The Journey of a Thousand Miles... <backstory for a RP character>

[Keyblade Smitey]

Yes, here it finally is, sorry to keep you guys (and girls, DS) waiting! With any luck this will go beter than my last god-awful fanfic as this one has a plan!

Chapter One - Like a house on fire...
The hot, unrelenting African sun beat down on the desert like a malignant, flaming eye. Anything caught in its gaze at midday withered away like dust. Rising up out of the ocean of sand, a series of great, stone monuments, the only things unchanged in this land for over three millennia, cast immense, triangular black shadows over the dunes. In these shadows, the pitiful insects and other denizens of the red land huddled for shelter from the great, golden messenger of Ra overhead. As the implacable march of the burning sphere continued across the cloudless, azure sky, life slowly returned to the land and nowhere more so than in the city of Cairo. In the streets, merchants called out their wares in loud, lilting voices, trying to coerce or corner the many brightly-clad tourists with their flashing cameras and halting Arabic. In the coffee-houses, dark-skinned men with long beards chatted, drank and smoked, whiling away the hours. In the alleyways, children with bright eyes darted thither and yon, somehow managing to be in three places at once and getting in everyone's way.

Away from the main hustle and bustle, down one backstreet and in a relatively quiet courtyard, a group of lost-looking tourists were watching a rope-charmer and their mobiles were being wached by a trio of small pickpockets who were also half-watching the performance. The rope swayed and moved like a snake in time with the strange, piercing music from the small charmer's pipe. To most of the crowd it seemed like magic, an impossible feat achieved by the half-naked brown man on the mat, but one of the tourists was decidedly unimpressed. The tourist was a tall youth of maybe fourteen years, his hair was a kind of mousy-blond colour and his skin was pale, yet not a single bead of sweat formed on his brow. He wore Red cotton pantaloons with gold thread sewn into them and a drawstring waist, topped with a white Arabian shirt. The only things about him that wasn’t native were the pair of dark sunglasses perched over his eyes. As the rope descended into a coil of itself at the end of the performance the young teen stifled a yawn and muttered something that sounded distinctly like, “Amateur.” The crowd meanwhile, were applauding and demanding more, tossing the old man coins, so the old performer took up his pipe and began to play again, the rope once more jerking in time to the rhythm. The teenage sceptic rolled his eyes behind his glasses; he knew this trick was most likely just a cheep trick or a very simple piece of sympathetic magic with a piece of hemp from the rope placed inside the pipe and as it vibrated, so did the original rope. To any normal person, this might seem impressive and utterly amazing, but the boy had seen far more awe-inspiring feats of magic and said as much to himself. He then grinned and seemed to get an amusing idea, “What say we spice up the act huh? C’mon, it’ll be fun. Who cares?” he moved his fingers in a strange motion, whispering under his breath. To everyone’s astonishment (not least of which the rope charmer’s), the rope suddenly took off like a rocket, shooting fifty feet straight up into the air and falling down again with it’s tail end on fire! The crowd, with the exception of the teenager, ducked low as the rope sharply banked and shot over their heads, trailing smoke and flames. It floated in the air for a moment, then the other end sputtered and smoked and burst into flame too! Before their eyes, the flames at the new end flickered and formed themselves into a snake’s head, complete with two long blue flames for fangs. Orange tongues of fire traced down the rope-serpent’s back and formed magnificent golden wings of flame! The serpent then took off and circuited the square half a dozen times, performing aerial stunts and acrobatics much to the delight of the crowd. Coils, loop-the-loops, complicated knots traced in smoke and other marvels were order of the day, not to mention threading through the wheels of carts, orbiting the multicoloured stalls and their slack-jawed owners! Suddenly, after a particularly tricky backwards twist through a wheel of a pottery cart, coupled with a blazing loop, the flaming snake found itself face-to-face with an unexpected spice stall! It banked sharply, the youth in the crowd gritted, “I see it!” seemingly out of the blue and the serpent clipped one of the silk awnings with its tail, immediately setting it ablaze! The serpent coiled high into the air one last time, the youth clapped his hands together and the snake crumpled, landing on the blazing stall. KA-BOOM! Obviously some of those spices had been WAY too hot for any decent person. The crowd went ape, some applauded, some snapped pictures and some tried to help the frantic spice merchant put out his inferno of a shop!

The youth grinned at the chaos and began to slip away, “Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be here all week!” he muttered. Unfortunately one of the would-be pickpockets had been watching him and suddenly pointed at him, shouting something in Arabic. The young tourist didn’t know what it was, but judging from the look the spice merchant and some of the other tourists were giving him it was not good, “Time to go!” the teenager gasped and hurtled off, pursued by half the square. They ran through the back alleys of Cairo’s old town like a heard of dogs after a fox! The young man lead them a merry dance, often only just escaping in some improbably fashion none of the crowd expected, but they stayed on his heels like they were roped to him! Finally the escapee saw his chance. Running past a certain rope and flashing out the other end of the alley, he snapped his fingers and a small flame took hold of the rope. It burned through just in time to deposit a carefully stacked load of baskets on top of the pursuing crowd! The baskets had contained clean laundry, but by the time the crowd was done getting tangled, extricating themselves and trampling it into the dust, it was well in need of another cleaning. The teenager sped on, easily using his lead to escape the vengeful crowd. He leapt onto a ladder and nimbly climbed to the top of the sand-coloured building it was propped against. The boy sat, dangling his legs over the edge and apparently holding a one-sided conversation with himself. The really strange thing was that it was not going his way! “Great fun! Did you see the look on that rope-shmuk’s face when it took off? Priceless! Oh I wish I’d had a camera!” … “Oh yeah? What’re you worried about, we got away didn’t we?” … “Aw come on! You saw the size of that explosion! That guy got what he deserved, peddling devil-powder that hot!” … “Yeah? Jeeze, if it were up to you we’de never have any fun, ‘You’ve got to exercise restraint, don’t keep using…’” the boy noticed a black cat looking at him strangely next to him on the ledge, “What’re you looking at pal?” The boy flicked a finger at the cat and a sudden powerful gust of wind blew it off the edge. The cat flowed in mid-air the way cats do and landed perfectly on it’s feet, hissing back up at the teenage human who was back in his one-sided conversation, “What? Aw c’mon it was asking for it! Dodgy geezer looking at me like that!” … “For goodness sake it landed on its feet! What do you care if one cat kicks the can anyway?” The cat blinked irritably, looking in the way cats know how at the boy, seeming to have an aura around him from the setting red disk of the sun. The cat blinked again and stalked haughtily off to look for rats.
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Thus begins the story of Alid the cat! XD Lol, kidding. So what do you think?

[gene chaos]

took me a whole good minute to find it but good

[Divine Shadow]

first of all....OMG that was hillarious. I love it. It makes me think of something like a mix with this one movie i cant distictly remember the name of, and bartimaeus all over again, but in more modern times. LOVE IT....I actually posted in your old fan fic too....and no one ever posted again.......i wonder why that always happened.... I simply love it.....I am so subscribing....

[Keyblade Smitey]

Good to see such posative responses! I'll post the next chappy in a day or two to give the others time to read it.

[Divine Shadow]

oh please post the next chapter soon please....i am so excited....the first chapter was excellent...........please please please???

[Keyblade Smitey]

I'm sorry it's been a while. I've been burried under a ton of coursework, but the chapter is currently under production and should be ready for release either tomorrow or the day after. Please be patient, it will be worth the wait, I can assure you.

[Divine Shadow]

Thans for the update update Smitey....I cant wait. This is so good, and thats after only ONE chapter!! I am glad you posted though....and good luck!

[Keyblade Smitey]

Okay, despite the fact it is now obvious deadlines are alien to me, IT IS FINALLY HERE!

Chapter Two – Relaxing on the Nile
The next day the young teenager, today dressed in off-white shorts and T-shirt, lay stretched out on a sun lounger on the top deck a salubrious cruise ship. The desert scenery passed him by at a lazy pace and the cool breeze on his face as his ship sailed steadily down the Nile was welcome in the heat of the day. He reached for a nearly-empty glass of lemonade on the deck beside his lounger and pushed his ever-present sunglasses up his nose. “Mr Archris?” enquired a waiter who had somehow materialised beside the teen, “Will you be requiring more lemonade sir?” The teenager waved the waiter away with a slight, lazy shake of his head, “No thanks, I’m good for now.” Once the waiter had departed, the young man, whose name was obviously Archris, stretched out and placed his arms behind his head, “Ahh… I am SO glad I splashed out on this little trip!” Archris peered through his shades to check that he was alone on the sun deck. He needn’t have worried; all the other tourists enjoying the cruise were on the deck below him, making an annoyance of themselves in the on-board pool. The sound of splashes, shrieks, shouting and annoying high-pitched laughter drifted up and spoiled the otherwise perfect day for the young tourist. He pushed down his sunglasses, squinting in the glare of the sun for a moment, before unexpectedly opening his eyes fully, despite the bright sunshine. If anyone had been watching at that moment, they would have soon realised the reason Archris wore his shades nearly permanently; his eyes were different colours. One of his eyes was a clear, grey-blue, but his other was deeply unsettling to look at. His odd eye was crimson in colour, with its pupil a vertical slit like a cats, or a snakes. Archris blinked his mismatched eyes completely at ease, despite the blinding glare. “It’s okay Zorsan. The idiots are all down in the pool, there’s no-one here. So could you use my mouth now? It’s still weird hearing thoughts in my head that aren’t mine.” After half a moment, he opened his mouth again, but this time the voice wasn’t that of an adolescent boy. His voice was deeper, cultured and belayed some slumbering strength just below the surface, “As was saying, while this little distraction is indeed pleasant, are you sure it was wise to spend such a large amount of money in one go?” Archris sighed and answered himself in his normal voice, “Zorsan I told you, I’ve got it all figured out! We can’t stay in one place with our powers, so it would be best if we travelled. While travelling it is essential that we find out more about magic, hence our current trip to the pyramids. It’s only a matter of time before the British government discovers our connection with those ‘incidents’ back in England and freezes my account, so it makes sense to use it as much as possible before that happens.” Archris sighed and then proceeded to continue the conversation with himself, alternating between his normal voice and the deeper voice, that seemed to belong to an alternate persona.

After a while and a refill of his drink, Archris’ conversation ground to a halt with him silently fuming. To any observer it would appear that the young teenager was suffering from a severe case of split personality, but the truth was much more unbelievable. Archris soon fell into a doze in the heat of the sun, his mind drifting back over the past few months. If his memories could have been broadcast onto a screen, any observer would have believed they were watching a movie instead of actual events! Archris settled on his memories in hiding. A few years ago he hadn’t even chosen the name ‘Archris’, instead he was just Kyle, a young boy living in the south of England and hiding from a past that even now he avoided thinking about, pushing it into the deepest pit of his mind and pretending it never happened. Even then he had a rudimentary knowledge of magic and the arcane, but it may have never developed if he hadn’t become interested in demons. Hiding on the top floor of a condemned apartment block and clutching an ancient book of demon lore he had stolen from distant (and dysfunctional) relatives in Ireland, he had first summoned Zorsan as an experiment to test the waters of the demon world. To his and Zorsan’s surprise, their conversation passed most enjoyably, only ending when the strain of the mortal world became too much for Zorsan and he was forced to return to the demon world to recuperate. Over the next few weeks Zorsan’s summonings became a regular occurrence and as the weeks turned to months Zorsan and the young summoner became as close as brothers. There was always the problem however of Zorsan’s aversion to the mortal world. After a long time searching the book for an answer, Kyle finally hit upon a plan; Zorsan would enter into Kyle’s body, inhabiting the same space and sheltering from the corruption of the world with flesh and bone. After three days and nights of painstaking ritual and toil, the deed was finally done and the two entities were as one. Initially they encountered problems, as both their wills had a hold over the body’s muscles. Much pain and confusion ensued before they agreed Kyle should control the body until the situation called for them both to work as one. Other side effects included their tell-tale red eye and the fact that with Zorsan’s demonic powers, Kyle was now much faster, stronger and had sharper senses than before, including the ability to see onto the spirit planes, revealing more to his eyes than for other mortals. Furthermore, all of Zorsan’s demonic magic and power over wind, fire and lightning was now at Kyle’s command, giving him it must be said, a rather inflated ego. Finding himself now more demon than human, Kyle had shed his old name and taken the name ‘Archris’ in honour of Zorsan’s dead brother. The pair had then embarked on a journey to seek out any magical knowledge they could find, for their condition, as Zorsan pointed out, was unique and they needed to know more of the workings of magic before they could truly master all that now lay open to them. It had been Archris’ idea to come to Egypt; he knew from his studies that the ancient Egyptians had been great sorcerers and that the pyramids at Giza stood on a nexus of great magical power. So he had used what money he had and the pair came to Egypt, seeking answers.

Archris was rudely awakened from his doze by shouts and squeals from the lower deck. He heaved himself off his lounger and ambled lazily to the side of the boat, sipping from his lemonade. In the distance, emerging from behind a sand dune were a series of great pinnacles of rock, reaching high into the clear turquoise sky. Tourists snapped photos and pointed, shouting noisily, but Archris simply finished his drink and pushed his shades up his nose, “So, that’s Giza eh? A lot of pointy stone and sand and not much else. True, but perhaps somewhere here we can find what we’re looking for.” Archris watched gravely as the mighty stone structures, the only surviving wonder of the classical world, grew slowly as the boat moved gradually ever nearer to the gargantuan structures.

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Action comming next chapter, do not dispare!

[Divine Shadow]

FINALLY!! i am so glad you posted....thanks Smitey!!!!!WOOTNESS its awesome

[Keyblade Smitey]

I'll give it a couple more days before the next post, give the others more time to comment >_> *glares*

[Divine Shadow]

......POST PEOPLE POST.....GOD DAMMIT POST I SAY....... be right back....i have to go grab a couple machne guns..... *walks of to find everyone else*

[Keyblade Smitey]

Umm... *looks around embaresedly* I REALLY need to learn the meaning of 'deadline' because that's nearly what this fic' was! *waits for a laugh and none comes* Ahem... without further ado... CHAPTER THREE!

Chapter Three – An Explosive Welcome
Once the ship docked in Giza, Archris packed his meagre luggage into a rucksack and a shoulder bag, stepping off the boat with the other tourists. To any casual observer he just appeared to be taking an unusually large lunch and camera bag wit him. In reality the bags contained the sole possessions Archris had in the world – a pair of books on magic, one of them the very book he had used to summon Zorsan and a change of clothes. Archris made a point of travelling light. He separated himself from the main tourist party as soon as they entered the winding streets of the city and rapidly made his way to the outskirts, taking liberal use of shortcuts over the rooftops, “It’s amazing,” he commented as he leapt with ease across the gaps, “How little these people look up!” A few minutes later the duo approached a small wooden pen on the outskirts of town, containing several camels. Archris indicated the camels and hailed a man reclining in a chain just outside the pen, “Excuse me, how much to hire a camel?” The man raised an eyebrow and jabbered something in Arabic. Archris rolled his eyes muttering, “Good grief Zorsan, you’ve been around for over four thousand years and you never learned Arabic?” Archris felt a thought nudge into his head that had not come from his mind. This was Zorsan’s customary way of replying without attracting more attention. It’s not my fault! I was never summoned in Africa or the Middle East; I’ve never had a REASON to learn Arabic! Archris rolled his eyes and approached the camel man, trying again by speaking very slowly and clearly, “How, much, for, camel, hire, Effendi?” The man blinked in seeming recognition, “You, English?”
Archris frowned, “Yes, I’m English. That a problem?”
The camel merchant suddenly grew very animated and excited, “Ah English! You hire camel, yes Effendi? Ride like gentleman eh? Tally ho, tally ho!”
Archris kept his temper in check through extreme force of will, “For the love of… How much?”
“You hire camel yes? Nine pound for day yes? Is good bar-gin Effendi!” This type confused bargaining continued for a few minutes before Archris finally made it clear that, yes he would pay nine Egyptian pounds for the hire of a camel for the rest of the day. “I swear to god, if that had gone on much longer I would have given him nine pounds of a different kind!” muttered Archris as they rode away, “The first thing we’re doing when we get back to civilisation is buying a ‘Learn Arabic Kwik’ book!”

The ride over the desert was not a pleasant one. The mount Archris had been sold was old, bad-tempered, smelled awful and had a nasty gleam in its eye. In short it was much like any other camel. It did however seem to have it in for Archris, who, riding on the ‘ship of the desert’ for the first time was already getting sand-sick. It was a blessing in disguise really that the camel he was riding on kept stopping and throwing him off, as it meant Archris didn’t ever have enough time to get really green before his face met the sand. It was considerably annoying though, especially for someone with Archris’ size of ego and just when they reached their destination, the last straw came. The camel lurched to a stop, sending Archris hurtling forward over its head for the twentieth time and then compounded the insult by hocking a huge gob of saliva straight in its ex-rider’s face! Archris saw it coming, but being dazed from the fall, only succeeded in partially dodging and caught it all down his back. “Eargh! That’s IT! I have had it up to here with this GOD DAMN CAMEL!” Zorsan quickly interjected, sounding worried. Wait Archris, don’t do anything stupid!, “Too late bub! IT’S EXPLODIN’ TIME!!!” Archris drew back his right hand, fingers splayed and the light around it seemed to shimmer and bend like a mirage. Archris threw his hand forward and the shimmer leapt from his hand and impacted on the camel’s chest. There was a gigantic ‘BOOM’ that echoed round the stone pyramids and the camel was blown twenty feet into the air, a gaping and scorched hole in its body! It landed a good distance from Archris and promptly burst apart, allowing Archris to observe possibly the fastest and messiest dissection ever performed. There was silence for a moment before Zorsan spoke in Archris’ head. That… was… disgusting. I think… I’m gunna be sick. Hworp! Throwing up in someone’s mind is NOT a pleasant experience, so I won’t go into the details. Suffice it to say that Archris couldn’t look at porridge for several days.

When Archris was done shuddering, shaking his head and spitting like he had a bad taste in his mouth, he heard a shout from behind him. Turning and blinking rapidly, Archris saw four individuals approaching at jog. One of the group was only a kid, clad in designer gear that was about two years out of date. His companion was a middle-sized man wearing white desert gear that looked like something out of the 1920s, he was too far to make out his face, but a pair of flashes under his pith helmet indicated that he wore glasses. The other two were equally huge and dressed like regular tourists, with the exception that one of them had a nasty-looking handgun in his meaty fist and the other was reaching behind his back, presumably to arm himself similarly. Archris made a snap decision, those men had guns for a reason and Archris was not in a hurry to have his body pumped full of lead! Calling on the demonic speed he got from Zorsan, Archris sprinted over the sand, covering the distance between him and his attackers in a matter of seconds. He leapt at the man with the gun, who wasn’t expecting such aggression from the young teenager, let alone Archris’ speed and strength. Archris grabbed the man’s arm with his left hand, bringing his right hand down hard on the heavy’s elbow joint. Something cracked and the man yelled in pain, dropping his gun, whereupon Archris promptly kicked the weapon in one direction, whilst booting the man the other way. By this time the other guy had drawn his gun and almost had it out from behind his back when Archris’ knee connected first with the man’s crotch, then his face and the last thing he felt was Archris’ elbow crunching into his neck. Archris dropped the limp corpse, just as Zorsan took over his muscles, throwing him into a dive to his left. Behind you! There was the bang of a gun firing and bullet that had been meant for Archris’ head whined into the desert air. Archris vaulted upright to see the other gunman holding his weapon in his left hand, his right arm dangling uselessly by his side. “I see him,” muttered Archris to Zorsan, “Guy must have a higher pain threshold than I figured.” The gunman levelled his weapon at Archris’ head again with a scowl. Archris twitched his right hand at his side, flicking it towards the gunman. There was a roar of flames a sphere of fire leapt from Archris’ hand and incinerated the heavy’s head; the guy was dead before he hit the ground. Archris looked at his dispassionately, “No,” he said, “You don’t headshot Archris. Archris headshots you.” Archris looked around and blinked – the other two had disappeared! “Now what do you suppose they were doing here?” mused Archris, “Judging by the goons they weren’t here for holiday snaps. Isn’t this interesting!” But what about the pyramids? asked Zorsan, reading his protégé’s mood perfectly. “They’re not going anywhere! They’ve stood for over four thousand years, they’ll wait a little longer.” Okay, but what about the bodies? People will ask questions. Archris moved his hand in sinuous motions, “Bodies?” he asked as he started the long walk back to the city, “What bodies?” behind him a mysterious wind blew up over the desert, sweeping the red sand and dust through the corridors between the pyramids and burying the corpses of man and camel beneath a brick-red blanket.

POST PEOPLE, POST! The next chappy WILL be up inside a week!

[Divine Shadow]

FINNALY....A new chapter.....i simply adore your cunning with this story. I love how Archris is only a teen and speaks down to people.......and the exploding camel........interesting.....i will never look at porridge the same agin...........i have a violent imagination with stuff like that.....so........yeah....love it......im glad you wrote something....although deadlines are something you seem to lack the capacity for...hehehehe

[Divine Shadow]

I am keeping this fanfic alive.....VIVE LA FANFIC!!!! did i really just say that....bee right back...need to go insane... *walks off and screams into a pillow* oh and new chappy please!

[Divine Shadow]

smitey....pleasepost a new chappie soon.....THANKIES