hey! i'm sorry-i'm sick, so this might not be up to par. :( Disclaimer: I don't own any Max Ride references, so stop looking at me!
Finding You
Chapter 1
I shuffled through the trees, cradling my wrist, thinking about the past five years. It's been five years since I've been declared a traitor by Ananda, five years of me being on the run. I was seven when Ananda took me in and started to train me as an assassin. I was nine when I killed my first person, ten when I was feared by the whole world. The girl with midnight black wings, blood red feathers, one eye blue, one eye green, the girl with blue black hair. The girl who had no friends. The girl who had lost everything when a fire consumed her whole city. That girl was me. I'm Kai, a highly trained assassin who can kill someone with a flick of a wrist. I'm seventeen now-ten years since the fire that took my kingdom.
Get this, my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother was Maximum Ride. She saved the world. I'm the only one alive of my race. The sole survivor.
Ananda has been hunting me for five years-she won't stop. I had just gotten away from her army-only suffering from a broken wrist. I feel no pain anymore. Hell, I can't feel anything other than the need of surviving.
I heard a twig snap-and my senses went on full alert. I pulled a dagger from my boot.
"Who's there?" I asked to the trees. Nothing. "I'm not afraid."
"Put that thing away," someone muttered from the bush in front of me.
"Show yourself," I demanded.
"I said-put the dagger away!"
"Why should I?" I countered. Next thing I knew, someone rammed into me, knocked the dagger away from me, grabbed my broken wrist, and twisted it. I cried out, not used to the new pain that had surfaced.
"I told you to put away the dagger, did I not?" he whispered.
"Who are you?" I asked, fear leaking into my voice.
"Keane. And you?"
"None of your business," I sneered. He twisted my wrist harder. "Kai," I said through clenched teeth.
"Kai?" I felt a cool surface press into my throat. "You're Ananda's assassin." I struggled.
"Not anymore. The bitch declared me a traitor!" I yelled at him. I felt my dagger being removed from my throat-and his grip loosened. Taking advantage, I kneed him in the stomach, leapt to my feet, grabbed my dagger, and pressed it against his throat.
"Kai-" I pressed harder, drawing blood.
"One move, and your dead," I whispered lethally. His brown hair flopped into his face, covering his one red eye and one black eye. Then it struck me. "You're avian," I said, awestruck. I removed the dagger.
His eyes widened. "How did you know that?" I pushed back my bangs-which covered my eyes-and showed him. I extended my wings slightly, showing them to him.
"I'm Kai Ride, heiress to the throne. Er, just Kai I guess." Sadness swept over me.
He smiled. "Kai-highly trained assassin of Ananda-heiress to our dead city. I've heard about you. You're absolutely lethal." He stood up, shaking off the dirt. I rolled my eyes, and walked back to my camp. Did I expect him to follow me? Nope. Did he? Yep. His footsteps echoed loudly off of the forest floor, attracting attention.
"Could you be any louder?" I asked him, spinning around. "It sounds like you're a giant!"
"Well, no one can be as quiet as you, Kai, the assassin of Ananda."
I groaned. "Can you PLEASE stop calling me that? I am NOT her assassin anymore! I'm exiled!" I yelled, turning around, quickening my pace. I heard him do the same. Would he ever give up? The trees widened fractionally, opening to my clearing. The moon was rising, stars beginning to show in the sunset. I sat, ripped off a piece of my shirt, which was already extremely short, and wrapped it tightly around my wrist.
"You look like crap," Keane said, breaking the silence. I pulled out my sword, and saw my reflection. My hair was dirty, cut raggedly, due to a failed haircut. There was a deep gash in my cheek, which was going to become another scar, my eyes wild.
I caught a glimpse of my wrist, my good one, and saw the burn mark that Ananda had given me when she took me in.
"Kai, is it?" she asked, leading me into her weapons room. I saw a poker-heated-with a cursive A molded into it.
"Y-yes, m'am," I whispered, frightened. Ananda touched my cheek gently, like my mother did whenever I was afraid.
"Now, child, there's nothing to be afraid of," she murmured. "Do you trust me?" she asked in the same voice, sounding like my mother. I nodded, even though I had just met her. She smiled gently, and grabbed the poker. "This won't hurt a bit," she told me. She grabbed my wrist and pressed it down, hard. I screamed loudly, the poker singeing of my skin.
She glowered at me, putting away the poker, bandaging the burn. "You belong to me," she said scornfully. I only nodded, tears spilling over my small seven year old cheeks.
I clenched my fists-which wasn't a good idea. The sharp sword blade dug into my palm, opening the scar on my hand. It bled instantly, the blood pooling at my feet.
"Shit," I muttered. Keane looked over to me, his eyes widening as he saw the blood.
"Kai-are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah-this happens a lot." I ripped off more of my shirt-shortening it even more-and wrapped it around my hand. "I'm going for a fly," I announced, staring daggers at him, deterring him from coming with me. I took a running leap, spread my wings, and lifted off. I flew in the midnight black sky-the safest time for me-my raging thoughts and memories consuming me.
"Faster!" Ananda yelled, jabbing me again with her sword. I gritted my teeth together, spitting out the blood in my mouth. I jabbed at her, only with her blocking it, and me earning another wound.
I fell to the ground, exhausted. We had been practicing for hours, Ananda training me as her head assassin.
"You baby!" she shouted, loping over to me, sword pointed at me. Anger bubbled up inside of me, and something happened. I jumped up; Ananda looked around, searching for me.
"Where are you, girl?" I attacked, bringing her down, my dagger pressed to her throat. I reappeared. She smiled evilly, and knocked me off of her, cutting me cheek in the process. I grabbed my cheek-blood seeping through my fingers, dripping onto the grass of the courtyard.
"That is all," she ordered, wiping off the sword, and walked back into the castle.
I felt the large scar that ran from my temple to my chin, reliving the day. I had learned to never act out with a sword in anger. It never ended well. I remembered the day that Ananda and I had faced off, her telling me about my mother.
"You fight like her," she sneered. I knew who she was talking about. I parried her jab. "Ashlynn was my lead assassin like you. Well, that was before she betrayed me."
"She would never."
"She did. She told the queen about me. About how I was sending her to kill citizens who displease me. So, I banished her, and killed the queen. You know, I was the one who destroyed her city. I blamed Ashlynn for Queen Karianna's mother's death. She was so displeased, she ordered me to destroy the city. So, I did. Served her right.
"How could I know that her precious daughter would come to me-on accident-begging for a home? It was perfect-I could finally destroy the race of Maximum Ride. But then, you got away. So, now I'm here to finish the deed." Ananda jumped at me, acting out of blood lust. She nabbed me with a move that I've never seen before. So, in my defense, I threw my dagger at her leg, losing it to her. She clutched her leg, falling through her fingers, her eyes wide. They retreated after that-leaving me to a victory. I had escaped with only a dislocated shoulder, knee, and hip.
I spotted a waterfall-and dived, noticing something. Ananda was getting stronger.
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