Without Wings of my Own
Pain. Blinding pain, that was all I could feel. It was radiating out from my wounds in ripples of agony, causing my muscles to cramp and burn. My ankle was numb, a relief I suppose since I could no longer feel the bamboo shoot that had pierced it. Too caught up in my agony, I hardly heard the guards approach until they were within feet of me. I tried to focus, to concentrate on what they were doing. They had surrounded me, a loose circle of maybe seven, while the other guards raced ahead to chase my partner, Kurama. I hoped for his safety, but I wasn't too worried about him. He knew how to stay out of trouble. It was my own skin that I had to worry about. Grimacing, I could hear them gloating about my capture. Already they were arguing over who would get the honour of killing me. And there was nothing I could do about it. Several bamboo shoots were peirced though my body, holding me suspended and inanimate. Easy prey for the palace guards that were closing in for the kill. I glared out at the one advancing towards me, his weapon held high, ready for blood.
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Falling. I was falling, and at a rapid pace. Frigid air stung my face and arms, and whipped my clothes about wildly. I screamed, as I plummeted towards a familiar forest of bamboo, belatedly crossing my arms in front of my face, and curling inwards to protect myself as I plunged into, and through, the foliage. Distractedly, the thought 'I wish I had wings' crossed my mind, but I hardly had time to think it before the ground rose up to meet me. Luckily my fall was broken by something slightly soft and squishy. And moving. With a little eek I looked up, uncrossing my arms from about my head to see a bunch of, well, I wasn't sure what they were. All I knew was that they definitely weren't human. And they were standing around, staring at me with slack jaws. Hearing a groan, I looked down to realize that one of them was what had broken my fall. I jumped to my feet instantly, another scream caught in my throat. The movement seemed to snap the others out of their daze, unfortunately, and one of them took a menacing step towards me.
"What 'ave we here?" He muttered, and made a show of sniffing the air like a dog. "A human!" He exclaimed to his friends, and grinned. That grin didn't bode well for me, I knew. The others looked surprised for a moment before cackling gleefully. "A human?!" Another screeched, his high pitched voice making me flinch. "What luck we have. We get fame for killing that thief, and a nice little snack to play with too!"
'Shit. This isn't good.' I thought, inching backwards from the nearest one. When he came closer I picked up my pace, until my back came into contact with something solid. My way of retreat was blocked, and the creatures were closing in. I turned to look over my shoulder, to see what had foiled my instinctive escape, only to freeze in astonishment, eyes wide with disbelief. My back was against a shoot of bamboo, one of many caging in a pinned and wounded, but very familiar, thief. His eyes, a sharp, cool indigo blue, turned to look into my own, and I flinched from the rage shining in them. He was only inches from me, one arm outstretched in my direction, frozen in place by a shoot of bamboo. I blinked, and looked him up and down, accessing the damage done by the trap. A gleam caught my eye, and I zeroed in on a sharp, wickedly curved scythe hanging from his hip. Bingo!
Hearing the other creatures moving, I turned my head forward again, watching as they started getting closer. Grimacing, I slowly moved my hands backwards, until I was gripping the bamboo shoot that I was leaning against. "W-what are you go-going to do to me?" I asked, stuttering slightly, trying to keep their attention away from my hands. Slowly, I reached backwards with one hand, until my fingers came into contact with the thiefs chest. I could feel the course fabric of his vest beneath my fingertips, and the tensing of his muscles as I slowly inched my hand downward, searching for that scythe I had glimpsed earlier. My hands brushed across warm, smooth skin for a fleeting second, as I reached the gap between the bottom of his vest and the top of his pants. I thought I heard a quick intake of breath, but I couldn't be sure. And then my fingers were brushing over his belt. Soon I felt cool metal beneath my fingertips, and I gently tugged the scythe free. Just in time too, cause one of the creatures had gotten too close for comfort.
Dropping the scared act, I swung the scythe at the creature in the lead, slashing him across the stomach. He fell to the ground, screaming and holding his gut, trying to keep his entrails from spilling over the ground. I almost retched, but the others, after quickly getting over the inital shock, came at me full force. "Shit!" Needless to say, I didn't know how to fight. It wasn't something neccesary for a 17 year old girl to know. So I started panicking. I had no idea what I was doing. Going on instinct, I managed to dodge their attacks for the most part. Luckily for me, the thief must have decided to take pity on me, because fog and mist started to swirl around my feet from out of nowhere. How did I know it was him? The guards seemed to be pretty freaked out about it, so it couldn't have been them. And it couldn't have been natural. There was no water nearby, I would have heard it. And besides that, I just kinda sensed that he was the one responsible. Freaky? Yes. But I didn't have time to be freaked out.
I could hear the creatures around me. Their panic made them loud, so it was easy to track their movements. I felt like an animal, as I closed in on one of them, instinctively crouching low to the ground and treading softly. I was confused, and scared as hell. Here I was, almost on all fours and about to kill or seriously injure some strange being. But I knew it was either kill or be killed. It was hardly justification for what I was about to do, but I liked living. Really liked it. I wasn't exactly ready to kick the bucket yet, so to speak. So I sneaked up on one of them, and swung the scythe. Instinct kicked in and pretty much took over after the second one had been felled. The other four went fairly quickly as I sneaked up on them one at a time, retreating back into the mist when they fell, screaming.
Crouching, the scythe almost falling from numb fingers, I panted and waited for my breath to return. My mind was numb, my heart racing. I felt like I would retch, sobs were waiting in the back of my throat. I had just killed six people. They weren't human, but that was hardly an excuse. The severity of the situation, and what I had done, had finally caught up with me. I could feel panicky tears gathering along the edge of my eyes. But before the torrent could break free, a noise distracted me. Blinking, I was reminded that the thief was still caught in that trap. Bleeding. Most likely to death if something wasn't done soon. With a muttered curse, I got to my feet, and moved in the direction the noise had originated from.
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I cursed as my body started to go numb from pain. Using my energy to call up the fog hadn't done me any favours. And now that girl was gone, one of my scythes with her. She wasn't far, I could feel her energy nearby, but she wasn't close enough, either. I wasn't sure what to think of her. She was human. My thoughts were broken, however, when I heard her moving back towards me. Soon enough I could see her silhouette through the fog. She stopped a few feet from me, and stood there for a moment, looking at me. It was times like these that I wished I could read minds. She must have come to a decision, because she was walking towards me again, the scythe clasped in a white-knuckled grip. I tensed, unsure of her intentions. For all I knew, she could have decided to kill me. Wouldn't that be something? I'd be the laughing stock of the makai. Killed by my own weapon. And by a human, no less.