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Hunter or the Hunted: Part 2 Chapter 1


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#1 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 03 August 2003 - 09:16 PM

Part 2
Chapter 1:






The rolling waves rocked the squat merchant ship as it plowed sluggishly westward. Somewhere down in the hold, crouched down amidst the crates of food for the crew's return voyage, Yoshimo held his breath and waited for two gaijin to go back up on deck. For ten days he had endured the once daily inspection of the cargo hold, hoping that no one would notice him, and for five days he had gone unnoticed. He had been perfectly careful, not stealing food from the ship's supply lest it garner unwanted attention and only drinking the smallest amount of water; just enough to keep him alive. The downside was that his growling stomach had once almost given him away, but the sailors must have put the noise down to the creaking groans of the ship. If worse came to worse there were quite a few rats down in the cargo hold, which meant that he could avert starvation, but he was saving that as a last resort. Hopefully the voyage wouldn't last so long that he had to eat raw vermin to survive. Still, it had already lasted longer than he had anticipated, ten days and counting whereas he had only planned for seven or eight. How far away could the gaijin's empire be?

He almost chuckled and gave himself away. It must be pretty far for such bizarre looking people to be found there. Even the people of the Shou empire, which was just on the other side of the Celestial Sea looked a little different than the people of Wa -or so he'd heard, he'd never actually seen a Shoujin before. If geography accounted for looks, for the gaijin to look as strange as they did they must come from a place very distant indeed. Until he'd snuck into the tightly secured trading port Yoshimo had never seen a gaijin before, and from the stories he'd heard from some of Hiruma's friends who did illicit business with them, he had expected something a little different than what he saw. On the other hand, in many respects the stories were very much like the reality.

For example, the smell. He honestly wondered if the gaijin ever bathed, or if they just let themselves pickle in their own dirt and sweat. Maybe there were prohibitions in the society against bathing, maybe it was a religious taboo, he didn't know. All he knew was that they smelled enough to make his eyes water. He was grateful to be on the ship, where at least the surroundings had been kept clean, if not the people in them. The tiny dockside house he had ducked into while waiting for a ship to leave had been filthy. No one was home, which was why it made such a good hiding spot, but it was obvious that it was in use up until very recently and probably would be again. Even the eta, who performed the unclean tasks of butchering animals and curing hides, did a better job of keeping their meager homes tidy.

He was also surprised at how descriptions of the gaijin failed to fully convey just how strange they looked. Sneaking through the port he had little time to look around for anything but the next hiding spot, but while he was holed up in that filthy house he had done a little people watching to take him mind off the stink. They were like a rainbow or something. He saw one man with hair so red that it looked as if his head were on fire, a woman whose tresses were so black that they reflected blue and violet when the light hit them. Where one man might be almost the same color as obsidian, another might be pale as snow, and they ranged the gamut inbetween. The men were universally the hairiest creatures he'd ever seen. One man wandering around without his shirt had a virtual carpet all up his front and down his back that blended in with his long, greasy hair and beard. They looked, and lived, almost like animals, and Yoshimo didn't wonder very hard why the Shogun sealed them up in special ports away from the people of the Empire.

A loud creaking groan came from the decking, and Yoshimo became more still, if that were possible. From the sounds of their footsteps, instead of going back up on deck, the two gaijin were coming closer. One of them muttered something and suddenly Yoshimo's section of the room seemed to glow. Much to Yoshimo's distress, the center of that glow seemed to be him. One of the gaijin shouted something, and the two of them hurried over and hauled the crouching teenager out from behind his nest of crates.

One of the gaijin was very tall and muscled like an oni. Like the others, he looked and smelled as if he had been wallowing in a midden heap. His yellow hair was tied into hundereds of little braids and his thick, barbaric beard ended in two greasy, braided tails that dangled stiffly from his chin, almost like horns. The other gaijin was very nearly his companion's opposite. Not more than a few inches taller than Yoshimo himself, the second gaijin had a slender build, like a reed almost. His hair was black and tied neatly at the nape of his neck and his pale, very angular face was smooth. His brilliantly blue eyes were slanted slightly, and maybe a little over-large, and his ears were longer than was normal and came to a point. He looked something like a spirit folk, a child descended from a nature spirit and a man, but at the same time he also seemed very different, so Yoshimo had a very strong feeling that that was not what he was at all.

The slender gaijin looked at Yoshimo with those bizarre eyes, frowning slightly. He waved his hands and mutter a few words, and the glow around Yoshimo faded. Then the gaijin drew a tiny clay statue of some sort of pyramid shaped building out of his tunic and said something. The statuette shattered. He repeated the process a second time, producing and destroying a second clay statuette.

"Now then, can you understand me?" the slender gaijin asked, his crystal eyes focused intently on Yoshimo's face.

Yoshimo jumped.

The larger man cuffed him on the back of the head. "Answer t'captain, boy."

"Casshus, that was uncalled for," the slender one said sternly to his companion. He turned back to Yoshimo. "I apologize for his behavior, my first mate has very little regard for stowaways. I am Captain Elliard Llylendyll, and you are on my ship. For that reason I would like to know what your name is and why you are here."

"I... I am ah... Yoshimo."

"Just Yoshimo?"

"Ah... yes. How... uh..."

The captain smiled briefly, apparently amused by Yoshimo's confusion. "I cast a spell. That's how we are able to communicate."

"Oh," Yoshimo said lamely. Of course that was what had happened! He felt incredibly stupid for not figuring it out right away. Hadn't he lived in a house with four sorceresses for nearly a year?

"What'cha, doin' 'ere?" the large man, Casshus, demanded.

"Allow the boy some time to calm himself, Casshus, he is evidently somwhat unnerved," the captain said, laying a restaining hand on the other man's shoulder. "In fact, I think I will take him to my cabin and I will finish questioning him there myself."

"But Captain..."

"Go on, Casshus, you have other duties to attend to on board. I will deal with this boy myself."

"Captain, it's rules that..."

"The rules, Casshus, do not apply with regards to children. Now, go about your business. That's an order."

Casshus nodded curty and exited the hold, though it was plain to Yoshimo that he wanted to argue further.

Once he was gone the captain said, "If you will be patient for just a moment I will cast another couple of spells, and then you and I may adjourn to my cabin to discuss your reasons for being here and just what it is I will do with you." First the captain drew a pinch of white powder from one of the many pouches that hung from his belt and tossed it into the air over his head, and then he repeated the process with a silvery powder from another pouch, saying some strange word at the same time as he released the powder. Then he drew a small dab of some gummy stuff out of yet another pouch, placed it carefully in the palm of his hand, which he held up to his lips and whispered over. When the whispering was done the gummy stuff was dried up, and when he blew on it, it turned to dust.

The captain wiped his hands off on his pants and said, "You will have to be quiet as we go along deck. I have made you invisible so that the crew cannot see you, but they can still hear you if you make too much noise, and I would prefer that they not know you are aboard until I can sort things out and prepare them."

Yoshimo nodded, curious about what was going on. Why all the subterfuge? Why did the captain need to 'prepare' his own crew for anything? Surely they would take any orders he gave, right? Yoshimo's mind darted nervously to the brawny, filthy Casshus, and how he had talked back to his captain, and he certainty wavered.

The captain led him up out of the hold and along the deck toward the stern of the ship, where the cabins were. A few men paused in their work to tip their heads to the captain, but not a soul even noticed Yoshimo's passage, which confirmed that the captain had really cast a spell of invisibilty over him. The cabins were beneath the ship's wheel, and there were two of them, one on the right along a short, cramped corridor as the hatch was opened, and one on the left. The captain took him through the door on the left, and seated him on a strange seat in the comfortably appointed room before he closed the door and agin and sat down himself.

"That went well," he said, reaching for a flask that sat on a tiny wooden table and taking a drink from it. "Now then, my boy, I will be frank with you and say that you picked perhaps the worst ship of all to stowaway on, but since it's five days yet to the nearest port in Shou, and impossible tp return you to your own country, I don't think there is much we can do to change matters. The crux of our dilemma is that while we were in port in your fair land one of my crew members ran afoul of the local authorities and was imprisoned and executed for his crimes, small though they were."

That made sense to Yoshimo. All crimes in Wa had the same punishment, death. The only question was how long the guilty party had to wait before the sentence was carried out. "I see," he said, noting that the captain seemed to want some sort of acknowledgement from him.

"Since this particular member of my crew was very much a well-liked young man -and I admit I had no small amount of fondness for him myself- I chose to leave before the crew could retaliate," the captain continued, taking another drink out of his flask. "Thus we set sail rather hastily, without taking the time to check the hold properly, and here you are. Now, the question is what to do with you. I mean to do you no harm, so you know, but I am uncertain as to what your purpose for being here is, and so I do not know where to go from here. Do you think you could enlighten me?"

"Ah... yes, I could," Yoshimo said. "I... needed to get out of the Empire."

"And that's all there is to it?"

"Well... no."

"Please elaborate."

"Eh... well..." Yoshimo hedged, uncertain as to just how much of the truth he should tell, "I... was apprenticed to a cruel man, who... ah... well his concubine was a sorceress and she had three apprentices too, all girls, and my master ah... he... took one of them against her will. I found out and threatened to tell his mistress if he ever laid a hand on the girl again, and he agreed, but then he tried to kill me. So I ran, and hid aboard your ship in order to get away."

"A foreign land is a long way to run to escape an angry master," the captain commented.

"Er... my master is not the sort of man who would have let me get very far, and he has many friends."

"Ah...! One of the criminal element then. I didn't know peaceful, law-abiding Wa had any criminals. You would think that the risk would far out weight the reward, hmm?"

Yoshimo didn't quite know how to respond to that. On one hand he was surprised that this stranger had figured out so much about him only moments after they had met, and on the other hand he was a little offended by the man's directness. "You would think," he said at last. He hesitated. "How...?"

"Did I know?"

Yoshimo nodded.

"Long years of experience and an eye for this sort of thing. I can't say there was anything in particular that gave you away, just a collection of subtle clues." The captain brushed an invisible speck of dust off of his neat tunic. "But that's another matter, and what we need to attend to now is exactly what I'm going to do with you. As Casshus said, there are rules for dealing with stowaways, though I generally don't bother with them, particularly when the offender is a child, as I mentioned before. There are two options, really. The first is that we can drop you at our first port and that will be that. I don't really consider this option to be desirable either for myself or for you because, as you probably know, you will be a stranger in a strange land, without friends and unable to communicate with the native people. The second option I think you will much prefer, and that is to take a position as an assistant to me aboard my ship. I would make you one of the crew, but doubtless the rest of the crew members wouldn't take it well, and it is safer for you to be more closely associated with me, since they dare not do anything to incur my wrath. My position as captain aboard this ship is not a permanent one, and I will be disembarking in Calimshan. I will expect you to travel with me for no less than a month and no more than three. After that time, you may go about your own business. Agreed?"

From what Yoshimo could tell the captain wasn't really giving him a choice. It was either serve him, or he himself would be served up to the crew like some sort of human sacrifice or else dropped off in some foreign land to fend for himself. Not that Yoshimo didn't think he could do it; he was confidant in his ability to survive, but he would rather not take too much risk. Of course he could have been over thinking things, attributing motives to the captain that he didn't have, but it was better safe than sorry.

"I agree."

"Wonderful. Welcome aboard the Merry Wench, then. You should probably stay here in my cabin until I can explain to the crew what is going on, which should hopefully prevent a mutiny, but once I have given you the go ahead, you will have free run of the ship." The captain cracked his knuckles. "Now, before my spell ends, do you have any questions for me?"

"Ah... well, I would like to know how it is you found me. I thought I was well hidden."

"Oh, you were, and we probably wouldn't have found you if it hand't been for Ratty."

"Er... Ratty?"

"My familiar. Ratty, will you come out here and meet young Mr. Yoshimo please?"

A scuttling noise came from one of the corners of the cabin and a large, glossy-furred black rat ran across the floor, up the captain's leg and onto the table. His large, dark eyes possessed a cunning beyond that of any animal Yoshimo had ever seen, and it seemed to size him up. Once he was done looking Yoshimo over, Ratty stood on his hind legs and groomed the fur on his belly, wrapping his long pink tail around his feet.

"Ratty noticed you in the hold yesterday on one of his outings, and then told me about it. I would have come and gotten you then, but alas I didn't have the proper spells prepared, and so I had to wait until this morning." The captain stroked the rat on the head with one finger and Ratty chittered and climbed up his arm and onto his shoulder, where he curled up looking quite contented. "Any other questions?"

"I don't know. Do you think any of your other answers will involve... vermin?"

The captain chuckled, but Ratty gave Yoshimo a sharp look and squeaked indignantly. "You do have a sense of humor! Good then, I'm sure you and I will get along swimmingly. Don't worry, no more rats will be forth coming. Ratty is the exception aboard my ship."

"I wouldn't be so sure. I saw more than enough down in the hold."

The captain turned his head and regarded his rat with a cool gaze. "Ratty, have you been holding out on me, eh? Keep a few lady friends that you shouldn't?" Ratty did not respond. "Well," said the captain, taking that to be an answer, "they had best clear out at the next port of call. You and I both know that they carry disease, and I won't have my crew getting sick so that you can propagate your species. Besides, I thought you were interested in Glendyll's Bertine."

Ratty made a noise that Yoshimo thought was probably the rat equivalent of a derisive snort.

"Oh, that was uncalled for," the captain said. "Off with you if you are going to be using that sort of language." Ratty scampered down the captain's leg again and retreated back to his rathole. "I really have no idea where he learned to talk like that," the captain said, shaking his head.

"What did he say?" Yoshimo wanted to know.

"Well, in essense, that Bertine could go get buggered for all he cared, except that she was so ugly that he was sure no one would oblige. And I thought she was rather attractive, as far as rats go."

Yoshimo nodded, pretending to understand. Were all spellcasters crazy, or was it just the ones that he happened to meet? "Can you tell me anything about where your homeland?"

"What? Evermeet? I doubt you will be going there. But, then perhaps you meant Faerun in general."

"Yes, Fae... er... Faer..."

"Fay-roon," the captain enunciated for him.

"Fay-roon," Yoshimo repeated carefully. "Thank you. Yes, I think that is what I meant, captain er.. Ellia... er..."

"Ell-ee-ard Lill-EN-deal."

Yoshimo blanched. "Maybe I should just call you 'Captain-san'," he said.

"I suppose you could, and you probably will end up doing just that, but I think perhaps it would be a good idea to have you try and learn how to pronounce Faerunian names."

"Yes, Ell-ee-a Lill-en-dea-san."

"It's unnecessary to add 'san' to the end of my name. We have different customs, which I will go over with you when I teach you how to speak Common."

"Are all words as difficult to pronounce in... Common?"

"Oh, stars and moon, no," the captain replied, smiling. "My name is an elven name. Common is a completely different language, and much better suited to an untrained human tongue."

"Ah... Eru.. Eru-ben?"

"El-ven, yes. I am an elf."

"Eru...?

"Elf."

"Eruf?"

"Elf"

"Eluf?"

The captain sighed. "Close enough for now. At any rate, I am an 'eluf,' in case you were curious, or found my appearance odd."

"I did wonder," Yoshimo admitted. "And you are a sorcerer too, yes?"

"No, I am a wizard, and a priest of the Moonmaiden, Selune." The captain shook his head. "Not a 'sorcerer' at all. Completely different bird all together, Sorcerers. They have their talents, and a certain amount of raw power and versatility that we wizards don't possess, but they lack the ability to plan and tend to be somewhat... unpredictable."

"You are a priest?"

The captain gestured to one side of the cabin where there was small alter dominated by a openwork wooden carving of two eyes surrounded by seven stars. "I am," he said. "Selune is the Goddess of the moon, the stars and all those good people who live and work by their light; sailors, for example, though they tend more toward the worship of Valkur, and no one in Faerun would dare put to sea before appeasing Umberlee. Point of fact, most pirates and evil sea creatures worship The Bitch Queen exclusively."

Yoshimo's head was beginning to hurt from having to take in so much information at one time, but he had a feeling that he had barely begun to scratch the surface. "Why haven't I heard of these Gods before?"

"Well, partly because they keep more or less exclusively to Faerun, and partly because, as I'm sure you know, outsiders are not welcome to spread their foreign ideas around Wa. Not to long ago a group of worshippers of Chauntea, the Earthmother, were executed for breaking the law and following a forbidden religion."

That rang a bell in Yoshimo's mind, and he did recall vaguely hearing about such things when he was younger, but he hadn't paid much attention to it at the time. "Ah yes, that," he said.

The captain smiled again. "I would be glad to discuss the matter with you at a later date, but I'm afraid that the spell that is allowing us to communicate is wearing off, and on top of that I need to go inform Casshus of what my plans are and deal with other matters on board the ship. I will bring some food in for you in a while, but until then, please make yourself at home in my cabin, but don't go out of it, I don't know when the invisibilty spell I cast on you will wear off, and it would be a problem if it were to fizzle while you were in sight of one of the crew members."

"I understand."

The captain stood up. "There is some good brandy in my flask here, and you are welcome to the rest if it, if you want, though I doubt it will be to your tastes." He tipped his head politely and exited the cabin, leaving Yoshimo alone with only the sound of the waves slapping against the hull and Ratty to keep him company.



To Be Continued
___________________________________________________________

Notes:

"Gaijin" translates roughly to "foreigner," and "jin" used as a suffix (as in Xjin) means person from X. Thus, I am an Amerikajin, and if you or I were from Faerun we would be Faerunjin.

"Oni" is just a generic word for demon or monster (although the closer word to monster is "bakemono," which litterally translates into "stupid thing.")

-Blue

#2 Guest_Chantrys_*

Posted 04 August 2003 - 02:18 AM

Finally caught up with this story! I really admire the way you use the details of Japanese culture to immerse us in the story. :cry:

The other gaijin was very nearly his companion's opposite. Not more than a few inches taller than Yoshimo himself, the second gaijin had a slender build, like a reed almost. His hair was black and tied neatly at the nape of his neck and his pale, very angular face was smooth. His brilliantly blue eyes were slanted slightly, and maybe a little over-large, and his ears were longer than was normal and came to a point. He looked something like a spirit folk, a child descended from a nature spirit and a man, but at the same time he also seemed very different, so Yoshimo had a very strong feeling that that was not what he was at all.


What a cool way to describe an elf. ;)

"Oh," Yoshimo said lamely. Of course that was what had happened! He felt incredibly stupid for not figuring it out right away. Hadn't he lived in a house with four sorceresses for nearly a year?


:) Damn Western ways of spellcasting...

Once he was gone the captain said, "If you will be patient for just a moment I will cast another couple of spells, and then you and I may adjourn to my cabin to discuss your reasons for being here and just what it is I will do with you." First the captain drew a pinch of white powder from one of the many pouches that hung from his belt and tossed it into the air over his head, and then he repeated the process with a silvery powder from another pouch, saying some strange word at the same time as he released the powder. Then he drew a small dab of some gummy stuff out of yet another pouch, placed it carefully in the palm of his hand, which he held up to his lips and whispered over. When the whispering was done the gummy stuff was dried up, and when he blew on it, it turned to dust.


I also really liked this description of the spellcasting. Very cool.

The captain wiped his hands off on his pants and said, "You will have to be quiet as we go along deck. I have made you invisible so that the crew cannot see you, but they can still hear you if you make too much noise, and I would prefer that they not know you are aboard until I can sort things out and prepare them."


Don't think that will be a problem, what with all his training.

Yoshimo didn't quite know how to respond to that. On one hand he was surprised that this stranger had figured out so much about him only moments after they had met, and on the other hand he was a little offended by the man's directness. "You would think," he said at last. He hesitated. "How...?"


Nice characterization.

"What did he say?" Yoshimo wanted to know.

"Well, in essense, that Bertine could go get buggered for all he cared, except that she was so ugly that he was sure no one would oblige. And I thought she was rather attractive, as far as rats go."

Yoshimo nodded, pretending to understand. Were all spellcasters crazy, or was it just the ones that he happened to meet? "Can you tell me anything about where your homeland?"

:cry:

"Ah... Eru.. Eru-ben?"

"El-ven, yes. I am an elf."

"Eru...?

"Elf."

"Eruf?"

"Elf"

"Eluf?"


Oh, man. :) My brother learned English way after he learned Japanese, so he had this pronounciation problem for a while. Good times.

The captain stood up. "There is some good brandy in my flask here, and you are welcome to the rest if it, if you want, though I doubt it will be to your tastes." He tipped his head politely and exited the cabin, leaving Yoshimo alone with only the sound of the waves slapping against the hull and Ratty to keep him company.


Oh, I don't know. Yoshi's been through a lot, and I'm sure a drink would help. :roll:

Great chapter.

#3 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 04 August 2003 - 02:55 AM

[quote]Finally caught up with this story! I really admire the way you use the details of Japanese culture to immerse us in the story. ;)
[/quote]

Thanks. I'm glad that you're enjoying it.

[quote]
[quote]
The other gaijin was very nearly his companion's opposite. Not more than a few inches taller than Yoshimo himself, the second gaijin had a slender build, like a reed almost. His hair was black and tied neatly at the nape of his neck and his pale, very angular face was smooth. His brilliantly blue eyes were slanted slightly, and maybe a little over-large, and his ears were longer than was normal and came to a point. He looked something like a spirit folk, a child descended from a nature spirit and a man, but at the same time he also seemed very different, so Yoshimo had a very strong feeling that that was not what he was at all.
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
What a cool way to describe an elf. :roll:
[/quote]

I figured it was worth it to go into detail instead of just saying 'the second guy was an elf,' since Yoshimo had nevr even heard of an elf before this point, let alone seen one.

[quote]
[quote] "Oh," Yoshimo said lamely. Of course that was what had happened! He felt incredibly stupid for not figuring it out right away. Hadn't he lived in a house with four sorceresses for nearly a year?
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
:cry: Damn Western ways of spellcasting...
[/quote]

Yeah, there are no 'wizards' as a class in Kara-Tur, and no doubt spellcasting technique varies from sorcerer to sorcerer, since they tend to be highly individualistic.

[quote]
[quote]
When the whispering was done the gummy stuff was dried up, and when he blew on it, it turned to dust.
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
I also really liked this description of the spellcasting. Very cool.
[/quote]

Thanks, but most of the credit goes to ye olde Player's Handbook. I looked up Invisibility and See Invisibilty in the spells section and checked to see what, if any, material components they had and also if there were verbal and somatic components as well. Did the same thing with Tongues.

[quote]
[quote]
The captain wiped his hands off on his pants and said, "You will have to be quiet as we go along deck. I have made you invisible so that the crew cannot see you, but they can still hear you if you make too much noise, and I would prefer that they not know you are aboard until I can sort things out and prepare them."
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
Don't think that will be a problem, what with all his training.
[/quote]

^^ Yeah, but then again, he's never had to practice on a moving ship before. (Still, with an 18 dex he should do ju~st fine.)

[quote]
[quote]
Yoshimo didn't quite know how to respond to that. On one hand he was surprised that this stranger had figured out so much about him only moments after they had met, and on the other hand he was a little offended by the man's directness. "You would think," he said at last. He hesitated. "How...?"
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
Nice characterization.
[/quote]

Thank you ^^

[quote]
[quote]

Yoshimo nodded, pretending to understand. Were all spellcasters crazy, or was it just the ones that he happened to meet? "Can you tell me anything about where your homeland?"
[/quote]
[/quote]


[/quote]
:cry:
[/quote]

Me thinks this is another theme that I should develop. :)

[quote]
Oh, man. :) My brother learned English way after he learned Japanese, so he had this pronounciation problem for a while. Good times.
[/quote]

I imagine I sound just as funny when I try and speak Japanese :) but I wanted to sort of deal with the elements of culture shock and language difficulties that someone who has had no contact at all with the world outside of his own homeland would have once he's been sort of thrust into the middle of the outside world.

[quote]
[quote]
The captain stood up. "There is some good brandy in my flask here, and you are welcome to the rest if it, if you want, though I doubt it will be to your tastes." He tipped his head politely and exited the cabin, leaving Yoshimo alone with only the sound of the waves slapping against the hull and Ratty to keep him company.
[/quote]
[/quote]

[quote]
Oh, I don't know. Yoshi's been through a lot, and I'm sure a drink would help. :)
[/quote]

I think it's elven brandy anyway, so it might not taste too bad. I imagine elves have very subtle palates, and they can afford to age their alcohol for decades, if not centuries. Of course if he *does* get drunk Yoshi-kun had better keep his hands out of Captain Llyndyll's belongings... Ratty is watching!

[quote]
Great chapter.[/quote]

Awwww... shucks! Thank you very much
-Blue

#4 Guest_Oryx_*

Posted 06 August 2003 - 08:19 AM

Part 2
Chapter 1:




Woohoo! Every end is a beginning!




The rolling waves rocked the squat merchant ship as it plowed sluggishly westward. Somewhere down in the hold, crouched down amidst the crates of food for the crew's return voyage, Yoshimo held his breath and waited for two gaijin to go back up on deck. For ten days he had endured the once daily inspection of the cargo hold, hoping that no one would notice him, and for five days he had gone unnoticed. He had been perfectly careful, not stealing food from the ship's supply lest it garner unwanted attention and only drinking the smallest amount of water; just enough to keep him alive. The downside was that his growling stomach had once almost given him away, but the sailors must have put the noise down to the creaking groans of the ship. If worse came to worse there were quite a few rats down in the cargo hold, which meant that he could avert starvation, but he was saving that as a last resort. Hopefully the voyage wouldn't last so long that he had to eat raw vermin to survive. Still, it had already lasted longer than he had anticipated, ten days and counting whereas he had only planned for seven or eight. How far away could the gaijin's empire be?


Rats = disease!

Also, isn't it usually 'worst came to worst'...

He was also surprised at how descriptions of the gaijin failed to fully convey just how strange they looked. Sneaking through the port he had little time to look around for anything but the next hiding spot, but while he was holed up in that filthy house he had done a little people watching to take him mind off the stink. They were like a rainbow or something. He saw one man with hair so red that it looked as if his head were on fire, a woman whose tresses were so black that they reflected blue and violet when the light hit them. Where one man might be almost the same color as obsidian, another might be pale as snow, and they ranged the gamut inbetween. The men were universally the hairiest creatures he'd ever seen. One man wandering around without his shirt had a virtual carpet all up his front and down his back that blended in with his long, greasy hair and beard. They looked, and lived, almost like animals, and Yoshimo didn't wonder very hard why the Shogun sealed them up in special ports away from the people of the Empire.


lovely

A loud creaking groan came from the decking, and Yoshimo became more still, if that were possible. From the sounds of their footsteps, instead of going back up on deck, the two gaijin were coming closer. One of them muttered something and suddenly Yoshimo's section of the room seemed to glow. Much to Yoshimo's distress, the center of that glow seemed to be him. One of the gaijin shouted something, and the two of them hurried over and hauled the crouching teenager out from behind his nest of crates.


a spell?

One of the gaijin was very tall and muscled like an oni. Like the others, he looked and smelled as if he had been wallowing in a midden heap. His yellow hair was tied into hundereds of little braids and his thick, barbaric beard ended in two greasy, braided tails that dangled stiffly from his chin, almost like horns. The other gaijin was very nearly his companion's opposite. Not more than a few inches taller than Yoshimo himself, the second gaijin had a slender build, like a reed almost. His hair was black and tied neatly at the nape of his neck and his pale, very angular face was smooth. His brilliantly blue eyes were slanted slightly, and maybe a little over-large, and his ears were longer than was normal and came to a point. He looked something like a spirit folk, a child descended from a nature spirit and a man, but at the same time he also seemed very different, so Yoshimo had a very strong feeling that that was not what he was at all.


half-Kara-Turan half-elf?

The slender gaijin looked at Yoshimo with those bizarre eyes, frowning slightly. He waved his hands and mutter a few words, and the glow around Yoshimo faded. Then the gaijin drew a tiny clay statue of some sort of pyramid shaped building out of his tunic and said something. The statuette shattered. He repeated the process a second time, producing and destroying a second clay statuette.


interesting material component

"Casshus, that was uncalled for," the slender one said sternly to his companion. He turned back to Yoshimo. "I apologize for his behavior, my first mate has very little regard for stowaways. I am Captain Elliard Llylendyll, and you are on my ship. For that reason I would like to know what your name is and why you are here."


"I... I am ah... Yoshimo."


I am YOSHIMO!


Yoshimo nodded, curious about what was going on. Why all the subterfuge? Why did the captain need to 'prepare' his own crew for anything? Surely they would take any orders he gave, right? Yoshimo's mind darted nervously to the brawny, filthy Casshus, and how he had talked back to his captain, and he certainty wavered.


maybe he's a post-mutiny 'captain'?


"Long years of experience and an eye for this sort of thing. I can't say there was anything in particular that gave you away, just a collection of subtle clues." The captain brushed an invisible speck of dust off of his neat tunic. "But that's another matter, and what we need to attend to now is exactly what I'm going to do with you. As Casshus said, there are rules for dealing with stowaways, though I generally don't bother with them, particularly when the offender is a child, as I mentioned before. There are two options, really. The first is that we can drop you at our first port and that will be that. I don't really consider this option to be desirable either for myself or for you because, as you probably know, you will be a stranger in a strange land, without friends and unable to communicate with the native people. The second option I think you will much prefer, and that is to take a position as an assistant to me aboard my ship. I would make you one of the crew, but doubtless the rest of the crew members wouldn't take it well, and it is safer for you to be more closely associated with me, since they dare not do anything to incur my wrath. My position as captain aboard this ship is not a permanent one, and I will be disembarking in Calimshan. I will expect you to travel with me for no less than a month and no more than three. After that time, you may go about your own business. Agreed?"


eenteresting

"My familiar. Ratty, will you come out here and meet young Mr. Yoshimo please?"


LOL

A scuttling noise came from one of the corners of the cabin and a large, glossy-furred black rat ran across the floor, up the captain's leg and onto the table. His large, dark eyes possessed a cunning beyond that of any animal Yoshimo had ever seen, and it seemed to size him up. Once he was done looking Yoshimo over, Ratty stood on his hind legs and groomed the fur on his belly, wrapping his long pink tail around his feet.


Nice!! A rat-familiar! Heehe...how piraty....a parrot would work too ;)

The captain turned his head and regarded his rat with a cool gaze. "Ratty, have you been holding out on me, eh? Keep a few lady friends that you shouldn't?" Ratty did not respond. "Well," said the captain, taking that to be an answer, "they had best clear out at the next port of call. You and I both know that they carry disease, and I won't have my crew getting sick so that you can propagate your species. Besides, I thought you were interested in Glendyll's Bertine."


LOL!!!

Fynk: *evil, lusty squeak*

Ratty made a noise that Yoshimo thought was probably the rat equivalent of a derisive snort.


ROFL!!!!

"Oh, that was uncalled for," the captain said. "Off with you if you are going to be using that sort of language." Ratty scampered down the captain's leg again and retreated back to his rathole. "I really have no idea where he learned to talk like that," the captain said, shaking his head.


"What did he say?" Yoshimo wanted to know.


"Well, in essense, that Bertine could go get buggered for all he cared, except that she was so ugly that he was sure no one would oblige. And I thought she was rather attractive, as far as rats go."


Hmmm..ah, the drama of a rat's life.

"Fay-roon," the captain enunciated for him.


So THAT'S how it's pronounced!!

"Fay-roon," Yoshimo repeated carefully. "Thank you. Yes, I think that is what I meant, captain er.. Ellia... er..."


"Ell-ee-ard Lill-EN-deal."


Yoshimo blanched. "Maybe I should just call you 'Captain-san'," he said.


LOL

"I suppose you could, and you probably will end up doing just that, but I think perhaps it would be a good idea to have you try and learn how to pronounce Faerunian names."


Onyx: Hey, we're in a fantasy setting, our names can be about anything!!!

Jade: Yeah, ours are frikkin' precious stones.

"Are all words as difficult to pronounce in... Common?"


"I only speak two languages. Common and bad common"

"Eru...?


Ah!!! That's great! The Chinese L's-become-R's thing!!



"I did wonder," Yoshimo admitted. "And you are a sorcerer too, yes?"


They more common than wizards in Kara-Tur?

The captain gestured to one side of the cabin where there was small alter dominated by a openwork wooden carving of two eyes surrounded by seven stars. "I am," he said. "Selune is the Goddess of the moon, the stars and all those good people who live and work by their light; sailors, for example, though they tend more toward the worship of Valkur, and no one in Faerun would dare put to sea before appeasing Umberlee. Point of fact, most pirates and evil sea creatures worship The Bitch Queen exclusively."


Aerie: Yay cleric/mages! Boo Bitch-Queen!

Jade: Oooh, I think you're the B-

Aerie: You are!

"Well, partly because they keep more or less exclusively to Faerun, and partly because, as I'm sure you know, outsiders are not welcome to spread their foreign ideas around Wa. Not to long ago a group of worshippers of Chauntea, the Earthmother, were executed for breaking the law and following a forbidden religion."


huzzah for open societies





To Be Continued
___________________________________________________________


Yay! I loved it.



"Gaijin" translates roughly to "foreigner," and "jin" used as a suffix (as in Xjin) means person from X. Thus, I am an Amerikajin, and if you or I were from Faerun we would be Faerunjin.


Aw shaw!

"Oni" is just a generic word for demon or monster (although the closer word to monster is "bakemono," which litterally translates into "stupid thing.")


LOL! Bakemono....I'll remember that

-Blue



#5 Guest_The Blue Sorceress_*

Posted 06 August 2003 - 03:15 PM

Woohoo! Every end is a beginning!


Or as Xan might say, every new beginning is an end.


If worse came to worse there were quite a few rats down in the cargo hold, which meant that he could avert starvation, but he was saving that as a last resort. Hopefully the voyage wouldn't last so long that he had to eat raw vermin to survive. Still, it had already lasted longer than he had anticipated, ten days and counting whereas he had only planned for seven or eight. How far away could the gaijin's empire be?


Rats = disease!


They sure do.

Also, isn't it usually 'worst came to worst'...


I always thought it was "worse," so I dunno. I'll go consult my sources and get back to you.


He was also surprised at how descriptions of the gaijin failed to fully convey just how strange they looked. Sneaking through the port he had little time to look around for anything but the next hiding spot, but while he was holed up in that filthy house he had done a little people watching to take him mind off the stink. They were like a rainbow or something. He saw one man with hair so red that it looked as if his head were on fire, a woman whose tresses were so black that they reflected blue and violet when the light hit them. Where one man might be almost the same color as obsidian, another might be pale as snow, and they ranged the gamut inbetween. The men were universally the hairiest creatures he'd ever seen. One man wandering around without his shirt had a virtual carpet all up his front and down his back that blended in with his long, greasy hair and beard. They looked, and lived, almost like animals, and Yoshimo didn't wonder very hard why the Shogun sealed them up in special ports away from the people of the Empire.


lovely


I'm trying to base these sorts of observations in what I know about Japan at approximately the same era. Wa is about equivalent to mid-nineteenth century Japan, where cleanliness and godliness were connected in more than just a spiffy saying. In in mid 17th-century Europe, which is about what most of Faerun is equivalent to, people bathed about once a month and covered over the stink with heavy perfume. Then again, my analysis could be off a bit, since it doesn't take into account a heavily magic-oriented society.


A loud creaking groan came from the decking, and Yoshimo became more still, if that were possible. From the sounds of their footsteps, instead of going back up on deck, the two gaijin were coming closer. One of them muttered something and suddenly Yoshimo's section of the room seemed to glow. Much to Yoshimo's distress, the center of that glow seemed to be him. One of the gaijin shouted something, and the two of them hurried over and hauled the crouching teenager out from behind his nest of crates.


a spell?


Yup. The captain had Ratty deliever a touch spell for him -Light. Yoshimo was so busy paying attention to what the two men were doing he didn't notice. ^^


He looked something like a spirit folk, a child descended from a nature spirit and a man, but at the same time he also seemed very different, so Yoshimo had a very strong feeling that that was not what he was at all.


half-Kara-Turan half-elf?


nah, Elliard's all elf (a moon elf, to be precise.)


The slender gaijin looked at Yoshimo with those bizarre eyes, frowning slightly. He waved his hands and mutter a few words, and the glow around Yoshimo faded. Then the gaijin drew a tiny clay statue of some sort of pyramid shaped building out of his tunic and said something. The statuette shattered. He repeated the process a second time, producing and destroying a second clay statuette.


interesting material component


Got it right out of the PHB. One clay ziggaraut that shatters when the spell is completed is necessary to cast Tongues.


"I... I am ah... Yoshimo."


I am YOSHIMO!


;)


Yoshimo nodded, curious about what was going on. Why all the subterfuge? Why did the captain need to 'prepare' his own crew for anything? Surely they would take any orders he gave, right? Yoshimo's mind darted nervously to the brawny, filthy Casshus, and how he had talked back to his captain, and he certainty wavered.


maybe he's a post-mutiny 'captain'?


No, but he's not the 'regular' captain either.


The second option I think you will much prefer, and that is to take a position as an assistant to me aboard my ship. I would make you one of the crew, but doubtless the rest of the crew members wouldn't take it well, and it is safer for you to be more closely associated with me, since they dare not do anything to incur my wrath. My position as captain aboard this ship is not a permanent one, and I will be disembarking in Calimshan. I will expect you to travel with me for no less than a month and no more than three. After that time, you may go about your own business. Agreed?"


eenteresting


^^ Elliard knows a kid from a foreign continent won't get very far in Faerun on his own, so he's setting things up so that not only does he help Yoshimo out, but he get's a henchman to boot.


"My familiar. Ratty, will you come out here and meet young Mr. Yoshimo please?"


LOL


Elli's a bit strange, but a good guy nonetheless.


A scuttling noise came from one of the corners of the cabin and a large, glossy-furred black rat ran across the floor, up the captain's leg and onto the table. His large, dark eyes possessed a cunning beyond that of any animal Yoshimo had ever seen, and it seemed to size him up. Once he was done looking Yoshimo over, Ratty stood on his hind legs and groomed the fur on his belly, wrapping his long pink tail around his feet.


Nice!! A rat-familiar! Heehe...how piraty....a parrot would work too ;)


Funny you should mention pirates... ;)


"Well, in essense, that Bertine could go get buggered for all he cared, except that she was so ugly that he was sure no one would oblige. And I thought she was rather attractive, as far as rats go."


Hmmm..ah, the drama of a rat's life.


Ratty is something like the Don Juan of rats.


"Fay-roon," the captain enunciated for him.


So THAT'S how it's pronounced!!


^^ You didn't know?


Yoshimo blanched. "Maybe I should just call you 'Captain-san'," he said.


LOL


It had to be an elven name... *sigh* all those syllables, all those funny vowels and consonants.


"I suppose you could, and you probably will end up doing just that, but I think perhaps it would be a good idea to have you try and learn how to pronounce Faerunian names."


Onyx: Hey, we're in a fantasy setting, our names can be about anything!!!


Jade: Yeah, ours are frikkin' precious stones.


Brynn: I have no idea where my name came from.

Hana: Mine means 'flower''

Ayame: Mine means 'iris.'

Kurenai: Mine means 'flame.'


"Are all words as difficult to pronounce in... Common?"


"I only speak two languages. Common and bad common"


I had a DnD character (the same one with the insta-sword) that knew how to curse people out in every language. She also knew how to find the nearest brothel, but that was just because she liked to see the looks on people's faces when she asked them.


"Eru...?


Ah!!! That's great! The Chinese L's-become-R's thing!!


Actually, L's become R's in Japanese, Chinese it tends to be the other way around. Actually, the R sound in Japanese is a combination of R, L and D.


"I did wonder," Yoshimo admitted. "And you are a sorcerer too, yes?"


They more common than wizards in Kara-Tur?


There are no wizards in Kara-Tur. Primarily there are shugenja and wu-jen, but sorcerers are also relatively common, though they tend not to fit in to normal society (which is why Kaede picked up the three girls to train.) Shugenja mix the abilities of wizards and clerics, (since there are no clerics either.) Wu-Jen are the closest equivalent, but they draw on elemental forces, such as metal, wood, water, air and fire to cast their spells. Yoshimo has so far had the closest contact with sorcerers, so that's what he'd most likely aliken Elliard to.


The captain gestured to one side of the cabin where there was small alter dominated by a openwork wooden carving of two eyes surrounded by seven stars. "I am," he said. "Selune is the Goddess of the moon, the stars and all those good people who live and work by their light; sailors, for example, though they tend more toward the worship of Valkur, and no one in Faerun would dare put to sea before appeasing Umberlee. Point of fact, most pirates and evil sea creatures worship The Bitch Queen exclusively."


Aerie: Yay cleric/mages! Boo Bitch-Queen!


I was thinking about having him be a priest of Valkur, but decided that Selune would be better for my purposes.


"Well, partly because they keep more or less exclusively to Faerun, and partly because, as I'm sure you know, outsiders are not welcome to spread their foreign ideas around Wa. Not to long ago a group of worshippers of Chauntea, the Earthmother, were executed for breaking the law and following a forbidden religion."


huzzah for open societies


:lol:

Yay! I loved it.


Thanks!


"Gaijin" translates roughly to "foreigner," and "jin" used as a suffix (as in Xjin) means person from X. Thus, I am an Amerikajin, and if you or I were from Faerun we would be Faerunjin.


Aw shaw!


"Gaijin" isn't entirely complimentary either. It tends to have negative connotations.


"Oni" is just a generic word for demon or monster (although the closer word to monster is "bakemono," which litterally translates into "stupid thing.")


LOL! Bakemono....I'll remember that


In Kara-Tur "bakemono" (Pronounced 'bah-keh-mo-no') refers to the oriental version of goblins. When you think about it, 'stupid thing' describes goblins pretty well.




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