From: smccoy@dw3g.ess.harris.com (Cheshire Cat)
Subject: CASTLE: Tz'u falls down...
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 00:14:12 GMT
Organization: Harris Corporation Information Systems Division
Keywords: castle, tzu


Tz'u awoke to blackness.  He wondered where he was.  He tried to
remember, but it all seemed so hazy...he drifted back into the warmth
of the darkness.

Tz'u awoke to the blackness.  Had he been awake before?  He thought he
had, but wasn't sure.  It didn't seem important, somehow.

...more time passed...

Gradually, Tz'u noticed that the darkness wasn't quite so dark.  It
seemed to be lightening, getting brighter.  He could make out colors
and shapes:  that was tree.  There was a brook.  Over there was a
meadow.

As he looked around the place, he glanced down.  He seemed to be
floating just off the ground -- at least he couldn't feel the grass.
Strange, he thought, he couldn't see his body, either.  It didn't
bother him, he noticed.

"Hello,"  a beautiful contralto voice called.

Tz'u looked towards the source (while the back of his mind noticed that
he hadn't turned his head -- did he have a head?).

"You must be a bit disoriented.  That was quite a fall you took," the
voice said with soft irony.  The sound seemed to be coming from the
branches of a tree by the brook.

*Fall*, Tz'u thought.  *I fell ?*  (He noticed that he hadn't spoken,
but he knew the voice could hear him).

"Yes.  You've blocked the memory.  I will return it to you," said the
voice, which he could now see was coming from a lovely woman lounging
in the branches of the tree.

...and Tz'u remembered:

	The Fledgling ceremony, held on a ledge halfway up a steep
	cliff, was perfect.  G'han'kri and her child had successfully
	completed the ritual that all dragon pups must undergo, and the
	party had settled down to the loud re-telling of old war
	stories.

	The Ghostrider Legion had accepted their old Commander back
	with open arms, once they had gotten over the shock of seeing
	him as a Cat.  Tz'u endured some good-natured ribbing from his
	former comrades, but he accepted it all with the haughty
	dignity only a Persian could muster.  His comrades, however,
	saw through the facade and teased him even more.

	"I CHALLENGE G'HAN'KRI!"  A voice thundered from the bluff
	about party, cutting through the happy group and silencing all
	conversation.

	"H'kri'ang!" someone said.  Tz'u recognized G'han'kri's old
	suitor, whom she had spurned long ago.  Tz'u moved easily into
	shadows at the base of the cliff.

	M'kridra raised himself as tall as his old bones would allow
	and roared back, "H'kri'ang!  You are not a member of the
	Legion any longer and cannot issue a challenge.  It is the
	Dragon's Law.  You are darkening a Fledgling:  this offense is
	not easily forgiven!"

	"I care not for your *law*, old one!  G'han'kri had declared me
	rogue!  Just because she didn't love me!  Well, I am outside
	the *law*!  And I will have my revenge on that...that...snake!"

	Tz'u was still quietly making his way up the cliff.  He hoped
	he could reach H'kri'ang before he did something rash.
	G'han'kri could not win a fight now;  she was still too weak
	from the Ritual.

	H'kri'ang snarled and howled the battle cry of the Legion, and
	leapt from the cliff, headed straight towards G'han'kri and the
	new dragon.  Tz'u could see she was trying to pull the pup out
	of the way, but the babe did not understand what was going on
	and resisted.  M'kridra started towards them, but Tz'u know
	the old sergeant-major would not make it in time.  There was
	only one choice, and Tz'u made it, without hesitation.  He
	leapt also...

	...and intercepted H'kri'ang perfectly, like a perigrine to its
	prey.  Tz'u hit the rogue alongside his thick lizard skull, and
	slipped over on top, between the dragon's tattered ears.
	H'kri'ang looked up and started to laugh.

	"A cat!  Hoo, hoo!  I shall shake you off and eat you, little
	puss!"

	Tz'u raised his right front leg and willed his Commander's ring
	into visibility.  With a flatness and finality in his voice
	that chilled his old friends, Tz'u declared:  "As a Commander
	of the Dragons, for gross violations of the Law of the Dragon
	Clan, I condemn you, H'kri'ang!"  As he spoke, Tz'u plunged his
	paw and the ring deep into H'kri'ang's eye!

	The rogue screamed and began to thrash.  Their downward flight
	continued, and Tz'u held on with all the strength he could
	find.  The dragon's head started to whip around, and Tz'u began
	to get dizzy.  He could see the surroundings in flashes:
	M'kridra pulling the mother and child out of the way, the look
	of horror on his comrade's faces, the look of uncomprehending
	terror on the child.

	But his attack was successful, for the Dragon and his
	executioner missed the Fledgling ledge and plunging even
	further down the cliffs.  With a hollow rattle, the rogue died,
	falling faster toward the rocks below.  Tz'u leapt off,
	thinking he was *damned* if he was going to die in the same
	place as that bastard!

	The rocks rushed up towards the Cat, and he wondered if this
	was his time.  He glanced over this shoulder and saw the
	Legion, to the dragon, plummeting towards him, to try and catch
	him before he hit the rocks.  The sight made his throat tight
	and a tear formed, which quickly escaped upward in the strong
	rush of air past his muzzle.  He knew they wouldn't make it in
	time.  As he glanced back down, he saw he only had a few
	seconds more.

	In final tribute to his friends, he rolled over on his back,
	raised his blood-covered right leg, and saluted the Ghostrider
	Legion.

	Then, a terrible pain reached out and the blackness engulfed
	him.

Tz'u wept, there in the meadow of the Goddess.  He noticed that no
tears fell, since he didn't have a body.  But it didn't matter.  He
wept, nonetheless.

The Goddess quietly began to speak.

"Tz'u, I brought you back.  You sacrificed yourself, because you could
save another through action.  You didn't execute H'kri'ang because he
was evil.  Because he deserved it.  Or even because it was your
responsibility, as their Commander.  You didn't hesitate.  You knew
what was right and you did it.  You showed the ultimate compassion:
you gave your life so someone else could live."

"You have earned my respect again, little one.  You have showed me that
frivolous playboy you became after leaving the Legion and who I turned
into a Cat, was not who you really are.  In your heart, your essence,
you are that which I named you:  Tz'u.  Compassion."

Tz'u's spirit still floated before the Goddess.  The knowledge of what
his name meant illuminated that dark, still place in his soul.  The
center he had shut off when the killing had gone on too long.  The
center he had tried to drown with wine, women, and song.  There was
pain in that center, but he knew there were friends who would help
him.  He was a part of something;  no longer alone.  He wept more, but
the tears would heal him, this time.

"I will send you back, my old and faithful servant.  Back to the
Castle.  You know they care for you, and will help you.  Their help
does not make you weaker; it will make you whole again."

Tz'u smiled.  *Thank you*  silently echoed across the meadow.  As his
focus faded from the meadow, Tz'u heard the Goddess call:

"Oh, Tz'u.  I think you'll like your new body."

Then he heard a noise, which could only be...no!  Not the Goddess!  He
could have sworn she...she...giggled!

He wondered...