Freedom of Flight Ch. 05

Author's note: All characters and companies mentioned in this story have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone or anything bearing the same name or names. Events portrayed in this story are pure invention and have not been based on any events that have happen in real life. All the characters involved in any sexual acts if their ages are not mentioned before hand; are over 18 years of age. Enjoy.

Hi guys,

Sorry about the delay with this chapter, life threw a delightful spanner in the works which made me and my editor grind to a halt for two weeks, moving home, computer problems, work... and I can keep listing if you like. I hope you enjoy this chapter, also a whle ago when I first posed the S'ephalim, Nephalim and Gephalim an artist set me a link to one of his pictures that he did a while ago and it's a good representation of a S'ephalim. Message me if you want the link.

Again sorry for the delay, after this chapter there are two more to Freedom of Flight then we go onto Bound by Pride. SO don't forget to comment and vote, all feedback is welcome.

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Alanna glanced around the markets in awe. It was like a massive swap meet and food market rolled into one. Tarval chuckled and leant down to talk into her ear so that she could hear him over the bustle. "This is the square," he gently grabbed her shoulders and directed her to an alleyway. "Jewellers and smiths," he turned her again to a different alley. "Fresh produce," another turn to a new alley, "Cloth merchants and tailors. Wood carvers, hot food and entertainment." He said turning her to the other three alleyways.

Dominic also leant down to talk into her other ear, although not as close as Tarval. "The bells toll hourly. Meet us at the hot food alley at fourth toll."

Alanna nodded. Both men released her and let her find her way through the mass of people. She quickly decided where to head to first and then made her way to the smiths. Alanna glanced at jewellers but saw nothing that took her fancy. She crossed to the other side, bumping past people who were busy chatting or looking away.

Alanna paused as she glanced down between two buildings as she walked and saw a small gathering but shrugged it off and kept on looking. She stopped when she spied a well-made locket. She stepped up behind another and looked at it; the merchant stepped forward and offered for her to look at the locket. Alanna examined it and then opened it; the two hearts broke away from a middle fixture, which allowed four pictures to be placed within.

"How much?" She asked, looking up from the locket.

The merchant eyed her critically, trying to place her crest but he didn't recognise it although he had his suspicions as to who the woman was before him. "What is your house, lass?"

"Phoenix, Dominic is my Un…"

"Alanna." he correctly guessed. He felt honoured that she had stopped here and people were gathering and taking notice of the armoured woman with no wings more so of the crisscross pattern that covered her back plate. "12 dhunts."

A woman leant over. "17, merchant and not a dhunt less." She said with a glare, knowing what he was doing, deliberately undercutting his price to ensure that Alanna bought something here, that THE Alanna Brave-Heart, as she had been dubbed, thought his wares were good and that would attract more business for him.

Alanna span around, her eyes focused on a gold breastplate with four black feathers. She glanced up. "Michelle?" She guessed as she remembered what Sage had told her about her grandparents.

"Hello, Alanna. Turn around and pay for your locket." She told her playfully, indicating that Alanna should just pretend for now that they knew each other.

Alanna nodded and turned around. "First, what's a…"

"Here… there are people waiting." Michelle interrupted while handing the amount over, the locket and chain was put in a velvet bag and given to Alanna. Michelle quickly guided her away and towards a small alley between two buildings. Alanna couldn't help herself as she looked up and stared.

Michelle's long white blonde hair hung in loose curls. Her eyes were such a deep blue, they looked like sapphires. Her nose was straight and pointed; her jaw slightly rounded with high cheekbones and perfectly arched eyebrows. She now understood how early humans could have been so humbled, she was both a woman and not, because she was more than a woman… she was… an angel.

Michelle's full lips curved up in a smirk, she was used to this reaction. She had almost laughed at Bianca's bowled-over look.

Alanna blinked, realizing that she was gawking like a teenager and blushed. "Sorry, I…"

"Don't mention it. You should have seen Bianca... that was funny." Michelle answered with a grin.

"Are all S'ephalim so tall?" Alanna asked, still slightly gawking.

Michelle nodded and gave a careless shrug. "Yes, we all stand over seven feet tall. It is how we were made."

"You paid for the locket?" Alanna questioned.

She nodded. "I did not want the merchant to know you did not understand our currency. Besides, he had a small crowd gathered behind you waiting to buy. Now, let me quickly run through our currency, a bharunt is a copper coin," Michelle pulled the coin out. "Twelve make a dhunt, the silver coins. Most of the time merchants will talk in dhunts because they are more common than the khunts, gold coin. Five dhunts to a khunt."

Alanna grabbed out her money and after making a swift calculation put three khunts and two dhunts into Michelle's hand. "Thank you. No one explained the currency to me… they just gave it to me." She grumbled.

Michelle chuckled. That sounded like Dominic and Tarval. "So what's the locket for?"

"It's for Sage's birthday gift," Alanna pulled it out. "Look… it opens into three panels and four pictures can go in so her biological parents and her adopted can both be kept close to her heart."

Michelle smiled at the thoughtfulness of the gift. "I'm here to check up on Sage's gift. Want to join me?"

Alanna nodded and joined her as together they left the small alleyway between buildings. "I'm surprised Dominic isn't escorting you around." Michelle commented. Letting Alanna loose and unsupervised in a world and culture she only partially understood could be dangerous… at least for the ones she accidentally annoyed and who went to fight her not knowing that she could kill them with only her hands.

"He is picking up his own gifts; one for me, one for Sage. Our birthdays are a day apart." Alanna explained.

Michelle nodded and made note of it. She would pay attention to Alanna for a while to figure out what to get her. She had gone to all of Sage's birthdays since her first. Bianca had insisted in her coming to be introduced to her 'granddaughter', not understanding that both Michelle and Tarval had just been a means to an end and that although they had given birth to Dominic and that Tarval had raised him, they didn't consider him theirs. He belonged to the god. However, that didn't stop Michelle from forming a bond with Sage and wanting to watch her grow into the woman she was becoming and now she wouldn't miss this party for anything in the world. She may not consider Dominic to be her son but she did consider him a very close friend, a friendship that had grown over the years as Dominic came to her asking for her advice concerning his daughter. Michelle walked her further back towards the blacksmiths. She stepped up to a stall and smiled as a winged woman walked forward.

"This is Gabrielle. She is a master smith and makes magnificent weapons although she never learnt to wield them." Michelle introduced.

Gabrielle smiled then bowed to Alanna. "Greetings, Alanna. Give me a second, Michelle, and I'll get that dagger you commissioned."

Alanna turned to Michelle in surprised, "Does everyone know my name?" She asked with a wrinkled forehead.

Gabrielle chuckled. "Of course! Your capture has been talked about non-stop … or rather, your release. More so the lines that mark the back plate you wear. The men who carried you out swear you stood up and walked from that cell." Gabrielle said, disbelief evident in the way she said it.

"I did." Alanna responded simply. "I got up, took perhaps a dozen steps then collapsed." She grimaced, remembering the pain she had gone through.

Both women's jaws dropped in surprise. A dozen steps after the lashing she received most couldn't even walk after five. Everyone heard of what had happened by now, and since the story had been retold and embellished so many times that, no one knew what to believe any more so most of them were sceptical of what had happened that day.

Gabrielle stepped away musingly for a moment and returned with a wooden box. She put it down and flicked the catches; she then opened the box, revealing a beautiful dagger with a phoenix handle. The blade seemed to be spraying like flames from the mouth of the phoenix, its spread wings acted as hand guards and the body made up the handle.

"Wow… may I?" Alanna asked reverently.

Gabrielle nodded. Alanna hefted the blade up, she hummed the weight was perfect. She started a drill her mother had taught her. She flicked the dagger over her fingers and across her hand. When she was done with the drill, she kept the dagger in her hand, testing its balance.

"She's sweet." Alanna murmured appreciatively.

Gabrielle looked at Alanna, surprised. "Who taught you how to do that?" She had never seen anyone do that… ever. Just watching Alanna do it had been a revelation, Alanna made using a dagger, handling that weapon into an art.

"My ma." She answered as she started the drill again at speed, the dagger moving so fast they could barely make out its movements. "She didn't expect me to master it," she said when the dagger came to a stop balanced on a finger. "She expects it of no one as it is not an easy thing to do. But when I did it without even really trying, she took me aside and told me what grandma told her." She carefully returned the dagger.

"What did she say?" Gabrielle asked, wondering what kind of insight her mother had.

Alanna smiled softly. "Some are born to the blade, it is an extension of who they are; some choose the blade because they have no desire to die; and others die by the blade as it conquers them. Like her, I was born to the blade."

Michelle was very interested in the conversation, wondering what Amy thought about Sage's almost unnatural way with the blade, "What does your ma say about Sage then?"

Alanna didn't have to think about that since her mother had the same conversation with Sage, "Sage was also was born to the blade, it's why she is so lethal with a sword. Our sister Electra is also born to the blade but to a different degree: she can't beat either Sage or me. Ma is still uncertain as to where the triplets fall and so far none of us can beat ma."

Gabrielle hesitated for a moment but then smiled. "Wait, I have something to show you." She walked to the back of her stall hurriedly and returned carrying a long box. Michelle quickly picked up her gift for Sage and watched as Gabrielle opened the box and removed the velvet cover, revealing a magnificent sword. Alanna's fingers itched to touch the sword: it was a long double-edged broad sword with a howling wolf holding the blade in place.

"Go on." Gabrielle encouraged.

Alanna carefully lifted the sword and stepped into the cleared area to test it. Her whole body quivered as the sword cut the air. Gabrielle felt chills creep up her spine, she didn't know why a year ago she felt compelled to make this sword but she made it anyway. When she had finished, tingles had gone up her spine. A week later, she had made another sword, one that she hoped she would never meet the wielder for but she knew she would. She just hoped the wielder was a good person. Today, when she met Alanna, she had felt this sword was meant for her. The shivers that went up her spine when Alanna started to wielded it confirmed her assumption.

Alanna gently returned the sword to its case and sighed regretfully. Such a fine weapon would cost her a fortune. "She's magnificent." Alanna closed the case reluctantly.

"Don't you want to buy her?" Michelle asked.

"More than anything in the world but such workmanship means she is beyond my means." Alanna walked away to keep from being tempted by the blade which seemed to call out to her, that seemed to be made for her.

Gabrielle watched her go, she felt sad that Alanna didn't feel that the sword, which was obviously hers, wasn't within her means. Michelle watched Alanna go and start to investigate another stall. She suddenly turned back to Gabrielle determinedly. "How much?"

"My standing price, twenty five khunts." Gabrielle stated hoping that Alanna would be able to buy the sword from her soon enough, she wouldn't sell it to anyone but her.

"Twenty five? Gabrielle this is some of your best work. I paid twenty five [just] for Sage's dagger." Michelle protested.

"Twenty five." Gabrielle responded firmly.

"Thirty and not a Khunt less, Gabrielle."

"Twenty five, and she is meant for Alanna so I'm not selling her to you." Gabrielle responded, picking up the box to take it away and stow with her things so that her assistant didn't accidentally sell it when she got back.

"Gabrielle, I'm buying it for her birthday gift. Take the thirty." Michelle argued.

Gabrielle nodded and offered Michelle a fist, which Michelle knocked with her own. "Deal done, you can settle later."

"Make sure her crest and name are on the box and the same with Sage's."

Gabrielle nodded, she knew the drill. "You better go find her. Tell her the price you worked me down to and that you asked me to keep it aside until she had worked up the price it might make her happy."

Michelle nodded and went off to find Alanna. She found her watching a smith working. "I managed to beat her down to twenty five khunts and she has agreed to keep it aside until you've saved the price."

Alanna smiled. "Sweet." She then frowned, noticing something else. "What's down there?" She asked as she pointed to a ringed structure which she could hear cheers coming from.

"The pit where the 'gladiators' compete for prizes." Michelle explained. She didn't actually like the pit, it seemed barbaric to her but she accepted that it was a part of their society.

"Can we go see?"

Michelle nodded, "of course."

They walked off in the general direction of the pit. Alanna veered off when she noticed a group of men who were goading a shackled and hobbled Santaur. Alanna had yet to meet one but there was no mistaking that this man was a Santaur. He was a prime example of his kind; long graceful legs that led to a powerful but lean body of a giant red deer. His human half was just as handsome as his deer half, broad powerful chest with long powerful arms. His neck was wide and strong to support his head and rack of antlers. He was perhaps only seven feet tall from head to hoof but he looked taller than that as the massive rack that sprouted from his skull made him appear bigger. It easily could be five feet wide with sharpened points which made them deadly weapons.

A Gephalim approached with a saw to cut the rack from his head. At that point, Alanna stormed forward and grabbed the hand that held the saw. She watched, as a woman who had wanted to rush forward was yanked back and held still, preventing her from racing to his aid. She was dressed simply in a cotton dress with a sash, which went, across from her right shoulder to left hip. Her hair fell in a long dark plait that went to her knees and complimented her coffee and cream skin tone; her honey brown eyes were fixed on the Santaur both with love and with fear.

"Why is this Santaur shackled?" She asked, clearly disapproving with what she saw.

The Gephalim glared at her. "Because I said so."

Alanna glared at him, "Because you said so is not a good enough reason."

He glared back at her, not used to being questioned by anyone, let alone an insignificant woman but he could not ignore her as others were gathering and seemed to agree with her. "He attempted to steal something from my house…"

"What did he try to steal?" Alanna asked, though she was sure the woman they were restraining was what he was trying to take. The fact they had to restrain her meant she was going willingly with him.

"None of your business, he is mine to do with as I please and he will earn me good money when I sell him to the gladiators." He sneered. "Hold him still I want his rack before he is killed." He barked at several of the men with him.

Several watching Santaur stomped their feet, not happy but unable to step in, having a rack forcefully removed was a big dishonour for their kind. However, they could not meddle in the affairs of Da'Vaila even if it included a member of their own race.

"I will wager everything in my purse that I can kick your arse." Alanna declared knowing that he would never back down from such an open challenge.

He was beginning to look amused as his eyes roamed over her. "And what do you want of me if I loose…" he cracked up laughing at the thought of losing to the tiny human girl.

"The Santaur."

His laughter stopped. "Depends on what is in your purse."

Alanna handed it to Michelle knowing he would never trust her word. Michelle quickly counted. "Twenty khunts." Michelle declared.

He continued laughing again. "Easiest money I have ever made." He declared.

"Double or nothing then." Alanna said, surprising him. "My purse and my breast plate for the Santaur and the woman your men are restraining." She declared.

His eyes went wide, for few ever wagered their breastplates; they were marks of honour. However, the man who had the breastplates of others and had won them in fair battle would rise in status. "Done little one. Any restrictions?"

"On you… no… me… yes." She took off her sword and gave it to Michelle, startling the woman. Alanna drew her dagger. "I'm ready."

He and his men cracked up laughing as they thought it was a big joke and smirked at each other. He stepped forward and drew his blade, confidence abound.

Alanna waited as he went to lunge and she was off. She stepped under his guard and around him. As he moved to keep up with her, she jumped using her free hand to grab a wing and pressed her dagger to his throat. Her legs wrapped firmly around his hips just in case. Everyone stared in surprise, they knew of no one who could move that fast… not to mention win that fast.

"I win." Alanna declared, just to make sure he wasn't going to do anything dishonourable.

"Yes." He admitted, not even panting… it was over so fast! "Who are you?" he demanded as she released him.

"Alanna." She answered while she sheathed her dagger, surprised that this man hadn't figured out who she was.

"Where did you learn to move like that, to fight like that?" He asked clearly shaken at the ease with which she had beaten him.

"My mother. It's the quick or the dead with her."

"The what?" He asked, perplexed.

"The quick and the dead. There are the two types of warriors, the quick and the dead. Against me you are in the dead category, against your own you are in the quick category." She explained.

He nodded. "Release her." He ordered. The woman was marched forward and pushed to Alanna. Alanna used her dagger to cut the sash from the woman's body, which declared which house she was a part of. Alanna quickly took off one of the sashes Jewel had tied around her waist and offered it to the woman who had a choice to make, put on the sash Alanna was offering her or become a nomad. She glanced to the man she loved, the wilds were not safe, and being a nomad was not an easy life style, she knew she had only one choice, so she quickly tied it on. It was simply not safe to wander without showing some form of allegiance to one of the houses.