Faulty Hierarchy

Antarctic Pixies ( Fisique Attaquer)

Part One

AN: Just to make this easier to follow (and because Luci promised), we wrote some profiles for the characters intro'd in this chappy.

This group of charas is Luci's favourite, so enjoy it!

XxX

Cerin: The queen, she is the final authority on all political and military decisions. She is unmerciful, the complete opposite of her Northern counterpart. She symbolizes the Antarctic pixies’ use of physical attacks. Extremely territorial, she spends a large amount of her time ‘punishing’ creatures and humans who dare to encroach on her land. She keeps it a secret, but her father was a faerie, and as a result she has concealable wings and can fly. She doesn’t reveal this because “dirty-blood” is a weakness in their society and she would probably be overthrown.

Kaihl: As a man, he is inferior to all women, but being married to Cerin, he has the highest standing of all the males. He hates Cerin, but loves his gaurenteed job as head of the male branch of the military.

Sandrha: The oldest daughter of Cerin and Kaihl. She’s the heir to the throne, but she doesn’t want it. She spends most of her time with her cousin Lukhas, watching the artisans in the main village or exploring the far reaches of their territory.

Elahnor: The youngest daughter of Cerin and Kaihl. She doesn’t really have a title, other than ‘Princess’, and as she isn’t poised to inherit anything, she basically distances herself from the royal family, going as far as to dye her white hair blue. She’s three months pregnant (gestation period is seven months for pixies… another ‘fact’ I made up…) but no one notices. When she goes into labour, she doesn’t tell anyone and suffers through it to deliver the baby herself. When the baby is born with silver hair and black eyes, she is forced to kill it herself. Driven mad by grief, she stands in the middle of the battlefield right before the apocalypse and allows Elar to make her the first sacrifice (I’ll go into more detail about that later).

Rahben: The only son of Cerin and Kaihl. He is typically treated as though he doesn’t exist by everyone except his father, who is training him to become the leader of the male branch. He’s also the father of Elahnor’s baby, which is why they didn’t tell anyone that she was pregnant.

Keiti: Cerin’s younger sister and Kaihl’s sister-in-law. Since she is younger than Cerin, she was made the commander of the primary military, the female branch. She is one of the few who loves Cerin rather than fear or respect her. She refers to her exclusively as “big sis”, unless she’s angry.

Brisohn: Keiti’s husband and second-in-command of the male branch. He is the only male that Keiti treats as an equal, so most people are jealous of him. He’s truly in love with Keiti, and although theirs was an arranged marriage, it turned out for the best.

Lukhas: The only son of Keiti and Brisohn. Keiti was unable to have any other children after Lukhas, and so forfeited any chance to the throne. He’s a kind-hearted boy who hates to fight, but he joined the military to protect his cousin Sandrha.

Faulty Hierarchy

Antarctic Pixies: Part I

01072007 – 0231A

Keiti focused her eyes on the target, a cheerfully-coloured crimson dot on a blanket of white, and pulled back on the bow, savouring the tension in the string before the sudden reprieve and satisfying thwong of release as the arrow went sailing through the air.

Keiti watched, her eyes cold as her target fell, a new source of crimson blossoming out over the snow. She shook her head to discourage the white wisps of hair from her face and turned to go back to the palace, her weapon now hanging, as lifeless as the man in the snowdrift, at her side, her quiver strapped to her back.

She ran, her fur boot-clad feet barely seeming to touch the snow as she went. Indeed, she left no footprints, no trail to leave any clue as to the identity of the human’s assailant. As she approached her destination a feeling of dread grew in the pit of her stomach. Cerin wasn’t going to like this one bit.

“Big sis!” she gasped out, bursting through the doors of the audience chambers. “The humans have advanced another decameter. I eliminated the only one I could find but—”

“Keiti, remind me of your occupation,” Cerin asked coolly, fixing her ice-blue eyes on her younger sister.

“Commander of the primary military of the Order of the Antarctic,” Keiti said, bowing her head.

“Heavy title. I wonder sometimes if you can carry it.”

“What… what do you—”

“Do your job, Keiti, or I will find someone who will!”

Keiti nodded, her jaw set, as she turned and hurriedly left the chamber. Her sister was right. What had Keiti hoped to achieve by running to her? It was her job, and she had to do it.

XxX

“Did you hear the rumours from up north?”

Rahben glanced out of the corner of his eye at the two men who were talking in hushed voices. The shadowy, smoke-filled pub was nearly empty, and as the prince took a sip of his mead he could hear every word of the supposed discreet conversation.

“About wha’? Tha’ girl?” the first man’s companion asked, looking around carefully. The Order of the Antarctic worked hard to maintain their severance from the outside world, and anyone found to have ties with it could be tried for treason. It was dangerous to gossip and Rahben almost laughed at this man’s audacity.

Not that either of the customers could know who was listening. The prince had concealed himself in his heavy slate-coloured traveling cloak, the attire of commoners, as opposed to his white fur robes.

“Yeah, they say that Elar has been found, and that the prophecy has been activated. And you know, that means the end of us all.”

“I’ve ne’er seen no jatoura meself… Wha’ d’they look like?” the second man asked.

“They got these great leathery black wings and sharp claws that they use to pry out the eyes of their victims. Probably do it to the whole world. I can’t imagine how one little jatoura would be the end of us, otherwise…” the man trailed off, staring down at his drink, seemingly forgetting what he was saying. After a moment he looked up and spoke again, his voice dropping another few decibels so that Rahben had to strain to hear his words. “The worst thing about them, though, is their eyes. White, they are. No pupils or nothing. Just empty. It’s bad cause, you never know where they’re looking, and once you do…” The man was silent again and Rahben saw him pick his hand up off of the table and jab two fingers at his eyes. “Too late…”

XxX

“Lukhas, look at this!” Sandrha exclaimed, waving her cousin over to the shop window she was positioned by. Lukhas approached the window as well, looking where the oldest princess pointed.

Two long daggers were crossed on a red velvet pillow, their silver hilts glinting with sapphires and pearls. The blades had to be about sixteen inches long.

“Aren’t the perfect?” she breathed. Lukhas shrugged. He had no real appreciation for weaponry.

“Why don’t you buy them?” he asked. “You’re in line to command the military.”

“Yeah, but I’m not still going to be here when that time comes,” Sandrha muttered. Lukhas shook his head.

“I wish you would stop with that running away nonsense. We both know it’s not possible, and you’re going to cause an uproar if any of the villagers hear you.”

“It’s not nonsense. I won’t get trapped into this future that I don’t want.” Sandrah glanced longingly at the daggers. “Still, let’s go inside and warm up, shall we?” she asked, drawing her traveling cloak closer around her body as she walked to the door of the shop. As she walked in, a little bell on the door tinkled merrily and the shopkeeper looked up uninterestedly. After a grunted “Mornin’” he went back to the ledger on his desk.

Lukhas and Sandrha lowered the hoods from their cloaks, letting their white hair be exposed. When the shopkeeper looked up once more and saw this, he was silent for a moment as he ran his hair through his own pale cerulean locks before standing quickly and bowing.

“M-my apologies, your highness,” he stuttered. “I did not realize—”

“It’s fine,” Sandrha muttered.

“C-can I help you with anything?”

”No, we’re just warming up for a moment.”

“Very well, your highness, but if you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask,” the shopkeeper said, bowing once more.

Sandrha nodded and turned her attention to the display window.

“Just buy them,” Lukhas said impatiently. Sandrha shook her head.

“I have no use for such things.”

XxX

“Go home, Kaihl,” Brisohn said wearily to his brother-in-law as he stuck his head into the man’s office. He shook his head.

“And listen to Cerin bitch all night? I think not,” Kaihl said. “I think it’ll be another late night at the office.”

“Hmm… Well, while you’re here you might want to take a look at this,” Brisohn said, dropping a file onto the commander’s desk. “It came from primary this morning. It can’t be very important, if they’ve sent it on to us, but it’ll give you something to do.”

Kaihl opened the folder, picking up a photo lying on top of the papers. There was a girl with long brown hair smiling to the camera, the grin not quite reaching her cold, bored eyes.

“Liana Ripnu,” Kaihl read the report. “Who’s she?” Brisohn shrugged.

“I haven’t read it. I’ve gotta get home to Keiti and Lukhas. Have a good one,” he said, shuffling out of the office.

XxX

AN: I managed to introduce everyone except Elahnor, which is good…

This kind of reads funny to me, since they don’t sound like pixies at all. But I guess since they see themselves as normal… It’s all in perspective, right?

Oh well, on to the Order of the Arctic!

--Fork Meets Toaster