Chapter 2
Note: All translations care of AltaVista's Babel Fish online translation program.
Twelve days after the battle, Bear silently swung a leg over his horse, tied outside of his
office. A dozen soldiers and Mimiru were already waiting on horses by the front gate of
the fort. He rode to meet them.
"Good morning, Bear!" Mimiru greeted cheerfully as he approached, her sword sheathed
across her back. He nodded a hello, his own sword carried on his saddle.
"Are you ready?"
She nodded. They rode through the front gate, the other soldiers following. Once they
had cleared the outlying tents, Bear looked to the sun to orient them, and rode in the
direction of the approaching reinforcements. Mimiru trotted her horse alongside his,
smiling cheerfully.
"I'm glad you decided to come with us, General!"
Bear theatrically exaggerated his emotions. "Don't call me that." He muttered bitterly.
"Oh, come on! You've been cooped up in that stuffy room for days!"
"I'm going to have a mountain of paperwork when we get back from this." Mimiru stuck
her tongue out at him.
"Well, that's your problem and not mine!"
She laughed. It died away after a moment, and she was serious again.
"So, have you heard anything new about the Shaman that's coming with them?"
Bear shook his head.
"He's in command of the new detachment, but that's all I've heard. There's a rumor
floating, though, that no one has ever seen him use magic."
"What?"
"None at all. However, he's supposed to be very good with herbs. Healing salves,
explosives..."
He coughed, although his cough sounded suspiciously like 'aphrodisiacs'. He grinned
sheepishly. Mimiru punched him playfully, trying to hold back her giggles.
"Bear... You're terrible."
They continued to ride beneath the endless blue of the savanna sky.
Helba watched the soldiers ride across the desert from atop a rocky hill, her staff slung in
her saddle, at her hip and ready to be drawn if someone should be foolish enough to
challenge her. Her magically extended senses allowed her to easily identify their leader.
His tattoos and clothing identified him as a highland shaman, bringing in fresh troops
from his homelands. His mannerisms differed from the other two commanders, both from
the western deserts. However, they were beneath her, as was almost all of this foolish
war, fought by petty nobles who had never held a sword and didn't understand the first
meaning of true power. The core of her staff glowed slightly in empathy to her emotions.
A man approached her, his white fur headdress running down his back, his tattoos hidden
beneath his armor. Balmung had effectively erased all of his barbarian heritage.
"Did you hear of anything?"
She asked, sensing him approach. Balmung nodded, his white steed huffing as it picked
it's way over the rocks.
"Sora is spooked by something." He replied.
"Balmung, I thought that foolish man was beneath you. You said it yourself."
"If anything scares that rat, I'm sure there must be truth behind it. He is riding to the
north."
Helba nodded.
"Very well. We will follow him. Come, Balmung."
Balmung nodded. They both spurred their horses, riding down the back side of the hill,
out of sight of the soldiers.
Bear shielded his eyes with the palm of one hand, examining the cloud of dust on the
horizon.
"Well, if they're ours, I think the counter-offensive is going to go well."
"And if they're not, we need to start running." Mimiru finished his thought. Bear
shrugged.
"There's no logical reason they're the enemy. I checked the map before the last battle. The
nearest pass aside from the one we blockaded is weeks away from the enemy camp.
They'd have to be riding leopards."
"Now, now. I've heard of leopard riders."
Bear shook his head.
"They're a myth."
He said flatly, reaching down on his saddle, drawing his sword, and raising it above his
head.
"Hail!"
The cry reverberated faintly over the plain. Tsukasa raised his own staff in recognition,
but did not echo the leader of the other party's greeting. He carried it in one arm, holding
the reins in the other, looking blankly at the savanna ahead of him. As the dozen or so
soldiers came into view, he could see their leaders riding in the front. They were most
obviously lovers, they seemed so close. Tsukasa shook his head. Serving under lovebirds
had blown every time it had happened. He remembered being a grunt, before his magic
potential had been uncovered, when his unit commander's lover had died during battle.
The man had ordered the entire unit to a suicidal attack on the man that had killed her, the
enemy general. After a rogue arrow took him down, his assistant was quick to withdraw
that order and return to the original battlefield strategy. Tsukasa had been lucky to come
out of that battle alive. The two generals pulled alongside him. The man extended a hand.
"How do you do? My name is Bear."
Tsukasa furrowed his brow.
"Quoi?"
Bear shook his head.
"Bon l'apres-midi. Je m'apelle Bear."
"Ah! Je suis Tsukasa."
Tsukasa looked down at Bear's hand. Mimiru shook her head at them both. This
happened every time. Bear would check to see if they spoke English, and when they
expressed confusion in one of so many languages she'd lost count, Bear would pick up as
if nothing had happened and clumsily introduce them to shaking hands. Tsukasa seemed
to pick up on it faster than others, who continued to offer their left hand. (Which Bear
continued to refuse. He knew where that hand had been. No toilet paper out here meant
the left hand and running water was all people had.) Tsukasa was a bit brighter
apparently. Mimiru muttered in her native Arabic tongue. Tsukasa's ears perked up and
he looked over at her, asking her what sort of problem she had with him in her own
language. Bear laughed and slipped into the third language as though he had been
changing his socks.
"Well, now that we can all agree on something, how about a full report, Commander
Tsukasa?" He asked. Tsukasa sighed.
"A total of two thousand men and supplies to last three months for both my troops and
your previously submitted casualty reports..."
Bear and Mimiru exchanged a sly look behind Tsukasa's back.
"... And I pledge the full use of my magic into your service." Tsukasa sounded as though
he had been reciting something he half remembered from his mystic training.
"What can you do?"
"Absolutely nothing."
"Wonderful." Bear muttered.
"I'm a strong fighter on the front, though."
Bear eyed him again, looking at the staff he carried in his hand.
"You fight with that thing?"
Tsukasa nodded. Bear shook his head. This kid made no sense whatsoever.
"We're half a day out from the base. Your troops can set up camp, and I expect you to
accompany me to my office. I'm going to go have a chat with your subordinates."
Tsukasa gave a light, sarcastic bow. Bear trotted his horse towards one of the unit
commanders. Tsukasa smiled at Mimiru, who opened and closed her mouth in
embarrassment, realizing he'd caught her staring. He gave a sly winked that effectively
wrote 'MAY I GET IN YOUR PANTS' on his forehead, in Mimiru's opinion. She tossed
her head back with a little 'hmph' and rode after Bear. "You love him, don't you?" He
called after her. She snapped around and yelled at him.
"Of course not!"
Tsukasa sighed and watched the horizon again.
After hearing the rumor from a trader from the north, Sora rode like the wind. Where the
forest began there was going to be a battle, a terrible battle. The barbarian guerrilla camp
had been found. Even with his horse enchanted to never become fatigued, by the time he
got there, the dust would have settled. However, it was not the fighting he was worried
about. It was the level of destruction. If the rumors he had been hearing as of late were
true, one side had developed... well... Sora didn't exactly know what, he just knew it was
big. He would have to wait until he reached the remains to find out exactly.
A week passed. Kurim marched at the head of the unit, the unit's commander
immediately behind him in formation. His scouts had told him that the enemy had
stationed a handful of archers at the top of the range to keep away attack forces. The
crossbowmen that marched behind him would easily remedy their presence. Kurim
waved his spear, yelling for the unit to fan out and fire at will. The formation dissolved.
Although the crossbow had a longer range than the hunting bows used by the barbarians,
their height advantage meant that the crossbowmen would fall under enemy fire before
they could return it. Thinly spreading the men in a noncohesive line would make them
harder to hit. They could hear alarms beginning to be raised. They waited until they were
closer. Arrows began to fall around them. Kurim snapped his spear up, knocking away an
arrow, only barely even realizing he'd moved. His soldiers began firing. The men on the
ridge began to fall, and soon the last few fled.
"Hold fire!" Kurim ordered. A flag was raised by one of the messengers in the unit,
unarmed men, quite often boys, who carried the flags that signaled orders and the unit's
identity. A messenger, waiting on horseback outside of bow range, began riding back to
the detachment's camp, to let them know it was safe to move in near the range. They
could begin clearing the pass within hours.
The camp had moved in closer to the pass, making camp just outside of bow range. A
scaffold was erected over the area around the barricade with thick hides on the roof and
two sides to protect from snipers, though men with crossbows did a good job of
discouraging any attacks. Subaru wandered among the soldiers as they went about
removing the boulders and stones that were blocking their path. She watched the ridge
disappear off into the distance. Far off, something caught her eye, rising from the ground.
"Kurim..."
The man turned around from where he had been arguing with a subordinate over the
scaffold.
"Yes?"
"I'm going to go for a walk."
Kurim nodded.
"Try not to get yourself killed, Subaru. No, no, no! It's plenty thick enough to stop
crossbows! They don't even have crossbows! I don't care if they may have been
reinforced, the barbarians have no crossbows, period! Boiling oil? Oh, now you're just
being stupid."
She walked beneath the sun, keeping the ridge to her right. As she approached it, she
realized it was a thicket. An oasis. The scrub grass of the plain became a thick, lush
carpet, tall ferns and trees. As she entered through the soft leaves, she heard the babble of
running water. She came to a spring-fed pool, surrounded by lush vegetation, almost like
a sort of jungle. The pool ran through a tunnel to the other side of the pass. A part of the
tunnel caved inwards, almost like a walkway. She approached it, and ran her hand over
the cool stone. Something beckoned her. She wanted to go to the other side. 'That's
enemy territory, though. I shouldn't...' She was walking. The stream cast patterns of light
across her dress, her face, and her tiny wings. The sound of the of the water lapping
against the stone was hypnotic. To think that such a place could exist on the savanna, it
was like another world... She was almost blinded by the light when she left the tunnel
again. She saw the stream drop off into a waterfall.
'Shine, bright morning light, now in the air the spring is coming, sweet glowing wind
singing down the hills and valleys...'
She heard singing from below! Was that a... a barbarian? But such a pretty voice. A
man's voice? No, a boy's. Singing. She heard splashes. She peered over the edge of the
cliff. The waterfall dropped for a long ways, and the vertigo made her head spin. She had
to fight an urge to jump from the cliff. She could feel herself falling... falling... the splash,
water running over her head. The singing was coming from beneath the waterfall. She
stepped back and gripped her axe tightly. She slowly began to descend the cliff, walking
down the steep slope of it's right side. She peeked around the edge of the cliff. The boy
was bathing beneath the waterfall, the pool coming up to just above the level of his waist.
He faced away from her, scrubbing himself with some hard sponge that she saw grew
naturally beneath the waterfall. She saw his folded clothes lying at the edge of the pool, a
staff placed across them, a floating jewel at it's center. A floating jewel just like the one
in Commander B.T.'s staff. He was a Mage! She bit her lower lip. She couldn't tell him
she was from the Empire. She couldn't defeat a Mage in combat! She quickly hid her axe
among the bushes, trying to remember exactly where she had put it. He had stopped
singing. She swallowed and hid, leaning against the rock face of the cliff. She watched
him walk around the corner, able to see his full naked back. He remained completely
oblivious to her. She watched him dress, pulling on his pants, tunic, and jacket. He lifted
his staff carefully, the turned and noticed her. He leapt back and raised his staff.
"Qui ˆtes-vous? Que faites-vous ici?"
He yelled, circling her slightly.
"I'm sorry... I don't understand you."
"Do you speak English? Parlate italiano?"
His staff dropped a bit.
"Chi sono voi? Provenite dall'impero?"
"I'm... I'm not from the empire! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Liar!"
"Really! Please, what's your name?" He was quiet for a minute. Then, he lowered his
staff.
"Tsukasa. I'm not really much of a fighter. You don't seem to want to kill me."
"I'm not from the Empire."
Tsukas shook his head and turned away from her, walking along the pool's banks.
"And I'm Caeser. Where'd you get those clothes? You don't seem to be from around
here."
Subaru blushed. She'd never been a good liar. "My name is Subaru."
He stopped again, turned around, and gave her a curt bow.
"Well, Lady Subaru, it's a pleasure to meet you."
His voice dripped with sarcasm.
"But if you'll excuse me, I must be going. My horse must be getting restless..."
"Wait!"
Who was this barbarian? One who spoke Italian? A civilized language? He seemed like a
nice person, not those full body tattooed monsters she had seen on the battlefield in times
past. Although his face bore a few marks, they seemed, well, kind of cute. She ran after
him.
"Are you a Mage?" She asked.
"I'm a Shaman."
"A shaman?"
"Yes. I can speak to the spirits."
"The spirits?"
"The trees, the grass, the winds, they have spirits."
"They're governed by the Gods."
Tsukasa shook his head.
"Oh, no, that's going to get us nowhere."
'Damn, though, she is cute!' he thought. He finally noticed something odd about her. A
chill ran through his belly.
"You have... Wings."
"Yes." She smiled and pulled her shoulders up.
"They're supposed to be a birth defect, a curse, but I've always liked them."
"They call me the Tiny Angel."
Tsukasa smiled.
"Subaru the Tiny Angel. Cute. But I really must go. Good day, and good bye."
And without anything further, he disappeared.
Note: All translations care of AltaVista's Babel Fish online translation program.
Twelve days after the battle, Bear silently swung a leg over his horse, tied outside of his
office. A dozen soldiers and Mimiru were already waiting on horses by the front gate of
the fort. He rode to meet them.
"Good morning, Bear!" Mimiru greeted cheerfully as he approached, her sword sheathed
across her back. He nodded a hello, his own sword carried on his saddle.
"Are you ready?"
She nodded. They rode through the front gate, the other soldiers following. Once they
had cleared the outlying tents, Bear looked to the sun to orient them, and rode in the
direction of the approaching reinforcements. Mimiru trotted her horse alongside his,
smiling cheerfully.
"I'm glad you decided to come with us, General!"
Bear theatrically exaggerated his emotions. "Don't call me that." He muttered bitterly.
"Oh, come on! You've been cooped up in that stuffy room for days!"
"I'm going to have a mountain of paperwork when we get back from this." Mimiru stuck
her tongue out at him.
"Well, that's your problem and not mine!"
She laughed. It died away after a moment, and she was serious again.
"So, have you heard anything new about the Shaman that's coming with them?"
Bear shook his head.
"He's in command of the new detachment, but that's all I've heard. There's a rumor
floating, though, that no one has ever seen him use magic."
"What?"
"None at all. However, he's supposed to be very good with herbs. Healing salves,
explosives..."
He coughed, although his cough sounded suspiciously like 'aphrodisiacs'. He grinned
sheepishly. Mimiru punched him playfully, trying to hold back her giggles.
"Bear... You're terrible."
They continued to ride beneath the endless blue of the savanna sky.
Helba watched the soldiers ride across the desert from atop a rocky hill, her staff slung in
her saddle, at her hip and ready to be drawn if someone should be foolish enough to
challenge her. Her magically extended senses allowed her to easily identify their leader.
His tattoos and clothing identified him as a highland shaman, bringing in fresh troops
from his homelands. His mannerisms differed from the other two commanders, both from
the western deserts. However, they were beneath her, as was almost all of this foolish
war, fought by petty nobles who had never held a sword and didn't understand the first
meaning of true power. The core of her staff glowed slightly in empathy to her emotions.
A man approached her, his white fur headdress running down his back, his tattoos hidden
beneath his armor. Balmung had effectively erased all of his barbarian heritage.
"Did you hear of anything?"
She asked, sensing him approach. Balmung nodded, his white steed huffing as it picked
it's way over the rocks.
"Sora is spooked by something." He replied.
"Balmung, I thought that foolish man was beneath you. You said it yourself."
"If anything scares that rat, I'm sure there must be truth behind it. He is riding to the
north."
Helba nodded.
"Very well. We will follow him. Come, Balmung."
Balmung nodded. They both spurred their horses, riding down the back side of the hill,
out of sight of the soldiers.
Bear shielded his eyes with the palm of one hand, examining the cloud of dust on the
horizon.
"Well, if they're ours, I think the counter-offensive is going to go well."
"And if they're not, we need to start running." Mimiru finished his thought. Bear
shrugged.
"There's no logical reason they're the enemy. I checked the map before the last battle. The
nearest pass aside from the one we blockaded is weeks away from the enemy camp.
They'd have to be riding leopards."
"Now, now. I've heard of leopard riders."
Bear shook his head.
"They're a myth."
He said flatly, reaching down on his saddle, drawing his sword, and raising it above his
head.
"Hail!"
The cry reverberated faintly over the plain. Tsukasa raised his own staff in recognition,
but did not echo the leader of the other party's greeting. He carried it in one arm, holding
the reins in the other, looking blankly at the savanna ahead of him. As the dozen or so
soldiers came into view, he could see their leaders riding in the front. They were most
obviously lovers, they seemed so close. Tsukasa shook his head. Serving under lovebirds
had blown every time it had happened. He remembered being a grunt, before his magic
potential had been uncovered, when his unit commander's lover had died during battle.
The man had ordered the entire unit to a suicidal attack on the man that had killed her, the
enemy general. After a rogue arrow took him down, his assistant was quick to withdraw
that order and return to the original battlefield strategy. Tsukasa had been lucky to come
out of that battle alive. The two generals pulled alongside him. The man extended a hand.
"How do you do? My name is Bear."
Tsukasa furrowed his brow.
"Quoi?"
Bear shook his head.
"Bon l'apres-midi. Je m'apelle Bear."
"Ah! Je suis Tsukasa."
Tsukasa looked down at Bear's hand. Mimiru shook her head at them both. This
happened every time. Bear would check to see if they spoke English, and when they
expressed confusion in one of so many languages she'd lost count, Bear would pick up as
if nothing had happened and clumsily introduce them to shaking hands. Tsukasa seemed
to pick up on it faster than others, who continued to offer their left hand. (Which Bear
continued to refuse. He knew where that hand had been. No toilet paper out here meant
the left hand and running water was all people had.) Tsukasa was a bit brighter
apparently. Mimiru muttered in her native Arabic tongue. Tsukasa's ears perked up and
he looked over at her, asking her what sort of problem she had with him in her own
language. Bear laughed and slipped into the third language as though he had been
changing his socks.
"Well, now that we can all agree on something, how about a full report, Commander
Tsukasa?" He asked. Tsukasa sighed.
"A total of two thousand men and supplies to last three months for both my troops and
your previously submitted casualty reports..."
Bear and Mimiru exchanged a sly look behind Tsukasa's back.
"... And I pledge the full use of my magic into your service." Tsukasa sounded as though
he had been reciting something he half remembered from his mystic training.
"What can you do?"
"Absolutely nothing."
"Wonderful." Bear muttered.
"I'm a strong fighter on the front, though."
Bear eyed him again, looking at the staff he carried in his hand.
"You fight with that thing?"
Tsukasa nodded. Bear shook his head. This kid made no sense whatsoever.
"We're half a day out from the base. Your troops can set up camp, and I expect you to
accompany me to my office. I'm going to go have a chat with your subordinates."
Tsukasa gave a light, sarcastic bow. Bear trotted his horse towards one of the unit
commanders. Tsukasa smiled at Mimiru, who opened and closed her mouth in
embarrassment, realizing he'd caught her staring. He gave a sly winked that effectively
wrote 'MAY I GET IN YOUR PANTS' on his forehead, in Mimiru's opinion. She tossed
her head back with a little 'hmph' and rode after Bear. "You love him, don't you?" He
called after her. She snapped around and yelled at him.
"Of course not!"
Tsukasa sighed and watched the horizon again.
After hearing the rumor from a trader from the north, Sora rode like the wind. Where the
forest began there was going to be a battle, a terrible battle. The barbarian guerrilla camp
had been found. Even with his horse enchanted to never become fatigued, by the time he
got there, the dust would have settled. However, it was not the fighting he was worried
about. It was the level of destruction. If the rumors he had been hearing as of late were
true, one side had developed... well... Sora didn't exactly know what, he just knew it was
big. He would have to wait until he reached the remains to find out exactly.
A week passed. Kurim marched at the head of the unit, the unit's commander
immediately behind him in formation. His scouts had told him that the enemy had
stationed a handful of archers at the top of the range to keep away attack forces. The
crossbowmen that marched behind him would easily remedy their presence. Kurim
waved his spear, yelling for the unit to fan out and fire at will. The formation dissolved.
Although the crossbow had a longer range than the hunting bows used by the barbarians,
their height advantage meant that the crossbowmen would fall under enemy fire before
they could return it. Thinly spreading the men in a noncohesive line would make them
harder to hit. They could hear alarms beginning to be raised. They waited until they were
closer. Arrows began to fall around them. Kurim snapped his spear up, knocking away an
arrow, only barely even realizing he'd moved. His soldiers began firing. The men on the
ridge began to fall, and soon the last few fled.
"Hold fire!" Kurim ordered. A flag was raised by one of the messengers in the unit,
unarmed men, quite often boys, who carried the flags that signaled orders and the unit's
identity. A messenger, waiting on horseback outside of bow range, began riding back to
the detachment's camp, to let them know it was safe to move in near the range. They
could begin clearing the pass within hours.
The camp had moved in closer to the pass, making camp just outside of bow range. A
scaffold was erected over the area around the barricade with thick hides on the roof and
two sides to protect from snipers, though men with crossbows did a good job of
discouraging any attacks. Subaru wandered among the soldiers as they went about
removing the boulders and stones that were blocking their path. She watched the ridge
disappear off into the distance. Far off, something caught her eye, rising from the ground.
"Kurim..."
The man turned around from where he had been arguing with a subordinate over the
scaffold.
"Yes?"
"I'm going to go for a walk."
Kurim nodded.
"Try not to get yourself killed, Subaru. No, no, no! It's plenty thick enough to stop
crossbows! They don't even have crossbows! I don't care if they may have been
reinforced, the barbarians have no crossbows, period! Boiling oil? Oh, now you're just
being stupid."
She walked beneath the sun, keeping the ridge to her right. As she approached it, she
realized it was a thicket. An oasis. The scrub grass of the plain became a thick, lush
carpet, tall ferns and trees. As she entered through the soft leaves, she heard the babble of
running water. She came to a spring-fed pool, surrounded by lush vegetation, almost like
a sort of jungle. The pool ran through a tunnel to the other side of the pass. A part of the
tunnel caved inwards, almost like a walkway. She approached it, and ran her hand over
the cool stone. Something beckoned her. She wanted to go to the other side. 'That's
enemy territory, though. I shouldn't...' She was walking. The stream cast patterns of light
across her dress, her face, and her tiny wings. The sound of the of the water lapping
against the stone was hypnotic. To think that such a place could exist on the savanna, it
was like another world... She was almost blinded by the light when she left the tunnel
again. She saw the stream drop off into a waterfall.
'Shine, bright morning light, now in the air the spring is coming, sweet glowing wind
singing down the hills and valleys...'
She heard singing from below! Was that a... a barbarian? But such a pretty voice. A
man's voice? No, a boy's. Singing. She heard splashes. She peered over the edge of the
cliff. The waterfall dropped for a long ways, and the vertigo made her head spin. She had
to fight an urge to jump from the cliff. She could feel herself falling... falling... the splash,
water running over her head. The singing was coming from beneath the waterfall. She
stepped back and gripped her axe tightly. She slowly began to descend the cliff, walking
down the steep slope of it's right side. She peeked around the edge of the cliff. The boy
was bathing beneath the waterfall, the pool coming up to just above the level of his waist.
He faced away from her, scrubbing himself with some hard sponge that she saw grew
naturally beneath the waterfall. She saw his folded clothes lying at the edge of the pool, a
staff placed across them, a floating jewel at it's center. A floating jewel just like the one
in Commander B.T.'s staff. He was a Mage! She bit her lower lip. She couldn't tell him
she was from the Empire. She couldn't defeat a Mage in combat! She quickly hid her axe
among the bushes, trying to remember exactly where she had put it. He had stopped
singing. She swallowed and hid, leaning against the rock face of the cliff. She watched
him walk around the corner, able to see his full naked back. He remained completely
oblivious to her. She watched him dress, pulling on his pants, tunic, and jacket. He lifted
his staff carefully, the turned and noticed her. He leapt back and raised his staff.
"Qui ˆtes-vous? Que faites-vous ici?"
He yelled, circling her slightly.
"I'm sorry... I don't understand you."
"Do you speak English? Parlate italiano?"
His staff dropped a bit.
"Chi sono voi? Provenite dall'impero?"
"I'm... I'm not from the empire! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Liar!"
"Really! Please, what's your name?" He was quiet for a minute. Then, he lowered his
staff.
"Tsukasa. I'm not really much of a fighter. You don't seem to want to kill me."
"I'm not from the Empire."
Tsukas shook his head and turned away from her, walking along the pool's banks.
"And I'm Caeser. Where'd you get those clothes? You don't seem to be from around
here."
Subaru blushed. She'd never been a good liar. "My name is Subaru."
He stopped again, turned around, and gave her a curt bow.
"Well, Lady Subaru, it's a pleasure to meet you."
His voice dripped with sarcasm.
"But if you'll excuse me, I must be going. My horse must be getting restless..."
"Wait!"
Who was this barbarian? One who spoke Italian? A civilized language? He seemed like a
nice person, not those full body tattooed monsters she had seen on the battlefield in times
past. Although his face bore a few marks, they seemed, well, kind of cute. She ran after
him.
"Are you a Mage?" She asked.
"I'm a Shaman."
"A shaman?"
"Yes. I can speak to the spirits."
"The spirits?"
"The trees, the grass, the winds, they have spirits."
"They're governed by the Gods."
Tsukasa shook his head.
"Oh, no, that's going to get us nowhere."
'Damn, though, she is cute!' he thought. He finally noticed something odd about her. A
chill ran through his belly.
"You have... Wings."
"Yes." She smiled and pulled her shoulders up.
"They're supposed to be a birth defect, a curse, but I've always liked them."
"They call me the Tiny Angel."
Tsukasa smiled.
"Subaru the Tiny Angel. Cute. But I really must go. Good day, and good bye."
And without anything further, he disappeared.