Hee hee, here I go

Hee hee, here I go! Well, I will do a lot of mean stuff to Daine now; maybe this will be brutal to D/N fans…

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Chapter 3: Jaunne and the Halfling

Daine cuddled the 2-day-old baby in her arms, murmuring softly. The baby was spry and energetic, with bright yellow eyes and a flash of magic. This baby had both Wild Magic and the Gift; it was a pity that Daine would never see her grow up. This was the child of Daine and Kaddar, the heir to the Carthaki throne. The child would never know that, of course. Tucking the baby that she had named Jaunne into the basket, she propped her head up on a pillow and picked up the bundle, strode out the door. Humming a wordless tune to herself, Daine walked a few blocks and eenie-meenie-minie-moed until she picked the door of an average Carthaki family. She tiptoed up the steps until she reached the door, and silently left the baby on the doorstep. Daine had no regrets.

Sometimes she felt bad about killing Numair, but it was needed, and he would forgive her, she knew. But meanwhile, something was wrong. She couldn't quite place it; it began when Numair had died, with a slight twinge. But Daine ignored it.

Daine ignored it; and it nearly cost her life. It began with little things, not concentrating in meditation, petty memory loss. Then larger things began to happen. It all started with Rikash…

Daine walked through the woods; one of the few forests left in the area, and picked rare herbs that were needed for her spells. She was slowly growing in power, but her plan could not be put into action for a while now. The she saw him. She had seen this particular immortal before, and she knew who this one was. Rikash Moonsword was a stormsing, with a human torso and head, but the wings and claws of and eagle. The unnatural thing: his feathers and claws were of steel. Stormsings reeked, and were possibly the ugliest beings in all the eastern lands, but their singing counterbalanced it all. The singing of a stormsing could create valleys and dry rivers, but most importantly, they could make any mortal think that he/she was the most beautiful being in the world. They seduced and that was what they were made for.

Daine saw him, saw him singing, and her heart began to pound. She was drawn to him more than she had ever been drawn to Kaddar, or even Numair. He was beauty itself.

Ha, ha! Thought Rikash. So easy! She's like putty in my claws! And the immortal seduced her like only a stormsing could do.

***

Five hors later, Daine was torn up bad and Rikash was gone. This was not quite like any other stormsing seducing; this was different. Because when stormsings make love to mortals, nothing happens. The female cannot conceive. But this time…

***

Daine was scared. More scared than she had ever been in her entire life. She was pregnant with a stormsings' child. If she survived to bear it, the birth would probably kill her. She still had the scars from when Rikash had made love to her. Most likely Daine would be torn up from the inside before the monster was even born. And also, Daine was loosing her humanity. She didn't know it, but when Numair had died, his shield between her self and her magic had disappeared. Now she was beginning to think strange thoughts… Thoughts of living on the edge, of flying on steel wings and reveling in fooling silly mortals. She began to feel disdain for men and women, not knowing it was the child she carried that affected her so. Several times she caught herself cackling gleefully, or trying to flap her arms and fly away. When she finally caught on, it was too late. She bore her child in the forest, alone, and barely lived. The child she abandoned, human except for wings of steel that sprouted from the poor girl's shoulder blades. She lay there, bleeding, trying to lick her wounds, and growling at any animal that came near. Eventually she healed, and ran off in the forest, wild. She became friends with a stag, perhaps more than friends. She often changed between deer and human form, making love to the stag in both (***man, Daine has really lost it***). Now there was no Cloud to nip her, to remind her that she was human.

It was ten years later before Daine realized who she was. She saw her stash of opals, hidden among the trees, and winced as the lights flashed and she touched them. Then slowly, it all began to come back. Her plan. She went out in the night as a wolf, and stole some clothes. Then, in various forms, she took money and nesessities for her plan. It was a long time before she had enough magic, but she still had the right book. At Hallow's Eve Daine rented a room in an in, and with her stolen Gift, started the spell.

She put a lock of Numair's hair on the table, and bowed before it.

"The Death of one, is now done, retourns again, to my den, Life one more, open to me the door."

All her collected magic in the rocks poured out onto the lock of hair, the hair pulsing and vibrating until it fell off the table, forming into a tall, handsome, black-haired man.

"Hello, Numair," she said.

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Hee hee! I'm baaaad! The things that I do! Daine has been very naughty lately, who knows where that stag has been? *giggles*. Flaaaaaaaame me.