Emperor Valerian
First Post
Ok, I'm putting the character backgrounds and stats here, for everyone's reference.
At present, I only have FElonca's background...
Wu-Fang Felonca (Yes, that is the name the player picked. "Wu" for darkness... and "Fang" for the fact she's hengeyokai.)
Female Hengeyokai(Panther) Rogue4 Age - 25
STR 14
DEX 18
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 14
Felonca's Background
Running.
The joy of muscles bunching and releasing. The soft caress of wind around ears. The scent of grass crushed beneath pads.
There, ahead, the soft sound of breathing. Prey.
Muscles tighten and relax. Run slows into a walk, then a crawl. Feeling the earth shift; digging in claws so it will not crumble and give me away..
There, just over that hill.
Slinking, using every blade of grass as cover. The soft breathing continues; he is unaware of me yet.
Pause, inhale deeply, filling lungs. Shifting weight to back legs. Tail twitches once, twice.
A scream, akin to that of a dying woman, shattered the air and echoed from her lungs. At the same time she jumped, spreading her forelimbs as a muttered curse drew her prey to his feet, only to be knocked back to the ground as she hit him hard in the side with claws retracted. Both forms scuffled indistinctly for a moment, then resolved into male and female bodies.
“Damn you, Felonca!” Nixu pushed her now human form off of him as he struggled to his feet.
She lay on her back, quivering with suppressed laughter. “Oh, Nixu...you should have seen the look on your face….it was priceless!”
“I’ll tan your hide priceless you stupid panther! Look what you did!” The mouse hengeyokai was trying hard to hide the shaking in his voice, but she saw the droplets of water on his cheeks. Instantly sober, she rolled over, and for the first time, caught the scent of fragrant oils in the air. Oil…and stone. Her laughter died immediately.
“Oh, Nixu. The Floating Stone test?”
Nixu stared down at what had once been a carefully laid out pile of slick river stones soaked in oil. “I was almost done too…” he whispered.
She shuddered in sympathy. Master Hsiu’s test of perseverance. One of ten hurdles to master status. To pass, the warrior in training had to stack the super slippery stones into the shape of the character of ‘patience’. Only last week had she passed the test herself, and that was after 30 hours of blurry-eyed, bent-back work. She still had nightmares, waking to find her hand shuddering to place that final stone, only to have the whole thing collapse under her touch.
“I’m really sorry, Nixu. I didn’t know.” She placed a hand gently on the young boy’s shoulder, only to have it shrugged it off angrily.
“You’re always screwing things up for us, Felonca.” He hissed. “First the bathhouse incident, then the porridge disaster, and now this! Why can’t you just be a serious warrior like everyone else!” he snapped his teeth at me once in frustration, then bent to scoop the stones back into their carrying bucket. “I’m going to go find a quiet place to do this, one where no failed warrior will stop me!” Nixu shifted to his hybrid form in the intensity of the moment and stalked off, muttering to himself, his long pink tail vibrating with frustration.
Felonca stood for a moment, trying to breathe past the sudden tightness in her throat. His words stung, no matter how much she didn’t want to admit that they did.
She sighed, and sat down suddenly on the hill, absently shredding the oil stained grass with long pointed nails. She had caused a lot of trouble for herself and her fellow trainees, resulting in a loss of privileges, and her own delayed graduation. She was 25, yet still acted and was treated like the teenagers that were most of her classmates.
She sighed again, and hung her head. The truth was, she didn’t know why she was such a failure. Everyone in her family was a successful warrior. Which was probably why her parents had been so confused when, after sending her to the Desert Wall training school at the age of ten, she had begged and pleaded to come home after only a month. For five generations back, no one in her clan had ever been anything but a panther warrior.
Everyone, except for her.
She sighed again and rubbed at the side of her belt, wishing she had her warfans. The intricate silver fans with black cat designs had been a gift when she had been accepted as Master Hsiu’s pupil, ten years back. Delighted, her parents had sent her the unique fans that had once belonged to her great grandfather. It was considered a tremendous honor to be taught under Master Hsui, because the big tiger was one of the few Masters of the realm who fought with warfans, in addition to a slew of other weapons. The trouble was, she had barely begun to learn how to use them.
Until they were full warriors, the trainees’ weapons were kept locked up by the Master in his private study, to be distributed only when he elected that it was time to practice with them. One of his delights was to catch young trainees unawares and beat them to a pulp, mentally and physically, since they didn’t have their weapons. And all in the name of training.
Felonca slitted her eyes in memory at his words the first time it had happened to her. It was during her first week under his tutorage, and she had fallen under his blows in less than a minute. Laying crumpled, the stench of blood and humiliation sour in her throat, she had been unable to prevent a growl from breaking her lips. Hisu had merely stood over her, his face and voice impassive.
“To relay on weapons of steel is a weakness.” The tiger hengeyokai had growled softly. “One must turn ones’ body into a weapon, so no matter where you are stalked, you can always turn the tune of the hunt your way.”
Wise words, but at that point, all she wanted to do was rip out his throat. Three days and six broken bones later, she had learned how to liberate her fury in more creative ways.
The thought of Master Hsiu drinking his tea after she had snuck into the kitchen and added several…unpleasant ingredients, still made her smile.
Thinking of her tall tiger master drew her attention to the sun; it was nearly time for practice. And today was practice in ranged fighting, which meant…
A feral gleam came to Felonca’s eyes. Bow practice…
A short while later, Felonca and the rest of her fellow trainees (except Nixu) were gathered on the small plot of ground that served as a fighting arena. Targets of varying size and distance away had been set up, and each of the trainees had strapped on a quiver of arrows and held a bow of like colors.
Their instructor, Quan-Shi, was one of a few weasel hengeyokai that followed the warriors’ way. His thin lanky form marched back and forth in front of the line of his pupils, his high nasally voice droning instructions.
“Now remember, when you draw, be sure to sight along the shaft, NOT the arrowhead. The point will dip too much with the strain of your muscles, so don’t trust its path. Keep your knees soft, and shoulders relaxed. Don’t TENSE. When you release the arrow, your breathing must be calm. Exhale as you release, then inhale as you reload.” Quan-Shi ran a jaundiced eye up on and down the rows till he was satisfied everyone had heard his instructions.
“Right then.” He continued. “ Today’s contest is” he paused for effect, “the first to score ten center hits will be rewarded with extra rations and a free day to be given at your request. Ready, aim, FIRE!”
Twenty arrows were notched, twenty bows bent, twenty breaths exhaled as the arrows soared down the field and sunk deeply into their targets. Two arrows hit the center mark on the farthest target; one fletch with red and the other fletched with green.
Felonca grinned and drew another red arrow from her quiver. Without missing a beat she notched it, sighted along its ashen length, and released. It flew true to sink into the center of the target next to her first one.
“Good job, Felonca. I am glad to see how much you have improved.” Quan-Shi’s grating voice suddenly sounded from behind her left shoulder.
Without missing a beat, she drew another arrow and shot it into the center of her chosen target a third time. “Thank you Master Quan-Shi. The bow is a wonderful weapon.”
The weasel hissed an affirmative and marched off to instruct another trainee. From beside her, a short squirrel hengeyokai fluttered her eyes in the bow-master’s direction. In a mocking imitation of Felonca’s voice, she said “The bow is a wonderful weapon, Master Quan-Shi. Thank you for the extra tutoring, Mater Quan-Shi. May I share your bedroll tonight, Master Quan-Shi…” Her remarks drew snickers from the other trainees who were close enough to hear it, including Felonca’s other neighbor, a wolf hengeyokai who’s arrows were the ones fletched with green.
Ignoring the teasing, Felonca merely continued shooting arrow after arrow into her target, till its cloth and straw frame bristled like a wooden porcupine. She hadn’t hit all her marks exactly; she still needed two in the center to claim first prize.
“Getting close, huh kitty kitty.” Her wolf neighbor clapped her on the back, nearly upsetting her, while baring his fang-like teeth in what she assumed was a smile.
“Yeah, but I still need two more.” Frowning in concentration, Felonca drew an arrow out of her quiver, notched it, and released it to fly true into the center of her target; only to be mocked by its green fletching.
“Hey! You put one of your arrows in my quiver!” She turned and glared at the wolf, blue eyes burning. He merely grinned and winked at her. “Yep, and now I only need two more hits as well, before that free day is allllllllllll mine.” He sneered.
Fuming, Felone quickly shrugged off her quiver and searched through it, pulling out two more green arrows. Shifting to her hybrid form in anger, she took all of her remaining red arrows and stuck them point first into the ground in a straight row in front of her. With the other trainees watching her curiously, she lifted her bow, plucked an arrow from the ground, and in rapid fire succession, shot one arrow after another into the center of every target on the field. Shrugging her bow back onto her shoulder, she turned and smiled sweetly at the wolf.
“Looks like that free day’s all mine, fuzz-head. Next time you cheat, try using someone who isn’t so good.” Turning tail, she pranced off, ignoring the jealous looks that followed her the whole way back to the barracks.
Once there, she ducked inside and flopped down onto her narrow cot. Her current victory meant nothing to her. In fact, it would probably make the other trainees hate her more, since she, a warrior who wouldn’t take training seriously enough to graduate, had beaten them. In the silence, a fly that had been trapped inside buzzed angrily against the window above her head. Staring at it, she flipped over onto her back with a sigh.
“Trapped, just like me, huh buddy. I bet you’re thinking that the way out is the same way you got in.” She shook her head. “But it isn’t so. Your only way out is probably a swift squashing by someone who won’t be able to stand the sight of you some night.” The fly ignored her and continued to bash its head against the glass in a doomed attempt at freedom.
Felonca sighed again. “And it looks like my only way out of this dump is to attain Master status, or through the grave when they kill me for being here too long without graduating.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes.
But why don’t you just give up then, huh, Felonca? A corner of her mind whispered.
“Because I’ll be branded a failure by my entire family, and be considered a disgrace for the rest of my life, probably not even worthy of membership to the clan.” She retorted, directing her anger at the fly. It buzzed in response.
So, why don’t you run away? Her mind continued.
“Because the penalty for running away is death!” She yelled. The fly landed on the window sill for a moment, and oppressive silence filled the room. Then it jumped up and continued to buzz and slap itself against the window. Felonca shifted back over onto her stomach and stared at the insect.
“You really are a frustrating little thing, aren’t you.” She frowned at it. “Why don’t you just get out of here!” Reaching up, she pushed open the window furiously. The surprised insect hung in midair for a moment, as if considering, then streaked out the open window.
Felonca looked after it for a moment, then flopped back down on her back on the bed. Her eyes closed as her last words continued to run through her head. Why don’t you just get out of here….
“Why don’t I just get out of here….” She whispered outloud, then sat up suddenly as though she had sat on a pincushion. “Why DON’T I just get out of here. It’s obvious that they’re never going to pass me, so I’m as good as dead anyway.”
She thought for a moment, tapping a sharp nail against her teeth, as the idea unfolded itself in her head.
She knew enough about the streets to be able to survive, but she needed to take a few things with her in case things went bad. And there was one thing that I absolutely couldn’t afford to leave, she thought, running her fingers over her empty belt.
Her face split into a malicious grin. It was time she paid her Master’s quarters another visit…
Later that same week, on a moonless night, she crept, cat-shaped, across the mowed lawn, finding solace in every hedge, and finally in the shadow of the tallest building on the compound. Breathing hard with fear and excitement, she reviewed the day quickly. Having taken her archery reward that morning, she had spent her entire ‘freeday’ orchestrating her escape. Stealing enough rations had been easy; the cook never used more than a simple lock on his stores. It had been harder to hide the supplies from her fellow trainees, and she had resorted to burying them in saddlebags near the lake. After dinner today, when all the warriors were training, she had taken the liberty of procuring a silver and black pied gelding from the stables, along with his tack and enough oats and barley to keep him in feed for a week. The horse, fully bridled, with all of her possessions strapped safely to the saddle, now waited for her outside the walled courtyard. Now there was just one thing left to do.
Heart pounding in her chest, ears pricked to catch the slightest sound from the windows above her, Felonca shifted smoothly to her hybrid form and flattened herself against the casement. Reaching up as far as she could, her sensitive hands finally found the crack between cinderstones where the cement had crumbled and fallen out; and where the set of pinions and length of rope she had hidden there earlier in the day waited. Earlier she had thought about going up in panther form, but the wall was too sheer, and even someone of her climbing skills couldn’t do it without the help of human equipment.
Retrieving her tools from their hiding place, she began the slow tedious task of climbing the sheer 20 meter side of her Master’s tower.
Quietly, painstakingly, she worked each pinion into the crumbled pockets of cement between the slabs of stone; the building was old, and the task fairly easy. First she anchored the pinions, then tied herself to them by way of the rope. Little by little, she made her way up the face of the building. The night was cloudy, and the few stars that she could see lent just enough light to see by, but not enough to give away her midnight dark form. Thanking the gods that watched over foolish hengeyokai warriors, she continued to climb as the sweat broke out on her brow.
It was sometime past the middle of the night when she finally reached the shuttered window of her Master’s chambers. Leaning back against the rope that safely held her 60 feet above the ground, she fished in the pocket of her kimono for the thieves tools she had stored there. The second of her most prized possessions, the masterwork tools were everything she needed, and had been worth the 60 gold she had paid one of her less honorable trainees to make them for her.
First, she pulled out a small bar of what looked like greasy soap. Carefully, she rubbed the bar up and down along the rusty hinges, making sure the grease was worked well into their fissures. Once she was done, she next selected a long bendable wire from the kit, and twisted it into the shape of a fishhook. It was but the work of a moment to slip it between the crack on the shutters and slip open the catch on the other side. The shutters swung upon silently, and she was in.
There was one thing that the Master insisted upon, and that was absolute silence when he slept. A room on the outside of the building, complete with noisy thunderstorms, cold drafts, and shouting trainees below, wasn’t for him. As a result, the tiger hengeyokai chose to sleep in the inner chamber, while he stored all of his possessions in the outer.
It was this room that Felonca found herself in now. A sturdy desk lay across the way, scattered with papers and splotches of dried ink. Next to it stood a darkly stained wardrobe with a heavy lock. Between the wardrobe and the desk was the door to the inner chamber where her Master slept. A small locked chest rested to her right against the wall with the window. The rest of the room was adorned with bits of armor and old weapons, long past their prime days of combat, and none of which interested her.
Felonca glanced around the room once, then crossed the room to the door and threw the lock on it. The bolt clunked loudly, and she froze, listening intently for a sound from the other room. She was lucky; silence reined.
Her heart beating loud enough that she was sure everyone in the compound could hear, she stepped up to the front of the wardrobe, and without waiting a moment, crouched and began to work upon the heavy lock.
It took more time than she suspected, but eventually, a few hours before dawn, the lock finally clicked open. Drawing a deep breath, she swung open the wardrobe and surveyed its contents.
Just as she had thought, all of the trainees’ weapons hung in neat rows along the backs and sides of the wooden apparatus. In the upper left-hand corner swung her warfans. Snatching them up, she hugged them tightly to her chest for a moment before slipping them into her belt. She instantly felt much better than she had for some time. Although dawn was fast approaching, she took a moment to survey the rest of the wardrobes’ contents, and added a set of small silver daggers and a second quiver of arrows to her purloined goods. Closing and relocking the wardrobe, she secured her new weapons carefully and crossed to the window.
Just before she climbed over the sill, however, something stole her glance back towards the chest to her left. Its top was deeply carved with a variety of figures that danced and twirled across the surface and down the sides. Upon closer inspection, the figures were revealed to be hengeyokai of all kinds, celebrating some unknown event. The lock looked fairly easy, and Felonca’s fingers itched to try it.
Glancing over her shoulder at the still locked door, she squared her shoulders. What the hell. She thought. She was already doomed anyway.
Bending, it took her less than a minute to align the pins in the lock, and flip open the top. She barely had time to gaze upon the filled sacks that lay within, when suddenly a great shriek rose from inside the trapped chest. The rough sound of someone falling out of bed next door worked her heart into a frenzy. Grabbing the two top bags, she tossed them out the window, and had swung her feet over the edge to feel for the pinions below. Her clawed feet had barely grasped them when the door across the way suddenly gave a great heave as thought someone had run into it from the other side. The resulting roar gave her an inkling as to who it might be.
She had never climbed so fast in her life. Forgoing the rope, she trusted upon blind instinct to carry her from pinion to pinion, the knowledge that the only thing saving her from a long fall and multiple broken bones was a thin strip of metal stuck haphazardly into crumbling cement was lost upon her.
The door above her continued to crash and heave, but the lock and hinges held firm. At the exact moment that her toes touched solid earth, she heard a dull thunk and the sound of splitting wood that told her that the Master slept with a sword by his side, and was now using it on the wooden door. She probably had seconds before the door gave.
Scooping up the bags at her feet, she gave a dull gasp at their weight before throwing them over her shoulder and sprinting for the side gate. On the other side, her horse neighed at her skittering arrival. Calming it quickly, she tossed the two bags on top of her other gear, hopped into the saddle, and took off at a fast canter.
It was only after she was several miles away and day had fully broken that she allowed herself to stop and the horse to take a break. Lowering the reins, she allowed herself one deep moment of realization. She had done it. She had escaped the Desert Wall training school, and she had done it with her hide intact.
Throwing back her head, she let out a panther’s scream that set the horse’s skin to trembling beneath her. Laughing, she stroked the elegant neck gently, before turning to see what her last thieving act had brought. Opening the first of the two heavy sacks, she was rewarded with the dull click of thousands silver coins clicking together. Heart pounding with excitement, she opened the second bad to the satisfying gleam of gold. She laughed again, and this time her expression was mixed with tears. She had enough here to get by for years, more if she was careful.
Retying the sacks and securing them safely under her other possessions, she clucked to her horse and they set off at a steady trot. Felonca looked ahead to the clear sky and long road, ears pricked forward and eyes laughing. Who knew what tomorrow would bring!
At present, I only have FElonca's background...
Wu-Fang Felonca (Yes, that is the name the player picked. "Wu" for darkness... and "Fang" for the fact she's hengeyokai.)
Female Hengeyokai(Panther) Rogue4 Age - 25
STR 14
DEX 18
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 14
Felonca's Background
Running.
The joy of muscles bunching and releasing. The soft caress of wind around ears. The scent of grass crushed beneath pads.
There, ahead, the soft sound of breathing. Prey.
Muscles tighten and relax. Run slows into a walk, then a crawl. Feeling the earth shift; digging in claws so it will not crumble and give me away..
There, just over that hill.
Slinking, using every blade of grass as cover. The soft breathing continues; he is unaware of me yet.
Pause, inhale deeply, filling lungs. Shifting weight to back legs. Tail twitches once, twice.
A scream, akin to that of a dying woman, shattered the air and echoed from her lungs. At the same time she jumped, spreading her forelimbs as a muttered curse drew her prey to his feet, only to be knocked back to the ground as she hit him hard in the side with claws retracted. Both forms scuffled indistinctly for a moment, then resolved into male and female bodies.
“Damn you, Felonca!” Nixu pushed her now human form off of him as he struggled to his feet.
She lay on her back, quivering with suppressed laughter. “Oh, Nixu...you should have seen the look on your face….it was priceless!”
“I’ll tan your hide priceless you stupid panther! Look what you did!” The mouse hengeyokai was trying hard to hide the shaking in his voice, but she saw the droplets of water on his cheeks. Instantly sober, she rolled over, and for the first time, caught the scent of fragrant oils in the air. Oil…and stone. Her laughter died immediately.
“Oh, Nixu. The Floating Stone test?”
Nixu stared down at what had once been a carefully laid out pile of slick river stones soaked in oil. “I was almost done too…” he whispered.
She shuddered in sympathy. Master Hsiu’s test of perseverance. One of ten hurdles to master status. To pass, the warrior in training had to stack the super slippery stones into the shape of the character of ‘patience’. Only last week had she passed the test herself, and that was after 30 hours of blurry-eyed, bent-back work. She still had nightmares, waking to find her hand shuddering to place that final stone, only to have the whole thing collapse under her touch.
“I’m really sorry, Nixu. I didn’t know.” She placed a hand gently on the young boy’s shoulder, only to have it shrugged it off angrily.
“You’re always screwing things up for us, Felonca.” He hissed. “First the bathhouse incident, then the porridge disaster, and now this! Why can’t you just be a serious warrior like everyone else!” he snapped his teeth at me once in frustration, then bent to scoop the stones back into their carrying bucket. “I’m going to go find a quiet place to do this, one where no failed warrior will stop me!” Nixu shifted to his hybrid form in the intensity of the moment and stalked off, muttering to himself, his long pink tail vibrating with frustration.
Felonca stood for a moment, trying to breathe past the sudden tightness in her throat. His words stung, no matter how much she didn’t want to admit that they did.
She sighed, and sat down suddenly on the hill, absently shredding the oil stained grass with long pointed nails. She had caused a lot of trouble for herself and her fellow trainees, resulting in a loss of privileges, and her own delayed graduation. She was 25, yet still acted and was treated like the teenagers that were most of her classmates.
She sighed again, and hung her head. The truth was, she didn’t know why she was such a failure. Everyone in her family was a successful warrior. Which was probably why her parents had been so confused when, after sending her to the Desert Wall training school at the age of ten, she had begged and pleaded to come home after only a month. For five generations back, no one in her clan had ever been anything but a panther warrior.
Everyone, except for her.
She sighed again and rubbed at the side of her belt, wishing she had her warfans. The intricate silver fans with black cat designs had been a gift when she had been accepted as Master Hsiu’s pupil, ten years back. Delighted, her parents had sent her the unique fans that had once belonged to her great grandfather. It was considered a tremendous honor to be taught under Master Hsui, because the big tiger was one of the few Masters of the realm who fought with warfans, in addition to a slew of other weapons. The trouble was, she had barely begun to learn how to use them.
Until they were full warriors, the trainees’ weapons were kept locked up by the Master in his private study, to be distributed only when he elected that it was time to practice with them. One of his delights was to catch young trainees unawares and beat them to a pulp, mentally and physically, since they didn’t have their weapons. And all in the name of training.
Felonca slitted her eyes in memory at his words the first time it had happened to her. It was during her first week under his tutorage, and she had fallen under his blows in less than a minute. Laying crumpled, the stench of blood and humiliation sour in her throat, she had been unable to prevent a growl from breaking her lips. Hisu had merely stood over her, his face and voice impassive.
“To relay on weapons of steel is a weakness.” The tiger hengeyokai had growled softly. “One must turn ones’ body into a weapon, so no matter where you are stalked, you can always turn the tune of the hunt your way.”
Wise words, but at that point, all she wanted to do was rip out his throat. Three days and six broken bones later, she had learned how to liberate her fury in more creative ways.
The thought of Master Hsiu drinking his tea after she had snuck into the kitchen and added several…unpleasant ingredients, still made her smile.
Thinking of her tall tiger master drew her attention to the sun; it was nearly time for practice. And today was practice in ranged fighting, which meant…
A feral gleam came to Felonca’s eyes. Bow practice…
A short while later, Felonca and the rest of her fellow trainees (except Nixu) were gathered on the small plot of ground that served as a fighting arena. Targets of varying size and distance away had been set up, and each of the trainees had strapped on a quiver of arrows and held a bow of like colors.
Their instructor, Quan-Shi, was one of a few weasel hengeyokai that followed the warriors’ way. His thin lanky form marched back and forth in front of the line of his pupils, his high nasally voice droning instructions.
“Now remember, when you draw, be sure to sight along the shaft, NOT the arrowhead. The point will dip too much with the strain of your muscles, so don’t trust its path. Keep your knees soft, and shoulders relaxed. Don’t TENSE. When you release the arrow, your breathing must be calm. Exhale as you release, then inhale as you reload.” Quan-Shi ran a jaundiced eye up on and down the rows till he was satisfied everyone had heard his instructions.
“Right then.” He continued. “ Today’s contest is” he paused for effect, “the first to score ten center hits will be rewarded with extra rations and a free day to be given at your request. Ready, aim, FIRE!”
Twenty arrows were notched, twenty bows bent, twenty breaths exhaled as the arrows soared down the field and sunk deeply into their targets. Two arrows hit the center mark on the farthest target; one fletch with red and the other fletched with green.
Felonca grinned and drew another red arrow from her quiver. Without missing a beat she notched it, sighted along its ashen length, and released. It flew true to sink into the center of the target next to her first one.
“Good job, Felonca. I am glad to see how much you have improved.” Quan-Shi’s grating voice suddenly sounded from behind her left shoulder.
Without missing a beat, she drew another arrow and shot it into the center of her chosen target a third time. “Thank you Master Quan-Shi. The bow is a wonderful weapon.”
The weasel hissed an affirmative and marched off to instruct another trainee. From beside her, a short squirrel hengeyokai fluttered her eyes in the bow-master’s direction. In a mocking imitation of Felonca’s voice, she said “The bow is a wonderful weapon, Master Quan-Shi. Thank you for the extra tutoring, Mater Quan-Shi. May I share your bedroll tonight, Master Quan-Shi…” Her remarks drew snickers from the other trainees who were close enough to hear it, including Felonca’s other neighbor, a wolf hengeyokai who’s arrows were the ones fletched with green.
Ignoring the teasing, Felonca merely continued shooting arrow after arrow into her target, till its cloth and straw frame bristled like a wooden porcupine. She hadn’t hit all her marks exactly; she still needed two in the center to claim first prize.
“Getting close, huh kitty kitty.” Her wolf neighbor clapped her on the back, nearly upsetting her, while baring his fang-like teeth in what she assumed was a smile.
“Yeah, but I still need two more.” Frowning in concentration, Felonca drew an arrow out of her quiver, notched it, and released it to fly true into the center of her target; only to be mocked by its green fletching.
“Hey! You put one of your arrows in my quiver!” She turned and glared at the wolf, blue eyes burning. He merely grinned and winked at her. “Yep, and now I only need two more hits as well, before that free day is allllllllllll mine.” He sneered.
Fuming, Felone quickly shrugged off her quiver and searched through it, pulling out two more green arrows. Shifting to her hybrid form in anger, she took all of her remaining red arrows and stuck them point first into the ground in a straight row in front of her. With the other trainees watching her curiously, she lifted her bow, plucked an arrow from the ground, and in rapid fire succession, shot one arrow after another into the center of every target on the field. Shrugging her bow back onto her shoulder, she turned and smiled sweetly at the wolf.
“Looks like that free day’s all mine, fuzz-head. Next time you cheat, try using someone who isn’t so good.” Turning tail, she pranced off, ignoring the jealous looks that followed her the whole way back to the barracks.
Once there, she ducked inside and flopped down onto her narrow cot. Her current victory meant nothing to her. In fact, it would probably make the other trainees hate her more, since she, a warrior who wouldn’t take training seriously enough to graduate, had beaten them. In the silence, a fly that had been trapped inside buzzed angrily against the window above her head. Staring at it, she flipped over onto her back with a sigh.
“Trapped, just like me, huh buddy. I bet you’re thinking that the way out is the same way you got in.” She shook her head. “But it isn’t so. Your only way out is probably a swift squashing by someone who won’t be able to stand the sight of you some night.” The fly ignored her and continued to bash its head against the glass in a doomed attempt at freedom.
Felonca sighed again. “And it looks like my only way out of this dump is to attain Master status, or through the grave when they kill me for being here too long without graduating.” She rubbed a hand over her eyes.
But why don’t you just give up then, huh, Felonca? A corner of her mind whispered.
“Because I’ll be branded a failure by my entire family, and be considered a disgrace for the rest of my life, probably not even worthy of membership to the clan.” She retorted, directing her anger at the fly. It buzzed in response.
So, why don’t you run away? Her mind continued.
“Because the penalty for running away is death!” She yelled. The fly landed on the window sill for a moment, and oppressive silence filled the room. Then it jumped up and continued to buzz and slap itself against the window. Felonca shifted back over onto her stomach and stared at the insect.
“You really are a frustrating little thing, aren’t you.” She frowned at it. “Why don’t you just get out of here!” Reaching up, she pushed open the window furiously. The surprised insect hung in midair for a moment, as if considering, then streaked out the open window.
Felonca looked after it for a moment, then flopped back down on her back on the bed. Her eyes closed as her last words continued to run through her head. Why don’t you just get out of here….
“Why don’t I just get out of here….” She whispered outloud, then sat up suddenly as though she had sat on a pincushion. “Why DON’T I just get out of here. It’s obvious that they’re never going to pass me, so I’m as good as dead anyway.”
She thought for a moment, tapping a sharp nail against her teeth, as the idea unfolded itself in her head.
She knew enough about the streets to be able to survive, but she needed to take a few things with her in case things went bad. And there was one thing that I absolutely couldn’t afford to leave, she thought, running her fingers over her empty belt.
Her face split into a malicious grin. It was time she paid her Master’s quarters another visit…
Later that same week, on a moonless night, she crept, cat-shaped, across the mowed lawn, finding solace in every hedge, and finally in the shadow of the tallest building on the compound. Breathing hard with fear and excitement, she reviewed the day quickly. Having taken her archery reward that morning, she had spent her entire ‘freeday’ orchestrating her escape. Stealing enough rations had been easy; the cook never used more than a simple lock on his stores. It had been harder to hide the supplies from her fellow trainees, and she had resorted to burying them in saddlebags near the lake. After dinner today, when all the warriors were training, she had taken the liberty of procuring a silver and black pied gelding from the stables, along with his tack and enough oats and barley to keep him in feed for a week. The horse, fully bridled, with all of her possessions strapped safely to the saddle, now waited for her outside the walled courtyard. Now there was just one thing left to do.
Heart pounding in her chest, ears pricked to catch the slightest sound from the windows above her, Felonca shifted smoothly to her hybrid form and flattened herself against the casement. Reaching up as far as she could, her sensitive hands finally found the crack between cinderstones where the cement had crumbled and fallen out; and where the set of pinions and length of rope she had hidden there earlier in the day waited. Earlier she had thought about going up in panther form, but the wall was too sheer, and even someone of her climbing skills couldn’t do it without the help of human equipment.
Retrieving her tools from their hiding place, she began the slow tedious task of climbing the sheer 20 meter side of her Master’s tower.
Quietly, painstakingly, she worked each pinion into the crumbled pockets of cement between the slabs of stone; the building was old, and the task fairly easy. First she anchored the pinions, then tied herself to them by way of the rope. Little by little, she made her way up the face of the building. The night was cloudy, and the few stars that she could see lent just enough light to see by, but not enough to give away her midnight dark form. Thanking the gods that watched over foolish hengeyokai warriors, she continued to climb as the sweat broke out on her brow.
It was sometime past the middle of the night when she finally reached the shuttered window of her Master’s chambers. Leaning back against the rope that safely held her 60 feet above the ground, she fished in the pocket of her kimono for the thieves tools she had stored there. The second of her most prized possessions, the masterwork tools were everything she needed, and had been worth the 60 gold she had paid one of her less honorable trainees to make them for her.
First, she pulled out a small bar of what looked like greasy soap. Carefully, she rubbed the bar up and down along the rusty hinges, making sure the grease was worked well into their fissures. Once she was done, she next selected a long bendable wire from the kit, and twisted it into the shape of a fishhook. It was but the work of a moment to slip it between the crack on the shutters and slip open the catch on the other side. The shutters swung upon silently, and she was in.
There was one thing that the Master insisted upon, and that was absolute silence when he slept. A room on the outside of the building, complete with noisy thunderstorms, cold drafts, and shouting trainees below, wasn’t for him. As a result, the tiger hengeyokai chose to sleep in the inner chamber, while he stored all of his possessions in the outer.
It was this room that Felonca found herself in now. A sturdy desk lay across the way, scattered with papers and splotches of dried ink. Next to it stood a darkly stained wardrobe with a heavy lock. Between the wardrobe and the desk was the door to the inner chamber where her Master slept. A small locked chest rested to her right against the wall with the window. The rest of the room was adorned with bits of armor and old weapons, long past their prime days of combat, and none of which interested her.
Felonca glanced around the room once, then crossed the room to the door and threw the lock on it. The bolt clunked loudly, and she froze, listening intently for a sound from the other room. She was lucky; silence reined.
Her heart beating loud enough that she was sure everyone in the compound could hear, she stepped up to the front of the wardrobe, and without waiting a moment, crouched and began to work upon the heavy lock.
It took more time than she suspected, but eventually, a few hours before dawn, the lock finally clicked open. Drawing a deep breath, she swung open the wardrobe and surveyed its contents.
Just as she had thought, all of the trainees’ weapons hung in neat rows along the backs and sides of the wooden apparatus. In the upper left-hand corner swung her warfans. Snatching them up, she hugged them tightly to her chest for a moment before slipping them into her belt. She instantly felt much better than she had for some time. Although dawn was fast approaching, she took a moment to survey the rest of the wardrobes’ contents, and added a set of small silver daggers and a second quiver of arrows to her purloined goods. Closing and relocking the wardrobe, she secured her new weapons carefully and crossed to the window.
Just before she climbed over the sill, however, something stole her glance back towards the chest to her left. Its top was deeply carved with a variety of figures that danced and twirled across the surface and down the sides. Upon closer inspection, the figures were revealed to be hengeyokai of all kinds, celebrating some unknown event. The lock looked fairly easy, and Felonca’s fingers itched to try it.
Glancing over her shoulder at the still locked door, she squared her shoulders. What the hell. She thought. She was already doomed anyway.
Bending, it took her less than a minute to align the pins in the lock, and flip open the top. She barely had time to gaze upon the filled sacks that lay within, when suddenly a great shriek rose from inside the trapped chest. The rough sound of someone falling out of bed next door worked her heart into a frenzy. Grabbing the two top bags, she tossed them out the window, and had swung her feet over the edge to feel for the pinions below. Her clawed feet had barely grasped them when the door across the way suddenly gave a great heave as thought someone had run into it from the other side. The resulting roar gave her an inkling as to who it might be.
She had never climbed so fast in her life. Forgoing the rope, she trusted upon blind instinct to carry her from pinion to pinion, the knowledge that the only thing saving her from a long fall and multiple broken bones was a thin strip of metal stuck haphazardly into crumbling cement was lost upon her.
The door above her continued to crash and heave, but the lock and hinges held firm. At the exact moment that her toes touched solid earth, she heard a dull thunk and the sound of splitting wood that told her that the Master slept with a sword by his side, and was now using it on the wooden door. She probably had seconds before the door gave.
Scooping up the bags at her feet, she gave a dull gasp at their weight before throwing them over her shoulder and sprinting for the side gate. On the other side, her horse neighed at her skittering arrival. Calming it quickly, she tossed the two bags on top of her other gear, hopped into the saddle, and took off at a fast canter.
It was only after she was several miles away and day had fully broken that she allowed herself to stop and the horse to take a break. Lowering the reins, she allowed herself one deep moment of realization. She had done it. She had escaped the Desert Wall training school, and she had done it with her hide intact.
Throwing back her head, she let out a panther’s scream that set the horse’s skin to trembling beneath her. Laughing, she stroked the elegant neck gently, before turning to see what her last thieving act had brought. Opening the first of the two heavy sacks, she was rewarded with the dull click of thousands silver coins clicking together. Heart pounding with excitement, she opened the second bad to the satisfying gleam of gold. She laughed again, and this time her expression was mixed with tears. She had enough here to get by for years, more if she was careful.
Retying the sacks and securing them safely under her other possessions, she clucked to her horse and they set off at a steady trot. Felonca looked ahead to the clear sky and long road, ears pricked forward and eyes laughing. Who knew what tomorrow would bring!
