Burn! Chapter 1 - The Lyst Tree

Two figures walked down the semi-forested mountain trail. Their location, naturally, was in Japan, and their destination appeared to be the volcano known as Mount Hiei. However, these weren't normal travellers, and it could be easilly told so, upon just a first look. Of course, it wouldn't be normal for anyone to be travelling to the mountain at this point in time, as it was. It was in the middle of the afternoon, and the gathering fog rather quickly.

The two appeared to have major differences between them. There was a shorter one, and a taller one. The shorter one appeared to be a young boy with fox ears, and a fox tail. He appeared to be half fox, or kitsune rather, but in actuallity a full kitsune with the forced ability to appear semi-human in order to converse. The taller one looked to be even more interesting, appearing to be a tall female, with dragon wings on her back.

"Hey Kazedama-sama, whats wrong?" The young kitsune inquired to his travelling companion, Kazedama. After recieving no response for three minutes, he jumped in front of Kazedama, forcing her to stop and look down at him, "I saaaaiiiid - whats wrong?"

"...nothing." Kazedama stated as she pushed the kitsune out of her way, and continuing to walk the path towards the mountain.

The kitsune's muscles below his lower left eye began to twitch, and he huffed as he tightened his fists angrilly. But, instead of doing anything, he released a sigh and began to walk alongside of Kazedama once again. This just seemed to be how it went between the two, but they were together at the moment.

"...Miru." Kazedama spoke to the kitsune, Miru, as she came to a stop.

"Yesh?" Miru inquired happily as he stopped, too.

"...are you sure this 'Lyst' sap is actually on that mountain?"

"Yesh yesh!" Miru proclaimed happilly, and continued to walk down the trail, Kazedama pausing a moment, and proceeded to keep the pace by walking fast, with Miru trying to keep up.

It was sudden, though, when Miru stopped walking. They had reached the trail that lead up into the mountain, but Miru had seemed to have smell something. He sniffed the air a few more times, then quickly allowed his body to shift. This shift had turned him from half kitsune, to full fledged kitsune, in a quick movement. From there, he ran ahead of Kazedama without any warning. Kazedama, obviously supposed to follow, didn't seem to care, and continued her pace up the mountain trail.

"...his sense of smell will be the death of him." Kazedama stated with a sigh.

The fog had gotten much more dense by then, dense enough to make it very difficult to see anything past six feet from one's face. In fact, almost impossible. Kazedama, however, seemed uneffected by this, and simply continued her pace up the path. She had concluded, silently, that she'd see Miru again, and he would most likely provide her with information as to the exact whereabouts of the 'Lyst' sap.

However, Kazedama came to a stop when the reason to Miru's flee arrived. At least, came close to arriving. Her ears twitched as she heard the movements, and he moved her right arm up, the rather massive battle-axe seemed to have appeared from nowhere. A white ribbon was tied below the axe's blade, yet the axe still appeared to be intimidating nonetheless.

Without any warning, the demons came. Their reasons were unknown, but intentions obvious. Simply judging by the speed of their approach, it was made entirely obvious that they were after Kazedama's life. She appeared to not care at all, in fact, she let out a rather annoyed sigh. They were just ordinairy demons, nothing that could be of any harm to her.

"Its the end of the road for you!" The leader of the group of demons shouted as he pointed towards Kazedama.

Kazedama, without any words spoken at all, turned her head to the side, to gaze at the short, overweight demon that lead the group. In an almost invisible movement, due to it's ferocious speed, a shower of crimson sprayed the rest of the demons. The sounds of bones splitting arrived, and it could be now seen...Kazedama standing before the leader, her axe imbedded through his skull, and quickly moving down through his body. A cloud of smoke erupted as the axe left the center of the demon's body, and imbedded into the ground at an extremely fast pace.

As soon as the other demons made an attempt to attack, Kazedama's figure had dissappeared. Another demon had half of his body removed, except horizontally, this time. After another of the demons recieved a diagonal strike through his body, Kazedama came to a sudden realization, which was rather painful, at that. It was a trap.

She stopped where she stood, which was in mid run towards another of the enemies, and tore what looked to be a crossbow bolt from her shoulder. She snarled then, glaring at the enemy before her. Quickly, her axe met his throat, and the demon's head was severed. But, the speed of her attack had decreased heavilly. Another bolt hit her in the back, and Kazedama snarled again.

'I can't move...what the hell is going on here?' Kazedama thought to herself, before her vision began to blur. 'This is no good...that had to be poisono-' though, he train of thought was interrupted by unconciousness.

Light came into Kazedama's eyes, like hitting a brick wall. She shielded her eyes with her arm, and squinted slightly as her eyes began to adjust to the light. When this happened, she quickly jumped up, and took notice of her surroundings. A room, a bed, a pile of pillows. She looked around quickly, mainly for her axe, and noticed it leaning against the doorway out of the room. She then narrowed her eyes...nothing had seemed to change, except her wounds had stopped hurting.

The light sound of a yawn came from the pile of pillows, and Kazedama looked towards it out of the corner of her eyes. There lay Miru, in full, three tailed kitsune form, curled into a ball and sleeping like a baby. Without paying much attention to this, Kazedama retrieved her axe, and left the room. Naturally, Miru would find her when he woke up.

It was a house that she was in, though the reason she was there was confusing. Upon exitted through the front door, Kazedama found herself at the top of the mountain. Or, at least near the top. The trail continued for another mile, in which ended at the very peek of the mountain. A man sat on the ground, before a bucket of water, washing his clothes by hand. He appeared to be some sort of samurai, wearing a light blue hakama and gi outside. His hair was shoulder length, and green in color. The samurai appeared to be in his late twenties, and possessed only a scar on his arm.

"You really should watch out for crossbows when you're fighting. They can really be painful, especially when the bolts are tainted." The samurai spoke calmly, as it seemed that he knew Kazedama was behind him.

"...who are you?" Kazedama nearly growled.

"Kalyan. Many refer to me as the Hermit Kal." The samurai replied, but wasn't finished, "And before you ask as to why I helped you, it is because I'd prefer no blood be shed on this mountain. Menacing demons, however, are exceptions."

Kazedama turned her head away from the man, whom had referred to himself as Kal. She spoke no more, and stared off at the trail. A slight bit of thought passed through her head, as to why a total stranger would help her when she was in a rather tight squeeze such as before. Needless to say, the thought also hit her that crossbows were bad, and must always be taken into account.

"...thank you." Kazedama spoke her thanks to the hermit Kal.

"I hope you don't mind me asking a personal question...but what are you searching for here, anyways?" Kal inquired as he finished hanging his clothes to dry, and turned to look at Kazedama.

After considering that Kal had helped her, and appeared to be no more than a simple hermit, Kazedama found herself capable of answering, "...the peak of this mountain holds an important relic for me."

Kal's smile faded with Kazedama had spoke those words. He seemed to have taken a serious tone to that, but he regained his smile quickly when Miru walked out of the house, stretching widely and yawning, he was in half kitsune form then. Miru looked to Kazedama and then to Kal, and smiled as he gave his thanks to Kal for giving him a place to sleep.

"Why do you live so far up this mountain, anyways?" Miru inquired, small talk.

"I wanted to get away from the chaos in the rest of the world. This is the only escape available. I'm as I always have been, just a simple hermit." Kal spoke those words with a smile.

"...we have to be going." Kazedama stated as she continued down the path once again, Miru waving to Kal as he followed behind.

Kal waved back to Miru, maintaining his smile, but it faded when they were out of sight. Kal looked down to the ground, his fist clenched. He looked back down the trail, then entered his house rather quickly. It seemed imperative that he was to do something, then. What, however, was up in the air.

"He was a really nice guy. We should drop by on our way back, Kazedama-sama." Miru stated towards Kazedama as he walked alongside of her.

Naturally, no response was made on Kazedama's part. She concentrated souly on the path before her, now, and nothing else. The kindness of the samurai had been taken, and she had given him her thanks. That was all the consideration she had given the situation. The path split now, from going to the peak, and to the left, where a small cavern lie.

Miru, of course, took the lead, and ran down the path into the cavern. Kazedama followed at her own pace. The middle of the cavern gave way to the image of the tree, in which the cavern came to an ubrupt ending after the circular area that housed the large tree. A great deal of flora exsisted in the circular area, and obviously had been cared for diligently by tender hands.

Though, as soon as Kazedama approached the tree, she stopped, and turned her head to the side, to look towards the entrance to the cavern, where a voice called out to her, "I am sorry, but you cannot allow you to touch the Lyst Tree."

The image of the samurai hermit that had taken care of them accompanied the voice. He walked down the path, and stopped only feet away from Kazedama. A wakazaschi was held over his shoulder with his right hand, and in his left he held what appeared to be a small, hand held cannon. Black powder had been packed into it already, and all it required was a spark to fire off a shot.

"Whats going on, Kal?" Miru asked hesitantly, cautious of the hermit.

"I am Kalyan Lyst..." He spoke under his breath, regrettingly.

"...and you guard this relic." Kazedama finished what Kal was about to say, turning her body to face him.

"Please leave this place. Travellers are not supposed to be in these gardens." Kal spoke, once again with a regretful tone.

Kazedama held out her axe, both hands holding onto it tightly. She put one foot back behind her, and assumed a position in which would give her a chance to attack. With her axe readied, Kazedama awaited Kal's next move, subconciously hoping that he would stand down. Meanwhile, Miru ran away once again, hiding in the brush. He whimpered slightly, as he didn't want to see Kal or Kazedama to be hurt.

"I apologize...but this garden is sacred. It is a rare relic, and greedy travellers must not trample upon it." Kal stated as he held out his wakazaschi, assuming a fighting stance, as well.

"...so be it." Kazedama replied as she rushed towards Kal, her movement was in a flash due to it's incredible speed.

Kal, however, knocked the axe away from him without much difficulty. Sparks flew as his wakazaschi knocked the axe off of it's target, which appeared to be his shoulder. The axe passed by, and Kazedama once again moved to attack as soon as she landed. Aiming for his back this time, Kazedama's axe met Kal's wakazaschi once again, except the two blades clashed, and held for the moment.

Kazedama's speed had once again lessened. However, it wasn't from poison this time. But, from holding herself back. The image of Kal, smiling and referring to himself as a simple hermit plagued her mind, even when she looked to the Kal she was fighting. This resulted in holding herself back, which seemed to be why Kal possessed the upper hand.

Kal went on the offensive this time, making an array of strikes towards Kazedama. For the most part, she blocked these with the large blade of her axe. However, after enough strikes, she found it difficult to defend against them anylonger, and took to dodging away from them. Ducking away to the side of the tree, Kazedama once again readied for another attack on her part.

"Judging by your skill with such a large weapon, I'm beginning to wonder as to why you're fighting ineffectively." Kal stated as he turned, ready for a counterattack.

"We're not greedy travellers!" Miru shouted suddenly as he stood up, "Kazedama is just trying to help her-"

Miru was cut off, though, by Kazedama shouting "Shut up!!" and rushing towards Kal once again.

Kal parried all of Kazedama's strikes, and forced most of them to land onto the ground. He began to hold back then, though, as something now troubled his mind. Helping? He began to consider Kazedama's reasons then, and the conclusions made him regret fighting her even more. It wasn't that he was afraid of dying...he just found himself regretting the decision of not letting Kazedama take some of the sap from the tree, due to her reasons being justifiable.

Kazedama made a heavy attack for once, but her blade seemed to pass through air. Instead, Kal was seen atop Kazedama's shoulders, kicking off of them, and launching himself towards the tree. Kazedama quickly turned to attack again, but stopped when she saw Kal standing before the tree, with a pouch he had at his side out, and holding it up to one of the tree's branches.

"I am very sorry." Kal spoke as he filled the pouch with sap, "I misjudged you, and for that, I owe you this."

"You mean...you're not going to fight us?" Miru asked quickly as he jumped out of the brushes, and stood beside of Kazedama.

"I've no reason to fight against those with a justifiable cause. To help another is honorable..." He paused a moment, looking to Kazedama, "I also noticed that you are not greedy travellers, simply in your attacks. You held back when it came to fatal blows. Whatever the reason, that does show a lot of character." Kal smiled widely as he said this.

Kazedama caught the pouch when Kal tossed it to her. She nodded to Kal, then turned away, towards the cavern's exit. Miru ran ahead again, but returned to approach Kal once again. Kazedama stopped and turned back to Kal and Miru, almost curious as to what Miru had to say, for once.

"Thanks for everything." Miru stated with a smile to Kal.

Kal nodded to Miru, giving him a "Think nothing of it" as a reply. As Kazedama and Miru left the cavern, Kal spoke to them once again, loud enough for them to hear it, yet not shouting, "I bid you fairwell, and wish you luck." As Miru and Kazedama dissappeared into the returning fog, Kal shut his eyes and spoke to himself, "Perhaps, someday, word of you will reach this simple hermit."