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The Tales of the Scarlet Suns - Ch 9: Reliving the Past

Both Chae and Naphalee hissed as they watched Zahrah giving Irving a tight hug, especially when her body wasn't as covered up as theirs. Irving could hear both of them hissing and looked over at them, "Calm down there, girls." Both Chae and Naphalee didn't listen and kept hissing until Zahrah let go of Irving and moved back, "Whoa, calm down. I am not trying to steal him." Chae hissed louder, but Naphalee pulled her back, "We will see."

Irving sighed before going to grab his blades, sheathing them before taking a hold of the shortsword and looking over it before handing it over to Chae, "Seems dull like his mind." Everyone except for Zahrah began to laugh and as they turned to look at her, they noticed she was walking again, heading in the same direction as them, "Wait! Where are you going?" Irving called, the only reply to his question being, "Home. Thanks for saving me from them." Irving looked at the others with a questioning expression and Tavia nodded, "Lets follow her."

Following the fennec for a good distance, they soon reached the ruined village and Irving sighed for himself, "Well, here we are again." Tavia nodded and both Lorna and Ambidexa looked at the destruction of the ruins and Ambidexa covered her maw, "You didn't joke when you said that your home was gone like this." Irving nodded and walked over where Tavia was heading until they stood in the door frame to where their birth home used to be and Tavia pushed aside some rubble that had fallen onto the floor, "Mom... dad... we are home." Irving knew what Tavia meant as he walked next to her, "Your darling son and darling daughter are back."

While Irving and Tavia looked around, Ambidexa sniffed the air and turned to face the direction where Zahrah sat alone under a cave made of rubble and with a fire lit in front of her. Ambidexa remembered the wing and looked at the others before she walked over and upon approaching a bit too close, Zahrah looked in her direction and lowered her staff, "What do you want?" Ambidexa was quickly removing every feather quickly from the wing and took a piece of the rubble and cut it into what seemed to be a giant flat table before putting it over the fire with the help of four neatly cut legs and as the table heated up, she laid the wing on it and the sizzling sound of meat being grilled could be heard as Zahrah looked at Ambidexa who then left, "T-Thanks." Ambidexa just raised a hand before returning to the others.

Tavia had brought out the book that they had gotten their hands on that was her mother's and not before long she was channeling the water remaining from the ground and formed a key of it that went into the first lock on the vault door before she showed the book to Irving, who lifted one of his own hands, forming a key of air that went into the second lock, adjusting it before both keys turned and the vault door opened up to reveal stairs descending down into pitch black darkness.

Chae had approached to spark up a fire in her hand as they walked down the stairs, Tavia looking around, "I never knew what mom and dad hid down here. Now we gonna find out." Chae waved her hand around to light up candles that quickly ignited the dust and spider webs in the room, but by now the spiders had died from the lack of food, as apparent by the fact two rotten corpses of them laid on the floor. Tavia however looked forward and noticed that laying on top of a pillow that didn't seemed to have aged at all, laid a longsword and a shield, covered in dust, but even they were not showing any signs of aging, "Father's sword and shield." Irving blew off the dust and looked over the set, touching the hilt and then the shield, "This is some good craftsmanship. What do you think, Chae?"

Chae gently took the longsword and weighed it, "This is made of sturdy metal and the grip on the handle is unlike anything I have crafted. It is so comfortable to hold." Next Chae took the shield and looked over it, "No wonder. This uses the same style as what Master Steelnail used for his weapons, which I never got to learn how to make. I think he called it Byham steel." Irving and Tavia smiled at Chae's analysis of the shield, but for Tavia there was another concern, "Brother, should we let father's sword and shield be or what?" Irving thought to himself and soon smiled, "I think he would be happy if his little girl took up arms to honor him."

Chae handed the sword and shield back to Tavia before they noticed the fires slowly dying out as they stepped out of the vault and into the sunlight as Tavia took a few practice swings and noticed the shield gathering up air around it before a wave with the arm released a compressed wave of air that struck a stone wall near Naphalee, who then looked at Tavia as the wall fell down, "W-What just happened?"

Tavia looked at the shield and whistled, "I knew father was proud of his shield, but I never knew it carried so much potential in it." She quickly strapped the shield to her back before sheathing the sword next to her broadsword. It was then that they heard a soft murr and looked over in the direction where Zahrah sat and ate on the crow's wing, not seeming affected by the thought that she watched them kill the crow, her hunger apparent as she tore the meat off the wing and soon laid the bones on the flat stone table before standing up and rubbing her belly, "Ohhh, that was good."

Irving and Tavia nodded to each other before looking at the rest, "Okay, we got what we came for now, lets continue our journey." The others gave a nod before Ambidexa ran ahead a bit, followed by Lorna while Chae, Naphalee, Tavia and Irving followed them, not even noticing that Zahrah was following them, like their roles reversed. None of them looked back to notice her until Ambidexa stopped and her tail pointed forward as the others looked.

In the distance they noticed a big group of lightly armed individuals walking, but what seemed to be a massive mare being chained up like a slave is what made them look like they had bad intentions. They looked at them and Irving suddenly had a nasty idea and spoke to the others, only then noticing Zahrah standing there. Before he could ask, Zahrah asked, "C-Can I follow you all? I don't think I can survive on my own."

Irving had expected both Chae and Naphalee to hiss at it, but they were silent and actually took the control of the situation, "Yes, you may. Just do not try and take Irving from us." Zahrah nodded, "Thank you." Irving nodded before explaining the plan he had, making Zahrah feel a bit uncomfortable, but Irving quickly explained that it would in the end work out fairly and after she gave an understanding nod, Lorna and Ambidexa stripped themselves of all armor and weapons they had before Chae strapped some leather to them and soon had them bound neatly before they quickly moved to catch up the group.

"Hey there!" Irving called out, causing the slave traders to look in their direction and noticed the bound rat and sergal, both looking like they had broken well. Slowing down to let Irving and the others catch up, their leader nodded, "Good day. What is it?" Irving smiled, "Oh, we are just traveling to the town of Ampwick. We have been loyal providers of slaves for them and we wanna sell these two beauties for a neat pile of gold. Last time we were there, the village leader himself paid us five fists of gold for a slave." The leader looked amazed, "Is that so? Then you wouldn't mind if we inspected your slaves, would you?"

Irving just smiled, "Go ahead, just beware of the tall one, she was a bit happy to chew down on my arm." The leader nodded and looked Lorna over and then Ambidexa, who growled and shook in the bindings as the leader nodded, "I can see that she is not so cooperative. Have you tried using jumianara leafs on them? It works wonders to keep them calm, like we are doing with our slave." Irving looked at the big mare and nodded, "She is large, alright. You gonna get a nice couple of fists of gold for her."

The journey back to Ampwick went faster than they had expected and when they saw the village coming over the horizon, Irving smiled and nodded, "Okay, enough of this act now." The leader of the slave traders looked confused before Irving smirked, "I am the leader of the village and you have hereby entered my land. Prepare to die." The leader growled before drawing his sword, "We have been tricked! Kill them!"

Tavia smiled as she drew out her father's shield and the longsword at just instinct as a male fox came running towards her with his broadsword in the right hand, attempting a swing that she parried with the shield which launched him backwards onto his back before he stood up and attempted it again, only for another wave of air to hit him so he flew back yet again while she kept on walking towards him. The next swing once he got close was met by the same parry, but this time Tavia managed to delay it enough to charge straight into his chest and lift him up to launch him right above her before lifting the sword in just the right moment for him to fall throat first down on it before she cut him open from the throat and up, looking at the dead fox with a smile, "That is one splitting headache."

Chae found herself facing off against a bull wielding two massive axes as she drew her mace, making him laugh, "Are you serious? You gonna face me with that little thing?" Chae spun her mace around before the blue flame ignited from it, "I am not here fight you. I am here to kick your ass." The bull laughed before swinging his axes and charged right in for an attempt to strike her, but Chae struck the axes away as they came for her and soon the bull threw the axes like boomerangs, which Chae dodged and began to spin her mace around before she swung the mace and struck the bull right in the calf-makers, popping them both as the bull grunted out in pain and tears. Chae strapped the mace onto her back before performing a frontflip and catching the bull's axes and finishing the frontflip by slamming them down into the skull of the bull and straight into the brain, killing him almost instantly with a smirk, "Guess he won't bull-y anyone anymore."

Naphalee's opponent turned out to be the perfect match as both her and the slave trader were both riders and were the only ones not fighting near the others, but rather attempting to outrun the other as Naphalee had to deflect daggers, various fireball spells and even what seemed to be a rapid firing of arrows as it was certain that the male ferret sitting on the mount was a skilled one, perhaps even more skilled than her. He kept on throwing daggers until he saw an opening and fired off a quick arrow after throwing a fireball, hoping to cover it up. Naphalee deflected the fireball, but found the arrow hitting her shoulder as she hissed and the male ferret grinned, "You are an amateur, you cannot beat me." It was then that Naphalee remembered something that had happened before they approached them, as Lorna had given her a bow, but no arrows. Pulling the jagged arrow from her shoulder, Naphalee spun the arrow around while pulling out the bow, nocking the arrow before pulling the string back and taking a careful aim while her footpaws did all the steering of her loyal steed and when the arrow caught on fire from a fireball, she let the arrow go and the ferret soon found himself losing control over his mount when the arrow struck him in the back of his head, the sound of a stampede suddenly approaching before Naphalee impaled the ferret through his gut from behind, grabbing his head with a smile, "Look at me!" She then twisted his head halfway around before snapping his neck and killing him as she giggled, "Nice of you to face me."

Lorna quickly undid the ties on the leather before she was approached by one of the only female slave traders, their eyes meeting before she found how she was suddenly becoming tied down by her and her body was beginning to get crushed as she hissed out softly and the female feline grinned, "You are not like the others. You are weak!" Lorna looked at the feline and nodded, "Yes, I am not like them." The feline suddenly felt a dagger going into her back as Lorna smirked behind her when the air clone disappeared, "I am better." The feline turned around to try and get Lorna, but found herself punching through another clone before another dagger got stabbed into her back, making the feline hiss in confusion until Lorna appeared in front of her, jumping over her as the feline tried to hit her. But the feline turned to look at her before Lorna pulled her hands apart and with a clean cut, the feline's head rolled as Lorna smiled with the garrote hanging from her hands, "You didn't have a good head on your shoulders."

Ambidexa didn't bother with undoing the leather ties just yet as she charged right towards a female weasel that was wielding a fistclaw on each hand, standing ready to gut her. Ambidexa found it almost cute as she leaped over the weasel before landing behind her, watching the weasel attempt to strike her in a backflip before turning around just in time for Ambidexa to deliver kick after kick against her head, using the claws on her feet to deflect every claw on the weapons before disarming the weasel just in time as the leather straps came undone and the weasel girl soon got kicked back by Ambidexa before she leaped onto the weasel girl and growled when she bit down on the weasel's left arm and tore it right out of the socket and off her body, then repeating the same with her right arm, keeping the right arm in her maw before spitting it out with a wicked and sadistic grin, "Tell me I am beautiful, and I will let you live." The weasel girl was in panic and cried, "You freak!" Ambidexa grinned before reaching her hands around the girl's throat, squeezing hard enough to crush her windpipe and neck completely, "Now you cannot speak your misguided words of beauty."

Zahrah just looked at the sheer brutality of the others and suddenly felt a breeze of wind hitting her face as she looked at a male tiger approaching her with his sword in hand and a smirk on his face, "I guess I got to kill you. Poor shame, I do not like to kill a lady, but it is my job." He swung the sword to throw a wind that cut off some of Zahrah's hair, but she didn't even let it stop her as she sighed, "I would suggest you do not attempt to face me in combat." The tiger laughed before running towards her, "You look like a breakfast to me! Surrender and I might let you live!" Zahrah sighed before her eyes focused on him, "I warned you." Giving the ground a tap with her staff, she had soon formed a thick wall of dense sand in front of herself. The tiger laughed, "You think this will stop me?" He struck the wall with his sword, slowly blowing it away as Zahrah made it denser and more compact while he kept on swinging, building it up more and more until even his best swing wasn't enough, making him growl, "Come on, fight me!" Zahrah tapped the wall before forming it into a chamber around the tiger as a final tap sealed the deal when the air sparked and suddenly all the air within the chamber was ablaze and boiled the tiger alive until it collapsed over him and Zahrah lifted a hand and formed it into a fist, creating a massive force that crushed the remains of the tiger until the sand broke apart and the last thing hitting the ground was a white gemstone, which Zahrah picked up, "At least now you are worth something."

Irving approached the leader of the group, looking at him before he could feel a pillar of earth emerge and push him backwards as it slowly wrapped around him, making him unable to move as the leader laughed, "You think that will be enough to stop me? Come on, you are way too easy." The leader did notice how the pillars crumbled as Irving had air gathering around him and had not even unsheathed a blade yet, making the male wolf laugh, "Well now. There is more to you than it seemed." Irving merely lifted a hand and waved to him, "Bring it." The wolf laughed before drawing his axe and striking the ground, creating a homing wave of spikes to follow Irving as the otter quickly moved from side to side to avoid the spikes until the wolf struck him from behind and managed to get Irving impaled on a spike, or so he thought as suddenly Irving turned into water and came back to the spot where he had been caught in the pillars earlier, before reforming with a smile, "Oh, you almost had me."

While Irving distracted the wolf, Tavia moved over to unchain the mare, who took a deep breathe and sighed in relief, "Thank you, young girl." Tavia smiled, "You are welcome, miss." The mare looked at Irving and the wolf fighting before looking at Tavia, there is no second to lose. Where are my armor and weapon?" Tavia looked worried, "Umm, I don't know." It wasn't until Naphalee came riding by with the second mount in hand that she tossed a massive shield and flail to the mare, "There you go, must be yours." The mare also found her throwing her armor, which seemed to be attached magically as she only had to touch them to be equipped. With her armor, weapon and shield back in hands, she leaped into the air as the wolf fired off a second wave of spikes, slamming the shield down with such power that the spikes stopped upon hitting the shield.

Irving leaped backwards as the mare came landing and stopped the wave of spikes from hitting him, watching her look back with a smile, "I am sorry, but it seemed you needed someone to stop these." Irving felt a little uneasy over having the mare helping him, but when he noticed the armor, he knew it wasn't a bad choice to trust her, "Thank you, miss." The mare began to slowly move herself forward until she went into ramming speed and the wolf couldn't fight back the steamroller coming for him as he followed along with the shield and through two trees until a rock wall stopped them and the wolf growled out and fired off a point blank swing with his sword, making the mare scream in pain as the swing cut her across the eyes.

Irving's eyes narrowed before he drew Átta and charged right in for the wolf that had grabbed the mare and held her down, "Stop right there! If you wanna save her, then surrender now!" The wolf saw Irving slowing down a bit before the response came quickly, "Not in a thousand lifetimes." And with those words the wolf let go of the mare as Irving had accelerated his body to such a speed that every swing with the blade was now made in a millisecond, giving the wolf no time to parry it as Irving sheathed his blade slowly, "You are already dead." At the impact of the sheathing being complete, the wolf's body erupted into a mass of flesh as Irving grinned, "I guess he won't be a howl lot of trouble anymore."

Tavia quickly rushed over and began to heal the mare's eyes, carefully working the water across the wound, "Good thing that we are here. Otherwise your eyes couldn't be saved." The mare was just quiet as she sat there and let Tavia do her job with healing her as Chae took a look at her armor, shield and weapon, "This is the same style of what your father's shield is, Irvie. Byham steel." The mare heard it and spoke, "Byham steel. Tin, iron and cobalt. Often tin is replaced by copper." Chae looked at her, "How do you know?" The mare answered, "I picked those metals because that is what I wanted for my armor."

When Tavia finally had healed the mare's eyes, Irving looked at her, "What is your name, miss?" The mare took her shield and flail before bowing politely, "I am Lady Cassise du'Bouclier of Babrycg. Nice to meet you." Irving bowed politely, "A honor to meet you, miss Cassise. I am Irving Tohka, the village leader of Ampwick. My company is my sister and healer Tavia Tohka, my wife and blacksmith Chae Garven, my other wife and cavalier Naphalee Garven, my sister's friend Lorna Skaven, Lorna's friend Ambidexa Zink and our companion that decided to travel with us, Zahrah Al-Earafa." The girls waved and Cassise saluted them before Irving laughed and waved to them, "Come on, lets go home now. We need to make sure that we are stocked up and well-rested." No one denied that fact and they continued their walk until the sun began to go down and Irving called out from the gate of Ampwick, "Everyone, we're home!"

To be continued in chapter 10: Truths and Acceptance.