Ok guys this is my first fanfic, so be brutal I want all the criticism and help I can get and I'm very open to other people's ideas. So here goes.
Chapter 1: Introductions
I heard the sound of horses hooves pounding as I jolted from my bed. Wearing only my nightgown, I slid fluidly from my bed, intently on high alert. Years of training with and practicing what my mentor Selene taught me allowed me to nimbly jump from my window to the tree outside. I swung into several more trees putting distance between my home and myself. Sitting in a tall evergreen, I was shrouded in shadow. I drew my bow and aimed at the path entrance.
Almost immediately, a rider came in to view. My arrow poised to fly; I felt a tingling sensation, a whispered warning to wait. I watched him and realized that he had an arrow in his side. Looking closely I saw that he was barely able to sit up. I dropped from the tree in front of the horse and grabbed the reigns. Close up I could see that it wasn't a man, but a boy a few years younger than myself. He was badly bruised and beaten and his eyes were unfocused. Blood was matted in his hair and he was drenched in sweat. In his thin clothes I knew he must be freezing. I gasped as he slumped forward and began to fall from his mount. I moved to catch him and I groaned knowing I'd have to carry him into the house. I made sure he would stay steady on the horse and led them to my home.
I tied the horse to the trunk of the tree outside the carved window. The boy yelped as I helped him off the horse and moaned. I quickly got him inside the stone entrance and laid him out atop the table in my kitchen. I immediately ripped open his shirt to look at the wound. The arrow stuck was shallow, and but went through a pinch of skin all the way. I cut the end of the arrow off cleanly, and after placing a wooden spoon between the boy's teeth, I pulled the arrow out, all the while pressing a cloth to the wound to staunch the bleeding. I swallowed and laid my flat blade over the flames of my fire. I took and poured a bottle of firewhiskey on the wound. He screamed and I said gently " Shhh. Easy. This has to be done." I scrubbed the area clean with hot water, and took the flat blade from the fire and saying to the boy "I won't lie to you, this will hurt, but it will keep the wound from bleeding and getting infected at once." He swallowed as best he could and nodded, tears leaving trails on his grimy skin.
I pressed the glowing blade against his pale skin. He screamed around the gag. I very gently soothed him and stroked his hair. He panted, his chest heaving, and after his eyes met mine, they rolled back and he fell unconscious. I sighed and finished the wound. Then I took the spoon from between his lips and tipped some water down his throat. I was gentle as I lifter him off of my table and carried him to the marble counter in the bathing chamber. Leaving him there for the time being, I went back and cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. As I returned to the chamber, I sat on a stool and huffed. I thought about the horse with the Lord Axel's brand standing clearly on its shoulder, and the boy, barely past being a child, with an arrow in his side, and looking like he went through hell. I put my head in my hands. Just what the hell was I getting into?
Sighing, I carefully peeled the ragged breeches off of the boy, and thanked the stars above that he had undergarments on, though they were blood smeared and filthy as well. I figured that it was normal considering how much he bled everywhere. I hesitated before attempting to lift the boy. I looked around me at the cavernous room and took a deep breath. I stood for a moment and listened to the boy's breathing. He would wheeze every now and then and he twitched a bit. I took this time to look him over and judge just how badly he'd been hurt. I winced as I saw that the bruising was extensive, and the purplish black marks marred his fair skin from his neck down. He also had small cuts and gashes that looked painful on their own. His left cheek was red and swollen and his lips were bruised and swollen too, with a split on the bottom one. I lifted him and walked to the pool of water.
My home is the mountain, literally. My mentor Selene saved me when I was six years old. My village was attacked and I was the sole survivor. This was her home. As a witch she had powers I could only dream of and she taught me many things about hers, and hunting. She used her magic to carve a huge cavern in the middle of the mountain and from there made rooms that all had domed celings, but she slept in this home with it bare and cold. When I was 12, we went to assist in a fight, I, because she had trained me as a warrior and I was good at it. At 12 years old I could kill a man in 37 different ways that didn't even make me break a sweat. Selene died in that battle, but gifted some of her powers to me as I took a vow to only use them for good. If I ever used the magic with evil intentions I would lose them forever.
The bathing chamber was a rounded room with water that poured from a hotspring, into a pool-sized basin. The basin had a hole in the bottom that bled out into a rock bed below and back into the hotspring deeper down. It had three rings that acted as steps around the entire circle. Making sure to keep the boy's head above the water I stepped in, still in my nightgown. It irritated me how the fabric stuck to my body, but I ignored it and sat the boy on the second step. He was up to his middle in the hot water, and I was up to my chest. The boy moaned and his head lolled a bit. I just grabbed a cloth and started to gently scrub his arms and shoulders with a minty sweet soap. He opened his eyes as I set his right arm back in the water and as his vision focused he jumped and yelped. Even though I expected that he caught me off guard as he tried to stand and slipped knocking us both towards the deep end of the pool. He gasped and grabbed his shoulder, and I saw his head go under. Cursing, I dove down and retrieved the squirming youth. He latched on to me and spluttered, shaking violently. I swam effortlessly back to the edge and plopped him back onto the ledge. I stood to yell at him and realized he was crying.
The heat building up in me was doused as he curled away from me in fear. I knelt back down and said softly " Shhh. Hush now. You're alright. Calm down. I won't hurt you." He sniffed and looked at me cautiously. His eyes, I noticed then, were a brilliant, shining, emerald green. I stroked his cheek and he gave up and leaned into my touch. I said softly " What is your name?" He swallowed thickly "S-Sora. Sora de Brentagade." I smiled " My name is Rose de Briard. What happened to you?" he looked down and said bitterly "I was a coward. I should have died for leaving him." I frowned "leaving who?" He looked up at me with eyes full of pain, and self-loathing. He broke down and choked out the words "My brother."