The Chronicles of Knight II: Rebuilding the Forsaken - Part One

          ***        Once, not so long ago, two young souls ventured out from a forgotten realm into the great unknown, all to fulfill one single destiny, one single purpose. Both were outcasts: she by her spirit, he by self-banishment. Both were fated long before to fulfill one destiny, one purpose: to return the true king back to his home and restore the peace that had so long been denied.

     Once, not so long ago, two young souls finally found the true king that was prophesied to restore peace. They found him in a land of darkness, darkness so terrible that it seemed out of their worst nightmares. They were able to return that king and face the false one, thus taking that first step into restoring the peace.

     Once, not so long ago, two young souls were made into what they were born to be: knights. The pair were the only true knights besides their king, for they had the spirit of the knight within themselves. They were the true knights the two kingdoms needed.

     It would be nice to say that they lived happily ever after, but sadly such is not the case. For being knighted was only the second step into restoring the peace the two kingdoms waited so long for. For them, perhaps, there will be no such thing as a "happily ever after", perhaps not even a normal life. For how can things ever be "happily ever after" when problems haunt them like swarms of insects on a hot day? How can things ever be normal for Meridell's first ever female or first ever Darigan knight?

Part One

Of Problems and Nightmares

The very fact that she was there would baffle some. Not once in over its thousand years of existence had a female touched its stone table or steps. She was a female, and she was looked down upon. Why is she here, some would mutter when they thought that she wasn't listening. Females aren't to be trusted with such complex tasks as these. They are…

     "More prone to scream and back away, to be weak," Avari would chime along with them, grinning bitterly at their stunned looks. "Of the many times I've heard it in the past few months, I'm still shocked to find people questioning the fact that I was made a knight. I, of all people, right!? Yes, I know the story. Females can't become knights." She would then place a single black-stocking paw to her chest, and lower herself into a mock bow. "Yet here I am, a female Lupe, dubbed a knight last winter. Still shocked?"

     Afterwards when the person or persons would walk away shaking their heads, she would bite her lip and regret what she had said. She hadn't even been a knight for four months, and yet she was tired of people questioning her. Why should she be tired, she would constantly ask herself. Wasn't it she that had slain the Wolf the previous summer, weakened by poison and the long run through the scorching Lost Desert to the other side of the world? She had done all that, and still had the will to fight Zev. Yet when it came to fighting down the constant, looming enemy of doubters and gossipers, she found herself weary.

     Sighing, she rubbed her eyes with her paw. Looking around, she noted that no one else was there. She was early-how could that be? Sighing again, she walked to her seat and sat down. The next thing she knew, her head was on her paws.

     Just a little rest, she told herself contentedly, closing her eyes.

       ***

     "Lady Knight!"

     The sharp voice stabbed at her mind like a sword. She moaned, raising her head. At first, things were blurry, though finally she was able to discern the High Council all sitting at the great round table, all staring at her. She blushed under her fur, looking to Raatri.

     "Did I really fall asleep?" she asked him quietly.

     "Of course you did," snapped an elderly yellow Lenny called Leland. Avari winced slightly.

     "I beg that all of you forgive me," she said clearly, voice carrying throughout the room. "I find myself tired as of late."

     "Doesn't stop me," he lashed back at her. She stared him in the eye. Of all her Meridellian enemies, Leland was the worst. He was loyal to the late king, King Skarl VII, and to the old ways of female-less knighthood. He despised her for being a girl, and being a knight, and being in the Council. He, like most.

     When she had been dubbed a knight last winter her heart had filled with such happiness that she thought her barely contained tears might make a new river if she were to let them out. Not only was she fulfilling a life-long dream; she was repaying her parents' sacrifice for her. Her parents had died so she could live, and while they were living they had planted firmly in her head the idea that she would one day be a knight.

     Not a week had passed since her dubbing that protesters came, Leland among the first. Leland was elderly, but that didn't mean his mind was weak from age. He was as sharp as a new blade, deadly with his words, someone most wanted as a friend and not an enemy. Avari had been his enemy from the day she had first come to the castle wishing to be made a squire. At first he had ignored her - like everyone - but now he saw her as a threat. She was young, bold, brave, sharp with her mind and true with her heart. All great traits for a knight… but not a lady knight.

     Oh, had I been born a boy! Avari cried silently in her mind.

     "I do not wish to fight with you, Leland," she said softly, though her voice was loud enough for each one to hear. "I am here to restore our forsaken land."

     "We don't need you," he said. "We don't need girls. "

     Her eyes frosted over in anger. She knew if she bit back they would look down on her. So instead she lifted up her chin, and prepared to counter his rebuke. Before she could begin speaking another, gentler voice spoke out.

     "Leland, we have gone over this before. I trust Avari with my life, as she nearly gave hers up half a year ago when fighting for the sake of our kingdom. Avari is as true a knight as Jeran. 'Tis not the skin but the heart within. You know that as well as any of us, Leland."

     Avari felt a rush of gratitude at her friend, Vladimir's, words. Vladimir was the king of Meridell, crowned a few months before his own knighthood. He was young for a king, thrown into leadership only days after he had returned from his imprisonment in the Citadel. Avari had helped in the rescuing of him, indirectly. She still remembered vividly the sight of the Wolf's blacker than black eyes, staring at her, luring her into a trance. She had been able to break that trance and destroy Zev, therefore insuring that Raatri and Darigan could take back the Citadel without any other challenges besides Blake himself.

     "As you wish, my king," the Lenny said, though Avari could trace a hint of mockery in his words. She sighed very slightly. Leland had not yet accepted the young Skeith as the new king. Some had, here and there, those loyal to the late king and realizing Vladimir was the best choice for now. Leland was loyal to Skarl VII, and did not think that the pup Skeith was truly worthy of holding his title. Leland was loyal to Skarl VII, and did not think that the female Lupe was truly worthy of holding hers.

     "Then there is nothing to hinder us from continuing with this meeting," Vladimir said, his voice emotionless. "Let us begin."

     And they began.

     "First, we must address the issue of the mysterious disappearances," said an elderly blue Techo, known as the Eldest of the Council as he was head of it. "From around the time our Lady Knight departed with the late Aleron to about two weeks ago, there have been mysterious killings all around the castle and in the surrounding country sides."

     "Yes, yes, we know," snapped Leland. "Get on with it."

     "Don't raise your tone to the Eldest," Avari hissed at him.

     "Don't raise your tone to me either, girl. "

     She took a deep breath. Before she could begin speaking, however, Vladimir again intervened.

     "Avari, Leland, we are here for a meeting, not a fight. Let us all listen to what our Eldest has to say, even if you may have heard some of the details before." His gaze fixed on Leland's. "For we have all endured you speak ill of our Avari a thousand times, and you yourself go over each detail with each speaking. So show some respect to others. Do I make myself clear?"

     "Yes, my King," Leland said in a bored voice.

     "Please continue," Vladimir told the speaker.

     "As I was saying, the killings suddenly ceased two weeks ago or so. No one is quite sure who caused these killings, if indeed they are related. And no one is quite sure why they have stopped."

     "Bad feed," said one member, a blue Lupe.

     "Accidents," suggested another.

     "But you see," said Leland, voice still bored. "All these people were poisoned, and there were two sets of bite marks on each."

     Raatri let out a long and loud sigh, making them all look at him. "A Techo assassin," he said. "I do not know how much of the Citadel's history you know, but I will tell you some of the Techos. In the past years, the Darigan Techos have changed, becoming sleeker, swifter, more cunning. They also carried one other, entirely new trait: they housed poison in their fangs. But it's not so interesting that they hold poison, but what this poison does. For there are two sets of poison: one of paralyzing, one of death. They give the paralyzing one first, and then either stab or death-poison their victim. If all these people found dead have each a set of two fang marks, then they were all killed by a Darigan Techo assassin."

     Vladimir sighed. "One loose in the castle. I wonder why he never came after me, or you, Raatri. For you, in fact, were the one that killed that Techo's master." Vladimir smiled slightly. "Two weeks without a sign… I wonder where he went?"

          ***           There was a small scratch on the cold stone, so quiet that the young squire was surprised that she had heard it. But it had been there, quiet or no, a small sign that something was behind her. She turned her ears towards the sound. Yes, there it was again. Something lurked in the shadows behind her. What could make such a sound? She had only heard that sound a few times before, and each seemed to come right out of her worst nightmares.

     Nightmare! The memory flashed in and out of her mind like a firefly in the night. The tall, tall creature, the thing of another world. Or another side of a world.

     She let that thought leave. Something dangerous waited behind her, and she could not afford to dwell on memories. Yes, Nightmare. And on that same day she had met something else face to face, a creature called the Wolf.

     The Wolf was not truly a wolf, but a Techo, a dangerous Darigan Techo. Yes, she remembered. Darigan Techos had become sleeker, craftier, wiser. And they had begun to carry poison in their mouths. That was what made the Wolf behind her so dangerous. For the Wolf was the most dangerous of the lot, the fastest and the most cunning.

     She turned. "Zev, I see you," she told the Wolf.

     "You will die first," he replied, slinking out into the darkness. He continued on, luring her into trance, telling her how pitifully weak she was. Five feet, four, three…

     "No!" Avari cried out into the darkness, and suddenly the Wolf disappeared. Darkness rose to take his place, dark shades swaying in and out of her vision as her eyes adjusted. She blinked several times, trying to calm her breath, realizing that a cold sheen of sweat covered her body. She lay in her bed for several moments, letting her breathing and heartbeat slow, before she rose. She could not sleep after such nightmares of her past. She could never sleep.

     It had happened before, many times. At night when her mind was weak the nightmares would intrude, reminding her of the harsh and dangerous few weeks in her past in which she had nearly lost her life several times. From the Wolf to many Nightmares, Avari's memories were constantly a nightmare.

     She looked out her window to the lands below, sighing. Such things were in the past now, she kept telling herself. She had to look to her future.

     Ever since the disappearance of Darigan, both Meridell and the Citadel had begun to sink lower and lower. Darigan was the reminder of the peace, the knot that tied two ropes together. When he had disappeared, it seemed as if the two ropes had let go… and fallen.

     Rotten kings and overlords ruled the two kingdoms, allowing Meridell and the Citadel to sink. It grew to the point where no one believed there was hope for recovery, and yet no one had done anything about it.

     Avari's father had been the second true knight to come to Meridell, after Aleron. He had taught his daughter all the codes of chivalry in hope that one day, she too would become a true knight. He had died before he ever saw that, and yet it was perhaps her parents' premature death that gave her the courage and will to become the knight they wanted her to be.

     Her father had died…One less true knight. Aleron had fallen away.

     And along came Avari.

     She smiled to herself. She had changed the very structure of Meridell. For the first time in its history, Meridell housed a female knight, and a demon, or Darigan, one. All because of her. Or perhaps, all because of her parents.

     When she had become a knight, another bold change had been made. Vladimir had made both Avari and Raatri a part of the Royal Council of Meridell. They were the youngest ever to enter that Council, outside the royal family. But not only were they the youngest: in over its thousand years of existence, there had never once been a female or demon in the Council.

     Many hated them for these major changes. Female and demon knights were unheard of, but to be called into the Council!? They hated them for what they were. If Avari had been a boy, and Raatri a Meridellian, perhaps they would have found leeway to allow two young members into the Council. But Avari and Raatri were not male or Meridellian. Avari was the female knight of Meridell, Raatri the Darigan Prince of Meridell.

     She smiled again. She and Raatri had definitely shook up Meridell. She just hoped that it was enough to restore it.

     Letting her thoughts drift, she watched the stars above her without really seeing them.

          ***

    She blinked, looking to the stars above her. Had one of them whispered to her? No, no, she was just tired. She sighed. The voice had sounded so much like her father.

     She looked back down to the lands, remembering back to a time when she had walked along the great road that spread before her now, walking towards the castle as a last survivor, wishing to be made a knight eventually. Looking back to the stars, she felt tears enter her eyes suddenly. She had been made a knight because of two people who had fled to those stars years ago. If it hadn't been for them, Avari may have never become a knight.

     "Thank you, Mother, Father," she whispered and she looked to them one final time.

     She sighed after a moment, and turned back to her bed. Thinking fond memories of her childhood, Avari forgot about her nightmares, for the time being. She could have sworn, in those last moments of wakefulness, that she heard some whispered words, though in the morning she would remember no such thing. But those words made her smile. The voice sounded like someone she remembered from long ago, a distant echo that had never truly left her.

     You're welcome, our daughter. We thank you too, for what you have become. Our legacy lives on.

To be continued...