Kits and Space Stations: Chiya and Ketvia's Story

"Vir? Pay attention, Vir, or you'll lose it."

"Huh? Oh, no--"

A moment of distraction, and the spell Vir had been carefully putting together fizzled out, the energy dissipating uselessly.

"I'll never get it right!" Vir not-quite-wailed, plopping down behind the worktable and head drooping.

"You'll never get it if you keep getting distracted," Chiya agreed, albeit gently, and sat down beside him. Now that he was half-grown and then some, and he'd started shooting up in height like a week, he didn't feel so tiny next to her. He just felt like her inferior in every way, that's all. Much better. "What was it, this time?" she asked sympathetically, covering his forepaw with her own slender fingers.

"Reggie and Trip outside," Vir admitted glumly. They were sparring, under Ketvia's watchful tutelage. "I saw them through the window.... Reggie's really getting good."

"He is," Chiya agreed again. "But so are you."

"In magic, sure. He still trounces me every time, when I'm working with Ketvia. Which isn't very often, anymore," he added, still a little stung by Ketvia relegating him to his other mother's realm. He wanted to be a great warrior, like she was, and have adventures.... But he was clumsy, and awkward, and always ended up getting himself hurt, no matter what he did. Ketvia had been right to hesitantly suggest he put away claws and teeth and practice weapons, forget about worrying about footwork and wingwork, and study magic with Chiya. He knew that, and they knew that. That didn't mean he was happy about it.

"Even Trip's better than me..." he sighed. It was easy to write off Regius's being better, because Regius was just like that: anything he tried to do, he did well. But when Tripudia was better, too, it just meant he was bad.

"And neither of them are better than you with magic," Chiya reminded him.

"And what good is that?" Vir cried. "So I can summon light and fire, and maybe heal somebody-- what's that going to do me? I want to have adventures, and travel, and save people, and-- and-- being a mage is so... boring."

"In case you'd forgotten," said a rough voice from the doorway, "your mother happens to be a mage, and she is definitely not boring."

Looking over his shoulder, Vir saw Ketvia leaning against the door frame, forepaws crossed and wings folded with deceptive meekness. There was a smile hovering around her muzzle, though she was trying to look stern.

"That's not what I meant," Vir stammered. "I mean... I know you're not boring, Mother... I just want to-- I mean...."

"I know what you mean," Chiya assured him soothingly.

"And I think you've got a few things wrong," Ketvia snorted. "Chiya, go on outside and look after the other two, I'm going to have a chat with Vir, here."

Having "a chat" with Ketvia usually meant trouble, or, more specifically, that one was in trouble. Vir gulped a little as his parents exchanged looks, and then Chiya obediently sauntered outside, leaving Ketvia to shut the door behind her and pace inside. Vir hunched a little, awaiting the tongue-lashing that was sure to come; Ketvia was good at tongue-lashing, after all.

To his surprise, instead, he heard a soft chuckle and felt her tongue slide over his forehead, plastering the fur down. "I'm not going to bite you, kit," she promised. "I'm going to tell you a story about a time when Chiya-- a mage-- saved my tail in battle."

"Battle?" Vir repeated, blinking up at her.

"You know I used to work for the Guard, and that I fought in the was with our allies on Tris'Hath. What did you think Chiya did, while I was fighting, sit here and twiddle her thumbs?" At Vir's incredulous expression, she chuckled again. "She was right there with me, fighting, too-- only she used her magic."

"I've... never thought about using magic like that," Vir admitted.

"That's 'cuz Chiya hasn't gotten around to teaching you that, yet," Ketvia pointed out. "You've been dragging your heels so badly that you're still doing pretty basic stuff, for all you're good at all the basic stuff. Besides, I think she keeps hoping that you'll fall in love with construction-magic or healing-magic, so you won't ever go get yourself into trouble with the defense-offense crap. She's a worrier, you know, and would rather you be a pansy like the mages who hang around Sanctuary, and be safe, than you join the Guard and get yourself killed. It does happen, you know, she's seen it."

"Oh," Vir said, feeling a little stunned. "But she's so... so...."

"Gentle? Quiet? Kind? Yep, she's all that. War really wasn't good for her, poor thing. But she's got backbone when she needs it. She lectures me, after all, and you know it." Vir giggled, nodding. "We used to adventure all the time, the two of us, before war broke out. Or during-- you remember about Cacopheny, right?"

Since Ketvia and Chiya made a point to introduce the three kits, and they visited every couple weeks for dinner, Vir did, indeed. He knew, vaguely, that his parents had rescued him... but not exactly how it had come about. He nodded again.

"She did most of that, too. Well, a lot of it, anyway. And believe me, it was an adventure." Ketvia dropped down onto the lounging couch, opposite the window, so, Vir presumed, there would be no chance of him getting "distracted" by looking out and seeing his brother and sister. There wasn't much danger in that, thought: he wanted to know how his mother had saved his other mother's life using magic!

"All right, so let me prove to you that magic's dead useful for an adventurer, or a fighter, or a rescuer, or what-have-you. The very first battle the Guard took part in, on the Tris'Hath war; I'd never fought in a group like that before, not on a scale like that, and neither had Chiya. Me," Ketvia grinned, "I just dove on down, and damn the battle plan. I'm impulsive like that, when it comes to a little excitement and some hydra-squashing."

"Hydra-squashing?" Vir repeated, wrinkling his muzzle.

"Well, there aren't exactly demons on Tris'Hath, now, are there?" Ketvia pointed out with a snort. "Now, diving in teeth bared and claws flailing is all well and good-- took 'em by surprise, I did, and got me a few good kills-- but you've always gotta watch your back in a big battlefield like that. Easy to get snuck up on, surrounded, that sort of thing. Another thing magic's good for: ward your back, shield yourself, stuff like that."

That was another thing Vir hadn't thought about: defensive magic, wards and shields. It made sense, though, and he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before.

"Anyway, I was so involved in tearing this big multi-header apart that I didn't see this smaller one sneaking up on me. Chiya, though, she had my back; she was watching out for me. She saw, but she was too far away to give him a good clawswipe or anything-- not that she would have, anyway, of course. Instead, she gave him a good blast of magic, from a good thousand yards away, at least. Aaaah, you should've seen it, Vir, it was beautiful: a big column of light, like the hand of Asuka herself, slamming down from the heavens right on top of the fu-- uh, fellow. Sliced him right down the middle, burned him right up. Smelled horrible, but damned if I wasn't grateful... and impressed," she added with a proud grin. "That's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen her do, and she did it with magic."

Vir had a good imagination, and he could just picture that "hand of Asuka" beam of light-power dropping out of nowhere, delivering vengeance and protection. "I bet!" he breathed, impressed, himself, just by his own imagining.

"So now do you believe me that mages can be pretty damn heroic, too?" Ketvia prodded him, adding a prod with the leading tine of her wing to his side, to emphasize the point.

Laughing a little, and swatting at the poke, Vir nodded. "Yeah... I'd never thought of it like that before."

"Well, now you will. And maybe now," Ketvia said pointedly, heaving herself to her feet again, "you'll actually try in your lessons?"

"Yes, Ketvia," Vir promised.

"Good. Now let's just hope Chiya didn't muck up practice with Reggie and Trip...."