anyone for fish?

"Well, it certainly didn't take long for them to catch on that there's an intruder here," Tran muttered to himself. "Then again, it's not everyday that the queen's crown gets stolen from right on top of her head."  He dashed down the hallway, not making a sound.  Up ahead, he heard some guards running from one of the intersecting hallways.  He reached over to his hand, found the tattoo he wanted, and traced it with his finger.

The guards rounded the corner seconds after he disappeared from view.  They ran right past him as he huddled against the wall.  After they were a good distance away, Tran continued his silent, and now invisible, run.  He didn't have to look down at his arm to know that the tattoo was gone.  Not that he had the option to anyway, seeing as even he couldn't see himself.

He ran down the rest of the hallway and entered one of the rooms he had visited before his daring heist, and ran over to a barrel, reaching in for the rope he had previously put in there.  It would be a little difficult to escape from the third floor of the palace without it.  "I thought I put it right underneath the shield with the lion," he murmured to himself.

"You did," came a voice from not too far away.

"Show yourself!" Tran demanded; he really needed to get out of the habit of talking to himself while he was hiding.

"You first," came the reply.

Dang, thought Tran, for if he couldn't see himself, he couldn't find and trace the tattoos that he needed.  Seeing no other alternative, he released the spell that kept him hidden from sight.

"Ah, one of the ink clan, I see, how interesting.  That explains a lot.  I thought I sensed someone messing with my stuff up here, so I decided to check it out, I'm glad I did, Tran,"  The location from where the voice emanated started to materialize and Tran saw a man in shiny full plate emerge from the shadows, the image of a half sun and half moon imprinted on his tabard that lay on top of his mail.

"How do you know my name, I don't recognize you," Tran was somewhat freaked out now.

"Oh, we know a lot about you, and all the little things you and your posse have stolen.  Magical weapons from the local blacksmiths, magical apparel from different shops around the kingdom, even the mundane ingredients required for transformation potions.  We know all about you, and your attempts to break into the royal vault.  All you needed was one of the crowns, am I correct?" 

Man, this guy was good.  "Well, yeah, I guess if you want to look at it that way.  Mind you, we still have to break in."

"Ha! Don't make me laugh, Tran, we know that you're coming, and we'll be prepared.  However, if you give the crown back, maybe we'll let all the other minor inconveniences slip our mind."

"Maybe? Is that the best you can offer me?  Just a 'maybe' won't cut it.  And I wouldn't give it back, even with an assurance of acquittal."  Tran could sense a change in the atmosphere as he made this statement.

"Very well, then, Tran.  Seeing as you have no place to run, I will give you a moment to repent of your crimes before I dispense justice upon you."  He walked over to be in front of the door, hands together in an at-ease position.

Well, this is a new predicament.  There really wasn't much that Tran could do, any sort of movement would set this guy after him.  However, if he could make it to the window before this other guy here, maybe... just maybe.

"Time's up.  Tran, you are hereby accused of robbery in the first degree, and I am obligated to bring you in, dead or alive.  Guess which one I'm doing."  He raised his hand and started moving it in a way that Tran recognized. 

Why is it always the fireball first?  Tran ran as quickly as his feet would carry him towards the window, as the armored man laughed in the pleasure of knowing that his quarry was going to be fried in just a moment. 

Tran covered his face as he jumped through the window, fireball exploding right behind him.  The blast sent him propelling further than he expected.  Not a problem, he quickly rolled up his sleeve and traced another of his tattoos, summoning a large eagle from it's natural habitat, and while the eagle couldn't bear his full weight, it definitely did slow down his fall tremendously as he hung on to it's talon.

He released the eagle while he was only a few feet from the ground, and landing on the ground, he started running. 

"After him!" came the shout from the window.

Tran smiled as he jumped over a short wall and entered the city.  He pulled his hood up over his face and took a quick look at the crown in his bag.  Just one final step before he would be known as the best thief in the entire world.

(hey-o everyone, finally have a real length story for ya ;)  I understand that yesterday's stories are a bit difficult, but please do guess.  I'll give you a hint, while they might not be built around an exact story or movie, they certainly were inspired as such, and one or two of them are actually rather cliche.  Anyway, keep the guesses coming in!

Also, I should be getting a those guest stories in any day now, so you guys can look forward to those.  Hope your Wednesday is awesome!  Peace)

Another day, another dollar

The heat from the explosion was right in Hinji's face.  That was too close.  He looked at his opponent.  There he was, standing all smug, with the crowd cheering for him, the girls crazy over him, and perfect grades in all his classes.  These duels were a normal part of mages school, and while it was nearly impossible to die in one, that didn't mean that one's ego was left unharmed.

Suddenly, Schorn's hands started moving again.  What spell would it be this time?  Hinji studied his motions and sounds closely.  He couldn't quite make out the incantation, but there was no mistaking the gestures made.  He stood still and quickly started chanting and doing his own hand motions.  He timed it just perfectly, and they both finished the same spell at the same time.  It was now up to who was the better caster.  A glow of magic was visible between them as their spells collided, and hinji's counterspell ate up Schorn's spell.

Schorn, shocked, started casting another spell, obviously focusing on casting it to the best of his abilities.  Hinji watched and smirked as he recognized the motions for one of the first spells ever taught to those of magical ability.  He wouldn't even need to bother with a counterspell for this one.

"... jantou..." part of Schorn's incantation came through.  Wait, though Hinji, that's not part of the light spell.  It was then that he found himself caught in the heat of another fireball.  This time, it hit him directly.

Several minutes later, he awoke staring one of the healer students in the face.  He looked past her shoulder and saw Schorn waving and taking in the cheers of the small crowd that had come out to see this duel.  Hinji hated dueling class.

Schorn walked over to him, and, extending his arm, said "Good match, Hinji, I wouldn't have had you unless I learned how to change up my motions a bit."  So that was how he did it!  Of all the dirty tricks in the book...  Hinji fought the rising anger, kept a straight face, and replied with "It'll only work for you once, next time I'll be watching for it." A gleam of rivalry shot between them as their glances intensified for a split second, but Schorn walked away within the heartbeat, and quickly wrapped his arms around his girl, Scarla.

Up until this point, Hinji had tried his hardest to beat Schorn, the school's favorite student for the past three years, but apparently he wasn't trying hard enough.  In a fit of rage, he ran off the field and into the school.  Taking corners here and there, not paying attention to where he went, he quickly realized he was becoming lost, and quite rapidly, but he didn't care.  He flew by teachers, ran down dark hallways, and finally stopped when the hallway he had chosen by chance stopped at a dead end.  He would have turned around, save for the giant doorway that was in front of him.  Well, not so much the doorway, but the actual door.  It had two torches on each door, and each torch burned a different color, one blue, another yellow, a red, and a green.

As he approached, the torches all turned black, and he pushed the doors open.  Inside were nothing but piles of books.  The room seemed to stretch for forever, and Hinji quickly picked up the nearest book and read the first line, and that was when he lost track of time.  He spent days there without food, water, or sleep.  Tome after tome contained such secrets.  Ways to make your foe do as you pleased, torture spells, spells to bring back the dead, even a spell to summon a demon.  While  there weren't very many spells that he could understand how to cast, there was one that he felt like he needed.



He finally found his way back to the hallways. He ran around lost for awhile until he heard the commotion of footsteps and talking, and ran into a group of teachers and students who were apparently looking for him.  He gladly followed them out of the maze of hallways and with haste made straight for the cafeteria.  After ten minutes of scarfing down anything and everything, he retreated to his bunk, and restlessly slept til the next day.



He woke up that morning, going about his usual tasks and classes, but he was very anxious for duel class.  He couldn't wait to go up against Schorn again, for this time, he had a little trick of his own up his sleeve.

He made it through conjuration, managed to not sleep through divination, and finally made it to dueling.  He was quick to pull Schorn aside, "I'll be your opponent today, Schorn," he said with as much of an naturally pleasant smile as he could pull off.

Schorn, evidently somewhat dumbstruck by the suddenness of the challenge replied with a simple "Ok," and held quite a dumb expression on his face.

Only one pair of combatants could be in the duel arena at a time, and thus Hinji waited.  Fireballs were thrown, lightning bolts were released, and one student even managed to turn the playing ground into mud.  Hinji smirked, as all of these meager spells were nothing to the spell that he had just recently learned.

Finally, it was time for his spell's debut.  He and Schorn entered the arena, and, without a moment's notice, Schorn, as usual shot out a fireball.  Hinji easily dodged it, and started up his own spell.  In just a few seconds, nearing the end of his spell, the sky clouded overhead, the light seemed to drain into Hinji, and all eyes turned toward him.  The completion of the spell brought about a horrendous change. 

Hinji was expecting power, it was the description in the book, but he didn't expect it to come at the cost of becoming the anchor for a demon.  A roar filled the air as the beast was clearly not happy to be in the mortal realm.  It looked at it's summoner, and then let out another roar at Hinji, rushing towards him.  There was a visible chain that connected them, and as the demon ran at him, axe raised, the chain entered his body.  He was paralyzed at the pain, but he felt his muscles strengthen, his mind grow faster, and the closer the beast got to him, the slower time seemed to go, though his body moved with the same speed as it always did.

He saw Schorn casting some spell at the demon, but he hadn't the patience to watch, as even a small flick of the wrist took an eternity now.  He quickly shot off two or three spells at Schorn, which would considerably weaken him.  He wondered if he would even be able to stand once the dark bolts hit him.  Looking at the beast at the other end of the chain, he figured out how to make the best of the situation.  It appeared that the closer the demon got to him, the more powerful and quicker he became, so really, all he had to do was to get next to him, and chop the chain off, for the chain was nothing more than the symbol of its power.

He casually strolled closer to the battle.  Everything slowing down even more as he came closer to his destination.  The pain of the chain being shoved into him was nothing, now.  His thoughts flew by so quickly, that he easily came up with three more spells he could perform after this one was through.

He took another step forward.  The thought of stopping here and cutting the chain came to him, but he ignored it, he wanted all the power.  He wanted to show that Schorn who the real hero was at this school.  He wanted everyone to love him, to cheer for him.  Another step closer.  He needed this to go down in history as the best mage in all of history.  Another step.  No, he could become the ruler of the entire known world.  Another step, and he was right next to the beast.

It was staring down at where he was, practically a statue at this point, and Hinji released the spell to break the chain.  Nothing happened.  He cast another spell to break the chain, but nothing happened.  he took the axe from the demon's arms and hacked away at it, but nothing happened, not even a dent.
"Well," he thought, "I'll just walk away to increase the time I have to think about this."  He moved to take a step, but found the chain stuck in his chest.  He watched in horror as the few inches of chain that were left were slowly eaten away as the beast continued it's charge.  All that was left now was a few millimeters, and that's when the arms came out of the demon and, embracing Hinji, pulled him into the demon.  Nothing but pain and agony were on his mind.



Hinji woke up to find himself on the bed of the school nurse, with nothing but candles and moonlight to pierce the darkness.  "Oh, good, you're finally awake."  The nurse walked over to him.  He looked around as she checked his vitals and saw Schorn sitting in a chair next to his bed, head hung over his chest.  He thought he heard snoring, but he couldn't quite be sure.  "How long have I been out?" he asked, looking back at the nurse.

"It's only been a few weeks, sweetie."  The nurse smiled as she said this, and walked away, satisfied with the results of her checks.  "He's been here almost every day after classes, you know.  I had no idea that you two were such good friends."

"How did I survive?  The monster swallowed me whole."  Hinji shook his head, trying to forget the memory of that battle.

"Well, fortunately for you, Schorn learned a spell that day that would send outsiders back to their place of origin.  It seems he got that spell off just in time."

Hinji looked over at Schorn.  Maybe he wasn't as awful as originally thought.  Not that he'd tell that to his face, though.  He still was quite the jerk.  But maybe, maybe there was hope for Schorn yet.  Maybe he was slowly becoming less self-centered.  Either that, or the nurse gave him some really good drugs.

(blargh, yet again, another late night one, these ones really aren't that good in my opinion... the good news is, that I think this is my longest post yet! yeah!  And there might be a few sparkling sentences in there, anywat, I'm off to sleep, yo, so, yeah, enjoy the rest of your week!)