Abigail Fredrickson

Rowan, Eleven Years Later

I silently walk between the two guards, wrists chained together.  I would be fighting  them if I hadn’t already and failed.  No, attacking and escaping is out of the question.  I realized I’d have to wait to find a chance to escape some time ago.

So I distract myself from the knowledge of where I’m being taken with the last happy memory of my little sister.  Preferably not the one when I was being taken away.  Sophie and I had been playing in front of the small house.  Sophie’s big, bronze-colored eyes sparkled as she ran around me with her doll, constantly jumping out of reach when I tried to catch her.

I smile, a bit wistfully, at the memory.  I am going to see her again, and my parents too; I promised.  All I have to do is find a way to escape.  Then everything can go back to normal.

As for why things weren’t normal in the first place…well, I had never been able to stand injustice and may or may not have defended a couple children from one of the samurai warriors.  And rebellion of any sort, no matter how tiny or for what reasons, is apparently not to be tolerated.  Ever.

Bitterness rises in my stomach.  Biting back some grumbling words, I just grimace.  I do not want to get beaten on top of everything else.  That would only make things worse.  I shake my head and try to remind myself to keep alert instead of falling into a daze.  Otherwise I’ll never get away.  Escape is much preferred when it happens before reaching Contra.  Contra is where all rebels are taken.  It is the largest fortress around, and is much more like a palace supposedly.  It’s supposed to be beautiful architecturally, with sloping, pointed roofs, multiple levels, gorgeous carvings from stone and wood alike, sturdy but impressive gateways, and the like, but no rebel that has ever gone in, came out.  It’s rumored that each one was forced to fight in an arena against a great warrior.  I haven’t gone outside my little village all that often in recent years, so the most I know is the warrior goes by the name of some ferocious wildcat.  The rumors abound in my village, some more outrageous than others.

I hadn’t paid them much mind before now aside from sympathy for the people forced to fight.  Regretting that now.  All I know is that I am not prepared to fight a skilled warrior.  (In hindsight, maybe I should’ve considered that before squaring up with a samurai…)

Well, that, and that Saber Demien has a horrible idea of entertainment.  And a horrible idea of a well-run country.  And honestly that he is probably the most bloodthirsty and greedy man that I can think of.  So yeah, my situation is not ideal.

Our small band consisting of prisoner and soldiers crests the hill we’d been climbing.  Immediately my heart sinks.  Below us, in the shallow valley, lies the unmistakable shape of Contra.  I had thought for sure we had longer to go.  You have to give the samurai credit for being fast, I guess…I restrain myself from sighing as we start down the hill.  Contra’s tile-roofed structure actually really does look kind of pretty with the sunset, I can see why it’s described the way it is, but as it grows darker and we near it, it seems less like a beautiful palace and more like a foreboding fortress, the last rays of the sinking sun turning its walls and roofs blood red, the long shadows not exactly aiding my nerves.

…That could actually all just be the nerves talking, I’m probably too biased at the current moment to enjoy the sight.

We approach the gate, and the lead samurai steps forward and calls out something.  A sort of password in another language, I suppose, since I don’t recognize the word he used.  The heavy wood gates open slowly, grinding against the stone floor.  One of the samurai shoves me toward the entrance.  Unnecessarily, in my opinion, not that anyone asked for it.

Samurai seem to be everywhere, their distinct red and black armor milling in every corner and doorway.  I try not to shrink back.  I am more than willing to take on a small number of the warriors if it is for a good cause (even if I’d lose anyway), but so many in one place is, quite frankly, a disturbing sight.

The torches are being lit; the effect makes the entirety of the fortress seem to either flicker in fiery orange light or waver in dark gray shadows.  There’s motion everywhere.

As a couple of new samurai step forward to take me, I resist the urge to, well, resist.  In a place like this, if I step one toe out of line, I’m as good as dead.  I try closing my eyes to escape the sounds of orders being shouted and the tramp of feet, but then I find that doing so makes it very, very difficult to walk in a straight line.  I open them again, but keep them focused on my feet.  Even so, lights and shadows dance everywhere, creating the illusion that nothing here is still.  There is no peace.

I’m taken inside and down, down, down.  I attempt to keep from feeling as though I’m being led into a pit of death, because as soon as we leave the main part of the fortress, all sound is cut off, and torches are so few and far between that one of the samurai has to carry one for us to see so much as a foot ahead.  The sudden switch from lights, sounds, and motion to near complete darkness, utter silence, and disturbing stillness is unnerving.  And it is so, so cold the farther down we go.

I’m pretty sure I actually started to doze on my feet after I’d managed to stop being scared out of my wits at every tiny sound the samurai made, because suddenly one of them roughly shoves my shoulder, ordering me to snap out of it and get in the cell.

I blink at the samurai numbly, look at the small room with bars, and then I understand and walk in obediently.

It’s not until the tramp of their footsteps faded into nothingness that I manage to relax just a tiny bit.  There is absolutely no way out of this cell, that’s clear at least.  Well…I could rest for a while.  After all, what other productive thing do I have to do in this cursed place?

I curl myself into a ball to preserve body heat, closing my eyes.  It’s not long before I fall into a light sleep.

Tigress

Saber wants me to kill again.  It’s expected.  The deal was that I be his favorite pet and do all his bidding, and in return he would let me go after the hundredth kill.

This…will be the hundredth time.  I only pray he lives up to his end of the deal.  I could not bear another day being his precious toy, his monster, his ultimate threat.  Another day of…being forced to kill.

Well.  Already have the blood of ninety-nine people on my hands…what’s one more? I figure, ignoring the black sense that shoots through me at the thought.

I learned long ago to not feel anything but hate.  Hate doesn’t hurt.  Hate keeps you going.  Hate gives you an outlet while keeping you strong.  Being taken from family at the age of six tends to leave scars on your heart.  I’m not about to get more.

One more kill.  Tomorrow.  One more kill.  One more kill and this is all over.

I stare out the barred window to the moon, much preferring its cold shine to the forbidding red lamplight behind me.  If I turn, I know what I’ll see.  A beautifully decorated room, a soft bed, warm orange hues and shiny black wood making up the furniture.  A room fit for a princess.  A room with a locked steel door and barred windows.  I’m no fool.  It doesn’t take someone with brains to know it’s really just another prison.  The difference is that Saber wants this prisoner to want to stay.

As if decorating chains makes them not there.

But those chains will be gone tomorrow, I remind myself again, all I have to do is kill one more time.  Once.  Then I can go home and all this will be behind me.

Rowan

Last night was the most uncomfortable night I’ve ever spent.  Without question.

I woke about every five minutes, and my dreams were plagued with my sister’s screams and monstrous shadows.  Not to mention that I was essentially an icicle by morning.

Figures that the first thing the samurai do when they come is take me to the arena.  I’m shoved out into the wide, circular space filled with sand.  A prison stands opposite me in the walls.  There are no torches inside it, meaning I cannot see who or what’s inside.  But then I spot movement, and the shimmer of light reflecting from an eye makes me shiver again, despite the intense afternoon heat.

So they expect me to be ready to fight who knows what for my life when I am so thirsty I can’t feel my own mouth, without food for two or three days, and in the baking sun.

I’m not gonna survive this.

Saber Demien himself stalks along the lower part of the wall surrounding the arena, wearing some simple red and black robes as he sits on a gold throne.  A pair of fully armored samurai stand on each side of him, each holding a spear.

Saber’s glittering dark eyes meet mine; he smiles slowly, knowingly.

I grit my teeth and return the smile with a glare.  He knows I’m going to die.  He’s watched this a million times.  I’m sure he thinks it’ll never get old.

The prison bars raise with the sounds of clinking chains.  I brace myself.  From the darkness emerges a…a girl.  Thick, auburn hair tumbles over her shoulders and down her back, covering half her face.  Her unhidden amber eye glints piercingly.  No armor or weapon.

Her gaze slides from me to Saber without any sign of change.  I have no idea what to think.

A samurai tosses me a spear, muttering a sarcastic ‘You’ll need that’.  So, they expect me to fight a girl who has no weapon.  Admittedly a very strange girl but…

Saber nods at her, his slick voice filling the air around us so I have to hold my breath to keep from lunging at him, “Kill him.”

Either it’s not what she wanted to hear, or she didn’t enjoy the words, because there was some change on the girl’s face.  Barely any and so brief that if I hadn’t been watching her so closely out of confusion that I would’ve missed it.  But suddenly what’s visible of her face is twisted into a savage snarl and she leaps.  I misjudged her leg strength, not expecting her to be able to cross to me so quickly.  I raise the spear shaft just in time to keep her from striking at my face or chest.  Instead she grabs the spear shaft and flips over my head.

Barely before I turn, I find my legs kicked out from under me.  Then she’s lunged again.  I tuck my legs up and kick her away, then jump up, subconsciously realizing that she’s more of a threat than she looks.

She lands in a somersault and uncurls into a crouched position, tense as a bowstring.  Her eye roves over my face, then the corner of her mouth pulls upward in an obvious smirk.

I easily decide that, I do not like that smirk.

She springs.  with no time to move away, I raise the shaft again.  This time though, when she grabs it to flip over my head, she doesn’t let go.  I suddenly find myself fly through the air and OW I think I just broke my face-  I can’t breathe either.

My vision clears and I take a shallow breath, my mind racing to catch up.  Right, she threw me into the wall, then I fell on the sand.  I get up, realizing I have some sand in-between my teeth.  And all over me.  But that’s the least of my concerns because-

My hand flies up to block a punch from hers.  Suddenly my back is slammed against the wall, straining because how in the world is she so strong-  I blink and look at her face.  Until now, I didn’t realize it was possible to make an expression that is both a sneer, smirk, and some sort of growl.

Her hands push against mine, then I see the black claws at the end of them.  I can’t tell if they’re just weapons or real, but they look deadly.  A tongue of fire shoots through one of my hands as she crushes it.

Then she lets go of my other hand, making me stumble, grabbing onto my wrist, and hurls me over her shoulder.

I roll away when I see the fist coming, grab the discarded spear, and actually start using it to block her attacks properly, trying to ignore the pain in my hand.

The next few minutes blur into each other, sand, heat, adrenaline, claws, a roar that made my blood run cold, pain, burning amber eyes, the desperate need to live.  A claw shoots out at my head and I can’t block it I’m going to die-

White shoots across my vision at the same time as a searing pain spikes through my head, like the pain from a headache when you hit your head on something hard times ten thousand.  I distantly feel myself fall onto the sand, there’s something wet on my head.  A blurry shadow blocking out the blinding sun.  An amber eye, something shimmering deep behind it, then nothing but black.

Tigress

I should’ve killed him.  I know I should’ve.  But at the last second I couldn’t.  I’ve already killed so many people, and for what?  My own freedom.  Talk about selfish.  I kneel over his form as blood spills from the head wound I gave him.  Meh, the wound’ll be fine in a couple hours, I’d be more worried about the concussion.

I shouldn’t be.  I shouldn’t be worried at all because he should’ve been dead.  But that brief second before impact…when I lunged at him, aiming for the throat because that would make Saber more pleased with me, much more likely to let me go as soon as it was done, the blond’s eyes wide with terror and realization…I hadn’t been able to do it.  I’ve seen that look one too many times.  It haunts the few dreams I have.  I couldn’t kill him.  I couldn’t bear to have the blood of one more person on my hands.  In a figurative way.  Cause I literally have his blood on my hands right now.

I stand, panting a little.  The fight was short.  But it wasn’t as short as some.  I appreciated having someone actually put up a proper fight once they got the idea.  You kill someone right at the start over thirty times…it gets old fast.

I turn to Saber Demien and bow, my voice ringing out over the arena, “It is done.  He is dead.  Now you can let me go free.”

There’s a silence.  I don’t dare to raise my head.

His voice is smooth as silk, “But why, pray tell, would I want to lose my favorite pet?”

Everything stops.  I can feel my heartbeat coursing through my whole body, my blood so cold I think it just turned to ice.

I slowly raise my head, “What.”

Saber’s smile is sickening.  He stands up, “I cannot possibly let you go now, Tigress.  You are…too valuable.”

“You swore you would let me go free after I killed one hundred men for you in the arena!” I spit, anger taking over the shock and beginning to course through my veins as hot as lava.

He chuckles lowly, shadowed eyes peering at me, “I changed my mind.”

“YOU CAN’T JUST-!!”

“Oh I can,” his eyes narrow dangerously, “I can and I have.  Did you really think after all this time, when you’ve become so strong, that I would just let you leave?  And go back to your family?”  He spits, “Everyone in this country knows about you, Tigress.  The mention of you makes the bravest quake.  Do you think your family would want someone like you?  No.  They loathe the mention of you.  Did you think it would be that easy?  To just let all of this fall behind you?  No, pet, you can never escape it.  This is what you are, what you’ve become, and what you will always be.  A monster.”  The sneer changes into a charming smile, “Now go clean yourself off.  I expect to see you later.”

My breathing comes faster, I shove down all panic and rage, smoothing my face over to be emotionless again.  Years.  For years I have done his bidding, killing others even when it killed me inside, becoming stronger, faster, smarter so that I could defeat anyone he put me up against, submitting myself to being treated like a common pet, like an animal he would get rid of once he was tired of it, all because if I did not then he would kill my family.  Now at the time that he swore he would allow me to return home, he dares to refuse to.

Well, if he’s breaking his deal, so will I.

I bow my head and leave the arena to get dressed for the festivities I know are sure to follow.  Saber is the kind of person to celebrate the death of anyone who defies him in any way.  And honestly, I think half the time it’s less about that than it is about rubbing in my face that I’ve killed another person.

I refuse to believe what he said about my family.  They raised me to know the truth, that family comes first.  They won’t hate me, and I’m not a monster.

I’m not.