The Legend of Ataru and Nikini

'It looks like the little fox is hiding something from me once again…'

"So why would your clan be happy if the favourite to win, wins while your mother wouldn't?"

Maya started twirling her hair and looked out the window.

"There are two things you can gain by winning this tournament. You can bring honour and glory to your clan or sect, however, the main reason is to win the prize that will be awarded only to the winner" Maya took a deep breath before continuing.

"The clan elders hope the favourite wins because of the prize. The prize will link whoever wins it with our clan. As so, it happens the favourite to win comes from a big clan, comparable to ours. My mother fears that if this person wins, they will devour our clan from within. While both clans would become incomparably stronger at the end of the day, it's pointless if the heart and soul of our clan disappears…"

Kaylus looked at Mayas face, analyzing every inch of her face. While it looked as if everything was fine, the glint in Mayas eyes gave away her true feelings. She might be good at masking her emotions but Kaylus is better at reading them than she is at hiding. Something more serious was certainly going on and Kaylus was determined to get to the bottom of it.

"For your mother to be this concerned, the prize must be quite the thing and the favourite must be quite the character. But I must say, I'm quite curious as to what the prize is exactly, mind telling me?"

Maya looked at Kaylus, taking a moment to consider her words. "As my clan elders would say, it's a priceless elixir that will transform the life of anyone who uses it for the better. The only tradeoff is that you will become linked to the Argenda clan, but this would be considered a bonus for most out there."

Kaylus scratched his chin as he pondered Maya's words. The two would continue to chat about various miscellaneous things as they finished off their tea.

As Maya and Kaylus finished their drinks, a knock came on the door.

"You may enter"

The door opened and a maid came inside. "Sorry for disturbing your tea time princess, but the clan leader has asked me to tell you to bring the guest to her as soon as possible."

"Let my mother know that we will come soon, but first I'd like to show our guest around a little"

"Yes, princess." The maid replied, bowing towards Maya and then leaving.

Maya smiled and stood up "Should we take a quick walk?"

Kaylus stood up and stretched a bit letting out a satisfied groan "Sure, my legs could use a walk"

The two walked out of the luxurious guest room and started to walk around the grounds. While they walked, Kaylus seemed to be taking in the sights however fact was that his mind had been working overtime.

He was in the process of trying to analyze everything Maya had said. 'She said the prize or the elixir rather would link the winner to her clan and would transform the user's life for the better.'

He furrowed his brows as an idea came to mind. 'Could it be that it's some sort of addictive performance-enhancing drug? That would explain how the person could become linked to the Argenda clan and how it could improve their lives.

If the only side effect is addiction and they can consistently supply it there should be no problem. Then again, what would stop the empowered addict from killing everyone they can until they get what they want?'

As he was having this thought, he caught a snippet of what Maya was saying as they were passing the pond they had seen earlier through the window of his room.

"...Seeing how it's the only one, I think that's why that tree is so special and priceless to me."

This helped Kaylus in his earlier thoughts. 'Right, if they can manufacture it often enough to keep an addict in check, then it shouldn't really be a priceless elixir, and if that is what it was, then what would the point of the tournament be? It would be easier to just get someone to drink it and become addicted first…'

Kaylus now could tell that he was missing some pieces of the puzzle. Unfortunately for him, Maya had plenty of chances to paint the entire picture for him and it didn't appear as if she would be willing to tell him anytime soon.

"Just what are you planning little fox?" He asked under his breath in a voice that Maya couldn't possibly hear.

Kaylus pretended to stifle a yawn but in fact, was just covering his face to hide the slightly sinister smirk on his face. 'Looks like things might be quite entertaining in this life'

After a short while the pair had made it to the palace. They were greeted by a large set of stairs, on top of which two nine-tailed fox statues stood guard on either side. They appeared to be around 4 meters in height.

One appeared to have been carved out of white marble while the other was from black marble. Inside each of their jaws was a single orb. The white fox had a greyish, almost black orb that glowed with a slight blue hue while the black fox had a white orb that was glowing with a slightly yellow colour.

Having seen Kaylus inspecting the statues Maya rushed slightly ahead of Kaylus, she put both her arms behind her back and slightly leaned forwards to look up at Kaylus and smiled.

"Are you curious about those two?"

Her smile momentarily dazzled Kaylus. He couldn't help but think that this little fox looked extremely cute and innocent but something in the back of his mind told him that this fox was being crafty for some reason and he couldn't wait to find out why.

"Hmm, maybe a little. Is there anything of significant importance about these statues?" Kaylus asked his question as the two came to a halt by the statues to take a better and longer look.

"You could call these two our clans' guardian deities. The white one is called Ataru meaning sun while the black one is called Nikini meaning moon. Legends say that long ago the world was split in two, the halves were aptly called 'The land of the eternal darkness' and 'The land of eternal light'"

"Bored of the eternal darkness and light, the pair travelled the world before one-day meeting each other. The pair soon after fell in love however the pair were cursed by their respective clans. They forced the pair of them into exile, Ataru was to be forever trapped in the land of eternal darkness while Nikini was going to be trapped within the world of darkness.

This was meant to distance the pair and increase their hatred for the other clan, but fortunately, things didn't work out quite as planned. Instead of increasing their hatred for each other's clans, they increased the love they felt for each other. Unfortunately, they had no way of contacting each other or going to see each other without fading into nothingness as soon as they left their exile zone.

As if compelled by otherworldly powers the pair simultaneously had the same idea and they each proceeded to grab the object that held their curse. Ataru grabbed the moon while Nikini grabbed the sun. Now the pair were forever stuck chasing after each other, one can't exist without the other but they also can never exist together."

As Maya spoke Kaylus looked at her and despite having the same happy smile as earlier, her eyes shone in another light. It was the look of longing. 'Hmm, maybe she has her own Ataru? That or she might just be a hopeless romantic I guess…'

"So what do you think?" Maya asked curiously.

"Hmm, I think it's quite bittersweet of a tale. If only one of them had waited or they had a way to contact each other. I guess the underlining meaning of the story is communication is important, if they could have just spoken to each other maybe this wouldn't have happened and our world would still be split in two, in a way I guess we are fortunate that they had freed us from such a world." Kaylus smiled

Maya beamed back at Kaylus and nodded her head. "You're right, it's very bittersweet, but in a way it's beautiful. Without them, we would be trapped in the monotony of eternal day or night."

"Mmm, I think you're right, in the end without the sun chasing the moon and the moon chasing the sun we wouldn't have beautiful sunsets or sunrises and continuously living only in the night or the day sounds like torture."

The two stayed in silence for a few moments before Maya spun around and started to lead Kaylus towards the meeting with her mother the clan leader. "Let's go, we shouldn't keep my mother waiting too long" She giggled before skipping ahead slightly.

__________________________________

A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you two enjoyed this chapter. I have been leaving some hints about the tournament prize and I'm curious if anyone has any theories or guesses as to what it exactly is and how it works.

Thank you for reading this chapter once again, if you've enjoyed it and want to support me then make sure to add this novel to your collection, comment on some stuff so I know whats working and what's not and if you feel like you have read enough then feel free to give the novel a review (although I feel like its a bit early for that)

In the next chapter Maya's mum will make an appearance, so I hope you all stay tuned for that!