Legends of Belariath

ShaKaSelu

Raising The Dead

It all started after I came to the Lonely Inn, that..Inn where I met my death by one of my own people. Her name was Akina, she was a cat-girl, well...mostly girl..hehe, but the ears and and tail were there. Anyways, I met her in a forest while I was on my way to the Land of the Rock Eaters, she was a young girl...could not be anymore than 20 years old, but by the gods was she strong and comely, I wager she was about 5' 7", weighing no more than 2 or 3 full grown pigs, and was quite buxom, unfortunately she had an attitude to match the size of her breasts. The first thing she did after she landed in front of me was punch me while saying, "Wanna have a contest?". Yes, yes I know, "why would she attack a passing stranger without reason?", well I was wondering that too, but I had no time to ask, because I was currently defending my face and groin from her repeated physical assaults, not to mention defending myself verbally.

After I gained some distance, I began my intense verbal interrogation, including questions about her name and why is she attacking me. Well, after dodging a series of roundhouse kicks and retaliating with a quick uppercut, she told me her name was Akina, and that she is fighting me because she wants to prove herself a warrior. I asked her, why would she want to prove herself a warrior fighting one oppenent at a time, a real warrior is able to fight multiple opponents if need be, a real warrior is able to make friends instead of enemies. Akina stopped in the middle of her attack and stared at me in wonder, she told me that she has never thought of it in that way. Sinking down to her knees in thought, she apoligizes profusely, saying that all her life she thought that a warrior only killed and gathered loot. Kneeling in front of her, I asked her if she would like to go with me to learn how to be a real warrior. She looked up at me and nodded hesitantly, wiping some tears from her eyes with one hand while I helped her up using her other hand. I told her my name was Shaka Selu and that I was on a quest to regain my mortality permanently. She tilted her head and looked at me quizically, asking what do i mean, I told her that I had..mouthed off my feelings without having the power to back it up and was killed by another of my kind and so forth, she listened intently, stopping me when i got to the part about my ressurection. "You mean there really are people who can do that? I heard that it was only a myth, told to us by the elder women of the tribe.", I told her of course there are people who can raise the dead, I thought everyone knew as such, apparently she did not, as well as her tribe, when asked about them, she told me that they defected from the cat-people of Shevat over a social issue which I thought, was a trivial issue. Resuming my walk towards my quest, I ask her where would Rock Biters most likely be. She responded by hooking her arm in mine and leading me west, saying that she is "positive it is this way". Heh...im sure...west indeed...aw well, I had no choice considering she knew the parts better than me. For 3 hours we headed that way, trading stories and life experiences like we were old friends, she told me of how some girls were "forced" into relationships with thier own gender because there were less than 15 males in her village. Heh..I know some friends who would love to find her village..but I will not tell out of confidence..so too bad, heh. Anyhow, we eventually arrived at what appeared to be this huge cave, the rocks were granite or shale, thier fragments reminding me of the facial features of a really ugly hobgoblin. As I approached the opening, I felt a whoosh of wind and heard a crash, opening my eyes I thanked my lucky stars, some bat had gotten crushed in what appeared to be a pair of jaws while flying in. Glancing back at Akina, (she shrugged and grinned at me) I went ahead, stopping just at the entrance to what appeared to be a gaping maw. As I looked up, I nearly fell backwards when I saw a pair of blinking eyes...or maybe it was because of the great rumble I felt under my legs, causing me and Akina to fall onto each other, blushing furiously, Akina said that this is the spot, and all I have to do is remove the tooth. Chuckling, I said, "Are you crazy? That tooth is bigger than my skull! I do not need one that big...the woman said I only need one! Akina told me that the bigger the better, and that we could always "shave" some off and sell it. I asked her since when did you and I become "we"? She smirked and told me, "Since I helped you get here!" I sighed and said very well...(I actually muttered wench but..she doesnt have to know that..) as I prepared an Ice shards spell and threw it at the giant maw, much to my surprise and delight, it hit! However, all it did was make the giant chatter his teeth together rapidly because of the cold, not only that but the giant reached up and took a swipe at me, if it had not been lying down....(shudder) I would be writing to you from beyond the grave. Luckily, Akina was a cat-girl and not an ogress..her fast reflexes saved my life as she pushed me out of the way. Standing up, I unlashed my whip and cracked it repeatedly, hitting the giant in both of his eyes. Whilst he was screaming, Akina took out a pouch, and reaching into it, threw out a handful of sparkling dust while chanting the words, "Sem sem salabem!". Now, im not an expert on magic...hell, im just starting to learn the easy stuff myself, but it was obvious she was quite adept at, cause that giant was silenced immediately, giving us enough time to pick and hack out one of his teeth, but, before we got more than 10 paces, a hand reached out and grabbed Akina. She struggled bravely but the giant was too strong for her, just when she lowered her head in defeat, the giant let her go, mumbling something about his "rock woobie" or some-such trite. Shrugging, we headed off towards the nearest outpost to cash some of that tooth in. As night fell, we made camp in a clearing, with me choosing to keep watch while Akina slept.....you know...common sense. Well, it is a good thing I did, not more than 30 minutes into her slumber and my watch, we were alerted by several howls all around us, preparing our weapons and spells in defense...they were wolven. The first one lunged, I cast Ice shards in its face point blank as I stepped aside, causing the wolfman to crash into a tree, his body not moving again, I barely had time to reflect on that before I was tackled from behind, TEETH FIRST, by another one. Before I had time to react with a loud scream of pain, the wolven was incinerated by a blast of pure red energy that I have never seen before. Akina later told me that it was called "Incinerate" and obviously, that is what it does, hehe. There were only 3 wolven left, and they did not show any fear at all, even with the loss of their packmates. Backing up, I cracked my whip at one of them, wrapping it around his neck and jerking hard, smiling to myself at the satisfying POP CRACKing of his neck. I did not enjoy it for long though, I heard a scream and yelling of profanities, turning around, I saw that one of the wolven had Akina by her arms so she could not cast spells, and the other one was fondling her breasts and looking at me, growling threateningly as if to say "dont move any closer or I shall kill her". I did not even give him the chance to finish, I cracked my whip across his hands, causing him to release her breasts, then cracking my whip across his nose and eyes, the wolven yelped in pain, but that was nothing compared to the yelp he made when Akina kicked him in the groin. Slamming the other wolven back into a tree, she cast a spell at him, freezing him in place. I did not have time to stare in wonder though, the last wolven had recovered and was charging me somethin fierce! Putting my hands in front of my face, I shouted, "LIGHT!" the wolven stumbled and fell in the middle of his charge, his paws locked over his temporary blinded eyes, raising my foot, I finished him off, slamming it down into his neck, wincing myself as I heard the choking and gurgling noises of the asphyxiated wolf. Akina and I moved the bodies and settled back down to sleep. All was not well however, I felt something touching on my chest and abdomen, waking up with an energy bolt ready to go, I was shocked to see Akina, feeling on me like I was some 2 copper whore. I asked her why was she doing this and to please stop immediately, she asked me why and I told her that my heart belonged to another. Her face sulked a bit as she laid back down, she told me that my love must be a lucky one to have someone so faithful, and that she wished she had someone like me. I turned to my side and said that there is someone for everyone and that she did not have to jump every-single-guy-that-she-met's bones. Funny, I did not know I had such wisdom..but being raised by yourself, being the outsider looking in before becoming the insider looking out, gives you a chance to make observations about life without the mind being influenced, but, those are my thoughts. We awoke early the next morning and headed back onto our path, arriving at a trading post. You might think that I am filthy rich now..but no..unfortunately Akina took the money from the shavings and ran off. Frankly, I did not care, she probably needed it more than me. Heading back to the Inn, I began to think about my battle with Elthorion and my death thereafter, I began to think that maybe I should not speak my opinions to strangers anymore..maybe I should train myself mentally as well as physically, so I would be strong enough to back up my words. I also began to ponder what my afterlife/dream was about, all I could hear in my head were the words "Unite the Peoples....Three Emblems...MoonWebTree..". It was all quite confusing, but that my friend.....is another story.

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