***We continue with the lives of a small family of part-demons living in the Rocky Mountains. In this chapter, I introduce two important characters. The type has been seen in literary works before and have found their way into a few video games as well, a far cry from their beginnings in the legends of European peoples far in the past. These two are trying to make new lives for themselves and one has a little trouble with English. What's important is that I've tried to create a pair of characters which readers might find themselves falling in love with for their strangely endearing qualities and I hope that these two are as much fun to read as they are to write. 0_o
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Book of the Mountain Clan, Part 2
The heat of the day found them at the stream. Since it was clear just what the three of them were -- aside from a family trying to re-invent itself, or a family of two seeking to integrate a new member in Azrael, they just went in their demonic forms, horns, wings and all. Sariel and his mother stood in a slower section of the steam near the house looking into the water at the small fish and noticing one or two salmon, the first of the spring spawning run to reach this far upstream. Azrael was off about three hundred feet away looking for some herbs when he heard Rachel cry out.
He snapped his head around and saw a large brown bear moving toward the pair. From what he could feel, the bear had been intent on doing a little fishing and saw Rachel and her son as someone who ought not to be there in his way.
Inside the woods at the edge of the clearing, a pair of individuals in dark hooded cloaks watched the scene unfold after exchanging curious looks at one another.
Azrael spread his wings and was airborne toward what would be an uneven conflict in a few seconds. As he climbed, both of his hands began to work patterns in the air -- patterns which were completely unrelated to one another, though one's purpose was to intensify the other. The bear was intent on the ones trying to stumble out of the pool to run and didn't see the half-demon as he came around in his wide turn, streaking like a rocket.
Rachel and Sariel turned to look back when they heard the snapping sizzle and the pained roar of the bear. They saw the bolt shooting from Azrael's left hand while his right continued its machinations. Rachel stared, seeing that this wasn't only a ball of electrical energy thrown at a target. Her brother had established an arc which stayed, flowing from him to the bear, even as he raced past. As her eyes met his for only an instant, the thoughts of one of the watchers were complete and the female demon and her son felt the ground shake a little under their feet.
Something large and white flashed by them, spraying them with water splashed from the stream and throwing divots of earth as it accelerated up the far bank and then it was racing away from them toward the bear who looked about as amazed as it was possible for a bear to appear. But the expression was gone in an instant and the animal recognized the threat as it stood up on its hind legs to bellow a warning before the fight.
Rachel grabbed her son's arm and they ran into the forest, since it offered a place to get out of sight. Taking off would have been the best option, but there was no room for it in any direction that didn't face the bear.
That brought them face to face with the pair in the woods. They stood looking at a pair of small pistol-like crossbows in the hands of a surprised female. Like most of the elven races, she was lithe, and not tall compared to a human, though this one was tall for a Drow female. All that her hood revealed of her features were her coal black skin, her eyes, and a little of her snowy white hair. The one next to her was the same type of creature, though quite large for his people, very close to Azrael's height. He looked past them, holding out an ornately carved staff in the direction of the animals.
"Stand still for a moment," he said in a strangely accented voice without looking at them, "before something tragic happens to more than the bear."
The brown bear bellowed its warnings, but the white intruder only began its assault. Several times, the brown bear connected solidly with the polar bear, but there was no visible effect, though when the polar bear retaliated, there were bellows and blood from the brown bear. After a few minutes of this, the brown bear turned and stumbled off. There were a few other altercations as the polar bear hounded the brown bear out of sight. Neither animal returned.
Azrael landed at the edge of the trees and walked to stand next to his small family. Rachel and Sariel didn't understand what was said -- at least at first, about half of what was spoken was in another language.
The female nodded in the direction of Rachel and Sariel. The few elves that Rachel had ever come into contact with carried slightly musical voices, but she'd never seen any like these. What came out of this one was a blend of two languages, and her voice held a little of the same musical quality, but it was a touch lower and carried a slightly smoky silkiness, all overlaid with a tone of curious confidence. She tilted her head a little with a small smile.
"These are yours, Master? These ones are important to you?"
"We -- did not see how this began," the male beside her said as he lowered his staff. "Were they running from you or the bear?"
"From the bear," Azrael smirked, "Put those things away," he said, pointing to the crossbows. He looked at the female and smiled, "They're mine, Cha'Khah."
The Drow female's eyebrows rose and she looked at Rachel with a bit of wonder on her face, "You are his female?"
Rachel nodded and the hooded one regarded Sariel for a moment before she looked at Rachel and Azrael with a smile spreading across her face, "Then this surely must be your son, Azrael. Either that, or my hair is in need of shearing again since it hangs over my eyes and keeps me from seeing well."
She lowered her weapons and in a flash they were out of sight under her cloak.
"A thousand pardons, "she said with a little bow that looked as though the gesture was killing her to make, "I did not know, honored Mistress. What is your name, please? And the young drowling, how is he called, so that I might know you both?"
"This is Cha'Khah," Azrael said, indicating the Drowess, "She has a little trouble with language sometimes, but never as much as she is pretending to have at the moment. She is apologizing for threatening you and didn't mean to, now that she knows. It's not something that she finds pleasant to have to do. I don't think that I've ever seen her apologize to anyone, now that I think about it.
She asks for your names, so that she can stop playing at calling me her 'master' and you 'honored mistress'. She has an ironic sense of sarcastic humor, though she doesn't mean anything by it."
"My name is Rachel," she said, bowing a little herself, "and this is Sariel, my son -- our son."
"Azrael is right," Cha'Khah grinned, "I mean nothing by it. There is not even any humor to be gained if you do not understand our ways.
So'," she said in a pleased and deciding tone, "Well met. The Dark Maiden be praised! It is good to know that there lives a female SOMEwhere who knows the way into the heart of my friend Azrael. I am honored to meet you." This time she did bow deeply and it didn't seem to bother her at all.
"And this is Vadren," Azrael smiled, "mage and, ... bear maker, it seems. These are the ones that I told you about."
"What was that?" Rachel asked, "What just happened there?"
"Where did that other bear come from?" Sariel asked.
