Tigress (part 3)
Can I wrap this story summary up? Isn't that what a summary should do?
Okay, yadda yadda, meets childhood friend, yadda, self discovery, alright then I know where I'm at.
Tai-lan runs through the forest, headed for the central city and palace. The way that she is able to find home again, after so long and not having seen how she got there in the first place, is there's a basic proverb (is that what's it's called, it doesn't sound right) about the empire, "The sun is the gold of sky, and will always return to the palace." ...yeah, that needs work.
So she's able to find her way back to the main city fairly easily. She jumps the wall, not wanting to go through the gate and be recognized; her eyes would have given her away pretty quickly. Her tiger friends (who shall be called Maya and Suu until something better comes along) hide while she wanders the city, trying to figure things out. Also, to steal some nice threads. Can't be walking about in what amounts to an unsupportive bra and a butt-flap. While doing so, she also runs into her mother (co-incidence?) and there is hugging by all.
This is where I'm hitting a few snags. I need the new emperor to know that Tai-lan is in the city, because I need guards to go capture her, but don't know how to go about letting him know. My best idea so far is to somehow get the magician to know when she either leaves the prison tower, or re-enters the city. Something'll come to me.
The new emperor, by the by, is Tai-lan's half-brother, Haitel (not bad, but jeezus do I have no naming sense for this story), a boy barely ready to have his balls drop as to inherit the throne. But he is a brat ruler; ever seen the Chipmunk Movie? Go do it, I'll wait; okay, you remember the Arabian prince whom the Chipettes were part of his harem kidnapped love slaves entertaining? Yeah, kinda like that, only more dickish. So the magician makes his special soldiers, these skinny-ass wooden ninja-like things that he grows with magic and seeds. They are sent out to look for Tai-lan and bring her to the palace, while she is ironically trying to get into the palace.
To skip ahead bit, stuff happens, she's captured, Maya and Suu go to rescue, Tai-lan gets to look bomb-diggity in an Indian flared Chinese cheongsam, we get a fight sequence with a lot of those wooden ninja motherfuckers, I should note that they use little dagger/throwing knife/thorn things as weapons, and here we go!
So the magician, like he has been to past emperors, is bond by a loyalty oath I think he was tricked into, to never go against the wishes of his master. So when whiny Haitel says to stop her, he can only apologize to Tai-lan as he transforms himself by his magic into a giant...really, I'm not quite sure. He's a big mo-fo, and I picture something hairy and white furred, like a mini Colossus from Shadow of the Aforementioned, but then I remember that I also picture the magician as an African guy, kinda big around the belly, and then wonder what's wrong with me. But that's for a later topic.
Mainly, the whole setup there is a scene I've had since I started this "tamer" version of the story. Actually, two. The first is that Haitel grabs a handful of Tai-lan's long ass hair, and pulls it to try to force her to obey him. It's painful, and he's stupid. To get out of the hold, Tai-lan grabs a bunch of the thorn-knives the wooden tackle-dummies have spewed all over the place (holding three between her fingers like the claws of the tiger, aw, aren't I so damn clever) and she swipes back behind her and cuts her hair right off. Take that, Standard Female Grab Area! This is quickly followed by the magician using some magic hold on her, and the child-emperor crackling in glee as the spell holding her fucks with her tiger-magic whatever, forcing her body to change back and forth between the two forms rather painfully. We do get a glimpse of her as a tiger-furry, but this is in no way not painful as hell. Then Maya and Suu crash in and majority of the above happens.
The second part is Tai-lan taking down the big, furry...thing. It's big and slow, so she runs under his legs, transforming from tiger for speed to human for a power slide underneath, grabbing a thorn-knife along her way up a wall, to a tiger for a power leap (now holding the thorn in her mouth), back to human to slash at an overhanging chandelier (or something similar), to tiger for a rough, but manageable landing. I'm near down almost actually storyboarding this scene out, it's been going through my head for a few years now.
Resolution time; Haitel is overthrown, his rule not really being to the benefit of the empire in the first place, even with advisers, but being a spoiled brat he swears vengeance. Maybe. The magician is forgiven, he didn't have too much choice and is a pretty cool guy. Tai-lan, assumed to be returning and taking over as ruler, turns it down. She doesn't really want the throne, he wanted to confront her father, who, I should have mentioned, died of natural causes a few years back which is why Haitel was in charge. She has little idea of how to rule, no clue as to how the people in the empire are treated or any political knowledge, and frankly is more interested in eating new foods and experiencing the new world she now has access to.
As she is technically empress, she decides to go abroad to learn the lay of the land as it were. Keet will act as standing ruler, he having quite a broad knowledge of the empire and it's ways, having seen and been part of a lot it by association as courier; family connections didn't hurt either. Tai-lan's mother is brought back to the palace as another adviser for him. So it is publicly decreed that Lord Keet is ruler until such a time that Tai-lan can competently handle the station, and during the decree she and her tiger-siblings ride off in the back of a wagon.
I also want to say, Tai-lan and Keet never kiss. He goes for one near the end, but she holds back. I admit to most likely getting them together in a sequel later (maybe), but won't allow folding to the notion that they get together right at the end of this little mis-adventure. That's stupid, and quick love like that never sat well with me.
I know I left it pretty open-ended, and very open to more adventures. There is a reason (not always, but this time there is). When I came up with this originally, I was brainstorming multiple ideas for short stories to act out easily at libraries or bookstores to little kids. I also came up with Amery Lampkin, the Not-Captain but that's a stream-of-rant for another time. I wanted open-ended, because I wanted to be able to come back to this story and allow it to be a series of adventures of Tai-lan. What happens after she leaves? Where does she go? Who is the Black Lion tribe? I get her back to being empress eventually, but there are many things that happen until then. Kinda like Disney's Aladdin the Series between all the movies.
...I will admit, going back to the Zuko/Avatar references, I did giggle to myself at this idea for a scene; Tai-lan comes back from her journeying, and catches Keet with a woman who looks a lot like Katara. They're playing with a baby. Minor misunderstanding, she's actually his sister, and enter her husband who looks suspiciously like Aang. Stupid, but I liked it.
Okay, yadda yadda, meets childhood friend, yadda, self discovery, alright then I know where I'm at.
Tai-lan runs through the forest, headed for the central city and palace. The way that she is able to find home again, after so long and not having seen how she got there in the first place, is there's a basic proverb (is that what's it's called, it doesn't sound right) about the empire, "The sun is the gold of sky, and will always return to the palace." ...yeah, that needs work.
So she's able to find her way back to the main city fairly easily. She jumps the wall, not wanting to go through the gate and be recognized; her eyes would have given her away pretty quickly. Her tiger friends (who shall be called Maya and Suu until something better comes along) hide while she wanders the city, trying to figure things out. Also, to steal some nice threads. Can't be walking about in what amounts to an unsupportive bra and a butt-flap. While doing so, she also runs into her mother (co-incidence?) and there is hugging by all.
This is where I'm hitting a few snags. I need the new emperor to know that Tai-lan is in the city, because I need guards to go capture her, but don't know how to go about letting him know. My best idea so far is to somehow get the magician to know when she either leaves the prison tower, or re-enters the city. Something'll come to me.
The new emperor, by the by, is Tai-lan's half-brother, Haitel (not bad, but jeezus do I have no naming sense for this story), a boy barely ready to have his balls drop as to inherit the throne. But he is a brat ruler; ever seen the Chipmunk Movie? Go do it, I'll wait; okay, you remember the Arabian prince whom the Chipettes were part of his harem kidnapped love slaves entertaining? Yeah, kinda like that, only more dickish. So the magician makes his special soldiers, these skinny-ass wooden ninja-like things that he grows with magic and seeds. They are sent out to look for Tai-lan and bring her to the palace, while she is ironically trying to get into the palace.
To skip ahead bit, stuff happens, she's captured, Maya and Suu go to rescue, Tai-lan gets to look bomb-diggity in an Indian flared Chinese cheongsam, we get a fight sequence with a lot of those wooden ninja motherfuckers, I should note that they use little dagger/throwing knife/thorn things as weapons, and here we go!
So the magician, like he has been to past emperors, is bond by a loyalty oath I think he was tricked into, to never go against the wishes of his master. So when whiny Haitel says to stop her, he can only apologize to Tai-lan as he transforms himself by his magic into a giant...really, I'm not quite sure. He's a big mo-fo, and I picture something hairy and white furred, like a mini Colossus from Shadow of the Aforementioned, but then I remember that I also picture the magician as an African guy, kinda big around the belly, and then wonder what's wrong with me. But that's for a later topic.
Mainly, the whole setup there is a scene I've had since I started this "tamer" version of the story. Actually, two. The first is that Haitel grabs a handful of Tai-lan's long ass hair, and pulls it to try to force her to obey him. It's painful, and he's stupid. To get out of the hold, Tai-lan grabs a bunch of the thorn-knives the wooden tackle-dummies have spewed all over the place (holding three between her fingers like the claws of the tiger, aw, aren't I so damn clever) and she swipes back behind her and cuts her hair right off. Take that, Standard Female Grab Area! This is quickly followed by the magician using some magic hold on her, and the child-emperor crackling in glee as the spell holding her fucks with her tiger-magic whatever, forcing her body to change back and forth between the two forms rather painfully. We do get a glimpse of her as a tiger-furry, but this is in no way not painful as hell. Then Maya and Suu crash in and majority of the above happens.
The second part is Tai-lan taking down the big, furry...thing. It's big and slow, so she runs under his legs, transforming from tiger for speed to human for a power slide underneath, grabbing a thorn-knife along her way up a wall, to a tiger for a power leap (now holding the thorn in her mouth), back to human to slash at an overhanging chandelier (or something similar), to tiger for a rough, but manageable landing. I'm near down almost actually storyboarding this scene out, it's been going through my head for a few years now.
Resolution time; Haitel is overthrown, his rule not really being to the benefit of the empire in the first place, even with advisers, but being a spoiled brat he swears vengeance. Maybe. The magician is forgiven, he didn't have too much choice and is a pretty cool guy. Tai-lan, assumed to be returning and taking over as ruler, turns it down. She doesn't really want the throne, he wanted to confront her father, who, I should have mentioned, died of natural causes a few years back which is why Haitel was in charge. She has little idea of how to rule, no clue as to how the people in the empire are treated or any political knowledge, and frankly is more interested in eating new foods and experiencing the new world she now has access to.
As she is technically empress, she decides to go abroad to learn the lay of the land as it were. Keet will act as standing ruler, he having quite a broad knowledge of the empire and it's ways, having seen and been part of a lot it by association as courier; family connections didn't hurt either. Tai-lan's mother is brought back to the palace as another adviser for him. So it is publicly decreed that Lord Keet is ruler until such a time that Tai-lan can competently handle the station, and during the decree she and her tiger-siblings ride off in the back of a wagon.
I also want to say, Tai-lan and Keet never kiss. He goes for one near the end, but she holds back. I admit to most likely getting them together in a sequel later (maybe), but won't allow folding to the notion that they get together right at the end of this little mis-adventure. That's stupid, and quick love like that never sat well with me.
I know I left it pretty open-ended, and very open to more adventures. There is a reason (not always, but this time there is). When I came up with this originally, I was brainstorming multiple ideas for short stories to act out easily at libraries or bookstores to little kids. I also came up with Amery Lampkin, the Not-Captain but that's a stream-of-rant for another time. I wanted open-ended, because I wanted to be able to come back to this story and allow it to be a series of adventures of Tai-lan. What happens after she leaves? Where does she go? Who is the Black Lion tribe? I get her back to being empress eventually, but there are many things that happen until then. Kinda like Disney's Aladdin the Series between all the movies.
...I will admit, going back to the Zuko/Avatar references, I did giggle to myself at this idea for a scene; Tai-lan comes back from her journeying, and catches Keet with a woman who looks a lot like Katara. They're playing with a baby. Minor misunderstanding, she's actually his sister, and enter her husband who looks suspiciously like Aang. Stupid, but I liked it.