Challenge #1

Nature of the Beast

Challenge: Write a one-shot about Syaoran describing/comparing all his actions to those of dogs.

Genre: Action/Adventure

Rating: Teen

Canon: Yes... but extremely distantly placed.

Length: 4,354 words including everything...

Yes, I borrowed this format from Kaori just as to keep it on a familiar level with all of the voters.

As for my story itself... it actually only has subtle mentions of wolf characteristics. But oh well. Actually, this will serve as Dante-ish way of going through the different challenges, with an unwitting forum member as the main character that bears witness to these happenings. Also involved is a side plot, as to keep things in the story fashion I'm used to. It should be enough to keep my interest up there.

Anyways, here it is:

Nature of the Beast

Typical things happen on typical days. Such is the way of things, and such is how boring life can be. But the same can be true about atypical days… for atypical things happen. Well, whether expected or not, sometimes neither holds true… and typical gives way not only to atypical, but positively anything but.

Today is such a day.

It seemed to flow as any standard day, and any day of the standard kind usually meant standard practice… and so it was…

Wake as any normal woman would wake. Undertake the usually responsibilities of the day just as any other day, as it comes at you in the flow it does. And so it comes time for this normal individual to undertake her normal online practice and international obligation. And so she does.

It is the usual ramble. It is the usual talk of talk, the usual actions of those who talk, and the usual false excitement of pretend insanity… that neither serves purpose nor significant worth. Ah… but such is forum life… and so it goes.

However, today is different, for the forum traverser known only to those of the forum as Zadien, knows that there is a lot less activity of the day. She knows that there is someone that is missing. But why would that concern her? That person isn't good, and despite claiming innocence, only abuses his imaginary practice by making unnatural and complex advances on her whether there is feigned interest or not. Even going as far as to take advantage of her mental exhaustion by suggesting them to be engaged! What a joke.

But as it is… this is a person that knows something of what is important to her, and that being the mysteries surrounding her country… and even her home. It is a person she could come to actually like…

No!

What the hell was she thinking? With that intruding upon her thoughts, she definitely had to get away from that machine.

Using some believable excuse, she kindly excused herself from the festivities, and got up, and of all places, went to the window.

Why the window of all places, even she would like to know… for the only thing out there were the acres of sheep that dominated her life. Well, not only hers, but there were a fair number of sheep farmers in the area. As such it was, it was fairly boring.

Odd… there were no sheep.

Curious, she went to the other window, where they were sure to have gathered. Yet, once again… there were none.

Frowning, she moved to the door, slipping on her shoes and a coat, for the obvious reasons of the gloom of the weather… where it seemed to only rain.

Why her? Wasn't she deserving of a bright day at least once?

But upon pushing past the door, and to the world beyond, she thought herself to be delusional, because it was impossible to have missed what were so clearly and so overwhelmingly right in front of her eyes. For the sheep had been found.

Slightly annoyed, she turned to go back into the house when she stopped.

Why bother? She already didn't feel like the computer… and it was still too early for bed. Besides, the sheep were here, and though her father was out for the moment, he would be back before she knew it. And the weather…

She put her hood back and turned her eyes to the sky. Odd…. It was odd. Not that there was no rain… but the gloom had gone… to be replaced with this… this foreboding? It was truly strange.

Still, maybe it was just that the pixels had scrambled her brain.

Why not? It had happened before… after all… computer pixels were evil.

With a nervous sigh, coupled with a weary laugh, she decided that she had had enough of being around the house. Also… it felt like today was just a day for being out… and so it was that she decided. She decided to go for a walk.

It just seemed like a good idea… even though it was more likely to be not.

Time…

It seems to carry meaning to those in a hurry… and it seems to pursue those without it, just as for Zadien, who had no sense for why she was walking, time was without cause…

Still… though she wasn't sure how long she had walked, she knew where she had traveled. In fact, there was little doubting it. For she knew the site well.

The last bastion of the Formorians.

Why? She pondered, feeling abnormally aloof. Why here?

"Because this is where it begins."

Startled, she whirled around to face the origin of the voice… one which seemed to come from behind. Which was odd in itself, considering she had just passed the very spot in which he sat.

Furthermore, who was this?

As stranger he was, that reeked of uncertainty.

And why not? A man alone as alone gets, huddled against ancient stone with little more protection from the Irish weather than the simple bundled cloak that robed him. A cloak of sorts black as night, and one that held dominance over his face, which did not betray the slightest of human features save for a mouth and a hint of a nose.

"I-I'm sorry," she started, "do I know you? Or rather… were you talking to me?"

The man cocked his head, but with only a slight of his head, one which did little to disrupt his integrity.

"You are the one who has come."

"I… kind of live around here."

"That matters? Oh well, I guess it should. After all, only those trusting of the area would associate with one such as I in a place such as this."

Zadien took a different stance and looked indignant. "What's that supposed to mean? That I would be frightened?"

The man seemed to consider her words a moment, before he nodded his head and smiled through suppressed amusement.

"That's true… and I'm glad you feel as you do."

"Really…? And why is that?"

"Because it means I can talk with you longer now."

Zadien felt uncomfortable. People usually didn't appear from nowhere… and they usually didn't request audience in such ways. It was simply weird.

"So…" she started, "What did you want to say?"

"Say…" He smiled. "It's less about what to say, and what to see."

"What to… see?" She looked at him oddly, for he was truly such… and the words, though they sounded normal, seemed anything but. "I… I don't think I understand you. What do you mean?"

He smiled again… and every time, it sent a chill through her spine.

"Sometimes… words carry more meaning than sight… sometimes feel has more meaning than words… sometimes sight is what's important. It's the mysteries that we carry that makes each worth its own value.

"Today, for you, it is your sight that has the most meaning… though it may be wrong."

"Wrong? What do you mean by wrong-"

But just as she looked up, the nature of the world around her had shifted. Like the sheep before, the normal was no longer, and in its place, that of confusion. However, it lasted no longer than with the sheep, before it had returned to what she had known.

"Because it's you."

She backed away. This man was dangerous… and based on where she was… was he even a man?

If she couldn't trust her eyes, then what he said and what he was were likely conflicting.

"What…?"

"Because it's you…

"Shall I show you? That you wished to see once… or what you seek now? The answer to what you see lies only with what you've seen… and what you wish to view."

"What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then what you see is this… your normal life. How boring, for your eyes remain shut, despite how your heart reaches. To ignore that curiosity in vision… is truly to ignore yourself. It must be a painful life… to live such a way."

"You… stop… you're confusing me."

He reached his hand out, not necessarily to her, but definitely away from his body.

"Take it… for it is the hand that offers the reality. It is the hand of one who offers sight, but cannot see."

"I…"

She hesitated.

Every impulse and instinct told her to step away… to deny… but she was curious. And if she left it alone… she'd always be curious. But to take it?

"To see… is to experience. To accept the hand, is to accept the vision, for it is the hand that leads the way. But you'll only see what the hand knows. Will you take it?"

Zadien hesitated… the man sounded like he was on crack… every force in this world was telling her not to do it.

So she listened to the ones she had yet to see, closed her eyes, and took his hand.

And when she opened her eyes again, she could see nothing at all…

For her all she saw of this new world… was one of the void.

"NOOOO!"

He had tricked her!

She slammed her balled fist against the rock face in front of her and slid down against it.

She was an idiot! She had put her trust in some kook she didn't know, and didn't even trust, and now she was blind! What a load of horseshit!

Life wasn't fair.

Unable to stand it, she leaned against the cold stone and began to cry…

And that's when it hit her.

There were no stones this big on the hill. Then she wasn't blind… but maybe… in a tomb?

"Heh… there aren't many who'd come to a new world only to turn away from the light."

Both relieved and angry, she got up and turned to give him a piece of her mind, when she stopped. After all… it just dawned on her that no longer was anything familiar; nothing was the same… even the fact that it was night.

Baffled, she looked to the figure, and then in the direction he was facing.

"Where-?"

But a shake of his head made her fall quiet again, and then looked away.

"It has begun."

…

As she fell quiet, she tried to absorb her settings… tried to gather her bearings. After all, there were simply too many questions.

Where was she?

What was about to begin?

Why here… why this place?

Still… nothing would be solved by mentally ranting, or else the questions would simply overlap or intensify… especially if they were answered during the moment missed.

With a deep, calming breath, she leaned against the stone behind her, and tried to relax.

…

Though it was what he said… had it really begun? All she knew was that this was not Ireland… this was not her home.

It definitely was not.

But even still… it carried itself as her home would. But then it was also different… much different from even the stranger of times.

And yet again… it seemed similar in an unexpected way… in a way she was sure to have felt… ah! Like before… outside her house… the foreboding?

She eyed the stranger, whose eyes remained as they had, hidden. Was the feeling earlier… and this feeling now… connected? It wasn't possible… was it?

Still… at least she knew why it was as it was, for the air then and the air now were very much the same. Heavy… very heavy.

She wasn't sure she had ever felt air this way.

Then there was the wind… a cold wind that did not make her such, for the senses did not make sense as they should. Harmony was upset… balance was off… and normalcy, in ways she couldn't explain it, just didn't feel normal. And this aura of power... it almost made her feel like the world itself was bleeding.

Suddenly, she was pulled from her senses as a breath of light breached its containment of the sky, and let her surroundings be known as its true form would have it, and as memory would paint it with recognition.

All around her they appeared, like great ghosts from the darkness. Ghosts… those that came in the form of past monuments of the element earth… those of the great stone slabs that numbered far more than just the one she had flung herself against in her moment of insecurity. And it was that these stones came not as individuals, but greater beings linked in conjunction with select members, and fashioned so they'd stand in a ring… thus to admire each other for countless eons… as watchers over the men who had arranged them… and all their ancestors hence since.

It was at this moment… that Zadien finally recognized her placement… which was none other than the great Stonehenge. The Earthen mystery of the Salisbury Plain.

But why?

Why this place… what was the purpose?

To observe.

Observe what… she wanted to ask… but to do such was something she had already known better of.

Still… there had to be a reason… and she felt that the reason was tied in which this feeling that held her heart. Though the most important question in all this was her exact purpose…

What was it she was supposed to be seeing?

Just then, as if to answer her question, the wind shifted and the air changed with it.

Something was happening… and it wasn't normal.

But before she knew what it was playing with her senses, she became aware that she wasn't as alone as she first thought, for someone was standing just forward of the heel-stone. Someone she was certain she didn't know, yet they felt familiar… like she had seen them before. It… just how was such possible?

Still, how she could even see resemblance was extraordinary in itself since the figure before her was overwhelmingly concealed in the darkness of the night. With him and his appearance, he carried resemblance to that of a wild animal, a nocturnal creature driven forward instinct and scent alone, as well as other forces beyond human understanding. With him, he carried the feel of a predator.

A predator hunting what?

Still, it was a predator that had her undivided attention, as one would be foolish to look away. A predator of mystery. But such was this… this man.

Then, just as he entered the stone circle completely, the winds and the unnatural feelings upon them ceased… and the world grew silent… just as the light from the sky vanished, and encased the world in darkness.

But as the darkness fell, as shadows fall… there was the response of light.

Such was a soft light… an eerie light… and it seemed to be emanating from the stones themselves in the form of a rich blue glow. A glow that for the first time, truly allowed the man to be seen. Let her see him as he truly was.

It was a man, which came dressed in plain clothes, yet ones that seemed dated to a time when the world existed in simplicity… and struggle. Clothes of grayish-white, thick material cloth, form fitting in some areas, slightly loose in others, that gave the description of the animal more justice, for this as it was, was the creatures fur. That which with the shadows, resembled a wolf's fur.

Apart from his clothes, she was drawn by his form and manner. How he held himself tall and formidable. Attractive and elegant, yet rugged and powerful. From his deep amber eyes, to his rich chocolate brown hair… the way he set his jaw and kept his chin high. Everything about his looks set him to be in his early twenties… but from just the sense about him, just that… he was no pup… no, just from his way, he seemed to carry many years upon him. In short… he was beautiful.

Unaware, she put her hand to her heart, knowing full well the characteristics of animal attraction. So attracted, that she was just about to take a step forward when a hand gripped her shoulder, and the man that had brought her here shook his head. For after all… she was merely here to witness.

Witness what, though, there were too many questions… too many-

There… she heard it there. As such, so did he.

It was slight, as slight as though uttered by a spirit, but there all the same. Whisperings in the still of the night. Whisperings of no meaning… whisperings she could not recognize. Whisperings of what though? For one who was to see… she couldn't see anything.

However, though she didn't know… it was certain that the man knew. For he wore a look of great distaste and annoyance. And then he added that of his own whisper to the night… and it came from between his teeth in the form of a growl.

"Wraiths…"

At once, upon the utter of the name, the whisperings stopped. For a moment, all was calm… but an instant later, everything came clear.

Ghost-like, and translucent, they emerged from around the stones, from the stones, above the stones. Beings that looked human… but that had lost their humanity and the life they had. Beings that seemed to hover above the ground, while their tattered clothes seemed to drift on the tides of their own energy patterns, as it wafted about them in an ethereal fashion. Beings that in all likelihood… had no souls of their own, considering their look and feel… which was too ominous to describe accurately.

However… was he there to fight them? If so… why was he so calm… why so collected? In sheer numbers alone, they grossly outnumbered him.

Why would he do such?

"Sssssssyaaaaaoooorraaaan…"

Syaoran?

That was… Syaoran? It couldn't be. Syaoran wasn't real.

"Sssssssyaaaaaoooorraaaan…."

She looked at the man before her again… and remembered the boy she had been used to in the anime… and even who she had grafted an image to in the fan fictions… were they truly the same? This Syaoran… was a bit frightening. To be so calm…

It was scary.

Syaoran looked up and briefly over his shoulder, regarding their numbers of easily fifty or more. Then he looked to the one that had been speaking his name. The armless, legless entity that floated in the air with its greenish-blue aura and its sickly figure.

Once more, it opened its mouth, which was the only part that was truly visible from its flowing robes, and started to speak.

"Ssssssssyaa-"

"That's enough." Syaoran put his hand behind his shoulder, and grasped a sword hilt that she had missed before. "After all… you annoy me."

In response, the wraith before him threw back its cloak and burst in flames of the same energy, just before emerging as a fully capable warrior, one clearly human with all its appendages, and brandishing its own spectral blade. Like that, it rushed forward, intent on striking him down.

But it never got the chance.

Before it had even finished its transformation, Syaoran pulled his sword from its sheath… but not as the sword that was know before. This sword… was definitely not the sword of his youth. Although it was identical, something had happened in which to damage it… impair it even… for it was no longer whole.

In truth, the blade looked fractured… separated. As it was… it existed as metal and energy… a blade of metal and magic. In truth… it existed as the same in his youth… but now the two seemed contrasted… apart. But with it, just as the fangs of the carnivore no longer hidden, Syaoran lashed out, and neatly cleaved the wraith in two… even going as far as to slice the opponents sword.

It was with this action… that Zadien had come to the conclusion… that this… the man who was named "little wolf", was indeed no longer. He was a full blown killer… and this was no nightly hunt. This was a fight over territory.

Either of which were truly frightening. Leaving her a loss for words both actual and mental.

…

In response to the first wraith's defeat, the others rushed forward and transforming on the way, some of which passed by or through Zadien herself, leaving her in further shock.

However, Syaoran was far from unprepared.

With the first couple, he lunged at them… a swift and calculating predatory beast, intent on quick resolve... and so it came. But for the others, the next line and beyond, his actions began to reflect less calculation and every instance of that of an animal truly feral.

Warriors on warriors, animals fighting animals… one beast to another… where was the line drawn? Where… amongst the blood shed… and the savagery… and the brutal characteristics unrecognizable as possibly human… where could the line fall?

There were no answers.

And for a truly successful carnivore… there is nothing that stays hidden. Even such an animal as the wolf has its other attributes. And like a wolf that has to resort to using its claws, as well as its teeth, he summoned his other strength. From his pockets, he pulled not his papers, but instead summoned spheres of energy. Each with its own color… each as its own independent form. And their purpose?

He smiled.

Just as he cut down one enemy, a sphere came to his side, in front of another. To it, he raised his hand… and within the same line as his arm, the opponent burst into flames of Syaoran's making. Again he performed the same technique… but with that of a different sphere, and it served to electrocute his adversary.

And so it continued… the spirits around him… and his sword in tune. Nothing was apart… nothing was separate. Just as an animal uses only attributes of itself, so too did Syaoran, born of magic, he shared the responsibilities of such… and in such a way he could relate to those of a different caliber. In such ways, that magic was his attributes.

And through the course of the rest of the battle… whether it be an attack of steel, water, electricity, wind, or fire… he brought it to swift resolve.

When it was over… He took a moment to collect himself, and knelt among the bloodied bodies of his adversaries' where he paused to lick his own wounds, few as they were, before turning his attention onward.

However… though the fight was over… his teeth remain bared… his fur stay bristled… and his heart remained rapid.

But something was wrong. Though he had won… though his enemies were destroyed and territory recovered… he was acting as though he had lost. It was very difficult… to place the emotions of a pacing animal.

And then it happened… all the pent up energy… all the frustration. At the moon in all its fullness, which had just chosen to make its appearance in the night sky, he yelled, not in a cry of victory… but as would sound the long and mournful cry of the wolf. And then… when he could yell no more, he collapsed to the ground, and even the unnatural glow of the stones faded to normalcy. And the pale moon was the only light.

But then… he lifted his head, whether at a smell or a sound, she could not tell.

Apparently collected, he sheathed his blade, and eased his heart. Without a sound, he then proceeded towards one of the stones, which was slightly thicker than the others. It was a stone he put his hand to as tentatively as a wolf would place its paw upon an object of curiosity.

Like water, the deception over the stone flowed off and into the material world, and what it left, was that which made all the difference. For what it left was a young girl, no older than eight. A girl that resembled Sakura. A girl that was asleep.

With a gentle hand, he nosed the girl from her slumber, making sure to keep the blood from the battle out of sight. With soft eyes of hazel, she looked at the man distantly as she blinked herself awake.

"F… father?"

Syaoran smiled and lifted the girl into his arms. "Were you having a bad dream?"

The girl shook her head. "No… but I don't remember how I got here either…"

"That's ok. You were just sleepwalking." He offered. "But we should return home before we make your mother worry. But it's ok now."

"I can… sleep?"

"Yes, Dawn, you may sleep."

"…okay…"

"Let's go home."

…

As Syaoran picked his way through the body riddled ground, Zadien's heart seemed to melt.

Feeling at ease, she turned to the man beside her.

"I don't know why you wanted to show me this… but that really doesn't matter now. What matters is… who are you?" She demanded. "Just tell me… tell me your name… tell me why you're hiding behind that cloak… what did you mean earlier about seeing and all that?"

"To speak is to see… to see is to experience… for you who have seen me and for me who has yet to see you… I can only share words. For even being heard… is beyond the scope of our abilities."

"AArrrrgh! Stop fucking with me!" With that, she grabbed his hood and wrenched it free, just before she gasped.

For the man before her… could not see her. For the man before her had no eyes.

"AAAHHH!"

Zadien bolted upright and tried to get away… but she only managed to push back both her chair, and her keyboard in front of her.

What the?

Like an idiot… she had fallen asleep at her computer. And surprisingly enough… she had never left the forum at all.

So what the hell was all that?

She didn't know… but it only meant that the questions would only continue… until she found the answer. An answer she would definitely find.