"I wish I could come sooooooooo badly!" Shan Qu was complaining as he threw Saras' stuff into a white carriage, drawn by white horses, though the horses were absent at this point. "I mean think about it, I could be your number one fan! Your assistant. A distant cousin-"
Shan Qu was small, brown and had an extremely thick skull. Saras had told him, time and time and time again that he was going to compete in the tournament as an excuse to search the Palace of Tamod for the Yei or Dei gems of the Jit Kun Crystal, he wasn't planning on staying any longer than he had to.
Still Shan Qu had built an image of Saras winning the entire tournament, and that image would not leave.
Shan Qu was seventeen, he was a fruit bat with light brown fur and nut brown eyes. He was small, and wore a thick black scarf and a black robe.
He was Saras' partner in the Bat Cave, and for the past three years they had gone on all their missions together. This time however, Saras had to go alone.
Saras was also seventeen. He was a fox. Short and somewhat thin. His fur was bright red and his eyes were light brown. He wore light blue pants, a yellow, sleeveless jumper, a green cloak that was too big for him, a rice hat that draped onto his back and was only held up by a string around his neck. On his feet he wore a pair of Talon Claws, an odd kind of footwear, that resembled a bird's talons but were made of metal, and obeyed the movement of Saras' toes, so that the fox essentially had metal bird feet.
"Shan I'm not going to try and win. I'm going to go, and-" From the corner of his eye he saw the white horse coming back, yawning loudly. "And get that thing."
Shan Qu opened his mouth,but before he could protest Saras cut him off. "I'll be back soon. It shouldn't take too long."
"Are you ready already?" Came the annoyed voice of the white horse.
"Yeah." Saras replied, before walking forwards and taking two steps towards the carriage. Shan Qu hugged him from behind around the middle, much to his chagrin. Shan Qu had always been a very touchy-feely person, which Saras often found a great cause of embarrassment. Then Shan Qu finished and flapped off.
"Catch you later!" He called out from behind him.
The horse snorted. "Took your boyfriend long enough to say goodbye. Now get in."
Saras gave him a very deadpanned look, but nevertheless crawled into the carriage, now filled with his possessions.
There was a pile of arrows in a fat quiver, Saras had made them himself. Then there was a bow as big as him, one that was useless and he couldn't hit a barn door with to save his life. There were a pair of knives in brown sheathes, and a pair of daggers that were longer and the sides had spines of jade. He had packed a towel, or rather Shan Qu had bought him a large fluffy green one, but had no spare clothes, he had already decided he wouldn't take too long and would be leaving soon anyways.
The cart rattled along, bumping repetitively as it travelled through an uneven road. Saras had no desire to talk to the driver, who had already proved himself annoying and rude, and so passed his day in silence. They ate lunch together at a cheap restaurant, where Saras was pretty sure he unearthed a whole nail from his bean bun, that had put him off his lunch.
Boredom swept in as the journey continued. He was sick of watching trees and endless fields, and whiled away the journey re-thinking the plan. He would sneak off in search of the gem during the first stage of the tournamrnt. If he found it he would leave with it. If he failed he would go to the tournament.
It was called the Five Tasks of the House of Tamod, and was extremely hard to research. At least a hundred years ago it had been incredibly popular. But then it had stopped for a while and since lost some of it's flame. However it had been reinstated fifty years before. But there was no information aside from that. Most of the victors were felines of some sort, though there was one case where a wolf had won, but there had been no mention of a prize. Saras wondered vaguely whether there even was a prize.
The carriage rattled to a halt at a small, colourful village, with an even more colourful sign that read 'Suna'. The door burst open and amidst wild cheering came a pair of rabbits.
There were identical to the very last fur. Both had light brown fur, massive grins and eyes that seemed to reflect the colour of the object they were looking at. They were a head shorter than Saras, and wore brightly coloured robes, striped green amd yellow, with red and blue bubbles spaced evenly between them. The door shut behind them, and the carriage rattled on.
"Hello!"
"How do you do?"
Both held out a paw towards him. Saras shook each one politely, noticing that they even felt exactly the same. He still had no words to say.
"Please don't tell me you're a mute!"
"Yeah, unless your tongue was cut off in an epic battle, in which case show-off all you want!"
"Um, I'm not mute." Saras said dumbly, still trying to spot any difference.
Both seemed to sigh with enormous, and Saras felt, exaggerated relief.
"So, what brings you to the House of Tamod?" They asked at the same time, in the same voice.
"Well, it's the horse out there and this carriage. Isn't it?" Saras replied, having given up trying to tell them apart.
The rabbits smirked. "Good one." They said simultaneously.
"So um…" Saras could find nothing to talk about.
"What do you reckon the 'Tasks' are going to be?" One rabbit asked, clearly trying to ward off silence.
"Well first they're going to narrow down the competition. Then they're going to… Well it changes often. There was a rotating death ring or something once, and once you had to fight on a volcano or something."
"You researched this?" One rabbit asked incredulously.
Saras shrugged. He stared out the window. The rabbits broke the silence again,in one voice.
"Oh yeah we never introduced ourselves."
"My name is Li I."
"And mine is Li II."
"Li? What like the distance?"
"Well yeah. They named it after us."
"Isn't it obvious we are so awesome they name measures of distances after us?"
Saras was tempted to bring up the fact that the measure of distance known as a li was invented at least a thousand years ago.
"We're joking." Li I added flatly after a few seconds.
"So what do you do?" Li II asked.
"Muay Thai? Kung Fu? Jiu-Jitsu?"
"Oh no, wait I got it! You're a knife fighter aren't you?"
Seeing no reason to say he was a shapeshifting teleporter who possessed a strand of Blood Diamond that mean that if he drank blood he went temporarily feral, nodded.
"That's pretty cool."
"Yeah. We throw darts, fight with fans, normal Kung Fu."
"We tried learning Ten Limb once… Only that was a bit of a disaster."
"Our ears aren't flexible enough."
"Or long enough."
"That and they don't act like tentacles sticking to the tops of our heads."
Saras had no idea what Ten Limb was, and was clearly lost, as Li I changed the subject abruptly.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen." Saras replied without thinking.
"Oooh, an ickle one." They said together.
"I'm bigger than both of you." Saras snapped.
"We were joking." Li II scolded.
"As a matter of fact we're both only nineteen." Li I said. Then he pulled out a packet of mah jong from his robe. "Mah jong? I'd play with my twin, but we know each other too well."
Saras decided he liked the twins. They knew a lot of good jokes and were really nice. They had shared a large pack lunch of dumplings, fried, boiled and sweet and sticky. Saras was licking his claws clean of the sticky syrup that had coated the dumplings by the time they arrived at the Palace. Yawning loudly and full of food the trio were led to a large room full of double-beds. Saras went straight to sleep, not noticing the other competitors that shared a room with him.
Footnote: I wanted to start this because I felt like writing it more than anything else. It is part of my rework schedule.
And now an announcement.
I don't plan on accepting more OCs than I already have the first time. I don't need any more than I already have, but if you want a place go ahead. The OCs that star in this fic but do not belong to me are:
Lang by Mind Jack
Cin Lin by Mind Jack
Chaonao by Berserker88
Enjoy and Update soon.
