Breaking Tradition

[CrazyTaraWitch]

yay, i'm finally caught up! i love the story. the satyr description soooo perfectly fit Anya, and both interactions between our girls were beautiful. hope to see more soon!:)

[Halo]

I really love this fic!
I love what you did with the characters of Xander and especially Anya, her lines are hilarious!
Getting into Tara's "work" as apprentice is really cool and I hope we'll see more (well, she seems a little bit overwhelmed! lol). And about Miss Kitty...That role in the tradition suits her perfectly! She's so cute!

[Bewitchedyke]

Ok, So I've been lurking around here for I don't even know how long! I just had to let you know that I think this is an absolutely adorable story... I can't wait to read s'more

[Artemis]

Aww, Tara's so cute, nervously striking up a conversaion with Miss Kitty. I like the kind of conspiratorial air to them, that they both know what's going on re: the Tradition, and are well aware of their options so far as derailing it. Let's hope they and Giles can put their heads together and figure out how to get rid of this troublesome orge without trapping Miss Kitty in her Master Cat role.

[Selena Taiki]

Spells42: Tara’s reaction made more sense to me than any other one would have. I, personally, have no problem with flying, but if I were asked to sit on a small, flat square as it zipped through the air, with no way to hold on, I would freak.

Alcy: Thank you.

Ellisande: I agree, it was a flaw that needed to be fixed. Frankly, I was completely surprised to see it in one of her works, since Lackey has had several homosexual characters in her other books and has always treated them with a great deal of respect. I think she was trying to be true to her characters opinions, but, since she never added an opposing view, it came off as very antigay.

Darklighter: Yep, same fic, just using my other pen. I was out online before I came out in rl, so I have two. I suppose I could change this one so it matches now, but it’s just easier to leave it as it is for the moment.

CrazyTaraWitch: Thanks. I actually made Anya a Satyr because of how they were described. I knew I didn’t want her to be a brownie so I looked up a bunch of stuff on other mythological creatures and Satyr seemed to fit best.

Halo: I’m glad you enjoy seeing Tara’s work. I hadn’t planned to show so much of it, but I realized I wanted to get her character a little more established before I threw her into a romance.

Bewitchedyke: Welcome! I’m so glad you are enjoying my story.

Chris: Yep, let’s hope; although even the best laid plans…


A/N: Finals are (OMG! OMG!) next week so this is going to be a really (really) short update.


Chapter Ten

“Are you sure?” Giles asked.

“Quite sure,” Miss Kitty answered for herself, ignoring Trevor’s look of incredulity with ease.

“You talk,” Trevor exclaimed, his voice cracking with excited disbelief on the final syllable. Tara winced in sympathy for him.

Slowly Miss Kitty turned her head, the look on her face plainly said, ‘And?’

“So do you.”

“But you’re a cat!”

As Miss Kitty glared at Trevor disdainfully, Tara hurried change the subject back to the problem at hand. “What do we do now?” she asked.

“Obviously just draining the tradition from these two won’t solve anything; what we need to do now is figure out how to twist the tale so that it comes out in some more desirable fashion.” Giles paused for a moment, his forehead crinkled in thought. “Clearly Miss Kitty has to defeat to Ogre, and whatever assets the beast has acquired will revert to Trevor. The question will be how to mange this so that the holdings are minimal and Trevor can still marry Miss… Amelia was it?” At Trevor’s nod Giles continued. “Miss Amelia given that she and he are both of common birth and that sort of union does not feature in many Tales.” The last bit he said apologetically.

“W-what if…” Tara began, loosing her nerve and looking down with a blush. She missed having her hair down since Anya’s styling kept it from falling forward to obscure her face. She felt over exposed.

“Yes Tara?” Giles asked, looking at her expectantly, his eyes warmly urging her to go on.

“What if we h-had the O-ogre kidnap her?” Tara asked tentatively. “T-then M-miss Kitty could h-help Trevor rescue her.” As rescuer, the Tradition would guarantee that Trevor and Amelia would fall in love, if they hadn’t been already, and marry. Furthermore, animal guides were an already well established Traditional role, and would not require more of Miss Kitty then that she give aid during the quest.

Giles smiled. “Brilliant! An elegant twisting of Tradition. Crafting a spell to get the Ogre to kidnap her might be tricky, though.”

“Offer her up as a sacrifice,” Miss Kitty suggested. “To get the Ogre to leave people alone. Have the village hold a lottery. The tradition will compel Adam to accept her.”

“Wait!” Trevor said desperately. “I don’t want Amelia to be sacrificed to the Ogre.”

“We won’t let anything happen to her,” Giles promised firmly.

It took a while to calm Trevor down and convince him that Amelia would be safe in the Ogre’s hands until he could rescue her. Miss Kitty amused herself by chasing shadows, occasionally throwing in a well timed sarcastic comment which only served to increase Trevor's unease. Finally, though, he agreed to their plan.

Giles fixed Trevor sternly with a gaze, drawing himself up and radiating authority. “I need your word,” he said slowly. “That you shall do exactly what we, that being Tara, Myself, or Miss Kitty, tell you to do. This will be dangerous, we are trying to force the Tradition onto a slightly different path and one wrong word from you could shift it back again.”

“I promise,” the lad said gravely.

Giles nodded. “I would feel safer,” he mused. “If Miss Kitty had some backup available in case something goes wrong. I think we need to pay a visit to Buffy.”

[CrazyTaraWitch]

yay update:)
glad to see Buffy will be entering the story
hope to see more soon

[Selena Taiki]

CrazyTaraWitch:

glad to see Buffy will be entering the story

It’s ironic you wrote this; for some reason I suffered major writers block with Buffy. I nearly cried when Dawn entered and made everything easy to write again.

Chapter Eleven

Tara kept her eyes firmly closed the entire flight, not opening them until the carpet landed on the battlements of the Dragon Slayer’s keep. With the cool stone under her feet and a thick wall between her and the edge, Tara didn’t have a problem with heights. The understated rhythm of war-drums alerted her to the Dragon Slayer’s presence. Opening her eyes, Tara saw Buffy leaning against the stone wall, waving off several men at arms who relaxed their alert poses’ sliding half drawn weapons back into there sheaths.

“Giles, Tara, this is a surprise. Its good to see you both again,” the Dragon Slayer smiled warmly and stepped forward to offer Tara a hand up. Tara took it gratefully, not really surprised when the slight looking woman pulled her effortless up to her feet. “So, I take it you have something for me to kill?”

“Not exactly, it’s a bit of a long story,” Giles said as he climbed to his own feet.

“Would you like to come in then? We were about to have dinner if you would care to join us.”

“We’d be delighted,” Giles accepted for them both, moving to follow Buffy as she led them down a curving stone stairway into the Keep. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen Joyce; she and Dawn are well I trust?”

“They’re fine. Although Dawn is driving me and Mom both a little nuts.” Buffy sighed. “She’s a nice kid, but she’s a little too enamored with the Tradition. I understand why you sent her to be fostered here; she definitely needed someone to keep an eye on her.”

The stair case had led them into the keep proper and Buffy guided them through the halls into a large open sitting room with a high ceiling.

“This is the back entrance to the dinning hall,” Buffy explained, pushing open another heavy oak door. “Serena,” she called to a servant who was busily setting places. “Giles and his apprentice, Tara, are joining us for dinner; could you send someone to tell Mom?”

The woman nodded. “Of course, Dame Summers.”

Tara raised her eyebrows at the title. “You’ve been knighted?” She asked the Dragon Slayer.

“Yeah,” Buffy shrugged. “By the Princess Rose actually, after I killed Glorificus, the Gold Dragon. My first kill. The only dragon I’ve killed actually; they are rather rare around here you know.” Tara nodded, unsurprised that 50 ft, and upwards, flying reptiles would be solitary hunters with large territories. “I only know of one other,” Buffy continued. “The Silver Dragon, Angelus, and he’s actually quite nice, so no need for killing there.”

“Giles?” a new voice called. Tara turned to see a slender older woman in fine clothes enter the sitting room behind them, accompanied by a dark haired girl with wide blue eyes. A very soft hum accompanied the girl, but it didn’t sound as if the tradition was actively gather around her; it was more as if she simply possessed some innate magical nature.

“Joyce.” Giles took Buffy’s mother’s hand and bowed over it. “How delightful to see you again. Miss Dawn.”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Hi Giles,” the blue eyes focused on Tara. “You’re his apprentice?”

“Y-yes,” Tara felt a blush rise in her cheeks at the stutter, resisting the urge to curtsey to these women. “Tara Maclay.”

“Cool,” Dawn nodded. She extended her right arm and Tara uncertainly met it in a warrior’s clasp, assuming that Dawn had probably picked up this habit from the Dragon Slayer. “Do you, like, cast spells and stuff?” Her eyes practically sparkled with her excitement, reminding Tara vaguely of someone.

“Um, well I h-haven’t done much y-yet, aside from my witch lessons. I only m-met the Fairy Queen a few days ago.”

“Really? What was she like? Giles never tells me anything interesting.”

Tara glanced at Giles for instruction, but he was involved in conversation with Joyce. Buffy shrugged her shoulders, but she looked interested in what Dawn had asked too. “Well…” Tara began.
………………………………………………………………………..

Tara shut the door to the guest room Buffy had pointed her toward with a sigh and flopped backward onto her bed. They had stayed up quite late, making good use of the sitting room’s fire place as parlor games and conversation carried them to the edge of exhaustion. Despite her intention to at least slip out of her gown and splash some water on her face, she was asleep a few moments later.

“Hey, Tara?” Willow asked, glancing sideways at the girl sitting next to her as her left hand nervously drew circles in the sand.

“Yeah?” Tara pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned forward, pillowing her head in her arms, her face turned sideways to face the other woman.

“Is something bothering you?” the circles Willow was tracing grew smaller, tighter. “You seem far away tonight.”

Tara freed one of her arms to reach out and capture Willows hand, lacing their sandy fingers together. “I’m worried,” she admitted. “I haven’t tried to influence the Tradition directly before, much less try to force it to do something. What if Giles needs me to do something and I mess up? What if I don’t have enough magic left to make it work? Since my tale has been broken I’m not collecting any more magic on my own and this trip was supposed to teach me how to drain it into myself but….” Tara shook her head wordlessly.

“Take some of mine.”

“What?” Tara looked at Willow in shock. “I couldn’t.”

“Yes you can; I’m offering,” Willow smiled teasingly.

There eyes met and Willow lifted a hand to Tara’s forehead, letting her fingers trail against skin as she pushed a blonde lock of hair out of the way.

“Okay,” Tara said softly.

“Okay?” Willow smiled.

Tara nodded.

“So,” Willow moved so that she was kneeling in front of Tara. “What do I do?”

“Um, well Giles explained the theory to me.” Tara moved to so she was kneeling too, and reached out both hands to Willow. “Ready?”

“Yep,” Willow grinned, but she also sounded slightly nervous.

“Are you sure?” Tara asked.

Willow gripped Tara’s hands tighter, stilling her words. “I’m sure,” she said. “I trust you.”

A warmth suffused Tara chest. She took a deep breath and let her next words fall in melodically even cadence. “Sorceress Willow, do you, freely and of your own accord, relinquish your power for the good of the kingdom?”

Willow nodded. “Yes. Uh, I mean I do, freely relinquish my power…. Oh, that feels weird.” The gentle melody of Willows magic changed; first harmonizing with Tara, then blending.

“Then, I, Fairy Godmother Tara, do freely and of my own accord accept this power and the responsibility it entails, for the good of the kingdom,” Tara voice drifted in their combined song, directing it.

“Oh, Tara look,” Willows voiced was hushed. “They are turning blue.”

“Huh?” Tara managed to ask, as she got caught up in the feeling of Willow’s magic becoming hers.

“My green sparks are mixing with your aura and slowly turning blue; it’s so pretty,” She said, describing what Tara was hearing.

Tara’s chest rose and fell rapidly, the feeling was so intimate. More intimate that she had expected.

Tara let go of Willows hands and the connection stopped. They sat quietly as their breathing slowed.

“Did you get enough?” Willow finally asked.

“Yeah,” Tara nodded. “That was…”

“Intense,” Willow finished for her.

“Are you okay? I didn’t take too much?” Tara questioned, wanting to be sure, even though Willow looked fine.

“No, you didn’t take all that much. I’m good. Better really.”

“Better than good?” Tara teased, recalling their earlier conversation.

“Definitely,” Willow smiled. “Do you feel better? About tomorrow I mean?”

Tara nodded. “Yeah, I mean I’m still nervous, but you help me not feel scared.”

Willow blushed. “Good, I’m glad I could help. Even if it is only a dream.”

Tara reached for her hand again. “You did help, Willow.” The smile that accompanied her next words was slightly bittersweet. “Even if it is only a dream.”

[ellisande]

Selena,

AWWWWW.
That was just super adorable.
I especially like your use of some familiar dialogue in a new context and I'm really looking forward to the next update.
-Anne

[Artemis]

Buffy the Dragon Slayer is a neat twist on her canon self, and very appropriate for the whole fairy tale theme. I thought Willow offering Tara her power was very sweet, but as Tara mused, bittersweet that there's this distance between them, that they connect only through dreams. I'm curious whether it'll affect Tara's position and training, especially should they end up meeting not just in a dream, but face to face on a regular basis.

[PancakesinBellies]

The dream theme is such an interesting twist. How will that factor into their relationship when they meet (again?) I wonder? So many questions. Looking forward to the next update!

[Selena Taiki]

Anne: Thanks. Although let me know if I get too fluffy, sometimes I can’t seem to help myself.

Chris: It might.

Pancakesinbellies: I’m afraid the answers to your questions are a few chapters away

Chapter Twelve

“It was only a dream,” Tara whispered to herself. “It was only a dream.” She pulled the heavy hood of the disguising cloak Buffy had lent her lower over her face, resolutely turning her attention to the unusually grave and quite townspeople gathering under the midmorning sun. Tara was not thinking about the carpet ride back to Foggybottom where Buffy had enthusiastically leaned over the edge of the carpet, commenting loudly on the landscape miles below them. Nor was Tara thinking about the steadily building hum of magic as the Tradition gathered itself to drive the Tale forward. And she certainly was not thinking about exactly why her own magic felt so plentiful. In fact, Tara decided, she was thinking about nothing at all; except maybe how hot the cloak was and how grimy she felt wearing yesterday’s clothes in which she had inadvertently slept. A bead of sweat was tortuously making its way down her back, just off center of her spine, making Tara squirm.

“It was only a dream,” Tara whispered fiercely, blushing at how forward her behavior had been, would have been, if it had actually been Willow, which it wasn’t. “It was only a dream!”

“Did you say something?” Giles asked softly, from under his own concealing cloak.

Tara felt the blood rush to her face. “N-n-no,” she lied, turning her attention back to the crowd to watch as Sir Armin, the local authority for Foggybottom, made his way to stand on a crate at the front of the crowed. Giles frowned at her, but also turned forward to meet Sir Armin’s eyes as the nervous looking man sought Giles’ gaze out in the crowd. The Fairy Godfather nodded once. Swallowing heavily, Sir Armin nodded back.

“Do you remember what you are supposed to do?” Giles asked the pair of young lovers who were standing in front of them. Amelia, who proved to be a short, rather shapely brunette with light brown eyes, nodded curtly, her jaw clenched. Trevor, looking equally tense, whispered softly back, “Yes Godfather.”

“Alright then, Trevor, you had best go to the mill. Remember not to return until after sundown.”

Giving Amelia a quick kiss on the cheek, Trevor walked quickly away without looking back.

“May I have you attention,” Sir Armin called from the podium. His throat worked fearfully as the crowd focused on him. “As you know, an Ogre has been menacing our village.” As he spoke, the Tradition began to build around him, causing his words to fall into a hypnotic rhythm. “In an effort to appease this vile beast we must present it with a sacrifice. We shall leave the most lovely and nubile of our maids tied to a post just outside the village. This single life shall save the lives of our entire village! All that are eligible must participate in the lottery; not even my own foster daughter,” he glanced at Amelia, who had been given into his foster care late the prior evening, under Giles’ and Tara’s direction. “Will be exempt.”

The was much murmuring and general rumbles of disquiet but Giles was humming softly, weaving his magic with the tradition, so no actual voice rose to protest the rather alarming solution to the Ogre problem. Some wept openly when Sir Armin drew forth a slip of parchment and mothers clutched their daughters closer. The mayor unfolded it with shaking hands; a hitched sob escaping as he saw the name written there.

“Over doing it a little is he?” Miss Kitty whispered.

“No. Shh,” Giles replied curtly out of the corner of his mouth. The Tradition was thick around them now. Under Sir Armin’s direction two burly, pitchfork toting, young men roughly grabbed Amelia’s arms and force marched her out of the square. “Alright, Miss Kitty, you had best get in to position.”

Licking her shoulder nonchalantly, Miss Kitty glanced up at him, and then stretched; just to be sure she wasn’t leaving because someone had told her to. Retracting her claws she trotting off, tail high, like a sinuous black and white banner.

Now there was nothing to do but wait.

And watch.

And be prepared to step in if things went horribly, horribly wrong.

Tara swallowed nervously. This had been her plan; the responsibility was on her shoulders.

“Relax,” Giles told her. “The Tradition is headed in the way we want, Buffy is in place, and we are here to back her up. It’s going to be fine.”

Tara swallowed. “There s-should be a rule against saying something like th-that,” She responded, managing a weak smile. “It’s almost like daring something to go w-wrong.”

“Something always goes wrong Tara, but we are prepared.”

“Are you nervous?” Tara asked.

“Always.” Giles patted her shoulder. “But you have to trust in your abilities to handle whatever situation might arise.” Giles reached up a hand to adjust his spectacles “I have great faith in both you and Buffy,” he added awkwardly.

Unbidden Willow’s face rose in Tara memory, her green eyes intense and uncommonly serious. ‘I trust you’ she had said. Tara curled her fingers into her palm, remembering how Willows hand’s had felt in hers.

“W-we should go keep watch,” she told Giles. “For when things go wrong.”