Awkward Moments

Awkward Moments 06/09


"Hey…Cer? About last night…" asked Lysander.

"…Huh? What's up, Ly?" Ceriven's tired eyes widened having realized where she lied. "Ly?!" she yelled, jumping out of the bed and realizing both she and the white wolf were sleeping together. Only seeing Lysander's upper half without clothing beyond the sheets brought a blush as bright as her pink night gown under her soft brown fur. "What are you doing here?!"

"Here? This is my bed you awoke in," he responded.

"What? When did I…?"

"Probably walked in your sleep," inferred Lysander as he sat up.

"Gah, this so embarrassing…" said the genet as she looked away from Lysander.

"Ah, don't worry about it."

"Can't believe I did that."

"You woke up tired and unaware. Things happen."

"Crap… Growing up my brother was my only family and I kind of idolized him," she began, sitting on the bed and holding her fluffy tail. "I'd stay with him at night when I was really young since I knew I'd be safe. I've heard around town descriptions of a genet like him and consequently had a dream about him. But why did I wake up by you as though you were him?"

"See? Not your fault, no harm done. And it was nice to sleep aside your warm fur," Lysander said with a slightly devious gleam in his bright ruby eyes.

"I guess… Wait, what's that supposed to mean?" said Ceriven, the blush returning.

"Heh. I haven't heard much about your brother beyond his name and you two roaming from place to place. Tell me about him." The silver marked wolf lied back down with his paws behind his head.

"Hmmm… Well he is a nice guy, kind of arrogant at times, or at least he was years ago. He was a warrior for hire then. I trained with him and on my own to one day fight with him. He also doesn't look like he should be able to carry the sword he fights with, but he participated in some experiment to make it possible to fight like a well trained demon in exchange for…something"

"Experiment?"

"Yeah, he didn't tell me much in detail from under an oath of confidentiality. But whatever it was did exactly what was intended." She reflected for a moment, brushing her long blonde hair from her face.

"Something wrong, Cer?"

"Nah, just thinking," she sighed. "Before he left I challenged him to a real fight, no holding back. I was sure I could beat him with my new technique."

"With your bow versus just one sword with no magical involvement I couldn't see you being defeated. I can't imagine anyone taking you down one-one one, really."

"Heh. Well he had trained like me to learn to enchant weapons, but that wasn't what helped him the most. No matter the arrow or what element I attached he could deflect it with speed and accuracy I've never seen. He really was holding back every time we'd fought before."

"I would like to spar with him sometime if I could have the chance. But are you truly okay? You haven't seen him in a long while."

"Yeah, I'll be alright," Ceriven sighed. "But before he beat me he told me how he made things possible for me to train my skills in every way or something happy like that.

"I really sucked back then. If we fought again he wouldn't stand a chance," she smirked. "Because of how greatly I wounded him with splash damage from my exploding arrows he dragged my unconscious self to a healing house, hardly able to move himself. I haven't seen him since, selfless jerk. I'll punch him in the neck next time I see him."

"If you did I would probably laugh not knowing what the heck is going on. But I can see the sun rising. We'd best be going to find another job soon."

"Yeah… I'll go back and change." I hope your doing okay, Inaven…


- - -


Lysander and Ceriven entered the guild, wolf clad in a long royal blue trench coat and genet in a short black leather-textured jacket, and made their way through the various adventurers to the counter.  She studied the wall beyond the counter which showed the more notorious subjects while Lysander scanned the book on the table held information for those who were on a speedy rise to a well known state. The book only held a few fully detailed pictures while most articles either only showed light sketches and/or descriptions, one of which caught the eyes of the wolf: "Dark brown furred genet, steel hair just reaching his shoulders, amethyst eyes, wields a massive broadsword style weapon… Seemingly randomly captures beings and torments them until he's had enough fun with them when he kills them…" Looks good to me, thought Lysander.  He then signed for the job with the guild master, told Ceriven he was leaving, and did so figuring she was too involved in other things and would catch up to him as she's done in the past.

As Ceriven glanced through the book of bounties, still not realizing the wolf had gone, she held the page where he left it open and eventually noticed the subject and laughed. "What the heck? Heh, Hey, Ly, my brother has a friggin' bounty on his head!" She tuned to where the wolf was sitting and continued, "The charges are ridiculous, I wonder… Hey, were did he go…? Ch… That jerk…" Guess I'll at least see if I can find my brother for now.  Gonna beat Ly when I see him… Oh, dang... She glanced at the page and thought again before dashing out of the guild.


- - -


"Hey, have you-" Without a word Lysander interrupted the russet brown and black genet's words by instantly rushing for an attack which he swiftly dodged. "Woah, what's," the lean genet began again as he drew his oversized translucent blue sword to guard an additional strike, "you're problem?!"

"You need to die. Nothing personal," was the wolf's cold response.

"Tch, not another one… Well maybe not for you, but I don't really want to die. Now stop before I get serious."

"If you don't you will die."

"Dang," said the dark furred genet realizing the lupine would not yield. This assailant seemed to have more skill than others who had fought for his bounty. With the speed of his enemy he knew he must to end the fight quickly and enchanted his blade, causing it to erupt in flames.

Finally fighting back the genet still could not land a solid attack, but still his raging flames appeared to catch Lysander off guard. Even though the wolf was continually making successful blocks the sheer force of the genet's swift strikes were slowly shoving Lysander back into a tree where he could no longer hold himself. Realizing this the lupine activated his daggers' abilities periodically to give one the force of air and the other the power of fire, the ladder of which would fuse with the genet's flame for an instant to engulf them both in an inferno allowing Lysander to push back.

"You're good…" said Lysander in between blows.

"Gotta be, what with all you jerks constantly trying to kill me. What is your name, warrior?"

"Lysander. And yours?"

"Inaven."

"Wait, Inaven? Ah, crap…" in Lysander's moment of hesitation upon hearing the name Inaven knocked the wolf to his knees and raised the massive blade in the air for the finishing strike.


- - -


"Why is it taking so long to find him? He couldn't have gotten too far already," said Ceriven to herself while jogging among the trees. "Hey, those sounds… Fighting? Oh, oh no…"

Following the sounds of battle the genet found Lysander and her brother. Ready to run in their midst she saw the wolf fall and knew she needed to change her actions lest she be too late. Instantly she drew an arrow, infused explosive energy into it and fired towards Inaven's sword as it came down. As it did Lysander's blade of wind came up to cut Inaven, but the arrow collided with Inaven's weapon shoving it just enough to slice into the ground. Behind the explosive arrow came a freezing arrow to chill the ground around Lysander rendering him unable to stand and finish his strike.

"Agh, what the…?" asked Inaven.

"Dang it, Ceriven!" yelled Lysander.

"What? Ceriven?!"

"Hey Inaven!" called Ceriven, running to him. "How the heck are ya?" She jumped and tackled Inaven to the ground, hugging him tightly.

"Cer, you're really here…"

"Well yeah," she replied, tears forming in her eyes. "I was worried about you. I had no idea what came of you when you left. And I've really missed you…"

"Same here, sis," he commented as he pat her head. "Come on, let's sit up and talk. But before we get into anything I'd like to know who this Lysander is. He did just try to kill me…"

"Well Ly is… Oh, heh, you're still locked in that shell of ice, aren't you?" said Ceriven looking at the disdainful wolf before taking an arrow, dowsing it in flame, and thrusting it into the ice around Lysander's legs.

"Hm… Thanks…" he said to Ceriven. He then held out a paw to shake Inaven's. "So you're Inaven? Your sister has told me about you; you're as good a fighter as she had said."

"Heh, thanks. As are you for actually being a challenge. How did you two meet?"

"Well…" started Ceriven, "we fought together on a mission and Ly makes a great protector."

"Thus she's been following me ever since," added the wolf to which Ceriven smirked.

"Hmmm… In that case, what did you do after I left, Cer?"

"That is a secret," she said with a wink.

"Secret, eh? Ah well, probably safer not knowing," said her brother with an air of sarcasm.

"I do like your sword though," she noted.

"Ah, yes, a blue chalcedony," he said pulling it from in the ground and holding it up. A friend crafted it for me; very conducive to enchantments

Inaven discussed with them his past adventures from when he left his sister. He traveled with the hare Nia and the dragon Machaerus for a time who trained him in ways he would never have imagined on his own. It was them who gave him his new sword.

Beyond that Inaven eventually asked Lysander about his past of which to his knowledge there is none. Lysander reminded Inaven of a wolf he knew as a casual acquaintance who worked with the same professor who experimented on the genet, but the wolf had no recollection. His lived his time as a drifting mercenary before meeting Ceriven so the conversation quickly moved to thereafter. The wolf's seemingly uncaring attitude about most things would often vex Inaven to which Ceriven would laugh and reassure him that Lysander isn't as much of a jerk as he seems. In time they made way to why Inaven was in his current predicament.

"You're not the first to hunt me," stated Inaven. "I've only somehow convinced a few to not fight me. None have come close to besting me other than you so I'd usually end up dragging some unconscious being back to town. Although, on a side note, it seemed like you held back for an instant so I don't know who would have been the last man standing; it was a good fight.

"I try not to kill unless absolutely necessary, and yet anyone who has explained why they attacked me have been under the pretense that I am evil. I've been called evil before, but it's never brought a bounty on me before."

"Why would you be called evil?" questioned Ceriven.

"Just because someone is terrorizing and massacring doesn't mean they have no friends or family," answered Inaven as a grim look grew in his deep purple eyes. "It doesn't matter who the individual is or what was done, someone could still be saddened by the loss. To that someone the 'hero' could be the evil one."

"Been there," said Lysander. "But I also didn't focus on helping anyone until I met Cer." Ceriven giggled a bit at his words.

"Hmmm… Anyways, I believe I know who exactly posted the bounty with whatever accusations," resumed Inaven.

"Anyone you know?" asked Ceriven.

"Yeah. The demon jackal I told you I fought with a while back. Julius has made enemies that put up a bounty for him shortly after mine appeared. I found the ones who made his bounty, one I've met on a job before, and they all told me how he wanted me and a certain few others dead for some reason. It's only a matter of time before either he finds me or I find him.

"He is extremely powerful. Like I said before, when we fought together he treated the entire thing as if it were nothing and was obviously not using all of his power while everyone else was struggling to complete the mission. I wanted to fight him when I knew him before so it's good I was with others who were smarter than me or I probably would have died.  I'm a better fighter than I was and can take on creatures supposedly as powerful as him, but…I am still unsure of how our battle will turn out. I am almost afraid of the outcome."

"Well then let us help," volunteered Ceriven cheerfully.

"What? I couldn't ask that of you; either of you. If you did-"

"You aren't asking," she interrupted resolutely. "We are volunteering."

"…It really could help to have the support. Plus it would be nice to fight alongside you instead of against you and die."

"Yeah! I've never been able to fight alongside you before."

"Heh. Yeah, I'm in," announced Lysander.

Having talked the day through and Ceriven and Lysander resolving to fight with Inaven they decided to set up camp and venture onward come morning.


- - -


"I hate rain," Inaven grumbled as he lowered his tail and raised his cloak's hood, his large genet ears showing out the slits.

"Huh… Why is that?" questioned Lysander.

"Cold, musty air, wet fur, no sunlight."

"Really? That's exactly why I like the rain."

"…You're crazy, Ly." Saying this made the wolf simper.

Approaching the supposed area where Julius had last appeared the damp air began to grow heavy, weighing the group down as if they were standing on the floor of a lake. Inaven recognized the dusty brown jackal that emerged from the shadows immediately and stared into his black eyes. "It has been a while, Julius."

"Maybe for you; time means nothing to me," responded the canine nonchalantly.

"I'm surprised Nia hasn't already tracked you down," said Inaven confidently.

"She and her dragon friend have already been dealt with."

Lysander noticed the obvious rage on Inaven's face and rushed Julius for an unexpected attack. Why does everyone always want to talk? The wolf was shocked by the way Julius countered: from his seemingly empty sword sheath emerged a substance that looked like blood which solidified in his paws as a large hammer-like weapon which he swung with ease into Lysander's torso, knocking him back and forcing the wind out of him. "He's Tr…ying to ma…make you livid. If you…are, Inaven…you'll become careless."

"And so you brought the experiment and your sister with you as well," noted Julius as his weapon dissipated back into its scabbard.

"Who is my sister?" asked Inaven as he regained control of himself. The Jackal answered by forming a spike from his weapon near Ceriven which she quickly struck with the edge of her bow.

"I know all about you, son of Felix and Alara."

"Our parents were pretty popular adventurers back in the day, but how could you know we're related?" asked Ceriven now prepared for any additional attacks.

"Oh, I knew them personally some time ago, but that story is for another time. If you recall, Inaven, how I said I was training to have better focus when using my magic, this is why," announced Julius as the strange substance formed into a sanguine mist around him. He took hold if it solid in his paws and continued his explanation as the material fluctuated between a variety of different styles of weapons, "This unique creation requires a great deal of power to use effectively while with any less it would invariably destroy the user." With those words he began his assault on Inaven, the bloody weapon primarily shaped as a massive axe with equal power to the great sword. Lysander had recovered his composure and proceeded to aid Inaven while Ceriven tried raining multiple elements of arrows which would be easily deflected. Should Inaven and Lysander attack concurrently Julius would change his weapon to something akin to a pair of swords; if only Lysander was in range Julius would assault the wolf with bloody darts from all angles forcing him to avert his attention. The group was slowly being drained; it was a losing battle.

"Why… Why did place a bounty for me?" asked Inaven. "Why are you doing all this to fight us?"

"Simple: because I can." Julius finished his statement by sweeping Inaven and Lysander's legs from underneath them with a pole arm-style weapon. The wolf generally fights with his both his feet and daggers but had not the chance during this fight, but with powerful he caught himself and landed smoothly, allowing him to speedily place a powerful roundhouse kick to the side of Julius's head. Using this distraction Ceriven split an arrow into many and charged them with explosive energy. But she was still too late.

Julius took a hit from the edge of one of the explosions while narrowly avoiding the brunt of the series and already had a chain of distorted spikes flying towards the bright furred genet, fur which on the right side of her torso became slowly painted with her own blood from the large, deep wound.

"Ceriven!" yelled Inaven when he looked back, Lysander running to her to cover her from any possible follow-up attacks. Julius had a content smile.

Inaven glared with narrowed eyes and a look to kill, loosing the clasp of his cloak and letting it fall to the ground. "Lysander, will take care of her?"

"Yes. You know I will," came the firm response. "But what will…"

Around Inaven the air grew chill and his dark fur became still as ice. "Oh, what could this be?" said Julius rhetorically as he watched, but the genet paid no heed. A wind enchantment around Inaven's sword dissipated as raven black flames burst forth from it, warping the air around them and radiating shadows which would freeze the rain to hail. Inaven's eyes showed flames as black as the blade's.

Inaven knew the primary target was him and thought to divert his enemy's attention elsewhere. The genet resumed fighting, and Julius seemed to attack slightly slower than before, nevertheless throwing an occasional array of darts at Lysander and Ceriven. With the Jackal's side attacks and slightly slowed weapon movement Inaven was able to push the fight elsewhere.

"Why are you doing this?!" yelled Inaven genet.

"Like I said before: Because. I. Can."

"Is the only reason you wanted to become stronger? To kill us?! If anything you know you could have destroyed me years ago!"

"I don't like you and enjoy seeing your despair. But I'll let you in on a little secret…"


- - -


Lysander could no longer see Julius and Inaven and knew it was safe to aid Ceriven. The wolf knew he would be out a while when se set off to challenge Inaven and had brought provisions to last a while, a part being a curative salve which he poured over Ceriven's wound before tearing his shirt to wrap around her as a tourniquet.

I can hear your pain too, thought Lysander as he turned his head to the faint sounds in the distance. Idiot, he needs to focus his emotions to his benefit. He looked back at Ceriven's face. "If you die, he'll kill me. If he dies, you will kill me." He brushed the hair from Ceriven's face and petted her head while hoping for her survival. "But it's not really about me anymore, is it?" Once more he faced the battle, yelling, "You had better come back alive, Inaven!"

- - -


"You shouldn't fight angry," advised Julius amidst his attacks.

"You're wrong, Julius. I don't fight with anger, but with hope."

"Every time you fight, every job you'd carry out, you would believe it as a good cause. For justice. The exact thought went through your mind when we fought together." Inaven gave no response. Julius formed a whip and snapped it around the genet, binding him before continuing. "Have you ever wondered what killing someone for pleasure is like through all of your supposed worthy causes? To savor every dying breath? I would be honored to be your first if such a thing were possible."

"Why would I be happy to see you die for any other reason than to stop your atrocities?" Inaven struggled to say through the grip of Julius's whip.

"That I also knew when I fought with you. Your natural hatred for me... Now I can feel a sadistic joy resonate from every one of your attacks," continued Julius as he released his grip on Inaven. "I don't plan on ever dying by your hand, but should it ever happen you will never be the same."

Can't hold this fire much longer. I need to end this now one way or another, thought the genet. "Let's see if you are right in your words..."

The light in the battlefield began to dim, being absorbed into the growing flame and creating darkness thick enough to feel. "What? I've never seen this before… I will need to finish you now," announced Julius.

The onyx fire entirely enveloped Inaven. The immense number of bloody shards thrusting toward him became as ice and fell to the ground the instant they touched the immolation while any weapon created would shatter upon contact with Inaven's blade. "With the black flames that can damn even souls, I will strike you down!"


- - -


"Nnngh… L-Ly?" said Ceriven weakly as she opened her dark sapphire eyes.

"Eh? Woah, you're awake!" said the wolf, relieved and happy. "Try no to move too much. Drink this if you can." He held a bottle to Ceriven's lips of which she took a few sips and coughed.

"My…brother?"

"I don't know. I could hear the fight in the distance and saw a thick darkness grow around the sound. It faded some hours ago."

"Have…you g-gone over there?"

"No I couldn't take you with me nor leave you here."

"Gh… You need to…see if he's okay!"

"Are you sure you will be alright?"

"I'm not going…anywhere. Please."

"Alright." Lysander ran to where the sounds and darkness were. At the source he discovered the tattered Inaven lying still from weakness.

"Lysander? Where is Ceriven?"

"She'll live. I needed to come find you."

"You *cough* left her?!" yelled the genet attempting to sit up. "I'll kill you…"

"Sounds like fun, maybe later. You can't do anything the way you are now anyway so be quiet and let me help you so we can get you back to your sister. I'll even give you a free shot at me when you're back to your full strength."

"How very thoughtful," responded Inaven sarcastically before standing with his arm over Lysander for support. "I'll make sure to take you up on that."

"Heh. So where did you learn that skill and why didn't you use it earlier?" asked the wolf trying to lighten the mood.

"The two I traveled with for a while and I experimented with different kinds of enchantments, mixing different elements. Only a few mixes were any good and the one I used was one of those. It's also the most dangerous out of them. That's one of the reasons I don't like using it; it only makes things worse when fighting in a group. Also if I use it early on in a fight that lasts more than a few minutes the flames will disappear, and I will be rendered useless for a while so I'd prefer doing whatever else I can before it comes to that."

"Those flames did look awesome, but I didn't think they'd hurt the user to such an extent."

"Yeah. But while fighting Julius he told me something. I don't think it matters to pass it on to Ceriven because he may as well have been trying to throw me off."

"What was that?"

"Julius didn't say this was specifically why he put a bounty on my head and tried to kill us himself, but he told me that we were being watched. He couldn't allow whoever it was have us."

"If he was worried about them finding us I would wonder if joining with whatever it may be would be to our benefit."

"I don't know. I just don't think it will turn out well, whatever happens…

"Cer!" he said catching sight of his sister and frantically stumbling to her.

"Hey, Inaven… You're alright."

"Yeah, it's good to see you're safe. Knowing that I feel ready for our fight, Ly."

"Fight? What are you…" started Ceriven.

"Ly said I can get one free shot for having left you…"

"You're a very angry being, aren't you?" asked Lysander rhetorically.

"Wha? I don't need that crap from you too!"

"Haha- *cough* Agh… Don't make laugh right now, guys…" said Ceriven.

"Sorry, Cer. We should be able to carry you to a proper facility in a few more hours seeing as you don't have any broken bones," said the wolf. "And Inaven, you really don't look up for fighting yet. Do you really want to go right now?"

"Hmph, you're probably right… But be ready because that free hit will come without a warning."

"Sounds good to me."