FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

************

Chapter 23

************

I sat on the floor and wiped away my tears, wondering if I could just slip away from the party. But I probably couldn't, I could think of a few individuals who would come looking for me if I was gone for too long. A chirp caught my attention, I looked up and saw Spryte standing on the back of a chair, looking at me with those stunning amber eyes of his.

"Hey bud." I sniffed. Spryte floated through the air, around my neck, landed on my right shoulder and chirped again. "Yeah, I'm feeling better." I chuckled to him, laughing at how I seemed to know what he was saying.

I stood up brushed myself off and paced around the room a little. Eventually I began to feel normal again I moved to the door.

"You coming with me?" I asked Spryte who was still standing on my shoulder." He chirped loudly in a way that made me believe that he said yes. "Well then, here we go again..."

I pulled open the door and was immediately hit with the sounds of chatter, but it was now being drowned out by the sound of music playing. The party was now in full swing, even from the doorway I could make out various couples on the dance floor.

I made my way towards the dance floor to watch. The music was smooth and relaxing, and it brought a smile to my muzzle watching everyone dance in time with each other. It was an impressive sight, I laughed when I spotted Michael and Jason dancing as well, and to my surprise they were dancing in time with everyone else, and looked rather elegant and composed doing it. Not something I would not expect from Jason.

I felt like I was being watched, looking round I could see a few individuals staring at me. They didn't seem to be hostile, but it was unnerving. Spryte chirped happily in my ear and I smiled, deciding to move on, away from those staring at me.

I spotted Flinn standing by the table with the food, nibbling on something. I walked up to him and saw his eyes light up as he saw me. He continued to chew his food while smiling.

"You're back... wow... is that a spryte?" He asked noticing Spryte on my shoulder.

"Yeah." I chuckled, amused by his amazement, I gave Spryte's head a rub provoking a happy churr from the little dragon like creature.

"That's amazing! I had heard the Anaris and Valelor houses had some, but I've never seen one before!" He said, staring happily at Spryte. "Can I touch him?" He asked and I nodded.

Flinn cautiously reached out his paw to touch Spryte, who chirped at him and then jumped off my shoulder, flew round Flinn's head before landing atop it. Flinn laughed as Spryte danced atop his head.

"So Spryte's decided to join the party I see." A familiar voice boomed from behind. I turned to see Callidus looking amused. "Smart creatures, probably smarter than us."

"Evening Lord Valelor." Flinn said respectfully.

"Good Evening Flinn. If I may, I would like to steal Malakye for a few minutes."

"Uh... okay." Flinn said, obviously a little unsure at the prospect of being asked permission.

"Malakye..." Callidus motioned for me to walk with him.

I walked with him, leaving Spryte and Flinn behind. We walked for a minute or two watching everyone around us before I finally got bored of the silence.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"You did rather well talking to Ranear and Kalveag earlier."

"Who?"

"The diplomats from Zangar."

"Ah... thanks I guess."

"You have more talent for socialising than your father does."

"I think he's a lot better at it." I said bluntly.

"Better, maybe, more practised, yes. But only because I have nagged him for years and years." Callidus said with a less than amused look. "But you have no practise or instruction in the matter and yet handled yourself admirably. I dare say you get that talent from your mother."

"You knew my mother?!"

"No." He said bluntly. "But there is no way it could come from Kaldor." He smiled, I couldn't help but giggle slightly.

"Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No, I wanted to talk to you about our wager."

"I will pay you back, don't worry." I assured him, the mood becoming slightly more serious.

"I actually have a proposition for you." He said, immediately grabbing my attention.

"You want me to fight someone else?"

"No, no, no. something quite different. Come to my home tomorrow around noon, I shall discuss it with you."

I was a little taken aback. He was going to offer me another deal, to work off my debt in some way. He bowed his head and then left, leaving me with my thoughts. I guess there was no harm in listening to his proposal.

"Malakye!" Came a voice that I not only recognised, but also sent a shiver up my spine.

"Luna." I said, forcing a smile as I turned to face her.

"I hope you haven't forgotten about that dance you promised me!"

"I promised?" Suddenly remembering that she had told me to save a dance for her. I guess in her mind since I didn't object I had agreed.

Then I remembered what Beatrix, one of Luna's mothers, had said. That Luna had feelings for me, she just expected them to be returned without question. I think Luna was going to be a real paw-full! I dread to think of the tantrum that she would throw if I refused to dance with her. But there lay another challenge, I was not the best dancer in the world.

"I guess... I did promise..." I said, earning a smile from Luna. "But I have to warn you I'm not a very good dancer." I didn't fail to notice the look of disappointment.

"Well... I suppose I can lead." She mused. "But we shall definitely have to teach you how to dance for future events like this."

I wasn't sure if I should be more nervous about the fact that she was going to teach me how to dance or the fact that she implied that we were going to be doing a lot of dancing together in the future. But I didn't get much of a chance to ponder this, as she grasped my wrist and dragged me to the dance floor. Granted I didn't put up much of a fight, but I still felt a little embarrassed about the fact I was being dragged by Luna.

I shot Flinn an apologetic look and he simply nodded, expressing his understanding as I was being lead towards the dance floor. Once we reached the dance floor Luna took my paws and placed one on her waist and took the other in her paw, it was then I realised just how much smaller she was, not so much he height but how slender her body was Suddenly I felt like a brute in comparison, she was so dainty I felt I had to be careful or I'd break her in some way.

She began to move and I followed her lead. I had only danced once before, just the other day at the festival party in the market place, but that had given me just enough experience to not trod on her foot-paw or stumble when she suddenly changed direction.

At first I was concentrating so hard on following her movements I couldn't hear the music that was playing. So nervous about showing her, or myself, up in front of the crowd. After the first two dances, I had managed to notice the subtle differences in the moves, I began to hear the music and then just like at the festival I began to feel the rhythm.

It was now much easier to anticipate her movements based on the speed of the music. Looking back at it, I realised that it wasn't much different from a fight. You anticipate the movement of your opponent and move in time with their moves, only now I was trying to move with my partner rather than against them. After a brief pause between songs I made the decision to take the lead. I may not know the moves, but damn it I was going to give it one hell of an attempt!

There was the briefest moment of resistance from Luna when we began to dance again, but she quickly realised what I was doing at began to follow me. For the first part of the dance I watched the other couples nearby, trying to copy their moves. Thankfully it was more or less the same moves as the previous dances.

During the fifth song I actually found myself to be enjoying the dance, and relaxed enough to stop watching how the other couples moved and turned my attention to Luna. She was smiling! But this wasn't the polite smile that she'd been wearing all night, this felt honest, like she was actually having fun. I have to admit she looked cute when she smiled like that. Eventually the dance came to an end.

"Thank you Malakye." She giggled, taking out her fan and using it to cool herself.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." I said as we made our way off the dance floor, the band beginning the next song.

As we walked I didn't fail to notice both our fathers standing watching us, both of them with large smiles. Suddenly I felt an awkward conversation coming my way. The General embraced his daughter in a loving hug before turning to regard me.

"I'm impressed my boy, it's been a long time since I've seen my Luna smile like that!"

"Oh Daddy!" Luna giggled, giving her father a gentle swat on the arm.

"You show a lot of promise, and from what I hear you've impressed a lot of dragons." Ortavia smiled. "You've got a bright future ahead of you."

"Thank you General," I was waiting for the line where he was going to offer Luna's paw to me in marriage. I felt so nervous... I didn't know if I wanted to marry her! What would I say if he did?

"Now if you will excuse me Lord Kaldor, I'm afraid Beatrix has drank one too many goblets..." Ortavia sighed.

"I understand. You must look after your family." Kaldor nodded.

"Thank you my Lord." Ortavia gave a curt bow of the head before turning to leave.

Luna followed a few moments later, staying to stare and smile at me a few moments longer. I smiled back nervously, relieved when she turned to follow her father and I was no longer under her gaze.

************

As I staggered into the area where Xavier usually trained me I let out a large yawn. The party last night had gone on till late, and while I will admit I had fun it was also pretty stressful. I was watching what I said the whole night and then there was the dancing. Every eligible female seemingly wanted to dance with me after seeing me dance with Luna. To steady my nerves I had indulged in a few goblets of ale and few stronger liquids which burned my throat.

My head was throbbing with a mild headache, I could barely keep my eyes open. Jovani had kindly woken me up in time, I don't think he had been to bed yet, but I had managed a few hours of sleep. While I was glad to be getting back to training, I was definitely not feeling one hundred percent. I looked round, I was in complete darkness in darkness, the only light was coming from my own torch.

"Xavier?" I called out.

I was going to be really pissed if Xavier had slept in when I was here now. I moved over to the large brazier in the middle of the room, I threw in some coal and lit it. I sat there staring at the brazier, enjoying the simplicity of the fire. Soon it was burning brightly and casting its warming glow over me.

I was about to lay down and relax while I waited for Xavier to finally turn up when there was a sudden flare of nen from behind me. I leapt up and spun round, immediately slipping into a fighting stance. I let out a low growl of frustration when I noticed that it was actually Xavier standing there with a smug grin.

"You're late!" I huffed.

"I got here while you were lighting the brazier."

"Why did you wait so long to show yourself?" I asked.

"I wanted to see just how sensitive you are to sensing others nen." He said with a giant grin. "Like I said before, you are incredibly sensitive in sensing others nen. Even more so than myself, possibly even as sensitive as a grand master."

"Well I'm glad I can amuse you." I said, still slightly annoyed.

"Here." He tossed me the perception stone*. "I hope you've been practising on honing your fire nen."

"Not really had much time with everything that's been happening." I admitted.

I sat down by the brazier, hoping the feeling of the fire would help me draw on my fire nen. I drew on my nen, the stone glowing bright white in my paw. I closed my eyes and focused on my nen. I tried to remember how it felt on the rare occasion when I had managed to control fire, even back in Rengilar when I wasn't in control.

I remembered my fight against Tal'nar, that feeling when I had summoned up that extra surge of power. How it had felt hot as it surged through my body. I tried to pull on that feeling and I dug deep to where it felt like the power had come from. Trying to remember how I felt when I drew on it. I had wanted to prove I was strong, prove that I could protect everyone that I cared about.

I felt the nen burn in my gut, it was almost like I had an upset stomach, I drew on that burning and slowly pulled it out so it flowed through my body and into the stone in my paw. I felt the stone get warmer in my paw and I opened my eyes and saw the stone glowing a bright orange.

"Impressive." Xavier commented.

"I did it!" I exclaimed happily.

"It's certainly a step in the right direction."

Xavier was right. While it was glowing orange, it was still brightly lit by my wind element. I needed to suppress my wind element in order to properly control the fire or it would rage out of control like the last time I had tried.

I closed my eyes again and focused on my nen. This time focusing on my wind element. I knew where to focus my attention, my wind element felt like it came from my chest rather than my gut. But trying to cut that nen while maintaining my fire nen was even more difficult than it had been trying to draw out my fire element.

Every time I did the stone in my paw stopped glowing as I suppressed my nen entirely, rather than just the wind element. I don't know how long I tried but by the time I stopped I felt exhausted. I tossed the black stone into the dirt and stared at it, my frustration building.

"You've made progress." Xavier assured me.

"Maybe, but I feel like I'm further away from my goal. Trying to suppress my wind element is a lot harder than drawing on my fire element." I huffed, frustrated and feeling annoyed.

"Perhaps you don't need to suppress it." Xavier mused, looking into the distance as if deep in thought.

"What do you mean?"

"Well as I said before, every ones nen is different, and the way they control it is different."

"And how does that help me?"

"Well..." Xavier paused as he considered his words. "You're wind element is part of who you are, and we can't ignore who we are."

"I don't get it."

"It's hard to explain. Consider this fire." He said motioning towards the brazier. "The fire burns brightly because heat started it, but it needs more than heat. It needs fuel, not only coal but air."

"So you're telling me to use my wind element now? But last time I did that I lost control!"

"True, but just as the fire needs air to burn, too much can also extinguish it." His nen pulsed and he shot a large gust of wind from his paw at the brazier, the flames blowing out leaving only the glowing hot coals.

I think I was getting what he was saying. I had to use my wind element, but I just had to learn to use so much to maintain control. But just thinking about that made it feel just as difficult as trying to suppress my wind element completely. Wind dominated my nen, could I really do this?

"I suppose it's worth a shot." I agreed.

"Then shall we get to it?"

************

My training with Xavier went slowly, I had made little progress, but at least by the end it felt like I was heading in the right direction. I managed to get the perception stone* to glow more or less the right colour and then we moved onto trying to control the flames themselves.

With the brazier relit I tried to pull a portion of the fire away and maintain it, a basic fire bending skill according to Xavier. But the fire lasted no more than a second or two before it burned out. At least the fire didn't burn out of control like before, but it seemed that was the only step forward I had managed.

But time passed and our lesson came to a close for the day. It was nearly lunch time, and I felt starving. I had thought about going home and seeing what Harold had to eat until I remembered that Callidus had wanted to see me. He was going to offer me a way to pay off my debt to him.

I made my way towards the Valelor family home, I had never been there, Jovani had thankfully mentioned how to get there when he took me to get clothes at Garibaldi's. I wandered down the passageways, unsure what I was looking for, hoping that I wouldn't miss it. Not that I could. I knew it as soon as I saw it. Two large metal doors with a crest carved into it like the one Callidus wore round his neck.

I approached the doors and knocked. My knock echoed throughout the passageway, making the following silence heavy. I waited nervously, not sure what I was nervous about. Eventually one of the doors opened and a young dragon dressed in fine fur clothes appeared.

"You must be Malakye." He said

He was a fair bit younger than me, but he sounded older than his age with the way he spoke. I couldn't explain why. I nodded and he motioned for me to enter, closing the door behind us.

The hall was large, the ceiling high above my head. Ornate rugs and tapestries decorated the area, many of them faded with time. I turned to the young dragon, if I had to guess I would say he was no more the twelve winters old.

"I am most pleased to meet you." The young dragon smiled. "I am Vizimaar. My father has been expecting you."

"So you're Callidus's son?" I asked.

"Yes." He nodded. "Father asked me to take you to the library when you arrived." He said motioning down the hall with his paw.

I followed the young dragon to the library, the room hidden behind two more large steel doors, If any room in the Anaris household had awed me with the magnitude of its size or grandeur, the library out did it with both it's size and grandeur by a long way. This was not simply a cave carved out of the mountain side, this was a cavern. Several levels of balconies carved out of marble circled the vast space, and on each level countless finely carved wooden shelves, all of the filled with scrolls and books.

As I followed Vizimaar through the literal maze of book shelves on the ground level, I looked round at the amazing collection of knowledge and wondered just how long it would take someone to read everything in here. If they could read. Reading was not a common skill among the wolves, but I knew that my grandfather could read, but among the young warriors it was not a common skill. I imagine that it was similar here in Zangar, the ability to read and write was taught only to those of status and influence.

As we rounded a corner we entered an area filled with wooden tables, and at one of those tables was Callidus who was busy reading a scroll. I knew there was no way he couldn't have noticed us, but not once did he look up from the scroll. Both Vizimaar and myself stood waiting. Once he was finished reading he looked up and regarded us for the first time.

"I brought him like you asked father!" Vizimaar chirped.

"Thank you Vizi. Now could you go and get something to eat for our guest?"

"Yeah!" Vizimaar nodded eagerly before zipping off through the maze of shelves.

"You didn't need to..."

"But you are my guest and if you're anything like your father, you will probably be hungry." Callidus interrupted. My stomach took that moment to emphasise his point by growling loudly enough for him to hear, making him smirk. "Like I said."

"Okay, fine. Now what is this all about?" I asked.

"Straight to the point, another trait you share with your father." He smiled as he rolled up the scroll he had been reading and the then slipped it into a gold ring before walking over to a set of shelves and placing it carefully atop several other scrolls. "You impressed me last night. You definitely show signs that you could fit into the role of being the heir to the Anaris household. Not only that but you show great promise as a warrior, and from what I hear you have some considerable potential as a bender as well."

"That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me." I smirked. Feeling like I was being examined rather than being complimented.

"I see that you also share Kaldor's sense of humour as well."

"So I'm a lot like my father! Big deal!"

"Now, now. No need to be snitty, I am trying to compliment you." He said with an amused look.

"So far all you've done is tell me how like my father I am. Why am I really here?"

"You are here because I think you have potential. The potential to take the reins as head of the Anaris house one day. But before you can do that, well... you are lacking in certain... skills." Callidus said bluntly.

"And what skills might those be?"

"Here." He handed me a scroll. I held it open and looked at the scribbles on the page. "Do you know what that says?"

"No..." I said coldly, suspecting that he knew that I wouldn't be able to.

"As I suspected." Callidus said taking the scroll from me and began to roll it back up. "If you want to represent the Anaris house, you must at the very least be able to read and write."

"And I suppose you're going to teach me?"

"Oh no my dear boy. You are going to ask for my help."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because if you learn to read and write I will consider you having worked off the debt you owe me."

I stared at Callidus, a little surprised to say the least. I hadn't expected this at all. He was going to let me work off my debt to him by learning to read and write? I wouldn't deny that being able to read or write would certainly be useful, hell even if I left Zangar I could get a decent job with those skills no matter where I went. But for Callidus to offer his time and effort to teach me was the biggest surprise of the lot.

"So you want me to ask you to teach me?" I asked.

"I want you to ask for my help." He admitted. "And when you are able to not only read the book containing the history of your house, but to also write, I will consider you're debt settled."

It was a tempting offer, everyone knew that being able to read and write was a step towards living a comfortable life. They were skills that were highly valued. There was no obvious downside to this deal, except the time it would take to learn. I knew that like any training you only got out what you put in, and my time was already stretched thin with training with Aceh and Xavier and eventually I would be going back to training with Kassius and the other young warriors. Could I afford that time?

I don't think Callidus would let me sacrifice learning to read or write for any other training exercises, especially when he wanted me to ask... that's why he wanted me to ask him I realised. Because then I would be obligated to spend time learning to read and write over everything else. Unless I asked he knew that learning to read or write wouldn't be high on my list of priorities.

I was just beginning to realise how smart Callidus was. He had planned this whole thing. Either I asked him for his help or I would be indebted to him. Had to give him credit, but there was no way round this. I would have to make the decision. And either one meant Callidus had some leverage over me, in one form or another.

"Fine... will you teach me to read?" I asked. This was the best course of action. It played to Callidus's ego and meant I wouldn't have him breathing down my neck. Staying on his good side was probably the easiest way.

At that moment Vizimaar returned, followed by a dragoness with a tray of meats, bread and drinks. The dragoness placed the tray carefully on the table next to us before departing without a single word. She had been smartly dressed, but her behaviour suggested that she was servant.

"I won't teach you." Callidus said with a smile.

"But you said..."

"Vizimaar will teach you. I am afraid I have far too much to do to spare the time to teach you. But Vizi is well versed in literature and will make a fine teacher for you."

"You've got to be kidding me!" I scoffed.

I had nothing against the kid, and I was sure he was better at reading and writing than I was, but the sudden realisation that Callidus had no intention of teaching me himself after making me ask him.

"Don't worry I'll be able to teach you how to read!" Vizimaar reassured me.

I looked down into his eyes, the innocent expectation made any anger I felt towards his father melt. I was still annoyed at Callidus, but while he was a manipulative bastard, his heart was in the right place. I sighed, and Callidus took that as my resignation to the situation, as he immediately took his leave.

"I shall check on your progress in a couple of hours. Best of luck!" He called back as he disappeared into the maze shelves.

"So shall we begin?"

"I guess." I sighed, taking a seat at the table. "So what's first ki... Vizimaar?" I corrected myself, showing the kid some respect since he was going to be my teacher. Aceh had taught me to respect my teachers, and I know that there was no exceptions to that respect, even if my teacher was so much younger than myself.

"You can't read until you learn the letters used to form words, so we will begin there." Vizimaar said excitedly.

He quickly ran off to gather the required materials while I took the time to sate my hunger and my frustration by filling my belly with the food sitting on the table.

************

As I walked toward the entrance to the Anaris household I rubbed my temples, hoping that the throbbing would stop. It wasn't painful, my mind was just a muddle, trying to remember the letters and the sounds that went with them had my mind messed up. I had no idea it would have been so difficult!

I knew it wouldn't be easy, nothing ever is as I have come to realise, but unlike when I'm training I can't work out my stresses by letting my frustration out with some violence. But now it was late in the afternoon, still not sure how I could tell I just sort of knew, I guess I was getting used to living in these caves the whole time, and now I had a short time before my lessons with Aceh.

I knew that Aceh was going to run my ass into the ground since we had not trained over the festival. Normally that would have me dreading the experience, but at least it would help my mind to focus on something simple and straightforward.

I made my way to the room where I was going to meet Aceh, I was early but I really needed to work out some of the stress right now. To my surprise Aceh was already there. He sat cross legged with his eyes closed in meditation.

"You're early." He said, his eyes remaining shut.

"Yeah well..."

"Very well, we will begin now." He got up looked at me with a stern glare.

"Okay." I agreed. I really wanted to focus on something simple and straightforward to clear my head.

"You're fight the other day." He said as he stepped up to me. "Was impressive."

"Thanks."

"But you lost." His tone was deadly serious.

"I'm sorry if I let you down."

"You didn't let me down, you fought an opponent who was far stronger than you." I was a little surprised at his words. "I saw you grow stronger during the fight. That is good. You need to remember what you learned, take it in and make it part of you."

"I know what I did." I said.

"Then show me." He smiled, raising his arms and readying himself to fight.

"Okay..." I reluctantly readied myself.

I knew what I had done, I had used nen to make myself stronger. The strength it gave me was incredible, but I felt using it against someone like Aceh who didn't have nen to defend themselves was cheating. We stood staring at each other, Aceh was waiting, he didn't normally wait.

"Do it!" He growled.

"I'll hurt you." I said with a quiver of worry.

"Do it Malakye!" He commanded me.

"Fine!" I relented.

Drawing on my nen and letting it pouring through me and then out of me. It filtered out through the air and filled the room. I closed my eyes and I could still see everything only without colour, light or darkness. I felt myself smile, it was nice seeing the world like this.

Only I didn't get to enjoy it for too long, Aceh moved to attack and I blocked his punch without even opening my eyes. I opened my eyes and looked into the icy blue of his. He was smiling. The brief pause ended with him sending a flurry of punches at me. I blocked them with my forearms, immediately noticing the blows felt little more than being hit with a pillow rather than Aceh's iron paws.

I back stepped away to make a little space before going on the attack. I attacked, narrowly dodging Aceh's open palm that was aimed for my snout, and lashed out with a punch, one which Aceh narrowly avoided by weaving his head. With my nen active I felt braver about attacking. Knowing that any mistake wouldn't hurt as badly as before.

I continued my assault, punch after punch, I didn't relent. But punch after punch Aceh blocked, dodged or weaved away from my attacks. When he did counter attack he landed a series of blows to my head and chest which put me off balance, then finishing me off with a hip toss that sent me sprawling across the floor. Thankfully my nen meant that I felt little pain.

I got up almost immediately and looked at Aceh. I should have expected that, even without nen Aceh was still a force to be reckoned with. Only he was rubbing his forearms, the blows he had blocked obviously stung a little more than normal.

"Good." Was all he said. "But even when using you're kii you must try and not get hit, even if you don't feel pain as much."

I was dumbstruck. I don't know what this 'kii' was, but he knew I wasn't afraid of being hit because it didn't hurt as much. Did he know what I was doing? Did he know about nen? He could have been told about it, my father could have told him. Maybe he had been told the effects of nen in a fight, that made sense. But why had he called it kii?

"What is this kii thing?" I asked.

"That's right... they don't call it kii here. Nen?"

"Yes nen... but why did you call it kii?" I asked.

"Because that's what grandfather called it."

"You're grandfather..."

"Come lets go again." He said slipping into a fighting stance.

I was still a little baffled by the whole thing. Aceh knew about nen, even if it was by a different name. I readied myself and was about to take the offensive until I felt that familiar flare of power, only this time it was coming from Aceh. My eyes went wide and I felt a cold chill grip my chest. Aceh could use nen!