[FM] Full Moon #1, Intro

VashTheWanderer vashthewanderer at aol.com
Wed Oct 27 06:03:45 PDT 2004


Alright, before I start this convoluted little story, I want to say: I realize
that the beginning of my story bears a striking similarity to the anime
Inu-Yasha, of which I am a big fan. I was inspired to write this by the first
season of the show, but IT IS NOT IN ANY WAY A FANFIC. Also, I don't want
anyone getting all pissy at me about how 'you copied off of inuyasha!!' I used
a few of the outlines set at the beginning of the show, and this took on a mind
of it's own. Trust me, even if you hated Inu-Yasha, you might like this,
otherwise, get over it.

A giggling pack of girls walked through the park, talking. It was an old park,
or at least the trees were.  The one at its center was rumored to be over a
thousand years old. There were even town legends of the tree's magic powers.
For most, however, it was merely a matter of pride, and a place to meet up at.
	One of the girls split off from the pack, and went to sit on one of the tree's
massive roots. She had always loved to climb in its branches as a small child,
but now she was too old to go climbing in trees.
	She smiled, and started to walk away, back towards her friends, until
something caught her attention. One of the giant roots that made such great
benches for the park-goers was lifted up out of the ground. She walked towards
it, curious. Looking inside, her eyes widened, in a small cavern below, the
ground was glowing. 
	Unseen, another gnarly root lifted as she kneeled to get a closer look at the
glow of the floor only a body length away. The root bumped her ever so
slightly. Samantha yelped as she lost her balance, and tumbled headlong towards
the floor.
	She braced herself for the impact of the dirt, but didn't close her eyes.
	The floor swallowed her up as she hit it. Samantha continued falling, and
falling, and falling.
	She screamed as the darkness closed around her, and then, somehow, she felt
like she was being lifted back out from under the tree root.
	Samantha lied on her back on the ground, her chest rising and falling with
each heavy breathe. Her heartbeat slowly returned to its normal, inaudible
pace. Finally, she looked around, and discovered only one thing to be familiar
in the area: the trees. She recognized all the trees that were in the park
here, and there was the ancient, giant oak at the center. Too scared to wonder
why she saw no people, no streets, and no houses, she slumped down on one of
the roots.
	"Well, hello there," said a deep, slow voice.
	"Who's there!?" cried Samantha.
	"I'm sorry to frighten you little one."
	"Who- who are you? Where are you?"
	"Two questions that require only one answer: you happen to be sitting on my
root."
	"A tree? How can you talk? I mean, your, a tree, trees can't talk!"
	"I must disagree, how else would we be conversing if I was unable to talk?"
	"I-I guess your right."
	"So how does it feel to be in the past?"
	"Past?! What?! What do you mean?!"
	"I mean precisely what I say, you are from the future, you fell down a hole
under my root, and you came up here, this is the past for you, the present for
me."
	"Can you still talk in my time?"
	"Of course, if anyone really wanted to listen, I would talk to them."
	"You mean you really did talk to me when I was a kid? That wasn't my
imagination?"
	"If your memory serves me correct, yes, I did. Now before anything else, do
you think you could do a small favor for me?"
	"What?"
	"Well, on the other side of my trunk, you'll see" spoke the tree, sounding
as embarrassed as a tree can.
	Samantha obeyed, and walked to the opposite side of the tree.
"Oh my!"
	A boy only a few years older than her age -seventeen, he looked a little under
twenty- was pinned to the trunk of the tree, covered in silky green fibers.
	"He's really quite bothersome at times, if you could just pull him off of me,
I would be quite grateful."
	Samantha pulled at his arm, and the strings faded. The boy slid to the ground,
his thick, shoulder-length white hair trailing behind on the tree. Samantha
took a step back as his hair fell back down, and she gasped again, "He has
cat's ears!"
	"Well, yes, he isn't human after all."
	"Heavy sleeper, isn't he?"
	"I'm not asleep," the boy said, and his eyes flew open.
	Samantha stared into his eyes, what should have been white was black, and what
should have been black was white. He had a collar around his neck.
	He stretched his arms in the air, revealing the light, tiger patterned fur
covering them, and a wild, hungry look consuming his eyes.
	"Jager" the tree warned.
	He flexed his claws and advanced toward Samantha wearing a cruel grin.
	"I-I freed you!" Samantha cried, "You'd still be on that tree if I hadn't."
	"Oh, yes, thank you. Now do me just one more favor: stand still and don't
splatter your blood everywhere."
	"Jager! Do not hurt her!" boomed the tree.
	"Why not? She looks tasty. Just let me get a bite and I'll tell you."
	Samantha backed up against the safe trunk of the tree.
	"I'm just a girl!" pleaded Samantha.
	"Yes, and you should thank your lucky stars I'm the one who attacked you. Most
others would have raped you first, I'm just gonna cut you up and eat you."
	Jager stopped walking just a few feet in front of her, and raised his claw.
	Samantha closed her eyes and braced for the sting of his claws rending her
flesh. It never came. Instead, there was the sickening crunch of someone's
bones being broken.
	One of the tree's roots had smacked the boy away. He laid on the ground, pure
rage burning in him, speeding the healing process.
	"You weed! I'll cut you and the girl down in one swipe!" Jager roared as his
claws sped toward Samantha.
	The tree tried to stop him again, but caught only the tip of his feet,
tripping him in midair. He toppled over Samantha, her arms going under his. He
went slack as she touched the tender spot below his armpit.
	Samantha scrambled out from under him, and Jager got up groggily.
	"Stupid girl, I'm going to enjoy eating you."
	"You'll do nothing of the sort, beast!" said a man at the front of an angry
mob, "Our village elder told us something was going on out here!"
	"Go play somewhere safer, didn't anyone ever tell you not to get between an
animal and his food?" Jager growled.
	"You! Girl!" said an old woman, the village elder, "By releasing him, you
bound him to yourself!"
	"Shut up, you old hag!" Jager snarled.
	"He is in debt to you, you may bind him with one word."
	"What word?" pleaded Samantha.
	"You must choose for yourself."
	"NOT IF I KILL HER FIRST!" Jager cried, jumping high into the air, his claw
raised above him.
	"Um, oh, HEEL, BOY!"
	"NO!" Jager yelled as his body was thrown to the ground at her word.
	"I'm going to tear out your throat!" he growled, bounding up off the ground on
all fours.
	"HEEL, BOY!"
	With a snarl, Jager's body was again forced to the ground.
	"Come, child, we must get you back to the village," said the old woman, "What
is your name?"
	"Samantha," she answered.
	Behind them a mob of villagers advanced toward Jager, who gave a cruel smile,
as he pushed himself off the grass once again.
	"Stop!" the old woman commanded, "He would kill all of you in a fight, it is
better to leave him be!"
	"Cowards," sneered Jager.
	"HEEL! HEEL! HEEL!"
	Jager groaned something inaudible through the soil he was imbedded facedown
in. The villagers, Nadey, and Samantha walked cautiously out of the clearing,
leaving the stunned boy in the pit.

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Subject: [FM] Full Moon #2, A Girl, a Cat, a Plant, and a Mage pt. 1
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"What is he?" Samantha asked as she sat in the old woman's cottage.
	"His kind are called weretigers, his name is Jager," replied the woman -Nadey-
as she prepared a pot of tea.
	"Why did he want to kill me?"
	"Because 'he' was hungry!" snarled Jager from the corner.
	"You cannot kill her, this has already been proven, so why do you linger here,
beast?" Nadey questioned.
	"I'm not a beast!"
	"You cannot control your primal urges, something you have already exhibited to
us, therefore you are a beast," Nadey said, "You have yet to answer the
question."
	"I could control my 'primal urges' if I cared," Jager mumbled, then said
aloud, "You really can't tell why I'm still here?"
	"Obviously you want something from Samantha."
	Jager bared his fangs in a sadistic smile, "Right, but do you know what it is
I want?"
	At this, Samantha scrambled as far away from his corner as she could get,
drawing wicked laughter from Jager.
	"Don't worry girl, I have no intention of raping you, I have some respect for
women."
	Samantha did not look reassured, "If you have respect for women, why did you
try to kill me?"
	"I have my reasons."
	"I'm sure that makes Samantha feel much better," Nadey said sarcastically, "If
you don't plan to rape her, and she can stop you from eating her, what do you
want from her?"
	"She has something in that pretty little body that I want, and she's going to
give it to me, now," Jager walked towards Samantha.
	"HEEL, BOY!"
	Jager put a dent in the wood of the floor with his face, then pulled back up
with a snarl, "Why you little!"
	"Don't make me say it again, stay away! What do you want from me?"
	Jager didn't back up, but he didn't advance any further either, with a low
growl, he explained, "You have a gem in your side, give it to me, and I will
leave you alone."
	"A gem? I have a diamond in me?"
	"Actually, gems are sapphires, they contain ancient powers. I would not
recommend giving your gem to him. In the wrong hands, or in his case, claws,
gems can be very destructive tools," Nadey advised.
	"Just give me the gem," growled Jager.
	"I'm not going to give you anything, jerk!"
	"Your awful defiant for someone I still consider a food," Jager snarled,
narrowing his black eyes.
	"It's called courage, not that you'd know, attacking a defenseless girl like
her," Nadey growled back at the weretiger, "I need to dig up a few potatoes,
Samantha, since I do not trust your new friend not to ransack my home while I'm
gone, would you force him to come with us?"
	"Alright," Samantha said, "Jager, be a good boy and behave with us in the
potato fields."
	Jager flexed his claws with rage, but got up, and walked towards Samantha,
"After you," he smiled nastily.
	"Nice try, walk in front of us," Samantha commanded.
	"What, afraid I'll cut you up from behind?"
	"Front, now," Samantha commanded coldly.
	Jager walked through the door, reluctantly. Nadey and Samantha followed, eyes
trained on their charge. Somehow, they reached the village's potato field
without incident, and Nadey began digging up potato tubers with a small shovel.
Samantha sat and watched, and Jager patrolled the edge of the field.
	After a few minutes of this, Jager silently stalked up behind Samantha,
stopping barely a foot away. He grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and
jerked the back of her neck into his jaws. Before she could yell 'heel,' he bit
down.
	Samantha felt a tickle on the back of her neck when Jager brought his fangs
down, which sent a chill through her spine.
	Jager yelled a stream of colorful and creative curses as he jerked his face
away from her neck. When he tried to bite her spine it had been like biting hot
metal, only much less malleable. He thought he might have bruised and burned
his entire mouth at the same time, but once he pulled away, the pain no longer
burned through his skull.
	Samantha's hands flew to her neck, she didn't feel any pain there, but that
tingling sensation was still there, causing her to shiver. Jager opened his
eyes, and to his astonishment, the girl was still alive, and glaring daggers at
him. There were four tiny cuts on her neck where his fangs had come down. He
had barely even been able to pierce her skin!
	"HEEL, BOY!" Samantha screamed, "HEEL! HEEL! HEEL! HEEL! HEEL!"
	Jager felt himself being painfully forced into a deep dent in the soil, and
groaned with pain. Once the barrage stopped, he got back up out of the hole,
the bruises all over him began to heal, and he moaned, "What the hell are you
made of?"
	"Idiot," Nadey said disgustedly, "You cannot hurt her, why is it that you do
not understand this concept?"
	Jager opened his mouth to answer, and a deer bounded across the potato fields.
The weretiger shut his mouth, and ignoring Nadey and Samantha, bolted after the
frightened creature.
	When Jager showed no intention of returning, Nadey completed her task and led
Samantha back to the cottage.
	Nadey lay on a mattress on the floor of her home, Samantha curled up on a cot
in the loft, and soon, both women fell asleep under the watchful eye of the
creature waiting at the door.
	The next day, Samantha awoke with something heavy on her legs. She pushed
herself up to look, and found Jager, curled up cat-like on her legs. In sleep,
the boy looked much different from his waking self. His face was peaceful,
without the sadistic cruelty or burning rage that seemed to control his
expression so often. Samantha found herself staring at him, and realized he was
covered in blood and some nasty black gore. She yelped, noticing the same
mixture all over her own legs.
	The yelp woke Jager, who jumped up and crouched around her. After noticing
there was no threat, he realized she was awake and staring at him. Jager
scrambled backwards, off the girl.
	"Why did you scream?" he questioned dryly.
	"I just woke up with you on top of my legs, soaking me in blood and- oh, I
don't even want to know what that black stuff is,- and when you wake up, your
first act is to jump on top of me, and you ask me why I yelped?"
	"Its not your blood, so why are you worried? Most of its mine, from protecting
you and my gem!"
	"You protected me?" Samantha blinked, "From what?"
	"Follow me," Jager said, turning and dropping down from the loft.
	Samantha gasped as she saw his back, four deep gauges, which were starting to
heal, had been carved into him. She saw trails of dried and still wet blood,
the same that covered her legs, "Are- are you- alright?"
	"What?" Jager puzzled, "Oh, that," he said, noticing where she was staring,
"Just a scratch, since when are you worried about me?"
	A scratch wasn't what Samantha would've called the wounds deep enough to fit
her hand in, but nonetheless, she answered, "Well, uh, you did protect me?"
	Jager grunted, and she followed him out the door.
	Samantha gasped again when she saw the pile of rotting bodies outside the
cottage.
	"Why are they already rotting?" Samantha questioned.
	"They were rotting when I killed them, again, they were undead," Jager
explained, "That's what this black stuff is," he continued, pointing to his
arms, which were covered in the stuff.
	The creatures on the pile were at least ten feet from nose to the tip of their
tails. They looked somewhat like dogs, but if they had ever had fur, it had
fallen off with their skin. Their teeth jutted horribly from their lipless
crocodilian maws, their huge lidless yellow eyes stared, unseeing, into the
air. The wounds Jager had inflicted upon them only worsened the gruesomeness of
the creatures, several leaked fluids onto the earth.
	"Tho-those things attacked me?" Samantha trembled.
	"They attacked the gem."
	"Jager," said Nadey as she walked around the corner of her home, "Your awake,
now you can dispose of this beautiful pile of rotting hellhounds you left
outside my home."
	"Fine," Jager growled. He rolled his eyes and swiped at the pile, "IRON
REAPER!"
	The swipe left white lines in the air, which bent around the hideous mound of
rotting flesh. There was a flash of light as the cage of light began to shrink,
then everything within three feet of the pile was crunched into something the
size of a marble, which jumped into Jager's hand. 
	Jager took a moment to survey his work, and Samantha gaped.
	"How did you do that?" she asked.
	Jager shrugged, "Training."
	The weretiger looked over the black pearl a moment more, and threw it high
over the treetops.
	"Ugh," Samantha groaned, looking at the black rot and red blood on her legs,
"Nadey, do you have a bath and some soap?"
	"There's a hot spring just past the treeline over there," Nadey said,
pointing, "And I'll fetch some soap from the house."
	"Thank you!"

	Nadey gave Samantha the soap, and she found the hot spring on her own. She
looked at the wide pool before stripping down and jumping in. She sighed
contentedly, enjoying the luxurious feeling of the spring, and began to lather
up the soap. 
	As the girl cleansed herself, she mulled over what had happened to her, and
how she was going to get back home.
	I wonder if Jager really does just want the gem, Samantha thought, He was a
lot nicer this morning than yesterday. He doesn't seem so angry today.
	She paused a moment as she scrubbed dried blood from her leg.
	Why aren't I angry? He tried to kill me, I have every right to hate him, but I
think it's just his nature. I wouldn't hate my cat for killing a mouse out of
hunger.
	But then, another voice sprang up in her head, But I'm not a mouse, I have
feelings, and I'm a human being!
	Yet another argument voiced itself in her head in response, I might be human,
but he's not.
	Samantha thought for a moment more, and then laughed at how philosophical she
sounded.
	"What's so funny?" asked a familiar voice from behind her.
	Samantha turned quickly toward the sound, and saw Jager, standing in the waist
deep water, scrubbing his arms.  He had been staring at the back of her head,
but now his gaze slid downward, and the beginnings of a grin curved the edges
of his mouth.
	Samantha realized several things at this moment; she was bathing in the same
spring as Jager, most of her upper half was above water, and Jager was staring
at her bare breasts.
	She screamed and dove into the water up to her neck, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE
DOING!?"
	"Stop yelling!" he commanded irritably, "I'm bathing."
	"HEEL, BOY!"
	Jager was forced underwater for a moment, and then reemerged, his wet hair
clinging to his neck and shoulders, "Damnit!" he said, gasping for air, "What
the hell was that for!"
	"You- you pervert! What do you think that was for!?" Samantha screamed at him.
	"You're the one who turned!" Jager growled back gruffly.
	"You were taking a bath at the same time as me!"
	"And this is wrong? It's not like I was groping you or something."
	"WRONG!? Of course it's wrong!"
	Jager raised an eyebrow, "You're the strangest girl I've ever met," he
pronounced, and turned away, trying to get a patch of dried blood off his
healed, but still slightly mutilated back.
	Samantha stared at his back of his head, wondering how on earth the boy could
think their was nothing wrong with bathing with her, until she remembered that
this wasn't her time, she was thousands of years earlier, where communal
bathing was probably quite common.
	"Why do you say that?" Samantha asked him.
	Jager turned back toward her submerged body.
	"First," he said, "You're not as afraid of me as most girls your age are."
	Samantha frowned.
	"I know you are afraid of me, but the fact that you haven't already run
screaming for someone to save you says your either very stupid or very brave."
	Jager walked towards her slowly, "Second, you're a foreigner, correct?"
	"No, I'm from the future, the tree brought me here, I think."
	Now it was Jager's turn to frown, "That makes sense."
	"Do you still think I'm the strangest girl you've ever met?"
	"Yes."
	"Why?"
	Jager's expression darkened, and his eyes fixed on her predatorily, "You won't
give me the gem."
	"Why do you want it so much?" Samantha asked angrily.
	"The one who bound me to that stupid tree took all the gems I had collected."
	"Who was that?"
	"What the hell is this, an interrogation?!"
	"Shut up! You're the one who brought it up!"
	"Just give me the gem."
	"NO!"
	"Why!? It's not like your using it! Just give it to me!"
	Samantha growled at him in frustration, "I'm not letting you cut anything out
of my body!"
	Jager growled back, much more deep and menacing than Samantha, "I'm not going
to slice you in half! I'll just cut a little hole in your side and grab the
gem!"
	"NO! No holes! I don't want you cutting me!"
	Jager cursed and got out of the pool, putting his clothing back on as Samantha
turned. Samantha got out on the other side of the spring, and put her own
clothing on.
Jager walked back to the village ahead of Samantha, grumbling to himself about
the girls stubbornness.
	Samantha wondered again why the boy was so much more polite this morning than
he had been the day before. Samantha was finding that she didn't dislike him at
all when he wasn't being so animalistic.
	Lost in thought, she didn't notice Jager stop in front of her, and she walked
right into him. He showed no reaction, seemingly intent upon some far away
sound, as his ears twitched and turned in all directions.
	"Oh!" Samantha yelped, backing up, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attenti-mmf!"
	Jager's hand covered her mouth, "Shut up," he hissed, without turning around.
After a moment, he said, "Come on, but be quiet," and resumed stalking towards
the village.
	As they reached the tree line, Jager again stopped Samantha, and she gasped.
	"Damn," cursed the weretiger.
	The village was completely overgrown with plants. All the villagers lay in
rows on the ground, bound by more vines. All except one woman, one green,
unclothed woman. Although naked didn't seem to be quite the word for it, she
really had nothing that needed to be covered. She had all the features of a
woman, a very well-endowed woman, but she looked more like a manikin than a
human. All she had of a face were slightly sunken areas were her eyes would
have been, and the bulges of her brow above them. She strolled through the rows
of people, asking loud questions, and leaning over to interrogate a few
one-on-one.
	"So, girls and boys," the young woman started, "Where is the gem?"
	She walked through the rows of people, finally singling out a young man, only
fifteen or sixteen years old. She knelt next to him, and stroked his face
slowly. She somehow managed to look sweetly into his eyes, without eyes to look
with, "Can you tell me where the gem is? Pleeeeease?"
	She leaned on top of him, still caressing his face.
	"I don't know" the boy groaned to her.
	The woman rolled her eyes and stood back up. 
	"Where is my gem!" she yelled, stamping her foot.
	Jager instinctively pulled Samantha closer, where she -and his gem- would be
easier to protect. Samantha let him do so, even if it made her a little
uncomfortable, it also made her feel safer, and she was willing to sacrifice
comfort for security.
	The woman looked up at the noise, straight at Samantha and Jager.
	"You have my gem, don't you girl! Oh, good, and you brought me a kitty to play
with!" the woman cried gleefully.
	"Its my gem, back off," growled Jager, stepping between the woman and his
charge. The weretiger's ears twitched with his irritation at being called
"kitty."
	"Silly kitty!" the woman reproached, "I can sense it in her body! How can it
be yours if it's in her body?"
	"She's mine, it's mine, back down," he snarled.
	"I am not!" Samantha hissed indignantly.
	"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Now is there any reason for fighting?" she pointed to Jager,
"Your big and strong, and I look much better than her!" she turned to her best
angle, "Why don't you just get the gem for me?"
	"Because you're more annoying than you are provocative," the weretiger stated
coldly.
	"Then I'll just have to change that viewpoint, won't I!" she said, walking
towards him.
	"Just shut up and die," growled Jager, and he jumped towards her, raising one
claw.
	The woman stopped and watched him come towards her.  Jager brought his claw
down on her and faster than Samantha could see or Jager could swipe, she ran up
his arm and balanced perfectly on his shoulder. The momentum of Jager's swing
went into the ground, tearing out four long ruts of turf.
	As Jager tried to attack her, she swung feet first over his shoulders, kicking
him in the gut. Jager was knocked onto his back, and the woman stood on his
chest.
	She waved her finger in his face, "Bad kitty! It's not nice to scratch
people!"
	Jager reached up to slash her legs, and was whipped across the face by a vine
that extended out of the girl's right wrist.
	In the brief moment Jager was stunned, she used another vine to pull the gem
from Samantha's side. The human girl didn't even have time to cry out.
	The woman backflipped off of Jager's chest before he could grab her ankle, and
began to run across a trapeze of vines in between the village huts.
	The were tiger yelled the incantation for some of his battle magic, slashing
four blood-red crescents into existence, and sending them soaring at the
escaping plant elemental. They cut the vines out from under the woman, but more
grew stunningly quickly to replace them wherever she stepped.
	Jager began to run after her, but remembered Samantha, and dashed over to the
girl. 
	"You alright?" he asked gruffly.
	"I-I think so," answered Samantha meekly.
	"Good, get on my back, I want that gem back."
	Samantha linked her arms around his neck and hung on to him. The boy's first
jump carried them to the edge of the village, the second sent the two into the
trees.
	Jager bounded from limb to limb at blinding speed, racing through the forest.
Bunching his legs, Jager leaped once and took off high above the treetops.
	"That clearing, over there!" Samantha said, daring to release one hand from
his neck and point. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she could just sense that
that was where that gem thing that everyone wanted was.
	Jager nodded, and the two dropped back into the foliage. Samantha was afraid
they would be torn apart by the branches of the canopy, but Jager's tougher
body shielded her as they dove down.
	As he caught a branch in both hands, Jager silently wondered why Samantha
hadn't told someone she could sense gems. The branch bent almost to the
breaking point, and snapped back up. Jager's claws released at just the right
moment, and he somersaulted just above the tops of the trees. Landing on
another branch, he sprung toward the clearing.
	There's no way she didn't know, is there? he thought.
	"JAGER! LOOK OUT!" cried Samantha.
	A braid of vines as bigger around than Samantha rose up and smacked Jager down
like a ragdoll. Samantha was thrown off of Jager, and she landed at the edge of
the clearing, while the vines dragged Jager towards the center, towards the
woman.
	The vines stopped a few feet in front of the woman, who laughed.
	Jager's body hung, limbs splayed out by the green ropes that had dragged him
there, in front of the woman.
	"Awww," she crooned, stroking Jager's face, "What a pretty kitty, if only you
didn't have such bad attitude, but I'll just have to train that out of you,
won't I? My kitty shouldn't-"
	Jager, who had been looking angrier and angrier the more the girl spoke, broke
the vines that held him, and removed her arm with his claw, roaring, "WILL YOU
CUT IT OUT WITH THE 'KITTY' CRAP, DAMNIT!"
	She cried out, flipping backwards, away from Jager. Her arm quickly formed
again as she raised the gem at him.
	"Spoil sport!" she pouted as a green bolt of energy shot from the gem,
impaling Jager.
	The weretiger made an inarticulate noise of pain as a hole was blasted into
his gut. Samantha cried out. The other girl laughed, lowering the gem. Jager
got back up on his feet with a low growl, raising his arm.
	He started another incantation.
	"No! Not here!"
	The red slashes shot towards the plant elemental, who dodged around the
energy. They soared past, cutting into the trees, and then-
	"You idiot!" screamed the woman.
	-Right through a cocoon of vines suspended between two trees. Something crept
out of the shadows within.
	"Why you!" the woman, swung her fist at Jager.
	On reflex, the boy grabbed her arm, pulled her forward with her fist, and
hooked his arms under her shoulders, immobilizing her.
	Or it would have immobilized her, had she had bones.
	Her false "skin" disintegrated, the vines underneath shifted slightly, the
shape of her body turned the other way, and then smoothed into skin again.
Jager grunted as her foot smashed up into his gut, forcing him to release her.
	Jager swept her feet out from under her, and he stomped his bare, clawed foot
on her face. The woman kicked up at him, and Jager heard Samantha scream. He
turned to see what had Samantha worked up, and the woman's foot crushed his
side. He doubled over, and was trussed up with vines before he could recover.
	Another woman, identical to the first, had wrapped up Samantha in vines, as
well. Jager struggled to escape the first girl's vines, and was further
entangled for his efforts.
	"Give me the weretiger," the second woman smirked evilly, "And I will consider
letting you live."
	"He's my pet, and you can't have him!"
	"Get out of my way you childish little bitch!"
	"What part of 'my kitty' don't you understand?!"
	All this time, Jager had been working at drawing his knife, (with no distance,
he couldn't get enough momentum for his claws to cut the bonds) he positioned
the blade at the right angle, and cut all of the vines in one swipe. Neither
woman noticed, both were in each other's faces, screaming curses. Only Samantha
saw him.
	Jager concentrated, traced the knife along a tree, and it grew into a huge,
green claymore. Jager seemed to have been ready for this, and dashed toward the
women.
	"DIIIIIE!"
	The massive sword came down. One of the women jerked her arm up at Jager.
There was a spray of green, and both women fell, in two pieces each. A
dagger-sized thorn was lodged in Jager's gut, he grimaced, pulled it out, and
jumped into a ditch, disregarding the pain.
	The vines that had contained Samantha slackened, and the girl ran towards
Jager. 
	"GET DOWN!" he yelled.
Jager dove at her, picked her up bodily, and rolled behind the closest tree.
All four halves of the women began to revert back to being an incomprehensible
tangle of plant matter.
Just one woman rose from the tangle, she was identical to the first two. Jager
shifted his grip on the sword. Samantha rolled to the side, getting out of his
way.
"Oh My head" groaned the woman, massaging her temples.
She moaned again, and dropped on the ground, now holding her stomach.
"What happened?" she inquired.
Jager looked up, puzzled.
"Hey! Come on here, I asked a question!"
"So, you don't want to kill us anymore?" asked Samantha.
"Should I?"
"There were two of you, I think, and both of them wanted to kill us."
"Oh crap! Someone split me again! That explains a lot, I guess. Well, I don't
want to kill you anymore, so your friend can quit glaring."
Jager got up, sighed, and let the claymore morph back into a knife.
"So who are you?" Jager asked suspiciously, "And how do 'playfully evil' and
'hardcore evil' bond together to make 'doesn't want to kill us?'"
"I am Sonna, a plant elemental, and I have no idea how. You are?"
"I'm Samantha, I'm, uh, from the future, I guess."
Jager refused to answer,
"Trusting little kitty aren't you?"
"Oh, not this again! My name is Jager, I'm a weretiger! Are we happy?"
"Quite."
"So," Samantha started, "How did you get split?"
"I don't know, I can't remember, how did you come here if you're 'from the
future?'"
"Through a tree."
"You mean the Tree of Time?"
Samantha shrugged, "Probably."
"This is 'probably' the most boring conversation I've ever heard. Ever. Both of
you, shut up, we need to get back into town, I'm hungry," Jager growled, and
turned to walk away, disgusted. 
Great, he thought, Now not only have I picked up miss Oblivious-to-magic, I
also have to deal with a woman calling me 'kitty' all the time
Sonna and Samantha looked after him.
"Does he just expect us to follow him?" Samantha asked, incredulous.
"Hey, who's complaining, we get a great view of his butt all the way there!"
Jager listened to them, and grinned wickedly.
What the hell, it could be worse.

	Back in town, the three of them had agreed to meet back at the village inn by
morning at the latest. Sonna had departed to Parts Unknown, the local tavern,
where she boasted to be the reigning champion of shots, and took on several
dozen challengers as the day wore on.
	Needless to say, she was also making a great deal of money off of side-bets.
	Jager was stretched out, relaxing, in the crook of a tree behind one of the
huts, chewing on something's severed arm, when Samantha walked up to the foot
of his tree. He rolled over lazily and glanced down at her.
	"Need something?"
	"Get down here so I can look at that hole Sonna put in you!"
	"No."
	"Don't make me use the S-word!"
	Jager made no effort to answer or comply.
	Samantha sighed at his stubbornness, hardheaded idiot, "Heel, boy!"
	Jager crashed down through the tree's branches, he groaned after he hit the
ground, complaining that she had probably hurt him worse than Sonna had. With a
groan, he started to get up. Samantha told him to lay back down so she could
look at his injury. The boy ignored her.


	"Samantha! Jager! Where are you two?"
	Nadey walked around in the village streets, trying to locate the pair. She
heard Samantha yell, and wandered around back behind the house, where the voice
had come from. Samantha had pinned Jager to the ground, sitting on his chest,
trying to pull off his shirt.
	"Take it off!" Samantha commanded him.
	"No!" the boy growled back.
	"My You two have made up quickly," gasped Nadey.
	Jager and Samantha looked up, then at each other, stunned. Samantha scrambled
back, off of him.
	"Its not what it looks like, really!" Samantha said desperately.
	"Really!" Jager said, his voice equally urgent, "We weren't-"
	"You don't have to make excuses to me, I was young once, too."
	"Really, I just wanted to look at the wound in his chest!"
	"I told you, its fine!" she said, then mumbled, "Is that what they call it
these days?"
	Jager's eyes narrowed, "You know I can hear you?"
	"Nevermind," sighed Nadey, "When you two are finished, I must ask you to come
stop Sonna, she's taken a hostage."
	"I told you we're not- wait, did you say hostage?" said Samantha.
	Nadey looked annoyed, "She, well, found him climbing through your inn room
window."
	The two of them stood up, Jager brushed himself off. The boy brought his hand
to his forehead.
	"Where is she?" he sighed.

	Sonna was lying on one of the beds when Jager and Sonna walked in. She was
treating her skin like someone else treated clothes, by taking it off. Her
"body" was spread, in individual vines, all across the floor around her. A
struggling cocoon lied in the corner of the room.
	"Let him go, Sonna," Jager instructed irritably.
	"I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about," returned the mass of
plant matter that was Sonna, somehow managing to look and sound as annoyed as
Jager.
	Meanwhile Samantha was pulling at the vines encasing the man Sonna'd captured.
She began unraveling it, slowly revealing the prisoner beneath.
	"Hey! Stop that! Its mine!"
	The man inside slashed himself out of the cocoon. Samantha yelped, and jumped
back. Jager picked her up off the floor, and out of harm's way as a young man
in the loose-fitting red and yellow garb of a lightning mage took on a ready
stance with the long, thin knife he was carrying.
	Jager growled exasperatedly, flopping down on the other bed, "Sonna, calm him
down, I really don't want to deal with this right now."
	"What, you think I do? I'm tired, I have several gallons of alcohol in my
system, and already tied him up once," she replied.
	The man relaxed, and sat down with his legs crossed on the floor, putting his
knife away. He looked a little irritated, but most mages would after being
trapped in a magic dampening cocoon for who-knew-how-long. 
	"So does that teach you that stealing is bad?" Sonna questioned, parent-like.
	"Not really, just 'never get caught by a plant elemental,'" he answered wryly.
	"Smart-ass little bastard, aren't we? You should probably thank Samantha for
rescuing you from me."
	The man turned toward his liberator, and kneeled in front of her.
	"Miss Samantha," he addressed, kissing her hand, "I thank you most
appreciatively for freeing me. Is there anything I can do to repay you?"
	Samantha looked slightly unnerved by his formality, "Well, um, you could let
go of my hand, and tell us who you are."
	"I am Mitimaru, Order of the Thunderbolt, and you are?"
	"Samantha."
	"Not from around here, are you?"
	"Thank you Mr. State-the-Obvious," Jager growled.
	Samantha explained her origins in the future, and all that had happened to
assemble they're group. Sonna inserted her own rather colorful commentary,
while Jager provided sarcastic comments. Overall, the mage received a somewhat
overly detailed description of the events of the last two days (and from Sonna,
several overly detailed mental pictures of how good Jager looked when he was
fighting.)
	"That's interesting" Mitimaru said, slightly disturbed, "I didn't really
need the description of how his butt looks when he was trying to kill you,
though"
	"I enjoyed it," Sonna pouted.
	"Are we done here? Why the hell did we just tell him what's happened to us?"
Jager questioned annoyedly, "You're too trusting."



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