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Written by Pale

Tailed - Part One

Aroree’s eyes narrowed, her gaze wandering across the slaughter being carried out down below her viewpoint – a small stumpy shrubbery atop a cliffy hillside. Down below a caravan was under attack. Mailed guards attempted to hold off the outlaws, but there was far more of them than there was of the guards. And they fight well, Aroree thought. Beside her, a much larger shape was dodging below the shrubs: Blackfell, her direwolf, with eyes like yellow half-moons and jaws which had saved Aroree more than once. The noise from the battle had lured Aroree from her home in the forest, where she and Blackfell lived in almost total isolation and solitude. For a few seconds she pondered who to help. But as the battle was intensifying, the words of the tablet which she was otherwise bad at remembering popped up in her head. “They need help” she mumbled, before she slid down the hill, and threw herself into the fray.

Aroree ducked, then stepped aside as the head of the grim looking warhammer crashed into the ground where she had been not the blink of an eye before.

Aroree hissed, "Too slow" – her skin dark-red and purple from rage, her eyes reflections of the bleak, dismal view of the gathering dark that is the fall. The towering norn before her was clad in sleeveless chainmail, reinforced leather leggings and rugged boots, and wore no helm at all. The norn lifted the hammer again, but he was tired now.

The engagement had been going on for almost a quarter of an hour, and the hammer was heavy, even for a norn. Aroree did not hesitate to take advantage. In one swift move she leapt onto the norn's arm, piercing it through with her blade, letting go of it, grasping her short bow and an arrow whilst planting her feet on the norn's broad shoulders. The norn looked up, seemingly confused as how to react both to the burning pain in his arm and the strange situation of Aroree standing on his shoulders. Whatever the norn did think, we will never know, for with the sound of a thud Aroree released the string of her bow, this time piercing the norn's head, bringing his giant figure crashing down.

Aroree rolled as she hit the ground, jumped to her knees, stringing her bow with two arrows, sending them flying into the heads of two poorly armed human outlaws coming against her from her right. To her left, a third outlaw, storming towards her met his end, as he was knocked over from behind, Blackfell's jaws closing around his neck. He stopped twitching within seconds.

“Way too slow” Aroree mumbled as she pulled her blade from the dead norn’s arm and moved past him, towards what was left of the small battle. Perhaps they weren’t as good as I thought she thought.

Aroree appeared from behind a tipped over wagon, shortbow and arrow ready in hand. To her right and left, merchant guards were fighting what appeared to be the rest of the outlaws, while what appeared to be the merchant himself, an asura, stood atop a mostly intact wagon, screaming at his guards, attempting to catch their attention.

"They ran that way!" The Asura yelled, apparently in increasing desperation.

"Never mind the others! Get the two charr! They have the sphere!" As neither of those fighting seemingly paid any attention but merely kept swinging at each other, the asura began to stamp his feet in the ground in frustration.

“Impossible, foolish, stupid, deaf-eared bookah!” The asura screamed, it’s large ears flapping up and down as it practically jumped out of sheer anger.
“How can it be so difficult to run one way instead of another!?” The asura almost snarled, showing his small, shark-like teeth.

They so do look like crazed rabbits Aroree thought to herself as she approached the small figure on the wagon. As the asura did not notice her but was busy waving to get the attention of those fighting, Aroree tried to wave as well, thinking a similar form of action would likely draw the asura’s attention towards her. And so it did.

“What are you standing there for you walking catastrophe!?” The asura yelled at Aroree, his eyes ablaze with anger at his men’s failure to follow orders.

“They went that way!” He screamed, his voice getting somewhat hoarse. “After them!”. Aroree looked up at him, apparently completely bewildered.

“Who!? Me!? No no no, I am Aroree!” She said, smiling happily at the asura. The asura paused for a moment, looking at her, seemingly completely baffled.

“A-who?” he asked, his ears having now stopped flapping up and down, moved from side to side, attentively, trying to establish an overview of what was going on.

“Aroree!” she replied, drawing back her hood, revealing the wide grin on her face, and the red, rose and purple leaves making out her hair which was half-way covering it.

The asura placed his forehead in his palm, sighing deeply. “Charr steal my precious sphere, those hopeless bookah refuse to listen to me, and the only person coming to my aid is a flower-head who can’t understand what I’m saying… By all the cogs in all the clocks of Rata Sum… What have I done to deserve this…?” The asura whined.

“I so understand what you’re saying! I do!” Aroree leaned forward, but was still smiling, and her reply seemed merely to be friendly and informative.

“Who stole what?” she asked, turning from side to side to see if any of the outlaws came near.

“Those two charr, you imbecile! Just as I told you before! Can you not understand it!? Are there some bookah hidden in you leaf-brains somewhere, huh!? They went that way!” He said and pointed, ”They have my sphere, which I need for… eh… important, world-saving business!”

Aroree's expression went from happy to being almost ecstatic from sheer curiosity. “World-saving…” she said, almost with a sigh. And they went that way…?” Aroree did not usually waste time, and this should prove to be no exception. “I’ll get it!” she yelled, darting off in the direction the asura had pointed out.

The asura stood still, baffled for a moment, then a sly grin appeared on his face. “So eager to please, are we, little leaf-head? Well well, you might prove to be very useful… And if you should even manage to retrieve the sphere… So much the better…” The asura turned around, sending a bolt of lightning into the chest of a guard which was running towards him. The asura screamed at the outlaw behind him: "Do I have to do everything for you? You have lost the sphere to those imbecile, iron-legion charr, so intent on helping their new Krytan allies. I had to send a sylvari after them, because you were too full of stupid to listen!" the asura said, his eyes piercing the outlaw.

"A sylvari? But...?" The outlaw seemed confused.

"She is more than capable enough... She took care of Marrec's en-ti-re unit."

"H-his whole unit?" the outlaw stuttered.

"... Do not make me repeat myself!" the asura hissed. The brigand seemed to decide to shut up entirely. The asura pondered a bit, and then looked up. "Griram!" he yelled.

Across the field a slim, feline figure pulled a sword out of one foe and loosened the grip of it's jaws from another. It let them drop like rag-dolls and approached the wagon. "You called, sir?" the charr asked, his voice having a delicate, almost noble overtone.

"At some later occasion, Griram, you and I are going to have a little chat as to why it is not you who at this moment pursue those two of your kin who snatched the sphere and ran off while the rest of you were busy fighting their human comrades. But I have another task for you to perform, so this must wait."

A sly smile ran across Griram's face. "I am sorry, sir. You know how I get when there is a chance to spill proper blood. What is your command?"

The asura stared at the charr for a moment, then spoke. "I sent a sylvari after the two who got away with the sphere."

"A sylvari? After two charr?" Griram lifted an eyebrow, unable to hide an expression of scepticism from showing on his face.

“Yes, a sylvari” the asura replied. “To be more specific, the sylvari you danced away from with such grace once it appeard, covered in blood from behind where Marrec’s unit had just stopped making noise moments before.”

“Ah… that sylvari.” Griram replied, chewing on it for a moment. “Is that wise?” he asked.

“It fights well, it has no idea what is going on, it is likely unknown to our enemies. Can you think of a better agent under these circumstances?”

The charr thought for a bit, then nodded in approval. “I cannot. What then will you have me do?”

The asura looked up at him. “You are fast. I want you to go around and ahead. Your two kin is likely heading to that large village we passed on our way here. Go there, wait for them. You are our security there if the sylvari fails.”

Griram nodded again. “I have a contact there. I shall employ him to help me.”

The asura waved him off. “Good then, now go. I have much else to do here.”

Griram nodded, turned around and disappeared in a slightly different direction than the one the two other charr and Aroree had disappeared to. Their way was better if you wanted to cover your tracks. But Griram’s way lead him through open fields and low-land, which would bring him to the city what he expected would be half a day’s time before the others.
Back at the site of the ambush the asura was sitting, plotting, whilst the outlaws was looting the dead guards. There was still much else to do. Still many other pieces of the puzzle to knit together.

Aroree was born to hunt. Literally. The first and only things she could think of when she had hatched was forests. The rustling of the flowers, the grass and the trees, the gurgling of the water in the streams and lakes, the breeze and rays of sunlight in the clearings. And when she finally got there, amongst the scents, she smelled new ones, those of animals, and instantly knew that she had to follow them, hunt them, and eat them; as much a part of nature as Sylvari could possibly be, she was. She lived with it, she laughed with it, and she breathed with it.

Her first kill was a squirrel. Hunted through the trees and killed with her bare hands and teeth. To get proper fed, however, she chased down a deer, loving the hunt, the feeling of wrapping her whole body around the deer’s neck, using all her force to break it.

As she was eating however, Aroree encountered something which would not be her prey. She sensed it long before it was there, looking up and in the direction she knew it was coming from, a piece of deer meat hanging from her teeth and blood dripping from her chin.

The huge, ebon wolf appeared out the thick under-forest, staring at Aroree with eyes like cold, yellow half-moons. At first it walked a bit back and forth, seemingly trying to see if one angle might work better than another. As nothing seemed to work, however, it simply slowly approached Aroree, a deep growl coming from the throat of the beast, its teeth showing. Aroree, not one to give up however, climbed over the deer on all fours, the piece of deer-meat still in her mouth, growling back, however little her voice was capable. They both continued until Aroree and the wolf were not an inch apart, looking each other in the eyes.
Suddenly the wolf sunk its teeth in the other end of the meat, pulling it towards itself. Aroree did not let go of the meat with her teeth, but took her hands to help in the struggle. “Nnnnnhhoo! Tss mnneee!” Aroree managed to utter through the meat, as the two pulled in each their own direction.

The contest lasted for almost a minute, until Aroree's tiny frame at last gave in to the superior weight and strength of the wolf, and the two tumbled around on the forest floor. Neither wishing to let go, Aroree wrapped her arms around the wolf’s neck, the two tumbling back and forth, unable to get any permanent edge on the other.

At last, the two collapsed beside each other, looking each other in the eyes. And lying there, staring into the feral eyes of the wolf, something happened. Something Aroree could not quite understand. She had no words for it, although she knew what it was. She knew this wolf.

Aroree began to giggle, more and more heavily until she finally let go of the meat as she laughed warmly with a high, singing laughter, like a mixture of the sound of running water in a stream, and the singing of birds. The piece of meat disappeared into the maws of the obviously hungry wolf.

Aroree wrapped her arms even tighter around the wolf’s neck, moving close to it and kissed it’s black, wet nose. “You’re Blackfell!” Aroree yelled excitedly, burying her face in the wolf’s black mane.

The wolf yelped, surprised by the new creature clinging herself to it. But when its snout moved down to Aroree’s head, all she felt was its tongue licking her face, neck and shoulders. She looked up at the wolf, once more staring into its cold, yellow eyes. “You and me Blackfell!” she said, “always!” She buried her head in its warm, pelt, inhaling the smells of forest and of running under the stars.

When Aroree opened her eyes again, the sun had moved almost half-way across the sky. The wolf however, hadn’t gone anywhere, but had raised its head as far as possible, looking for danger.

Aroree got back on her feet, moving back to the dead deer with the wolf right behind her. Without further discussion they both ate as much as they could, the wolf significantly more, and prepared to move on, the wolf constantly being attentive of her.

Before they went on however, Aroree turned to the wolf with a puzzled look on her face. “But… Where is your pack?” she asked, tilting her head at the wolf.

The response was a sad whine, telling more than Aroree had ever wanted to know. A sad expression spread across her face. “I am sorry” she said “I promise I will never die.” She scratched the wolf behind the ear, moving forward, the wolf right behind her. It was these two who were now hunting two charr through the forests and hills of human lands.

“I know they are that way but we can’t move so swiftly; they might hear us!” Aroree said to Blackfell. The wolf whined low, but slowed its pace. They had been following the two charr for over two days, staying low, staying hidden, staying silent, and always always against the wind.

The charr moved with a quick pace, but seemingly unaware that someone was following them. We have to get them when they’re least prepared Aroree thought to herself. On the end of the third day however, the two charr arrived at a small town. They passed through the gates, the human guards exchanging looks, but letting the feline duo in.

Aroree uttered a particularly foul norn curse she had learned the last time she was in such a place. This would prove to be an exciting opportunity however. Whilst the forests were her true home, she loved to visit cities, watching all the strange and wonderful things being made, the scents... well, stench would be more correct she thought to herself.

She usually spent evenings in the inns and taverns, listening to the tall tales of norn warriors, insults of asura, the banter of charr and the humans everywhere, all of them settling affairs over a pint of ale. When she could she would enter the discussions herself, saying things that would raise an eyebrow or two, and sometimes worse.

But right now she had to wait for nightfall, so the city would be less busy, and a quick escape far more easy. She climbed to the top of the tallest tree she could find. All the way to branches so thin, even an Asura would be afraid of them breaking beneath it. But her they would hold, she knew.

Blackfell waited by the bottom of the tree, rolling around in the grass, but mostly lying still, watching out for danger. The hours passed and the sky grew darker as Aroree waited in top of the tree, her thought circling around not so much finding the charr, but how to get the sphere. And how to know that the sphere she had found was the right one.

“Let us see… Charr usually like loud, larger taverns…”Aroree said to herself in a low voice. “And the largest one appears to be that one all the way over there… With the funny, red roof and the blue, circular windows on the first floor.” She giggled for a moment. “It looks like an owl…” This thought kept her amused for a while, and when her thoughts returned to the two charr, they circled mostly around how to trick the sphere from them, and then how to escape from both the tavern and the city itself.

Suddenly, it was as if a flash ran through her eyes, and a wide grin spread across her delicate face. She had just the right idea. She was just starting to climb down the tree to enter the city, when the clouds suddenly started to disperse above her, and the jewel-clad black carpet of the night-sky peeked through and glittered down at her.

“Oooooohhhhh… Stars…!” Aroree almost yelled, clapping her hands together in excitement, causing her to nearly fall down the tree. She quickly climbed all the way back up, as close to her favorite view in the world as she could possible get, leaned her head backwards, her eyes almost watering from emotion and longing, and a blissful smile playing on the finely shaped leaves, making out her lips. She had already forgotten everything about city, charr and every sphere that had ever existed in the whole world, save her friends about her, shining down at her.

End of Part One