Hello guys i'm sorry of the wait, i was preoccupied with school work and stuff like that, anyway thank you for the reviews, i think i go round to pm-ing all of you guys and of the guests:
Guest (chapter 5): hello, i'm glad you LOVE THIS FANFIC! please read on and review even more chapters 'cose then i will love you even more!1
Guest (chapter 7): Haha i glad you love this too, i'll try to post more chapters but i have a lot of work to do 'cose my exams are coming up in may! *"fun," she said in a deadpanned voice*! i hope it's interesting cose i tried to keep it different than any other FanFics for RA!
KatnipHerondale: SORRY BUT I'M JUST LOVING THE NAME! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU READ HUNGER GAMES AND INFERNAL DEVICES AS WELL!*fangirl squeal* um... the chapter names just come to me after i've writen the chapter so, like i write what i'm gonna write then i put like relevant stuff in the name so like the first chapter was about Kasta's client hence "the client" and the second she's finding the underground place and this one... well your just have to read! I'M JUST A VERY SINACAL PERSON
I'm sorry cose this chapter is like a filler, but i just wanted to get some of her background into the story, we will find out more of her later and i'm also going to bring in a new character later in the story( a lot later) please R & R!
Otousann= dad
Chapter 8… Drowning in Screams. 2035
When I was sure Horace was asleep I stripped my under breaches off to wash the remaining dirt from my body. The night was cold and as I waded into the shallow lake I shivered. I walked into the coldness and till it lapped at my neck and sent chills running up and down my spine. The water was as cold, if not colder, than the air.
I lake reflected black from the starless sky. Little ripples floated on the clear surface as I moved carefully in the darkness.
Once I was out distance from the shore I started scrubbing the dried blood from my pale skin. They peeled away in little fakes of red drifting like rose petals on the black water. I took a deep breath and dived under the water.
The water was blue. It had always been blue, even in storms, like the one shifting lightly on the sky-line. As I peered over the edge of the small boat I could see the small fish at the bottom of the lake. Their skins were bright and colorful like the little weeds on the sand and their eyes protruded and bulged over the small rims, seeing everything and nothing at the same time.
I turned towards otousann, ', can I go swimming?' he turned to looked at the incoming storm raging in the sky. Lighting flashed and thunder roared, the God's seemed quite angry with each other toward and I under stood my otousann's worry but the storm was far away and I wouldn't get hurt. 'Please.'
Finally he nodded and helped me climb into the water, over the side of the little fishing boat. But he didn't let go of my thin waist. 'Don't go too far out, Kat. Stay where you can see the boat and shore.' He pointed to the small beach like shore in the distance. A little collection of houses were anchored around twenty meters away from the water edge. Hazy smoke curled from the wooden roofs but it disbursed as little drops of rain splattered from the sky. I nodded and my otousann let go of me, handing me to the water.
My otousann had always said I was like an Amur Catfish that's why he called me Kat. He said I became alive in the water and I did. It was bewildering to be in the water, even if it was cold. But my mama said "a pitch of cold water in the morning never did anyone any harm" and my otousann would add, "Particularly to a catfish" which would make them both laugh and me giggle.
I took a long breath and dived under the water. Keeping my eyes open in the water hurt but not as much as it did in the open see for there was not as much salt. It was worth keeping your eyes open anyway for I could see the fish and the weeds which were always interesting to watch. Also so you could see what was down, or up, or to right and left.
I pushed myself through the water easily. My hands kept propelling me forward in clean strokes and my feet kicking effortlessly with precision. I felt free.
Smiling, I swim back to the surface. The water opened around me and I grin up at the sky but rain patters my face in splotches and it tasted like salt. I looked towards the sky-line and realised with clear panic that I'd come to far towards the storm. Light flashed before my eyes.
I don't want to be stuck in the storm. I'd heard stories of what it is like and how nobody ever ends to tell their own tale. I'd heard about drowning and I don't want to be so helpless.
I scream at the top of my lungs. 'Papa!' I hadn't called my otousann papa since I was three, yet I feel so young and tiny against the storm that was raging towards me, creeping like a hidden monster, ready to free itself from the darkness.
'Papa! Papa!' my mouth burned, then I'm under again, swallowed by a humongous wave. I clawed to the surface with my frozen arms. Air felt so hard to swallow. 'Papa!'
A voice replies a moment later. 'Kat! Kat! Oh my child, where are you?' I swam vigorously against the on-coming waves yet they were to powerful. I could almost sense my brain closing down from the cold harsh weather.
'Here papa! I'm here!' I wave me arms high in the arm but another wave came crashing down and I sink under the water.
The fish seemed unharmed from the weather as they are calm and till I squirmed and screamed for air. For papa and mama but nobody could hear me. Nobody could see me struggle and nobody came to help. But I didn't give up. Not yet, I tell myself. Air. I needed air. I clutched at anything to get out of the void of darkness. I didn't want to die. I was afraid of death.
I'm screaming underwater. I've done that before without knowing I'm doing it. It just happens. I drag myself from the water. Content at my clean state and rap myself in a blanket. No fire, yet I wish for one but I will not risk people seeing it. Instead I dry myself off and dress in warm clothes, the martial soft and warm against my cold skin, then lay down by a tree. Resting and almost asleep. I know that even the slightest noise would wake me and I'm content to fall asleep in that knowledge.
Waking was a bad idea. I knew and as far as I could sense, my lungs did not appreciate it as well. They felt like they were full of water and for a sickening moment I was curtain I was drowning inside out. I lurched to my front as my stomach lolled and my breakfast reappeared on the ground beside my drenched body.
The food was mixed with water making it seem like white mush. Water kept pouring out of my frozen mouth as I floundered on my front body, feeling too weak to raise my arms. It splattered into my mattered hair and I was repelled with the water started to come out tainted with blood.
Hulling myself up I wipe the smear of blood and liquid with my wet sleeve and look around. The storm is still raging in the background, fully past our town. I can hear the harsh crackling of thunder like pounding drums in my head.
Woefully I get to my feet and as I move off the small stretch of land I'd washed up one. I'm reminded of a staging drunk, I'd seen enough of them to know what they act like. My world shifted, turned and blurred as I moved forward and walked towards the town. I slipped on mud and staggered on uneven ground and I felt like I was still under water, yet this time I could swim.
Finally I reached the edge of the wood and stepped out to the small well in the square. It's tiny and wooden. Made from the careful workman's ship of the people here. The well is covered in a small slated roof to keep spoiled rain from entering the clean spring under the ground. A rope and bale are attached to the small roof, with a clever pulley that sends the bale down and hauls it up. It's also on fire.
The yellow flames matched the rest of the buildings, as fire danced out of the shattered windows and open doors. Screams clawed at the foundations of silence that normally embraced our community. I staggered forward, confused at the blaze of fire, and follow the piercing strangled voices.
The town is set up with the small well square at the back of the town. The houses are surrounding the small water source. In front of them is another square with attaches itself to the small docking stretch of platform on the sandy bank.
Half of the screams were of people coming from inside the houses. I saw hands and feet at the windows. Flashes of black hair and pale pallor as people sprinted around their rooms. Glass shattered as people jumped from windows or as the fire added to much presser behind the weak material.
I ran to my own house now. Shouting in my thin voice, 'Papa! Mama!' over and over again. But no echoing voice replied. My house was on the edge of the town, by the trees that grow outside the windows. It's was a one story house and made from single, long stretches of wood that were bored along the sides with a few, every one meter, going parallel to each other, facing the sky. The door was open and I ran towards it only to be pushed back by cold metal.
Papa, I think! Papa's come to get me!
I grabbed at the person and clung onto their thick body. I cried into papa's body in a flood of tears whispering, 'Papa. Oh papa, where's mama?' but no answer returned. I peered up in confusion only to find a man looking down at myself. Not papa.
The person peeled me away from their body and flung me backwards, outside and I hit something hard. A sharp pain flared in my mind as the man walked forward, shouting over his shoulder. 'I've found another one.' Confused I sit up and stare, bewildered at the man.
'Where's papa? And mama?' the man dragged me to my feet by my short hair but I was too frantic to register the pain. I was crying, tears gushing down my pale cheeks. 'Where's my mama and papa!' I was screaming now.
'You'll see,' replied the man loudly, then herded me towards the front square. People from my town are scattered around the space, being held roughly by men like the one holding me. I could not recall the name, but I remembered papa telling me they were warriors. Higher than us and we had to please them when they came as they often did.
I looked around for mama or papa, then remembered: papa was in the boat! I averted my gaze to the lake only to see the little vessel on fire. A figure loomed in the flames, shouting and screaming. I cried even harder and looked for mama.
She stood tall and proud, unlike the rest of the town. Her black hair blew like wispy flakes of smoke across her face and her clothes were burnt and blackened. Her blue eyes blazed with such intense hatred that it was so shocking that I hesitated before untangling myself from the man's grip and running towards her. She pulled me into her chest, rapping a thin arm around my frail shoulders and whispered words to me. Beautiful words that I could not hear in my frozen panic.
Then blood spurted onto my chest. I looked down expecting to find pain and a sword tip digging through my skin but there wasn't anything there. I looked up, wiping the blood out of my eyes, and stare at my mama. Her eyes were constricted with pained and she started to fall forward.
We both fell to the ground. Her lifeless body stared up at me, her hand still looking as if to stroke my cheek. Her mouth open in gentle words but they dyed the moment the man's sword left her body. If she said anything else I didn't know because as I was screaming so hard my lungs burned again.
I was curled in a ball on the ground, rocking back and forth. I told myself to stop being silly, get a grip.
You will not be afraid, that's what my mama had been telling me. I will not be afraid, I swear mama. I swear on the all-mother, I will not be afraid.
I wiped my face with my sleeve only to look up to find Horace staring at me, inquisitively. I stood forcefully and gathered my blanket into a ball and pushed it inside the saddle bag. I fed Akiko an apple a looked, finally, back to the prince.
'Come on then Prince. We've got some riding to be doing.'
i lied last time saying i'll update soon, so i won't do it this time because i don't know when i'll be updating but maybe... your reviews will speed things along... maybe :D DEHEE
