Alexander Khri'pher (5) Alexander looked across the bar at the fox and shook his head. "No thanks, I just need to think for a few minutes." Alexander rubbed his eyes and then looked around at where the fight had acured last night. there was no table there anymore and the remanes of the pillar were in a pile in the corner. Alexander looked back at the bar tender and tried to appoligize but the fox stopped him. "Don't worry about it, we've had worse damnage caused in fights before. Besides, those idiots deserved what they got." The fox looked at Alexander as the much bigger tiger tried shaking his head vigerously to wake up. "Are you sure you don't need anything?" Alexander looked up at the fox and smirked. "Actually, there is. Do you think you could get me a messenger?" Alexander asked politely. "I got some old problems to take care of." The fox just nodded and said, "There's one still here from last night and i think he just woke up. Just give me a minute and I send him right out," He then walked off into the back room. Alexander buried his face in his paws and started thinking out loud to himself. "I can't believe I did that to Trent. There's no way I could have been that stupid. He cared about me like a brother and..." Alexander snapped up at the sound of somebody clearing their throaght. Sitting next to Alexander was a tall snow rabbit, dressed in a simple street outfit of tan pants and a tan shirt. He smiled up at Alexander and said, "The bar tender told me you need a messenger. Well, I'm hear, who will you being sending a message to?" The messenger took out a role of parchment, a quill, and a well of ink. When he was ready the rabbit looked up at Alexander expecting an answer. "About 700 leuges south, in Draconis Village is a knight by the name of Trent Khan'tresh," Alexander stated as the rabbit wrote down every word he said. The messenger looked up at him again, waiting for the message he was to diliver. Alexander sat there and thought of what to say, being sure to choose the correct words. "Trent, I realize you probably don't wish to hear from me but I ask that you just listen for a moment. What I did to you was the worst thing I could have done as a friend or a brother. Not only did I physically hurt you but I broke our oath as blood brothers. You might not believe me but I can gaurenty that there are no words for how sorry I am. I've had a little time to think recentley and I realized that I do need your help. This damned revenge tangent is not something one should do alone. You loved my father as much as I did and you deserve to sample the sweet taste of revenge as much as I do. I don't really know what else to say so I'm offering you the chance to come and help me. If you wish to take up the offer, ask the messenger that gave you this letter were I am, but if you don't wish to, just send him back to tell me. Once more, I'm so sorry for what I have done, and I wish to make up for the injustice I have caused you. It will not be easy but I promise that I will do my best. I will be pashently awaiting your reply." "That reply is going to come sooner then you may think," stated a deep voice to Alexander's right were the Messenger had once been sitting. Alexander looked to the side and almost fainted from the surprise that was awaiting him there. He then looked around and noticed that the messenger was sitting at a table across the room enjoying his early breakfast. Alexander looked back at the person who had taken the rabbit's place at the bar. He found himself at a loss for words as Trent stared right back at him with a large smile on his face. There was a long moment of aquared silence before Trent put his paw on Alexander's shoulder and smiled even more. "Alex, you don't have to say anything. I was never angry with you because I knew that loosing your father had changed you, in more bad ways than good, but it also stopped you from thinking logically, that's why I've been following you to make sure that you didn't do anything to stupid. I've been waiting by the fire all morning to make sure I didn't miss you." Alexander's throaght was bone dry as he tried to figure out if he was dreaming or if this was actually real. "You... you 've been... following me?" he finally choked, trying his best to overcome all the emotions that were hitting him all at once. Trent removed his paw and chuckled a little bit. "Of course I followed you Alex, what kind of friend would I be if I let you do something like this on your own?" "But... but I hit you when I left, and I broke our oath. You still see me as your friend?" "Absolutely, especially that your man enough to appoligize, even though you weren't going to do it face to face," Trent comferted his old friend. "That message was very touching though." Alexander finally calmed down, now over the shock of seeing Trent. "Trent, there's something I want to do before anything else," Alexander said quickly, standing up as he talked. "Please, just stay here and I'll be right back." Alexander sprinted up the steps and into his room. When he came back down about five minutes later he was no longer in the bath robe but was now dressed in his regular outfit. He was also holding a long dagger in his left paw. As he approached Trent he placed the blade on his right paw, directly over the old scar from their former blood brother oath. "I want to renue our oath, to renue our friend ship" Alexander expected Trent to think about this for a moment but he didn't even give it a second thought. He whent right to the ancient blood oath ritual. He put his left paw over the paw that Alexander was holding the dagger with. Together in one motion they both slid the blade over Alexander's paw, then moving the blade to Trent's paw and cutting it over the old scar. Still holding the knife in their un-cut paws they clasped their bleeding paws together, mixing their blood. They then looked into each other's eyes and recited the saying they had said so many years ago: "Our blood mixes as does our souls, making us one in both physical and spiritual form. Brothers now, brothers forever, we take this oath to never be torn. Nothing shall get between us, nothing shall tear us apart. As long as we live we are brothers at heart. We live as one, we move as one, one never letting any harm come to the other. As I take this oath, I become your brother." Still holding the eachother's paw, they threw the knife to the ground, stabbing it into the wooden floor and splattering their mixxed blood. They were brothers again, now and forever, and neither of them planned on breaking that this time around. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alexander Khri'pher knocked back the last of his drink as he finally stopped laughing. He and Trent Khan'tresh were sitting at the bar in the old inn having a couple of drinks and talking about the past days of their wonderfull childhood, atleast the days before General Dolmen Khri'pher had died which ruined Alexander's life. It had been about two hours after Trent had shown himself to Alexander and told the Bengal Tiger that he had been following him and they had been enjoying their time together to the fullest, forgeting completely about their troubles with eachother. The dagger that had been used for their oath renuewle was still standing upright in the ground next them, and their rights paws were now bound in silk bandages with just a little bit of blood seeping through them. Lutra, finally awaike from her "knight" with Alexander, krept down the stairs by the bar to find her knew love. She was dressed in only a soft, white, slik robe, yet her beautifull white fur made the robe look dull, almost a light grey color, even in the dull light of the latterns around the tavern. Alexander ordered another round of drinks as he and Trent continued to talk, when out of the corner of his eye he noticed the glint of Lutra's fur on the stairs. He smiled and stood up, walking over to Lutra and holding out his paw politely. "And here is the lovely ladie I was telling you about Trent, the sleek and beautiful Lutra Shakira," Alexander informed Trent as he continued to stare into Lutra's bright blue eyes. Once Alexander and Lutra made it over to the bar Trent stood up, bowed politely, took Lutra's paw to kiss it softly. "It is a pleasure to meet the women that has stolen my brother's heart," He stated softly as he stood up straight again. "My name is Trent Khan'tresh, and I must say that you really are as beautiful as Alexander has told me, Mrs. Lutra." Lutra felt herslef blush deeply under her white fur and she ducked her head shylie. "Thank you kindly Sir Khan'tresh. But I must say, no offense ment but you two most certainly don't look like brothers too me." "Well, we're not really brothers, you see," Alexander started as he put his arm around Lutra's waist. "We're just blood-brothers, but it actually has the same importance to us as it would if we were true brothers. We were the best of friends as children and still are, even though we had a few... differences when I left home on a revenge tangent." Lutra looked up at Alexander and poked him in the side playfully, making him squirm a little beside her. "Which, by the why, you havn't told me why you're on that little tangent of your's," She said with a little laugh and a bright smile. "Or who you're after. I've only heard from the bards that you after your father's killer, but I never caught a name." Alexander found himself at a loss for words but the smile remained on his muzzle none the less. "Well," he began to to talk slowly, trying to find the right words to use without sending himself to the point of loosing his anger at the memories. "It's a really tuchy subject for him," Trent interupted so his friend didn't have to speek. He knew that when talking about the death of his father that Alexander would become so outraged that he would be unconsolable for quite some time. "But if you come with me for a moment I will tell you what happened." Trent looked over at Alexander and smiled softly. "That is if you don't mind, Alex." Alex nodded slightly and answered with, "Of course Trent, I have no problems with that. You know the story as well as I do, and it's probably for the best." Alexander took his arm from around Lutra's waist and sat back down at the bar, taking a small sip of his drink. Trent waved his paw towards the two chairs by the fire and said, "If you'll come with me Miss. Lutra, I will explain the hole thing." Lutra bowed her head shortly and walked over to the cahirs and sat down. Trent sat in the seat across from her and leaned forward a little bit, holding his paws together in front of him. "When Alexander and I were about fifteen or sixteen, we were both squires, learning the ways of the knight under our fathers. One day, all four of us were in the woods when we got word that our village was being attacked, or atleast being threatened with attack if we didn't coply to what they wanted. Our fathers told us to go inside and stay there, but we decided to listen to what was going on. The invaders were a large contengent of dark knights under the comand of Veren Duthjack. From what Alexander told me, you know who Duthjack is allready. Anyway, They gave our people the choice of fighting or giving up everything we had just to survive. Obviously our people weren't going to give up just like that. Well, a battle insued and against our fathers rules, we were watching from the tree line. In that battle Duthjack killed Alexander's father, but just to add insult to injury, he did it with the generals very own sword. Alexander ran out onto the feild, not giving any thought to the attacking knights. When he made it to his father's side, Dolmen was just on the verge of dying. Once he did die though, well, you can just emagin Alexander's reaction. He got up, drew his sword, and ran straight for Duthjack, killing any knight of the opposite side that got in his way. There was a short little bit of fighting but Alexander was no match for him. After seeing Alexander's skill at his age, he spared his life, giving him the challenge to train, to fully become a knight, and come back to fight him again. Duthjack said that if Alexander was any example of the abbilities of our village, it at least deserved a little respect and he promised to leave it alone if Alex took the challenge. As you can see, he finnished his training, mostly under my father but later, after my father had nothing else to teach, he started teaching himself. He even learned a few simple magic incantations along the way." "Wait a second Sir Khan'tresh," Lutra interupted the story quickly. "He knows magic? But he didn't use any the other day when he helped me out with those knights. It would have made it alot easier." Trent shook his head and chuckled a little bit. "Are you kidding me?" He said quickly, still chuckling a little bit. "Even through the most intense training, someone his size couldn't possibly move that fast. Even that bastard Duthjack uses a little magic to give him the edge. He normally uses a spell that helps you slow things down in your mind to make sure you don't make any wrong moves." He imediatly stopped talking after he noticed Lutra's almost scared face. "You... you don't have a probelm with magic, do you?" Lutra nodded slightly and answered in a whisper. "Actually, I'm kinda scared of people who use magic to hurt somebody. It scares me when I know that someone can turn around and use it on me." She began to squeze the arm of the chair as her breathing began to speed up. Trent noticed her fear and reached over, clutching her paw comfortingly under his own. "I'm sorry about that Miss. Lutra, but I can promise you that he won't ever use it against. He only uses it against Duthjack and his men. Anyway, about him helping you out, I can't just not tell you so here it is, he did that for himself. If it hadn't been for them being on Duthjack's payroll he wouldn't have done anything. But I don't want you to worry because he did see something in you that he truly does love and I can gaurantee it. He told himself that he wouldn't have relationships so he wouldn't have any obstacles in his way, but there was something about you that caught his eye, so there has too truly be something there that he loves." "Yes Trent, there is something there that I truly love about her," Alexander said softly as he leaned over to kiss Lutra. Lutra didn't react at first but it only took a moment for her heart to stop beating out of her chest from Alexander's surprise to reach up, wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him back. Once they finally decided to let eachother breathe, Lutra tried to stand and give her love a seat but he wouldn't have it. Alexander put his paw on her shoulder and said, "Honey, a knight is the one to give up his seat to a buetiful such as yourself, not the other way around. You just stay right there and I'll pull up a chair." As Alexander was just putting his paw on a chair Trent stould up and cleared his throat to get his friends attention. "There's no need for that Alex, we've got business to atend to. It hasn't been easy following you without you knowing but I've had some assistance from a few old friends. I don't expect you to know them because they came to our village after you kinda... flipped your lid after your father's death. Anyway, here they are," At that Trent put paw over the table and muttered an incantation under his breath. Just as he did this the air in the tavern began to swirl around, condensing itself at the table and three bodies materialized at the chairs around the table, (including the one Alexander was about to pull up). Out of instinct Alexander reached for his dagger but Trent snatched his wrist. "Whoah buddy, slow down. They're my friends," Trent said as the furs fully came into view at the table. Alexander pointed to the fur closest to them, a huge lion dressed in the full armor outfit of the Draconis village. At his side was a very intemadating axe with what looked to be a dragon incircling the upper half of the handle. His golden mane shown brightly in the sun light that was now coming in through the window. Though he was absolutely huge, he was still a little short in muscle and hieght compared to Alexander. "This is Aslan Shasta, son of General Saleem Shasta," Trent said and Aslan gave a polite nodd towards Alexander. Trent then pointed to a very sleek saimeese cat, at least what you could see of her was sleek. She was almost completely covered with what must have been a ninja's or an assasin's outfit. She had two katanas strapped to her back and several daggers and throughing shuriken elswere on her outfit. "This would be Bree Aravis, daughter of Miraz Aravis." Bree stould up and a gave a bow, (like what one would see in matial arts sparring), and said, "It is an honnor to meet you Sir Alexander." "Like wise Miss. Aravis," Alexander replied pollitely, returing the bow even though it was completley different from what he was used to. As Bree sat back down Trent continued around the table. He pointed to the next and finall fur along the table. It was a tall but thin snow rabbit wearing a long cerimaonial robe and a black staff clutched in his paw. The staff had a bright green gem ambedded in the top that almost seemed to be glowing. "And this here is Lorien Shinasta. By the way, I wouldn't underestimate him. Though he's young he is the greatest sorcerer I've ever seen." Lorien Chuckled a little bit and said, "Stop being so boastfull Trent, I'm not that good." "Oh really Lorien?" Trent said sarcastically. Out of the corner of his eye Alexander noticed that Trent's paw was forming several magic symbols. As he completed the symbols a spark of flame hovered over his open paw and started growning. "We'll just see about... THAT!" He brought his paw out from behind his back and threw what was now a full blown fire ball at Lorien. Lorien just smiled and waved his paw once before the fire could hit him. By the time it even got within a two feet of Lorien's face the flame had completely disipated.
Copyright © 2004 Draco Streaver |