So, here's the deal. You don't have to have read this for 'Pits' to make sense and you don't really have to have read 'Pits' for this to make sense. It's just some background story on some of the characters. K? But if you haven't read that story, you won't be able to figure out how in the world this fits into this fandom.
Enjoy.
Splinters: Jai
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria
He dropped into a crouch just outside the stables, one hand lightly settling onto the building's side to keep himself steady. Balanced on his toes, he leaned forwards just enough for his electric blue eyes to peak around the corner. The pure white hair of a horse's tail filled his vision for a heartbeat, and then he could see it.
A large, golden carriage stood glinting in the bright morning sunlight. Dozens of servants garbed in the arrogant style of the palace servants were carting gilded boxes. An entire legion of warriors decked out in silver-etched armor were lounging around the area. Literally hundreds of lesser servants and slaves were scurrying around, loading up small carts and taking care of the horses.
"Jai!" a girl hissed as she dropped down onto the ground next to him. "You're not allowed to be here."
"I'm going to be a servant soon too, Mea - I can be here." He didn't take his eyes off of the palace servants that were strutting around like jewel encrusted peacocks. A very small part of him wanted to crack a few jokes at the 'fashionable' style of the highest servants… the rest of him was dying to be one of them. They were as high as a person of his birth could ever rise. Someday, maybe, he'd be a servant to the King himself.
"Yeah," the girl muttered, pushing her thick black hair out of her eyes, "you'll just be one of those sweating idiots carrying heavy boxes of junk around."
He pushed himself away from the corner, twisting around to glare at his elder sister. Energy flared around him for the briefest of moments making his eyes glow. "I'm talented," he snapped, "that'll get me somewhere."
Mea grinned. "I'm so scared of you, little brother. You can make your eyes glow." Her grin faded as her blue eyes settled on the busy square beyond Jai's shoulder. "We really shouldn't be here – the Guardians will kill us if they find us spying on the palace staff."
"I want to see what they're doing," he whispered. Crawling a little closer, he snuck his head back around the corner and squinted into the bright sunlight. "I think the King is going to be here."
"King Aldren?" Mea's voice took on a soft squeak and she was suddenly beside her brother, peering into the bustling area. "Do you think we'll really get to see him?"
"That's the royal coach, right?" Jai muttered. "Makes sense that there'd be a royal person in it. And I heard that they're getting the King's ship ready to leave. And there's a rumor going on that the King is going to pay royalties to Pariah, I bet that's where they're going."
A throat was cleared behind them. The two children froze in place, waiting for the deep-voiced man to say something. They didn't have to wait long. "Tradeshijai and Tradeshimea…"
Jai winced, slowly turning around and getting to his feet, not quite able to meet the emerald eyes of the Guardian. Swallowing heavily, he tried to raise his gaze, but found himself staring at the pendant hanging from the muscular man's neck rather than his face. "Lakameteradei," he whispered as respectfully as he could while he tried to prevent his knees from shaking, "it's nice to see you again."
"Would you care to explain what you were doing here… again?" The golden seahorse pendant trembled and vibrated as the large man spoke.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye at his sister, he noticed how pale she had gotten. He took a deep breath. "I wanted to see King Aldren," he finally muttered.
"I was following Jai," his sister managed to rasp.
A heavy silence fell down between the three, only broken by the soft breathing of the two siblings and a long, protracted sigh from the Guardian. "Mea, go home. I'll talk to you later," the man rumbled before dropping a hand onto Jai's shoulder. After the girl had scrambled down the alley and had vanished, he continued. "Tradeshijai – what am I going to do with you?"
"Give me a warning and let me go?"
"Not likely." The Guardian steered Jai down the alley, keeping a strong hand on the boy's shoulder. "This is the seventh time I've caught you spying on the palace. Try again."
Jai bit his lip, keeping his eyes fixed on the cobbled stones of the small side street. "I could clean out the stables…"
"You've done that five times before and you haven't learned from that yet." L'Dei let out a sigh and stopped in the dark shadows. "Jai," he said as he crouched down. For the first time, the boy looked the Guardian in the eyes. Electric blue met sizzling green. "You've got to stop doing this. If someone else would have caught you, you'd be brought before the Court."
"What's the harm in watching them fill some stupid carts?" Jai felt his eyes flare a little and desperately clamped down on his feelings. It would be an insanely idiotic idea to anger the Guardian any more than he already had.
L'Dei raised one eyebrow. "Have you stopped to consider that maybe they aren't merely filling 'some stupid carts'? What if they were doing something important?"
"Like bringing money to King Pariah?" The words slipped out of his mouth before Jai could stop them. He tensed as the Guardian's eyes narrowed.
"Where did you hear that?" the large man whispered, his powerful hand clamping tighter on Jai's shoulder.
"Just rumors," he squirmed, "I don't know really what's going on."
Impossibly green eyes stared into his, gazing down into the depths of his mind. "You are far too clever for your own good, Tradeshijai. It's going to get you killed someday… or it's going to get someone else killed."
Jai kept his mouth closed. Sure, this might have been the seventh time he'd allowed himself to be caught, but he wasn't stupid. He was already in a deep pit of trouble – there was really no need to go and make the hole any deeper.
"Let's go talk to Deshi."
Jai's stomach plummeted. If there was one thing worse that being caught spying by his father's best friend, it was being brought home by his father's best friend. His father was bound to overreact. "Do we have to?"
"Yes," the man pushed himself gracefully to his feet and began to effortlessly direct the young man down the street towards his family's home. "I haven't had one of your mother's wonderful ales in a while."
Jai was sitting in the kitchen of his family's ale house, kicking his feet against the chair legs as he contemplated the various horrible tortures that were about to ensue. As he had expected, his father had exploded like one of the King's fireworks – spectacular, loud, colorful, and quick. His mother, however, had simmered like a pot of sugar syrup. At the very least, Jai expected he'd be on double-shift drudge duty for the next few weeks.
He could almost hear his parents' voices drift through the ancient wooden wall of the ale house. It was just a distant murmur as they chatted with Lakameteradei and he let it flow through him as he closed his eyes and let his head thump softly back against the wall.
"He's a curious boy," the large Guardian was saying, accompanied by the dull clump of the metal cup hitting the hard table.
"He's going to get himself killed," his father put in. Jai wrinkled his nose in disagreement, but remained completely silent.
"I'm not so sure, Deshi," L'Dei rumbled. "He's smart – talented too."
A few soft clinks of glasses touching. "…a handful," his mother's voice suddenly slipped into existence, "I'm at a loss as to what to do. None of his friends are like this. I've never heard of any boy getting into this much trouble."
"He's got friends?" his father cut in. "Since when?"
"Have you stopped to think that might be the problem?" the Guardian said thoughtfully. "Maybe if he had friends… or something to otherwise occupy his time?"
"Any ideas?"
"Have you thought of sending him up to the servant's quarters for training?"
His father's voice dropped sourly. "He'd think it'd be fun to be in the palace, L'Dei. It wouldn't be much of a punishment. Besides – he's my son. He'll inherit the ale house and work here when he grows up."
Jai clenched his fingers into a tight fist and bit his lip to keep from saying anything. He hated this ale house. The last thing he wanted to do was work in this boring place. Mea could have it for all he cared – she actually enjoyed making ales and washing cups. He wanted to see the world.
He was so wrapped up in his outraged ranting that he missed what was said next. By the time he had calmed down enough to listen to his parents again, they had apparently moved on to a new topic. Silently he cursed. He'd probably missed hearing what his punishment would be.
"Has he shown any aptitude yet?" Jai's whole body went still at the Guardian's question. Aptitude? A small shiver slithered up his back as his body tensed. They wouldn't…
"He's got talent, we're sure," his mother's soft voice answered, "but all he can seem to do is make his eyes glow. We haven't seen anything else – and he would have told us."
Jai could hear L'Dei's sigh from the kitchen. "If only he'd show some talent… that's really disappointing. I keep watching him grow and crossing my fingers that something will come up, but he'll get too old soon. It's been generations since your family has shown any talent at all – and your unique abilities would have been helpful right about now."
Safely ensconced in another room, Jai managed a roll of his eyes. He was, personally, sick of hearing about the exploits of his ancestors and their 'special abilities'. He was rather happy that his talent seemed to be nothing more than a vague aura of power and having the ability to make his eyes glow. Besides, if he showed any sort of special skills what-so-ever, the Guardians would snatch him up without a second thought. If there was one thing he figured that would be worse than being stuck in an ale house for the rest of his life, it was being stuck as a Guardian for the rest of his life. On the positive side, once he turned twelve he would be officially too old to be put through training – and he was within months of his twelfth birthday.
"My son isn't going to go to war," his mother insisted again. He could imagine her normal grey eyes filling with a sparkling fire. A resounding clunk drifted through the wall as she slammed her cup down against the tabletop. "He will not become a Guardian and be shipped off to fight and die."
"I agree," his father soothed, "but L'Dei's plan has merit."
Jai's breath stopped in his throat. No… please, no… They had threatened him a million times, but they wouldn't. His mother was too much of a peace activist to allow them to do that.
"It'd give him structure, discipline, and boys his own age to talk to. It'd keep him out of trouble." The Guardian's deep voice made Jai's heart sink into his stomach.
"My son is not going to go fight in that stupid war!"
"He won't," L'Dei's voice cut through her muttered objections. "He won't ever become a Guardian – he doesn't have the raw talent and he doesn't have the lineage to make it. But the training would be good for him. It only lasts a few months and it's open to any child that has a Guardian's recommendation."
"After that," his father added, clearly having decided to agree with his best friend on the matter, "he'd be free to come home and hopefully have grown out of this wild streak."
Jai didn't want to listen any more. They were thinking about sending him off to Guardian training camp for a few months. Endless lists of rules, harsh consequences for the smallest of problems, hour after hour of intense military training… He squeezed his eyes shut, biting deeper into his lip to keep from screaming out of frustration. Sure, he was too curious for his own good and yeah, he spent too much time putting together rumors and trying to figure out what was going on in the world – but that didn't mean he needed to be sent to Guardian training camp.
"Just for a few months?" his mother asked softly.
Jai shook his head, feeling his eyes start to burn. Some of his worst nightmares included Guardian training camps. He wanted to get up and run into the ale house proper, throw himself at his mother's feet and beg for this to not happen. He'd do anything to not go to the training camps. He'd change his ways… he'd promise…
"Then he'd be back? No going to war?" She sounded like she wasn't convinced, but she was definitely wavering.
The boy held perfectly still, curling his toes in his soft boots, letting his mind race as he tried to figure out what to do. There was no way his mother would listen to his promises. He'd broken them too many times to count. He had to get away from this; he didn't want to hear this anymore. He'd rather by anywhere else.
"I promise," L'Dei's deep voice replied, power and sincerity ringing through the house like the death toll of a ship's bell.
Swallowing heavily, Jai's eyes squeezed closed as tightly as possible. He wanted to get away. His stomach was rolling and he almost felt like he was going to be sick. He wanted to go somewhere… anywhere…
His mind suddenly latched onto an image of the city's north wall. A long time ago, he'd used to play on the north wall with his best friend. It'd been a safe place where he'd been happy and there hadn't been a care in the world. That's where he wanted to be.
"I suppose…" his mother worried, her cup clinking repeatedly against the table top as she thought it over.
Power built up around Jai almost against his will. He curled up around his stomach as blue flames danced into existence around him. Trembling, he tried to clamp down on the rush of energy as it flickered and flared. He knew L'Dei would feel it and come in to see what was up. There was no need for the Guardian to know how powerful Jai really was. It was better for the man to think he was just a barely talented kid doomed to run an ale house for the rest of eternity.
The kitchen door clicked. Jai's head shot up, anxiety swirling in his stomach like a pot full of angry bees. He really didn't want to be in the kitchen.
Then, abruptly, he wasn't.
By the time the kitchen door had swung completely open, Jai was sitting on top of the north wall, his lunch having decided to come back up the way it had gone down. When his stomach settled down a little, he moaned and curled his arms around his stomach, unable to really comprehend what had happened.
Back in the kitchen, however, the green-eyed Guardian was staring at the stop where he'd seen Jai vanish, an odd mixture of sadness and confusion evident on his face.
Written June 24, 2007
Queires? No queieres? Estas confudido?
Thanks for reading!
