A Coyote's Game

[Kiju]

It'd been several days since that day, or night, that Celica had made an attempt on Volyan's life, and since it was a failure, the fox Emperor was healing quite nicely, his chest wound having sealed up and become strong again. Surely, he was still quite tender, as who wouldn't be after being stabbed in the chest up to the hilt of a dagger? Kiju came in every morning to check on Volyan, to see if he needed anything, acting more the fox’s nursemaid than some fearsome mercenary. He knew that this might put his relationship in the Imperial party in jeopardy, but he didn’t much care since his paid duty was to protect the Emperor, and the buzzard couldn’t argue with him, saying that if he didn’t take care of Volyan, then he wouldn’t get paid. It kept Alkhu in the dark about the coyote’s true nature, the damn bird just thinking Kiju was a heartless mercenary who only was in it for the money…since he had promised to double Kiju’s end sum if he served the buzzard well. Kiju saw no bad side to this, both Kijus, the one who was heartless profiteer only in it for the money, and the one who was taking care of Volyan while working for him to spy on the Imperial party.

Today though, he knew Volyan would be in high health, and most likely high spirits, since the coyote had promised that he’d let the Emperor do things himself today. Kiju had been doing most things that didn’t require unquestioned privacy, and while Volyan grumbled about it, surely, the mercenary just tapped a paw against his chest, and that was usually enough to quiet the fox’s complaints. Now though, Volyan was strong enough in limb and energy that he could move about freely, without the coyote forcing him back into bed. For now though, Kiju would eat breakfast with him while discussing things, and knocked on the door twice before entering with a pair of trays filled with fruits, breads, meats, and cheeses…simple fare, but very tasty. “Hey Volyan, got your breakfast for ya again.” He said, and smiled as he shut the door, then moved over to the bed-ridden fox, sitting beside him and offering one tray to his charge “Here ya go.” Once breakfast was served, Kiju ate in silence long enough that his stomach would stop arguing with his backbone, then looked up from his food to speak “Since you’ll be moving around a lot, I figured I might as well get a bit of exercise going for you…and me as well.”

Knowing Volyan would question what exactly that was, he decided to explain it “It’s another game that some of the coyotes in my old clan used to play, I remember seeing some playing it in the streets when I was about five.” He said, and leaned back while nibbling on a piece of ham “The game is called Fire Ball. Pretty simple name, surely, but it’s actually quite fun. See, we coyotes are good with fire, as you’ve seen before, and so we’ve made it into a game. It requires one person who can make a ball out of fire, and we just toss it around until someone drops it, gets burned…etcetera.” A slight grin “It’s one thing we coyotes like to do too…risk it all, and have a blast doing it.” He used an elbow to nudge the fox’s shoulder “So, you wanna play it?”

[Alexandros]

Volyan had been rather reluctant to be helped during his week, saying that his magic could get him anything he needed. And Kiju had shut him up on that end by telling him to lift up a heavy book, needless to say, he couldn’t. And thus Kiju had been helping him with everything – from helping him walk around, to getting him something to eat or drink when he requested it. All for no pay raise on his end, though Akhu (Their shortened name for Akhaenniut) had increased his pay, saying that it was part of his duty to protect their interests and, for them to gain more information, Kiju had to stay ‘under cover’. Akhu also wasn’t shocked that Celia had died, nor that Kiju had helped the Emperor. ‘She was a fool, little more than that. You, you on the other wing, were wise’.

Volyan was reading when Kiju knocked on his door, a habit he had picked back up now that he had more free time. Walrik was handling all his duties while he was injured and…Volyan almost wished his wounds were more serious…almost. Setting aside the book, a tome on demons and summoning, Volyan gave a friendly grin to the Coyote he truly called ‘friend’. Volyan decided to tease the coyote as he came in, by springing to his feet and rushing to put the book back on its shelf, like a kit who had just been caught doing something bad. “I didn’t mean to get it on my own, honest!” Volyan turned and thanked Kiju for the food as he settled back into sitting on his bed, taking the offered food.

Eating the food slowly, savoring the sweet collection of fruits more than anything else offered before him (‘They actually serve food this good here? Wow.’). He wasn’t vastly under fed, but he certainly didn’t get luxurious food as Akhu did. After all, he was still, for all matters, his slave. Now, though, he got the best of the foods in the palace and much better company, that was for sure. Volyan’s ears swiveled, as he bit into a strawberry, a fruit that was traded from the Kai Isles, at Kiju’s offer of a game.

Throwing the last of his food, another strawberry, into his maw, he blinked at the game, but gave a grin to go along with it. “Sure, sounds like fun…not to mention it might help me gain control over my powers…if not, well, I can use telekinesis to control the fire, couldn’t I?” Volyan had, over the past week, revealed quite a few of his powers – including the ability to heal when Kiju had burnt himself on one thing or another. (‘Why not heal yourself?’ ‘I can’t, it doesn’t work like that.’) “So, you’ll have to summon it. I can control fire – but I can’t very well summon it without a bit of anger.”

[Kiju]

The coyote couldn’t help but chuckle at the fox’s antics, a smile spreading across his muzzle from seeing how well Volyan had recovered in the past week. He leaned back a bit on the bed, using his arms to prop himself up so he wouldn’t fall backwards. “I see, so emotions control your magick…I suppose it usually does until you can fully understand how to use it, but alright.” The only problem with Kiju’s magick of course, was that he could ignite things…not suddenly create fire. He relayed this to Volyan “See, with my magick, I can only create fire by burning something. Forming a ball of fire out of thin air is beyond me, however, manipulating something that is already burning…that I can do.” He’d already demonstrated that about a week ago by using that simple candle flame to become something the size of a fist…but currently there were no fires nearby that could be so easily stripped of their original location. “Hmm…we’ll need a ball. Lemme think…”

He looked around the room, then saw a fireplace, and…while small, it still had a fire going in it, that was enough. The coyote got up from his perch on the bed and moved over to it, kneeling down in front of the fireplace and pulling aside the grille that kept any sparks or embers from escaping…except that was what he wanted in a way. Kiju extended a paw towards the now open fireplace, and turned it pad up to wait for a moment. It didn’t take long before a little tongue of flame slid from the main fire, and into his paw…well, floating a few inches above it anyway. With a smile now, he stood up and closed the fireplace back up, walking over to Volyan with the flame now about the size of a beach ball, the heat seen wavering off of it and making the air around it shimmer “We have our ball…shall we go outside and play?” The coyote asked, grinning wolfishly at his charge.

[Alexandros]

Volyan shrugged, “Still more than I can do. Unless I am angry, I can hardly control fire, much less summon it.” Though, if he was angry, Volyan could summon flames. Any spell he was to use was always shown through his paws glowing in flame, the colour signifying the spell. Ice for ice, white for holy, black for dark, red-orange for fire, more electric than true ‘fire’ for electricity, etc. Only telekinesis was his true ‘hidden’ ability, with no tell tale signs that he was using it, beyond an object moving. He was glad for this, as having a tell tale sign of anything was bad, made one rather easy to read when in combat…or when playing a game.

As Kiju looked around his room, Volyan stood and made his way into his bathing room with clean clothing, “I’ll be back in a moment.” Outside of the first night, in which Kiju insisted he help Volyan get dressed, Volyan always changed in the stone room off of his own, both embarrassed and flustered. And it wasn’t due to Kiju’s sexuality, either, as that didn’t bug him. He was just awkwardly shy. Throwing on clothing that looked, well, more peasant-y, he walked back in his room to see Kiju kneeling in front of the fire place, fire crackling on his palm. Volyan grinned, but the thought of going outside didn’t appeal to him very much, if only because Akhu could find them there. “How about the bathing room? It is stone, after all, and last I heard – that can’t catch fire.” Not to mention the room got dark without the candles and, with only the ball of flames visible, it’d make the game rather…exciting, in Volyan’s opinion. “And…it is big enough for the both of us to move around in.”

[Kiju]

He gave the suggestion a thought, then shrugged and nodded “Sure, I s’pose that’d work.” He then padded into the bathing room, holding the ball in one paw while he went, careful not to let it stray too far from its nucleus of flame…lest anything catch fire, which would be bad. Once he was in though, he looked down at the pool, and thought for a moment, before deciding to make the game a little bit better… “Since the water is here, if we drop it, it’ll just get really steamy in here…eh, free steam bath, it all works out in the end.” He said, then shrugged and stood to one side of the pool, waiting for Volyan to take his place at the other end. “I’m ready when you are.

When the fox had gotten in place, he would toss the fireball up into the air, then…basically hit it like one would a beach ball, only without his paws actually touching the flames. The fire ball, being lighter than air, sailed neatly towards Volyan in an exaggerated arc, and Kiju readied himself to stop the ball in case the fox couldn’t quite control something like that. The ball was kind of eerie, that being the only thing visible besides the faint orange-y outlines of both he, and the fox he was playing this game with. One good thing would come of this…Volyan would be gaining more experience with fire when it came to magick, which might be a good thing in case the buzzard sent a mage-assassin after him. Sure, anger would give him strength then, but it’s better to know how to control your power than to let it run wild, else you might miss the finer points of damage…not to mention wasting all of your energy in one blow.

[Alexandros]

Volyan decided to, once he closed the door and could see little more than Kiju and the glowing flame the size of a, well, beach ball, use his telekinesis at first, until he got used to passing the ball back and forth. Only difference was that it’d take a bit of time to pass it back, unless he wished for it to land short and fall to the ground. Approaching his side of the water, Volyan kept his gaze transfixed on the outline of the fiery ball, rather than the coyote holding it. After all, watching the coyote wouldn’t help much, would it? Volyan watched as the coyote held the ball in his palm and let it rise into the air, where it came down to be ‘hit’ by the coyote’s paw, which sent the ball towards Volyan.

As the ball was ‘served’ towards him, Volyan took a step to the side as the ball went that way, and placed both palms up at his sides, concentrating on the ball of flames which stopped mere inches from his nose, raising his paws to either side of it, he began to swirl his paws around the ball of flame, making it spin ever faster. “Quite sure you’ve played this long enough to handle a, ah…fast ball?” Volyan muttered, before lowering his paws which sent the ball towards Kiju at a semi-faster speed, but at the same arch. It’d be easy for Kiju to control, but after all…he was a master of fire, was he not? Volyan’s gaze drifted from the moving ball to the coyote, passing a small grin towards him while watching his movement. He didn’t feel angry, but he slowly did feel the build up of competition, which caused small red sparks to appear around his paws from time to time.

[Kiju]

“Heh, let’s hope so…I’ve never actually played this before.” He admitted, as if it was no problem at all…true, he’d done this sort of thing in battle and literal fire-fights, where mages who specialized in fire were so angry with how ineffective they were that they literally blew up…Kiju can remember two instances that happened. Quite amusing really. As the ball came towards him, instead of making it stop, he ‘caught’ it in one paw and spun slowly around, before launching it back at Volyan, though at a nice arc so that it wasn’t headed straight towards the fox.

He grinned a bit wondering if there were any rules to the game besides not letting it hit you, or anything else. He hoped not, since this would prove to be quite a fun game as the fox and coyote swung the ball back and forth, each time trying to make the other drop it or miss…although Kiju could only wield fire that was within touching distance of his paws. Because of this, he had to sometimes dive for the ball of flame to catch it, and send it hurtling back towards his opponent. To any spectator, it would appear to be a spectacular show of fire magicking…when in reality it was just a came for the entertainment of it all.

When he felt Volyan had gotten used to the game, and when Kiju got the ball back in his possession, he stopped for a moment and held the ball aloft, panting lightly from both the heat, and exertion pushed on him from this game “Now, let’s make this even more interesting…” He grinned, the orange light from the flames making it appear almost evil…which was his intention, as he put a paw to either side of the fire ball, and…pulled. Like a cell duplicating itself, the single, large ball of fire split off into two smaller ones “There…now, let’s continue.” He said, lobbing the first one, then throwing the second only a few moments afterwards.

[Alexandros]

Volyan once more stopped the ball as it came, and quickly was able to toss it back, using a mix of telekinesis and his Pyromaniac ability. Slowly, he began to rely solely on his Pyromaniac abilities, able to literally catch the ball of flames, before tossing it back. He had to admit, it was rather fun, and the more he tossed it, the quicker Kiju responded and the more physically spent Volyan started to feel. Of course, this also caused his adrenaline to run freely, which quite well countered any exhaustion. With another quick toss, Kiju caught the ball and held it, which caused Volyan to blink.

Volyan used the moment to rest himself, placing his crackling palms on his pants as he panted himself. The sparks of flame, luckily, didn’t set his clothing on fire, so that was one perk. “More interesting, huh?” Volyan panted out, quite sure that if he could sweat, his fur would be dripping water. “Oh, I see.” Volyan mused as the single ball was split in two which, quite honestly, gave him a rather interesting idea of his own. Volyan stood straight once more, smirking at the two crackling balls of flame, before they were tossed at him.

Able to catch one quite easily, he stopped the other with telekinesis, holding it at bay with a single paw, “So, more interesting, huh?” Volyan’s paw holding one ball in place, which was currently a fist, placed two fingers into the air, right along side one another, before he ‘split’ them apart slowly, and the ball mimicked his fingers, becoming two controlled by a single paw. “Now, let us see how you do.” Volyan muttered, tossing one ball, then the other, while holding on to the third until Kiju had countered one of the other two. Now it was like juggling more than anything else – save, with a hint of danger behind it.

[Kiju]

As a third ball was produced, Kiju just smiled, and waited for the first two balls of flame to approach, knocking one aside with his right paw, while catching the other with his left. He switched that one to his right paw, then pitched it towards the fox for him to catch “Catch!” this game would indeed prove fun. As the third ball came back, he batted it back to the fox, and the game continued. Kiju would occasionally try and surprise his friend by actually hitting the ball straight at him, rather than lobbing it, and even if he got the same thing repeated back to him, it still was cause enough to say…this game was fun, risk or no.

Somewhere down the line, the number of fire balls would increase to four, the game really turning into a light show then, as four balls swept and flew between the two ‘combatants’, constantly trying to seek for the goal of making the other slip up so that they missed one. Kiju was honestly having the time of his life, now seeing why so many of his clan actually had played this game in order to test their skills, and practice them. He knew both of them were becoming strained from the constant use of magick, no matter how little an amount it was, so he decided to end it, or at least speed the game up a bit.

He caught each of the now six balls, and held them, three for each paw. As they multiplied, he soon had eighteen smaller balls of fire, each one the size of a balled fist. Kiju then grinned, and began pitching each of them at the fox, only pausing long enough to ‘grab’ another one, and get in a position to throw it. These balls, being smaller, moved much faster, and he waited to see how the fox would fare against this onslaught of fire. Probably pretty well, since now that he was all worked up, his control over fire was quite good.

[Alexandros]

Volyan continued to return the onslaught of fire, having to, at one point, destroy a few balls as they were proving a hassle to control. Of course, he left just enough to return fire – split a ball in mid flight towards Kiju at one point. Of course, the coyote was always able to counter anything he tossed towards him and return it, and Volyan, admittedly, had to stay on his toes, using a mix of fire magic and telekinesis to control the sheer number of bouncing balls of flame, which lit up the otherwise dark room.

Magical exhaustion wasn’t something Volyan ever suffered from, being one of the more gifted mages in the land, having the ability to control that gift or no, but even this proved to tire him out slowly but surely, and Kiju seemed to have a never ending supply of energy, too. Still, with every exchange of flames, and every ball that was destroyed on purpose (Either just being snuffed out or tossed at the floor and or wall), the game proved more challenging, and, in that, much more fun. Slowly he could tell Kiju’s magic was fading, as was his own, but Volyan was sure he could muster a little more than the coyote…that was, of course, until the coyote mustered a barrage of fire balls. Eighteen, Volyan counted, and sliding one footpaw back, he prepared himself for the onslaught and…then it came.

The first seven or eight were easy, just reflected towards a wall and destroyed, then they got more tricky, coming at various angles that caused Volyan to stress a bit when trying to get them, but he made sure he destroyed them, not that they landed on their own. He finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, when the last ball was thrown and he tried to counter it and…couldn’t – the fire ball passing his ear, causing him to wince from the heat and catch it after it passed him. Knowing he lost, he decided to go ahead with Kiju’s idea from earlier, tossing the single ball of fire into the bath, creating a blanket of steam to engulf them. “Wow…” Volyan panted out.

[Kiju]

Kiju too was panting by the end of the match, but he had a big smile wreathed on his muzzle, it was obvious he’d enjoyed that tremendously. He concentrated on the candles and made them raise in light enough that it was easier to see, before making his way around the pool to the fox and chuckling quietly “That, was fun.” He said, and offered Volyan a paw “Nice job though, you kept up quite well…if you want, we can do this whenever you like, it’s obviously good practice for your fire skills, and mine…” though he didn’t admit it, Kiju had never actually become magically exhausted before, having never really used his gifts all that often. The most he ever did it for was either distraction purposes, or to counter a mage who hurled some fire attack at him.

He looked at the blackened ear tip and winced a bit, seeing that it was still smoking a bit “Hehe, looks like I got you, huh?” his pink tongue flashed as he licked two of his pads, then raised his paw up to pinch the smoking tip, putting out the little white, wispy trail that rose into the air “There, that’s better.” He said, and lowered his paw back down to his sides. That’d been the most fun of any sort that he’d ever had…well, not including something else, but that’s besides the point. “So, think you’ll ever be up for another game sometime?” he said, and smiled in a friendly manner towards his ‘opponent’.

[Alexandros]

Volyan gave a small grin as the coyote put out the very tip of his ear, he not having noticed it quite yet, though he was sure it would have gone out in a couple moments as it was. “I could use the practice, so of course. Maybe next time I’ll win, eh? After all, I had you at one point…lucky one of my balls ended up stopping short.” Volyan teased, and then went into thought, “You would have won, as it was. Besides, I was using telekinesis during the majority of it…I’m sure if you had the ability, you’d have bested me in a moment.”

Volyan didn’t think to offer training in telekinesis as, well, it wasn’t like trying to teach someone a spell of fire, ice, lightning, etc, but was more of a passive ability that he possessed, and was unable to truly test. More so from the strain on one’s mind that it could cause, which made even the strongest of mages fear over using the ability, should they actually have it. Volyan settled into sitting on the edge of one of the pillars in the stone room, while steam flittered around them, flashing a small smile at the ‘yote. “Yeah, defiantly we’ll do this again…this is the most fun I’ve had in, well, the entirety of my life, really.” Tiring or not, he had to admit it gave him a rush that he truly enjoyed, not to mention that in the heat of the moment (No pun intended), he felt far more in control of his abilities than he did at any other time.

[Kiju]

“Hehe, perhaps you will…only time will tell really.” He nudged Volyan with his elbow, then rubbed his eyes to clear them of the little lines that had formed in his vision. Playing with something bright in a dimly lit room left residue in your vision, and right now it looked like Kiju was still watching the fire show even now, except in green and purple, rather than a fiery orange. “Truth is, I don’t have telekinesis, in fact, most of my magick is in reality just something I’ve inherited from my tribe. All coyotes can actually learn it…it’s just some are…” he tried to think of a word, couldn’t so substituted one instead “better at it, is all.”

It was true, every member of the coyote family could use the two skills he himself had. Some had a more potent gift than others, and even rarer still did any have the actual gift of magick, although they always tended to be a bit more powerful with fire “It’s in our history, see…coyotes are the ones who gave fire to man, they didn’t discover it. Sure, it’s just a myth, but…why would we have these powers if it was false?” he shrugged then and sat on the floor, putting his back up against the pillar that Volyan had sat against “Sounds good, just ask and we’ll go ahead and play…maybe show that damned bird a thing or two about how you’ve improved.” A slight smile formed on the coyote’s lips at that, knowing how Volyan enjoyed seeing the buzzard sweat. And he also knew that seeing Volyan become more powerful was enough to cause buckets of it to leak out of that bird.

Thoughts of roast poultry drove most other thoughts out of Kiju’s mind then, and it was then he realized that…he was hungry, again. A bit surprised at this, he looked down in time to hear his stomach rumble, and his ears folded back a bit in embarrassment “Oh my, looks like I used a bit too much magick this time around…” he’d heard from one of his hedge-wizard friends from way back when that if a mage used too much magick at once, their body responded by becoming extremely hungry, even if they themselves didn’t quite notice it…until they started eating.

[Alexandros]

Volyan couldn’t help but shake his head at the rumble of Kiju’s stomach, which in turn caused his own to mimic his own, “Hehe, looks like I didn’t exactly conserve my own magic, huh?” Volyan flashed the coyote a grin, before standing. “You wait here, I’ll go get us something to eat…after all, you’ve gotten me food enough this week as it is, I feel as though I should return the favor.” Without waiting for any complaints, Volyan made his way to the door, and moved from the bed room to the kitchens of the palace, where all the food was made and served.

He ordered a bunch of fruit and some roasted chicken which, he was quite sure, would taste rather good. Right now, he’d eat fish and probably enjoy it more than he normally did. He could stand it, of course, just…fish wasn’t exactly his favorite dish, and Akhu constantly made sure to serve it at palace functions, both because he liked it and Volyan didn’t. But with Kiju things were a lot simpler, he had to admit that. Not only were they simpler, but it was a lot more fun spending time with the coyote than rushing about trying to out plot that buzzard. Sure, it could be fun if you know you’d one up him with the plan, but afterwards, when the Imperial Order just returns fire, so to speak, you realize that it was all for not. Volyan, approaching his door with food in paw, muttered, “Oh, hurry back already, father.”

Pushing the door open with his hip, as his paws were rather full, he glanced around his room for the Coyote. If he wasn’t there, then he was probably still in the bathing room, enjoying the steam bath that they had created. Opening the door to the bath, he entered the room and set the trays on the edge of the stone – knowing it was just wide enough to hold both of them, if only by just. “Fruit and roasted bird…” Volyan muttered, grinning to himself as he turned back to face the coyote. “I’ll let you take a guess as to what bird it is.” Volyan teased.

[Kiju]

Kiju’s ears twitched at the sound of a second tummy rumbling, and he chuckled quietly “Hehe, guess not…” at Volyan’s offer, he was about to protest, but thought better of it, since he’d promised the fox that Kiju would let him do what he wanted. Didn’t mean he had to like it precisely, just that he wouldn’t say no. Of course…he really couldn’t say no to that fox in the first place, frankly, he was just too cute. The coyote blushed at that, and thanked whatever ‘God’ was up there that the fox was out of the room and thus couldn’t see the pink tinge of his cheeks and bridge of his nose.

Left alone with his thoughts, he just quietly contemplated a few things, like what all would be going on during his stay at the palace. Specifics, not just the broad subject of working under-cover for the Loyalists group to spy on the Imperialists for Volyan, guarding the fox himself, and otherwise just making sure things went as smooth as his influence could get them. He mainly just wondered where his thoughts were going to lead him, particularly concerning Volyan himself. Why? Well, to be frank…the coyote was starting to develop a crush on the young Emperor, and he was quite scared of that fact. If anyone found out about it, there would be large repercussions to it, on a scale much larger than that of when he’d first been found kissing his fiancé’s big brother…

He snapped out of his train of thought the moment he smelled chicken, and looked up in time to see the fox walk into the room, replacing the coyote’s concentrating frown with a smile “Mmh…bird, you actually read my mind Volyan, I was just thinking about how that buzzard will look like a cooked goose from sweating so much, once he finds out how good you’ve gotten with your fire magick.” The smile broadened, but it was soon covered as the coyote took a leg of the chicken and began tearing at it with his sharp incisors and canine teeth that marked him as a carnivore…and a hungry one at that.