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"You can be a Wildcat," she says, "we addopted so many after the Great War, they won't mind. I am the eldest in my family, and so I have the most say out here."

She smiles, not really paying attention to the outside world. She looks outside, they had been talking for hours, and now it was late afternoon.

"They'll be waiting for me...." she mutters.

redface

"M-m-maybe I should wait here, I mean-"

He colored again.

"Do you really have to go?"

(yet another Shade/Dani co-post)

Alaric nods. "I am at your service, *my lady*." He had a slightl possessive tone to the my lady that made it a way of saying "my love" wihtout giving the game away. He smiled, looking..... far more at ease than he had been in months.

Kaylyn shakes her head and walks out of the tent. She glances around, noting that no one was around, then heads for the big conferance tent in the center of camp.
"The Wildcats are meeting before council," she says, "you can sit in."

Alaric nodded. "Though.... is that wise considering there is little love lost between my clan and any other?"

Kaylyn shruggs, "So? They can't hold council without me. You don't have to come. But they won't yell too much, I tend to yell back."
Her childish face began to fade, replaced by the warrior all knew.

"Then whatever you would prefer. The one thing I was worried about.... " he blushed, and chuckled softly. "Well, it seems I did not really have to worry." He streightened, sliding his feelings for Kaylyn behind a calm facade, not releasing her hand, but in every other way, playing bodyguard to the ambassador.

Kaylyn nodded. Soon she saw the two guards in front of the centeral Wildcat tent. They nodded, letting the pair insisde. She sits without a word at one end of the table, looking at the six elders all ready seated.

alaric stood at attention behind her, as any well-practiced and well-trained bodygard would. Privitely, he hoped he would go unrecognized...... bu that was unkilely for two reasons. one, he was well-known around the camps by just about everyone. Two, he was the Crane clan heir until two months ago, and as such had traveled as ambasador pefore the previous year began.

Kaylyn seemed to tune out the first half of the meeting. It was all about the status of the familes back home, in the ancient woodland the Wildcats hailed from. Finally, it came to the council that would be held at sundown. Kaylyn sighed as one elder turned to her
"Lady Kaylyn," he says, "why have you brought us here? They say you and the Ancient Clan started all this."
Someone mentioned the Cranes under their breath, but Kaylyn stood slowly.
"One simple term," Kaylyn said, "The Wolfriders have broken their exile. I am taking a handful of warriors to scout their camp near the Wildcat boarder."
"And who goes with you Lady Hyrosha?" one asked.
"Well, Alaric of the Cranes for one..."Kaylyn said.
And that opened a whole new can of worms....

"Cranes?!? they're ALL diplomats." Alaric frowned, and opened his mouth to respond when another loud outcry cut him off. "Despite how well-known the lord Alaric is, we've only seen him stumbling around at his practices, he has not won a single match any of us have seen!" "The cranes are windbags!" Alaric kept trying to sya something, but with a sigh of frustration threw his hands up, muttering in disgust.

Kaylyn was not as kind with her word. She glared at each and every one before she spoke, and with her stare, all fell quiet.
"Alaric is a friend of mine and that is enough for all of you," she said, "I carry the Armor that protects our clan, so I will decide who travels with me as scouts. I will not listen to you all debate over it. This is a matter for a warrior to decide and as the eldest of the Hyrosha family, I lead the warriors of our Clan. I came to inform you, not ask permission. As for the council, if we do not band together, all will die at the Wolfrider's hands and no one will be spared."

Alaric spoke into the silence that followed. "As for my credentials as a warrior... There is a secret of my clan known only to a handful, and since it's going to be obvious at the next council meeting, I see no reason not to tell you. It has to do with the few members of my clan that *aren;t* all; featherheads."

One member of the elders, slightly younger than the rest, waived their hand. "Secret? You're all a bunch of talkers, not warriors. Leave the sharp objects to those who are not injured." An older elder smacked him across the back of the head, "If there is a secret, we would have it to cast this shadow off your Clan before we meet as comrades."

alaric nodded, and actually tunred a bemused smile on the younget Wildcat. "Sharp objects, hm? Considering my specialty is with kusari-gamas, that leaves you little room for play." He topok a pace back, efectively clearing space. "Perhaps you will recognize.... something like this?" He produced a marble-shaped and sized object.
(note: not all clans have mystical Armors.) (<--keep that note)

All eyes went wide, even Kaylyn's own. Many went to speak, but it was Kaylyn who found the words.
"That looks like the orb that summons the under-armor of the Black Flame Armor I carry," she said

"Similar. I will swear that so long as I draw breath, the Lady Kaylyn-hiime is safe. My honor on it. I know you know all mystical armors have an associated kanji, right? And that that kanjii is usually a defining virtue of the bearer's soul and personality, right?" He clasped the marble in his hand.

Kaylyn smirked a bit, a kanji flared a bit on her forhead

"What proves that marble has any power at all?" Nods of agreement around the table.
Alaric smiled in a surprisingly condescending manner. "Simply this: the defining virtue of the Armor of the Ogre."
"And what wpuld that be?"
Alaric looked at Kaylyn, then back at the rest of them, the kanji flaring as he named it. "Loyalty."

Some of the elders accepted this, and some still thought is was a simple act of magic and not a real power
Kaylyn, however, could feel the power of her own armor reacting to his armor.
She smiled slightly at him, nodding as she turns back to the elders

Alaric chuckled softly. "It is almost ironic, that Honor first attracts Loyalty to its cause, ne?"

Kaylyn shook her head, her grin almost ironic, "Yah, I would think so. Between the two of us, this will be a breeze."

"What proof do we have that that kanji's not just some trick?"
Alaric's eyes narrowed. "What proof must I provide?"

Kaylyn raised an eyebrow, then let out a long sigh. "You'll have to summon your armor."

Alaric sighs, and bows his head, and shakes it a few times.
"Guess I can;t pretend anymore, ne, Milady?"

Kaylyn smiled, reaching into her pocket, "here, I'll summon mine as well. No one outside the Wildcats has ever seen it."

"Then I am honored to be the first."

Kaylyn took a deep breath, pulling out a pure black orb. It glowed with it's own, then she held it in front of her. Black armor replaced her robes and then her voice, clear as an afternoon breeze, called on an unseen power.
"By the Honor that Bind my Clan!" she cried, "Armor of Black Flame!!!"
In a flurry of silk and flower peddles, a black and silver armor swirled into place around the young Wildcat. In the end, she pulled off the helmet, letting her silver hair flow down her shoulders.

Alaric bowed, and took a step back. "Loyalty beyond life itsself, Armor of the Ogre!" As his subarmor, then full armor melded into place, he also removed his helm, his topknot swirling, before resting beind his head. His jade green eyes glimmered. "Stil doubt me?"

Kaylyn smiled, as no one seemed to. She spun her helmet on her hand, looking over at Alaric.
"Whatcha think?" she said, "all black and silver, just like me and my sister."

Alaric chuckled, more of his.... less well observed personality coming out thanks to the influence of his armor. "It is as beautiful as you are."

Kaylyn kept her smirk, but as she nodded, the armor itself faded to it's subarmor. She glanced around.
"We'd better find the others before council if we're to leave in the morning," she said.

The armored boots thudded on the ground. They might have been the steps of a mechanized monster- both words which no one other than Saberstryke would know for some time. Yet, he had traveled five thousand years into the past, pursuing what he thought was his greatest enemy, the bearer of Holy.

They had fought, and Saberstryke had come out on top. Yet, Holy had found a way to flee, a way that made him look like a streak of blazing fire hurtling through the sky. Saberstryke knew he couldn't leave it at that. No armor-bearer ever died that easily. He had to find Holy, and quickly, before the armor passed on to another, as Saberstryke was sure it would.

The search had led him to a fishing village overlooking a lake, and a boy, who Saberstryke thought might be-

It was!

Batrias.

Saberstryke turns his attention from the boy, Batrias, and the armored warrior beside him to someone he thought he recognized. Someone from, was it the Lost Clan? Spying on him?

He quickly calculated the situation. The warrior was unconscious, and Batrias was just a boy, no threat to him. He had to take care of the Lost Clan guy before anything else.

He draws the Soul Swords of Fervor, the blades feeling heavy and empty, the way they always felt when he had killing on his mind.

"Warrior, whoever thou art, know me as Saberstryke, servant of the Wolfriders," Saberstryke declares to the Lost Clan spy. His swords tell everything else.

Saberstryke replies, "I am not here on exile, whoever you are, and, to me, the enmity between us is long since past. I ask only that you flee or fight. My interest lies with this warrior and the boy here, not with you."

"If you must know," Saberstryke says, his blue eyes glowing through the vacant space where his face might have been, "These two here are the same person."