If I had to explain the emotions running through me at this moment, I suppose they would consist of: anticipation, anxiousness, trepidation and nervousness. It may be a surprise for me to bear such feelings on my current situation, however I can only say it is due to the history I had with this particular opponent I was against. I had been both dreading and looking forward to the day I would get to fight against this girl since the time she betrayed me!
Yes, my foe was Dinara and her Umbral Spider, Zillah. No longer was I a small aardwolf pup who only knew to be cute! I was a crystal aardwolf with a desire for revenge against that insidious half-sibling of Teival’s! “What is it with siblings being so awful?” I wondered as I watched the malicious child give her final orders to her crystal beast.
While waiting for the match to begin, I examined how much Zillah had grown since the time we’d left Penfallow. Although I caught glimpses of her in the three-way battle at what was assumed to be Vernarbterwald, I regret to admit that she was too far away for even my perfect eyes to discern her rate of growth. As such, I was slightly alarmed by Zillah’s shoulder height mass of legs and abdomen before me.
Analysing as many details as possible, I noted how her eight legs were long and slender, with a dark and shiny sheen all over. Her fangs were probably as large as half of my head, as her abdomen would have been able to fit me amply inside with room to spare – if she ever found the desire to add crystal aardwolf to her diet. As for the hairs on her legs and body – they seemed as sharp as those needles I had learned were what those stabby-stabby things had been called, which only served to send subconscious shivers down my stiff spine.
And so, the battle began between us crystal beasts, as we immediately used both our abilities in the hopes of gaining the initial upper hand. At first, I was doing well against Zillah – dodging out of the way of her legs poised for pouncing on me. In turn, she seemed to be effectively slipping away from my attacks as I continued to strike at sandy soil.
Eventually, I got caught in Zillah’s web she had masterfully threaded across the battlefield, resulting in me being unable to change locations as she neared me. As I struggled to break free, Zillah bit down on my thigh with her venomous fangs which triggered the memory of sibling No.2 getting bitten by the cobra. “N-no…No! Get away! I don’t want to die! Go away! Go away!” I began panicking as vivid images of that night came flooding back – transporting me to Old Home.
“Kia! Fight back!”
“…Master…?” I vaguely heard Teival’s voice in the distance, which brought me back to reality just in time to shift the position of my head to avoid the second bite coming my way. “Argh! Keep your fangs to yourself, Zillah!” I channelled wind energy through my body – cutting the sticky threads surrounding me – before slashing my claws at the Umbral Spider’s legs.
The sound of chittering screeches entered my ears as I jumped backwards and fell in a heap. It appeared that my hind leg had gone numb and stiff from the bite, as I struggled to regain my stance to deal another blow. After a few minutes of struggling against the venom, I succeeded in defeating Zillah who had lost five of her legs.
As the Head Instructor gave her announcement of Teival’s and my victory, my ears didn’t fail to pick up on Dinara’s snide remark: “I’m surprised you managed to raise her to be so strong, Teival. Though I guess it’s not a surprise when I know you must have stolen stuff to develop her.”
Unfortunately, the cheering crowds had drowned out Dinara’s voice, resulting in no one reacting to her abhorrent accusation. Saying that, I made sure to kick some sand at her not-so-pretty face and clothes, so she looked every bit as dirty as her personality! With that, Teival picked me up and carried me to the waiting room before treating my wound.
While we waited for our next match, we peered through the window and observed the match between Adelaide and Armin. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really have a preference over who would win this match since I believed they both deserved to go through with their skill. Saying that, it also didn’t really matter which one won since I would easily defeat them with my terrifying talent!
A few minutes into the battle and they were both fairly equal in both power and skill. Adelaide’s Wasser Lynx had the stamina and bulk, while Armin’s Feuer Salamander had speed, agility and debilitating poison abilities. I have to admit, when considering which I’d prefer to have a bout with, I think Adelaide’s crystal beast would be easier to deal with.
Over time, the Wasser Lynx managed to engulf Felicity in an orb of water which didn’t really prove to be too big a problem until the outer layer begin freezing over. Due to my enviable ears, I heard Armin’s concerned voice as he ordered Felicity to get free of the water orb, however Adelaide countered his order by telling her Wasser Lynx to freeze faster. The result was lukewarm at best, with Felicity frozen inside the ice ball and unable to do anything.
Seeing the outcome, I heard the Head Instructor announce Adelaide’s victory before revealing Armin’s place as being ninth in this event. As such, since my battle was not going to be for a while longer, I closed my eyes as I listened to Teival’s healing harmonies from humming.
+++
I know I said I had been anticipating the match with Dinara and Zillah ever since I’d been discarded as her prospective crystal beast, however such feelings paled in comparison to the emotions welling up inside me at this moment. If it wasn’t already obvious, my opponent had turned out to be Tabitha and Mr Stripey. “Oh, how I’ve longed to have this match, sibling No.1!”
Looking at my ferocious family member, his fur had taken on a blue sheen – with his stripes a dark brown. Examining his claws, they were in no way as immaculately sharp as mine – I mean, how could they possibly be when I was far superior over him when it came to personal maintenance? As for his size…well he might have grown bigger than me but that only meant he was all brawn and no brains! I wasn’t at all intimidated by his looming size when compared to my agile self! Not at all!
With my observations complete, the Head Instructor blew her crystal whistle – signalling the start of the spar. Taking a deep breath, I analysed Mr Stripey’s movements – making sure I wasn’t reckless this time by charging in without a proper plan. It seemed that my sibling had the same idea as we hesitantly circled around one another from opposite ends of the arena. “You can do this, Kia! Show him how you’ve grown so you can sit on his face and rub your rear in it!”
At that moment, Mr Stripey’s claws glowed blue before the land beneath us shifted and turned loose. “Hmm?” Looking down at the ground, I noticed it becoming incredibly moist and realised my sibling was altering the environment to a boggy one! Not wanting to get stuck in it, like I had with Zillah’s webbing, I channelled wind energy into my paws and created a thin barrier of constantly moving air.
No longer at risk of sinking into the swamp, I started running around in the hopes of finding a spot of land not affected by Mr Stripey’s ability. As I moved my legs, I felt the twinge of pain from Zillah’s wound which caused me to limp slightly – hindering my movement a little bit. Mr Stripey seemed angry that I was avoiding his sinkhole, resulting in him forming spikes of water and aiming at me continuously.
“Hey! Stop that! I look awful with wet fur! Take heed of your sibling’s beauty!” Weaving through the trajectories of Mr Stripey’s projectiles, I eventually got close enough to adopt my own tactic. Removing the wind protection very briefly so I could connect with the land, I dug a hole beneath my opponent, resulting in him falling into a deep pit.
For most, this tactic would have meant I had won, however my supercilious sibling had other ideas when I suddenly felt my connection to the land being tampered with. “Ah! Oh no you’re not! I refuse to allow you to disconnect me from my hole!” We then battled with our minds as we both focussed on the soil: Mr Stripey was trying to raise himself up by loosening and moistening the soil, I was trying to entomb him through condensing and drying out the soil.
After a back and forth of ability clashing, I eventually grew so frustrated over my sibling refusing to yield that I channelled wind through my claws and sent out a wind blade. Of course, my stupid sibling managed to escape from the hole before my attack struck, resulting in him successfully pouncing on top of me. “Get off me, you ungrateful ingrate!”
Wriggling out of his grasp, I ended up suffering under Mr Stripey’s claws as he dug them into my previously injured hind leg and ripped at my flesh! “Ouch! That hurts!” I jumped a few steps away from him and lost my balance a little before examining the damage he had inflicted. “Argh! My beautiful fur! Look what you’ve done! You’ve marred me! How dare you?!” Suffering from severe blood loss from my gaping wound, as well as seeing my no longer pristine silver (grey) fur, I became incredibly mad. In my unadulterated rage I channelled as much wind energy and land energy into my claws before charging and lashing out.
“MR STRIPEY!”
“Hmm?”
Hearing the panicked shriek from Tabitha, I turned to look at Mr Stripey only to see a pool of blood fast becoming a pond. My vision blurred as I discovered a deep gash across my sibling’s throat caused by my blood-covered claws. As I vaguely registered Tabitha rushing over to treat Mr Stripey, I stared at my paws in confusion. “W-what happened…? What did I do to my sibling…?” I collapsed on the soggy ground as Teival came over to treat my own wounds.
Barely keeping consciousness, I heard the Head Instructor announce my master and I as the victors of the round. Although beating my sibling was supposed to be a happy occasion, I couldn’t help but feel an empty dread as I didn’t want a victory that caused my sibling’s death. Saying that, I didn’t get the chance to find out his fate as after a few minutes of first aid treatment and the next match finishing, I was sent back out to fight another opponent.
With a dazed mind from what I’d done, I couldn’t summon up the energy or will to fight against my foe, resulting in us losing. Saying that, the loss wasn’t great as Teival’s position in this event was fourth, giving him a total of fifty points overall – easily placing him in the top twenty. As the Head Instructor announced those who passed the final trial, she called out a few and claimed a Clan member had offered to apprentice them. The most surprising part of this was that Teival’s name was among those called.
With this unexpected situation, I managed to take my mind off more morose topics as Liesel guided Teival and I to an empty room inside the Main Stadium. As we waited, I began to get excited as I thought about who Teival’s master would end up being. I mean, with my master being apprenticed, this meant we would have more opportunities to gain access to more information regarding the Clans! “Ooh, I hope it will be a woman! The women of this Clan seem far more tolerable than the men! Well, except for the Head Instructor, she’s too scary!”
Wagging my fluffy tail as Teival continued to tend to my wound, the door swung open without even a preceding knock. “How rude?! Don’t you know it’s not polite to barge into a room without knocking first?! Eh?” Before me was the one person I never wished to meet again, nonchalantly striding in with a smug smirk on his face…
“Long time, no see, Teival! Spoiled princess! I saw your matches and thought it would be fun to take you with me! It’s brilliant, right?”
“Nooooo! I refuse! There must be a mistake! This is the wrong room, Teival! We were supposed to take a left, then a right, then another right!” As I cried out in anguish over this catastrophic calamity that had befallen us, I fear I may have become lightheaded from the loss of blood as I lost my vision before fainting. The last thing I remembered was the laugh of Anders as he called me an overdramatic spoiled princess…“Will I never have peace…?”
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So i was working and thinking about what you might have written when i come back home and had a few ideas. Please tell me if i shouldnt write too much like im going to do now, because i am aware that this is YOUR story and you decide. Also my memory isnt the greatest and i consume alot of stuff so i hope i dont mix things up.
I believe a timeskip or accelerated story would fit now, if i remember correctly Teival is something like 11 or so, he cant really travel or get to know secrets of the guild(?), so him staying there for 2-4 years shouldnt be a problem and not break the story.
I also thought about crystal beasts(CB) and tamer relationship and how maybe a beast can grow too strong for a weak tamer, so that he cant really control it anymore. Like when a CB has too much crystal in its body? Or do they not develop anymore crystals at some point and just keep growing? At which point the SB-clan subdues and breaks them totally while maybe the lunafleur-clan befriended them and they grow even stronger? I will happily await whatever you thought about.
Is metal an advanced form of Earth control? Could Tia harden her fur or maybe the ground and form something like a net underground and then move it up to catch foes?
Since you are using german i wonder if you just used google translator or actually speak german. I am german and Schwarzerberg sounds a bit weird, its like "blackmountain" which you normally wouldnt write as 1 word, but as 2. Schwarzberger tho sounds more normal to me, but i guess its too late to change anyway and doesnt really matter at all
TFTC and sorry for the Wall of Fles...* Text
*i wonder if you know the reference?
A crystal beast usually lives as long as their Tamer since they usually become distraught over their Tamer's death. As for growth, the more they eat crystals and channel the energy of them properly, the more their body gets affected. Usually, their size depends on how well the Tamer has developed the beast - hence why the SAC's birds were so massive.
With regards to control over the land, I have some ideas on how Kia will develop over time. I'd rather not spoil what she'll be able to do in the future, sorry.
>w<
As for the relationship, yes it is possible for a crystal beast to break the contract if the Tamer isn't strong enough. Tamers channelling their mana and singing their contractual song is meant to strengthen such bonds as well as help the crystal beast develop. If I had to use an example, though, think of it like in Pokemon where if you don't have enough gym badges then the pokemon can end up disobeying you. It can escalate past that if the bond isn't maintained.
I confess...I used Google translator - which gave Schwarzer Berg as the result - though, seeing what it should be, I feel Schwarzerberg works better for my story since I didn't want to use entirely pure translations for all things in my story, though that might end up annoying people. I feel Schwarzerberg flows better but that might just be my English mind. I will say that Schwarzerberger makes me think of burgers though, so perhaps it's for the best I got the pure translation wrong, otherwise I might misspell it as burger. >w< . Apologies for if it sounds clumsy! The other Clans also have impure translations for their meanings from other languages to make them flow better from an English perspective, so apologies to anyone who speaks those languages, too!
As for your reference...*draws a blank and tilts head*
@w@
Thanks for still reading my story!
Ah, also a quick update on my writing situation: I'll be taking the rest of the week off since I am still trying to think of how to start my next segment of the story - as well as family plans for things disrupting a steady schedule.
*huggles*
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@KokoCrunch >w<
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TFTC!
Hope you enjoyed it!
\o/
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