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Embrace of Power
Dorono folded his wings to his side as he landed with
Tron in her grove. A purple Zafara walked out from the shadows almost as soon
as they landed. That purple Zafara was nothing like the purple of Zana. She
was a deep dark purple and her eyes were two pools of red. The spots upon her
ears were not spots, but bat shaped, and the prong on her tail was shaped like
a spade.
"This is Bunny. Bunny Ketsotsu," Tron said crossing
her arms.
"Greetings," Dorono murmured to the Zafara whose
red eyes pierced his. She just nodded back.
Dorono turned his gaze back to Tron. "You asked
me about Zana Taru. Well let me tell you about a dream that I had…"
***
Zana Taru opened her eyes to her damp surroundings, and then shut them tight
as if she could wake up. She knew it was a futile game she way playing, and
that no matter how hard she wished it, nor how many times she pretended it was
not real, the shackles that held her paws to the wall were in fact reality.
The sores they had inflicted on her wrists were not from a nightmare. The damp
smelly dungeon she was not a dream.
She was not the only one to be in there, for
she had caught glimpses of the others. Most of them looked half mad, and were
so bony that that they looked more like a skeleton then the creatures they once
were. There had been a younger boy down there the day she had been shackled
to the wall. His dark eyes that had lost all hope and vision of freedom still
burned in her mind, a reminder of how Jown treated those that displeased him.
Now she knew why her father Kirin would never speak of the times he was forced
to work for Jown. She wasn't so sure that she would ever be able to tell of
whatever amount of time she would spend down here. That was if se ever got out
to tell someone.
Zana shook her head. She would not allow herself
to loose hope, and she would stay strong. She repeated again and again that
she would never give up hope until the doors to the dungeon creaked open, and
a feint white light shown in. Zana blinked at the bright light, having her eyes
accustomed to the darkness of the cell and tried to make out who is was that
was silhouetted against the doorframe.
"Jown wishes to see you Zana," a dark voice
hissed, and she shut her eyes again. It was Dsupa, she was sure of that. He
was the horrid one who had captured her, who had thrown her into this pit of
darkness and decay.
Dsupa stormed down the steps towards the purple
form of Zana. If the little whelp did not want to answer him it did not matter.
No one disobeyed Jown. Well no one who cared to still keep his life as his own.
Pulling a key from his belt he unlocked first one shackle, and then the other
from Zana's limp arms. However, as soon as the second shackle came off, a deep
fire burned in the Zafara's eyes, and she attempted to lunge for him, armed
only with her fists while he had a sword at his side.
Zana managed to get one good kick to Dsupa's
shins, but that was all before she found herself pinned up against the wall
with his blade at her throat. "I'd kill you little whelp, but Jown asked for
you alive. See yourself as lucky this time." And before another word could be
said, he started to drag her back up the stairs. Zana however noted with grim
satisfaction that Dsupa was now favoring his right leg.
***
Jown led Zana Taru out of the dungeons and up a flight of stairs leading her
to a place that only he knew the destination. Once again, her paws were bound
with rope, tied so tightly, that she wasn't sure that most anything other then
a dagger could get it loose. She was being marched at a brisk pace, and standing
right behind her was another one of Jown's creatures who was holding a blade
up near her back to make sure that she didn't try anything funny again. Zana,
however, did not have the intention of causing problems at that current time.
Instead, she was grinning as she saw some of the other solders snicker as Dsupa
limped slightly.
Soon they came up to a large wooden door. Various
Neopets and creatures were inlayed into the wood, and most of them seemed to
look ready for war. Zafara and Poogles and Lupes and all sorts of Neopets were
carved into the door all wearing armor and holding various weapons from swords
to pikes to spears, and all in battle formation. Zana Taru noted all of that
detail in only a breath take, for her eyes fell instead upon the figure of a
Kougra's head at the top of the door.
Even though it was only of wood, the details
on it were practically lifelike she noted. You could see every last hair etched
in, and even the misplaced hairs from where a helmet sat over its head. The
Kougra had piercing eyes, and an evil looking grin spread across its face amplified
by a scar coursing down over one eye and across the left cheek. Even though
Zana had never seen him, she knew at a glance who it was that was represented
upon the door. It was Jown the Kougra warlord.
A jab in her back from the guard behind her
reminded he to take her eyes off of the door, and than she was led inside. A
red carpet went across the entire floor, and many tapestries, most showing a
white Kougra in various battle-ready poses that over did the valor upon it.
A large glass window faced the west and through the window Zana could see creatures
patrolling the large wooden walls, and other creatures practicing with their
swords in the courtyards below. She was so engrossed in the sights that she
did not realize that the guards behind her had left to take up stations at the
door, or that Dsupa had walked away from her so that he could greet his master.
She did not realize any of this until a dark voice spoke up.
"So you are the daughter of those two assassins
that managed to escape me, and friend to the Eyrie, Dorono."
She could not say no, and try and bluff her
way out. She could not try and make the whole thing look like a big mistake,
for in the pits of Jown's eyes, Zana could see that he knew who she was.
"Yes I am," she said, hoping that she was not
betraying any fear like her mother said one should not. She would not allow
the Kougra before her to know that she was terrified of his presence. All of
the tales she had heard her mother tell her of storming his castle to save Wintroq,
the black Uni twins, and Dorono had seemed like a little fantasy game. Something
that you would hear of and imagine yourself in that situation, but never even
dream of it really happening. Now she was living the same tale, and had no idea
how her father Kirin had managed to live being forced to serve this Kougra for
so long.
Jown was terrifying up close. She had thought
the wooden carving to look bad enough, and it didn't even do justice to the
real thing. For a Kougra he was tall, even while standing on all fours he was
some four feet into the air, and while standing on two legs he was taller then
mostly all of the creatures he controlled, except maybe the really tall ones
like Dsupa who had the courtesy of a long neck. Muscles rippled beneath the
shirt he had on from years of tough conditions and fighting with the sword.
What would have been a long tail whipped back and forth behind him, but it had
been shortened by a sword stroke from Dorono. Only half of his tail remained,
and the fur at the end was raggedy. His fur was all white, like the white of
snow. He even wore light colored clothes to go with the white of his fur, but
his eyes contrasted the white completely. They were a bright green, and would
have been attractive on any other Kougra, but Jown's eyes had a certain light
to them. Looking closely his eyes held a mad gleam, almost as if he was warmongering.
She shuddered as his gaze lay upon her, and that gleam darkened.
"A daughter of assassins, dressed in a tunic
meant for a princeling out in battle." He grinned and all of his whitened teeth
shown, and most of them looked to be razor sharp. "Cut the girl child's bonds
and hand her her sword," Jown said as he drew his own. "I want to see if she
knows anything." One of his guards bowed and quickly ran to find her sword,
disappearing out the door. Dsupa stepped forth.
"Jown, my liege. Surely you do not intend to
destroy her. We need her as a bargaining chip for the Eyrie"
"Of course I don't intend to finish off the
brat," Jown spat. "I just want to see how much she knows of swordplay."
Dsupa didn't argue farther, and walked back
to the end of the room, keeping a careful eye on Jown just as the door burst
open and the guard who had ran out to find Zana's sword returned. He gave a
quick bow to Jown, and then walked over to Zana. Lifting her paws up, he slashed
his dagger right through the bonds, and then held her sword out for her to take.
Zana reached foreword laying her paw upon the hilt and smiled. Her paw felt
like it belonged there, and then she clutched around the blade, lifting it away
from the guard who quickly made his way back to the door.
"Now let's see what you can do Zafara child,"
Jown said pulling out his own sword from the sheath at his side. He rubbed his
paw over the black leather that covered the hilt, and then grinned at her as
he put himself into a fighting position.
Taru scowled at him and then rushed foreword,
thrusting out with her blade. Jown held his blade out and easily moves her thrust
to the side with a simple flick of his wrist, and then he swung his sword around
back at Zana who quickly raised her sword to block the attack. She hopped a
pace back and then brought her blade over in a horizontal slash which Jown was
a little more hard-pressed to block.
"Good attack," he said and then thrust his blade
foreword at Zana, who had barely enough time to try and block his attack. Before
she could recover from that, Jown swung his blade again at her shoulder. Zana
tried to hop out of the way of his newest attack, but was a bit slow, and a
gash appeared over her front. She gasped as she felt a trickle of blood start
to run down past her stomach. The wound hurt like she had just splashed liquid
fire over her chest, but trying as hard as she could she bit back the pain and
ran at Jown again, this time pouring what was left of her speed behind the attack.
She ran at him, and feinted a thrust at his midsection, and then as he brought
his blade down to counter it as she guessed he would, she pivoted one heel into
the ground, using her small size to slide under Jown's arm and then slashed
upwards.
Jown went to turn, but Zana was fast enough
for her attack to cut into the flesh of his back. Even though the cut was not
deep, the guards behind him gaped at the young Zafara who had managed to wound
their leader. A light grin spread across Dsupa's features as he saw the surprise
upon Jown's face. The Kougra had been careless to even give her the chance for
an attack like that.
A scowl spread across Jown's features and his
nose crinkled up in anger as he turned upon Zana with a rage. He slashed down
at her, pouring all of his strength into the slash, and then madly grinned as
her block was a bit slow, and his sword raked over one of her arms. He then
thrust his sword at her before she even got to recover, and gleamed in delight
as he heard her cry of pain when the sword pierced her side. As Zana fell to
the ground, bloodied and clutching her sides as pain filled tears streamed down
her cheeks, Jown lifted his sword above her, battle fire burning in his eyes.
He started to swing the sword downward, at her, but Dsupa, expecting this, had
made his way up to them, and pulled out his sword putting it in the way of Jown's
stopping the Kougra's attack from destroying Zana.
"We need her," he said between clenched teeth,
and the battle fire burned out of Jown's eyes, but that mad gleam from before
remained as he pulled his sword away from Dsupa's and sheathed it.
"Yes, of course," he said, but gave a dark glare
at Dsupa. As good of a fighter and commander that he was, he had too much
will against his general, Jown thought watching Dsupa closely until the
Halloween Nimmo sheathed his own sword.
Zana looked up at the two of them standing over
her as she gasped at her wounds. As much as she had practiced with weapons,
she had never been wounded in such a way. She had gained plenty of cuts, but
none of them were inflicted with such hatred, with a will to destroy her beneath
each attack. Still gasping, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she
fell into the voids of unconsciousness.
Jown glared down at the now unconscious Zana
Taru. Even though she had been defeated, he had to admit that she had fought
strongly, and considering her age and small size, a lot more skill then she
should have even had. Also, she had managed to wound him. Many of his trained,
and very skilled warriors had gone up against him and not even managed to scratch
him, so how could a little Zafara child manage it? "Bandage her wounds, and
put her in a good room until she heals. Not the dungeons," he growled out to
the guards who immediately went foreword to comply. He was going to have a little
chat with that Zafara once she had healed enough to listen.
***
Zana opened her eyes to a white walled room. She was lying in a comfortable
bed and inside of a warm room. For a second she almost believed that she was
miles away from the clutches of Jown, but then looking down at the bandages
upon her body she remembered what had happened.
She had wakened up several other times over
the past however long she had been in that room, she slowly started to remember.
Those few times had been short, and pain-filled moments, but she could never
keep herself awake until now.
She lifted herself from the bed, cringing when
she felt a tinge of pain shot through her side where that final thrust of Jown's
had hit. She was lucky, any farther over and it might have killed her. It weakened
her to a pitiful state.
Taking it slow, she had just brought herself
to the edge of the window when the door burst open. Zana looked behind her,
and then tripped over her feet as she saw who it was. Jown grinned at her and
walked over to her side, but did not lend a paw or any help as she painfully
raised herself from the ground. "What do you want?" she hissed at him from between
clenched teeth.
"To talk with you, Zafara"
Zana growled at him.
Jown smirked. "You have a lot of will about
you. Too much if you ask me."
"Well I didn't," Zana said taking her eyes away
from him and looking out the window at all the many creatures patrolling about.
"My trained guardsmen. And you, young Zafara,
have the potential to be able to defeat any one of them in single combat with
a bit of training."
"What are you trying to imply?" Zana asked,
not trusting a word that Jown said. She remembered the tales she had been told
of him and Dorono.
"I am implying that you can be a lot more then
you are. That with proper training you can be a warrior fit to command troops
like those you see down below us."
Zana opened her mouth to say something spiteful
back at Jown, but then she glanced down at the troops below her. They were walking
in perfect formation behind a red figure which she quickly realized to be Dsupa
and they followed his lead up to the main gate of the fortress which opened
with a signal from Dsupa, who then marched his troops out of the gate. What
he had was power over the other creatures. They followed him, and he did not
have to take petty orders from anyone, except maybe Jown, and his orders were
followed to the word.
Jown leaned down and whispered into her ear.
"You can have more power then even he does. If you learn when to listen you
can be at the top. What do you say, Zafara? Do you take hold of this power,
or do you return to the dungeons forever in petty hope that someone would actually
care enough about you to rescue you? If they had cared for you they never would
have let you be captured by that nasty Dsupa would they? You can just stay down
there until you finally pass away, your name never heard. Or you can embrace
this power that I offer. It is your choice Zafara" He leaked the poison of his
words into Zana, and his words wound a web of deceit across her, just as they
had with Dorono years earlier.
Zana Taru turned to look up at Jown, her green
eyes shining with the concept of having all that power in her paws. "Tell me
what I have to do."
Jown gleamed. His plan was working.
To be continued...
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