[Iscariot]

Synopsis: Small piece of a larger story


It had taken Ash the better part of the night to find Kayla and escape the kidnappers’ safe house. It would all be worth it though if he could just have one assignment on record without any complications, but about an hour away from Kojin he began to realize that this wasn’t going to be that one assignment.
Something was wrong, the air had been dry and hot, the kind that makes your eyes water, and the smell, something was wrong in the forest of the Green Majes. By the time they arrived in the village he realized that he had just failed the first assignment of his career…

“Stop following me.” He said it calmly enough, but it was obvious that he was getting frustrated.

“And then what?” Kayla’s face twisted into a scowl. “If I don’t go with you, then what do you want me to do?”

He turned sharply to face her. “I don’t care what you do with yourself just leave me alone.” He stared her down for a moment before he spun around and kept walking.

“What in the hell is this? You save me just to leave me to die out here?” She took a few quick steps to catch backup with him. He looked at the barren landscape around them.

This is pretty pathetic, I wouldn’t want to die here, but does she have to come with me?

“I didn’t rescue you as a good deed; I’d been hired to take you back home.”

And I did my job, too bad someone decided to raze your village before I got back with you.

“Well I don’t have a home anymore, so should I just lie down and give up?” She had to lift her skirt out of her path to keep up with him. “I don’t think so, I wasn’t raised that way, and as far as following you if I had anywhere else to go maybe I would go off on my own.”

“No you wouldn’t. If you’re going to come with me the least you can do is not lie.” He ducked under a blackened branch. Though that explains very little as the only trees still standing were twisted and black. Ash and soot were so thick that some areas of the burnt out forest seem to be snowing dark flakes.

This place was green and verdant just a couple days ago. Whoever set it aflame must have had several mages, and even then they must have been quite proficient.

“Ash, what do you think did this to the forest?” Her tone had changed, she was sad.

“I don’t know really, but I have some ideas.” Ash wasn’t the kind of person to talk freely of theories and speculation. He was a man of facts.

“So?”

“So what?”

“So what do you think burnt down the forest?” There was that spark again.

“Damn it Kayla, I don’t know, it could have been anything. Bandits with magik abilities, an elemental rift might have opened, maybe an Aestuo beast, or maybe some kid was just playing with matches.”

Once I get back to Ferin, maybe Master Wilhelm will know something.

“I can’t believe you.” Kayla stopped.

Ash stopped to and turned back to her. “What can’t you bel-” Kayla’s hand cracked into the side of his face with enough force to nearly knock him off balance.

“How can you be so casual talking about my friends and family? They’re all dead now and you don’t even care!” There were tears in her eyes and her skin had begun to change from its normal soft pink to a low red.

He stood straight and rubbed his jaw a bit. A large red contusion was forming on the left side of his face. He kept his expression stoic and his body language only belied an infinitesimal amount of anger, but his eyes were throwing daggers at the seventeen year old girl. “Kayla, you said it yourself they were your friends and family, not mine. I don’t care.”

Tears welled up in her eyes and she took another swing at him. This time though he was facing her and could easily avoid it. He caught her hand and stopped it dead still.

He grabbed her face firmly, if not roughly, with his free hand and forced her to hold his gaze. “Listen to me closely because I won’t ever warn you again. The price I was offered for your pretty little head is never going to get paid. I am still allowing you to follow me out of pity, but if you ever take another swing at me I will not hesitate to send you to join your friends and family.” He released her and started off again, she was in a daze though and tumbled backward to land flat on her behind.

Damn it all, not only is she a whiny little thing she has an attitude. I guess she must not agree with the Green Maje ideals of pacifism.

He stopped to look back. Kayla was still sitting on the black forest floor, arms wrapped around her, sobbing and shaking like a sick child.

She reminds me of someone… maybe a dream… maybe.

He stood there for a moment just staring at her.

That same feeling, just like when I found her in the bunker. Something in the back of my mind, making me want to be nice to her or sympathetic or something. I mean if this had been some other botched job I would have been home by now and I wouldn’t have cared what happened, but I do care. Why did I stay with her when we returned to Kojin? The village was destroyed I knew I wouldn’t get paid, so what made me wait until she stopped crying before I left?

Ash shook his head in disbelief of what he was doing.

Why is she affecting me so much? Why can’t I just leave her behind?

He went over to her and lifted her into arms. Kayla pounded her fist into his torso and tried to make some kind of argument, but she was crying too hard to articulate any words except, ‘I hate you.’ Before long though she stopped flailing and buried her face in his chest continuing to wail, soaking his already stained white shirt.


* * *


It had taken Ash another two days to get back to Ferin, by which point the news of Kojin’s destruction had already preceded them. He could have made the trip in half the time except that he found his pace reduced drastically by the fact that he had to carry Kayla for a good majority of the way. He delivered a briefing of his mission and was disappointed to find that even Master Wilhelm was at a loss for any information over this event. The people of Kojin were pacifists and humanitarians by practice. The concept that they could have enemies was almost as implausible as the fact that Kojin no longer existed.

Ash left a sleeping Kayla in the care of the medical ward. Master Wilhelm had been surprised to hear that Ash had brought her back, but he was nonetheless willing to take the orphaned girl in and admit her into the academy.

“Have you seen any of her spells?” Wilhelm was thumbing through the details of the assignment.

“No, sir, she hasn’t even attempted any magik in our time together.” Ash tried his best to keep a professional tone, but he could feel his exhaustion getting the better of him.

“I see,” Wilhelm closed the folder and began plucking his long slate colored beard. “Ash, do you know why you were sent to retrieve the young lady?”

What in hell does that mean, because Elder Dasein requested we find her.

“We receive several requests to find or rescue missing persons every day. We take on what we can, but as an institution we cannot be overly charitable. If a client lacks the finances, or an assignment lacks a certain level of importance we cannot expend ourselves to take the job.”

Ash was losing his grip on his façade of stoicism, half of him didn’t care why he had gone to get her, and the other half just didn’t want any new information to complicate things.

I wonder if I should just request permission to leave.

“Ash, are you paying attention?”

“Yes sir.”

For a little longer.

Wilhelm gave Ash a quizzical look before continuing. “I’m guessing that Minister Touvro failed to fully inform you of the significance of this assignment,” Master Wilhelm sighed and gave a frustrated shake of his head before handing the folder outlining the details of Ash’s mission to him. “Go ahead take a look, your briefing was meant to already deliver this knowledge to you.”

Damn it all, I just want to put this assignment behind me.

He woefully opened the binder and began to read over the information he had been dispatched without knowing.

“As I am sure you know, the majority of our medical staff was trained by the Green Majes, and, given a worst case scenario, keeping up good relations with Dasein and his people assured us emergency medical treatment if a problem exceeded our ability to deal with it.” He sat back down at his desk his long robes tightening around his shoulders as his weight pinned them into place. The long sleeves and skirt of the Headmaster’s regalia draped over his chair in such a way that he seemed to be lounging in great crimson and violet tapestries.

Seeing the headmaster in uniform you would think he was some aged scholar who had never held a sword.

Ash shifted his attention back to the assignment briefing. From what he could tell it was just the usual tedious details. The first couple pages were strictly dedicated to the financial and urgency agreements. It wasn’t until about the third and fourth page that the document began to focus on the actual operation.

Kayla Pessei, seventeen, brown hair, green eyes, Magik Aura, Plant division. She has a pretty high level of mana dictation. What?

“Found it?” Wilhelm was looking him over with an unwavering eye. “She isn’t just some girl who went missing, Dasein wasn’t the kind to enlist the use of force unless absolutely necessary.”

She was Dasein’s fucking heiress. The one who would have lead Kojin once he stepped down.

Ash closed the folder and sat it back on Wilhelm’s desk. “So what are you going to do with her?” Ash’s tone was somewhere between curious and confused.

“I will offer her a place at the academy. If Dasein chose her to follow him she must be quite talented, and I think the school could do well with an expert medic in our ranks.”

“What if she doesn’t want to stay?”

“Then that is her prerogative. Though if she truly meant to go off on her own I doubt she would have followed you here.” There was a slight smirk on his chapped lips and a full-fledged smile in his eyes.

“Understood, That is all for my report.”

“Very well, Ash you are free to go. Oh, and don’t worry about the mission, technically you still fulfilled your duty. Kayla is safe. So your record won’t suffer any.”

…Great


* * *


Ash was trying to lose himself in the smoky limbo of the greasy bar. He didn’t like the people there, at least not in any particular way. That is not to say that he had any sort of ill will toward them. They just more or less were a part of the environment, some background noise to help block out his thoughts.

He could almost feel that familiar haze settling over his brain, but at that moment a sharp voice was ever so slightly piercing the ruckus around him.

“Ash!” Kayla spun back and forth in half circles shouting for him over the cacophony of voices, her long braids swinging wildly with each twirl of her head.

What is she doing here? I just wanted to relax, forget about the past week, and relax.

Ash stayed in his seat, not wanting to attract attention to himself yet. As he sat off waiting for her to find him, two men rose up to almost completely block her way. Kayla seemed to stay calm with this confrontation. Judging from her expression that spark was surfacing again. He couldn’t help but ponder over just what words were slipping off of that sharp little tongue of hers.

She spoke, the men seemed to grunt. She crossed her arms and shot out another phrase that got lost in the din, the men audibly laughed. One of them made a grab at Kayla and she twisted away.

Ash decided it was time to be found.

He closed the distance to the scene in an incredibly subtle way. No one even took notice of the haste at which he crossed the tavern. Shortly before he took the final steps up to the unfolding event the man to his left had grabbed at Kayla again and this time he got a tight grip on her upper arm. He was a burly brutish looking man, bald with a thick mangy graying beard, and a bulgy set of eyes too close together around a bulbous and broken nose. His hunching shoulders made him immediately resemble a gorilla with a hair deficiency, more than a man should have, but too sparse for an ape. Then Ash took a look at the other man and immediately realized the gorilla was the attractive one.

Typical Mercenaries I suppose. You would think a few freelancers would give a damn about their appearance.

“Ash! There you are!” Kayla’s eyes lit up as he came into sight. She tore away from her captor and rushed to his side, standing very slightly behind him. Ash stood there for a moment shifting glances from Kayla to the men and back again.

“Hmgh, so this pansy is your boyfriend?” The gorilla gave Ash a quick look over. “Shit girlie, this guy ain’t gonna be able to keep me from you.”

Ash glanced over his shoulder at Kayla, a questioning eyebrow raised, ‘boyfriend.’ She blushed a bit, but that spark hadn’t left her yet. “He’s a lot stronger than he looks so you had better just sit your asses down and keep dreaming.”

“Look buddy, just get outta my way and keep quiet and the princess her only has to have one tragedy tonight.” This time the other man spoke. He was bigger not just in height, but all around. Judging from the way he had been fingering his holstered dagger since he had come into sight he was also the more experienced of the two, by a substantial amount. Ash knew what would happen; now he just had to decide when it happened.

“I can imagine what you have in mind, and most nights I wouldn’t care, but I know this girl and you two had better listen to her if want to leave tonight.” Ash stayed calm, and spoke slowly. He measured his words and was ready for them.

The big guy had his dagger out with a twirl of his hand and was lunging for the kill.

Now.

Quicker than a thought several thin blades shot forward around Ash. The big man stopped short, his own blade still nearly a good two feet from Ash’s chest. Seven blades burst out from Ash, the first slid perfectly into the joints of the man’s wrist. The next four razors struck at equal distances around his chest. The last two blades pierced directly through his swollen red eyes, so deep in fact that nearly six inches of the blades were protruding from the back of his skull.

It had taken less than a second. The big guy was dead, and his friend hadn’t the slightest idea what to do now. Unfortunately for him Ash had already decided what would happen. The small red gem in Ash’s right hand gave off a quick flash of light. In the next instant the big guy’s body became a scarlet smear across the bar as the blades took the quickest route to their next target. Cutting a straight angle, the little razors reached the gorilla before he could even turn to see them coming. Going completely through the smaller man, the blades retracted around Ash again before the corpse even had time to fall into sliced hunks of meat.

Two men reduced to indiscernible piles of flesh and blood in little less than three seconds. The slithering little blades dropped quickly and shrank down around the red gem, which them situated itself around Ash’s wrist and reformed into the small silver bracelet he always wore.

A bar fight is always something to rouse a bit of excitement in all of the other patrons, and even one as quick and one-sided as this was not much of an exception. As some of the more inebriated men grabbed their weapons and dove at Ash, or in some instances one another, a slight sigh escaped from Ash’s lips.

“Kayla, stay behind me.”

I don’t have enough energy to hold back.


* * *

About an hour or so later, Ash and Kayla were sitting towards the eastern bloc of the Academy. The lake was on that side as well as a few of the more luscious tree lines. Kayla had spotted a hill on the way to the Dull Edge that she had wanted to stop at and look off. As soon as the crowd had thinned enough for them to reach the exit Ash had grabbed her hand and ran.

Ash could see the confusion in her eyes as he dragged her out of the bar. She obviously didn’t know what to think of him, rightly so he thought he didn’t quite know what to think of himself lately either. He couldn’t lie to himself anymore she was affecting him significantly.

They had been sitting silently for the most part for nearly twenty minutes, until Kayla finally broke the calm. Ash was laying back his arms thrown out above his head.

Kayla reached over and gently touched the bracelet on his right wrist. It felt solid, but she had seen it, the way it twisted and moved, it seemed to be made of liquid at those times. “Ash, why did you kill those men?”

“I don’t know, I don’t ever really think about why I kill anyone.” His tone never faltered, his face never changed, and his eyes never opened.

“But, I mean there had to be a reason, right? You’re not just some relentless killing machine.”

He rolled his head to look over at her, to look her straight in the eyes. “What makes you say that? Just how well do you think you know me after just these past four days?”

“A hell of a lot better than I bet a lot of people know you.”

I do wonder were that temper comes from.

“Humor me, just what have you learned about me?”

Kayla took a breath before going into this. “First of all, you are complicated, not in the romantic and mysterious way. You are complicated in the serious psychological issues and probably not many friends way.” See kept her eyes locked on him as she spoke.

Smart ass.

“You don’t like intimacy and have an extremely high level of apathy for life in general. Yet, despite this you have a certain dedication to what you do that you are possibly the best at it, even if it’s not all that pretty,” She paused for a moment to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. “You have scars much deeper than any physical injury. You are a loner by nature but will work with others when necessary and protect them. And you love mushrooms.”

At the end of her analysis he took a deep breath and waited a moment before responding. “So how long did it take you to read over my Academy file?”

“That obvious, huh?”

“Yeah, how else would you have known about mushrooms,” Ash pushed himself to his feet and started down to the school. “Don’t stay out to late or else the guard won’t let you in.”

“Hey Ash,” he stopped. “There is still one thing I know about you that isn’t in your file.”

He waited quietly.

“You wouldn’t have exerted yourself to save most people like you did for me,” She hopped up and ran to his side. “You saved me, twice now, it’s because you’re changing,” She gave him a kiss on the cheek and sped off down the hill. She stopped suddenly and tilted her head back to look up at him. “Or maybe, you love me.” She smiled.

Freaking smart ass.

[Iscariot]

Does anyone have any comments?

[Peppy]

Well, well, it was interesting. To me anyways, there isn't really a beginning, just a fragment. Why? Well, the heartless character changed without reason, just because something came over him, without reason. Character building, man, is misssing mostly.

As for this, I think words are missing:

"...I am (not) letting (you) come with me out of pity, but if you ever take another swing at me I will not hesitate to send you to join your friends and family."

[Peppy]

P.S. there are like "category of the month" from time to time, one moment a category is popular than it's the dead next...until a later date, but who knows when that will be? To me, looks like people are reading any category they choose.

[Iscariot]

Thank you, Peppy, for the advice, I'll try to clean up/change what you have suggested.

[RENA HANDS]

The sentence warrants a question mark, yes? "..I wouldn't want to die here, but does she have to come with me?" Did you intentionally mean to spell magic with a "k?" You have seen "Dungeon and Dragons?" The mention of "the Green Maje Ideals of pacifism," what is this? And what is the larger story? The writing seems too short there must be more information to tell whatever story that you have in your mind.

[Evrviglnt]

Good set up - bounty hunter of sorts off to pick up a girl but her village is razed, so he's stuck with her. Why she left the village, so that he had to go and get her, we don't know yet, but time will tell.

There are some minor mistakes:

This is pretty pathetic, I wouldn't want to die here, but does she have to come with me?

That last part is a question, right?

"And I did my job too bad someone decided to raze your village before I got back with you.

No commas. "And I did my job, too bad someone decided to raze your village before I got back with you."

I know it seems petty, like spelling mistakes - but grammar mistakes can rob you of the emotion your trying to inspire in your reader. Commas are tempo devices, use them to pivot or define a point your making.

This paragraph:

He released her and started off again, she was in a daze though and tumbled backward to land flat on her behind. Damn it all, not only is she a whiny little thing she has an attitude. I guess she must not agree with the Green Maje ideals of pacifism.

I'm expecting that the line "Damn it all, not only is she a whiny little thing (missing comma) she has an attitude (missing exclamation point) is meant also to be italicized. I like the tactic of differentiating between thought, dialogue and storyline, but be careful that you get it all, otherwise you have situations where you go from objective storyline to subjective storyline, and it sounds out of place.

One last thing - you can always go back and tweek your stories - fixing them and changing little things, smoothing things out. I do that a lot to my stories, always going back and rereading them, cleaning them up. The edit button is our friend...

[Iscariot]

Thank you. I went back and have edited a few of the mistakes that have been pointed out. And yes I did mean to spell magic with a 'k', just to change the setup of the world very slightly.

[Iscariot]

Editted some things and added a little bit.

I think it helps a little, but there is always room for improvement.

[Odanion]

Hmm...nice piece of tekst...I can only hope to see this develop...seems like it could make a nice story...although from this piece of tekst the name makes no sense (Another reason to keep going)

Description may have been a little on the low side...but the conversation seemed to flow nicely between the two...plus the girl punching him gets my two thumbs up (Even though if I was in the story I would be the one getting hit ) Somethings DID seems a little simple...stating that he easily dodged the next punch doesn't really give the reader a visual of HOW he dodged it...easily isn't much of a how...simply stating he did

But like I said...update! Me wants more! ( )

[Epinephrine]

hmm, interesting work. good job

[Iscariot]

Added some work. Been a while I have been busy

[Venomous Vixen]

“Look buddy, just get outta my way and keep quiet and the princess her only has to have one tragedy tonight.”

here

I truly enjoyed this. You have very vivid imagery and character development. I was not put off so much by the beginning... for some reason it worked for me to just jump right in to the story (and also you provided the necessary background throughout the rest).

What put me off was the end, lol, I want more! I have to admit I am biased here, this is my favorite kind of story, a bit of adventure, fantasy, sci-fi and romance all rolled up together. Hope you finish this one up!

[Mr Morbid]

good story. almost has a DragonLance feel to it, but with origionality. i liked it.

[FoxInari]

I like it. It does have a Dragonlance / Forgotten Realms feel to it, but with a different kind of narration. I like the way you set apart Ash's thoughts to comment on the action, but also had very descriptive narration as well.