Aria of Symphony: I'm back and with a brand new name…I just can't seem to find a name that I want to stick with, so bear with me…hahahaha...my pen name used to be PinkPunkGirl by the way. And now, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Ragnarok. Just the characters here and the plot.
Amethyst Eyes and Blue Skies
Prologue:
It was a dark cold night and the moon was high up in the sky, lighting the path for two wayward souls running for their lives.
She ran into the forest, shooting arrows and breaking branches as she fled.
He ran beside her. Her assassin cross.
"Faster Aisha, faster, run!" he called out to her.
Aisha growled in reply and sent a shower of arrows shooting into the darkness behind her. A shout was heard and the young woman's lips curved into a smirk.
"Good shot." Jahred said.
"Why don't you just go on and cloak yourself?" Aisha asked as she jumped a fallen tree.
The sky was illuminated by a flash of lightning, a few moments later, thunder boomed overhead and raindrops started to fall.
"Cloak myself?" Jahred repeated, looking at Aisha like as if she was crazy. "No. They'll have to kill me before they get to you." He continued protectively.
Aisha rolled her eyes. "You idiot, I'm not the one their after, it's you. And besides, you know I can fend for myself, I'm not that helpless." She scoffed as she sent her falcon ahead of them.
"I know, I know," Jahred said, "but it's my fault we're on the run."
"I know, but I chose to stick with you, didn't I?" Aisha replied.
To this, Jahred had no reply. He said nothing but ran alongside her, his eyes and ears alert. But he didn't notice Aisha had stopped running, until she cried out.
"Agh!" Aisha grunted as her ankle got caught in a tangle of vines.
"Aisha!" Jahred called.
Aisha shook her head wildly at him. "Go! I'll catch up!"
She could hear the sounds of pecopecos in the air. They were right behind her, getting closer and closer. She tugged and pulled but the damned vines wouldn't set her free. In fact all her tugging and pulling just made it worse.
Her eyes widened in fear and surprise as lord knights burst through the trees. They were nearer than she thought.
"Damnit." She growled.
"Look, what have we here?" one said, as he dismounted from his pecopeco.
"This his girl?" another asked.
She growled as one of the lord knights took a step towards her.
"Feisty." He said, a smirk forming on his lips.
"Leave her alone." a voice commanded.
"Jahred!" Aisha cried as the assassin cross uncloaked before her, shielding her from the lord knights.
"There you are." One of the knights said menacingly.
"It's me you want right? Then leave her alone. Now, let's see how fast those oversized birds of yours can run." Jahred said. His eyes were illuminated by another flash of lightning and the rain plastered his hair to his face and clothes to his body.
"No! You idiot! No!" Aisha cried.
Jahred took one last look at the woman he loved, his eyes filled with sadness. "I love you, Aisha."
"No! No! NO! Jahred!" Asiha screamed.
She watched helplessly as Jahred leaped into the forest and the lord knights mounted their pecos and ran after him, leaving her alone as the rain poured down harder then before.
With renewed strength, she tugged and pulled at the vines until they broke off. She reached for her bow, then staggered up and ran into the forest, following the path Jahred took.
As she ran, she could feel her heart pounding rapidly in her chest, and she knew her eyes were alight with fear.
"Please, please, Jahred, please be alive." She whispered as she sprinted past trees and bushes.
Her hair was drenched and so were her clothes but she didn't give a damn, all that mattered was that she find Jahred alive and well.
Her falcon cried from where it flew above her.
"I know I know, I'm hurrying." Aisha cried.
She burst through the trees to find a clearing, just in time to see a lord knight stab Jahred in the chest with a sword.
"Jahred!" she cried out.
Right now, she didn't care if those lord knights spotted her. Tears were streaming down her face, mingling with the pouring rain. Her eyes were filled with pain and anger and she was biting on her lower lip as she stared at Jahred's still and lifeless body. She yearned to reach out and touch him and carress his face but her legs wouldn't move. She was frozen to the spot.
"He's dead, now you're next girl." One of the lord knights said, unsheathing his sword and approaching her.
Her eyes flashed with anger as she readied her bow.
Another cry pierced the air as her eyes focused on the knight approaching her. She looked to another of the knights and saw her falcon in his hands. He had taken it in his hands and broken its neck.
"No…" Aisha rasped.
"Leave her!" A deep voice commanded as the knight started for her again.
"We've done what we came to do. Now, leave the girl."
Aisha's heart clenched. That voice sounded familiar. Lightning chose that moment to flash and for a moment, the voice's owner was illuminated.
Her heart skipped a beat.
"Matthias…" she said, falling to her knees, her voice below a whisper.
He looked at the young woman with cold, unfeeling eyes. He was the man who killed her lover, her assassin cross.
"No…!" she cried helplessly as the knight picked up Jahred's still body and hoisted it up onto his peco.
He gave her one last look before signaling to the other knights and then disappearing into the forest.
"Jahred…no…oh god…no…Jahred!" she cried.
She reached for her falcon's body and slowly stroked its torn feathers. Her chest was aching; her eyes were blurred by her tears. It hurt so much, knowing that she would never get to see Jahred again. It was hard to accept the fact that her powerful assassin cross was now gone, taken away from her. Hard to accept that she would never see that twinkle in his beautiful black eyes and that grin of his that thrilled her to the bone.
Why? She thought, why him?
Then she remembered what Jahred had told her before they fled into the Payonese forests.
"If ever something happens to me, please Aisha, I want you to run. Flee Payon because they will hunt you. I want you to go somewhere far away where they won't find you."
Then he had pressed his lips to hers and kissed her hard, crushing her in his strong grip, like as if that was the last time he would get to hold her. She took the kiss, but his urgency and possessiveness had scared her a bit. She couldn't help but wonder if he knew something was going to happen and that he didn't plan on telling her about it.
Aisha cried harder, would she never feel that way again? The way she felt around Jahred, it was something she couldn't explain, she felt so safe around him, so loved. And now that she was alone, she felt…scared and lonely.
She looked up at the night sky, willing the rain to wash away her tears, every single drop of them so she could cry no longer.
She remembered what she had told Jahred in reply. She had merely scoffed and said that nothing could happen to them. She remembered the cockiness in her voice when she had replied, along with the confidence and the knowledge that she was in the presence of one of Rune-Midgard's most powerful assassin crosses.
"So Aisha, where's that confidence now?" she muttered to herself.
She did her best to wipe away her tears, which didn't help much since it was raining, then carefully laid her falcon on the ground and stood up.
"Jahred…after what they did to you? I can't just run away now can I? I'm not going down without a fight. Not if I've got one of Payon's strongest guilds on my side."
Aisha tossed down her bow but kept her arrows.
She took one last look at her falcon. "Thank you, my friend."
She then reached into her pocket and took out a butterfly wing. She crushed the wing in her palm and was instantly warped out.
It was time to leave behind everything that she once was and change her whole identity.
Wait for me Jahred, she thought. I will find him, and I will kill him.
Aria of Symphony: So there ends the first chapter, I mean, prologue. Thanks for reading and any comments or suggestions would be nice.