word: yare

yare

\ yair \  , adjective;

1. quick; agile; lively.

2. (of a ship) quick to the helm; easily handled or maneuvered.

3. Archaic.  a. ready; prepared. b. nimble; quick.

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                 It was a bright, warm spring day.  The kind that fills the soul with a pleasant, content happiness.  The sun was shining with not a cloud to be seen.  Birds sang as they fluttered around the trees and buildings in the small village.  The sounds of a child laughing filled the streets.  It was immediately followed by frustrated cries and the clatter of steel on stone.

                “Hold still, damn you!”  Lars cried out after missing his target.  The little girl he had been targeting simply bounced around and laughed at him tauntingly. 

                “You know you’re not going to catch it that way, right?”  Caruss said, leaning on one of the nearby buildings.  He hadn’t even tried to help his companion, and had no intention of aiding the fruitless endeavor.  Lars simply stared daggers at the larger man.

                “I can, and I will.”  He said stubbornly.

                “Oh please.  You can’t even catch a regular rabbit.  How do you expect to get this one?” 

                “Yeah, yeah!  You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”  The girl said, popping in right behind Lars.  He shouted and spun around, swinging one of his swords as he did.  The girl laughed and dashed away long before the blade got to her. 

                The girl was not human.  She was a rabbit that had been the form of a human for some unknown reason.  At first glance, she appeared to be a girl of about seven or eight.  However, when looking closer, it became apparent that she was not.  Her hair was grey with a darker stripe down one side, and her eyes were large and black, and had a large grey spot around one of them.  Her feet and legs were slightly larger than those of a human, and her arms and hands slightly shorter.  When she opened her mouth, one could see that her two front teeth were much more pronounced than normal as well.  The most obvious difference though, was that she had the long ears of her original species instead of those of a human. 

                When she had been changed, the rabbit had became both clever and mischievous, making a great deal of trouble of the people of the village in which she had taken residence.  While she had never actually harmed anyone, she had disrupted daily life enough that the people had asked the trio to capture her so she could be returned to her original form.  The problem was that the speed and agility she had as a rabbit had been magnified greatly upon gaining a human form.   

                The trio had of course come prepared for it.  They had brought in numerous arcane traps and hid them around the town.  The trouble was, the rabbit-girl had a knack for avoiding them.  She had taken to jumping around very close to one of the traps, often getting within a few inches of one.  But, she always managed to avoid it. 

Since the traps weren’t working, Lars had started to try and subdue her in a more forceful method.  But, she was far quicker than him, and agile enough to turn on a dime even while moving at full speed.  It was an effort in futility for him to catch her.  But, he stubbornly persisted, having long since viewed catching her as a matter of pride more than anything.

                “Shut up dam it!”  He shouted at the girl.  She just laughed and dashed off, changing directions seemingly at random.  Lars turned to look at his companions.  Caruss just stood by watching.  Grena seemed to be greatly enjoying the show.  “You know, you two could help me.”

                “But you look like you’re having such a good time.”  Grena said, trying to stifle her laughter.  Lars looked like a vain in his forehead was about to burst.

                “Just do something, would you?”  He said through clenched teeth.

                “Like what?  She’s moving too much to use my capturing spell, and that’s about all I can use without killing her.”

                “Well think of something!”

                “All right, just hold your horses, I’ll put something together.  After all, we wouldn’t want the rabbit to get the better you, now would we?”  She said, not quite managing to suppress a chuckle at his expense.

                Suddenly, the girl dashed in between the two of them, stopping precisely in front of Lars.  The two of them looked at each other for a brief moment before anything happened.  Lars bellowed out of both anger at being mocked, and frustration at his inability to hit her.  He wildly swung both his swords, not caring that he wasn’t supposed to be inflicting any damage on her.  She avoided his blows without any kind of difficulty, moving between the blades with expert precision.  Soon though, she jumped high up into the air, far higher than any human could ever hope to do.  Her large foot lashed out and hit Lars squarely in the chest.  Lars stumbled to the ground from the blow.

                The kick actually had very little power behind it, as the rabbit-girl had very little physical strength.  Not even a normal child would have been really hurt by the blow.  Lars had fallen more out of surprise and the fact that his footwork had been so poor.  He would have gotten up right away, but the rabbit-girl had followed her attack by jumping on top of him.  She was currently bouncing lightly on all fours on top of his chest, giggling furiously.

                “You’re funny, you’re funny.”  She said happily.  Lars looked up at the bouncing rabbit-girl and sneered.  She was not only physically weak, but also much lighter than she looked.  As quickly as he could, he reached out to grab her while she was so close.  But, the girl nimbly jumped away to the side, once again avoiding his grasp.

                Lars sprang up and immediately began resuming the chase.  The girl laughed and taunted him the entire time, always just out of his reach.  Suddenly, the girl jumped back farther away then she had been, and simply stopped.  Lars roared and charged at her head long.

                “No, wait!  Don’t go there!”  Grena called out.  The warning went unheeded as Lars continued barreling down at the girl.  Just before he reached her, he stopped dead.  Tendrils of blue-purple arcane light lanced out of the ground under him and wrapped around his arms and legs, holding him fast.  “That’s where we put one of the traps.”  Grena sighed as she watched Lars get dragged down by the trap intended for the girl.  The girl herself just laughed furiously and bounced in circles around him.

                “Stupid, stupid!”  She taunted.  “I trapped you, I trapped you!  Stupid, stupid!”  She called out gleefully.  Suddenly though, she stopped dead and lifted her small head up.  She started sniffing the air around her.  Just as suddenly as she started, she stopped.  “Fun, fun!  Something fun’s happening!  I’m going to go see!  Bye, bye!  Let’s play later, ok?”  She said before bouncing off towards the outskirts of town. 

                “What was that about?”  Grena asked as she watched the girl leaving.

                “No idea.  Maybe it’s mating season for rabbits or something.”  Caruss said. 

                “I don’t think so.” 

                “Well, you have any better ideas?”

                “Not really.  But whatever it is, I don’t think it’s anything good.”

                “Does it matter?  Right now, she’s gone, so our jobs done.  If anything else happens, someone will get in contact with us.”

                “I suppose so.”

                “Hey, guys?”  Lars said, still tied to the ground.  “As much fun as speculation is, can you get me out of here!?”  He shouted.  Grena sighed and went over to him.  She touched the ground and the bind disappeared.  Lars sprang up and shouted at nobody in particular.

                “Why so mad?  The rabbit’s gone.  You don’t have to worry about her anymore.”  Caruss said dully.  Lars turned to look at him, his eyes burning.

                “Oh, no it’s not.  If we ever see the thing again, I’m going to catch it, skin it and have rabbit stew for dinner.”  He said, his fists trembling.  He turned in the direction the girl had ran off and stormed off after her, not caring about anything else at that moment.

                “Should we remind him that we’re not supposed to be hurting her?”  Grena said.

                “Nah.  Or at least not yet.  Besides, even if we do see it again, I don’t think he’ll be able to catch her, do you?”  Caruss said.  Grena giggled lightly.  “Anyway, we’d better go and make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble.”  He said, moving to follow Lars.  Grena nodded and followed her companions without any more words.  Before she moved too far though, she saw something in a nearby shop.  She smiled mischievously.  Before following her companions, she picked up a small stuffed rabbit, left a few coins and then ran off to join the others. 

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So, think I should use the rabbit-girl again?  I think I will.  Not in every story that these three are in, but she might just pop in and out from time to time.  What do you all think?

Word: tensile

tensile

\ TEN-suhl \  , adjective;

1. capable of being stretched or drawn out; ductile.

2. of or pertaining to tension:  tensile strain.

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               “I’m telling you, this is going to be big!”  Lawrence said as he bounded excitedly down the steps to the basement, the two others trailing behind his somewhat less enthusiastically. 

                “That’s what you said the last time.”  Tony said.  He was very close to simply leaving, but he knew Lawrence wouldn’t let him leave without seeing what new trinket he had come up with this time. 

                “Yeah, but this time I mean it.”  Lawrence said, hurriedly opening the door. 

                On the other side was an immaculate room lit by several florescent lights attached to the ceiling.  The room was filled with tables containing computers, bottles containing liquids of many colors, and more mechanical devises than at a car nut’s garage. 

                “Ok, what is it?”  Victor said, not quite suppressing a sigh as he said it.  His thoughts were similar to Tony’s, and he simply wanted to be somewhere else, even as he entered his friend’s basement lab.  Lawrence giggled furiously as he went over to one of the tables that was lined with various light fixtures all pointed at a single spot.  He went over to his friends with something clutched in his thin hand.

                “Behold, the future!”  He said and opened his hand, proudly displaying what he was holding.  He held a few long strands of what looked to be hair.  The other two looked at the strands blankly.

                “So you brought us here to look at a girl’s hair?”  Victor asked, more annoyed than ever.

                “I don’t know, I think it’s something,” Tony said.  “It means that he managed to talk a girl into giving him something.  That’s a big step up in the social world for this guy, even if it is a little creepy.”

                “First of all, it’s not hair.  Second of all, I can so get a girl to talk to me if I wanted to.  It’s just that I have more important things to think about.”  Lawrence said.  The other two looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

                “Yeah, sure you could.”  Tony said sarcastically.  “When was the last time you spoke more than three words to a girl?”  Lawrence opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted when Tony resumed speaking.  “And you mom, sister, and other relatives don’t count.”  He said, crossing his arms in front of him with a smug grin on his face.  Lawrence looked at the strands in his hand and muttered a few incomprehensible words.

                “Are you going to make fun of my social endeavors, or am I going to tell you about this.”  He said finally, holing up the strands.

                “Ok, fine.  What have you got there?”  Tony asked, still thinking of ways to poke fun at his smaller friends social ineptness.

                “These are samples of a new kind of metallic alloy I created.  It’s much easier to manipulate than normal metals, and so it can easily be made into thin fibers, such as those in my hand.  In fact, this stuff can be made into just about any shape possible, and is quite flexible for a metal, even in larger, thicker shapes.  Not only that, but its tensile strength is roughly four times that of steel, yet is about 40% lighter.”  Lawrence said, displaying the strands like he was showing off some kind of award.

                “And all that means what, exactly?”  Victor said, less enthusiastically than Lawrence would have liked. 

                “Lots of things.  For example, a shirt made of this stuff would be better than a Kevlar vest, and not nearly as heavy or bulky.  It can be used to make ropes that are stronger than steel cable, but as flexible as normal rope.  The applications are endless.  Plus, with the right supports and alterations, it can be made just as rigid as normal metal, making it very good for building purposes.  I estimate that once I get this stuff out on the market, it’ll replace all other metals in a decade or so.”  He puffed out his chest a bit more, clearly proud of his achievement.

                “Ok, that’s all well and good, but what’s the catch?”  Tony said.

                “Catch?”

                “Yeah, catch.  If it’s really as great as you say it is, then there has to be a downside somewhere.  What is it?”

                “I bet it’s insanely expensive to make or something.”  Victor said.

                “No, actually.  It’s fairly cheap.  It is a bit more costly than steel, but only by a few cents, and it’s really resistant to corrosion and other forms of damage, so in the long run, it’ll actually save money.”

                “Well then what’s the problem with the stuff?”  Victor asked.  Lawrence didn’t answer right away.

                “It’s really hard and very time consuming to make.  As it is right now, a single strand took me about a week to fully manufacture.”  He said eventually.

                “And there it is.”  Tony said.  “Sorry pal, but that’s no good.  Everyone likes things to be fast these days, you know that.  Something that takes a week to make such a small amount of isn’t going to go anywhere.”

                “Y-yeah, I know.  But this is only the first batch.  With a bit more work, I can speed up the process a lot.”

                “And you want us to help you, don’t you?”  Victor said, holding his head in his hands. 

                “Please?”  Lawrence said, his eyes pleading just as much as his words.

                “No way, man.”  Tony said.  “You’ve got something good, but it’s just like everything else you make.  It’s all great and world changing and stuff, but it never pans out in the end.”

                “That’s not true!”  Lawrence shouted.

                “Yeah, then how’s the work on your hair powered engine?  Or your magnetic generator?  Or what about the anti-grav unit?”

                “I-I had to table those for various reasons.”  Lawrence said, hanging his head.  The truth was that he had simply run into problems with his previous inventions that he had been unable to overcome.  While they had worked for awhile, they each had a crippling issue that kept them from being practical.  For some it was cost, for others, a short lifespan, and still others needed too much energy.  He wanted to finish them, but he just couldn’t get around the underlying problems.

                “And the same thing will happen with this one too.”

                “You don’t know that.”

                “Yes, I do.  There’s no way to get around some things.  You might be able to shave an hour or two at most, but whatever goes into making that stuff takes as long as it takes.  You can’t change the laws of nature you know.”

                “Change the laws of nature?”  Lawrence said quietly to himself.  Neither of the others heard him say it.

                “Sorry pal, but that’s the way things work.”  Tony said.

                “Maybe your next one will turn out better.”  Victor chimed in.  He said it, but he didn’t really believe it.  Lawrence tended to make things that were great on paper, but not nearly as good in practice.  That wouldn’t stop him from trying though.  “Anyway, better luck next time.  See ya later then.” Victor said, already turning to leave.

                “Give that brain of yours a rest and come hang out with us in the real world some time, would ya?  A few days not in the lab will do you good.  Anyway, I’m off.  Later.”  Tony said, following Victor out of the lab.

                Lawrence stood there, looking at the strands of metal he had made.  He knew that Tony was right.  It was impossible to make everything work out just the way he wanted.  Natural laws and ways kept him from perfecting his inventions.  Suddenly, a slow smile crept onto his face.  If the way things worked kept him from perfecting things, all he had to do was find a way to change them.  He went over to one of the many computers scattered around the room and got to work. 

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Does he succeed?  Does he end up altering the very laws of nature itself?  Frankly, I have NO idea!  But imagine what it would be like if he did...

Word: Kinchin

kinchin

\ kin-chin \  , noun;

1. a child.

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             It was a calm, quiet night, and Matt had just sat down to watch TV.  He had just had a long day at work and had come home to an empty house and ate a simple dinner, and he was quite ready to turn his brain off with some mindless TV shows.

                Before he could so much as pick up the remote though, he heard a knock at the door.  He groaned as the soft thuds entered his ear.  He was very tempted to simply ignore it and hope whoever it was went away.  As the person at the door knocked again though, he figured it might be someone important, and he would have to answer it to find out.

                He got up off the couch and shuffled over to the door.  Opening it, he looked out to see who it was.  He scanned his front porch to find the person, but nobody was there.  He called out to see who would answer, but no response came.  He looked down to see if he had gotten a package, whether from a late night currier of some kind, or neighborhood kids on a pranking spree.

                Standing at his front door was a child.  It was a small child that looked to be about five or six.  Matt couldn’t tell if it was a boy of a girl, as its hair was cropped short in the front, and hung down to its neck in the back.  The child’s clothes gave no indication of gender either, as it was dressed in a formless black shirt and equally formless pants.  The child looked up at Matt with blank, emotionless black eyes.  He didn’t want to admit it, but the kid’s stare creeped him out a bit. 

                “Can I help you?”  Matt said, trying to be polite.  The child didn’t answer.  It simply looked up at him and blinked slowly.

                “Where are your mom and dad?  Do they know you’re here?”  He asked.  No response.  The child simply looked up at him with that cold, blank expression.  A pit formed in Matt’s stomach, there was something unnerving about that kid.

                “Look, kid, I don’t have anything for you.  Why don’t you go home?  I’m sure your parents are worried, ok?”  He said.  The child didn’t move.  Matt figured the kid may have been playing some kind of joke on him and simply shut the door, thinking that the child would leave eventually. 

                As he went back over to the couch, he found he was no longer in the mood to watch TV.  He was tired from his long day, so he opted to go to bed early.  He went wearily up to his bedroom and got himself ready.  Before he got into bed though, a nagging feeling tugged at his mind.  He looked out the window overlooking the front door.  The child was still standing there, unmoving.  It slowly turned its small head up to look at him.  For some reason, a chill ran down his spine as the child looked at him.  He opened the door and leaned his head out the window.

                “Look kid, I mean it!  Go home!”  He shouted before closing the window.  He didn’t even want to know if the kid actually listened to him, and simply crawled into bed. 

                His sleep was restless, interrupted by dreams of the child and it’s big, black eyes.  He tossed and turned in his bed, waking up in a cold sweat numerous times during the night.  He did his best to get some rest, but to no avail.  All too soon, the light of morning crept into his room, forcing him to crawl out of bed and get ready for another day at work.

                His morning routine was done at a snail’s pace due to lack of sleep, and he considered calling in sick.  But, he put up with it and, by using nearly a full pot of coffee, managed to get himself cleaned up and awake enough to get through the day.  He just hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with the child again. 

                Matt slowly opened the door and immediately shut it again.  The child was still standing there, apparently not having moved during the night.  He didn’t want to deal with it anymore, but he would have to if he wanted to go to work.  He opened the door and looked at the child, who stared back with it’s cold black eyes.

                “Look kid.  I’m going to work now, and I think it would be best if you’re not here when I get back, ok?  Your mom and dad are probably not too happy with you right now, and I don’t think you want to get in trouble because of this, do you?”  He said.  The only response he got was the child’s slow, steady blinking.  He sighed and shuffled out past the kid, giving it as wide a berth as he could.

                The day crawled by.  Not only was he too tired to work well no matter how much caffeine he put into his body, he was still thinking about the child.  That kid would simply not leave his mind.  That empty stare and blank expression was getting under his skin in a big way.  Somehow though, he managed to get through the day without any major incidents.  All the way home, he prayed that the child wouldn’t be there when he got back.  It was.

                Matt was practically trembling when he saw the small form of the child still standing at his front door.  As soon as he pulled into the driveway, the child slowly turned to look at him as he made his way to the front door.  Matt did his best to ignore the child as he entered his house.  He was breathing heavily all the time, and his body was covered in a small layer of cold sweat. 

                Almost as soon as he got inside, he heard the same knocking on his door that he had the previous day.  His hands shook as he opened it to find the child standing there looking up at him.  Matt didn’t know what to do.

                “What do you want kid?  Just tell me what you want and leave.  Do you want some candy?  How about a cookie?  If I get you a cookie, will you go home?”  No response.  Matt figured it was worth a shot.  He ran to find a cookie.  He managed to pull out some cheap chocolate chip cookies he had gotten weeks ago and never found a use for.  He pulled out a few and ran to the door.

                “Here, take it and go.”  He said, holding a cookie out to the child.  It looked at the offered cookie, blinked once, and returned to looking at Matt.  He cried in frustration, dropped the cookies at the child’s feet and slammed the door.  He soon heard the child knocking on the door again, but he ignored it to the best of his abilities.

                The next day, the child was still there, the cookies still at its feet.  For weeks, in fact, the child stood there.  Matt could almost feel its stares, even when he couldn’t actually see the kid.  It simply wouldn’t leave him alone.  Whenever Matt was home, the child would knock on the door periodically.  Matt had tried everything to get the child to leave.  He had even offered to let the child in, but not even that worked, nothing did.  The child was always there.

                Not even leaving his house brought any solace.  He could feel the child’s eyes, even across town.  And he always knew that when he got home, the child would be there, waiting for him.  The image of the child haunted him, not letting him get even a single moment of relaxation.  Finally, after two weeks, he had enough.  He had to get rid of that kid.

                At first he tried calling around the neighborhood to find out who was missing a child, but there were no responses.  He tried putting the kid’s picture on the internet, but that got him nowhere.  No matter how hard he tried, nobody claimed the kid.  Finally, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

                He was sitting, waiting for the knock.  It came, and he sprung into action.  Matt threw open the door, and simply picked the kid up.  He stuffed it into his car and drove.  He drove for hours without stopping until he was well outside of town.  When he thought he was far enough away, he took the kid and led it out of the car, out to the nearest place he could find.  He simply left the child there for whoever cared.  As he drove home, he couldn’t help but laugh.  He was finally rid of the child, he could finally get some rest. 

                Once home, with the child no longer there, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted from him.  He put his feet up and began to relax.  Suddenly, a series of small knocks on the door echoed through the house.

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There's a movie in here somewhere.  You know, one of those old school psychological horror films or something like that.  I mean, think of how many movies that have been based almost entirely around creepy kids, then think of this story.  It's an almost perfect fit, right?