CAT AND DGRANGON
By:
Mercedes Youtsey
Copyright © May 09, 2006
Mystic Inc.
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In a way that no one follows, a lonely heart walks though the thicket of a forest. Although she feels she has no friends a wolf and a raven accompany her. Renshi takes one last look at the life that she once had. There were friends, family, and a place to call home. She now has none of these. Two weeks after a village meeting that warned there was an murderer within the village; Renshi parents and little sister were assassinated. Renshi unfortunately witnessed the crime after she got home from combat lesson with her best friend and instructor Giemie. Not only did Renshi kill the murdered but also a little less then half the village members along with her. It took the strongest village warriors to calm her down. After seeing the damage she had done to the village, Renshi decided to leave the village in order to keep from doing more harm to her beloved home. She took one day to pack what she needed and left without any good-byes to anyone.
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“Man, I’m going to miss this place,” Ren said with a sigh. ”Come on. If we’re going to get to that cave by night fall then we should hurry a little. It usually takes from sunrise to sunset to get there. And it’s already three hours past sunrise.”
Renshi continued to walk farther from the home she had lived in. But with Bone by her side and Gem on her shoulder, she feels slightly more comforted. Ren was a 14 year old outcast. She had mid-back dark brown hair, very dark brown eyes that would look black from a distance, and dark tan skin. She wore knee high black shorts, tan tang-top, brown sandals, a bow and quiver on her back, a sling knapsack, and a glaive in her hand.
“Gem can you go scouting ahead please?” she asked the raven. Gem nodded and took flight. “Thank you,” Ren called after her. Gem came back 15 minuets later with the news. “So how far is the cave?” Ren asked. Gem being a trained rave from an academy, hopped 16 times, saying the cave is another 16 miles away.
“So another 16 miles is it. Ok then let’s get going. Good job, here is a treat.” Ren reached into her sling bag and pulled out two cranberries. ”There we go.”
Seeing Renshi had pulled out cranberries, Gem chirped with glee and flew to Ren’s outstretched hand to gobble down the treat she just earned. Renshi, Bone, a brown wolf, and Gem the raven walked for another two and half hours through the forest with Gem checking every so often to make sure they were still going in the right direction. “Hey bone if its not any trouble, do you mind if I ride you till we’re at the cave? Not only will we get there faster we’ll probably have some time to go hunting.”
Bone barked in approval and laid on her stomach so she could get on. “Thank you.” Ren got on and held onto Bone collar so she wouldn’t fall off. “Let’s go!” Bone darted forward followed by Gem. She jumped over fallen trees, logs, holes and large rocks. After running for about an hour, Bone slowed into a light trot.
“How far are we from the cave Gem?” asked Ren. Gem flew up and over the trees to look where they were. She came back five minuets later and hopped three times. ”Wow! Only three miles left! I say we made very good progress today don’t you think? Man and we still have time to go hunting!”
Because of riding on Bone for so long Ren now had enough energy to jog the rest of the way to the cave. “Catch me if you can Bone,” Ren said over her shoulder while laughing. When Renshi arrived though the last part of the thicket at the cave she got an unexpected surprise waiting for her there.
“Hey! There she is! Just like the village leader said.” One of the men yelled at the others. “Get her!” At lest 30 men charge at her all with weapons in hand and leather armor.
Ren frozen in fear of what she found at the cave, but as seeing the men were running towards her, the training with Giemie kicked in. She unhitched her glaive from its strap and prepared to fight. Bone growled at the advancing party of men and bared teeth. Gem circled the men then dove at one of them. She clawed pecked and scratched at the man. If he swiped at her, she would fly up then once again dove to attack. Bone jumped at the first man who was within striking distance and got him at the neck. Biting down on the man’s neck he had one last breath, a second later laid on the ground dead.
Four men with long double handed swords were upon Renshi. They thought they had her but she did a simple battle dance with her glaive. She thrusted the glaive up into the first man’s chest pulled up and out. She quickly turned to the other men swing the blade of the glaive across all the men’s stomachs, splattering blood across Renshi’s face and arms.
“We need to get out of here girls!” Ren called to Gem and Bone. Gem flew higher so the man she was attacking couldn’t reach her and Bone let go of the crotch of a man howling in pain and back to Renshi.
“After them! Don’t let them get away!” the leader bellowed at the others.
Ren jumped on Bone’s back and they took off into sunset. It was a good hour of running before the stopped to rest at a stream. “What in the world was that?” Ren said half way in tears.
“That was an assassin group,” a voice in a tree. “They were ordered to find and kill you.”
“Who said that?”
“I did,” the voice said again. A boy jumped out of the nearest tree. He was a tall boy but not all that meaty. He had shoulder length dirty blond hair. Wearing shorts that looked as they’ve haven’t been washed for several months and a tattered old T-shirt. He had the darkest green eyes that Renshi had ever seen. “I over herd that they were looking for a girl by the name of Renshi the other night. Said to have destroyed haft a village’s population a few days ago.” He paused then said, “That’s you I suppose.”
“I prefer not to talk about that subject thank you. But yes that was me. Now, may I ask who you are?”
“The name’s Jack”
“Well Jack, would mind helping me with these assassins?”
“I would be honored to help,” he said with a little bow.
“Thank you. See this is what we’re going to do.”
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“Where did the demon girl go? She couldn’t have gotten too far.”
“She was riding that wolf! Of course she could have gotten far!”
“Well I wasn’t the one who let her get way was I”
“Would you two stop the gibber gabber and help out.”
“Yes sir!”
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It took Renshi and Jack all night to put their plan together and set the traps up. Just before daybreak they went to the cave and hid in the bushes waiting for the right time to strike.
“Ready?” Ren asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
“Good. Remember the plan?”
“Yes I do”
“Ok then I’ll meet you at the camp sight. Tell everyone to get ready.”
“Got it.”
Renshi waited till she felt that Jack was back at the cave then stepped out into the open with her glaive in her hand. ”Ello boys,” she said coolly. “Who wants to play a game?” Ren dashed back into the forest drawing the assassins ever so closer to their deaths.
“Get her!” The men picked up their weapons and took off after Ren “Ahhhrrr!”
Every once and while Ren would cut a vine or pull a twig setting off random traps. “Now!” Ren said to Jack when she got back to the mix-shift camp. There was a bombardment of arrows and rock from above. Jack shot six to eight arrows at a time. Renshi and Gem convince several birds to help out. A few eagles and hawks came to help as well. A badger didn’t want to miss the action so she also joined the fight. Many squirrels started throwing acorns nut and small twigs at the men below. “Cut the string now!” Jack cut a rope beside him causing a very large tree trunk to fall from either side of the back of the bunch, killing off ten men. Others got scared and ran in different direction. Some running into holes filled with spikes others into another set of falling tree trunks. The fight didn’t last but a few minutes .Toughs that were left were shot by arrows from Jack or cut by Ren’s glaive.
“Well it looks as if we are done here don’t you think,” Jack said.
“Yes it does look as if we’re done here. Let’s get back to the cave and set up our real permanent camp site.”
“Sounds good to me. But first what to do with the bodies. We should at least keep the leather armor and the weapons.”
“Well then take what is needed, put it in Bone’s side bags and let’s go,” she snap at him.
“Ok, ok. No need to be so rude about it.”
“Oh, so sorry. I get cranky if I don’t get enough sleep during… the… night.” Ren wasn’t looking at Jack anymore but at the python that was behind him.
“What is it?”
“Umm… there’s a b-b-big sss-nn-snake behind you.”
“Oh him,” he said pointing behind him. ”He won’t hurt you. He wont hurt anyone unless under command.”
“Ok as long as he doesn’t get closer then three feet away I’m fine,” she said still eyeing the snake.
“Alright no closer then three feet got it.” Jack took all of the swords, knives, daggers, bows and arrows to Bone and put them in her side bags along with anything else he manage to put into the bags. “Alright everything is packed and ready to go. A… Ren?” Jack started to look for her when he found her at the base of a tree catching some sleep. “Hey Bone can you give me a hand here?” Bone trotted over to see what was wrong with her master. “She can ride your back cant she?” Bone barked and laid on the ground so Jack could put Renshi on her back. “Thanks.” Jack laid Renshi on her stomach on Bones back and tide down her legs so she wouldn’t fall of while sleeping. “Let’s go. But first do you two know where this cave is?” Gem chirped and pulled on Jack’s tattered shirt. “Ok then I’ll follow you.”
Gem took to the trees, hopped from branch to branch turning every so often to see if Jack was following.
It took them three long hours to find the cave. Once they found it, Jack got out Ren’s sleeping mat and laid it out. He then took her off of Bone and onto the mat. He then took a nap himself after a long day.
Renshi woke up the next morning to the smell of cooking meat and eggs.
“Nice to see you’re up and about.”
“How long was I out?”
“Not long, just a full day. I’ve already set out your things.”
“Without my help!? How did you know were to put things?”
“It wasn’t that hard. It looked to me as if you’ve camped out a few other times before now.”
“Well yes I have been here quit a few other times before.”
“Be there’s one thing I didn’t bather to figure out were to put.”
“And what was that?”
“That hand sketched picture of yours. The one of I guess your family.”
“Oh that. Well um… how about that spike there,” Ren said pointing to a nail in the cave wall.
“I’ll let you put it up.”
“Okay.” Renshi got up from her sleep mat picked up the picture then walked to the nail on the wall and hung it there. ”There we go.”
“It looks nice.” Jack said with a smile. “Did you draw it?”
“Yes I did. It’s a picture of my mom, dad, and little sister Akeo. They died a few days ago. Let’s not talk about that please.” She begged. “How about you?”
“I’ve been orphaned since I was five. My mother and father were killed in a fire.”
“Oh I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have that.”
“Nothing taken. They were always arguing anyways.”
As soon as he finished talking there was a low growls at the entrance of the cave. A pack of at least 25 wolves were at the mouth of the cave, mouths dripping with saliva.
“Ah oh. Looks like we have some unwanted visitors.” Jack mumbled to Ren.
To be continued…
