ORIGIN OF THE NICKNAME "SHADOWALKER"
PART OF THE STORY TENTATIVELY TITLED "EARTHCROSSER"

CAST:
Alexandra, the heroine
Edward, her eldest brother
Darius, her other older brother
Master Fairchild, the mysterious swordsman

EXCERPT:
(Set when Alex is 9 years old.  Meant to be a flashback at some point 
in the story.)

The training grounds of the castle were never really off-limits to 
Alex.  It was the training itself that she couldn't participate in.  
Still, she often showed up anyway, mostly out of curiosity, and a maybe 
little bitterness, she'd also admit.  Being trained in the ways of war 
was just another thing her two elder brother did that she was excluded 
from.

At least they let her watch.  A small concession, she had to admit.

Today was a special day, too, and she had been looking forward to it 
for an entire week.  Master Fairchild, a world-renowened swordsman and 
tactician, had come to stay for a while and teach her brothers.  It was 
exciting, having such a powerful and famous warrior in their castle.  
Alex smiled broadly as she walked into the practice arena.  Something 
good was going to happen, she just knew it.

"Halt!" shouted Master Fairchild.

Then again, Alex thought, I've always had bad luck with prophecies.  
"Er, y-yes?" she stammered.

"You.  You have tread on my shadow."

"Really?"  Alex glanced at her feet, noting that she was, indeed, 
standing in the master's shadow.  "Is that a bad thing?"

Edward shouted, "Of course it's a bad thing!  You DO NOT walk in a 
warrior's shadow!  It's--"

Master Fairchild held up one hand, cutting Edward off.  When he 
protested, Darius poked him with an elbow.  Fairchild turned to face 
Alex.  "One does not step on a warrior, and one does not step on the 
shadow he casts.  For warriors command the utmost of respect, 
ESPECIALLY," he paused and stared Alex directly in the eyes, "from 
their pupils."

"I'm afraid I'm not your pupil, sir.  I'm just here to observe."

"Really."  The master knelt at Alex's level.  He whispered, "Then you 
should be even MORE respectful."

"Of what?" she retorted, suddenly angered.  "Your shadow?  It's not 
even tangible!  It's just the pattern left when you block the light of 
the sun!  Look, when the sun changes position, your shadow moves, 
changes shape, shrinks and grows--sometimes it's dark, sometimes it's 
light.  What if you're surrounded by lights, then you don't even HAVE a 
shadow.  It's no more a part of you than...  than the air you breathe!"

Master Fairchild stood suddenly, and Alex trembled with the fear that 
she'd done something terribly, terribly wrong.  She glanced at Edward 
and Darius.  Edward was turning a furious shade of red and looked half-
ready to strike her down with his sword, while Darius just looked 
vaguely fearful.

Then Master Fairchild laughed, shattering the tension.  "For such a 
little one, you're quite wise.  I've never heard such words from 
anyone, not even my most gifted students."  He reached behind his back 
and withdrew a black silk wrapped object.  With a flourish, he knelt 
before Alex and offered her the bundle.

She carefully unwrapped it, revealing a short dagger with an ornately 
carved hilt and scabbard.  The blade was specially tempered so that it 
had a matte black cast.  "I...  cannot accept this," she said, her 
voice strained with shock.  "It's--"

The master closed her small hands around the dagger.  "It's a gift.  
For the Shadowalker, the first of my pupils to speak what is never 
spoken."  As Alex began to protest again, he shushed her with a quick 
hand motion, stood, and smiled.  As he led her brothers off to 
practice, Alex moved to the edge of the training ground to watch.  
Darius waved and smiled at her, while Edward ignored her completely, as 
was typical.  It didn't matter, she thought, examining the dagger.  
This was better than getting on Edward's good side.

---
NOTES:
Argh, what a weak ending.  9_9  Remember, folks, this is a first draft.  
A sick, sad little first draft.  I'll leave it alone for a week, then 
see what I can do.  Short of setting it on fire and chucking it out the 
window, that is.

For those who would ask, this is part of Earthcrosser, which is another 
dream-brewed story I've been working on lately.  If it ever gets 
finished, it's gonna be a long, weird war epic with slight shojo 
leanings.  Be afraid.

I got the idea for this little story-thing from a passage in a book on 
samurai that I'm currently reading.  (I'm a sucker for history books.  
^^;)  Somewhere it was mentioned that walking in a warrior's shadow was 
a punishable offense.  Those wacky samurai, geez.  Get a grip, folks, 
not everything is an affront to your warrior-ness, and you don't need 
to cut people's heads off 'cause they sneezed in the same room as you.  
Oh, wait, that's long past.  Nevermind.

Heh, wanna hear something rather funny?  I went back to the book to 
look up the specific reasons why a pupil does not walk on his master's 
shadow, but I didn't remember exactly where in the book it was 
mentioned.  So I opened to a random page.  There it was, on THAT PAGE.  
How lucky am I, huh?

I'm such a dork.  :b

nem0--03-25-2001-0108