Well, I'm about halfway finished with my short story.
USB Notebook 3.0 94fbrTo see what I've written so far, click "Continue reading 'Short Story.'"
It rained everytime.
The clouds turned an angry black, casting the field dyed with read into a dark shade. A lone figure hunched her shoulders in a shudder as the liquid bullets pelted the exposed skin. However, the surpressed shiver was not a cause of the rain and chilly wind, but rather the storm of emotions inside her that were personified by nature.
Buds of early spring grooped sullenly in the gloomy weather as she tilted her head to the sky, imagining that the invisible blood of others would be washed away from her darkening soul. She tried desperately to block out the stench of death as she stood, left hand resting on the hilt of her sword as afternoon faded into evening.
With a sigh, she opened her red eyes and brushed a stray piece of silver hair out of them.
"Wasn't this where the humans used to live?" she thought, keeping her mind off of the completed, and dead, bounty.
The Anian woman examined strange markings on the trees before her eyes dropped to the horrified, mutilated corpse in front of her.
Knowing that delaying the inevitable would only lower the reward, she bent down and searched through the dead man's clothes, pulling out a scroll and tucking it under her arm.
She turned and walked away without looking back.
Is this what it's like to die?
Darkness was all he could see as he opened is eyes. Stale air permeated, among other unpleasant smells. He jerked his arms, only to find that he could not move. Claustrophobia gripped his chest tightly as he felt the walls closing in around him.
Thrashing against his restraints, he heard voices.
"Hey, shut up in there!"
He scowled as he recognized the voice of one of the guards that had brought him to the room. Wounds left from his attempts to get away were still fresh.
The creaking of the door disturbed the silence of the room. With every step, he could feel that the men were drawing closer, and soon enough, the released him from the wall, although his hands and feet were still bound. He thrashed violently as the group picked him up and carried him through the door into a dark, arched hallway.
"Let me go!" He screamed, managing to hit one.
Cursing, the guard merely tightened his grip as he and the others carried him down the hallway.
"You can't really expect to go against our first and foremost rule, Juinn, and not expect punishment, now can you?" One sneered. "Under the word of the king, as you know, all of us humans have been banned from interacting with the Anian and Damokitan people. And then there's you, who not only breaks the old law of not becoming a mage, but trades and socializes with those people, if you can call them that! You're as much of a disgrace as your father," he spat, "He fell in love with that Damokitan woman after his first wife died and after you were born."
Rage welled up within him, and the technology that had been restraining his magic began to glow and slowly break apart.
"I don't care about us being the key," he said in a deceptively calm voice as they marched down the hallway to his execution, "I don't care that other species may take advantage of us; open your blind eyes and see that you can't isolate yourselves forever!"
White light began to cover the shackles, causing them to burst apart in a flurry of charred remains. Quickly, he took the advantage of their surprise and wrestled out of their hold on him and fell to the floor, scrambling away. Angry yells echoed down the hallway behind him as he ran desperately, feet pounding.
One was faster than the rest and caught up quickly, unsheathing his sword and swinging it in a wide arc at the fugitive's neck. However, the runaway was experienced and heard a gust of air move as the sword sliced through it and ducked, sliding sideways into the man to knock him down.
The guard went down heavily, still clutching his sword tightly. Weary of the fast approching others, the traitor grabbed the mans arm with both hands, planted his foot on his chest to restrain movement, and jerked it sharply to the right. A cracking sound resounded, accompanied by a howl of pain before he grabbed the sword, barely having enough time to block a throwing knife and run the opposite way.
A door came up on the right side of the hallway, and he dove into it, successfully pushing it open as a man hurled past, missing his target. The fugitive closed the door and locked it.
Panting, he leaned against the door, observing the empty library he'd stumbled into. He grabbed a bookcase and called on magic to help him as he pushed it in front of the door. Bangs resounded as the guards tried to get in.
Swiftly, he ran to another door that seemed reinforced, noticing that the frail wooden one was giving out fast, and the bookcase was beginning to tip over. He turned the knob to find it locked.
He stood back with his hands inches away from the knob, blocking all anxiety and noises out as he concentrated. The door opened with little more than a soft "click."
Rushing in, he closed the door and locked it again, looking around the room. Scrolls lay stationary and covered in dust, and he saw one that caught his attention.
Angry yells interrupted his thoughts, along with a hasty jangle of keys. He grabbed the scroll and opened the nearest window and dived head first out of it.
The door opened just in time to give the openers a view of him jumping to the grass that lay far, far below.
Sighing, she made her way to the shop to return the scroll and collect her reward. Ironically, it was the same store that was part of the reason she was a bounty hunter in the first place...
It wasn't as if she believed she should live in place of others, nor that she liked to kill. She only chose the bounties with the most dishonorable histories, anyway, and most people didn't bother to check.