Authors Note: There is violence in this chapter, so be prepared....

Chapter 4

The ride for Naqita was going very well. Though today was cloudy in the land, everything was so new and beautiful to her. With nothing better to do on the trip, she found herself wondering what the name of the land was. While she was thinking, small droplets of rain slowly began to fall from the sky and surely enough, they began to fall in great numbers with much force. Naqita winced as they began to pour down onto her, Alenien, and everything around them. She glanced at the large area of woods that stood east of her. Slowly, Alenien began going in that direction without her command as she lowered her head to his level. In no time at all, they reached the outskirts of the forest and she began to shiver. Alenien slowed to a steady trot, which gave Naqita time to examine their new surroundings. There were a few trails ahead of her, one more worn than the others. Making a quick decision, she went straight onto the well-worn path. Deeper into the forest, the rain began to have trouble reaching them until finally, it could not get to them at all. Naqita sighed with relief, staring at her arms that now adorned red spots where the rain had hit her. Shaking her head, she looked up at the path again and yawned.

"This town better be close or else I'm going to fall asleep right here..."

She muttered to herself as usual. Naqita glanced behind her as she heard something drop to the ground. She did not see anything at first, then a flash of something caught her eye. Alenien quickly stopped and reared back as Naqita was staring at the area behind them, catching her off guard and throwing her off his back. She groaned after she hit the ground, the impact leaving her in shock for a moment. She continued to lie on the ground, closing her eyes until she felt someone breathing on her face.

"Alenien...what is your problem...?"

She asked in an irritated voice, refusing to open her eyes.

"Get up, girl, I like to fight fair."

Something said to her, it's voice harsh and wheezy. She slowly opened her eyes, realizing this wasn't Alenien. Her eyes widened as she stared at an ugly beast's face, which was far too close to hers for comfort. Without thinking, she swung at the beast with her fist, knocking it down to the side. She jumped up, drew her sword, and stared at the thing that lay on the ground before her. It was a creature she had never seen, nor heard of before. It's lower body looked like that of a snake, but their chest was that of a birds. Its dark red wings looked as though they served no purpose for they were far too torn to be able to fly. Its blue body was covered with blood, especially it's head, which looked like that of a bull. Naqita couldn't help but feel bad for the ugly being that was before her. It quickly got up and slithered towards her at an amazing speed, it's claws outreached for her. She jumped out of the way, feeling a gust of wind as it sped past her. This continued to happen for an hour or so until she developed a plan. She was to jump over the beast's head, damage whatever she could while she was behind and pray that that would slow the beast down enough for her to actually fight it. She held the cross that hung around her neck briefly in her hand before the beast charged at her. Just as the beast was about to hit, she grabbed its shoulder and supported herself enough to flip over it. In mid-air, she turned herself so that she would face the beast's back and landed as she had planned with one knee on the cold ground of the forest and her foot of the other leg beside it. She shoved the sword into the snake-like tail that slithered behind the beast and stood as it let out a cry of pain. She pulled her sword from its tail as it spun around and came for her. It let out a flurry of swings with it's claws, but found that it could not strike Naqita. She blocked and dodged each attack, adding a few kicks to its face every so often. Finally, however, the beast caught her arm and threw her down to the ground so forcefully, the wind was knocked out of her for a moment. The beast smiled above her, it's jagged teeth beginning to show. Saliva fell from its mouth onto her face as she stared up in horror as it began to laugh. The beast, however, did not notice her hand slowly moving to her hip and unsheathing a green dagger. As the beast prepared to eat her, she flung the dagger at its face. Upon contact, the beast reared back and began screaming, its arms flailing about. She sat up, pushing herself back from the beast and covering her ears. She shut her eyes, the beast putting her in as much pain as it was until it fell forward, blood squirting her on its way down. She looked down at herself, disgusted. Now to help with the red splotches on her arms, she had black, thick blood on herself.

"I am going to make one good impression on this person I am to meet..."

She said as she slowly stood and limped over to Alenien. She mounted him and winced, rubbing her right knee. Clicking her tongue, Alenien jumped into a canter, anxious to leave the forest they had run in for shelter from the rain.

As they left the forest with no more problems, Naqita smiled up at the sky.

"Thank You..."

She whispered before her eyes settled on a large town. Alenien stopped and Naqita read a sign that was posted below them. It read 'Welcome to Galicenal Village.' Smiling again, Naqita clicked her tongue once more and Alenien slowly went into a gallop. As they reached the village, she dismounted her horse and looked ahead of her. She could only see shops and houses with people bustling about in every direction.

"We made it, boy, we made it."

She declared triumphantly. The guards gave her a bewildered look as she limped past them, red spots on her body along with mud and black blood covering her clothes and coloring her hair.