Emblems Saga: Call of the Emblems
The Katti's Chosen
"The Hero Cycle starts with anger, which leads to vengeance, then to redemption, from there to peace, and back to anger. Woe is us, it never ends…"
Twenty Four Hours Later
She thrust her right fist forward and followed it up by using the momentum it generated by swinging her body around to jab her left elbow. With another spin, this time counterclockwise, she swung her leg out and kicked in a half arc rising to about half her height. Then, while balancing on one foot, she started jabbing her foot forward faster and faster until it felt like her leg was going to fall off. Then she stopped kicking and brought her foot in close to her, keeping her leg bent and her body at an angle while balancing herself on one foot.
Sweat drenched her training jumpsuit, and her breathing was labored even in the cool air conditioned air. Her muscles burned and yet ached less with pain than a desire to strike. Her hand went to the katana sheathed at her side and in one fluid moment, she'd kicked her leg out, swung it backwards, and used that momentum to fully extract the curved sword from its sheath and stab it forward, slicing in an downward diagonal. The move used gravity's pull from below to enhance the blow.
Capitalizing on the momentum of slashing down, she used her body as a fulcrum to create enough torque to leap into mid air and dragged the sword around her body. Halfway through the turn, she grabbed onto the hilt with her other hand and brought the sword above her head as she reached the apex of her jump. On her way back down, she sliced downward again with an enraged shout and landed on both feet.
"Master Lyndis, the man you have locked into the crew quarters has woken up. Shall I notify him of his situation?"
Taking deep breaths, she stood tall and sheathed her sword. Unhooking the scabbard from her belt, she walked to the side of the training room and placed the sword back on the rack she'd taken it from. She wiped her forehead with the back of her padded arm and grinned, having not had a workout like that for some time.
"Master Lyndis. The man you have locked in the-"
"I heard you the first time, Bee," she said in annoyance. "I haven't made up my mind yet."
"It is against Union Council regulations to keep a prisoner against his will."
She shook her head. "He's not a prisoner…" Even to her, the words that left her mouth sounded hollow. "I just want to be sure he's not going to try and hurt me, that's all."
"The man appears to be speaking a dialect of Lycia. The Ostian Region. Shall I translate what he is saying?"
Curiosity got the better of her and she nodded, knowing that the AI had camera's everywhere and could recognize her movements. She walked to the side of the training room where a metal rack stood with several other training jumpsuits hung. Each one had a different number on it, from 5 through 50, representing the total weight sewn into the material. The jumpsuit she placed back on the rack had the number 10 on it.
"Translation: 'Where am I? What happened to me? Why can't I remember what happened to me? It's all… a blank. I need to… to find out.' His vital signs are all normal, however there is a slight protein and vitamin deficiency and a case of mild dehydration."
"I'm going to get a food pack for him, then." She left the training room and headed toward the fore of the ship. After she grabbed a small bag of nutrient bars and a pouch of purified water from the cafeteria, she made her way through the ship's corridors to the door of the crew. On the other side of the door, she could hear noises as the man moved about.
Before she opened the door, she pressed a few of the buttons on the control console next to the door and the small screen attached to the console lit up with a view of the inside of the crew quarters. Inside she could see the man looking around the room with his head stuck inside of a vent. He seemed to quickly pull his head out, as if he'd suddenly decided that way wasn't tenable.
"If he's looking for a way out, then it's a good thing I'm being so cautious." She frowned as she continued to watch the man. He didn't look like someone who was going around, murdering people. He was dressed far too nicely for that. As her heart softened, she murmured, "Perhaps I'm being too hard on him. Besides, if he tries anything, I should be able to take care of it anyway. I'm a Sacean after all… even if my ship's falling to pieces, that doesn't mean I can't defend myself."
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she clenched her fist once and then lifted it to punch in the unlock code. The door groaned as the metal bars were retracted from the door and then the metal panel slid to the side. The man was standing in the middle of the room, his blue and green eyes wide with shock as he looked at her.
She studied him for a few quick moments. He was at least six feet tall, judging by how close his shoulders were to the top bunks of the beds, which were seven feet off the floor. His hair was blue, which wasn't so odd, but what was odd were the two twitching cat like ears sticking up out of the sides of his head. His skin was pale, not strange at all, until the tribal markings on his cheeks became visible from beneath his finely tailored cloak that was now no longer hiding a blue furred tail swishing around behind him.
"Byffi, gcmm," the strange looking cat man said, "gcabn C vy uvfy ni ume sio u koymncih?"
Unsure how to react, she remained where she was, standing in the doorway with the food pack in her left hand. Bee reacted first, breaking the silence by auto translating.
"Translation: Hello Miss, might I be able to ask you a question?"
The cat man looked up at the ceiling, frowning for a moment. Then a look of recognition lit his face and a grin grew to replace his frown. He furrowed his brow as he opened his mouth to speak again.
"I… not believe with eyes… locate spirit? You… can speak truth… where is?" he asked in a very broken Sacean. His accent was heavy with a tongue she couldn't recognize. Right away she knew he wasn't a native Elebian speaker, since she'd heard all the different Elebian Regions' accents when speaking Sacean when she'd stopped at ports for parts and supplies. He was also clearly not human, though the genuine curiosity and excitement at seeing her in his heterochromatic eyes showed he was more than capable of sentient reasoning.
What should she do first? Answer his question or shove him out an airlock. The longer she watched him, the more she realized he wasn't an immediate threat to her or her ship. If anything, he looked and acted just like a big playful kitty cat. It took her a moment to realize that she was still holding the food pack.
"Here," she said, tossing the food bars and drink at him. He caught the two items with eased grace, looking them over curiously. He brought the two items to his face and sniffed at them gingerly. "You must be hungry and thirsty after surviving what you did."
The cat man looked at her curiously. "Survive?"
"Warning!" Red lights started flashing overhead as a klaxon began sounding. This startled her and her guest. The cat man crouched down, holding the food and drink she'd given him close to his chest while growling at the ceiling with his tail flicking back and forth behind him. Hostile craft detected. Two unregistered Pirate Class Mechs incoming from the aft. Recommended action: Flee."
She didn't even give the cat man a second glance as she turned and bolted down the hall way toward the bridge. As soon as she was in the captain's seat the display screen on the other side of the room fizzled to life. The image was hazy and blinking in a couple spots, indicative of the bad shape it was in and the repairs that could be made to it. Nevertheless, she could clearly make out the two glowing engines against the black background of space.
"No…" she groaned. "We can't outrun them to a military base or planet. They're in mechs and they look like they're outfitted for long range travel. Even if we were within range of a base, we'd never make it there before they could take out the engines."
She nearly jumped out of her seat when the cat man said from right beside her, "If no… honorable retreat. Honor bound battle!" She looked up at him and saw he was staring at the miserable display screen.
"I…" she paused as she looked back at the screen. He was right, she realized. But it wasn't something she was prepared to do quite yet. The only mech that was even working was her father's old mech. She was always having to repair it and some of the parts were sub-par to the damaged ones she removed. At the most, the machine would operate without exploding, that she could be sure of. Anything beyond that was out of her hands.
A hand laid itself on her shoulder. She looked first at the furred hand and then up the outstretched arm to the cat man, who was looking at her with his distinctly odd red and green eyes. Despite the initial distraction that his eyes held, there was a hard look of determination that focused her on the current situation.
"Incoming transmission: 'Well look at what we got here. Where's your fleet little Sacean ship? Lost are we? Maybe we can give you some directions… in exchange for your lives.' End transmission. Shall I prepare a response?"
"If you… dishonorably weak. This one shall… honorable sacrifice," the cat man said. She shook her head though and stood up. She gave one last look at the display and momentarily let her eyes rest upon the two mechs, watching as one slowed to a stop while the other one sped in for an initial strike.
"No," she said and turned to head out of the bridge. "You stay here. Bee, prepare my father's mech for launch."
The cat man watched her leave, but remained where he was standing. Then he turned, his ears twitching as he watched the pirate close in on the display. For a second he looked like he was going to turn and follow, but with a resigned groan, he gripped his head and slumped into the captain's seat.
A/N: Chapter two complete. Looks like we have some light plot development. I wonder what's going on, a Laguz out here, in Sacea?
How interesting...
It's incredible the amount of work it takes to create an entire universe out of stuff that's already been created. Just because these characters and stories already have video games that we all love, doesn't mean that writing in them, AU or not, is easy. Crap loads of reading and back story writing is required for this story. I can't imagine how much work is required for some of the more intricate stories out there. Difficult is probably putting it too lightly. Unless of course you're just that good... in which case I envy you.
Next Chapter: Lyn is pushed into a desperate fight to protect her home and guest. How will the battle turn and at what cost?
Creative criticism and comments welcome. Thank you for reading.