bowl down and leaned back in the chair waiting for the Shadow Cat to come back.
When the Shadow Cat did return Karce looked up just in time to get smacked in the face with a set of clothes. Karce looked down and the clothes that had now fell in his lap with a confused look on his face, then back up to the laughing Shadow Cat.
“Get changed!” the Cat said through his laughter and shut the door, but did not lock it. Karce looked at the plain, off white shirt and dark brown pants and shook his head. Of course they would not let him keep his uniform. At least they looked like they would fit him. He quickly changed and then knocked on the door. The Shadow Cat opened the door again and motioned for him to follow.
Karce sighed and followed him into the hall and quickly migrated to the wall, like he had the night before. All he had to tell him where the Cat was located as the constant babbling that seemed to emanate from the Cat. He was talking about the most random things that Karce could possibly imagine, and he changed subjects often. Karce finally stopped when his foot bumped the bottom step to the long stair case he had walked down yesterday.
“Well come on, we don’t got all morning!” He heard the Cat say. Karce made a face and tried to find a railing
“You…want me to climb these in the dark?” he asked weakly. He heard the Cat shuffle around and Karce heard a rock strike another and saw a red spark. The spark landed on a makeshift torch, which quickly lit up. The Shadow Cat, illuminated from the torchlight, almost looked forbidding, and would have if he had not had a silly grin plastered on his face.
“Now can you come?” The Cat asked, actually handing him the torch. Karce nodded and then briefly wondered how he could see in the pitch darkness he had just illuminated. As they walked up the stairs, which where steep and spiraling sharply, Karce worked up the courage to ask the Cat about it.
“Uhm… may I, may I ask a question?” Karce finally said. The Cat stopped talking and bobbed his head. “How could you see, you know, with out any light down there?”
“I couldn’t.” the Cat said “I’ve just been down there so often that I know where everything is.”
“Ah.” Was Karce’s reply, he then sighed and focused on climbing the steep long stairs.
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Wolfwood stood on the edge of the Shadow Cats practice ground. The Shadow Cats, nice though they where, could not ever deny themselves the enjoyment of a fight. Thus, in the enclosed mountain refuge, a practice ground was necessary to keep them entertained.
Any person who was anything less than an expert fighter was no anything less than an expert fighter and acrobat would even dare venture onto the chaotic practice ground. Wolfwood remembered a veteran from Kreta say that he had seen battlefields less chaotic than a Shadow Cat practice ground.
There was no order to anything that lay inside the wide ring of ropes that marked it out from the surrounding area. Anybody and everybody was labile to be attacked. It did not matter whether you where fighting someone already or not. Often times “fangs” or a gang of fighters who allied themselves together, a real practice in actual fighting, patrolled and ‘snipered’ a lone fighter or clashed with other fangs. Even if you where ‘killed’ and had to sit out for a half hour, getting off the practice ground was a chore in itself, as you had to dodge attackers and fights.
Wolfwood did not dare set a toe inside the ring of rope. While he was an average fighter, he had never had official training in the art, plus his only weapon was the scythe staff, which would do only as much as encumber him. He scanned the heads of the twisting, hectic mass, trying to locate Raragone. The part time assistant to the King and Queen was one of Arissa’s best friends here, and she might know where Arissa had disappeared to.