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Post by Sanare on Nov 1, 2020 9:27:02 GMT -8
"No rest for the wicked"
Sanare freed the girl and brought her outside.
“You should go outside the camp and wait for me. I won't be but a moment,” she said to the young woman. The girl looked at the men with anger and horror on her face and then looked at Sanare with a look of thankfulness and then she headed off towards the outside of the camp. Sanare sighed, knowing the girl would kill these men if she had the power to do so. What was worse is she believed Sanare was about to do that. She had no intentions of killing them, and the girl would be disappointed in her actions. Well she couldn’t help feeling that there was no need to kill these men.
Sanare had learned to use her ki to heal people, and these men were in need of healing. They were ebil for what they had done, but was she perfect? Was she able to cast a stone against them? Is she able to condemn them? Did she have authority simply because she was powerful?
Maybe...Maybe, she thought to herself.
She believed she had the right to because of her power, but she had no desire to entertain the notion at the moment. She walked over to the men, one by one and healed them back to full health. They all got up and backed away from her, staring at her in wonder.
“Turn away from your evil. None of you deserve mercy. Yet you are receiving it. Go and do likewise! Seek out those who do not deserve mercy and show them mercy, for you were shown mercy and know what it looks like.”
The girl didn't seem to have noticed what had happened. She was probably too shook up to pay much attention to what was going on behind her.
“Eager to return to her village? Lead the way and I'll walk with you,” she said. It took about half a day to get back to the village. Very little was said between the two girls. The young girl was obviously grateful, but she was just as obviously shook up by the whole experience and not knowing Sanare, was not keen to open up to her. Which was fine Sanare, thought she understood. She probably would not be too keen to talk to other people either.
When they got back to the village, the entire town was out to greet them. No doubt the lookouts saw them coming and alerted everybody.
The chief and his wife ran up to their daughter and hugged her crying, and asking after her. Sanare pulled back not wanting to be entangled in this private moment. Although she wasn't really sure if this was a private moment since everyone seemed to be out of their homes and a crowd started to form. They seemed very open with their reunion; this is clearly a community that relied on each other and to remove a one person greatly devastated the community.
so maybe there really wasn't privacy in the sense that she understood it. It was kind of sweet. In a way she longed for a life like that where everything was kind of just out in the open - Just your friends and you. She wondered for a second if Avis knew this about her and decided to send her here so that she would fall in love with the place and try to move out here, but it didn't really make sense to her she just missed the thought wasn't trying to give her a quiet loving community he's trying to push it because some sort of warrior.
She wasn't wasn't sure if she was thrilled with that idea either. Just as they were going into the center square of the village and food and drink were being brought out in tables and the celebration looked like it might be about to start. Suddenly horns were sounded, alerting everybody to something approaching. Everyone quickly went in and drew weapons ready to fight.
Sanare stood by and a man came running up to the chief. Sanare happened to be standing nearby and heard the conversation.
"Sir those bandits! They're back! It's all five of them they're coming in."
"Oh God!" said the chief. "To think they have come back so soon. Will we have no peace?"
"There is something different about them this time though" "what is that." They don't seem to have any weapons drawn this time sir. They just seem to be slowly cautiously walking towards the village."
"No doubt some sort of deceptive, terrific! No matter, we will be ready for that; they're not taking anybody out of the town this time."
His wife turned to him and said, "You were right to double the watchman."
"Yes it would seem that way." He turned to Sanare and said, "I'm sorry to involve you again stranger, but if you wouldn't mind please help protect my daughter."
Sanare nodded. She was trying to hold back her anger at the stupidity of these men. How could they squander the gift she had given them? How could they honestly try to do anything right now? It was insane and for a moment her anger flushed to the surface. She wondered, and not for the first time, if she was about to make her first kill.
WC: 899
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Post by Sanare on Nov 1, 2020 10:14:14 GMT -8
"Compassion"
Sanare waited at the front of the camp with a couple of warriors standing behind her. She tried to assure them that they weren't needed, but they wouldn't let her handle it on her own. She explained to them that she dropped them with a single punch, but none of them seem to believe her. She felt confident she could protect them if need be so she tried not to let them be a distraction for her.
She could not understand the logic behind them who would attack right after the beating they just had. Especially because she had treated their wounds and given them a second chance. How could they be so foolish? They had to know that she was still here and still a threat to them. What could they be thinking?
As they reached the outer edge of the camp one of the guardsmen shouted out, “Halt, well we will attack you! Best you turn away, you bandits, you are not going to take anybody else from our town.”
All five of them looked at each other and then to Sanare’s utter surprise, bowed face down to the ground. Everybody in the town was shocked and stared at them in disbelief, not really sure what kind of truck this could be. They all looked to the village elder to see what he wanted to do.
He walked forward and stood next to Sanare, obviously embolden and secured being next to her and asked, “What are you doing?''
The leader rose up and walked forward until one of the guards stepped in front of him and stopped him. The bandit then said, “Sir we have done a great injustice to you. This woman could have killed us, she defeated every single one of us with a single blow and while we were writhing around on the floor, completely at her mercy, she showed us compassion, healing us even though we had done a great wicked thing against you. Because she has healed us, we have come hoping to repent and repay our wickedness. We will accept whatever punishment you desire to give to us.”
The chief looked angered and he said to them, “You took my daughter and you did unspeakable things to her and -” but the man cut him off and said, “Sir we did nothing to her.”
There was a long pause between the two. The bandit finally said, “Sir we took your daughter as ransom, but we didn't touch her in any way. We didn't mistreat her in any way other than of course the ordeal itself. We're not those kinds of men. See we were rejected; we were all military but we were rejected, kicked out, cast aside in exile. So we came here to the desert as it seemed the only place open to us. We were hungry and we didn't know what else to do. We didn't dare try to seek asylum into this village because we didn't think anybody would want us and didn’t want to expose ourselves to the dangers of it. So the only thing we could think to do was to take your daughter and ransom her off for food. That was our entire plan. I won't try to pretend that we're not evil for what we did, or it was justified. No, we were ready to kill to get what we wanted. We were going to kill her,” he said pointing towards Sanare. “Every single one of us was put down by her with a single punch, but then she did that unthinkable. She healed us. I don't know how she did it but she did it like magic or something and then she told us to repent and to show mercy to others. She was right, we were wrong. We are ready to acknowledge that and we'll do whatever you say.”
The elder looked at them and said, “You all deserve death for what you have done.”
The man said, “If that is your wish, we will comply.”
The Chief looked like he was ready to issue the command and the guardsmen surrounding them definitely looked like they were ready to carry out the command. Before they could speak Sanare said, “Please don't kill these men.”
The chief looked at her with a hint of disgust and said, “Why not? These men are evil and deserve to die.”
She looked at him and replied, “Yes, but they are willing to repent. They are willing to change their ways. They're willing to make recompense for what they have done, let them. Let them live, their lives matter as much as yours. Even though you haven't done wrong to them, surely you've done some wrong in your life. Surely there's something you can look back on in your life where you wrong someone. Should you be put to death for that? If we all put each other to death the crimes we commit how many of us would still be alive? No, let him live. Let them all live. Let them serve, let them work, you need guards to protect your city. These men are soldiers, they can do the job.”
One of the guards said, “You don't think we'd seriously give them weapons and go to sleep on their watch do you?”
Sanare looked at him and said, “They already have weapons, search them, they have weapons on them. They haven't drawn them. as for trusting them in your sleep, well that of course is going to come with time. To the extent that you can trust them, let them serve you. Let them repay their evil with good. Wouldn’t it be better to turn an enemy into a friend? To turn somebody who was completely against you, to somebody who will die for you? That seems better to me. Why not give that a try and maybe bandits won’t be able to come through here again because these men are here. They just need a home, give them one.”
The man nodded at her as if to say thanks for advocating on his behalf. This was the second time she had shown him mercy. Everyone stood there a moment and said nothing.
Finally the chief said, “Fine. I don't trust him to be watchmen just yet, but we have fields to attend and they want food - they can tend to fields. Does anyone object?”
Everyone looked like they wanted to say something but nobody did.
The chief said to the bandit leader, “You will work as hard as any man. You will have to earn our trust. Until you do, you will sleep outside the camp, we can provide you tents. You will come to use during the day, and will not enter the town without permission.”
The bandit nodded and said, “We accept these terms.”
“In time we might grant you residency within the walls of our town, but I won't make the decision alone. You will have to convince everyone; if one person speaks out against you, I won't let you in.
The men bowed and the leader said, “We are agreeable to that. Can we begin working now?”
The chief turned to a man who nodded and went about trying to assign a task to the bandits. Meanwhile the chief looked at Sanare and said, “You are a strange woman, showing kindness to people like them.”
“Would that everyone would be kind to one another; humans are our worst enemy and part of the problem is revenge is a heavy-handed dish. I'm not saying killing is never the right answer, some deserve to die and by doing so leads to the betterment of all people. These men are just misguided, something about them just wouldn't let me kill them. I just felt like it was the right thing to do that's all.”
The chief replied, “I will be very interested in what happens to you. I'm sure we will hear your name and of course we would call on you if ever again we need help from you?
Sanare replied, “Would that you would never need my help again, but I would agree to help if I can. I’m not a hero or anything like that, i’m just me.”
The chief looked at her and said, “Continue being nothing but you. You have done well. We will do as best we can but we don't make any commitments as to what will happen to these bandits. A Lot of it will depend on them.”
She replied, “That seems fine. I ask only you give them a fair chance and use your best judgement.”
WC: 1,447/2,346
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Post by Sanare on Nov 1, 2020 10:20:10 GMT -8
"The Guardian Staff"
Sanare was about to leave the village when the chief said, "Stop we haven't given you a proper reward for bringing back my daughter." Sanare said, "Oh I honestly didn't even think there was a reward in it." The chief looked astonished and said, "You came all this way to save my daughter without the hope of promise of a reward."
Sanare kicked dirt and looked down at the ground slightly embarrassed at this question and said, "I am, er, um, yes I guess I did. If you want you can pay me, or whatever, you had in mind I won't say no, but you don't have to."
The chief stared at her for a long moment and said, You truly are an amazing young woman. I hope that I hear much of your future deeds. Anyway, we don't have much money and we don't really actually have anything for you per se; we do have a very special item but it's not here. There's an item called The Guardian Staff - it is a very powerful item. This is a great staff, it has been hidden not far from here. We will show you the location and leave it up to you whether you seek to try to attain it or not. I will warn you though it is not an easy thing to obtain and only one pure of heart may enter into the sanctuary and take hold of it, but I believe that you could do it.
"I'm, um well, I - sure okay. I guess that sounds fine. What do I have to do in order to obtain it?" she asked. The chief said, "You will have to go to the location we designate for you. There will be a church there there will be one standing guard - he will test you."
She looked at him and said, "Okay I guess I wasn't really planning on being out here much longer but it seems the staff is really important to your people and it would seem rude to not accept it." The chief smiled at her and said, "You will appreciate the staff once you have it I can guarantee it."
She had to make preparations for the journey as it was about two days away. She really needed to look into getting some sort of mechanism for travel because walking around all this way was starting to only consume her time, but also was starting to get dreadfully boring. though if she were honest with herself she wasn't really sure why she was agreeing to take some staff; nor was she sure what she was going to do with it. She wasn't even sure she needed it, but the chief seemed to really wanted her to have it and it did seem rude to not take it. Besides she was poor enough to not really refuse things, although she wasn't sure a staff could help though, truth be told. Maybe selling it could pay her rent for the next year and that might be worth something.
She followed a map that they had given her to the location. When she arrived it was in the middle of the desert still with some palm trees, and a little bit of water nearby indicating that this was a little oasis in the middle of nowhere with one exception. There's a building; not just any building it was a church. At least it definitely looked like a church. She had nothing against churches but what was a church doing out in the middle of nowhere? Who came here? Something seemed very off. As she approach the bottom of the steps the door swung open and a man stood there glaring at her, but not with anger in his eyes. He looked like he was evaluating her to see who this person was and what he was going to do about her.
"Hello, sir," she said. He stared at her for a long moment and finally took one step closer to her. Sanare instinctively took a step back.
"What are you afraid of young woman," he asked in a cold voice. He took another step towards her she took another step back. She did not like where this was going, and she began to prepare herself for a fight.
Who are you, she asked without fear and her voice. He looked both amused and perplexed at the question.
"Surely, you know who I am," the man said. I am the guardian of the staff - all who seek it must first go through me.
Sanare sighed, disappointed that the chief had sent her to a place where it seemed another fight would have to take place. But her life be full of fighting all her days now because she had an unusually high power level. If so she would gladly trade it away to live a normal life with Travis. The man two steps forward but she stood her ground this time. She didn't think he would let her just run away until she felt the fight was coming rather she wanted it to or not.
I was told to come here for the staff but I would have to undergo a trial. I was prepared for some sort of testing, but I have no desire to fight. Is there some other test you can give me.
The man narrowed his eyes as he took another step forward. Then he said, those who are afraid to fight are not worthy of the staff. Before she could respond, he rushed forward and threw a punch directly at her face. But she was serious when she said she did not want to fight and so she simply parried the attack and side stepped in and backed away.
"I will not fight you," she said. "It is not out of fear; I'm not afraid to fight you if I have to, but I do not desire to hurt you."
"Bold words coming from a tiny female who won't hit back," he said as he rushed towards her again. This time he aimed a kick at the side of her leg. She threw herself backwards and to the side trying to stay off of his center line hoping to keep him off balance. She thought about throwing a punch but she was committed to not attacking him unless it was necessary; until she was pushed into not being able to dodge. It seemed better to as long as she could avoid his attack and then if she couldn't avoid it to block his attack and then if that failed to go on the offensive herself.
Another round of attacks came and she side-stepped - bopping and weaving her way out of them. Another round of attacks followed by another round of dodging.
Suddenly the man stopped attacking and stood there staring at her. "Are you seriously not going to try to fight?" he asked.
"Not unless I absolutely have to," she said. "I know how to fight, I'm unafraid to fight, but I'm unwilling to fight a battle that doesn't have to happen. There is no reason for us to fight, there's no reason why we can't just walk away from this."
The man stood there for a while longer before saying, "What would you fight for?
She replied, "To protect myself from an attack that I couldn't avoid. To protect others if they are in danger."
He nodded and then smiled. "Very well, I find you worthy of the staff. Follow me."
She was weary but had the feeling this man was not trying to trick her. So she followed him. Inside he led her to a red staff. It was absolutely beautiful. Simple in designs but it had some sort of runes etched all around it.
"This is a guardian staff. It is a very rare item. As its name implies, it is meant to defend, not just yourself but others. Take hold of it and use it with great care."
"Thank you," she said with a bow. "My name is Samar what is yours.
"Vic," the man said. "I have been guarding this staff for 15 years and I've turned away many who have sought it. Many people want the staff for power or to enhance their combat capabilities. You don't seem to want combat or power but defense - the very heart of the staff itself. I will warn you this staff is alive; it is not an inanimate object and it will resonate with you. If it takes a liking to you, your powers will grow. Treat it as an extension of yourself, or like you would treat a close friend
She thought about that for a moment. Her life was really starting to turn upside down. She had grown up in a world of normalcy, her magic didn't exist, people couldn't shoot energy out of their hands, and staffs weren't living things. She was starting to wonder how deep this rabbit hole was going to go.
She placed her hand on the staff to pick it up. She immediately felt a rush of power like she had never felt before. This sensation of peace and power combined was almost overwhelming and she had to let go of the staff.
"Ah the power is a bit of a shock," Vic said. "That is something you will have to get used to I'm afraid. It is a bit overwhelming at times. Try again."
She nodded and placed her hand on the south again, this time prepared for what was about to happen. It was almost overwhelming but it was like it elevated her to a new height of awareness of peace and serenity. It almost felt like it was increasing her empathy for people that she wanted to care more for people and she wasn't sure if this was something unique to the staff or just a trait of her own that the staff was drawing out to its full potential.
There is a sheath for the staff nearby she picked it up and placed the staff inside of it and secured the staff to her back period even without making direct contact with him she still felt the overwhelming presence of the staff. It was a great comfort to her and she was glad she came all this way to get it. She wasn't sure about retrieving it up until now, but she was fully glad she came out of her way to acquire it. Now she longed for home.
She turned to Vick and said, "Thank you for this gift. I will treat it with the kind of reverence you desire for it. I've been away from home for two weeks now and I am ready to return." With that she turned away from him and walked out the door heading home.
WC: 1,813/4,159
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Post by Sanare on Nov 1, 2020 10:20:22 GMT -8
"Tempo"
Back at the tempo cafe San septic cup of coffee. After her adventures and the wilderness she greatly enjoyed her cup. After the small hardship shed and dirt she almost fell down worthy to drink it and she almost laughed at the absurdity of the idea.
Master Avis sat down across from her his own cup of coffee in his hand. He looks slightly amused and slightly hopeful at the young girl who sat in front of him. It took a sip and then said, well you look none the worse for where after all you've been through.
Thank you , she said. I would have never thought any of that possible just a month ago. I feel like I'm living in completely different life in a different world and it all happened in such a short time . I can feel a power deep inside me trying to get out, as if all the power all the things I've done already are just the very very tip of the iceberg like I have so much more I can go.
Yes, said Master Avis. There is a lot more for you to learn. You have the opportunity to go and make a great difference in the world. I expected the chief to reward you but I did not expect him to give you the guardian staff, that was a very pleasant surprise you have the potential to become the greatest protectorate this world has ever seen.
She shook her head slowly and then said, I can't even fathom how that can be. I'm just some orphan girl in a city way bigger than her. I enjoy the small comforts of being a marginally for person in this world. and now you're telling me I have the potential to protect it from all evil?
or to bring about that evil which you would want to protect it from. Sam one of the things that you're going to have to come to grips with as you continue to grow in power is eventually at some point you're going to reach a power it was going to go beyond anything you can possibly imagine period And in that moment who you are that person could be lost forever remember when the time comes and you expand your power to a height that is unimaginable you will have to struggle to hold on to the person you are. Remember, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
She thought about that for a long moment. She couldn't comprehend what he was saying, she could understand getting more powerful but not to that kind of level. She was very strong and she could imagine that she was nowhere near her peak, particularly if she kept training period but to reach a level so much higher than when she was now but she could lose the essence of who she was as a person seemed unfathomable, incomprehensible. Who could have such power? What did people use that kind of power for? What would she use that kind of power for?
WC: 509/4,668
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