Prologue:
Takabi Flies South
The last of Takabi's hard-earned roasted mountain goat was finally gone, though the dried berries she needed were still plentiful. She thought that she must have looked like a pathetic, sullen animal at present; she huddled in a small mountainside cave, with her limbs drawn close and her clothes dirtied and damp from snow. Outside, the blizzard continued to rage, making it impossible to travel. She sighed, watching the steam of her breath to distract herself, then checked her bag yet again, counting off every single item. Rope, a compass, salt, cleaning fluid, cooking utensils, novel-scrolls, cloth, clippers and many more items were all accounted for, neatly arranged and ready for use. The most important cargo she had were gold- embroidered silk bags of valuable grains and seeds, which would be peace offerings in her dealings with the barbarians she was set to encounter, providing that they were capable of being reasoned with. Takabi tucked these expensive luxuries at the bottom of her bag, in a small box that would prevent damage.
Checking her cargo over and over didn't help in the least, but it provided some sort of entertainment. Takabi needed all the familiarity she could get, considering she was headed towards completely uncharted and unfamiliar territory. The Great Explorer himself dubbed it the 'Savage South'; a land filled with barbarians, monsters, and strange, terrible forces.
Her situation was like this because her promotion was near, which would have enabled her to pay off her family's debt and allow them all to live their lives out of labor. Takabi's superiors were, of course, not willing to grant her family such grace. As a final mission, they had given her a map, vague scrolls of information on language and physiology on the races there, and a few cheap supplies. They had threatened her with banishment if she did not succeed. Of course, she knew that they were banishing her indirectly anyway, as this was very obviously suicide mission. She was safe from the dishonor of a direct banishment, owing to the laws against banishing military personnel; instead, they opted with tasking her with the impossible. It was almost laughable, in a cruel way.
It was four days into her journey, and she was already missing home. Her family desperately needed financial assistance, her siblings and mother needed emotional support, and the house needed tending. Her heart ached for the hardships they were probably facing at that very moment, until hard resolve replaced sorrow as she stared into the flames of her dying campfire and clenched her jaw. A task was a task. If she could make it through training as a female, she just may have a chance. Her family was counting on her.
Despite the thoughts whirling about in her head, she noticed the silence that had filled the cave. Cautiously optimistic, Takabi removed the snow she had piled in front of the cave's entrance, and observed the skies. Apparently, the weather was as fickle as it was deadly. Oh, how she missed the predictable and docile weather of her home, with steady periods of snow and strong but steady winds.
Such thoughts disappeared as she gathered her possessions, eying the clear, deliciously stable winds that were presented to her by the remote location that was previously her tormentor. Instinct and anticipation surged through the Tenklak, as the familiar instinctive love of flying took over. Eagerly, she snapped open her wings, gently pushing them against the breezes and letting her tail feathers fan and flex. Her talons gripped at the icy rock she was standing. As a final forethought, Takabi remembered to rub at her shoulders and clip her travel-bag to her belt with shaking fingers. Then practicality was thrown to the wind, as Takabi dropped herself of the edge of the cliff, rose on a thermal, and soared south.
A/N:
So, welcome to my first fanfiction made public, a challengefic, no less! Basically, this is a part of a satanic contract deal I have with another budding writer friend of mine. We looked at each other's old stories we had written as young teens during our weaboo/mary sue phases, then chose one for the other to revamp, trying to repair it while keeping as much of the original premise as possible.
My old fanfiction? One completely terrible, eye rotting Lord of the Rings fanfiction, in which I created a race of angel people, and a 10th walker, who was a tragic yet invincible Mary Sue angel person. Queue appropriate reactions of violent nausea and explosive diarrhea.
My friend was cruel in her choice (don't worry, I got her back by choosing her old Naruto fanfiction for her), but here I am, having revamped the entire tedious saga into something barely tolerable. The question as to whether or not it is tolerable to a suitable degree is something that I'll find out as I write.
So, the plot? Basically the same, unfortunately, so the 10th walker premise stands, with a few things to fill in the many plot holes that were present. The character and the 'angel' race also remain, albeit dramatically altered (thankfully). There will be no pairings, besides canon and slightly possible but unlikely OC/OC. I was allowed at least the luxury of avoiding the romance hellhole. While I was able to avoid these pitfalls, the future story will suffer from made up gibberish from my race's language. I'm no linguist, so there's an 88% chance of the words sounding like utter garbage; such as names, places, the race's name itself. For that and the many other transgressions that will undoubtedly plague this fanfiction, I apologize. A challenge is a challenge however, and I (probably) won't back down for a while yet.
You'll find more on my little race of bird people as you read, although I am working on an informative document on them to make things easier, and this will be linked on my profile as soon as I get it done. Also, I promise that the author's notes to come won't be nearly as long as this monster.
Without further ado, let's see how this goes!