(Author note: Thank you for the support this far, I am grateful for your support.
And enjoy...)
Chapter 1
"Arrival of the Silver eyes"
Time passed and the existence of the yoma haunted mankind in the darkness of dread. The calls for help and the death toll steadily increased as human blood mixed with the rain. Cries for a savior from the nightmares which craved innards traveled to the east and were about to be answered.
A figure dressed in a tattered weather robe with the hood pulled over its eyes appeared on the rocky road. It walked in the heavy rain and the impeding thunder from above. The voice of a woman muttered to herself as she moved towards the next town farther away.
"Five…five…or was it four? Nevertheless… I have to make sure that all of them are dead by the time of my departure."
The figure reached the gate and noticed how deserted the street seemed to be in this weather. Not a single soul in sight and she walked forward as she spotted a sign with the town´s name in jagged bold letters.
"The village of Ferina… yes, thank the goddesses… I found it. Now I have to find and announce my arrival…"
A weak thundering noise from above and the figure stopped to look into a dark alley. A lightning strike traveled over the sky and illuminated the darkness for a couple of seconds.
The body of a dead and gutted man leaned against the wall with cold dead eyes and hot fumes from the gaping wound in his abdomen. Rats burrowed into the large hole in his stomach with their tails twitching in the rain. The figure thought with cold calculation while she averted her eyes from the scavengers.
"A fresh kill… not older than a half-an-hour… this must be the place."
She walked forward as she went through the details of this mission. The heavy tapping of rain hit the roofs around her as only sound while her feet sunk in the mud.
"The village of Ferina, a serious problem, several bodies have showed up over the weeks and the villagers suspected that there was one or more yoma hiding amongst them… I was told there would be four…no more than that…unless…NO…it´s four"
The heavy rain made the mood among the villagers even worse, along with raising paranoia that a monster lurked in one of the houses somewhere. That was the reason to all the closed windows and reinforced hatches over them. She took a slow look around as she noticed the wooden signs that revealed stores, a blacksmith and three different taverns, all closed for outsiders. The hooded figure reached a silent conclusion.
"They must be terrified…can´t blame them… so which one is the village-chief´s house?"
She threw one fast glance at the largest building illuminated by another lightning bolt across the sky. The hooded figure sighed in a bored manner as she headed straight towards it with slow and steady feet.
The house in question had two floors and warm light from candles through the windows. Muffled and angry voices could be distinguished from the other side of the door and the hooded figure decided to stand right next to one of the windows and eavesdrop for a little while, out of sight for anyone that might look outside with the rain as cover.
She could see a bunch of people that stood in a gathered group by one end of a table. Most of them were men in their late thirties with some exceptions. The one that stood in the middle seemed to be the leader and argued with a wrinkly grey haired man at the opposite end of it.
"Ah…that must be the chief…"
The hooded figure waited for a little bit to see what went on in there. The agitated man yelled in slight anger.
"We got to do something!"
The elder spoke with a calm and wise tone.
"We have already sent the request, what more can we do? We have no chance to fight it on our own!"
"I can´t believe we actually went this far… requesting a silver eyed witch to this village… we could fight the yoma on our own."
"Sorry to stop you there, but I don´t want to be the one to tell your daughter the bad news after they kill you…"
"I am stronger then I look!"
"Stop arguing! The Claymore will be here soon…"
"When? It has been two days! And more people have died! Are we just going to sit here while these monsters butcher us one and one?"
"Calm down Samuels! We must be patient and endure…"
One of the men addressed the middle one, Samuels, who appeared irritated by the chief's words.
"That´s it… Everyone! Gather some weapons, and come with me! We will commit a hunt of our own! We will not just sit here and watch our children get murdered by the yoma! I have already lost my wife and son to them. I will not let them take my daughter! We won´t live in fear of them any longer! Who is with me?!"
Five of the men, encouraged by his words, cheered on and headed towards the door. The chief shook his head, and realized that there was no way to reason with them. The hooded figure just shook her head and thought as she moved in front of the door.
"Okay… time to stop these idiots…"
An armored hand grabbed the door-handle and opened up the door just in time for another root of lightning to appear and illuminate it. The men stopped in fright over the hooded figure´s appearance and the man named Samuels raised his fists in self-defense in surprise. The hooded figure couldn´t blame them as the entrance must been something else with the intense rain smattering down on it.
Soaking wet from the hours of travel in the harsh weather, the figure entered and the men stood in stunned shock by the door, looking like idiots. Raindrops dripped from the cloak and the men moved out of way as they yelled out their fright and feigned anger.
"Who the hell are you!?"
The figure didn´t reply, instead it walked over to the table, looked down on the old man with a wide stare and then spoke with slight respect.
"I am here as requested…"
The chief, speechless at first, then started to realize her identity and seemed a little more at ease.
"Ah! You must be the claymore! It is a relief! We were getting nervous and feared it might take longer than necessary…some of the others…"
The hooded figure interrupted him and turned her head around to look on the group of men that still acted like they would attack at any minute. A small sarcastic remark from the figure.
"I can see that…"
The hooded figure turned back to the chief who talked away with cautious concern.
"You see, these gentlemen were about to hunt down the yoma on their own…"
"And it is a plan we will hold to!"
Samuels shouted out and seemed even more irritated with her presence. The hooded figure spoke calmly to them and with her back turned towards their direction…
"I see… don´t take this the wrong way… but how were you supposed to find the yoma?"
"We... we thought of…"
"The only way you people would find a yoma, would be if you saw it attack, but that also means you would sacrifice someone as bait. And if it actually worked, you would lose three men fighting it. Even then, the only damage you would do would be to piss it off. And considering that there are several Yoma in this village... It means that you all would become targets for them. And perhaps even start a massacre on everyone else once they got their cover exposed by your so called 'plan'…"
"You…!"
"And the other way, would be if you started to kill people you deem "suspicious" without any way to prove your accusations, and most likely, you would kill more people than yoma with this tactic. And if, by any chance, you manage to get a yoma among the suspects, it would just kill of all of you in an instant… not only would people die, but you would have the blood of innocents on your own hands…"
Samuels didn´t speak, mentally roaring in anger behind clenched teeth. He had not thought further than to round up some men and weapons… and then lynch everyone who looked suspicious. The hooded figure thought in the silence…
"Humans are such fools sometimes…"
Then continued to lecture them up verbally…
"I thought so; you fools are only going to get yourselves killed. That´s why you collected all that gold to make a request. A request for someone like me that would keep the bloodshed at minimum, and can find the yoma in a safe way. There is no need for anyone else to die…"
It got silent and the hooded figure finished with a clear smile hidden in her voice.
"Well, unless you want to die that is…"
"That´s it!"
Samuels, now furious, pointed with a finger of accusation toward the cloaked visitor. His followers on his side prepared to follow his command. Samuel yelled over the rain outside with anger in his voice.
"Nobody calls me an idiot! And how do we know that this is a real silver-eyed witch!? It could just be a stranger that take advantage of our crisis, pulling some bullshit tales and then take off with the gold! How do we know you are the real deal!?"
The hooded figure turned around with a slight aggression in her voice now.
"You are calling me a fake?"
Samuel kept up an over-confident facade and yelled back in arrogance.
"Yes! Exactly! Prove that you are a Claymore! Or else I will beat you up and throw you out!"
The figure sighed a little as it moved the armored hands towards the hood.
"Of all stupid… fine."
Then it removed the traveling coat and the small crowd just stood there, watching with wide eyes. Samuels´s grin sunk and his confidence dropped like a rock.
The figure was a young woman. She wore a shimmering thin, elegantly made metal armor that shone from the candlelight and the lit fire-place. A dark cloth clung to her neck and chest with a white symbol stitched in its center it, a circle within a square and a vertical line through it. Over this, a small chain and a silver medallion with a red ruby in the middle. On her back hung a huge sword, a claymore with an odd shaped hilt and two reinforced pieces leading to its two-edged blade. Her long platinum blonde hair, split by the base of her skull, wrapped halfway around her neck like a collar. Her eyes glowed faintly with silver as she indifferently gazed at them.
The crowd stood there with increased shame, having made fools of themselves. They looked at her and mumbled.
"Oh shit…It is one…"
"A real silver eyed witch?"
" A claymore… here?"
She looked at Samuels who seemed to restrain his anger over to be wrong in his assumptions. She asked in a slight taunt.
"So… you still want to beat me up and kick me out?"
He looked at the huge sword behind her and then back at the wielder. He clenched his fists and scowled faintly as he glared.
"Yeah…"
The others around him tried to do their best to discourage him.
"Are you crazy! Look at the size of that sword!"
"Samuels, don´t be an idiot!"
Samuels replied with a smug grin.
"It doesn´t matter, Claymores would not kill or harm humans, that is their one and only rule…"
She thought to herself as she heard that last part.
"Oh, is he trying to play the "No harm to humans" card? Well I don´t mind teaching him a lesson…"
She answered him.
"True, we won´t harm humans, but the rule says nothing about knocking you unconscious…"
The men held Samuels back as they now pleaded him to not get involved in this.
"Don´t do it Samuels! It is just plain stupidity!"
Samuels looked with annoyance and after a couple of seconds shrugged the others off with a frustrated grunt.
"Okay… I won´t. Come on… we have better things to do…"
They left the chief´s house while Samuels gave her the evil eye with an expression of despise. The door closed behind them and the chief tried to excuse their behavior with a hand in his face…
"Samuels never was the brightest… I hope they will not cause any trouble for you…"
"Idiots only become a problem when they get involved in things they shouldn´t…"
The chief massaged his temples to make an annoying headache go away. Apparently this man Samuels had caused more than one scene in the past. He muttered as he moved his hand beneath the table.
"The payment is right here…"
The chief pulled up a large bag filled with gold on the table and she spoke with great sarcasm in her mind.
"And here we go again… sometimes I wish I didn´t have to put up with this standard routine…"
The chief spoke as he opened up the bag and revealed its contents, two hundred gold pieces.
"We managed to get to the fee… So I guess you will just collect it and get the job over with i-…"
"No I won´t…"
The chief looked surprised as he closed the bag. The warrior continued in a monotone voice and stoic look now, a rehearsed act done many times before this...
"…Payment will be delivered to a man dressed in black clothes, he will arrive a couple of days after the yoma have been taken care off. If I fail to kill the yoma, you won´t have to pay… simple as that…"
"Okay… is there something else you need?"
"I need a room. It was a long journey here, and it is too late to sniff them out now. I will deal with it tomorrow…"
"Okay… there should be some taverns further down the…"
"I already know where they are… I just stopped by to say that I had arrived. But I need you to do something as soon the rain stops…"
"And what is that?"
"Gather all villagers on the town square at high noon tomorrow, Once that has been done, your yoma problems should be resolved before lunch."
"O-okay?"
She seemed pleased, turned her back to him to leave and then stopped. She moved her head and stared down at the village chief in profile and spoke.
"There´s one more thing….There´s a dead man in one of the alleys close to the village entrance… You should remove the corpse before more yoma come here, attracted by the scent…"
The chief swallowed in slight fright and she put on the robe again while she walked out through the door. The door closed and left him all alone in there.
The chief took a deep breath and felt relieved that she had left. Drops of sweat flowed in his forehead and with hands that shivered in fear from the impression in those silver eyes. He had heard of the Claymores before, but meeting one? That was something completely different. His memory brought him to a time where he had ran into a shadow-wolf in the cold north, bent on devouring him whole with its intense wide eyes. This claymore, had the same expression in her eyes as it had.
And that frightened him...
"Maybe it was a mistake to summon that 'thing' here...?"
The rain continued to fall and the claymore tried to get a yoki reading of the town. She stopped as she spent some time to think.
"It´s hopeless… I can´t get a clear picture in this rain…"
She looked down before the decision to get inside came to mind. Another look up and she began to walk as the thunder bellowed over the village. A shade appeared among the curtains of heavy rain and she frowned faintly as she moved towards it. She took a closer look and the lightning revealed the person ahead of her with its bright light.
A girl, no more than eleven years old, with blonde soaking-wet hair. She wore a simple dress that clung to her body in the rain. Her blue eyes blinked with haunting emotion behind them as she shivered from the rain. They were endless like a deep well.
The claymore stopped and looked down on her for a short while before she asked.
"Why are you standing out here in the rain?"
The girl didn´t respond at first, shaking from the cold rain water with her emotionless eyes aimed straight forward. The warrior looked around and couldn´t see any clue to where this child lived. It would be easier to ask.
The Claymore looked directly at her with a stoic expression as she tried to start a conversation with her.
"Don´t you have a home of your own?"
She looked up and nodded.
"You do? Then why are you out here then?"
"Too scared… I am too scared to go home…"
The warrior didn´t like the sound of that and looked up at the dark sky once again.
"You do know that standing here in the rain is going to make you an easy prey right?"
"It is better than the other choice…"
"Aren´t you afraid? That they would come for you out here?"
"I am not worth it… they stay indoors…"
The warrior just couldn´t argue with children. She instead put up another question to make her listen and go home.
"How do you know that I am not a yoma?"
"You have not attacked me, that´s why… You look…kind."
The warrior looked down at her as the girl slowly lowered her head and clenched her arms around her to keep her body heat. The warrior began to walk and passed by the girl.
"Not my problem…not my problem…"
The warrior stopped three meters behind the girl and looked down at the muddy ground. A fast move with her hand and she held the medallion within it.
A deep sigh left her lips.
She turned back went back to the girl again. She stood right in front of her and looked down at the cold, seemingly emotionless face. The warrior then shook her head as she removed her traveler cloak and put it around the girl´s shoulders.
"Here… I don´t need it…"
The rain hit the warrior's uniform and the girl slowly grasped around the cloak tightly. The warrior spoke with a slightly concern tone.
"You will freeze to death out here… So can you just go home for tonight?… I´m here to kill the yoma so you don´t have to stand here in the rain anymore…"
They looked at each other for a while, and the claymore walked past her once she had made certain that the girl had begun to walk home. She looked after her and felt the rain tap on her exposed head and shoulders.
"Good… now where´s the tavern?"
She left for the closest one and got a single room for three pieces of gold in her pouch. Her main intention was to get her uniform dry for tomorrow as she needed to be prepared for the upcoming battle.
With a sharp thrust, she impaled the floor with her broadsword in front of the fireplace and leaned her back against it. The armor was piled up behind her and the heat of the fire slowly dried up the grey bodysuit she still wore. Outside the dark sky continued to rage through the world and drown it in rain and thunder. She ignored it and thought about something more important for the time being.
"I hope I will get them all…"
She sat there with the fire behind her as the only source of light. The cold from the rain didn´t bother her even the slightest since her body stayed warm no matter what. She took a short look at the bed in the room with a mixture of dislike and defiance.
"Like I would sleep on one of those…"
The warrior crossed her arms and tried to sleep through the thunderstorm.
Outside, the little girl stood in the middle of the street in her borrowed cloak. Her breath became a faint cloud in the air and her eyes looked up at the window where the warrior slept. She clenched her hands tightly around the edges to the robe and inhaled the scent on it in deep breaths. A small smile built up on her young face and the bottomless blue eyes slowly began to brighten up from hope.
A shout in the middle of the night got her attention. She turned herself around with a visage of hopelessness and then back at the tavern. She couldn´t stay out here any longer now that her father called.
The calling went on for a couple of minutes, and the girl slowly headed home with sad eyes.
It continued to rain just a little bit the next day. The ground had gotten all soft and muddy from the intense weather she walked through the other night with small puddles here and there. True to his word, the village chief had gathered the people of Ferina at the decided time while they complained a little bit over the rain. But those trivial concerns paled in comparison over their new visitor that now stood and looked at them. The claymore stood in the middle of the road while her silver eyes watched and searched over the unpleased and slightly scared faces.
A claymore was a rare and unwanted sight and they couldn´t help but talk about it.
"It really came…"
"What do you think she will do?"
"Kill the yoma, I hope…"
"Half-blood…"
Samuels stood among them and still looked annoyed from the incident the day before. If they had not needed to get rid of the yoma, he would have kicked her out. But it would be interesting to see what a silver-eyed witch really was capable of, according to him.
"O boy… I got quite a audience… hopefully it won´t last for long…"
She seemed to notice something and looked at a group of four people. Much to her surprise, these where the ones from yesterday. Her left hand slowly reached for her sword´s handle and then she rushed forward without warning, unsheathed the sword and sliced through two men in the group.
They stared as their wounds opened up and began to transform, gaining bulkier bodies and darker skin. Their ears grew pointy and big maws opened in their faces while they cursed their bad luck. However, as they changed into their demonic forms, something changed in the claymore as well. The silver-eyes stared at them and then a sudden rush of power surged through her as her eyes shifted to golden snake-eyes. The townsfolk around them ran away to hide in their houses at the revelation of the yoma. The town-square quickly became deserted with only the claymore and the four yoma fighting. One of the yoma shouted in anger...
"Just die already! Annoying piece of-!"
She swung the blade and delivered a clean cut through the yoma´s head. More precisely between its mandible and skull to kill it in midsentence.
"Watch your language…"
She bisected the left arm on one of the yoma while they attacked with their claws and brute strength. She dodged to the side from their attacks and hit a yoma´s left hand with the broad side of her sword, breaking every finger in its hand instantly. He roared in rage as he held his hand with his other hand. Another one tried to attack her from the left side; she swung the sword in a down-going arc towards it. The heavy blade cut its way through the left femur and the right knee of the attacking yoma; it fell down on face first in the mud, and staining it murky rose-red.
The third one tried an aerial attack and prepared to strike her down. She just smiled at it in mockery when she flipped the sword in her hand. The yoma came down and the blade went up; it cut the yoma in half vertically, blood squirted and it roared a dying shriek in pain as the halves of its body split apart.
The crawling yoma, now covered in mud, tried to attack her from below and got a hold around one of her ankles. She turned around on the spot with ease thanks to the mud and flipped the sword backwards to stab through the crawling yoma´s head and into the ground.
It stopped moving and only one combatant remained. The yoma tried to charge while it flung its unbroken hand. She grabbed the remaining yoma´s head with her right hand and then rammed it right into the sharp edge of her blade still planted into the ground. The impact cut its skull in half right between the eyes. When the edge cleaved halfway into the head she let go of it, the yoma still remained stuck to the blade, it twitched and coughed as the last remnants of its life sipped out.
She lifted one of her feet and kicked the last yoma between the shoulder-blades and bisected the foul head as her sword forcefully went all the way through.
And then it was over.
The whole battle had gone very smoothly, almost like a dance, and it had not even lasted for one minute. Everybody in the village just stared at the scene and the claymore pulled out the sword from the ground with a single hand. She made a fast swing to get the mud of the tip and then sheathed the blade once more.
"Okay… that was four… now the breathing exercise…"
She drew a deep breath and slowly counted down from ten.
"Ten…nine…eight…seven…"
No one moved or said anything. She rested the huge blade on her armored shoulder and kept counting while holding a hand over her medallion with closed eyes. She could hear the rain tap on her shoulder-pads.
"…Three…two…one."
She exhaled and opened her eyes which had reverted to their normal silver color. She looked around and the calm atmosphere slowly returned. Some of the people gathered on the street and stared with a mixture of fear and relief. Samuels stood among them and with a sour scowl in his visage.
"So you managed to get them all?"
"I guess…"
"Then… I am willing to apologize… we both are… grateful…"
He looked around as to search for someone, he muttered something in a slightly bitter tone.
"…Where´s that little…"
She kept a stoic look as she felt something was amiss here, her internal doubts reminded her like a annoying bird pecking on her thoughts.
"Four…or five?"
Samuels looked into the crowd and then called out on someone as he waved his hand…
"Come here, Eliah! We shall thank this witch for saving us…"
A young girl stepped out from the group of people and the claymore recognized her immediately.
Those sad blue eyes in the rain and the cloak still around her shoulders…
The warrior slowly tightened the grip around the sword-handle again without drawing any suspicions. Samuels held a hand on the little girl´s shoulder before he grudgingly said it …
"I am sorry for doubting… Thank you…"
A blatant lie... he then looked down on Eliah.
"Say thank you to her…"
"Thank you…"
The girl´s voice sounded monotone and without enthusiasm. It was a scared voice. Samuels turned his back to the claymore and looked down on the girl.
"Now, let´s go home, Eliah-"
"There is no need to apologize…"
Samuels stopped for a moment as the claymore interrupted him. Above them, the rain began to fall.
"…After all, I am not done yet…"
She´s stared at the back of Samuels head with such intensity that it would ignite it if could, as if to see the very core of his soul. A cold and scorched stare. Samuels bowed his head just a little bit and then up again.
"…There were five after all…"
The claymore swung the sword in a downwards arc at him and Samuels leapt forward in a instant to dodge it.
The sword hit the muddy ground while small fragments of dirt and water flew from the impact. He landed five meters from her and turned around on the spot while transforming. His forehead and face bulged with thick veins, his mouth turned into a lipless maw and filled with sharp teeth. He looked more bulky than the others and his golden cat eyes couldn´t have made the truth about him more obvious.
The fifth yoma.
He held Eliah hostage and threatened to carve her throat up with his claws and a furious expression.
"I knew you were trouble from the start! Shit!"
The claymore pulled up the sword and looked a little more serious.
"You thought you were smart using the others as distractions while covering behind a wall of humans… I bet you got quite bold yesterday after our first meeting… a clever yoma schemer indeed… but not smart enough!"
"So you knew all along?!"
"No… I met her last night and she told me something interesting…"
"Did she tell you what I was!?"
He held his claws so close to Eliah´s skin that it almost bled. The claymore´s eyes hardened to a glare at him.
"No, she didn´t said anything like that… but only that she was afraid to go back home… And before that I overheard you and your gang when you discussed it with the village chief… You got me thinking. After that I put two and two together as the only reason that girl stood outside and alone in the rain was that she didn´t have any parents to stop her in the first place. In times like this, all parents would put their children indoors from the risk of the yoma, even the weather would be reason enough. You provided the clues to make the connection since she got out because you weren´t home… and not only that but your actions only added on the evidence… Why would someone rally up a group to kill the yoma if they could not find them? The option I didn´t speak of was that a yoma could sniff them out, kill two of them, let the others flee, and the massacre would still continue, but in other villages. You would be seen as a hero, and still murder people in secret…"
The yoma looked shocked from the warrior´s reasoning skills and cursed his misfortune.
"Damn it…"
"Now, I will kill you and then, my job will be done…"
"Like I would let you!"
Samuels carved his fingers into Eliah´s skin and the blood flowed over it in small creeks. The girl didn´t even react to the claws that now sunk into her cheeks with the exception of a shiver in her eyes, like she was used to far worse pain. This just made the claymore angrier at Samuels.
He shouted.
"Drop the sword in the ground or I will kill her!"
The hostage situation went on for a minute. The villagers had run off again and only Samuels, Eliah, and the claymore remained in the town square. She took a deep breath and then stabbed the sword into the ground with ease. It tilted 45 degrees with the handle away from the hostage situation. Samuels seemed to calm down a little.
"Okay, now just stand there and I will get out nice and sound…"
The claymore began to charge up power within her, she looked at the girl and into her eyes.
A whisper that traveled through the air.
"Get out of the way…"
The girl didn´t need to hear, she understood and looked down on the arm that held her. A quick thrust downwards and she bit Samuels on the forearm as hard as she could and got it to bleed, an impressive feat since a yoma´s skin could be quite difficult to pierce by such means. Samuels screamed and shouted in anger.
"ARRRRHHH! Is that how you treat your own father!?"
The grip around her loosened up and Eliah got away from him. Samuels tried to catch her and then looked up in slight shock.
The claymore rushed forward with incredible speed since she wasn´t burdened with the claymore now and had raised her clenched right fist. Her eyes glowed only gold and murderous intent and the face distorted into an infernal nightmare. Samuel said one last thing in a tiny scared voice, nothing more than a squeak…
"Oh shit-!"
The claymore punched Samuels in the face so hard his feet left the ground, but before he flew very far in the air, the claymore stomped down on his foot and nailed him to the mud. She grabbed his right shoulder and kept punching his face with her fist in a fast succession of punches, each one bruising and pushing his face.
Samuels couldn´t even collect his mind enough to counter attack or think for that matter.
She grappled his neck with her right hand as she let go of his shoulder with the other one. The claymore looked back for a second while she built up her yoki power to the point her body started to distort beneath the uniform. She threw Samuels with one hand at an impressive speed through the rain. His journey came to abrupt end with the sharp edge of her sword as his final destination and bisected him into two vertical halves, right between the eyes.
The pieces hit the ground and slid over the mud a little further like two blood-filled tomatoes.
The claymore breathed deep breaths and her eye color slowly changed back to silver once again.
The claymore went back to her sword and pulled it up with no effort before she sheathed it.
"Five… That´s it…"
She noticed the girl who walked slowly towards her now. Blood flowed in small rivers from her slightly open mouth and she had shocked and pale expression on her face. There was an absolute silence around them with the exception of the rain.
The girl walked onwards and the claymore followed her with her eyes. Eliah stopped right before the remains of Samuels and just looked at them. She didn´t say a single thing and then bowed her head down. She started to shiver and tears began to fall over the remains.
"Daddy…is…daddy is…daddy…is…"
Eliah held her shivering hands up to her face and shivered a little more. Tears fell between her fingers.
She cried and sobbed loudly with the rain to accompany her.
The warrior looked at her and thought to herself.
"To bad… well at least you won´t have to worry about the yoma anymore…"
She began to leave the scene. Soon the townspeople would gather up the corpses and ditch them somewhere outside the city limits.
The warrior stopped.
Behind her the sobs replaced themselves with something else. Eliah looked up at the sky with tears over her cheeks and blood from her mouth.
She smiled the most disturbing open smile.
A loud laugh left her mouth and up towards the dark sky. The open mouth revealed blood on her teeth.
"DADDY IS DEAD!"
Eliah stood there and didn´t seem to stop laughing anytime soon. The warrior got a little bothered by the behavior at first but then thought.
"She´s at least happy…"
Later, the claymore stood by the entrance to the village and prepared to leave. The weather seemed to at least get brighter now even if it still rained. A loud yell from the chief stopped her…
"Wait! Wait please!"
The claymore turned around and noticed Eliah by the chief´s side. Without the blood in her mouth, dressed in the traveler cloak she provided to her last night and a bag around her waist. He spoke with fatigue and plea in his voice.
"Please, before you leave… can you take her with you?"
"That is not my responsibility-…"
The man ignored her answer and talked away.
"Please, take her away; far away from here… from us… as possible. We don´t want anything to do with her, and frankly, she showed a will to follow you…"
Eliah didn´t say anything and seemed to not even care about what the chief said. After she had laughed for an hour she had simply shut down and appeared to live in a world of her own. She sniffed in the cloak.
The chief continued…
"… You understand right? You saw it! We can´t handle such an unstable child here… can´t you take her with you?"
The words were altered but this was just a way to get rid of relatives to the yoma. After all, the risk was that they themselves could become yoma, a mere superstition of course, but with a fragment of truth since yoma impersonated their victims to blend in. The claymore knew that if she denied then the girl would be thrown out into the forest anyway by these heartless people. After an inner discussion with her mind, the claymore sighed and replied.
"Okay, since you´re asking so nicely… She can come with me…"
"Thank heavens! You have no idea how assuring that is…"
The chief left Eliah with her and then went back to the village. The claymore looked at the girl and shook her head with a hand in the face.
"Why can´t I ever learn…"
She sighed again and looked at Eliah who returned to the real world again, looking up with a questioning face. The claymore spoke strictly to her.
"You understand that this is not a permanent solution, the only reason you are coming with me, is because I don´t want your life on my conscience… understand?"
"Yes…"
"Good…"
The claymore began to walk away from the village and Eliah followed alongside with her. The claymore thought to herself in sarcasm.
"Great… well done… you got all the yoma and a extra company on the road…"
The girl smiled both genuinely and happily as she asked.
"My name is Eliah… what is your name?"
"My name… it´s been a while since anyone actually asked for it…"
The rain stopped at last and the thick blankets of clouds opened up to throw spare rays of sunlight over the surroundings. The Claymore spoke as one of these rays fell over her with a happy glimpse in her eyes.
"…my name… is Grace…"