Terra

Chapter One
         Blood. Fire. Smoke. Screams of the wounded and dying. The scent of death. Danger at every second. Just another day in my life. Welcome to my life. Welcome to hell.
         I guess I should introduce myself first. I’m Terra. This mess that my life is, well. I can’t really explain that. It’s just this way. I can’t remember much else before about a year ago. I’m 13 now. All I know is that I have to stay alive. And to do that, you have to always be tense, always alert. Easy enough with my senses but when it comes to a fight, that’s a bit more complicated. I fight quite well. I woke up from whatever it was that put me like that knowing how to fight. There were weapons with me at the time. Two short swords, a bow and a quiver, various knives and daggers. I’ve lost many daggers and knives over the past year, but replacements can be found.
         I inch out on my branch slowly, towering far above the ground. The few, faint memories that I have from before I woke up show an easy life, a green world, little violence. There weren’t any of the monstrosities that exist today. The world was different. The trees are much taller than the ones I remember. I guess the fall changed everything. I scan the ground below, checking for any threats. I listen and smell as well, not taking any chances. Finally, I silently slip down the tree, dropping from branch to branch. My balance is so good that barely a leaf trembles.
         My feet hit the forest floor with a barely audible thump. I stay balanced, scanning the area again. My muscles are tense, ready to fight or flee. Nothing moves, so I relax my fighting stance. My short swords are strapped to my back, as are my bow and quiver. I have to scrounge for arrows whenever I can. As it is now, my quiver is half empty. A dagger is strapped to my right thigh. A knife is hidden in each of my tall leather boots. A few more hang from my belt. I crouch to tighten the laces on my boots, which almost reach my knees. My eyes dart swiftly around, searching constantly for any threat. Within seconds, I’m back on my feet. I can already hear the screams from a fresh battle. The Drakon just don’t stop, do they? They fight amongst themselves and I do my best to interfere and basically cause mass chaos. I’ve found a few other humans like me, but they end up captured or killed quickly.
         The Drakon are evil to their very bones. They appear human, but they have a tiny mark somewhere on them that identifies them as a Drakon. It looks like a spider web with a snake circled around it. The color varies, or so I’ve been told. I’ve only seen one. It was a lower ranking one, I believe. It was a murky brown color.
         I start to jog towards the screams, running faster as I start to smell the blood and smoke. I weave my way through trees, running quietly. I know there’s a field up here closer and I aim for that. I burst into the field, not even surprised at the carnage that I find. Bodies everywhere. I slip around the edges of the field, looking for Drakon that I can pick off. I don’t know why the Drakon fight, but it’s my job to jump in and confuse them. When I woke up, I knew only a few things: my name, my age, how to fight and stay alert, and that I had to work against the Drakon. And of course what the Drakon were and that I had to stay alive. I spot a few Drakon that appear to be leaders of some sort. Could I kill them? Well, this should be fun!
         Even as I advance on the group of leaders, a flicker of movement catches my eye. I’m still several feet back in the forest. I turn to look and I see a group of humans. Well. This is rare. Most are captured by the Drakon. As I study them, they haven’t noticed me. Some of their clothing appears to be… the clothes I’ve seen on prisoners. Yet, these are clearly not prisoners, nor are they escaping. They’re all armed. I watch from the shadows as one prepares to shoot at the leaders I had been considering. As soon as that arrow goes, the Drakon will know we’re here. I’d better leave. I turn to go, but in my hurry, my boot snaps a twig. One of the closer humans whips around. His eyes lock on mine and in my panic, I freeze. It’s been so long since I even saw another human being, let alone had eye contact.
         Before I can snap out of it, several have surrounded me. The others abandon their attempt at killing one of the leaders and join the rest. One grabs my arm to pull me somewhere. I kick him in the stomach before he can do anything else. Badly outnumbered, I know there’s almost no way I’ll win this. Whirling around, I knock the legs out from under another, my black hair waving in the breeze. I know that the Drakon won’t hear this over the sounds of battle, or if they do, they’ll simply think it’s more of the battle.
         Without hesitating, I kick backwards, hitting the man right behind me in the shin. He grunts and stumbles back. Before I can make another move, I’m grabbed from behind. Someone wraps an arm around my throat and puts his knife to my neck.
         “Stop fighting, will you, my dear?” he whispers in my ear. I struggle, managing to kick him. He doesn’t even react, just presses the knife a little harder. “If you stop, we’ll let you keep your weapons.”
         I freeze. I can’t lose my weapons. I can afford to lose the daggers or knives. But not my bow and especially not my swords. The quiver and arrows could be replaced, maybe even the bow. But my swords… no.
         “Fine.” I mutter.
         “Good girl.” He releases me, but they soon begin to drag me along. I don’t even fight. Might as well see where this takes me. To me, they’re moving slowly. The pace is an extremely slow jog to me, not even fast enough to affect my breathing. They seem to be breathing more heavily though. As we run, I count the men and boys around me. There’re ten or twelve that I can see. Just a few less and I could have won the fight, especially if it was hand to hand combat. They seem to rely on their weapons. Their clothes are rather odd. Half of the clothing on each of them is the rough, mud colored fabric that the Drakon prisoners wear. They also have the spider web and snake design. The rest of their clothing is better quality, though not as nice as the ones I’ve found. Plus, their clothing varies in color while all of mine is black, like my hair. But my eyes, well, they’re rather odd. They’re bright purple. And I mean bright. Like, neon. Vivid violet, if you want to sound artsy. I’m not sure if they were that color before the fall.
         After awhile, they stop just outside of a clearing. I narrow my eyes. I know this place. I was just here last week or so. One of the men leans in to whisper to another. They don’t know how keenly I can hear. I can hear every word clearly. I recognize the voice. It’s the one who grabbed me.
         “What should we do with her?” the one who grabbed me whispers.
         “Might as well keep her around. We’ve already seen that she can fight. There’s something else about her though…” He frowns.
         “Just her eyes, Jay,” responds the one who grabbed me.
         “Drake, it’s more than that. She wasn’t even a bit out of breath after our run. And how fast she was when we were fighting her,” Jay says.
         “We’ll keep a watch on her 24/7,” Drake says. The discussion seems to be over now. They turn to look at me and I stare back defiantly. I know that my eyes can be very intimidating, especially compared with my dark hair. They stand out. They look away and they all pull me into the clearing. I stumble over a tree root as I enter the clearing. There’s not much there, just a fire pit and scattered supplies. Drake pulls me over to a tree. “I’ll tie you up if you don’t cooperate,” he threatens. He motions for another guy to come over. He gives him some instructions and the guy nods. He turns to me. I tilt my head, studying him. He’s younger than most of the others, probably close to my age.
         He’s maybe 14, 15. He’s a few inches taller than me, and I’m 5’7. I’d guess around 5’11. The boy has some serious eyes on him. A gorgeous greenish blue. Black hair. Slimmer build than most of the humans in this group. When he looks at me, he seems bored and just starts to casually inspect me, like you would to any person you would see randomly. He pauses though. I grin. He finds me pretty. Well, I could use this to me advantage.
         “What’s your name?” I ask sweetly.
         “I’m Christian. Yours?” His voice shows no trace of his emotions, but I can detect a snarky personality.
         “I’m Terra. Who are all these people? Obviously not freshly escaped, but prisoners at some point,” I ask next.
         “Ah, well. We were prisoners at some point. We managed to escape when the camps were raided. Not all at the same time. But you, you are just as odd as us. Haven’t you ever been captured?” He tilts his head questioningly.
         “Never been captured,” I say proudly. “Only been aware of this for about a year. Woke up roughly a year ago, only knowing a few things.”
         “Oh? What things?” he asks quietly.
         “My name, my age, how to fight, how to stay alert, what the Drakon are and that I needed to work against them. Oh, and that I needed to stay alive,” I rattle off. Christian simply nods and continues to stand there. I’ll wait until his attention drifts. Shouldn’t be too long. I lean back against the tree, shifting until my swords lay comfortably against my back. To my surprise, he doesn’t show any sign of becoming less alert. But from what I’ve seen, they don’t have the same speed, strength and senses as I do. They only overpowered me before from sheer numbers and surprise.

Chapter Two
         Night falls. This could be my chance to slip away. I glance up, waiting for the moon to appear. If I remember rightly, it should be a new moon tonight. I’ll still be able to see well enough. Sure enough, no moon appears. Stars are scattered across the pitch black sky. I hear whispers in the center of the clearing. Crap. They’re making a fire. This makes it more difficult for me to slip away. Oh well. Might as well stay for a bit. They seem to be rather unorganized. We don’t need the Drakon capturing or killing any more humans. I could lead this group easily. I just need to gain their respect. I should probably sleep, but I don’t trust my safety to them. Christian is replaced by another guy, who doesn’t even look at me. His back is to me. I quickly and silently scale the tree behind me, settling on a fork in a branch. The guy doesn’t notice my absence. I put my back against the trunk and fall into a light, dreamless sleep.
         The next morning, I wake up before any of the others. The sun is just barely rising. The first one up is Drake. He strides over to the tree. He growls something at the guy who was supposed to be watching me. All the others are up in a matter of seconds. Drake knows I’m not on the ground. I step out further onto the branch, preparing to drop to the ground. It’s not far, at least not to me. They’re all gathered around the tree. Drake is almost directly below me. Moving silently, I drop to the ground. I hit the ground in a crouch, right behind him with a soft thump. He whirls around as I straighten up.
         “Who is the leader of this unorganized mess?” I ask before he can say a word.
         “I am, little girl,” he hisses.
         “Not a very good one, I’d say,” I retort.
         “You think you could do better?” he responds.
         “Yes. Why don’t we see?” I say casually.
         “Hm. I’ll give you a test. Beat me in a fight.” He grins, thinking I won’t do it.
         “Terms?” I ask.
         “Your choice.” Perfect.
         “Hand to hand combat. No weapons,” I say confidently. He nods. “I’ll put my weapons in the tree.” I turn and climb up the tree swiftly. I’ll keep the knives hidden in my boots, just in case something goes wrong. I won’t use them though. I slip the quiver and swords off my back and put them in a secure fork in the tree. I add the knives at my belt and the dagger strapped to my thigh. In a matter of seconds, I’m back on the ground. Drake’s weapons are in a pile on the ground.
         He has the advantage of height and weight. He thinks he has the advantage of being stronger as well. He’s wrong. I cross my arms.
         “Ready?” I ask. He nods and the others back up. He steps towards me, but I stay still, waiting. He becomes wary as he stops just outside of my range. Steeling himself, he jumps at me. Faster than the normal eye can see, my right leg lashes out, hitting him squarely in the stomach. He staggers back, gasping from both my kick and shock. His eyes darken with anger. This time, he tries to kick me. I jump out of the way, ending up behind him. I kick his back, knocking him to the ground. “Give in now?” I ask sweetly.
         “You just got lucky,” he says gruffly as he pushes himself up. “But why don’t we let you try leading for awhile? We’ll see if you could do it at all, let alone better.”
         “I accept that challenge.” I nod to him and turn to the rest of the group. “Okay, first off, you weren’t a very good guard, whoever was on second watch for me. You didn’t even check if I was still there. I could have easily slipped away,” I inform the group.
         “Christian was supposed to make sure you stayed there! How was I supposed to know you climbed the tree before my watch?” One steps forward. He must have been the one to guard me.
         “What’s your name?” I ask as I study him. Medium height, heavy build, blonde, gray eyes. The facts run through my head.
         “I’m Jako,” he says shortly.