Tales of the Violii
Bloody Trail to the Past
AN: Sorry for the late update, once again...swamped with homework and other things, trying to work some things out with my mother and pissed off because we can't go to obaa-chan's funeral. Anyways, will be mostly a flashback chapter but it will have present times towards the end. And revealing the hounds true identity...maybe... ;)
"Fight!" The instructor commands his two students, one a short brown haired girl with her hair in a bob cut, and the other young 12 year old Natsuki holding a spear behind her with one hand her hair tied up in a ponytail.
Her opponent takes a step forward and shouts at Natsuki trying to get Natsuki to fall for her bluff and back away, however Natsuki is too smart and instead of going back goes forward and kicks the other girl in the chest making her fall onto her back. She takes her opportunity and jumps on the girl pinning her down and draws her dagger and stabs in into the dirt next to the girls ear. "Nice job Natsuki!" The girl smiles and stands up dusting off her clothes. "Well then I'll see you tomorrow." She smiles at the grey haired instructor and runs away to her home.
The man lets out a chuckle. "That girl...Akane... She certainly is something." He sits down next to Natsuki. "So, Natsuki I heard your mother is finally coming back from Gaul. Is that true?" He smiles when Natsuki nods excitedly.
"Yes Mommy's finally coming home!" She says almost a bit too enthusiastically, embarrassed at her outburst she turns her head to the side. "I- I mean yes..." She stutters out.
The old man laughs again. "It's alright Natsuki you can be yourself around old man Abaris, I won't be too strict about anything except that you become a great warrior like your mother, the Shield of Duran." He smiles. "Now hurry and go home so you can greet her when she gets her." He sends her off and sighs. "Poor child..." He turns his back and enters his own hut.
Several Days Prior
Saeko Kruger breathes deeply attempting to calm herself. "I can't believe we lost the Sword and The Messenger yesterday...And you were injured yesterday Madame." She turns her head to the woman sitting next to her with a wolf pelt atop her head the fangs hanging over her face which was covered by a partially broken iron mask. She covers her arm which has a shallow wound over it.
"It's just a flesh wound Shield. You mustn't worry so much. I did not become the leader of our tribe by being a simpleton or a weakling, wounds like this would not have stopped Fumi, so they shouldn't stop me. " She takes the mask off of her face revealing an older womans face that had been worn by time and stress for far too long. The only evidence of her youth remaining would be her short blond hair with grey streaks in it. "Now come, we must hurry home, your daughter is waiting." She raises to her feet and turns to face the carnage behind them one last time viewing the dead bodies of both friends and enemies.
"I hope their sacrifices were not in vain. Fumi and Lena... Along with our own." She sighs and motions for all her remaining soldiers to follow her when she begins to walk.
Saeko catches up quickly. "Maria...I'm sorry I couldn't protect her...your daught..." She is cut off by a backfist to the chin sending her spiraling into the dirt.
"Don't even say it Kruger. There wasn't anything you could do about Fumi so just drop it." She begins to walk again.
The entire village had come out to witness the triumphant return of their warriors, however their cheers fell silent when they saw the huge losses they had taken, out of the five members of the upper echelons of their society that had gone only three had returned, them being the Hound herself, The Shield and The Harbinger, along with nearly all of their supporting soldiers had been killed, only one unit remained untouched and that was the Hounds personal bodyguard. The bodies they had brought back with them numbered upwards of one thousand and the several day long trip through the snow had caused even more men to become ill and suffer the same fate as many of their friends.
Maria takes off her mask and heads to the stage at the center of the town her strides strong despite obviously being very upset and tired.
"Listen to me my people..." She takes a breath and continues. "We lost many of our own this grave day. I doubt a single one of you in this entire village will be unaffected by this massive loss, some of you lost fathers, others mothers, maybe sons or daughters, or even brothers and sisters. I lost my daughter in the conflict. The Messenger and The Sword of Duran now bless unadorned graves...In a hellish land ravaged by barbarians, and Romans alike. We won the battle, and the war, but at what price. We are a war centered society, but how long will we last when we have so much hate." She steps off the stage. "Be glad if your own families are well." She stabs Fumi's sword into the ground and walks away leaving her people speechless and blank.
Natsuki looks around worried that her mother had been hurt at all during the conflict so much that she does not notice said woman reaching around behind her and picking her up by her waist. Natsuki's face brightens a thousand times at the sight of her mothers tired face, her eyes darkened and bruised. "I'm home little pup." She chuckles and kisses her daughters forehead. "Now come let's hear how you've been." She walks into her home holding the little girl in her arms.
6 months later
Saeko blocks a sword coming down over her head with her arm, her armor thankfully stopping the blow from inflicting too much damage upon the tired warrior. She kicks the bare chested man in the chest with her boot a sickening crack coming from him as he falls into the ditch in which many of his allies had also fallen. She backs up into a man who shoves her into the ditch and jumps on top of her and begins to punch her repeatedly.
Just as she is about to faint from pain the but cap of a spear punches through his skull spilling blood on her face. Maria kicks his body off of Saeko and helps her to her feet. "Come Kruger. We are needed elsewhere." She takes off at a full sprint easily outrunning any soldier too stupid to follow her, including Saeko herself.
Weaving through the battle lines and trees Maria reaches her objective just in time to jump over a bush and stab a Gual in the neck with her dagger using her momentum to spin around in the air flipping him by his neck tossing him a few feet. Maria twists her body and pushes off the ground with one hand and does an aerial (handless cartwheel) into another mans back pushing off of him she tackles the enemies warlord to the ground and proceeds to stab him in the gut once before he punches her off of him. He tosses his cape to the side and pulls the dagger from his torso throwing it at Maria who catches it spinning around fast enough to keep the daggers momentum and throws it back at the man. He blocks it with his shield hitting it off to the side so it gets stuck in the back of one of his own men instead of himself.
Maria draws her long single edged sword from her belt and draws it preparing for a face off. She takes a defensive stance. The man laughs haughtily stroaking his long beard. "beag mac tíre, ar ais síos!" He shouts at her his face contorting into an arrogant grin. Maria smirks beneath her mask.
"I can't win huh? We'll see about that." She charges at him at lightning speed despite her old age and cuts his throat along with slicing off his beard before he even has a chance to react. She looks around not bothering any further with the now dead man.
"Men...they always assume that we women can't beat them correct. " A young voice says from behind her. Maria turns around slowly. "Elliot Chandler...Am I correct." She asks slowly on guard.
She nods. "That's correct. I've been away for a while now...but I heard about Lena's death...So I'm here to take revenge." She snaps her wrist forward releasing the folded blade in her hand creating a large boomerang type weapon and throws it past Maria over the top of her head and into a group of enemies causing several casualties. She catches the boomerang by a handle.
Maria bites her lip. "This is no place for you Elliot, I would advise you leave here now!" She shouts over the sounds of the battle. Chandler scoffs.
"Is it because you think I'm not good enough to be one of the members of Duran? Is that why. The Messanger, Fumi, is dead, The Eyes Sara Gallagher, is not here, Neither are the ears, Chie Hallard, Lena Sayers, The sword...she is dead too." She pauses for a moment as if in severe agony. "The Shield is a useless idiot who can't even focus long enough to take the battle seriously, The Harbinger Una Shamrock...she is insane, and then there is you...and that strange woman Miyu Greer." She takes a step forward and prepares to throw her boomerang again however she is blocked by Saeko who stabs a spear into the ground directly in front of her.
"Who is a useless idiot." Saeko growls at her. "Because I am certain that I can kill you a hundred times over." She charges at Elliot with her sword drawn and makes contact driving her sword directly through Maria who had stepped in at the last minute.
She coughs blood onto Saeko. "You damn fool, you shouldn't fight those on your side..." She falls over into the dirt.
"Maria...MARIA!" She drops her sword to the ground and desperately attempts to save her. "Damn it! Why?!" She attempts a cardiac thump on the old woman, but it is unsuccessful due to the armor and blood loss and after about ten minutes of attempted revivals Saeko finally realizes her attempts will be entirely fruitless.
She turns her head to Elliot. "Well why are you just standing there..." She stands up and picks up her sword and charges at the woman again. "DIE!" She jumps and kicks her in the face with both feet sending her back into a tree which Saeko immediatly puts her sword into a swing which Elliot barely dodges in time the blade knicking her ear.
"Calm down Shield. You were the one that killed her...not me." She dodges several more strikes and counters by spinning her boomerang above her head and using the momentum spins herself like a top at Saeko forcing the warrior back all the way into a destroyed wall which is where Elliot stops spinning her blade. She brushes her blonde locks out of her eyes and draws a small sword. "Now are you ready to calm down?" She asks cautiously taking a step forward.
Saeko breathes deeply. "I...I'll kill you." She whispers before once again charging at Elliot, this time the close range serves her well as Elliot is not left with any time to react and is stabbed in the throat by the sword. She falls to her knees and back onto the blood soaked land.
Elliot reaches up to the sky. "Lena...I'm sorry..." She coughs out before her arm drops down and she dies quietly.
Saeko drops down onto her knees. "Why...Why...WHY!? WHY GODS!" She cries into the skies.
Present Day
Saeko stands alone atop a ledge looking down at the burned valley where her village once resided. "Nastuki...you have failed me...once again." She sighs and jumps off the ledge down into the valley below. She darts forward to her destroyed village.
"I'm too late..." She looks around and sees Mikoto sitting on the ground next to a sleeping Mai with Chie, Haruka, Aoi, a short brunette that was unfamiliar to Saeko and a few others including Midori, Yoko, and Tate.
"Stand up you worthless dogs." She marches up to them and glares down at them through the slits in her iron mask shaped like a wolfs face.
Mikoto bolts up. "Sir." She salutes and the rest of them quickly realize who it was she was speaking to and stands up.
"Where is Natsuki...and the Violii? Dead I hope." She says sternly.
Chie sits back down and starts picking her teeth with a knife. "Natsuki went off to find her hours ago. I think they're both dead." She spits out a seed that had somehow gotten into her mouth.
Saeko nods. "I will find them." She walks off towards the woods in search of her daughter and the Roman general.
Natsuki sits up slowly her head hurting significantly. "Where the hell am I..." She looks around slowly and stops suddenly when she spots her mothers figure standing over her.
"Mother!" She scrambles to cover herself and in the process uncovers Shizuru who had been sleeping under her pelts.
"I am very disappointed in you Natsuki...I may go as much to say infuriated. You disobeyed orders, slept with an enemy, and lastly, disgraced the council. From this point forward you will no longer be part of the council of Duran, and as you know the only way out is death. So Natsuki, former Messenger of Duran. Grab my old spear and face me!"
.
.
.To be continued...
AN: Well trying to make up for being late I made this chapter long. I hoped you guys liked it, I really liked finally giving some background to the story. Saeko is the hound so congrats to anyone who figured it out.
Anyways as I said before now that schools started chapters will be slower and I may have to put SP Project Sappho on hold for now especially since I just wrote the final prologue chapter.
On a better note, my hands are now completely healed, however my skull is not, hopefully it gets better before baseball season! I 3 Baseball!
Do you guys feel this chapter was rushed, if so please tell me how in a review or PM, doesn't matter which to me, but reviews are always nice.
R/R-Chizu, see you next time.