Fan Fiction ❯ The Lycanthrope and the Assassin ❯ Hunted Assassin ( Chapter 2 )

The rising sun seemed far too bright to Kamiara's eyes. She scowled at the light streaming through the shutters, and rolled off her pallet onto the cold wooden floor. There was an insistent nagging in the back of her mind that she should be doing something, but she could not quite remember what was so important.

 

It was not until she was spooning a bowl of porridge into her mouth did she recall why she needed to be up with the sun; the muffled muttering of several angry housewives on the other side of the village was beginning to swell. Quickly Kamiara stuffed her newly acquired clothing and food into her sack, and slipped out the back door, to the stables, leaving a bronze chit on the table for the owner of the hostel.

 

Neko snorted at her furtive arrival, but did not move as she saddled and bridled him, finally hoisting her bulging bags into place behind the saddle. The black Warsteed was somewhat used to Kamiara's comings and goings at all hours. Finally she pushed open the stable doors, checked to see that the coast was clear, then mounted Neko, and kicked him into a gallop towards the forest. As the wind whipped through her long black hair, she spared a glance back at the village, hoping they would not incur the wrath of her hunters.

 

For days she slipped silently though the forest, nothing more than a black shadow, stopping occasionally to eat and sleep. She dared not stop at any more towns until the hunters gave up the chase, and turned back to Narutu, and their master. The last town had been put at enough risk with her staying the one night she did; more innocents did not need to die because she was hunted.

 

She traveled like this for several weeks, hiding, stealing food from villages, and fading back into the forest before anyone saw her. Kamiara's nerves were wound tight as a harp string; she would drift off to sleep at night, only to awake seconds later to a snapped twig, or rustled leaf, thinking that the Imperial Guards had finally caught up with her.

 

Therefore she had not been sleeping well, or much at all for that matter when she did hear a definitive hoofbeat. Shaking her head wearily finally she realized how close she was to being captured, and threw herself onto Neko's back, and urged him into a swift gallop, guiding him through the trees. She prayed to all the gods she knew of that Neko's endurance would outlast the speed of her hunters' mounts, praying they would not catch up.

 

Until finally, they had.

 

Kamiara lay low against Neko's sweating neck, his mane whipping wildly against her face as another arrow whizzed past her. She grunted as he lurched forward, hurtling over a downed tree. Silently she urged him on, her fingers tangled tightly in the leather reins. Their pursuers were quickly closing in. Their steeds had been bred for incredible swiftness, whereas Neko was built for distance.

 

Kamiara felt inside her vest for the shiruken she kept concealed there, and twisted slightly in her saddle, her wrist flicking out almost invisibly. Behind her, she heard a man's scream as the blades sliced deep into his eye, lodging in the bone surrounding it. She began to reach for another, when she felt fire searing through her shoulder. Dumbly she looked down at the head of an arrow protruding from her left shoulder, just below the clavicle. Gritting her teeth, she made herself snap the head of the arrow off, just as Neko cleared another tree. The jolt made her blanch, and begin to swoon.

 

Confused by his riders' sudden limpness, Neko slowed a fraction; just enough for their pursuers to catch up to them, and knock Kamiara out of the saddle to the ground. She was still coherent enough to tumble when she fell, but ended up pushing the arrow further through her shoulder, causing her to bite back a screech. The three remaining Guards dismounted, and sauntered up to her, convinced their prey was helpless. She could almost pity them for not having been very well informed.

 

Kamiara crouched on the ground; her right arm wrapping across her stomach, as if she were about to be sick, her left hanging limply at her side. As the nearest Guard reached out to grab her arm, her right arm flashed out across in a upward diagonal, the sharp blade of her tanto easily shearing off the man's fingers. He stood for a moment in shock, staring at the spurting blood, then opened his mouth to scream, only to find that his throat had been slashed open in the return swipe.

 

His comrades stared in horror as a fountain of blood erupted from his severed throat, and his lifeless body crumpled to the ground. The other two guards backed off quickly, their hands going to the hilt of their katanas. She eyed them warily, knowing that if she could not dispose of them quickly, she would faint of blood loss. Already the blood was pounding behind her eyes, and the urge to vomit nearly overwhelmed her.

 

As she was experiencing all this, she had not noticed that the two guards facing her had relaxed, and one had regained his cocky self-sure grin, the other frowning slightly. It was not until she felt the fire ripping through her thigh did she realize her mistake in assuming that the man she had hit with the shiruken had given up the chase. She reeled and hit the ground, staring dumbly at the arrowhead protruding from her leg.

 

As she fought unconsciousness, she saw a silvery shape launch itself out of the light of the rising moon, and push her attackers back. She struggled to see through her pain-induced haze, but saw only the silvery blur and bright splashes of crimson, until eventually even that faded and she fell into darkness.