So this is a story i wrote for a short story class, i like it and intented to go on with it but the co creator of the world this is set in stopped coming to my college and so it is left un finished, i hope to one day go back and finish the story but as of yet have not been inspired or had the time
Runt's Riseing
It took a few moments to steady the spinning world around him. But he was able to walk at least. He brushed the dry dirt from his red fur and He took a few steps. He decided he had to go to class and he would tell the elder after his lesson’s like he always did, though he knew it would do no good. He was told to always let the elder handle discipline of the trouble makers and not to take matters into his own paws, as much as he would like to before he could he would need to learn to fight first.
He reached his lesson just in time to hear the scholar say “today you will take a look at the different positions around town and think about what you will be doing with the rest of your life. we have here the elders of each of the fields, if you are interested in learning to teach others as I have taught you then you will talk to me, interested in running a shop of any kind you will go to the respective shop on town and talk to the keep, carpenters will talk with Oyunu here” He turned and presented the burly male on his right “those of you interested in being a warrior will talk with Hometa here” he presented the beautiful two tail to his left. She was a rarity, the two tails where gifted by the gods to very few, Moko was always jealous that he had only one. “And there is a special honor here today” he stepped down and allowed a man to step up and talk to the students.
“I’m here representing the Templers we protect the temples deep in the forest as well as the villages, we only accept the most skilled people and we visit all the towns by year this happens to be your villages year. We will be looking for anyone in the village that wants to join but that’s no guarantee that we will take anyone. There will be three tests over the next three days. Any who wish to join will talk to me. I’ll be at the Isilia surprise inn here in town.” said the man.
Moko stood there- that’s it, away to beat the others at something and get away from this town- he made the mental note to visit the man at the inn later this afternoon for now he would run to town and train with the local guard as he always did in secret. He was not a weakling thought he was the runt of his class. So the guards let him train and kept it from his classmates so they wouldn’t harass him. He walked the short way to town through the woods to avoid any of the other kits. It was an uneventful half hour walk to town this way but it prevented him from getting into another fight to soon, he was still hurting from the last one but it was wearing off. And soon he had made it to the guard quarters. The place was filled with bows, staffs and a few swords. Moko had been training with a staff but he wanted to learn to use a sword. He looked at the swords for a moment and picked one up it was heavy and it seemed to off balance him.
“You don’t want that one” came a voice from behind him. Hometa was standing there she had a slight snarl about her and her pointed ears where dropped slightly back allowing the hoops to hang
“How can I tell which one is good for me?” He asked her.
She smiled happy that someone still wanted her help rather than the pompous templar that was in town, “you want to pick one closer to leg length at most I use one with a blade a knee high” she showed him a shorter sword that, when he picked it up seemed like an extension of his arm.
He took a swing at a practice dummy and felt the piece of metal slice through the air like it was nothing and land solidly on the wood. “I like how it feels” he told her
“Be careful with that it can be as dangerous to you as it can to others but I want you to take it and practice with it.” Hometa said. “Now go and start your normal practice then I’ll teach you to use the sword before you take it home”
“yes ma’am” he responded immediately and he ran to the next room and made a few warm up laps around the outside of the barracks before coming back in and picking up a 6” bo staff and walking into the sparring room. The guards new he was good with the staff and loved to challenge him, he would accept any challenge except sharpened weapons. He could disarm his opponents with ease but he didn’t want to take his chances during training. He looked around and found three guards ready for a sparring match, each had a different weapon which Moko liked, it would challenge him more having to adapt to each weapon instantly. One had a wooden flail that he had never fought against before. “Alright for this match I want you three to work together and try to beat me” Moko stated
“Alright” the three replied in unison
They walked onto the sparring mats and readied themselves.
“Go” said Moko as he readied himself against the first attack the man had a wooden sword and dagger as his weapons Moko parried the dagger and it flew across the room and just barley dodged the sword thrust as an attack came at him with the flail. He knelt and angled the staff to the right and let the blunt head hit the staff it bounced to the right and Moko came with a swing from the ground knocking the guy in the jaw. He fell where he stood unconscious that was lucky he swung the staff around his back to slow it momentum from the swing.
There was a crowd gathering around the mats now and the templar was in the front row watching this bout. Hometa Snarling in his direction she did not want him in her barracks at all and certainly didn’t want him scouting her favorite student. She was pleased that Moko handled the new weapon so well but the fighter was also unskilled with it. And a real one would break his wooden staff in an instant. Fortunately he was quick but he would still need some teaching before he was ready to handle a true flail.
The guy with the sword charged Moko again and was completely disarmed but in the same instant the third guy, also with a Bo staff, tripped Moko from behind and he landed flat on his back. The staff was coming down on his head but he rolled out of the way and onto his paws he jumped up from that position with an attack of his own but it was blocked.
The third guy was skilled with a staff and he didn’t seem familiar to Moko but it didn’t matter he was an opponent just the same and he must be from the village in order to be fighting here. The red furred man was fast enough to block Moko’s attack which in this village was saying something.
As the spectators watched Moko and the man they were getting faster and faster with their attacks, until they were almost a blur to the viewers, it became hard to tell which was which in the battle both were red blurs. Moko was the shorter one as everyone knew. However as the attacks meet both seemed to be the same height.
Moko was moving his fastest and his opponent matched it. He was good but not used to this speed and the size of his opponent which gave Moko the advantage in this fight. He settled on a plan. He hit the ground with one foot and with an extra burst of speed let loose a flurry of attacks on his opponent. The first and second attacks where deflected but the third struck home and sent the man sprawling on the floor. Moko lowered the end of his staff to the guy’s throat. “Do you concede the fight” he asked him
“Yes, good show” came a woman’s voice from the man on the floor.
This sent Moko for a loop how could he have missed that his opponent was a women. He looked at her and saw that under the tunic against the red fur were bands off white cloth. She was hiding the fact that she was a girl. “Why do you hide the fact that you are a woman” Moko asked her in a whisper.
Her eyes widened when he said these words, she took something from her pocket and crushed it in her hand. A heavy smoke filled the room and by the time it had cleared she was gone. The people in the room where coughing from the smoke with the exception of a few such as Moko and Hometa who covered their mouth and nose fast enough, the women was gone and somehow had left leaving almost no trace, A rare skill even among the greatest hunters of the village.
She seemed to have gone unnoticed from the village, though Moko could not stop thinking about her. Not because she was extremely pretty, having only one tail put her on average with the rest of the women of the village but the fact that she wore no earrings to show her skill. Moko himself had 6 hoops in each ear, a testament to his skill, and yet she was almost as skilled as he and wore nothing. This intrigued Moko and he settled on asking her why the next time they met, if ever.
For the rest of the day the elders looked and discussed this turn of events and went about forming a search party to find this woman. Moko being in training was not eligible to go and search and so settled for doing his chores for the day. He returned home and made dinner for him and his mother. After they ate he went to bed and dreamed of the young woman from the sparring match.
She was on the ocean in a small fast ship it was leading other larger ships to a nearby beach. She was kneeling in front of a large ox like person, it had short, up-turned horns on its head and it looked hunched over but still tall. It had a stocky muscular body and a large axe on its back. It was surrounded by deer like people, they had short tan fur and short horns on the top of their head they had a white patch under the jaw bone and black fur around the eyes. The ox guy had an axe on his back and not much in the way of clothes other than a metal shirt. The deer like people were wearing leather pants and a short sleeved tunic they had a leather belt and a rapier hanging from it. The girl was the only Noyon among all the people Moko could see in his dream.
“There was only one skilled enough to beat me master” she said to the ox in front of her “he was small, but fast. He has training so I would guess there are a few that are just as good if not better than him. But the others are weak and easily taken” she had said
“This makes me happy it is high time we had an easy capture” said the ox “we will send in 40 as a strike force and the rest of us will follow.” He said to the deer standing around him “is that clear” he shouted.
“Yes sir” the reply came.
Moko awoke sweating in his bed, it seemed so real, he looked around and realized that it was still dark out, he put the dream out of his mind and went back to sleep. He slept without dreaming for the rest of the night. He woke in the morning; it was a day of Saturn so there were no teachings today. Moko decided he would train for the day at the barracks he took the most direct route, he had remembered he forgot his sword at the barracks yesterday. He would have to train with it today and take it home tonight, he was deep in thought about what he was going to do today to train when he ran into the templar. He started and stared at the man “I’m sorry sir I wasn’t watching where I was going” he said to the man
“It ok kid, wait you’re the boy from yesterdays sparring match at the gym aren’t you.” Said the templar
“y-yes sir” Moko stuttered he had never been greeted as a combatant before and it through him off a bit form his normal strong voice
“Well I would like to say I enjoyed your performance and as a result have passed the first test in becoming a templar if you wish. I would like to offer you….” He trailed off “did you hear that”
Moko perked his ears and listened for a moment before hearing it was faint but it was there “is someone calling for help?” he asked
“It would seem but it’s also getting closer” he said “come on let go find out what’s going on.”
Moko had never traveled far in this direction so was unsure of what was out there. They were running for about ten minutes, the yelling getting louder and louder. It was close now and they soon broke free of the jungle and out into a field of grass. The yelling was coming from behind them now somehow they had passed it but neither of the two
standing there seemed to care they were too busy staring at the white sails just off the shore of their island. Moko recognized the ships from his dreams they were coming this way and somehow he knew the girl from the day before was on board one of them.
