Finally My first Monster Rancher Fic. One of my first favorite animes. New
characters and monster breeds. Don't yell. I think you may like this a lot.
PLEASE READ THIS!
Anyway on to the important things at hand. This story WILL contain YURI… eventually. Don't like it? To bad, go home and cry wussy boy! Also this story is for Holly fans, what with me being a big one myself and all. New character is introduced like always with most of my stories.
My disclaimer: I DON"T OWN IT! CAN"T YOU LEAVE ME TO WEEP IN SOLITUDE!?
POWERS- by Yuri_Writer
The sun rises slowly over the small and well-guarded valley, streaming light into each of the huts through the windows. There is a very small hut isolated from the village that sits near the woods on the edge of town. The sun does not shine into this hut, for this hut has but one window that is near the door on the opposite side. Nearby a small river runs through the woods, providing the village with fresh water and a way to bathe. Currently there are two small girls washing for breakfast at an isolated portion of the stream.
The girls seem to be around four years old or so and are rather tall for their age. The tallest of the two girls has short shoulder length navy blue hair, and eyes of emerald green. The other girl also has shoulder length hair a deep auburn, and her eyes are a light chocolate color. Having discarded their clothing already they jump into the icy water and clean themselves well.
Once they are done bathing they tie their hair into loose ponytails with colored ribbon and dress. Their outfits are almost identical in appearance. A white short-sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of black pants, which are tied with a colored sash. Black shoes complete their outfit. The only difference in their clothing is the colors of their sashes. The girl with blue hair has a red sash while the girl with brown hair has a white one.
Gathering their belongings they head back to the village via a narrow path through the woods. Running along the path at top speed they quickly reach their intended destination, the small hut at the edge of the woods. Inside the hut is a small fire that serves the dual purpose of keeping the hut warm and cooking food over it. Currently a golden colored Hare was tending to breakfast over the fire. Bowing to the Hare before moving through the hut, they head to the back room at the left. This is their shared bedroom.
Now for those of you who haven't ever heard of a golden colored hare before, that is easily explained. Simply put this hare is a rare sub-breed of monster, derived by combining a Hare, a Tiger, a Pixie, and any breed of Phoenix. Needless to say they are a hard breed to come by. This hare is a Fighting Hare, a monster that specializes in hand to hand combat interspersed with long-range attacks.
Soon after entering their room and cleaning it up, the two girls came out and began to set the small table for breakfast. Their eggs and potatoes were practically inhaled much to the amusement of Fighting Hare, who was one to appreciate physical comedy. All to soon the food was gone and it was time to train.
It was later than normal for the trio to be getting up. Under normal circumstances they would have been up for several hours already. Today was a day to take it easy for it was the village elections today. Normally the two girls were made to train hard every day, and were not even allowed to speak with the other children, let alone play with them. On special days like today however they could go play after morning workouts.
Each of the three tied a bale of hay to their backs and set off in a dead run around the valley. They would have to circle the entire valley at least five times on a normal day. Today they only had to circle it twice, which is still fairly far; it is almost ten miles to circle the valley once. After their short run they would go swimming in the large lake that was fed by the river, for an hour. After their daily lesson they would be allowed to go play. Both girls realized this was only about half their normal routine and soon even that would increase.
The sun was high in the sky by the time they were allowed to go have fun. Sore and tired they ran on rubbery legs to the village square looking for the other children. Not spotting anyone to play with they decided to look elsewhere. They immediately ruled out several places because they themselves had been there only a little while ago. That left two places for the others to be, the woods and the river. They checked the river first.
As they approached, a tiger that had been lounging on the bank spotted them. It growled softly until it realized they were just children and then went back to lounging like before. The Tigers actions however, did not go unnoticed by the other monsters and children; they had spotted the two girls at the edge of the woods. It was then that the two girls spoke to children their own age for the first time.
"H…Hello. I'm Holly." Spoke the brown haired girl getting a chorus of 'Hi' s from the others.
"I'm Niko." The blue haired girl spoke up more confidently than her companion. Again a chorus of greetings came from the others. "Can we play with you?"
The other children and monsters looked apprehensive but they eventually gave in and said ok. They spent the day playing games of Tag, and follow the leader. Water fights and staring contests were started on a random basis. Somewhere along the line both girls had managed to challenge the tiger to a staring contest, and had won much to the other's amusements.
All too soon the other children had to leave for their own huts to eat dinner. Not wanting to waste their freedom Holly and Niko remained at the river to swim and play. Several times they had ended up wrestling each other in the waist deep water for sport. Eventually they headed back to the village to wander around, soaked and happy.
As they walked slowly through the woods a loud crash came from nearby, catching their attention. It seemed to have come from about a mile or two back, and their curiosity getting the better of them they went to investigate. Within minutes they arrived at the origin of the crash.
Trees littered the ground around the small crater that seemed only slightly larger than a human. In the center lay an injured creature of red, it was a Pixie. Quickly Holly and Niko slid down next to the injured monster to see if it was alive. After seeing it was merely unconscious and in no threat of dying, they picked her up and carefully headed back to the village.
Once they reached the village it was clear they should treat the monsters wounds with the help of their master. Niko ran to their hut to take care of the monster while Holly searched for their master. Soon she was racing back to the hut with Fighting Hare in close pursuit. By the time they had reached there, Niko had already placed the pixie in one of the girl's beds.
Fighting Hare was surprised to see the monster but quickly and efficiently helped clean the Pixie's wounds. Soon both Niko and Holly had fallen asleep on the other bed still in their wet clothes, too worried to change. Fighting Hare would take care of the monster for a while longer before getting some rest herself.
It was early morning by the time the injured Pixie woke up from her fitful sleep. Fear gripped her tightly as she noted that she was in unfamiliar surroundings. As she sat up a wave of dizziness washed over her and she was forced to lie back down once again. The Pixie carefully turned her head side to side to look about the room, noticing the two sleeping girls nearby she relaxed a little bit. As she looked closer it seemed the two children were shivering from the cold in their sleep. She quickly guessed it was because of their wet clothing.
She focused on the sounds of the unfamiliar place and could hear faint movements from beyond the door, as well as the rhythmic breathing of the two children. She frowned slightly at the thought of these two girls having to sleep wet. Slowly their breathing became a little faster as they woke up like they always did.
As Niko and Holly woke, it was automatic to sit up and stretch before running to take a bath. They were halfway through sitting up when they realized they were both wet and cold. Holly was first to remember that they had a guest who was sleeping in her bed. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she nudged Niko to move so they could check on her.
As she looked towards her bed she saw the Pixie awake and looking at them. She smiled gently just before she tripped over Niko who had gone back to sleep. Cursing she jumped to her feet and nudged her friend hard all the while noticing that the Pixie was trying to contain her laughter.
Niko still did not wake after the first nudge so Holly tried again and again, finally she opted for the rude awakening. Hopping to the other side of the bed, Holly pushed her friend off with a mighty shove as she yelled 'NIKO'. This time she woke up just in time to hit the floor with a groan. By now the Pixie was laughing so hard she herself was almost falling out of bed.
Meanwhile Fighting Hare was chuckling to herself as she cooked some breakfast for everyone. She hoped that they would eventually remember to change into their pajamas while their clothes dried. Fighting Hare began to hum to herself even as the laughter calmed down a little more.
"Good Morning. It's nice to see you're awake. My name is Holly."
"… Mumble… Holly… revenge… mumble…" after a hard nudge Niko quickly remembered to introduce herself before she went back to mumbling threats about Holly. "I'm Niko."
Both girls stood up and bowed to the Pixie waiting for her name. Uncertainly she sat up as best she could. "I… I'm Pixie. How did I get here?"
"You can't remember? You crashed in the woods nearby and we brought you back here." Niko explained as she sat up and began rooting around for her pajamas.
"You did?"
"Yeah, it was the right thing to do. Hey how come you crashed?" Holly asked as she began stripping so she could change into something warm.
"I was running… from some bad people." Pixie explained quietly from her spot.
"Oh? Well your safe now. I'm sure the master will let you stay with us." Holly said as she began rooting for her own pajamas. Niko could visibly see a look of fear enter Pixie's eyes at the word Master. They both thought that Pixie couldn't be too much older than them selves.
"Yeah… She's really nice to us. Our Master takes care of us because we don't have any parents." Niko noticed that Pixie was relaxing a little bit more.
"You have a woman master?"
Holly and Niko were a little confused about the question but they answered nonetheless. "Yes. Her name's Fighting Hare. She teaches us to fight and stuff. Its fun but we don't get to play with others that often." Holly said.
Pixie let out a small sigh of relief. "Are you any good at it?"
"At fighting? You bet!" Niko said proudly.
"Yeah! But Master Fighting Hare is better. We've only been training for about a year, but soon we'll be learning more stuff." Holly and Niko got slightly dreamy expressions on their faces. Pixie watched them in fascination before she let out a small giggle.
"Huh? What's so funny?" Niko asked before she decided on a course of action. She quickly stuck out her hand and asked Pixie a simple question. "Wanna be friends with us?"
Pixie hesitated for only a few seconds before clasping the out stretched hand. "Why Not?"
"Great! Now that we're friends we can play after training." Holly was exited, and to punctuate her statement she was bouncing around the room half naked.
Just as she reached the door it opened, and sent the poor girl flying towards the empty bed. With a show of semi amazing skill Holly managed to turn herself in the air so that she bounced off the bed on her butt instead of her face. "That was mean!"
"Sorry Holly. But would you and Niko please take our guest down to the river so she can wash up, that is if she feels up to it." Fighting hare wore a grin that told both the girls that she was not genuinely sorry for hitting Holly with the door.
"Hai, master." Niko and Holly bowed to the hare before she left the room. They finished dressing into warmer clothes in a matter of moments.
"Pixie, do you want to come with us to wash up before breakfast? If you get tired or anything Holly or I can carry you part of the way." Niko asked the now standing monster.
"Yeah, I'll go with you to get clean, I smell pretty bad. Lead the way." Pixie wobbled slightly as she took a step forward, but quickly got her balance so she was steady again.
"Ok let's go!" Holly set off in the lead, after quickly placing her wet clothes by the fire to dry. Niko mimicked her actions and they ran out the door of the hut, leaving their shoes to dry as well.
As they washed at the secluded area of the river, Holly and Niko told Pixie all about their life with Fighting Hare. They explained about their training and why it was they lived with a monster as their parent.
"Master fighting Hare found me in the woods when I was a baby, she took me in and gave me the name Niko. She took Holly in after her mom and dad died when she was two. We've been living together ever since." Niko was explaining how they met.
"And training hard every day too. Master fighting Hare has been teaching us to fight so we can protect ourselves if we need to. Every morning we wake up at dawn and run around the valley at least five times, then we go swimming in the lake for a few hours." Holly said before she dunked herself under the water.
"It's really hard 'cause we hafta wear hay bales or carry rocks when we run. Also there's a really big, really mean fish in the lake that chases us while we swim. We're not supposed to get out until we swim across it ten times." Niko helped to elaborate on their endurance training.
Pixie was aghast at these methods of training and felt bad for the children. This feeling didn't last long as they continued to tell about their training and what each exercise was supposed to do for them. Apparently they loved training to fight, and they would train no matter how hard the technique, just to prove they could do it.
"After we finish our strength exercise's we learn how to actually fight. Only it's even harder 'cause we still hafta wear either a big bale of hay or a heavy rock on our backs. Master Fighting Hare says it will help us get stronger and faster if we wear heavy things that slow us down." Niko said as they began to dry off and get redressed.
"Uh huh, its 'cause since it slows us down we learn to go faster while wearin' it and then we can move really fast when we're not. Uh… I think." Holly continued with her explanations of the training they endured.
Eventually they made it back to the hut, and just in time for breakfast. Forgoing their normal routine of cleaning their room before they ate Holly and Niko set up the table in hopes they could eat sooner. It was a lost cause as they were forced to go clean their room anyways. They set a new land speed record of five minutes.
Breakfast consisted of toasted bread and eggs that morning. Holly and Niko practically inhaled their food as was normal for the two children. Fighting Hare was highly amused at the sight, like always. What was amazing however, was the fact that Pixie was able to eat faster than the two girls and not choke. Unlike what happened when Niko took this as a personal challenge and tried to eat even faster. Her face managed to turn a brilliant shade of blue.
After they had finished their meal Fighting Hare made the formal introductions to Pixie, and gave Niko a whack with her paw when she complained about formalities.
"So Pixie, exactly how did you end up crashing in the forest like that? I take it wasn't just an accident, judging by your wounds I would say you were attacked by something." Fighting Hare felt the need to get to the root of things quickly, and so at times she ends up being quite blunt.
"Um… yeah. I was running away from some bad people, but they caught up to me. I managed to get away after I got caught by a tiger, but I was really tired." Pixie was hesitant to explain much in front of her friends. Talking to fighting Hare alone might not be a bad idea.
"Holly, Niko, why don't you two go train?" Fighting Hare had realized Pixie's hesitation was caused by her charges. Niko began to protest while Holly simply groaned in defeat. "If you get done completely before dinner you can play with Pixie afterwards, if she feels up to it. But, if you keep complaining your load will be doubled, understand?"
With a strangled 'urk' both girls dashed out of the hut, barefoot as their shoes were still quite wet. Fighting Hare smiled at the sight and Pixie sort of frowned at her. This only set the rabbit to laughing outright. After several minutes she calmed down enough to hear the young monsters story.
"Oh man, how come we gotta train while we have a guest? It's not fair!" Niko was quite mad that she had to do her normal training regimen in half the time or it would be doubled. Also she was forced to do it barefoot.
"Oh hush! At least we have a chance to play afterwards if we get done quick enough. Hey, I know! Maybe Pixie will wanna train with us and that way it would be more fun!" Holly was being optimistic today, simply because that was the motto of the day. Tomorrows motto, out race all of life's problems.
"I can guess what today's motto is. Alright, if you wanna see it that way. Lets make this a race. First one back to the hut wins!"
"Ok! Start on three."
"1…2…3!" Both girls began to run faster with their loads trying to pull ahead of the other. It didn't bother them that they still had two laps around the valley left, and they had to swim and a host of other things to do as well.
Fighting Hare was seriously pissed off. After hearing Pixie's story she could understand why the young monster had run away from her trainer. The things she had gone through were terrible, and Fighting Hare knew that while she couldn't keep the Pixie from returning, even against her will, she could offer her a place to stay.
And so it was that Pixie became a member of the small ragtag family, at least temporarily. Fighting Hare explained the rules of the house to their guest before she asked her a rather important question.
"Would you like to train with the others, since you are in a way their sister? You don't have to, but it would be awfully lonely here in the hut all day by yourself."
"Hmmm… sure. It couldn't hurt to learn to protect myself." Pixie mused as she helped her host prepare dinner. So deep in her thoughts was she, that she was quite startled by the shouts from outside.
"I WIN!"
"CHEATER!"
"It looks like they made it here with plenty of time to spare. Pixie why don't you go on out and play with them, I'll call you in for dinner. Go on now!" Fighting Hare shooed the young Pixie out the door.
"Thank you!"
"No problem. Now go play!" and with that the young monster ran outside to join her companions, who were quietly collapsed on the ground about ten feet from the door. "Children…"
Days passed quickly as the three young friends and their master continued to train hard everyday. Pixie was never forced to carry a burden as they trained unless she wanted to. That had been part of the deal they had made. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months.
Several months had passed since Pixie had crash landed in the woods, and been found by Holly and Niko. It was a normal training day for them as they ran around the valley. During their fourth lap a group of strangers came out of the woods directly in front of them.
Niko, who was in the lead quickly tried to stop herself from running into any of the grown men. She barely succeeded in stopping only a foot away. However Holly and Pixie who were right behind her, did not have that kind of luck. All three of them fell over in a heap onto the nearest man.
"Little punks! Get off of me!"
"We're very sorry sir! You just appeared, and we were going too fast to stop!" Holly, Niko and Pixie were all bowing and apologizing profusely.
"Hey! Shinata, ain't that you're Pixie we came lookin' for?" One of the other men asked their fallen comrade as they spotted pixie.
This sentence caught the three friend's attentions, as well as the man they had been apologizing to. Holly and Niko simply looked from one another to Pixie and back again. Pixie for her part, was staring at the man in abject horror that showed clearly on her face. Shinata was also staring at Pixie, but with a much more feral look on his face.
He grunted in the affirmative as he quickly stood up. Pixie quickly ducked behind her friends, a motion they did not miss. "Again, we're sorry for running into you. Is there something we can help you with? Directions maybe?" Niko asked them politely as she was raised to do.
"This ain't any of your business little ones. Now if you don't mind I believe that Pixie belongs to me." Shinata spoke condescendingly to Niko even as he reached to grab Pixie's arm. She jerked away and hid further behind Holly.
"I don't think she wants to go with you, Mister." Holly said, forcing a polite tone to enter her voice.
"I don't give a damn what she wants! She is my monster! I raised her, and I want her back now!" Again he reached for pixie, snarling a little as he did so. His buddies watched with growing smirks on their faces.
Pixie whimpered in fear as her trainer's hand came to within an inch of touching her, only to be knocked away by someone else's. Niko had knocked his hand away from her with a simple blocking movement, much to the mans surprise.
"You little brat! Don't stand in my way, or I'll be forced to hurt ya!"
"It seems to me, that I now know why Pixie ran away from you. She may not have told me, but by the way you act I say it's because you beat her! She's not goin' anywhere, so if you wanna get in a fight, that's fine with me!" Niko took up a fighting stance, as did Holly.
The strangers seemed a little puzzled by these kids behavior. It didn't matter to Shinata, as he stepped closer to them. "Alright, you wanna rumble with the adults? Well then lets do it!" A smirk was firmly plastered to his face as he made to simply push Niko out of his way.
The strangers were all surprised that, not only had the kid not budged an inch, but she had managed to kick Shinata in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain. Several of the men were ready to help their friend when a female voice called out from a little way off.
"Niko! Holly! Pixie! I thought you were training? Hmm, what happened here?" Fighting Hare had realized that her wards were late in reaching their next destination and had decided to investigate.
"Master, these guys came and tried to take Pixie away by force!" Niko said motioning the guy on the ground. "I only hit him 'cause he tried to fight me."
"And I suppose you started the fight? Look, I'm sorry about this, but we can't stop them from taking her." Pixie stared at her friend and mentor in shock, Holly confusion, and Niko pure outrage.
"Why Not!? She's terrified of him! Just look at her!" Niko screamed, practically getting in the face of the golden Hare.
"He is her trainer, and she is bound to him because he unlocked her. If that hadn't been so we would be free to step in. I know you don't understand, but that is how it is supposed to be." Fighting Hare was very calm about this, much to the amusement of the men and the outrage of her pupils.
"WHY!?"
"Say goodbye to her, Niko, Holly. You will meet again one day. Once you have said goodbye finish your training and come back to the hut." With that she left giving a soft goodbye and an apology to the scared Pixie, hoping she would understand.
Anyway on to the important things at hand. This story WILL contain YURI… eventually. Don't like it? To bad, go home and cry wussy boy! Also this story is for Holly fans, what with me being a big one myself and all. New character is introduced like always with most of my stories.
My disclaimer: I DON"T OWN IT! CAN"T YOU LEAVE ME TO WEEP IN SOLITUDE!?
POWERS- by Yuri_Writer
The sun rises slowly over the small and well-guarded valley, streaming light into each of the huts through the windows. There is a very small hut isolated from the village that sits near the woods on the edge of town. The sun does not shine into this hut, for this hut has but one window that is near the door on the opposite side. Nearby a small river runs through the woods, providing the village with fresh water and a way to bathe. Currently there are two small girls washing for breakfast at an isolated portion of the stream.
The girls seem to be around four years old or so and are rather tall for their age. The tallest of the two girls has short shoulder length navy blue hair, and eyes of emerald green. The other girl also has shoulder length hair a deep auburn, and her eyes are a light chocolate color. Having discarded their clothing already they jump into the icy water and clean themselves well.
Once they are done bathing they tie their hair into loose ponytails with colored ribbon and dress. Their outfits are almost identical in appearance. A white short-sleeved shirt tucked into a pair of black pants, which are tied with a colored sash. Black shoes complete their outfit. The only difference in their clothing is the colors of their sashes. The girl with blue hair has a red sash while the girl with brown hair has a white one.
Gathering their belongings they head back to the village via a narrow path through the woods. Running along the path at top speed they quickly reach their intended destination, the small hut at the edge of the woods. Inside the hut is a small fire that serves the dual purpose of keeping the hut warm and cooking food over it. Currently a golden colored Hare was tending to breakfast over the fire. Bowing to the Hare before moving through the hut, they head to the back room at the left. This is their shared bedroom.
Now for those of you who haven't ever heard of a golden colored hare before, that is easily explained. Simply put this hare is a rare sub-breed of monster, derived by combining a Hare, a Tiger, a Pixie, and any breed of Phoenix. Needless to say they are a hard breed to come by. This hare is a Fighting Hare, a monster that specializes in hand to hand combat interspersed with long-range attacks.
Soon after entering their room and cleaning it up, the two girls came out and began to set the small table for breakfast. Their eggs and potatoes were practically inhaled much to the amusement of Fighting Hare, who was one to appreciate physical comedy. All to soon the food was gone and it was time to train.
It was later than normal for the trio to be getting up. Under normal circumstances they would have been up for several hours already. Today was a day to take it easy for it was the village elections today. Normally the two girls were made to train hard every day, and were not even allowed to speak with the other children, let alone play with them. On special days like today however they could go play after morning workouts.
Each of the three tied a bale of hay to their backs and set off in a dead run around the valley. They would have to circle the entire valley at least five times on a normal day. Today they only had to circle it twice, which is still fairly far; it is almost ten miles to circle the valley once. After their short run they would go swimming in the large lake that was fed by the river, for an hour. After their daily lesson they would be allowed to go play. Both girls realized this was only about half their normal routine and soon even that would increase.
The sun was high in the sky by the time they were allowed to go have fun. Sore and tired they ran on rubbery legs to the village square looking for the other children. Not spotting anyone to play with they decided to look elsewhere. They immediately ruled out several places because they themselves had been there only a little while ago. That left two places for the others to be, the woods and the river. They checked the river first.
As they approached, a tiger that had been lounging on the bank spotted them. It growled softly until it realized they were just children and then went back to lounging like before. The Tigers actions however, did not go unnoticed by the other monsters and children; they had spotted the two girls at the edge of the woods. It was then that the two girls spoke to children their own age for the first time.
"H…Hello. I'm Holly." Spoke the brown haired girl getting a chorus of 'Hi' s from the others.
"I'm Niko." The blue haired girl spoke up more confidently than her companion. Again a chorus of greetings came from the others. "Can we play with you?"
The other children and monsters looked apprehensive but they eventually gave in and said ok. They spent the day playing games of Tag, and follow the leader. Water fights and staring contests were started on a random basis. Somewhere along the line both girls had managed to challenge the tiger to a staring contest, and had won much to the other's amusements.
All too soon the other children had to leave for their own huts to eat dinner. Not wanting to waste their freedom Holly and Niko remained at the river to swim and play. Several times they had ended up wrestling each other in the waist deep water for sport. Eventually they headed back to the village to wander around, soaked and happy.
As they walked slowly through the woods a loud crash came from nearby, catching their attention. It seemed to have come from about a mile or two back, and their curiosity getting the better of them they went to investigate. Within minutes they arrived at the origin of the crash.
Trees littered the ground around the small crater that seemed only slightly larger than a human. In the center lay an injured creature of red, it was a Pixie. Quickly Holly and Niko slid down next to the injured monster to see if it was alive. After seeing it was merely unconscious and in no threat of dying, they picked her up and carefully headed back to the village.
Once they reached the village it was clear they should treat the monsters wounds with the help of their master. Niko ran to their hut to take care of the monster while Holly searched for their master. Soon she was racing back to the hut with Fighting Hare in close pursuit. By the time they had reached there, Niko had already placed the pixie in one of the girl's beds.
Fighting Hare was surprised to see the monster but quickly and efficiently helped clean the Pixie's wounds. Soon both Niko and Holly had fallen asleep on the other bed still in their wet clothes, too worried to change. Fighting Hare would take care of the monster for a while longer before getting some rest herself.
It was early morning by the time the injured Pixie woke up from her fitful sleep. Fear gripped her tightly as she noted that she was in unfamiliar surroundings. As she sat up a wave of dizziness washed over her and she was forced to lie back down once again. The Pixie carefully turned her head side to side to look about the room, noticing the two sleeping girls nearby she relaxed a little bit. As she looked closer it seemed the two children were shivering from the cold in their sleep. She quickly guessed it was because of their wet clothing.
She focused on the sounds of the unfamiliar place and could hear faint movements from beyond the door, as well as the rhythmic breathing of the two children. She frowned slightly at the thought of these two girls having to sleep wet. Slowly their breathing became a little faster as they woke up like they always did.
As Niko and Holly woke, it was automatic to sit up and stretch before running to take a bath. They were halfway through sitting up when they realized they were both wet and cold. Holly was first to remember that they had a guest who was sleeping in her bed. Wiping the sleep from her eyes she nudged Niko to move so they could check on her.
As she looked towards her bed she saw the Pixie awake and looking at them. She smiled gently just before she tripped over Niko who had gone back to sleep. Cursing she jumped to her feet and nudged her friend hard all the while noticing that the Pixie was trying to contain her laughter.
Niko still did not wake after the first nudge so Holly tried again and again, finally she opted for the rude awakening. Hopping to the other side of the bed, Holly pushed her friend off with a mighty shove as she yelled 'NIKO'. This time she woke up just in time to hit the floor with a groan. By now the Pixie was laughing so hard she herself was almost falling out of bed.
Meanwhile Fighting Hare was chuckling to herself as she cooked some breakfast for everyone. She hoped that they would eventually remember to change into their pajamas while their clothes dried. Fighting Hare began to hum to herself even as the laughter calmed down a little more.
"Good Morning. It's nice to see you're awake. My name is Holly."
"… Mumble… Holly… revenge… mumble…" after a hard nudge Niko quickly remembered to introduce herself before she went back to mumbling threats about Holly. "I'm Niko."
Both girls stood up and bowed to the Pixie waiting for her name. Uncertainly she sat up as best she could. "I… I'm Pixie. How did I get here?"
"You can't remember? You crashed in the woods nearby and we brought you back here." Niko explained as she sat up and began rooting around for her pajamas.
"You did?"
"Yeah, it was the right thing to do. Hey how come you crashed?" Holly asked as she began stripping so she could change into something warm.
"I was running… from some bad people." Pixie explained quietly from her spot.
"Oh? Well your safe now. I'm sure the master will let you stay with us." Holly said as she began rooting for her own pajamas. Niko could visibly see a look of fear enter Pixie's eyes at the word Master. They both thought that Pixie couldn't be too much older than them selves.
"Yeah… She's really nice to us. Our Master takes care of us because we don't have any parents." Niko noticed that Pixie was relaxing a little bit more.
"You have a woman master?"
Holly and Niko were a little confused about the question but they answered nonetheless. "Yes. Her name's Fighting Hare. She teaches us to fight and stuff. Its fun but we don't get to play with others that often." Holly said.
Pixie let out a small sigh of relief. "Are you any good at it?"
"At fighting? You bet!" Niko said proudly.
"Yeah! But Master Fighting Hare is better. We've only been training for about a year, but soon we'll be learning more stuff." Holly and Niko got slightly dreamy expressions on their faces. Pixie watched them in fascination before she let out a small giggle.
"Huh? What's so funny?" Niko asked before she decided on a course of action. She quickly stuck out her hand and asked Pixie a simple question. "Wanna be friends with us?"
Pixie hesitated for only a few seconds before clasping the out stretched hand. "Why Not?"
"Great! Now that we're friends we can play after training." Holly was exited, and to punctuate her statement she was bouncing around the room half naked.
Just as she reached the door it opened, and sent the poor girl flying towards the empty bed. With a show of semi amazing skill Holly managed to turn herself in the air so that she bounced off the bed on her butt instead of her face. "That was mean!"
"Sorry Holly. But would you and Niko please take our guest down to the river so she can wash up, that is if she feels up to it." Fighting hare wore a grin that told both the girls that she was not genuinely sorry for hitting Holly with the door.
"Hai, master." Niko and Holly bowed to the hare before she left the room. They finished dressing into warmer clothes in a matter of moments.
"Pixie, do you want to come with us to wash up before breakfast? If you get tired or anything Holly or I can carry you part of the way." Niko asked the now standing monster.
"Yeah, I'll go with you to get clean, I smell pretty bad. Lead the way." Pixie wobbled slightly as she took a step forward, but quickly got her balance so she was steady again.
"Ok let's go!" Holly set off in the lead, after quickly placing her wet clothes by the fire to dry. Niko mimicked her actions and they ran out the door of the hut, leaving their shoes to dry as well.
As they washed at the secluded area of the river, Holly and Niko told Pixie all about their life with Fighting Hare. They explained about their training and why it was they lived with a monster as their parent.
"Master fighting Hare found me in the woods when I was a baby, she took me in and gave me the name Niko. She took Holly in after her mom and dad died when she was two. We've been living together ever since." Niko was explaining how they met.
"And training hard every day too. Master fighting Hare has been teaching us to fight so we can protect ourselves if we need to. Every morning we wake up at dawn and run around the valley at least five times, then we go swimming in the lake for a few hours." Holly said before she dunked herself under the water.
"It's really hard 'cause we hafta wear hay bales or carry rocks when we run. Also there's a really big, really mean fish in the lake that chases us while we swim. We're not supposed to get out until we swim across it ten times." Niko helped to elaborate on their endurance training.
Pixie was aghast at these methods of training and felt bad for the children. This feeling didn't last long as they continued to tell about their training and what each exercise was supposed to do for them. Apparently they loved training to fight, and they would train no matter how hard the technique, just to prove they could do it.
"After we finish our strength exercise's we learn how to actually fight. Only it's even harder 'cause we still hafta wear either a big bale of hay or a heavy rock on our backs. Master Fighting Hare says it will help us get stronger and faster if we wear heavy things that slow us down." Niko said as they began to dry off and get redressed.
"Uh huh, its 'cause since it slows us down we learn to go faster while wearin' it and then we can move really fast when we're not. Uh… I think." Holly continued with her explanations of the training they endured.
Eventually they made it back to the hut, and just in time for breakfast. Forgoing their normal routine of cleaning their room before they ate Holly and Niko set up the table in hopes they could eat sooner. It was a lost cause as they were forced to go clean their room anyways. They set a new land speed record of five minutes.
Breakfast consisted of toasted bread and eggs that morning. Holly and Niko practically inhaled their food as was normal for the two children. Fighting Hare was highly amused at the sight, like always. What was amazing however, was the fact that Pixie was able to eat faster than the two girls and not choke. Unlike what happened when Niko took this as a personal challenge and tried to eat even faster. Her face managed to turn a brilliant shade of blue.
After they had finished their meal Fighting Hare made the formal introductions to Pixie, and gave Niko a whack with her paw when she complained about formalities.
"So Pixie, exactly how did you end up crashing in the forest like that? I take it wasn't just an accident, judging by your wounds I would say you were attacked by something." Fighting Hare felt the need to get to the root of things quickly, and so at times she ends up being quite blunt.
"Um… yeah. I was running away from some bad people, but they caught up to me. I managed to get away after I got caught by a tiger, but I was really tired." Pixie was hesitant to explain much in front of her friends. Talking to fighting Hare alone might not be a bad idea.
"Holly, Niko, why don't you two go train?" Fighting Hare had realized Pixie's hesitation was caused by her charges. Niko began to protest while Holly simply groaned in defeat. "If you get done completely before dinner you can play with Pixie afterwards, if she feels up to it. But, if you keep complaining your load will be doubled, understand?"
With a strangled 'urk' both girls dashed out of the hut, barefoot as their shoes were still quite wet. Fighting Hare smiled at the sight and Pixie sort of frowned at her. This only set the rabbit to laughing outright. After several minutes she calmed down enough to hear the young monsters story.
"Oh man, how come we gotta train while we have a guest? It's not fair!" Niko was quite mad that she had to do her normal training regimen in half the time or it would be doubled. Also she was forced to do it barefoot.
"Oh hush! At least we have a chance to play afterwards if we get done quick enough. Hey, I know! Maybe Pixie will wanna train with us and that way it would be more fun!" Holly was being optimistic today, simply because that was the motto of the day. Tomorrows motto, out race all of life's problems.
"I can guess what today's motto is. Alright, if you wanna see it that way. Lets make this a race. First one back to the hut wins!"
"Ok! Start on three."
"1…2…3!" Both girls began to run faster with their loads trying to pull ahead of the other. It didn't bother them that they still had two laps around the valley left, and they had to swim and a host of other things to do as well.
Fighting Hare was seriously pissed off. After hearing Pixie's story she could understand why the young monster had run away from her trainer. The things she had gone through were terrible, and Fighting Hare knew that while she couldn't keep the Pixie from returning, even against her will, she could offer her a place to stay.
And so it was that Pixie became a member of the small ragtag family, at least temporarily. Fighting Hare explained the rules of the house to their guest before she asked her a rather important question.
"Would you like to train with the others, since you are in a way their sister? You don't have to, but it would be awfully lonely here in the hut all day by yourself."
"Hmmm… sure. It couldn't hurt to learn to protect myself." Pixie mused as she helped her host prepare dinner. So deep in her thoughts was she, that she was quite startled by the shouts from outside.
"I WIN!"
"CHEATER!"
"It looks like they made it here with plenty of time to spare. Pixie why don't you go on out and play with them, I'll call you in for dinner. Go on now!" Fighting Hare shooed the young Pixie out the door.
"Thank you!"
"No problem. Now go play!" and with that the young monster ran outside to join her companions, who were quietly collapsed on the ground about ten feet from the door. "Children…"
Days passed quickly as the three young friends and their master continued to train hard everyday. Pixie was never forced to carry a burden as they trained unless she wanted to. That had been part of the deal they had made. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months.
Several months had passed since Pixie had crash landed in the woods, and been found by Holly and Niko. It was a normal training day for them as they ran around the valley. During their fourth lap a group of strangers came out of the woods directly in front of them.
Niko, who was in the lead quickly tried to stop herself from running into any of the grown men. She barely succeeded in stopping only a foot away. However Holly and Pixie who were right behind her, did not have that kind of luck. All three of them fell over in a heap onto the nearest man.
"Little punks! Get off of me!"
"We're very sorry sir! You just appeared, and we were going too fast to stop!" Holly, Niko and Pixie were all bowing and apologizing profusely.
"Hey! Shinata, ain't that you're Pixie we came lookin' for?" One of the other men asked their fallen comrade as they spotted pixie.
This sentence caught the three friend's attentions, as well as the man they had been apologizing to. Holly and Niko simply looked from one another to Pixie and back again. Pixie for her part, was staring at the man in abject horror that showed clearly on her face. Shinata was also staring at Pixie, but with a much more feral look on his face.
He grunted in the affirmative as he quickly stood up. Pixie quickly ducked behind her friends, a motion they did not miss. "Again, we're sorry for running into you. Is there something we can help you with? Directions maybe?" Niko asked them politely as she was raised to do.
"This ain't any of your business little ones. Now if you don't mind I believe that Pixie belongs to me." Shinata spoke condescendingly to Niko even as he reached to grab Pixie's arm. She jerked away and hid further behind Holly.
"I don't think she wants to go with you, Mister." Holly said, forcing a polite tone to enter her voice.
"I don't give a damn what she wants! She is my monster! I raised her, and I want her back now!" Again he reached for pixie, snarling a little as he did so. His buddies watched with growing smirks on their faces.
Pixie whimpered in fear as her trainer's hand came to within an inch of touching her, only to be knocked away by someone else's. Niko had knocked his hand away from her with a simple blocking movement, much to the mans surprise.
"You little brat! Don't stand in my way, or I'll be forced to hurt ya!"
"It seems to me, that I now know why Pixie ran away from you. She may not have told me, but by the way you act I say it's because you beat her! She's not goin' anywhere, so if you wanna get in a fight, that's fine with me!" Niko took up a fighting stance, as did Holly.
The strangers seemed a little puzzled by these kids behavior. It didn't matter to Shinata, as he stepped closer to them. "Alright, you wanna rumble with the adults? Well then lets do it!" A smirk was firmly plastered to his face as he made to simply push Niko out of his way.
The strangers were all surprised that, not only had the kid not budged an inch, but she had managed to kick Shinata in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain. Several of the men were ready to help their friend when a female voice called out from a little way off.
"Niko! Holly! Pixie! I thought you were training? Hmm, what happened here?" Fighting Hare had realized that her wards were late in reaching their next destination and had decided to investigate.
"Master, these guys came and tried to take Pixie away by force!" Niko said motioning the guy on the ground. "I only hit him 'cause he tried to fight me."
"And I suppose you started the fight? Look, I'm sorry about this, but we can't stop them from taking her." Pixie stared at her friend and mentor in shock, Holly confusion, and Niko pure outrage.
"Why Not!? She's terrified of him! Just look at her!" Niko screamed, practically getting in the face of the golden Hare.
"He is her trainer, and she is bound to him because he unlocked her. If that hadn't been so we would be free to step in. I know you don't understand, but that is how it is supposed to be." Fighting Hare was very calm about this, much to the amusement of the men and the outrage of her pupils.
"WHY!?"
"Say goodbye to her, Niko, Holly. You will meet again one day. Once you have said goodbye finish your training and come back to the hut." With that she left giving a soft goodbye and an apology to the scared Pixie, hoping she would understand.