[Original] The Adventures of Kuira Havenfire: Chapters I-II: Along the Hilltop & Sunvale

Chapter I: Along the Hilltop

The warm afternoon breeze rushed through silverdale vally and the wisps of clouds in the pleasantly blue sky hurried along thier way as they were swept off.

"Kuira, why dont you try that one" Said a long brown haired boy in a mud stained red tunic, pointing towards the end of a fallen tree a good distance away that had long since been blown over in the passing rage of some long forgotten storm. The Brown haired girl holding a crude makeshify bow glanced and nodded, the front of her plain grey dress rippling in the wind.

"alright," Kuira said simply, raising her makeshift bow, her fingers holding back the feathers of a knocked arrow.

She squinted in the bright afternoon sun, aimed, and fired. The arrow whistled through the air and burried its head into the side of the log with a mild thud. The boy who had pointed the log out to her stared at the arrow in somewhat disbelief. He turned to look at kuira and found a smug smile on her face.

"What?" She asked with a small grin and a tone that cleary spoke volumes about how well she had preformed, "Did you expect me to miss?"

"N-no not at all" the boy said, clearing his throat, "I just didnt expect you to do so well on your first try."

She shrugged, "It didnt seem really all that hard I suppose."

Kuira handed the bow off to the boy and stood back, but whatever nerve the boy had, had vanished under her presentation of perfection and quite naturally he refused to look her in the face after his arrow whizzed off like a mad bee and disappeared into the tops of the trees in the forest at the bottom of the hill. After that the two of them resigned from the activity and instead went down to the brook to relax.

The brook was nestled right at the end of the wide hilly scape that surrouned the small village of sunvale and the two of them often went to the brook when they needed a place to be amounst themselves and away from those were saw them as nothing but trouble makers at thier young age.

"You know," The brown haired boy said as the two of them sat near the edge of the brook, "with that kind of an arm you could be a mercenary when you get older, even though your a..." The brown haired boy faltered and let his words drop, not daring to continue.

"A what?" Kuira challenged hotly, her brown eyes ablaze, "a women?"

"Just forget it." He said in a despreate tone that indicated too well his desire to let the subject drop. They had been freinds long enough for him to know when he was about to light her temper aflame.

Kuira stared at him for a long moment and then sighed, relaxing, "Somday Rinagen," she said softly, staring into the sun sparkling water, "your going to learn that women were not all made to simply sit at home. That we can be just as brave and skilled as any man alive"

For a long time Rinagen didnt answer, and after a while it began to seem like he wouldnt answer at all, but then he spoke, and his voice was calm "I don't doubt you Kuira, Your capable of all sorts of things i don't think i could ever achieve, but even if i change my own mind, that wont change the way the rest of the world sees you"

"The rest of the world is just going to have to deal with it" She said stubbornly.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke and then finally they let the matter drop and they began to indulge themselves in the usual light hearted conversations they always had when they were alone. They talked until the sun hung low over the tops of the forest trees and then dusted themselves off and began heading back towards the village. Kuira said nothing of the strange feeling that had began to creep up on her as they departed and she casted a wary glance back over her shoulder. Nothing was there, however, as she turned away, she was all too aware of the sensation of a pair of eyes watching her every retreating step.
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Chapter II- Sunvale

They reached the village just as the sun has dissapeared behind the forest and the world was lingering in those brief last effects of grey twilight that blanket the world before settling into darkness.

The village of Sunvale was not a place of cobbled streets and well mannered people, but rather a roughly jumbled of thached hovels placed sparadiacly near one arounther to form a wide path down the center. Behind the main road were several smaller allyways with several smaller houses, but most of the life in the village surrouned that very main road in wich everything was built around.

"Rinagen!" A friendly voice called from nearby. The two of them turned to see a middle aged man with a dark black beard, beady eyes, and slightly longer than cropped black hair. He wore a dirty green tunic and tan woolen pants with brown mudcaked boots. When the two of them turned he waved a friendly hand and lifted himself off the wall and the walked towards them.

"I was begging to wonder about ya" He said in thick accent, "yeh always running about with the pretty lady." The man said ,incling his head towards Kuira.

"You cant expect us just to sit around all day" rinagen said with a luagh, "We'd all end up in the fields if that were the case."

"Speaking of feilds," the man said, rubbing his beared chin, "your mums been bickering about your absence lately."

"Oh no" Rinagen said, his face turning stern, pointing a finger at the man" We've been through this, you said you'd take half the work if i-" But the man didnt give Rinagen a chance to finish because he bursted out with a roar of a laugh.

"Calm down lad, I'm only joking. Yeh know i wouldnt utter a word to your mum." He said, and then his face turned serious, "but i do have to ask what yeh were doing out an about when its so close to gettin dark. Yeh know the village poilicy, and even my fancy words wont be able to spare yeh from the mayors lecture."

"thats such a pointless rule" Rinagen said sourly, "Mayor helgden knows there arnt any dangers within silverdale and there hasn't been any in over a hundred years."

"Thats not as long a time as you think lad, but thats besides the point. Your mother'll have my head if she finds you out blundering with some pretty lass of the village. Only bad things can come of that i tell yeah."

Ridagen's face flushed red and he quickly glanced over at Kuira. However Kuira had long since found something else other than the mens conversation to keep her occupied and she was currently busy watching a group of young men down the street having a heated and somewhat frantic argument. As the men neared them, the three of them caught a few words.

"I saw it Charles! As clearly as i see you now, im not a blind fool, i know a one of those things when i see one!" A sandy haired young man said furiously.

"I'm not saying your lying Ivan, im only saying it doesnt make any sense? Why would a thing like be anywhere near our village?"

"It doesnt matter why" The sandy haired boy said, straining his words to put emphasis into them, "the fact that i saw one is good enough reason to tell the mayor!"

"And just what exactly did you see lad?" The black beared man near rinagen said to the boy. THe group had wandered down and now stood nearly a few feet away.

"A Shade" The boy said firmly

"Or so he claims," Charles added

Ivan glared at Charles and then continues," Yes, a shade, a man whose likeness has been reduced to nothing by the spells of Adar"

"And what did this Shade look like?" The bearded man asked, curiously, his arms now folded and his face betraying his amusement of the situation.

"All i saw was its red eyes," Ivan said stiffly.

"Perhaps yeh saw a rat?" The man said with a slight mocking tone in his voice.

"It was a shade! I know what a saw!"

It occurred to Kuira just then, that the third young man, one with shoulder length black hair and a green tunic, had yet to utter even a single word. In fact, the more Kuira stared at him the more she came to realize something; She had never before even seen this man. In all her life of living in their small village, not once had her eyes glanced upon his figure and for some reason she found this deeply disturbing.

The man seemed to noticed her staring and shifted uncomfortably, but kept his eyes on the bearded man.

"Enough of your wise cracks, old man. I know that i saw" Ivan snapped.

"Lad, a shades nothin more than a fairy tale mothers made up to keep their cubs from wanderin after dark, its all a bunch of hogwash."

"Just because your a dull bricked headed fool who doesnt know whats real and whats not, does not mean that i have seen wrong. What i saw was very clear and im not going to stand here and try and convince a fool otherwise." He said acidly.

"I'd watch your tounge, Ivan." Rinagen said, narrowing his eyes at Ivan in hostile glare.

"Easy lad," The beared man said, putting a hand on Rinagen's shoulder. Then he looked at Ivan, "Even if yeh did see this shade of yers, how do you plan on going about proving it to the mayor? If i remember right, your not absent of his good ol watch list."

"There is no reason for him not to belive me" Ivan said stiffly," My father trusts me more than you know."

"Bah" The man said, waving his hand as if he were waving away a bothersome fly, "Go tell yer fairy tales to the ol man and see what he says."

Ivan, seeming quite offened by this, quickly walked away in a rather disdainfull manner, the other two following him silently.

"Spoiled prune" Rinagen spat under his breath.

"ah, dont waste your time on him," the man said,"He's a spoiled bafoon who thinks he's got a higher stand on the world because he's the mayors son. Men like that arn't easy to change, so there aint any point in waisting your time on em.

"Thats easy enough for you Brand, Your not the one he hates." Rinagen said sourly, still watching the three slipping up the street and into the darkness.

"Can we get on with this?" Kuira said irrabtbly, "Im sure you both hate each other very much, but i dont really prefer to stand around listening to you try and convince the town."

Rinagen flushed at her comment and then turned to brand, who nodded, already knowning, "To the door, i dont want yeh lingering around," and with that they headed off down the main dirt path and through the last bits of twilight.

They came to a stop near the edge of the town and turned down a small path and came to a single thached house with a single wooden door ajar and light pouring out it into the fading world beyond.

"You know, You really shouldn't let Ivan get to you so much, rinagen" Kuira said pointedly, "all it does is make you angry."

"I suppose...but he still should'nt-" but kuira didnt let him finish as she had raised her finger,

"Just let it go Rinagen, its not worth it. His focus right now is on whatever he belives he saw and i personally think that its a good thing. Leave him alone and let him belive whatever he wants" she said calmly, and then she leaned forward and pecked him a short kiss on the cheek, "Now off with you before Brand comes looking for you."

Rinagen was still flushing red when he turned to leave. She watched him go with silent contempt and then turned in to her home