Fun at the Circus
"How can....a human.....travel so.....fast?" Sherra asked pantingly. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. This was humiliating, she was being out distanced by a human sorceress.
~She is a sorceress, after all.~ The sword suggested. ~Maybe its an enchantment of some type.~ Sherra looked down the road, she could still see the dust cloud fortunately. The woman wasn't far off. ~And are you sure you don't want me to....help you a little?~
"Well, I'm still bleeding red, but I'm almost twice as fast and strong as a human can get," Sherra said catching her breath. "I showed you I can channel power again. I can handle most things."
~There is something else.~
"Just a little hungry," she shrugged. "I'll do some hunting later."
~I see.~
"I think I can handle this. But I'm not running anymore." It took Sherra a moment to recreate the spell in her mind, she hadn't had much use for human magic until now. The magic came to her call, perhaps not as smoothly as Lina could when she had magic, but it came anyway. "RAYWING!!"
The girl rose up into the sky and followed the retreating dust cloud.
"Val would you at least try to be quiet?" Xina whispered. "You're going to get us..."
"Excuse me," a clown extended an arm to block Xina and Val.
"...caught," Xina finished under breath.
"But I don't know you two."
"That's probably because you've never seen us before," Xina answered cheerfully. The clown narrowed his eyes as Val facefaulted.
"And just what are you doing here?"
"I just thought that maybe we could get some pointers by....watching you?" Xina and Val looked around noticing that they'd been surrounded by a bunch of irate circus performers.
"I don't think they like that idea," Val muttered.
"We don't like you independent types," somebody said, cracking his knuckles. "So why don't..."
"Oh, you didn't think we were going to be performing to your audience, did you?" They paused. "We're just going to be spectators for now like anybody else. I would never try to take another person's hard-earned cash." She smiled.
"Hey, Kalus, come look at this," the first clown shouted. A grim looking man in bright red and frilly outfit stepped forward playing with a slim dagger. Xina swallowed as she noticed the silvery glint of the metal. "Is this poseur one of your were-creatures?" The clown laughed, using Xina to make fun of his fellow performer.
Kalus, Val and Xina were unconcerned with the general merriment. The kage-kitsune dangerously eyed the knife-man's blade and rose her eyes up to his. Behind her, Val moved up protectively behind her. They both could tell by looking that the man knew or guessed more about Xina than was good. Kalus looked from the warning squint of Xina's fox eyes, to the forbidding glance of the dragon's eyes.
"THEY aren't weres," he said simply. "I don't know what they are." He turned to leave. Xina and Val breathed a sigh of relief as the remainder of the crowd around them laughed.
"Okay, we get the point," Val said. "We're leaving."
"Yeah, yeah tell that sorcerer not to be so uptight," Xina hmphed turning around to walk out. They laughed at the comment.
"He's just a knife-thrower with a flipped imagination," somebody laughed. There was a sudden puff of smoke. from somewhere else in the tent. "That's our magician, now get out of here, before we throw you out."
"You couldn't throw us out if you..." Xina felt herself lifted up and looked down at Val's back as they were walking off. "Hey! What are you doing? Put me down!"
"We're NOT getting in to a fight with that maniac hanging about," Val whispered. Xina growled and crossed her arms irritably.
"I'm going to get you for this," she promised. "You know that don't you?"
"Maybe later, right now we're heading back to," There was flash of darkness as he lifted the tent flap up, and then he found himself behind a man coughing in a cloud of smoke. "...the others?" He set Xina down in front of him and glared at her smuggly smiling face.
"Well, that wasn't right," the man in front of them said, unaware of their presence behind him. He turned to his right and started flipping through a thick leather bound book. Xina's eyes sparkled as she noticed this, Val just shrugged resignedly.
Amethyst and Xalan's ears twitched as they heard something. Amethyst turned back to tell Jol and noticed that the young swordsman was already calmly drawing his blade. He smiled at her confused look.
"Well the good news is that they did find the woman's book," he told them.
"And the bad news," Xalan started. "Is coming right now." The three of them looked down and saw Xina and Val coming out of the tent several yards ahead of an onrushing mob of clowns and acrobats, or at least people dressed as silly as Val was. Xina zipped by the three of them laughing happily.
"I've got a book of magic, hee hee hee," and then she disappeared into the woods. Amethyst, Xalan and Jol turned each to the other two with a frustrated glare.
"Now we'll have to get it back from Xina-san," Amethyst sighed.
"Found the book," Val said unnecessarily as he passed the other three. Amethyst stood up and faced the on-rushing hoard. The dragon vanished after Xina.
"Evil thieves and enemies of justice we shall smite you down with the hammer of justice!!" A cricket chirped as Amethyst's triumphant expression faltered a little and her eyes glanced nervously from left to right. "What?"
"Is she serious?"
"Yes," Xalan admitted.
"You get used to it," Jol added.
"Can we get on to the battle now? Or are we still discussing my public speaking skills?" Amethyst asked with an irritated dry sarcasm that would have been familiar to her mother.
As the elf turned, drawing a glimmering blade, the light flared up against the aura of oppressive darkness about the one he was facing. He was young for an elf, but he came from the blood of elf-kings over many worlds. Power was as much his brithright as it was the creature of darkness before him.
"I have no business with scum like you," he growled. The mazoku snickered from its cover of darkness, he was young too. His master, however, had scavenged the remains of power from many a destroyed mazoku, and both she and her minion were powerful beyond the extent of their lives.
"You wish to see the time of elves again?" the mazoku asked. "When your people and mine contended over the field of battle without scuttling in the corners of a world ruled by men?" The elf's guard lowered slightly.
"Of course," he answered. "The humans have forgotten their betters, it is time they remembered."
"Then perhaps we have the makings of a temporary truce," the mazoku smiled. Before his transformation he had favored the direct approach. Now he saw the power of words as well as blades. This elf lordling would do his work for him, if he was at all lucky then the elf would perish before coming full into his power.
"With such as you?"
"The enemy of my enemy...." the elf arched an eyebrow.
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