Chapter 9: Wishing and Wandering

Shizuru was frightened. Not the sort of frightened stomach-lurch she used to get before having to go out into the courtroom or to attend public functioned, but genuinely scared fro her life. After Natsuki had left, her anger seemed to have translated into the weather, and a chilling wind was buffeting the trees. Shizuru knew the wood, though not intimately, as she had accompanied her father on hunts whens he was smaller.

Her father. She remembered him from those years- how his eyes sparkled and the skin next to them crinkled when he smiled, as he so often did; how his beard was full and black, his thick head of hair cushioned the crown of Windbloom like it could never belong anywhere else. How she would ride on his broad shoulders, and sit with him and watch Mashiro sleeping in her cot. Unbidden, thoughts of he mother came to her, but she blocked them out, not wanting to feel any more hopeless than she already was. She hudded under a large Onin tree, watching the remainder of the heart-shaped leaves blow off in the storm. Pulling her cloak tighter, she shivered with fear and cold.

Somehow, Shizuru managed to drift into a troubled sleep. Her mind tortured her with images of her father and the Wraythe. How long had that thing been influencing his decisions? How long had he no onger been the father she had known?

-Barren's Plain-

"Chie! Reel in the mainsail!" Tate cried, furiously winching in the spinnaker of the Princess. Out in the Plain, the weather was often more extreme than over the borders. The ship teetered dangerously as the hurricane winds pushed against the grand sails, mast creaking with the effort. "Aoi, can you go belowdeck and get Mai and Mikoto up? We need someone on the nest to get a clear direction."

Aoi complied and ran through the hatch as Tate and Chie struggled in the howling wind. They hadn't had a storm quite this bad in years, so panic ran through the crew as they rushed about, anxious not to crash their beloved vessel. They had to make it to the Allied side of the Plain in time to meet with the Princess of Windbloom and her Halfling.

As the Princess lurched to the left again, Chie climbed down from the mainsail and ran across to the helm, which was locked in place, seeing as the wind was really too strong to navigate precisely in. They had set out from Twyr with heavy hearts, but the joy of sailing had quickly rejuvenated them, and they no longer really focused on the fact that they were working for Tomoe.

There were sme repercussions, however. There was new tension on board, owing to the fact that Mai had now been given a small pendant that linked her with Tomoe to receive orders. And the mention of Roedrenmon.

Chie had never mentioned what happened there to anybody.

The Plainsrunner was young and restless. Her charcoal hair gleamed in the sun as she surveyed the paradise in which she lived. Perhaps, too much of a paradise. Pushing through the foliage, she soon came across the small settlement she called home, the delightful scent of roasting nuts ticking her nostrils. Upon reaching the entrance to her home, she called out in Earthentongue to her mother.

"I've returned!" she cried, hitching her bag of spoils back onto her shoulder. She walked right in. The village had no need for doors or locks or fortifications. This was Forren, after all, the paradise of the Kingdom. Between large open plains of plentiful wheat and grasses and light forests, punctuated by small lakes, it was truly the Promised Land. The territory was never contested; the unspoken agreement was that Plainsrunners settled west of the roaring river Tor, in their small village settlements and treetop cities. To the east, the Alkatryz, in their great shambolic city of En'Terrek. Trade passed freely across the river. To the far west, the Allied Lands, and to the far east, the Host Tribes. That was the world to Chie.

Her mother emerged from the kitchen and smiled warmly at the sight of her eldest. "What did you bring home, daughter? Hurry, the stone is at full heat."

"We will eat well- a young doe." She smiled like she was really pleased with herself. But Chie was beginning to tire of village life. She wanted to see the world, to taste the salty tang of the sea, to run over new plains.

"The gods smile upon us, it seems," her mother said, accepting the outstretched offer of the rough calico sack and bustling back into the kitchen to roast it on the stone. Chie agreed and exited the dwelling, basking in the warm light. She called out to her mother quickly before running off though the undergrowth. With her superior Plainsrunner speed, she reached the river in five minutes, not out of breath. She set about for a long supple branch with which to form a fishing rod. Stripping and attaching some thin thread to it, she looped the hook and bait onto the end and cast out, sitting peacefully.

An hour or so passed, and Chie had two trout beside her by the time the sun began to blaze with less vigour. Seeing that it was time to return home, she began to pack up her things. A call touched her ears lightly and she looked around to see where it had come from. Finding no disturbance, she finished gathering her things and began home, slower, this time, to avoid the company of Tate, a boy who obviously had her on his mind. He came around her dwelling at about the same time regularly; hoping to catch her, but never prevailed.

The call again reached Chie, this time louder. Then another. A particularly triumphant hunting party? She decided to step up her pace, wanting to welcome them home. Her father might be among them.

As she reached the outskirts of her village, she was surprised to smell the bonfire already. It must have been an amazing hunt, as the bonfire was never lit before sunset. Parting the trees, she gasped. There was no bonfire, nor hunting party. Just flames, everywhere. Just bodies littering the floor. The trees had been chopped down and the grass turned to ash by fire. As she screamed against her will, but a hand cupped her mouth and pulled her back. She stared into Tate's brown eyes in confusion.

"Hush," he said. "There's nothing we can do here. We must join the Stand."

"Stand?"

"They are killing everyone," he explained, his eleven-summer face darkened and crusted with blood coming from a gash on his temple. "They are burning everything."

"Why?" Chie sobbed at the thought of her parents. "My family! My brothers…"

"Chie, it is the same for all of us."

"I know. It's just… What of En'Terrek?"

Tate's face crumpled. "They do not care for the Alkatryz. They want to kill just us and the furry ones to the far south of the river. Them in their city of crystals."

"Why?" Was Chie's only word, she stood, enthralled by the fire. "Why them?"

"She said they are bad. Tall woman, like a ghost, rode a dead horse, hair as green as the grass. She said they're evil."

"They're not! 'Member little Natty? Wolfy one. 'Member when her daddy came here to talk to your daddy? He smiled a lot. He's not evil."

"'xactly. That's why we're joining the Stand. Them down in the furry country, at the big crystal city. They're Standing. Them are gonna fight the ghost woman and her snarly guys. Eni told me."

"Eni?" Chie asked.

"Alkatryz. She's same age as us. I met her couple weeks ago- she's nice. She said that when stuff burns, we should Stand in the crystal city."

"Okay. How do we get there?" Chie balled her fists up. Of course she was going to fight. Fight for her family and her people.

Tate shifted uncomfortably. "Eni gave me a map, but we got be quick. She says the ghost woman has to go slow 'coz she had a lot of snarly guys who are slow."

The gravitas of the situation faded for a moment as Chie slipped back to her childish persona and teased Tate. "What else did this Eni give you? Anything I should know about?"

Tate reddened. "Nothing!" he squeaked. "She doesn't like me that way."

"But you like her?"

"No!"

"Chie? Hello?" Tate's now nearly twenty-summer face peered at her. Realising she had been spaced out for ages and the ship was still leaning obtusely to the left, Chie busied herself with the care of the ship.

-Eastwind Forest-

Nastuki had changed back to her Halfling form. Whilst it gave her great physical freedom, it did nothing to improve her clearness of mind. She had been trained by Sergay not to think of anything in the past: it hindered her training. However, now that she was on the run, memories came to her in a torrent of ten-winters worth of repression. Images of her parents, her friends.

Forren was very different to Roedrenmon. In the crystal city, the foliage was mostly grasses, trees and fungi, but here was a lush diversity of jungle, fields, crops and huge great trees, most of which Natsuki could not name. She held her father's hand tightly. The journey had been long but jolly, and Natsuki continuously marveled at the lush and seemingly infinite plains that had begun as soon as she left the swampy land of the south. Her small but sensitive ears perked at the laughter of children fro her right. She tugged on her father's sleeve and he bent down to hear her.

"Taeklàr," she asked, her voice full of excitement. "Can I go play with those children?"

Her father smiled at her, his bushy tail swishing happily behind him. She could tell from his scent that he was just as excited to be here as she was. "'Course, Mae'nàn. Stay around the area, yes?"

Natsuki nodded and bounded off. She came across two children, older than her, but her species grew faster than the playrunners. That was what her father had called them. Her speech, at six summers, was relatively basic compared to other species, as Halflings used other ways of conveying messages. She bounded up to the two playrunners on all-fours.

"Hello," she said, smiling at them with a huge grin, showing her mouth of developing teeth. "I'm Natsuki,"

The younger one, a girl, walked to her, though her brow was furrowed. They both spoke Earthentongue, but the dialect and accent was quite different. "Natty?" she asked.

Deciding Natty was fine, she nodded vigorously, her tail whooshing from side to side furiously. Natsuki loved all the new smells, new plants, even new air. She liked these playrunners too. The stood two-legged, and were quite stocking built, but had long, powerful legs and feet with three toes. The older boy, who had dark hair, though not as dark as the girl's, has light swirlies on his legs as well. They wore simple shirts and breeches.

"I'm Chey," she said. "This is Tah-tye."

Natsuki nodded at both of them. They showed her their favourite hangouts and then took her to the river. Natsuki howled with amazement at it. Down south. The river was a delta, but here is was long and meandering and crystal-clear. Chie and Tate took her to a shallow ox-bow part where they swum and played all afternoon. Nastuki dived in and emerged second later, triumphant, with a small fish in her mouth. The roasted it and drank the clear water.

Natsuki was not shivering. Her coat was keeping her warm. She thought of Shizuru, along at night in the forest with just a cloak. Though she felt bad for her, Natsuki was still seething at having her ancestral home blasphemed, and was in no mood to go back to the Princess. She needed to learn her boundaries.

It would be a cold night.

A/N: There you go. A nearly full-length chapter, not heavy on action or moving the story along much, but it does give some insight into the past. And the past plays a big party in the coming chapters.

Taeklar- used it earlier- father in Earthentongue.

Mae'nan- Daughter. (like Maeklar is mum, so son would be…. Answer in a review!)

As for Eni, I actually wrote a story about her. I may publish it on FictionPress, if your interested, I'm Sakurazaki-Emiri there as well. Not got anything on tere at the mo, just deleted a crappy story off.

Please review, alert, fave, whatever! Good to be back 