Steelfeather: Part One by ieva_kasku |  |
Tirikindaro_Arithei, or Ari for short, waited eagerly for
Ieva to log on. It was the day after Ieva had finally gotten a phone hook-up in
her room. Now she would be able to hook up to the Internet without having to wait
for her parent's computer to be free. Finally Ieva sort of halfway materialized,
talking to the air in front of her in a rather frustrated voice.
"Work, c'mon you stupid computer, WORK! Oh,
yes, it's working now," Ieva materialized completely, then turned to the Desert
Aisha, "Sorry I'm late, Ari. First I couldn't find the hook-up cable thing,
and then I couldn't get it to work and it kept saying that there was and error
and then when I fixed THAT the page wouldn't load 'cause my computer likes to
be annoying."
"S'ok, Ieva, you weren't that late. At least
it started working eventually. What was it you wanted to show me?"
"This!" Ieva said triumphantly, pulling something
out of her pocket. Ari gasped, it was the most beautiful dagger she had ever
seen. It was long and silver, and the scabbard had a bit of a curl at the end.
On the hilt of the actual dagger there was a sapphire colored stone. Upon closer
inspection, she saw that the scabbard was engraved with leafy vines and things
that looked sort of like Kougras. When Ieva pulled out the blade, she saw that
there was another Kougra thing inked onto the metal.
"It's so pretty, Ieva. Where did you get it?
And what are those Kougra things?"
"I got it at Scarborough Faire when I went with
my friends. And those aren't Kougras, they're a kind of animal from my world
called lions. And I've gone and named it, too. I'm calling it Steelfeather.
Let's go show your sisters, I bet they'll like it."
Ieva was right, Ari thought; her sisters
both thought it was awesome. Even Flower_of_Icetor, who is quite the pacifist,
asked to be able to hold it. Ieva let all three of them hold it and take it
out of its sheath, but she wouldn't let them swing it around; she said that
it was very, very sharp and they might hurt themselves.
"Can I try it out in the Battledome, Ieva?"
Ari asked, hopefully.
"But it's not an official weapon! I definitely
don't think that I'll even be able to equip it to you, much less get it to actually
work."
"But look!" exclaimed Ripgirl, her eyes dancing
with excitement, "It shows up on the 'your items' list! Click on it!"
And indeed, it did show up on the list, under
the item name Steelfeather. When clicked on, it gave the stats, just like any
other item. And on the drop down list, Ieva saw with growing excitement that
she could actually equip it to Ari. So she did, with a great deal of flourish.
Ari immediately demanded that they go down to the Battledome and test it out
on Punchbag Bob, and was seconded by both Ripgirl and Flower_of_Icetor.
***
Ari walked out of the Battledome in a state of excited shock. Not only had
Steelfeather worked, it was powerful. She thought it was a Hidden Tower item
for sure; it had done 100 points of damage by itself in a single turn! She shook
her head, causing the gold ornaments around her neck to jingle. Ieva was wearing
it at her waist, only fair since it was her dagger. At the moment she was prattling
on about what else she had done at the Faire to Flower_of_Icetor, who was big
on that sort of thing. Ari thought it was interesting, too, but she wasn't hanging
on to Ieva's every word, like her sisters were doing. On to the trading post
to see if there was anything interesting up. Ieva had her eyes on a Dragoyle,
but she definitely couldn't afford one. As usual (for the early, early morning),
there was nothing very nice, just some omelettes and several junk trades. None
of them noticed the pair of beady eyes peering at them from a clump of bushes;
a pair of eyes that had been inconspicuously following them since they had left
the Battledome.
GoldenHeron the yellow Lenny withdrew into the
bushes, chuckling evilly. After a long time of searching, he had finally found
that accursed girl and her pets. He grimaced at his Lenny body, remembering
all too well the occasion that had caused him to become like this. He also scowled
at what had once been his powerful Grarrl, now a sissy little Aisha. He had
the stupidest name now, and an owner that was absolutely clueless. At least
he isn't a Newbie, GoldenHeron kept saying to himself, that would be even more
horrible (no offense to all you Newbies out there, this is just his point of
view!); but kewldude378 was almost as bad as one. And his so-called siblings!
A green Moehog that was extremely lazy, a hyperactive red Blumaroo, and a blue
Grundo that was just plain stupid was what his 'family' comprised of.
But here was something to make him powerful again,
to enable him to rise up over first his owner, and then the world! A powerful
dagger, one of a kind, and he would be getting revenge on that stupid Shoyru
and her owner, too. Now he just needed to formulate a brilliant plan for getting
it, and getting away, undetected. No notes this time; that had been one of his
mistakes last time. Let them think that the Pant Devil took it, he would get
the honor soon enough. And so he sneaked away from the unsuspecting group to
his room/secret plotting laboratory.
***
GoldenHeron expertly threw his special padded grappling hook up onto the window
ledge. It would be hard to climb, but flying was far too noisy. He strenuously
went up the rope using his feet and beak. Once he was finally up, he peered
inside to make sure that the girl was asleep. She was, and the knife was on
a desk near the opposite wall. After silently sliding open the window and slipping
inside, he discovered that the floor was a creaky wooden one. Just great,
he thought, his steps as far apart as his long legs could make them. Even though
each step, and even his breathing, was actually rather quiet, he was sure that
they were loud enough to wake the sleeping figure. But he soon reached the knife
and was away without anyone the wiser.
To be continued...
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