From: smccoy@dw3g.ess.harris.com (Scott McCoy)
Subject: CASTLE: Tz'u fights...(long)
Date: Sun, 6 Sep 1992 22:20:18 GMT
Reply-To: smccoy@dw3g.ess.harris.com (Scott McCoy)
Organization: Harris Corporation Information Systems Division
Keywords: castle, tzu

Tz'u awoke from his bed on the beam, high above the celebration hall.
It was in the heart of the night, during the small hours when all good
Men were asleep.  He needed to relieve himself.  Silently, the Cat
worked his way down from the beam and headed outside.

A short distance from the Castle, Tz'u found a likely spot, under a
bush.  One good thing about being a cat, he thought, is that people are
not shocked seeing an animal take a piss.  Sometimes that can be very
helpful!  When Tz'u had finished, the fastidious Cat scraped some dirt
and a leaf over his spot and turned to head back to the Castle.

As he padded along the forest path, he thought that he should really
get to know these people at the castle better.  Perhaps he should stay
a while, and swap stories.  It would be nice to stop for a time, he
thought, his head sagging as he began to get sleepy.

At the sound of a scream and the vicious crack of a whip, Tz'u stopped
and looked up.  While musing, he realized that he must have somehow 
taken a wrong turn, for he did not recognize this part of the forest.  
Putting being lost out of his mind, he sprinted towards the noise.

Tz'u poked his nose out from under a shubbery to see a man whipping a
small boy.  The man, who was not tall but built like one of the castle
walls, all craggy and massive and thick, was thrashing the boy with a
weighted sharkskin strap.

"Run away from me!", the man yelled, "I'll make you pay!"

The boy just lay there, whimpering.

Tz'u hesitated a minute.  If the boy was the man's son or apprentice,
then the Cat didn't really want to get involved.  It was not right to
beat the boy, but the man must realize that if he permanently hurt the
boy, the boy would be of no use.  It was a hard lesson for the boy to
learn, but no one ever said this world was a gentle one!  Tz'u decided
to give the man a minute more.

"I paid good money for you, slave, and you will obey me!," the man
frothed.

A slave!  Something in Tz'u snapped and he remembered when, as Perin,
he had been betrayed and sold into slavery.  The abominations he saw
and experienced before he escaped rose before his eyes, which went
cold.

"NNNNNOOOOOOO" Tz'u roared, and vaulted from his hiding place.

Time for Tz'u slowed.  His anger and rage were like a firestorm in his
heart and his small grey body seemed to feed on the heat.  With a sound
like a flash of lightning, more felt than heard, Tz'u transformed into
a ManLion.  Seven feet tall, 300 pounds, with a body of a warrior but
the face and mane and fangs of Man's darkest fears, of a beast that
would hunt and prey on man!

Tz'u landed three feet from the slaver.  The man was still spinning
around from the sound of the Cat's initial scream.  The man's eyes grew
wide, but he stood his ground.  He had seen magic before.  The boy's
eyes grew wide before he fainted, from fear and the pain.

"Leave the boy alone," Tz'u rumbled.

The slaver, with a smooth flip of his wrist, sent a spiral down the
strap.  "Why, are you going to stop me?", he said with a sneer.

"Leave the boy alone," Tz'u repeated, his eyes flashing with cold
fury.

"Ok, ok, magic-man," the man hedged, "I'll stop."  The slaver began
backing away.  But with a quick well-practiced snap, he brought the
whip around, directly towards the Cat's face.  It was a move that had
worked before, in bars or where ever scum like him congealed.

But Tz'u was no longer standing where the weighted end of the strap
sung throught the air.  He moved towards the slaver with a short step
in and then to the left.  Tz'u began hitting the man with fists and
claws and forehead and elbows faster than seemed possible.  The slaver,
an experienced fighter, tried to defend himself.  But every move he
made to block the strikes pummelling him only opened other areas for
Tz'u to beat.

For six seconds Tz'u hit the man.  In that time, he struck the slaver
perhaps twenty times.  Finally, the slaver dropped...like he had no
bones in his body...like the Cat had reached inside the slaver's head
and snuffed out the candle of his life...  As he fell, with the last
light of reason fading from his eyes, he looked into his attacker's
eyes.  He saw...nothing...a blackness, a coldness...it could only be
Death.  The slaver hit the ground, unmoving, so still it was as if he
had never even existed.

Tz'u grabbed the strap and wrapped it around his hands/paws.  With a
scream of rage and remembered pain that cut the forest, he snapped the
whip tight between his hands.  With a hum, the strap went taut.
Suddenly, the sharkskin broke, with a wet popping sound.  As the whip
fell apart, so did the Cat's rage.  He tossed the remains of the strap
onto the body of the slaver.  The man didn't even notice.

Tz'u shivered from the adrenalin, and looked at the boy, who was still
unconsious.  The Cat's vision began to waver, and he tried to wipe the
sweat from his eyes.  When he could see again, he was once again a
Persian cat.  He trotted over to the boy and began nuzzling his face
and neck.  Tz'u could feel a strong pulse and was reassured.

But now what, he wondered, I can't carry the boy back to the castle.

"Goddess!  Goddess, I need your help,"  Tz'u called gently.

A soft voice wafted down from the trees.  "I will take care of him,"
the Goddess called.

"Goddess, will you stay a moment, so we may talk?," Tz'u asked.

"No," the voice said, "not now.  You have done well."

And in a shimmer, the slaver and boy disappeared, and Tz'u found
himself back on the path towards the castle.

One of the guards at the gate stopped Tz'u as he trotted in.  

"M'lord," he said in a wavering voice (for he was nervous, and how do
you address a talking cat, anyway?), "are you all right?  We heard a
cry in the forest which was, well sir, a scream of great suffering.  We
did not want to leave our posts, so we have sent for the Captain of the
Guard."

Tz'u sat back on his haunches, and looked up at the guard.  "Rest
assured, I am fine, and the scream...well, I heard it too.  I do not
know what it was.  Tell the Captain he may want to send out patrols in
the morning."

"Thank you, sir and good night" said the guard, hoping he could
convince the Captain to follow the Cat's suggestion.  The guard did not
want to go out into that forest, especially when something which could
scream like that was there!

"Goodnight young man," Tz'u said with a regal little salute, and padded
back into the castle.

The Cat grabbed another warm rag from the pile near the fire (since his
bed was probably cold by now), and climbed up to his perch on the beam
in the celebration hall.  Goddess, he thought as he drifted back to
sleep, you have some explaining to do!

The remainder of the night passed without incident.  As the sky to the
east gradually brightened, a dark pair of eyes briefly reflected the
light from the branches of a tree near the edge of the forest.  But
when the sun shone on that branch, it was empty.
Newsgroups: alt.romance.chat