Hello all.  It's been awhile since I've posted but I've been busy with
RL.  As always, any comments and criticisms appreciated.  (Hint:
feedback encourages writers to write faster :)

Previous chapters can be had by emailing a request to me.  No web site
yet, working on it.

Sword and Sorcery (tentative)
Chapter 10

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	Raeni sighed as she once again slowed down.  This little
contest just wasn't any fun anymore.  Thankfully, they were almost to
town, and she could see various spires in the distance.  Errin lagged
a full ten trees behind, so she paused on a tree branch awaiting his
arrival.  For most of the trip, the young man had kept pace with her,
but towards the end, he kept slowing down.  It turned out that
although he had speed and agility, stamina was something he needed to
work on.  As he finally came in view, she flagged him to the tree in
which she sat, and then she sprang to the ground.

	Errin finally reached the Raeni's tree, and, following her
lead, Errin dropped to the ground.  He roughly pulled his pack off his
back and placed it on the ground, untying it so that Oppy could
scramble free, which it did at the first available opportunity.  The
poor dog stumbled around on wobbly legs for about a minute before
regaining her orientation and running off toward the town.  Her
master, on the other hand, spent the same minute panting and leaning
against a tree, trying to regain his breath.  Eventually, he just slid
down the tree to collapse on the ground, ignoring the roots that poked
uncomfortably into his back.

	Taking her time, Raeni untied the rope binding Azure to her
back.  After freeing him, she picked a spot and sat down delicately.
She did not breathe hard, nor did she have any visible sweat.  For all
intents and purposes, it looked like she had just taken a casual
stroll through the forest, not a hair-raising, five-mile tree jumping
race.  Azure sat down at her feet after all the kinks had been
stretched out of his muscles.  She just sat stroking his fur while she
waited for the young man laying five feet away to recover.

	Five minutes later, Errin had enough breath to talk.  He still
didn't move, but he asked her, "What are you, some kind of monster in
disguise?  You aren't even out of breath from that stunt we just
pulled."

	Smiling at his sideways compliment, Raeni answered, "Let's
just say that I am very fit.  I used to train much harder than what we
just did, so I'm used to it."  She didn't have the heart to tell him
that she hadn't even gone all out during the race.  Raeni had traveled
at a speed that she had felt would be comfortable for him, but she had
slightly overestimated the pace, resulting in him struggling to keep
up and tiring him much faster than expected.  "I hope you aren't mad
that a girl beat you.  But I'll tell you this.  You never had a
chance."

	Errin waved off the insult, or rather, he flexed his fingers,
barely lifting them from the ground.  "Don't worry.  Uerris beats me
all the time.  She's the one who introduced me tree-running."  He
stared into the sky, recalling a childhood memory.  In a slightly
unfocused voice, he continued, "We were both about ten at the time.
Really shocked me when she jumped up so easily to a branch at least 15
feet in the air.  At the time, I could barely climb up that high."  He
laughed.  "Mother nearly had a heart attack when she caught us
tree-jumping, but Father just told us to be careful."  Sighing in
remembrance of happy times, he added with a puzzled expression on his
face, "Uerris told me it seemed like the most natural thing to jump up
to the trees."

	Raeni, lost in her own memories, nodded mysteriously.  She
could recall all the times in Nerima where street fights and rampaging
martial artists made roof-hopping a most necessary skill.  'I guess
Uerris still recalled something of Ukyou's life, even with the water
from that nasty fountain,' she thought.  She asked Errin, "Was Ucchan,
ahem, I mean, Uerris always your sister?  You're the same age right?"

	"Of course, she's always been my sister!  We're twins, or
hadn't you noticed that?"  At the question, he had propped himself up
against the tree and now sat with his back leaning on the tree.  One
knee was bent, while he kept the other leg straight.  He supported his
arms on the bent leg, and looked very handsome in his pose, sweat and
all.

	"Are you sure about that?  Please think before you answer,"
Raeni gently asked him.  She continued to rub Azure belly as her
familiar contentedly purred.

	Errin opened his mouth to immediately object again to the
question but stopped before he could get it out.  Puzzled, he searched
through his own memories, trying to recall the earliest memory of his
sister.

	***

	Ten years ago, relative time.

	Errin, a cute little boy bearing a remarkable resemblance to
chibi-Ukyou, sits up in his room, playing with some toy soldiers that
had been given to him by his father.  He is very involved in whatever
little game he is playing and doesn't notice the door behind him
opening.

	A woman enters through the doorway.  She also resembles Ukyou,
but this woman looks to be in her mid to late twenties.  She
gracefully glides into the room, quietly closing the door behind her.
The door slowly swings shut and latches with a click.

	At the click, the boy turns around and sees the woman.
Standing up, he runs over to her and hugs onto her leg, happily
crying, "Mommie!"

	The woman picks up the child, walks over the bed, and sits
down, with Errin on her lap.  "Hi, my little deerling.  How's Mommie's
favorite son?"  She lets him continue hugging her as she hugs back.
"I have a big surprise for you.  How would you like a new friend?"

	The little boy stops his hug and looks up at his mother,
puzzled.  A new friend?  He liked new friends because new friends
always thought up neat new games.  Giving a solemn nod, he says,
"Where Mommie?  Where's my new friend?"

	Setting him on the ground, the woman leads him by the hand to
the door.  She opens it, and, gently pulling him, she takes him
downstairs to the main room.  There, a man awaits.  This man is about
the same age as the woman and is very broad of shoulder.  He sports a
thick, black beard and wears a green shirt with matching pants.
Behind the man, a little girl peeks out from behind a massive leg.
She, too, looks like a young Ukyou.  Behind her, on a table and unseen
by the boy, a bandoleer of small bladed weapons and a giant spatula
lay.

	The little boy points at the little girl, who is still mostly
hidden behind the massive man.  He asks, "Mommie, is this my new
friend?"

	"Well, she's a little more than your friend, Errin.  This is
Uerris.  She's going to be your new sister!" the woman excitedly
explains.

	To Errin, a sister means someone older or someone younger who
is in your family.  The older sisters usually boss around him and his
other friends, and the younger sisters usually just sit around crying.
"Is she older or younger, Mommie?"

	"She's the same age, deerling.  She is going to be your twin
sister, and she is going to be your best friend," Keili answers him.

	A sister of the same age.  This is a new concept.  It does not
fit anywhere, so as young children do, he places her in the only
remaining category.  She is now officially a friend.  Grinning up at
his mother, he says, "'Kay, Mommie.  She's a friend."  He leaves his
mother's side and approaches his father and the little girl.  After
seeing her up close, he realizes something.  "Wow.  She looks just
like me!"  He grabs onto the girl and gives a her a great hug.  "Wanna
be my friend?"

	"Y-yeah," the girl stutters a reply, still very shy.  She too
is intrigued at the mirror image hugging her.

	"Wanna play soldier?"

	"What's that?" the girl shyly asks.

	"You don't know?  I'll show you!"  The boy pulls the girl up
the stairs after him back into her room and the door closes.  Soon,
giggles and shouts resound from behind the door.

	On that day forward, life is very good for Errin, because he
now has a friend that never leaves and on his birthday, he receives
twice the amount of presents as before.  Although half of them belong
to his sister, the way they share things means joint ownership and
twice the fun.

	***

	Present time.

	"I don't get it.  My first memory of Uerris is of Mother
introducing her to me.  We must have been around five years old."  He
shook his head, as if trying to remove an unpleasant thought.  "That
can't be right!  I must have remembered wrong."

	Raeni didn't answer him.  She just sat calmly continuing to
pet Azure.  She gazed at him knowingly, imperceptibly nodding in his
direction, her own thoughts confirmed.  Not wanting to be the one that
would break the bad news, she sat in silence.

	Errin's eyes narrows in suspicion as he looked at her.
Accusing her, he asked, "You didn't do anything to me, did you?"  He
wiggled his fingers in an exaggerated approximation of spell-casting.

	Sighing at the typical reaction, Raeni rolled her eyes and
shook her head in reply.

	"Well, I'm rested now.  Let's go.  Mother will have an answer
for me."  He abruptly stood up, ignoring the pained twinges of his
muscles, and stalked into town, not bothering to see to if Raeni
followed.

	Raeni sat there in silence as he walked away from her.  Barely
keeping him in view, she trailed after him, Azure at her heels.  She
figured that, right now, Errin did not want to see her, so she kept
her distance.  As she followed him through town, she took her time and
examined the town in detail.  The last time she was here, she had been
in a hurry to leave and things had been dark and sinister-looking.  In
the bright cheeriness of the daylight, she could see a beautiful town.

	The houses towards the edge of the town were simple affairs,
looking to be one-level, single-family housing.  Not in perfect rows,
the houses lined a path that wandered in a zigzag leading eventually
to the center of town.  Quaint little houses made of wood with a
single chimney were predominant, but here and there a house made of
white stone or red brick would pop up, breaking up the monotony of
wood tones.

	Making sure to keep Errin within sight before he turned the
next corner, she walked at a leisurely pace, taking in the town.  Most
of the buildings she passed were houses, but as she got further into
towards the middle of the village, the homes turned into shops coupled
with upstairs housing.  The houses that contained shops all had little
wooden signs indicating the shop within.  Here, a sign bearing a loaf
of bread proclaimed 'baker'.  The sweet smells that wafted from within
confirmed the presence of a bakery.  There, another sign, this one
bearing a picture of an anvil, established the presence of a
blacksmith.  Although the door to the front was closed, she could
smell cold iron and hot iron and hear the sound of hammering filtering
through the streets from that direction.

	The street, although not busy, was still populated by people
coming to and fro, and the ones that passed her on the street made a
point to steer wide of the mistress and familiar.  It must have been
an odd sight, a young, red-headed girl, being followed docilely by a
giant purple panther, and both walking casually down the town street.
'At least they were forewarned.'  Raeni could tell because no one ran
screaming away, and although people did shut their doors as she
passed, she considered that a normal reaction.  No one came up to
challenge her, nor did they take potshots with a bow and arrow as she
strolled down the path with her friend.  Amused, she noted that
although most people closed their doors, the more adventurous of them
came out and watched as she walked by.  The remaining people took to
watching from behind barely opened shutters, and she felt eyes
tracking her.

	This town seemed fairly prosperous.  No naked children ran
amuck in the streets, and the quality of the clothes of the few people
she saw indicated a modicum of wealth.  Not peasant clothes, these.
Although most of the men wore dark colors or green, some had on
different colors.  She saw blue more than once, red a couple of times,
and one fellow even wore an outrageous yellow.  They hadn't quite
discovered zippers yet, but pockets were found aplenty, attached to
shirts and trousers of medium quality, made of material that looked
like wool.  

	The women were a different story altogether.  Almost without
fail, the women wore dresses, not the kind with stiff, hooped skirts,
but simpler ones made out of wool and hanging freely.  Some were
simple, made of one color and one fabric.  Others were more elaborate,
bearing embroidery all over and showing a mix of colors.  Many women
wore hoods to match their dresses, and some carried simple parasols to
ward off the afternoon heat.  It was rare to see one woman alone; they
were often found in pairs and triples as they went about their
business.  One woman even went so far as to cluck disapprovingly at
her as they passed each other on the street.  An evil glare from Raeni
soon drove her off.

	The houses gradually and visibly grew older as she approached
the center of town.  Pointy spires greeted her, the same ones she had
seen from a distance.  As she neared the town's heart, the
architecture grew more elaborate.  Multiple chimneys adorned each
house, indicating a wealth of fireplaces.  Metal shutters appeared
replacing the wooden ones she saw on the outskirts of town.  Bas
relief became common on the fence and building walls.  Some depicted
normal animals, but others told of fantastic scenes of mythical
creatures frolicking.  Here and there, murals could be found, drawn in
brilliant, vivid colors.  Some houses even had metal doors, or at
least metal gilded doors, though she shuddered to think of the weight.

	Raeni turned the final corner, and came up the town square.
Three buildings came into sight.  One, obviously a church, had high
steeples with stained glass windows.  It seemed that though glass was
not common, at least the people of this world had the ability to make
it.  Wondering what kinds of Gods and Goddesses these people looked
to, she paused at the gateway leading to the house of worship.  A
priest came out to greet her, but she bowed her head in respect and
turned away, discomfited.  Master Hariule had never been very
religious, and this had been passed to her.  She knew her religious
education was severely lacking.

	The second of the structures stood opposite the church.  This
one was obviously a courthouse, made of expensive-looking marble.
'Hmm.  Where did they enough marble to build that?' she asked herself.
Stone of that quality must have been imported a great distance to this
place, since the closest mountains were still over 100 miles away.
This town was prosperous enough to have such a splendid governing
center, but she wondered what industry was rich enough to allow its
creation.

	Turning to the last of the buildings, she deduced that Errin
had entered through this gate.  The door was left ajar in his haste to
reach his mother.  Raeni faintly remembered the outline of the house
from the previous night.  Not as stately as the courthouse, nor as
ornate as the church, this building was a simple two-story house made
of the purest white granite she had ever seen.  The Lord's manor must
have been there for at least 50 years, judging from the ivy
overgrowing the walls.

	'Ah, well,' she thought.  'Ucchan, Destiny has come to your
door.'  She smiled at her own internal joke and headed into the open
gate.