“Can anyone tell me why I’m here again?” inquires a short, young lady. Dressed in light blue and different shades of lavender, the folds of her long dress reached past her ankles, down to her new high-heeled shoes. Unlike most other ladies, her dress had long sleeves, quite plain as there were no special embroidery stitched on nor gems of any kind, only some extra layers of silk to have her gown seem as extravagant as possible, particularly in the soft breeze of a gentle night. Although the collar line of her gown was low, it was high enough to be called decent, hanging upon her elegant neck was a single necklace; disliking the blunt color of gold she had the necklace made of light silver, the pendant that hung upon that was always a light colored blue gem stone of some sort. She tilted her little head, her glittering earrings swaying, her pitch black hair measuring down past her back falling out of place, her left eyebrow lifted up in light question.
“Because you are,” replied another woman peering around, seeking her lover or may as well be lover. To the contrary of Tris, this particular young lady wore purely pink outfits, all fancy and expensive, with pearly designs and matching accessories. Her face was pampered, covered in make up and powders.
Sigh, Tris thought, straightening, she shoved her disobedient hair back behind her ear, I am here, yet I know not why. I let myself get dragged here, why? She asked herself.
Rapidly approaching came a group of young men, as for their outfits, they were all in a white, long sleeved collar shirt with a black tuxedo on of course, all looking stunning, their greedy eyes drifting from beauty to beauty, finally having focused on what lay directly ahead, drifting eyes stilled.
“I have a question for anybody who bothers to listen,” a polite young man began bowing and brushing his arm into a polite gesture, “will someone explain to me who this maiden may be, I seem to have absolutely no memory whatsoever of her striking image.”
“Ah, so kind a gentleman, complimenting me at first sight,” the scheming Tris faked a blush and hid behind her white fan, “this likewise stunning nobleman, manners and all, I shall strike if he continues to choose to speak such nonsense.”
The pearly white fan with light frills bordering the edges came flat down on the taller man’s head.
“Ouch,” commented his other friends, some mere acquaintances.
A smirk sneaked out and burst into a wide grin on the man’s handsome face. Without warning, he grabbed Tris into his warming hold surprising her, but she remained silent, her surprised face became a soft smile in his relaxing grip.
“Oh, but you do look ever so beautiful,” he whispered gently to her. As he released her with such a broad grin on his charming face, he stepped aside to give some brief greetings to Tris’s friends behind her, gracious and popular as ever.
“Hmph, so you will let Sin hug you, yet you won’t let any of us,” Sen turned his head away, arms crossed over his chest in pure sarcasm.
“Incorrect, whoever said I let him, I recall no request of it, do you?” Tris crossed her own arms, her daring eyes gleaming.
“But you always say no when any of us ask, always,” Sen unfolded his arms and merely looked at her, about a head shorter than Sin, he remained to be still taller than Tris.
“Of course,” she said pushing her hair behind her ears, grinning, “I say `no’ to anyone who asks, but shall you do anything aggressive and unseemly as well as untimely, then, well,” she flipped open her fan, “you die,” she ended simply with a straight face.
Hm, Sen thought for a moment, “So, can I hug you now, just briefly?” he pleaded.
Tris posed a thoughtful look and took her time of her brisk, one word reply, “No.”
“Why are you so mean to him,“ Phiona scolded Tris. “I’ll hug you,” she said sweetly to him. She reached for him and he grudgingly hugged her, with a sour expression.
Unable to contain her laughter as small giggles behind her fan, Tris nearly collapsed to the floor in gales of laughter. Once she regained her posture, she tapped Sen’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, resulting in Sen with a doomed expression upon his face. “Now that you’ve hugged her, in her language, it means you accept her as if you were her suitor. She’s going to stick to you like glue, whining and I hope you like pink, my dear friend.”
After the rather peculiar entrance, things became rather quiet around Tris. Most of Tris’s friends either had their eye on someone or had a particular suitor to attend to, with all of her friends gone having deserted her, she leaned against a desolate wall, sipping from her glass. So I got dressed up like this to stand against a wall, she mused with a light sigh.
Idly staring at the marble floor, Tris hadn’t realized that someone was walking right up to her. When a young gentleman’s feet entered her view, she looked up and received a kind smile.
“Will you dance with me?” the man asked extending his hand.
“No, Rae I will not dance with you,” Tris replied dismissively, sipping away from her glass.
“Come,” he gently pulled her into the center of the room, ignoring her defiance, “dancing is easy and you’re too careful to step on my feet, so let us begin,” he lead as they danced.
Still thinking of something to say in objection but finding nothing, she simply danced, avoiding all eye contact. Absentmindedly and surprised, Rae twirled her but just then another hand caught her free hand and suddenly she was dancing with Sin, the sneaky man had stolen Rae’s dance partner. And following were many young gentlemen, passing Tris on, strangely this young lady who detested social functions did not object to this, until finally the last dancer took his leave of her, and then came Sen.
“Can I have this dance with you madam?” extending his arm, Sen was sure she would, after all she had danced with many that afternoon.
“No,” was the curt reply.
“B-but why?” Sen asked in depression, shoulders dropping.
“Because you asked, dolt,” chorused everyone. Finally, Sen realized that none of them had actually asked Tris to dance, at least didn’t accept her refusal, they simply urged her to dance.
“Hey Sen,” Tris smirked, “guess what? Your, uh, lady awaits.” Just then, Phiona came looking for Sen, with that odd gleam in her eye, looking devious. “I’ll leave you two alone now,” Tris said quickly and fled.
Being bored out of her solitary mind, she sat herself down, wishing she had a book or a pen and paper or anything to do except dance and gossip. Someone kill me, please, she thought to herself. Three more hours, nooooo! She groaned, shoulders slumping, revealing to everyone that she was bored out of her mind.
“What’s wrong princess?” Sin asked with up-lifted eyebrows.
“I’m not the princess,” Tris pointed out, “I’m a countess. Well the princess isn’t here, but you’ll find the `pink princess’ right over there torturing Sen,” Tris pointed at Phiona. “And quite obviously, I’m bored out of my mind,” seeing Sin wanted to make a suggestion, “no, no more dancing.”
“Attention, by orders passed in tradition,” began the announcer of the ball began, “for a true imperial ball there must be the Mayne dance. Let us all dance for the honor of this ball!”
“Well, well, well,” Sin teased, the Mayne was a gracious group dance, but it was not a slow, painful dance, it was a dance to get blood rushing, the speed increases on and on, until it suddenly stops.
At first, it seemed quite boring and a major pain to Tris, yawning, attempting to cover it with an extra hand as often as possible, but the dancing made it impossible. They switched partners at a certain change of beat of the music. Once the music picked up it’s pace, Tris’s hair whipped around as she turned, the folds of her dress flapping in the excitement, her eyes gleaming with delight, grinning broadly, trying to keep up with the pace of the music. After the immensely swift paced music ended abruptly, with the loud clanging of large symbols, everyone threw up their hands in enthusiasm, actually half traditional as well. But tragically, something or perhaps a someone, had tripped Tris when in a dress, with her hands in the air, she would be unable to catch her fall, bracing for the impact, she somehow ended up having Rae’s handsome face a mere inch from her own. A short, unusually feminine gasp escaped her, and then she realized, the last glimpse of him was nearly half way across the room, so what she suspected was true, he was sly and observant, even through all of this havoc he saw her begin to fall and rushed in just in time to catch her. For a brief moment it seemed like he got even closer but he drew back as a group began to form with Sin, Sen and more gathering nobles looking anxious some nearly nervous. It was no wonder that a group gathered, he had caught her into a classical pose like in the plays, where a damsel in distress faints, but just a bit less dramatic.
“Be more careful,” Rae said softly, helping the unseemly Tris to her own feet, “you’re far too vital to be hurt in an unfortunate accident.”
“How vital can I possible be?” muttered Tris.
The next incident that caught everyone’s attention in the eventful night was the sounding of bells, the beat of war drums, and then the sound of the war horn. Was that a war siren taking affect? An attack on the palace? Was that even possible?
After the short moment of shock had gone, women shrieked, wept, sobbed, and some even fainted, well Phiona shrieked, grabbed Sen and began sobbing, leading all of the ladies, Phiona was the loudest, while others ran around in panic, handkerchiefs became unnecessarily soaked. Then, two extremely loud symbols boomed until everyone stopped acting as if in riot.
“Now all of you!” Tris boomed as she dropped the symbols to the ground, “calm yourselves! Everyone here is either a gentlemen or a noble lady, do you realize what you are doing? First, you are all acting out of line, shrieking, crying, screaming, is that what your manners have taught you? Second, if there are invaders in the palace, you are a sign brighter than the stars in the middle of the night, signaling them to come kill us all. Now,” Tris lowered her voice back to normal, “try to snuff out your sniffles and listen.”
“Steward,” Tris called, “how far is the weaponry or a safe place to keep the ladies?”
“Madam, should we not elect a man to lead us?”
the sexist steward responded tauntingly.
“Alright then,” she said confidently, deviously grinning, her eyes proud, “I give you ten seconds, whoever dares to come up to this stage and speak with me shall be the leader, I assume no one will object?” she quickly continued, “of course not. Now, we begin.” Tris sat on a lone chair in the middle of the stage, one leg crossed over the other, arms folded on her chest, she counted, pausing slowly for a moment after each number, simply waiting for a challenger, yet not a single man ever moved, even the generals’ son dare not take command from Tris.
At the count of painstakingly slow five, Rae, Sin, and Sen walked forward together, looking at each other, they grinned impishly.
“Countess Tris will lead,” they said in unison, “any objections will be overruled. “
“As the heir of the position as general,” Sin announced, “I hereby give Countess Tris the proper power.”
“As the heir of the position of prime minister,” Rae followed, “I hereby grant Countess Tris the proper authority.”
“As the heir of the head of the council,” Sen ended, “I hereby give Countess Tris the trust of the people.”
“Thank you, dorks, um, err, gentlemen,” Tris beamed, “Now, steward answer!” she commanded.
“The weaponry is at least five mansions away,” the shame faced steward reported grudgingly, “there is no safe place to hide the ladies if we are under attack.”
“Hold on,” a servant said running over to the lone bookcase, she twisted a vase and knocked the wall, then the entire bookcase moved apart, and inside lay nearly a hundred swords and weapons, a hidden small weaponry.
“Perfect!” Tris exclaimed, “men who can fight, grab a weapon, once the weaponry is empty, ladies file in. that way, men can fight and the ladies can hide, only try to be still and silent, now move.” The weaponry cleared out with a few daggers to spare in case the women are found out, Tris herself took up sword and dagger staying with the men. “No matter what happens, you women will be safe,” Tris assured the women, shoving the bookcase closed. “If we are found,” she informed the men, “we’re good as dead, including the women.”
“But you ju-“blurted a man.
“They are indeed women and indeed scared, but they remain to be noble born, are they not? Did you think they would have quietly gone in like that? And for all we know, no one else knows how to open that and there is no way to open it from the inside. If we put them in danger, they might be captured and taken prisoners, it is that or hope for the best that it all turns out right.”
“She is every bit right,” Sin supported her standing behind her, “she should be a general or something.”
With the heavy sounding of men in armor stomping towards them, they felt the rumbling earth everywhere; they were surrounded by heavily armed soldiers. “One more thing,” Tris whispered, “don’t pose, just fight.”
Rae threw a knife cutting off all of the candle wicks in one row, Sin pulled it out of the wall and cut off the others, now it was pitch black save the windows. She held her swords behind her, as the door burst open, a knight charged in with a menacing look.
“What is it that you wish?” Tris asked.
“You!” the knight lunged for her, Tris’s sword sliced his fingers off quite easily. He cried out in agony, his underlings rushed to help him as the red liquid covered the whiteness of his exposed bones.
“What was that?” Tris asked, far more menacing than any knight.
“Kill them! And bring me the wench!” he commanded.
“I told you to wear your gauntlets,” his squire scolded, “but apparently some people don’t need them, even if it costs his fingers!” The squire finished bandaging his fingers tying the knot more tightly than needed. The knight winced and grunted.
With this, the fight broke out, Tris was not exactly the world’s greatest fighter, but she was more than the average swordsman, just one fatal flaw in her swordsmanship, if she was not using her right arm, she was as good as helpless. Pushing that dreadful thought out of her mind, she slashed at the soldiers, they were already exhausted, laying siege on the imperial palace was no easy task, Tris predicted that they had yet to find their Majesties. At least they are safe for now, but if we win, we have some more battles to fight, she thought grimly, three soldiers lunged for her, she parried the first blow, she noted that one of them kept flinching and twitching, she parried two more attacks she could not parry and not attack, she’d have to distract one of them to slide in an attack. As the trio struck, she over powered two attacks, allowing the flinch to strike her, but he winced when his blade met the flesh of her right forearm, dropping his sword, only a light gash remained, as he idiotically bent to retrieve his fallen bloody sword, Tris rammed her leg into him, his head slammed into the ground, with a loud crack, his neck snapped. Now with her right arm injured too badly to use with full force, she would be forced to continued using her right arm for the familiarity of it from constant practice, but with the strength drained from being attacked, she would draw on the brute force of her left arm, therefore ending in a double handed position. With two more pursuers, she used two hands to slash a large cut in their necks; their blood spurted out of their severed arteries, landing on Tris’s dress.
“Do you have any idea how much time I wasted with stupid fittings for this!?” Tris raged brown eyes ablaze, “ENOUGH!” Tris reached inside her sleeves drawing five flat throwing knives, once they left her hand in a forceful swing, they either pinned someone against a wall or hit a fatal spot. Feeling for the strap at her ankle she launched more flying daggers at the nearest five. She continued with the sword, saving the knives for danger.
The majority of the noble men had more than once handled a sword; of course there were three extraordinaires. Rae’s been trained by some of the greatest martial artists, nearly the best fighter in the capital, bare handed, or armed. Sin fenced since he could hold a light sword, soon becoming the court’s best fencer. Sen on the other hand played with dirty peasants the whole time, learning their tricks; he fought with skills like that of a thief or rather an assassin.
A back with a sense of familiarity leaned on Tris’ as they drew encouragement from each other; they both rasped for air, scanning the battlefield for check of morale, they broke even, an exhausted company against dozens of armed swordsmen.
“Are you still okay, Countess,” Sin’s relaxing voice soothed her.
“I’m fine, but I still blame Phiona,” she stabbed a soldier in the gut, kicking the corpse to free her bloodied sword, “she nagged me into millions of fittings and etiquette lessons for the past half fortnight. Else wise,” she gasped, striking with both hands, ”this wouldn’t be so hard now would it?”
“Aren’t you dominantly right handed?” Sin asked in concern, throwing two knuckleheaded soldiers against the wall and stabbing a third, the blood flowing from point to hilt when he held it up.
“Eh?” Tris shrugged, briskly wiping the trickling sweat with the back of her left hand hurriedly, “happens.”
“Do you have to ask?” Rae shouted to Sin as he made his way towards them. To Tris he asked more gentle, “What happened to you right arm? Is it bad?”
“Why is it that I can’t hide anything from any of you two-three,” she corrected herself seeing Sen cut his way in. “I got a light scratch on my forearm, it’s nothing,” Tris tried to sound confident. Rae grabbed her right sleeve, uncovering her skin till he saw the wound.
“A light scratch?” Rae sounded nearly enraged, focusing once again on the battle they faced,” one would usually call that a bloody gash.” The Twitch’s attack wasn’t as light as she’d predicted a steady stream of scarlet made its way from forearm to fingertips. “Sen?”
“You’re not going to tell me to take her out in some back route are you?” Sen gasped, slicing a neck in an uppercut.
“Yes I am,” came the reply, “she’s hurt and out of practice. Don’t tell you’re not worried and want her to stay.”
“Do it and I’ll hunt you down,” Tris retorted, “no matter what, I will not leave my own behind.” Her reserved adrenaline kicked in and she returned to the fighting, refusing to admit to weakness also refusing to use her left arm, as she hacked at the soldiers with her light sword, blood pulsed through the open wound; Tris was nearly entirely covered in blood.
“Sorry, but,” Sen apologized, taking her by the left arm, launching throwing daggers, ten at a time, a path cleared for escape, but Tris fought him every bit of the way, making the task as difficult as possible. Tris had flung her swords to the ground, to fight him off without causing wounds but Sen was taller and sneakier.
A glint of fear crept into her sharp eyes, suddenly she yanked Sen’s broadswords from his loose grasp, catching him off guard, she pulled him past her, she replaced the sport he had been only a moment ago, her vulnerable back facing an intruder, feeling sharp metal bite into her back, she bit back a cry of agony. Fortunately when Tris rushed to shield Sen, she had turned to a certain angle, the wound had only produced an opening from her upper right side to just barely above her waist, directly next to her spinal cord, if she had not turned that would have cut her spine causing a fatal wound. She’d sent the broad swords flying before she was attacked, the faithful weapon had pinned the attacker firmly to the blood splattered wall, by the neck. However much she wished at that moment more than she ever had, that someone would cuddle her, destroying the pain, searing like fire, she wanted to collapse onto the floor and find rest, but she couldn’t, she absolutely refused leaving everyone behind.
“Tris!” Sen screamed in fear, “Are you alright? Please be,” he lifted her head to his eye level as he knelt next to Tris on one knee.
“I’m fine,” Tris assured him, “just barely nicked my dress, annoying ass that was.” Tris tried to come to her feet before someone noticed and attacked, she faltered and succeeded the second time. She snatched a sword from the ground, no one knew whether that was a sword of one of her victims or her allies’, but she took it up anyways, and for the first time noticing the weight in a sword. No matter, still have to keep going, just keep going you ninny! she said to herself.
“You are definitely going with me,” Sen claimed, worried more than anything, losing her would destroy his world, not including if she was gone, their morale would have been destroyed as well, and the end of their empire would have been more than near.
“Sen, I’m not leaving, never going to,” arrogance and infallibility gleamed in her eyes, she fought as if in trance, nearly berserk she began making her slow path towards the door, the barricaded front door. The more she saw blood drawn, the more infuriated she became, unable to contain it she gave a scream of fury and charged through, countless corpses lay in the path behind her, she dodged and ran past those who didn’t realize she was about to kill them all.
“Tris! Get back here! Dammit where is that damned imperial guard when you need it?” Sen swore, running after her in a craze, butchering yet more insolent enemies, he didn’t care what happened to himself just needed to stop Tris from sacrificing herself by killing that cursed general alone.
Finally, Tris was at the door, she kicked it open with a bang and rushed to end his life, having underestimated him, she was flung back by a counterattack. Her sudden stop had caused her blood to rush even more rapidly out of her wounds, she gave no notion of tiring, several more encounters with the evil man took place, attacking, defending, countering, they paused to catch their breaths, eyeing each other. Giving a war cry, Tris attacked again, the stupid man who still refused to wear gauntlets got cut on his arm, but if what she wanted was him dead, that was not going to help much. Sen found her as she once again advanced, seeing the danger he assaulted the general’s guards, with this the general realized that the noble’s began to win as his exhausted troops were faltering, and it wouldn’t be long until the king and his army returned from his pleasant hunt with his queen and an elk or two. The general’s attack became more difficult to doge and evade for Tris and on top of that, Tris’s eyes refused to focus, she shook her head and widened her eyes, forcing them to focus on her target, only moments of peace from her eyes did her head become unpleasantly dizzy, she hoped to stab him at last, but the dizziness stopped her from perceiving that he had clearly dodged her. She raised her sword panting and then-
The imperial guards were quite relaxed, riding with their Majesties gleefully smiling in the bright sun; banners were peacefully flying in the air flapping in the wind. The empress’s hair whipped about, the young king rode with a commanding air about him, everyone’s mood was bright that afternoon, for the royal couple had shot an elk and his dear cousin the deer. Trading compliments back and forth, the army had reached within the city gates, corpses and burnt flags, the smell of fresh blood and burnt human flesh, the cries of a lone infant it overwhelmed the emperor and his empress. They rode forth to the palace hoping for a less gruesome view, to be horribly disappointed in the end, as the emperor dismounted, he assisted his queen, shocked they demanded an answer. The answer had come, their ally had broken the treaty, they attacked while knowing the king and his army were celebrating in the mountains, unable to receive notice of this destructive disruption. Also reported, the ballroom was infested with corpses, although few of the gentlemen that fought were murdered in the fight to defend their kingdom, all were wounded, the king was enraged to the point of being inconsolable.
As Tris raised her sword in one last stand the sunlight blinded her and she fell to the floor, the horrid knight gave a cackle and smirked, of course it was obvious he needed to retreat but he still got the witch that made him an imperfect man and unable to successfully take over the castle. The knight commanded his squire to take her with them and they retreated on horseback, Sen sprinted to his prize horse as swiftly as anyone and chased after them, once they were in a safe area, they seized Sen, dragging both prisoners with them, they returned to their camp and barracks.
Awoken to an icy splash of water across her dirty face, Tris’s eyes snapped open, finding she was bound and gagged, thrown to the floor inside a tent, facing the disoriented man who called himself an honorable knight. Across the tent she saw Sen tied to a chair gagged as well, he had been thoroughly whipped, some whip marks cracked and began to bleed, he was well over the brink of exhaustion already.
The ignorant general bored Tris by cussing at her and fumed about in the tent as if the tent wasn’t stuffy enough under the burning sun, he finally comprehended Tris’s attitude as she rolled her eyes in boredom, she was numb by the rough binding on her body, so she lay there bored. Tris’s elegant face under the dirt and grime was slapped by the foul hand of that foolish mercenary, she became immediately enraged, to be humiliated by this idiot was infuriating.
“Whipping him wasn’t enough,” the cockeyed man told her, “we’ll just have to see what happens when he sees all of the spirit sucked out of his precious little girlfriend. Then he can die.” The disgusting man squatted down and started to unbutton her dress, even gagged and bound Tris fought him, rolling and squishing his hands under here. He cursed and gave up unbuttoning, he began tearing at her clothes then, mumbled sounds came from Tris’s bound mouth as she tried to scream in terror. Sen fought against his bonds as hard as he could, trying to hobble towards the struggling girl still tied to his chair as if it would do any good. Two guards stopped him and when he tried to look down in shame, they forced his eyelids open, this was more than torture.
“Where did they go!?” Sin screamed in frustration, “I should have gone with them, I should have stayed with her, what if she got kidnapped? Then what will happen?” After seeing the king and his queen they all changed into decent clothes but refused to dress their wounds, he kicked the helmet across the yard and resumed releasing his fury onto the sturdy plum tree, it shuddered, leaves falling and plums plopped onto the courtyard.
“Stop, this isn’t helping,” Rae was leaning on the pear tree facing Sin, “Right now all we can do is plead the king and hope for a search party. Coming?”
“S-sir!” a worn messenger gasped for air, “we have reports on the enemy base encampment. It is also reported that they captured a girl and a man when they retreated.”
“There they are!” Rae started at a run, “Will you hurry up Sin?” he looked back at the confused young man, blood running across his knuckles. “Trade off with another runner and tell him to request the presence of their Majesties, it’s to be classified as urgent above all.” he commanded the obedient messenger. “And you hurry up if you want to save any of the two.” he called to Sin already halfway across the yard, sprinting to the horse stalls.
Without the usual pampering, the two mounted the warhorses built for speed without warning and galloped out of the stalls, they drove them to the maximum as they left the general’s mansion, heading for the besieged palace. Once they reached the palace gates they were admitted but not into the main room where the emperor judged cases and solved problems of the kingdom, out of impatience and frustration, Sin nearly raised arms with the frightened guards. Finally there were admitted once the runner was able to fight his way to report to the emperor, already present were some of the rescued ladies, they were unaware of the fighting when trapped the walls were conveniently sound proof.
Among the mourning ladies was Phiona, crying over the various voices of everyone else though there was nothing worth her mourns as she lost no one dear.
“Where is he? Oh, for my life where is he?” she sobbed as if in real terror. “Sen, why did you leave me here all alone, why did you abandon me?” she continued in the painstakingly irritating voice. “Why didn’t you take me with you? I loved you!” she cried to the open air. The other women who truly had lost someone dear gathered around her in understanding, but that spoiled, pampered little girl needed none of the comforting. “Come back here you, you’re not supposed to court someone and then not care about them,” she wailed even louder.
“Oh shut the damn cursed hell up!” the hot head Lan walked up to her in anger, slapping her across the face. “Sen’s not the only one missing, have you ever once mentioned Tris, she protected you, helped you in rough times, been there when you needed someone to talk to, and you haven’t once cried for her. What kind of a monster are you? Selfish brat, go get yourself pampered to hell.”
“Wahhh!” was the response as she cried even louder as if daring him to speak any further. Her voice echoed in the halls and into the high ceiling. “He’s yelling at me when I’m at the lowest point!” she pouted loudly.
“Besides selfish there is no other word to describe you except spoiled!” he hollered striking her on the other cheek, now she was the pink princess with nothing more pink but her two swollen eyes and both her cheeks. “Sen is not your man, he did not court you he was only doing what manners asked. Nobody doesn’t know that he likes Tris, it doesn’t matter what happens he will always follow her anywhere. And you’re not the only one that is missing someone, my fair man was killed in there, his wife is weeping but she’s not wailing and screaming like you, are your tears even genuine?” he accused.
And louder still she cried, shrieking, screaming, nothing out of the ordinary once you got used to it. The empress strived to contemplate the situation they faced with her eyes closed, they snapped open as she grumbled through gritted teeth, “Luna! Stella!,” she called her loyal ladies in waiting, “Take her back to her quarters to rest.”
Rae and Sin hurriedly blurted out the situation to the emperor in haste, skipping formalities. “-and it is believed they have captured Countess Tris and Sen as well,” Rae ended.
“I wanna go!” Phiona pleaded as the two delicate maids had trouble dragging her out of the wide door frame.
“No!” the emperor, empress and Lan called.
“Stop being a baby and leave it to us,” Irai said cruelly and waved the maids on to take her away and rest their ears, they nodded and pried her fingers from the door frame, she screamed as they pried and continued to wail until she was around the corner, her pathetic voice faded out. “My liege I am willing to call together the mercenaries my father had hired to over take this evil enemy camp,” he suggested to the emperor.
“Then it is decided, Lan take some of my men as well with Rae and Sin following, you will destroy this enemy camp and retrieve our people!” the emperor encouraged.
Without a second to spare all men who wished to help further ran out the door, Rae and Sin took the liberty of collecting the king’s men and lead them to join with the others, with all due haste they were assembled and instead of a steady march they charged towards the near camp.
Having already torn Tris’s clothing to shreds the horrid knight began undoing his own trousers, the helpless woman inched away as fast as possible disregarding the pain she felt. She knew it was hopeless since that man could cover the distance in less than a second, still she had to try. He resumed to reach for her and released her from the gag, he attempted to clamp his mouth over hers, but she turned her face and nearly successfully kneed him in the gut. I refuse to let this asshole get my first kiss. Not in a million years, not till I’m dead. If he does I’ll bite his tongue off. And if h-he does anything else to me I’ll just kill myself! I don’t care! she thought in anger.
Sen’s fight while in attached to a chair became more violent he continued to fight against the two guards, he was determined to free himself, he didn’t know how but he knew he had to do something. The more time he wasted in that chair the more that man advanced on her, no matter how hard Sen fought it came to nothing, he was still trapped and Tris was helpless as well. The man cussed at her again and got on top of her now and she screamed for all she was worth, Phiona apparently was not the only one who could scream.
This cannot be all over I can’t even kill myself now, no! My life can’t end like this, this is just humiliating over anything, Tris thought in fear. The general came even nearer but to her immense relief someone’s foot sent him flying over to the other side of the tent, smacking into a pole that kept the tent standing.
“I’m so sorry, I was late,” Rae whispered to her, cutting the ropes binding her wrists and ankles, he noticed the new bruises and cuts she now bore, he shed his black cloak, wrapping her up and carried her out, meanwhile Sin ran to stomp on that idiot’s gut and crippled left his arm that still had fingers, Lan freed Sen who blamed himself mercilessly as he was released. Tris was horrified and traumatized but Sen was no less, precious tears streamed down her dirt streaked cheeks, her voice cracked too much to even cry. “I think the king’s torturers might want a shot with him before he admits to top treason, don’t you think Sin?” Sin finally stopped kicking his gut to put him in chains.
“You’re gonna regret the day you were born,” Sin spat at him; there was no way that “general” was going to try escaping at all he was crippled now.
“She can’t ride like this, you guys go on ahead, just send a carriage or something,” Rae told them, he kissed Tris on the forehead as they walked through the tent flap, chaos was everywhere in the enemy camp, corpses covered the land, bodies grew spears and the glint of the sun off bloody swords were everywhere.
Every stupid mercenary saw their wonderful leader in chains and in such humiliation as he had not even a scrap of clothing on, Sin smirked, “Here’s your great leader, those who surrender might live but otherwise,” he waved a hand dismissively, “kill them all.” All of them immediately fell to their knees and bowed their heads in submission. In reality they would not have seriously killed them all; they needed some prisoners to help point out who was behind it all, mostly after the work of torturers unless they cooperated that is.
Lan left to round up his men and the prisoners, making sure to put the leader in a cage, the imperial army raided their supplies, taking weapons armor, grain, meats, and dried vegetables, and any valuables they possessed. As they waited, Rae set Tris on a bench, her head on his lap, she seemed to be asleep, Sin attempted to comfort Sen on a near bench, however, Sen continued to blame himself, knowing that killing himself would do no good whatsoever, he could only mope.
Somehow, Rae had managed to get a hold of a clean handkerchief and a pot of water, boiled to be sure of cleanliness, soaking the piece of cloth into the water; he began to clean Tris’s weary face with it, revealing a very gentle expression on her face as she slept. Naturally, Sin and Sen would complain that they weren’t allowed to help Tris, but Sen was too ashamed and Sin’s hands were shaking from his infuriation towards these rebellions too much to be of any help. Rae steadily began to clean out the cuts and wounds on her arms, especially her right forearm, the only good those ropes on her wrists did was cut off blood circulation, her wounds had started forming scabs but too much dirt was trapped in there to risk infection. By the time he had steadily and gently cleaned her right arm, the pot of water was an ugly brown color, blood and dirt mixed into it, one of the noblemen who accompanied them ordered a soldier to drop the corpses and replace the water. Just as steady as the right arm, Rae cleaned her left but he would go no further than that, once Tris woke up to realize what had happened she would be beet red with embarrassment but if Rae tried to clean out wounds on her back she would indeed be very red, red with much anger and would be on her feet chasing them with her sword waving in the air.
By this time, Sen had calmed down, the army was in place, the prisoners in chains, those dead were buried, and then they marched, Rae informed them that he would carry Tris and they should hurry and get a carriage, Sin, Sen, and Lan volunteered to walk alongside them, Lan named the next high ranking, loyal noblemen to lead the soldiers, mostly cavalry back.
Before leaving, Rae dripped a few drops of water down her throat and onto her lips, they were beginning to crack. Tris and company began their slow journey back to the capitol.
“I hate the sun,” Tris murmured drowsily, everyone grinned if she could still voice her negative opinions on the heat of the sun, she would be fine, “Why does your cloak just have to be black, so damn hot,” she complained.
It was then that they noticed that a cloud had fortunately blocked the sun for awhile now, “Sen, check her forehead,” Rae instructed, “with her amount of wounds it’s only natural to get a fever, but…”
“I remember now,” Sen remarked checking her forehead, “oh shoot, she has a high fever and lost too much blood.”
They increased their pace until finally the dry dirt in the distance told them that the carriage arrived, in moments Tris was laid inside and Lan took the reins, the carriage flew over bumps violently but they all knew she was in grave need of a doctor. They stopped at the gates for Sin and Sen to get their own horses lessening the burden of the carriage, they headed for the palace, that was where the best healers were, and she was definitely going to get one from the king and queen.
The healers mainly reserved for the emperor and the empress were summoned to do their best saving Tris once the situation had been explained. The woman healer kicked out all of the men to dress her wounds on her back. As this was happening, countless maids rushed in and out, entering with basins of warm water and exiting with basins covered in blood, others coming with yards of clean cloth and leaving with dirty, blood covered cloth. The four gentlemen became restless and nervous, fussing with the healer assistants tending to their wounds from the previous battles, eventually Lan left saying he needed to explain to his father why he had taken all of the hired mercenaries, actually he was fleeing from the healers.
The three restless men paced about in the dead of night, even the cunning Rae couldn’t take the tension, and Sin was just about to start punching the pillar again out of impatience. “This is the palace and that’s not a tree,” Rae mentioned before Sin’s fist met the stone.
“And besides you wouldn’t want to get that bleeding again now would you? Cause they,” Sen pointed to the healers in the corner, “are still here if you haven’t noticed.”
Finally the rustling of fabric against the door indicated that the healer was done and coming out, she was sweat soaked her light brown hair stuck to her skin, “Well that was one heck of a battle.”
“W-what of her?” they all asked.
“Oh, it’s nothing really,” the doctor answered, “as long as she wakes up from her fever she’ll be fine. Mostly she only has small cuts and some bruises but she has a huge cut from her side towards her back and a long cut on her right arm. What hell did you people put her through?” she asked.
“She volunteered to fight alongside us,” Sin answered relieved that she would finally be alright.
“She is one strong girl,” the doctor said as she sipped the tea her assistant poured for her, “for a lady to take all of that pain and not scream at all, but I think her lips are more than cracked, she bit them when she didn’t want to scream. She didn’t even squeak when we applied the disinfecting salve on her wounds. I even heard you four when they put that stuff on you.”
The three of them turned a little red but they just wanted to see Tris now. “Can we see her now?” Sen asked.
“Yes, but make sure to give her fresh air and don’t move her much,” the healer warned as she left.
They raced to see what had become of their childhood friend, Tris was changed into a light blue gown, luckily they hadn’t put her into a white gown then she would have looked like a ghost. She had bandages on her left cheek, a long bandage wrapped over her entire right forearm, and more than a dozen other bandages around the rest of her body, but they could see not much of it since she was under a white blanket.
The three each grabbed a chair and sat next to her, Rae to her right, Sin to her left, and Sen at her feet, two maids still scurried about changing the damp cloths keeping her forehead cool, helping reduce her fever. After not long the two maids tired themselves out and sat together near the door, they were both dressed in a light yellow dress, not in a puffy one though, they were rushed to do too many things with the countess to afford to wear one of those they could easily trip from. One still held the water basin and the other a damp towel, asleep they guarded the door. And the three men fared by not much better, they slept near midnight.
Opening her eyes, she felt like she was burning and if her muscles weren’t refusing to move as she wished, she would have thrown the covers to the other side of the room, as if summer wasn’t bad enough. She saw what weighed it down as well, Rae on her right held her hand and his head on the edge of her mattress, Sin on her left also had her hand and his head on the edge of her bed, Sen was at the end of her bed, his head propped on both hands, his arms propped on her bed frame. She tried to call them up, dawn was beginning to approach, but her throat was dry as a desert, she coughed when she tried to talk and kept coughing until Sen woke and ran for the water pitcher. Never, Tris thought to herself, never did I think I would cough like that, it’s too ladylike for my taste, and I need water!
Sen was beginning to locate the cups but Tris tried to grab the water but her hands were prisoners of Rae and Sin, “WAKE UP!” she croaked as loud as she could, but it didn’t matter how loud as long as it had the desired effect, they both woke up, their heads springing from the bed rubbing their eyes in confusion as if they didn’t know where she was. They let go of her hands once they remembered what happened. Then she grabbed the pitcher from Sen and chugged the cool water down her parched throat.
“Slow down,” Sin mumbled sleepily, “you’re going to choke like that.”
“Mm, that tastes good,” Tris giggled once she finished, “I can’t believe it I had to get rescued by you dorks yesterday. Ah, but that was fun,” smiling she gave the pitcher back to Sen, “and you did what you could, stop blaming yourself or I’ll hurt you once I can stand again,” she directed to him. “Help me up,” she raised her arms waiting for him to pull her up.
“Doctor said don’t move,” Sen said evilly, denying her freedom from her bed.
“Yeah… something like that… goodnight…” Rae and Sin mumbled their heads falling back on the bed yawning.
“No, get up,” she whined, “wake up wake up wake up,” she took the pitcher and waved it dangerously above their heads, seeing Sen’s bemused expression, she carefully poured some down each of their necks. Shocked they woke up actually looking awake then.
“I’m up, I’m up!” they declared.
“Good,” she returned the pitcher to Sen once again, “now help me up, I feel like I tumbled down a rocky mountain and cracked every bone in my body.”
“Doct-“ they all said.
“I know I know but you know me I hate this help me,” she pleaded. “Or I’ll just roll off or something but I will leave this bed,” she threatened.
“I don’t know which is worse,” Sin stretched, “being her savior or her servant, but no matter seems like we’re both. Alright princess what do you want to do today?”
“Breakfast first?” Rae suggested, no need to ask that would definitely been the right choice, they felt like they hadn’t eaten in ages.
“Hey can you hand me that basin?” Tris asked Sin pointing at the empty bronze wash basin on the table, “and the scissors over there,” she pointed at the metal scissors her maids usually used for needle work. Once she got what she wanted, she banged them together; producing ringing sounds to wake anybody up, the two women lying on the floor next to the door woke with a start.
“No, don’t kill me,” one of the maids murmured in her sleep imagining the fighting and being under siege again.
“Rise and shine, now help your lady dress already, I want out of this room.”
“C-coming,” they yawned rising, putting the basin and towel aside, shooing the three out again.
“Seems like she forgot all about what state she was in when we rescued her,” Sin remarked, wiping his face with a damp towel, he handed it to Rae next.
“I’m guessing she wouldn’t want to remember especially taking it as we’re known her since,” he paused rinsing the towel, “since we were what ten?”
“Yeah, ten, she was the only girl who flat out refused to wear dresses and just played in the dirt with us,” Sen reminded.
“I think we should keep this out of conversations and when we’re supposed to explain stuff just leave it at we found her and Sen and captured the stupid rebel,” Sin said as Tris emerged from her room, now they saw more bandages and her right arm in a sling. She was casually dressed in blue trousers and a long shirt, “Breakfast?”
“It’s coming, so how bad are you people, any serious hits?” she asked when her maid helped her reach the chair.
“No, none of us, just some cuts, but how’d you get that huge thing on your waist?” Rae reported, drinking some cool water.
“Oh, I blame you,” she said taking his cup and draining it, “your fault you told Sen to make an extravagant escape with me, then he left his backside wide open, and I had to save his butt.” Tris looked around the room, something wasn’t right, missing, her eyes grew sharper and more scheming, “So,” she drawled on, “was the weaponry really that short of supplies, to start raiding the countess’s staff, sword, pose trident, javelin, crossbow, glaive?” her left eyebrow rose.
“Um, Rae’s father is the prime minister go ask him,” Sen stammered.
“Uh, but Sin’s father is the general, you should ask him,” Rae refilled his cup with more water.
“H-hey! Ditchers,” Sin accused the both of them; they shrugged as if saying, oh well. “Um, Princess?”
“Not a princess, try angry lady.”
“Well pretty lady,” Sin amended, “doctor said don’t move too much so we kinda took all of the weapons off your walls and,” he looked down at the table, “hid them,” he said sheepishly.
“I want them back by the time I’m done eating, or else I’ll know why now won’t I,” she threatened, leaving them behind she went for the door, to the garden, grabbing a book. Around the garden were some mini pillars with the height of three or four feet, a foot in length and width, each were white and connected with a shorter wall these formed a nice border. Tris often climbed atop these and read or thought, sometimes simply wanting to see the sunset, with an arm in a sling, it was difficult for her to get on top. Someone easily lifted her up and set her on top of one in front of her favorite bell flowers, she guessed Sin, “Hate being short,” she grumbled sticking her tongue out at him.
“Seriously how do you feel, any aching pain that you can’t take?” he asked concerned.
“No, not really, but I hate this part, the healing of scabs is so annoying,” she complained, “but you still owe me my weapons,” she added.
“Darn,” he sat on the short wall forming the border, even with an advantage of a foot, Tris was still a midget compared to Sin, “but then again it never works. But you really can’t do any heavy work until you heal,” he said sternly facing her, waving an irritating finger at her, annoyed Tris bit it until he whelped.
“Lalala,” she continued flipping through the pages of her book wondering what else they might take away from her, but she didn’t care she’d get around it if they didn’t let her use weapons she’ll just take a piece of wood and used it as a practice sword. There was always something she could do with her power of makeshift items.
To be continued…
Several servants arrived with silver platters of light food for a nice breakfast, cups of tea and sugar, plates and utensils. Tris ravenously hopped off of her little seat, forgetting about her arm, nearly straining it once again, she lost her balance for just a moment, catching the edge of Sin’s sleeve, she was hoisted upright. Smiling broadly, she walked over to the clean table set out in the grass in wide strides, sitting herself down on a metal stool; she waited for the others to join her. Soon enough they did and the four of them joked around and dreaded reporting to their majesties so they stalled as much as possible. Surprisingly, Tris had absolutely no problem using her left arm for most daily activities save lifting heavy objects, having finished her share she sat back listening to their odd tales, laughing cruelly at their unfortunate mishaps.
The table had been cleared and taken away, and the countess decided to sit against a large plum tree trunk and read in its refreshing shade cast by the glaring sun. Luckily enough, there was somewhat of a breeze, enough to blow Tris’s bangs into her view and have her constantly push it behind her ears. Her dark, thick hair had grown well into the length of her back, Tris had found it pointless with many hairstyles so she chose one, tie up the hair from the sides into a tail at the back of her head, with the rest of her hair free. The others accompanied this little girl and continued their telling of tales, soon enough Sen noticed that Tris hadn’t flipped a page in a while and nudged her. With that slight nudge her back against the tree trunk fell to the side, obviously she had fallen asleep and had no notion of rising from her slumber.
Everyone knew to be silent, instead of bothering with calling for a litter, Sin cautiously carried her back into her bedroom and carefully placed her on her gentle bed, slowly drawing the covers over her injured body. Even having seen her for the entire afternoon, everyone still winced seeing her vulnerable sight, wishing they had done something before to protect her, but before that thought got anywhere what she had said about killing them if they blamed themselves knocked it out. Regardless of her cuts and bruises as well as her arm in a sling, Tris violently twisted in her sleep, turning and kicking her blankets off as usual. It was nothing strange about Tris’s violence once she was settled in bed, there was nearly no single night in which she did not kick or turn, throwing her covers across the room.
“I was beginning to think it weird,” Rae said remaining in her chamber, “even I’m tired, just about no possibility she could stay that energetic. At least it wouldn’t last for long.”
“She will be as she will,” Sin commented leaving her bedroom, obviously waiting for the others to follow. “It’s just like her to act like nothing happened then suddenly fall into a deep sleep in moments under a tree, still with her book out.”
