Katala and the Fox

I was born a long time ago. My parents stole away from the world. I grew up in a cruel world that they tried desperately to prevent me from living in, to prevent me from having to live the life of a slave. I would be able to roam around and play but make no mistake, I would have been a slave to the elven council, and when I turned sixteen I would have gone through a series of tests, and trials, all of which were completely and utterly impossible to survive and complete. The elven council may have told the elves they were with us, but secretly they feared us and they killed us, making sure to go about it in a way where it seemed like they had nothing to do with it.

They would do it when we reached a certain age. Once we turned sixteen, we knew our time was up.

We would be sent outside our village to a cave, and inside it would be a horrible monster. No one knew what type of monster it was, but all we knew, was that it would always kill all who entered. Our lives were built around the council that used us for their own evil purposes, until the day we turned sixteen and were killed.

Only a handful of us lived long enough to have children, and then we would have to suffer as we watched our children have to grow up in the cruel world where there was no joy or happiness in it. Our lives were miserable and even the birth of a newborn could not bring a smile to our faces as they would be brought up as a slave to the council's bidding until their sixteenth year. We hated our existence but the elves knew not of what we suffered so they could not help us. We could never leave our village long enough to go to an elf and tell them of the anguish of our kind. We were always escorted when outside of our village, and kept from speaking to the elves by the council's guards. They, in return, were kept from visiting our village with the simple lie that we craved solitude of our kind. We were born to service the council and die young. No hopes, no dreams, and not one little child ever played pretend or played at all for they were taught at an early age how to fight, how to use knifes and swords, and how to dodge attacks and defend themselves, all from the time they could walk. For years, we lived in misery. No change, and no hope ever appearing.

We did not pray for if there was a god or goddess, they would not have subjected us to this torture. This was the way of my kind for so long. We lived in fear and misery. Waiting 'till we turned sixteen so we could be freed from this living hell through death. Then, everything changed. For a year those of us sixteen, and seventeen where left alone, and so we grew a year older. The council did no longer use us for its own devices, and we were left alone. My kind began to enjoy life as they no longer were forced to do the council's awful bidding and die. And my kind began to believe that times were turning good and things were changing for the better. For the first time in years, a glimmer of hope that their lives would no longer be so cruel and miserable began to grow.

Then, the massacre happened. They came, in the middle of the night on a moonless night, where everything was bathed in darkness. They brought the monster from the caves. No one was safe.

Little children, babies, families, friends all slaughtered. Our homes and our village were burned to the ground, with families in it. The rest were woken up in their sleep by rough hands and beaten before they were killed mercilessly. Daughters and sons watched their parents killed first, and then they came for us, the children. Killing us quickly. It was the darkest day of my kind's existence. My parents had run away with me when I was young a long time ago to hide me and shelter me from the life with no hope that the rest of my kind had, and like a good little girl, I remained hidden just as they told me to do. They taught me how to survive and left so the guards wouldn't be suspicious. So I lived by myself, watching the village and my friends, imagining that I was with them. Then came that horrible night filled with the screams of my people and the ruthless killing of the innocent. I witnessed the slaughter of my kind from my cave outside the village on a hill, and I saw my parents throats ripped out. It was a nightmare from hell come alive.

And I was there to bear witness to it, in the safety of my cave outside of the village. I gathered what little possessions I had and ran with the screams of my people ringing in my ears, knowing that if I stayed, there was a chance they would find me there and if they did I would have no hope of surviving. I ran from my hidden life, my lonely and now destroyed life and built a new one. But it could not cover my old life, the pains and the agony of it. Every night I relived that dark day through relentless nightmares. Every day, the memory's haunted me unless I busied myself. I learned how to make weapons. I was always practicing sword fighting, self-defense, teaching myself karate, and martial arts, boxing, how to wield a knife, bow and arrow, mace, and any and all other possible types of weapons and defense. I practiced blending in to any surroundings, and setting any type of trap, making use of what little I had. I taught myself how to read and write and used books of all kinds that I stole. I learned animal and human science to the point where I could heal and mend almost any injury, and almost every language known to man and magical being. I taught myself how to build even the most complex structures out of the limited items and supplies I might have. I also learned about every kind of magical creature written down, both the monsters and how to defeat them and the friendly ones. I learned thousands of different spells from beginner to very advanced that was way out of capacity for someone my age and yet I mastered the hardest of spells.

I learned how to make potions and brews, healing remedies and poisons that could be completely undetectable. And I learned and mastered all these impossible things for a seven year old to accomplish simply because of one word. Time. I had tons of time to practice and learn. I was agile and quick, nimble and strong, fast and small to fit in small spaces. I was stealthy and silent if I wanted to be, graceful and I had a heart of gold. I was always learning new stuff or practicing fighting and defending myself. This was the only way I could escape my past. I had no friends, no family, nobody. I was all alone in the world. There was no point in my life, no reason that I could see to continue living. The only reason I did it was for my parents. I traveled the world alone, moving from place to place. I was the very last of my kind. I was stronger, smarter, faster, more agile, stealthy, silent, and deadly than the most skilled warrior or assassin and I was only ten years old. I was the ultimate weapon to anyone who could get their hands on me. Luckily, I wasn't the type of person to be spontaneous and draw attention to myself. I kept a low profile and I never allowed myself to grow attached to anyone. Until I met Axel. My whole life was a lonely, painful life that I would not wish on anyone. I was all alone, and living in hell.

Now I am seventeen. I am thin and my hips are small but curvy. My chestnut brown hair streaked with dark brown that flowed wavy down to the small of my back and my deep violet eyes, lightly freckled cheeks, button nose, soft pink lips, straight white teeth, and small ears pointed at the tip made me a beautiful woman who thieves loved to try and tangle with before I snapped their arm in two and kicked their ass. Everything changed when I met Axel, and suddenly, I had a reason to live.

It had been almost a hundred years since her kind's slaughter. Almost. In three days time, it would be the anniversary of the day her people perished along with her old life and her new life was born. Like always, she would spend it with magical animal friends, a good fiction book, and a whole cake with a big bottle of rum. And if she was really feeling festive and needy of a way to forget her past in a way not involving her daily exercise of practicing her fighting skills with many different types of weapons, and her spells and potion making skills, then she would actually hang in the square of whatever village she was in at the time. This time however she was not feeling very festive.

Her birthday was the day after her people's slaughter, which made it ten times worse because it meant at every one of her birthdays she would have the ugly reminder that her parents could never be there. She was miserable, lonely, and depressed. The annoying little voice in her head was no help either. So, sing a sad song and get over it, it said. Easy for it to say, since it was just a voice.

She was walking back from the market when the smell you get from a firecracker that just went off floated to her nose. She walked into a strong warm chest. Startled, she looked up into emerald green eyes and spikey red hair. His chin and cheek bones were sharp and his face thin but not too thin. His teeth were straight and white. His smile was permanently mischievous.

"Sorry." she said, offering a small smile before turning to walk around him. His hand wrapped around her arm, stopping her. He had a strong but gentle grip.

"Wait. It's my fault. I wasn't watching where I was going." He offered me another smile, eyes twinkling.

"Well, whoevers fault it is, it's forgiven." Said another voice. Her eyes widened. She looked up to see another person with long spiky hair that went to below his chin. It was dark brown. Sharp features and straight white teeth with icy blue eyes that weren't harsh or cold like she would have expected. "Come on Axel. We have to go."

Axel laughed. His voice wasn't deep or high but rather in between while his blue eyed friend's was deep.

"Come on Isan, when did you forget how to be polite?" Isan's eyes glittered a little with annoyance, but you could tell they were good friends.

"Well, when you almost run her over in the street, and not me. "

Axel laughed again, before looking at me once more, smiling.

"As I recall, you almost ran me over."

For the first time in her life, she blushed. "I'm sorry. My mind was elsewere."

Axel smiled. "It's okay. I'm Axel." He held out his hand. She took it. "My name's Kata."

Her full name was Katala, but she never told anyone that before and she wasn't planning on starting anytime soon. Axel smiled. Isan stuck his hand out in front of Axel's face and smiled.

"I'm Isan, the fool over there's friend."

Axel laughed. "Who are you calling a fool Isan."

She smiled at the obvious friendship shown between the two. The warmness of it spread to even her. She shook his hand.

"Well, I'd better be going. I have places to go and things to do." She smiled again at them, Axel's eyes locking with hers for a moment. She looked away and disappeared into the crowd, feeling sad because she knew she couldn't afford to grow close to anyone. She was too cautious to do something like that.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Her grip was strong, which surprised Axel and Isan a little. She said goodbye and disappeared into the crowd before they could reply. She had definitely captured their attention, but in a good way.

"I like her." Isan said. Axel smiled. "I like her too."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

She sat on the branch of the willow tree, eating delicious angel cake and reading a good book, but try as she may, she couldn't concentrate. She looked down at the page and realized I had read it six times.

"That's it. I'm done." She said, setting it down on a shelf she had nailed to the tree near the branch. She picked a pencil and her sketch pad and called to Tato, a silver flying squirrel with a black belly. He hopped of a branch above her and floated down to her lap. She smiled and petted him before he jumped out of her lap to pose in front of me. She smiled and started sketching. Her mind wandered to Axel. He had a broad chest but he was skinny. He was tall and her head only went to his shoulders.

There was something about him that was drawing her to him, but she couldn't put her finger on it. He seemed like the kind of guy who had tons of courage. She looked down and stared at her drawing. It was a very well drawn picture of Axel. Seems her subconscious wanted to see him again. She wanted to see him again. She couldn't do that though, because if anyone ever got hurt because of her it would kill he. She sighed and closed her sketch pad. She closed her eyes and listened to the breeze. She decided to hunt. She grabbed her bow and arrows and hopped off the branch. She silently stalked through the forest, scanning the ground for tracks. She spotted some and froze. Those tracks belonged to a very dangerous creature.

A very very dangerous creature. And they were headed straight for the nearby village, and the annual festival was today. She took out a grey dust like powder from a small pouch hanging by her side. She threw it onto herself. It immediately clung everywhere on her, completely covering her. It would mask her scent from it, but it would do nothing for camouflage, being light grey, almost white, in color. She took a deep breath and started to follow the tracks silently. She only hoped she could reach it before it ran into someone.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

He had decided to skip going to the celebration that was held in the square every year. He couldn't get that girl out of his head. Katala. He loved the sound of her name on his tongue. He wanted to see her again but she didn't live in the village and nobody knew anything about her. He walked through the forest, off the path. He wished he could see her one more time.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

So close. The beast stalked through the undergrowth unaware that it was being followed. She raised my bow, aimed . . . SNAP! An animal right by her stepped on a twig and the crack resounded throughout the whole forest. She cringed. It whipped around and the two long tail like things on either side of it's head where it's ears should have been whipped forward and shot a spike out of the hole in the tip of them. She dodged one of them by jumping sideways and catching a branch, and swinging up, letting go and flipping once before landing on the branch.

She raised her bow and shot in the flash of an instant. It struck the heart before the creature could dodge because of the lighting fast speed at which she shot it. It died instantly and that's when she felt it. One of the spikes had grazed her arm. Lovely. She hopped down from the branch, collected both spikes it had shot at her, covered the beast so she could collect it later for it's skin and sharp poison claws, and ran back to her willow tree home. She knew she wouldn't get far though. The spikes were poison and since the creatures weren't native to this land, of course she hadn't brought the antidote with her. It was just a scratch, the spike had only grazed my skin, but it was enough to break the skin, however little, and she wouldn't die but she would be knocked out for a couple hours.

Actually, it didn't matter how severe the wound, she couldn't die, and she owed that to her immortality and automatic healing. She once had her head cut off because of a creature with a saw like blade made out of bone attached to its tail. It took her an hour for her body to find her head. No joke. She had to cut her head off many times after that to practice being able to retrieve it with lightning skills for future reference. Not fun. She snapped out of it. She could not risk being seen by someone, even if the elven council was long destroyed after the slaughter of her people, her trust in others had dangerously decreased to the point where a simple hug would be seen as a threat if she didn't still have her brains with her. Her sprinting had rapidly decreased to a fast jog, her feet stumbling and creating noise. If her face wasn't already cringing from the effort of staying awake long enough to get somewhere that she could find cover, it would be cringing again.

She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep moving, the world was starting to tilt and spin. She burst into a small clearing, dropping to her knees, falling over, and blacking out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Axel turned around, listening. The sound of clumsy footsteps filling the small clearing he had been sitting in, lying against the rock. All of a sudden, who should burst through the trees but Kata herself. She stumbled, dropping to her knees and falling over, lying still. Alarmed, Axel jumped up and rushed over to her. He dropped to his knees and rolled her onto her back. Her hand fell away from a deep scratch on her arm. It looked bad. She was still breathing, her breaths normal if not a little ragged. She obviously fainted. Axel's eyes narrowed and he looked at the scratch again. Or maybe she had fainted because of some injury from a magical creature. She had her bow and arrow so maybe she was hunting and Axel had heard of some magical creatures that could knock out their victims through injury that secreted a poison to knock them out. He wouldn't have thought that Kata would be one of the victims though

. He thought she might shoot the creature before it could knock her out. He gathered her in his arms and started to carry her to his small house in the middle of the forest. Her head fell against his chest, underneath his chin. He would have enjoyed it very much if not for the fact that he was only carrying her because she was obviously hurt and had either fainted from some unseen injury or because she had just fainted and he suspected it was the first choice. She didn't strike him as the weak kind. When he reached the house he kicked his door open, walked up the stairs and laid her down gently in his bed. She looked so peaceful, and beautiful. Axel left, closing the door behind him, to get a chair so he could sit outside the room and wait for her to wake up.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

She woke up in a soft bed, and . . . wait a second. Soft bed? She shot up and looked around. In a strange bed, in a strange room, in as strange house who knows where. She jumped up quietly, grabbed her bow and arrow and snuck out. Just as she was about to go down the stairs . . .

"Hey your awake."

She whipped around and aimed her arrow. Axel jumped back, raising his hands.

"Woa. It's okay. It's me Axel, remember?" he said, a little tense, eyeing the arrow pointed at his chest. She guessed it was because she whipped her bow and arrow up in the blink of an eye, leaving little to the imagination as to how fast she could shoot it, and had it aimed at his heart. She lowered it. Of course she still remembered Axel. She went hunting because she couldn't get her mind off him and now she was somewhere in the forest in HIS house with HIM. How ironic. She knew she was still in the forest because she could smell it even from inside this house.

"You stumbled into the clearing and fainted so I brought you to my house. I cleaned your wound and sat outside this door waiting for you to wake up."

She remembered now. She put her arrow back in her quiver and slung her bow on her shoulder.

"Right. Well, I need to get back now. Thanks for not leaving me out in the open, and um, cleaning my little scratch."

"Little?" he said, eyebrow raised. "It was pretty deep."

"It was nothing. Nothing I couldn't handle." She said, standing up straighter.

"Right except for the fact that you were unconscious and all." He said, smiling with amusement. She felt my anger start to rise.

"Yes well, once again I could have handled it. The day I can't deal with being unconscious for a little while is the day I stop knowing how to take care of myself like I have been for the last couple of years." She said stubbornly. He laughed.