Chapter 2: Spidren Attack

Raoul grinned and looked at Elizabeth. She looked older and a lot stronger. They were almost the same height. She was only an inch shorter.

"How did you know I was here?" Raoul asked.

Elizabeth took out her necklace. It was a silver sun with a gold edge. It glowed a golden color.

"This starting glowing about two days ago, last night it a trail of light came from your pendant," she answered.

Raoul looked at her, started to say something, but changed his mind. He started to explain why he was here.

"Elizabeth-" Z held up her hand. Raoul looked at her.

"My name is not Elizabeth. It is Kira." Raoul looked at her confused and waited for her to continue.

"I was disowned from my family when I was ten. My real name is Kira. My father was angry and disappointed at me and said that I was teaching my brother the wrong ways. He disowned me. The only one who really cared about me leaving was my brother."

"What was your fief?" Raoul asked.

"Stone Mountain. My fief is, was Stone Mountain."

"We will see about that," Raoul said under his breath.

Kira looked around her and noticed a group of men had surrounded them. There was a certain man, though, that stood from the crowd. He had aquamarine eyes; light brown hair with natural dark brown highlights and stood around 6'0-6'1. He had the armband of a sergeant; black band, blue outer circle and white inner circle and a white dot in the middle. The man flashed her grin when he noticed her looking.

"That is Sergeant Domitan of Masbolle, lass" a man said. He was on the ground with a dagger pressed to his throat faster then thought possible. The man looked up with wide brown eyes. Kira grinned and lifted her dagger.

"I'm sorry. You must be Sergeant Aiden. Please to meet you," she held out her hand to help him up. Sergeant Aiden just smiled and grabbed Kira's hand. He tugged and pulled downward. Kira went flying and landed on her back. Aiden got up and the other men were cheering. Kira got up slowly and dusted of her pants. She looked into his laughing brown eyes and whispered;

"You have no clue who you're dealing with," she told him.

"Oh, I think I do," he replied.

The two circled each other, each looking for a chance to strike. Kira noticed a stick on the ground and picked it up and hurled it towards Aiden. He didn't move fast enough and a thin line of blood was left.

"Now lass, you are not playing fair," Aiden said.

"Never laid down any rule," Kira retorted.

Aiden lunged. He swung his fist towards her face. She blocked it and aimed for his nose. She moved quickly forcing him to duck. But this is what she wanted him to do and her right leg sprang out. She caught him in the stomach and he recoiled back. She lunged at him and he fell on his back. Kira straddled him and pressed a dagger to his neck.

"I win," she declared. Kira wasn't even struggling. Aiden was panting slightly.

"I told you; you have no clue who you are messing with," she told him.

"The Shang Unicorn taught me in secret for 8 years. One of the two best archers in Galla taught me archery. The King of Rogue taught me how to use daggers and wrestling. One of the Palace Guards of the Carthaki King Guard taught me how to use my sword. The Yamanis taught me to use a glaive and how to hide my emotions. The Scancrian Palace Mage taught me how to use my magic," Kira finish and started headed towards the forest.

"Hold on lass," Aiden told her. "What did Tortall teach you? No one had ever see you before?"

"Love," Kira answered. "Love, friendship and the meaning of family,"

Aiden smiled and nodded. Kira continued her walk toward the forest. She when she arrived she snapped her fingers and a black-green mist surrounded her, then disappeared. Her white clothes were gone, to replace with brown-green clothes. She blended in perfectly with her surroundings. Kira sat on the stump and made herself comfortable, then started singing;

"Home is behind, the world ahead.

There are many paths to tread,"

Little animals and birds started to surround her. She kept singing.

"Through shadow; to the edge of night.

Until all the stars are all alight."

Wolves, raccoons and wild dogs came.

"Mist and shadow; cloud and shade

All shall fade. All shall... fade."

A family of bears came last. Kira got off her stump and knelt down. She held her hand out for the bear cub to sniff. Whatever was in her hand the cub seemed to like and sat in her lap to eat it. She reached carefully for her pocket and took out some seeds and berries and threw them all around her for the birds to eat. She snapped her fingers and meat for the wolves and dogs, nuts and acorns for the squirrels appeared. Once they were done eating they all left except for a little sparrow. She tied a note to its claws and gave it a raisin. It flew off and Kira got up. She changed her clothes back to her uniform. She arrived at the practice courts and saw Raoul and Sergeant fencing. They were using fake swords. Kira grinned and saw a cadet nearby. She ordered him to bring Raoul's sword and her own. Minutes later the boy arrived with both swords. She told hold Raoul's sword and she took her own sword. It was a long thin steel blade with an ivory hilt. It had the Elves wrote the protections sigils on them. The steel blade was one-half mirror with a steel border for her to scry on. She waited for the match to end. Raoul won and the loser went of sulking.

"Anyone else wants to challenge me," Raoul asked, looking all macho.

"I challenge you, Mr. I'm-a-big-shot. Just to remind you of your place and where you belong."

Everybody looked around for the voice and saw a girl in white with a sword in hand. Some laughed and snickered. Only the others that saw her fight were quiet.

"What are you going to do to him, wench? Slap him silly?" A man said. All his friends laughed but stopped abruptly when a dagger landed near the speakers head.

"No," she said in a deadly whisper. "But if you ever talk to me like that again, I promise you, the dagger won't miss its target. Understood?" Kira told him

The man nodded and Raoul grabbed his sword. They both got into their fighting stance. They circled each waiting for an opening. Raoul lunged for her lower abdomen. Kira quickly lowered her sword blocked it and kicked out with her right leg. She hit his stomach. Raoul bend down in two.

"You aren't playing fair, Kira"

"You-,"

"You never laid down any rules, sir," Aiden shout out from the crowd.

Kira grinned and shouted back;

"Thanks, Aiden,"

Kira swung Hadhafang in a circle. The suns bounced of the steel and reflected against Raoul. Kira swung upward and was blocked by Raoul's sword. She spun to the side and swung her sword downwards. Raoul didn't move fast enough and got smacked leg.

'I'm must getting slow' he thought.

Out loud he said;

"Am I seeing a beginning of a relationship between you and my sergeant?"

Kira grinned and glanced back and saw Aiden watching her.

"No, just the beginning of a really strong friendship." Raoul took advantage of her distraction and swung for her neck. Out of no where her hand came and grabbed his sword. She yanked and his sword went flying. She pressed her sword to his neck and;

"I win," she declared.

She put her sword back in its sheath and starting walking cradling her hand. All the men opened up letting her pass. No one wanted to be near this strange girl. Her hand was supposed be cut in half. Blood dropped lightly on to the ground. She headed to the same place that she was earlier and sat down on the stump. Kira waved her hand on her cut. Black-green mist surrounded it and then disappeared. The cut on her hand was no cut, it was a deep slash. It went all the way through the bone but it didn't cut through it. She heard a gasp behind her. She jumped up and took out her dagger. Kira let out her breath. It was only Raoul, Aiden and Sergeant Dom.

"That is a nasty scratch, lass," Aiden told her

"Why thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious," she retorted.

"It's Sergeant Obvious to you, lass" he told her

"Why you little-" a twig snapped.

All four of them stood up sword in hand. Kira sniffed the air. A foul stench laid there. One filled with old blood and decaying bodies. Only two things could smell like that. Stromwings and Spidrens. She was guessing spidren.

"Thermal Vision," she whispered. Her vision went black for a second and then it became clear. She checked the clearing for body heat and found it. Three body heat reading came from behind a few trees. They were three spidren. She reached for her arm dagger and when one of them was in range she threw it. The dagger reached its target and the spidren died. The spidrens sensing danger rushed forward and raised their spinnerets. Kira returned her vision to normal and backed into Raoul. He grabbed her and she put a shield up just when a gray-green web came towards them. The web hit the shield and the web disappeared. All of a sudden bright pink web came out of nowhere and hit the shield. The shield disappeared and she put a shield up for Raoul, Aiden and Dom. Before she could put up a shield for herself the pink web hit her injured arm. She screamed. It wasn't her normal scream either it was her Ptera Scream. The scream was like a sonic boom. If anyone was near her when she released her scream they would die easily. If they were far away then the scream would knocked them out. The spidrens were closed by so they died.

The last thing she remembered was feeling arms around her waist lifting her and looking into aquamarine eyes.