An exercise in horror
*I'm posting stories to my blog, but didn't want to waste space with the crap that I'm about to post, so I'm actually posting it here, and leaving a link to it in my blog.*
---
Um. *COUGH* This was first written in 2oo2. I've improved muchly. Indeed, as I was reading this, I could see where I could have done better. I may edit this, and rewrite it. not sure.
Little Eshina Oretak sat huddled with her sister Emisha in their secret hiding place. All around them, the house and lives they'd known since birth crumbled.
"Don't cry, Emi...We'll be OK. Just you wait and see." Eshina held her twin close, and tried not to cry herself. They both knew she was lying, but welcomed the small comfort her words brought.
Suddenly a group of darkelves burst into the room. Eshina held onto her sister, who was huddled against her. One of the darkelves caught sight of them, and grabbed Emisha. Eshina was pushed farther into the hole by her sister, and the darkelves never noticed her.
Emisha screamed, and fought like a wildcat, but the darkelves managed to subdue her at last. They bickered with one another in their coarse, rough language before one who was a little cleaner came into the room. In plain Elvish, he said
"Where is the other one? There are two of them. She looks exactly like this one."
"I am not knowing, General Dadro. We were only seeing this one. The other one is being dead, I am thinking. It is being said that they are inseparable. Surely if she had known we had her sister, she would be coming out to rescue her. They are only being children, and are having no sense of......self preservation." He finished with something in his own tongue, and Eshina was secretly relieved she didn't have to hear his heavily accented voice mangling her beautiful language.
Emisha was taken away when they left. Eshina barely got out of the palace with her life. The murderous darkelves had ravaged it completely, leaving nothing untouched. Eshina watched her home burn, and before her 7 year old heart could break with mourning for the loss of her family, and the only home she'd ever known, she hardened it with hatred. Thoughts of vengeance tainted her once pure feelings, and a hatred for darkelves and all they had done blazed brightly in her soul.
10 YEARS LATER
Phantom straightened her tunic, and pulled the hood over her head. She hated going into towns, but sometimes restocking was a necessity. Taking a deep breath, she looked into the mirror. Yep, just as she should look. Like a young man, innocent enough, just going into the small kingdom of X'vanne to do some shopping for his ailing mother in the forest.
"PSHAW!! These people are so stupid I could ride in on an elephant, and they wouldn't notice me!"
However confident in her skills she was, she was still not a master. They had not caught her stealing anything yet, but there was always a slight chance. And apparently, the security would be up, because the 'precious Prince Man'essin' was coming home from a hunting party. Phantom snorted in derision. The man was her friend, once, but that had been a long time ago, in another time.
"A time when I wasn't an outlaw, stealing bread for every meal!" she spat, disgusted with him and the good life he lead. Despite her bitterness, however, a fond memory of him and his older brother Jinizu - How Ironic, she thought - when they were all children. The brothers were 'babysitting' her and her sister, and they were playing a game. Phantom was lost in the memory.
*~*~
They were all at the willow-pond, by the field outside of Men'anai. Man'essin climbed up the tree, and pointed to the water behind her.
^"Look ho, princess! Why, ‘tis a vile serpent, to take you to his lair and eat you all up!"^
Jinizu had caught onto the game, and jokingly called out, ^"Nay, lassie, do not listen to him! He is but a wicked sorcerer, come to spirit you away! We shall never see you again if he succeeds! Stand still, ye cur, so I may protect this fair maiden!"^ Jinizu had begun climbing the tree also, but Man'essin was slowly edging towards the water, on an overhanging tree limb.
Emisha had run away screaming that Man'essin was going to kill her sister, but Eshina just laughed at their antics. Suddenly, Man'essin dived into the water gracefully, just as Jinizu was about to grab him. The ripples died away, and there was no sign of Man'essin. He went under, but never came back up! Eshina was beginning to sniffle, and even Jinizu was looking a bit worried.
^"MANIE'S DEAD!!!!!!"^ She shrieked, unable to hold back the torrent of tears that overwhelmed her. A shadow fell across her, leaving her in darkness, and she looked up at a familiar voice.
^"No, I'm not, little Princess. Just wet." Man'essin stood there, wringing out his black hair. Eshina hugged him as tightly as she could, still crying, and sobbed,
^"Don't you EVER scare me like that again!!"^ She let his legs go, and began hitting him with her fists.
^"Ok. I won't. I promise. I'll never leave you, and I'll always be there for you, ok?"^ She looked up at his soft words, eyes shining. He was forgiven almost immediately.
*~*~
Phantom found herself back in the present, cheeks wet.
iiiFool girl! You need to get to X'vanne before he does!ii/i Something inside stalled her though. iiiYou lied... You weren't there when I needed you most, when Emi was taken...when the darkelves attacked...ii/i "Where were you then, huh? What happened to your promise?! You said you'd always be there for me!! But you weren't! LIAR!!!!!" Before she'd realized it, she'd punched a hole clean through the mirror. She didn't like what she saw anyway. She was the crown Princess of Men'anai...betrothed to Man'essin at her birth, though she didn't find this out till she was nearly a woman. Yet here she was, dressed in rags, stealing every bit of food that went into her mouth. Poorer than the poor, she was an outlaw. Wanted in many parts of the world for robbery, and maybe even murder. Some princess. And some prince he was, he never kept his word!!
As though her thoughts had conjured him up, she heard voices down on the ground below her. Dropping down, she discarded the cloak, and slid down the tree out of the small hut she occupied. Yes, she knew she'd recognized his voice. That vile bastard...
Prince Man'essin, and his lieutenants Anei and Lirimyi were coming up the worn but mostly unused path. Phantom dropped down even lower, and, like her namesake, was silent and blended into the shadows perfectly. They never saw what hit them.
Anei went down first, his dark brown hair flying as he was knocked from his horse. Lirimyi soon followed him, unconscious before he even hit the ground. Man'essin sensed something wrong, and turned back, only to see his two best friends lying unconscious in the middle of the road, and a dark figure calming the horses. He pulled his sword, but barely saw the other move, before feeling a blade slip round his throat.
"Make a move and you die, prince." hissed a voice in his ear.
"What do you want from me?" He demanded, unafraid.
"....You're a liar and a whoreson bastard, you know that?" the nameless attacker said, smoothly ignoring his question. He was tying Man'essin's hands and feet with a bit of rope, and roughly shoved the prince to the ground. Man'essin could do naught more than watch as his attacker went through the saddle bags, and de-armed his men, and took a few silver and gold pieces from each of them, leaving a lot of it behind. This he slipped into a small, half-full satchel at his waist. Man'essin took the time to observe his captor. He watched as the shorter man continued digging through the saddle bags, and took out various things, mostly food and weapons. Kneeling down, he concentrated on something before scratching a message in the dirt.
:Your prince is safe. No harm shall come to him by me, and I shall do my best to make sure he STAYS safe. I ask in return only a decent place to stay, some gold or silver pieces, and the bounty for my head taken off. If these demands are met, nail a parchment with the queens’ signature stating I may have these things to the tree before which you stand. If this is not done ere Midsummer’s Eve, expect never to see your charming prince Man'essin ever again.
PHANTOM:
"That was long. What did you write?" Man'essin queried, thinking how odd it was that an outlaw such as this should be versed enough to write.
"It is your ransom note. You are coming with me on a little trip, OK?" The voice sounded definitively feminine. Much to Man'essin's surprise, his attacker, or rather, kidnapper, threw off his hood revealing a very female face and figure. She was dressed in a mans tunic, breeches, and boots, with a sword at her side with the bag of money. He had no doubt that she had another dagger in her boot, and possibly a breast dagger hidden within the tunic as well. From his position on the ground, he realized what had seemed so odd before as he..no, she had been taking things. There was a slight sway to the hips as she walked, and a definite curve to her thighs and waist. How he had not noticed it before was beyond him. She had a small scar on her cheek, and stormy grey eyes. A clear complexion, save for the scar, and long brown hair. The bottom of her hair was dark brown, but at the top it could be seen that she had light brown, almost sandy blonde hair, with a strange purple streak running through it. Man'essin suddenly became aware that she too, was measuring him up, and had been doing so for quite some time.
"So, what do you see?" She asked, throwing him off guard.
"Huh?" he replied intelligently. She allowed a small smile to pass her face, fleetingly. A disjointed thought floated through his brain. iiiShe's really beautiful...ii/i He noticed she was flushing, and realized he'd said the aberrant thought aloud. "Sorry..." her expression hardened.
"Sorry for what? For me or for yourself, for making an ass out of your hide again."
He didn’t know how to reply to that, and kept silent. Suddenly, something occurred to him. "Again? What do you mean 'again'?" She scowled darkly, and he realized that she may have been beautiful, but she was still an outlaw, and deadly. He'd never even sensed her until his men were down, and he was virtually alone with her.
Carefully, so as not to disturb the message, she pulled him to his feet, and relieved him of his sword and daggers. She made a soft nickering sound, and the horses immediately came to her. Man'essin was given the impression that things just naturally came to this woman, not only horses, but people, and even events. That would explain why we walked straight into her trap, though from the look of her, I don't think she intended to way-lay us.....
"What would explain that? Though you're right. I was planning on going into town, and stealing some bread and ale. You and your friends just happened to appear."
For a moment, he'd thought she'd read his thoughts, but when this thought brought no reaction, he realized he'd spoken aloud-again.
"Horrible habit," he confessed, flashing her a disarming smile. She lead one of the horses to him, and helped him mount, despite the binding ropes. She then proceeded to tie him to the horse, though he assured her he wouldn't try to run away. She was packing the other horse up, and he took the time to look at the message she'd scrawled. Amazingly, it was not only legible, but neater than his own hand writing. This woman couldn't have been an outlaw all her life, she was too educated. She scowled at him again, and he berated himself silently for not having enough self control to even keep his thoughts in his head. Lirimyi stirred slightly, and she looked at him, before making a clicking sound, and the horses immediately lunged into action. They had vanished into the woods before Lirimyi had even opened his eyes.
*~*~*~
By the time Anei was awake and fully recovered, they were long gone. Lirimyi had made a fire, and tethered the remaining horse, and was looking through what was left of their supplies.
"Well...How bad is it?" Anei asked, fearing their prince be dead.
"Not as bad as it could've been. He's alive, but Phantom, whoever he is, took him, most of our food, two horses, and our weapons. Most of the money's still there, but there's definitely some missing."
"Where’s the ransom note?" Anei asked, fearing Lirimyi had already tossed it to the fire.
"There," was his reply, with a gesture to a patch of bare ground by the tree.
"So, all he wants is to live out his life in peace, huh? Well, I'm sure he coulda thought of a better way to do it than kidnap Man'essin. Wonder where they be got to..."
"Aye, I agree with you there. Maybe not to far, but the horses were fresh. Couldn't have gotten out of X'vanne's territory. Honey and Maple don't really take to strangers."
"LOUT! Honey and Maple. Since when were their names 'Honey' and 'Maple'?"
"Since now, you whoreson!"
"Nay, they were called 'Killer' and 'Brutus' last I heard anything about it!"
The playful banter lasted into the night, before they climbed into the tree and fell asleep. Come dawn, they would tell the queen the news, but for now, all they had was a blissful oblivion.
---
Um. *COUGH* This was first written in 2oo2. I've improved muchly. Indeed, as I was reading this, I could see where I could have done better. I may edit this, and rewrite it. not sure.
Little Eshina Oretak sat huddled with her sister Emisha in their secret hiding place. All around them, the house and lives they'd known since birth crumbled.
"Don't cry, Emi...We'll be OK. Just you wait and see." Eshina held her twin close, and tried not to cry herself. They both knew she was lying, but welcomed the small comfort her words brought.
Suddenly a group of darkelves burst into the room. Eshina held onto her sister, who was huddled against her. One of the darkelves caught sight of them, and grabbed Emisha. Eshina was pushed farther into the hole by her sister, and the darkelves never noticed her.
Emisha screamed, and fought like a wildcat, but the darkelves managed to subdue her at last. They bickered with one another in their coarse, rough language before one who was a little cleaner came into the room. In plain Elvish, he said
"Where is the other one? There are two of them. She looks exactly like this one."
"I am not knowing, General Dadro. We were only seeing this one. The other one is being dead, I am thinking. It is being said that they are inseparable. Surely if she had known we had her sister, she would be coming out to rescue her. They are only being children, and are having no sense of......self preservation." He finished with something in his own tongue, and Eshina was secretly relieved she didn't have to hear his heavily accented voice mangling her beautiful language.
Emisha was taken away when they left. Eshina barely got out of the palace with her life. The murderous darkelves had ravaged it completely, leaving nothing untouched. Eshina watched her home burn, and before her 7 year old heart could break with mourning for the loss of her family, and the only home she'd ever known, she hardened it with hatred. Thoughts of vengeance tainted her once pure feelings, and a hatred for darkelves and all they had done blazed brightly in her soul.
10 YEARS LATER
Phantom straightened her tunic, and pulled the hood over her head. She hated going into towns, but sometimes restocking was a necessity. Taking a deep breath, she looked into the mirror. Yep, just as she should look. Like a young man, innocent enough, just going into the small kingdom of X'vanne to do some shopping for his ailing mother in the forest.
"PSHAW!! These people are so stupid I could ride in on an elephant, and they wouldn't notice me!"
However confident in her skills she was, she was still not a master. They had not caught her stealing anything yet, but there was always a slight chance. And apparently, the security would be up, because the 'precious Prince Man'essin' was coming home from a hunting party. Phantom snorted in derision. The man was her friend, once, but that had been a long time ago, in another time.
"A time when I wasn't an outlaw, stealing bread for every meal!" she spat, disgusted with him and the good life he lead. Despite her bitterness, however, a fond memory of him and his older brother Jinizu - How Ironic, she thought - when they were all children. The brothers were 'babysitting' her and her sister, and they were playing a game. Phantom was lost in the memory.
*~*~
They were all at the willow-pond, by the field outside of Men'anai. Man'essin climbed up the tree, and pointed to the water behind her.
^"Look ho, princess! Why, ‘tis a vile serpent, to take you to his lair and eat you all up!"^
Jinizu had caught onto the game, and jokingly called out, ^"Nay, lassie, do not listen to him! He is but a wicked sorcerer, come to spirit you away! We shall never see you again if he succeeds! Stand still, ye cur, so I may protect this fair maiden!"^ Jinizu had begun climbing the tree also, but Man'essin was slowly edging towards the water, on an overhanging tree limb.
Emisha had run away screaming that Man'essin was going to kill her sister, but Eshina just laughed at their antics. Suddenly, Man'essin dived into the water gracefully, just as Jinizu was about to grab him. The ripples died away, and there was no sign of Man'essin. He went under, but never came back up! Eshina was beginning to sniffle, and even Jinizu was looking a bit worried.
^"MANIE'S DEAD!!!!!!"^ She shrieked, unable to hold back the torrent of tears that overwhelmed her. A shadow fell across her, leaving her in darkness, and she looked up at a familiar voice.
^"No, I'm not, little Princess. Just wet." Man'essin stood there, wringing out his black hair. Eshina hugged him as tightly as she could, still crying, and sobbed,
^"Don't you EVER scare me like that again!!"^ She let his legs go, and began hitting him with her fists.
^"Ok. I won't. I promise. I'll never leave you, and I'll always be there for you, ok?"^ She looked up at his soft words, eyes shining. He was forgiven almost immediately.
*~*~
Phantom found herself back in the present, cheeks wet.
iiiFool girl! You need to get to X'vanne before he does!ii/i Something inside stalled her though. iiiYou lied... You weren't there when I needed you most, when Emi was taken...when the darkelves attacked...ii/i "Where were you then, huh? What happened to your promise?! You said you'd always be there for me!! But you weren't! LIAR!!!!!" Before she'd realized it, she'd punched a hole clean through the mirror. She didn't like what she saw anyway. She was the crown Princess of Men'anai...betrothed to Man'essin at her birth, though she didn't find this out till she was nearly a woman. Yet here she was, dressed in rags, stealing every bit of food that went into her mouth. Poorer than the poor, she was an outlaw. Wanted in many parts of the world for robbery, and maybe even murder. Some princess. And some prince he was, he never kept his word!!
As though her thoughts had conjured him up, she heard voices down on the ground below her. Dropping down, she discarded the cloak, and slid down the tree out of the small hut she occupied. Yes, she knew she'd recognized his voice. That vile bastard...
Prince Man'essin, and his lieutenants Anei and Lirimyi were coming up the worn but mostly unused path. Phantom dropped down even lower, and, like her namesake, was silent and blended into the shadows perfectly. They never saw what hit them.
Anei went down first, his dark brown hair flying as he was knocked from his horse. Lirimyi soon followed him, unconscious before he even hit the ground. Man'essin sensed something wrong, and turned back, only to see his two best friends lying unconscious in the middle of the road, and a dark figure calming the horses. He pulled his sword, but barely saw the other move, before feeling a blade slip round his throat.
"Make a move and you die, prince." hissed a voice in his ear.
"What do you want from me?" He demanded, unafraid.
"....You're a liar and a whoreson bastard, you know that?" the nameless attacker said, smoothly ignoring his question. He was tying Man'essin's hands and feet with a bit of rope, and roughly shoved the prince to the ground. Man'essin could do naught more than watch as his attacker went through the saddle bags, and de-armed his men, and took a few silver and gold pieces from each of them, leaving a lot of it behind. This he slipped into a small, half-full satchel at his waist. Man'essin took the time to observe his captor. He watched as the shorter man continued digging through the saddle bags, and took out various things, mostly food and weapons. Kneeling down, he concentrated on something before scratching a message in the dirt.
:Your prince is safe. No harm shall come to him by me, and I shall do my best to make sure he STAYS safe. I ask in return only a decent place to stay, some gold or silver pieces, and the bounty for my head taken off. If these demands are met, nail a parchment with the queens’ signature stating I may have these things to the tree before which you stand. If this is not done ere Midsummer’s Eve, expect never to see your charming prince Man'essin ever again.
PHANTOM:
"That was long. What did you write?" Man'essin queried, thinking how odd it was that an outlaw such as this should be versed enough to write.
"It is your ransom note. You are coming with me on a little trip, OK?" The voice sounded definitively feminine. Much to Man'essin's surprise, his attacker, or rather, kidnapper, threw off his hood revealing a very female face and figure. She was dressed in a mans tunic, breeches, and boots, with a sword at her side with the bag of money. He had no doubt that she had another dagger in her boot, and possibly a breast dagger hidden within the tunic as well. From his position on the ground, he realized what had seemed so odd before as he..no, she had been taking things. There was a slight sway to the hips as she walked, and a definite curve to her thighs and waist. How he had not noticed it before was beyond him. She had a small scar on her cheek, and stormy grey eyes. A clear complexion, save for the scar, and long brown hair. The bottom of her hair was dark brown, but at the top it could be seen that she had light brown, almost sandy blonde hair, with a strange purple streak running through it. Man'essin suddenly became aware that she too, was measuring him up, and had been doing so for quite some time.
"So, what do you see?" She asked, throwing him off guard.
"Huh?" he replied intelligently. She allowed a small smile to pass her face, fleetingly. A disjointed thought floated through his brain. iiiShe's really beautiful...ii/i He noticed she was flushing, and realized he'd said the aberrant thought aloud. "Sorry..." her expression hardened.
"Sorry for what? For me or for yourself, for making an ass out of your hide again."
He didn’t know how to reply to that, and kept silent. Suddenly, something occurred to him. "Again? What do you mean 'again'?" She scowled darkly, and he realized that she may have been beautiful, but she was still an outlaw, and deadly. He'd never even sensed her until his men were down, and he was virtually alone with her.
Carefully, so as not to disturb the message, she pulled him to his feet, and relieved him of his sword and daggers. She made a soft nickering sound, and the horses immediately came to her. Man'essin was given the impression that things just naturally came to this woman, not only horses, but people, and even events. That would explain why we walked straight into her trap, though from the look of her, I don't think she intended to way-lay us.....
"What would explain that? Though you're right. I was planning on going into town, and stealing some bread and ale. You and your friends just happened to appear."
For a moment, he'd thought she'd read his thoughts, but when this thought brought no reaction, he realized he'd spoken aloud-again.
"Horrible habit," he confessed, flashing her a disarming smile. She lead one of the horses to him, and helped him mount, despite the binding ropes. She then proceeded to tie him to the horse, though he assured her he wouldn't try to run away. She was packing the other horse up, and he took the time to look at the message she'd scrawled. Amazingly, it was not only legible, but neater than his own hand writing. This woman couldn't have been an outlaw all her life, she was too educated. She scowled at him again, and he berated himself silently for not having enough self control to even keep his thoughts in his head. Lirimyi stirred slightly, and she looked at him, before making a clicking sound, and the horses immediately lunged into action. They had vanished into the woods before Lirimyi had even opened his eyes.
*~*~*~
By the time Anei was awake and fully recovered, they were long gone. Lirimyi had made a fire, and tethered the remaining horse, and was looking through what was left of their supplies.
"Well...How bad is it?" Anei asked, fearing their prince be dead.
"Not as bad as it could've been. He's alive, but Phantom, whoever he is, took him, most of our food, two horses, and our weapons. Most of the money's still there, but there's definitely some missing."
"Where’s the ransom note?" Anei asked, fearing Lirimyi had already tossed it to the fire.
"There," was his reply, with a gesture to a patch of bare ground by the tree.
"So, all he wants is to live out his life in peace, huh? Well, I'm sure he coulda thought of a better way to do it than kidnap Man'essin. Wonder where they be got to..."
"Aye, I agree with you there. Maybe not to far, but the horses were fresh. Couldn't have gotten out of X'vanne's territory. Honey and Maple don't really take to strangers."
"LOUT! Honey and Maple. Since when were their names 'Honey' and 'Maple'?"
"Since now, you whoreson!"
"Nay, they were called 'Killer' and 'Brutus' last I heard anything about it!"
The playful banter lasted into the night, before they climbed into the tree and fell asleep. Come dawn, they would tell the queen the news, but for now, all they had was a blissful oblivion.