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Story Hour
The Celestial Empire (Romance of the Three Kingdoms-ish, Updated 12/09/05)
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<blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 1765759" data-attributes="member: 15043"><p><strong>Of Monks, Farmers, and Something Dark...</strong></p><p></p><p>“Bandits!” Nayu heard Felonca’s voice hiss quietly.</p><p></p><p>Nayu himself had never fought bandits before. They were the bane of travelers, but normally the road to Xianlung was safe... one only ran into bandits close to the Desert Wall. While travelling with his father, he had seen a bandit once, but the man had hidden away after his father had pointed a crossbow at him.</p><p></p><p>“Felonca?” Nayu asked uncertainly. The air seemed strangely silent, as the scene before him seemed to unfold as slowly as sands falling through an hourglass. He turned around, only to see the last swish of a dark cape entering the woods. While he couldn’t see her, he could <em>sense</em> Felonca was only just off to the left, coming forward slowly.</p><p></p><p>Quickly, Nayu reached down past his saddlebag, for an item he had not used in combat... ever. His family was one of traders and minor magicians, not warriors. As the wooden butt of the weapon was cradled in his arms, the lessons his father had told him replayed in his mind.</p><p></p><p><em>Whatever you do, Nayu, aim true,</em> he heard the older man’s voice say, <em>It will take a while to reload this... but you can kill a man from two hundred paces if you aim well.</em> </p><p></p><p>Nayu waited, sighting along the quarrel nesting in the crossbow, carefully feeling his breathing. <em>In... out... in... out... in...</em></p><p></p><p>During the brief pause between breaths, Nayu slipped his finger along the trigger. Part of his mind absently thought of how small and minute such an action was, just before the <em>thwack</em> of the quarrel being launched assaulted his ears. The bolt zipped away, and even as Nayu was starting to move from his stance, he saw one of the four bandit’s head snap back, the long back shaft of the bolt buried in his temple as he crumpled to the ground.</p><p></p><p>Four heads swiveled around, eight eyes staring at the seventeen year old lad. Hurriedly Nayu began reloading, just as all hell broke loose...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Nice shot!</em> Felonca gazed on in silent admiration as Nayu’s shot went so true that Master Hsiu himself would have been proud. Her pride at the young man’s work was only momentary, before her low form slinked closer to the three bandits up ahead. </p><p></p><p>It was here, in the undergrowth, that Felonca’s, ancestry came to head. She slipped low along the ground, swiftly, silently, her dark form almost mimicking the quiet, sure movements of the animal she could change into. In the midst of the sudden burst of noise, she was truly invisible.</p><p></p><p>All the while, her feline eyes roamed the field, their slits narrowing in surprise at the ease with which the supposedly defenseless traveler was able to dodge the assaults from the two bandits to his front. The slits also widened in alarm, as one of the bandits charged towards a desperately reloading Nayu. Feline instincts made split second calculations that realized there was no way her comrade would be able to reload his weapon before the woman was upon him.</p><p></p><p><em>Those eyes,</em> Felonca thought, looking at the woman. She was terribly thin, her torn clothing streaming behind her like a perverse banner. Her eyes, however, were truly horrible... shrunken, yellow with bloodshot, they were the eyes of pure hunger. Of starvation.</p><p></p><p><em>She’ll kill him for food,</em> Felonca realized, even as her body was already reacting. The cat-woman had another surprise hidden within her cloak... one that Nayu would hopefully be thankful for.</p><p></p><p>Felonca was fairly experienced with the bow... it was the only subject of Master Hsiu’s other than exotic weaponry (where she encountered warfans for the first time) that she took a liking to. Even now, she still carried the bow she had earned in contest.</p><p></p><p>Years of training flashed through an instants time, and the bow was notched, drawn, and the arrow loosed with the smoothness of running water. The arrow flies true, slashing through the woman’s skull, putting her piteous form out of her misery.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Nayu was in shock. One second, the feral eyed woman had been charging towards him, her bloody hands outstretched as if to choke him. The next, she was on the ground, an arrow coming from her left temple. He heard the rustling in the woods, and made a silent note to thank Felonca when the last of the bandits was gone.</p><p></p><p>Up ahead, he could see that one of the bandits in front of the traveler was down as well. The final bandit was armed with a large and rusty scythe, which she slashed through the air at the unfortunate man with a feral abandon. It was apparent the traveler was on the defensive.</p><p></p><p><em>Time to lose something else father taught me,</em> Nayu closed his eyes quietly. His family had always been able to do loose, minor magic... nothing as impressive or powerful as the scholars that taught the lessons of Kong-shi, but things that could prevent one from being stuck in a bind, or entertain customers.</p><p></p><p>Or kill a bandit.</p><p></p><p>Nayu held forth his hand, feeling a pool of energy seem to grow from his stomach. The pool ran up his chest and down the outstretched arm. In his mind, the young man saw what he wanted the reservoir of magic to do... a pulse of burning light. No sooner had the image formed in his mind than the same pulse lanced from his outstretched fingers, slamming into the feral bandit not a second later. Her body convulsed as the twin magic missiles overwhelmed her systems, and she fell to the ground in a cluttered heap.</p><p></p><p>Nayu was immediately running forward towards the traveler, the rustling and breaking branches in the trees telling him that Felonca was doing the same. Even from this distance, it was apparent that blood was soaking the man’s shoulder, but to their surprise, the man seemed more concerned with the bandit Nayu had shot less than a minute earlier.</p><p></p><p>“He still lives,” the man said, his voice a quiet, calm tenor. His fingers, coated with blood, then moved from the forehead of the injured bandit to his own shoulder, the blood decorated by a deep puncture wound. A few whispered words floated in the air, and suddenly the wound dried up, until only moments later only fresh, unblemished skin was in its place.</p><p></p><p>“You... you are no scholar,” Nayu said quietly, voice in awe.</p><p></p><p>“Indeed. And I have you two to thank.” The man rose to an impressive height of nearly six foot, and gave a weary half-smile. “I am Liu Ganxi, a follower of the teachings of Master Asoka Shenyang, a man unfortunately misunderstood by the arcane scholars. I owe you much for your assistance... I only wish you had arrived a few moments earlier,” his eyes drifted to the bodies in the road.</p><p></p><p>Three were clad exactly as Liu, shirtless, with loose cloth about their loins. The fourth was clad much the same, save his cloth was a brilliant orange instead of plain white.</p><p></p><p>“They were your friends?” Felonca said slowly.</p><p></p><p>“No... more than that. My brothers of faith,” Liu said quietly, his voice a surprisingly even keel despite what he said. “May their spirits find a new, better home than these weak bodies and minds we have.”</p><p></p><p>“Is it true, Master Liu, that your...um...order,” Nayu searched for the proper words, “are gifted in the arts of healing? It might be wise to heal this man, so that we may find out why you were attacked.”</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It was some hours later when Liu was finished praying over the bodies of his comrades, and had returned to camp. As he returned, both Nayu and Felonca were surprised the man gave their erstwhile companion hardly a stare.</p><p></p><p>For his part, Bohai the farmer was still upset. One close look at him once the monk he healed him revealed one likely cause for the attack; the poor man was famished, his frame speaking that it had not had food in the past three or four days. Nayu didn’t believe this was the only cause, and was still pressing him.</p><p></p><p>“Why did you attack a group of <em>monks?</em> Likely if you would have asked for food, they would have gladly given you some!” Nayu pressed, growing more annoyed with the farmer.</p><p></p><p>“Because, we were hungry! And we thought they might have some holy water!” </p><p></p><p>“Holy water? What’s that? Is it a tome like any of these?” Felonca asked from her bedroll, where she had spread out the six sticks of power they had recovered from the fallen monks. She especially liked the greenish tracings on the one Nayu said would shoot acid. On looks alone, it would fetch a pretty penny.</p><p></p><p>“No... holy water is the result when one focuses the positive energy inherent in one’s body upon a physical cup of water. The water then has the powers of positive energy bound within its liquid form,” Liu explained calmly. Confused, Felonca merely shakes her head.</p><p></p><p>“Does it do anything like these?” she pulled from her saddlebag the three tomes she’d stolen from the prefect in Red Lotus and handed them to the monk. “And why would you need holy water, Bohai? Do you need something consecrated, or holied?”</p><p></p><p>“We needed them to stop the burning man!” Bohai snapped back, shaking at his bonds.</p><p></p><p>“The who?” Nayu asked, as Liu gave a slightly alarmed grunt at the first tome.</p><p></p><p>“The burning man,” the farmer continued. “Our prefect was working on forbidden tomes, and the gods did not like his acts. So they punished all of us! They turned him into a burning skeleton, and he burned down my village!”</p><p></p><p>“Please... you’ve got to be kidding me!” Nayu gave a guffaw. “That’s nonsense! Everyone knows the scholars of Kong-shi do not dither with magic to make skeletons walk! And why would he turn himself into a skeleton?”</p><p></p><p>“Maybe he did something magical and didn’t understand it, so it messed up?” Felonca asked, furrowing her own brow in the increasing gloom. Another worried grunt came from Liu as he finished the second tome.</p><p></p><p>“That’s not likely. The scholars may be arrogant, but they know their magic... far more magic than I’ll ever know,” Nayu replied. “Remember, I couldn’t even read those tomes we’re going to sell!”</p><p></p><p>“You meant to <em>sell these?</em>” the monk spoke, his calm voice filled with a slight bit of alarm.</p><p></p><p>“Is... there a problem with them, Master Liu?” Nayu replied guardedly.</p><p></p><p>“I... must ask that these be destroyed, as I do not know why any prefect would have such vile magic,” the monk said softly, dropping the tomes hurriedly onto a piece of cloak. His eyes were wide in revulsion and fear. “They will do nothing but terrible ill!”</p><p></p><p>“Um...” Felonca and Nayu stared at each other momentarily, before the hengeyokai spoke.</p><p></p><p>“Master Liu, we have traveled several days to take those tomes to Xianlung to sell... thus you would surely understand why we would want to know why they need to be destroyed before you would relieve them from us?”</p><p></p><p>“They are spells to raise skeletons from the dead... the spells to make an army of the dead,” the monk replied in a quiet, fearful voice.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Emperor Valerian, post: 1765759, member: 15043"] [b]Of Monks, Farmers, and Something Dark...[/b] “Bandits!” Nayu heard Felonca’s voice hiss quietly. Nayu himself had never fought bandits before. They were the bane of travelers, but normally the road to Xianlung was safe... one only ran into bandits close to the Desert Wall. While travelling with his father, he had seen a bandit once, but the man had hidden away after his father had pointed a crossbow at him. “Felonca?” Nayu asked uncertainly. The air seemed strangely silent, as the scene before him seemed to unfold as slowly as sands falling through an hourglass. He turned around, only to see the last swish of a dark cape entering the woods. While he couldn’t see her, he could [i]sense[/i] Felonca was only just off to the left, coming forward slowly. Quickly, Nayu reached down past his saddlebag, for an item he had not used in combat... ever. His family was one of traders and minor magicians, not warriors. As the wooden butt of the weapon was cradled in his arms, the lessons his father had told him replayed in his mind. [i]Whatever you do, Nayu, aim true,[/i] he heard the older man’s voice say, [i]It will take a while to reload this... but you can kill a man from two hundred paces if you aim well.[/i] Nayu waited, sighting along the quarrel nesting in the crossbow, carefully feeling his breathing. [i]In... out... in... out... in...[/i] During the brief pause between breaths, Nayu slipped his finger along the trigger. Part of his mind absently thought of how small and minute such an action was, just before the [i]thwack[/i] of the quarrel being launched assaulted his ears. The bolt zipped away, and even as Nayu was starting to move from his stance, he saw one of the four bandit’s head snap back, the long back shaft of the bolt buried in his temple as he crumpled to the ground. Four heads swiveled around, eight eyes staring at the seventeen year old lad. Hurriedly Nayu began reloading, just as all hell broke loose... [i]Nice shot![/i] Felonca gazed on in silent admiration as Nayu’s shot went so true that Master Hsiu himself would have been proud. Her pride at the young man’s work was only momentary, before her low form slinked closer to the three bandits up ahead. It was here, in the undergrowth, that Felonca’s, ancestry came to head. She slipped low along the ground, swiftly, silently, her dark form almost mimicking the quiet, sure movements of the animal she could change into. In the midst of the sudden burst of noise, she was truly invisible. All the while, her feline eyes roamed the field, their slits narrowing in surprise at the ease with which the supposedly defenseless traveler was able to dodge the assaults from the two bandits to his front. The slits also widened in alarm, as one of the bandits charged towards a desperately reloading Nayu. Feline instincts made split second calculations that realized there was no way her comrade would be able to reload his weapon before the woman was upon him. [i]Those eyes,[/i] Felonca thought, looking at the woman. She was terribly thin, her torn clothing streaming behind her like a perverse banner. Her eyes, however, were truly horrible... shrunken, yellow with bloodshot, they were the eyes of pure hunger. Of starvation. [i]She’ll kill him for food,[/i] Felonca realized, even as her body was already reacting. The cat-woman had another surprise hidden within her cloak... one that Nayu would hopefully be thankful for. Felonca was fairly experienced with the bow... it was the only subject of Master Hsiu’s other than exotic weaponry (where she encountered warfans for the first time) that she took a liking to. Even now, she still carried the bow she had earned in contest. Years of training flashed through an instants time, and the bow was notched, drawn, and the arrow loosed with the smoothness of running water. The arrow flies true, slashing through the woman’s skull, putting her piteous form out of her misery. Nayu was in shock. One second, the feral eyed woman had been charging towards him, her bloody hands outstretched as if to choke him. The next, she was on the ground, an arrow coming from her left temple. He heard the rustling in the woods, and made a silent note to thank Felonca when the last of the bandits was gone. Up ahead, he could see that one of the bandits in front of the traveler was down as well. The final bandit was armed with a large and rusty scythe, which she slashed through the air at the unfortunate man with a feral abandon. It was apparent the traveler was on the defensive. [i]Time to lose something else father taught me,[/i] Nayu closed his eyes quietly. His family had always been able to do loose, minor magic... nothing as impressive or powerful as the scholars that taught the lessons of Kong-shi, but things that could prevent one from being stuck in a bind, or entertain customers. Or kill a bandit. Nayu held forth his hand, feeling a pool of energy seem to grow from his stomach. The pool ran up his chest and down the outstretched arm. In his mind, the young man saw what he wanted the reservoir of magic to do... a pulse of burning light. No sooner had the image formed in his mind than the same pulse lanced from his outstretched fingers, slamming into the feral bandit not a second later. Her body convulsed as the twin magic missiles overwhelmed her systems, and she fell to the ground in a cluttered heap. Nayu was immediately running forward towards the traveler, the rustling and breaking branches in the trees telling him that Felonca was doing the same. Even from this distance, it was apparent that blood was soaking the man’s shoulder, but to their surprise, the man seemed more concerned with the bandit Nayu had shot less than a minute earlier. “He still lives,” the man said, his voice a quiet, calm tenor. His fingers, coated with blood, then moved from the forehead of the injured bandit to his own shoulder, the blood decorated by a deep puncture wound. A few whispered words floated in the air, and suddenly the wound dried up, until only moments later only fresh, unblemished skin was in its place. “You... you are no scholar,” Nayu said quietly, voice in awe. “Indeed. And I have you two to thank.” The man rose to an impressive height of nearly six foot, and gave a weary half-smile. “I am Liu Ganxi, a follower of the teachings of Master Asoka Shenyang, a man unfortunately misunderstood by the arcane scholars. I owe you much for your assistance... I only wish you had arrived a few moments earlier,” his eyes drifted to the bodies in the road. Three were clad exactly as Liu, shirtless, with loose cloth about their loins. The fourth was clad much the same, save his cloth was a brilliant orange instead of plain white. “They were your friends?” Felonca said slowly. “No... more than that. My brothers of faith,” Liu said quietly, his voice a surprisingly even keel despite what he said. “May their spirits find a new, better home than these weak bodies and minds we have.” “Is it true, Master Liu, that your...um...order,” Nayu searched for the proper words, “are gifted in the arts of healing? It might be wise to heal this man, so that we may find out why you were attacked.” It was some hours later when Liu was finished praying over the bodies of his comrades, and had returned to camp. As he returned, both Nayu and Felonca were surprised the man gave their erstwhile companion hardly a stare. For his part, Bohai the farmer was still upset. One close look at him once the monk he healed him revealed one likely cause for the attack; the poor man was famished, his frame speaking that it had not had food in the past three or four days. Nayu didn’t believe this was the only cause, and was still pressing him. “Why did you attack a group of [i]monks?[/i] Likely if you would have asked for food, they would have gladly given you some!” Nayu pressed, growing more annoyed with the farmer. “Because, we were hungry! And we thought they might have some holy water!” “Holy water? What’s that? Is it a tome like any of these?” Felonca asked from her bedroll, where she had spread out the six sticks of power they had recovered from the fallen monks. She especially liked the greenish tracings on the one Nayu said would shoot acid. On looks alone, it would fetch a pretty penny. “No... holy water is the result when one focuses the positive energy inherent in one’s body upon a physical cup of water. The water then has the powers of positive energy bound within its liquid form,” Liu explained calmly. Confused, Felonca merely shakes her head. “Does it do anything like these?” she pulled from her saddlebag the three tomes she’d stolen from the prefect in Red Lotus and handed them to the monk. “And why would you need holy water, Bohai? Do you need something consecrated, or holied?” “We needed them to stop the burning man!” Bohai snapped back, shaking at his bonds. “The who?” Nayu asked, as Liu gave a slightly alarmed grunt at the first tome. “The burning man,” the farmer continued. “Our prefect was working on forbidden tomes, and the gods did not like his acts. So they punished all of us! They turned him into a burning skeleton, and he burned down my village!” “Please... you’ve got to be kidding me!” Nayu gave a guffaw. “That’s nonsense! Everyone knows the scholars of Kong-shi do not dither with magic to make skeletons walk! And why would he turn himself into a skeleton?” “Maybe he did something magical and didn’t understand it, so it messed up?” Felonca asked, furrowing her own brow in the increasing gloom. Another worried grunt came from Liu as he finished the second tome. “That’s not likely. The scholars may be arrogant, but they know their magic... far more magic than I’ll ever know,” Nayu replied. “Remember, I couldn’t even read those tomes we’re going to sell!” “You meant to [i]sell these?[/i]” the monk spoke, his calm voice filled with a slight bit of alarm. “Is... there a problem with them, Master Liu?” Nayu replied guardedly. “I... must ask that these be destroyed, as I do not know why any prefect would have such vile magic,” the monk said softly, dropping the tomes hurriedly onto a piece of cloak. His eyes were wide in revulsion and fear. “They will do nothing but terrible ill!” “Um...” Felonca and Nayu stared at each other momentarily, before the hengeyokai spoke. “Master Liu, we have traveled several days to take those tomes to Xianlung to sell... thus you would surely understand why we would want to know why they need to be destroyed before you would relieve them from us?” “They are spells to raise skeletons from the dead... the spells to make an army of the dead,” the monk replied in a quiet, fearful voice. [/QUOTE]
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