- Location
- Somewhere
True, but that doesn't mean that he knew him very well, or that he considered him in any way a friend.75% Certain said:
Halkegenia Online. Thread 2!
- Thread starter Triggerhappy
- Start date
75% Certain
25% horse thief
No problem. I'd recommend reading Murder in the Area, since the stuff they had to cut out was pretty good.koolerkid said:
They certainly weren't best buds, but absolutely nobody has stated or insinuated such. Kirito could count his 'friends' on his fingers, anyway. Kayaba, on the other hand, had a very good reason to want to get to know Kirito.LockedKeye said:
- Location
- Somewhere
Also true, but Kayaba could quite easily spy on anyone in the game. Also, Kayaba was a genius and could probably learn quite a bit from simply observing Kirito. Regardless of how often they actually interacted in canon, it's quite clear that Kirito didn't have any attachment or loyalty to Kayaba (as Heathcliff) other than respecting him as one of the strongest players in the game.75% Certain said:
75% Certain
25% horse thief
75% Certain
25% horse thief
I wanted to make sure that the link hadn't been purged, indicating a change in policy. Baka-Tsuki is in something of a gray area, if a light-ish one.koolerkid said:And thank you too, even if you were a bit late
18
Triggerhappy
Stick with Trigger and You'll Make it Through
- Location
- SoCal
Well Here's the next snip. Heads up. I've got another round of midterms and some senior project stuff do so I'll probably only have one update next week.
Halkegenia Online-Chapter 9-Part 3
'Must remain focused'. Tabitha thought. 'Must, remain, focused.'
As a Gallian Chevalier, Tabitha had developed the skills and qualities expected of a Knight. Superior magical ability, agility, mental and physical fortitude far beyond that of all but the most dedicated soldiers. Her small body concealed far more strength than most would expect and she had only been toughened further by her journeys.
Instructed to take on only the most dangerous missions, each time expected to fail, Tabitha had trained herself ceaselessly as a battle mage. Willpower reserves that nearly reached the rank of square and a mixed air and water affinity of triangle level that she had learned to wield in lethal combination, had been combined with a relentless determination and ability to remain focused, utilizing her magic to its limit in even the most brutal and unforgiving environments.
'Focused!'
She began to read the next line. 'What have, and hey by hearth of heart . . .' She heard the softy laughter once more and couldn't help it, she glanced up.
"Pina, stop it!" Silica giggled as her familiar affectionately licked her cheek and let out another small cry like her own Sylphied in miniature. Tabitha ducked her head back down. 'Focus'
Tabitha had put away childish things long ago. Faerie tales were pleasant lies, happy endings weren't, and most of all, cute was meaningless.
"Hey Tabitha-san?" Silica asked.
Tabitha looked up slowly, carefully keeping her book leveled to conceal her blushing cheeks, the ears were twitching again, what to do? "Yes?"
"Is your book good, you've been reading it all day. You must be almost done."
"Near the beginning." Tabitha Replied and then added. "It's good." In fact, she would have been done if she didn't keep getting distracted.
Silica sank back down, legs folded beneath her, they were both seated on the floor, sharing a feather mattress as they prepared for bed. The elder Faerie, Leafa, had removed her corset and coat and now sat cross legged beside Silica, a light blanket thrown over her shoulders, watching the antics of Pina and Silica with some amusement. The Pixie, Yui, had situated herself atop Pina, laying against the comfortable down feathers of the dragon's undercoat.
"If you don't mind telling us, what's it about?" Silica asked, tilting her head to the side.
Tabitha twitched, it was like, a cat, a kitten she had had in happier times. It was almost too much. 'You are a Chevalier.' Tabitha thought. 'You will not be defeated.'
"Comedy." Tabitha replied, "About a Squire."
"A squire?" Silica asked, looking thoughtful. "Those people who work for Knights?"
"Yes." Tabitha said, weighing her options carefully before she decided to continue. "He falls in love with his master's daughter and has to hide it."
The story was an old Gallian Tale, often retold, the Squire who had served his Knight dutifully, fell in love with his master's fair daughter and went to great lengths to conceal his interest lest his master grow furious with him. Meanwhile, the Knight, who had always thought highly of his Squire and intended to put his name forward for Knighthood, bemoaned the fact that no reliable men had shown interest in his daughter. The Squire and Knight's daughter got up to increasingly contrived schemes to avoid being discovered by the Knight who would no doubt happily welcome their union. Tabitha was only now at the part where the Knight was wondering if his Squire, who was careful to show no interest in his daughter, was perhaps a eunech, that part always got a laugh when the story was told on stage.
"Oh. We have stories like that where we're from." Silica said. "I wish I had some of my books from home, it'd be fun to read them and compare."
"The Arrun central library has complete printouts of the project Gutenberg library." Yui supplied. "There's lots and lots of good stories in their."
Tabitha perked up a little, wondering what Fae stories were like, it was a nice distraction. "Fae Stories?" Tabitha asked.
"Un", Yui nodded. Standing up on silica's back she started to gesticulate wildly. "Like the Wizard of Oz, and Treasure Island, or the Count of Monte Cristo!"
"Those are all western stories though." Silica said, "What about Eastern fiction."
"Hmm, I'm not really sure, I just read part of the card catalog while waiting for Papa."
"Oh." Silica said, "I'll have to check it out when we get back to Arrun, why don't you come too Tabitha-san?"
"Come too? To the Library?" Looking at Silica, it was tempting, oh so very tempting. She shook her head, "Don't read Faerie Runes."
"Well I can't read Tristanian either." Silica said, and then brightened up. "Why don't we teach other?"
"Teach?" Tabitha asked.
"Un." Silica nodded, "You know, I was a pretty good tutor back in grade school, I helped the other students all the time." She smiled, "Though, I'm a little behind right now because of . . . Of sickness. So I'm sure I could teach you how to read Japanese, and you can teach me Tristanian." The girl looked so excited at the idea, how could she say no?
Tabitha looked down at her book, she couldn't hold out much longer, quick, diversion. "Have to go to the academy. This book is too complicated to teach with." Tabitha said softly.
"That's alright." Silica offered kindly. "Maybe you could read it aloud to us instead?"
Tabitha felt heat rushing to her cheeks, the girl was so . . . so cute . . . and so gently insistent. Tabitha closed her book slowly. She stared at Silica, Silica starred back expectantly.
Tabitha swallowed. "Okay."
"Really?!" Silica brightened, "Leafa-san, do you want to listen to?"
"I think I'd like that. I'm not very tired yet, and the story sounds like fun." The Sylph woman smiled kindly.
"One thing first." Tabitha said quickly.
"Oh? What is it?" Silica asked.
Tabitha raised her hands slowly and then asked in a voice that could barely be heard, "Can I . . . Touch them?" Her eyes were fixed firmly on the two triangular ears atop Silica's head. They were . . . so cute.
Silica reached up and probed the top of her head curiously and then just nodded. "That's okay, just be gentle, they're a little sensitive."
Slowly, cautiously, Tabitha reached up and gently took the tip of each ear between a thumb and index finger. The fur was as soft as down and very warm. Silica stiffened, eyes going wide and then relaxed. Her eyes grew hooded and she sank down into a comfortable position. A strange sound came from the girl, not a groan, but something deep and gravelly from within her chest. It also made Tabitha let go in surprise, she was . . . purring.
"Are you okay Silica-chan?" Leafa asked with a hint of worry.
"It's fine." Yui said, smiling, "She just really likes it."
"Un." Silica said, smiling faintly, "But it's making me sleepy, and I still want to hear Tabitha-san reading."
With a small sigh, Tabitha let go and picked up her book and made herself comfortable. The room was almost completely dark, but enough light was cast by the oil lamp to comfortably read by. Silica and Leafa scooted closer. Silica's dragon curling up in her master's lap and leaning her head against Tabitha's leg while Yui lay down on the dragon's back.
"A Cordial Engagement, Act One." Tabitha read slowly and thin flipped to the first page.
"Come here Squire, though I love you as a son and see what foolery is this today?"
"It be great foolishness, Sire."
"And is this foolishness over humor or tragedy?"
"Perhaps of both, Sire . . ."
That night, Tabitha read to someone else for the first time since she was child, since she had been Charlotte. The Faeries listening closely. They laughed when the squire first realized that the woman he was courting was the Knight's daughter, and they nearly pulled their hair out when the Squire was left hanging by a bed sheet from the window of the daughter's room. When they reached the eunech scene, Tabitha was surprised to see that while Silica rolled with laughter, Leafa turned beat red, perhaps the woman wasn't as forward as her appearance indicated.
They continued from there through the ever more hilarious and contrived series of events, each one challenging the Squire's daring and nearly killing him, only to be saved at the last moment by some circumstance or another. The Faeries leaned in as they reached the climax, the Knight finding his Squire dressed his daughter's habit. Being unable to wed her, the Knight had planned to send his daughter to a convent and Squire and daughter had hatched one last ill conceived ploy which had finally revealed their scheming to the Knight, thus bringing the story full circle to its beginning where it was indeed declared a comedy.
Tabitha realized as she read, throat soar from talking more than she had in ages, that she was happy. The only other person she could say that with was Kirche.
She was just about to begin the last act, where the Squire readied himself for what he thought would be his execution but was actually a hastily arranged wedding, which of course were much the same thing as the Knight explained, when the sound of the church bell rolled through the window. The warm happy Tabitha who had briefly revealed herself was hidden back away and the Chevalier Tabitha closed her book and rose up calmly.
"What is it?" Leafa asked, but she already knew and went about quickly preparing herself along with Silica. A loud thunk came from the hallway as KoKo dropped down from the loft, Louise following slowly down the ladder.
"Sounds like they're here." KoKo said.
"An attack!" The Village Chief, Roseau appeared in the doorway. "The signal bells are coming from the eastern homsteads.
"So whats the plan?" Leafa asked, checking that she had her sword secured.
"Klein and Kirche will be with the Sentries nearest the forest." KoKo said. "They're probably already fighting."
"So we need to go and help them." Louise said, rubbing at her eyes.
"Tabitha-san." KoKo said, "Get into the air with Sylphied, we've got full moons tonight so you should be able to see pretty well, keep an eye out for a second attack. The Pixies have used diversions more than once already. Leafa-chan, you're with me, we'll go to back up Klein and Kirche or whoever else needs our help. Silica-chan I want you to stay here and keep an eye on Louise-chan and Yui-chan."
"Hey, I don't need special protection!" Louise reddened. Tabitha shook her head inwardly, 'Yes you do', she thought. Louise had some minimal training, she knew how to keep her head down and pay attention to her surroundings, when she wasn't fuming. But it was clear that she was still a novice and certainly not a fighter.
KoKo smiled as she hefted her bow, "Oh? But you're our diplomat, Louise-chan. After all, you're the only Tristanian we brought with us. We can't let anything happen to you." The Cait Syth gave a small wink. "So stay here and keep a watch over the Village Chief, okay?"
Louise's expression soured, but thankfully the youngest Valliere Daughter agreed.
Tabitha was out the door and atop Sylphied in a heartbeat, the Rhyme Dragon in perfect tune with her partner. "Let's go, Irukwuku." Tabitha whispered under her breath. The dragon let out her shrill cry and broke into a trot, beating her wings once, twice, and taking flight over the low homesteads of the village, following the Faeries into the night sky.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"Kirche, switch!" Klein shouted, leaping back as another Dagger Dog took a swipe at him with a stolen knife. The creature was the size of a large wolf, with a sleek blue furred body. Its head terminated in a narrow dexterous muzzle that possessed considerable bite strength. Even so, this particular mob preferred to pick up dropped knives and swords and use them for crude slashing attacks, or if no forged weapons were available, would create its own by crudely sharpening bits of bone or flint. This one wasn't so unfortunate and wielded a wickedly sharp knife that glinted in the moonlight.
The Dog's had appeared as if from nowhere. One minute Klein had been talking with a couple of the Tarbes sentries, and the next he was readying himself as he caught sight of the first mob erupting from the forest and making a straight line for the homesteads. A pack of five Dogs and at least a dozen of the Willow Wasps, most of which shot straight overhead without slowing down. And then Klein and the fire mage at his back had been too busy fighting the mobs that were right in front of them to worry about where the rest were headed.
The Dagger Dog growled viciously as it watched Klein. A jet of flame licked out towards the mob causing it to leap back before curving its spine and hunching down in readiness for an attack. "How was that, Darling?" Kirche called from her position off to Klein's left. Between himself and Kirche there was nothing to fear from this solitary mob, but the problem was . . . More growling and high pitched cries came from the direction of the fields, three more Dagger Dogs stocked forwards out of the shadows of the forest.
'No good.' Klein thought. These guys were only dangerous to him as long as he was grounded, but retreating to the skies would leave the Village sentries vulnerable and he wasn't good enough with magic to offer much support from the air. Kirche could probably torch the wolves, but that had its own problems, they couldn't risk burning the fields to the ground. Settling into a wide set guard, he made ready for the next attack, watching each of the Dogs carefully. 'Remember, their tells and attack patterns aren't consistent, you'll just have to predict it as best you can . . .' The one time samurai narrowed his eyes. 'There!'
The lead Dog rushed followed a split second later by the Dog to its left. They were going to try to attack one after another so so that Klein wouldn't be able to guard both strikes. That would have been dangerous in SAO, or if he was grounded, but that wasn't the case. Klein let the Dogs get close and then kicked off, rocketing upwards on the power provided by his wings. He easily cleared the charging mobs, coming down behind them and rushing the Dog that had hung back as the others circled back around.
The rear Dagger Dog hunched down and raced out to meet him. Klein's Katana flashed out, he felt the blade make contact with flesh and heard the sharp yelp as the mob cried out in pain. Even now he couldn't get used to the sound and the sensation. He didn't think he ever would. 'Now, onto the other ones.' The first Dog had backed away and was circling around cautiously to Klein's right.
"Klein, a little help!" Kirche called. Glancing over his shoulder Klein cursed. He'd expected the other two Dogs to come back after him, but instead they had broken for Kirche. They shouldn't have been too much trouble for a skilled mage, but as Klein watched, the flame whip that Kirche had summoned to protect herself washed over a pale blue, hemispherical barrier, leaving the mobs unharmed. Klein searched quickly and soon spotted what he was looking for. About ten meters off the ground, the fat bodies of a pair of Willow Wasps were hovering along with a half dozen tiny glimmering pairs of wings.
"Kirche, above you, Pixies!" And then Klein was too busy guarding as the first dagger Dog saw its opening and rushed in.
Kirche for her part was badly pressed holding back both the mobs and the supporting pixies. The tiny creatures were too far away for Kirche to make out anything but the pale glow of their wings. But as she watched, each of the pixies was surrounded by a glowing series of runes. She'd seen Faerie magic often enough to know what was next. A half dozen small fireballs jetted forth, each no bigger than a balled fist, and Kirche quickly brought her wand up to guard. Fortunately, the pixies hadn't figured out how to overwhelm the defenses of a human mage, so instead of staggering their attacks, they came all at once, making it trivial for Kirche to block them with her own spell. The magically conjured fire was swallowed up and hurled back in Kirche's own fireball a moment later, causing the pixies to scatter.
With a brief reprieve from the pint sized mages, Kirche turned her attention back to the Dagger Dogs that were at her heels only to find that they were already being dealt with.
"That's it! Just like grandfather taught us!" A broad shouldered farmer cried as he and his fellow villagers advanced, wielding their halberds like novices, but well practiced novices. As Kirche watched, the men of Tarbes split into two groups of five and began to surround the Dogs, brandishing their pole-arms menacingly. The Mobs were forced back. A soft high pitched clicking emanated from both Dogs and they glanced to one another and then to Klein who was just finishing with the first Dog, having finished it with a single stroke to the throat. The mobs turned about and ran, cutting across the fields and heading straight back for the forests.
The men of Tarbes made to pursue, but before they made it more than a half dozen steps, a dozen little lights flickered to life in the sky and rained fist sized fireballs down upon them. The blasts were poorly aimed and not terribly powerful, Kirche thought, but still dangerous. A lucky strike might kill, even a glancing hit would badly burn someone. Kirche released a tongue of flame from the tip of her wand and directed it towards the nearest Pixie caster, watching the tiny pair of wings flitting about, desperately attempting to dodge. She didn't try to hard to hit the Pixie and simply moved on to the next, and the next, grazing one of the buzzing Willow Wasps in the process. More importantly she kept the Pixies distracted and unable to keep up their attack.
"Everyone retreat." Klein ordered, "You did a good job with the other mobs, but leave the pixies to us!" However, no sooner had the words left the Salamanders mouth, then the pixies began to disperse. "Hey, come back here and fight someone a hundred times your own size damn it!"
As soon as the attack had come, it had ended, leaving Kirche and Klein, and the men of Tarbes standing in the middle of a suddenly quiet field. Even the night insects were still, shocked into silence by the sudden brief battle that had taken hold in the field.
"Kyuui!" Klein looked up to see the serpentine shape of Tabitha's dragon circling high above, the green and yellow wings of Leafa and KoKo glowing in the moonlight as they descended. The Pixies had probably decided the fight wasn't going to go their way with reinforcements.
"Klein!"
"Oy, you're a little late to the party." Klein said.
"We got here as fast as we could." Leafa defended, eyes scanning the forest. "Only one attack?"
"There will be more." One of the farmers said. "Usually they strike all over before concentrating for a final attack. Thanks for your help so far. We would have been hard pressed on our own."
"Well, the next attacks should come pretty quick then." Klein wiped the gore from his Katana and sheathed the weapon. "They've already lost the element of surprise."
No sooner had he finished speaking then the sound of distant bells filled the air. "Marvelous powers of perception, darling." Kirche said in a sweet dripping voice that Klein couldn't tell if it was sincere or sarcastic.
"Uhm, thanks?" Klein rubbed at the back of his head.
"That's coming from the far north." One of the villagers said, "We haven't stationed many sentries in that direction."
"Lucky we've got wings." Klein replied as his own materialized with barely a thought. "Kirche, there's no telling if those mobs will double back. You going to be okay with these guys?"
"Leaving already?" Kirche pouted, "Well, if you insist, I can hold my own own all night if that's the worst these little pixies have." The fire mage gave a confident toss of her hair.
"Just hurry back when you're finished, okay?"
"R-right." Klein said, feeling very unsure.
Klein fell in with Leafa and KoKo, streaking over the scattered village homesteads and fields while cursing to himself. It was like one of those flat panel video games where the hero had to run around guarding different parts of the base, only they didn't have the luxury of memorizing the enemy attack patterns and then hitting restart. A homestead was already on fire in the distance, the pixies were burning the villagers out of the relative safety of their barricaded homes. From the air he could women and children being pursued by more Dagger Dogs.
"Leafa, with me." Klein shouted, diving towards the first Dog.
"KoKo!" Leafa shouted as she followed.
"I'm on it!" The Cait Syth killed her forward momentum, spreading her wings to steady herself, and swiftly notched an arrow, taking careful aim as she hovered in the skies above. The first kill went to the hunter as she put a steel headed arrow through the back of the first Dog's skull. The others scattered immediately, diving to the sides and spinning about, their prey forgotten in the face of this new threat.
At his side, Klein caught the faint glow of the runes encircling Leafa as she recited the words of a spell. The girl's hand reached forward and though he could barely see any effect, a loud, vicious hiss emanated from her hand. On the ground bellow, one of the remaining Dogs yelped in surprise as blood sprayed across its fur. The mob stumbled back, hurt and frightened by the Sylphs attack. The remaining two Dogs closing ranks on their wounded comrade.
Seeing the animals acting so compassionately towards one another didn't make this any easier, a small part of Klein thought. He hit the ground, bringing his Katana down in an overhead swing that would have cleaved the head of one of the Dog's in two if it hadn't backed off. Leafa set down at his side and then pushed off again, skimming close the ground as she went after the other remaining uninjured Dog.
Klein blocked as the Dog in front of him reared and launched a vicious slash with the dagger it held in its teeth. The animal might have been smart and dexterous enough to slash and block with a blade, but its body simply wasn't built to properly wield the weapon. The Dog was too clumsy to strike with anything but the edge of its weapon, causing the blade to chip and crack with each strike. That was part of why Dagger Dogs, while dangerous to beginner players and possessing fairly high level stats, were not a very great threat one on one to a skilled player.
Off to the side, Klein could see a pair of pixie wings landing beside the wounded Dagger Dog. Runes floated in the air and the mob was suffused in a faint green glow. Slowly, the wounded Dog staggered to its feet whimpering softly and began to limp away. Klein pressed forward, driving the attacking Dog off of him with a kick to its exposed stomach. No sooner was he back in his guard then there was a flash of light and electrical tingling washed over him.
"Klein!" Blinking his eyes rapidly, the swordsman found himself on his back looking up to see Leafa leaning over him, a concerned look gracing her face. Now that was a new one, a woman showing him unambiguous concern. 'Damnit, why'd you have to go and be Kirito's sister.' Klein lamented inwardly as he shook the buzzing from his head.
"It's just a stun spell." KoKo said over her shoulder. The hunter stood beside them, another arrow notched and ready, a second readied between her thumb and index finger. Her ears were pivoting about like miniature radar arrays as she listened for any more trouble. Just as with the previous attack, this one had ended as soon as the Pixies and their mobs met resistance. 'So another diversion.' Klein thought as he stood. The actual stun effect had only lasted for a few seconds, but as with everything IRL, status effects didn't just wear off instantly, he felt like he was coming off an ear infection.
In the distance, Klein could see villagers running towards the burning homestead, men carrying halberds, and women and older children running with buckets, desperate to save their homes and more importantly, stop the fire before it spread to the nearby fields.
"This is strange." KoKo said, lowering her bow.
"What?" Klein asked, the ringing in his ears had finally stopped.
"They set fire to the building and ran. So this was definitely a diversion . . . But they stayed around to fight."
Klein frowned, "Maybe they wanted to ambush the villagers when they came to fight the fire."
KoKo shook her head, "No, they couldn't have been expecting us. I think maybe they were trying to draw more sentries this direction. Klein, can you fly up and tell Tabitha to head towards the south side of the village?"
"Sure thing." Klein said, catching on immediately. The pixies had been trying to pull the sentries out of position by starting a fight here. So they probably had another attack planned. It was a simple strategy, but effective. The smoke from the fire would probably serve as the signal.
"While we wait, I'm going to see if I can do anything for the injured." Leafa said.
"Wait up, I know a few first aid spells" KoKo added. Klein took a few experimental hopes to reassure himself that the stun status effect had completely faded, and then made his way up towards Tabitha and her circling dragon. Before he made it however, he heard the distant sound of more bells, and the church bell was ringing again. From the sky, Klein could easily localize the source of the alarm, gaze scanning until he settled on . . . 'Shit!' A gout of flame appeared in the village square, bathing the surrounding buildings in alternating stripes of orange light and shadow. The pixies had finally grown impatient, they'd gone for the heart of the village.
___________________________________________________________________________________
After the others had rushed to the aid of the villagers, leaving Louise, Silica, and Yui to stand guard, all had been quiet save for the distant ringing of bells and the faint shouts as villagers rushed from their homes to help. The women and children were urged to stay inside while the men took up arms and made ready in the square. Silica stood beside Louise, her familiar clinging to her shoulder, watching the distant fields where the fighting was taking place even now. The young Cait Syth looked anxious, worried for her friends who had gone off to fight. Every time there was a loud noise, the ears on her head would pivot, tracking the source and her hand would make for her dagger.
Louise for her part felt useless, although what KoKo had said was true, she knew it was just a polite way for the Cait Syth to keep her out of danger. She couldn't blame KoKo, she wasn't a battle mage, she was barely a mage. She could defend herself well enough, probably, with her explosions, but little more than that. Louise had looked to Silica, thinking that she might be able to at least comfort the younger girl, only to find Silica's face set in a mask of grim concentration. On any other child it would have looked adorable, especially one possessing a pair of large cat's ears, but in Silica it was off putting, it wasn't just an act, this was all part of her. Louise recalled her speculation from that morning that Silica was like Tabitha, her stature and appearance concealing her true ability.
"It's okay, Louise-san, Leafa-chan and the others are really strong, they can protect everybody" Yui said confidently from her position on Silica's shoulder opposite Pina.
"I'm not worried about them." Louise shook her head. "I just think I should be out their too . . . helping."
The pixie girl gave a small nod of understanding. "I know how you feel." Yui tilted her head curiously. "But you've already helped a lot, Louise-san. There are things that only you can do. And this is what Leafa-san and Klein-san came along for. Its what they can do, so don't worry about it."
Louise nodded slowly at the peculiar statement. The pixie seemed so much like a child, and then she would say something like that.
"Fear not for your safety Miss Valliere." The Village Chief assured at her side. "Your friends and allies are doing us a great service. The least we can do it keep you safe in turn."
"I hardly need the protection of commoner villagers." Louise snapped and then stopped, "I mean . . . It is a gracious offer, but I can see to myself."
"I have no doubt, Miss Valliere." The Village Chief replied. "But please, I merely meant to reassure you. You are our honored guest Miss Valliere, please remember that."
"O-of course." Louise said, feeling rather unsure of herself.
Smoke began to rise from the North and shouts of alarm spread through the gathered villagers. Something had set fire to one of the homes, or worse, one of the fields, for the village, such an event would be a disaster. Some of the sentries broke ranks and began to run towards the fields followed closely by some of the village's women folk and children.
The Village Chief allowed about half to go before shouting for the rest of the men to stay.
"But Chief, if the fields burn our village is lost!"
"And you know what devious creatures the pixies are." Roseau snapped back, grimacing, "They set light to one field and will only use it as a distraction to burn another, or to ransack our homes. Calm yourself Gavin."
"Y-yes, Chief." The man replied, leaning against the shaft of his pole-arm anxiously.
Both Silica and her dragon piqued up as one. "What's that noise?"
"Noise?" Roseau asked, "Do you hear something Miss Silica?"
"Un." Silica nodded, "Like, buzzing, no its too low for that."
"I sense it too." Yui said from Silica's shoulder, the little girl had closed her eyes and her face was a mask of perfect concentration. "Its coming from the East . . . And from the South too. Mobs!"
The Village Chief bit out a curse. "They've never come this far into Tarbes before. Get the women and children back inside!"
"Everyone get ready!" Silica shouted.
"Miss Valliere?" Roseau asked.
"I shall stay here." Louise replied, taking up her wand. Though she could still only manage explosions, her aim had improved vastly over the past days. And, glancing to the Cait Syth girl who had already readied herself. As a Noblewoman of Tristain, Louise could hardly do any less. At the edge of her hearing Louise finally made out the buzzing that Silica had mentioned, a low deeply rumbling that filled the air.
The villagers looked around cautiously, hefting their weapons uncertainly. The villager who had spoken earlier, Gavin, seemed the most calm, perhaps he had been conscripted into service in the past. Louise thought.
The source of the noise became visible and Louise fought to keep down an instinctive sense of revulsion. The . . . Things were like giant insects, wings the size of those of a pigeon, but with bodies larger than a carrion bird. Their heads were large, almost entirely covered in hard black eyes, mouths terminating in a wicked set of mandibles. The body was divided into a tiny midsection, barely more than a place for the creature's legs and wings, while the thorax was a bulbous, swollen, striped ovoid of armored chitin ending in a hysterically large stinger.
"Willow Wasps!" Silica shouted, "They're venomous! Don't let them sting you!"
That would be easier said then done, there were at least a dozen of the nightmarish creatures, and as Louise watched they began to encircle the villagers, darting in an out menacingly. Gavin roared and threw himself at one of the low flying insects, only for his halberd to be blocked by a translucent blue barrier.
'Magic!' Louise looked around but she couldn't see any sign of the pixies at first. Then, looking more closely at the Willow Wasps, she caught sight of a tiny pair of wings sitting just behind the head of each insect. From this distance, she couldn't tell for sure, but they looked almost like miniature knights in glistening black armor that glinted in the light of the moon. They . . . They were dragoons, little pixie dragoons!
The Wasp that Gavin had taken a swing at spun away, emitting a loud, angry buzz before charging back towards the man, extending its stinger forward. Louise remembered Silica's warning. Even if the stinger wasn't very large as weapons went, it was still dangerous. Raising her wand Louise thought up the shortest spell she knew and channeled as much willpower as she could into a simple 'holy light' chant. The effects were . . . Immediate.
One moment the wasp was closing on Gavin, the next it was engulfed in a cloud of fire and smoke before plummeting from the sky, twitching feebly as it hit the ground. The villagers moved in to finish the job, hacking at the creature with their halberds, cracking its exoskeleton and taring away at its guts. Louise saw a tiny shape flit away, the rider fleeing from its doomed mount.
Satisfaction at her success turned to horror as three of the remaining wasps broke from the rest and closed in under the direction of their pixie riders. Louise let loose with another aimed explosion but the Wasps and Pixies were on to her now and weaved about furiously to throw off her aim.
"Louise, run!" A brown haired blur in a blue coat truck the first wasp fall on, dagger sinking smoothly into the seam between the thorax and abdomen. The Wasp let out a sharp buzzing keen as Silica withdrew her dagger and kicked off in midair, sending the stricken wasp crashing to the ground just as she landed neatly beside Louise.
Coming to her master's aid, Pina dove from the sky, shrieking an angry challenge at the Wasps and their riders. Louise couldn't imagine what the little fuzzball expected to do against the vicious looking insects. She found out a moment later as Pina opened her mouth. Many species of dragons had breath attacks, most infamously fire dragons, but also the whale dragons that inhabited the seas with their natural hydro cutters, and various species of land bound dragon which were known to spit poison.
This still left Louise unprepared when the first bubble burst forth from the small dragon's throat followed by another and another. It was like, it was like the clever little device that the servants brought out during Spring time parties, a little rotating mechanism of hand cranked fans and forms that was fronted by a reservoir of soapy water. A shower of small bubbles emanated from the little dragon's throat surrounding the Wasps before bursting. Louise watched, at first there seemed to be no effect, but then, the Wasps began to stagger drunkenly, plummeting from the sky, twitching.
"Thanks Pina." Silica said, extending an arm for her familiar.
"Kya!"
However, the victory was short lived. The wasps buzzed angrily as they struggled to right themselves, wings flapping slowly. It would be a short time before they could return to the sky, but in the meantime, three more of the wasps had broken off to face silica, and the riders from the first three wasps now rose angrily, small forms surrounded in ruins before casting a trio of miniature fireball spells.
Silica dodged nimbly, seeming to dance around the spells. She didn't even need to use her wings. 'Amazing' Louise thought. "Louise! Hurry up and run!" The Cait Syth girl turned to "Yui, go with Louise, its dangerous out here." Silica said.
"Right!" Yui flitted over to Louise's shoulder and slipped into the front pocket of her travel shirt. One of the three wasps approaching Silica broke off and gave chase to Louise. Caught between fight or flight, Louise chose to run, narrowly dodging the Village Chief who had retrieved a crossbow from some undisclosed location and was rushing to Silica's aid. Louise caste another explosion and the Wasp dodged. There wasn't enough time for another spell, she dove through the door of the Village Chiefs house, slamming it closed with all of her might and swinging the latch down just as something struck with a solid -THUD-, shaking the door in its hinges and causing the house to creak.
She fervently hoped that the impact had been fatal to her attacker. Bust such was not to be as an instant later a knife sized stinger, all hooked barbs and glossy black chitin, burst through the wood of the door, accompanied by a low, angry buzzing. Louise backed away, leveling her wand. She was tempted to cast a spell now that the wasp was pinned, her explosions were at least powerful enough to swat the bug, but if she blew the door open she'd only let the others in. She was scared. She'd thought that she had prepared herself. Thought that she'd be ready. But she was wrong.
"Louise-san, lets go out that way!" Yui point to the back of the room where a Germanian Door lead out the opposite side of the house. Louise nodded to the pixie.
"Stay hidden, Yui." Yui obeyed without another word, ducking back down into the pocket, she was barely more than a hummingbird. The little pixie was so childlike, in complete contrast to the ones that were now attacking them with lethal intent. Louise might have been the weakest mage in their group, but she could at least protect someone like Yui. The thought gave her some courage as she ran over to the door and unlatched its bottom half, ducking out from bellow. If she could just get up somewhere high and keep some distance from the wasps, she knew she could make better use of her explosions. Maybe, the church, the church tower would be perfect.
She stole off in the direction of the still ringing church bell. Louise made it about half way across the square before she heard a low growling accompanied by high pitched clicks. Turning her head nervously, Louise swallowed. Stalking out of the shadows were a trio of Wolves. Not just normal wolves but some sort of ALfheim wolf, a mob. Their bodies sleek and covered in blue fur, muzzles terminating in a pointed snout. Each held a weapon in its mouth. One clutched the head of scythe, while another wielded a truncated halberd with most of the haft broken off. The last held only a small knife, but was no less menacing.
Louise took a step back as the wolves began to surround her. "S-stay back! M-mangy dogs!" Louise stuttered raising her wand. The wolves dashed away at her first explosion, only being caught at the edge of the blast. They spread apart, forcing Louise to watch all sides at once.
"Don't worry about our back, I can sense them." Yui said, "You keep your eyes focused to the front, Louise-san!"
The first dog began to pace forward building speed, Louise brought her want up shakily. "Kya!" Out of the sky, Pina crashed into the back of the wolf and with bravery bellying her small size, sank claws mercilessly into the the mob's back.
"Louise, I told you to run." Silica shouted, plummeting down from above on yellow wings.
"I tried." Louise spat back.
"I meant away, not into more of them!"
"I tried!"
Silica and Pina fell back, putting themselves between Louise and the wolves. "Pina, get ready!"
"Kya!"
The first wolf moved in again, not so much jumping as lunging for Silica. Again Louise was left in awe of the girl's agility. Without using her wings, Silica jumped up, spreading her legs wide and pushing down with her hands, vaulting over the wolf in a gymnastic display that briefly revealed the blue short pants that she wore beneath her skirt.
"Louise, he's yours!"
"R-right!" Louise lashed out with another explosion, this time catching the wolf and sending it flying against the wall of a nearby house, letting out a yelp of pain. The animal was only stunned, but as it rose it chose to flee rather than stay and fight. 'We can win!' Louise thought.
"Okay, here comes another." Silica said, "Louise, when I say switch, I want you to take over attacking, do you understand? I'll guard you attack."
"I understand." Louise said quickly.
The remaining two wolves stocked forward and then stopped, each taking a step back. More low buzzing came from above them. The wasps were back. Louise's stomach churned as she saw them. The wolves were frightening, but the wasps were repulsive, a horror she was unused to imagining.
Then from the sky, a small dark sharp plummeted, wings unfolding at the last instant. "Gyah!" The black shape crashed into Silica's familiar, both rolling to the ground.
"Pina!" Silica cried, distracted for a crucial moment. One of the wolves rushes her, charging for her flank and sending the girl flying like a rag doll to crash into the side of one of the building. Before she could as much as move, a bright yellow flash engulfed her and she collapsed.
On the ground, the black shape was revealed as another feathery dragon, smaller than Pina with dark feathers and golden eyes. The second dragon had Pina pinned, the weight of its body pressed down on Silica's familiar and its jaws closed tightly on her throat. An armored pixies rode upon its back and a tiny white needle glinted in its hand like a saber. The needle was waved about and Louise realized she was surrounded. Taking a step back and then another, pointing her wand in every direction. The monsters rushed in.
"Louise!" Silica shouted, struggling to stand. Another flash of yellow spell light engulfed her, nearing causing her to fall to the ground.
Louise screamed as she was surrounded by hard chitinous legs and wings, scrabbling and scratching at her skin, pulling at her hair and clothes. She squeezed her eyes shut, covering her face with her arms, trying to block out the terror. The beating of their wings thundered in her ears. She was sure any instant she would feel the sharp barb of one of their stingers, the rush of their venom. She screamed, she screamed herself hoarse, tears coming to her eyes. 'Please, somebody save me, someone, please, mother!'
"Get the hell away from them! NEOW!" A furious voice shrieked. Louise felt the wasps scatter and opened her eyes. An arrow pierced one of the wasps from above, and then another, and another. Diving from the sky, KoKo discarded her bow and unsheathed her knife, driving the blade down to its hilt into a fourth wasp, crashing to the ground and driving her knee into the creatures carcass, crushing the life from it.
KoKo turned her eyes back to remaining monsters. The wolves growled lowly and the wasps gathered into a formation above them. The black feathered dragon rose back into the air, its rider gesturing with its needle sword at this new opponent.
The Hunter spread her arms wide breathing heavily. "Louise, are you alright?"
Louise sank to her knees trembling. "I – I'm okay." She hugged herself tightly.
"Silica?"
The Cait Syth girl had returned to her feet and rushed to her stricken familiar's side. The small dragon had rolled back over onto her belly and was purring miserably. Louise could see where the other dragon had drawn blood, deep red staining the light blue feathers.
"We're okay." Silica said, clutching up her familiar protectively in one arm and guarding with her dagger in the other.
The Cait Syth pulled her knife loose from the wasp at her feet and assumed a knife fighting stance, baring her fangs at the monsters. "You wanna mess with these cubs, you'll have to mess with me!" She began to whisper something under her breath and Louise watched as the runes of a Faerie spell circled her. Only three? So it wasn't very powerful Faerie magic, Louise thought.
One of the Wolves took a cautious step forward just as KoKo finished her chant. The Cait Syth took a deep breath and then opened her mouth wide. Louise's hearing went faintly numb and to her side she could see Silica covering her ears.
The monsters suddenly acted very strangely, the wolves cowered back, and the wasps seemed to trembled in the air. Even the black feathered dragon and its rider seemed briefly effected. A moment of indecision passed, and then came to an end as a shout came from above. Klein and Leafa had arrived, the Salamander diving downward, ready to lock blades while the Sylph prepared to cast.
Indecision ended, with a last wave of its needle, the rider of the black feathered dragon directed her mount to flee, the other monsters following suite, slinking back into the shadows. The heavy beating of wings faded and then there were only a few distant howls, and then nothing but the still ringing church bell and the distant shouts of commoners.
KoKo stood, breathing heavily, the woman's slender frame trembled for an instant before she wiped the insect juices from her knife and put the blade away. She turned to Louise and sank down by her side. The hunters golden eyes looked Louise over, pausing on every scrape and bruise. There were scratches, and a few light marks from where the wasps had bitten at her experimentally.
The fear in those eyes shook Louise from her own trauma. "I'm okay." Louise said, trying to reassure the woman like she so often did her sister Cattleya. "See." Louise raised her arm, "Just scratches, I've hurt myself worse practicing magic." Louise half joked.
KoKo nodded slowly and swallowed back something she had been about to say. "Silica, come over here and let me see Pina, she looks hurt."
"She is." Silica said, worried. Though alert in her master's arms, the blue feathered dragon was making soft pained noises and whined whenever Silica stopped supporting one of her wings.
KoKo looked the small dragon over and let out a sigh of relief. "Feels like it's just dislocated." She clucked softly as she probed at the base of Pina's left wing. "What hit her?"
"Another feathery dragon." Silica said, "One of the pixies was riding it", Silica frowned. "I think that was their leader."
"Well, my veterinary skills and healing skills gave me enough knowledge to set this, but she'll probably need to stay off her wing for the next few days. Otherwise she just has some scratches. I think she's more angry than hurt."
"Kya . . . " Pina moaned.
Silica let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness."
"Sorry we didn't get here sooner." Klein said. "But we kept getting caught up in diversionary attacks and couldn't leave the villagers alone. We didn't think they would hit the village center so hard."
"There's no way you could have known." Silica said, "I didn't expect it either. In fact, the first we knew was when Pina, Yui, and I heard them coming."
"Yui?" Leafa said suddenly. Everyone turned to the Sylph who was suddenly looking around wild eyed. "Where is Yui?"
"She was in my pocket." Louise reached to her breast and then looked down to the front her traveling clothes, face going pale. Her breast pocket had been torn open and Yui was nowhere to be seen.
___________________________________________________________________________________
[<Fear]> Yui thought, associations fanned outwards. [<Anxiety]>, [<Fight or Flight]>, [<Unknown]>. The last on the list grew to encompass her attention. That was it, the squirming unpleasant feeling within her mind and the cold clamminess that gripped at her physical body, the unknown terrified her. She was a being of information, she needed it to feel at peace. Being deprived of her link to external networks had been distressing enough, but at least she had been able to use her own senses and could still access information in an effective if crude fashion.
But now she didn't even have that. She was blind and almost deaf and didn't know how what had happened or how she had gotten here. She could not determine where she had started from, she could not plot where she was going. It was wrong. One moment the pocket of Louise's blouse was being torn open, the next her captors were stuffing her into some sort of sack, closing it tightly. She could hear only the low buzzing of Wasp wings and feel the rumble of their flight through chitin beneath her. Those were her only external sources of information.
The journey lasted for all of twelve hundred and fifty four seconds by Yui's internal clock. How far could the Wasps Travel in this time? Where were they taking her? Logical extrapolation said the forest East of Tarbes. It agreed with her internal spacial reference function, her sense of direction. But Yui could not guess anything else. She could fathom human thought processes, even if she did not fully understand humans, she had extensive knowledge about human reactions and could make very well informed guesses about how they would respond in a given situation, what stimuli would invoke what response.
But for artificial minds she had only herself and Pina to extrapolate from. Pina, though possessing a complex mind structure, was fundamentally different from herself, having achieved true intelligence only after the transition. As for herself, Yui could no more understand her own mind that any single human could examine their own. Objectivity was impossible to maintain. Observation altered what was being observed. The instrument failed in examining itself.
Yui waited, she hated waiting, just like Papa. But until she had more information she could do nothing else, she couldn't even generate probably scenarios. Not that she didn't try, and fail. Her simulations stacking up and biasing towards the worse case, the thing humans called [<Anxiety]> taking hold and driving her towards panic and despair.
Finally, the rumbling stopped and Yui felt herself being lifted down from the back of the Wasp. She heard muted voices whispering among themselves. The sack was opened and she was set free, blinking in the moonlight. Information flooded into her, her limited senses expanding. Free of obstructions her search capability was restored and she scanned her surroundings, detecting dozens of mobs and hundreds, thousands of other signatures. The native animals and insects of Tristain. She was standing atop a log. At her back, several of the willow wasps sat calmly, mandibles folded into smooth masks. Wings stilled. Their jerky aggressive motions replaced with slow, cautious movements more akin to a weta bug than a wasp.
Yui felt something within her relax, new information, optimization was now possible, the worries began to disappear as she assessed her surroundings and discarded unlikely scenarios. Looking around, she found herself surrounded by pixies. It was a strange sensation to stand before so many people her own size, something that she had only experienced briefly at the orphanage in SAO.
The other pixies watched her curiously, leaning in to whisper to one another. They were like navigation pixies in that they all resembled human females with physical morphology reminiscent of prepubescence. The facial structures possessed rather less variation that humans, but this was a limited sample base. [<Hypothethesis]> appearance was optimized for positive emotional response from players. This was reasonable and agreed with the facial features falling close to those of the median [<Median Ideal]>. That was to say, the girls surrounding her possessed features that were very carefully slanted towards the statistical 'average'. Invoking a positive sense of familiarity.
The Pixies were dressed very differently from herself. Most wore dresses patched together from bits of course fabric, skirts made up of a dazzling array of yellows and reds, like leaves in fall. A few wore more somber robes woven from finer fabric of a deep green, only one or two of the girls wore this sort of garb and their facial features suggested the onset of puberty and the beginning of physical development. [<Hypothesis]> A subtle implication meant to cue that they were 'older' and therefore 'wiser' than the others. Unlike the 'younger' girls they talked less and observed carefully. The last variety were what Yui could only describe as knights. They still wore the multicolored skirts of the younger pixies though emphasizing brighter reds, yellows, and blacks, colors of aggression. But their upper bodies were covered in glossy black armor reminiscent of insect chitin, and in fact appeared to be carved from the carcasses of some sort of beetle. Each of the Knights wielded a sewing needle hooped through a bit of string worn as a belt, and carried helmets decorated in blacks and yellows. With their helmets removed it was clear that the knights were the most physically 'mature' of the pixies with slightly greater physical size and development implying greater strength and self reliance. Their wings were also more reminiscent of the more aggressive Faerie races with two sets, slightly smaller and more angular than those possessed by Yui or the other girls.
That was the limit of what Yui was able to determine through passive examination. Questions began to accumulate, the demand for information spurring her to action. "Hello?" Yui asked cautiously.
The murmuring grew among the young girls. Finally, one of them stepped forward, a girl, smaller than Yui herself with mousy brown hair and an uncertain look on her face. She looked from side to side, making sure that it was okay for her to speak. "I-its okay. Y-your safe now." The others nodded approvingly.
"Safe?" Yui asked uncertainly. Did they think that they were helping her, that they had rescued her?
The girl smiled shyly, "We're so glad we got to you, since its a full moon tonight. The beings . . . They didn't . . . They didn't bond you . . . did they?"
Yui shook her head in confusion, realizing only a moment too late that the gesture could be misinterpreted.
The general atmosphere of the crowd grew relieved, "Oh thank goodness. We thought that they'd got you. But Sayuri-sama and the other knights found you just in time." Tears began to well up in the girl's eyes. "W-welcome home little sister!" The girl rushed forward and embraced Yui in a tight hug. Yui had little time to think about this before the girl stiffened. "Wait . . ." The girl looked up at Yui and seemed to sniff at her. "You . . . Don't smell like the garden . . . " Her eyes grew wide and fearful. "You smell like beings!"
The other pixies all looked on, eyes wide. Murmurs passed between them and the young girls shrank away, the robed girls still watching quietly. Yui turned around at the sound of the knights unsheathing their needles.
"Enough!" An older, more commanding voice called above the others. Yui turned around to find one of the Knights dismounting from the side of a black feathered dragon.
"Sayuri-sama!" The other pixies murmured softly. The other knights looked to their leader for instructions and at a gesture, lowered their swords.
"This is my error." Sayuri said coolly. "We had little time, the beings of the village have new allies, Faeries. We were forced to retreat just after we found this one. She must be bonded, just a slave that can't even hear Yggdrasil's song."
"Sayuri, she is dangerous to keep here. She'll inform the beings." One of the robed girls said.
"That is only if we allow her to leave. And she may be useful to us." Sayuri replied. Yui felt an unpleasant sensation [<heart sinking]>.
"What are you suggesting?" The robed girl asked.
"If she's a being's pet." Yui bristled at the word. "Then she may have been all over the village. She may know useful things."
The robed girl looked unhappy. "Sayuri, this is unwise."
"I will take responsibility for her." Sayuri said, "As your leader, she is my mistake, she is my responsibility."
"I . . ." The robed girl closed her mouth. "As you wish, Sayuri-sama. This Little Sister accepts your wisdom, Elder Sister."
The knight stepped towards Yui, removing her helmet, long blonde hair cascaded down to the small of her back. She stood a little over a head taller than Yui with pale Nordic features and clear blue eyes. Her expression was cold, eyes narrowed and suspicious. Yui quailed [<Familiarity]> like Mama but not the part of Mama that was ever shown to her [<Alienation]> The cold commander, the Vice Commander of the Knights of Blood. Yui stepped back, this girl was not her Mama, but the similarity resonated deeply with something within her.
The girl drew her own sword, a bone white sewing needle and pressed it against Yui's chest. "Now, you will answer my questions . . ."
Halkegenia Online-Chapter 9-Part 3
'Must remain focused'. Tabitha thought. 'Must, remain, focused.'
As a Gallian Chevalier, Tabitha had developed the skills and qualities expected of a Knight. Superior magical ability, agility, mental and physical fortitude far beyond that of all but the most dedicated soldiers. Her small body concealed far more strength than most would expect and she had only been toughened further by her journeys.
Instructed to take on only the most dangerous missions, each time expected to fail, Tabitha had trained herself ceaselessly as a battle mage. Willpower reserves that nearly reached the rank of square and a mixed air and water affinity of triangle level that she had learned to wield in lethal combination, had been combined with a relentless determination and ability to remain focused, utilizing her magic to its limit in even the most brutal and unforgiving environments.
'Focused!'
She began to read the next line. 'What have, and hey by hearth of heart . . .' She heard the softy laughter once more and couldn't help it, she glanced up.
"Pina, stop it!" Silica giggled as her familiar affectionately licked her cheek and let out another small cry like her own Sylphied in miniature. Tabitha ducked her head back down. 'Focus'
Tabitha had put away childish things long ago. Faerie tales were pleasant lies, happy endings weren't, and most of all, cute was meaningless.
"Hey Tabitha-san?" Silica asked.
Tabitha looked up slowly, carefully keeping her book leveled to conceal her blushing cheeks, the ears were twitching again, what to do? "Yes?"
"Is your book good, you've been reading it all day. You must be almost done."
"Near the beginning." Tabitha Replied and then added. "It's good." In fact, she would have been done if she didn't keep getting distracted.
Silica sank back down, legs folded beneath her, they were both seated on the floor, sharing a feather mattress as they prepared for bed. The elder Faerie, Leafa, had removed her corset and coat and now sat cross legged beside Silica, a light blanket thrown over her shoulders, watching the antics of Pina and Silica with some amusement. The Pixie, Yui, had situated herself atop Pina, laying against the comfortable down feathers of the dragon's undercoat.
"If you don't mind telling us, what's it about?" Silica asked, tilting her head to the side.
Tabitha twitched, it was like, a cat, a kitten she had had in happier times. It was almost too much. 'You are a Chevalier.' Tabitha thought. 'You will not be defeated.'
"Comedy." Tabitha replied, "About a Squire."
"A squire?" Silica asked, looking thoughtful. "Those people who work for Knights?"
"Yes." Tabitha said, weighing her options carefully before she decided to continue. "He falls in love with his master's daughter and has to hide it."
The story was an old Gallian Tale, often retold, the Squire who had served his Knight dutifully, fell in love with his master's fair daughter and went to great lengths to conceal his interest lest his master grow furious with him. Meanwhile, the Knight, who had always thought highly of his Squire and intended to put his name forward for Knighthood, bemoaned the fact that no reliable men had shown interest in his daughter. The Squire and Knight's daughter got up to increasingly contrived schemes to avoid being discovered by the Knight who would no doubt happily welcome their union. Tabitha was only now at the part where the Knight was wondering if his Squire, who was careful to show no interest in his daughter, was perhaps a eunech, that part always got a laugh when the story was told on stage.
"Oh. We have stories like that where we're from." Silica said. "I wish I had some of my books from home, it'd be fun to read them and compare."
"The Arrun central library has complete printouts of the project Gutenberg library." Yui supplied. "There's lots and lots of good stories in their."
Tabitha perked up a little, wondering what Fae stories were like, it was a nice distraction. "Fae Stories?" Tabitha asked.
"Un", Yui nodded. Standing up on silica's back she started to gesticulate wildly. "Like the Wizard of Oz, and Treasure Island, or the Count of Monte Cristo!"
"Those are all western stories though." Silica said, "What about Eastern fiction."
"Hmm, I'm not really sure, I just read part of the card catalog while waiting for Papa."
"Oh." Silica said, "I'll have to check it out when we get back to Arrun, why don't you come too Tabitha-san?"
"Come too? To the Library?" Looking at Silica, it was tempting, oh so very tempting. She shook her head, "Don't read Faerie Runes."
"Well I can't read Tristanian either." Silica said, and then brightened up. "Why don't we teach other?"
"Teach?" Tabitha asked.
"Un." Silica nodded, "You know, I was a pretty good tutor back in grade school, I helped the other students all the time." She smiled, "Though, I'm a little behind right now because of . . . Of sickness. So I'm sure I could teach you how to read Japanese, and you can teach me Tristanian." The girl looked so excited at the idea, how could she say no?
Tabitha looked down at her book, she couldn't hold out much longer, quick, diversion. "Have to go to the academy. This book is too complicated to teach with." Tabitha said softly.
"That's alright." Silica offered kindly. "Maybe you could read it aloud to us instead?"
Tabitha felt heat rushing to her cheeks, the girl was so . . . so cute . . . and so gently insistent. Tabitha closed her book slowly. She stared at Silica, Silica starred back expectantly.
Tabitha swallowed. "Okay."
"Really?!" Silica brightened, "Leafa-san, do you want to listen to?"
"I think I'd like that. I'm not very tired yet, and the story sounds like fun." The Sylph woman smiled kindly.
"One thing first." Tabitha said quickly.
"Oh? What is it?" Silica asked.
Tabitha raised her hands slowly and then asked in a voice that could barely be heard, "Can I . . . Touch them?" Her eyes were fixed firmly on the two triangular ears atop Silica's head. They were . . . so cute.
Silica reached up and probed the top of her head curiously and then just nodded. "That's okay, just be gentle, they're a little sensitive."
Slowly, cautiously, Tabitha reached up and gently took the tip of each ear between a thumb and index finger. The fur was as soft as down and very warm. Silica stiffened, eyes going wide and then relaxed. Her eyes grew hooded and she sank down into a comfortable position. A strange sound came from the girl, not a groan, but something deep and gravelly from within her chest. It also made Tabitha let go in surprise, she was . . . purring.
"Are you okay Silica-chan?" Leafa asked with a hint of worry.
"It's fine." Yui said, smiling, "She just really likes it."
"Un." Silica said, smiling faintly, "But it's making me sleepy, and I still want to hear Tabitha-san reading."
With a small sigh, Tabitha let go and picked up her book and made herself comfortable. The room was almost completely dark, but enough light was cast by the oil lamp to comfortably read by. Silica and Leafa scooted closer. Silica's dragon curling up in her master's lap and leaning her head against Tabitha's leg while Yui lay down on the dragon's back.
"A Cordial Engagement, Act One." Tabitha read slowly and thin flipped to the first page.
"Come here Squire, though I love you as a son and see what foolery is this today?"
"It be great foolishness, Sire."
"And is this foolishness over humor or tragedy?"
"Perhaps of both, Sire . . ."
That night, Tabitha read to someone else for the first time since she was child, since she had been Charlotte. The Faeries listening closely. They laughed when the squire first realized that the woman he was courting was the Knight's daughter, and they nearly pulled their hair out when the Squire was left hanging by a bed sheet from the window of the daughter's room. When they reached the eunech scene, Tabitha was surprised to see that while Silica rolled with laughter, Leafa turned beat red, perhaps the woman wasn't as forward as her appearance indicated.
They continued from there through the ever more hilarious and contrived series of events, each one challenging the Squire's daring and nearly killing him, only to be saved at the last moment by some circumstance or another. The Faeries leaned in as they reached the climax, the Knight finding his Squire dressed his daughter's habit. Being unable to wed her, the Knight had planned to send his daughter to a convent and Squire and daughter had hatched one last ill conceived ploy which had finally revealed their scheming to the Knight, thus bringing the story full circle to its beginning where it was indeed declared a comedy.
Tabitha realized as she read, throat soar from talking more than she had in ages, that she was happy. The only other person she could say that with was Kirche.
She was just about to begin the last act, where the Squire readied himself for what he thought would be his execution but was actually a hastily arranged wedding, which of course were much the same thing as the Knight explained, when the sound of the church bell rolled through the window. The warm happy Tabitha who had briefly revealed herself was hidden back away and the Chevalier Tabitha closed her book and rose up calmly.
"What is it?" Leafa asked, but she already knew and went about quickly preparing herself along with Silica. A loud thunk came from the hallway as KoKo dropped down from the loft, Louise following slowly down the ladder.
"Sounds like they're here." KoKo said.
"An attack!" The Village Chief, Roseau appeared in the doorway. "The signal bells are coming from the eastern homsteads.
"So whats the plan?" Leafa asked, checking that she had her sword secured.
"Klein and Kirche will be with the Sentries nearest the forest." KoKo said. "They're probably already fighting."
"So we need to go and help them." Louise said, rubbing at her eyes.
"Tabitha-san." KoKo said, "Get into the air with Sylphied, we've got full moons tonight so you should be able to see pretty well, keep an eye out for a second attack. The Pixies have used diversions more than once already. Leafa-chan, you're with me, we'll go to back up Klein and Kirche or whoever else needs our help. Silica-chan I want you to stay here and keep an eye on Louise-chan and Yui-chan."
"Hey, I don't need special protection!" Louise reddened. Tabitha shook her head inwardly, 'Yes you do', she thought. Louise had some minimal training, she knew how to keep her head down and pay attention to her surroundings, when she wasn't fuming. But it was clear that she was still a novice and certainly not a fighter.
KoKo smiled as she hefted her bow, "Oh? But you're our diplomat, Louise-chan. After all, you're the only Tristanian we brought with us. We can't let anything happen to you." The Cait Syth gave a small wink. "So stay here and keep a watch over the Village Chief, okay?"
Louise's expression soured, but thankfully the youngest Valliere Daughter agreed.
Tabitha was out the door and atop Sylphied in a heartbeat, the Rhyme Dragon in perfect tune with her partner. "Let's go, Irukwuku." Tabitha whispered under her breath. The dragon let out her shrill cry and broke into a trot, beating her wings once, twice, and taking flight over the low homesteads of the village, following the Faeries into the night sky.
___________________________________________________________________________________
"Kirche, switch!" Klein shouted, leaping back as another Dagger Dog took a swipe at him with a stolen knife. The creature was the size of a large wolf, with a sleek blue furred body. Its head terminated in a narrow dexterous muzzle that possessed considerable bite strength. Even so, this particular mob preferred to pick up dropped knives and swords and use them for crude slashing attacks, or if no forged weapons were available, would create its own by crudely sharpening bits of bone or flint. This one wasn't so unfortunate and wielded a wickedly sharp knife that glinted in the moonlight.
The Dog's had appeared as if from nowhere. One minute Klein had been talking with a couple of the Tarbes sentries, and the next he was readying himself as he caught sight of the first mob erupting from the forest and making a straight line for the homesteads. A pack of five Dogs and at least a dozen of the Willow Wasps, most of which shot straight overhead without slowing down. And then Klein and the fire mage at his back had been too busy fighting the mobs that were right in front of them to worry about where the rest were headed.
The Dagger Dog growled viciously as it watched Klein. A jet of flame licked out towards the mob causing it to leap back before curving its spine and hunching down in readiness for an attack. "How was that, Darling?" Kirche called from her position off to Klein's left. Between himself and Kirche there was nothing to fear from this solitary mob, but the problem was . . . More growling and high pitched cries came from the direction of the fields, three more Dagger Dogs stocked forwards out of the shadows of the forest.
'No good.' Klein thought. These guys were only dangerous to him as long as he was grounded, but retreating to the skies would leave the Village sentries vulnerable and he wasn't good enough with magic to offer much support from the air. Kirche could probably torch the wolves, but that had its own problems, they couldn't risk burning the fields to the ground. Settling into a wide set guard, he made ready for the next attack, watching each of the Dogs carefully. 'Remember, their tells and attack patterns aren't consistent, you'll just have to predict it as best you can . . .' The one time samurai narrowed his eyes. 'There!'
The lead Dog rushed followed a split second later by the Dog to its left. They were going to try to attack one after another so so that Klein wouldn't be able to guard both strikes. That would have been dangerous in SAO, or if he was grounded, but that wasn't the case. Klein let the Dogs get close and then kicked off, rocketing upwards on the power provided by his wings. He easily cleared the charging mobs, coming down behind them and rushing the Dog that had hung back as the others circled back around.
The rear Dagger Dog hunched down and raced out to meet him. Klein's Katana flashed out, he felt the blade make contact with flesh and heard the sharp yelp as the mob cried out in pain. Even now he couldn't get used to the sound and the sensation. He didn't think he ever would. 'Now, onto the other ones.' The first Dog had backed away and was circling around cautiously to Klein's right.
"Klein, a little help!" Kirche called. Glancing over his shoulder Klein cursed. He'd expected the other two Dogs to come back after him, but instead they had broken for Kirche. They shouldn't have been too much trouble for a skilled mage, but as Klein watched, the flame whip that Kirche had summoned to protect herself washed over a pale blue, hemispherical barrier, leaving the mobs unharmed. Klein searched quickly and soon spotted what he was looking for. About ten meters off the ground, the fat bodies of a pair of Willow Wasps were hovering along with a half dozen tiny glimmering pairs of wings.
"Kirche, above you, Pixies!" And then Klein was too busy guarding as the first dagger Dog saw its opening and rushed in.
Kirche for her part was badly pressed holding back both the mobs and the supporting pixies. The tiny creatures were too far away for Kirche to make out anything but the pale glow of their wings. But as she watched, each of the pixies was surrounded by a glowing series of runes. She'd seen Faerie magic often enough to know what was next. A half dozen small fireballs jetted forth, each no bigger than a balled fist, and Kirche quickly brought her wand up to guard. Fortunately, the pixies hadn't figured out how to overwhelm the defenses of a human mage, so instead of staggering their attacks, they came all at once, making it trivial for Kirche to block them with her own spell. The magically conjured fire was swallowed up and hurled back in Kirche's own fireball a moment later, causing the pixies to scatter.
With a brief reprieve from the pint sized mages, Kirche turned her attention back to the Dagger Dogs that were at her heels only to find that they were already being dealt with.
"That's it! Just like grandfather taught us!" A broad shouldered farmer cried as he and his fellow villagers advanced, wielding their halberds like novices, but well practiced novices. As Kirche watched, the men of Tarbes split into two groups of five and began to surround the Dogs, brandishing their pole-arms menacingly. The Mobs were forced back. A soft high pitched clicking emanated from both Dogs and they glanced to one another and then to Klein who was just finishing with the first Dog, having finished it with a single stroke to the throat. The mobs turned about and ran, cutting across the fields and heading straight back for the forests.
The men of Tarbes made to pursue, but before they made it more than a half dozen steps, a dozen little lights flickered to life in the sky and rained fist sized fireballs down upon them. The blasts were poorly aimed and not terribly powerful, Kirche thought, but still dangerous. A lucky strike might kill, even a glancing hit would badly burn someone. Kirche released a tongue of flame from the tip of her wand and directed it towards the nearest Pixie caster, watching the tiny pair of wings flitting about, desperately attempting to dodge. She didn't try to hard to hit the Pixie and simply moved on to the next, and the next, grazing one of the buzzing Willow Wasps in the process. More importantly she kept the Pixies distracted and unable to keep up their attack.
"Everyone retreat." Klein ordered, "You did a good job with the other mobs, but leave the pixies to us!" However, no sooner had the words left the Salamanders mouth, then the pixies began to disperse. "Hey, come back here and fight someone a hundred times your own size damn it!"
As soon as the attack had come, it had ended, leaving Kirche and Klein, and the men of Tarbes standing in the middle of a suddenly quiet field. Even the night insects were still, shocked into silence by the sudden brief battle that had taken hold in the field.
"Kyuui!" Klein looked up to see the serpentine shape of Tabitha's dragon circling high above, the green and yellow wings of Leafa and KoKo glowing in the moonlight as they descended. The Pixies had probably decided the fight wasn't going to go their way with reinforcements.
"Klein!"
"Oy, you're a little late to the party." Klein said.
"We got here as fast as we could." Leafa defended, eyes scanning the forest. "Only one attack?"
"There will be more." One of the farmers said. "Usually they strike all over before concentrating for a final attack. Thanks for your help so far. We would have been hard pressed on our own."
"Well, the next attacks should come pretty quick then." Klein wiped the gore from his Katana and sheathed the weapon. "They've already lost the element of surprise."
No sooner had he finished speaking then the sound of distant bells filled the air. "Marvelous powers of perception, darling." Kirche said in a sweet dripping voice that Klein couldn't tell if it was sincere or sarcastic.
"Uhm, thanks?" Klein rubbed at the back of his head.
"That's coming from the far north." One of the villagers said, "We haven't stationed many sentries in that direction."
"Lucky we've got wings." Klein replied as his own materialized with barely a thought. "Kirche, there's no telling if those mobs will double back. You going to be okay with these guys?"
"Leaving already?" Kirche pouted, "Well, if you insist, I can hold my own own all night if that's the worst these little pixies have." The fire mage gave a confident toss of her hair.
"Just hurry back when you're finished, okay?"
"R-right." Klein said, feeling very unsure.
Klein fell in with Leafa and KoKo, streaking over the scattered village homesteads and fields while cursing to himself. It was like one of those flat panel video games where the hero had to run around guarding different parts of the base, only they didn't have the luxury of memorizing the enemy attack patterns and then hitting restart. A homestead was already on fire in the distance, the pixies were burning the villagers out of the relative safety of their barricaded homes. From the air he could women and children being pursued by more Dagger Dogs.
"Leafa, with me." Klein shouted, diving towards the first Dog.
"KoKo!" Leafa shouted as she followed.
"I'm on it!" The Cait Syth killed her forward momentum, spreading her wings to steady herself, and swiftly notched an arrow, taking careful aim as she hovered in the skies above. The first kill went to the hunter as she put a steel headed arrow through the back of the first Dog's skull. The others scattered immediately, diving to the sides and spinning about, their prey forgotten in the face of this new threat.
At his side, Klein caught the faint glow of the runes encircling Leafa as she recited the words of a spell. The girl's hand reached forward and though he could barely see any effect, a loud, vicious hiss emanated from her hand. On the ground bellow, one of the remaining Dogs yelped in surprise as blood sprayed across its fur. The mob stumbled back, hurt and frightened by the Sylphs attack. The remaining two Dogs closing ranks on their wounded comrade.
Seeing the animals acting so compassionately towards one another didn't make this any easier, a small part of Klein thought. He hit the ground, bringing his Katana down in an overhead swing that would have cleaved the head of one of the Dog's in two if it hadn't backed off. Leafa set down at his side and then pushed off again, skimming close the ground as she went after the other remaining uninjured Dog.
Klein blocked as the Dog in front of him reared and launched a vicious slash with the dagger it held in its teeth. The animal might have been smart and dexterous enough to slash and block with a blade, but its body simply wasn't built to properly wield the weapon. The Dog was too clumsy to strike with anything but the edge of its weapon, causing the blade to chip and crack with each strike. That was part of why Dagger Dogs, while dangerous to beginner players and possessing fairly high level stats, were not a very great threat one on one to a skilled player.
Off to the side, Klein could see a pair of pixie wings landing beside the wounded Dagger Dog. Runes floated in the air and the mob was suffused in a faint green glow. Slowly, the wounded Dog staggered to its feet whimpering softly and began to limp away. Klein pressed forward, driving the attacking Dog off of him with a kick to its exposed stomach. No sooner was he back in his guard then there was a flash of light and electrical tingling washed over him.
"Klein!" Blinking his eyes rapidly, the swordsman found himself on his back looking up to see Leafa leaning over him, a concerned look gracing her face. Now that was a new one, a woman showing him unambiguous concern. 'Damnit, why'd you have to go and be Kirito's sister.' Klein lamented inwardly as he shook the buzzing from his head.
"It's just a stun spell." KoKo said over her shoulder. The hunter stood beside them, another arrow notched and ready, a second readied between her thumb and index finger. Her ears were pivoting about like miniature radar arrays as she listened for any more trouble. Just as with the previous attack, this one had ended as soon as the Pixies and their mobs met resistance. 'So another diversion.' Klein thought as he stood. The actual stun effect had only lasted for a few seconds, but as with everything IRL, status effects didn't just wear off instantly, he felt like he was coming off an ear infection.
In the distance, Klein could see villagers running towards the burning homestead, men carrying halberds, and women and older children running with buckets, desperate to save their homes and more importantly, stop the fire before it spread to the nearby fields.
"This is strange." KoKo said, lowering her bow.
"What?" Klein asked, the ringing in his ears had finally stopped.
"They set fire to the building and ran. So this was definitely a diversion . . . But they stayed around to fight."
Klein frowned, "Maybe they wanted to ambush the villagers when they came to fight the fire."
KoKo shook her head, "No, they couldn't have been expecting us. I think maybe they were trying to draw more sentries this direction. Klein, can you fly up and tell Tabitha to head towards the south side of the village?"
"Sure thing." Klein said, catching on immediately. The pixies had been trying to pull the sentries out of position by starting a fight here. So they probably had another attack planned. It was a simple strategy, but effective. The smoke from the fire would probably serve as the signal.
"While we wait, I'm going to see if I can do anything for the injured." Leafa said.
"Wait up, I know a few first aid spells" KoKo added. Klein took a few experimental hopes to reassure himself that the stun status effect had completely faded, and then made his way up towards Tabitha and her circling dragon. Before he made it however, he heard the distant sound of more bells, and the church bell was ringing again. From the sky, Klein could easily localize the source of the alarm, gaze scanning until he settled on . . . 'Shit!' A gout of flame appeared in the village square, bathing the surrounding buildings in alternating stripes of orange light and shadow. The pixies had finally grown impatient, they'd gone for the heart of the village.
___________________________________________________________________________________
After the others had rushed to the aid of the villagers, leaving Louise, Silica, and Yui to stand guard, all had been quiet save for the distant ringing of bells and the faint shouts as villagers rushed from their homes to help. The women and children were urged to stay inside while the men took up arms and made ready in the square. Silica stood beside Louise, her familiar clinging to her shoulder, watching the distant fields where the fighting was taking place even now. The young Cait Syth looked anxious, worried for her friends who had gone off to fight. Every time there was a loud noise, the ears on her head would pivot, tracking the source and her hand would make for her dagger.
Louise for her part felt useless, although what KoKo had said was true, she knew it was just a polite way for the Cait Syth to keep her out of danger. She couldn't blame KoKo, she wasn't a battle mage, she was barely a mage. She could defend herself well enough, probably, with her explosions, but little more than that. Louise had looked to Silica, thinking that she might be able to at least comfort the younger girl, only to find Silica's face set in a mask of grim concentration. On any other child it would have looked adorable, especially one possessing a pair of large cat's ears, but in Silica it was off putting, it wasn't just an act, this was all part of her. Louise recalled her speculation from that morning that Silica was like Tabitha, her stature and appearance concealing her true ability.
"It's okay, Louise-san, Leafa-chan and the others are really strong, they can protect everybody" Yui said confidently from her position on Silica's shoulder opposite Pina.
"I'm not worried about them." Louise shook her head. "I just think I should be out their too . . . helping."
The pixie girl gave a small nod of understanding. "I know how you feel." Yui tilted her head curiously. "But you've already helped a lot, Louise-san. There are things that only you can do. And this is what Leafa-san and Klein-san came along for. Its what they can do, so don't worry about it."
Louise nodded slowly at the peculiar statement. The pixie seemed so much like a child, and then she would say something like that.
"Fear not for your safety Miss Valliere." The Village Chief assured at her side. "Your friends and allies are doing us a great service. The least we can do it keep you safe in turn."
"I hardly need the protection of commoner villagers." Louise snapped and then stopped, "I mean . . . It is a gracious offer, but I can see to myself."
"I have no doubt, Miss Valliere." The Village Chief replied. "But please, I merely meant to reassure you. You are our honored guest Miss Valliere, please remember that."
"O-of course." Louise said, feeling rather unsure of herself.
Smoke began to rise from the North and shouts of alarm spread through the gathered villagers. Something had set fire to one of the homes, or worse, one of the fields, for the village, such an event would be a disaster. Some of the sentries broke ranks and began to run towards the fields followed closely by some of the village's women folk and children.
The Village Chief allowed about half to go before shouting for the rest of the men to stay.
"But Chief, if the fields burn our village is lost!"
"And you know what devious creatures the pixies are." Roseau snapped back, grimacing, "They set light to one field and will only use it as a distraction to burn another, or to ransack our homes. Calm yourself Gavin."
"Y-yes, Chief." The man replied, leaning against the shaft of his pole-arm anxiously.
Both Silica and her dragon piqued up as one. "What's that noise?"
"Noise?" Roseau asked, "Do you hear something Miss Silica?"
"Un." Silica nodded, "Like, buzzing, no its too low for that."
"I sense it too." Yui said from Silica's shoulder, the little girl had closed her eyes and her face was a mask of perfect concentration. "Its coming from the East . . . And from the South too. Mobs!"
The Village Chief bit out a curse. "They've never come this far into Tarbes before. Get the women and children back inside!"
"Everyone get ready!" Silica shouted.
"Miss Valliere?" Roseau asked.
"I shall stay here." Louise replied, taking up her wand. Though she could still only manage explosions, her aim had improved vastly over the past days. And, glancing to the Cait Syth girl who had already readied herself. As a Noblewoman of Tristain, Louise could hardly do any less. At the edge of her hearing Louise finally made out the buzzing that Silica had mentioned, a low deeply rumbling that filled the air.
The villagers looked around cautiously, hefting their weapons uncertainly. The villager who had spoken earlier, Gavin, seemed the most calm, perhaps he had been conscripted into service in the past. Louise thought.
The source of the noise became visible and Louise fought to keep down an instinctive sense of revulsion. The . . . Things were like giant insects, wings the size of those of a pigeon, but with bodies larger than a carrion bird. Their heads were large, almost entirely covered in hard black eyes, mouths terminating in a wicked set of mandibles. The body was divided into a tiny midsection, barely more than a place for the creature's legs and wings, while the thorax was a bulbous, swollen, striped ovoid of armored chitin ending in a hysterically large stinger.
"Willow Wasps!" Silica shouted, "They're venomous! Don't let them sting you!"
That would be easier said then done, there were at least a dozen of the nightmarish creatures, and as Louise watched they began to encircle the villagers, darting in an out menacingly. Gavin roared and threw himself at one of the low flying insects, only for his halberd to be blocked by a translucent blue barrier.
'Magic!' Louise looked around but she couldn't see any sign of the pixies at first. Then, looking more closely at the Willow Wasps, she caught sight of a tiny pair of wings sitting just behind the head of each insect. From this distance, she couldn't tell for sure, but they looked almost like miniature knights in glistening black armor that glinted in the light of the moon. They . . . They were dragoons, little pixie dragoons!
The Wasp that Gavin had taken a swing at spun away, emitting a loud, angry buzz before charging back towards the man, extending its stinger forward. Louise remembered Silica's warning. Even if the stinger wasn't very large as weapons went, it was still dangerous. Raising her wand Louise thought up the shortest spell she knew and channeled as much willpower as she could into a simple 'holy light' chant. The effects were . . . Immediate.
One moment the wasp was closing on Gavin, the next it was engulfed in a cloud of fire and smoke before plummeting from the sky, twitching feebly as it hit the ground. The villagers moved in to finish the job, hacking at the creature with their halberds, cracking its exoskeleton and taring away at its guts. Louise saw a tiny shape flit away, the rider fleeing from its doomed mount.
Satisfaction at her success turned to horror as three of the remaining wasps broke from the rest and closed in under the direction of their pixie riders. Louise let loose with another aimed explosion but the Wasps and Pixies were on to her now and weaved about furiously to throw off her aim.
"Louise, run!" A brown haired blur in a blue coat truck the first wasp fall on, dagger sinking smoothly into the seam between the thorax and abdomen. The Wasp let out a sharp buzzing keen as Silica withdrew her dagger and kicked off in midair, sending the stricken wasp crashing to the ground just as she landed neatly beside Louise.
Coming to her master's aid, Pina dove from the sky, shrieking an angry challenge at the Wasps and their riders. Louise couldn't imagine what the little fuzzball expected to do against the vicious looking insects. She found out a moment later as Pina opened her mouth. Many species of dragons had breath attacks, most infamously fire dragons, but also the whale dragons that inhabited the seas with their natural hydro cutters, and various species of land bound dragon which were known to spit poison.
This still left Louise unprepared when the first bubble burst forth from the small dragon's throat followed by another and another. It was like, it was like the clever little device that the servants brought out during Spring time parties, a little rotating mechanism of hand cranked fans and forms that was fronted by a reservoir of soapy water. A shower of small bubbles emanated from the little dragon's throat surrounding the Wasps before bursting. Louise watched, at first there seemed to be no effect, but then, the Wasps began to stagger drunkenly, plummeting from the sky, twitching.
"Thanks Pina." Silica said, extending an arm for her familiar.
"Kya!"
However, the victory was short lived. The wasps buzzed angrily as they struggled to right themselves, wings flapping slowly. It would be a short time before they could return to the sky, but in the meantime, three more of the wasps had broken off to face silica, and the riders from the first three wasps now rose angrily, small forms surrounded in ruins before casting a trio of miniature fireball spells.
Silica dodged nimbly, seeming to dance around the spells. She didn't even need to use her wings. 'Amazing' Louise thought. "Louise! Hurry up and run!" The Cait Syth girl turned to "Yui, go with Louise, its dangerous out here." Silica said.
"Right!" Yui flitted over to Louise's shoulder and slipped into the front pocket of her travel shirt. One of the three wasps approaching Silica broke off and gave chase to Louise. Caught between fight or flight, Louise chose to run, narrowly dodging the Village Chief who had retrieved a crossbow from some undisclosed location and was rushing to Silica's aid. Louise caste another explosion and the Wasp dodged. There wasn't enough time for another spell, she dove through the door of the Village Chiefs house, slamming it closed with all of her might and swinging the latch down just as something struck with a solid -THUD-, shaking the door in its hinges and causing the house to creak.
She fervently hoped that the impact had been fatal to her attacker. Bust such was not to be as an instant later a knife sized stinger, all hooked barbs and glossy black chitin, burst through the wood of the door, accompanied by a low, angry buzzing. Louise backed away, leveling her wand. She was tempted to cast a spell now that the wasp was pinned, her explosions were at least powerful enough to swat the bug, but if she blew the door open she'd only let the others in. She was scared. She'd thought that she had prepared herself. Thought that she'd be ready. But she was wrong.
"Louise-san, lets go out that way!" Yui point to the back of the room where a Germanian Door lead out the opposite side of the house. Louise nodded to the pixie.
"Stay hidden, Yui." Yui obeyed without another word, ducking back down into the pocket, she was barely more than a hummingbird. The little pixie was so childlike, in complete contrast to the ones that were now attacking them with lethal intent. Louise might have been the weakest mage in their group, but she could at least protect someone like Yui. The thought gave her some courage as she ran over to the door and unlatched its bottom half, ducking out from bellow. If she could just get up somewhere high and keep some distance from the wasps, she knew she could make better use of her explosions. Maybe, the church, the church tower would be perfect.
She stole off in the direction of the still ringing church bell. Louise made it about half way across the square before she heard a low growling accompanied by high pitched clicks. Turning her head nervously, Louise swallowed. Stalking out of the shadows were a trio of Wolves. Not just normal wolves but some sort of ALfheim wolf, a mob. Their bodies sleek and covered in blue fur, muzzles terminating in a pointed snout. Each held a weapon in its mouth. One clutched the head of scythe, while another wielded a truncated halberd with most of the haft broken off. The last held only a small knife, but was no less menacing.
Louise took a step back as the wolves began to surround her. "S-stay back! M-mangy dogs!" Louise stuttered raising her wand. The wolves dashed away at her first explosion, only being caught at the edge of the blast. They spread apart, forcing Louise to watch all sides at once.
"Don't worry about our back, I can sense them." Yui said, "You keep your eyes focused to the front, Louise-san!"
The first dog began to pace forward building speed, Louise brought her want up shakily. "Kya!" Out of the sky, Pina crashed into the back of the wolf and with bravery bellying her small size, sank claws mercilessly into the the mob's back.
"Louise, I told you to run." Silica shouted, plummeting down from above on yellow wings.
"I tried." Louise spat back.
"I meant away, not into more of them!"
"I tried!"
Silica and Pina fell back, putting themselves between Louise and the wolves. "Pina, get ready!"
"Kya!"
The first wolf moved in again, not so much jumping as lunging for Silica. Again Louise was left in awe of the girl's agility. Without using her wings, Silica jumped up, spreading her legs wide and pushing down with her hands, vaulting over the wolf in a gymnastic display that briefly revealed the blue short pants that she wore beneath her skirt.
"Louise, he's yours!"
"R-right!" Louise lashed out with another explosion, this time catching the wolf and sending it flying against the wall of a nearby house, letting out a yelp of pain. The animal was only stunned, but as it rose it chose to flee rather than stay and fight. 'We can win!' Louise thought.
"Okay, here comes another." Silica said, "Louise, when I say switch, I want you to take over attacking, do you understand? I'll guard you attack."
"I understand." Louise said quickly.
The remaining two wolves stocked forward and then stopped, each taking a step back. More low buzzing came from above them. The wasps were back. Louise's stomach churned as she saw them. The wolves were frightening, but the wasps were repulsive, a horror she was unused to imagining.
Then from the sky, a small dark sharp plummeted, wings unfolding at the last instant. "Gyah!" The black shape crashed into Silica's familiar, both rolling to the ground.
"Pina!" Silica cried, distracted for a crucial moment. One of the wolves rushes her, charging for her flank and sending the girl flying like a rag doll to crash into the side of one of the building. Before she could as much as move, a bright yellow flash engulfed her and she collapsed.
On the ground, the black shape was revealed as another feathery dragon, smaller than Pina with dark feathers and golden eyes. The second dragon had Pina pinned, the weight of its body pressed down on Silica's familiar and its jaws closed tightly on her throat. An armored pixies rode upon its back and a tiny white needle glinted in its hand like a saber. The needle was waved about and Louise realized she was surrounded. Taking a step back and then another, pointing her wand in every direction. The monsters rushed in.
"Louise!" Silica shouted, struggling to stand. Another flash of yellow spell light engulfed her, nearing causing her to fall to the ground.
Louise screamed as she was surrounded by hard chitinous legs and wings, scrabbling and scratching at her skin, pulling at her hair and clothes. She squeezed her eyes shut, covering her face with her arms, trying to block out the terror. The beating of their wings thundered in her ears. She was sure any instant she would feel the sharp barb of one of their stingers, the rush of their venom. She screamed, she screamed herself hoarse, tears coming to her eyes. 'Please, somebody save me, someone, please, mother!'
"Get the hell away from them! NEOW!" A furious voice shrieked. Louise felt the wasps scatter and opened her eyes. An arrow pierced one of the wasps from above, and then another, and another. Diving from the sky, KoKo discarded her bow and unsheathed her knife, driving the blade down to its hilt into a fourth wasp, crashing to the ground and driving her knee into the creatures carcass, crushing the life from it.
KoKo turned her eyes back to remaining monsters. The wolves growled lowly and the wasps gathered into a formation above them. The black feathered dragon rose back into the air, its rider gesturing with its needle sword at this new opponent.
The Hunter spread her arms wide breathing heavily. "Louise, are you alright?"
Louise sank to her knees trembling. "I – I'm okay." She hugged herself tightly.
"Silica?"
The Cait Syth girl had returned to her feet and rushed to her stricken familiar's side. The small dragon had rolled back over onto her belly and was purring miserably. Louise could see where the other dragon had drawn blood, deep red staining the light blue feathers.
"We're okay." Silica said, clutching up her familiar protectively in one arm and guarding with her dagger in the other.
The Cait Syth pulled her knife loose from the wasp at her feet and assumed a knife fighting stance, baring her fangs at the monsters. "You wanna mess with these cubs, you'll have to mess with me!" She began to whisper something under her breath and Louise watched as the runes of a Faerie spell circled her. Only three? So it wasn't very powerful Faerie magic, Louise thought.
One of the Wolves took a cautious step forward just as KoKo finished her chant. The Cait Syth took a deep breath and then opened her mouth wide. Louise's hearing went faintly numb and to her side she could see Silica covering her ears.
The monsters suddenly acted very strangely, the wolves cowered back, and the wasps seemed to trembled in the air. Even the black feathered dragon and its rider seemed briefly effected. A moment of indecision passed, and then came to an end as a shout came from above. Klein and Leafa had arrived, the Salamander diving downward, ready to lock blades while the Sylph prepared to cast.
Indecision ended, with a last wave of its needle, the rider of the black feathered dragon directed her mount to flee, the other monsters following suite, slinking back into the shadows. The heavy beating of wings faded and then there were only a few distant howls, and then nothing but the still ringing church bell and the distant shouts of commoners.
KoKo stood, breathing heavily, the woman's slender frame trembled for an instant before she wiped the insect juices from her knife and put the blade away. She turned to Louise and sank down by her side. The hunters golden eyes looked Louise over, pausing on every scrape and bruise. There were scratches, and a few light marks from where the wasps had bitten at her experimentally.
The fear in those eyes shook Louise from her own trauma. "I'm okay." Louise said, trying to reassure the woman like she so often did her sister Cattleya. "See." Louise raised her arm, "Just scratches, I've hurt myself worse practicing magic." Louise half joked.
KoKo nodded slowly and swallowed back something she had been about to say. "Silica, come over here and let me see Pina, she looks hurt."
"She is." Silica said, worried. Though alert in her master's arms, the blue feathered dragon was making soft pained noises and whined whenever Silica stopped supporting one of her wings.
KoKo looked the small dragon over and let out a sigh of relief. "Feels like it's just dislocated." She clucked softly as she probed at the base of Pina's left wing. "What hit her?"
"Another feathery dragon." Silica said, "One of the pixies was riding it", Silica frowned. "I think that was their leader."
"Well, my veterinary skills and healing skills gave me enough knowledge to set this, but she'll probably need to stay off her wing for the next few days. Otherwise she just has some scratches. I think she's more angry than hurt."
"Kya . . . " Pina moaned.
Silica let out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness."
"Sorry we didn't get here sooner." Klein said. "But we kept getting caught up in diversionary attacks and couldn't leave the villagers alone. We didn't think they would hit the village center so hard."
"There's no way you could have known." Silica said, "I didn't expect it either. In fact, the first we knew was when Pina, Yui, and I heard them coming."
"Yui?" Leafa said suddenly. Everyone turned to the Sylph who was suddenly looking around wild eyed. "Where is Yui?"
"She was in my pocket." Louise reached to her breast and then looked down to the front her traveling clothes, face going pale. Her breast pocket had been torn open and Yui was nowhere to be seen.
___________________________________________________________________________________
[<Fear]> Yui thought, associations fanned outwards. [<Anxiety]>, [<Fight or Flight]>, [<Unknown]>. The last on the list grew to encompass her attention. That was it, the squirming unpleasant feeling within her mind and the cold clamminess that gripped at her physical body, the unknown terrified her. She was a being of information, she needed it to feel at peace. Being deprived of her link to external networks had been distressing enough, but at least she had been able to use her own senses and could still access information in an effective if crude fashion.
But now she didn't even have that. She was blind and almost deaf and didn't know how what had happened or how she had gotten here. She could not determine where she had started from, she could not plot where she was going. It was wrong. One moment the pocket of Louise's blouse was being torn open, the next her captors were stuffing her into some sort of sack, closing it tightly. She could hear only the low buzzing of Wasp wings and feel the rumble of their flight through chitin beneath her. Those were her only external sources of information.
The journey lasted for all of twelve hundred and fifty four seconds by Yui's internal clock. How far could the Wasps Travel in this time? Where were they taking her? Logical extrapolation said the forest East of Tarbes. It agreed with her internal spacial reference function, her sense of direction. But Yui could not guess anything else. She could fathom human thought processes, even if she did not fully understand humans, she had extensive knowledge about human reactions and could make very well informed guesses about how they would respond in a given situation, what stimuli would invoke what response.
But for artificial minds she had only herself and Pina to extrapolate from. Pina, though possessing a complex mind structure, was fundamentally different from herself, having achieved true intelligence only after the transition. As for herself, Yui could no more understand her own mind that any single human could examine their own. Objectivity was impossible to maintain. Observation altered what was being observed. The instrument failed in examining itself.
Yui waited, she hated waiting, just like Papa. But until she had more information she could do nothing else, she couldn't even generate probably scenarios. Not that she didn't try, and fail. Her simulations stacking up and biasing towards the worse case, the thing humans called [<Anxiety]> taking hold and driving her towards panic and despair.
Finally, the rumbling stopped and Yui felt herself being lifted down from the back of the Wasp. She heard muted voices whispering among themselves. The sack was opened and she was set free, blinking in the moonlight. Information flooded into her, her limited senses expanding. Free of obstructions her search capability was restored and she scanned her surroundings, detecting dozens of mobs and hundreds, thousands of other signatures. The native animals and insects of Tristain. She was standing atop a log. At her back, several of the willow wasps sat calmly, mandibles folded into smooth masks. Wings stilled. Their jerky aggressive motions replaced with slow, cautious movements more akin to a weta bug than a wasp.
Yui felt something within her relax, new information, optimization was now possible, the worries began to disappear as she assessed her surroundings and discarded unlikely scenarios. Looking around, she found herself surrounded by pixies. It was a strange sensation to stand before so many people her own size, something that she had only experienced briefly at the orphanage in SAO.
The other pixies watched her curiously, leaning in to whisper to one another. They were like navigation pixies in that they all resembled human females with physical morphology reminiscent of prepubescence. The facial structures possessed rather less variation that humans, but this was a limited sample base. [<Hypothethesis]> appearance was optimized for positive emotional response from players. This was reasonable and agreed with the facial features falling close to those of the median [<Median Ideal]>. That was to say, the girls surrounding her possessed features that were very carefully slanted towards the statistical 'average'. Invoking a positive sense of familiarity.
The Pixies were dressed very differently from herself. Most wore dresses patched together from bits of course fabric, skirts made up of a dazzling array of yellows and reds, like leaves in fall. A few wore more somber robes woven from finer fabric of a deep green, only one or two of the girls wore this sort of garb and their facial features suggested the onset of puberty and the beginning of physical development. [<Hypothesis]> A subtle implication meant to cue that they were 'older' and therefore 'wiser' than the others. Unlike the 'younger' girls they talked less and observed carefully. The last variety were what Yui could only describe as knights. They still wore the multicolored skirts of the younger pixies though emphasizing brighter reds, yellows, and blacks, colors of aggression. But their upper bodies were covered in glossy black armor reminiscent of insect chitin, and in fact appeared to be carved from the carcasses of some sort of beetle. Each of the Knights wielded a sewing needle hooped through a bit of string worn as a belt, and carried helmets decorated in blacks and yellows. With their helmets removed it was clear that the knights were the most physically 'mature' of the pixies with slightly greater physical size and development implying greater strength and self reliance. Their wings were also more reminiscent of the more aggressive Faerie races with two sets, slightly smaller and more angular than those possessed by Yui or the other girls.
That was the limit of what Yui was able to determine through passive examination. Questions began to accumulate, the demand for information spurring her to action. "Hello?" Yui asked cautiously.
The murmuring grew among the young girls. Finally, one of them stepped forward, a girl, smaller than Yui herself with mousy brown hair and an uncertain look on her face. She looked from side to side, making sure that it was okay for her to speak. "I-its okay. Y-your safe now." The others nodded approvingly.
"Safe?" Yui asked uncertainly. Did they think that they were helping her, that they had rescued her?
The girl smiled shyly, "We're so glad we got to you, since its a full moon tonight. The beings . . . They didn't . . . They didn't bond you . . . did they?"
Yui shook her head in confusion, realizing only a moment too late that the gesture could be misinterpreted.
The general atmosphere of the crowd grew relieved, "Oh thank goodness. We thought that they'd got you. But Sayuri-sama and the other knights found you just in time." Tears began to well up in the girl's eyes. "W-welcome home little sister!" The girl rushed forward and embraced Yui in a tight hug. Yui had little time to think about this before the girl stiffened. "Wait . . ." The girl looked up at Yui and seemed to sniff at her. "You . . . Don't smell like the garden . . . " Her eyes grew wide and fearful. "You smell like beings!"
The other pixies all looked on, eyes wide. Murmurs passed between them and the young girls shrank away, the robed girls still watching quietly. Yui turned around at the sound of the knights unsheathing their needles.
"Enough!" An older, more commanding voice called above the others. Yui turned around to find one of the Knights dismounting from the side of a black feathered dragon.
"Sayuri-sama!" The other pixies murmured softly. The other knights looked to their leader for instructions and at a gesture, lowered their swords.
"This is my error." Sayuri said coolly. "We had little time, the beings of the village have new allies, Faeries. We were forced to retreat just after we found this one. She must be bonded, just a slave that can't even hear Yggdrasil's song."
"Sayuri, she is dangerous to keep here. She'll inform the beings." One of the robed girls said.
"That is only if we allow her to leave. And she may be useful to us." Sayuri replied. Yui felt an unpleasant sensation [<heart sinking]>.
"What are you suggesting?" The robed girl asked.
"If she's a being's pet." Yui bristled at the word. "Then she may have been all over the village. She may know useful things."
The robed girl looked unhappy. "Sayuri, this is unwise."
"I will take responsibility for her." Sayuri said, "As your leader, she is my mistake, she is my responsibility."
"I . . ." The robed girl closed her mouth. "As you wish, Sayuri-sama. This Little Sister accepts your wisdom, Elder Sister."
The knight stepped towards Yui, removing her helmet, long blonde hair cascaded down to the small of her back. She stood a little over a head taller than Yui with pale Nordic features and clear blue eyes. Her expression was cold, eyes narrowed and suspicious. Yui quailed [<Familiarity]> like Mama but not the part of Mama that was ever shown to her [<Alienation]> The cold commander, the Vice Commander of the Knights of Blood. Yui stepped back, this girl was not her Mama, but the similarity resonated deeply with something within her.
The girl drew her own sword, a bone white sewing needle and pressed it against Yui's chest. "Now, you will answer my questions . . ."
75% Certain
25% horse thief
Awesome. Will edit more in this later.
I...koolerkid said:
This is a stupid position to hold. "Anime-Style series"? You do realize that there has been an anime for nearly every literary genre made? That's essentially saying that a book is boring if there aren't enough flashing lights and pretty colors to go with it. And reading Fairy Dance, there is almost nothing in it that is exclusive to Japan, or Japanese media; I own or have read several books that hold similar writing techniques, themes, or elements.
... "neow"? Seriously, TH?Triggerhappy said:
(If that wasn't a typo you've lost my respect.
) As for the WilPix "rescuing" Yui-MHCP001, it seems they might not have realized that they've just "woken up", and what came before their transition to Halkeginia was just a game. Either that, or someone really has been trying to kidnap wild pixies.
Read the next several lines of Koko's dialog, and remember that people are receiving traits of their race. Koko is a Cait Syth mother.Mysterius said:... "neow"? Seriously, TH?
(I assume you meant "now".
"Neow" is exactly what was intended.
Well, guess I'm gonna have to cryogenically freeze myself. See you next week guys.Triggerhappy said:
Ceiling Kirito is watching you [insert act here].75% Certain said:
Durabys
Miaow! Break the Chains!
- Location
- the land of the Boii
- Pronouns
- He/Him
..and then KoKo gets a mental break down due to Louise. Great.Triggerhappy said:
Yes. Somebody capable to keep up with them.Triggerhappy said:
LGear
Secret Society BLANKET
Aaaargh my nemesis has returned. WHY CLIFFHANGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER ;-;
So Sayuri is our little Karin then. Though I keep thinking that Yui can escape if she wanted by reverting to her human form, though that will likely be a last resort.
Also, Tabitha's defenses against Silica slowly breaking is such a wonderful thing
So Sayuri is our little Karin then. Though I keep thinking that Yui can escape if she wanted by reverting to her human form, though that will likely be a last resort.
Also, Tabitha's defenses against Silica slowly breaking is such a wonderful thing
LGear
Secret Society BLANKET
Element of surprise, and the subsequent Yui overpower smash due to having a larger body. Though like I said, it's likely to be used as a last resort, since Yui seems more interested in intel gathering to play all her trump cards.KaPe said:
image broken void.
Inverness
The Foxiest Wife
I can't see it. I recommend http://imgur.com/VoidCoreProject said:
LGear
Secret Society BLANKET
Why do you think I pointed out "element of surprise" and "last resort"?themwarlord said:
ckk185
Crazy Bunny Girl Scientist
- Location
- Port city
You know, she can run faster than them, considering her size.themwarlord said:
ckk185
Crazy Bunny Girl Scientist
- Location
- Port city
Scratch that then. Would hostage taking work?VoidCoreProject said:
The pixies may be able to fly faster than full size Yui could run, though, especially given the terrain (forest).ckk185 said:
Oh, so that's what TH meant. I meant to ask, but forgot. My mind lept to "unicorn", but that made no sense.Falx said:
Seems like an odd but, if this Urban Dictionary entry is any indication, surprisingly common misspelling.
EDIT: ninja'ed on flying pixies
ckk185
Crazy Bunny Girl Scientist
- Location
- Port city
Mentally, I agree. Physically? Surprise them with a size change, then grab one or two of them. Threaten to crush them. There hostage situation.Division3 said:
- Location
- Germany
I don't think Yui would do this...ckk185 said:
ckk185
Crazy Bunny Girl Scientist
- Location
- Port city
Hence the "Mentally, I agree" parthrogge said:
