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 Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:26 pm
[Read Between the Lines] Zayne chose Sunday to stage her spell attempt. ( Not that she thought of it that way - she had no doubt she would succeed. ) Lillian and Max were out of town and Alena had taken the chance to sneak out as soon as possible. The Manor was staffed by only a skeleton crew, since the majority of the household spent Sundays at home with family.
The spell started by dipping the thread into the glue and wrapping it around the corresponding body part to the part removed from the animal. Reciting a set of words which meant nothing to Zayne, she decided that her hips would be the closest equivalent to a tail, since humans don't have them.
This part worked like a charm. As Zayne drew near the end of her supply of thread, it seemed to continue - as if from thin air - wrapping faster and in both directions to cover her body with a giant cocoon. Spike's tail tip was wrapped in with the original few strands of thread and she felt as if it was attaching itself to her - burrowing in beyond her clothes to find purchase on her bare skin.
It was not a comfortable feeling.
And as the cocoon of thread closed around her face, she began to panic. How would she breath once it clogged her nose and mouth? In a panic she began to struggle at the bonds closing around her, but it was too late - she was wrapped, her last hurried gasp of air echoing in the room as the cocoon closed around her.
Lucky for Zayne, Lillian had known something was up after the cook made an oblique comment about children requiring more attention from their guardians. Max had remained behind for business, but she had hurried back to the Manor - intent on catching Zayne sucking up to the Manor staff. Instead she found the Manor quiet and virtually empty. And more disturbing, not only had Alena gone out but Zayne hadn't been seen all day.
With a disgusted sigh, Lillian made her way quickly up the main stairway and down the hall to Zayne's room. Throwing open the door, she was shocked into immobility by the sight of a giant cocoon hanging from the ceiling. Hearing her heart thudding in her chest, sped up already by her quick ascent of the stairway, Lillian took several halting steps forward - just missing walking on an oddly calm Spike.
She dug her fingernails into the sticky, thread-like surface of the cocoon, ripping and tearing until she had exposed its center. At the sight that greeted the completion of her single-minded task, Lillian was forced back one shuddering step in horror.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:05 pm
[The Moral of the Story] Lillian had seen a lot of questionable things as a youth, but the distance that time and comfortable living give you had lowered her threshold for horror. The thing - no - the Zayne that was exposed by Lillian's ripping was partially covered in patches of scaly green and black skin. Her eyes appeared to be swollen up above the surface of her face and as she lurched forward onto her knees gasping for air, it became obvious she had the stub of a tail.
"Gracious," Lillian whispered. "What have you done to yourself?"
Zayne coughed up something wet on the carpet before answering in a rough rasping voice that made her sound like an old smoker.
"The Book said I could change myself. I tried to change to be like Spike."
The aforementioned lizard had taken on a dark tinge and was slowly stalking away from the thing that had emerged from the cocoon. Lillian ignored him, but closed the bedroom door behind her. She didn't need details of this event carried to other members of the family by the household staff.
"I assume you are referring to the book you had the household staff read to you and I further am going to assume this is the same book that you bought while we were out together."
The girl on the carpet nodded but didn't bother to answer.
"Where is this book now?"
Zayne guestured weakly in the direction of her closet, her elbow joint acting a bit oddly.
Lillian stalked over to the closet in disgust and threw upen the folding door. She was mildly surprised by the amount of clothing on the floor of the closet - unpleasantly surprised - but she bit her lip on the admonishment which rose to the surface. Instaed, she reached gingerly into the closet and removed the very normal looking book she found there.
She could tell, as soon as she touched the book, that it was no normal volume and she berated herself silently for not having done so before now. Having a child in the Manor was proving to be much more disruptive than she had anticipated. For goodness sake, no one had told her the child had undeveloped powers!
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:45 pm
[A Road with Many Turns] The Book, now firmly in Lillian's capable custody, was not discussed again. The spell and its - thankfully - short-lived effects was discussed only so that Zayne would understand that she was NEVER to do magic again without Lillian's presence. Zayne took this message surprisingly well given the tone of voice Lillian delivered it in. For a good ten minutes the Tale could hear the word 'never' reverberating around in her skull. If Lillian believed so strongly, Zayne had no problem complying. After all, no one else had asked her to practice magic - so she didn't have to decide whose influence was more pressing.
When the effects of the spell wore off - in half of the promised time the spell was supposed to last - Zayne got to meet Max for the first time.
She was ushered, freshly bathed and attired in one of her best dresses, to Lillian and Max's wing of the Manor. She was normally forbidden from exploring this part of the house, so she looked about her with interest as she was escorted to her destination. To her acute disappointment, the hallway here appeared to be just like every other hallway in the house and no one had conveniently left any doors open to peer through.
Pausing outside one of the unremarkable closed doors, the butler - whose name Zayne had not bothered to learn - guestured to the doors and stepped to the side. The Tale, smilingly prettily up at him, reached up and opened the doors. Inside, she found Lillian and Max sitting around a small table set for three. A cart nearby held covered trays from which a multitude of appetizing smells wafted. Paralyzed by the twin stares of her two guardians, Zayne dropped into a brief curtsy - the despised curly ends of her hair bouncing a bit with the motion - and then approached the table. A faceless servant stepped forward to pull out the third chair and she slipped into it.
Max forstalled any questions or greetings from Zayne with a gently raised hand.
"I do not wish to discuss any unpleasantries at dinner. We will get to the purpose of this dinner after dessert has been served."
The majority of the dinner passed in silence, broken only by scattered comments from Lillian and Max which went over a young girl's head. The dinner was delicious, but the longer it dragged on the more curious Zayne became as to the purpose. She had never been called to this wing, nor brought to Max's attention. And as she picked at the sundae she got for dessert, she realized she hadn't seen or heard Alena in days.
When the meal was finished, the trio retired to a connecting room - a study furnished with plush comfortable chairs arranged around a warm brick fireplace and permeated with the stale smell of past cigars. It was, to Zayne's eyes, unquestionably Max's room and despite the polite disinterest he normally displayed to her - she was unsettled by this rare visit to his private study.
Settled into chairs, Zayne with a cup of hot chocolate and the adults with after-dinner cappuccinos, Lillian began the discussion.
"Alena has clearly been neglecting you to the point where you attempted a spell alone and unprepared. You are," Lillian frowned, "lucky to still be alive and largely unharmed."
Appraising his adopted daughter, Max picked up the thread of conversation.
"Granted, we would never have chosen Alena as your guardian had we been aware of your abilities. Had we been warned in any manner, we naturally would have found you someone else gifted to serve as a mentor."
"Indeed," Lillian interjected, "but we were not warned. And despite my best efforts, the rest of the family is aware of both your abilities and the mess you made of your first spell. We have been..."
Zayne, her face falling, teared up. She had screwed up and a person in authority, a person with power, was severely disappointed in her - she could see it in Lillian's face.
Ignoring her display of emotion, Max picked up from where Lillian had trailed off - reaching out to take his wife's hand before he spoke.
"We have been compelled by our relations to get you training immediately. They, and I agree, are afraid that you will embarass the family if you are allowed to continue in ignorance."
The pause stretched uncomfortably and Zayne nodded solemnly. Even if she didn't know what all the words meant, she knew what was being said.
Max continued when he had satisfied himself that the girl understood his message.
"I have used my connections to find out who can help you. You and Lillian will leave in the morning for Africa. Assuming you impress your teacher, you will stay there for one month before you return. During that time you will learn to control your powers and the way in which this family will expect you to make use of them."
He let go of Lillian's hand and took a sip of his drink, gazing into the dying fire.
"Clothes and materials have been packed for you. I would recommend getting to sleep, since you will leave early in the morning."
Among the materials packed for Zayne's trip are several books. They fall into two categories - books to help her learn to read, which are very basic, and books about magic, which she will clearly not be able to read for some time.
Titles:
Goodnight Moon
The Runaway Bunny
Eloise (whose cover Zayne liked immediately)
Madeline (another book which Zayne took to quickly)
Beginning Guide to Body-Altering Magic
Shapeshifting, Volume 1
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Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 7:33 pm
[Far and Away] No one had bother to disclose their destination to Zayne, so the multiple plane trips seemed to stretch on through eternity. The critical information in her new life seemed always to be out of reach. Lillian and Max, while acceptable, did not lavish the sort of attention on Zayne she needed. Not that she would have admitted that need to herself ( and indeed she was conciously unaware of the hole growing inside her, threatening to engulf her ). Affection aside, information was something Zayne had come to recognize as being of value - but she didn't know how to make it come her way. She didn't know where they were going or who this new teacher of hers was to be. All she knew was that Lillian was extremely irritated with having to travel and trying to hide it. She could tell by the way her guardian's mouth pinched everytime they hit a bit of turbulence, by the way Lillian clipped her words when she was forced to speak to the people around them, and by the way she grimaced and shook imagined dirt out of her skirt when they finally arrived.
Zayne had not been very many places in her short life thus far, but she had a feeling this place would seem unique even if she had been to many more places. The last plane ride had been followed by a long ride in an ancient looking vehicle. Exhausted, the Tall Tale had slept through the majority of this final leg of the journey. When Lillian shook her awake and pulled her out of the cab, an endless sea of sand met Zayne's eyes. She blinked some out of her eyes, blown there by the low breeze, and noticed the brightly colored tents arrayed against the darkening sky.
"We need to get inside," Lillian said, grimacing as she forged through the shifting sand toward the tents. "I've been informed a storm is coming."
When Zayne didn't immediately follow, Lillian frowned and reached back to grab her young charge. Gripping Zayne's upper arm painfully, she hissed something to their driver and then dragged the young girl off to the largest of the tents.
"Don't," Lillian said firmly, trudging along purposefully, "embarass me. It is rude to stare, although they'll let you get away with a lot since you're a child. Just don't push it!" She stopped speaking and whirled around, pulling Zayne close to her. "They're not easily fooled," she said giving Zayne a deliberate look. "They will see to the heart of you if you are not careful."
Zayne shrugged and looked off to the side, before smiling at Lillian.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied smoothly, smiling sweetly. "I wouldn't dream of being rude to our hosts."
Lillian raised an eyebrow, but left it at that. As they swept into the tent, they passed by two very large men standing guard. Zayne couldn't help but stare at them, draggin her feet as Lillian moved on towards the center of the structure. Their skin was dark, darker than anyone Zayne had ever met - but what drew her curiosity was the fact that they were both covered in tattoos. One of them had the whiskers and stripes of a feline and the other seemed to have the suggestion of horns on his bald head.
"Aunt Lillian-" she started, but was silenced when she saw the man Lillian was pulling her towards. Like the men at the door he was dark, but where they were large and muscled - he was lithe, with the suggestion of hidden strength and flexibility. And like them, he was covered in tattoos.
These tattoos though, Zayne knew only she could see. They were like the book in her bag, shifting constantly from one thing to another. It was as if he had the potential to be many things at once, but had simply chosen for now to appear human.
Despite the earlier admonition from her guardian, Zayne stared openly at this man - and he returned her gaze with interest. Flicking a fan, he stood and addressed Lillian.
"Ah," he sighed, his voice sounding like the gravelly roar of an old lion, "you have found me an apprentice."
Zayne looked to the older woman as her hand tightened in the other's. Something about the man clearly made her guardian uneasy, but there was no sign of this in her reply.
"Yes, this is Zayne. She has the general skills you require."
He looked to Zayne and with a step he was suddenly kneeling to look her in the eyes. "You can see the tattoos, child?"
She looked to Lillian before answering.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
He slapped her, hard, and she felt her jaw shift. Whispering, he leaned in close to her the menace in his voice clear.
"If you are going to lie, learn to do it well. If you cannot even lie about such little things, how do you intend to fool people into believing you are something else?" He leaned back, forcing her to look at him. "I will ask again. Do you see my tattoos?"
She didn't look to Lillian. Her guardian had reliquished her hand when the man slapped her. "Yes," she admitted. "I see them. They shift."
This was the correct answer and he smiled, waving the fan at Lillian as he stood and walked back to his chair. "She is acceptable. You will stay out the storm in the guest tent. When it has left, you will leave us. In a month, you may return to check on her progress." When he had sprawled back onto his throne, he addressed Zayne. "You will call me 'Master', child. If you have skill, you will discover my true name on your own - and then you will earn your own."
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:43 am
[ Risk ] Zayne didn't want Lillian to leave, but she ended up having no say in the matter. Lillian had disappeared by the time Zayne woke the following day ( to an almost unbearable heat ). She had a feeling her guardian had done that on purpose, but perhaps it had been the wishes of her new 'Master' - a man more powerful than Lillian. Zayne had never seen anyone stand up to Lillian, let alone best her ( with the possible exception of Max ), so she took note of this. She would need to learn why this man had such power over others.
Struggling to unwind herself from a pile of silken sheets and pillows that had made up her bed, Zayne noticed a woman standing right next to the tent's door flap. She was tall, an impression strengthened by the almost impossible length of her neck, and tatoo'd - although the brown patches all over her body were difficult to distinguish from the normal dark shade of her skin. Her hair was cut short, close to her scalp, and it stuck out like a little halo of black.
Zayne stared openly at her, wondering what this woman's function was. When she noticed Zayne staring at her, the woman inclined her head and cast her eyes down to the floor. "I am here to assist you in readying yourself for the day." Her voice was quiet, but gravelly and Zayne wondered whether it had been worn away by the sand that was so ubiquitous here. She gestured to a covered tray a short distance from the bed area that had previously escaped Zayne's attention and then seemed to be waiting for something. Suspicious, but hungry, the Tall Tale reached out and snatched the cover off the tray, revealing an array of fresh fruits and some sort of porridge-like substance.
When the food had been eaten and Zayne bathed and attired ( it was odd to have someone else put on her clothes, but Zayne felt like she could get used to this sort of treatment ), she was led back to the large tent - where little had changed since the night before.
"You are useless!" She was told this time, the horsehair whip her new Master weilded swishing dangerously through the air. "I was told you had some skill, but you have no discipline. Your potential will be squandered."
Zayne did her best not to meet his eyes while he harassed her, since she had a strong feeling he would know she was angry and frustrated. If she knew what she was doing, she wouldn't be here! She would be home, where people knew better than to insult her. Home, where she had her room and her things. She wasn't even able to wear her own clothes here, because she needed protection against the sand. Her little hands clenched to fists as she thought about how unfair all of this was!
"You're not even listening!" The whip hissed through the air and snapped against Zayne's shoulder, cutting through her robe to the bare skin beneath. It was a shallow cut, but it began to bleed sluggishly. She looked around in shock, but none of the other people in the tent would even meet her eyes - so she looked back to the man who had hit her.
"Your first lesson," he said, holding up a finger and leaning forward to leer at her, "is patience. You will spend the day waiting for me in the desert. If you move, you will be lost and die. I will not look for you. If you spend the day learning to handle anticipation and disappointment, you will be rewarded." When he finished speaking, he looked away from her - and the giraffe woman from earlier came over and led her out of the tent and into the desert.
They walked for what, to Zayne, seemed like hours in the baking sun and the ever shifting sands before they finally came to a stop by a small white canopy, which had clearly been erected for this exercise. There would be no way for Zayne to find her way back to the tents on her own, she couldn't even see them. Handing Zayne a water bottle, the woman left silently, looking behind her several times before she faded from view - probably to make sure I'm not following, Zayne said to herself.
"This sucks," with a disgusted sigh, Sunil popped out from somewhere behind Zayne. "Why are are we in the middle of this ******** desert, anyway?"
The Tale could do nothing but blink at her fairy. She had no idea that Sunil wasn't still home in the Manor. "How did you get here?" She finally managed to stutter out.
"Hitchhiked on that ridiculous giraffe chick's robes," Sunil said, clearly satisfied with herself. She had found Zayne and Ruya had obviously not. After a night alone in the stupid bird cage, she had decided she had had enough - and had flown the coop. Of course, once out, she needed a plan of action - and the chain of events which had led her to Zayne was complicated. It really was probably all a matter of luck, something Sunil didn't normally have much of. "Now my question," she said, sternly. Zayne wasn't going to trick her out of getting answers like she normally did. She was Sunil, damnit, and she was not an idiot.
"We're learning patience, anticipation, and disappointment." The girl said, in a disgusted tone eerily similar to the one Sunil had used earlier.
"Screw that!" the little fairy said, frowning. "Let's go back to the tents and put sand in people's beds. I bet that's ******** uncomfortable." She had already done so, actually, in all of the tents she had been in before finding Zayne. ( Which included Zayne's. ) But there were tons of tents, and thus, plenty of mischief still to be made.
"We're lost in the desert," Zayne pointed out. "I mean, I hate this s**t as much as you do - but what are we going to do?"
The swear was nice, but the attitude was all wrong. Sunil crossed her arms over her chest and climbed up onto Zayne's lap to glare at her bond.
"If we really get lost they'll find us. There is no way that a** would really leave you out here to die."
Zayne frowned and reached up to touch the open wound on her shoulder, which was now covered in a disturbing mixture of coagulated blood and sand. "I don't know, he seemed quite serious. And we're supposed to call him, 'Master'." She seemed to be withdrawing into herself again, preparing to do as she was told.
"To his face," Sunil muttered. "And Lillian is a b***h, but she wouldn't let someone kill you."
Brushing back a few strands of hair behind her shoulder, Zayne raised an eyebrow at that pronouncement. "Fine," she stood, unceremoniously dislodging Sunil. "So, which way do we go?"
"That way," Sunil pointed back in the direction the giraffe woman had gone, "and we'll be home before lunch is over."
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Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 10:01 am
[ Reward ] Predictably, they were not home before lunch was over. Nor were they home when someone stopped by the tent to bring them home. When darkness fell, dropping the temperature and stranding the pair in complete darkness, they were farther from the camp than they had been when they started out. Much, much farther.
Sunil was relatively safe from the cold, having the ability to dig herself a little hole in the still warm sand ( and luckily she didn't encounter any other sand dwellers in doing so ) - but Zayne would never be able to do the same for herself. She realized that she was going to die in this forsaken place, freezing to death in the night - probably to be buried in sand and lost to all of civilization forever - and she started to cry. Her tears fell like rain on Sunil, who tried to ignore them as long as possible, before climbing out of her little cave and asking the question she didn't want the answer to, "What's wrong?"
"What isn't wrong?" Zayne sobbed back, wiping her nose on the back of her hand - something that normally she found abhorrent. "I'm in the middle of a horrible (hic) horrible desert and, and, and I'm not at home and my teacher thinks I'm stupid and now I'm lost and I'm going to die." She finished all in a rush, gasping in shallow breaths of cold night air.
"Ah," was Sunil's brilliant and empathetic response. "Aren't you learning to do magic?" She asked, trying to change the subject. There wasn't much she could do about Zayne freezing to death - and her own death was something she had faced and accepted before this point.
"Yes," the sobbing child said petuantly, "but I don't know any yet."
"Can't you use that book?" Sunil asked, pointing to the bag slung over her bond's shoulder. While she couldn't read the thing, she did recognize it as one Zayne spent lots of time getting other people to read to her.
The sobbing stopped abruptly, cut off by an intake of breath, and the Book of Skins was pulled from the bag and laid out on the sand. "It's too dark and I can't read," Zayne said after a moment of silently flipping pages.
"Well, s**t."
Silence reigned for what felt like an eternity and Sunil sat up against Zayne's leg, prepared to await her own death with her bond. It wasn't something she would be willing to admit to later, but right now she didn't feel like crawling back underground. And then, Zayne reached down and grabbed her, holding Sunil up close to her face in the darkness.
"Do you want me to die?" Zayne asked, whispering and shivering.
"No," Sunil answered, quite honestly. "I'm pretty sure I would die as well."
And suddenly Zayne's hands began to feel a little odd against Sunil's skin. It was painful at first, like needles, and then it got softer and softer. "Fur," Zayne voiced her and Sunil's shared thought first. "I'm growing fur."
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:44 pm
[ Lost ] Daybreak over the desert found Sunil piled on top of a very furry Zayne - both fast asleep. It was only a matter of time, however, before the sun woke them up. They were thirsty when they woke up and without water, having drank it all recklessly the previous day.
"We just have to keep going," Sunil said, buzzing about randomly in the air around her bond's shaggy head. She was trying not to stare at how ridiculous Zayne looked, now that her previous night's transformation was revealed in full daylight. Her hair was still long enough to fall below her shoulders and black, but the rest of her was now covered in fur of a similar length and color. She looked a bit like a small bear. With too much hair.
If Sunil could have seen Zayne's eyes clearly through all the hair which had sprouted up on her face she would have seen the little girl looked like she was about to cry. "I look like a freak," she complained, holding her hands up in front of her face. "It would be better to be dead."
Sunil just sighed. She had no patience for crap like this. While her survival depended on this kid's, she was not a frigging therapist. And would never have the emotional capacity to be one. This was something Sunil was perfectly aware of and had no problem with. "Yeah well suck it up. We need to find that camp. Ditch the hair and let's get moving."
"I can't!" The little girl sobbed, putting her face in her hands and then jerking it away when she snorted in hair, coughing. When she had recovered her breath, she continued. "I don't know how to get rid of it."
Sunil landed lightly on the top of Zayne's head and stomped on it, before taking back off to avoid a swat. "You made it happen, you can make it go away. Crying isn't going to solve anything. It's just going to waste more water."
She didn't like what Sunil was saying, but Zayne had to admit she had a point. ( This sort of treatment was what she responded best to as well. When people made their expectations for her clear, she did her best to live up to them. ) If she thought about it, maybe she could make this go away. She just needed to do the opposite of what she normally did. Instead of thinking about how she wanted to change, maybe she just needed to think about how she always was. To be regular old Zayne.
That was easy, she normally didn't have hair all over her body. Normally she had nice smooth-
"Gross." Sunil commented, as the hair began falling off Zayne in large clumps. "But let's get going." She didn't wait for a response and began zipping ahead.
"Wait!" Zayne yelled, brushing discarded hair off her shoulders and out of her robe. "We don't really know which way to go!" She hurried off after her fairy, trailing loose hairs.
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Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:23 pm
[Tent, Sweet Tent] Although Zayne was correct and Sunil had no idea where they were going, they ended up back at the tent camp pretty quickly. Had they been concentrating on something other than a severe lack of water - they might have been suspicious. However, when tiger tattoo'd guards met them instead of canteens full of sweet, fresh, cold water - they were extremely surprised. Sunil especially, since they said, "Both of you are expected." As one of them snatched her out of the air and the other scooped Zayne up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
"What the hell?" Sunil fumed, pummelling her captor with tiny feien-sized fists. He pretended not to notice. He had been told under no circumstances to squish the annoying little flying person. "Come on, you don't want me. You want Zayne. She's young, still has a little baby fat-"
"Hey!" Zayne interjected. "I am not a baby! Or fat."
Their guards exchanged glances, but said nothing. When they reached the main tent they slipped through the flaps and deposited their cargo uncermoniously on the floor in front of ... Ruya.
"There you are," she said primly, from her perch on 'Master''s shoulder. "I would have thought you smart enough to to get out bond lost in the desert, Sunil. Although I am pleasantly surprised to see she survived your rash stupidity."
"How do you know this is my fault?" Sunil hopped up to her feet, still reeling a bit from being thrown to the ground. "Maybe I rescued Zayne."
"Did not!" Zayne had already stood and was smoothing her dress. She stuck her chin out at the 'Master' and looked him square in the eye. Defiantly she insisted, "I rescued myself!"
He hissed quietly, ink running from behind his back and up his neck to line his face, giving him scales like a snake. His tongue flicked out and Zayne could have sworn it was forked.
"You would not have had to rescue yourself if you had not foolishly wandered off." He reached up to hand Ruya a small piece of bright orange fruit from a bowl. "Although I am quite entertained by your pet."
Ruya grimaced, but simply shrugged. She had tried to explain, but either his grasp of English wasn't the best - or she wasn't explaining the bonding process properly.
"Whatever," Zayne said. "I grew fur. I already know how to change. I don't need you anymore and I want to go home."
"No," he smiled idly, ink forming rings around his eyes. "Demonstrate this ability of yours for me. I want to see you change."
"Fine," Zayne said and Sunil scuttled out of the way, not wanting to be buried in hair. The young girl shut her eyes and squeezed her fists, but nothing happened. After several minutes, she opened her eyes and glared at her feet. "I did change last night, I know I did."
Her teacher waved a hand at her. "The desert can give one vivid dreams." He popped a piece of fruit into his own mouth when Ruya was nowhere to be found, having disappeared to wash up, and chewed it thoughtfully. Zayne narrowed her eyes and seethed in front of him, angrily telling herself she would figure out how to change into a tiger and kill this man for humiliating her like this.
And then, suddenly she opened her fists - her palms stinging in pain. Blood trickled out of small holes made there by suddenly elongated and thinner nails. Zayne glanced at the man in front of her in triumph, but he just laughed.
"They are sharp, but they are not retractable. Nor do you have the reflexes or strength necessary to use them appropriately. If you wish to kill someone, go for subtlety, for poison. You will never be the type of woman suited to physical combat." He stood and the light blue cloth of his robe fell softly around his ankles, obscuring the tattoos there. "But I see perhaps you show more promise than I even thought."
He walked over behind his throne, disappearing from view for a moment. When he returned, he reached out and offered Zayne a necklace made of irregular off white beads. She took it and slipped it over her head reluctantly, unsure what was going on, but afraid to ask.
"Come," he said, and reached out to grab her hand. "Your pets may follow if they please." When he reached the wall of the tent, he continued walking and a cleverly disguised flap was opened to admit him, Zayne, and Sunil who had hitched a ride in her bond's hair.
Ruya, who returned just in time to see a few black tendrils of Zayne's hair disappearing through the hidden flap, sighed. She had just waited almost a day to be sure her bond was safe ( and thus her own life ) and now she was apparently being left to wait again. She was prepared to try and follow them when a giraffe woman offered her a cold towel. What was wrong with waiting in comfort? Adventures weren't really her thing anyway.
Beyond the flap, anti-climactically, was more desert and an odd-looking conveyance that was part circus tent and part dune buggy. Assisted by a man with the horns of a gazelle (Zayne wondered if they were real), they ascended into the back of the vehicle and settled in among a variety of throw pillows. The canopy, which puzzled Sunil and Zayne, was designed quite nicely to keep out whipping winds and sand kicked up by the tires.
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Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 7:39 pm
[The Watering Hole] Their final destination was an oasis. A small area of tough looking trees, bent by wind and sand, a small outcropping of rocks, and a shallow pool of nonetheless clear water.
"This is a watering hole. The animals will come here from miles around to find water and a small amount of shade."
"A SMALL amount is right," Sunil snorted, popping up and off Zayne's head to explore one of the trees.
He ignored the outburst and continued.
"We will camouflage ourselves and then observe. I know you have not patience, but perhaps if you have interest you will keep yourself in line."
Zayne looked around, fingering the necklace she had been given. "Why are we going to watch the animals?"
"To learn them. If you want to use their essence to transform yourself, you should understand their functions and their weaknesses. A weapon is only as good as your understanding of it."
It was both a long speech and a neutrally delivered one. He was not patronizing her or instructing her - he was simply sharing wisdom. Zayne, with rare grace, simply nodded. Anything she said now would sound stupid.
"Your necklace will allow me to hide you as I hide myself." He folded himself down to sit cross-legged on the sand beside a tree and Zayne did the same on the opposite side. "Stay still and quiet," he snapped, glaring first at Zayne and then up to where Sunil had disappeared. "Or I will eat your little pet."
It was hours before any animals showed up and Zayne's knees hurt from staying bent for so long. She also was starting to fall asleep watching the sand shift around in arcane patterns. When they did show, however, they were magnificent. A pretty steady stream of species trailed through their spot, some to drink and some to hunt. Insects, cats, hyenas - all of them Zayne watched with wide eyes.
And when night fell and she could keep her eyes open no longer, someone picked her up and carried her into the dune buggy which had returned. "Sleep," she heard as she drifted out into a strange dreamworld. "Tomorrow we truly begin."
When she awoke in her tent, he was there - and for a moment she swore the ink transformed him into a lizard. But she blinked and it was gone. Holding her Book in his hands, he thrust it at her.
"Why did you come to me when you have this?" He sounded almost angry and a little sad. "This Book will guide you through your powers and beyond what I can accomplish if you have the power."
Zayne rubbed her eyes with chubby (and she noted, sandy) fists. "But," she said, not awake, "I can't read."
"Then you will learn," he said, and threw the Book at her feet. "I will arrange someone to teach you. When you have learned, we will meet again."
He left Zayne feeling puzzled and oddly unsettled. She felt something in the pit of her stomach. A sense of failure, or missed obligation. Or maybe as Sunil suggested later - it had just been hunger.
True to his word, someone came to Zayne and began to teach her how to decipher the letters on the page. How to sound out words and how to look them up in a dictionary when she didn't understand them. It felt like weeks passed of nothing but reading and writing lessons, and Zayne dreamed every night of little ink letters running up and down her arms spelling the names of all the people she knew.
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Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2006 8:15 pm
[The Book] When Zayne passed the test of reading one of her other books aloud to her reading teacher, slowly and haltingly, she was allowed to look into The Book of Skins again. It had taken on the appearance of a purple canvas bound journal for the time being, an innocous cover for its contents, but everyone in the camp seemed to know it on sight just the same.
Flipping it open to a random page, Zayne was confronted with the face of a snarling lion, claws extended in front of it - almost reaching out of the page to maul her. Around it, written in a spiral pattern, was some odd text.
Reading this Book and carrying any of the rituals listed within to completion binds the User, body and soul, to the purposes detailed on the front page. These include, but are not limited to, the emancipation of all caged animals and the execution of their captors - even at the expense of the User's Life. You agree also to spend at least one full Earth day a month fully transformed and living amongst your kind. If you violate the terms of this agreement, you forfeit your free-will. Once certain conditions are met you will also be bound to help out where requested by authorized agents of this authority. You will be notified in this case one Earth week prior to your first assignment.
When she finished stumbling through that, Zayne wasn't sure she entirely understood it. But then someone entered the tent behind her and as their shadow crossed her vision, the page shifted on its own - leading to a page of text with an odd diagram of a familiar tattoo.
"Iguana," she said and then looked up to see her teacher looking at her in alarm. "I should have recognized it," she said, and watched as the ink on his arm spelled a name.
"Every spell, every skill, every defense has a weakness," he said. "You just need to see it clearly. And Lillian has returned to take you home. I believe you have what you need, although you are welcome to write me."
"Thank god," Sunil sighed from the corner, where she had rolled up in a blanket. "I think I hate the desert."
"Shut up," Ruya said from the other side of the tent. "The desert wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for your incessant whining. It's too cold, it's too hot, IT'S SANDY!"
Zayne contemplated leaving both of them there, but was afraid they might find their own ways home and make her life even more miserable.
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Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 9:00 am
[ The Manor ] The trip back to the Withington Manor was uneventful. Zayne spent most of it in that odd space between waking and sleeping. The message in her book had caught her imagination and she couldn't escape it.
In her dreams she was a gazelle blissfully running with the herd before being caught suddenly by lionesses. They surrounded her and scared her, but never finished the job. Something held them off long enough for her to awaken, heart pounding loudly in her chest. The same dream repeated is often taken as an omen in fairytales, but Zayne - not having read many fairytales - just got annoyed with her imagination.
When she arrived home, she bathed and changed before crawling tiredly into bed. She pulled her covers over her, curling up in them like a warm and soft cocoon. She must have been tired enough finally to escape her dreams of being prey, because she slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep which lasted until dawn the next day.
Awaking in a tangle of blankets, she grumpily pushed Sunil off the bed. The dark blue fairy had been sprawled out on Zayne's pillow near her bond's head. She woke slowly, only catching herself enough to soften her fall onto the ******** you too," she grumbled, rolling over and pulling her knees up to her chest with a big yawn. Not waiting for a response from Zayne, she closed her eyes and drifted back to sleep.
Zayne rubbed her eyes, squinting at the light streaming in through the window, and tried to decide whether it was worth the effort to go pull the curtains shut. She decided, after a few befuddled moments, that it was more important to rearrange her blankets so they covered her feet. Not that she was cold exactly, but it was certainly not as warm here as it had been in the desert.
She pushed herself up to a sitting position with effort, pulling blankets away as they hindered her progress. When she was up and could see her feet, she was surprised to realize it would be difficult to cover them. In the way odd things make sense when one is half away, she felt that they had moved farther away from her while she was sleeping - perhaps they were trying to escape.
"Hey, Sunil, wake up."
The little fairy on the floor didn't move, so Zayne tossed a pillow at her. That produced a muffled curse and an angry Sunil who crawled slowly out from underneath the pillow to glare up at Zayne.
"That hurt! What the ******** is your problem?" She squinted, having to face into the sunlight to see Zayne.
"I think my feet are trying to escape." That immediately didn't make sense to her, once it was said out loud - put into words that constrained the world around her to laws and reason. "I mean, they got farther away."
That also didn't make any sense and Sunil popped up onto the bed to investigate. She looked first to Zayne's face and then down at the girls legs. With an unconcerned shrug, she diagnosed the problem.
"You've grown, stupid. Your legs are longer."
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