Cardilli no Senshuken (Champion of Cardilli) Prophecy--the First Revelation LH-chan! 2000 Chapter #1 A moment with friends, amidst trees that--above me--tower. Little do I realize, this to be peace’s final hour. The crimson disk of the star known as Cardilli slid slowly beneath the mountain-tops of the wild planet Sataria. Catching off-guard the windswept white clouds and setting them ablaze in a thousand shades of red and gold; so ended another day in the Valley of the Flaming Sky. In the dense forest far below the fiery clouds, oblivious to the lateness of the hour or the majesty surrounding them, three creatures raced haphazardly through the trees. Fire from the afterburners of their hovercycles--high powered motorcycles capable of low altitude flight--lit the ground below them ever brighter as the light from Cardilli dimmed. The leader, a young vixen who flew the leading hovercycle as though it was a part of her, was called Jessica Shardiana, arguably one of the most hated creatures on all of Sataria. She was sandy furred, with a nearly white mask of fur covering her face. A face which was partially covered by messy blonde headfur, which looked as though it had been cut with a dull kitchen knife (which, truthfully, it had been), and dark grey eyes which could only be described as piercing. She seemed harmless enough. But, being possibly the only fox on the planet, and certainly the only fox in the Valley, to the native Satarian creatures living there--mostly mice and other rodents--she was feared instinctively. To her credit, Jessica had never done harm to another sentient creature, but this did not help her position with the Satarians, who did not believe this fact. Nor did the fact that she was an orphan, cast out of the Valley’s orphanage because she frightened prospective adopters, and lived in the forest. She did whatever odd things she could to earn money, as well as entering (and normally winning) all the Hovercycle races held in the valley. She wore ragged patchwork clothes, held together with hovercycle repair tape. All of this managed to earn her a reputation as a delinquent. But worst of all, Jessica had been born with a very rare condition, instead of the normal one, she had two tails. Which served only to make her more appear more strange and, due to the Satarian superstition that foxes with multiple tails possessed evil magic, more feared. None of this mattered to her at the moment though, she was racing--racing against two young mice who had no fear of her whatsoever. The first, a male mouse just a bit younger than herself, named Kix Hoshime, whose coloring was the exact opposite of her own: dark brown fur and eyes; his headfur nearly black, cropped off just below his ears. And behind him flew his younger sister, Rusty Hoshime, who looked nearly identical to her brother in coloring, but her headfur was worn bound back in short pigtails. She also looked rather irritated, as she had fallen far behind Kix and Jessica. She slapped the panel which covered her hovercycle’s engine angrily, listening to Kix and Jessica’s voices ringing out, farther and farther away from her. "You’ll never beat me, Kix Hoshime!" shouted Jessica. "This race hasn’t been won yet, Jessica Shardiana!" shouted Kix, the engines of his hovercycle protesting loudly as he cut further into Jessica’s lead. So absorbed were the two young racers with who would defeat the other, they did not notice the smoke pouring from the exhaust of Rusty’s hovercycle just behind them, nor the loud clunking noise the engine made. In fact, they paid no attention to anything behind them, until a metallic squeal so piercing that it could not possibly be overlooked rent the clear dusk air. Kix and Jessica banked sharply at the sound, turning just in time to watch Rusty’s hovercycle drop to the forest floor like a meteorite. "Rusty!" Kix shouted into the gathering darkness, seemingly helpless to do anything else. "Kix, c’mon!" Jessica exclaimed. Her sharp eyes gathered the scene quickly, and she turned the hovercycle toward the ground, letting the turbines which held it aloft bring her to a landing. Kix followed, still calling out his sister’s name. "Rusty!" yelled Jessica, leaping lightly off her hovercycle as it touched the ground. "Rusty, you alright?" "Yeah, yeah, I’m fine!" growled Rusty, as she fought her way out of a particularly dense clump of bushes. Kix touched down beside them. "Rusty, you’re okay!" "No thanks to you, big brother," snapped Rusty, yelling very close to Kix’s ear. Then she wheeled around on Jessica. "Or to you." "Hey, wait, what could we do?" asked Jessica, puzzled. Rusty glared daggers at her. "You could have paid attention! This wreck" --she pointed fiercely at her battered, smoking, hovercycle-- "started pitching about a half mile back, I got off about a quarter mile back, and no one noticed!" Jessica and Kix looked at one another sheepishly, avoiding Rusty’s angry stare. "Did you see anything?" Kix asked quietly. Jessica shook her head. "Did you?" Kix shook his head too. Had it been possible, Kix and Jessica would have sworn they could see flames of rage dancing in Rusty’s eyes. "Some friends...and siblings"--she glared pointedly at Kix--"you are!" Jessica moved away from the furious Rusty. "Lets see if we can’t fix this," she muttered to Kix, who followed her the few steps to the hovercycle. "You know," Kix whispered to Jessica, "if she’d keep her bike tuned instead of worrying about getting her paws dirty, this wouldn’t happen all the time." "I know," said Jessica, gathering the loose white cloth that hung from the strips that were wrapped about her lower forelegs like gauntlets, into her paws. "But don’t tell her that just now." Jessica glanced back at Rusty, who was glaring viciously at the ground. Then, using the gathered bits of cloth to guard her paws against the hot metal, she lifted the engine access panel. Cardilli was little more than another mottled point of light in the starfield spread before the Assassin--flagship of the Allied Galactic Order. The other ships of the Order--each a small, unimpressive, battleship which few armies would fear at first sight--stretched out behind the Assassin. But she knew better than the fool armies that had never heard the name of the Order--Ke’nara Sycanie thought as she stared from the viewport of her chamber out into the mottled starfield of tachyon space. A claw-tip toyed idly with a matted strand of dark red headfur attached the unkempt scalp of a lion she wore upon her own head like a crown. She knew that within her own ship there existed a weapon powerful enough to easily destroy a planet; for she, and she alone, controlled that power. She continued to stand at the viewport, staring blankly out into the void outside with strange, colorless, dead looking eyes. The hazy light of stars seen through tachyon space played off the mirror-like shine of her tight black leather clothes and high boots. A breeze from an air vent somewhere high in the recesses of her chamber’s ceiling tugged at her purple velvet lined cape. A golden shine flickered over her eyes--she sensed something. "Come in, Nightmyst. Stop standing about in the corridor like a fool!" she spoke loudly, her voice carrying from her chamber into the corridor outside. Nightmyst, a worried looking grey wolf, entered. Silently, he cursed Fate and his bad fortune to have become the new Special Officer of Ke’nara Sycanie--the creature consigned to do her bidding at all hours. Ke’nara was said to be a terrible creature to work closely with, and seeing her for the first time as he entered her chamber--bringing the information she had ordered her previous Special Officer to deliver before his disappeared--he could believe it by her appearance alone. He could only hope that the tales told in the mess hall of how her former Special Officer went missing were highly exaggerated. Ke’nara scowled down her nose at Nightmyst (Such an ugly, common, name for a wolf, she thought.). "Is your intent to stand in my chamber like extremely stupid statuary, or does your presence come with purpose?" Nightmyst started, he had been caught up in his own thoughts and had lost track of time. "The star-system Cardilli lies within two standard days of our current position." He blurted out very quickly. "Very good," muttered Ke’nara, the strange golden light in her eyes again, "soon I will claim its creatures, their energy will help to prepare for the glorious rebirth of Master Kenryoku." "Excellent, Mistress Sycanie," said Nightmyst, turning toward the chamber door, eager to be away from her. Suddenly, Ke’nara was upon him, her powerful claws connected with Nightmyst’s face, gouging deeply and hurling Nightmyst several feet across the chamber. "Mercy...what have I done..." gasped Nightmyst, trembling. Ke’nara advanced upon him, roaring madly. "I am not your ‘mistress’, I am not second to any male creature who you would call master. I am your master, second to no mortal creature, a lion, never a lioness!" "I beg your forgiveness, Master Ke’nara, I meant no disrespect..." Nightmyst dissolved into muttering. Ke’nara calmed abruptly, and ran her tongue along the inner edge of one bloody claw; she smiled slightly. "Inform me when we have reached the outskirts of the Cardillian system. Until then, stay out of my sight." Nightmyst nodded mutely. Clutching one paw to his slashed face, he fled the chamber.