WOOHOO, UPDATE! Yes, 'tis rather short, but it's setting up for something that involves the introduction of Jaknimble's character. And as for you, Dawn Elliot, I'm not sure if that was an insult or a compliment... :) READ AND REVIEW, YOUNG POTATOES.


Stryker's POV:

I dropped the small silver object I was fumbling with as my mother's shrill, demanding voice filled my ears. Cursing, I leaned down and lifted up the little charm, staring at it for a moment longer before squeezing my fingers shut around it and slipping it into my pocket.

"What?" I shouted back, my voice laced with annoyance.

She appeared in my doorway, throwing my gun at my feet.

"Every moment you waste sitting here, that girl does more and more things, meets more and more people, and gains a little more insight on how to bring me down. So why, pray tell, are you just sitting here like a useless swine?"

I grit my teeth and clench my jaw, doing my best to keep my instincts and hatred in check. "With all due respect, your majesty, she is just a teenage girl. There's not really all that much she can do to a queen, especially a queen with an assassin and an army of guards on her side."

"How dare you question me?!" She shrieked, eyes shrinking into pinpricks of fury. "You, huntsman, are the exact age of that little brat, and look at you! She can become anything that she wants to be, including my killer! Just because she's your age?! Of all the stupid..."

I opened my mouth to speak, but she immediately cut me off with her rant.

"That girl threatens the life of your queen. Is that a risk you are willing to take, simply because she's 'only a child'?"

"No." I hissed, keeping my gaze down.

Taking my actions as submission, the queen nodded and stalked out of the room.

"Get going. I want her heart brought to me by sundown in five evenings time."

And the door clicked shut.

I picked up my hunting knife and set about sharpening it, but neither my heart nor my mind were into it, and I ended up nicking myself because of where my thoughts led me. Did the young princess really deserve to die? She seemed innocent of any crime, and I didn't think she would hurt anyone by choice, much less kill the queen.

The one thing I couldn't get a grasp on is why I really cared. I didn't know her. She meant nothing to me; just another target. And yet I couldn't shake the feeling that some part of me didn't want to hurt her.

I was trained to kill for a living. I could do it without blinking, and in cold blood. I'd become disengaged and unattached from my emotions, so that being a murderer wouldn't drive me insane. It was a dark way to live your life, but I hardly thought anything of it.

Something in her eyes always made me stop and question myself. There was fear, that much was unmistakeable, but hiding somewhere underneath there, there was a recognition and a desperate plea for freedom. I felt some sort of connection to her, and I couldn't help but feel protective of the girl, and I didn't even know her name. I laughed bitterly, truly disgusted at how soft I was becoming.

She was nothing but another arrogant piece of royalty. They were all horrifically obsessed with power. She was a bug I could just crush under my boot; a nothing; a nobody.

It was odd, the way I felt about her. I was so mixed up and confused. I'm not supposed to care about what happens to her. I shouldn't and I can't, but... It's like I know her. That's why I had to be the one to go after her. I slung my hunting bag over my shoulder.

If I don't hunt her, the queen will find someone else that'll see her dead in a heartbeat.


Ooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Dramatic-ness.