[Mkguild] Family Secrets

[Stealth]

Latest story, another short.



Family Secrets

Copyright (c) 2008 Michael Nastov

With thanks to Christian O'Kane for his help
*


*

Somewhere between the peaks of great mountains sat a cursed castle. Deep
within its dark halls two soldiers battled. The clash raged at a steady pace
between the human and animal-man. Swords met blows and eyes glowed with a
fire from deep within them. At one point, one of the combatants made a
mistake as their opponent had an opening to cut flesh, halt, and then
withdraw.

Stealth and Alex spared under the watchful gaze of Alia, the lynx morph.
Edmund recommended her to the cheetah as she was versed in combat tactics
specifically designed for an animal morphs' body. However, for every tip she
gave Stealth about utilising his own body as a weapon, she would offset each
one by telling the female human every one of the cheetah's specific
weaknesses...

As he came to blows, Stealth felt mildly irritated and betrayed by the words
of advice his fellow feline was giving his opponent. He even saw Alia
instructing Alex one on one in how to kill a cat!

It didn't help that besides the woman and the cheetah, others were training
under the Lynxes eye. Alia instructed the morphs with foot-paws to remove
their boots =96 if they wore any =96 and expose their clawed toes. Though
Stealth didn't really have foot 'paws' or sharp claws as a morph, he still
complied and stood on bare feet, perhaps he could still find a way to
utilise them or just sharpen his claws.

He found it ironic in a way; people remove their boots to train in martial
arts so they don't injure their opponent with a kick. Yet the animal morphs
were instructed to remove their shoes for the opposite reason =96 to use th=
eir
own claws as a better weapon than regular feet.

The cheetah didn't worry about such things currently though; he focused on
the fight at hand and tried to pay attention to the trainer's advice.

"Go for the nose!" Alia instructed the woman.

Stealth quickly backed away from battle and clasped his muzzle. "Are you
kidding?"

"War isn't a game, boy; you do what you must to survive." The lynx intoned.
"Be thankful I didn't tell her to go for your harbles."

The cheetah raised an eye ridge to the instructor, "my... what?"

Alex lowered her wooden sword and stepped closer to him. "Cat-balls."

"WHAT!?" He shouted.

The gender morph stepped away and chuckled while the other feline barked a
laugh.

Stealth shook his head, "girls are sick."

"Continue." The female lynx ordered, ignoring the cheetah's remark. "I don't
want to see you flinch away like that again."

Stealth frowned at her, "I'd rather avoid a blow to my nose."

"It wouldn't have been a true strike; we are only going through the motions
and if you shy away like that in a real fight you will end up dead instead
of pained." Alia pointed out direly. "Work to counter each others moves and
strike back! And you won't stop till you get it right."

The spotted cat cringed at everything the short-tailed cat had said,
particularly though, at the last part. Combat training was good, but still
bloody tedious.

----------------------------------

After many hours that he'd lost track of, Stealth slumped and groaned. The
bouncy foxtaur made good on his 'reassurance' he made all that time ago. In
reality however, it had only been two days but it felt like two years. At
least he didn't feel guilty about the debt anymore...

For now, he had some time for lunch. The evil lynx-woman showed enough mercy
to her students to allow them a noon time break. Of several, the cheetah and
human left with most others though some stayed to continue their training.
Those who left the sparing arena went their separate ways.

Stealth turned down Alex's offer to shout him lunch, much to her surprise,
but the cheetah only yearned to crash in his bed for what time he could
spare before the next sparring session. With all of his remaining strength,
Stealth willed a direct passage to his bedroom where he could partake of
blissful slumber for a few minutes.

Coming to a door, the cat took a breath and opened up the portal... to his
left was the pool lizard, to his right were two of his sparing partners at a
table with their orders being taken. And to think, he'd even made it up some
flights of stairs!

"Change your mind?" The woman asked.

"...yeah" He sat down opposite the two took notice of the one of them who
was a large, coiled up snake.

"What do you want?" The waitress asked brusquely.

"Chicken." The cat responded in kind and the waitress left.

"You okay?" Alex asked. She idly wondered if he was going to have a relapse
of the agoraphobia that he'd suffered in September, for some reason.

"Yeah... just wake me when the food arrives." The cheetah said as he rested
his head in folded arms, though not a moment later the waitress returned =
=96
signalled by a loud thud which spooked the feline. Stealth unfolded his arms
and narrowed his eyes at the table top. After the brief distraction his mind
soon wandered and drifted from the fore.

Stealth scowled at the memory of the previous day; the day which he spent
sparing with his friend and fellow cheetah, Edmund. 'She helped me a lot,
she can help you too.' He'd said. The lynx-woman was meant to teach the
cheetah how to use the enhancements of his own body in conventional combat.
That she did, but she taught non-felines how to counter them!
**

It pained him that another cat would divulge such things; it was like
letting a stranger in on a family secret. The thought began to embitter him;
Stealth began to feel jealous toward Alex till he pinched his nose bridge
and banished the thought. She's a close friend isn't she? If he were still
human they would tell him would they not? And since when did he like his
curse enough to care for such things!?

"Are you sure you're okay?" The female suddenly asked. "If you're sick I can
take you to the healer."

"No, I'm just exhausted." And he was. Stealth reached into his pockets but
found that he had none; he was still dressed for a sparring session.

"I told you I was paying..." Alex informed slightly annoyed. "And Alia said
we have to be back soon."

"Right, right, I'm sorry." Stealth's ears drooped. He quickly and obediently
devoured the small meal. Yeah, Alex is fine. But that's cause besides being
a friend, she's a human; the cheetah felt much more ill at the thought of
what the lynx had taught other animals. He knew it was silly, even
inappropriate, but in the corner of his mind, Stealth felt a rivalry with
other creatures. The other students for one; probably half were animal
morphs, maybe one was a feline, a leopard maybe.

Currently, Stealth sat opposite the snake morph... he didn't even need to
know about the cheetah, all the reptile need do would be to spray him in the
eyes with his venom. He felt momentarily unsettled though he didn't hate the
snake keeper for it; Stealth could have become a snake, and then he wouldn't
need to worry about a lynx telling people his secrets! How much did Alia
tell the others about his weaknesses? And just how much had she told him
about theirs?

Perhaps he felt threatened; there were a great deal of vulpines about the
keep, felines tended to be scarcer.

Or perhaps he just needed to grow up... The cheetah was being unfair, he
supposed. However, he preferred that he knew the weakness of other animals,
at least. Stealth then looked up from his plate to the two others. They were
chatting about rumours, about who was seeing who, about news from the south,
nothing particularly interesting and the cheetah didn't join them; he had to
make up lost time on the food.

After practically inhaling the meal, Stealth graciously thanked his friend
though stopped short of kissing her on the cheek; gender morphs probably
don't like that, he thought. They quickly made their way back to the sparing
area.

----------------------------------

"You see this?" Alia pointed to a sharp claw. "On a real animal this is the
dew claw, cheetahs have blunt claws but the dew claw is above the ground and
paw so it remains razor-sharp." Stealth was holding out his hand in a fist
as instructed by the lynx. She was explaining all this to the human.

The cheetah glanced about the room. Most others had been left to practice
their own moves and sparring techniques. Since most weren't feline, the Lynx
only instructed them how to counter her or just how to use more conventional
means of attack, but one or two students listened in on her talk on the
anatomy of a cheetah-morph's hand.

"Fittingly this claw comes to rest on the thumb of a morph where it is the
most exposed on a closed fist." She opened up the thumb from the cheetah's
fist. "If this reaches your neck, he could sever the jugular so be mindful
of this." Alia gently pulled the fist up to her own neck to demonstrate,
though she had fur to protect the crucial veins, a full human doesn't have
the added protection.

"Fortunately, this gives you an opening; when the thumb uncoils from this
fist, you can take a chance to grab it and break it the wrong way!" The lynx
demonstrated by suddenly grabbing the exposed thumb and making the motion of
twisting it the wrong way. Stealth hissed and flinched; it felt like she was
really going to do it!

The trainer allowed him to reclaim his hand and practice the motion of
rolling it to check for damage.

Alia looked at the glaring cheetah unaffected by his gaze, "I have been in
this business for years and I have never caused an injury like that; I'm not
THAT bad." She lectured. "You're liable to hurt yourself like that but at
least your reflexes are working..."

Stealth let his hand rest at his side. "I just don't see the point of this;
aren't we on the same side anyway?"

"Not every cute and cuddly keeper is friendly; be mindful of thieves,
bandits ...and traitors." She answered direly. "Then there are drunks, the
mad and the possessed..."

The cheetah nodded slowly.

"Stealth, remember you can use this knowledge against others like you, and
it's important for any good solder to be aware of their weaknesses." She
said softly then paused, "And I haven't even gone into claw-twisting."

Stealth sighed yet chuckled.
**

Alex took the opportunity to speak up. "Besides learning the benefits of
your form you can learn to ward yourself from the weaknesses." She reasoned.

"...I've been hearing quite a bit about my new weaknesses..." The cheetah
pointed out, trying not to sound indignant, "I'd like to hear some of my new
STRENGTHS."

The lynx nodded and approached him, "Don't flinch this time..." She walked
behind the cheetah, who turned his upper body to follow her path. Alia
seemed to be gazing down to his long tail, which began to sway about faster
advertising his unease. "That may suffice, I'd like you to spin about and
bring that tail about."

Stealth narrowed his eyes. "What, like a skunk?"

The woman shook her head, "No, a full circle."

He stood there for a moment, then shrugged and complied, spinning about once
on the spot.

She seemed to approve, "You could use that as a weapon, if you urinate on
the tip." She paused when seeing his eyes narrow in a frown. "Or soak it in
water; you could slap someone in the face with it." The feline explained.
"No one would be expecting that attack."

Stealth rubbed his chin in thought, he seemed amused and at the same time,
embarrassed by the thought, though still curious to it.

"A tail slap, I'd need to practice quite a bit for that." He thought aloud.

"Everything takes practice and every advantage helps." Alia reminded.

The cheetah nodded knowingly then idly gazed to his training sword.

The lynx nodded, "Begin." She motioned her arms for the two to spar again.

As the feline and female brought their swords up once more to clash, Stealth
reflected on his tutor. Alia was a tough soldier; a specialist in light
infantry and a combat leader who had since grown to specialise in exploiting
the animal curse to utilise its traits in hand to hand combat and give
keepers the edge. But she imparted her wisdom on all keepers under her
tutelage, fur or no, for them to get the most benefit out of her knowledge.

The cheetah mellowed to the thought as he blocked a close swing that brought
his opponent's hilt to his muzzle, then twitched his ear up to partake of
some more wisdom.

"Pull his whiskers!"

End



Family Secrets

Copyright (c) 2008 Michael Nastov

With thanks to Christian O'Kane for his help
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