Not a My-Hime Fanfic

[Carthrat]

Some RP boards demand writing samples from applicants to games, so I wrote this to send in for one. It's not really very long and doesn't have much meaning to it, insofar as reminding myself that I can put a couple of words together and not have it seem like total trash.

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Once was the time when the sun would shine overhead just so, and illuminate the verdant beds of grass and flowers for all to see. Lovers found it a popular place for their hidden trysts, hiding their meetings behind the sparse treeline. Children played their games without fear or hesitation, chasing one another and competing to climb the highest. A certain woman, infamous in town, went for secret walks underneath branch and leaves, spending her few idle moments in quiet contemplation.

But now the wood was always eerie. There was light, but only in the form of pale, red, cloud-enshrouded sunbeams. They were filtered through the treetops, impacting on the sides of tall, oppressive trunks. Cracked wood and bleeding red sap gave the trees a surreal visage that neither day nor night could emulate. To walk through felt like skulking through hostile shadows, as if being caught would mean the end. The wood was trapped in an endless sunset, and the green and brown were tinged crimson by the sky.

The wood wasn't relaxing anymore, and Nao could feel it in her bones. She was a thief and a thug, the rumours said, and they were true- not that she looked the part of either. A warm smile and welcoming gaze put men off their guard. Rare red hair made her exotic and unforgettable. A promise to meet again in a quieter place was her weapon, even if rock, knife, or wire dealt the actual blow.

Some people had friends, and some didn't forget, and so Nao was used to being in a place where everything seemed to be peering at you, waiting for it's moment. The wood used to be her getaway, when she wasn't on the job. Sentimentality can't survive in the hurly-burly streets, so she saved it for the peaceful wilds (and laughed at her own presumption.) She sat back against one of the kinder-feeling trees. Sometimes she thought of going straight, and sometimes of finding a new town, since when you rely on surprise you need to change who you work on or who you are, and Nao didn't plan to stop being herself.

Today, however, she was thinking of the sky. She thought of that a lot, recently, along with almost everyone else. The scholars compared their notes, the mages spoke of climactic happenings in realms men cannot see, and everyone else just called it the endless dusk. It seemed to be the way of things, and plenty pointed their blame at the gods, prompting others to take up religion with new zeal.

Nao's chief concern, more than any spiritual matter, was the lack of night. Working was easier in night. People missed details, or drank more (although alcoholism had gone up in recent times), and the streets were emptier, so there were less to see what shouldn't be seen. Nobody had a good sense of the start or end of the day, now, and people were up at all hours of the day. Even worse was the rising price of almost everything. Once she was picky about her meals, but now she couldn't afford to be lavish. So she thought of ways to put more money together without selling herself, as some girls did (like her mother), and came up with distressingly few methods.

The one she kept thinking of- the reliable one- was bounty hunting, because she knew a few bounties, worth sizable sums. Indeed, she was the trusted confidant of two. The friendship was genuine, which meant it was a challenge to see who could muster up the fortitude to betray the others first. Coming to the wood was a way of doing just that- not that Nao would say so to herself.

"Here she is, lads! Don't make any moves, missus, because I've got a silver coming in for every fellow I let take a swing at you." A rough, taunting voice that reminded her of the bullies in her youth. The boy had sneaked up on her. More to the point, he'd found her in the woods, just at this time, which meant she'd lost the contest between friends.

He was a young chap, brandishing a crossbow with relish, and wore the outfit of a local farmer (that is to say, it was dirt-ridden and patched in places.) He was probably poor (since nobody but the desperate frequented the woods), and scared, though the presence of his allies behind him must steady his nerves. He pointed the weapon at Nao, who had already stood up at once on hearing him.

"A silver? I'd give you a gold, if you just do a kindness and search elsewhere for a spell," she purred, reaching for a pouch on her belt. The boy hesitated, before he grinned. "Gold? I'll be taking all of it-"

He was new to this, which was evident from his whole manner. Nao gripped the pouch and threw it to the ground, tearing the flimsy thread and, as if by magic, conjuring up clouds of smoke and dust at her feat. The boy fired his crossbow into the haze, but it was already too late, and the bolt thudded into the vapid face of the tree.

Nao was already running, darting through the tainted woods she knew so well- it was one long moment of tension, being chased. Once it had scared her, but when you grow accustomed to something you can develop a liking for it, and now she laughed as she ran. So someone had cast their dice, and they'd landed on snake eyes- too bad for them, since she already knew who they must be.

As if sensing the chase, she could hear the howls of wolves in the distance- wolves that never lurked in this wood before- and the crying of birds and cicadas, turning the crimson forest into a cacophony of noise. She brushed aside spiderwebs that lay in her path and slowed her sprint to a jog. There weren't any footsteps behind her, and it hadn't been long enough at all.

They were cowards after all, avoiding the depths of the forest for their own sake. Maybe they were wiser than Nao, who might have known the wood of before, but didn't understand how it had changed with the crimson sky. Her first inkling was the webs she just tore apart. A second after she stopped running, gravity exerted itself on something far above her. A coccoon of strings plunged to the ground from the branches overhead, narrowly missing the redhead and rolling limply on the dirt. It was the size of a man, as if wrapped in bandages, and obviously had been that way for some time. Gingerly, Nao poked it with her foot. It didn't so much as twitch. Swallowing, she looked up.

Webs covered the trees above her, as if to net in the light. They were huge things, far vaster than the feeble constructs one might find in their attic or behind the front door. They were thick and almost gelatinous- she almost thought they were made of wax. There was a chittering behind her, and pin-prick sounds of many legs hitting the ground, and Nao wondered how she could be so foolish have thought that the red woods could be a place to hide from predators.