And it's alive!!! Welcome readers to my new 'thang' Sanity. A D/N fic which is one of those Daine goes somewhere other than Tortall. Except in my fic she doesn't go to Carthak. She goes to some place more original and cool. And she's an assassin…and insane. But we'll see more of that later. On with the story!
Chapter One
The moon shone brightly through a break in the clouds that covered the rest of the violet sky. The light reflected through every crystal drop that fell from the dark sky.
The eerie glow gave just enough light to see by though not to the young girl whose dwellings were sealed in darkness, for neither the light of a candle nor the light of the moon entered the cold black crypt of a room.
The child chained callously to the wall gave no heed. The brutal madness had already taken hold of her mind and small matters such as light and warmth she cared not of.
Her keen eyes were the only thing that shone in the cavern as they followed a passing rat with interest. The only noise in the room was a steady 'drip drip' that came from a crack in the corner, the crack leading to a small puddle outside the cavern.
The rat stopped suddenly in front of the girl and stood on its hind legs, its pink nose twitching in curiosity. Violently the girl dove forwards, teeth bared in a snarl only to be cut short of her prey, the chains that bound her reaching their limit with a groan.
Viciously robbed of her victim the crazed prisoner let loose an ear-splitting keening cry that echoed loudly through the near empty room.
Almost instantly loud footsteps sounded outside the only exit in the room, the rat scattered away as the door flew open and a large bulky shadow filled the doorway.
The girl hissed as the light hit her sensitive eyes, blinding her instantly. The footsteps drew closer though no less in volume as the man stomped towards her.
"SILENCE YE FILTHY ANIMAL!!" he bellowed slapping the girl brutally across the face "I'LL NO' BE HAVING THAT NOISE IN 'ERE!"
The reaction was almost instant.
Despite being temporarily blinded the girl lashed out, her bonded arms clawed uselessly in the air while her head snapped back and her teeth bit aggressively into the man's beefy neck. He screamed in agony and gripped her head, attempting in vain to dislodge her.
Instead the pulling only intensified the pain. He kicked her hard in the ribs and hearing a satisfying 'crack' as one snapped. The girl gave no indication of pain as her teeth clamped down further before ripping away a piece of flesh.
She spat it out on the ground in front of the screaming man, clutching his neck. Her lips curled into a bloodthirsty sneer as her eyes lips up manically.
Her tongue carefully lapped up the blood staining round her lips as the male in front of her backed away until his foot caught on the edge of one of the broken stone tiles lining the floor and he fell to the ground with a thud.
Eagerly she leant forwards as far as the chain would let her. Forget the rat, now this was a more intriguing prey.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME YE CRAZY BITCH! HELP! HELP!" he yelled up the stair as he crawled away backwards from her.
A hand roughly grabbed him by the back of the shirt and lifted him with ease onto his feet. Grateful, he turned to his rescuer
"Th-thank you"
The woman's eyebrow rose sardonically "Why?" she asked, coolly raising a hand encased in glittering scarlet fire.
The man's eyes widened fleetingly before the fire hit him in the chest, he died instantly. Wrinkling her nose at the singeing stench of the smoking body, the woman raised the hem of her crimson yukata and stepped neatly over the corpse.
Calling her red fire into her palm once more, she used it as a torch as she studied the girl who had fallen silent and was now watching her cagily.
The girl was undernourished, that was obvious by the bones sticking out of her small frame. Her pale skin was discoloured a strange purplish blue colour from the bruises that flawed her skin along with countless lacerations.
The older woman could see by the way she held herself on the chains that at least her right arm was broken and her shoulder seemed out of place, her fingers were horribly disfigured from being broken and not set properly; she'd need to fix that later to prevent it from becoming a disability.
There were many other injuries, spanning from serious wounds to minor cuts that spanned over the young girls body. The woman examined them all with her almond shaped eyes; if she got the girl to a healer fast enough then perhaps she could prevent some of the scarring.
Next she scrutinized the girl herself, she looked to be about eight in size though that could possibly be from the starvation taking it's toll on her body. Her hair was shorn to the neck in a tangled mess of grime and dried blood that made the natural colour indistinguishable.
There were purple bags under her eyes indicating insomnia and her eyes themselves were the colour of clouds though, the woman duly noticed, no cloud she ever seen had the predatory gleam that seemed to be reserved for the insane.
Her lips were cracked and stained the rusty colour of dried blood and her pink tongue flicked across it while a vicious grin appeared. She snapped her teeth playfully when the woman got too close.
"What a feisty little cretin you are my pet" the woman murmured, snapping one firm wrist out to hold the girls face so she could look more closely.
The girl immediately bucked wildly in her hold, snarling and clawing at the air. The mysterious woman studied her closer.
"Hush" she ordered distractedly.
The girl obeyed, stunned to find that she could not do anything other. She didn't like being caged in her own body and when the woman stood back up again she was treated to a glare that meant the girl intended to maul her at the first opportunity.
She laughed; a deep cold sound "Yes, yes pet. I'm sure you would like to slaughter me and once I'm done with you you're going to want to a whole lot more"
The girl's eyes flickered to the doorway again and a few moments later a second man filled the doorway.
"Shiori-" He was cut off by the woman who turned round snarling
"Baka! Don't say my name out loud! Do you know who could be watching?!" The man gave a short respectful bow with his arms straight on his knees
"Gomen Shi- I mean mistress" his gaze turned to the girl "Oname wa?" he asked curiously.
The girl looked at him impassively, still under Shiori's spell. Shiori slapped her palm to her head in frustration
"Baka, she does not speak our language. In fact I am not completely sure she speaks at all"
her partner raised an inquisitive brow "So ka?" he wandered over to have a look as well.
The girl watched him edgily, though she could not do much under the spell she growled at him in warning. He held up his hands in a surrender pose
"Easy now. She's a wild one isn't she?" that was directed at Shiori.
She nodded "Hai" her finger came to smoothly trace the planes of the girl's face.
The girl's looked at her finger out of the corner of her eyes with a feral glimmer, without warning she snapped again. Shiori yanked her finger back before the girl could sink her teeth into it.
The man stared in amazement "She broke through your spell"
Shiori let a genuine smile break through her stone-like mask "She's perfect"
Four years later
The man ran hurriedly through the forest, glancing back nervously.
He knew he shouldn't have slighted the empress. Now she'd sent her after him.
A shadow flew past him; he gave a scream and ran faster. The shadow perched in a tree.
Under the glow of the moon one could see that the shadow was in fact a young woman of seventeen.
She was dressed simply in a black silk kimono that went to mid-thigh and concealed an arsenal of weapons. Her hair spilled down her back and was half pulled back into a messy topknot bun with what appeared to be chopsticks. A black silk cloth served to mask her face leaving only her eyes exposed.
The huntress watched her prey through blue-grey eyes.
She loved it when they ran.
Translations:
Baka, Idiot!
Gomen, Sorry
Oname wa, What's your name?
So ka, Really?
Hai, Yes
And it's my new baby! I'm going to have a lot of fun with this story and I hope you will enjoy it. It's kind of obvious who the girl was and I'll shed some light on how she came to be there in later chapters. I hope you can figure out what country Shiori and the man are from. I based their culture on Japan. Anyways this is Queen Cocaine and this is my latest creation, Sanity. I hope you liked it, please give some feedback. I'm out!
Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood…
Love Queen Cocaine
XXX