She stopped in front of the ruin. It was filled with both eastern and western architecture and had statues of women with what looked like barrels of sand. It was interesting to her. She had also noticed a giant gate in the front of the ruin. as she stared at the gate, she suddenly heard a thud behind her. She quickly turned around, drawing her weapon and getting into her stance. The dagger shimmered brightly in the light. Her cat-like eyes were focused, glowering intensely at the man who dared challenged her. Suddenly eyes went wide. It wasn't a man at all, but a monster. It had a long snout with sharp teeth, along with scaly skin, claws, and a tail. It resembled a giant, green lizard. The creature snarled angrily at her, saliva dripping out of it's mouth. She noticed that the thing had a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. The weapons looked like ancient Greek ones as well. Finally she regained her composure and breathed.
"Okay, if you want a challenge, then so be it…" she said as she regained her courage. With that, the creature charged at her.
The thing jumped into the air and spun, its arms out to strike her over the head. She quickly jumped to one side. The lizard staggered a little after its landing, wondering where she went. A kick suddenly met the thing in the back of its head. The creature slammed onto the ground face first. "Moron!" Cypress taunted. The thing roared angrily and got back up quickly to strike her. The weapons made a loud metallic clang as they met. It quickly spun and attempted to trip her, but she jumped. She landed a good drop kick on his head as she landed. It slammed onto the ground again. The monster got up roaring more ferocious than before, swinging upwards. She swayed out of the way. The creature came at her again with another strike, but she had blocked that one as well. It suddenly started coming at her with combos of strikes, obviously getting frustrated with her. It was nothing to her. She blocked all of those too. This was getting boring for her so she finally, quickly grabbed the thing, lifted it over her head, and slammed him on the ground hard. It was surprising how she could lift things two times her weight considering her size, but she did it with little struggle. It grunted with pain loudly. She began to grab its neck and held him down. It wiggled loose, causing her to suddenly take her weapons and hold the blade to its neck, seeming ready to slit the creature's throat.
"Let me pass or you die!" she demanded. The thing continued to struggle more and more, trying it's hardest to get loose. "Very well…" she growled under her breath, and with hat, slit the lizards throat. She let go of the thing's neck, causing it's body to fall limp to the ground, a puddle of blood surrounding it's limp body. With that, she sighed with relief and put her dagger away. After standing over the body triumphantly for a few moments, she finally walked off to look for water, food, people, or perhaps simply a place to stay for the night.
She was walking around, checking out the ruin when she stopped and pulled out her dagger. She felt an eerie prescience around her, as if someone was watching her as she was walking along. After looking around for someone to come out to fight, she finally put the weapon up and continued strolling along. When she heard footsteps behind her she stopped again.
"Who are you?!" she yelled. The footsteps continued. She could hear them coming from behind her, so she quickly pulled out her weapon and spun around to see…a little girl. The child shrieked with terror.
"NO!!! PLEASE, I MEAN NO HARM!!!" she yelled. Cypress froze, then slowly put away her weapon.
"Who are you?" Cypress growled.
"My name is Azalea…" the small girl answered in a small, diffident voice, "I saw that you killed that giant lizard, so I wanted to thank you."
"You have an awkward way of approaching people, little girl," Cypress said in a somewhat calmer voice, "Exactly how old are you?"
"I'm fourteen,"
"Too young to be alone," Cypress added. The girl finally showed some backbone.
"Not too young, just young enough." The girl said, trying to add some roughness to her voice. Cypress smirked at the girls failed attempt to intimidate her. She was too minute to even be considered a threat. To her, it was somewhat cute.
"Well, listen. If I were you, I would just go home. This place is too dangerous for kids like you to just run around on little pretend adventures." Cypress continued.
"This is home to me…" the girl answered back. Cypress stopped and stared at her with an expression of shock.
"You mean you lived with that creature?!"
"Well, it is the only shelter I could find out here. I was staying in a small, hidden area to hide from that thing, but now that you killed that thing, I am free to roam where I want around here." She said.
"I see," Cypress said, "But…where are your parents?"
"In Ireland…" she answered.
"Ireland?" Cypress asked. The girl nodded. Cypress looked at the girl for a while. She looked to be from the middle east. She didn't seem to have a drop of Irish blood in her. Finally Cypress shrugged.
"Why are you here?" The girl asked, now getting curious of this mysterious, dark stranger with cat eyes. Cypress sighed and spoke.
"Business reasons you wouldn't understand." She answered.
"Where will you be heading?"
"Not near Ireland if that's where you are thinking." Cypress answered back harshly.
"I just want to go back to Europe." The girl said back. Cypress stopped and looked at her. Normally she wasn't the type to want to help others, but then again, the poor girl was left all alone with no one to protect her. Finally, Cypress sighed and scratched the back of her head. Hell, if there was a God and karma was real, it wouldn't hurt to be humane to at least ONE person in her life time.
"So do you want me to take you back home?" Cypress asked. The girl nodded.
"Okay, after you point me to any source of food or water here, I'll take you home, okay?"
With that, the girl willingly lead her to the oasis nearby.