BioWare owns all except the things I made up. But it is all based on the wonderful story by them and Mr. Gaider. : )
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOUSEMAGE! : ) I hope you are enjoying Awakenings, happy birthday, sweetie!
So we leave the mage Tower for now, and a brief stopover at The Spoiled Princess and then back to Highever. We have a special weapon to unveil for Zaeed's brother Rajed and an introduction of Gnat to all of Kai's other friends. And a little more on the Morrigan and Fergus angle, after all, so on with the show! Note: Oh, when Gnat plays with the ball on a chain weapon, think Gogo in 'Kill Bill.'
My shout out for authors goes out to skybound2's story "A Child Unexpected." Zev and Sten lovers, it is a must read, and a shout out to mille libre's "Freely We Serve.", and Xeriana's "The Long Road." Now both of these authors have more wonderful stories, so don't forget to check out their others as well. : )
And xAmorius, thank you so much for reviewing, I am humbled at your kind words and that you read all 1-59 chapters in one sitting. That means a lot to me, and it tells me you found it entertaining enough to read all together, wow! I will strive to continue to make it that entertaining all the way through. Your comment in the review about being a lurker, well it shames me, I have not been thanking my lurkers, and I owe all of you an apology. I appreciate your lurking, your reading, and your traffic. Thanks to you all too!
Thanks to Aileen for reviewing as well, I like it when you make me think about things in a new way. : )
For my reviewers, you are the fuel for this author, like I said, sometimes I have crippling self-doubt, and then I read those reviews, and voila, I am back and typing away. I am grateful every day to you all!
Blessings!
Kai and her group made it back to The Spoiled Princess just as dusk was settling in. They met up with Jarren who looked very nervous when they met him on the docks and much relieved when they all walked through the door to the common room. Oghren was still absent, according to Jarren he had been gone all day, as had Felsi, Zev had chuckled at this. Kai and the rest sat themselves down at the table, with Argus slipping under it to lie on Kai's feet where she could rub him with her boot.
Once the girl who was on serving duty had taken their orders for various drinks and agreed to bring them the inn's meal of the evening, Kai explained what happened at the Tower to Jarren.
It was as she had figured, Jarren, having finished his rounds about the town, had picked up the weapons and armor that Kai had brought with them, including the new weapon for Rajed with an extra creation based off of Kai's drawings from Talan the smith. He came back, deposited everything and then spent his time on the dock watching the Tower, first he gathered a pile of pebbles and stones and spent his time skipping them on the water. Then he inspected all of his weapons and sharpened his daggers until he could split a hair with them. When that had been completed and there was still no boat, he'd begun getting mugs of ale while he watched the tower across the water, three ales in and he realized he might be pissed faced before the boat ever showed.
It was right before he'd seen the speck of the boat in the distance that he actually started contemplating exactly what Kai had been afraid of. He'd been about to saddle up his Ceffyl and ride back to Highever to get the Scath there. His overwhelming sense of relief was as plain in his face as it was in his voice as he described seeing the boat returning across the lake. Kai again felt humbled that she commanded his loyalty, and concern, in such a way.
She was spared from embarrassing him even slightly by noticing his relief when the serving girl set down a platter with a couple of loaves of bread, a knife, a cask of butter, and then bowls of stew. She'd even included a bowl for Argus, which she placed under the table, after which she went back to the bar to get their drinks. Kai had not realized how famished she was until the smell of the freshly baked bread and savory stew hit her nose. Soon, the table was filled with the sounds of food being scooped up and bread being cut.
Finally, bowls were pushed back and a comfortable silence fell upon them as they drank and watched firelight light up the room. Wynne was the first to scrape back her chair and bid them all a good evening, she was going to read and go to bed, she informed them, since she was going back to the Tower in the morning to help Irving speak to the other mages and see if there were any other victims. Kai couldn't help but take the opportunity to tease her as she started to leave, "Reading the Rose of Orlais again, Wynne? You're going to wear the binding out."
She grinned at the mage's retreating back, before Wynne turned around when she got to the door at the top of the stairs. "Watch it, young woman, or I might offer Zevran a chance at this bosom and you can read it to get to sleep." Wynne wrinkled her nose and grinned before stepping through the door to go to the rooms.
Zevran shot her a sidelong glance and a sly smile. "Don't even think about it," Kai grinned at him, and he only chuckled, and Gnat and Jarren laughed with him.
It wasn't long before they all followed Wynne's example and headed off to their respective rooms. The next morning Kai decided to take the new weapons Talan made and test them out while waiting for Wynne to get back from the mage tower. She bid the others-and herself and Zev-all packed up and ready to go once Wynne returned. Kai wanted to get back to Highever and see her babies, not to mention the fact that the others would want to see her after her dance with the ogre.
She made her way to the open space in front of the inn and positioned herself closer to the lake. She wanted to be well away from any obstructions, like the covered storage area, the inn's wall, and any people who might come out of the doorway. Kai inspected both the weapons Talan had created for Rajed, one was the curved, almost sickle-like blade she'd asked for. The other was a ball with a crevice bisecting the middle of it horizontally, Jarren told her to give the ball a quick short jerk of the chain, and blades would slide out of the crevice, another quick pull and the blades would retract. Jarren told her that Talan was particularly pleased with his bit of dwarven engineering. Kai gave the ball a quick snap of the chain and small thin blades emerged layered like scales, each razor-sharp edge supporting the other.
"That is a nasty little piece of work" Zev's voice came from her right as he came through the inn's door, setting a leather bag down under the bench. He loped over to her to look at the ball more closely, "I wonder if our dwarven friend has some assassin in him, those blades could easily be poisoned. It is ingenious, no?" He grinned at her and took the weapon, giving it a quick flick with his wrist and watching the blades disappeared into their inner recesses once more. He shook his head in amazement, "I think it is best you don't practice with this one just yet until you have figured out the moves which go with the chain, no? The blade has a thick leather sheath, the most you may do is bruise yourself, this may break your nose or slice it off, and I find your nose too attractive to allow that to happen, I find it an adorable part of the whole irreplaceable package." He gave her a low chuckle and a raised eyebrow before kissing her and going to sit on the bench outside the inn door. He grabbed the bag he had set under the bench and began to remove daggers, some honing oil, and his whetstone.
Before taking the weapon up, Kai began by performing warm up exercises. She stretched, kicked, blocked and punched until a nice little sweat had worked up on her skin. She finished the "quata," a series of prescribed moves, and picked up the weapon Talan had created from her drawings, Kai made sure the sheath was secure on the blade. She didn't want to hurt anyone, including herself.
The set of kicks and twirls that she was going to try with the chained blade were usually done open handed, the Qun monks didn't fight with weapons, as they weren't allowed to handle any. This would be the first time she would attempt to add spinning a blade with the movements of a quata called "The Dance of the Dust Devil." Since Rajed had about half of his upper arm left, she figured that he would be able to use the stump in part to guide the chain as long as he kept the chest and shoulder muscles limber. The ability to use it would come with a lot of practice, of course. However, most of his control of the chain would come from his legs, his good arm, his torso and even his neck. Kai wanted to try and work with it with her two good arms and the movements before trying to tie her forearm to her upper arm in an approximate imitation of Rajed's physical limitations.
She began by spinning the blade around at first to get a feel for the weight and the way it moved, slowly she began adding the spinning of the chain and the blade with the kicks and spins of the quata. Her first attempts were gawky, uncoordinated and had the blade flying off in all directions or hitting her in various places, she was going to be black and blue before she was done. Eventually, though, her body and her brain started to coordinate better and the moves with the chain started to come together.
Kai stopped, taking a break and leaning her hands on her knees sweating, her breath coming in little pants. It was then she noticed that Gnat had been leaning up against the wall of the inn eating an apple and watching her, "That is a fascinating weapon, how did you come up with the idea?"
"One of my Scath lost..." Kai still felt a roll of nausea when she thought of it, "He lost his arm when a bomb was thrown on our camp. I designed this weapon for him to use with these moves so he could still fight. And now that I have gotten my body to coordinate a weaponless fighting style with a weapon, I need to tie my arm down so I can get a better feel for how Rajed is going to work with this." Kai went to Zev who handed her a mug of water. She figured from her shoulder to her elbow would be longer than Rajed's stump, but it would give her at least a semblance of his arm. When Kai finished, she handed Zev the mug back, and they both turned to find Gnat with the ball and chain, spinning it, "Gnat be careful! A quick jerk on the chain and blades will be activated."
Gnat just grinned and nodded, her fighting style was different, more acrobatic, but she'd apparently been watching Kai, and the moves she did mirrored the Qun, but with few fluid arm and leg movements of an unknown origin. She did a slow walk while she spun the chain in arcs over her head. Gnat was very limber. She spun the chain with the ball around then did a high kick wrapping the chain around her leg letting it unwind in a glittering arc spinning so fast that the ball was a blur. She then lashed out with a swift kick and the ball shot across the open ground to hit the post of the outside storage shed with a meaty smack that left a scar of white new wood showing on the weathered surface.
Before it even finished hitting the wood, Gnat had spun using her body and the torque to bring it back and wrap it across her shoulders only to bend and spin in such a way that it launched away from her body again to hit the post with a resounding crack, causing the post to groan and dirt to fall from the rafters of the storage. She spun the ball back and gave it a quick jerk. The blades slid out and Gnat spun the chain in her hand, around her bent elbows, under her leg again, across the back of her neck, to spin and let the ball launch to the post where it buried the blades as far in as they would go. The way she played with it looked like a dance, it was almost erotic. Kai looked at Zev whose amber eyes were wide.
"Well, it looks like our bard friend is a very fast learner, no," Zev grinned at Kai.
"I think she needs to teach me, and I think we have found the person to use that weapon," Kai laughed.
Gnat walked back to them after retrieving the ball and snapping it so the blades retracted, she smiled and handed it back to Zevran. "I worked as an acrobat in a special form of entertainment for the nobility, as a bard, it was an ideal cover for me to spy on any of Celene's nobles who might cause her troubles. This particular style of acrobatics involves a lot of props such as hoops, and we used balls on thin ropes that we could make dance as we danced. This weapon reminds me of those props, but with far more nasty results, of course." Gnat grinned, "I haven't had that much fun in a while."
Zevran looked at Kai with a raised eyebrow, cocking his head at Gnat. Kai nodded as she looked at Gnat with a wide smile, "I believe this belongs to you then, my dear," and he handed it back to Gnat, "Kai and I would love for you to train us on it," Gnat laughed and nodded.