Written by Dawn (Aya and Concept/ Cha-sah) and Yucca(Rae)
All names are copyright of Dawn.
Please Comment.
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Concept Friends
Chapter 1 (Draft)
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Concept looked darkly at his little brother.
"What?!" Rae looked back at his sheepishly.
"Go home, Rae." Concept looked away. " Go now!"
"But... But I don't want to go home!" Rae whined. "I want to stand on guard with you here."
"'On guard?'" Concept curled his lips sarcastically. " Go home, Rae. Go back to the hut. There is nothing to guard here except this smoldering, god-forsaken lie of a fortress. Even if a fox were to climb up on these walls, they would fall."
"I said I don't want to go home!!!" Rae looked at his brother in determination, dismissing the sarcasm totally. Rae shook his head. Lately, he had been hearing more and more biting comments from his brother about the village and the fortress. "I know, bother, I know. I had heard the elders' conversation... The Ushuya are planning their siege and I don't want you to face them alone."
Concept sighed. Few secrets could be kept secrets from his little brother. Small and lithe as a climbing thorn-eater, Rae could often be found on the pinnacled roof of the elders' lodge, listening. Concept feared for his brother's hide if he were ever caught.
    Concept placed a heavily scarred hand on his shoulder. On other nights, he would have been pleased. At a mere fifteen, Rae was already better at the crossbow and longbow than Concept himself. Concept had no patience with those. He preferred the sweat and thrill of hand-to hand combat and singing swordplay.
    Rae glanced down on his brother's hand on his shoulder. Though fear that was swelling uncontrollably within, he was still joyful of having his brother's approval. To him, Concept was the most important person ever since his parents died, killed by the Ushuya tribe when he was merely five. And now, those greedy Ushuya wanted their land, a land so fertile for agriculture that their oranges were as huge as watermelons.
    Rae gripped tightly on his longbow, his eyes staring off to the distance of where the Ushuya live. Their plan of siege was really at the *perfect* time, a time where all the skillful men went out to hunt. And when the men hunt, they would not be back with the food until months later, which leave only the old, the weak, the women and young under aged young men like Concept (who was seventeen, two years under age) against this coming siege. And Rae doubted that the massager the elders had sent would reach the hunting men fast enough to defend the attack.


Elsewhere.

    Aya pushed herself against the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible. A black shaft of pain in her spirit caused her to gulp air in ragged, tearing breaths. Aya ground her fists into the ground of the cave in frustration.
    "Why?" Aya screamed silently at the still stone walls. "Why do I always fail? Why do I always fall short when all I want to do is to please them?"
    Aya poured out her heart to the still stonewalls. Tears came unbidden and flowed down her cheeks. Maybe loneliness is to heavy a burden for anyone to bear. Maybe our deepest need is to be loved. Maybe there are times when we are so held captive by our own standards that all we can see is our own failures. At these times, a friend is needed.
    But Aya had nobody.
    Because she let nobody near her heart, close enough to share.
    Suddenly Aya was ashamed. "What am I doing here?" Her tears stopped abruptly as she stood to her feet and leaned against the wall. Aya walked over to a rock and sat down. From the fold of her rich, silk-lined cloak Aya extracted a tiny, deadly jewelled dagger. She rested her head in her arms, remembering.
    Aya recalled the days when she rode on the flying tarasaurs with Ginan, who own an identical dagger. Aya held the tip of the dagger to the soft skin of her forearm. Ginan had been her only friend. No one else had his gentle laughter or his strong hands to help as he picked up a fallen toddler or shouldered a basket for an old lady in the market. No one else could throw a spear or pilot a transporter like him. No one listened like him. For every memory Aya made a shallow cut, each red line an expression of an inner tempest. Aya welcomed the pain.



Elsewhere

    Concept tightened his grip on Rae.
    "Ow!" Rae stifled a yelp of pain. " Brother!"
    Concept's fingers were steel. He pushed Rae back up to the fortress walls.
    "Go home, Rae." Concept raised his fist. " Now!"
    With shocked, confused eyes, Rae stared back at his brother, surprised by the sudden roughness his brother had shown. His brother's sudden action and urge for him to return home was too strange and too confusing for his mind to process.
    "You... want to me go home..." he whispered sadly after a moment of silent. His eyes stared dully towards the ground. All the shine and excitement, which was there a moment ago when he thought that he was going to guard against the enemy was all lost. With one last look at his brother, Rae released a shocked sob before scrambling back into the village.
    Concept dropped his fist, the coldness in his eyes being replaced sadness. Soft, broken words fell from his lips: " Rae. I love you."
    Concept turned away from the fortress and the village. His eyes were empty but his steps were strong as they carried him away from everything he had ever known. Concept reached up to his neck and snapped the thong that held his birthstone. Concept pressed the birthstone to the flat of his sword's blade. He held it up to the moon, then held it to his heart. Concept's voice rang out strong in the twilight:
    "I renounce the place of my birth!"
    "I renounce the heritage of my ancestors!
    "I renounce the lord of my people!
    "I renounce the name that they have given me!"
    With the last emancipating declaration, Concept, struck the birthstone with the blade's flat, breaking both the birthstone and the blade.
    Satisfied, Concept stepped back. He kissed his broken sword, the sign of a warrior who has broken with his people.
    "My name is now Cha-Sah!"



Elsewhere


Rae stared up into the starlit night as he staggered slowly back to his hut. His footsteps were heavy, and his heart... had the most uneasy feeling.
Why? For a moment he had thought he could fight side by side with his brother. For that moment he thought that his brother had approve his abilities. But then... his attitude of wanting to go home was disturbing, so desperate that he had gripped his shoulders so tightly.
Rae felt around the spot where Concept had squeezed. It still hurt.
One thing that Concept had never done before was to hurt him. But tonight, he did.
Why?
It was as if..
As if... Concept was desperate for him to leave...

The dim light from his hut was in sight, but Rae stopped. He turned and ran back towards the fortress.



Elsewhere

    Regretfully Aya wiped the blood away and stepped out of the cave. She could not afford to be missed by her people. She had too much work to do among them to spend time just being alone. The forced lightness in her step and the false gaiety in her laughter bore her up in her friends' eyes. Only her flute and the walls of the cave knew her secret sorrow and anxiety.
    An unkempt man with a roguish smile approached her. "Princess."
    "Yes, Matanka?"
    'Your Grandmother is looking for you."
    "Thank you, Matanka."
    Aya quickly adjusted her robes and refastened her hair. Grandmother was very particular.
    Aya's grandmother's disapproval was tangible as she entered the royal hall. Her father and mother regarded her grimly from either side. Aya knelt down in front of her grandmother with the easy grace that comes to all royal children, protocol being second nature to the court-bred. Aya was used to the oppressive atmosphere of the royal hall. It seemed that everyone who entered the royal hall was somehow required by some ancient law to leave every grain of humour and humanness outside.

Elsewhere

Rae sank to his knees upon the sight of the broken birthstone.  With trembling hands he picked the pieces up and examine them.

Sure enough, by its inscriptions, it belonged to Concept. Rae's heart fell. His eyes caught sight of the blade left behind.

Suddenly, Rae had the answer to his previous questions. He too had been taught about the emancipating ceremony. Suddenly, guarding the fortress or their village didn't seem that important any more. His brother, his only family had left. And he was going to find him back.

Within one night, Rae's world shattered in pieces.


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Pls C&C, It's Dawn's first fic

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