The History of Inari
The Legeands of Inari
Collection One: Inari's Legacy
Act II ~ Sword of Memories
A legeand finds its voice>
When a hero heeds the call
When the trials have arrisen
If he stands or if he falls
But a hero is not measured
By his ability to fight;
A hero is a hero
Because he fights for what is right.
Chapter One
"Are you sure?"
"Quite sure. Just trust me on this one."
"Alright, if you say so. Baron! Your up, lad. Third line, left side, move sharpish now." Taro's booming voice echoed across the working grounds, the hare's ears gesturing the wolf towards the lines of workers lifting the walls.
"Me, sir?" The wolf said, tilting his head in a confused sort of way. "I've been off the job injured for so long though."
Inari walked over to his friend, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Ah, don't worry about it, a month of rest should have helped you get back your strength. Plus, the fur on that line looks ready to give out like you did."
"What?" Taro peered towards the fur in question, a white-furred wolf. He was pulling away with a will at the line, the wall creeking as it rose from the dust towards the waiting workers above, mostly squirrels and other climbers, who lashed it tight before bolting it firmly to the other sections. "He seems perfectly fine to me."
"Ah," Inari said, smiling knowingly. "But notice the way he's breathing. He's trying to put on a brave face but he's going to pass out if he doesn't start taking proper deep breaths through his muzzle."
Not long after he said this, the arctic wolf did indeed sway dizzily, two other workers, a tall palamino and a jet-black furred badger, wrapped his arms around their shoulders and helped him towards the emergency tent where a motherly looking doe rabbit gave him something to drink.
Taro shook his head, smiling. "You're gonna put me out of a job at this rate, sah. I don't know what that old squirrel Arcatius is teaching you but its working a right miracle."
"I wouldn't wanna do that to you, Taro" the young kitsune said as he walked over to a tow-line of the next wall section in line, which was unmanned. "I'm just trying to help." He picked up the heavy cable in both paws, slinging it over his shoulder. He took a heavy peg that was laying nearby and began driving it in the ground on the inside of the wall boundarys, trying the lines at either corner to it.
"And what, sah, are you planning to do now?" Taro asked as the wall section next to Inari's was bolted down, Baron pulling strong with the others, keeping up easily. Inari walked to the second, center cable and hoisted it over his arm.
"Doing my share to help, naturally." He walked outwards with it, straining a bit under the weight. The wooden monolith rose like a giant waking from sleep, the lines fastened down keeping it from falling forwards as the tie-down crew dashed over to help him. He stood there calmly, adjusting his grip on the line as he held it firmly propped up where it was supposed to be. Once the lines had been secured he dropped it, sighing and streaching. "Its been too long since I've done work here too, you know."
Taro, as well as several others present, stared in open-mouthed awe. Finally Taro broke the silence as he roared with laughter. "By the fates, I don't know what I should be more impressed with, the fact that you managed to set the stake perfectly without even trying or that you set up that bloody wall all by yourself. I'm done trying to figure you out, master Inari, your beyond me."
"Well, I'm not invincible, so I have my limits. Like the fact that I still need to eat. I'll be seeing you around!" Inari called over his shoulder, padding towards the city, specifically the Silverpaw Inn. Furs greeted him warmly in passing, some of them calling him by name. He waved back, chatting animatedly with a few of his new friends.
Its odd. When I came here I was a total stranger. I never thought I'd become such a popular fur in just a month. Then again, Inari thought to himself as he turned down the street where the Inn was located.
I did save their city from a mafia.
The kitsune stopped at the doors of the Inn, looking up at the friendly, though slightly dishoveled, building stood. He rested his handpaw against the doorframe, remembering the day he had arrived, without any memory to speek of, bewildered and nervous. He walked in, his eyes adjusting to the relative darkness of the inside. The barkeeper, an aging black panther named Bruce, hailed him.
"The usual, Altada." Inari said to the avian, who poked her head from the kitchen window.
"Comin' right up, 'Nari" she said, disappearing to whip up a meal for the regular patron.
"Whats the news, Bruce? Anything major happen while I was out?" Inari asked the panther, who was polishing a glass with a cloth. Bruce always had inside info gleaned from others who came for a drink. "I haven't heard anything on that rouge assassin for three days now. I'm wondering if he left once he found out he'd attracted too much attention to himself here?"
"If only. It turns out that the reason no one has heard of him is the fact he's gone into hiding just outside of town. Three vendors from the city left on a buisness venture but still haven't returned. They're claiming it was a buisness scuffle. Heres the thing though; They as well as the other victims all had done work for the same fur, a city metalworker responsible for minting currency around Alador. Thats why they're trying to write it off as an unrelated hit-and-run theft."
A large plate carrying a filet and fries slid down the counter to stop in front of Inari along with a tankard of mead slid which stopped neatly against the plate with a faint clink. Inari set in on his food with his usual enthusiasm, speeking in between bites of steak. "So the guy looses his dealings with Avatar. He acts like he's become an everyday killer, while trying to get acess to the furs who make the money. He's obviously very skilled at stealth and assassination, and is now hiding outside of the city. The question is why? If he just needed money, he'd be better suited to theft than outright robbery and murder. Its not his style. Perhaps its not the same guy?"
"That may be, but I've heard some of the former workers at Avatar who managed to get out before you brought it down saying that he was the only one they ever hired, and this guy's weapons are clearly Avatar material. Perhaps the company isn't as dead as we thought it was." Bruce said, cleaning the glass absentmindedly
. "Either way, all you have to worry about for the moment is finding him when he knows you'll be after him."
"I suppose, though if he's as big-headed as some of these guys, he'll assume his guise of a common murderer will fool me. I can always get answers out of him about Avatar once he's been brought down."
"Your call, Inari."
"I'll be seeing ya." Inari said, streaching as he stepped quietly up the stairs towards the appartments. Room 7, room 8... He thought idly as he walked past the other rooms. And room 9. He unlocked his door and closed it behind him with a flick of one of his tails. He yawned again, flopping down on the covers of his bed, staring at the ceiling as he planned his move.
As a city guard, it was his job to take down criminals like these. He yawned more insistantly, feeling his concentration wavering. He decided to call it a day and let himself drift to sleep as a warm ray of sunlight beamed down from his window, warming his fur as he wandered into the realm of dreams.
(New story! I hope you like this one even more than the last part ^^)
Chapter Two
Inari sat up with a start, his tails bristling, eyes wide with panic. Cold drops of sweat formed on his muzzle as he panted as though he had just run a sprint. He stared at his hand for a moment as if making sure it was still his own. He sat up against the headboard of the bed, pressing his palms against his eyelids as if trying to force some image back into the recesses of his mind.
Ever since the fight with the Avatar Inc's mob boss Larune had confronted him, he had repeatedly had strange, disjointed and incomplete flashes of memory, recalling a strange world much unlike this one. Their buildings loomed like monoliths over the fursons walking across the cold, hard ground on which grass never grew except in strange geometrically crafted patches. Great machines carried them everywhere, speeding along at increadible paces. The farther into these strange places he saw, the more he felt a sense of fear, greed, sadness, and other, darker emotions. His fur stood involuntarily on end as he remembered it.
"Grrr, get out of my head. Why won't these pictures go away?" he murmured under his breath to himself, staring cross-eyed up between his fingers, watching the moonlight-born shadows slowly ripple as a thin layer of clouds passed over the night sky. "Its like fursons coming back from battle, remembering all they had to do to civilians in the name of duty. But I don't even know if its real. If only I knew..."
He flopped back down onto the covers, rubbing his head as the top of it thumps against the hard wood. I can't keep doing this to myself. he thought while silently cursing the offending bedpost. Its making it impossible to think clearly anymore. He rolled onto his side, sighing.
If only I could remember...
@>~>~~~ ~~~<~<@
"Enough for the moment, young master Inari." Arcatius said, his red fur now turned mostly silver by the passing of time. The aged squirrel who was Inari's mentor as well as teacher laid aside the scrolls he carried in his arms. Two or three Inari sat down next to him, two of them flickering slightly before the energy of the spell they had been practicing faded completely.
"Something seems to be troubling you. You seem distracted. That last spell was nothing near where you have been performing before. I can sense something troubling your mind and spirit."
Inari glanced up at the wise squirrel, wondering to himself. "Come to think of it, I'm not entirely sure what it is myself. I'm constantly distracted by these strange... I don't know what exactly you'd call them. They're not visions or flashbacks or daydreams, but yet they're like all three of them in ways." He frowned, trying to search for the right words for what he'd felt. "Its just out of my range of thought, its on the tip of my tounge but not quite there. Its very clear in my mind but I don't know how to express it correctly."
The squirrel wrapped his tail around the kitsune's shoulder as he would an arm of friendship, chuckling softly as was his habit. "Do not trouble yourself on this matter, master Inari. All that must be done is a simple searching of your mind. I shall go and make the preparations."
@>~>~~~ ~~~<~<@
Inari sat down, glancing around at the small dim room he was in now. The walls were a soft brownish-gray, leading up in a dome to a shadowed darkness of the roof as if it blended into the night sky. He even thought he could see stars hanging there. The chair he was now sitting in was soft and he felt himself becoming drowsy in it. An identical chair sat opposite him. Both of the great, overstuffed armchair-like things were made with a velvety black material and had a diamond-shaped indentation in the front of the arms.
Arcatius walked back into view, carrying two pairs of gemstones. One set were rubies, the other sapphires. They were both brilliantly colored, and glowed and pulsed with a vibrant light. He gave one of each to the kitsune, who was suprised by their weight but as he suspected gave off a soft, radiant warmth like something left in the sun.
"Please place the stones in the arm holding spaces. The red on your right side, blue on left. Opposite of mine if your still confused." Arcatius did the same, reclining into the chair with a sigh. He set aside the polished crystal specticals he always wore as Inari settled back into his chair again.
Inari was a bit taken aback. Having never seen the aging squirrel without the eyeglasses, he had never been able to appreciate the powerful, piercing stare that his elder had. He looked much younger and much more impressive. Inari recoiled slightly by instinct, awestruck by the feeling of power now radiating from his teacher. It filled his mind as out of the corner of his eyes he noticed the stones glow brightly, forming a bridge of light between the chairs.
The sky-like shadows expanded as the room seemed to grow. They seemed to be floating in space on the chairs. Then they were moving through the sky, quickly approaching a great blue planet scarred with great patches of brown, green and white. Great clouds swirrelled, giants upon the skys of this planet. Soon they were falling towards a city, identical to those in his dreams. Everything seemed blurred now; Whenever he focused on anything, it seemed to distort and waver like smoke.
"This... This is the place..." Inari said shakily, rubbing his eyes as they began to ache from trying to focus on the shapes. "I can't recognize much here, but I can feel things. Can you?"
As if to project what Inari was saying, the scene to their left began to glow with a swirling multicolored light, which raced along the gray paths that lined the city. "Yes, I can. Hmmm. Interresting. So much excitement. They all seem to be in a hurry. I've never felt things quite like these." The squirrel's eyes were closed, his hand extened as if to test the temperature of the air around him.
Inari felt a rising sensation as everything blurred completely, mixing until it formed a gray brown, the darker parts flowing above him until....
...Until he awoke, panting slightly, sitting back in the room in the armchairs, his mentor across from him and likewise breathing heavily. He replaced the glasses on his face, standing slowly. He streached his back, which responded with a cricking sound. He sighed again, this time a weary sigh of age. "Im getting to old to mind-delve like that. Well young master, I would venture to guess that these images are of your old world."
Inari's tired eyes opened again, suprised. "Do you think it is? It would explain why it feels distantly familiar, and why its been happening ever since my fight with Larune."
Arc nodded, yawning wearily. "I hope you'll excuse me. I need a good rest myself after that. I have a plan that I plan on setting up tommorow. This calls for some outside advice." Saying no more, the squirrel walked out of the room, bowing slightly to his student.
"Well, another mystery for every question, thats the way my life works." Inari muttered to himself, leaving the room as well and heading back to the arena to train. "Well if I'm going to get outside help, I might as well be ready for it."
(I have to be careful, I'm not using my script enough and they'll blend together if I don't watch it. Can't give you too many hints at once, can I? o_<)
Chapter Three
Authors note: At this point I ran into a problem, and decided the only way to overcome it was to partially abandon my original script and attempt to write basically as I always had before, straight from the imagination without planning. It always ended in disaster. Still, hopefully I'm following the script enough that wont happen.
Inari's eyes snapped wide open. It was several seconds before he returned to reality from another furious storm of images were flowing through his dreams again. It was the day. Grabbing his clothes and hop-skipping as he was still getting dressed, strapping his belt and swordcase across his shoulders, he rested his hand on the flat of his mirror-like blade. A strange energy always reached out to him whenever he traced the strange runes on the sword, and today it felt even stronger than usual. He tossed it into its case with a vacant flick of the wrist, tying his staff along the swordcase. His stomach was twisting uncomfortably as he thought over all the things he would be doing today.
Despite having lived in Alador for over a year now, he had never ventured beyond the walls that he was helping build, aside from the time he showed up in that world, deep in the forests of Alador. Also, this was a criminal who would not go down easily. This was the biggest case since the Avatar Incident 9 months previous. The third problem was a matter of tactics. All his brawls so far had lucily been open confrontations. Despite having trained in stealth combat with Arcatius, he knew training was never the same as real combat.
He sighed. "No use worrying I suppose, it'll just make me screw up under pressure..." He was just talking himself out of panicing, he knew, but it was all he could do. He rested his forehead against the door for a moment, then opened it. The hallways were empty and the Inn almost silent aside from a few other early risers. His plan was to get an early start, before most of the attacks had occured.
"Inari" It was Bruce. He gave the kitsune a pat on the back, "Good luck today, lad, hopefully you won't need it." He smiles back nervously. "Thanks, Bruce."
He walked out into the early morning sun, blinking and shileding his eyes with a hand. He took a steadying breath as he walked out purposefully towards the front gates. A pack of food and supplys was swung over his shoulder, loaded with specialty items from Arcatius and food from Bruce. He munched on an apple as he walked, outwardly calm, his senses looking earnestly for any sign of trouble. He kept walking at an easy pace for an hour or two before he sensed anything.
At the very edge of his vision he saw a quick flash of movement to his left. His ears began scanning the area for sounds, trying to keep them from swiveling too quickly and betraying his awareness, he moved as if to sit down and rest. He took his time untying his staff, pretending that it was stuck, waiting for the other to make the first move. The surrounding area had a heavy growth of trees; the forest wound its way back towards the roadside around here clear to the Alador River, his destination. Large rocks and thick undergrowth gave whoever was now following him ample cover.
"Any time you're ready to come out is fine by me" he said after several minutes of waiting, growing impatient.
"H-how did you see me?" It sounded like a kid to him. He turned around to where the voice was coming from and saw a young red squirrel peeking out from behind a rock. This can't be the assassin, can it? He kept his hand on his staff, but put aside his sword within easy reach.
"I've been training in stealth and detection, and i'm looking for an assassin whose been attacking people in Alador City. You wouldn't know about that... would you?" He glanced at the crossbow on the back of the squirrel's back. It looked self-made.
"Well, sort of... I've heard that there was someone around here who'se been attacking people... Thats why I was hiding..." He saw that the squirrel kept glancing nervously to his own weapons. He quickly set aside them both, turning to sit facing him. "So you're looking for him? Why?"
"I'm part of the Alador City Valorians, its my job to stop this kind of thing. So what are you doing out in the middle of nowhere?"
"No" he said sadly, his ears drooping sadly. "I've been on my own as long as I can really remember. I just go from town to town looking for jobs I can do. I'm handy when it comes to fixing stuff. I built this myself" the squirrel held out his crossbow. It was almost as large as he was but apparently not as heavy as it looked.
"Amazing job, and you did this yourself?" Inari was clearly impressed as he looked over the weapon.
"Yeah, I did, I've picked up alot of skill traveling around like I have. I was just heading into Crystal River City, but there's something major happening there. I wanted to help but theres way too much Avatar-"
"Avatar?!? What Avatar?" Inari was shocked. He had heard that maybe a dozen had gotten free but he thought even Crystal River wouldn't have any trouble with so few a number.
"Uh, yeah, the city's basically been over-run by them. Its always been the home of a mafia-style occupation, but now they're openly commanding the city."
"Damnit... It was hard enough taking down a single building of them..."
"What? You're Inari?!?"
Inari blinked, confused. "Yeah, I am. How did you know?" He handed back the crossbow, strapping on his weapons once again.
The squirrel looked at him incredulously. "You're a legend! You took down half a hundred Avatars in their home base by yourself, including one of their squad leaders! That was a year ago and you've been training as a Valorean, you should be able to free a city with no problem."
"Be serious, kid, I can't take down an entire CITY by myself, I've been training for one on one battles and stealth."
"My name is Dekka. And who said you'd be working alone?" He grinned, closing one eye as he hefted his crossbow onto his shoulder.
(I like this point, I think I'll stop here =P)
Stumble!