Anyways, so that Avirilli doesn't have to needle me -glares at her once again- I don't own The Ronin Warriors, some wonderful imaginative rich people do. So please don't sue me, because if you do Avirilli might attack you, and I don't want my readers hurt. -Avirilli looks as if she's going to attack Windsong, not the readers...- However, I DO own Hilaris and Halicyon and Kionden and Inokian and Serusin and Acitis and everything that clearly was not in the original RW storyline. -beams-
And by the way, in this, the Ancient never died. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier. And if he's a bit OOC, please don't flame me— there wasn't enough of him in the series for me to properly examine his character.
Enjoy!
Fur and Field
By Windsong
Chapter Nine: A Family Feud
Written April 2000
"So, my daughter," continued Talpa after a few moments, "I could just kill off the other Ronins, even if they did put up a fight—I have enough numbers to overwhelm them, plus Lady Calamity and Lord Pestilence." Hilaris saw Halicyon's face assume a look of simmering anger. "But I will offer you a proposal. Will you not join me?"
"No." Hilaris replied flatly.
"Perhaps you do not understand." said her father, unruffled by her answer. "If you join the Dynasty, I would give you an honored, powerful position. You would have wealth and power beyond the reaches of your imagination. You would be my second-in-command, my advisor, who would lead our armies in battle, and have authority even over Calamity and Pestilence." At this, Inokian and Kionden bristled. "All this and more I would give to you, if you joined me. Surely you would not refuse such an offer?" Talpa inquired.
Fauna snorted rudely, crossing her arms. "What does any of that matter to me?" she asked scornfully. "I need none of that. And you of all people should know how mulish I can be. My answer is no, and it's staying no."
Talpa's voice took on an imperious, commanding tone. "Hilaris Monoceros, by the power bestowed in me by Serusinian custom, I order you as your father to join the Dynasty and take your rightful place by my side."
Halicyon gasped. Sai turned to her. "What, Hali?"
"Serusinian Customs go back to our world's creation," Halicyon said anxiously. "They are revered, and serve as our laws. They are so sacred that even the Serusinian Gods follow them. If you break a custom, the punishment is death, and not just any death—your death will be cursed by the Gods, so that you never gain rest, and are doomed to wander the halls of the Kingdom of Death forever. Because he called upon the power of Serusinian Custom, she has to obey him."
"Oh, no," moaned Rowen softly.
Hilaris seemed to consider this for a moment before she laughed, scornfully and bitterly. "I said no, Sire. And," her voice rose, "what power do you have over me?! What right have you to employ the power of Serusinian Custom? YOU DESTROYED OUR WORLD!"
The purple armored young woman pulled one of her ninja-to out of its sheath and pointed it at his face. "You killed your wife, my mother," she said in a dangerously soft voice that carried throughout the room. "I saw you, saw you choke her until she hung limp in your grasp. Then you threw her into the air and used her for target practice." She trembled with grief and fury. "You dishonored her spirit and her memory by scarring her body past recognition. And then you went on to send out the order to hunt down and kill my brother, and murder every Serusinian that was on our world. You did not follow the Customs. You destroyed them. So who are you, to invoke custom?!" She yelled. "After breaking every Custom, you think you have the right?!?!"
She took a deep breath, sheathed her sword, and seemed to draw her emotions in so that they boiled within her spirit and not across her face. "Talpa Gazun, I will not join you."
Talpa would not take no for an answer. He tried another track. "I remember when you were just a little one," he said softly, affectionately, "and you tried to say my full name, Gazun Monoceros. But you were so young, you could only come up with Gazeros."
"Those memories are dead," she said harshly. "They died when you killed my family. And never say my family name."
"It's my family name, too," Gazun reminded his daughter gently.
"Under Serusinian Custom, that is no longer your family name. You have no family name, so that the curse set upon you by the Gods will not effect or shame your family. You are one of the Pohali, the cursed nameless ones, doomed to never have rest again and wander for eternity."
"Why you little wench!" the ruler of the Dynasty yelled. "How dare you speak to your father in such a way?!"
"YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!" She roared back. "Youstopped being my father and became Pohali the second you ran away like a coward and joined the Dynasty!"
The words of this last statement hung in the air, and Talpa made no reply for a long time. "All right, Hilaris Monoceros," he said after a while, his voice imperious once more. "I am not going to go into that. But you WILL join me."
Rowen gasped to Hilaris' side. She whirled to see Strata rise into the air, fighting with an invisible force that was locked around his throat. "Rowen!" she screamed, as she, Kento and Halicyon tried to grab Rowen's legs and drag him back to the ground.
"No—don't—" he tried to yell at them, but it came out as a harsh whisper that was magnified through the room's acoustics. He began to cough as the invisible grip tightened slowly.
Rowen's friends stopped, and Hilaris jerked around to face her father's eyes, eyes full of hate and challenge. Inokian and Kionden started forward at the raw emotions which spilled from her eyes, but a quick order from Gazun in a growling, guttural language made them halt. However, they kept their staves at the ready.
Gazun looked back triumphantly into Hilaris' eyes. "Join me, or Strata dies."
Furious at such blackmailing, The Storm Falcon opened her mouth to scream insults at her father—and then heard Rowen cough harshly and gasp for air as the choking hold on his trachea grew slightly tighter. She grew uncertain, and hesitated.
------
"It's been fifteen minutes, and still no word," Ryo said worriedly, pacing back and forth across the living room rug. "I think Calamity and Pestilence really did attack them."
Suddenly, they all stiffened as they heard Sai scream, as if from a great distance. ""Ryo! Sage! Kento!" He cried out. "Help! Inokian and Kionden are back—I can't beat them alone—" then a final yell, and ringing silence fell across the room.
"Well, I guess that answers our question," Kento said weakly, standing up. "So let's go, then?"
"Yeah, but where? We don't know if they're still on earth, in Serusin, on Acitis or somewhere else." Sage said sensibly. "I don't think we can do too much to help right now, because we know too little."
"You can do much to help," a new voice said. The Ancient's staff glowed, and the ageless monk stepped forward.
"Ancient!" Ryo said, surprised. "Can you tell us where the others are?"
"They were taken by the Master of Pestilence and the Mistress of Calamity to Master Talpa."
"And where is Talpa?" Kento pressed.
"On Acitis, with his minions, your friends, and his daughter."
"He has a daughter? What's her name?" Sage asked.
"She has many names, but the one most widely used for her is The Storm Falcon."
"Hilaris is Talpa's daughter?!" all three yelled.
"Yes, yes," the Ancient said in an exasperated tone, waving the words aside. "Now do you want to save them or not? You're running out of time."
"Of course we do. They're our friends." Ryo said, eyes determined.
"Then here." The Ancient offered his staff to Ryo. Wildfire took it, puzzled.
"What can Ryo do with your staff?" inquired Kento.
"Go to the top of the highest building in Tokyo. From there, point towards the North Star, and yell out the names of your friend's armors. My staff will then transport you as close as possible to your friends. Oh, and one more thing," he said, turning to Mia and Yuli, "You two cannot go with them."
"What!? But—" Yuli started to whine.
"No. You two are not going. I will put a spell around this house to protect you, but you cannot follow them. You would distract them, and on Acitis a distraction can lead to death. And Acitis is no place for someone with no fighting training."
"All right, we won't go with them," Mia said, sounding a bit annoyed as she clamped her hand over Yuli's mouth to stop him from whining and dragged him off.
"Thank you for helping us, Ancient," Sage said, bowing. Is there anything else we might need to know?"
"Only this—remember, Acitis is black world that will slowly poison your soul if you do not have magical protection. That's another reason I did not want Mia and Yuli tagging along. That means, before you teleport there—before you even leave this house—put on your sub-armors. Do not take them off for anything. If you feel your soul giving in to the poison—it will feel like a blackness is enveloping your soul—do not hesitate to call your full armor. That will keep the poison at bay. Understand?"
"Yes, Ancient. Thank you." Ryo said.
The monk then pulled his right hand into a fist, and then opened it to reveal five little balls of light, each colored red, orange, green, dark blue, or light blue. The little balls spun in a circle as the moved upwards, vanishing into the ceiling. A few seconds later, a brilliant flash of white light streamed through the windows for a second before vanishing.
"Now this house is protected," the Ancient said, turning to go. "Good Luck."
"One more question before you go, please!" Kento called after the monk.
The Ancient turned again to face them, eyes overly patient. "What is it?"
"Do you know who made our armors?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do." The monk settled back on his heels, his mouth turned up ever so slightly at the corners. "I made them."
"You did?"
"Yes. I was but a young monk-mage then, and I wanted to do something that would affect the worlds for eternity."
"So you're from Serusin, too." Sage noted.
"All of you have some Serusinian blood in you, because your families are originally from Serusin. And I, too, am from one of the oldest families in Serusin. In fact, The Darkness Aster is one of my kin."
"Jeez, new surprises at every turn," muttered Kento. "I wonder what else they've been hiding from us?"
"Now, I must go," The Ancient said, bowing. "Once again, may Jerinna, goddess of luck and endings, smile upon your endeavours." And he was gone.
-Devilish grin- The next chapter is the last chapter, followed by an epilogue. The ending takes heavily from some literature I've just read, I don't know if anyone will spot it.
Well, ja ne!
Windsong/Windy-chan - windsong 137 at gmail dot com
"Even joy can become pain / Even stone can love again" -Featherdust