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I wrote this as a character introduction for a roleplaying game Aidan is starting next week. It's about three times as long as anyone elses and
I feel a little silly because of it, but it was so much fun to write that I didn't really want to cut it short. It also has some pretty important character points that I wanted to get on paper. So without further ado, have a read :P
Catraoine-Sinead O'Connor.
"Catraoine, Catraoine!" The elderly matron's voice cut through the crystaline air like a rusty knife.
Kee winced and settled herself a little lower behind the stone wall.
She hated that name. Proper and right true Irish it might be, but bless the good lord, what a mouthful.
"CATRAOINE-SINEAD O'CONNOR!"
Oh dear lord.
"Aye Mama, I can hear you!" She sighed, grabbed the meagre sack of herbs she'd managed to collect and headed towards the cottage. It wasn't much, the little farm with its herd of goats and small pasture, but it was home. Settled in the valley just beyond the town of Longford, her little family rented the little strip of land from an Englishman, the self-titled Baron Charles.
Kee grumbled to herself even as she trotted down the dirt path. 'Baron' Charles had come less than a week ago to inspect the holding, sneering in his arrogant English way at the impeccably clean little cottage and leering indecently at Kee's older sister, Sorcha. Kee's fists clenched. She wanted to wipe that arrogant ass's sneer of his face!
Kee was very protective of Sorcha, a beautiful young lady of sixteen who was everything Kee could have ever hope to be. Lovely, thick aubourn hair instead of bright orange curls. Cream coloured and unblemished skin as opposed to the freckled and slightly sunburnt visage that Kee seemed to inevitably favour. Smart and reserved where Kee never seemed to know when to close her mouth or curb her impulsive nature. Her mother always said that Kee would never make a good wife and she should model herself after her sister, but... it didn't really seem to be quite... right.
Shrugging, Kee rounded the corner and everything seemed to shift.
"Wha.. What?"
Pain. Oh god, the pain! Get it off me! Get it off me!
"I can't control her! Sedate her! Sedate her!"
No! No! I can't see! GET IT OFF ME!
"Here, get this into her!"
No...
Kee tripped over a tree branch in the dark, slamming her knee into the frozen ground.
"Ow!"
"Kee, keep it down for Christ's sake."
"Sorry, sorry. And don't swear, Niall."
She sensed more than saw him roll his eyes but she took his hand as he helped her up.
"Come on, we don't have much time."
They continued on in the dark, the others around them with their faces painted in dark shades of green and brown. Kee could feel the paint sticking against her own skin too as she moved forward, attempting to move at least somewhat quietly.
"Why do you always have to come on these missions, Key? You're hopeless at moving around with anything even vaguely resembling stealth and you know it." Niall whispered hoarsely in her ear.
"Because you need the people and *you* know it." She retorted softly, "Besides, I see things that you people must be blind to miss."
Again with the eyes.
They stayed silent for the following hour while they found their target.
Golden light spilt from frost glazed windows onto the snow and the sounds of coarse laughter carried on the chill breeze. Invitations had gone out from 'Baron' Charles' manor late last week, and they had gotten a hold of the list of invitees. It was an interesting group; all Englishmen and all outspoken against the common rights of the Irish people. Damned English swine, the lot of them.
The information had been passed on and the orders had returned much as expected.
A raid on the night of the party, expect medium level defence and then fire the manor. A true strike against the oppressive English 'aristocracy'.
Kee had been delighted when she heard about the strike. Granted that it was dangerous, but against the Baron? It was far too good an opportunity to pass up... avenging Sorcha would be worth any price paid this night.
She took the rifle that Niall handed to her in the dark recess below the front wall of the manor and returned his grin, teeth flashing white against her blackened skin. They waited together behind the stonework and then as the first shots were fired, they sprinted towards the manor.
"Where did she go?!"
"I can't see her, she... wait, over there!"
No! No! NO!
"Quick, get her before she gets under the door!"
"The jar!"
Oh gods, make it stop!
The van shuddered and creaked along what Kee imagined was a muddy road. There were no windows in the dark, cramped space behind the driver's cabin and there were at least ten or fifteen prisoners chained together within. The smell was terrible and the sounds were almost as bad. Their captors, no doubt members of the IRA, hadn't allowed Kee or her fellows out in the last eight hours and the smell of human excriment was becoming almost unbearable.
They'd been deep in southern Ireland near a small town called Trelee, hiding out in a friendly farmer's barn when the wailing sirens and screeching of tyres slammed through the still summer evening. They'd been betrayed but by whom, no one had any idea.
There hadn't even been time to arm themselves, let alone put up any resistance to the black clad men with powerful firearms. There were no old rifles left from the war days amongst this lot, that was for sure.
Kee rested her arms on her sore knees and put her head down. She'd been trying to find some solace in sleep for the past few hours but it wouldn't come. Bruises covered her body where she'd been repeatedly beaten after trying to escape the groping hands of the men who had chained her.
Niall was sitting next to her. He'd been asleep on and off for the last few hours but he looked up suddenly.
"Hey, we're not on country roads anymore." He said, tilting his head to the side, "Listen to the difference."
He was right, they weren't jouncing along cluttered dirt roads anymore, this was smooth road. And the only place where there were smooth raods was in a city.
"You think we're where almost where they're taking us?" The hopeful voice sounded like Carey. Always the optimist.
Kee snorted softly and Niall chuckled drily.
It went silent again.
"Strap her down!"
"I can't! Get the tranquliser!"
Let me out of here!
"Oh god, move! MOVE!"
ARGH!
"Are you alright?"
"Someone get the goddamned gun!"
Wait, what!?
The light seared their eyes when a khaki dressed Englishman finally opened the van.
They'd been taken to Belfast, a stinking, poluted city in the far north of Ireland. No fair trial for the Irish there, no trial at all in fact. The IRA had brought them to the one place in the country where a trial wasn't mandatory for non-Englishmen.
A burly, heavyset man stripped to the waist unhooked the locked chain from the van, wrapped it around his wrist and started walking away. O'Grady's arm snapped as he fell onto the unyeilding concrete of the ground under the van, and still the man kept pulling.
They were all attached and it was a case of move or fall and damned be your injuries.
He led Kee and the others much like the master leads his dogs to the kennel.
Past grim faced Englishmen in their uniforms with their guns, they were unceremoniously pulled until at last stood against a bleak looking wall, pitted and marked with old munitions fire. There were dark stains on the brickwork all of them knew exactly what this particular wall was used for. Reinforced somewhat by the long row of Englishmen who formed up in front of the sorry looking group, their rifles cocked and ready.
A drill officer marched out of a small building in front of them, his heels clicking smartly against the hard concrete. He marched right into the centre of his men, none of them twitching so much as a muscle.
"Ready!"
The soldiers, staring straight ahead, loaded their rifles.
"Aim!"
Two dozen rifles were suddenly pointed directly at Kee and her comrades.
"Oh Christ." Kee was suddenly terrified. This wasn't supposed to happen to her! She felt Niall's hand grope across for hers and she grabbed at it as tears began to leak down her face. From further down the line she heard one of the others fall to his knees.
"Hold Fire!"
Kee's face whipped up as she stared at the officer. His face was plain, utilitarian almost and his eyes held a type of sardonic amusement.
"That order can be changed and will be changed, based upon a decision you will be making." Kee's eyes narrowed slightly. This was not what she was expecting at all, even less than the firing squad.
"You have a choice. You can either die right here, right now. One word will see that through.
Or, you can enlist as Irish Citizens. You Southerners might wish to isolate yourselves from the problems of the world and remain neutral, but if you want to live today, you will renounce your ties with your homeland and fight on the front lines."
"Did, did she just turn into a brick?!"
"I... I... wow."
"Never seen that before..."
"Me either, I wonder how that happened..."
"I have no idea."
Ow...
"Yuck, What's that stink?" Kee wrinkled her nose and looked around for her corporal.
The orders had been to locate an enemy complex and nullify it, retrieving as much information as they could glean from the place and then retreat. Her unit was on patrol around the area whilst the other units went in. It was a pretty shot choice, but such had been orders. The jungle was hot and wet and the bugs were biting and her people were getting impatient.
"Sorry Sarg, no intel back from the scouts." The corporal scratched absently at his chin and peered through the trees.
"They haven't come back yet? They were meant to report an hour ago!" Kee started feeling the first stirring of alarm. They were damned good men out there and they hadn't let her down in two years on the frontline.
She turned back around and started rapping out orders.
"Jenkins, Portman and Lynn. On point. Andrews and Watson, get your people up and get moving towards the complex, we're going..."
The ground suddenly shuddered and Kee trailed off, staring at the ground beneath her feet.
"Oh Christ..."
The explosion hurled her back against a tree, her head slamming against the hard wood and knocking her senseless.
It might have been a few minutes or a few hours later but she raised her head and saw the bodies of her comrades. Some were sprawled on their backs, necks at odd angles, others looked almost unharmed except for the blood trail on their faces and others seemed to have simply vanished. She crawled backwards and edged herself away from the gaping hole that had appeared almost directly under where her unit had wait in harbour and was violently sick. Death she'd seen, but this was altogether different.
As she was emptying herself of almost everything she had ever eaten, Kee somehow managed to miss the sound of cracking wood and the earth shuddering again.
She was falling before she knew what had happened.
"Are you awake?"
"I'm awake."
"Oh, finally! We thought you were going to sleep forever."
"Where am I?"
"Cornwell. You were transferred here a couple of days ago."
"I can't open my eyes."
"...Well..."
"What?"
"That would be because you haven't given yourself any."
"...I see."
Kee opened her eyes and looked around and then down at herself. Everything normal there, well, except for the naked. That was a little unusual. She glanced at the nurse.
"Can I have some clothes please?" She asked, trying not to blush.
The nurse gave her a slightly strange look then shrugged before walking over to a white cabinet. That was interesting; the whole room was stark white, even the bed.
She came back with a white linen robe and held it out. Kee stepped into it and felt something crinkle in the pocket.
"Orders." The nurse said briskly and quietly left the room as Kee unfolded the note.