Reviewers! Yay! That makes my life happy. When life is happy, I am happy.
Replies to Reviewers:
Dragon Scales 13: Yes yes, she is insane. I can't wait until they meet up with Kang…it's going to be fun when he joins the party ((evil grin))
TheSting: Thank you! I enjoy writing, it is a very fun thing to do…if it weren't, this story wouldn't have come into being. Make sure you update your own story soon, or I will send Rylenthia after you
EvilEatingSanta: Hewwo Sista Cappie! You know, you could just tell me what you think of my story when I give it to you at home…but this works too I suppose…Hope your writer's block goes away…I miss my Albel…
Lady D 10290: Heh, I loved the ribbons. They made me joyful as I saw them fly out behind my character as I ran around. Hmm…my little sister pointed out that maybe they're used to give the enemies paper cuts…in their eyes… O.o;
Anyway, it's going to be especially fun with Kang and Zu…mostly because Ren is going to come up with a nickname for Zu that he will absolutely despise…muahaha just you wait and see.
Brittany: Super Psycho Kitty Attack is fun. I use it often on my little brother whenever he pesters me for the computer. He usually runs away after I shout, "SUPER!" Fun times that.
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"What's wrong Dawn Star? Are you afraid that Master Li might find out?" Gao asked, giving Dawn Star an impatient look. Things had, once again, not gone well between the two. Dawn Star seemed to insist on being difficult to impress every time he talked to her. The young woman glared at him, rolling her eyes and muttering,
"Bandits are about to attack Twin Rivers and you chose this time to try to woo me. How very like you." Gao scowled and let out an exasperated noise before saying,
"I could buy the ground out from underneath you. Hell, if I wanted to, I could probably buy this whole damn school." Dawn Star snorted and shrugged.
"Flaunting your…father's undeserved wealth doesn't impress me. It only serves to push me further away." She said, raising an eyebrow. Gao's eyes narrowed in anger as he realized the implication within her words. 'Hmph. I have plenty of silver myself, no matter that it DOES come from my father…' he thought sulkily. He was about to reply when he heard someone screech out,
"GAO-GAO! YOU LEFT YOUR GUARD DOWN!" The next second he found his face planted firmly in the fertilizer Dawn Star had been spreading on her plants. He sputtered and attempted to push himself up, only to find out there was a certain someone sitting upon his back. Gao let out a strangled snarl and hissed out,
"Get off of me Rylenthia, NOW!" He heard Dawn Star chuckle and then remark,
"Do me a favor Rylenthia, and stay there for a while." Gao twitched slightly and yelled out,
"NO! GET OFF OF ME!" Rylenthia let out a confused sound and looked from Dawn Star to Gao. She puffed out her lower lip and cocked her head to a side, a very distant look upon her face. The senior student smacked her lips a couple of times, and then asked,
"Stop confusing me. Do I get off or stay on?" Both Dawn Star and Gao yelled out at the same time, causing Rylenthia to cover her ears. She glared at the two and said,
"No yelling! It hurts my ears!" Dawn Star smiled and waved her hand, saying,
"Oh go ahead and get off of Gao. We have more important matters to worry about right now then wounding his pride." Rylenthia happily obliged to this request and stared at Gao as he stood up. She clucked her tongue then asked in a confused manner,
"How come Gao-Gao likes to eat animal poo?" Dawn Star snorted, Gao merely glared at her, unable to do anything else at this point. He turned stiffly and stormed off towards the school, to wash up before fighting the bandits.
Dawn Star watched Gao leave, relief written in every feature of her face. She grinned over at Rylenthia who was still trying to figure out why Gao developed a sudden attraction to animal waste. She patted her best friend on the shoulder and said,
"Hey, thanks for driving Gao away. Shall we head to the town now? Bandits might have all ready arrived." Rylenthia looked up at Dawn Star, blinked then nodded. She then skipped off towards the gate that led to Twin Rivers. Dawn Star chuckled and followed Rylenthia, anxious to see how her friend would respond to the bandit threat.
Dawn Star frowned lightly, hoping it wouldn't end in another one of Rylenthia's sudden losses in sanity. Rylenthia was quite scary when she got into the mood, tearing through her enemies as if they were stationary lumps of meat. Luckily, it had only happened around two and a half times. She had started to go insane one time, but Master Li had managed to snap her out of it by giving her a stuffed bear. Where the old Master had acquired this toy was unknown to everyone as he wasn't willing to tell them.
'Hmph…maybe if Gao had seen Rylenthia when she gets serious, he would respect her and me more…' Dawn Star thought to herself dejectedly. Gao's arrogance was…annoying to say the very least. Dawn Star was brought out of her thoughts as she heard Rylenthia screech out,
"AHHHH! BAD BANDIT PEOPLES! THEY KILLED A FRIEND! YOU SHALL SUFFER FOR YOUR IMPUDENCE!" The next second Rylenthia had launched herself at one of the two bandits, her claws extended, ready to rend and tear. Dawn Star quickly unsheathed her long sword she had received from Gujin and held it in front of her just in time to block the other bandit's attack. She gritted her teeth and pushed the bandit slowly backwards, retracted her sword and stabbed the surprised outlaw through his stomach.
As the bandit fell to the ground, Dawn Star whirled around to see how Rylenthia was fairing. She raised an eyebrow as she saw Rylenthia repeatedly kicking the dead body of the bandit she had recently disposed of. She pulled out a cloth and began to clean her sword as she walked over to her friend. Dawn Star tapped Rylenthia lightly on the shoulder and said quietly,
"Give it a rest. He's dead all ready." Rylenthia's eyes widened, as if this was news to her. She glanced down at the body and let out a frightened squeal before hiding behind Dawn Star. The senior student glanced cautiously over Dawn Star's shoulder and scowled down at the body, shaking her fist at it,
"By golly if you were dead, why didn't you tell me?" she chided. The body made no moves to respond, so Rylenthia shrugged and began to trot up the stairs that led to Gujin's shop. Dawn Star smiled and followed her.
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'DAMN HER!' Gao thought as he strode through the school yard as quickly as humanely possible. This did not prevent him from being seen however, he soon found himself being pointed at, smiles hidden behind the students' hands. He threw the doors open to his small house and quickly shut it behind him.
'That's it. I'm going to kill Rylenthia.' Gao decided as he began to wash his face clean of animal waste. He began to ponder a way he could possibly kill Rylenthia and make it look like an accident.
'Hmm…perhaps if it were to happen during a challenge fight…I, "accidentally" use more force than is necessary, resulting in our senior student's unfortunate death. I probably would be expelled from this school, but who the hell cares? I certainly don't. I'm certain that my father won't be too thrilled with Master Li's decision to expel me, if it comes to that. If that happens, I'll have my revenge upon both Rylenthia and Master Li.'
With that sorted out, Gao briskly left his house and began jogging towards the village to help in the fight against the bandits. 'I'll be damned if I let Rylenthia take all the credit for this. She will not be the only shining star.' Gao vowed to himself silently as he left the school.
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"Dawn Star? I have a question." Rylenthia stated, looking back at her best friend. The two were currently running towards the beach, as Rylenthia had decided to take the long sword, Fortune's Favorite, from Gujin over the staff. Dawn Star blinked and looked at Rylenthia before saying,
"What? What's your question?" Rylenthia stopped running, Dawn Star doing so as well. The senior student stared directly into Dawn Star's eyes then asked,
"What kind of name is Dawn Star anyway? It sounds like some kind of freaking laundry detergent!" Dawn Star's jaw dropped slightly as she regarded the quizzical young woman before her. She opened and closed her mouth, then finally managed to ask,
"What the hell is 'laundry detergent'?" Rylenthia pondered over this question, shrugged and began running again. Dawn Star ran to keep up as Rylenthia said cheerfully,
"I dunno. But that's what your name sounds like." Dawn Star rolled her eyes and scowled, refusing to respond to that. They began to near the beach, Rylenthia made that very clear by shouting out,
"WE ARE HERE!" She blinked as she felt something warm, wet, and solid hit her shoulder. Glancing down, she spotted what looked like some section of someone else's torso. Rylenthia let out a strangled screech and flicked the chunk off of herself, hiding behind a rock afterwards. She glared towards a ship harbored in the bay and yelled out,
"BAD BAD BAD! NO BLOWING UP PEOPLES! IT'S NOT FUN! IT MAKES ME WANT TO THROW UP AND BE SAD!" A man wearing robes who was standing on the boat blinked, and squinted down towards the beach. He spotted eyes peeking out from behind a rock, and a young woman looking at him with utter disgust. He snorted and said, "More pitiful peasants to deal with? No matter. Men! See to it that they suffer before they die."
As the bandits moved to obey, Rylenthia hopped out from behind her rock, extending her claws. Dawn Star unsheathed her long sword and held it in front of her, ready for the bandits to come. When the bandits came within striking distance, both the women attacked. Dawn Star faced off against two bandits while Rylenthia had four bandits to deal with. 'Apparently they see her as the bigger threat.' Dawn Star thought to herself as she felled one of the bandits. 'Oh well, less blood-spill for me then.' Not that she was too put out by this turn of events. She only killed when it was absolutely necessary.
Dawn Star blinked as she heard a cracking boom, and quickly glanced over to see two of the ship's cannons smoking. "CANNON FIRE! LOOK OUT!" she shouted and dove to the side, wincing as she heard the bandit she was fighting didn't get out of the way fast enough. 'Might as well go help Rylenthia then…' she thought, jogging over to aid her friend.
Rylenthia's eyes widened in disbelief as she saw a large round metallic object shoot towards her. Yelling out a declaration of denial, she quickly scrambled out of the cannonball's path. She felt the ground next to her shake and glanced over to see that out of the four bandits she had been fighting, only one and a half remained.
"Ewww…" she said as she stood up, glancing over at Dawn Star approached. The other woman paled as she saw this gory sight and nodded slightly, holding her hand in front of her mouth. 'Eww indeed.' Dawn Star thought, willing herself not to throw up.
With that observation out of the way, Rylenthia continued her fight with the remaining bandit, singing the unofficial schools fight song (which she had made up) as she did so.
The sorcerer aboard the ship watched in a mixture of confusion and anger as the bandits were repeatedly destroyed by the two women on the beach. They seemed to be able to dodge every cannonball shot at them, the shot hitting more of his men instead of the intended targets. He slapped himself in the forehead as the one wearing light purple wheeled back and poked one of the bandits in the eyes, temporarily blinding the man. He was quickly finished off by the other woman.
When all the bandits lay dead, the sorcerer mused aloud to himself,
"Hmm your skill warrants more than this pathetic village should contain. An anomaly perhaps…or a sign of who I am looking for." The girl in light purple cocked her head to a side and asked,
"What's an anomaly? Is it a bird? I'm not a bird. See? No wings!" she then held up her arms to further back up her point. Her partner just rolled her eyes.
'Great. My men were defeated by an idiot.' The sorcerer thought to himself. He decided to completely ignore the idiotic woman and said,
"A further test is needed. Let's see how you handle this!" After saying this, he summoned up several spirits. Then, for dramatic purposes, he cast a spell to make the sky darken. He then sat back and awaited the outcome of this next battle.
Rylenthia blinked as she spotted the spirits. She pointed directly at one and yelled out,
"YOU'RE A GHOST! DID YOU KNOW THAT?" Dawn Star glared at Rylenthia and said,
"Oh for goodness sakes Rylenthia! Just fight the damn things!" Rylenthia turned and gave Dawn Star a depressed look before doing as she was bid, and Dawn Star immediately regretted her words. 'It isn't fair for me to take out all my frustration on her…so what if she always points out the obvious? She's rather proud of herself when she does so…' she thought before engaging one of the spirits in combat.
Dawn Star narrowed her eyes and focused her chi directly upon her weapon, to be able to further damage the spirit. While she was able to hit the spirit as if it were a creature of the living, she would rather the fight be done with sooner rather than later. She sliced her long sword downwards towards the spirit in a crescent arc, slicing down across the spirit's chest. It moaned in pain, and Dawn Star couldn't help but shiver in response. 'They should never have been forced to do this man's bidding. They need rest, not servitude!' Dawn Star thought as she ended the spirit's suffering.
As the spirit was dispersed, Dawn Star glanced over to see how Rylenthia was fairing. She paled a bit as she saw the senior student glaring at the sorcerer who was standing a few feet in front of her.
"Impressive! Clearly I had underestimated the power of this village. It'll be torn asunder, whatever you are hiding will be mine!" The sorcerer stated. Rylenthia scowled and stuck her tongue out at the man,
"You're a big bad evil man and I hope when you die you come back as a slug so I can squish you when I leap into a pile of leaves!" she retorted (A/N: Has that happened to anyone other than me? I leap into a pile of leaves in the autumn…and there are tons of evil slugs there, some squished and some…not…I hate slugs). The sorcerer raised an eyebrow at her and said,
"Riiiiight. Unfortunately for you, I will not be the one to die today. It's you who will die." The next second there was a rather marvelous explosion and all three people on the beach glanced over at the ship to see it splitting in two. Rylenthia had a look of awe upon her face as she waved goodbye to the ship as it sank beneath the surface.
"Well done my student, but I cannot risk you against an opponent like this, not yet." Master Li remarked from behind Rylenthia. She yelped and whirled on the older man, grabbing him by the shirt,
"NO SNEAKING UP ON ME! IT'S RUDE AND MAKES MY HEART GO 'BLIP'!" she hollered, shaking him as she did so. Master Li scowled and pushed Rylenthia away from him and faced the sorcerer.
"So here you are. We expected an army, not an array of peasants. Layers upon layers, ever the strategist." The sorcerer remarked, shifting slowly into a fighting stance.
"Your search is over assassin! No one will hear of your success however, I will make sure of that." Master Li said, unleashing an array of blows that left the sorcerer dead within a few seconds. He turned to face Rylenthia and Dawn Star, who both had stunned expressions across their faces. Before he could even utter a single syllable, Rylenthia cried out,
"Master Li-La-Loo is fast! Maybe he should compete in races or something! Surely he would win!" Dawn Star started giggling as Master Li rolled his eyes. He coughed lightly and said,
"Yes well, you have done well in fighting the bandits. I'm proud of you both. You fought your first spirit opponents much sooner than I had expected though. Rylenthia, talk to Dawn Star and she'll explain to you the nature of spirits…or at least she'll try to explain it. Meet me back at the school when you are ready, I have much to tell you." With that, Master Li walked off.
Rylenthia blinked and turned to face Dawn Star, a little confused and amused when she saw her friend blanch and shake her head, muttering out something about how she "didn't know much about these types of spirits" and therefore couldn't be of much use. Rylenthia shrugged and began to trot off back towards the school, Dawn Star following.
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As I forgot to put this on the first chapter, I shall put it up now.
I don't own Jade Empire at all. Literally. I rent it from my local video store. With luck, however, I should receive it for my birthday present this coming week since my big sister stole my original birthday date for her graduation party. Not that I'm complaining…I get my presents a week early!
In any case, the only things I own are two pillows, some Pocky, and two hermit crabs. The hermit crabs names are Creamy Nougat and CatchUOnFire.
Next chapter should include the fight with Gao-Gao, the Spirit Cave, the meeting of Sagacious Zu, and the cave pursuit! Joyful times!