Furious Wind took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes.
His room was just as it had been when he closed his eyes for meditation. The smell of burning sage and jasmine filled the room, small wisps of smoke still twisting towards the ceiling from the incense burning on the floor not far from where he sat upon the floor. The only light that illuminated the monk's chamber was from a small grouping of candles next to the incense. Very slowly, the stallion lowered his head to the floor in a respectful bow, before rising to his hooves and slowly sucking in a cleansing breath. Then he would focus his inner forces, and begin to create a circle around where he just knelt with a mixture of dried leaves which he crushed between his hands before scattering, different herbs and wild spices, and ashes taken from the fire he created with wood used to represent the seven forces of life.
When that was completed, Fury stood at the edge of the circle and began weaving his hands through the air, drawing each of the runes he had been taught, one at a time. When the last of the invisible commands was formed, he let his eyes focus again on the circle, hoping that he would be just as successful as his Awen'do, or teacher, had been earlier in his classes. Very slowly, starting in the very center of the ring, a white spiral began to form. The color shifted to red, and through the entire spectrum, so far everything was going just as it should. As the colors cycled back to a white, a mist began to spread across the floor, stopping at the edge of the circle, but never passing it's limit. It rose higher, coiling and twisting upon itself like a storm ravaged sea. Then slowly, at the center of the cloud, a white light shot from the floor, all the way to the ceiling fifteen feet above. Within that light, a shadowy figure began to manifest itself.
He had done it! He had summoned his first familiar. Awen'do Mist had been right, he was far more advanced in his abilities than the other students. It would be weeks before they would reach the level where Winter's Mist would allow them to reach into the void and create their first battle companion! A smile began to form over Fury's muzzle, and in that instant he realized he had lost his control over the summoning. He weaved the runes to close the summoning, but it was too late, too much of the beast's energies had been transfered into the material world. The monk swallowed hard, praying that he would have the knowledge to banish his creation if things got too bad.
Flexing his fingers, preparing to battle the familiar if it somehow managed to cross the barrier, Fury reached for the brown leather gloves that rested on his desk. Pulling them over his hands, and feeling the metal studs slip over his knuckles, he licked his lips and stomped his hooves twice each and got into his fighting stance. He didn't realize though, that when he had stomped down, he had stomped upon the line of his barrier, smearing it, and very slowly, the white mist began to leak out spreading over the floor like a shadow in the fading light of day.
Within the circle, the summoning was nearly complete, and before Fury stood a beast of immense proportions, it looked like the beast that followed Mistress Moonstalker around. A hideous abomination of muscle, bone, and fur. However, this beast lacked the marking upon it's head showing that it had been dominated and bent to a summoner's will. The creature turned it's glowing red eyes upon the monk and snarled ferociously, yellow green spittle flying from it's muzzle and landing upon the stone at Fury's feet. The stallion squeezed his hands tighter, and grit his teeth, and then the beast surged over the line that should have contained him harmlessly within the circle.
Fury reacted quickly, just getting out of the way of a massive paw swiping sickle like claws where his head had just been. The large warrior did, however, catch the beast's chest against his right shoulder, and took the opportunity to land two powerful punches to the beast's ribs, and stomach. He tried to wrap his right arm around the beast, and keep slamming his studded gloves into the beast, but almost as if it too possessed reasoning, his opponant swung it's paw in a backhand like motion, before Fury could react, the back of the paw struck him just below the right eye, spinning his head to the side, and causing the mighty stallion to stumble back against the wall to make the fireworks that exploded just behind his eyes die down.
His adversary did not give him the chance, covering the ground between them in two bounding leaps, slamming into the monk, and actually sending him through the stone wall and into the next room. The inhabitants were still away at weapons training, which Fury thanked the gods for. There would be an excuse for why there was a hole in their wall thought up later, for now, defending his life was more important. As the best raised a paw to swipe down at it's fallen prey, Fury coiled his legs up under the stomach and haunches of his summoned demon, and just as the fatal blow began to fall, the stallion kicked up with all the power he could summon, burying his hooves in the soft flesh of the beast's belly, lifting it clean off of the ground, and sending it sailing through the air to smash through the cot at the far side.
For the first time, the beast hesitated, yelping in pain. When it stood again, Fury saw why, there was a rather large splinter of wood skewered almost entirely through it's left hind leg. Fury smiled wickedly and got back into his ready stance, waving for the beast to bring on another attack. With shambling, stumbling steps, the demonspawn neared, but stopped just outside of the monk's reach. Slamming the paw of it's injured leg against the stone, the grotesque muscle of the beast actually snapped the wood from it's leg, and it's head twisted back to watch black blood splash from the wound and stain the floor.
Turning back to face it's foe, the abomination narrowed it's eyes and took a defiant step into Fury's reach, which the stallion took advantage of and threw a debilitating haymaker that landed right below the beast's eye and snapped the creature's head to the side. When it turned back to face him, Fury threw four more punches that should have crushed the abomination's skull, but it only turned to face him, stepping another step closer.
Sweat poured from Fury's brow now, and he tossed his head to the side to get it, and his soaked hair, out of his face. He had to focus now, it was obvious that physical blows did little, if anything, to his foe. When the beast leapt at him again, Fury ducked and pivoted out of the way, letting the creature land and slide back into the summoning circle, while Fury stood back up and gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and tried to focus his mind. Summoning wasn't the only thing the monk had learned. As part of his training, he also had to learn the other ways of requesting Kohana's gifts.
Fury's lips began moving quickly in a prayer to his ancestors, asking them to aid him in this battle. He had learned that you never demand of the spirits, or they will remove themselves from ever helping you again, unless you performed a task to appease each of the spirits in a show of genuine apology. When he opened his eyes, the beast was already in midswing, trying to knock the monk's head off his shoulders with a paw the size of one of the bucklers the students used for sparring practice. If the spirits were to grant his plea, it would have to be now.
The male's hands came up instinctively, and in his peripheral vision, right before the death blow would have come, Fury saw jagged violet lines coursing down each of his arms, so that when the beast's limb struck them, the Power of the Storm was unleashed, sending electricity flooding into the abomination, and burning the flesh and filling the room with the smell of burnt, rotting flesh. Fury balked at the stench, covering his muzzle and stumbling backwards towards the window for fresh air.
After collecting himself, the stallion turned around and tossed his head to the side again, loosing the battlecry of his clan, a mix of a bovine roar, and a earsplitting whinney. The beast was picking itself back up, and was momentarily stunned while Fury took up a stance much like snake style kung fu, and slowly advanced, hands weaving quickly through the air, body loose, and eyes focused on what he knew he had to do. By the time his creation rounded on him again, Fury was already close enough to begin the kata he had learned to take full advantage of the Storm's power. Quick fingertip strikes to each of the main muscle groups and pressure points, added to by the added electrical force flowing through him which he molded and released with each strike had the beast backing further and further away, yelps and snarls of pain showing Fury now had all the momentum.
Soon, Fury had backed the beast all the way against the far wall, and though it snapped at his hands, Fury was moving too quickly, hands darting in and out with little force, but the speed and precision with which he struck was wearing out his adversary. Soon the beast's hindquarters would buckle, and it couldn't seem to get them to support him anymore. As Fury darted away to avoid a swiping paw, the creature dragged itself after him, smearing more black blood over the stone floor from it's leg wounds. The stallion could tell that the fall from where it had tried to stand digitigrade had either dislocated it's hip, or broken the leg entirely, as it's left leg bent at a complete 90 degree angle sideways just below the knee. But he didn't have time to focus on that.
When Fury had led the beast back into the center of the summoning circle, he quickly drew the summoning runes again, praying silently that he didn't double his danger and summon another demonspawn into his room. He had been trying to remember the runes needed to suck the beast back into the Void, but instead of the enveloping mist holding the abomination within the circle, the creature kept right on coming. It was then that Fury looked down at the circle to see the smeared line.
Swearing in his native tongue, Fury took a step backward to dodge another blow, only to trip over the stool that served as his desk's seat. With all the grace his species was known for, the stallion fell hard against the stone, knocking the breath from the monk's lungs. This was the opportunity the debilitated demon had been waiting for, and he surged towards the fallen combatant. As it began swinging the killing blow down upon the fallen student, Fury closed his eyes, not wanting to face the fate he had foolishly brought upon himself. The blow never came.
There came a sickening, wet snap and a heavy thud that made Fury bolt upright, eyes wide as he stared into the empty eyes of the creature that had sought to feast upon him. Very slowly, Fury realized that the beast was dead, and that he was not alone in the room anymore. Fearing the worst, the young apprentice licked his lips and looked towards the door, what he saw was not Awen'Do Winter Mist, not even Mistress Moonstalker, the creature that stood over him was just as massive as the beast it had apparently slain, judging by the black stains upon it's pure white, almost glowing, paws. What the creature was, however, Fury had no idea.
She, and it was definitely a she, stood nearly to the ceiling, but not on two paws, like the Kohanians, but on four, like a beast of the forest. She looked like the Canine Tribe from the waist up, beautifully curved, fox like shape and fur pattern, and the deepest emerald eyes Fury had ever seen that seemed to just suck the monk in and fill him with a sense of endless peace and serenity. From the waist down, she had the body of a feral fox, heavy with litter as her belly was slightly rounded, and her feral breasts had just begin to fill with sustanance for her growing brood.
Fury was at a loss for words, not sure what to say to something, no, someone who had just saved his life from evil incarnated. The white female smiled softly, her eyes glittering, and canted her head as if reveling in the male's struggles. Finally she would sit down on her haunches, and look at the body of the demonspawn. She sighed softly and looked down to her tail, as the black fur seemed to spread up to engulf her hindquarters, then she would look back to the fallen monk and hold out a paw silently.
"Who...are you?" Fury asked softly, finally finding his voice as he took her paw to sit back up. His visitor just looked at the hellspawn again, then to Fury, and back again. Finally she sighed again, got back to her paws, and lifted the abomination, laying it across her taur body, and started back towards the summoning circle.
After laying the body in the center of the ring, she would turn back to face Fury, smile, and place a paw on her chest.
"VeeSra."
And then the mists wrapped around her paws, and grew up her legs to slowly suck both she, and the abomination into floor as if it were water. Fury hurried to the summoning portal, but as he got to the boundry of the circle, he ran into an invisible wall that seperated him, from the mystical white angel.
"VeeSra, tainted angel." He whispered to himself, as the room faded once again into the dull light of his candles as they flickered out the last of their light, and then went out. The stallion monk stood in the darkness, rubbing his swollen and bleeding eye, and grasping at an explanation for a memory that could just as soon have been the hallucination of a man facing his own death....
Furious Wind would never find out for sure...
His room was just as it had been when he closed his eyes for meditation. The smell of burning sage and jasmine filled the room, small wisps of smoke still twisting towards the ceiling from the incense burning on the floor not far from where he sat upon the floor. The only light that illuminated the monk's chamber was from a small grouping of candles next to the incense. Very slowly, the stallion lowered his head to the floor in a respectful bow, before rising to his hooves and slowly sucking in a cleansing breath. Then he would focus his inner forces, and begin to create a circle around where he just knelt with a mixture of dried leaves which he crushed between his hands before scattering, different herbs and wild spices, and ashes taken from the fire he created with wood used to represent the seven forces of life.
When that was completed, Fury stood at the edge of the circle and began weaving his hands through the air, drawing each of the runes he had been taught, one at a time. When the last of the invisible commands was formed, he let his eyes focus again on the circle, hoping that he would be just as successful as his Awen'do, or teacher, had been earlier in his classes. Very slowly, starting in the very center of the ring, a white spiral began to form. The color shifted to red, and through the entire spectrum, so far everything was going just as it should. As the colors cycled back to a white, a mist began to spread across the floor, stopping at the edge of the circle, but never passing it's limit. It rose higher, coiling and twisting upon itself like a storm ravaged sea. Then slowly, at the center of the cloud, a white light shot from the floor, all the way to the ceiling fifteen feet above. Within that light, a shadowy figure began to manifest itself.
He had done it! He had summoned his first familiar. Awen'do Mist had been right, he was far more advanced in his abilities than the other students. It would be weeks before they would reach the level where Winter's Mist would allow them to reach into the void and create their first battle companion! A smile began to form over Fury's muzzle, and in that instant he realized he had lost his control over the summoning. He weaved the runes to close the summoning, but it was too late, too much of the beast's energies had been transfered into the material world. The monk swallowed hard, praying that he would have the knowledge to banish his creation if things got too bad.
Flexing his fingers, preparing to battle the familiar if it somehow managed to cross the barrier, Fury reached for the brown leather gloves that rested on his desk. Pulling them over his hands, and feeling the metal studs slip over his knuckles, he licked his lips and stomped his hooves twice each and got into his fighting stance. He didn't realize though, that when he had stomped down, he had stomped upon the line of his barrier, smearing it, and very slowly, the white mist began to leak out spreading over the floor like a shadow in the fading light of day.
Within the circle, the summoning was nearly complete, and before Fury stood a beast of immense proportions, it looked like the beast that followed Mistress Moonstalker around. A hideous abomination of muscle, bone, and fur. However, this beast lacked the marking upon it's head showing that it had been dominated and bent to a summoner's will. The creature turned it's glowing red eyes upon the monk and snarled ferociously, yellow green spittle flying from it's muzzle and landing upon the stone at Fury's feet. The stallion squeezed his hands tighter, and grit his teeth, and then the beast surged over the line that should have contained him harmlessly within the circle.
Fury reacted quickly, just getting out of the way of a massive paw swiping sickle like claws where his head had just been. The large warrior did, however, catch the beast's chest against his right shoulder, and took the opportunity to land two powerful punches to the beast's ribs, and stomach. He tried to wrap his right arm around the beast, and keep slamming his studded gloves into the beast, but almost as if it too possessed reasoning, his opponant swung it's paw in a backhand like motion, before Fury could react, the back of the paw struck him just below the right eye, spinning his head to the side, and causing the mighty stallion to stumble back against the wall to make the fireworks that exploded just behind his eyes die down.
His adversary did not give him the chance, covering the ground between them in two bounding leaps, slamming into the monk, and actually sending him through the stone wall and into the next room. The inhabitants were still away at weapons training, which Fury thanked the gods for. There would be an excuse for why there was a hole in their wall thought up later, for now, defending his life was more important. As the best raised a paw to swipe down at it's fallen prey, Fury coiled his legs up under the stomach and haunches of his summoned demon, and just as the fatal blow began to fall, the stallion kicked up with all the power he could summon, burying his hooves in the soft flesh of the beast's belly, lifting it clean off of the ground, and sending it sailing through the air to smash through the cot at the far side.
For the first time, the beast hesitated, yelping in pain. When it stood again, Fury saw why, there was a rather large splinter of wood skewered almost entirely through it's left hind leg. Fury smiled wickedly and got back into his ready stance, waving for the beast to bring on another attack. With shambling, stumbling steps, the demonspawn neared, but stopped just outside of the monk's reach. Slamming the paw of it's injured leg against the stone, the grotesque muscle of the beast actually snapped the wood from it's leg, and it's head twisted back to watch black blood splash from the wound and stain the floor.
Turning back to face it's foe, the abomination narrowed it's eyes and took a defiant step into Fury's reach, which the stallion took advantage of and threw a debilitating haymaker that landed right below the beast's eye and snapped the creature's head to the side. When it turned back to face him, Fury threw four more punches that should have crushed the abomination's skull, but it only turned to face him, stepping another step closer.
Sweat poured from Fury's brow now, and he tossed his head to the side to get it, and his soaked hair, out of his face. He had to focus now, it was obvious that physical blows did little, if anything, to his foe. When the beast leapt at him again, Fury ducked and pivoted out of the way, letting the creature land and slide back into the summoning circle, while Fury stood back up and gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and tried to focus his mind. Summoning wasn't the only thing the monk had learned. As part of his training, he also had to learn the other ways of requesting Kohana's gifts.
Fury's lips began moving quickly in a prayer to his ancestors, asking them to aid him in this battle. He had learned that you never demand of the spirits, or they will remove themselves from ever helping you again, unless you performed a task to appease each of the spirits in a show of genuine apology. When he opened his eyes, the beast was already in midswing, trying to knock the monk's head off his shoulders with a paw the size of one of the bucklers the students used for sparring practice. If the spirits were to grant his plea, it would have to be now.
The male's hands came up instinctively, and in his peripheral vision, right before the death blow would have come, Fury saw jagged violet lines coursing down each of his arms, so that when the beast's limb struck them, the Power of the Storm was unleashed, sending electricity flooding into the abomination, and burning the flesh and filling the room with the smell of burnt, rotting flesh. Fury balked at the stench, covering his muzzle and stumbling backwards towards the window for fresh air.
After collecting himself, the stallion turned around and tossed his head to the side again, loosing the battlecry of his clan, a mix of a bovine roar, and a earsplitting whinney. The beast was picking itself back up, and was momentarily stunned while Fury took up a stance much like snake style kung fu, and slowly advanced, hands weaving quickly through the air, body loose, and eyes focused on what he knew he had to do. By the time his creation rounded on him again, Fury was already close enough to begin the kata he had learned to take full advantage of the Storm's power. Quick fingertip strikes to each of the main muscle groups and pressure points, added to by the added electrical force flowing through him which he molded and released with each strike had the beast backing further and further away, yelps and snarls of pain showing Fury now had all the momentum.
Soon, Fury had backed the beast all the way against the far wall, and though it snapped at his hands, Fury was moving too quickly, hands darting in and out with little force, but the speed and precision with which he struck was wearing out his adversary. Soon the beast's hindquarters would buckle, and it couldn't seem to get them to support him anymore. As Fury darted away to avoid a swiping paw, the creature dragged itself after him, smearing more black blood over the stone floor from it's leg wounds. The stallion could tell that the fall from where it had tried to stand digitigrade had either dislocated it's hip, or broken the leg entirely, as it's left leg bent at a complete 90 degree angle sideways just below the knee. But he didn't have time to focus on that.
When Fury had led the beast back into the center of the summoning circle, he quickly drew the summoning runes again, praying silently that he didn't double his danger and summon another demonspawn into his room. He had been trying to remember the runes needed to suck the beast back into the Void, but instead of the enveloping mist holding the abomination within the circle, the creature kept right on coming. It was then that Fury looked down at the circle to see the smeared line.
Swearing in his native tongue, Fury took a step backward to dodge another blow, only to trip over the stool that served as his desk's seat. With all the grace his species was known for, the stallion fell hard against the stone, knocking the breath from the monk's lungs. This was the opportunity the debilitated demon had been waiting for, and he surged towards the fallen combatant. As it began swinging the killing blow down upon the fallen student, Fury closed his eyes, not wanting to face the fate he had foolishly brought upon himself. The blow never came.
There came a sickening, wet snap and a heavy thud that made Fury bolt upright, eyes wide as he stared into the empty eyes of the creature that had sought to feast upon him. Very slowly, Fury realized that the beast was dead, and that he was not alone in the room anymore. Fearing the worst, the young apprentice licked his lips and looked towards the door, what he saw was not Awen'Do Winter Mist, not even Mistress Moonstalker, the creature that stood over him was just as massive as the beast it had apparently slain, judging by the black stains upon it's pure white, almost glowing, paws. What the creature was, however, Fury had no idea.
She, and it was definitely a she, stood nearly to the ceiling, but not on two paws, like the Kohanians, but on four, like a beast of the forest. She looked like the Canine Tribe from the waist up, beautifully curved, fox like shape and fur pattern, and the deepest emerald eyes Fury had ever seen that seemed to just suck the monk in and fill him with a sense of endless peace and serenity. From the waist down, she had the body of a feral fox, heavy with litter as her belly was slightly rounded, and her feral breasts had just begin to fill with sustanance for her growing brood.
Fury was at a loss for words, not sure what to say to something, no, someone who had just saved his life from evil incarnated. The white female smiled softly, her eyes glittering, and canted her head as if reveling in the male's struggles. Finally she would sit down on her haunches, and look at the body of the demonspawn. She sighed softly and looked down to her tail, as the black fur seemed to spread up to engulf her hindquarters, then she would look back to the fallen monk and hold out a paw silently.
"Who...are you?" Fury asked softly, finally finding his voice as he took her paw to sit back up. His visitor just looked at the hellspawn again, then to Fury, and back again. Finally she sighed again, got back to her paws, and lifted the abomination, laying it across her taur body, and started back towards the summoning circle.
After laying the body in the center of the ring, she would turn back to face Fury, smile, and place a paw on her chest.
"VeeSra."
And then the mists wrapped around her paws, and grew up her legs to slowly suck both she, and the abomination into floor as if it were water. Fury hurried to the summoning portal, but as he got to the boundry of the circle, he ran into an invisible wall that seperated him, from the mystical white angel.
"VeeSra, tainted angel." He whispered to himself, as the room faded once again into the dull light of his candles as they flickered out the last of their light, and then went out. The stallion monk stood in the darkness, rubbing his swollen and bleeding eye, and grasping at an explanation for a memory that could just as soon have been the hallucination of a man facing his own death....
Furious Wind would never find out for sure...
