Kaci Chapter One - Sparring Match
Kaci snapped out of her day dreaming, shaking her head a few times, her breath coming out quickly, catching in her throat and making a rasping sort of gagging noise. The look in her eyes was blank, distant, as she recalled the day that changed her life. Both of them; one for the worst, one for the best. She looked around her bedroom, it was dark, she guessed it was around eleven. As her eyes scanned the window, she noticed the moon was full, and a small smile crossed her lips.
She only had a few seconds peace as she looked at the moon, her long time friend. There was a loud knock on the door and Kaci groaned. She unfolded her oddly long legs and slipped out of her old rocking chair, steadying the back of it as she walked past and toward her door. As she walked toward the door, her nose twitched a few times, head inclined slightly, scenting the air as it lightly swirled around her.
"Vayne," she muttered, knowing his hearing was good enough to hear her from this distance, and she heard a little chuckle on the other side of the door. She opened it to reveal a young, handsome man. The height difference between them was drastic, and did well to reveal the leopard's height. The human standing before her was of average human height, around five feet ten inches. His somewhat scraggly hair happened to be a bright, fire engine red, which made his sky blue eyes stand out even more than usual. His clothing was mostly casual, slightly baggy black jeans and an almost form fitting black t-shirt, which revealed his lean build. By most standards, he was most definitely attractive, but it was obvious that the leopard either didn't notice, or didn't care.
"Every time you do that, you just remind me of how much of a freak you are," Vayne says, tone very serious as he looked down at the female, who just shrugged, her expression bored.
"Uh huh," she mumbled, "What do you want?"
"I just thought you might want to see something," he replied, "But if you're going to act like a bitch, forget it." He turned and walked down the long hallway, taking a left at the end and the sound of his footsteps sounded up a flight of stairs while Kaci just stood in her doorway.
She leaned against the frame, closed her eyes, and then huffed a sigh. She opened her eyes and padded off silently down the hallway, following Vayne up the stairs. When she was halfway up the stairs, she heard the sound of Vayne's music, Ghost by Fefe Dobson, blaring from his room. She thought to herself that he must have left his door open, because she knew that a few months ago he'd put a soundproofing spell on his room, as long as his door was closed. As she reached the top of the stairs, she folded her ears back on her head and cringed slightly, his music was so loud.
"Turn it off!" she shouted over the music, her voice coming out in a growl, muzzle pulling back slightly from her teeth, revealing her bright white teeth, and her small fangs that accompanied the look. Her canines were only slightly longer than what would be expected, but came to little wicked points at the ends. No more than two seconds after she told Vayne to turn the music off, there was silence once again. She walked just to the doorway of his room, which was dimly lit and decorated completely in black and crimson, with various posters and symbols on the walls and ceiling, and simply leaned against his black doorframe.
"Alright," Kaci muttered, looking at Vayne with an almost annoyed expression in her eyes, her muzzle pulled tight as she pursed her lips just slightly, "what did you get so excited about that you had to come bug me for?"
Vayne spun around, standing in front of his large stereo system, which covered an entire wall in his room, his eyes mirroring Kaci's annoyance, but only for a moment. His sky blue eyes lightened with obvious excitement and he nearly skipped over to a desk near his bed, opening a draw and pulling out a pistol. He turned and strolled over and held it out to Kaci, who took it almost gingerly in one paw, holding it by the handle, but barely gripping it and letting it point towards the ground. She looked up at Vayne, then down at the gun in her paw, raising an eyebrow, "Uh huh... It's a pistol. We have a whole cabinet full of guns, and you're excited about a pistol?"
"It's..." Vayne started, sounding almost a little hurt and taking the gun back from Kaci, "It's a Smith and Wesson 38 special with adjusted sights and a dual tone finishing!" he spurted out.
"Right," Kaci drawled, still not looking impressed, "Where'd you get it?"
"Oh!" Vayne exclaimed, as if remembering something long forgotten, "So!" the excitement was dripping from his voice by this point, his whole body slightly shaking with it, "I was walking home, right? This guy jumped out at me from no where, pulled out the gun, and asked for all my money. I asked him 'Don't you wanna buy me dinner first?'... He didn't seem to like that idea," he paused, shrugging a little. "So I," he stopped, throwing a few punches in the air in front of him, then a sweeping kick followed by a low kick that would have been aimed at the side of a body, had there been one on the ground, a smile crossing his face. "I rooted through his stuff, nothing important, but this baby," he finishes, holding up the gun in both hands and grinning down at it.
"Nice." Kaci stated, smirking a little at the story, "It's still just a pistol though," she finishes, starting to turn and walk away.
"Fine!" Vayne mutters, "But," he says, and Kaci hears the clip snap out of the gun and fall to the ground. She turns around in time to see Vayne aim the gun, now without a clip, at the wall. He fires the gun and a large sized fireball rockets from the barrel, hitting a poster on the wall and igniting it instantly. The wall flamed for a few seconds before Vayne threw a ball of light blue at it, putting out the fire, "ever seen a pistol do that?" He finishes, smirking.
"Okay, that's much better," Kaci replied, now smiling brightly. She turns after a few seconds and stares at the top of the stairway, barely visible from the few steps outside of Vayne's room where she stood. The look on her face was expectant, and soon turned to disappointment.
"Whatcha lookin' at?" Vayne asked, peering out of his doorway, over Kaci's shoulder at the stairway.
"We have more work to do than I thought," Kaci sighed, "It's time for her first training session." She said, her voice soft and almost foreboding. "You should come watch."
Kaci knew that she wasn't going to have to say more to Vayne than that, he was always willing and eager to watch training sessions, and this new panther was going to be quite interesting.
The pair walked down the stairs quickly, soft padding from the leopard, followed by a louder almost clomping sound from Vayne's boots. He could be silent when he wanted to, he'd proved that fact many times, but when they were in the castle, he never bothered to put forth the effort. They reached the bottom floor of the castle and turned down a dark hallway, the lighting too dark to even make out their shapes as they walked to the end of the hall. There was a door open, a light shining out from it, at the right hand side of the end of the hallway.
As they entered the room, a lean pantheress, who was currently sitting with her legs crossed in the center of the room, jumped to her feet. She resembled a soldier standing for attention to a commanding officer, and, essentially, that was exactly what she was. Her arms fell to her sides, stiff, and she stood straight up, her eyes on Kaci the entire time. The panther was almost a whole foot taller than the snow leopard, standing at five feet, six inches. Her eyes were an ice blue, an almost piercing sight from beneath her obsidian fur. Her eyes were hard, this panther wasn't someone that most others would mess with.
"Kage," Kaci said, quietly as she walked circles around the young panther. In the background, Vayne took a seat on a low bench that ran along one of the walls, bringing his legs up to sit cross-legged, leaning forward slightly and resting on his legs with his elbows. Kaci stopped in front of the panther, tilting her head up slightly to meet the look of the panther, who didn't move her head, only her eyes. "We will begin your first training session now." She finishes, then turns and walks toward a door in the corner of the room. Kaci opens the door and drags out a large sparring dummy on a board with wheels under it. She pulls it over to Kage, flips a switch on the side and the wheels retract into the bottom of the board, which would steady the dummy on the floor. "You will warm up with this." Kaci states, then turns to walk away.
Kage huffs an annoyed sigh, looking at the dummy in front of her, it was large, and likely would have made a great punching bag. The panther stared at the dummy for a moment, then balled up one of her paws and aimed a punch at the dummy's face, splintering the wood that supported it and sending little pieces of wood in all directions, the head of the dummy flying off and hitting the wall. Kage stepped back from the dummy, who was now headless, and crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Next," she said, steel toned.
Kaci spins around when she hears the splintering sound of the wood, her eyes narrowed. She bats off a few splinters that were flying toward her body, then moves close to the panther, "What the fuck is your problem?" she asks, not expecting an answer and continuing on quickly so that an answer cannot be inserted, "That was your warm up dummy. Now what are you going to train on?"
"How about an actual sparring partner?" Kage hisses, obviously annoyed, "That thing is child's play!"
Vayne raises his hand, offering himself as a sparring partner with a wide grin on his face. Kaci heard the hand being raised and waves the human over, shaking her head slightly, "Fine. Fight him." She says, turning and walking away from the two and taking a seat on the bench.
The panther brings her body low, almost crouching as Vayne approaches, her muzzle coming up as she snarls out a little warning to him. Her claws extend on her paws, razor sharp daggers that most would wish to avoid at all costs. Her ears lay flat on her head, eye narrowing into slits as she waits. "Go," Kaci mutters from the sidelines.
The female needed no more command, she was lunging toward the human in an instant. Her attack was easily dodged, he only needed to wait until just before she swung a well aimed paw at his head to side step, and she swiped at the air. He brought a leg out, catching her in the ankle and making her stumble. If he'd been fighting another human, the move would have brought them to the ground, instead, she tripped, catching herself sideways on the floor with a paw and simply pushing herself back up to a standing position.
She whirled quickly, growling as she lunged at him again, his right arm swinging out, fist connecting with the side of her muzzle hard, but not hard enough. Her head twisted with the force of the blow, but she wasn't phased, tilting her head back and wrapping her arms around his shoulders, attempting to force him over and down onto the ground. Her hind paws stayed awkwardly under her, making no attempt to trip him. She was strong enough that she toppled him over, but his hands found her sides and as he fell, he launched her over him, flipping her onto her back, where she landed with a loud thud and a low grunt.
He was to his feet before her, but she followed suit quickly. She charged again, and at the last second, he brought his leg up and landed a kick to her midsection, she hissed and grunted in pain, spinning around and swiping at his face, claws raking across his cheek and leaving only three small lines of blood. He groaned, a hand moving toward his face to check for blood, then his eyes narrowed as he looked at her and he moved with more speed than most humans with his anger. He landed three hits to her muzzle, forcing her backwards, hissing in her anger. She made a blind swipe at him, hitting him in the side of the throat and knocking the wind out of him. Vayne fell backwards, gasping and groaning.
"Enough!" Kaci calls, standing up and moving toward the pair, the panther hovering over the human, glaring down at him. After a moment, the panther turns away.
"I told you I was better than that dummy," Kage mutters, walking a few steps away from Kaci and Vayne.
Kaci looks down at Vayne, who rises to his feet, already having regained his normal breathing pattern. His eyes were now a bright sapphire, and as he stares daggers at the back of the panther's head, his hands start to glow blue faintly. Kaci shakes her head once at him and he sighs, closing his eyes for a moment, his hands fading back to normal. When he opens his eyes again, they are the normal sky blue.
"And you're dead," Kaci mutters to the panther, "He would have killed you. You need to focus. Your attacks were blind."
"What?!" The panther whirls around to face Kaci, her ears folding back in anger, "I had him! I won! He was down."
"Fighting dirty will only get so far." Kaci says, shaking her head slowly, "I am not here to strengthen you, you have strength. I am here to teach you how to use it."
"Then fight me yourself!" Kage yells, "You think you're so tough, that you can teach me, then do it yourself. You're nothing. I could beat you with my eyes closed!"
Vayne chuckles in the background, having found his way back to the bench, and now leaning forward even more eagerly, while Kaci simply smirked at the panther, nodding her head a little, agreeing to the match. She shifted back, moving into a guarded stance. The panther moved back as well, then, without warning, lunged toward the smaller feline. Kaci's face stayed calm, moving her arm to block the flying arm of the panther as it approached her head. Kage's attacks were full of anger, not well thought out, and obviously relied on her strength alone to help her.
Kaci simply stood still, blocking every wild attack that was thrown at her with apparent ease, while Kage grunted and huffed with her exerted effort. The panther tried to attack from a different angle, slipping over to Kaci's side, taking a swipe at her hip, being stopped easily by a well-trained paw.
"This is what I mean," Kaci says, calmly, "You need to focus. Think before you attack."
Kage growled loudly, frustrated as her attacks started to come faster, wilder. The swinging of her paws seemed feral, relying on her claws to connect rather than actual punches. Kage was fast, but Kaci was faster. Kage was strong, but she was no match for Kaci.
"You're so full of anger," Kaci whispers, blocking attack after attack, dodging a few, "What do you even have to be angry about?"
Kage almost screeches with her frustration now, coming out in the sound of a hiss and a growl mixed together. "Why don't you fight back?" she yells, her attack becoming even wilder now. "What are you afraid of?"
Kaci simply continues her dodging, now not even needing to put forth the effort to block the wild swinging attacks. "Focus, Kage. Focus." she mutters, dropping and spinning, then leaning out of the way of a blow.
"Attack me!" The panther screams, "Just fight back already!"
Kaci shakes her head once, "Contain your anger. You know not the anger that you are exuding," she says, still calm, "You have nothing to be this angry about."
Kage hisses again, an almost pained sound, "You have no idea how much I wish I had never been born!" she says through gritted teeth.
Kaci simply blinked at the statement, then connected a blow straight into Kage's nose, sending the panther backwards, and landing on her back with a grunt and a whimper of pain, "You asked for it," she mutters, her eyes shifting with a red haze over them as she leaps at the fallen panther. Her speed was unhuman, her attacks connecting loudly. She leaps to her feet and backs away slowly from the panther, who jumps up after a moment and stalks toward the leopard, the fury in her eyes burning brightly.
Kaci circled around slowly, Kage matching her steps and keeping the pair facing each other at all times, until suddenly Kaci blurs, darting to the side of the panther and hitting her in the side of the muzzle, blood splattering off to the side as the blow reverberates through Kage's head. She shakes her head and looks around for the leopard, spotting her a few feet away and lunging, hissing and snarling loudly. Kaci drops down as Kage flies through the air, catching herself with one paw on the ground and swinging her body up and sideways, letting one leg move up and kicking the panther in the side. Kage goes flying and groans, hitting the floor and skidding. She makes one attempt to get up, then whimpers, and slumps down. Blood flows from her mouth and nose, and one of her eyes is already beginning to swell shut. Kaci stands and brushes the dirt from her sides and fur before going to the panther and kneeling in front of her.
"We have much work to do."