I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and really getting into this character's narrative voice. I also had a blast coming up with Astra's design (almost tempted to draw it but I don't think I could do it justice). I debated for a long time on Astra's race before settling on human. We do need some humans in the party, and my other choice was a little on the nose. This chap was a pain to write - I kept on rewriting the beginning because I wasn't happy with the pacing. Oh well.

Guess That Character challenge pt 2! Who is Astra?

Astra: The Black Flame Sword

Astra's first memory was being prodded with a stick.

"Dinadan, stop poking the poor thing, for goodness' sake!"

Astra kept her eyes shut, convinced if she kept them closed, this weird dream would end. And hopefully soon, that guy poking her was getting annoying-

"Poor child," another voice said mournfully. "If only I had been there. I know just the spell that could have saved her."

"Sure you do, Zolan."

Astra groaned as she felt another poke from the guy with the stick.

Guy-With-Stick promptly screamed, something - probably his stick - clattering on the dock.

Astra forced her eyes open, blinking sleepily at the small crowd of people edging away from her in openmouthed shock and horror.

"She's an undead!"

"A demon!"

"How did she survive?!"

Astra forced herself to sit up, prompting everyone to scream and one old guy - judging from the direction his voice had come from, it was probably Zolan - to topple right off the dock and into the water in his haste to get away from her. A couple of his buddies frantically pulled him, shivering, back onto dry land.

Astra looked around at the panicking crowd of about ten or fifteen people, realizing that she recognized exactly none of them, and further, had no idea how she had gotten to this rainy boat dock in the first place.

Scrambling for even the tiniest scrap of memory, she stared at the grainy wood of the boat dock, beginning to hyperventilate as she realized there was nothing there to grasp but her name - Astra.

"Who… who are you people!?" Astra demanded to know, scooting back away from the mass of terrified faces. "Where am I!?"

"All of you, calm down," an old woman in the crowd said, pushing her way to the front. More gently, she said to Astra, "Please, save your strength, dear. That was a terrible ordeal you just had."

"I'll say; she died!" a voice crowed.

"I did not die, you idiot!" Astra snapped. "I was just asleep!"

The old woman gently shushed her. "We were afraid when we couldn't wake you that you had drowned before we found you. It is a common occurrence here." She shot a look at the guy who had made the comment about Astra dying. "Are you alright, child?"

"I'm cold, I'm wet, I don't know where I am, I don't know who I am, and I'm getting stared at by a bunch of idiots like I'm diseased!" Astra snapped. "Does that sound alright to you!?"

The woman frowned. "Oh, my apologies. We do need to get you out of this rain - you could catch your death of cold."

She took off her own cloak and draped it over Astra's shoulders, then helped her stand.

"What are all of you staring at!?" the old woman scolded the growing crowd gathered around the dock. "She's alright now, or at least she will be once she gets inside before a nice, roaring fire with a hot meal, so there's no point in any of you hanging about! Go back to your homes! The storm's only going to get worse!"

That seemed to finally break the crowd up, everyone splitting off to go to their separate houses.

The old woman smiled at Astra. "Now, dearie, let's get you inside. You've had quite a terrible evening, haven't you?"

That led to this moment: Astra sitting in front of the fireplace in a two-room house, wrapped in a homemade quilt, as the old woman bustled around in the kitchen preparing dinner. The entire kitchen-front room area was filled with the smell of cooking meat, and Astra's stomach was already howling to get some of it.

The flickering shadows cast on Astra's hands made them look even more weird and wrong. They looked like someone else's. Somehow. If that made any sense. Which it didn't.

"Now, dear, I have to ask, what were you doing out there on a night like this?" the old woman asked.

"I told you, lady, I don't know. My first memory is waking up on the dock. And I know my name. That's all."

"Hm. That is strange."

"Is there a… way people can just forget everything like that?"

"I would blame the horrible ordeal you had in the river, child, but it feels a bit too neat for that. I'd have to consult a spell expert to be sure, but it appears as if your memory has been tampered with, by magic."

"In English?"

"Your memories were erased by force, on purpose, by someone with magic," the woman repeated, a bit flatter.

"Could I get them back?"

The old woman frowned thoughtfully and tapped her chin. "Perhaps. There are no magic methods that I know of that can destroy memories entirely. But it won't happen right away, nor will it be easy to recover them."

Astra scowled. "Shoulda known it wouldn't be that easy."

"But you shouldn't worry about that now, dear," the old woman said. "In the meantime, you should rest and recover."

Dinner was a thick slab of steak, buttered bread, and ripe yellow pears. Astra couldn't get enough of it, tearing into the steak and closing her eyes to enjoy the spices zinging across her tongue, taking massive bites out of the bread and letting the butter melt on her tongue, before washing both down with a bite of a pear, which was more juice than fruit, it was so soft.

The old woman looked surprised. "Are you always this hungry?"

Astra's mouth was full, so she simply shrugged. She couldn't remember if that was always true, but the important thing was she was hungry now.

The old woman took another steak off the fire and gave it to her. "You have a warrior's appetite," she said with a smile.

By the time Astra was finished eating, the old woman emerged from the second room, holding a bundle of clothes.

"It took me a while to find them, but here are some of my son's old things. I assume you don't want to sleep in those sopping wet clothes."

Astra eagerly took the clothes, before stepping into the second room to change. She peeled off the tunic and belt that she had been wearing before and changed into the clothes the old woman had handed her. The pants were a bit short and the shirt a little tight, but they felt a lot better than the damp, woolen sleeveless tunic she had been wearing, that she quickly tossed onto the nearest chair to dry. As she buttoned up the shirt, she saw herself in the mirror out of the corner of her eye. She turned to look at herself and felt a shiver. Her reflection didn't look weird or anything - a girl of about sixteen with shoulder-length black hair and burning red eyes. But something about her reflection simply wasn't right, and before too long Astra had to look away.

"Ah, there you are. They fit alright, I hope?" the old woman asked as Astra left the second room.

Astra nodded. "Thanks."

"Good. Now, I'm sure you're very tired, but before you go to bed, I want to ask you one more thing."

"Yeah?" Astra asked.

"You said you remembered your name, child. What is it?"

Astra blinked in surprise at the mischievous look on the old woman's face. "Uh - Astra. My name is Astra."

"Astra," the old woman repeated. "Stars. It suits you."

"Really?" Astra asked. "Aren't stars… pretty and twinkly and stuff? I don't think that's me."

The old woman smiled. "Yes, I suppose. But stars are also very powerful. Radiating enough light to illuminate a sky, burning hotter than any fire on earth, and enduring for generations."

"Ehh… I don't think I understand."

"You don't have to. Not right now," the old woman said. "Now, I'm sure you'll be wanting to sleep."

Astra did feel tired, but she wasn't about to say so. "I have a question, too, lady. Where exactly am I?"

"Ah. This is the town of Shoal, in the country of Kosuta."

Neither of those names meant anything to Astra, which frustrated her.

"I assume you don't remember those names, do you?" the old woman said sympathetically. She slowly rose from her rocker. "But more questions can wait until morning. For now, what both of us need is rest. You can sleep in the trundle bed in the second room. It should be under the main one. And you can take that quilt with you."

Astra nodded, secretly glad the old woman had given her an out to go to bed without admitting she was tired, before standing up, picking up the quilt, and following the old woman into the second room. The old woman smiled at her as she climbed into bed.

"Good night, Astra," she said. Within minutes, Astra could hear her even breathing, proof she was asleep.

Astra pulled out the trundle bed, dragging it across the floor to the other side of the room. The old woman handed her a pillow, and she spread the quilt over the mattress. That done, she crawled into bed and was asleep almost instantly.

Her dreams, though, were restless, consisting of running around a giant maze searching and searching for something without even knowing what it was or what it looked like.

The next morning, the old woman had asked Astra a question she had been asking herself all evening.

"So, child, where do you plan to go from here?"

"I wanna find out how I lost my memory," Astra replied. "Do you have any ideas on where to look?"

"Unfortunately not," the old woman said. "But, I do have a suggestion for how you can find those places to look."

"How?"

"Here in Kosuta, we have a special class called Adventurers. They are heroes for hire, in a sense. They get free passage to travel from city to city, and accept jobs from people who need their combat expertise. You can make lucrative money doing that, too, more than enough to keep you fed and clothed on the road."

"You so eager to get rid of me, lady?" Astra asked jokingly.

"No, no, not at all. You're always welcome here in Shoal. Just… Most other folks need to go through a lot of bureaucratic red tape just to go from one city and back to sell. Adventurers are the highest class any average person can readily obtain that allows for safe passage… basically anyplace you need to go. They're practically considered lords and ladies. In fact, a lot of landowners out for a little excitement become adventurers, because it's easy. You just need to go to a blacksmith, register yourself as one, and choose an adventurer's name, class, and weapon so the government knows who you are. If you plan to do a lot of traveling, I'd suggest doing that."

"Huh. Astra, adventurer for hire? I like the sound of that," Astra muttered. "Is there a blacksmith around here I can get those things from?"

"Yes, in fact. Tybalt. His son Dinadan was the boy who found you."

Yeesh, the guy who poked me with a stick? I have to talk to him again? But she wanted to find her memories, after all. Not to mention freedom to travel wherever and getting paid to fight monsters sounded like a decent plus to her. "Great," she said. "When should I leave? Today?"

"Maybe take a few days to recover from your scare in the bay, child," the old woman said with a smile.

Astra would have taken those days to rest, but she was feeling stir-crazy by about noon of the first day, and thus spent the rest of the days after helping the old woman and some of her neighbors with chores - cleaning and gutting fish, feeding animals, and hauling barrels to the fishmonger's cart.

She didn't go anywhere near the bay, though. She didn't say so, but diving underwater made her feel nervous. She only had to put her head underwater once to get seized by the feeling that something had grabbed her by the ankle and was dragging her down, and she had promptly surfaced, scrambling for the dock in a blind panic.

"Natural, that," the fisherman had told her. "You did end up here by nearly drowning, after all."

Astra's mind didn't change about becoming an adventurer. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more set on going she was. It wasn't like she didn't like Shoal - everybody had been pretty sweet to her minus Dinadan's stupid stick-poking and Zolan's making a holy symbol every time she passed by him - but she wanted to get out there and get her memories back! Four days of reaching back only to find nothing there had frustrated her enough.

Plus, fighting monsters sounded like fun to her.

After Astra had been in Shoal for about four days, the old woman had taken her to see Tybalt, who turned out to be a broad-shouldered, bearded man in his fifties. Dinadan looked like a skinnier, younger version of his father without the beard - dark blue hair and steely gray eyes.

"Good morning, Miss Kairi!" Tybalt greeted, looking up from the glowing metal rod he was in the middle of sharpening into something more sword-y. "Oh, and the famous new arrival! Astra, wasn't it?"

Astra nodded. "Yup! I was told that you could register me to be an adventurer!"

Tybalt nodded. "I can. Although I admit, I'm wondering why you want to be one."

"I want to figure out who I was before I lost my memories," Astra replied. "Maybe even get them back! Plus… being able to fight monsters and go on adventures sounds cool, too!"

Tybalt laughed. "I've seen worse reasons to take up adventuring!" he said. "Come on back here, and let's get started. Dinadan, can you work on this for me for a minute?"

"Of course, Father," Dinadan replied. He looked at Astra in embarrassment. "Uh… sorry I poked you with a stick the other day."

Astra waved him off. "Eh, I'm not too mad about it."

"Wait, what do you mean not too mad?" Dinadan called after them as they walked past him.

"Old Kairi said it was easy to become an adventurer," Astra said as they passed through the forges and entered a back room lined with weapons, with a table in the middle. "So what do I gotta do? Just pick something?"

"That's the first part. And choose carefully. Your weapon as an adventurer will become a central part of who you are. It is how people looking to hire you will identify you. It will be your key to survival. And it will stay beside you for a very long time. An old friend of mine who took up the trade said losing his weapon would be like losing a leg."

"That important, huh?" Astra asked, looking around at the racks of weapons. "Is there a limit on what I can pick?"

Tybalt made a "so-so" gesture. "The only requirement for an adventurer weapon is that it has to have a back sheath. Having a weapon sheathed on your back is the telltale marker of an adventurer - so clients can easily identify them. I've seen people get away with some pretty strange ones. But I wouldn't pick a weapon you don't feel confident with. If it doesn't fit, don't make it fit."

Something caught Astra's eye as he was talking. A sword, hung on the far right wall, in the middle of a set of polished blades of all shapes and sizes, looking pretty out of place. The edge of its charcoal-gray steel blade had an almost fiery copper gleam to it, and the hilt was pitch-black, only decorated with a ruby set in the cross guard like a drop of blood. She walked over, reached up, and took it from its place on the wall, finding it felt right in her hands. Perfectly balanced, just the right amount of heft to it, and the grip sliding perfectly and snugly into her fingers.

"This one," Astra said immediately.

Tybalt smiled. "I've had that one for a long time. Didn't think I'd ever give it to an adventurer."

"Yeah?" Astra asked, giving the sword a few practice swings. "Why not?"

"Careful, not in the shop…" Tybalt said, sweating nervously. "Anyway, that sword is forged with dragonhide steel, that's where it gets its unusual color from." He gestured to the copper-tipped charcoal blade. "Dragonhide steel blades have dragon scales melted into the metal during the forging process. The result is a blade with all the enchantments of protection a dragon has on its hide, but is usually too heavy for a human to even lift. I needed help from Dinadan just to hang it up. Most adventurers that came through my shop found it too heavy to be practical. And yet you walk in and swing it around like it's effortless."

Astra shrugged. "I don't know why I could lift it," she said.

"I assume that will be your adventurer's weapon, dear?" old Kairi asked.

Astra nodded, tightening her grip on the hilt.

"Good," Tybalt said. "Now, all that remains is to assign you an adventurer's name." He reached into a drawer on the table and pulled out a scroll scrawled with names and a faintly glowing white quill in an ink pot. Astra reluctantly put the sword down to get a better look. She quickly scanned the list of names.

"So I just pick a nickname and write it down?"

"The scroll is enchanted. Every time something new is written on it, it is copied onto a matching scroll in every major city. That way every list of registered adventurers is up to date."

Astra frowned at the paper. Then she looked back at the sword resting on the table.

It immediately came to her, and she picked up the quill and scratched a name down.

"The Black Flame Sword," Tybalt read. "I mean, you would be the only human woman walking around with a dragonhide steel sword."

The name glowed faintly white, like the quill.

"There. It's official, Black Flame Sword. You are now an adventurer. Just let me get you a back sheath. Are you set on having any armor? Just to start out?"

Astra shook her head.

Tybalt chuckled. "Thought so." He pulled a black sheath off the wall and demonstrated to her how to strap it onto her back, and then sheath her sword inside it.

"That's just about everything, I should think," he said, stepping back.

"Do you plan on staying another night here, child?" old Kairi asked.

Astra shook her head again. "I wanna grab what I had on me from your house, though."

The old woman smiled. "I assumed so."

Back at Kairi's house, Astra found the wool tunic she had been wearing when she'd been found completely clean and dry.

"You can take the clothes I gave you the other night," Kairi insisted. "They look a lot more comfortable than that tunic, and better for moving around. My son outgrew them a long time ago and isn't going to want them back."

Astra nodded. "Don't worry, I've got an idea what to do with this," she said, holding up the tunic.

When she emerged from the second room, the old woman was waiting for her holding a leather bag.

"That's an interesting choice," Kairi observed as she passed Astra the bag.

Astra had, after a lot of debate, decided to put the wool tunic over the shirt she was wearing, allowing the sleeves and the shirt collar to poke out.

"This way I get the best of both. I can always take the tunic off if it gets too hot," Astra said. Then she asked, "What's in the bag?"

"We found this bag near you when you washed ashore," Kairi said. "It was empty, but I thought you could use it. For collecting supplies. I put some provisions inside for the first few days."

"Thanks a bunch," Astra said to her. "For letting me stay and everything."

"Everyone needs some time to get back on their feet," Kairi said. "Just remember, if you ever need a place to stay in the area, come back to Shoal and you will be welcomed. Now, if you stay on the west road leaving town, you should reach Oakfield in less than two day's travel. They're bothered by monsters all the time and are always looking for new adventurers. You should be able to get room and board for the night there."

Astra found herself smiling gratefully as Kairi hugged her.

It was in high spirits that she left Shoal, walking down the dirt road away from the ocean and toward the mountains. As she walked, she reached into her bag hoping to grab some dried meat to snack on, only for her fingers to brush up against something crumpled on the bottom. She pulled it out, finding a scrap of paper, the ink smeared from being wet but still sort of legible.

Kill to survive. Survive to win.

She stopped short in the road, reading and rereading the short message. Was this her only clue to uncovering her memory? Win what? Some kind of prize?

Astra frowned at the paper. Something about it seemed… well, screwy to her. Yeah, fighting sounded fun, but this seemed to insinuate she had to kill people, not just monsters she got hired to put down, and she wasn't interested in that at all.

Astra scowled at the paper one last time, before stuffing it back into her bag and declaring it to be a 'tomorrow' problem.

She camped that night in the shade of a stand of trees in the middle of a meadow. She was able to get a fire going without too much trouble and then cook some of the wrapped pieces of fish and fruit in her bag. She ate dinner, then put out the fire and leaned back against the nearest tree to sleep. She found she didn't mind sleeping on the ground that much.

She dreamed she was sitting on a roof, staring through a metal fence at the sunset. There was someone next to her, too blurry to make out.

"What can you show, but can't see?"

She awoke suddenly to a rustling noise. She sat up, hand reaching for her sword.

It was almost impossible to see in the shadows cast by the trees. Astra squinted, managing to make out a tiny figure giving off faint sparks - as they rooted through Astra's bag!

"Hey!" Astra called.

The tiny figure retreated with a high-pitched squeak, hovering a few feet off the ground on tiny, translucent wings. Astra quickly lit a torch and shone it out, revealing a lady about three inches tall, dressed in blue robes and a blue hat, with a brass key secured to her back with an adventurer's sheath - a fairy. She was guiltily holding a slice of dried fish bigger than she was.

"What're you doing rooting through my stuff!?" Astra demanded to know. "You've got a back sheath, you're an adventurer, aren't you?"

The fairy put one hand on her hips - the other was busy holding up the fish. "What's it to you!? It's one fish, it's not as if you'll miss it!"

"Well, I don't like bein' stolen from!" Astra retorted. "Whyddya need that much food for somebody so small?"

"It's not for me! It's for-" She broke off. "The princess," she finished.

"Princess, huh? Why does a princess need fairies to steal food for her?"

The fairy opened her mouth to say something, only for a larger rustling in the bushes to cut her off.

A small figure - though not nearly as tiny as the fairy of course - emerged from the darkness of the bush, as if she were being formed out of it. She was wearing armor over her blue dress, and an adventurer's sheath on her back - although this one had a small triple-hook-shaped blade attached to a long chain fastened to it instead of a sword. She had a small gold tiara on her head.

She also couldn't have been more than twelve years old.

"Miss!" the fairy cried, gesturing for her to leave. "You mustn't put yourself in danger, I have this handled-!"

"Earu, I'm fine. I'm all healed up now."

"You couldn't even stand a day ago!"

Astra couldn't help but snort, interrupting the argument. "Are you the princess?!"

"Don't get funny, adventurer, I can still make sure you regret it!" the little girl snapped.

"Yeah? With that knife on a string-!?" Astra began, only for the girl to grab the hook and fling the long chain at Astra as hard as she could. The chain wrapped around Astra's arms, keeping her from drawing her sword, and within seconds the hook on the end was being held inches away from her neck.

"Okay, okay, calm down, yeesh! I was just messing around!" Astra shouted in alarm.

The princess gave Astra another warning look, before, with a flick of her wrist, unwrapping the chain from around Astra's arms. She quickly fastened it back onto her adventurer's sheath.

Astra, once she'd gotten her breath back, said, "Okay, kid - princess -" she amended upon seeing the girl's bright green eyes darken. "-Why dont'cha sit down and we can talk. Okay?"

The girl sat down on the ground, primly arranging her skirt. The fairy, still eyeing Astra mistrustfully, sat down on the girl's shoulder.

"First off - and don't swing on me again, got it? - why was your fairy friend stealing my food?"

The princess scowled at the ground. "We were only going to take a little. Just until we could get to town and buy something." Her stomach growled very loudly, and she immediately turned pink with embarrassment.

"'Kay… Why don't you have any food on you?" Astra asked.

"We got stranded out here longer than we planned," the fairy replied, her wings drooping. "We were on our way to Oakfield-"

"Oakfield? That's where I'm heading," Astra said. At both girls' indignant looks, she held up her hands. "Okay, okay, shutting up now."

"As Key Mace was saying," the princess said. "We got attacked by a monster along the way, and I got hurt fighting it." Astra saw, hidden a little by the armor, a spot where her dress had been torn by something with sharp claws and then meticulously mended with tiny, fairy-sized stitches. "Key Mace and I have been using herbs we had to help me recover. But we ran out of food." Her pointed ears drooped. "We were trying to find berry plants to eat, but we came across the smoke from your fire, and the food smelled so good…"

"So you decided to snatch some of it outta my bag?" Astra said sharply. "Y'know, you could'a just asked."

"We were only planning to take a little. Until the princess could recover and we could keep traveling. This area…" Key Mace trembled. "It's unnatural, how everything has been picked through already. No berries, no edible plants, not so much as a patch of mushrooms anywhere - and fairies are good at scrounging for those things! If there were any in this area, I could find them!"

"The old lady back in Shoal said fairies could just grow plants. Why not make a berry bush or somethin'?"

"We tried. But something about the soil is blocking edible crops from growing. Some magic. Other plants grow just fine. Just not anything edible," the princess said.

"Guess that's why old Kairi gave me all this food…" Astra muttered. "You know what, I'd rather know where my food is going, and I ain't got the heart to leave somebody to starve. Camp with me for tonight."

The princess eyed her mistrustfully, but she couldn't hide the hope in her voice when she said, "Really?"

Astra grinned. "Yeah, really. Plus, you two seem like fighters. Here I was thinkin' I was on top of the world, and you knocked me flat in no time. What kind of weapon is that, by the way?"

The princess unhooked her weapon, which shone orange in the firelight. It looked very sharp and, more importantly, very deadly.

"The man at the blacksmith I got registered at called it a kunai-with-chain. Said it was useful as a grappling hook, too, if I'm going to be out in the woods all the time."

"Speaking of weapons," Key Mace said. "I notice yours is dragonhide steel. Yet you're human."

"Yeah, old Tybalt - the blacksmith I got it from - was surprised too. Said it took him and his kid together just to put it on the wall."

"I'd imagine that. Usually dragonhide is so heavy that only a dragon in human avatar or a half-dragon can practically use it."

"Ain't that weird? Cuz it's made from dragon scales."

"You can harvest dragon scales to forge dragonhide steel by killing a dragon in its true form, but a lot of the time they just drop off harmlessly, from what I read. Like a snake sheds its skin. Then adventurers pick them up and sell them to blacksmiths."

"Right, a lot less crazy than I imagined," Astra said, looking at her sword.

"That still doesn't explain how you can lift it. You don't look like you have dragon blood at all." Key Mace folded her arms across her chest, pouting, as if not knowing how Astra could lift her black flame sword was the most annoying thing in the universe.

"If it makes ya feel any better, I have no clue why I can lift it either," Astra said.

The princess, who looked a little more at ease - and a lot less likely to cut Astra's head off with her grappling hook-thingy, good news in Astra's book - smiled slightly. "Do you really not mind if we stay with you?"

"Nah. Again, I'd rather not knowingly ditch two people to starve in the weird place where food doesn't grow." She frowned to herself. "I'm gonna ask around about that when we get to Oakfield. That's screwy."

"Right, so if we are going to be traveling together," Key Mace said. "I suppose we ought to introduce ourselves."

"Adventurer names or real names?" Astra asked.

"Considering this is an alliance of convenience, not yet," the princess asked.

"Guess so," Astra said, remembering Kairi had explained that adventurers only gave out their real names to permanent party members. Yeesh, this kid's spooky pragmatic for a twelve-year-old.

That kid almost stabbed you through the jugular, another part of herself reminded her.

"You already know this is Key Mace," the girl said. "I am Lilliputian Princess. Princess for short."

"I'm Black Flame Sword. On account of - well, y'know." She held up her sword. The copper edged caught the firelight and glowed, before she sheathed it. "How'd you get your name?"

Princess shrugged. "I chose it because I'm a fairykin."

"Right, gotcha," Astra said, pretending to know what a fairykin was. She held out her hand. "So, Princess, truce until we get to Oakfield?"

Princess looked at her warily, before she clasped her gloved hand over Astra's and shook it. "Truce."