From alt.pub.dragons-inn Sat Dec 24 11:00:03 1994 Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:8007 Path: netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!news.doit.wisc.edu!f180-161.net.wisc.edu!user From: jepeter2@students.wisc.edu (Skatha) Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: Re: Bladefire [FIRE] Followup-To: alt.pub.dragons-inn Date: 23 Dec 1994 15:02:12 GMT Organization: UW-Madison Lines: 90 Distribution: world Message-ID: References: <1994Dec19.203107.1@vax1.utulsa.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: f180-161.net.wisc.edu The man's color slowly began to return. "Maybe now I can find out who he is and why those things were after him," Fire spoke. "He won't be coherent for about a day. I need to get him some healing herbs. Care to join me on a shopping trip?" The two women took the injured man to the inn. Fire rented a room, and gently placed him into bed. "He just needs rest now, but the herbs will take away some of the pain. Willow bark should help." The two left together down the streets of Generica. As they passed through a residential section of town Fire's nose began to twitch. The sent was a familiar one. Something that had haunted her through her childhood. Something was burning. Fire's first instinct was to run from fire, but she overcame the fear as a child, the taunts of the other street children were incentive enough to overcome her fears. The nickname 'fire' was started as a joke, but she turned it into a badge of honor. Fire moved with the speed of thought moving past Kal. Kal turned a quizzical look as Fire ran off. "Hey, what's up?" She asked to Fire's retreating back. "No time!" was Fire's only response as she pushed through the unlocked door. The fire was at the base of the stairway, blocking exit. Somehow Fire knew that someone was up there. With catlike grace, she leaped through the flames. Following her instincts, Fire came to the a door. She managed to resist the temptation to break in, and instead opened it. There were two children huddling in the corner. A boy and a girl, twins by what Fire could tell, but there was no time for a good look. "Grab on to me. Now!" Fire spoke with authority. The children obeyed without question. Fire flung her rope from the window to the next house over. She swung down praying to Rianda that the rope would hold all three of them. The event took less than a minute but it was enough time for the parents to notice. They ran a small shop on the other side of the home. Apparently a lantern had fallen and started the fire near some oils that burn quite explosively. The grateful parents insisted on giving Fire a reward and Fire didn't fight them to hard. As she and Kal left to return to the Dragon's Inn, Kal said, "Wait a minute, your cloak is burned, and by all rights you should at least have minor burns, but you look untouched. What's going on here?" Kal's eyes lit up with curiosity. "Don't ask me, I don't know who my real parents were," Fire replied. "Really? That's awful." Kal shook her head. "I mean, I don't remember my mother very much, but at least I had a father." She grinned. "'Course, he was drop-dead drunk most of the time - that's how I ended up in this profession in the first place - but my sister and I loved him anyway. It's a family curse that we have, a weakness to alcohol. You'd think that my father would have learned after what happened with my grandfather and that cow...Didn't you have any kind of family at all?" she asked, suddenly returning to the original conversation. ÒWell,Ó Fire answered, ÒI was in an orpanage when till age 5, and I was on the streets till I was about 7. Eventaully I was adopted by a merchant from Etarus'tu, that's why I have an Etarusian name. Anyway his brother trianed me in martial arts and I grew up with his students. Kitsune sensei was like a father to me. Hananiwa, Toshima,Ó Fire sighed, Òand the twins Arashi and Odoruku, his other students, we like sibilings to me. So I did have a family in a sense." Fire stopped to find Kal staring at her curiously. "What?" she asked. "You know, I've never heard of any kind of people who have a natural resistance to fire - that's very interesting. Of course, it's not like I'm all that widely travelled - my sister is, I'm sure, but people nowadays have the most annoying habit of wanting to keep a reliable medic around as long as possible. I just can't travel as much as I'd like. If I did, perhaps I would know what or who you may be, even what the man you found may be, or even what the things that attacked him really were - where they came from, what they eat, what exact kind of poison they have...and it doesn't help to have a shoddy memory like mine. Sure, I can remember herbs and such, but all that knowledge seems to have filled up all the memory I have available. Except sometimes, I do remember-" She stopped in mid-breath and looked apologetically at Fire. "Oh, I'm sorry, I interrupted you, didn't I? I have the most awful habit of doing that, and once I do I start to ramble, and-" "Yes, I noticed," Fire said quickly, trying to cut her off before she started up again. Kal smiled. "Well, whenever you see me get going, be sure to stop me. I'll talk your ears off if you try to be polite." Fire returned the smile. "I'll keep that in mind. Well, my instincts tell me that my skills weren't natural," Fire said, responding to KalÕs previous subject. "TheyÕre probably something that some warlock cooked up." ----Skatha (jepeter2@students.wisc.edu) "I dream in Technicolor!" Surreality is your friend. And so is Bob.