Mousehunt: Tale of a Master
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Mousehunt, nor its mouse designs. However, the names, personalities, and plot are mine.
Laera opened her eyes as though from a deep sleep. The panel of wood before her wavered in and out of focus as she concentrated her strength. Drawing in a breath, the panel finally slid into solidarity. There was a sudden creak on the floor behind her and her right hand shot out towards the panel in response. A quick pressure against her index claw, a light thunk as it impacted the panel, and an explosion of air and wood splinters as the panel blew apart from the impact of her power.
"You shouldn't be wasting your energy like that." Laera turned toward the voice, eyes lidded against the afterimages of the explosion. Jar stood in the doorway, relaxed, his many weapons tucked away in their sheaths on his back. He lifted his chin and his gravelly voice echoed off the far walls of the mediation room. "Want to sleep well tonight? Don't waste energy blowing things up."
"It calms me down." She turned back to the splintery wreckage of the panel. "I'm nervous about tomorrow." She confessed, her voice solid but quiet.
She didn't turn as she heard his claws click across the floor towards her. "You'll do fine. You passed ably last year, you'll pass again."
Silence descended. Laera gave her fellow Master a sidelong look. He looked back up directly, the stocky stature typical of the Cheese Fang Masters putting his head just above Laera's waistline. Not exceptionally tall herself, Laera still found humor in finding herself taller than her fellow Master, but shorter than several of the weapons he carried.
"Well here you guys are!" A jovial voice suddenly echoed off the walls, familiar enough to cut short the automatic responses of the two. Sliding one foot back, she found a chuckle escape her lips at the Cheese Belt Master padding silently into the room. For all his girth, Blent was as light on his toes as any Burglar Mouse.
Jar snorted as he turned fully. "You're lucky I was distracted with you sneaking around. I could have killed you from here."
Releasing a snorting laugh, Blent tossed his hands. "Oh please." He stopped in front of Laera and clapped his hands on her shoulders. "So!" Leaning close, his eyes were wide sincerity. "How do you feel?"
Laera smiled lightly but pulled his hands from her shoulders. "I'm fine." She moved the hands back towards Blent's person. "Just releasing some stress before bed."
"You'll do fine!" Blent's expressive hands waved emphatically before clapping together.
"Of course she will." Jar snorted and moved past Blent. "So long as she gets some sleep." He cast a warning eye behind him as he passed out of the room.
"Ah! He's right! Look at how late it is, and you need to be up early…" He chattered away worriedly and swung one massive arm over Laera's shoulders as he pulled her toward the door. Trying to appreciate his concern and ignore his habitual invasion of her personal space, Laera sighed and looked forward to a fitful night.
Her guess wasn't far off the mark, as she slept sporadically. As the sky began to finally turn pink she gave up and snuck to back to the meditation room. The building was silent before sunrise, even the thrumming of power from the Pinnacle Chambers above their heads was missing. Taking a deep breath and pushing the unnerving silence from her mind, Laera began her morning exercises.
The other Masters of the Cheese Claw filtered in as the sun came up, keeping their distance from Laera. They knew she was to be tested today, as would they in their own times. Tested once every year, each Master, whether Claw, Fang, or Belt, had to prove their worthiness to maintain the title of Master. If they faltered, slipped in their training or devotion to the art, banishment was the only remedy for the shame of failure. Granted, some stuck around, Hapless creatures stripped of their Master's Shards and left to diminish slowly in the shadow of the Pagoda. Lesser even than the furiously busy Workers, the Hapless cleaned up after the students they were no longer fit to teach.
A final thrust at her imaginary enemy and Laera paused to listen to the morning gong. The students would rise now. On their heels would be the Workers and the Hapless. Claws clenched, Laera moved to the window and watched them spread over the training grounds in the dim morning sun. The Workers sped over the grass, picking up the debris left by the occasional Archer or Ninja who had practiced on the dummies during the night. A Trap had been slipped onto the training grounds and she saw the glint of red steel as a Samurai darted about helplessly inside. The Hapless mice lingered close to the Pagoda, constantly sweeping sidewalks and steps.
"It won't happen to you." Laera whipped around, but held her power in check. The Cheese Claw Master behind her blinked, but did not flinch. Pinse, one of the new Masters. Was a Student until only recently, though not one of Laera's. Waiting for Laera's power to subside, Pinse looked beyond her out the window. "You've always done well, everyone knows."
Laera looked away from the quietly trusting eyes. Yes, this one was very new. Perhaps she didn't know, or maybe didn't care to believe the news of the many who had indeed failed as of late. Perhaps it was true what else they said: that the Dojo Masters were giving the Students easier tests to allow them to become Masters. More Masters to replace the many who left in defeat, no longer eligible for the mercy they had been shown in the test as Students. The Students simply had to survive a time limit, the Masters had to actively fight and land a hit in order to pass. Outside, the sun continued to rise. Laera had indeed always passed, though no one but the Dojo Masters and herself knew that far too many times her victory was due to luck. She had learned quickly that her opponents didn't hold back, and if she didn't win quickly, it would take no more than a few hits to defeat her. Insecurity trickled into the back of her mind; had she improved enough this past year?
Laera opened her mouth slightly to convey her doubt when a second gong sounded from the floor above. Automatically, the Masters in the room, including Pinse, straightened and looked to Laera. Paling under the sudden attention, she trained her eyes on the door to the hallway. The room filed quickly into the hallway, leaving Laera to collect her thoughts before following. Taking a deep breath and swallowing her doubts, she listened to the clicking of her claws as her feet carried her to the door.
Every Master was lined along the hallway, like she had done so many times. The other ones, Assassins, Samurai, and Kung Fu mice looked over the shoulders of the Masters to watch her as she passed. She spotted Pinse, Blent, and finally Jar in her peripheral vision as she walked but kept her focus on the stairs at the end of the hallway. The thrumming of power had increased in the floor above, the timber rising and falling as the Dojo Masters moved about. She entered the darkness of the staircase and as she passed upwards, she paused to listen to the faint scurrying below as the other Masters returned to their studies. She closed and opened her eyes slowly. Her focus must be absolute for the task ahead.
She came to the top of the stairs and reflected on the strangeness of being at the same level of the thrumming, as opposed to below it. Sliding open the rice paper door, she kept her head down until she had turned to return the door to its closed position. One of them was here, she was in the same room as a Master of the Dojo. She had done it before, she had won her right to stay a Master several times before. Steadying herself, she turned, chin lifted in determination.
What she saw unnerved her to the core. The Dojo Master she was to face was massive, his arms alone as big around as her body. The sacred onyx stones, near as big as her head were slung tight around his neck. He floated above the ground as Laera had known them to, but emitted a strange green glow that filled her eyes and dug itself into her mind. Whatever she remembered from last year, this was different, wrong somehow. The thing before her was twisted in its very essence and Laera fought down a tremble.
"Are you ready?" The Dojo Master's voice rumbled across the floor, startling her out of her thoughts. She nodded once, not trusting her voice. Pushing her center closer to the ground, she settled into a defensive stance.
The blow came before she knew he had moved, and the left side of her head exploded in pain as she stumbled back and darted out a hand to his eyes. She had missed, but it forced the Dojo Master back, out of her reach. There was a pause and Laera tried to ignore the warmth slipping down the side of her face. A wound already, a face wound no less. Her claws were up before here, ready for the next strike and the Dojo Master hung just outside of her reach, his own massive claws up, bloodshot eyes eating up her fear. Her own claws jerked toward him, trying to startle him into action. A tremor ran through the muscles of his shoulders, but he didn't take the bait. She tried it once again, with the same result, her claws dipping slightly in time with the frantic beating of her heart. Keeping her power at the ready for so long was difficult, and the stress was working at her mind.
Suddenly, a massive claw shot towards her face and she dodged to the right, and felt the fist connect at an odd angle, only to slip over the stream of blood to fall back behind her head. Taking the blatant opportunity, she shot a fist up with all of her power towards the Dojo Master's face. But the fist and her concentration wavered out of place as she felt her balance being broken. The massive fist that had missed clamped down on her shoulder and she felt herself being dragged forward. Twisting away as best she could under the unbreakable grip, she could do nothing when a colossal furred knee reached her gut with enough force to lift her off the ground. Pain exploded through her midsection, and every ounce of breath left her. Her eyes crossed and her focus faded immediately as she buckled. She was done, and she knew it. Failure, failure, failure, it echoed in her mind, jarring only when the vice on her shoulder release, dropping her to the floor.
She trembled on her knees, hunched over until her breath came back with a gasp. An unsteady rumble of laughter brought her eyes slowly upward. The Dojo Master above her seemed to be glowing as he laughed, a glow that concentrated between the curled claws of his hands before him. Beyond the glow, eyes stared down at her, a mad crimson ringing them. Failure, failure, they taunted her. For just a second too long.
Pain still shooting through her midsection, Laera ignored it. She was not a failure; she had won before and would do it again. Knowing her livelihood depended on one last effort, she poured every ounce of speed and power into digging her toe claws into the floor to propel her upwards, one fist extending towards the Dojo Master's stomach. She saw the glowing ball lifted above her head, but she ignored it. This was her last chance. It seemed to flow in slow motion, the worry, the pain in her gut, the ring of triumph when she felt the slip of cotton against her fist. All coherent thought shattered with an explosion of pain in the top of her skull. Something between a cough and a groan escaped her lips as she fell once again, this time into the darkness of unconsciousness. Luckily, it overtook her just in time to let the resounding knowledge of her failure echo through her mind.