forsyth | A random story

I was reading a little bit of the Exalted book earlier, which gave me some ideas, which ended up coming out as a little sniplet of a Fors story. It's pretty rough, and probably not much good, or canon, but hey. I wrote something today, and hopefully it's got a few at least amusing bits in it. I should write something "real" soon, though.

"I am Saliika, the Shadow of Wrath, first among the Shadows of Heaven," the fox-chick said.

She was dressed in black, like a ninja, except no mask, and she had a bright red belt and several other bright red sashes, presumably holding up the three sword holders across her back. Her companion was dressed in a billowy white dress, covered with long ribbons. Without any wind in the warehouse though, the whole outfit looked faintly sad.

"I am Tatanya, Shadow of Binding, first among the Shadows of Forest," the fox-chick with all the ribbons said.

"Right, so you like shadows. Got any more names?" I asked.

They swirled around like dancers, the one trailing ribbons. Which looked really impressive, but didn't seem terribly practical to me. Especially in a crowded and dark warehouse like this. "We have many names," the dark one purred, "for we have lived many lives."

"We are far older than we look, mortal," the other said.

"Yeah, I kinda guessed that part."

What is it about me that I attract these kind of people? Everywhere I go. I guess I'm just lucky. "So, what do you want with me, anyway? Just trying to make a living here, 'till you interrupted."

The ribbon chick flicked a hand, and one of her ribbons snapped out and grabbed my wrist, and tugged me toward her. "We seek answers, ferret, knowledge from the Dead City."

"Good luck with that then," I said, and cut the ribbon short, "I'll be on my way."

"You have the answers we seek," the dark one said, perched on top of a pile of crates.

"Yeah, well? Next time, you could try just asking."

Then I ran for it, 'cause it was obvious these two weren't in a mood for talking like sane people. "Stop him!" Wrathy yelled, rather obviously, frankly.

Ribbon chick had already gestured, and half a dozen ribbons started snaking after me, not that I was dumb enough to pause and look back. They billowed down the aisle after me like drunken snakes. Until, like most drunks, they tangled themselves up in a pile of spears I'd darted around, and made the whole thing fall down with a crash. I could hear ribbon-chick cursing. Not in ancient forgotten tongues, either, but like a sailor. I heard Wrathy screaming, getting louder, and dove aside. She crashed to the floor, sword in hand, and smashed holes in the wood. "Now I have yo..." she started, then looked down in surprise.

Her foot was stuck through the hole she'd smashed in the floor. She swore again, me, I just ran, cutting around several corners. "Come out, come out, ferret," the ribbon-chick said, from above. She hung suspended in the air, the ribbons shooting out like cloth spider legs to the rafters. Other ribbons snaked down and around like jellyfish tentacles, trailing over and through the boxes and barrels and such in the warehouse as she passed over, looking for probably me. Except for half a dozen that just hung straight down and seemed to be dragging something. The spears, I'd bet. I could still hear Wrathy cursing, then a crunch as she broke her leg loose. I climbed partway up the stack of boxes and hid between two.
Ribbon chick started moving my way. "You will tell us what we want," she said, "You can't hide from us."

Yeah, that's the way to convince me, yepyep. She passed right over the aisle by me, one of the ribbons snaked right over top of one of the boxes I was between, and swung down a little. I shrunk into the corner, then had a thought. Just as the ribbon started to retract, I grabbed it, then tied it to the handle that'd been poking into my spleen. "Ha!" she exclaimed, and the ribbon tugged. But, well, it was only a ribbon, and couldn't move the box. She was swinging back this way quickly, though, all the ribbons she could spare were heading down the one I'd tied off. The box shifted slightly, since she was using it to help pull her forward. Ah, idea. I figured I'd help.

The box wasn't that heavy, but I'd barely managed to shove any out over the aisle when the other ribbons were too close for comfort, spilling over the far edge of it. I cut the tie one, that they were all coming down, it snapped back like a broken rubber band. Ribbon-chick squawked, guess it threw her off balance. Didn't get rid of the rest of the ribbons, though.

Wrathy saved me, screaming in from another stupidly high jump. Some ninja. I dove aside, she landed with a crash through the top of the crate and knocked the whole thing off the pile. "Help!" she yelled to ribbon-chick.

I don't know if she was trying to help, or the ribbons were just tangled in the box, or what, but they wrapped around Wrathy and the box. If she was trying to help, they were still just ribbons, same as she was hanging from. The falling box and other fox-chick dragged her down, there was a ripping, popping sound, and then she was falling too, a few spasming pieces of ribbon hanging from the rafters. The two of them and the box hit the ground with a crash and a tangle of ribbons. I peeked over the edge of the pile. "Huh," I said, while they started swearing again.
What? I left them there, let the guards deal with something for once. A pair of immortal idiots should be something they could handle, right? I shoulda known it wouldn't be that easy.

There was ripping noises, but I didn't pay much attention, there had to be like a mile of ribbon there, it'd take a lot of ripping. I was about ten steps from the door when Wrathy stepped out of a shadow, trailing enough ribbon to make a mummy jealous. Ribbon-chick sounded like she was crying, now, and swearing at Wrathy, not me. "My ribbons!"

Wrathy glared at me. "This ends now, ferret," she said, "We'll find the answers from your ghost if we must," and reached back and smoothly drew one of her other swords halfway out of it scabbard. Only halfway because of the ribbons wrapped around it and the scabbard, and because drawing across the back is a horrible way to get at a sword. "That's not a good way to store a sword," I told her.

She growled and wrenched at the third sword, which wrenched the whole thing, scabbard and all, halfway up and around her back, partly over her shoulder. "You and your stupid ribbons!" she yelled at Ribbon-chick, half bent over in tangles of ribbon and shirt. "'I'll let you sort this out yourselves," I said, "Good luck with that."

I stepped around her and patted her on the leg as I went by. She snarled at me. I was about two steps from the door when she got straightened enough to stand up and ran after me. She made it two steps before her pants fell down and sent her sprawling. "Oh yeah, this is yours," I said, tossing the scarf/belt/sash/thing up in the air, "And I really don't see the point of putting 'Cute' across your underwear, but hey."

And then I was out the door and back into the city.

Tags: fiction, writing