MoonCannon: Yes, here is the next chappy for you! I hope you like this one.
Kasan Soulblade: Yes, I recognized you as well. I am the same SoulXCalibur, and I see you haven't given up writing TOS ficcys! Good to see that. I'll have to read some of your new work when I get some time. And no, those are just stupid typos that I made lol. I'll have to go through and change those. Let me know if you find any more of those, I've been on AIM too much lol. Thanks for reviewing, and thanks for the praise!
Bane the Made Demon Slayer: Wow, I think that's the best review I've ever gotten! Thanks! I really appreciate it. I hope you like the chapters to come! And yes I thought it would work lol. Perhaps I should patent it….
Alright now, about the reviews, I'm the kind of guy that will welcome any kind of criticism. I mean I don't care if it's tiny suggestions or flaming, if you find something you don't like, please tell me so I can make it better! Don't get all caught up in praise. Praise is good, but it doesn't help me become a better writer. So please, any criticism is welcomed! Thanks!
About this chapter. We still won't see much of a connection to TOS yet. At least you shouldn't lol. You will begin to see it (if you're REALLY acquainted with my favorite of the TOS characters, it's in there in the next chapter, but I doubt anyone will catch it.). For any real connection, you have to read all the way to Chapter 7. Chapter 8 will have some serious stuff in it, once I'm done writing it lol. I'm about halfway done with that chapter right now. So the faster you review, the faster I get all these new chapters to you! SO REVIEW IF YOU'RE READING THIS GOD DAMMIT!
Chapter 2: The AttackRayne's eyes opened. Her room was dark, the square window over her bed casting the only light. Bright silver ambience cast from Luna's radiant smile leaked through the thin drapes, bathing what it touched in sparkling platinum. Through the window the bright silver disc that was Luna herself could be seen at her high point in the sky. The light illuminated the rather large room, containing only a dresser by the bed and a cushioned chair in the corner, besides the small bed that Rayne lay in.
Rayne surveyed her room, still half-unconscious, and wondered how Tolmin could fit so many rooms and a large one like this in such a small building. Her still partially asleep brain marveled at the patterns made by the multi-colored light on the walls and floor.
Indeed another light had begun to flicker through the window, this one a red and gold. It did flicker, the light forming strange patterns with the silver as it slithered over whatever it touched. It seemed as if the everlasting fire of Sol was fighting the soft, cold sliver of Luna. It seemed to grow, the fiery light covering more by the second.
Suddenly Rayne snapped fully awake. She now wondered what had awoken her. Then she heard the screams. Her red lips contorted with horror as the long, agonizing shrieks penetrated her ears. The bloodcurdling screams of pain from dying townsfolk and battle shouts of Pelo knights caused her to bite her teeth in agony as she listened, so terrible was the noise, but the worst easily was the last sound coming from outside. It was the triumphant shouts and evil laughing at the death and destruction obviously occurring. It was the shout of whoever was attacking Pelo, and the evil in it chilled her to her core.
Rayne bounced to her knees and peered out the window, hands ripping the curtains asunder and throwing them aside. The strange flickering light originated from the fire. The entire town was being consumed by flames, destroyed by the fiery carnage displayed before her eyes. As she watched, flames licked a previously untouched hut and the dry wood went up instantly, fire racing up it's walls ravenously. With a small explosion, the walls collapsed upon themselves and the building fell to the ground, now smothered in burning destruction.
All around the larger house she was in, the remaining knights of Pelo fought desperately to defend their lord's home, but the attackers were too many. They fought over the corpses of the fallen, now littering the streets around the grisly spectacle. The aggressors appeared to be an abnormally large band of pirates, raiders, wearing armor and wielding shields and swords bearing countless different crests, taken from their victims in previous assaults.
The princess watched, horrified, as one pirate, face pockmarked with the disgusting symptoms of some unknown disease, overpowered his knight and leapt forward, thrusting his sword into and through the open visor in the knight's helmet. With a shout of victory, he withdrew it again, now covered in blood and bodily entrails, and bounded off, laughing evilly, as the knight's armored corpse fell to the ground, blood spurting like an underground spring of carnage from his visor and the chinks and joints in his armor.
Rayne was repulsed and lunged for the side of her bed, throwing up all over the floor in agony. She lay there, her face looking down over the bed at the mess of her stomach contents on the wooden floor. Breathing hard, digesting what she had just seen, and trembling in lingering nausea, she took time to think. Her mortification quickly morphed into anger, anger boiling over into rage. How dare they attack a province of the king! Then her big eyes widening even more as she realized the truth. When the raiders finally and inevitably penetrated the house's weakening defenses, they would burn it, but first taking everything of value inside. That meant Rayne. Literally, over Rayne's dead body was she going to end up a concubine to one of those disgusting, evil, disease-riddled creatures. No. She would get out of here, but not without slaying a few of them first.
Though she knew it was not proper for a princess, she had trained secretly since a very young age in combat and various gymnastics. Gradually she had developed astonishing skill with her pair of samurai swords, shortened to the length of long daggers for better control over the blood they were meant to harvest. After the long years of this, she judged herself more skilled than the vast majority of the Royal Lucenian Army. Quickly, she jumped out of her prostrate position on the bed and ran over to her case full of clothes, which one of the servants had brought up while she slept. Digging to the lowest depths, beneath the countless dresses, she withdrew her combat outfit, hidden below the rest.
Quickly undressing, she pulled on the skin-tight black outfit, the magical material conforming perfectly to her bare skin, as she had ordered the Magi tailor who had created it to bewitch it to do. It was an opaque black, covering from the bottoms of her feet, to the base of her neck, to her wrists. Splashed across her breasts was her symbol, the intricate image of a fierce eagle, soaring through a raging storm of shimmering raindrops. A bolt of lightning blasted down in the background. The image looked like a real thing, frozen in time on her chest. Strange symbols in the ancient Lucenian language, allowing the suit to conform to her body and protect her even though it was so thin the way it did, were inscribed here and there on her legs, arms, and lower torso. She strapped on her magically enhanced shin-guards, extending from just above her ankle to just over her knee. Below it, covering her feet, were soft but very tough leather-like boots, allowing maximum mobility with premium protection. The boots had no sole like normal boots, only covering her feet with a few layers of the tough material, allowing her feet to move freely but also protecting them from the elements. She also wore armor on her lower arms and shoulders. Her arm-guards covered the entire area between wrist and elbow and inscribed with more symbols of lightning. On her shoulders was more armor, held there by two leather straps, in the shape of an "X" on her back, attached to a metal band around her lower torso, just beneath her breasts. Her wrists were sealed in the same enhanced silver steel, engraved with still more lightning symbols.
Her ruby-hilted shortened samurai swords were hung in sheaths on her back, attached to the leather straps. One was diagonal across her back, the hilt rising over her right shoulder for easy access, and the other was horizontal across her lower torso, just above her hips. She considered this the most useful way to sheath them, in the interest of whipping them out at a moment's notice.
As a finishing touch, Rayne slung a low-hanging belt across her hips, carrying other weapons and various supplies. Rayne then dashed to the window and, placing her hands on the sill, prepared to leap out of it. Just then, the door crashed open with a deafening bang and a servant of Tolmin ran in, sweating and panting with exertion.
"My princess Rayne! I have been sent to get you out of this town! Raiders have invaded Pelo and it burns around us. It is likely the entire city will be destroyed."
"Foolish boy. Can you not see that I already know that? Not only is there an open window right there with full view to the chaos outside, but I am already dressed and ready!"
The servant had no chance to reply. An arrow shot from the hallway plunged it's head of razor-sharp death into the servant's neck. Hi mouth gasped, making choking sounds and he fell, dead. Rayne observed the spectacle with horror blanketing her face for a moment then she hardened her features and dove behind the door and made herself nearly invisible in the black shadows as the owner of the arrow pounded down the hall.
"Ignorant little whelp of a boy! I know you were talking with someone in this room before I slew you. Where are they hiding?" He spoke to the corpse as if it could give a plausible answer. His voice was rough and coarse, as he slowly stepped to the middle of the room, jagged, notched sword in one hand and empty bow in the other.
I'm right here, Rayne thought as she crept up behind him, her animal skin soles making no noise on the wooden floor. Her hands flew around his head as she reached him and broke his neck before he had even known she was there. It gave a sickening crack and his sword and bow feel to the floor with a loud clang and clatter. Rayne surveyed her victim with a strange look, recognizing this as her first real kill. She could not contemplate it for long, however, as she heard more raiders coming nearer. She ran to the window and lept out.
Pelo burned around her as she ran down the streets that she had passed before, once lined with the poor and homeless and now strewn with bodies. Rayne let a tear pass, it quickly drying and evaporating from the wind blowing her face, but continued to move quickly, not allowing compassion to show in the face of a warrior, though she secretly vowed to avenge this slaughter. She had not gone far before a pair of raiders appeared from another road, noticing her and automatically moving to surround her, cutting off her escape, laughing unpleasantly like hyenas on the hunt and smiled at her, licking their chapped and sore-covered lips.
"Will you just look at this one! Quite a catch if I do say so myself!" The one to Rayne's left raised an axe, blocking her escape to the town gate.
Yes, you are right, and perhaps he will at least look at us and maybe even favor us a bit rather than that guy, Shadyn. The guy appears out of nowhere, shows a few skills in battle, and suddenly he's second-in-command and lording it over us!
Rayne was disgusted. This was a prime example of male arrogance. Apparently they took her as an object and nothing more, to be used as they pleased. But as they fawned over her, she was considering an escape.
"You want me, boys? Come and get me, if you can of course," Rayne turned up her perfect lips into a strained smile, attempting to make herself look as vulnerable as possible. Drool slightly draining from their mouths, they lunged at her with glazed eyes. As could be expected, due to the way Rayne moved, they were driven by sexual desire rather than what little sense they possessed. Rayne quickly and gracefully sidestepped the first attacker to the right and easily ran her left sword into the base of the raider's skull, at the top of the spine, killing him instantly. His partner froze, stunned.
"Why you…BITCH!" Enraged, he dove for her, swinging his huge sword threateningly. His slash struck downward and diagonally. Drawing her other sword, she blocked upwards, spun, and struck horizontally with the other, drawing a fine line of blood on his lower, bare chest that was quickly thickening. The raider dropped his blade in surprise, gaping at the deadly princess and his mortal wound. Rayne smiled sweetly and contentedly, re-sheathing her right blade and caressing his cheek with her hand as she slipped behind him and slit his throat. The body fell instantly with a thump and Rayne turned to the gates, now in sight.
Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped around her waist and she felt the cold edge of a long-sword at her throat. She struggled, shouting in surprise, fighting with all her strength, but the unseen assailant was much too strong. She tried to turn her head and get a look at the attacker, but he held her tightly and all she saw was his black gauntlet and black sleeve with dark red fringe.
"Please do not struggle," a calm voice from behind her said. "I will not harm you, but I am afraid I must take u captive. I apologize in advance for this." The voice's tone gave it the illusion that it did not want to be doing this, but was obligated to do so. Quickly, his arms released her waist, but she was still held in place by the sword. The blood of the slain trickled off of the sword and down her throat. She had to restrain a shudder, for the sword may slice into her throat if she moved. As quickly as the hand had let go, it returned, now clamping over her mouth and nostrils, cutting off breath. She felt a coarse cloth on her cheeks, and could not stop a breath before it came. She smelled a strange potion that the cloth was soaked in, and instantly felt her eyelids droop. The smell was sweet, and comforting in a way, and it wrapped Rayne's brain in content submission. A soft murmur escaped her lips as she drowsily felt her body go limp and her legs give out. A pair of strong arms reached out for her as she fell completely unconscious, one name remaining in the back of her mind, the name of whose owner the raiders had spoken. The one name, Shadyn.