Chapter 29: My Turn
Kyra stood in her preferred spot right outside the arena as the sun rose overhead watching as two young warriors fought. She guessed their ages to be no more than ten or eleven and she was greatly enjoying watching them learn. Even at their young ages they fought well and with honor. She smiled.
"Wish you could fight as well as those kids?" a mocking voice said over her right shoulder. Kyra stiffened and turned, coming face to face with none other then Louna.
Though her blood was already beginning to boil, Kyra played it cool; copying one of Riddick's moves and simply raising her eyebrows at Louna and turning her back on her to watch the children practice.
"Oh, wait, that's right…, The Riddick taught you how to fight already, didn't he?" Louna said patronizingly. "Well, with a man like that teaching you, I'll bet you were an avid student. I wonder what else he taught you." She added with a slight laugh.
Kyra continued to stare into the arena, but she didn't see the children finish and leave for a break. Or the trainers leave to head for lunch. She had caught all of Louna's double entendre and blood rushed to her face as her heart began to pound.
Louna smirked, "Of course, after hearing your story and the way you were treated as a kid, there wasn't much more he could teach you…Was there?"
Without any warning, Kyra's shiv was pressed against Louna's throat. "You think you know me, Bitch? You don't know anything about me." Kyra stated, her voice wobbly from anger.
Louna stood frozen in place for several moments, then swiftly, and with great skill, she spun and ducked away from Kyra's knife and drew one of her own. She crouched down into a fighting stance and said, with malice dripping off of every word, "Yeah I know you. You're the Riddick's little bitch. You follow him around, thinking you're all worthy simply because you're with him. But you're not with him very much anymore are you?
"You're what? Eighteen, nineteen? He's too busy with 'grown up stuff' to care about you anymore. You're nothing but a brainless, talent-less child.
"Now, I wonder what the Riddick would do if he had a real woman by his side…Maybe…Someone like me? Do you think he would like that?"
With that taunt, Louna jumped the low wall into the training area and positioning herself in the middle of the arena. She laughed, "Yeah, I know you…Do you think you could prove me wrong?"
In one fluid movement Kyra cleared the wall and landed gracefully on her feet. She pulled her second shiv out of its hiding place and charged toward Louna.
They fought for several seconds; slashing and blocking, testing each others' strengths; then they backed off and circled, their eyes locked. Louna was much taller and heavier than Kyra, honed muscles stood out in the mid-day sun.
They darted in again and tangled fiercely. Kyra was smaller than Louna and much faster; what Louna had in bulk, Kyra made up for in her lithe, graceful strength.
Kyra made a strike.
It connected with Louna's upper thigh and instantly Louna let out a yell and fell to one knee as blood began to flow down her leg into the dust. Kyra stepped forward and Louna slashed out, forcing Kyra to jump backward; barely avoiding the knife that flew by only centimeters from her belly. The slash had made Louna off balance, however, and Kyra saw her chance. As soon as Louna's attention flickered and she struggled to regain her balance, Kyra lashed out and kicked the larger girl in the side of the neck; not with enough force to snap it, but just enough to throw her to the ground.
With one fluid movement, Kyra kicked away Louna's dropped knife and knelt over her, one knee planted firmly against Louna's chest. She drew her knife back above Louna's face and, with a rush of triumph, let it fall.
A vise-like grip suddenly caught her wrist; the shiv inches from Louna's face. "No." said a low, gravelly voice.
Kyra looked up into Riddick unreadable face then glanced back down into Louna's terrified one. Then, with an exhalation of breath, she grit her teeth together and yanked her hand away from Riddick's and stood. Glaring down at Louna she spat. "Fuck you, Bitch." She said, her voice cold as ice. Then she looked up into Riddick's blank goggles. "And fuck you." She said and turned to walk away.
As she turned she saw Shirah standing wide-eyed and pale just outside the arena, her graying hair pulled back and her bright red robes clean and pristine in contrast with the dusty arena.
Shirah was shocked at the change that had come over Kyra. It had been several weeks since she had last seen her and with surprise she found that Kyra was no longer the happy, laughing, bright young woman that she had come to know on the Necromonger warship. Kyra had reverted back into the hardened, angry, hurt girl that they had first taken off that planet in the Underverse. Confusion and worry fell across Shirah's face. She cared about Kyra like she would care about her own daughter.
Their eyes met and with one look from Shirah, Kyra felt suddenly ashamed. She felt like some kind of monster and that just pissed her off again. Shivs still in hand she spun back toward Riddick. "Fuck you Riddick. I should have known this would happen. I should have known that you would end up wanting nothing to do with me; you're too busy saving the fucking world and who knows what the hell else. The only thing is that this time, you are still around. I have put up with your shit for way too long. This time I won't follow you. You're always the first to leave, so this time, you get to watch me." With that she turned and strode past Shirah and headed out into the city.
Riddick stood still for several moments, reeling from Kyra's verbal lashing. He was angry and hurt by what she had said. Did she really think that about him? Didn't she realize that he was doing this all for her? "Shit." He thought and without a glance at either Louna or Shirah, he too walked out of the arena into the city.
As Kyra walked thoughts were flying through her head. Her breathing was still heavy and she hardly noticed where she was going; she was just walking aimlessly down street after street. She was still livid but she wasn't going to leave Furya. It was the only place that she felt safe and it kept her away from Mercs. Instead, maybe she could live with Shirah…But even as it occurred to her, something about the thought of leaving Riddick felt wrong. She hated running; it was against everything inside of her. So, for now, she walked… and walked; hoping to clear her mind and come to a peace inside herself.
Kyra was so lost in thought that she didn't notice a small group of men following her, or that they were slowly closing in on her from all sides; she only felt hands grasp at her for an instant, a momentary struggle, and a sharp pain across the back of her head, then darkness.
There were flashes of time when she would awaken slightly and be aware of what was happening around her before falling back into the darkness: People talking quietly all around as they carried her down a dark alley; excited voices and a loud clanging, metallic sound; a piercing headache.
Finally, as though someone was slowly turning up the lights, the world came back into focus. She was strapped against something cold and there was a metallic bit in her mouth. Looking around she realized that she was in a ship strapped into a high security cryo chamber. Her heart stopped. Stars were flashing outside the portholes. "No! Oh God, NO!" She thought, panicking. She began to struggle against her restraints even as she knew it would do no good. Her head was beginning to pound. A man walked up to her, reached out and slammed the cryo door closed; he flipped a switch and the world faded once more.