Author:LiangFeng
Beta-Reader: Kooritenshi
Disclaimers: SHAOLIN SOCCER! Great movie, go watch it! Download it in fact just GO WATCH IT! Then you might be able to get the dough kneading thing…
Pairings: We’re getting there! Hang on for just a little bit.
Feedback: I have to ask now?
Rating: PG-13
I missed Friends, Scrubs, Good Morning Miami, Will and Grace, and ER to get this to you guys! Please enjoy!
Might & Magic
Chapter 9: Tai Chi Bread
“Can you head over to the market after lunch?” Faith asked, her arm still over Dawn’s shoulders as they made their way to the kitchens.
“Sure.” Dawn shrugged. “Just gimme a list of what to buy. Oh, just don’t ask me to place any requests at the smith’s. The guy hates me.”
“Actually I just need you to pick up some stuff over there. You don’t have to ask for anything, just pick up some stuff, cool?”
“Well…” Dawn was hesitant. But before she could go further, she was interrupted when out of the blue an owl flew in and landed on her head.
Faith snickered as Dawn screwed her face up in annoyance.
“Don’t DO that!” Dawn hissed at the bird. But alas, the owl paid no attention to the girl as it hooted happily and danced upon her head. “Ow! Talons! Watch the talons!” She scolded the jovial animal, not wanting her head to end up in shreds.
The bird, a Silvaseti Dwarf Owl, was so incredibly small that it could of fit easily into Dawn’s hand. Its feather were a deep green and blue for it to easily camouflage in the dark nights of Silvaseti. The elves often used them in times of war as scouts because they were immune to most negative spells, and could also see past cloaking enchantments and abilities.
“Aw, c’mon! Don’t be like that.” Faith nudged Dawn. “He missed you so much!”
“Yeah well if he wasn’t such a nuisance all the time, I would have missed him too!” Dawn tried to glare at the owl but found that in her position she could not.
Further conversation was disrupted when their sharp elven hearing picked up a sound behind them. They turned around, the owl even swiveling his head a full 180 degrees, to find Tara just emerging from Willow’s room.
“Tara!” Dawn’s previous scowl softened into a smile.
“Hey Dawnie, Faith.” Tara grinned in return, before approaching. She started to giggle when she saw the owl on Dawn’s head, much to the younger elf’s dismay. “Feathers’ back to his old habits I see.”
Dawn sighed heavily. “I swear, he will NOT use the perch! He insists on my head!” She waved her arms in frustration. Faith and Tara laughed uproariously when they saw Feathers lift his wings and flutter them in a crude imitation of Dawn’s actions. “Stop it, you crazy bird!” She growled, which only added to her sisters’ amusement. “You know what? I can’t take this! I’m going to the market.” She said in exasperation as she walked off.
“What about lunch?” Faith called after her.
“I’ll take the leftovers when I get back!” Dawn answered without turning back. The owl was still on her head.
Tara shook her head, a smile on her face. It was good to be home again.
Faith noted the smile on Tara’s face out of the corner of her single eye. “So what’s up with the human?”
Tara switched her glance from Dawn to Faith with annoyance. “Her name’s Willow! I would appreciate it if you would stop calling her ‘the human.’ It’s rude.”
Faith scoffed. “Whatever you say.”
“Look I really don’t give a damn about the girl, ok? The Elders sent Angelus over to check up on her.”
“Angelus is here?” Tara was in disbelief. She knew that Faith had shrunk in their favor ever since it became clear that Angelus was superior. But this was an insult! They were practically mocking Faith and shoving it in her face. But how could this be? The Elders she knew were better than this…
“Yeah yeah, sure, Tare. But a little tip before you head over: bath.” Faith emphasized by sniffing at Tara’s hair. “You have serious BO probs.” Faith muttered before walking off.
The older elf blinked, a bit caught off guard as her brain scrambled for suitable retorts. “As if you don’t?” Tara retaliated pathetically, which was only acknowledged by a dismissing hand wave. She sagged her shoulders as she walked off and thought to herself sadly that she really needed to work on those quips.
“Salt, pepper, barley…sunflower seeds? What the-” Dawn paused to scratch her temple as she studied the grocery list she had picked up over at the kitchens from Giles, taking care to avoid eye contact with Angelus. Sure, the guy was hunky but not enough so she would be able to take the constant glaring of her sister.
‘Sunflower seeds…’ Dawn repeated to herself. What in the world were sunflower seeds for? But she chose not to ponder over the bizarre choice of foods. If Faith had a sudden craving for sunflower seeds, so be it. Resting on her head, the owl cocked his head at the parchment, he too confused by the messy scrawl of ink that was Faith’s handwriting.
The market was quite a ways away. So Dawn decided to take one of the familiars riding. Snowscar was immediately crossed out of her mind for fairly obvious reasons. She considered taking Shadowstorm, knowing that Faith wouldn’t mind that much but doubted if she could fully control the animal. Shadowstorm was just about as spontaneous, and mischievous as his elf. But it was soon clear that she had no other choice.
Dawn wondered to herself for the umpteenth time why she didn’t get chosen by a tiger, wolf, or panther or some other great beast. And why a puny owl had chosen her instead. Familiars chose their masters by their personality that often matched their own and it disheartened her to see that she matched a dwarf owl.
She walked around the house, searching the deep woodlands for the wolf but found it quite difficult. He wasn’t at his usual haunts, not at the meadow clearing, nor at the outcropping of rocks.
It took quite a few more minutes until she found Shadowstorm lazing about by the waterfalls with Snowscar. He was nudging the sleeping tiger with his nose, obviously trying to tease the cat into a game of chase.
In the branches or the trees above, Beren the falcon stood watch, his sharp eyes seeing for miles around.
“WHEEEEEEEEEE, it’s CHICKEN LEGS!!!” Feathers screamed ecstatically in Dawn’s mind. Dawn groaned at Feathers’ choice of nicknames for the mighty raptor.
Beren switched his gaze to the owl and Dawn could almost swear that the bird’s eyes went wide and his body pale. Feathers took off from Dawn’s head and dove straight for the tree where Beren was. With a great rush of wind, the falcon was fleeing for his life and Feathers was left to himself before he even reached the tree.
“Aaaaww…” Feathers moaned, hanging his head in defeat. He had been looking forward to a good day of playing pull-the-tail-feathers-off-the-falcon! Sometimes, it hurt him so much that his best friend would not just play with him!
Dawn rolled her eyes and started to make her way to the two beasts. Shadowstorm was now pulling at Snowscar’s tail, but still the tiger refused to acknowledge him. Bored from the lack of response from the white tiger, he bounded over to where Dawn was and started to nudge her hand, begging for a quick scratch.
Dawn instead gently swatted him on the head and scolded. “You really shouldn’t do that to her.” She said indicating Snowscar. “She might bite your head off one day.”
Dawn could imagine him saying, “Whatever, squirt.” in a Faith-mannered voice.
“Faith’s making me do the shopping, I need you to help, okay?” She nudged his chin.
And with that she horse-vaulted onto the wolf’s back and whistled for Feathers to come along. Guiding Shadowstorm into a trotting pace, fast enough to travel quickly but slow enough to weaved between the thickly laid out trees of the forest.
The Hunter’s village was not far off, only two or three miles and with Shadowstorm’s untiring pace, they reached there in close to no time. There were many Hunter establishments spread throughout the borders of Silvaseti, some small, some larger than others. This village was more like a town, not even a small city for if there were even a suspected large gathering of Hunters, the people of Silvarion would talk. This was Kalimdor, capital of the Hunter Nation.
The place was just as Dawn had remembered it from her last visit. It wasn’t a bustling fast-paced place like Silvarion, it was a quiet busy town of Demon Hunters. Hunter Halls were erected around the village to guard its inhabitants. Each Hall had a flag standing at its doorway, and each flag was different. They were all embroidered with the clan crest of each Hunter Clan the Hall stood for.
Faith belonged to no clan, being an orphan, but Angelus belonged to the Vampyr Clan, probably the clan with the worst reputation ever, depending on which perspective one took. They were ruthless and merciless, and were also known for supposedly drinking the blood of their enemies to gain their power.
Almost everyone in the village was blinded in some way, either one eye or both and those who weren’t, were children not yet of age to perform their ceremonial sacrifice.
She, Shadowstorm, and Feathers started heading down the market lane. It was a normal business day with the sounds of voices arguing over food prices, the smell of fried fish tinged with the scent of spices, and the usual hot humidity making her clothes cling to her skin.
Familiars of all forms walked the streets with their elven masters and mistresses. Some were big carrying with them a sense of power and authority, like the lions and bears. Others were small but one could tell from their eyes that they were just as, and if not more, calculating and quick-witted as the greater beasts, such as the ermine and fox.
She swiftly dismounted Shadowstorm and retrieved her leather bag from where she had rested it on his back. Beckoning her familiars to follow her, she made her way to the area of the market where spice merchants had set up their shops. It didn’t take too long to obtain her wanted salt and pepper, since there weren’t very many people in at this time of day with the sun high in the sky, beating down upon the earth. She was already starting to sweat, and was eager to complete her shopping before heading home.
At the next shop she went into, she managed to get the pecans and a bag of almonds (which she got at half-price with some bargaining.)
And then the daunting task; the sword smith. She could only hope that he had forgotten the incident where she had tipped over a weapon rack into the furnace. She shuddered at the memory.
Feathers, being her familiar, read her distress sign and flew down from Shadowstorm’s back to land on her shoulder and started to peck at her neck, as if asking what was wrong. But instead: “WHEEEEE! You’re so dead!” He cheered with his usual high-pitched tone.
“Shut up” Dawn grumbled back before walking towards the smith’s shop.
His shop was set off to the side of the market, built in a hastily constructed lean-to. It was open-aired so the smoke rising from the furnace would leak out into the open instead of clogging the lean-to. Two tables stood before the shop with weapons of all kinds displayed in all of their new-forged glory.
Swords, daggers, pole-arms…everything imaginable with their blades glinted brightly in the sunlight. Some were of plain steel, others of sky steel, the metal allow which was composed of ingredients only the elves knew how to make.
All were of traditional elven design with runes of power and protection inscribed in the hilts and blades. Elven blades, unlike human swords, were strong and could last for hundreds of years without need of sharpening.
Looking beyond the tables, she could see the dark figure of Melancus, the master sword smith. Not only was he skilled at sword smithing but also working with all kinds of metals, including gold and platinum. He was rumored to be the best jeweler in all of Silvaseti.
Melacus was currently hunched over his anvil, hammering away at his latest project. The strikes of the hammer were punctuated with the occasional shower of sparks. He was so concentrated on his work that he did not notice dawn until she spoke up.
“Um…excuse me?”
He didn’t seem particularly surprised of her appearance but she knew he was at least a bit startled because of the small pause between his normally rhythmic blows. He didn’t turn his attention to her immediately; instead he stopped to study the current form of his weapon before plunging it into the pan of water that always stood nearby. There was a loud hiss as the hot metal came in contact with the cold water and the shop was suddenly filled with steam.
Wiping his soot-blackened hands on his work apron, he turned to face Dawn.
He was tall, even for a Silvaseti, and stood towering over the young elf.
He was no Hunter, one could tell from the fact that both his eyes were intact and the way he wore his slightly long brown hair in a ponytail. Hunters always cut their hair short and Angelus was the only Hunter ever known to have brown hair. There was a noticeable sheen of sweat covering his muscular arms and bare chest from working with the fires on such a humid day. Dawn could probably guess that he was about five hundred years old, give or take a few decades.
He was also a person of few words, which was the first thing Dawn noticed as he just stood glaring at her, not saying a word.
His familiar, a large red-tailed hawk also fixated her eyes on Dawn from her perch. Not until now had she ever known how well elf and familiar resembled each other.
“I’m here to pick something up for my sister?”
Melancus casually held out his hand, clearly demanding a claim check.
“Oh.” Dawn reached into her pocket to pull out a slip of parchment and placed it in the smith’s hand. The sword smith barely took a glance at it before walking over to one of the tables and picking up a small leather pouch and handing it to Dawn.
“Thank you.” She managed a small smile before taking the bag and turning around to leave.
Behind her, Melancus stopped to watch her for a moment before turning back to his work.
Dawn, a bit curious as to what was the mysterious object Faith had been so insistent she pick up, couldn’t help herself but to lift the flap of the bag and tip the objects into her hands.
And to her surprise, a small gold band fell out and rested between her fingers. A circulatory pattern of willowy tree leaves was inlaid with platinum around the gold ring.
Dawn held up the ring between her forefinger and thumb to gaze more easily at the precious work of art. “Wow…” She breathed as the bright gold captured the rays of the sun and glittered luminously. A flash of remembrance appeared in her eyes and somewhere deep in her soul, a cry of mourning shattered the still calmness that had reigned over her for centuries.
“WOW! That’s pretty!” Feathers chirped. Even Shadowstorm was staring at the beautiful piece of jewelry.
“Wheeeee! I think I’ve seen that before!”
But before the owl familiar could say anymore, Dawn thrust the ring back into it’s holder and hid it between the folds of her robes.
“Aaaaaw…” Feathers sighed with disappointment.
“Shut up.” Dawn snapped through her teeth before walking off. The wolf and owl turned their heads to exchange a glance.
“What’s her problem?” Shadowstorm said to the dwarf owl.
“I dunno.” Feathers replied, shrugging his little shoulders.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Shadowstorm narrowed his eyes at the bird. “YOU’RE the one who shares a mental bond with her!”
The owl blinked. “So?”
The black wolf rolled his yellow eyes. “Some familiar you are!” He snorted at Feathers before running off to catch up with Dawn.
“Hey!” Feathers shouted as he flew after the elf and Faith’s familiar. “I’m a great familiar, I’ll have you know!”
Dawn in the meanwhile was looking around for the baker’s stand. The place had a tendency to move around since it was just a bread cart, not a permanent shop like all the others. And besides, she still needed to buy bread for the trip to Solace.
But the real reason she wanted to find the stand was because of that boy that worked there. A Qualinost elf named Ivan. Qualinost and Qualisetis, unlike Silvasetis, sometimes gave their children human names. It was often pacifists that did this, because they believed the first step towards lasting peace with the humans was to accept their ways. The Silvasetis disagreed, saying that it was one thing to accept the ways of humanity, and quite another to begin converting elves to humans.
Now Ivan wasn’t all that bad looking to say the least, and Dawn being the “average” elf girl went to seek him out. She’d been too shy to approach him before, but after years spent at the Mage Tower she was determined to talk to him at last.
It took a few minutes to find the bread stand, and the familiars following her were a bit puzzled, wondering what in the world was she searching for. But at last the shop came into view and Dawn stepped forward eagerly, ready to meet the handsome young Ivan.
However the boy was not there, instead in his place was a black haired girl with Qualinost tattoos. A Ranger.
Rangers were the brother order of the Hunters and were basically the same people, except that the Hunter Order were of the Silvaseti and the Rangers Qualinost. Both were fiercely loyal to their nations, but the Rangers turned from the demonic path long ago, making them much more accepted in the elven society than their Hunter brothers. Rangers believed in understanding the power of their immortal bodies and harnessing that to create a weapon all their own, while the Hunters focused on controlling demonic forces.
Now this Ranger had captured Dawn’s eye. Not for her thin lithe body, nor for the jagged scars that ran across her face, disfiguring what was once an undoubtedly beautiful appearance. It was the way she was kneading the bread dough.
Of course one would say, “What’s so artistic about kneading dough?”
But it was not a normal rolling pressing motion but in a much more artistic way that made Dawn stop to watch the demonstration.
One hand rose to eye level and pressed flat out in a knife, fell down again to part the flour, and smooth the mound of power into a crude well. Then came the big surprise. The girl then slammed her palm into the well, creating a perfect circle of flour. For a second, Dawn thought it was magic some elves used to make their cooking go a bit easier but even she could sense no trace of magical energy, other than the flow and ebb of the baking girl’s life force. Life force! That was it! The Ranger girl was using her life force to knead the bread!
By now the dough was fully in form and the Ranger was spinning it into a ball. Suddenly, she whirled it high, shooting it straight up into the air, descending only to have it spun up again. She kept doing this for quite some time before allowing the dough to slam into the table. But instead of squashing into a flat pancake onto the tabletop, like Dawn expected it to, it kept its spherical shape and continued spinning. It whirled about so fast that it kicked up a gust of wind into the girls face, pushing the long black bangs that fell over her eyes up so Dawn could clearly see the flash of soft brown eyes.
“’ey! Rage!” A head poked out of the window of the second story of a tall building next to the cart. It was an elf woman holding a round tin box. “Ten bread rolls!” A finger pointed to the box and the Ranger nodded.
The box was tossed to the table, but came off a bit too low and was about to crash into the ground when, as if she had been predicting it, the brown-eyed girl knelt and bumped it up onto the table with a casual flick of her wrist. Standing up again, she opened the lid to retrieve the copper coins spinning around and around from it’s decent from the window.
Dawn, incredibly impressed by the girl’s display of strength and control, walked to the stand to greet her. “Hey!”
The Qualinost looked up to find an elven girl in white robes smiling down at her. She quickly ducked her head down and went back to her work, all the while replying. “Hey.”
“So uh…do you know a boy who used to work here? This tall? Brown-hair? Red tats?” Dawn asked, eager to make small talk and even more eager to know where Ivan was.
“Ivan? Yeah, his shift isn’t until later. He’s my cousin, do you need me to take a message or something?”
“Cousin? Wow, that’s so cool! So do you always use Shifting Bodies, Transposing Shadows to knead dough?” Dawn asked.
She answered without looking up as she placed little lumps of dough onto a wooden board in rows of five, her hands working together with firm but delicate precision. “I find working with my hands a good way to meditate, besides I get practice.”
Dawn nodded in an “oh, I see” manner before extending her hand to the stranger. “Dawn Moonsinger.”
The girl looked up straight into Dawn’s eyes before grasping her hand and shaking it firmly. “Rageweaver.”
Good Elune! That wasn’t a Ranger name! That was a Hunter name! But clearly this elf was a Ranger. It was unmistakable by the way she dressed, just like a human. And her black hair with red tattoos, it was undeniable.
“Such a sad name for such a beautiful face.” Dawn whispered to herself.
A sort of sharp breath of air left Rage’s throat as she turned away to hide her scarred face from Dawn, and reverted to Elvish Common. “I’m not beautiful, don’t laugh at me.”
Dawn came out speechless. She hadn’t really meant for Rage to hear that, but now she was landed with a really uncomfortable Ranger. Well so much for making friends! She glanced around, trying to figure out which loaf of bread Faith wanted or Tara would like. Her eyes found a pile of rolls resting next to the wheat bread, freshly baked. “Wow, those look so good!” She said before stuffing one into her mouth. “Taste even better!” She said around it before being able to chew and swallow it. “It’s so soft…but tough too.”
Rage seemed a bit pleased, glad that her work paid off. “It’s the meditation. It expels my life force into the food, making it softer.”
“I can tell!” Dawn said before chewing on another.
Rage watched Dawn for a while studying the girl for a while before opening her mouth to say. “It’s two coppers per loaf. Four for two.”
Dawn nearly choked on the bread, before swallowing it hard. “It’s so expensive!”
“Mm.”
Dawn reached into her pocket to pull out two copper coins. She frowned but placed the coins on the counter. “Sorry, I only have two.” She seemed a bit embarrassed as Rage swept the coins into her palm and placed it in a metal box. “Could I pay you back later tonight?”
Rage considered it for a while. How did she know that this Dawn person wouldn’t just up and leave her short of two coppers? Her boss would have her head! But this girl appeared nice and seemed to know her cousin well enough. “No problem.” She said.
“Great!” Dawn exclaimed. “Thank you SO much! I’ll have the money here in a few hours.” She went to dash off to where Shadowstorm and Feathers waited but stopped herself and turned around to meet Rage again. Intense brown eyes met blue and suddenly Dawn felt guilty. It didn’t seem right to just leave Rage hanging without proof that she would be back.
Rage blinked in surprise when Dawn bent down and started to fumble with her boots. Even more astonished when Dawn slid them off and placed the boots right in front of her. “Here’s my boots, as insurance.”
“Dawn, I don’t need this.” She started to push them back but Dawn firmly held them in place on the table.
“Sure you do! You have no idea what I might do! I could run off and never pay you back. I might forget altogether and you’ll get in trouble with your boss. I might-I’m not helping, am I?”
Rage laughed and nodded. “Okay, okay. I’ll keep them. But really you didn’t have to-”
“It’s only right. Can’t leave a pretty girl like you hanging.”
Rage shook her head sadly. “Dawn, please-“
“Rage, it’s okay. I might not have the experience my sister does but…you’re very beautiful.”
The compliment caused Rage to blush with embarrassment. No one had ever called her beautiful before, not even pretty and here she was: getting hit on by a Silvaseti girl! If only mom could see her now…
“Rage…” She looked up but only found that Dawn was playing with her name, trying to find its ring or sound or something. “It doesn’t suit you. Terrible sound- who named you that anyways?”
“Um…”
“We need to get you a new one. Don’t worry; I’m good with this. I helped name my adopted sister. Hm…how about Rachel? Yeah, I think that sounds good too. Well then Rachel it is!”
Before Rage could say anything about her new name, out of the tent behind her where the ovens stood, a short fat Qualinost elf woman came storming out to meet the two elven “teenagers”.
“Oh Cenarius, be damned!” Rachel and Dawn winced at the woman’s biting profanity, each for different reasons. Rachel knew she was headed into trouble, being caught lounging about on the job and Dawn just to hear the Sun God’s name used in the same sentence relating to the Underworld. “I leave you for one second and you’re here talking to your friends! You’re so lazy! My Gods, why didn’t I listen to your father when he said you were useless?”
Dawn, spurred by anger that her new friend was being bullied around by her boss, stood up to defend Rachel. “You have some temper, lady! I was just here to buy some bread!” And trying to prove herself, she picked up a loaf of wheat bread and started to walk off. As she did, she managed to shoot Rachel a wink before leaping onto Shadowstorm’s back and heading down the road home.
“Did that girl pay for her bread?” The baker snapped.
Rachel looked down the road Dawn had taken off, watching as the girl, the wolf, and her familiar disappear between the trees. “Yeah.” She said nodding.
“Good.” She said, picking up the moneybox to check the inventory.
Uh oh. She thought to herself and prayed to Cenarius that she would overlook the missing six coppers. Six coppers huh. That’d take a miracle. This woman was as stingy as-
“RAGE!”
Oh Cenarius, take me now!
“What’s this trash?! Throw it away now!” Dawn’s boots were roughly shoved against her chest, banging against her tender areas.
The baker rushed back into the tent with a huff and snort that reminded Rachel of a horse. She waited for a while until she was sure her boss wouldn’t come back before giving the boots one last sad and regretful look before tossing them into the nearby trash bin.
TBC
Better stuff next round
Unfortunately, all my Barbies are out working. --"Kiss of the Dragon"
by mollyig » Thu Aug 22, 2002 2:57 am 
Great update, liked the concern Willow and Tara have for each other and the Faith/Dawn childishness. Made me laugh. 
My excuse is the homework. Argh, I'm working on a mandarin paper and a science paper all due on thursday. Wish me luck, kittens! But have no fear! I am working on the fanfic in my spare time during class in my crapped up notebook. It should be up by next week.
for you!
