A/N: HAIR!!! (Falls down laughing)
Kioko: Ugh, go read the 10th chapter of Sanne-chan's Gamer Within if you want to get the joke…
XP
Her jaw dropped and her eyes went so wide I thought they were going to pop right out of her head. She stared at me, disbelief written all over her face, and then a sudden understanding, a realization, and the next thing I knew, she threw her head back and started laughing. She laughed like a mad woman, and I thought she'd finally cracked. When I came over to her and asked her if she was all right, and to calm down, she only laughed harder and I had no idea what in the world I was suppose to do about it.
"You!" She finally gasped, "I am going to kill you!" She exclaimed, but the laughter had yet to leave her face. It was like an enormous joke had just been played on her, and she had simply decided to be a good sport about it and laugh along with everyone else.
I grinned, "Ha! I'd like to see you try." I told her, letting my voice return to its normal pitch.
"Oh wow," She said, grinning, "How do you do that? You honestly sound like a man when you want to!" She told me.
"The mask does help." I told her, holding up the hood. "And no, I haven't been sticking my tongue out at you…I've been sticking it out at your brothers." I told her, making her fall back into another round of helpless laughter.
"What in the world is going on over there?" Alzik demanded grumpily, turning over and standing up to walk towards us. I swiftly slipped the hood back over my face, stuffing my braid back into my clothes, before turning to Aizira's brother.
"I was telling your sister when I accidentally angered a herd of chickens, and was nearly beaten to death." I answered calmly, my voice back to its male tone.
"He was showing me the scars he still had from that! It was hilarious!" Aizira told her brother.
Alzik stared at me for a moment, and then he shook his head, "Right, Amon telling funny stories, I'm dreaming. Goodnight." He said, going back to bed.
"So what's your real name? It can't be Amon." Aizira asked.
"It's Kaida, but since you're brothers aren't likely to fall in love with me as a man, I'd prefer they not know." I told her.
"Your secret's more than safe with me." She grinned, "Gods, you even fought like a man, better. You're so strong too. I don't suppose you'd mind giving me a few lessons in combat, would you?" She asked.
"I'm not that good of a teacher, I'll warn you now. All I can do is spar with you and try to help you get better." I told her.
"I don't care, I just want to spar with someone who won't make fun of my using swords." She answered.
"Then go grab your scimitars and get out of that annoying dress." I told her. And she did just that.
XD
"Try to concentrate on everything at once, don't allow your vision to narrow down to my eyes or my chest or my feet, see everything your eyes can take in at one time. Study the way I move, look for weak points, memorize the moves I use against you and plan how to defend yourself against them. Learn to assess what I'm going to do by my posture and body language, but don't rely too much on predicting my moves because I could be faking. Your strength is limited, so think of a way you can use mine against me." I instructed.
"Right!" She said, and our swords clashed again.
"Keep coming after me, just because I countered once doesn't mean I can do it over and over again!" I told her, "Don't flinch, not ever, and not for anything. Expect everything, learn to feel my moves as though they were yours. When I hit you," I kicked her in the stomach, and she gasped, "Don't allow your pain to show. Pain is a consequence of battle, it is the body's natural reaction to harm, recognize it, and accept it like you accept the sensation of clothing upon your skin. Physical pain is an illusion, it's good for you, it makes you feel alive, it cements your existence. Pain is a tool to use against your enemies. An opponent who does not show their pain makes the enemy nervous, it'll trip them up, make them think they're fighting something that is more than human."
"That's not very easy to do." She said.
"Of course it isn't, if it were, anyone could do it. That is simply a goal for you to move towards. Don't allow pain itself to slow you down, instead use it to fuel you. Take that sensation into your center, and then spread it out to the rest of your body in a different form." I blocked her swords, and kicked her back once again. Our swords locked, and for a while we simply spared. She was good, she was really good, but she was still a novice. She wouldn't have been able to defeat Orzan, but she could have held her own against plenty of those amateurs he was teaching. Her problem was that she didn't have anywhere near the experience that I did, and defeating her was child's play. I was going easy on her, of course, she couldn't learn if I didn't give her the chance to defend herself.
"Wait, stop." I said, and she did so, standing up from her crouched position to wait for what I had to say. I sheathed my blades and came over to her, "Let me see your swords." I said, and she did so, "I think what you're doing is you're treating them like two different weapons, when they're not." I said, performing, in slow motion, some of the prince's double-bladed moves to show her. "They are a single, a whole, treat them as such, hold them as such. Let them work together, become a single entity. The moment you take them into your hands, they are a part of your body, they are an extension of your limbs. Like a tiger's claws or a dog's teeth. These are your fangs, learn to use them like the animals of the wild." I said, handing them back to her.
She nodded and took them back. Our swords clashed, a few minutes later I knocked her back again. "Good!" I said, "That's much better! Let's go again."
"Would you mind not teaching our sister more refined ways of kicking our butts?" Alzik asked, and I turned to find that he and Tormal had been watching us. For how long, I couldn't say.
"Actually I do mind. Your sister has an unusual talent, it would be a shame to waste it." I answered.
"He's going easy on you, you know." Alzik told his sister, and she gave him a filthy look that clearly told him to shut up.
"Of course I am." I said before she could retort, "How will she learn if she's not even given the opportunity to perfect her style? One cannot hope to get better if one struggles against an opponent who defeats them within two seconds." I said.
"I can't believe you're even bothering to teach her!" He exploded. "The better she is the more trouble she can get herself into!"
"Alzik just shut—"
"No, Aizira! I forbid it! You're not learning how to fight any better than you can, especially not from a master like Amon! And you!" He rounded on me, "I'd better not catch you teaching her anything! You're just leading her into a world of trouble! There's no place for a woman who can fight, I'd have thought with all your intelligence you would understand that!"
I wanted to kill him so badly, it was almost painful. "I'm sorry, Mr. Alzik, but I forgot the part where it was your choice what Miss Aizira decides to do with her life."
"Then you've got a lot to learn about how things work around here. I don't know what a woman's roll is in your land, but here Aizira is my responsibility. I'm her oldest brother, and in the absence of our father it falls on me to decide her future!" He told me.
I turned to Aizira, who was looking murderous, "Can I kill him?" I asked her, which took Alzik very much aback.
"No, no, he's my brother, and however much of an idiot he is, I still love him and I can't let you kill him." She answered with a heavy sigh.
I turned to Alzik, "Fine then, just answer me this; how is your society's views on a woman's rights going to change if you won't even allow your own sister to decide what she wants to do with her life?" I demanded.
"I'm not going to let her get herself killed because of something so stupid!" He bellowed.
"That's not your choice!" I yelled back, "This is her life! She is not your property, she does not belong to you! Women are not born to be the slaves of men! That's what animals are for! Are you telling me that you're sister is no more than a simple animal to you!? Don't her thoughts and feelings matter!? Are you going to make a slave out of her just like those bandits would have done!? Control her life, force her to do what you think she should!?"
"Of course not! I just want to protect her!"
"Let her learn to protect herself, then you won't have to! You just don't want her to be free from you, do you? You enjoy having her dependant upon you! You like the thought of holding that power over her! You don't love her, you own her!" I yelled angrily.
"THAT'S NOT TRUE!!!" He yelled, lunging after me with his sword.
"THEN PROVE IT!!!" I roared, grabbing his wrist and hitting him in the stomach with my knee. He crumbled to the ground, coughing up a little blood at my feet, "Let her make her own decisions! Stop being a coward, stop being such a selfish b(beep) and give her the freedom that a woman like her deserves!!!" I ordered, slamming my foot down on his back. "How would you like it, hm? How would you like it if I decided I was going to make your decisions for you because I was stronger than you? How do you think you would feel about that? How do you think she feels about that!? I will not stop teaching her, not so long as she wants me to, and this time, I'm not going to let you have a choice in this matter. You are just going to sit back like a good little boy, and you are going to accept what I'm doing because there is absolutely nothing that you can do about it! See if you'll understand how women feel about having their lives controlled by men like you." I said, and I kicked him across the sand to where he rolled back over to where Tormal, who looked shocked out of his mind, was still standing.
Alzik struggled to his feet, clutching his stomach, and glaring at me, "Aizira, you…"
"I'm not your property, Alzik." She said in a defiant, yet shaky voice. "Amon's right, I want to be free, I want to make my own decisions. I'm going to let Amon teach me how to fight whether you like it or not."
He didn't argue, instead he turned away from us and began stalking away, apparently intent on a good long walk. "He'll be back." Aizira assured me, "He does this every time he doesn't get his way. It's really immature." She told me, smiling weakly in an attempt to lighten the mood.
"Hey, Aizira?" Tormal said, a bit sheepishly, "I don't have a problem with you learning how to fight better, I think it's a good thing. Just don't tell Alzik I said that, okay?"
Aizira smiled at him, "Thanks Tormal, I won't." She said.
"Um…could I…" He looked at me, and smiled rather timidly, "Have a lesson too?" He asked hopefully.
I smiled, though they couldn't really see my mouth, he could see it in my eyes, and my voice, "Sure thing." I answered.
When Alzik finally returned we set off again. This time, however, as apart of our training, I had Aizira run along the cart rather than ride in it, and even got out to run with her just to keep up my own speed and stamina. Tormal, eager for the same lessons as Aizira, got out and ran with us, leaving Alzik to man the reins, as always, only this time he tried to get Bano, the horse, to go faster than we could run. He refused, though, and even slowed down whenever Aizira or Tormal had to take a breather and drink some water.
Eventually they both got too tired and went back into the cart. I ran for a bit longer before hopping on in with them.
Alzik was frosty towards me for the next to days, pretending he didn't care as Aizira, Tormal, and I spent the mornings training, and then running along the cart. But he was frosty towards the other two as well, yet I knew that if he thought he could get away with it, he would strike me down where I stood. But it wasn't just that he hadn't gotten his way, I soon realized. It was because what I'd said to him had cut him deeply. He was wondering whether he didn't honestly see his sister as being no more worthy of freedom than Bano, and that was conflicting with his desire to protect her. He was like a mother who was having to let go of her children and trust that they could make their own way into the world, only society rules made it plausible that he wouldn't ever have to let Aizira make her own way. And here I was, stepping in and giving her the exact tools she needed to do just that.
Two more days passed, until finally Alzik seemed to come to a decision, and he asked, very formally, and very politely, if I would be willing to teach him as well.
I looked him in the eyes for a moment, just to make him nervous, and make him think that I was about to refuse and laugh at him for even bothering to ask. But then I smiled, and held out my hand for his, "Of course." I said, and he shook my hand, a smile on his own face.
Aizira cheered, and Tormal let out a sigh of relief that made the both of us chuckle.
XD
"I know it hurts like hell, but trust me, burning your wounds with a hot knife not only closes the wound, but cleans it of all those things that could infect it, so does alcohol, believe it or not. We don't need you getting sick on us." I said, having to hold Alzik down with Tormal's help in order to press the dagger that I'd placed in the fire onto his gash. He let out a cry of pain, and struggled, but I wouldn't relent, and kept it up until the wound had been burned closed. I took a towel of lukewarm water and dabbed the wound with it, which caused him to hiss, but he eventually relaxed and, after a while, I exchanged the lukewarm water for the cold water of the river, making sure to put a bit of the alcohol they had into it before using it. "There, all done, we just have to wrap it up."
"I'm really sorry!" Aizira exclaimed for, like, the hundredth time. "I seriously thought you were going to block me!"
"This is what I get for underestimating my own sister." Alzik grumbled, rubbing his face with his hand to wipe off the sweat.
We wrapped it up and got Alzik up into the cart. The cut was a nasty one, but he would live, and Aizira took the reins. "I've been meaning to ask you." I said, coming over to sit down next to her, speaking in an undertone. "You've come along this rout before, right? Is it usual for you to go so long without being attacked?" I asked her.
Aizira's hands dropped to her lap and her eyes widened as she stared at me, "No…no it isn't, it definitely isn't." She answered.
"And, have you had the feeling that, ever since we started out this way from Babylon…we're being watched?" I asked.
"I…what do you mean?" She asked quietly.
"Either someone's watching over us, making sure that we aren't bothered by anyone else for good reasons, or because they're biding their time before they come in for the kill. Like they've been taking note of us, and have been waiting until they feel they're in the best position for us to surrender." I answered.
"If that's the case, what do we do?" She asked.
"Don't know, but giggle like a little girl and pretend I just said something romantic to throw off suspicion." I told her, and she did just that.
"Alright, break it up you two!" Alzik exclaimed angrily, "Tormal, get up there and sit between them!" He ordered.
"But there's not enough room." Tormal said.
"Then make room!" He exclaimed.
"Oh be quiet, Alzik!" Aizira exclaimed, turning around to glare at him. She then leaned in to whisper in my ear, "Hey, want to play a mean trick on my brothers and pretend to be in love?" She asked, but making her tone that of an excited and giggly girl.
"If only to see the look on their faces when they realize I'm actually a girl." I answered in a deep, husky voice that, for all the world, made it sound as though we were talking about naughty stuff.
"HEY!!! YOU STAY THREE FEET AWAY FROM MY SISTER AT ALL TIMES BUDDY!!!" Alzik ordered.
"Afraid there's not enough room on the seat for that, Mr. Alzik." I told him, letting some of my amusement show in my voice.
"Then get off the seat!!! Tormal get him off the seat! Shove him off if you have to!" Alzik ordered.
"Er…leave me out of this!" Tormal exclaimed.
"SHE'S YOUR SISTER TOO YOU COWARD!!!" He yelled.
The two of us were laughing so hard, I was actually having a hard time staying on the cart.
I still could not shake that feeling though. I knew, I knew something was out there, or someone was out there.
Sacrosanct?
"Yes?"
Can you tell me anything about what's watching us? I asked her.
"It has two feet, two arms, and smells horribly. Or rather, most of them do. There's one that seems to have had a decent shower in the past few days." She answered.
Gee, thanks, that, that really helps right there. I mean other than their hygiene!?
"I'm not omnipotent, girl, contrary to popular belief."
I'm shocked.
"Watch it."
Watch what? Your nonexistent face glaring invisibly at me?
"Such a precious little girl, I really don't see how you can keep all the boys off you."
Right now I'm not a girl, though. So that would be why.
"Yes, you have successfully become a cross-dresser. I'm sure your parents would be so proud of you if they weren't such f(beep)ing cowards."
Yo momma.
"Haha. They're trying to talk to you, you know."
I felt myself being pulled back into reality, and I turned to see that Aizira was staring at me. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Where were you?" She asked me, "The clouds?"
"Meditation." I answered.
"Oh. Sorry I didn't realize."
"Does that help?" Asked Tormal eagerly.
"Typically, especially if your thoughts are clouded." I answered.
"Anyway, we'll reach the Kardassian Ruins in a few days, and unfortunately it's the swiftest and easiest rout through this area, even if it's the most dangerous." She told me.
"Why is it the most dangerous?" I asked, remembering her telling her brothers they could get through this place with me on their side that first night.
"Because it's a whole lot of ancient ruins from a long time ago, and the remains of whatever fortresses were there makes it very easy to ambush travelers." Answered Alzik. "We've been lucky so far, but going through there, we won't be. Just to warn you, there's no chance involved with this. You go through those ruins, you will get ambushed and attacked. This is the biggest reason we wanted an extra blade, because the trek through here turns what was a 2 month journey to India into a 3 week journey, provided we don't spend an entire month fighting off brigands."
"I see." I said giving Aizira a darkly significant look, which she could see in my eyes. She and I both knew that, whoever was following us, that was where they were going to attack us, no doubt about it.
Bring it on.
XP
Kaida: No one messes with me and walks away unscathed!
DP: Rawr! ):D
Kaida: Hahahahaha, shut up.
DP: Oh you know you want it!
Prince: BACK OFF!!! I WAS HERE FIRST!!!
DP: Technically, I am you, so you can't exactly use that excuse.
Aizira: Heheheheheh (Appears out of nowhere with a HUGE mallet in her hands)
DP: 0.o Wow, you can actually lift something like tha—hey now! (Dodges her attempt to squish him) Don't kid yourself there, girl, there's no way in hell you'll be able to catch me with that!
Aizira: Maybe not when you know I'm trying. ):D
Kaida: Looks like you'll be having to watch your step from now on.
DP: Yeah, sure, whatever you say. Where's the authoress by the way? Is she still sleeping?
Kioko: No, she's right here, (Comes in dragging a very reluctant Rhea by her tail)
Rhea: (Huge hat covering her head and eyes) So, ah…who, who wants to do the FAQ!?
Kaida: O.o…um, what's with the hat?
Rhea: Oh, oh nothing, I just feel like wearing a hat is all!
DP: (Snickers and swipes it off her head) heheheheh.
Rhea: NOOOOOOOO!!!! (covers head) ;.;
Aizira: What the—what's up with her?
Kioko: Oh, the Dark Prince took her horns (Chapter 5 of the Drabbles page).
Kaida: Oh, well, ah, you know—
Rhea: YOU THINK I'M UGLY!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! (Runs away crying)
DP: Now that's funny.
Kaida: You're horrible.
Kioko: I guess I'll do the FAQ this time around.
Q: So who's been following them?
A: You'll find out. Heheheh.
Q: Are Kaida and Aizira going to keep pretending to be flirting with each other just to tick off Alzik?
A: What, you have to ask? Of course they are! Making boys squirm is too fun for them not to!
Q: Does Sacrosanct even have a mother?
A: Er, unless you count Kaida, nope, not really.
Q: Is Alzik eventually going to try and kill 'Amon'?
A: Yeah, probably.
Q: Will he learn that he's a she?
A: Eventually, but not until we have some fun! Heheheh.
Kioko: Well I'm lazy, so I'm going to stop it there for now. R&R and all that crap.