Darkness swirled.
Not quite knowing where he was, he wandered, half-seeing the shadows of the dream and half-walking through the mist. Suddenly a voice called to him, though it seemed to come more from the depths of his mind than from the environment around him.
What are you doing here, young one?
"I - I'm not really sure myself ... " he answered hesitantly.
This is no place for you, but I see you must pass through it. The voice paused, contemplating. Take this, and see that you learn.
He felt something press against his hands. He took the object, but had time neither to see what it was nor to ask the voice what it meant before the dream broke.
"Takei! Takei, wake up!"
Takei drifted out of his half-sleep, blinked, and peered past his bangs to find his father standing over him.
"Dad? Whu ..." He blinked again and sat up.
"I have to leave. Here, I want you to have this." The tall man unhooked one of the many chains around his neck and placed it in Takei's hand. The green pendant glinted in the sliver of light that came in through the window.
The same green reflected from Takei's eyes as he glanced worriedly up at his father.
"But why? I ..."
"I must go. Goodbye." Takei called after him, but he was already gone, melting into the dark night shadows.
"What a way to say goodbye," he muttered sarcastically. His dad had left before in this mysterious fashion, but he had never said goodbye before, nor given Takei a gift. It was very strange, and it scared him. He had to find out what was going on.
He hooked the chain around his neck. Then he jumped out of bed and hurriedly dressed, worrying that he might not be able to catch up. He even equipped himself with a shoulder guard that was left over from the training his grandfather had insisted on putting him through, however wasted the effort was on Takei's wandering mind and lazy reflexes.
Suddenly, a strange object caught his eye. He walked over to his bed and pulled the strap of leather up - only to find that it was attached to a scabbard, which in turn held a large and beautiful sword. Takei stared at the weapon, certain that it he had not seen it before. Still, it held a familiar air about it.
He shrugged and strapped the scabbard to his back. A weapon was a weapon, and he had a feeling he was going to need one. He might as well accept the gift, for gift it seemed to be.
Taking a pen and a scrap of paper, he wrote a quick note to his mother, ending with: I'll be back, don't worry. After placing it on his pillow, he took a deep breath and slipped out the window.
Takei wove his way through the underbrush that separated the town from the forest, taking care not to snag his long ponytail. Branches and roots scratched and tripped him at least every five seconds, and finally he whacked a branch off with the sword out of frustration.
For a few seconds everything stood still, and Takei could feel the sickening presence of disaster in the air. Then, the forest exploded, and Takei felt himself being pushed out of the way.
Even with the dark of night and the dust settling in the newly made crater, Takei could see the crumpled figure lying not seven feet away.
"Dad!" He rushed to his father's side, and in brushing the dust off the man's jacket, he met the sticky dampness of blood. "Oh, Dad, you're hurt!"
His father stirred and coughed. "No," he forced out. "No, Takei, I am lost."
"But ... but you can't die! You can't!" Takei fumbled for words, his heart both racing and breaking. "I'll get you back to town. The medic can heal you."
His father gave a sickly smile and weakly took Takei's hand. "This wound cannot be healed. You go on. You ... you can." With these words the once strong man collapsed, the light of life leaving his eyes forever.
Takei slowly stood up, his green eyes blazing. Don't worry, Dad, he thought. I will go on - and I'll find who did this and make them pay!
"Now that that's over, I suppose you wouldn't mind noticing me?" a new voice asked, interrupting Takei's fantasy of exactly how the culprit would pay. He whipped around to face the speaker. Due to his faulty sense of balance and lack of agility, this promptly resulted in his falling over.
Some would argue that it wasn't entirely due to his clumsiness.
"Not quite so heroic as we think, now are we?" the figure remarked, giggling a little. "I hope you're up to questing, though, if you're thinking what I think you are."
Takei faltered for words and finally found them, though they weren't exactly what he had wanted.
"You - you're a girl!" he exclaimed.
"Indeed." She stood with one hand on her hip, managing to look sarcastic, pitying, and sincere at once. She was dressed in skin-tight forest green clothes, with some scant armor over them. Her other hand held a bow, and looking at it, Takei noticed a quiver of arrows strapped to her back. Her golden hair, which had hints of brown streaked throughout it, was tied back at the nape of her neck. This didn't seem to convince it to be a ponytail, however, as it flowed out behind her like a cape.
Suddenly realizing that his eyes were aimed at her chest, Takei snapped his mouth shut and pulled himself up.
"Who are you?" he asked, quite sure he'd never seen her in the village before.
"Call me Dest," she replied. "And you?"
Takei stammered his name and began to explain why he was there, but Dest silenced him with a wave of her hand.
"You don't have to tell me; I saw the whole thing. It's way too late to be explaining anyway."
"Umm ... yeah," Takei mumbled, mentally slapping himself for being so awkward in front of a girl. Dest smiled.
"Relax; I won't bite," she said. "Now why don't we take care of business here and get on with the night?"
They slept in a hidden cave that Dest found after burying Takei's father and holding a small ceremony. Takei had lingered at the grave and likely would've fallen asleep there if Dest hadn't insisted on dragging him into the cave. Once comfortable, he was out like a light.
The next thing he knew was a painful whap upside the head.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, leaping awake and rubbing the bruise. "What'd you do that for?"
"For not waking up when I yelled at you, poured water on you, pulled the covers off you, or anything else for that matter," an irritated Dest replied. She reached into a bag by her waist and pulled out some biscuits and cheese. "Here, have some breakfast and get up. We've really got to get moving before whoever set that trap decides to see what they caught."
"Trap? ..." Takei was having a bit of trouble kicking his brain into gear, but finally the events of the night before came rushing back to him. "Oh, right ... Hey, what do you mean, 'we?'"
Dest stopped eating and gave him an annoyed look.
"You're obviously not gonna go far alone," she pointed out. "I know all about survival on the road and in the wilderness, and besides, I just went through my fifth partner."
"Fifth?" Takei nearly choked on the bite of biscuit he'd just taken.
"Yeah ... guy got hit on the head one too many times, I guess." The archer shrugged and idly twisted a blade of grass around her finger. "I don't see how men could rule the world if they can't take a few light whacks, but who am I to judge?"
"Ahhhhh - no, I think I'll travel alone, thank you very much," Takei said, finishing his biscuit and jumping up. Dest leapt up as well and grabbed his ponytail as he turned to leave, giving it a good hard jerk. Takei gave a yelp of pain and flipped over backwards, to find himself staring up at the very determined Dest.
"Look, you blue-haired amateur," she growled. "You're coming with me, and that's final! Now get up, we've got a long walk ahead."
The pain from the jerk Dest had given him still fading away, Takei was not about to argue.
Dest hadn't been kidding when she said the walk was long. Takei didn't dare complain about his feet hurting. She'd probably knock him into the nearest tree and tell him to live with it, never mind the fact that she was a girl and she didn't seem to be getting tired.
"Where are we going?" Takei asked, trying to take his mind off his feet.
"A town," Dest replied. "We're getting some more food supplies, since I see you didn't bring any."
"Ahhh ..." Takei sweatdropped and decided to drop the subject. They walked in silence for a few minutes, at least until Takei drew his sword out of boredom and swiped at a plant with it.
The sword hit a nearby tree unexpectedly, and the impact jerked the weapon out of Takei's hand. It clattered to the forest floor, landing with a thump in a patch of moss. Takei, caught off guard and off balance, stumbled and fell over. Dest stopped, whipped around, and glowered at him.
"Could you be any more clumsy!?" she demanded, snatching up the sword. "If you're going to learn how to use this thing, you've really got to get in better shape!"
"Sorry," Takei mumbled as he stood up.
"And furthermore, - hmmm, this is a really interesting sword..." Dest stared at the blade, examining it intently. "It's extremely well-made. Where did you get it, anyway?"
"Ummm ..." Takei wondered how to explain the method by which he had found the sword. "I just kinda found it, I guess." Okay, not the most articulate of answers, but he wasn't the most articulate of people.
"There's an indent on each end of the hilt," Dest pointed out. "It looks as if something should go there, but I don't know what."
"Wait a minute," Takei said, walking up and peering at the area Dest had pointed out. "That looks like it's the same shape as the pendant Dad gave me before he left ..." He took the chain off and held the intensely green gem next to the indent. "Yeah, it's - " he began, but before he could finish his sentence, the gem flared in his hand and began to smolder. Takei dropped the pendant, and it sealed itself into the hilt of the sword. The chain melted onto the hilt, leaving an interesting pattern.
"That," Dest declared, staring at the sword, "was weird."
"No kidding," Takei agreed. "Hey, look - there's some writing on the blade. I didn't notice it before." He took the blade from Dest and held it so he could see the symbols.
"Well, what does it say?"
"I can't tell; it's in a language I don't know."
"Here, let me see." Dest grabbed the weapon back and glanced at the writing. "Nope, no clue." She tapped the sword with her finger, contemplating something. "There's a magical aura around it, though. It's probably enchanted, judging by what happened with that gem." She shrugged and handed the blade back to Takei. "Just don't try to cast anything with it; there's no telling what might happen."
"You don't have to worry about that," Takei assured her, sheathing his blade. "I don't know a scrap of magic to begin with."
"This is Sillhollow," Dest announced as they walked into the town. "I come here often to rest. It's hidden almost perfectly from those who don't know about it."
Takei was too busy looking around to answer. The only town he had known until now was his own, and this one seemed so strange. The houses, the church, the town square - it was all set up differently.
"Come on! Stop gawking and follow me. It isn't so different from yours, y'know."
They rounded a corner onto a quiet street. The buildings here were farms and ranches, places to buy beasts of burden and such. Dest headed straight for the falconer's place, dragging Takei behind.
"The falconer always lets me stay with him. No reason he shouldn't let you, too. Come on; keep up!" She walked up to the door and knocked. A man answered, and greeted Dest warmly.
"Ah, come on in! I see you've got a friend. What's the story this time?"
Dest introduced Takei to the falconer, whose name was Shrike. Takei took the moment to study him.
Shrike looked young for his thirty years, but one could see his age in his ice-blue eyes. His unruly white hair hung over one eye, and his large hands held a staff with a hawk perch at the top. Takei found his appearance strangely comforting, and in fact the only thing about the falconer or his home that unnerved him at all was the jet-black hawk that sat on a high perch in the main room. It flew down and landed on Shrike's shoulder as they entered, and the way it contrasted so sharply with the falconer's hair startled Takei.
"You've come at a good time," Shrike told them. "I've just got some abandoned fledglings I need to find homes for. You want one, Takei? Dest's never taken me up on it, but I'm not gonna let any chance pass me by."
Takei snapped out of thought at the mention of getting his own hawk.
"Oh, sure, I'd love that!" he exclaimed. Falconing had always interested him, though he never thought he'd actually get a chance to try it.
"All right then," Shrike replied, smiling. "Follow me to the mews; I'll show 'em to you."
They entered the mews, walking past the many hawks and falcons that Shrike was breeding. A kestrel shrieked at Takei as he passed, making him trip over his own feet.
"Here they are. They're a fine lot, just learning to fly. This is the best point to start training them at. The younger they are, the more they learn."
Takei was already observing the young birds, looking at each of the seven in turn. They were gyrfalcons, only about six weeks old, and their adult feathers had just come in.
"What's with this one?" he asked, picking up a scraggly and weak fledgling.
"The runt of the litter, that one." Shrike sighed. "There's many a time one or two that aren't fit to make it when you get them from the wild like this," The falconer shrugged indifferently. "I'm a bit surprised myself it's still hanging on." He lifted a thick white eyebrow at Takei. "Now are you gonna pick one or what?"
Takei stared at the weakling in his hands and bit his lip. It flicked its wings and turned its head towards him, meeting his eyes with its deep brown ones. Its eyes seemed somehow both sharper and cloudier than those of the rest; what the difference was exactly Takei couldn't quite put his finger on.
What he could put his finger on was that he wanted this one.
"Yes, I will pick one. This one," he concluded. Shrike raised the other eyebrow skeptically. Dest gave him an it's-your-life look and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, just be sure to invest in a shovel," Shrike retorted. "You're gonna need one sooner or later."
"Not if I can help it," Takei replied, and left the mews with his new companion.
"I wasn't going to say anything while Shrike was there, but ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!? There's no way that thing's gonna live! Look at it!"
Takei succumbed passively to Dest's rambling until it became repetitive.
"Okay, okay," he cut in. "So it was a little crazy. So what? I know what I'm doing."
"You do, huh? And what are you going to say when the bird dies?"
"It won't die."
Dest sighed and gave up trying to convince him. "Well," she said, "if you're going to insist on keeping it you might as well give it a name."
"I'm four steps ahead of you. Its name is Stratus." Stratus, who was resting in a pouch tied to Takei's bed, gave a small cry. Takei laughed, Dest rolled her eyes for the hundredth time, and the candle illuminating the bedroom burned out.
Deep in the blackness of the night outside, unknown to the two travelers, a figure perched on a neighboring rooftop leapt silently away.
Hmmm ... an excellent start to my Legend series! Though this is only the first episode with many more to come, I myself am amazed by the quality. This is far from the first version of the story, and almost all of it has been rewritten. I hope you enjoyed it - no, I know you enjoyed it, since this is my pet project and the one storyline I've really put as much as possible into. You no doubt are wondering what is to come. Well, sore wa himitsu desu, but only until I write the other episodes!
- Thundra1
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