I hopped off the bus and ran to the house and flung the door open.
"Mommy! Mommy, I got something!" I yelled, holding a pink envelope. I threw my butterfly backpack onto the floor and ran in the kitchen where my mom was preparing spaghetti.
"Oh did you? Let me see." She said with her kind voice, she took the envelope and opened it then skimmed the paper.
"Invited to a birthday party?" She smiled and looked at me with her kind amber eyes.
"I get to go to a birthday party!" I yelled and ran around the room giggling. My crimson bangs got in my face and I bumped into my mom's leg. She and I laughed then I snooped above the counter.
"Are those noodles?" I smiled; spaghetti was my favorite when I was little.
"I made it just for you!" She laughed as she picked me up so I could watch her cook. I suddenly heard a tune playing then I went to investigate, wiggling my way out of my mom's arm without hurting my feet. I looked at the television and saw My Little Pony on.
"Mommy, I want to eat in here, My Little Pony is on!" I yelled, yet with my eyes focused on the screen of colorful ponies flying and prancing around.
"My favorite is Rainbow Dash!" I held my arms forward and pretended to soar around the room. My mom brought a tray with a small bowl and a cup of fruit punch in.
"Alright, my little Pegasus, time to sit down and eat!" She smiled. I giggled and hopped onto a couch. "Eat up!" She smiled and gave me the food then left into the kitchen.
I pushed my long hair back and started to eat. I listened to the ponies talking and giggled. One called Pinkie Pie always made me laugh; I loved listening to her quirkiness.
"Hold on to your hooves, I'm about to get brilliant!" She said.
"That would be cool if I were a pony." I smiled and continued eating my buttery noodles. When I finished, my mom gave me a bath and I got my fairy princess pajamas on and went to bed. I was excited for the birthday party which was the next day.
I woke up to my lamp being turned on and my mom standing next to my bed.
"Wake up, my darling, time for school!" I groaned and turned in my bed.
"The birthday party is today." She shook my shoulders gently. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, and my hair looked like a mess.
"My goodness, you look like that fluffy dog we saw the other day!" She grabbed a comb off my dresser. I laughed and barked like a dog and she started combing through my messy mop.
After I ate and brushed my teeth, I got my backpack on and ran outside to the bus. I waved to my mom through the window and set my backpack on my lap to take out my notebook. I started drawing ponies and butterflies in it.
"Look at this!" A boy came up and took my notebook.
"You're drawing butterflies and ponies? You're such a baby!" The boy ripped the paper out of my notebook and started tearing pages apart. I was crying a river and I started yelling at him,
"Stop it! That's not nice!" He laughed at me.
"Make me, baby!" I suddenly became enraged and I punched him square in the nose.
He dropped the notebook and he looked at me with blood dripping from his nostril. He started crying and ran to his seat. I picked up my ripped notebook and saw the picture I had drawn for my dad was ripped. I sat back in my seat and was crying even harder. 4 years before my dad had been killed during a shooting. The drawing was one of the few things I had left from him. Everyone who was looking at the situation quickly turned their focus to their music, homework, or books.
Another boy got on the bus, and he looked really shy, I didn't recognize him very well, but I was pretty sure that I had seen him once or twice. He sat in the seat across from me, and he pulled out something from his bag too, he pulled out a picture and smiled. I didn't catch a glimpse of it, and he put it back in his backpack. He had medium length black hair, and cold blue eyes. I wiped the remaining tears from my face and put my notebook back in my bag then set it next to me.
Everyone jumped off the bus and ran into the school. When I got inside, I shoved my backpack into my cubby and dashed into the classroom to see Ms. James at her desk.
"Welcome back to school, Kyra! Are you excited for school?" She smiled at me.
"I want to color, and read, and play!" I giggled.
"Well, you'll get to do that!" She replied, returning to her work on her computer.
I went to sit at the blue table, which is where I was assigned to sit. I wished I had friends to sit with at the blue table, but I didn't even have friends. I rummaged through the bin to look for a coloring page that I liked. I saw one with a penguin holding a snowflake, so I took that one to color it. I sat there coloring and coloring until kids started coming into the classroom to get the day started.
AFTER SCHOOL
"Alright sweetie, have fun and behave!" My mother smiled and waved as I hopped out of our car and ran to the door of Danika's house. My knees were wobbling with excitement as I knocked on the door. Danika's dad opened the door for me.
"Well hello, welcome to the party!" He smiled at me and widened the door for me to walk through. I placed the present I bought for Danika on their dining room table. I then headed to their basement which is where everyone was.
Danika's sister was just setting up the piñata for us to smack around. Danika went up and shook it, it sounded full of candy! I was really excited; I had taken t-ball so I was thinking I'd do the best. I got third in line, and of course Danika got the first swing. She didn't wear a blindfold because she kept begging not to. Of course, I wanted to test my skills and wear a blindfold, but a lot of kids didn't. It was finally my turn, so I hopping up to the spot where I'd hit it.
I swung and swung at it then I finally whacked it to see it burst open all over onto the floor. I lifted my blindfold to see the piñata on the floor and kids huddled around it gathering candy.
"Hey, save some for me!" I yelled as I dived into the mob of chaotic kids to grab some candy.
"Kids, the pizza is here!" Someone yelled. Of course I didn't care; I was a sugar-high child at a birthday party. Everyone ran up the stairs and I was getting shoved to the back of the crowd. I might've been a confident little kid, but I was, and always will be that kid that's picked on and the one that no one likes.
We were all upstairs eating and talking while watching some cartoon movie. I was sitting alone, just drinking my lemonade and eating my pizza, not talking to anyone. I noticed another little boy on the other side of the room, sitting alone as well. I stared at him for a few minutes, until he realized. I quickly turned my head down and ate my pizza. Everyone then finished, so I put down my plate and cup to go outside to the bouncy house.
I'd never been in a bouncy house before, and it was such a blast. I kept falling down and bumping into the other kids. I saw the little boy again, sitting in the corner of the bouncy house. I saw other kids kicking him and purposely bumping into him. I felt the urge to do something, but I was too shy to. I noticed he finally got up to avoid getting pushed around any longer. I went back to bouncing then suddenly I felt a head whack into mine.
"Hey! Watch it you…" I quieted as I noticed it was the boy.
"I'm sorry." I apologized. He looked down at his feet and I saw him wipe his eyes as I realized how hard he really hit my head.
"I'm Kyra." I introduced pitifully.
"What's your name?" I asked kindly.
"My name's Kuai…" He said quietly with a little sniffle.
"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." I said.
"It's Kuai…" He said again.
"I like that name." I smiled.
"Do you really?" He smiled a little.
"Yeah, it's cool." I smiled back.
We both left the bouncy house and were sitting in the grass, talking.
"Well, I have an older brother Bi-Han and an older sister Lily." He said.
"You have really unique names in your family." I leaned in, looking interested, and I was.
"Do you have any siblings?" He asked me.
"No, I'm an only child." I responded.
"Lucky, being the youngest isn't fun. My brother always picks on me." He frowned again.
"Well I won't pick on you." I said.
"Do you want to be friends?" I asked.
"Yes." He responded quietly, but with a smile.
I ran into kindergarten and shoved my stuff into my cubby and looked around for Kuai. When I didn't see him, I went and sat down at my table and colored for a little while. I heard all of the chatter and giggles of the other kids.
"Danika's party was so fun! I fell over in the bouncy house so many times!" One kid said.
"I loved the cake! Do you have any more?" Another said to Danika. I looked around as the bell rung and saw that Kuai wasn't here. But he told me that he goes to this school. I thought to myself. I just stopped coloring and put my crayon down, looking at the picture of a wolf I made for him.
I got home from my sad day of kindergarten and just put my bag down on the floor of the living room, and went up to lie on my bed. My mom came up.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" She asked with her soft and calming voice.
"I met a friend at the birthday party, and he said he went to my school, but I didn't see him today." I sighed.
"Well maybe he caught a cold, or something came up." She reassured. My mom turned on my television and flipped to the news. I saw the top headline read "THREE CHILDREN MISSING".
"Mom, why do people kidnap kids? Kids are nice." I said as she sat behind me braiding my hair.
"I don't know, sweetie. There are bad people in this world, and a lot of them." She responded.
"Are you bad?" I asked curiously. She laughed.
"No, I would never hurt you because I love you." I looked at the screen again and saw something. One of the three kids was Kuai.
"Mom, that's the boy I met, that one in the middle!" I yelled and pointed. The news reporter said.
"Three children with the names of Lily, Kuai Liang, and Bi-Han. Please report to the authorities if you find them." My mom looked shocked.
"Honey, I'm sorry that you just met him and this happened. I'm sure that the cops will find him. Cops are super smart and tough. They're the good guys. You can trust them." She explained.
12 YEARS LATER
Yup, twelve years passed, I'm in high school, and they still never found those kids. I'm pretty sure they're dead now. But I'd only known that Kuai for a day so I guess I'm not that sad anymore. I was sitting in science class, just writing down notes, like usual. But there was about a minute left and my next class period was Language Arts, my favorite class right about now. We're typing our own stories so it's pretty good.
Danika still goes to the school, and she's still the same, just a bit brattier. She's the alpha-girl now. You know the one that every guy likes. We hate each other's guts. I hate her for the fact that she is so bratty to everyone, and she hates me for "getting in the way".
"How's your day going, Kyra?" She asked me.
"Do you really care?" I asked expecting her to say no.
"Not really but I'm trying to be polite to everyone." She said.
"Good luck with that." I laughed.
"Well, I'm not trying it on you, then. You're not even worth it." She scowled and walked away with the football jock, her boyfriend.
I don't even want to explain my whole school day, so let's just start when I got home. I went up to my room and turned on the news. Okay, I guess I still care, considering it's been on the news channel ever since Kuai went missing. I saw it said "THREE KIDNAPPERS GOING AROUND". It showed footage of them, two of them guys and one a girl. They were wearing strange blue costumes with masks that had fog coming out. One was yelling and pointing in different directions, sending them off to get children or something. They were getting babies and little kids and drugging them with something then putting them in the back of a truck with a lot of pillows.
"What the heck is wrong with those people?" I growled and threw my remote on the floor then slapped the power button on my television. I saw it was getting dark out so I showered and changed into sweatpants and a tank top and went to bed. In the middle of the night, I heard a loud banging on the door and went downstairs with a flashlight to see who it was. My mom wasn't awake, so I just answered it. It was the bigger looking guy that was in the news. He grabbed my arms and dragged me outside. I yelled and screamed.
"Help me! Let me go!" He quickly covered my mouth with his big hands. I wanted to bite him but considering he had gloves I just didn't. He wrapped duct tape around my face and tied my wrists together behind me.
I was shoved into the truck to see all the drugged little kids. I started crying in panic.
"Don't worry; they're not dead, just asleep." The girl hushed me.
"Where are you taking me?" I cried. They didn't respond.
"I asked you a question!" I yelled.
"Shut up! We'd like to keep the kids asleep!" The bigger man growled.
"Well I'd like to know we're you're going. Or what your names are, anyway." I quieted.
"I can't tell you where we're going, or what our names are. The police can't find us that way." The girl said.
"So you figured it out? I guess you're not that dumb." I said.
"How'd you even get the duct tape off your face?" The girl spoke.
"I took a survival class, also I know some fighting moves, so don't expect me to be peaceful." I threatened.
"Oh we never expected that, and I don't think we'll have a problem." The guy growled.
"Look, I promise I won't call the cops if you just tell me your names." I pleaded.
"Okay, well my name is… um… Jackson. And that's Lily and George." Said a voice I was unfamiliar with. I saw his face turn around as he said it to me. I felt so familiar yet unfamiliar with this other guy. But I suddenly remembered in the news there were three people.
"You sound like you made that up." I folded my arms.
"Just…" the quieter one didn't finish his sentence.
"My name's Kyra." I said quieter. I saw the smaller looking guy look up.
"W-what is it?" I stuttered.
"It's nothing." He replied quickly.
Suddenly the truck stopped and the three got out. I went to get out through the doors but they were locked and the truck was turned off, so I was stuck. Suddenly it got really cold and I felt a large thud. I noticed some of the kids waking up. Some looked around and some were crying.
"Quiet down, it's alright, I'm going to try to get us out." I reassured. They all looked at me with hope in their eyes. I knew they were counting on me, so I had to do it.
"Watch out, little ones." I said. After they all huddled behind me, I ran fast into the truck door. I stood back, a little dizzy, but still strong. I ran again and it burst open and I fell onto dirt. I looked around to see creepy, green woods.
The kids stayed in the truck, looking scared.
"It's best you stay in here." I said. I found a lantern in the back of the truck and lit it with a pack of matches I always kept. I left it in there so they could see then shut the doors to prevent any strange creatures getting in the truck. I worried greatly for those kids, for their safety, but also mine. I saw the three "grow" out of the ground as ice forms. The youngest saw me and started running towards me. Boy was he fast; he must've trained really well. I was fast too, luckily. I swerved back and forth between trees and rocks.
I yelled as I felt his tight grasp on my arm as he twisted it to a point where I heard a crack and pop in my shoulder. I ripped my arm from his hand and threw my fist at his nose. He quickly ducked under. I tried again and he just stopped my hand with his. I pulled it back quickly and I felt my arms get pulled back. I yelled and tried to pull my arms away as I looked behind to see the girl behind me.
"Get a hold of yourself!" She yelled at me. She slowly let go of my arms and turned me so we were face to face.
"We're not going to hurt you." She said in a calmer voice.
"Why am I here, what is this place?" I cried.
"There's not much time to explain. We need to get you and those kids somewhere." She said.
"You better not hurt them, or you'll have to go through me." I threatened.
"Look, there's no chance of you beating us, and we won't hurt the kids anyway, so don't worry." She reassured. The guys took the kids out of the truck and we all walked into the forest. The two guys stood behind to avoid me running away. Two of the kids stood holding my hands.
"So, if you're not going to kill us, where are you taking us then?" I asked.
"Why do you keep asking that?!" The larger guy growled.
"I just want to know…" I sighed.
I saw some sort of camp up in the snowy mountains up ahead.
"Is that where we're going?" I asked the girl.
"Yes, that's where our camp is, and my name is actually Frost, their actual sister Lily was killed a little bit ago. These are my brothers, but I don't know if I should say their actual names." She smirked at her brothers.
"Well that's a pretty name." I smiled. I knew at that second that if her brothers were to try to kill me, she would probably be the one to stand up for me. We were definitely going to end up being friends.
The older brother went up to the large metal gate ahead and formed an ice ball with his hand then put it into what was like a lock for it. I watch the large, metal gate creak open to show a large field, covered with snow and what appeared to be blood or something. The children were huddled around me, trying to stay warm. I saw their lips were purple and their noses and cheeks rosy.
The younger brother stood behind us, and he was sort of herding us into the camp. The cold suddenly hit me, and I folded my arms and scrunched myself together as best as I could to preserve some body heat. That was a challenge, though. Not only were we in high, snowy mountains, there was also a mild yet strong blizzard passing through. We walked up to what seemed like a large town hall, and Frost shoved the doors open. We all walked inside then the youngest slammed the doors shut. It was a lot warmer in here; there were large torches all around and it was very bright.
"This is like what you would call a town hall." Frost spoke. I knew it. I thought to myself.
"We don't exactly have a specific name for it, but this is where we discuss training and news and other things like that." She finished.
"What do you mean by training?" I asked.
"Haven't you figured it out?" The oldest mocked,
"We're the legendary Lin-Kuei breed of warriors."
"You train as in… fighting?" I leaned back with my arms folded.
"Well, yeah, we need some sort of action around here." Frost smirked, flipping a wide dagger between her fingers.
The two brothers took the children to a large cottage, while Frost and I were still in the town center.
"Well, are you good at fighting?" She placed the dagger down on the table that she was leaning against. I recognized right away that she was looking for a "training" session with me.
"N-not really… I only learned a little." I stuttered.
"I kind of figured that out during your short fight with Kuai." She laughed.
"Wait, who?" I became interested.
"I'm definitely going to get in trouble for this, but the youngest of us is name Kuai, and his brother is Bi-Han." She said, as if she knew she was going to get killed for that, but she didn't seem to care.
"I know that name from somewhere, Kuai…" I repeated his name. I suddenly remembered that he had gone to the same kindergarten class as me.
"You do? It's not that popular of a name…" She was confused.
"He went to the same kindergarten as me!" I exclaimed.
"What? You're kidding, how would that even work? I thought he lived here all his life." She scoffed.
"I'm not! Kuai Liang, I remember him!" I laughed, yet still felt anger inside. She looked at me with some sort of shock, but it didn't show in her expression, just in her cold blue eyes.
"Do you want to tell him about this?" Frost asked.
"I don't know if I should, and I'm sort of mad at him for this. I've been wondering what happened to him ever since he was kidnapped that one day." I scowled.
"I know he knew it was you." Frost stood up, off the table.
"What wait, how?" My eyes squinted.
"We wouldn't have kidnapped you if he didn't keep begging us to." She rolled her eyes, remembering how annoying it was.
"Wait, you're not their sister, are you?" I wondered, widening my eyes again.
"I'm not by blood, but they found me in the woods, injured, and they took me in. We consider each other family, even though we're not. However, almost every other warrior thinks we are." She finished.
"Oh..." I listened.
"Well, I don't know what to say; maybe you should talk to him." Frost suggested.
"Look kid, you're in a tough situation here, I understand that, I can help you through this, and I'm sorry to say this, but there isn't really a way for us to get you back to your home at this point. But, I'm willing to help you get used to the place; it really isn't that bad here regarding the bitter cold." She reassured. I looked down in disappointment, but I felt better that she wanted to help me.
"Thanks for trying to help, at first I had thought you were just vicious barbarians looking for innocent people to kill." I laughed nervously.
"Well, Bi-Han certainly acts like that, but we're nothing like that." She grinned back.
I headed out of the town hall with Frost, but she headed towards what looked like it would be her house. She looked back at me and motioned with her head to the hut where she knew Kuai would be. I smiled back and with long strides I walked to the small house. I stopped abruptly when I came to the door and stood at it for a moment then pounded on the door with my fist. Kuai answered the door and his eyes were wide as if he were confused to have company. Once he saw it was me his eyes narrowed a bit more as if he didn't want to see me.
"Hello, um, what was your name? Was it Kyra?" He said, trying to act as if he didn't know.
"Oh save it! You know who I am and I know who you are! But let me inside, it's cold out here." I calmed, rubbing my hands against my upper arms. He quickly moved away to let me in.
"Sorry, we cryomancers are used to this weather." I saw he was about to speak again, but I cut him off.
"What's a cryomancer?" I turned my head slightly in confusion.
"Someone with the ability of controlling ice," he replied.
"But now I have something to ask you. How do you know who I am?" He became a bit nervous.
"Frost told me." I said as I sat down.
"Frost did?" I saw the anger in his eyes.
"I knew it, we shouldn't have saved her, and she is disloyal. Bi-Han was right!" He paced around the room.
"Well, you could've told me it was you, Kuai." I stood up. He turned to look at me and then at his floor.
"You should've said something! You know that ever since that day when you were kidnapped, I have been watching the news every day?! You were my first friend, Kuai!" I yelled.
"It's not that easy to get in contact with someone in the Earthrealm!" He started raising his voice a bit too.
"What are you talking about?" I groaned and sat down again.
"Earthrealm, it's where you live. This place is called Outworld; all the outcasts come here…" He calmed down.
"You aren't an outcast, you were kidnapped." I tried reassuring.
"Well there was no way of getting back, and I'm so used to here, I don't want to go back!" He growled.
"Don't you think your family misses you?" I glared at him in abhorrence.
"So what if they do? I won't care." He looked back at me. He then pulled off his mask and hood and sat down at a desk. His face was much more striking then it was when I last saw him. He rubbed his hand along his head stressfully.
"You disgust me…" I scowled.
"What?" He glared at me.
"You don't even miss the people who cared for you!" I yelled.
"I have my brother, you know." He tried defending himself.
"It's pathetic, Kuai. Don't even try." I looked away towards the door. I didn't even want to hear what else he had to say, I just walked out of his house into the bitter cold.
He quickly ran up to his door.
"Where are you going?" He shouted through the wind.
"Away!" I yelled and started running as fast as I could. I was worried he'd chase after me, but he didn't. I heard someone behind me and recognized the voice of Bi-Han.
"What are you doing? Get back here!" He yelled with his barbaric voice and chased after me. I panicked for a short moment and started running faster. I slipped and swerved through the rocky, steep slope. I slipped through a small hole underneath some rocks that I knew Bi couldn't fit through. It would have taken his quite a while to get over the large, icy boulders, so I made a mad dash away.
After getting out of the snowy mountains, I entered a dark, creepy forest. The same one we first showed up in. I started walking a bit slower through the woods, looking around at the trees with faces, and the foul-scented water. I heard a noise and stopped, looking all around me. I saw something standing in the trees, but it was too dark for me to see what it was. Suddenly, it was gone. I kept looking around. This stupid 'Outworld' place is getting to my head. I thought. I suddenly felt a grasp around my throat and it was getting tighter.
I gasped for air and cried out. I tried grabbing onto whatever was holding onto me, but I couldn't even see anything there. I finally felt it, and it felt like a crocodile. No surprise, I was in a swamp-like forest, but I then realized that crocodiles don't strangle their prey. I suddenly saw the green, dry hands appear around my neck, and I lifted my leg and kicked at whatever was behind me a bunch. I felt the grasp release and I took a long moment to breathe. I looked up and saw what looked like a man crossbred with a lizard. His eyes were yellow and he wore a black mask over his mouth and had strange armor-like clothing. He looked back up at me and punched me across the nose.
I moaned in pain and wanted to hit him back, but I realized he had no nose. Instead I whacked him across the mouth then kneed him in the gut. He hissed at me and pulled his mask down, showing an ugly face. He then began spitting steamy, green acid out of his mouth at me. I quickly moved away, aware that it was dangerous. I felt his hands shove me by the shoulders onto the ground. I rolled over onto my other side, holding my injured forehead. He pinned me down by my arms and legs and widened his unpleasant smile at me. Suddenly I saw him get shoved off me.
I sat up, watching him battle a larger warrior wearing a golden uniform. He turned around and I saw he wore a mask as well, but it was much more detailed. I saw the reptile-like warrior getting up and running, but suddenly the golden warrior's hand shot out a long chain with a spear on the end. It pierced straight through the reptile's back, and he dragged him back with the chain shouting, "Get over here!" Once the reptile was close enough, the larger warrior grabbed onto his head and twisted it, making a loud crack and causing him to fall onto the ground. I stared at both in horror, while still sitting back on my hands with my knees up.
He turned and looked at me. My heart rate was racing, because I feared that I would be next. He walked over and put his hand out. I slowly grabbed his hand while looking at his face, and he gently pulled me off the ground.
"Wow, th-thanks." I stuttered.
"It's alright, I never liked him anyway." He looked at the dead body.
"Who or, what was that?" I corrected myself.
"His name's Reptile." He looked back at me.
"Mine's Hanzo Hasashi, but you can call me Hanzo." He introduced.
"I'm Kyra." I said back.
"I've never heard of you." He wondered.
"I was kidnapped and brought here by three others." I said.
"Well, follow me; I know where you can stay. I assume you don't have somewhere to stay." He started in one direction, but looked back.
"Nope, I'll follow you." I smiled, thankful that he was around.
After a long walk, we appeared in a small settlement.
"Here is the place I call home." He said, holding his arms out.
"It's lovely." I smiled.
"Thanks." He looked back. We walked further into the area, and he faced everyone.
"Everyone, listen! I found this girl in the forest being attacked by Reptile. I hope you don't mind her staying with us because she does not have a home. Her name is Kyra!" He finished. I smiled at him in thanks for the introduction. Everyone looked at me and smiled, glad that I had chosen this clan to stay with. An old woman grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to a small hut.
She sat at what looked like a small sewing table.
"Do you need to see me for something?" I wondered.
"Yes darling. If you came with Hanzo I'm sure he sees something in you, he would never save someone that was lost. He would've just killed them off instead of knowing that they were lurking around the woods." She said bluntly, yet calmly.
"Well, what do you need me for?" I asked.
"He obviously thinks you are potential of being a warrior. No warrior wears rags like so." She took a large knife and cut down the middle of my shirt.
"What are you doing?" I tried not to yell, but I covered myself with my arms.
"Darling, I've seen some warriors wear less than that. Do not fret." I started to get mixed feelings about this woman.
She pulled thick, black fabric from a dusty shelf and started cutting it randomly.
"Do you know what you're doing?" I asked, lowering my arms.
"Of course I do, darling. Why would I have this job if I didn't?" She laughed.
"What job is it exactly?" I sat in an old chair.
"I sew clothing." She replied, looking up at me yet still cutting.
"Have you done this for a long time?" I sounded more interested.
"Sewing is my passion, yes!" She placed silver-colored material around the edges and started to sew by pushing her pedal with her bare feet.
"Well, is that for me?" I wondered.
"Of course not, darling." She continued working. I widened my eyes in confusion.
"I kid darling, I kid. It is for you!" She laughed. I sighed in relief.
"So, what is your name?" I scooted forward in the chair.
"My name is Ada. I'm quite sure your name is Kyra." She looked up at me, still sewing.
"Yes, Hanzo did mention that." I smiled at Ada. I saw her stop and get up, holding her knife.
"Stand, child." She ordered. I immediately stood up, and she cut at my jeans. It wasn't so weird for me anymore, because I knew she had a reason.
She shoved the outfit into my hands.
"Go try it on, darling!" She pushed me into a room and closed the door. I put on the small black shorts on then slipped the bikini-like top over my chest. I fitted the long black gloves over my hands, and slipped the tall boots onto my legs. Finally, I put the black mask over my face and tied it in the back. I walked out of the room to show Ada.
"I'm not used to showing this much skin." I said awkwardly, pulling the mask off my face.
"Get used to it; you want to look tough but attractive." She grumped.
"It looks cool, though." I smiled.
"Thank you; go out there for the clan, or maybe for Hanzo." She laughed and smacked my back. I laughed back awkwardly. I pushed the door open and walked into the clearing. Hanzo and I are allies, we have nothing between us... I thought to myself. I was walking carelessly when I bumped into someone's cart.
"I'm so sorry, that was my fault!" I groaned in embarrassment. I saw it was Hanzo.
"It's alright. Looks like Ada fixed you up!" He grinned. Well, besides a cart. I finished my thought.
"Yeah, she made this really fast." I laughed a little.
"She's great at sewing. Well, I got to bring this cart to someone; maybe I can teach you some defense moves once I'm done." He said in farewell, pushing the cart away.
A woman walked up to me and smiled.
"I heard Hanzo say you needed a home, come with me dear." She said with her beautiful voice. Her long, black hair was up in a large bun and her eyes were grey. I walked with her to a nice little house.
"You can stay here, with my family." She offered. I looked and saw she had a little boy and girl, looking the same age.
"My children are Shayli and Milan." She said, pointing to her kids.
"You have a nice home." I walked in after her, looking around at the small amount of décor.
"Where would I sleep?" I said, not trying to be rude. She pointed past a room so I walked into the room.
She stood in the doorway.
"What is your clan's name?" I asked.
"Hanzo hasn't told you? We're called the Shiralryu." She walked out of the room. I tried pronouncing the name in my head again. I sat on the bed and looked around the dim-lit room. I got up and headed out to the center of the village. A few people looked at me but I was looking for Hanzo. I saw him walking and it seemed he was doing nothing, so I ran up to him.
"Are you doing anything?" I smiled, moving my hair around. I'm not flirting am I? Alright, maybe I like him a bit, but he won't be with me, he's a tough warrior with a big clan to take care of. I thought, hoping I didn't miss what he said.
"Follow me." He led the way.
I followed him into another clearing of the woods.
"This is where I do all my practicing." He turned around to face me.
"It's nice!" I smiled and ran around.
"Look, if you're going to be here for a while, you should learn how to fight. You didn't handle the situation earlier so well, but that's only because you were facing Reptile. He was a good warrior." He finished, but I noticed no sympathy in his eyes.
"Well, do you have a practicing doll or…?" I waited to see if he would finish my sentence.
"Practice dolls? We don't have any of those, I'm afraid." He laughed then adjusted his legs into a steadier stance.
I got worried when I realized I would fight him. It's like he could smell my fear.
"Don't worry, I won't attack you. I just want you to show me what you know."
"Well, I don't want to hurt you." I rubbed the back of my neck.
"I've taken some brutal hits before, I'll be fine." He reassured.
"Alright then…" I sighed, lifting my fists. I swung my fist at him and felt it hit against his thick-muscled arm as he blocked it. I then tried a roundhouse kick, but he grabbed my leg and threw it back down.
"So you know the basics." He assumed.
"Yeah, I never learned much fighting." Again, I rubbed the back of my neck.
"You also need to get rid of that nervous tick." He laughed, coming closer and pulling my hand away from my neck gently.
I laughed with him, trying to make my blushing unnoticable.
"Well, where do I start? I bet there's a lot I need to learn." I sighed.
"Once you learn a few more basic moves, it gets easier. You can also come up with your own moves!" He smiled.
He started teaching me how to improve arm strength, and well, strength everywhere. He taught me things like an uppercut, how to pin someone, and a lot more. We had trained every day for two weeks, and things were going really well.
We were walking back from training one day. "Thanks for teaching me so much Hanzo, now I'll be able to defend myself better than I did a few weeks back." I smiled.
We were stopped by a blood-curdling scream. I saw the happy look on Hanzo's face change in a snap to horror. We both started running back to the camp as fast as we could. We watched a warrior on a horse running through the camp, slaughtering the villagers. One by one, they toppled to the ground, blood pooling around all of them.
Hanzo stood in horror, holding his head. Suddenly, the warrior was gone and we searched frantically for him. Hanzo ran into his own home and saw his mother, leaned against a wall with a sword pierced through her gut. Hanzo screamed in rage and sorrow and started beating the warrior. I wanted to help, but this was male on male combat, a girl doesn't belong in that. The two large, powerful men strangled and hit each other. Someone's going to end up dead here… I thought to myself. I picked up a rock and threw it, aiming at the warrior to distract him. It hit Hanzo. I was hoping he wouldn't get distracted, but he turned his head to look at me.
"No!" I yelled, pointing at the warrior to get Hanzo focused on him again. Suddenly, there was a loud smack and Hanzo fell onto the dirty ground. I screamed but the warrior had not the slightest bit of mercy and killed Hanzo. I ran to the woods as fast as I could, panicking and hoping to get away from the murderer. I tripped on a log and my foot got stuck.
I started shaking my leg and whimpering in panic. I heard a thud on the ground, and footsteps coming towards me. I then felt the blade of his sword slide down my back, not wounding me. I cried and pleaded.
"I don't want to die, please spare me!" I suddenly couldn't feel the blade, as it was lifted off me. I tried turning onto my back, but my trapped foot wouldn't let me. However, I turned my back enough so I could look at the killer. It was Bi-Han.
"Kyra…" He glared with anger in his expression. I started breathing heavier and moving my foot more. He stepped down onto the log that was holding my foot down. I winced in pain.
"Let me go!" I cried out. Now that I knew it was him and he knew it was me, I immediately knew I would die.
"You weren't supposed to LEAVE!" He raised his voice.
"I don't want to stay with you or Kuai!" I growled at him.
"How do you know his name?" He snapped at me.
"I'm not telling you, Bi-Han!" I said with anger. We both heard yelling and voices coming in a different direction. He got on his horse quickly and ran away.
I yelled to the small group as it ran by. Some turned and looked at me but others kept running until they realized that others stopped. One pointed their gun at me.
"Who are you? Did you do this?!" He snapped, looking at the bloodbath.
"No! No, I didn't kill them, I wouldn't kill anyone! I saw who did, though! I tried running from him and got my foot caught, please help me out!" I pleaded. One with metal arms came up and lifted the branch off my ankle.
"Thank you." I sighed in relief.
"Alright, well, I'm Stryker; this is Sonya, Jax, and Johnny Cage." He said, pointing his gun to all of them, but only Cage reacted.
"I've heard of you." I smiled, walking up to Cage.
"You seriously have? Like, for real? No one else here has!" I laughed.
"Yeah, I've seen some movies of yours."
"Well it's always cool to meet a fan!" He said with an arrogant tone.
"I wouldn't call myself a fan; I've just heard your name around." I smirked back.
"Well, who are you?" Stryker repeated.
"I'm Kyra, I've been here for a few days, but three of the… Lin-Kuei kidnapped me to take me here." I presented. Jax nodded his head slightly.
"Do you remember anyone that was slain in this?" Sonya motioned towards the scene.
"Only a warrior named Hanzo Hasashi and two others that were just normal villagers of the clan." I replied, walking towards where Hanzo was killed. They followed.
"Gee, I remember him…" I looked at Sonya, but the pity in her voice did not show.
"Well who killed him?" Jax looked towards me.
I wanted to say, but I was worried for the Lin-Kuei's reputation, mainly Frost's.
"Well, I couldn't make out the person, but I can tell you everything he was wearing." Of course I would say that, because Bi-Han wasn't even wearing the same clothes as he normally does.
"He wore a dark, long coat with a hood and a mask made of black bandage." I explained.
"I suppose we can't ask for anything more, then. It's good enough. But who would it be?" Sonya turned to Stryker.
"It sounds a bit like Ermac… did he have green eyes?" Stryker asked.
"No, he had brown eyes." I replied.
The four looked at each other and Jax sighed.
"Thank you for your help, we appreciate it." Jax shook my hand with his mechanical arm.
"No problem." I replied.
The three walked around the camp to look for evidence and I started in the other direction, I heard one of them speak.
"Why would you think she killed them? She wouldn't have even been able to fight off Hanzo."
I couldn't make out who it was, but I continued walking. The weather started to get damp, and the hot humidity was hard to breathe in. I looked back at the village at all the bodies and the group of four walking around. I sighed and rubbed my arm in grief for the clan. I had just gotten to know everyone... I thought to myself then kept walking.
I walked up to a large temple-like building then looked at it for a moment. I then walked in to see a bunch of warriors, and those in the back turned to look at me. I awkwardly grabbed my other arm and walked in slowly. One turned her head and walked towards me.
"Who are you?" She asked with a firm, yet calm voice. I put my arms down again and looked up at her.
"I'm Kyra." I replied quickly then fixed my hair to pull it out of my face.
"Are you new around here?" She turned her head a little as if to signal she hadn't recognized me.
"Yep, I was kind of, well... kidnapped here." I rubbed the back of my neck then pulled my hand away and frowned in rememberance of Hanzo.
"What's wrong?" She noticed my expression and changed the subject.
"This just reminds me of a friend who was killed recently..." I sighed, rubbing my neck again to show her.
"Oh, if you don't mind me asking, who was it?" She kept of nosing into my business.
"Hanzo Hasashi, I'm sure you've heard of him." I replied kindly, pulling my hand back down to my side.
"Oh, him! Gosh, he was a really good fighter." She shouted out, grabbing other warrior's attention.
"Yeah. What's your name?" I changed the subject quickly, before the conversation got out of hand.
"The name's Jade." She held out her hand which wasn't carrying a large metal staff in it.
"Nice to meet you. You already know my name, though." I replied with a shake of the hand as well.
I glanced down quickly at her outfit and thought to myself. Maybe my outfit isn't so bad. I compared mine to hers in my head. Her top was barely a shirt, practically exposing her breasts completely. Then her bottom consisted of just what looked like a green thong with a long loin cloth in the front. I noticed she also was glancing at mine. She started to laugh a little.
"Did you make that outfit yourself?" She covered her mouth to hide her smile.
"Well, no, a woman named Ada made it for me." I rubbed the back of my neck.
She noticed the gesture I made and stopped laughing, obviously she had remembered what I had told her a few seconds before.
"It's nice." She smiled.
"Thanks, I guess... I'm not so used to showing off this much." I smirked awkwardly.
"You'll get used to it. I'm sure eventually you'll have an outfit similar to mine or hers." She pointed her staff over to another beautiful warrior in blue with long black hair.
"That's Princess Kitana, daughter of Shao Kahn, who's the Emperor of Outworld." She continued explaining.
...