Lexali

IHeeere is where I shall post scenes from Future Fortune for you to read.

 Since this is only version one please keep in mind it'll be sucky for about 1-2 more rewrites at least. Much like Isla's WIPs, it's only a rough 'sketch' if you will.

 Kiyu & Icee (One):

As Iceeatte made her way back to the center of Drango with Zeranu and Ehren trailing behind her, she already knew what was awaiting her. She honestly didn't want to go back just yet, but had she not heard Kiyubi calling her? After all, she needed to warn him about the strangers who she had seen by the Twin Rivers earlier. Once they were there, Ehren and Zeranu left to go find Tsiiana who hadn't come back from her hunt yet.

On most cases, nobody went looking for a lost Werewolf. They let it find its own way home. But Tsiiana was different. She was the only Werewolf born as a wolf, not a human. That made everything confusing, since in human years she was almost sixteen. In wolf years she was almost 80. It made her somewhat Layaden-like, as she was too smart for her years. But she was also the only Werewolf who couldn't come out of her wolf form. This made things exceptionally difficult in certain situations. Anyone who was not a friend of the Werewolves would have no trouble finding her, since she couldn't turn into a human.

Once Ehren and Zeranu were gone, Iceeatte went to find Kiyubi. She found him sitting under a tree, bleeding and bruised from yet another territory battle with the Chiaera.

“I wish this would stop,” she said approaching him. “I don't like seeing you like this.”

He looked up at her quickly. “I didn't hear you coming. You're getting better at using your stealth. Good job.”

She looked at him in surprise. Compliments or praise rarely came, but he had high standards to live up to. Especially for one who wasn't born a Werewolf. She sat down beside him and didn't say anything.

“It won't end,” he sighed.

She looked down. “Why not?”

He was quiet for a moment. “They've been in charge too long. They won't just give it up all because someone decided that they'd had it long enough.”

“I never liked the Chiaera...”

“And why is that?”

She shrugged. “They were annoying. You could always see them when you flew over Starientei or Drango, but you could never get at any of them. They're too advanced and a bit too...Uppity.”

He nodded.

“I never said that it would end,” she said after a short silence. “I only said I wished that it would.”

“Because you don't like seeing me like this,” he finished for her. “I did hear that part. I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

“Sides,”

“Sides?” she gave him a blank look.

He looked annoyed and stared at the tree straight across from him in silence.

“As in...A good side or a bad side?”

He nodded once.

“Are we the good side or the bad side?”

“Exactly,” he said.

“I'd say that we were the good side...”

“Of course you would. That's because it's the side that you're on. If you were on the other side, you'd say the same thing.” he stood suddenly and pulled an apple out of his pocket, peeling it slowly with one claw. “The thing is, you don't want to be on the bad side. Nobody does. Then they have to go and start all these wars, just to see who's good and who's bad.”

“I don't think a war proves anything,” she said slowly. “Except maybe the fact that there is no good or bad side. If both sides get themselves into the war just to see who is better, then there is no better, is there?”

“There shouldn't be.”

“And then they always say that whoever wins is the good side. Nobody wants to see the so-called 'bad side' win.”

“You're getting there...”

She paused. “You already have an answer?”

“Not an answer, merely a guess.” he said and began to slice up the apple.

“There is no good or bad side?” she offered.

“So it would seem,” he said half-consciously. He looked down at her suddenly and held out half of the apple. “Apple?”

She took it. “Thank you,”

“Mhmm,”

“I almost forgot...”

“Forgot what?” he asked quickly.

“Someone froze over the Twin Rivers today...”

“What?!”

She winced and then stood up slowly. “I took care of them. He said it was a mistake...”

“You didn't kill them?”

She shook her head.

“Good...”

“I didn't want to kill them. Besides, I know it was an accident. I saw what happened.”

“Somebody told me Zeranu got hit.” he shot her a questioning look and she looked away.

“Yes, yes he did. You know he takes his job a bit too seriously. He and Ehren both do. He just overreacted and attacked the girl after she froze the rivers, but none of us knew that the the one who was with her was a magician.”

“Is he okay?”

“He got up almost immediately after it happened. I don't think the magician was trying to kill him. I think he was just trying to keep his friend alive.”

“That's a good guess.”

“Then Ehren overreacted to Zeranu getting hit and blasted him with energy.”

Kiyubi looked annoyed again. “Did you tell him to stop?”

“He did it again after that.” she explained. “Either he didn't hear me, or he—“

He growled and cut her off. “Didn't listen. If they don't start listening to you...”

“Don't worry about it,” she said quickly. “They know what will happen.”

He finished off his apple and started peeling another. “They better,”

Suddenly, a light gray wolf appeared from out of nowhere panting lightly. “Your Majesties,” it said between breaths. “The royal guard are back.”

Iceeatte perked up. “Did they find her?”

“No, I'm afraid not. She's completely vanished!”

“They didn't look long enough,” Kiyubi murmured quietly.

“They did,” the wolf protested. It whimpered when Kiyubi shot it an icy look. “They said that they looked all across Drango and Starientei.”

“That's what they say.” Kiyubi said in annoyance.

“No, they travel fast enough to be able to do that,” Iceeatte said quickly. “If they said that they did that, then they did.”

Kiyubi growled again, but quieter this time. The wolf had stopped panting and was standing in an awkward silence, wondering what to do.

“What do you want them to do?” Iceeatte asked Kiyubi.

“We'll look for her later,” he said in a low voice. “She can take care of herself.”

Iceeatte looked unsure, but sent the wolf away anyways.

“So...” Kiyubi said.

She glanced at him nervously. “So?”

“You know what time it is?”

“No, but I have a guess...”
“The final test of your training.”

“I knew it!”

“Okay, so here's what we're going to do...”

*

 END

 Onyx/Prologue:

It was still early in the year when the Fever began to spread. Though the people had been very careful, there wasn't much that they could do about it. It took three months of perfectly healthy people suddenly dying of the strange illness for them to figure out where it came from. It started in Coval and continued on to Nellade, following the path of a dark stranger. He never said a word to anyone and never stopped. After he had been through Nellade, where the Fever soon struck, the people began to suspect something. Tales started popping up about him. How he was a devil's child. A curse to be cast out and ignored.

*

'Child' was the wrong thing to call him. He was between fifteen and sixteen years of age. But his attitude—his silence—made many believe that he was much older, and simply under a 'youthful looks' spell. How wrong they were, though he did seem older. After a short while, people began to believe that he spread the Fever just by looking at you. He had glowing orange eyes that would make anyone uncomfortable when looked at. But was that all about him? No. Of course not. Glowing eyes weren't nearly enough to make him a devil's child. His skin was a very dark shade of gray. The color of one born in fire, perhaps? But after a healer, one of the few immune to the Fever, approached him, it was decided that he wasn't a devil's child at all. He simply was a devil. After all, the healer had said he had fangs and a tail, hadn't she? After he passed through Nellade and the Fever hit, it was agreed that someone must warn Dimita of 'the coming shadow'. That was when Shadow Fever got its name. Shortly afterwards, the deliverer did too. The citizens who had managed to survive the Fever got together and came up with one in a matter of five minutes. It wasn't an evil name. It wasn't really dark at all, but when fifty people who haven't been well get together you can expect no less than the exact opposite of whatever needed. They called him Onyx, and so he was.

*

But they simply didn't understand him. Did he want to be hated? No, not really. Did he want to be ignored? No. His fate hadn't been his choice, but someone else's. Someone much more dangerous. The actual creator of Shadow Fever. He was simply the deliverer. He knew that he was killing people. Thousands of people. But after the first day, he didn't care anymore. If they didn't care about him, if they abandoned him, why should he care what happened to them? So he didn't. He passed the cities one by one, only missing one. Centri Avile. He didn't need to spread the Fever to a city that hardly anyone knew about. Nobody there ever left the city, and nobody in the real world knew that it was there. So he passed it and continued on his way. Then it was down to Dimita. The city by the sea, as it was called. He didn't care for the sea. It wasn't for him. Neither was the forest that he was stuck in to travel from place to place. But what choice did he have? Knowing that more deaths awaited him in Dimita helped a little, but a cloud of guilt had been hanging over him for the past week and he didn't know why. He wasn't sorry for killing all these people. Why did he feel so bad about it? Ready to get Dimita over with and be done, he transformed. He had three powers, actually, but he only ever transformed if he needed to get somewhere in a hurry. He could turn invisible, but he had to stop and rest in order to to charge it back up. Then he could phase. Through walls, through people, through anything. Then he could transform into a black Maned Wolf. Nobody had seen him in his wolf form yet, and he wanted to keep It that way. People had spread enough rumors of him being a devil's child, and he could only imagine what they would call him if they saw him like this.

Even where he was, almost thirty miles from Nellade his wolf-enhanced senses picked up a faint scream as someone died. He shook out his mane and shuddered as the scream echoed in the back of his mind. Why did the people who died have to scream like that? It honestly creeped him out, and he had no idea why. He turned his attention back to getting to Dimita and shot off, running faster than any cheetah could.

Dimita was it. After this, it would be all over and he could go home. He could finally be free.

*

 END

 Jeruvian-Day-One:

A tall man who was most likely three years older than Jeruvian entered the room immediately, dropping to one knee and then rising again so quickly that Jeruvian almost missed it. “Your Majesty?”

Juno glanced at Jeruvian and then looked at Roi. “Show my new knight around, please.”

He nodded once and the motioned for Jeruvian to follow him. “This way.”

Jeruvian clumsily pulled a miniature bow before following Roi out of the room and down a long hall.

“So, you're the lucky one who passed the test.” Roi said, turning around the corner at the end of the hall and then running up a flight of stairs. “I'm sure that Her Majesty has already told you my name, and she called me just then, but I prefer to introduce myself.” he paused to wait for Jeruvian to catch up. “I'm Roi, captain of the royal guard.”

“I'm Jeruvian,” Jeruvian said lamely. “How did you get to be the captain of the guard? You can't be much older than me!”

Roi flashed him a quick smile. “I worked at it, that's what I did. How did you get to be Her Majesty's knight?”

“I—I'm not sure, really.” Jeruvian stumbled up a second staircase and stopped at the top to catch his breath. “I know that she would have chosen me anyways. She told me that she made a promise or something like that. But I passed her test, too, so I don't know which one it was.”

“The promise,” Roi's response was immediate. “She makes a promise, she keeps it. But there must be something special about you. I'm positive that she didn't promise to make you her knight.” he continued down another hall without waiting for Jeruvian.

Jeruvian shook his head. “She was supposed to keep an eye on me.”

“Can you fight?”

“Well...”

“Can you?”

“Yes. Yes I can...”

Roi grinned. “How about this. Can you fight well?”

“Yes,” Jeruvian replied. “I fight very well.”

“Can you defend well?”

“Yes.”

Roi stopped and looked at him. “Let's try this again. Can you defend well?”

Jeruvian sighed. “Not as well as I fight,” he admitted. “But I can keep myself alive.”

“I believe that.”

“Shouldn't you anyways?”

Roi shrugged and began walking again. “Not necessarily.”

“Why not?”

He laughed. “You ask a lot of questions.”

“You're supposed to be answering them.” Jeruvian muttered.

Roi shook his head and smiled. “But you ask a lot that I don't need to answer. You don't need to know the answer. It won't save your life some day. You're supposed to be asking me who people are and where we're going. Stuff like that.”

Jeruvian hesitated. “But I don't want to know that kind of stuff.”

“Well then, what do you want to know?”

“Why you wouldn't believe me.”

Roi hummed a few notes and stopped by a door. “A strange question indeed. Here we are, home sweet home in the armory.” he pushed the door open gently and motioned for Jeruvian to go inside.

Jeruvian entered the room warily, almost as though he was expecting someone to jump out and attack him. He heard Roi laughing behind him.

“Go on, there's no one in there right now.”

He relaxed a bit and then looked around the room. There were weapons of every shape and size hanging off two of the walls. There were a few spare sets of armor in the corner and then two wooden tables in the middle of the room.

“Simple, isn't it?” Roi asked, strolling across the room and removing a sword from one of the shelves. “But I don't need anything fancy.”

Suddenly, someone burst through the door behind Jeruvian, plowing him over.

“Oh, I'm sorry...” he heard a monotone voice mutter. “I didn't know Roi would be bringing you here so soon.”

“Move, Kiar,” a sharp female voice ordered.

Jeruvian pushed himself to his feet and found himself face to face with a man who looked like he'd never slept a day in his life. The man took one lazy step sideways to reveal a very short, skinny girl with reddish brown hair.

“Jeruvian, this is Kiar,” Roi began, nodding at the sleep looking man. “And—“

“I can introduce myself, Roi.” the girl interrupted quickly. She looked Jeruvian up and down and then gave him a curious look. “Clarity,” Sorry about Kiar.

“E-excuse me?” Jeruvian stuttered.

“Clarity.” she said again, a bit impatiently.

“Her name is Clarity,” Kiar said lifelessly.

“Oh, I understood that part...” Jeruvian said.

Clarity silenced him with a quick glare.

“Well,” Roi said uncomfortably. “Shall we continue?”

Jeruvian nodded, but couldn't pull himself away from Clarity's eyes. They weren't one color in particular. They seemed to be dark purple one minute, and suddenly they were iridescent green.

“Jeruvian?” Roi repeated for the third time.

Jeruvian looked at him. “Did you say something?”

Roi sighed. “Yes, I asked if you were ready to move on?”
Clarity blinked slowly and her eyes turned teal. Well? Are you going?

Jeruvian broke out in a coughing fit. It had happened again. Had she just spoken to him with her eyes? “Y-yes, I'm ready.” he stuttered, stumbling towards the door.

“Good,” Roi said giving Clarity an 'I-know-what-you-did' look and following the still-stammering Jeruvian out the door.

Clarity shrugged innocently and winked at him.

Roi waited for Jeruvian to completely come back to the real world before he said anything. “Well, what do you think?

Jeruvian sighed heavily. “How in Lexali did Kiar get in the royal guard?”

Roi laughed. “He may seem a bit slow, but please don't underestimate him.”

“Slow?” Jeruvian echoed in disbelief. “Slow is all you can say? That guy looks like he's sleep-walking!”

“That he does,” Roi agreed with another laugh. “But he sure can fight when he wants to.”

“Do you know how old he is?”

“I don't really think that matters, do you?” Roi asked with a quick wink.

Jeruvian narrowed his eyes at him. “He better not be younger than me.”

“Well, how old are you?”

“Sixteen.”

“At the moment, he's twenty-seven.”

“At the moment?”

Roi shrugged. “He 'changes' ages a lot.”

“Literally?”

“Nah, he just tells us when his age 'changes'.”

“What about Clarity?”

Roi looked at him. “I don't think it's polite to talk about a lady's age, do you?”

“I wasn't asking about her age, I was just wondering about her...”

“Really?”

Jeruvian hated it when Roi looked at him like that. It made him feel like he knew something that he shouldn't. “Y-yeah.”

“Really?”

“Well...fine. I was wondering how old she is. But I was just wondering about her in general, too.”

Roi winked at him again. “Let's just say she's younger than you.”

Jeruvian stared at him and forgot to watch where he was going. He ran right into someone, bowling whoever it was over and then just about falling on them in the process.

“Whoa!” the lump on the floor exclaimed.

Jeruvian froze, hopping that he hadn't hit anyone royal. Roi stopped walking and leaned on the wall, watching Jeruvian with an amused expression.

Jeruvian looked at him with wide eyes, pleading for help.

“Well,” Roi said looking at the lump on the floor. “Are you going to help him up or not, Jeruvian?”

“Oh,” Jeruvian leaned over and caught whoever it was by the hand. “I'm awfully sorry about that.”

The stranger shot to his feet and grinned. “No worries, all good here. The name's Leo. Did I hear Roi say Jeruvian? You must be Her Majesty's new knight, am I right?”

Jeruvian nodded as Leo shook his hand vigorously. “I guess news gets around pretty quickly here.”

Leo nodded excitedly. “Everybody here knew you were coming before you knew it yourself!”

Jeruvian glanced over at Roi, who was just smiling and shaking his head. “Ready to go, Jeruvian?”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Leo shouted spastically. “You giving him the grand tour and all that jazzy stuff?”

Roi nodded.

“I'd love to come, I really would. But I gotta get back to work. Always work and no play, right Roi?” Leo was looking back and forth between Jeruvian and Roi so quickly that it made Jeruvian feel a bit dizzy.

Roi closed his eyes and smiled again. “Come on, Jeruvian. You'll be seeing a lot of Leo soon. If you get too used to him now you'll be sick of him.”

“I'll be seeing him?” Jeruvian shot Roi a nervous look and Roi nodded.

“He's Juno's other knight.”

Jeruvian stared at Leo in a mixture of shock and horror. Leo grinned back at him and then looked over his shoulder.

“Time for me to be on my way,” he said just as quickly as he had said everything else.

“I guess I'll see you tomorrow...then...” Jeruvian said unenthusiastically.

“Right on! Later!” with that, Leo turned on his heel and raced down the hall shouting something incomprehensible.

Jeruvian stared after him and Roi laughed.

“Didn't you know she'd have two knights, not just one?”

“That's not what gets me...” Jeruvian said in a voice, barely over a whisper.

“Then what is?”

“I—I have to work with him?!”

Roi laughed again. “Come on. It's getting late and there's still a lot you need to see here.”

A lot indeed. Jeruvian had seen quite enough already.

*

 END

 Intro to Nez:

Fire?

One of Nez's ears perked up and he opened his eyes. Nothing looked different. He sniffed the air and winced. Nope, no smoke here. It still smelled like the wolves. The wolves and the elves, to be exact, but the elves smelled—woody? Dirty? Natural? He couldn't think of the word at the moment. He sat up slowly, cautiously. He had been here for almost a month and none of them knew that he was here. He'd like to keep it that way. From all he had heard, Kiyubi was pretty ruthless. The elves, not so much, but he didn't want to take any chances. Hadn't it been risky enough to come here to begin with? Of course it had, but he had no choice.

Uzziah wanted him here.

He crawled as far out on his tree branch as he dared, which wasn't very far. Not that he weighed enough to break it...

A howl sounded throughout the trees around him and he shuddered. It was the Werewolf Queen, he could tell. Her howl was different from the others. They all had unique howls, sure, but hers was so different. It sounded like a sad song that someone should be humming at a wedding or a funeral; he wasn't sure which one or what for. A wolf shot out from the bushes directly underneath him and headed in the direction of the howl, echoing a quick reply.

Were they leaving?

He snorted and shook his head. They would never leave. They couldn't surrender to the Chiaera. They were probably just moving away from the fire a safe distance like anyone with a brain would do...the fire? He looked over his shoulder and his eyes met—a tree. He sighed. The fire hadn't reached him yet, and he didn't want it to. He switched positions on the branch so that his legs were dangling over the edge of it and dropped like a rock. But he landed like a feather, or he would have...if his tail hadn't of decided to wrap itself around the branch right at the last moment. A few feet off the ground and he came to an immediate stop, followed by a howl of rage.

Why? Why? Why!

He was always so paranoid about falling, and his tail was the only thing that listened to his paranoia. It always caught whatever it could in order to save him from falling to 'certain doom'. This time, it left him hanging upside-down, gently swinging back and forth. And it hurt. People without a tail wouldn't understand that. It was like having a highly-sensitive piece of rope tacked to your butt and then have someone rip it out—only they didn't get it out all the way. Plus it left him in an embarrassing situation. People thought of cats as graceful, elegant creatures, right? Yeah, graceful and elegant described him, hanging off a tree branch by a piece of highly-sensitive rope that was tacked to his butt. He squirmed hopelessly for a few minutes before finally giving up. Looking back up at the tree branch he realized, in great annoyance, that his tail had wrapped itself around the branch twice and in doing so trapped the end under the first layer. In other words, he was stuck. Now the fire wouldn't even have to work for its food! It was hanging right here, ready to roast. He snorted again and rolled his eyes, letting his arms dangle uselessly and gently brush against the ground. His shirt slid up around his head and that was it. He snarled like the savage beast that he was and pushed it back up, stiffly crossing his arms and pasting the most disgusted look on his face that he could come up with.

He could still hear the wolves, however far away they may have been. Someone was upset about something. There was a lot to be upset about wasn't there? With a strangled cry of 'Gah!' he started squirming again, this time trying to swing back up on the branch. Having no luck, he gave a long, heavy sigh and threw his head back. The force from his movement swung him back and slammed him into the trunk of the tree.

This just wasn't his day.

Graceful? Elegant? Whoever it was who labeled cats like that must've been watching his sisters, not him. If they saw him, what would they label cats as? Clumsy? Stupid? He crossed his arms again to keep his shirt from falling off and grumbled about his situation to an ant on the ground under his head.

It didn't appear to be interested.

But then again, who would be interested in a troublesome situation as told by the cat-boy hanging by his tail?

He shut up and watched the ant on its dangerous journey from one side of a mound of dirt to the other.

*

 END