The Renegade: Oblivion

Ch. 7: An Undying Ambition

Two days passed, and on the third night the two friends met together in the woods once again.

The moon was waning, nearing the half phase as Aspect strode into the clearing to find Snowshoe waiting for him.

He raised his hand in greeting. "Hey."

Snowshoe returned the gesture, albeit with a mischievous gleam in her sapphire eyes. "Hey."

He came and stood in front of her, shifting from foot to foot uneasily as he tried for roughly the 50th time to not get lost in her eyes. "...What do you want to do tonight?" He asked finally. "Do you feel like sparring again?"

Her eyes flashed. "Not this time, furball. There's something I wanted to show you." With that she turned and dashed into the woods.

"HEY! Wait up!" Aspect laughed, bolting after her.

She slowed and let him catch up, but didn't stop completely as she continued through the woods. "Remember how I told you that I'm not a real Samurai?"

Aspect nodded briskly. "Of course. How could I have forgotten?"

"The same way you seem to forget to breathe every time I see you!"

"True, true." He huffed as he scrambled over a boulder, hiding his red face. "But what's that got to do with it? And where are you taking me?"

"To a sandwich shop!"

He pricked his ears. "Really?"

"NO, you idiot! I just wanted to show you something I thought looked nice." She leaped over the last of the boulders and began the final stretch up the steep incline, where the trees started to space out. "Trust me, you won't believe how cool this is."

Aspect decided not to prod her for answers any further and followed her up the incline, where she was quickly disappearing out of view. A sudden rush of fear swept over him, but it was due to a feeling of possibly losing Snowshoe. What if she fell? What if a dangerous creature caught her?

He shook his head, trying to banish these dismal thoughts from him, and broke into a steady rhythm up the last of the hill.

"Come on, you slowpoke!" He could hear the Blacklai Fox call from somewhere up ahead. "I'm going to be old and gray by the time you get up here!"

Aspect gave one last burst of energy and made it to the top of the hill, with Snowshoe waiting for him. Her face was filled with triumph as she poked him.

"Took you long enough."

Aspect shrugged. "What did you want to show me?"

In response, Snowshoe motioned with her tail to beyond them. "Look."

The Black Warrior caught his breath. Laid out before them, below the rising hills was the vast expanse of the city. But it seemed so much more mesmerizing than it had been during the day. Now at night, the lights of the city gleamed and glimmered like a thousand fireflies, and it seemed to lay out for leagues across the vast valley. And above them the stars glittered dimly, with the nearing half moon approaching.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Snowshoe whispered.

Not as beautiful as you, Aspect dared to think as he stared at the lovely Blacklai Fox beside him. Her fur glimmered, almost as if an ethereal being had come down from heaven to stand beside him. He hoped dearly that the darkness of the night hid his face, which was now a deep red.

They stood there silently, staring out over the vast expanse of the city together, before Snowshoe finally broke the silence. "This wasn't all I had to show you."

"What is it?" Aspect asked after a moment, moving closer to her discreetly.

She turned to him, her eyes deep with a pain of resentment, though it was clear she was thinking of something that had nothing to do with the warrior standing beside her. "I think it's time I told you... about how I learned to fight."

She sat down, and Aspect followed suit, waiting patiently for her to speak once again.

And she did.

"...My father is Shogun Thawe, leader of the Blacklai province. I am the youngest of five, with my brothers being Himalaya, Shard, Brumal and Arctic. Himalaya is the heir to the leadership and the future successor. And my brothers are all skilled fighters.

But while my father was glad to have four healthy, strong warriors to be his sons, he has forever held resentment towards me since the day I was born. Maybe he's upset that my birth caused the death of my mother. Maybe he holds something against having a 'worthless' daughter. I don't really know."

She paused, her eyes growing misty, then continued.

"He forbade me from any matters my brothers delt in, fearing that I should become stronger than them and therefore become the downfall of their collective honor. I was never allowed to learn to protect myself, never allowed to learn the art of war. The only thing he thought I was useful for was to create alliances with other provinces. And that's the whole reason I'm here- to marry Isu and create an alliance between Blacklai and Jiang-lao.

But my brothers began to share with me in secret about what they had learned, and I practiced every moment I had to become as strong as them. Even if they couldn't be upfront about their loyalty to me, they were still by my side, all the same." A flicker of confidence crossed her face. "But one night, I was practicing by myself as usual. And then suddenly, I heard someone come up from behind me."

Aspect leaned in. "Who was it? Were you caught?"

"Hush." She flicked his nose gently. "It was Kojo, the advisor of Thawe. He said that he had seen me before, practicing the battle moves that I had learned from my brothers. I thought he was going to rat me out for sure. But he never did!"

She grinned. "He told me that he would keep my secret and even teach me things that my brothers hadn't learned yet. 'Course, mind you, that was when he was still fit," Snowshoe joked.

"Is that why you had him come here?" Aspect asked thoughtfully.

Snowshoe nodded. "He's felt more like an actual father than Thawe ever was. I owe him everything."

Aspect couldn't help but feel that her experiences were strangely similar to his own. They had both learned from their older siblings, though unlike him Snowshoe had another mentor to look up to. Aspect thought with a pang that all of her mentors were at least still alive. Aspect had nobody to rely on except himself.

Maybe Snowshoe could be another mentor to me.

He shook his head slowly at that. From his time spent with her, she was at least a couple years younger than him. And he had already gotten this far on his own. He had even managed to defeat a powerful Shogun single-handedly, though it was in a mock fight setting, not a real battle.

As they stared out over the landscape, Aspect admired her fighting spirit. Despite being soft and beautiful on the outside, inside there was an undying fire, a fierce ambition to outdo anyone before her and to defy her father's expectations. He thought that there was nobody else quite like her, both in terms of looks and prowess.

Perhaps her ambition was the one thing keeping her from loving Isu. He knew she held no ill will towards him, but he figured she felt that his excessive love was keeping them estranged. She wanted to be free, not bound by rules and expectations set for her by society.

He just hoped that somehow he could help her achieve both love and a place in the line of warriors, and even if she didn't feel the same way he did for her, he would love her regardless. It just needed to be shown in a different way, and he swore silently to himself to help her out on her own personal quest to greatness.