Spice
Thread Topic: Spice
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What if Linnus branded/tattooed the mark on their members? That way they could always find them, and maybe it could be part of some sort of ceremony where you truly join Linnus))
Ander recognized the symbol on the hilt of the knife. He knew it because ages ago, he had trained with weapons bearing the same exact mark. He knew it because it had been printed on the clothes he had worn everyday during training. It was the same symbol that had once meant refuge and freedom for an orphaned child, but now symbolized the shackles he could never be free from. Linnus.
He ripped the knife out of the wall, sending splinters flying. It was clean and polished. Beautiful, in the way a siren is beautiful. Dangerous but enchanting. And in Ander's hands, it was so much more than dangerous. It was deadly.
"Show yourself!" he snapped, his grip on the hilt tightening. An intelligent, glimmering pair of dark eyes met his own as a rugged but rather attractive man stepped out of the shadows. He ran a hand through his long, brown hair and looked at Kenna with a cruel smile.
"Hello, darling. Remember me?" he drawled, running his hand along the dull end of his blade. "I must say, when I saw you hobble into little Andy's house-" Ander tensed, "-I could barely believe my eyes. When he let you in, well, it was the icing on the cake, wasn't it? What has he told you his name was, hm? Johnny? David? Gregory, perhaps?" -
(I like that idea)
Kenna instinctively took a step back, terrified of the man. Why did he have knives? Was he trying to kill her? Why was he trying to kill her? What had she done? And what was he talking about, what had Andy told her his name was?
She quickly swallowed down her emotions, the grip on her cane somehow tightening even more than before, so that her knuckles were ghostly white.
"Who are you?" she asked instead of answering his question. -
Yesss maybe on the neck? Which is why Ander wears such high collars))
The man laughed, a raspy and unpleasant sound. He looked between her and Ander, hunched over slightly as he leaned against one of the stable walls. "I'm your assassin, sweetheart. But I think I'll throw in little Andy here too. Linnus's little golden boy," he sneered, looking at Ander from between his dirty locks of hair. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this. Every time you got promoted, every time some girl doted on you, every time you got a good score made me sick," he growled, spitting on the floor to show his disgust. "But now I've caught you. Mister Goody-Two-Shoes, turned into a traitor. I'm going to have fun with you and the little girl."
Ander's eyes flashed angrily, rage boiling in his chest. He inched closer, slowly closing the gap between him and the man. "That's not going to happen," he hissed. He glanced briefly at Kenna, feeling a painful pang in his chest. She'd probably think she was a monster once she put two and two together. Maybe he was a monster. He had to remind himself that he didn't care what she thought about him. He swallowed past his feelings and emotions, reaching for rationality and logic.
Was she his friend or his enemy? Would he protect her or turn her in? He should have know that Linnus would never let him escape their grasp, their watchful eye. He would never really be free. In that moment, he made his choice. He chose mercy over murder. He chose honor over glory. He chose Kenna, a stranger he hardly knew over Linnus. He gave her a look like "I'll explain this later", before whipping around and glaring at the man.
"Charlie, you stupid mule," Ander growled with an irritated tone. "Me, a traitor? I was merely gaining her trust! I was waiting for the right moment to take her alive, so Linnus can interrogate her. You dare attack me in my own stable, like some common horse thief?"
The man blinked in surprise for a few moments, his anger now mingled with confusion. "But I thought-"
"No," Ander interrupted, seething with barely contained anger. "You never think. Now haul your hide over to my horses and get them ready to ride."
Charlie hesitated for a moment and Ander jabbed his knife in a violent motion. "Now!" he barked. -
As soon as the first few sentences were out of the man's mouth, Kenna's heart stopped and her eyes widened. Andy was meant to kill her? He had lied to her? The man who she had trusted and had felt completely comfortable with was an assassin after her?
She began backing up closer to the door, when Andy looked at her. It was a look of genuine...not hostility.
But the next words out of his mouth completely contradicted that look. Kenna was confused. Who was he acting for? Was he acting like he was still trustworthy to her, or acting as an ally to this Charlie?
Either way, she had to get out of there. She was standing in the presence of two...two murderers. Both, actually one and a half, she decided, of whom were after her.
She rushed out of the stable, as fast as her broken leg could take her. She went to head deeper in the forest, hoping to get as far away as possible. -
Charlie let out a guttural growl, springing after her. "Ander, you oaf! She's getting away!" he snarled. The man leapt over tree roots like a deranged hunting dog, focused only on the kill. He never saw his own throwing knife flying to meet him, burying itself hilt-deep into his back. He toppled forward, landing on the forest floor with a heavy thud. His last thoughts were of his mother and the apple tart she used to make when he was young before all slipped to darkness.
Ander sprang the woods with much more grace than Charlie had, stopping to retrieve the hunting knife. The man let out a feeble groan as the blade was removed before slipping back unconscious. "You'll thank me for this one day, Charlie Buford," he muttered, wiping the blood off with his shirt. "One day."
Once he had tucked the throwing knife into his belt and relieved Charlie off his other weapons, he continued following Kenna's frantic traces, flying over tree roots and brush like a stag. He was not a stranger in the forest, with heavy feet and destructive hands. He was one with it, yet another light-footed creature struggling to survive another day. As he ran, his gaze was wary as he glanced around the shadowy woods. I need to find her before something else does. -
Kenna kept going, despite her sore legs, from never using them for this purpose, despite her hurting lungs, from never exerting herself to this extent, despite her heart screaming for her to stop because it simply couldn't beat any faster. As much as she wanted to stop and rest, she knew she was much slower than the average person. She needed to keep going if she was going to get away from what looked like exceptionally trained men.
Kenna started tearing up from the horrid feelings of betrayal and fear running through her. No, she couldn't cry now. Her life was at stake. She needed to be able to see. She needed to -
"AGH!" Kenna suddenly fell over a tree root. Oh no. At least one of the two men was bound to hear that. Panicked, she scrambled on the ground to find her cane. Once she had it, she got herself up as fast as she could. She didn't even bother to try and hide the fact that a person had fallen in that spot, she needed to run. As she was off again, she hoped the darkness would be enough to hide her, but she doubted that it would be. -
Ander heard Kenna's cry and he swallowed down a feeling of horror, pushing himself further on. She couldn't be very far ahead now. "She's not dead. She's not dead. If she had been attacked, she would have screamed," he told himself. He launched himself over the tree root she'd tripped on, registering for that brief moment that she must have fallen based on the marks she'd left. Not much further now.
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A creature lingered in the shadows, searching and searching tirelessly for something to ease its hunger. It heard a cry pierce the quiet and it clicked its pincers hungrily. Fresh meat! Its head tilted to the side, its almost invisible holes for ears tuned to hear unfamiliar sounds. There! Crashing in the undergrowth, it could hear its prey. It half-scuttled, half-slithered to the sound, a flash of glistening armor and rows of legs. Soon, it would have its meal. -
(Hold on. A flying snake-spider-centipede?)
Kenna was barely paying attention to her surroundings. All she was focused on was going as fast as she could in a straight line so as to not end up going in circles.
She didn't know when she was going to stop going. Maybe when she dropped down from exhaustion? She had no idea. All she knew was that she needed to get as far away from Andy's house as possible. -
Basically a very large and wiggly centipede, not flying tho))
Y'know how centipedes do the little squirmy run thing))
The beast was close, so close to its prey. Just a little further and it would be theirs. It could smell its victim's fear and its glossy black eyes were fixated on the prize. With a loud shriek that sounded like metal scraping against metal, it burst through the shadows of the undergrowth in front of its target. Covered in natural armor and thicker than a tree trunk, the vicious creature snapped its pincers which were each as long as a human arm. Finally, it would feed upon a tasty catch and have enough to feed its young. It lunged, preparing itself for the sweet taste of flesh.
Ander finally caught up and was struck with horror. A monstrous centipede, with rows and rows of sickly dark legs had reared up and was lunging at Kenna. He aimed the throwing knife for one of the bulbous eyes. "Duck!" he shouted. -
(Do centipedes have pincers?)
Kenna screamed when the giant bug suddenly came out of nowhere. She'd never seen anything like it. She was terrified. She'd always had an aversion to bugs, but this topped the cake.
When Andy yelled at her, she was jerked back to her senses. She ducked down. She started making her way away from the monster, definitely not wanting to stand it its path. -
I think some do! Whatever the case is, they can definitely bite))
Ander let the throwing knife fly, hitting the creature directly in the eye. It let out an ear-grating shriek, writhing and screeching loud enough for the whole forest to hear. It frantically thrashed around, trying to catch Ander in its gaping and frothing maw. He ran towards Kenna, crouching down as the earth rattled under his feet. "Hop on!" he shouted over the mayhem. "It's the only way we'll go fast enough!" -
Kenna did exactly as he said. She liked her chances better if she went with Andy than if she stayed with the giant monster. There was a chance, a very very extremely slim chance, that he might not turn her in to this "Linnus," which she supposed was the organization that he and Charlie were a part of. She could only hope.
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Ander got back up with a grunt, holding her as if she weighed as much as a small dog. He ran as fast as he could without tripping, the sounds of his footsteps and evenly paced breathing drowned out by the wails of the massive centipede. He reached the house, stopping so she could slide off and so he could catch his breath.
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As soon as she got off, Kenna took a good few large steps away from him. She couldn't trust him. Frankly, one look that could have been mistranslated wasn't enough. He had saved her from that monster, but he had also said he had the intention of taking her in alive. She wasn't sure how far he was willing to go to keep her alive, but she wasn't taking any chances.
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Ander looked at the terrified expression on her face and leaned against the side of the house for a moment, his face in his hands for a few brief moments before popping back up. "Look, you're probably terrified of me. I wouldn't blame you. I'll explain everything later but if I'm right, more people are coming fast. We don't have any time to waste if we want to make it out of here alive. Can you trust me, just for now?"
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