What follows isn't really a teaser, since I have a couple of chapters
(mainly!) written; but I'd be interested in peoples initial opinions, good
or bad!
Call it Chapter 0, maybe...:)


Friends and Relations
---------------------

An Ah! Megamisama fanfic by David Row.

<Insert all the normal copyright stuff here, yatta yatta...>

Introductory Explanation
------------------------ 

Family details.

I think this makes sense... (and thanks to Jim Nutley for the original
conversation that led me to the following (and rather tortuous!)
conclusions)

The Norn's parents aren't mentioned in Norse mythology. However in that
mythology originally everything came from fire and ice (water).
So I've made some assumptions which at least doesn't contradict anything. I
think. It goes like this.

Belldandy (Verthandi) and Skuld's Mother was water, their Father fire. They
are full sisters.
Urd's mother was water, her father the Lord of Chaos (cf the manga). This
makes her their half-sister.
(and, ironically, water & chaos implies Storm, rather appropriate for Urd!!)

Ashtoreth's father was Fire, her mother The Lilith (who I set as the Lord of
Chaos's sister).
This makes her Belldandy and Skuld's half-sister, and Urd's cousin.

Complicated, isn't it....:P

Please note, The Lilith is NOT the Lilith mentioned in the bible. She's
quite a different creature, from Babylonian mythology (or maybe Assyrian,
the sources get a bit twisted that far back).

Chapter One
----------- 

You Can Choose Your Friends, but Family You're Stuck With
---------------------------------------------------------

Hell isn't a very pleasant place to live.
Even when you're a demon.
In fact, in certain cases, _especially_ when you're a demon...

*****************************************************************

The girl knelt in front of the fire blazing in the centre of the room,
ignoring the sullen, brazen glow of the runes and symbols inscribed in the
circles and more complex figures apparently etched directly into the
obsidian floor. Her breathing slow, eyes half-lidded, she seemed to be
waiting for something, her body unmoving, showing no visible signs of
impatience or frustration. In hell, such a skill is something you learn soon
or go mad.

The air in the room was still and dead, the occasional flurry of sparks
rising from the fire fluttering slowly to the ground like the snowflakes
she'd never seen.

Her movements slow and graceful, she rose to her feet, arms and hands making
unhurried motions as she kept her eyes fixed on the fire before her. She
watched with an unblinking concentration as its shape slowly altered,
moulding the outline of a complex figure. Keeping her attention locked on
it, she started to glide around the flames, their flickering glow reflecting
off her naked body. Shadows of light and darkness chased across her dusky
flesh, the effect combining with the sultry, almost lazily erotic steps of
her dance into something that would rouse a statue. Not that the statues
lining her workroom needed such help, of course.

As she circled widdershins around the scarlet blaze, one of the 'statues'
stirred slightly, a small nervous twitching of it's tail indicating that the
miniature dragon perched in a niche was in fact alive. Its eyes glinting
with the crimson glow of reflected firelight, it watched as the sparks rose
higher, twisting and turning above the flames as they were taken in the
eddies of magic now circling the fire.

Finally gliding to a halt, she uttered a number of words and syllables in a
strange tongue, the somehow harshly liquid sounds rising slowly in volume
until finally she shouted out the final words. She stood there motionless,
the soft roseate glow of her eyes looking at nothing as her outstretched
arms reached out in a pleading, summoning gesture.

There was a slow, timeless pause, and then with a small *popping* noise a
large square cardboard box dropped, seemingly from thin air, straight onto
her outstretched palms.
She grinned triumphantly, the firelight reflecting in a ruddy gleam from her
small fangs.

With a soft rustle of scales against stone, the dragonet hopped down from
its perch, standing on the floor next to her and looking up at her with a
quizzical expression on it's face, as it tapped the girl's foot with a
foreclaw to get her attention.

"You do realise that this is an awful lot of effort to go to just to get a
pizza delivered, don't you?"

************************