In the midst of a formidable jungle, a young woman was making her mark. Dressed in a fur dress and dark boots, Keira walked; carrying her spear in arm, ready to kill the next animal to cross her path. Her long golden locks bounced lightly as she took each step. Her father, William, was the leader of her village and wanted her to act like a girl, but she felt that she was destined to be the first female warrior. The sun was beginning to set behind a large hill near the village, so as the orange and pink sky became darker, she headed for home.
She reached the front door steps of her stone hut just in time to see the sun disappear completely. She walked inside to see her father sitting at the dining table, with one hand on his head, and a stack of papers in front of him. The stress of all the complaints from the villagers is tough, but so is her father. A few months back he ran in the leader election, just like a few other men in the village. He had an outstanding speech about making the village safer for everyone, and achieving what no other leader had, immobilizing the enemy. Because of his spectacular speech, he was elected to be the leader of the village. His strength had come from the heart, not from his head. His father had also been the village leader, but didn't last long before the enemy murdered him and his small army of followers. So far William had done a great job, everyone was safe and thanks to him, no one was ever hurt badly.
She walked to her bedroom, just off to the left of the dining room, to lie down and rest. She sat down and unstrapped her boots taking them off and throwing them on the floor beside her bed. She arose from her bed and started stripping her dress off, to reveal a sexy little undergarment that would grab all the village guys' attention. Her father would disapprove of such insolence, as he has already arranged her marriage to whom she thinks of as a village idiot. Her father thinks Paul is a great guy and would make a wonderful husband for his one and only daughter. He just wants her to be happy, like her mother was when she married him. Her mother, Julianne, was the most beautiful woman in the village. Her long auburn hair, matched her hazel eyes in a way that made her stand out from other women. Her clothes were that of what a princess would wear; a long silky crimson dress, with lilac bows around the bottom. She had passed away when Keira was just 2 years old; no one knows the cause of death.
Keira laid down on her bed, made herself comfortable and rested. What seemed like hours later, her father woke her and told her that dinner was ready. The smell of baked potatoes wafted through her bedroom door and she rose immediately. Baked potatoes were her favorite and her father would cook them nearly every night. She slipped a silk dressing gown overtop of her garment and headed for the kitchen where her dinner awaited.
The next morning her father headed out early to catch up with a few of his work colleagues who were helping him to prepare a meeting with another village leader. When Keira finally rose, it was close to noon. She had been asleep for hours. She dressed in her fur dress and slid on her alligator boots. For breakfast her father had cooked scrambled eggs, but by the time she had got up, her food was cold. She tipped the eggs outside for the birds to eat and then grabbed herself a bowl of crunchy cereal.
After breakfast she decided to meet up with her best friend Johnny. They had known each other before they could even walk. Their mothers had been the best of friends and would meet up every Saturday to hang out. When their children were born, they continued on meeting and soon the two children were the best of friends. They had been best friends ever since. They went to school together, played together and grew up together. They were inseparable.
Keira headed out her front door and down the main village street towards Johnny's house. He lived only two houses down from her, so she didn't have far to go. She reached the front door and knocked three times. From inside she could hear footsteps coming towards her. Thump, thump, thump. They got louder and louder. The door swung open and there stood Johnny in his rustic looking pants and top. His scarlet red hair was sticking up, as if he had just risen from a deep sleep. "Hi Keira, come in." His deep voice sounded tired and worn-out, as though he had not slept well last night.
She walked through the door into a musty room, with cobwebs in all four corners of the room. Small spiders clung to their webs, searching the room for flies. She looked down to the floor to see it covered in dust. Even the sofa was covered, as though a dust storm had blown through the house the day before. There were footprints in the dirt heading down the hallway and entering the first room on the left. That one was Johnny's room. Keira had been in there many times over the years. It was mostly to play games with Johnny. "I'll just be a minute or too, then we can head out." Johnny yelled from within the bedroom, pulling Keira out from her thoughts.
Once Johnny had straightened up and combed his hair, he and Keira headed down the street, just like they always do on a Saturday's. They proceeded towards the market in the center of the village. Saturday's were always the busiest day of the week at the market because that is when most of the villagers stocked up on their food supply, while few others would stock up on weekdays. Keira and Johnny were almost at the market when they saw a young, handsome looking man coming towards them. Keira immediately recognized him as Paul, the man she is meant to marry one day. His long dark hair swayed from side to side as he took each step. He almost looked like a male model walking down a catwalk. He even acts like a male model, self-centered and impertinent. He usually acts all innocent around her father, just so he can marry the most beautiful village woman and increase his reputation to a higher standing in the village.
"Keira, darling. What a lovely surprise to see you here." It sounded as though Paul was trying to be nice to her…for once. He then turned to Johnny and said, "I assume you must be Keira's friend. How…quaint!"
It was now Keira's turn to act nice. "Paul this is Johnny, my best friend. We were just on our way to the market, so if you will excuse us, we have to be elsewhere." She forced a smile, maneuvered her way around Paul and headed towards the market again. She was stopped dead in her tracks when Paul ran in front of her.
"I was hoping we could have dinner sometime next week. Maybe Wednesday night, say 8 o'clock at the usual place?" The usual place means the elephant fountain near the market and that he would decide on where to eat at the last minute, with no reservations. Most of the time all the restaurants would be full, so they would have a picnic of take-away food in front of the fountain.
"Um…sure. I'll see you there." Then muttering to Johnny, who was standing right behind her, they walked off, still heading towards the market. "You do know that he was only pretending to be nice? Johnny, he's really and insolent man who I cannot marry ever!" And with that Keira stormed into the market in a fury of rage, with Johnny hot on her tail.
Under the tin roof, in amongst the fruit and vegetable stalls of the market, Keira and Johnny trudged along looking at and smiling at stall owners. As they walked past a fruit stall, lined with apples, red and green, oranges, bananas and pears, Keira began to talk about Paul again. "I don't know how father expects me to marry Paul. He doesn't respect me. He thinks I should be home cooking and cleaning. He doesn't believe that I can hunt in the hills better than him."
"Keira, I'm sure your father only wants the best for you," Johnny chimed in. "He's trying to set up a life that you can be happy with. I'm sure Paul has fooled you father into thinking he's a polite and kind man, because he almost had me fooled back there."
"You're right Johnny. My father does only want the best for me. I can't blame my father, but I'm going to have to tell him that I can't marry Paul." She picked up an orange from the fruit stall and asked "How much?"
"One brass coin," replied the young man behind the counter.
Keira dug into her pocket and pulled out a bunch of coins. Sitting right on top was a brass coin. She picked it up and handed it over to the young man. She placed the other coins back into her pocket saying "Thanks" to the young man before walking on.
That night Keira had thought up a brilliant plan to let off some steam and to prove a point to everyone. She planned to sneak out and go hunting without anyone knowing. She wasn't even going to tell Johnny because he would ruin it by telling her father. She planned to leave as soon as the sun was up to avoid running into any villagers who usually get out of bed early in the morning. She laid her spear and her clothes next to her bed on the floor so that it was easier for her to find in the morning. She laid down under her covers and tried to get some sleep before the hunt.
Before the sun was awake, Johnny was out of bed ready to see Keira to surprise her for her birthday. It was her 18th birthday today and he knew that she had hardly ever remembered her own birthday since her mother had passed away. She didn't like birthdays much because everyone wanted to host a huge party for her and she wasn't very keen on big parties. Everyone always makes such a fuss on your birthday and she wanted to avoid it all together. Plus celebrating her birthday made her wish more and more that her mother could have been there celebrating with her.
Johnny quickly got dressed and headed out the door. When he arrived at Keira's, the sun was creeping out from behind the hill. He knocked on the door, hoping to get them out of bed to celebrate. After he had knocked he waited, but then he saw someone running away from the house with a spear. He followed them, thinking that it might have been a burglar stealing weapons and various items from the house. This person sure could run fast. About 5 minutes later, the person stopped and turned around. Johnny quickly hid behind the nearest tree, but peeking around the trunk to recognize the person as Keira. What was she doing and why was she awake so early running away from her house. She then started running into the jungle, headed towards the mountainous hill near the village. Johnny decided to follow her to make sure she didn't run into any danger.
Keira ran and ran, knowing that no one was following her because she had looked back only moments ago, seeing no one. When she was almost at the top of the hill, Keira stopped and took a breather. She had a small backpack tied on her back, which inside she had packed a water bottle and a few snacks. She knew that if she was going to be out here all day she would need something to eat. She sipped on her water bottle until her mouth was wet enough to continue on. This time she walked, or rather she sneaked. She was now beginning the hunt for just about anything, but what she really wanted was a mountain lion to hang up on her wall.
She walked on, waiting for an animal to walk in front of her on the long and obviously deserted path through the trees. To her right, she heard a noise. But when she looked, she saw nothing but trees trunks. She continued on and again she heard the same noise. Maybe it was just the birds. She looked upwards but saw nothing. Again she moved forwards in search of an animal to hunt. Then she heard a noise to her left, like a twig snapping. And out in front of her ran the most beautiful fallow deer she had ever seen. The white spots on its back were just the perfect pattern, like a deer from a children's movie. It ran fast, with a small spring to its step. It was almost as if something had scared it and it had to get away somewhere to hide. She held her spear in her right hand, just behind her on the side, ready to shoot the deer, but then she heard another noise behind it. She lowered her spear and waited for the second animal to pounce out of the trees to her left.
Within moments she could hear tiny growls coming from her left. She knew exactly what it was from the sound it made. It was a mountain lion. Its padded feet were hitting the ground with a small thud each time it moved closer to her. It appeared between two trees on her left, still thudding its feet. Its large fluffy head almost looked cute, apart from the snarling mouth, bearing fierce pointed teeth that could gnaw through her leg in seconds. Its tail swished angrily, timing the perfect moment to strike her down. ROARRRR!!! It roared so loudly that the birds in the nearby trees flew from the treetops, up towards the sky and disappeared. Keira just stood there, spear at its ready, with an amazed look on her face. This mountain lion was very angry and didn't want to be messed with, but it was too late, Keira wasn't going to back out now.