5 guards dragged a young, female Drey down a dark hallway.  She struggled, kicking one of them in the shin with her powerful legs.  He let go of her, and one of the other 4 guards hit her upside the head with the flat of his sword, knocking her unconscious.
    When she awoke, she was lying in a small, dark, and wet prison cell.  Her wrists were chained together with shackles.  There was no food, and the only water was that dripping from the ceiling.   The sword that had knocked her unconscious had been her own, Akumu, as she called the blade, or nightmare in Japanese.
    She was a Drey.  The Drey were strongly built, humanoid creatures.  But their faces had odd markings on them, and a human might have mistaken them for tattoos.  Also, they had odd, dragon-like tails, and elfin ears.
    Her name was Shi.  She was especially strong for a Drey, even though Drey were stronger than most races.  Her eyes were a dull gray, her hair a sandy brown.  A black sundress covered her thin body.  Her body was covered in many scars, and some new wounds that still bled from the battles she had fought.  Shi was only 14, and yet she was one of the most vital warriors of the war.  And now she lay here, battered, beaten, weaponless, and trapped with no means of escape.
    She sat up, feeling the throbbing pain in her head.  Looking about, she took into stock that there were no windows.  This place must be underground, she thought to herself.  A cold droplet of water splattered on her face.  She looked up, and saw strange patterns of moss growing on the ceiling.  Cracks, worn from the water, no less, maybe she could use them to her advantage.
    Shi’s sharp ears caught a noise outside of her cell.  Someone, a guard most likely, walked past.  The person stopped, turned around, and walked back, stopping at her cell.  A key put in a lock, turning, then a click.  The door slid open a bit.  Shi lunged forward as the being poked its head inside.  She halted.  The face was that of a Drey, not a Kage.           '    “Who…who are you?” Shi stammered.
    The Drey smiled at her.  “Can’t tell you that, young Shi.”
    Shi knew how many people knew of her name, and how few of them knew what it meant.  “You know my name, no surprise, but do you know what it means?”
    “Your name means death, if I am right,” he replied.
    “What’s your name?” Shi inquired again.
    “I told you, I can’t tell you my name.”
    “Then what do you want?” she asked.
    “To give you this.”  He dropped a small crystal dagger to the ground.  It was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, concealed entirely.
    “Are you working for the Kage?”
    “Yes and no,” he said, and then slid the door shut, locking it.

    Shi had wanted to fight in the war since she was 9 years old.  The Kage had killed her family, mother, father, her older sister, and her baby brother.  The only reason she lived was because they either thought her dead, or had left her to bleed to death.  The Kage set fire to the house, and Shi would have died, if not from the wounds she had suffered, but by burning to death.  Shi was saved by a group of Drey that were traveling by and saw the house aflame.  They dragged her out, and nursed her back to health.  A month or so after the incident, she forged her blade, Akumu, and fought the Kage with a deep-rooted hatred for them.

    Shi held the crystal dagger in the palm of her hand.  “I wonder who he was?” she asked herself out loud.  Another cold droplet of water splattered on her head.  Looking up again, she got an idea.  She reached up, placing her hand on the ceiling, feeling along the cracks.  Her fingers suddenly slipped into one of them, and she began to scrape away the moss with the dagger.  Wet mud and moss fell onto her face as she revealed the deep crack.
    She pressed hard against the stone, felt it shift.  Shi continued to scrape away more moss and mud.  When she had finished, she could see that the stone block she had uncovered was no longer connected with the rest of the ceiling.  Again, she pressed against the stone.  It came loose, and fell to the ground, on top of her.  Shi shoved the block off of her as she heard the sound of feet racing toward her.  She lifted herself into the crevice just as one of the guards unlocked the door.
    The Kage walked into the cell.  He was tall, his body wrapped in animal skins and bands of cloth.  The only part of him that Shi could see were his glowing red eyes, and the crown of spikes that grew out of his head.  He had a double bladed war ax strapped to his back, and he carried Shi’s sword, Akuma.
    Bad move, buddy.  The Kage was right below her now.  All it took was a matter of seconds before Shi had the chain connecting her shackles wrapped around the Kage’s neck.  He dropped the sword, and reached up to try and loosen the chain that was strangling him, as well as pull Shi down.
    He was unsuccessful.  In a matter of 5 or 6 minutes, the Kage stopped struggling.  Shi leapt down from the ceiling, grabbing up her sword.  She sliced off the Kage’s head, to both free her hands, and make sure he was dead.
The other guard that had come with the headless one lying on the floor took a few steps back and unslung his own double bladed ax.  Shi leapt forward.  The Kage swung the ax.  Shi dodged under it, and with an upward arcing stroke of her blade, sliced the guard neatly in half.
    Shi ran the way she had heard the guards coming before.  This place is an absolute maze, she thought to herself.  She rounded a corner.  A door!  Shi flung open the door.  A darkened tunnel lay before her.  You guys aren’t much on security, are ya’?
    She took a step into the hallway.  It had a high ceiling because of the fact that the Kage were so tall.  Shi saw, out of the corner of her eye, a shadow slipped silently by her.  She wiped around to face it.  I know it’s a Kage.  No other creature I know of can move around like a friggin’ shadow!
    The shadow seamed to almost materialize in front of her.  The Kage’s eyes glared at her like a pair of red-hot coals.  Shi scowled.  There isn’t enough room in here for armed combat, I’ll have to defeat him with my own hands, or I could run, and try to lose him.
    Shi ran.  The dark tunnel split, and she went right.  Another door, and this one had light seeping from around the hinge.  The Kage was still after her, so she barreled strait through the door.
    On the other side of the door was a banquet hall.  A long table set in the center, surrounded by Kage, who all looked up at her when she broke through the door.  Shi ran into the room.  Leaping onto the table, she sprinted towards the other side of the room.  Her sword held out to the side, she sliced off the hands, arms, and even a few heads, of those who couldn’t get out of the way.  Shi spotted a bread bowl, reached down and grabbed up one of the rolls.  She stuffed it into her mouth as she ran.  Mmmm…. not bad!
    She leapt off the table, the Kage still chasing her, as well as those who had been sitting at the table.  Shi spun around, swinging her blade.  The Kage at the table hadn’t brought their favored weapon, the double bladed war ax, and so they fought with whatever they could find.  The Kage she had been chased by swung his ax at her, and Shi flipped into the air.  She came down hard on his face, the toe of one of her boots gouging out one of his eyes.  Another Kage came at her, and she jumped off of the one she had just landed on.  The Kage coming at her slammed into the one with the ax, and the carving knife, which he had picked up from the table, went through the other Kage’s skull.
    Shi unsheathed her blade.  The Kage had her surrounded.  Shit.  She swung Akumu with deadly accuracy.  A Kage to her left went down, his torso disconnected from his legs.  Shi felt a stinging pain in her right arm.  Warm blood ran from the fresh wound.  She wheeled around, thrusting the sword through the Kage’s chest.  The Kage tried to get at her with the fork he wielded.  Shi yelped in pain as he raked the fork across her face.  She withdrew the blade, thrusting it through him a second time.  Blood splattered onto her arms and face as he died.
    Again, Akumu swung in a deadly arc.  Two more Kage fell dead.  I have to get out of here before anymore of these bastards arrive.  Shi spun around and sprinted for the door again.  She kicked it open, running through.
More tunnels.  Darkness.  Shi could hear the Kage following her.  She rounded a corner.  Stairs!  Shi ran up them.  A Kage was coming  down the stairs towards her.  She held Akuma in front of her, and sliced him in half as she passed by.  More blood.  Her own wounds ran with it, it splattered onto the floor.

    Shi looked up through tear-ridden eyes as her baby brother was yanked from her arms.  She screamed, bit down hard on the Kage’s hand.  He threw her into a wall.  She watched in utter horror as her brother’s innocent blood splattered to the floor and his lifeless body was dropped like an old rag.

    Shi ran forward,  weakened by the loss of blood.  Her legs ached, but she refused to stop, refused to let the Kage catch her.

    Her father had told her to take her baby brother and hide in the cellar with her older sister,  Kia.  Kia was crying.  Both girls were scared, wile her baby brother slept in her arms.  “We can’t let them find us,  Kia,  we have to protect Miran, we have to protect him…”

    Shi pressed forward, seeing  a stone door in front of her.  She pressed her body against it.  It slid open a bit, she could see sunlight on the other side.  I’m out! I’m almost out!  She heard the Kage coming up behind her.  She pushed harder on the stone door.  Just a little more, come on, Shi, you can do this!  The stone door was open just enough for her to squeeze through, and that she did.
    Shi ran with all her strength.  She refused to stop till she was in Drey territories.  The Kage had pushed the door open the rest of the way, and several of them had started after her, but she had lost them after the first five minutes.  Shi wandered aimlessly about for another hour or so, trying to find something she recognized.
    It was useless, she was lost.  Her body ached from wounds that refused to stop bleeding, and from a loss of blood.  I’ll just…rest…for a little wile.  Shi slumped down under a nearby tree.  Closing her eyes, she lost consciousness.

    He dreams where littered with old memories.  She saw Kia, her sister, the two girls were playing in a field.  Their mother called them to the house.  Shi could smell dinner cooking.  The sweet smells of food suddenly turned to smoke.  Shi coughed,  looked around for her mother and older sister.  “Mother?  Kia?  Where are you?”  she called out.  Shi felt a hand close on her shoulder.  “Father?” she said, turning to face him.  But it wasn’t her father, it was a Kage.  He laughed, threw her into the wall.  Shi tried to stand up, but he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her up.  She screamed.

    “Young Shi, wake up!”  It was the voice of the Drey that had given her the crystal dagger.
     Shi opened her eyes.  “Who…what?”
    “Shhh…” he said placing his finger over her mouth.  “Don’t talk, save your energy.”
    “where am I?  Who are you?”
    “I said don’t talk.  I’ll explain everything later.  Right now, thou, you need to rest.  You lost a lot of blood, and you suffered some pretty bad wounds.”
    “I’ve had worse,” she said, closing her eyes.  “What’s your name?”
    “You are a stubborn little girl, aren’t you?”
    Shi opened her eyes and sat up.  “I’m not a little girl, and I asked you what your name was.”
    “I think I already told you that I can’t give you my name,” he replied.
    Shi studied his face.  He looked about 16, 2 years older than she was.  “Why were you down there, I mean, down were the Kage were?”
    “I was finding information on them, kinda’ like an inside spy.  They thought I was helping them, thou.”
    “In what way were you ‘helping’ them?”
    “Weapons, mostly,  Helped train some of the younger ones.”
    “You did WHAT?!  I should have your ears cut for that!”
        “Oh, now you wouldn’t do that, young Shi, I got you out of there.”
    “Stop calling me ‘young Shi’, I’m not young, I’m 14.  And you didn’t get me out of there, I did that on my own.  I could have scraped away that dirt in the ceiling with my hands.  You just gave me the crystal dagger.”
    “You could have used it as a weapon.”
    Shi flopped back onto the bed.  It was no use trying to argue with him.
    “You know, you would have died if I hadn’t found you under that tree,” he said, after a moment of silence.
    “Thanks,” Shi said weakly, as she once again fell into sleep.
 

Back to Main Page
Back to Miscellaneous Fan Fics