Ziabach's Worst Enemy!
Part 4
I closed my eyes and prayed there wouldn't be any pain, that there wouldn't be a loud sickening crack of my skull breaking open.
But, before I hit the ground, more arms, they grabbed my hand and dislocated my arm, but stopped me from plunging to my death.
Surprised I looked to see who had just save my life. I saw a boy, with raven - feathered black hair, that had some spickes in it. He had tan pants and brown boots to match.
"What on earth.... let me go!" I screamed. Dilandau had said that he got wings because of Ziabach advancements, this guy had wings too, the only thing I could think of was that he was from Ziabach too, and that ment that he would end up taking me back to Dilandau, where I would become their lab rat, just like I didn't want.
I gripped their wrist with my free hand, and tried to pull their grip off of my hand.
"What, are you crazy women?!" They asked, and set me on the ground.
"I wont let you take me back to Zaibach!" I screamed, and tai - kicked them as soon as I had me footing. My heal smacked right into their side.
"Take you back to Ziabach?!" They asked, collapsing on the ground while holding their stomach. "Why would I?!" He asked, coughing.
"You have wings, just like Dilandau does, anyone with wings is part of their force," I said, pointing to the white mysteries coming from their back.
"Look, I don't know who you are, all I know is that you were falling under the Ziabach floating fortress, and that you were a women, so, I saved you.
I stopped and looked at them. He was right, he had saved me, and in return, I made him feel sick. "Oh, you did, didn't you?" I asked, walking over to him, and helped him stand up. "Gosh, I'm sorry, you're not from Ziabach, are you?" I asked.
"No, I'm the exact opposite. I fight against Ziabach, and one day hope to kill them," He said, rubbing his stomach.
I laughed. "Well, if you can't handle getting kicked, maybe you should train a little more. But anyway, I'm Tora, I come from Teress," I said, sticking out my hand.
He looked at me in surprised. "You're Tora?" He asked.
"Uh hu, that's right. Something wrong?" I asked.
"No, it's just, never mind, I'm Van, from Finalia," He said, and shook my hand.
"Didn't kick you too hard did I?" I asked. AS far as he knew I was just a city girl who had no protection. He didn't know I was the most swat after girl, or human even, from Ziabach. He had no idea I could probably kill everyone in his village, but then again, didn't he have Balgis? Well, He would end up killing me, but I would probably kill this Van guy, so it didn't really matter.
"Yell, just a little," He said, holding his side a little longer and then finally letting it go.
"Good. So, is that it? You saved me, and now you leave me alone?" I asked hopefully. Actually, there was a problem, Ziabach still had my sword and my weapons. I had nothing accept my own training and experience with people. Not something I would want to go on being alone in the forest.
"Not at all, you're a lady, you need an escort, don't you?" He asked.
"Well, I'm a farm girl, so I'm not really a push over, but some company would be nice," I said. I might have given too much away, he might suspect that I was really strong.
"Well, you can sure kick well for just being a farm girl."
I looked around before saying: "My brother taught me the usual self defense, just in case anyone tried anything."
"Huh, well, that's good. What were you doing falling from Ziabach?" He asked.
"Oh well, when they came to my town I didn't really want them to take my food, you know, we kneed it more then they do. And Dilandau didn't really like that, so 'clang!'. They locked me up. I was able to get away by playing the harmless little wimp. I don't think they'll fall for it twice."
I couldn't really tell him what happened, just because he saved me. I still didn't know if he was someone from Ziabach. Even though he said he wasn't, I could never ever trust anyone like him. He still hadn't explained how he could fly, like Dilandau.
"Well, it takes someone with a lot of courage to be able to escapee from Ziabach." He said.
"Yeah yeah. How come you have wings?" I asked.
"Uh, family genes..." He said.
"But the only people who ever had wings were draconian.... you're not one of them... are you?" I asked, taking a step back. It was known to everyone that The draconian had the power to make and desroy a planet. If this guy was really a part of Ziabach, and he could demolish a planet, then imagine what he could do to me!
"My mother was, I just got some of the blood," He said, glancing down at me.
"Well, all right. But, you're not from Ziabach?" I asked, starring at him.
"No, I told you, I'm a rebel against them."
"Well, how do I know that you're not just saying that so that I'll believe you? And then when I fall asleep you just take me back so that they can do experiments on me?!" I asked.
"Sheesh! A little paranoid aren't you?" He asked. "If you don't believe me now, then you just don't know. I supposed that saying 'I swear' Would mean nothing to you. Especially because you think that I have no honor."
"I didn't say that, I just said that I didn't know if you were lying. But you're right, even if you did say that you swore, I wouldn't believe you. Because it would be just like a Ziabach soldier to say that and then break their promise."
"Okay, you don't have to believe me, but we should at least get moving because we have to get closer to the city before we have to make camp. And we have to make camp before it gets dark." He said. It was simple logic.
I still didn't fully trust him. How could I? I knew almost nothing about him, accept he had pretty good looks and he was a draconian. At least that's what he said anyway. I didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, and I wouldn't until I got to know him better. Which I wasn't really sure I wanted to do. The closer I got to people, the further I ended up having to push them away so that they couldn't get hurt.
We walked a little longer, well, a couple hours actually. We didn't say anything to the other about anything, I just kept walking and let him lead. As we walked I served the land to see if I could figure out where we were, finally deciding that I had never seen this place before, I broke the silence we had been walking in for a long time.
"So, what city are we going to?" I asked, bending down and picking up a stick before swinging it at the air and listening to the whistling noise it made.
"Which ever city is closest," He said, he looked back at his wings, and saw that there were only a few feathers left.
"Oh, well that's a brilliant answer! How do you know that we're going in the right direction?!" I asked. For all I knew, he was leading me somewhere like, the desert or something. And he would kill me there.
No, that didn't make any sense, why save me from certain death, and then kill me. He would have been able to save a lot a time that way.
Unless he was going to try and get something out of me. See who my family members were, and then go and kill them.
Or maybe he just did it because Dilandau dropped me, not him. Dilandau would get the credit for killing me, not Van. Maybe Van wanted a promotion, and killing the worst threat to the future of Ziabach would be the sure way to do it.
No, but that didn't make any sense either, because Dilandau had said that he would get into trouble for killing me.
Oh! Maybe Dilandau had told Van to become friends with me, and then kill me, because Dilandau wanted to get Van in trouble! Maybe that was it! Or... Maybe I was just paranoid... Oh well. Either way, I had to keep watching my back, I would never be able to let him sneak up behind me, if I did, I might end up like my swords master, Magus.
"Well, I saw it when I was flying up to catch you," He said. His voice snapped me from my thoughts, about how I should stay alert and how confused I was making myself with betray from Dilandau to Van.
"Oh whatever..." I said. Yes, that was good, make him think that you're getting tired. That you can believe whatever he says, then, if he tries to kill you tonight, you'll know the truth. You'll know if he's part of Ziabach or not, know if he's a bad guy.
Cautiously I glanced to my left and right, then staider at the wings in front of my face. I wanted to reach out and touch them.... although they only had a few wings on them, I wanted to fell them. I wanted to know if they were the same as Dilandau's.
I started reaching out, to skim my fingers along their surface, and one fell, right into my hand. I held it delicately, like it was glass or something. Like I might break it, just by touching it.
There was a strange glow coming from the tip of the feather, like it was a flash light, or, maybe a light bulb.
Van started to turn around, and I quickly shoved the feather in my pocket. I didn't want him to think that I'd stolen it, or anything.
"We should stop here, it's close enough that we'd only have to walk a little further tomorrow. And it's not too dark to set up a camp. Could you start getting wood for a fire?" He asked.
I nodded. If he trusted me not to run off, maybe he thought it was his way of testing me. If I came back, I was falling for his trick, if I didn't, then he wouldn't get into so much trouble as he would have if he'd killed me.
I walked around, if I kept walking in the direction he had been leading in for the little while he had been, maybe it would get to the city tonight! Or, maybe I would come to a huge death pit.
If I left tonight, and came to the pit, then he wouldn't be there to push me in... But then again, I didn't really know what kind of animals could be stalking me at night. These forests were different then the ones at home, when I would sneak through the tree's and climb up to Ziabach.
I wasn't going to take a chance. I would mix my idea's. I would sleep a little tonight, my legs were killing me anyway. I was used to running, and I could do that for a while, but walking at least twelve miles really damaged my legs.
Anyway, I planned to sleep a few hours tonight, and then, while he was asleep too, sneak away. Maybe I would be able to find a city, like he had said.
As I gathers sticks and dead leaves for things to help get the fire going better, I though about what it would be like. I had never before seen a real city. I didn't know what it looked like.
My dad had always brought Joe with him when he was selling and delivering food to people from out of the town. I had never really gotten a chance to ride on the cart next to him, or hold the reigns to the horses.
Finally thinking I had enough wood, I walked back to where I heard Van moving around and preparing things.
"Here, I don't know if I got enough, if I didn't then I can go out and get some more," I said, while tossing the wood at his feet.
"That should be enough, that you Tora. But, do you know how to light a fire?" He asked. I looked at him like 'Are you joking me?' "I'm making the beds, and I don't really have time to do everything by myself.
"Yeah, sure, I can make a fire," I said. He turned around and started making the beds again and I smacked my forehead. What kind of question was that? 'Uh... duh... can you make a fire?' Of Course I can make fire? What? Are you stupid? I a farm girl for crying out loud! I should know how to make a flame, I have to so that I can feel the family and make hot water for bathes and stuff.
I didn't really think that he might be from Ziabach anymore, he was too stupid. (no offense to all ya Van fans out there!)
I piled the wood so that it looked kind of like a tee pee. The smoke would go out from the top, and better then that, the wood would burn slower. Plus, it's easier to clean up.
Looking around I saw two rocks, I placed the dead leaves on the ground under the wood and stalked over to get the stones. I beat the rocks together and got sparks that eventually hit the leaves and caught little splinters sticking off the wood, which in turn lead to a pretty well made fire. (We all know that wouldn't work, but hey! She lost her bag in Ziabach, her matches were in there not in her pocket!)
"Not bad," Van said, looking approvingly at the fire. "Can you go without dinner tonight?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm not starving or anything," I said, shrugging.
"Good, because I have nothing to use to catch something, and it's late anyway, we have to get to sleep," He said, and walked over to one of the small beds made of moss and some flower petals, and even a leaf here or there.
I fallowed his lead and went to the other bed that was a little bigger, and flopped down on it. The aroma coming from it was nice and helped to cradle my mind, slowly taking over my brain and only making it think of sleep....
* * *
I woke with a start. Something was wrong. No... looking around the campsite I saw that nothing was wrong, everything was where it was when I fell asleep. The only thing different was that the fire was dying...
Dying... and thick clouds of smoke rising from it. Most of the coles were out.... Wait.... there was something wrong! I could feel it! I crawled over to the fire.... the thick smoke stung my eyes and looking at the coles... there were too many out, and too much smoke.
"Oh god... someone's pored water on this... someone's here..." I said, standing, I jerked looking around. I could have sworn I heard a twig crack in the distance. My nerves started sending massages all over my body.
Go! Run! What are you waiting for! Fear! Adrenalin! RUN RUN RUN!!!
I couldn't stop it when my feet started pounding against the ground. I heard things shuffling around me, as if people were watching my body dart through the forest.
Who was fallowing me? What was it? Why was it here? My mind raced to find answers but nothing came, as if I was drawing a blank.
Finally, something familiar about the tree's that were surrounding me. Looking around, I saw rope marks.... rope marks? How could that be?
Unless.... I raced faster through the tree's. Finally coming to a clearing, I gasped at what was there before me.
My house.... the back of my house... my house... in Teress... was it true? Was I home? Where I could see my dad, and my siblings.
"Well, you lead us right to it," Someone said behind me. I shivered, spinning around, I saw Dilandau and some of his men.
"You?!" I screamed.
He laughed. "Burn it. Burn it all..." He said, and suddenly there were torches, and people holding my arms as his dragon slayers races to my village, and set the roof tops on fire.
"No! NO! Stop... STOP!!!" I screamed and kicked, but they were holding me too tightly. I watched helplessly as I saw my home being engulfed in flames... my home... my house... where I was supposed to be able to see my Dad and family... no...
Part 4
I closed my eyes and prayed there wouldn't be any pain, that there wouldn't be a loud sickening crack of my skull breaking open.
But, before I hit the ground, more arms, they grabbed my hand and dislocated my arm, but stopped me from plunging to my death.
Surprised I looked to see who had just save my life. I saw a boy, with raven - feathered black hair, that had some spickes in it. He had tan pants and brown boots to match.
"What on earth.... let me go!" I screamed. Dilandau had said that he got wings because of Ziabach advancements, this guy had wings too, the only thing I could think of was that he was from Ziabach too, and that ment that he would end up taking me back to Dilandau, where I would become their lab rat, just like I didn't want.
I gripped their wrist with my free hand, and tried to pull their grip off of my hand.
"What, are you crazy women?!" They asked, and set me on the ground.
"I wont let you take me back to Zaibach!" I screamed, and tai - kicked them as soon as I had me footing. My heal smacked right into their side.
"Take you back to Ziabach?!" They asked, collapsing on the ground while holding their stomach. "Why would I?!" He asked, coughing.
"You have wings, just like Dilandau does, anyone with wings is part of their force," I said, pointing to the white mysteries coming from their back.
"Look, I don't know who you are, all I know is that you were falling under the Ziabach floating fortress, and that you were a women, so, I saved you.
I stopped and looked at them. He was right, he had saved me, and in return, I made him feel sick. "Oh, you did, didn't you?" I asked, walking over to him, and helped him stand up. "Gosh, I'm sorry, you're not from Ziabach, are you?" I asked.
"No, I'm the exact opposite. I fight against Ziabach, and one day hope to kill them," He said, rubbing his stomach.
I laughed. "Well, if you can't handle getting kicked, maybe you should train a little more. But anyway, I'm Tora, I come from Teress," I said, sticking out my hand.
He looked at me in surprised. "You're Tora?" He asked.
"Uh hu, that's right. Something wrong?" I asked.
"No, it's just, never mind, I'm Van, from Finalia," He said, and shook my hand.
"Didn't kick you too hard did I?" I asked. AS far as he knew I was just a city girl who had no protection. He didn't know I was the most swat after girl, or human even, from Ziabach. He had no idea I could probably kill everyone in his village, but then again, didn't he have Balgis? Well, He would end up killing me, but I would probably kill this Van guy, so it didn't really matter.
"Yell, just a little," He said, holding his side a little longer and then finally letting it go.
"Good. So, is that it? You saved me, and now you leave me alone?" I asked hopefully. Actually, there was a problem, Ziabach still had my sword and my weapons. I had nothing accept my own training and experience with people. Not something I would want to go on being alone in the forest.
"Not at all, you're a lady, you need an escort, don't you?" He asked.
"Well, I'm a farm girl, so I'm not really a push over, but some company would be nice," I said. I might have given too much away, he might suspect that I was really strong.
"Well, you can sure kick well for just being a farm girl."
I looked around before saying: "My brother taught me the usual self defense, just in case anyone tried anything."
"Huh, well, that's good. What were you doing falling from Ziabach?" He asked.
"Oh well, when they came to my town I didn't really want them to take my food, you know, we kneed it more then they do. And Dilandau didn't really like that, so 'clang!'. They locked me up. I was able to get away by playing the harmless little wimp. I don't think they'll fall for it twice."
I couldn't really tell him what happened, just because he saved me. I still didn't know if he was someone from Ziabach. Even though he said he wasn't, I could never ever trust anyone like him. He still hadn't explained how he could fly, like Dilandau.
"Well, it takes someone with a lot of courage to be able to escapee from Ziabach." He said.
"Yeah yeah. How come you have wings?" I asked.
"Uh, family genes..." He said.
"But the only people who ever had wings were draconian.... you're not one of them... are you?" I asked, taking a step back. It was known to everyone that The draconian had the power to make and desroy a planet. If this guy was really a part of Ziabach, and he could demolish a planet, then imagine what he could do to me!
"My mother was, I just got some of the blood," He said, glancing down at me.
"Well, all right. But, you're not from Ziabach?" I asked, starring at him.
"No, I told you, I'm a rebel against them."
"Well, how do I know that you're not just saying that so that I'll believe you? And then when I fall asleep you just take me back so that they can do experiments on me?!" I asked.
"Sheesh! A little paranoid aren't you?" He asked. "If you don't believe me now, then you just don't know. I supposed that saying 'I swear' Would mean nothing to you. Especially because you think that I have no honor."
"I didn't say that, I just said that I didn't know if you were lying. But you're right, even if you did say that you swore, I wouldn't believe you. Because it would be just like a Ziabach soldier to say that and then break their promise."
"Okay, you don't have to believe me, but we should at least get moving because we have to get closer to the city before we have to make camp. And we have to make camp before it gets dark." He said. It was simple logic.
I still didn't fully trust him. How could I? I knew almost nothing about him, accept he had pretty good looks and he was a draconian. At least that's what he said anyway. I didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, and I wouldn't until I got to know him better. Which I wasn't really sure I wanted to do. The closer I got to people, the further I ended up having to push them away so that they couldn't get hurt.
We walked a little longer, well, a couple hours actually. We didn't say anything to the other about anything, I just kept walking and let him lead. As we walked I served the land to see if I could figure out where we were, finally deciding that I had never seen this place before, I broke the silence we had been walking in for a long time.
"So, what city are we going to?" I asked, bending down and picking up a stick before swinging it at the air and listening to the whistling noise it made.
"Which ever city is closest," He said, he looked back at his wings, and saw that there were only a few feathers left.
"Oh, well that's a brilliant answer! How do you know that we're going in the right direction?!" I asked. For all I knew, he was leading me somewhere like, the desert or something. And he would kill me there.
No, that didn't make any sense, why save me from certain death, and then kill me. He would have been able to save a lot a time that way.
Unless he was going to try and get something out of me. See who my family members were, and then go and kill them.
Or maybe he just did it because Dilandau dropped me, not him. Dilandau would get the credit for killing me, not Van. Maybe Van wanted a promotion, and killing the worst threat to the future of Ziabach would be the sure way to do it.
No, but that didn't make any sense either, because Dilandau had said that he would get into trouble for killing me.
Oh! Maybe Dilandau had told Van to become friends with me, and then kill me, because Dilandau wanted to get Van in trouble! Maybe that was it! Or... Maybe I was just paranoid... Oh well. Either way, I had to keep watching my back, I would never be able to let him sneak up behind me, if I did, I might end up like my swords master, Magus.
"Well, I saw it when I was flying up to catch you," He said. His voice snapped me from my thoughts, about how I should stay alert and how confused I was making myself with betray from Dilandau to Van.
"Oh whatever..." I said. Yes, that was good, make him think that you're getting tired. That you can believe whatever he says, then, if he tries to kill you tonight, you'll know the truth. You'll know if he's part of Ziabach or not, know if he's a bad guy.
Cautiously I glanced to my left and right, then staider at the wings in front of my face. I wanted to reach out and touch them.... although they only had a few wings on them, I wanted to fell them. I wanted to know if they were the same as Dilandau's.
I started reaching out, to skim my fingers along their surface, and one fell, right into my hand. I held it delicately, like it was glass or something. Like I might break it, just by touching it.
There was a strange glow coming from the tip of the feather, like it was a flash light, or, maybe a light bulb.
Van started to turn around, and I quickly shoved the feather in my pocket. I didn't want him to think that I'd stolen it, or anything.
"We should stop here, it's close enough that we'd only have to walk a little further tomorrow. And it's not too dark to set up a camp. Could you start getting wood for a fire?" He asked.
I nodded. If he trusted me not to run off, maybe he thought it was his way of testing me. If I came back, I was falling for his trick, if I didn't, then he wouldn't get into so much trouble as he would have if he'd killed me.
I walked around, if I kept walking in the direction he had been leading in for the little while he had been, maybe it would get to the city tonight! Or, maybe I would come to a huge death pit.
If I left tonight, and came to the pit, then he wouldn't be there to push me in... But then again, I didn't really know what kind of animals could be stalking me at night. These forests were different then the ones at home, when I would sneak through the tree's and climb up to Ziabach.
I wasn't going to take a chance. I would mix my idea's. I would sleep a little tonight, my legs were killing me anyway. I was used to running, and I could do that for a while, but walking at least twelve miles really damaged my legs.
Anyway, I planned to sleep a few hours tonight, and then, while he was asleep too, sneak away. Maybe I would be able to find a city, like he had said.
As I gathers sticks and dead leaves for things to help get the fire going better, I though about what it would be like. I had never before seen a real city. I didn't know what it looked like.
My dad had always brought Joe with him when he was selling and delivering food to people from out of the town. I had never really gotten a chance to ride on the cart next to him, or hold the reigns to the horses.
Finally thinking I had enough wood, I walked back to where I heard Van moving around and preparing things.
"Here, I don't know if I got enough, if I didn't then I can go out and get some more," I said, while tossing the wood at his feet.
"That should be enough, that you Tora. But, do you know how to light a fire?" He asked. I looked at him like 'Are you joking me?' "I'm making the beds, and I don't really have time to do everything by myself.
"Yeah, sure, I can make a fire," I said. He turned around and started making the beds again and I smacked my forehead. What kind of question was that? 'Uh... duh... can you make a fire?' Of Course I can make fire? What? Are you stupid? I a farm girl for crying out loud! I should know how to make a flame, I have to so that I can feel the family and make hot water for bathes and stuff.
I didn't really think that he might be from Ziabach anymore, he was too stupid. (no offense to all ya Van fans out there!)
I piled the wood so that it looked kind of like a tee pee. The smoke would go out from the top, and better then that, the wood would burn slower. Plus, it's easier to clean up.
Looking around I saw two rocks, I placed the dead leaves on the ground under the wood and stalked over to get the stones. I beat the rocks together and got sparks that eventually hit the leaves and caught little splinters sticking off the wood, which in turn lead to a pretty well made fire. (We all know that wouldn't work, but hey! She lost her bag in Ziabach, her matches were in there not in her pocket!)
"Not bad," Van said, looking approvingly at the fire. "Can you go without dinner tonight?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm not starving or anything," I said, shrugging.
"Good, because I have nothing to use to catch something, and it's late anyway, we have to get to sleep," He said, and walked over to one of the small beds made of moss and some flower petals, and even a leaf here or there.
I fallowed his lead and went to the other bed that was a little bigger, and flopped down on it. The aroma coming from it was nice and helped to cradle my mind, slowly taking over my brain and only making it think of sleep....
* * *
I woke with a start. Something was wrong. No... looking around the campsite I saw that nothing was wrong, everything was where it was when I fell asleep. The only thing different was that the fire was dying...
Dying... and thick clouds of smoke rising from it. Most of the coles were out.... Wait.... there was something wrong! I could feel it! I crawled over to the fire.... the thick smoke stung my eyes and looking at the coles... there were too many out, and too much smoke.
"Oh god... someone's pored water on this... someone's here..." I said, standing, I jerked looking around. I could have sworn I heard a twig crack in the distance. My nerves started sending massages all over my body.
Go! Run! What are you waiting for! Fear! Adrenalin! RUN RUN RUN!!!
I couldn't stop it when my feet started pounding against the ground. I heard things shuffling around me, as if people were watching my body dart through the forest.
Who was fallowing me? What was it? Why was it here? My mind raced to find answers but nothing came, as if I was drawing a blank.
Finally, something familiar about the tree's that were surrounding me. Looking around, I saw rope marks.... rope marks? How could that be?
Unless.... I raced faster through the tree's. Finally coming to a clearing, I gasped at what was there before me.
My house.... the back of my house... my house... in Teress... was it true? Was I home? Where I could see my dad, and my siblings.
"Well, you lead us right to it," Someone said behind me. I shivered, spinning around, I saw Dilandau and some of his men.
"You?!" I screamed.
He laughed. "Burn it. Burn it all..." He said, and suddenly there were torches, and people holding my arms as his dragon slayers races to my village, and set the roof tops on fire.
"No! NO! Stop... STOP!!!" I screamed and kicked, but they were holding me too tightly. I watched helplessly as I saw my home being engulfed in flames... my home... my house... where I was supposed to be able to see my Dad and family... no...