Disclaimer: I do not own anything
A/N: The idea of this fic is inspired from Tamora Pierce's fantasy books. The storyline of this story will be based loosely on her Lioness' Quartet and Protector series. Sorry cant really remember the full name of the books cos I read them quite some years ago. Hope you all will enjoy this story, and hopefully read Tamora Pierce's books too hehe. Oh, lastly, this story will be Natsuki centred and although there will be future shiznat interactions, there will be some romance but it is not central to this fic.
It was a clear, cool morning. The birds were chirping merrily and rabbits and squirrels alike were busy poking their noses out of their hibernation spots, breathing in the fresh scent of spring. Just like the bustling activity outside, the Kruger household was in a flurry of activities. Maids were scurrying about, carrying packages of varying sizes to be placed in the horse carriage waiting outside the Kruger mansion. Beside the horse carriage stood four figures, seeming to be engaged in a hearty conversation, taking no notice of the hustle and bustle around them.
"Remember to take good care of yourself and eat your vegetables!" said a middle-aged woman. Despite being in her late thirties, Saeko Kruger still managed to maintain her good looks and figure, looking not a day older than any twenty year old maidens.
"Mum! I'm an adult already, not to mention a full-fledged knight! Stop treating me like a child!" grumbled the figure beside her, who had the same navy blue hair cut short and green emerald eyes.
"You will always be my baby no matter how old you get," smiled Saeko as she gave the said figure a bone-crushing hug before dabbing away the tears that had welled up in her eyes with her handkerchief. All four figures broke into laughter.
"Do the Kruger name proud," a deep, manly voice said, coming from the third figure on the other side of Saeko. This figure was Kei Kruger, head of the Kruger household and lord of the Kruger fiefdom.
"I will, dad. I will always uphold the code of Knighthood to protect the weak and serve the kingdom." Before receiving yet another bear hug from Kei Kruger.
"Sir! The luggage is all packed and the carriage is ready to leave anytime," interrupted a man-at-arms.
"One more minute, Conrad." And the man-at-arms promptly made a move to the driver's seat, readying the horses for the journey.
"Ok, little twerp! Be a good girl when I'm gone alright?" said the knight, as he stooped down to pat the fourth figure on the head.
"Aye, aye, Natsume Onichan. I will protect mama and papa while you are away," quipped five-year-old Natsuki Kruger. "I will become a Knight like you someday, so you must come back and teach me how to fight properly after you have kicked some Scanvians butts!" After another bout of hearty laughter, Natsume Kruger embarked on his journey to join the battle at the kingdom's northern border.
"Ojou-sama! Ojou-sama!" shouted Otoha, the head maid of the Kruger household as she tried in vain to wake the sleeping figure of her young mistress. Otoha shivered slightly as she felt the goosebumps of her skin rise from the chill in her young mistress's room. She never could figure out why the surroundings of her young mistress always felt colder than normal.
"Ojou-sama, please wake up for breakfast! Master and Madam are already waiting for you at the dining table!" continued Otoha, now violently shaking Natsuki, hoping to jolt her out of dreamland.
"Wha-What? Onichan?" Natsuki muttered dreamily, while sleepily rubbing her eyes with both hands. Slowly, she managed to gather her senses and a pang of pain shot through her heart as she remembered her dream. It had been such a long time since she had dreamt of her deceased elder brother. A sad smile formed on her face as she remembered that at least this dream was a good one, which replayed the scene she last saw of her beloved brother. Most of her other dreams involving her brother were not pretty. They were mostly bloody and contained gory scenes of her brother being killed over and over again by the filthy Scanvians who had often invaded their kingdom's northern border to burn and pillage villages near the Scanvian border, and never failed to cause Natsuki to wake up in cold sweat each time.
"I'm awake already, Otoha. Help me get dressed," yawned Natsuki as she got up from her massive four-poster bed, stretching her sides lazily. "Don't even think of getting me into those ugly frocks or dresses, Otoha." With a sigh of disappointment, Otoha put away a pretty baby pink dress she had chosen from her young mistress's seldom used closet and opened another massive wardrobe packed full with a vast array of tunics and breeches of all colours imaginable. After getting dressed in her favourite dark blue tunic and black breeches, Natsuki happily skipped out of her room and down the stairs to join her parents for breakfast.
"My dear Natsuki, why are you wearing tunics and breeches? When will you start acting like a lady? For goodness sake, you are twelve already and still acts like a little boy!" sighed Saeko exasperatedly, while Kei just shook his head in amusement. "My little girl never grows up eh?" He winked at his daughter. Natsuki stuck her tongue out and made a face at her parents, as she made her way to her seat at the table. Breakfast at Kruger's household was always a spread. Saeko believed in the saying that breakfast is golden and hence, always made sure that the breakfast menu was always varied and sumptuous, and forcing her children and husband to have seconds or even thirds as much as possible. Without further ado, Natsuki piled her plate high with bacon, eggs and sausages and started attacking her food hungrily.
"Natsuki! What did I tell you about table manners? A lady do not gorge on her food!" nagged Saeko. Natsuki just rolled her eyes and continued wolfing down her food at record speed. "It seems that your etiquette lessons are not having much impact on you. Maybe we should increase the number of sessions?" Saeko threatened. Natsuki balked at the suggestion and immediately slowed down her pace, earning a victorious grin on her mother's face. This was a standard routine in the Kruger household. Natsuki would always gorge on her food while her mother would always threaten her with the same suggestion, which never failed to work but also never succeeded in kicking her habit of gorging.
"Natsuki, don't forget that you have a dancing lesson after breakfast. The dance instructor is already at the dancing parlour waiting for you," reminded Saeko and eliciting a loud groan of annoyance from Natsuki. After finishing her breakfast slowly as desired by her mother, Natsuki slumped her shoulders and proceeded towards the dancing parlour. She hated dancing lessons. In fact, she hated all the girly lessons required of her to prepare her to be a lady in waiting at court as expected of all noble women. She hated them not so much for the fact that they were girly, but also because they were silly and boring and she could never do well at them. For instance, no matter how many etiquette lessons she took, she just could not walk the way a lady was supposed to, dignified and sashaying with femininity with every step. She would always be hit on the head by her etiquette tutor, Miss Maria, for slumping her shoulders, hunching her back or even walking with her legs too wide and far apart. The only time she managed to walk like a lady ended with a disastrous effect of falling flat on her face on her third step. Just thinking about her etiquette lessons gave her the shudders.
She finally reached the dancing parlour and was beckoned into the room by her dance instructor. "Today, we will continue with the basics of ballroom dancing. This is an important skill for young ladies, so be prepared to be drilled hard on this," warned the instructor. "Yes, m'am," Natsuki pretended to sigh in defeat and got into the dancing position with her instructor. "I will not give this up without a fight," she thought, as an evil plan sneaked up her mind.
"Now, follow my lead and we go 1, 2, 3…ouch!" winced her instructor as one of Natsuki's foot landed on top of her instructor's. "Oops, I'm sorry," Natsuki said apologetically, giving her instructor an angelic look. "It's ok, let's continue." Coupled with Natsuki's natural poor sense of rhythm, Natsuki's plan of inflicting pain on her instructor's feet both accidentally and purposely was a huge success. The dancing session was peppered with the instructor's incessant winces and eventually cut short due to the poor instructor's feet being too swollen to continue dancing anymore. Heart screaming with glee from her early release, Natsuki skipped out of the dancing parlour merrily, too happy to register the soft muttering of her dance instructor.
"I swear she keeps stepping on my feet on purpose, that little devil!"
As Natsuki had the rest of the day free of lessons, she decided to reward herself a little by going outside for some fresh air. Along the way out, she passed by a mantelpiece by the wall. The surface of the mantelpiece was empty except for a small badge propped against the wall on top of the mantelpiece. Natsuki stopped skipping and reached for the badge, holding it tightly in her small fist. The badge was the only thing that remained of her beloved brother. It was awarded posthumously to the Krugers as a badge of honour for Natsume Kruger who died valiantly in battle. Natsuki still remembered the day when news of Natsume's death reached his family. Saeko was the first to break down in tears as the King's messenger relayed the sombre news. Natsuki had never seen her mother cry so piteously before. In fact, she had never seen her mother cry at all before the event. Saeko used to be all smiles, with a perfect family, a caring husband, a capable son and an adorable daughter. Natsume's death broke her. For almost a year after his death, Saeko never lived a day once without crying. Eventually, and fortunately, time heals all wounds and Saeko managed to keep herself together and dedicated more time and energy on her remaining living family members. However, her eyes that once held a happy and contented glint had long been replaced by those set deeply in grief. Kei was no better when he heard the grave news. Although he managed to will his tears away, his shaking hands betrayed his shock and grief when he accepted the badge. Natsuki herself was too shocked to react at the news. Shocked from the news, shocked from seeing her parents so distraught and shocked that she would never see her beloved brother again. She was so shocked that she could not cry, and that was the first time that she understood the feeling of unshed tears hurting the most. After the event, the whole family learnt to recover from the loss, albeit ever so slowly, and although Natsume lived in their hearts, they learnt not to speak of him even now, for saying his name would somehow break the fragile normalcy they now had.
Natsuki clenched the badge ever tighter in her fist, ignoring the pain in her hand as she carried it out with her, for the pain in her hand could never match the grief in her heart. Over the years, Natsuki had learnt not to cry as child. It was the first thing that her brother taught her when she used to be a crybaby. A knight only shed blood, not tears. Willing her tears away, Natsuki decided that she would climb a tree for a change of mood. The Kruger estate was huge and the yard was full of trees. Instead of a yard, one could even say that the Kruger estate was surrounded by forest, complete with rivers and hills. Sometimes, commoners and peasants of the Kruger fiefdom would accidentally stumble into the estate. Usually, Lord Kruger would not mind sharing his estate with the commoners but when they got too rowdy or started destroying his properties, he would send his guards and men at arms to chase them away.
After searching the forest for a while for a really tall tree, Natsuki spotted her favourite tree. It was one of the tallest trees in the Kruger estate and sometimes when she got hungry or thirsty, she could even pluck some of the sweet ripe apples it provided to munch on. After making sure that she had placed the badge safely in the chest pocket of her tunic, Natsuki proceeded to climb the tree. In a matter of minutes, she was sitting at the topmost branch of the tree, thanks to her superb agility, experience and familiarity with the tree. Natsuki enjoyed climbing trees. Firstly, it was because her brother who taught her how to climb trees. Secondly, the view from top would always keep her mind at bay from troubles and foul moods. Thirdly, and most importantly, she enjoyed the dangerous thrill of climbing trees, the taller the better. The act of doing something dangerous filled her whole being with excitement, anxiety and happiness all rolled into one toxic combination that she grew addicted to. Ever since her brother's death, her parents had been overly protective of her. Everything and every activity that hinted even the most remote signs of danger were kept away from her, to the point where she was even forbidden to enter the kitchens because there were knives in there. Thankfully, her parents did not know of her dangerous hobby of climbing trees or she would even be forbidden to get out of the house.
Sitting on the tree branch and swinging her legs in the air, Natsuki tried to look as far as possible with her keen eyesight. She spotted a lone figure traveling at a very fast pace towards the mansion. Straining her eyes further, she saw that it was just a regular messenger guard riding a horse to deliver regular mundane official documents to her father. A sigh escaped Natsuki as she secretly envied the messenger guard. How she longed to be able to ride a horse like him everyday but alas, her mother would never allow her to ride a horse no matter how much she pleaded her, as she deemed horse riding to be a dangerous sport and felt that there was no need for lady to learn horse riding anyway when she could always sit in horse carriages. As she sat on the branch dreaming about riding a horse, time flew by and the skies began to darken. With another sigh, she started to climb down her tree. It was almost time for dinner. She did not want her mother to start asking questions on what she was doing if she was late.
However, as she got near to the ground, she heard a faint whimpering somewhere further into the forest. Her curiosity got the better of her and she followed the sounds of the whimpering with her keen hearing. The whimpering grew louder with every step she took further into the forest. A few more steps and this time, she could hear boyish laughing and the growing whimpering of an injured animal. Fearing that the animal might not be able to survive any longer, Natsuki tore through the forest and found herself face to face with two boys around her age, one of them carrying a big club and hitting a small furry animal repeatedly on its torso. There was so much blood on the animal that Natsuki could not recognize what animal it was.
"Hey! What are you doing! I demand you to stop this brutality immediately!" Natsuki screamed at the boys, running to put herself between the boys and the injured animal. The boys were shocked at her entrance but quickly regained themselves and threatened, "We are just having some fun here. Move away and we will not harm you." Natsuki was practically seething with anger when she heard the outrageous reply. The surrounding temperature seemed to drop ten degrees. She could feel the anger building up inside of her and could not stop her body from shaking with rage. Too angry to speak, she lunged headlong at the boys. Her surprise attack allowed her to gain an initial advantage, slamming one of boys onto the ground and she pounced on top of him, all the while raining heavy blows on both sides of his face. Being pinned down by her body weight, the boy could only fend off her attacks by trying to shield his face with his arms, but to no avail. In her frenzied state, she just kept hitting as hard, as fast and as much as she could, ignoring his pleas for her to stop. The other boy, shocked by scene, quickly regained composure and picked up the club on the floor used to beat the animal, and swung it with as much force he could muster onto Natsuki's back.
Natsuki felt the heavy blow of the club struck her back and almost crumpled from the impact. "Get the fuck off my friend you crazy bitch!" yelled the second boy as he repeatedly struck at Natsuki's back. Blow after blow rained on her mercilessly. Natsuki could only bear the brunt of the attack but not turn towards her aggressor as each time she wanted to turn and face him, the next blow would send her body reeling back to the same position with her back exposed to him. Natsuki grew weaker with each blow and sensing the weakness, the boy below her quickly shoved her away and escaped from her pinning. His friend stopped wielding the club but the boy that had his face covered with bruises from Natsuki's punch would not give up this opportunity to exact revenge and immediately jumped on top of Natsuki and paid back his due. "Take that you bitch!" He growled as he started pelting her face with strong solid blows. After the repeated blows on her back, Natsuki could hardly straighten it. She could only curl up as she felt her face being pummeled like the back of the butcher's knife thumping into meat to tenderize it. For a fleeting moment, she thought she would die until she heard a loud whimper coming from beside her. Opening one of her swollen and bruised eyelids, she saw that while the first boy was busy punching Natsuki, the second boy continued his assault on the poor animal. Anger flared in her like a bonfire, their cruelty utterly disgusted her and the need to protect that poor animal from harm gave her the strength to withstand the blows being dealt to her. Ignoring the pain in her back and the continuous assault on her face, Natsuki managed to shove the boy off her and turned the tables on him. This time she showed no mercy. Remembering techniques that her brother once taught her, she drew her arm back, and aimed her first and final blow at his throat. She did not want to be a killer yet, so she purposely aimed slightly away from the throat, so that she would not crush his windpipe but would still inflict enough damage to make the boy grasp her neck for breath. Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, Natsuki swiftly turned to the second boy who was too engrossed in his cruel obsession that he failed to notice Natsuki's approach. Mustering as much strength as she could, Natsuki drew her arm up and landed a high karate chop on the back of his neck. The second boy passed out immediately from the attack. Turning her back once again, Natsuki saw that the first boy was fast recovering from his throat attack and was scrambling to get away. Swiftly, Natsuki got to his side and started kicking him in the guts. The boy let out a loud scream and immediately curled up to stop her kicks from reaching his stomach. Ignoring his fruitless attempts, Natsuki kicked him repeatedly on his face, back, chest, and stomach until she was satisfied with the handiwork she had made of him, whole body all coloured up in bruises and hardly able to move, all the while sobbing and whimpering pathetically. She coloured up the second boy just as much and did not care that he was unconscious. She wanted him to feel the pain when he woke up. Finally satisfied with her work, she spat on their faces and picked up the injured animal to return home, hoping that she was not too late in saving it. In her wake, she left behind two seriously injured boys in the open to fend for themselves in the Kruger forest and a blade of grass frozen in ice.
Limping her way home from the forest through sheer determination and endurance, she managed to reach the Kruger mansion with the injured animal in her embrace, as she finally collapsed onto the doorstep unconscious. Even the loud shrieks of Otoha finding her young mistress all beaten and bloody could not wake her from state of unconsciousness.
End of chapter one
Thank you for giving this story a try and reading it to the end. Hopefully I did not bore you too much and you will still hang on to read the second chapter. Oh man, I started writing this chapter at 11pm and only finished it at 5am in the morning… gosh I take one hell of a time to write a chapter. Reviews will be greatly appreciated.