 
                              LIRA’S HOME
 
Lira’s Home
 
A Fallon’s Resurrection Story
 
By Ice Phoenix
 
Chapter 2
 
 
 
            Darren wheeled around, his posture clearly ready for
attack, until he saw a sharp sword aimed straight for his throat.  Lira
was crouched slightly, her right leg back, her body ready for the first
– and most likely last – lunge of the fight.  Darren quickly rearranged
his posture, not wishing to become dead in the next few moments.
 
            Orin, who had known of Lira’s presence, turned more
sedately.  He noted the skilled way in which she handled herself.  It
wasn’t just the ambush she’d prepared, which was masterful, but her
entire body radiated power and talent.  He bowed to her in respect, to
which she did absolutely nothing.
 
            “My name,” he began softly, not moving any more than
necessary, “is Orin Tobias.  I once lived in Navanar, though now I do
not have a home.  This is my apprentice, Darren Greelix.  I am a hunter
as well as a guide.”
 
            “Why were you hunting me?” Lira asked, her voice clearly
demonstrating her distrust of these men.
 
            “Well, not hunting, really, though we were tracking you.  I
was asked to find you by Sioran, the master psionic.  He visited
Navanar two weeks ago, and found you missing.  He was concerned for
your whereabouts and well-being, and asked if I would search for you.”
 
            “They see me in Navanar regularly,” she said, her sword
still poised for action, though it was no longer pointed directly at
either of them.
 
            “Yes, and he was told this.  Still, Sioran, like all
psionics, has his own way of doing things.  He told me to ask after
your cup.  I do not know what that means.”
 
            Lira relaxed.  Unless someone had been listening in on
their last conversation, only someone sent by Sioran himself would know
about that.  He had told her that anyone he sent would ask about her
favorite cup, the one that had revealed her magic to her.
 
            Sheathing her blade, she relaxed her posture.  Darren was
clearly relieved that he was no longer being threatened.  Orin nodded
in gratitude.  Lira looked at the two of them.  Orin’s hair was now
silver, and it was impossible to tell what color it had once been.  His
face was weatherworn and creased from years of exposure to wind and
sun.  Darren, on the other hand, had a long mane of black hair, his
green eyes flashing with intelligence and curiosity.  He was a good
four inches taller than Lira, but just as slight as she was.
 
            “Obviously, you know who I am.  These are my woods. 
Tracking me here was dangerous... had you gotten closer to me before I
found out you were there, I would have killed you without giving you
time to explain yourself.”
 
            “I am sorry about that.  Unfortunately, it was the only way
to find you.  Might I ask if you could provide us with shelter for the
night?  It looks like it might rain again, and we have a long way to
go.”
 
            She considered telling them to go back to Navanar, but they
were right.  It was a three hour walk from where they were standing,
and the rain appeared to be only half that time away.  Even checking
her traps, it would only take an hour to return to her home.  Her
upbringing and manners forced her to allow them shelter.
 
            “Very well.  I must check my traps.  If there isn’t enough
there, I hope you brought food with you, or you’re going to be very
hungry.”  She walked past them with confidence.  As she passed that
certain spot in the path, she said, “C’mon, Kit.”
 
            The two men were stunned to see a small fox leap out from
under a bush onto the path.  The fox took up the lead about ten yards
ahead of Lira, and led them along the path.  The two men stared at each
other briefly before they followed after the other two.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            The people said very little to each other on their trip
through the forest.  Kit, of course, said nothing, though her ears
continued to swivel, as if she was listening to everything that was
going on around her.
 
            They had no luck at all with Lira’s traps until they
reached the last one, and this one would be something of a problem. 
Lira’s traps were designed to catch small prey: rabbits, mostly, the
occasional squirrel, and on rare occasions, something more tasty.
 
            Now was one of those occasions, but this time dinner was
nearly as dangerous as it would be good to eat.  Somehow, a wild boar
had gotten snared in her trap.  The animal was clearly angry and ready
for a fight.  It had tried to chew through the snare, but could not
reach it well enough.  It had gouged up its own leg trying to get at
the rope with its tusks, and Lira was sure this only added to its anger.
 
            Kit quickly backed away from an animal twice her own size. 
Neither of the men were entirely sure what to do, either.  Orin thought
to draw his own sword, or have Darren use his bow, but neither of those
things proved necessary.
 
            Lira pulled her sword free, and chanted.  Aiming her sword
at the boar, a blast of light lunged from the tip of her blade to a
spot right between the animal’s eyes.  As the two men looked on in
astonishment, the boar fell over, dead.
 
            As Lira began to work the snare loose from the boar, Orin
finally caught his voice.  “Sioran didn’t tell us you were a magician.”
 
            Lira snorted without looking up at them.  “He must not like
you very much.”
 
            Orin chuckled.  “How did you learn to do that?”  It was
clear he meant the magic, and not snaring the pig.
 
            Lira shrugged.  “One morning, I just realized that I could
use magic.  It has to do with the cup you mentioned earlier.  Anyway,
once I learned I could use magic, I started playing with it.  Since
I’ve always been a fighter, my magic skills tend to be mostly fighting
related.”
 
            As Lira was about to pick up the boar, Darren was going to
help her.  Orin stopped him with a hand.  Lira grabbed the animal’s
hooves, two in each hand, and hefted.  The boar arced through the air,
landing squarely on Lira’s shoulders.  She shrugged a few times to
settle the animal into place, and then moved out, Kit once again
leading.
 
            “The nice thing about killing them this way,” Lira said,
“is that I don’t get blood all over my shirt.”
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            The group arrived back at Lira’s cave just as the first
distant roll of thunder was heard.  Lira turned and looked at the
clouds.  She nodded, and then walked into the cave, dropping the dead
boar about halfway in.  Kit trotted over to a soft spot and lay down,
her tail covering not just her nose, but in fact most of her head. 
Lira smiled at the little animal as she placed a couple of pieces of
wood on the smoldering embers of the fire.  She blew on the fire
carefully, and soon it was back to life.  That she had let it get so
dangerously low was a bad thing; Lira *could* start a fire from
scratch, and had once even managed to use her magic to do it, but the
damage that had caused was something she didn’t want to revisit.
 
            Seeing that the fire would soon be going well enough to add
larger pieces of wood, she stepped away from it.  She bent down to
scratch Kit’s ears, but the animal only whined in acknowledgment, since
it was asleep.
 
            Finally, Lira turned to her two guests.  “Might as well
make yourselves as comfortable as you can.  Once that rain hits, you’re
probably not going to be leaving here for a day.  You don’t want to be
traveling these mountains in the rain.”
 
            Orin settled himself onto the ground, sitting against the
cave wall but near the fire.  Darren looked at the old man, and then
looked at Lira.  She had settled onto her bed, and was quite
comfortable.
 
            “Are you not going to offer your elders a more comfortable
seat than your own?” he asked incredulously.
 
            “No,” she answered bluntly.  “This is my home, and I didn’t
invite you.  Tomorrow, when this rain stops, you will be on your way,
and will merely have to walk.  I will have to do real work.  You’re a
traveler, so you should be used to sitting on the ground.”
 
            “Darren, you’re being most impolite.  She’s right; we have
no right to request anything more than shelter.”
 
            “But Master Orin...”
 
            “Will you never listen?  Tomorrow, we will head back to
Navanar to get food, and we can stay in a hotel and be warm and
bathed.  Young Lira will still be out here, making her living off the
land.  By all rights, we have not earned the privilege of a soft bed
out here.”
 
            “Yes, Master.”
 
            “I still don’t understand exactly why you are out here,”
Lira said.  “Surely Sioran’s curiosity isn’t enough to make someone
wander around the forest looking for me.”
 
            “You must understand that Sioran is... well, some call him
eccentric, others say crazy, but really he is just of such knowledge
that most of us cannot understand his reasons.  The last time he came
to the village, he was looking for you specifically.”
 
            “Why?” Lira asked with some concern.  If a psionic were
looking for her, that was certainly something she should be worried
over, regardless of his intent.
 
            “I don’t know, exactly.  Sioran has taken an interest in
your progress, and in your well-being.  He did not reveal to me the
reason for his attention, but he was rather adamant about me finding
you and making sure that you were all right, out here alone.”
 
            “I’m fine,” she said stiffly.
 
            “So I see.  Your magic is quite impressive.  I didn’t catch
you in the forest until I passed right under you which is, of course, a
little too late.”
 
            “How did you spot me at all?”
 
            “I have excellent hearing.  You were both breathing deeply,
and you were also obstructing the wind in the tree.  Both of these
things can be heard, if you can listen for them.”
 
            “Hmph,” Lira grumbled.
 
            “Please do not be offended.  I have been hunting for over
fifty years.  I have lived as you are doing, only I hunted my food
instead of trapping it.  I have learned many things over the course of
my life about catching dinner.”
 
            “I suppose.  Speaking of dinner, I guess I’d better get to
work skinning ours.”  Lira passed on the other side of the fire from
Orin, to the boar.  As she dragged the animal close to the fire, the
light from the blaze caught a glint off her right cheek, just below her
eye.  The flash caused Orin to stare more closely.
 
            “Where did you get that mark?” he asked, his breath short.
 
            “What mark?” she asked, for she wasn’t aware of it.
 
            Orin pointed.  “On your cheek, you have a mark.  It looks
like three crescents.”
 
            Lira let go of the boar, and walked over to her shelf,
where she had a small mirror.  Bringing it closer to the fire, she
examined her face.  Just below and outside her right eye, a set of
three deep-blue crescents nestled together.  The largest was about the
width of her thumb.  She had seen a similar image, but could not quite
remember where.  She also didn’t know where this had come from.
 
            As she turned her head, the fire glinted off this mark on
her face, and the dark blue color flashed to bright sky blue for a mere
moment.  For some reason, this jogged her memory, and she realized the
only thing that could have put the mark there.
 
            “It must have been the unicorn,” she whispered to herself. 
Darren turned back from watching the storm, and Orin leaned forward.
 
            “You’ve never seen a unicorn,” Darren said disdainfully,
turning back from her.
 
            “Where did you encounter such a creature?” Orin asked with
greater interest.
 
            Lira got up to put the mirror back.  “In the forest.  It
had gotten tangled in some vines and couldn’t get loose.  I had to cut
the vines away from its back leg.  When I was done, it rubbed my cheek
with its horn.  I guess it put that mark there.”  Lira was a little
nonplussed at that; why would the animal mark her for helping it?
 
            “A unicorn allowed you to use metal around it?”
 
            “It didn’t have much choice, if it wanted to get free.  I
explained myself to the animal first.  I don’t know about other people,
but I think they’re a lot smarter than we give them credit for.”
 
            “Indeed.  I have not seen a unicorn up close, only from a
distance.”
 
            “I would rather have seen him from a distance,” Lira
admitted.  “He was huge.”
 
            Orin took this in as Lira began working on the boar. 
Darren studiously ignored them both for the moment, instead watching
the rain fall in sheets.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            Lira was taking another shower.  With her guests present,
she’d ducked around some bushes, away from the cave entrance.  Her
clothes had gotten mildly wet, but now they were in a waterproof bag
that she had created.  She let the rain water run off her body, and it
felt good.  This rain was gentler than the sea storm that had blown
through, and warmer, as well.  This was a thoroughly pleasant shower.
 
            Lira allowed her mind to drift over events.  It both
worried and excited her that Sioran was interested in her.  It was
exciting because he was a psionic, and the psionics rarely took an
interest in anyone.  It was worrying because if he *did* have an
interest in her, it probably meant he wanted something from her, and
she wasn’t prepared to give anything to a man she barely knew.
 
            Lira’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the impression
that she was being watched.  She grabbed the dagger she had brought out
with her – Lira went nowhere without protection of some kind – and
wheeled to face...
 
            Nothing.  There was no one there, at least that she could
see.  She crouched, her eyes and ears searching the surroundings.  She
looked in all directions, including up, but still, there was nothing
out of the ordinary.  Lira decided that she had showered long enough,
and collected her things.
 
            There was a small alcove just inside the mouth of the cave
which would allow her to dry off and dress without being ogled by
Darren.  When she got to the cave, however, she heard something going
on inside.  Looking into the dim light, she saw that Darren was trying
to wrestle something from Kit.  The young man shoved the fox, and Kit
stumbled backward, tripping.
 
            “Next time, you dumb animal, just give it to me when –
OW!”  Darren’s hand went up to the back of his head, and came away
bloody from the rock that had nailed him squarely.  He wheeled to see
Lira, still nude, standing in the entrance to the cave.  He was far too
angry to appreciate her beauty.
 
            “You touch that animal like that again,” Lira said, her
voice dripping with hatred, “and the next thing that hits you in the
back of the head will have a blade attached.”  Lira strode into the
cave, carrying her bag.  She ignored her nudity as she walked over to
Kit, picking up the poor animal, which was shaking like a leaf.  She
stroked Kit gently, deliberately ignoring Darren.
 
            “Hey, look, she’s an animal, I’m a person.  I have
priority...”
 
            Lira set Kit down gently on her own bed.  Her hand reached
for her sword.  Before Darren knew what was happening, Lira whirled on
him.  She smacked him upside the head with the flat of her sword,
sending him spinning to the ground.  Darren was about to get up when he
felt the very sharp point of Lira’s blade pressing against his throat. 
Even without her sword pressing against his Adam’s apple, he would have
found it difficult to swallow.  With it there, he found swallowing
totally impossible.
 
            “Maybe you didn’t hear me,” Lira said, her eyes burning
with fury.  “This is Kit’s home.  You are an unwanted guest.  Treat her
with that level of disrespect again, and I will feed your corpse to her
for lunch.  Assuming she would eat anything as rancid as you are.” 
Lira withdrew her sword, and was satisfied to see a small trickle of
blood flowing from Darren’s neck.
 
            Returning to the bed, Lira set her sword down.  She petted
Kit lovingly, until the animal calmed down, and then she reached for
her clothing.  She got dressed in front of the two men without any
outward emotional display.  Inwardly, she was proud of her body, and
knew the effect it had on men, and even boys, but that was not
something she had to concern herself with in the presence of these
two.  Orin was clearly too old for her, and if Darren tried anything,
she would cut off his dick and feed it to the fox.  That idea appealed
to her so much, she actually grinned.
 
            When she was finally dressed, she turned to Orin, a look of
displeasure on her face.  “You should have better control of your
apprentice.”
 
            “I apologize for his behavior.  He doesn’t listen very
well.”
 
            “He doesn’t listen at all,” Lira spat.
 
            “The enthusiasm of youth,” Orin explained dismissively.
 
            “Yeah, well, his enthusiasm is going to keep him from
growing out of his youth.”
 
            “I apologize.  Unlike you, he’s not had to struggle alone. 
It gives him a somewhat more idealistic view of the world.”
 
            Lira said nothing.  She settled back onto the bed, and
pulled Kit into her lap.  The animal whined slightly, and then calmed,
finally settling from the unpleasant events.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            The rain subsided during the night, and the people in the
cave woke to a quiet, sultry morning.  Lira picked some fruits from
nearby plants for their breakfast, and they sat quietly, eating their
meal.
 
            After breakfast, Orin sent Darren to Navanar, to fetch
supplies.  Lira eyed him as he did so, thinking this was merely to get
Darren out of her hair.  She was correct.
 
            “Darren has been with me for just under a year.  If you had
met him then... well, chances are he would not have lived long enough
to become my apprentice.”
 
            Lira smiled at him, but said nothing.  Kit sat in her lap,
eyeing Orin across the fire.
 
            “I know you are still curious about why Sioran would send
someone looking for you.  First, though, could you tell me about the
cup?”
 
            Lira gently moved Kit off her lap, and stood up.  She
walked over to her shelf, and retrieved the heavy clay vessel.  It was
colored a deep midnight blue, and it was very precious to her.  She
held it out to Orin, so that he could see it.
 
            “One of the craftsmen in the village made this for me when
I was young.  It was a present, and at the time, it was the only cup I
would drink out of.  Then, one day, through my own stupidity, I knocked
it off the table, and it broke into several pieces.  Of course, as
heavy as it is, it didn’t shatter.  Well, I picked it up, crying, and
reassembled the pieces in my hands, holding them tightly.  That was the
first time I felt my magic.  It repaired the cup completely.”  She set
the object back on her shelf.
 
            “Anyway, now I only drink out of that cup for special
occasions, but that’s the story of the cup.  Ever since, I’ve learned
to use magic to do this and that, mainly to help me with my fighting,
not that I’ve had to do much of that out here.”
 
            “But you will, when you grow older.  The Aspelians...”
 
            “The Aspelians are not my concern unless they want to take
my forest, which they don’t.  I know all about the rebellion, and I
know what the cost of it is.  The cost is too high.”
 
            Orin squirmed uncomfortably in his place on the ground. 
“Sioran would not like to hear you talking like that.  He had hoped
that you would one day be a strong part of the rebellion.”
 
            “Yeah, well, I don’t take orders from him, either.  I’ve
seen too many of my friends killed or maimed because they went up
against the Aspelians.  So long as they don’t bother me, I have no
intention of bothering them.”
 
            Orin sat in silence for several minutes.  Kit, who had
wandered off while Lira had talked about her cup, finally came back
into the cave.  A couple of low whimpers, and she then came back to
Lira, settling down in the girl’s lap.
 
            Orin asked, “How do you come to own such an animal?”
 
            “I don’t own her,” Lira said.  “It would, in fact, be more
accurate to say she owns me.  She wandered in during the sea storm, and
decided to stay.  She owes me nothing, but as you have seen, I will
take care of her as best I can.”
 
            “You have a fox for a companion, and the mark of the
unicorn on your cheek.  You seem to have a true affinity for animals.”
 
            “Animals are all you have out here in the forest.  I find
them far easier to deal with than the people who come into this area. 
Even the cougar that lives on the other side of the river is fairly
simple to understand, and he has no ulterior motive behind his
actions.  He wants to eat.  If you are dumb enough to become his meal,
that’s not his fault.  I understand these creatures better than I do
people.”
 
            “You trust Kit,” Orin said.  It wasn’t a question.
 
            “Yes.  I trust her to do what she does.  I trust her to let
me know if someone who shouldn’t be around is, in fact, nearby.  That’s
how I noticed you so early.  You may be able to avoid my ears, but you
aren’t getting past hers.”
 
            “So true,” Orin replied with a chuckle.
 
            The pair talked for some time, but their conversation was
interrupted when Kit bolted out of Lira’s lap, and stood, yapping at
the entrance to the cave.  Darren appeared in the opening shortly
thereafter, and looked as if he’d run for a very great distance.
 
            “You’d both... better come see,” he gasped.
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
            The trio moved quickly through the forest, hampered only by
Darren’s fatigue.  He had explained to them that there was something
badly wrong in the village, but he would go no further than that, other
than to insist that it was something Lira needed to see and be aware of.
 
            Lira moved deftly along the path.  Had any robbers or
marauders gotten in her way at this point, their lives would have been
over in moments.  Kit ran along, right by her side.  As Orin watched
from his position at the back of the group, he noticed how the fox
stuck by her caretaker, and he had the sneaking suspicion that anyone
that tried to mess with Lira would end up with several nasty bites
before all was said and done.
 
            As they reached the edge of the forest, the group slowed. 
Kit hid behind Lira, for she had never left the forest before.  Lira
looked out toward the coast, and it was quite clear that something very
bad had happened in Navanar.
 
            “C’mon, Kit,” Lira said quietly, and the two of them took
off at a dead run.  Neither Darren nor Orin could hope to keep up with
them.  Lira moved over the ground like a ghost, her feet barely
touching.  She was using her magic to increase her speed.  She couldn’t
do this for very long, but Navanar wasn’t far.  Kit was barely keeping
up, and about halfway there, Lira slowed down to give the poor animal a
break.
 
            When they walked into Navanar, it was clear that a battle
had been fought here.  Some stores were on fire.  Other businesses, as
well as the blacksmith’s shop, were wrecked.  The only inn in Navanar
had been brought completely to the ground.
 
            That was not the worst of it.  Bodies were lying
everywhere.  Lira kept her head up, not wanting to look too closely at
the carnage.  Kit whimpered, huddling close to Lira’s leg.  The pair
moved up the street, and soon they saw something worse than the dead
bodies.  They were suddenly confronted with the wounded, bleeding
bodies of the survivors.  Lira’s stomach churned as she saw gaping
wounds.  When she saw one man run through with a pike, she had to turn
away.
 
            A woman who was not as badly injured as the rest saw Lira. 
The woman was one of the shopkeepers, and recognized the girl.  She
limped over to her.
 
            “Lira, you shouldn’t have come back here!” the woman hissed.
 
            “Dana, what *happened*?” Lira cried.
 
            “It was the Aspelian army.  They came, and they took what
they wanted.  Anyone who got in their way was killed.”
 
            Lira heard her other companions coming up behind her. 
“What did they want?” she asked.
 
            The woman’s face was pained.  “I think you’d better go see
your home, child.”
 
            A cold, iron fist gripped Lira’s heart.  She embraced the
woman momentarily, and then she took off for her home, Kit at her feet.
 
            The run did not take her long, but when she saw what was
left of the orphanage where she had been raised, she couldn’t catch her
breath.  The house was destroyed, though it still stood.  Walls were
blown out, and an entire quarter of the building was missing
altogether.  She walked timidly into the rubble, uncertain of what she
hoped – or feared – to find.
 
            After several minutes of aimless wandering, Lira heard a
groan.  She quickly moved down a hallway, searching.  When she heard
another groan, she turned into one of the rooms.
 
            There, lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, lay
her home mother.  The woman’s face was pasty in a way that said she
would not be in this world much longer.
 
            “Kepara!” Lira cried, dropping to her knees next to the
woman.  She cradled the lady’s head in her lap.
 
            “Lira... get away from here... The Aspelians... took...
your brothers... and sisters.”
 
            A sudden, intense rage washed over Lira.  She’d heard
stories of what the Aspelian soldiers would do to children.  Her hands
shook as she held her home mother, watching as the last vestiges of her
life slipped away.  Lira was crying as she allowed the woman’s head to
slip from her lap, gently to rest on the floor.
 
            Lira rose.  This was a place of death, and it was not
somewhere she should be.  She walked resolutely out of the room.  There
was nothing she could do for Kepara, except to find the bastards who
had done this.
 
            Lira met up with Orin and Darren in what remained of the
main hall of her home.  She was just about to speak when she saw
Darren’s eyes go wide.  She spun to see a huge Aspelian soldier in the
company of a small Fallon man.
 
            “That’s her,” The Fallon said.
 
            As the Aspelian advanced, Lira pulled her sword.  The
soldier actually began to laugh at the puny female confronting him. 
His laugh did not last very long.  With a mighty shout, which was
actually a spell, Lira leapt at him, her body twisting at the last
moment.  Her sword was a blur as it flashed in a circle.  The
Aspelian’s head was neatly severed from his body, and he was falling to
the ground before Lira’s feet ever touched down.
 
            The Fallon man looked at his fallen companion, and then at
Lira.  He thought to run, but she drew her dagger.
 
            “If you move, I’ll put this right through your skull,” she
said, her voice full of hatred and venom.  The man did not move.  “Down
on your knees,” she said.
 
            “What do you plan to do?” Orin asked quietly, from some
distance away.
 
            “First, I’m going to find out what this maggot knows,” she
said, her voice low and deadly.  “And then I’m going to teach the
Aspelians why they should have left me alone.”
 
 
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
===<<<+>>>===
 
 
 
