[Story] Tales of the Risen (11/25/10) -- Chapter 12, one-shot: Of The Heart

[Gabi]

Interesting chapter. Aisha's wild temper is once more evident. I liked the description of Antoine Menda, and I enjoyed reading the dialogue (also, thanks for teaching me about boars and sows). It's also good to read about an adventurer walking into a city without immediately meeting trouble at the gate, since the opposite has become a bit too common for my comfort. (Of course I do believe trouble will occur at some point, because otherwise I doubt you'd be dedicating 2+ chapters to this mission; it's just trouble upon entering a city/town that I've seen overdone lately).

[Aisha deCabre]

Heh, it's been a while since I posted in this thread.

I'm still hoping to finish this next little story, but other than having my art muse dominate my creativity, I've had many ideas on how to edit and simplify it to what I had in mind in the first place.    But in the meantime, I thought I'd put up a new poll. Just gathering ideas for a possible future project.  Something that I'd take my time on and not try to rush myself.

So please, lemme know what you think. ^^

[Aisha deCabre]

((And now, a new one-shot chapter.  The idea for this one came from Sofox at AC, and I liked it enough to try it, if only to get back into the groove of writing.  Hope it comes at least close to your suggestions, Sofox! Also, as a funny note, the housecat character is based off an actual cat that likes to hang around me on our porch. x3 ))

Tales of the Risen: Another Day

   It was just another quiet afternoon in the grassy foothills of the mountains that bordered the valley called the Shadowed Depths.  They weren't really mountains, more like very large hills.  Grass grew on them from head to toe, in waves of brilliant emerald.  It was spring; early spring, really.  Living things were waking up, but a lingering chill in the air reminded them of the cold days long past and still fighting for their rights to the climate.  The snow had melted days ago.  Only when the sun hit a certain point in the sky would it be comfortably warm.  It was the kind of spring day that brought with it hope.

   Along the foothills, there lay small towns and trade posts.  The Shadowed Depths were always so far out of the way that you could never expect a big city to dwell anywhere nearby.  But to those that made their homes in that area, the little towns were familiar home-like places.

   In one small trade-post town on the Western side of the hills, people of all sizes and species wandered along with their various chores and daily goals.  All were Beings, or at least looked so to the eye.  Some caught the eyes of the locals more than others.  One figure clad in a crimson red traveling cloak invited some wary stares.  Something in their gait, and in their face hidden by the cloak's shadow, and in the gleam of metal rustling on their waist, warranted at least those in the way to skitter out of the path.

   Adventurers sometimes made even average Beings nervous.

   Regardless, the figure paid no heed to the onlookers and made its way to a familiar sight: the town's small restaurant and bar.

   Inside, it was like many other small and dark places for people to stop and drink.  It had a dreary and depressing atmosphere most times, but that was the theme.  Rustic wood was the dominant material in the architecture, though the bar and tables were more smoothed out and polished.  Heads of hideous feral beasts stuck out of the walls like trophies.  Among the patrons there were more travelers than locals, more lonely adults than couples or families.  The barkeeper, a golden-retriever canine who was getting a little gray in the muzzle, whistled to the tune of the piano music in the background as he wiped the vomit of the last poor drunkard off the surface.  Hopefully, he wouldn't have to have anyone else chased out for the rest of the day.

   The door suddenly blew open harshly, though the wind wasn't the force behind its movement.  That belonged to a hand as black as night and smooth, yet strong.

   A few patrons looked up from their drinks to blink at the spectacle entering.  The crimson-clad figure lowered its hand and, after a pause, strolled through the center and around tables to the bar with confidence.  Female and feline, it was guessed by the graceful quality of her stride and sinewy gait.  Her tail, snake-like and curled at the tip, swished from behind to reveal a deep green ring encircling.  Her clothes were dark under the cape's protection, deep blue and long-sleeved to hide whatever weapons she more than likely possessed.  She wore little in the way of armor, except for black leather pads on her shoulders, knees, and elbows.

   She sent a few shivers down the backs of some of the patrons.  She had the air of an assassin; dark, confident, dangerous.

   Unlike the patrons, however, the bartender let a slight smile color his face.  He waved.  "Well, if it ain't the Risen," he chuckled.

   A few of the regulars smiled in recognition of the title and went back to their drinks.  The Risen, as Aisha was known, was indeed as dangerous as her aura suggested.  But she often visited that bar before leaving home on an adventure or coming back from one.  Around her, they knew innocents were safe.  She was one of the protective adventurers that the town was proud to have called a half-home, and she was equally as happy to travel within familiar territory.

   The Risen grinned beneath her cloak and drew back the hood with one hand, revealing her face.  Rimmed with raven hair drawn back into a braid and a few locks of silver along the fringes of her ears, her face was young and still contained some of the fairness of her age, roundabout mid-twenties.  But around her bright crimson eyes and outward, one could also trace the hardness of years of a career in blood and death.  Her expression was perpetually foreboding, even when she smiled with the very tips of her fangs showing through her maw.

   "Hola, Alphonse," the black jaguar returned the greeting in her deep and accented voice with a nod of her head and sat down.  Her cape flared as she did, showing the sword at her hip and the silver bladed boomerang strapped next to it.  "The usual, please."

   The canine laughed and grabbed a mug to empty a portion of the strawberry-tinted ale barrel into.  Only here could she have gotten such a flavor; it was his specialty.  "For cryin' out loud, girl, just call me Alfie.  Everyone else does.  You've been coming here how long now?"  He asked as he slid the full mug towards her.

   "Apologies," she grinned again while catching it.  "I still tend to be formal sometimes.  Must be about three years that I frequented here now."

   "Three years, and no troublemakers since then," Alphonse said with a snap of his fingers.  "We should make you the town's official stuff of brigands' nightmares."

   The panthress took a couple of gulps of her drink, savoring the taste on her rough tongue.  "Ha," she laughed after wiping her mouth.  "That would mean I'd have to stay here all my life to make sure it comes true.  You know me, señor.  Wanderer and loving it."

   "Yeh, I know," he smiled as he prepared another customer's drink.  "Enjoy your stay anyhow, dear lady."

   Aisha smiled and took another gulp.  That's what she loved about this place most of all.  Alphonse treated every regular like a family member, even the surely damned such as herself.  Surely damned, never mind that I call a monastery home, she liked to joke sometimes.

   This day was just another ordinary one on the road, to the bounty hunter.  Another peaceful traveling trip to the outskirts and beyond.  Another sunrise, another sunset...she loved quiet days like that.  One of her favorite drinks in the company of her favorite bar; how much better could it get?

   Then, as if fate were to answer her question, the door to the restaurant blew open again...not as harshly, this time around.  One of her ebony ears swiveled curiously towards the sound, followed by her gaze.

   There stood another newcomer.  He was an orange-and-white shorthaired tomcat, not very interesting-looking.  But the look on his face seemed urgent.  He glanced around with nervous gold eyes, and then called out.  "Excuse me; I have a message for someone."

   The panther turned around back to her half-finished drink, losing interest.  Surely, hopefully, whomever they were searching for was around somewhere.

   He spoke up again, and his voice rang out in the quiet and attentive crowd.  "Is there a Miss Aisha deCabre here?  I have a message for her."

   The panther stifled a sudden cough and slapped the mug back on the bar, a little too loudly.  Her head was down, but her teeth were bared.

   There shouldn't be a single individual past the mountains who knows my name.  And if there is, they don't travel so far up here.

   "DeCabre?" The messenger called again.  "Aisha deCabre?"

   There was a pause from the panther, before she obeyed her own sense of urgency and stood up from the bar.  A few of the patrons cast their stares back to her, out of both fear and a curiosity of what the huntress planned to do about the intrusion on her person.  She faced the tomcat with a neutral expression, but her red eyes blazed with intensity, and her hand was clutching the handle of her boomerang.  One flick would have sent the blade through the air and into the messenger's neck.  But she'd let him speak his peace first.  Who was he, to know her first name, and the last name that she modified from her birth surname?

   "I'm here," she replied, coming up to him.  He was about a head shorter than her.  "And you have thirty seconds to explain how you know me."

   "Don't hurt me!" the housecat nearly squeaked, holding his hands up.  "My name's Rusty, and I'm just a messenger for the guy that knows you.  He sends you a challenge."

   "Challenge?" Aisha echoed, slowly placing the weapon back on her belt and quirking an eyebrow.  "What kind?"

   The feline named Rusty gulped in slight relief.  "He's a demon...he prefers to not be named...but he's heard of you and your skills against the magic of Creatures and how you're bent on destroying his kind.  He wants to fight you, in the ghost town of Heaven's Bridge, just on the inside of the hills north of here.  If you can find him, that is."

   The panther's eyes narrowed.  She'd been to Heaven's Bridge before, when it was still a town, some years back.  It had been ravaged and left to rot not long after, presumably by a Creature that she was never able to find.  She wondered if perhaps this demon was that Creature.  Her tail twitched, signaling the otherwise frozen feline's thoughts on the matter.  Some of the patrons had already gone back to their drinks, but Alphonse was listening carefully.

   "What do you mean, 'if I can find him'?" she asked, finally.  "I've never lost track of my targets."

   The smaller cat relaxed a few more hairs.  "His words, not mine.  I was just sent with the message."

   Aisha snorted.  "Well...I can and will find this demon, alright, and his head will be mine when I do."  Her gaze returned to the orange-and-white tabby.  "Tell him that I will accept his challenge and will be there at sunset.  And he'd better not skip out, or else."

   "Will do," Rusty replied with a quick, polite bow and turned to run at full tilt out of the bar, into the sunlight.  The panther was left staring after him with a focused, laser-pointed gaze, and the patrons were left with quite a spectacle to think about.

   It was Alphonse who broke the silence.  "So, into another fight, Risen?"

   She turned back towards him and walked back to where her drink sat, appearing as calm as anything.  "It's not just a fight.  I'm starting to think that it's personal."  Her hand thoughtfully gripped the handle of the mug, tightening as she spoke.  Her voice was soft.  "I have taken great care to hide my full name.  That a demon would know it...it burns within my heart.  And scares the hell out of me."

   Alphonse nodded understandably.  He was one of the few Beings, other than everyone at Rynkura Msh'taan's monastery, who knew the Risen's full story of her crusade.  His gaze was one of concern.  "You think it might be one of them?"

   "I can only guess," she confirmed and took another gulp of her mug; a long one that finished it off.  She swallowed, and then looked as if to stare into space.  "I have no choice but to find out.  If it is, the very reason I exist is at stake."

   The canine sighed.  "I wish I could stop ya, but that'd be like stopping a running Colossus gryphon.  Just be careful...and good luck."

   With a resigned hum, the panther drew forth a few coins and paid for her drink.  "Gracias, Alfie."

   Silence encompassed the panther as she pulled the hood of her cloak back over her head, obscuring her features in shadow once more.  The patrons and Alphonse followed her out with their eyes, already trying and failing to accurately speculate the outcome of her fate.

*     *     *     *

   Before she left for the foothills, Aisha did everything she could to prepare for a fight against what she feared was a demon of the hated Beliaste clan.  Even a skilled Being needed to be resourceful in magic defense when facing a Creature.  Unlike many adventurers, the panthress guessed, she wasn't afraid to admit that she had the backup of superb enchantments.

   Her sword, the Dragonblade, reflected and deflected magic of every sort; it would be drawn as she walked.  Her boomerang was blessed with light; demons would feel the sting much worse than anything else would.  The dagger hidden in a sheath on her right ankle was laced with a sickening poison.  On her wrists, she slipped bracers of thick leather that hid smaller blades.  They could pop out of the outside of the wrists on command and send a formidable shock through a body; mostly for defense.  There was a whip wrapped around her waist, just above the belt, that could freeze a limb solid.

   And finally, for camouflage, the collar that secured her cloak enabled the fabric to change colors when activated.  Her traveling color was blood-red.  But as she tapped the gem on the front, the cloak became a mix of gray and pitch-black; a signal of her intention and perfect for blending with the shadows of an evening sunset.

   So, anyone seeing a crimson cloak walking into the village saw a cloak of darker intent rushing out towards the hills on fleet feline pads.

*     *     *     *

   
   The silence that cloaked the foothills was a comfort to the panthress, where to others it would instill fear of bandits hiding in the niches and behind the rocks.  Aisha had no fear of highwaymen; she'd fended groups of them off before.  Her thoughts were simply on the goal ahead.

   The Beliaste demons were an old-fashioned clan, or so Rynkura had told her.  Where most demons would have respected Beings that could best them in a fight, these kept selfishly to the "stronger must survive" adage.  The idea that a Being—a food source, to them—could fight one of their strongest to the death was shameful.  The Cabre family being a group of such Beings, they were targets of their ire.  And thus, the demons were the targets of Aisha's vengeance.  The reason she lived.

   They were also the reason that she kept her true name closely guarded.  If even a Creature or Being allied with the Beliaste demons were to find out that a Cabre still lived...

   The focused adventurer tried to keep her mind off of the possible outcomes of such a thing.  A demon that did know her name had challenged her, and was waiting somewhere ahead.  Her tail ring, enchanted to glow every time it sensed dark magic, would alert her of its presence.

   Aisha froze, and one ear swiveled back towards her right.  A rustling noise.

   The black jaguar's grip tightened on the handle of the Dragonblade.  Her eyes glanced in all directions.
   But the sound had stopped.  Silence once again.

   Either a feral creature or a bandit that had changed its mind, Aisha decided as to the cause, and kept moving.

   Grass had grown on what used to be a dirt path toward Heaven's Bridge, but she could still pick its winding trail from the rest of the plants and soil.  Her leg muscles told her that she was moving uphill, also.  The town, nestled at the zenith of one tall hill, hadn't gotten its name all too randomly.

   The rustling sound came again; much louder and more sudden this time.  Aisha swiveled on her hind paws, ready to confront whatever was sneaking up on her.

   Again, nothing.  Silence.

   The young bounty hunter clenched her teeth.  Was she being tricked?

   Only after a few moments did she find it safe to continue taking tentative steps forward.

   My head must be playing tricks on me, she thought, briefly clenching her eyes shut to the world.  Focus, chica.  There will be no fear.  There will be no anger.

   Soon, she saw the gate to the town and stopped at its rotting wooden threshold to admire the scenery.

   It was much like her home town, also in ruins, although these weren't burned.  The buildings were still standing, but some on very precarious foundations.  It had the same western-style touch as the trade town she had come from.  The people were run out by some Creature, probably not killed.  It was looted, damaged, and left to rot.  She still saw the metal pole in the center of the road with a tattered yellow flag, the ensign indiscernible among the rips and scratches.

   One of those things I could have prevented at one point, Aisha hummed, stepping across and into the town proper.  She wondered just where her adversary was hiding.

   Another noise.  This one sounded like scraping and scrabbling, from two directions at once.  She immediately ducked into the shadow of a building and drew her boomerang out with another hand.  Her sensitive ears tried to pick out the telltale signs of a living thing's movement among the crumbling of the ruins.

   All was silent for a moment, and then she heard the scrambling again.  This time from a building further down the road into the town.

   Aisha herself leaped from the ground and made her way to the roof of the building that she used as a hiding place.  Crate, barrel, pole, balcony, railing; her feet touched each in turn and used them to propel her upward.

   Crouching low on the roof, Aisha's cape turned its shade of brown with a touch on her collar and she replaced her hood.  A vantage point would make for a better idea of where the quick bastard was.

   Her crimson gaze scanned below and ahead for...something.  A sight, a shadow...any sign of movement.

   There!  A fleeting shadow in the alley, coming towards her position.

   If they were going to insist on catching her instead of confronting her directly, then hell take it, she'd catch them first.  She readied the bladed boomerang.  Her father had forged it especially for her, and Rynkura had enchanted it and given it a name meaning "Death From Above".  It was her prized possession.

   The shadow appeared again.  Her right arm propelled the weapon from her fingers.  It became a silvery flash...a deadly saw blade...its powers intent on disabling the fleeing demon.

   But the target was a little too quick.  The boomerang sliced deeply through the wood of another barrel before reversing and returning to its mistress's hand, the shadow untouched.

   Aisha cursed and tried to figure out which direction the beast had gone...but there was nothing.

   Silence again.  Hiding.  Mocking.

   Coward.

   Another muffled scrambling noise, and a flash of emerald on her tail, was her warning to the shot that was taken back at her.

   Aisha's eyes widened and she leaped away just in time to dodge a bolt of dark magic blowing a hole in the roof where she stood.  Wood splintered and pelted the huntress with debris.  The sound the explosion made was fast, but deafening and echoed in the open space below.

   With an irritated growl, Aisha peered into the hole.  She couldn't discern the figure staring up at her; it was covered in shadows and darkness, with horns and leathery wings protruding from its body.  Only its eyes glowed, a poisonous green as it stared up at its foe.

   She got a split-second look.  Then it broke the gaze and fled with the speed of a dart.

   Aisha turned and raced along the roof, leaping down and hoping to catch it before it escaped her.

   But as her feet hit the dust, she defiantly held her sword up and looked all around in a quick, wide circle.

   Nothing.  Again.

   It COULDN'T have vanished!  Aisha let loose a roar equivalent to that of a feral jaguar in annoyance.  "Get out here and face me, cowardly bastard!  I know you're here.  You issued the challenge, now live up to it if you have any honor!" she announced.

   Her voice echoed and accentuated off of several things in the town...but when it died, she was only met with more silence.

   Her breathing was shallow, her nerves more frayed.  Was this thing really faster than she was?  Did it mean to toy with her, until it would get bored and stab her in the back without a second thought?

   The shadow appeared again at the edge of her sight, and she immediately turned to follow it, blades ready.  She was behind the thing, watching as it ran, trying to match its speed and maneuverability.  If she could, then she could bring it down.

   Her quarry suddenly executed a sharp turn around the corner of another building.  Aisha in her quick thinking turned around the other corner and raced to cut it off.

   She braked on the dust.  Again, it had escaped.  She had never before faced anything so impossibly swift.  Even an enchantment with that kind of power would have run out of energy quickly by now.

   The shadow moved! It was behind her, claws diving straight for her.

   Aisha ducked, swiveled, and placed all the power she could in both arms to hopefully shove the Dragonblade in the aggressor's midsection.  But, he too had dodged, and leaped away.  At least the figure had been close enough for her to assign it a gender.

   "Sangre! (Blood!)" She hissed another shortened curse.  What the hell was this thing?

   The shadow came at her from the side again.  She swiveled on one foot and swung the sword, this time knowing that she would get it.

   But as she looked, expecting to be splattered with blood, she instead found herself and the blade clean.

   Her breathing turned shallow.  Her tail ring was glowing steadily.  She wasn't crazy...she knew something was close.

   So where the hell was it?

   As far as the silence went, it was just the black jaguar and the ghost town.  She wondered if perhaps the demon was casting an illusion spell, to distract her while he made the killing move.  She only knew one individual proficient at illusions; a dragon.  But she was with him long enough to at least sense what was real and what was not.

   Aisha closed her eyes and straightened her stance, searching with her ears instead.  Her hearing was extraordinary, when she could focus long enough.  Illusions fooled the eye, not the other senses; thus, they could look real, but they had neither a scent nor weight to their footsteps.  If it was an illusion, Aisha would find it.  And if it was just a super-fast Creature, she'd be ready.

   She put the Dragonblade in its sheath and the boomerang on the belt, and clenched her fists.  Her arms slowly came down, wrists resting behind her back.  Her ears scanned in all directions for a noise.  Come and get it, demon.

   Wind.  Blowing sand.  Creaking wood.

   Footfalls; approaching rapidly.  From the left and back.

   Gotcha.

   In a move that one had to blink to miss, Aisha swiveled on her waist, the right wrist coming forward and aiming a punch at the oncoming demon.  She swung at air, the blackened Creature having dodged again at the precise moment.

   But this time, the hidden paralyzing blade in the leather bracers struck flesh.  The tip sliced cleanly through fabric and into skin, crackling with high-voltage electricity magic.

   The Creature released a high-pitched howl to the air and faltered, tripping over on the ground and facing away from the adventurer.

   Aisha turned to glance at her attacker.  For all the world he did look like a conjured shadow, black everywhere, including the leathery wings.  The same eyes that stared at her from down through the broken rooftop also faced her glare with defiance as he clasped a clawed hand to his side.

   The species was still hard to identify.  But it didn't matter to Aisha.  He was a demon, no matter what else.  The blades retreated into their sheaths and the panthress took the ice-magic whip from her waist and her sword again in the other hand for defense.  He was still moving, and she was determined to freeze him in place to finish him off.

   "What's the matter, too scared to fight back now?" Aisha taunted with a sneer and cracked the air with the whip as she approached.  The demon-thing felt a blast of cold where it struck.

   He didn't answer the panther, but he did summon a few more blasts of dark magic bolts.  Nearly caught by the first, Aisha expertly dodged the oncoming blows and swung the whip towards the Creature.  He rolled away and swept up, his claws hitting the metal of the sword with an echoing clang...back and forth, the Creature dodged and parried, but Aisha kept coming.  Then, as soon as she had found an opening, Aisha swung the whip.  But it missed, for as soon as her arm came back, he had conjured a wall of smoke.

   By the time it dissipated, he had vanished.  But she could see something running in the distance, out of the old town and back towards the working trade post.

   Aisha's eyes widened.  "Oh no you don't..." she growled and took up the chase.  The feline felt responsible for that small town, as one of its frequent visiting adventurers.  She wouldn't dare let it fall like Heaven's Bridge did.

   She just had to get close enough to touch even one foot with the whip...

   The chase was long and exhausting.  The demon didn't even look like it was faltering, but three-quarters of the way back, Aisha was about to collapse.  Her lungs were on fire.  Her only hope was just one burst of speed...

   He was more focused on his goal of reaching the town to notice the feline coming up right behind him.  The whip whistled through the air, and with a toss of her arm, the very end wrapped tightly around the beast's ankle.

   It released a scream and tripped over, kicking up dust as it fell to its knees.  Its right ankle was weighed down, encased in a block of ice and stuck to the ground.  The same fate, of creeping frozen agony, instantly befell the other leg and one hand.

   Aisha replaced the whip, doubling over in exhaustion and holding her aching sides.  But she couldn't help but release a triumphant cackle, eyes narrowing dangerously at the fallen beast as the dust cleared.  They were within a few hundred feet of the town's gate.  She had gotten there, just in time.

   "Finally," she breathed and brandished her sword.  "Finally, you bastard, you're mine.  I've answered your challenge, and I'm going to win this fight."  Her voice became cold, and dark, despite the smoothness of her accent.  "You thought you could challenge the Risen.  Taunt me with my own name."

   She stood next to her quarry, twirling the hilt of the Dragonblade in her fingers.  "I'll make your death quick and merciful, if you tell me who you are and how you knew who I was.  Well?"  The panther held the sword's tip in his face.  "What have you got to say?"

   The black Creature looked up at her, with neutrality in its eyes.  It looked like it was almost laughing.  "All I can say is..." it started with a deep voice.

   Then, in a much lighter, more feminine voice, it finished, "Surprise!"

   Aisha was taken aback.  She froze, and her face twisted in confusion.  "...What?"

   "SURPRISE!"

   The shout came from the many voices of a crowd.  Looking up, Aisha beheld at the entrance of the town a giant gathering of familiar faces.  They stood under a banner that read, "Happy Birthday!"

   Many people from the town...many of the friends she made during her travels...even Icharus Stormclaw, the dragon, stood among the crowd.  Her closest friends from the monastery were there.  Seren, Jake...even Mistress Rynkura, the white tigress sporting a bright and amused look on her face as she saw the bewildered look from her student.  Alphonse, the bartender, stood with the fake messenger feline and waved from where they stood.

   Aisha glanced down again, and her jaw dropped.  The demon she had caught was a shape-shifted Cheyenne, the thylacine succubus, now herself again and giving her a smug grin.

   The panther's sword clattered to the ground, and she kept staring agape at the spectacle.  For a few long minutes she stayed like that.  "What...?" She uttered in a truly surprised state.

   "We all wanted to do something special on your birthday, and we knew you'd be here," Chey said by way of explanation as she melted the ice off her limbs.  "So the Mistress collaborated with Alphonse and summoned everyone you knew that we could find.  I came up with the idea of baiting you while we got ready," she grinned again.

   "I do apologize for the deception, but I think it was necessary," Rynkura smiled as she walked up and put a hand to Aisha's shoulder.  "You always treat this day as just another to live through.  And you should not.  At least take today to acknowledge how many friends you have here."  Her hand swept over the crowd.  "And have some fun.  We put together a party for you here in town."

   Aisha was dumbstruck, and felt played for a fool...the whole thing was a farce.  But then, she couldn't find it in herself to get angry...as she slowly came to the realization that it was a celebration.  For her.

   It was true; ever since she turned fifteen and started her training, the panthress seemed to mentally bypass all of her birthdays.  So focused on her fate, so ignorant of much else having to do with happiness...it had become just another day.

   She'd promised herself though that she wouldn't forget how many friends want her to be happy.  And yet...today, again, she almost broke that promise.

   The panthress took a deep breath and let it out again slowly, cracking a small smile and trying not to let tears well up in her eyes.  More from embarrassment than happiness, but the latter emotion was creeping in just the same.

   "Thanks, Mistress...everyone...thanks." She muttered.  After apologizing to Cheyenne for the harsh treatment, she went on to try to enjoy a party.

   She wasn't sure that she could keep remembering her future birthdays.  But it was today she wanted to live.  Not just another day.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Awesome Story Aisha


Good to see an adventure story that is different!

[VAE]

Bwhahahaha

This was awesome... such an incredibly silly plan that could have backfired at 50+1 places.... i love it!
I guess the succubus had an advantage of hearing her thoughts

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

*snerk* nicely done, Aisha. Loved shadow hunting.

There is a minor point just before she closes her eyes, where she opens them. I suspect you've re-ordered the sequence there, and it slipped through...

[Gabi]

Nice story. The beginning was a bit slow, but once Aisha started talking to Alphonse if was finely paced. And the ending was good. I expected it to be some sort of trick because of the title, but Aisha's emotions were well described and that helped me focus on what she was going through. It was also nice to see everyone gathered to celebrate her birthday. I don't know why she apologized to Chey, though. She had it coming. Because of her, Aisha was out of breath before the party began.

[Sofox]

Hah, that was a great story Aisha, I enjoyed it.
I'm really happy that you liked my idea enough to make a story out of it. I love your interpretation of it and I love how the key part of the idea comes across just as I imagined it. Poor Aisha deCabre, she deserves to take it easy every now and then...
So thank you for taking my idea and giving us a good story from it.
Also I'm sorry I only read it just now, I hadn't been checking out the Tower of Art much recently so by some stupid mistake on my behalf I completely missed this story when you first posted it.


Edit:
  For those watching, Sofox asked nicely before posting this, and, on considering the circumstances, I allowed him a one-off, special Get Out Of Jail Free card.
    -- llearch

[Aisha deCabre]

Hah, that was a great story Aisha, I enjoyed it.
I'm really happy that you liked my idea enough to make a story out of it. I love your interpretation of it and I love how the key part of the idea comes across just as I imagined it. Poor Aisha deCabre, she deserves to take it easy every now and then...
So thank you for taking my idea and giving us a good story from it.
Also I'm sorry I only read it just now, I hadn't been checking out the Tower of Art much recently so by some stupid mistake on my behalf I completely missed this story when you first posted it.


Edit:
  For those watching, Sofox asked nicely before posting this, and, on considering the circumstances, I allowed him a one-off, special Get Out Of Jail Free card.
    -- llearch

Heh, I had begun to think that you hadn't seen it. x3  Yeah, it was a good and funny idea, and glad you like it, too!

As for the rest of ya, a belated thanks for the compliments. ^^;  My muse has been hiding from me lately, but I at least hope I can finish the current multi-chapter story. >.>

[Aisha deCabre]

((Whoa, another update? o.o  Yep. x3 My writing muse has come back to me, and I've had a couple ideas, so here's one of my more recent.  Just another little short, 4-page drabble-fic.

Even though several of you know that Aisha's future canon does have a romance with a certain someone involved in it, I still want to show some of her emotional development throughout her story, and how her mindset won't just change all of a sudden in that sense...and thus show her thoughts on the topic of love before it was presented to her.  Back then and even still now, she still harbors that same fear.  But what better ways to let fear out than another talk with Rynkura?

So, enjoy. x3))

Tales of the Risen: Of the Heart

   Rynkura Msh'taan hummed contentedly as she walked out of the front doors of the monastery and into the warmth of the sun peeking through the otherwise plentiful clouds.  Her staff clicked on the stone steps beside the white tigress's bare paws, and the wind picked up with the scents of blooming flowers being carried along with it to rustle unstopped over her robes.

   It was spring in the Shadowed Depths.  As enveloped in mystery and turmoil as that dark spot on the map was, the season of rebirth would always cloak it in peace.  Even the spiritual warmth of the monastery grounds seemed enhanced by this wind...the lulling scents, the feeling of growth...the headmistress never tired of these poetic changes in seasons.

   She walked further on across the plush grass, passing a few discarded stones and wrecked masonry that marked the borders once dominated by a castle.  A fortress whose purpose was lost to history.  Moss grew over those once-carved stones, a reminder of nature's slow but relentless march to keep the world changing.  The imposing feline paused neither for reverence nor for pondering it.  Change was a reality that if pondered over for too long would be feared.

   Rynkura did pause upon catching sight of someone a fair distance in front of her, in the field though.  On the edge one of the ruins that stood higher than the rest, a good five feet above her head, another feline lay sprawled on her back and took advantage of the fact that the flat top of the wall was thick enough to hold her body's width with space to spare.  A snaking, black tail tip hung motionless under one curved-up white-sleeved leg, and the other such leg hung free on the unsighted side of the wall.  The edge of her clothes followed suit, as they composed of the comfortable tunic-like style and soothing white-and-blue colors of the Healers instead of the normal attire she wore in her profession.

   Aisha the Risen, last of the Cabre family of adventurers.  Normally a stoic and rigid bounty hunter, she was at that moment more like another one of the tiger's students; save for the fact that she truly was, and her most important one at that.  The black jaguar's long, braided raven hair followed the direction of her arm as it also hung over the side, and her blood-red eyes were open and frozen to the sky...lost in thought, half-lidded, zoned out of reality.

   Rynkura smiled to herself.  At twenty years of age, Aisha had the reminiscent qualities of a cub at times.  The bold-striped alabaster tigress walked closer, a rumbling chuckle alerting the ebon-clad youngster of her presence.  "You've finished your drills already, child?"

   Aisha quirked an ear down towards her, but hadn't moved otherwise.  "Yep, all of them," she confirmed with a sleepy hum to go along with her smooth outer-continental accent.  "Even Master Episticus's training went by quickly.  So, now I just wanted to find a quiet place to rest."

   Rynkura tilted her head and leaned her back against the wall.  "Ah, napping, then.  The warmth of the day has gotten you already."

   The corner of Aisha's lip quirked.  "Cat-napping, as they say."  She leaned up and cast her gaze down to her mentor.  "You're a feline, señora, don't you ever feel the need to fall asleep in the sun?"

   "I have learned long ago to focus that base instinct into meditation.  It is good for introspection and focus," Rynkura pointed out.  "And to properly direct your energy for when sleep is truly needed.  You should perhaps try it, sometime, what with all of the hours you spend napping."

   Aisha feigned a posture of deep thought, before falling over on her back on the wall again.  "Nah.  I like my naps.  Always have, always will."

   The tiger standing below the jaguar simply let out a long sigh through her nostrils.  Rynkura allowed her mind to wander for a few moments more in silence before she turned her emerald eyes up to the still form of her student again.  "Your use of the words 'always will' has brought to mind a question I have wondered of you, Aisha.  Do you ever give much thought into your future?"

   Aisha's brow furrowed slightly.  "How do you mean?"

   "Well..." Rynkura drew.  "Like when you start to grow old.  A life past the days of your prime.  Past your adventuring and questing."

   The panther grimaced and half-shrugged.  "I don't give much thought into the future, no.  I can't see anything beyond what I've vowed."  Her eyes squinted shut.  "I'll go into battle to face my father's killer, and any demon I come across with his mindset.  And I don't see myself surviving.  There's no point in thinking of what might not come to pass."

   The words burned Rynkura's heart slightly, but her calm composure didn't falter an inch.  "You are quite focused for your youth, and you are more prepared for the possible fate of your profession than most adventurers want to admit," the tiger observed.  "But why do you only see that?  Surely you don't think of purposely embracing death."

   "Suicide?" Aisha translated with a snort.  "No.  I'm just saying I want to live life here and now, and not think about the future.  If I live past my battle...if...only then I'll cross that bridge."

   The tiger nodded.  "I can respect that, then.  One cannot fathom the bridge and thus crossing it until they see it," she quoted with a smile.

   "The only ones who can are those that build it," Aisha quoted back with a smug grin.  "See?  I'm not completely asleep."

   "So you are not," Rynkura agreed with a chuckle, which turned into a thoughtful hum.  "But in your potential future, what do you see?  Perhaps a family of your own?"

   Aisha's eyebrow quirked and she turned to look down toward the Mistress again.  "What, is it because you want grand-godchildren to spoil?" she mocked.  Her voice had humor in it, but her eyes had just a hint of venom in apprehension of the question.

   Still, Rynkura hadn't lost the serious feel within her own gaze.  "I only want to see you happy, my child.  You are twenty years of age, now, and time destroys as slowly as it creates.  You have not even thought of the possibility of such a future?  And surely, the Cabre line will end with you either way if you have not."

   "You're the third person to ask me something along those lines, Mistress Rynkura," the panther growled and snorted dismissively.  "Here's what I told everyone else: I haven't much in the line of time for such thoughts.  Plain and simple.  Besides, you were an adventurer once, so you know the kind of men I meet on my travels.  Drunkards, or high on their own pride, out for 'conquests'...they'd say whatever a girl wanted them to say for however long it'd take, to use them.  And then they get bored and leave them for the next.  There is no family potential there.  The world is run on lust, not love; there's a line between them, and everyone who asks me that is only thinking of the former.  Really...who wants to be a conquest, to a man whose 'I love you' has nothing behind it?"  She waved her hand in the air as if swatting a fly.  "There's no point."

   Rynkura listened to her rant, partially in agreement with her, but she couldn't help but catch something...off, in Aisha's words.  Beyond the anger, she sensed a small amount of pain.  And not in frustration, either...but just true pain.

   "So it would seem there is not," Rynkura softly admonished.  "But, don't be proud.  Tell me really why you are so against such a future.  You know very well that all men of wandering aren't that way.  Your father certainly wasn't, once he found your mother."

   There was a heavy pause.  The wind whistled past without stopping, heedless of the emotional obstacles in the thoughts of the felines.

   Aisha let out a long sigh.  "Do you want the truth?"

   Rynkura nodded.  "And nothing more."

   The panthress clenched her teeth to bite back the bad taste on her tongue from the earlier rant and rethink her words.  Unlike the others, the tiger would not be affected by a burst of her temper.  And neither would it make her relent.  So she tried to dig for the side of her that could reason.  And she knew at least that Rynkura would be silent and listen to her...instead of interrupting and providing their own reasoning, like the others so often did.

   Another pause before she began.  "The thought has crossed my mind, in little bits.  But not in the way that I'm sure you want it to.  I do like children, to be sure; but I can't see myself having any.  I can't see myself...falling in love, being at one with anyone other than myself, and having to protect anyone else.  I can't.  You know why?"

   The expression in her eyes turned soft.  "Because it's impossible to try.  Other girls and women read those stupid love stories and tales of a perfect reality, and dream about that kind of life and future.  I've tried, but I just can't.  My mind goes blank when I do.  And the more I try, the more impossible it becomes.  Just that simple.  I can't.  And I think I know why, too."

   She turned around again and her gaze found the clouds...entities of the heavens that she knew weren't judgmental.  The panther breathed evenly.  "Because I know the world is not simple.  Jake, Episticus, Chey, everyone...they tell me, 'you aren't getting any younger.  Find someone, be happy!'  To them, it sounds like a simple little thing to do.  But I've seen the world and what it's done to me.  Throughout my life, my real family was taken from me.  One by one, not all at once but between several passing years, everyone I loved...one wound heals and another one takes its place."

   Silence from the tiger, but her presence lingered.  Aisha wouldn't turn to look at her, but continued still.  Her voice was level and no longer full of apprehension, but just a tone to seek understanding.

   "So I decided, maybe I'm destined to just not have that kind of happiness.  Or if I am, I'd have to protect it.  My profession and my very existence is a danger to anyone I get remotely close to.  It's a death sentence.  I wouldn't give what I went through to anyone.  So I just don't want to try.  No child of mine, no husband..." she shook her head.  "Maybe it will be better.  There's been a time that I thought of such happiness.  Maybe wished for it.  But I see nothing at the far end but myself alone."

   Rynkura's head lifted, brows lifting in understanding.  "So, you cannot think about it, because you refuse to lose anyone else that you could love."

   Aisha's silence confirmed her reasoning.  The wind continued its relentless, but soothing, whistle through the trees and ruined parapets.

   The tigress smiled lightly.  "I know that all too well, child.  Did you know that I was married once, in my years as a paladin?"

   The hunter's eyebrows quirked and she glanced back again.  "What?  Really?"

   "Did you think that this ring was for decoration?" Rynkura chuckled, showing an entwining gold and silver band on her left center digit.  "Yes, even in over 900 years of life I can still remember everything.  He was a fellow paladin; a Being, and a warrior of noble renown.  Where he went, I went...where he fought, I healed him, and where I fought, he protected me.  It was as if our spirits were together even in a life past; balanced.  Through the worst times, the worst fights, I never regretted bringing us together into it, and neither did he."  The tiger's eyes closed.  "He knew that I myself was unable to have children, and accepted it.  Married me even though I could give him nothing more than my returning devotion.  Even though he knew what I was."  She laughed.  "Sometimes love prevails over mere lust and instinct."

   The tigress opened her emerald eyes again, looking into the fiery red of her student's.  "He died of old age while I went on living.  But I'd never forgotten him, and I never would for years and for others after."

   As Aisha processed the information, Rynkura smiled once more.  "It is your ultimate decision as to your happiness, my pupil, and what anyone else throws at you to the contrary are mere words.  Maybe it even would be best if you had nobody to protect when you face your fate.  But...I do urge you to at least ask yourself about afterward.  If you survive...and you place a footstep on that bridge...what will you consider then?"

   The jaguaress turned her gaze away, pensive, closing her eyes as she leaned back against the wall and let her limbs dangle over the smooth marble.  "I'll consider it only if I do see that bridge.  The future has no certainty; maybe I can't guarantee whether a family is impossible.  Considering the kind of woman I am...none that a man would first think of as a wife...I doubt that love will find me."

   "And if, by fate, it does?" Rynkura softly pressed.

   Aisha's eyes opened to the sky, noting that the clouds had grown in frequency and moved a bit faster.  The wind picked up, bringing with it the scents of ozone.  A storm would be coming later that evening.  Her eyes scanned the wide expanse of the heavens...and she had a strange urge to keep looking for even a shred of blue in the bright mass of white.

   "If it does...then it does," she replied, with no other explanation needed.

   Rynkura felt no need to press further.  Giving her student one more passing smile, the headmistress turned and started back for the expansive doors of the monastery cathedral.

   Aisha was left to zone again, her mind free to wander in her time alone.  Little would she ever realize that, someday, the bridge might very well be closer in sight than she thought.