Chapter 9: Memories
Sorry for being away for a while, I had a lot going on, and was even confined to a bed for a week due to an injury. So, now, here's chapter 9.
The summer sun blazed down on the savanna, roasting all that lived there. The worst drought in years had befallen the land, and water was a memory in all that lived. The grass and air were dry beyond belief. Even the shade of trees did little to block the scorching heat. All manner of creatures seek water to relive their dried throats.
Only one seemed not to be deterred by the drought. They could be seen running through the land at an unnatural speed for its kind. One would think of a zebra running from prey, and yet the human was running neither towards nor away from anything. Their long, lighter than normal hair flew behind the dark-skinned woman.
"Konkal!" Someone shouted at the girl, and she sprinted at them, nearly knocking them over when she came to a sudden stop. The one who had shouted was an older man just slightly taller than the person in front of him. "Why were you running again? You know the chief told you that you needed to save your energy."
"I'm not tired," Konkal replied, "and I enjoy running." She showed no sign of fatigue, her heart beat strong, and her breath was steady.
The man was irritated but nothing he did reveled that, "We are in a drought. The more you run, the more water you will need. Now come, we are about to begin the hunt."
Konkal took a deep breath but complied. She followed the man to the hunting group, claimed a few spears and waited with the group. A few minutes past before everyone gets up to leave. They move across the land quickly to find a heard of gazelle. With eyes on the prey, the hunt begins.
They move slowly as to not scare the heard. Once close enough, spears were thrown at the shoulder and lungs of the gazelle. Seven of the majestic creatures were hit and brought down, while the rest ran away. Half of the hunting party stayed behind to watch over their kill and the rest continued the hunt. The heard of gazelle were followed closely by the hunters. However, the humans were noticed, and their prey got away.
The hunters fell back to help with what they did kill and took the gazelle to the tribe. Later that night, Konkal stood near the edge of the tribe looking out to the savanna. She wanted to run, to fell the wind against her skin and earth beneath her feet. Due to the drought, she had not been able to freely run in several years. With one last look at the land that lay before her, she left to go to sleep.
As the sun was rising in the morning, Konkal woke up in a strange place. She was laying in the middle of a lion's den, surrounded by torn up creatures of all kind. Zebra, water buffalo, wart hogs, lions, and even hyena lay dead around her. All the blood had been sucked out of the corpses and most of the meat had been eaten. With one look at her hand, Konkal was horrified. Up to her elbows, her arms were covered in blood.
She realized that she had killed all of these animals but was unsure of how. Deciding not to return to the tribe out of fear, she went to the wall of the cave and sat down to think.
Next to a river in a dense rainforest, a woman slowly climbed the trees to catch an iguana that was resting in the sun. With one quick motion, she grabbed it and stabbed its head with a knife. Dropping back down to the ground, she seemed to consider something before making a fire and cooking the dead lizard. After lunch, she spent her time making a neckless out of the lizard's bones. Once done, she spent her time in the trees. She climbed them and jumped through them for fun and to increase her strength.
Ever since waking up in the lion's den, much had happened. Konkal had not been able to sleep very much, she ran away from her home and even tried to kill herself. She learned that she had two souls in her body instead of one. One soul was human, the other was a dragon. It was the dragon side that killed all those animals, and she didn't want that to happen to her tribe.
A few years after the dragon first made it self known, it only got louder. She could hear its roars at night, and it gave her a strong urge to kill and feed. It was this that kept Konkal from sleeping at night. When she tried to kill herself, the dragon took over and stopped her. She made her way west and collapsed of exhaustion next to the coast. Waking up next to a jungle. She decided to wander as she tried to forget.
The jungle offered a new kind of heat to the girl from the savanna. The humidity killed her for the first few months but eventually became a normality. She had to adjust to the new types of plants and animals in the unknown terrain. Luckily, sickness wasn't a problem considering it was gone within three days of receiving anything.
Now, she had completely learned how to survive in this new land. The only problem were the natives that she wanted to avoid. She had run into them once but wanted to stay away to keep them safe from her. Soon, she would not need to worry about their safety anymore. Tomorrow, she is heading north to find somewhere new to live.
Living in the north was colder than her previous homes, but less humid than the jungle. The rocks of the mountains and forests made her feet and hands tough. The cold winters nearly froze her, while she welcomed the familiar warmth of the summer days. The tall pine trees and large mountains became her new training grounds, while the plants and animals provided a new and interesting food source for the girl. These woodland animals were much different from any creature of the savanna or jungle.
Her body had changed much in the past five hundred years. While she was skinny in the savanna, she had gained some muscles from the jungle and a lot more from the forest. Her ribs were no longer visible, and her hair was now short and dirty. The nails on her hands and feet became sharp and black along with her now razor like teeth. However, the biggest change was her left arm and eye. Both were lost in battle that happened a year ago. Since then, she had been calling herself Nita, a name given to her by a tribe of natives. It means bear, and she decided to stick with it because she liked it a lot.
She decided to change her name after losing her eye and arm, because she felt like that signaled the end of an old life. A life where she wasn't being hunted. She had healed in less than a week after being injured and need to learn how to live a disabled life. It was relatively hard to get used to having one hand, but somehow, she grew her arm back. The arm she grew was green and scaly. She only realized it was the dragon's arm once she turned into the dragon all together. After that, she opted to only use that form in times where she absolutely needs it.
Nita was currently overlooking a camp that was apparently made up of spell casters. Their magic was draining much of the life from the land. If she wanted to take them out, she would need to do it fast and without taking them all on at once. Now was a good time to use the dragon side of her. Turning into the monster, she stalked over and began the attack.
Everyone was dead. All the magic users were killed, and Nita was siting in the camp near a pile of bodies that used to be the magic users. She was looking through any magical items that weren't destroyed and figured that many of this would come in use later on. She found a neckless the increased healing speed, a staff that grew trees, and even a spell book.
Inside the book, there was a spell for almost everything. Raising the dead, making fire balls, freezing, anything that was imaginable was in there. She even found a spell that the spell casters were working on. It was supposed to give the caster control over a certain type of crystals. It was supposed to work like an extension of the body, the caster would become a part of the crystals much like the crystals would become a part of the caster.
After finding that, she worked day and night to perfect the spell. Nearly four months pasted before she competed her project, and after casting the spell, it was like she found a missing part of herself. Nita could sense where other crystals of the same type were. Some were above the ground, and most were below it. She called the crystals to her and some came. The crystals levitated around her, and it was almost like her body had extended to the area around her.
She closed her eyes, and could feel where everything was located, even things that were normally out of sight. She could sense the sun rays in the crystals and the air around them. As she called the gems towards her, she felt something familiar. They condensed and form around her missing left shoulder. When she opened her eyes again, she had her arm back. It may have been purple and looked more like broken ice, but it worked exactly like her old arm. Except, this time, she could do a lot more with it.
Five years after getting her new arm, she flew across the ocean again and ended up several flight hours north of her first home. It was in the land that would one day be known as England where she became a mercenary. She changed her name to Tai to remember the dawn of her new life and became versatile in all manner of weapons. She even learned how to fight bare handed incase she lost her weapons. She even learned how to change the shape of her crystal arm.
As she learned these new things, she took on more jobs. The jobs would range from killing, to stealing, and even to helping build stuff. However, she did reject things that required herself to get hurt or worse. That was out of fear that her beast side would take control and kill everything.
In doing this, she became rich for that time. Tai stored all the currency in a secret location under the water. The place was in an underwater cave, two hundred feet below the waves. One day after taking her earnings to the cave, and reemerging, she climbed out of the water and was stabbed through the heart.
As she turned around she saw the man that tried to kill her. It was a young boy, one who looked like he was starved and lived in the wilds. A young boy who did not know how to survive, not like her. She saw fear in his eyes as he backed away after seeing that she wouldn't die. She whispered sorry to the young boy as she blacked out. Only faint memories of a roar, blood, and bodies came after.
Abeck woke up suddenly. She sat in the corner of a dimly lit and destroyed room. Claw and burn marks covered the walls. Any equipment in the room was destroyed. The lights in the ceiling flickered as if trying to turn on but not being able to. As she stood up and looked around some more, she saw Midnight laying unconscious in the other corner of the room.
That was ch 9, I hope eveyone enjoyed it.
More memories might be shown later, I'm still undecided.
