She had searched for five years to find an undeveloped world and with absolute glee she had discovered Het'chiru. The three nations had been at war for a full century and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon. She wanted to die by the sword, wanted someone to be able to kill her, for she didn't think she deserved to live. In truth she did not think the Oa race deserved to survive. With malice and hatred she massacred the humans at war, killing all that would rise up against her hoping that one would have the killing blow.
The three nations were Tarogoth, Benisin, and Finor'an (not permanant names ><;;) seperated by forest, river and desert and in the center of the great continent was the forbidden lands of the unknown and the great mountains of Tael.
"They call her a phantom. They call her a ghost. She will just appear in the middle of the battle, killing all in sight. It doesn't matter who they were or what they were doing, if they give her a good fight she would see to it that they took their last breathe at the cost of her blade. We don't know where she came from... one day she just came into existance and massacrered the two armies on Jaydin's Hill nine years ago." The captain held the soldiers attention like a moth to a flame.
The new recruits to the kings army were captivated by this common campfire telling, the angry spirit who constantly killed anyone in the battlefield was a mysterious being of admiration and fear. The only way you could live and tell the tale of her was to have dropped your weapon and hid in fright. If you didn't put up a fight she would simply sneer and continue forward and even if you tried to catch her off guard as she overlooked the stupid being, you would find a clawed hand ripping out your throat.
"And so the best advice if you were to see her would be to drop your weapon and either play dead or back away... cause she will kill you. She will never hesitate and she will never show mercy, for she hath none and she never will." His voice dropped to a low whisper, "They say she is seeking death, that she screams that no one can take her alive." The captain laughed silently at their faces as he continued on with his story, "The King has offered a portion of his kingdom to anyone that can slay her and bring him her head... Now boys if I were stupid I would try to kill her... but I am alive because I was a coward and I suggest that you live and do the same should you ever encounter her." With that said the captain left the group of new recruits to think what he said over.
Cowardice on the field of battle!? How ridiculous! Thomas unfolded his arms and stood up from his crouched position and grabbed his large ax from the ground checking his sword in its sheath as well. It would be his turn for patrol here soon, he thought to himself. A portion of the king's land eh? He imagined being an officer, holding lands and titles, all for the head of this so called ghost. With that he slung the axe over his shoulder and walked out to his patrol commander giving him a salute fist pressed to his chest. "Thomas here, reporting for my watch," he said briskly standing upright. He was proud to be in the king's army. Even planned to make a carrier out of it if he could. The patrol commander gave brief barked orders and Thomas was off into the night walking alert with his hand on his sword hilt resting casually there.
It wasn't that far of a walk when the dead bodies of a scouting party from one of the surrounding armies lay in the path, discarded after a messy ambush... sounds could be heard further through the brush, screams of men dieing.
Thomas pulled the ax from his back and ran forward toward the commotion. He hardly saw the sprawled body of the soldier as he tripped over the corpse's outstretched hand. With a grunt he fell to the ground face first. With a brief curse he stood and took off running again,
Time to see what I'm made of!
Through the trees around twenty men, gathered around in a circle lit with a few torches. In the center, standing motionless was the smaller form of a woman, her head bowed with a hood and cloak completely covering her. A dark blue scarf wrapped around her face, goggles over her eyes and the cloak going all the way to the ground. The men around her glared at her and snarled, armed to the teeth as they paced like wild dogs around her.
Thomas burst from the brush into the scene and immediately began to swing at the enemy before him with his ax. "Fall before me you bastards! How dare you attack a woman," he bellowed as he removed the arm holding a torch from the first man. He quickly spun with the moment of the metal head of the ax and buried it into the side of another.
They turned to him now, the woman tilting her head to glance at him with one eye as she watched this new warrior attack them. One of the men, most likely the most stupid of them decided to attack her, and she didn't even look at him instead brought a dowel up to his jaw and a blade erupted out of the other side of his face. He dropped to the ground with a soft thud, but she still watched the new warrior with curiosity,
Thomas pulled his sword as the soldiers fell upon him and began to slash madly.
This might not have been such a good idea. I don't even know the person I'm risking my life for! AAAAHHHH Thomas you idiot! Thomas grabbed one of the men and with a heave threw him into a tree. As he finished with that he grabbed another man thrusting at him by the arm and made him drive his sword into the ground and kicked him in the stomach.
Haha! I'm doing a lot better then I thought I would!
It was then that she acted, swinging another dowel around, this one the blade already unleashed as she cleanly decapitated the last standing soldier, then swung the weapon around expertly to the face of Thomas. She flicked the other towards the ground, blood dripping to the dirt.
"Hey, I just saved you! The least you could do is thank me," he said picking up his ax and sheathing his sword. He stopped and walked back to the position he had been in with her blade still in his face and cocked one of his eyebrows. "Well?"
"Save me?" Asked a low feminine voice, "You were the only one in danger." She flicked her wrist again, flinging blood around her and she brought up her second blade to his face.
Thomas doubled over and began to laugh. "These guys! Kill me? Weren't you just watching what happened," he asked between laughing then he became real serious. "You seem to know how to use those. But you aren't part of my army and you certainly aren't with them. So who exactly are you?" he asked before batting her blades away from his face and jumping back a good distance holding his ax before him.
She scowled at him, ripping down her hood as dark black crests bobbed up behind her ears and her short brown hair was slicked back, "I am the one they call the ghost, and who might you be?"
Thomas' heart began to pump rapidly and he felt somewhat dizzy and energized. "I am Thomas Karindan, a soldier in the King's Army. It is a pleasure to meet you. Although I'm sorry to say I'll have to kill you. I have orders you know," he said shifting his stance ever so slightly.
Ok Thomas, this is your chance. Fuddle this up and you're dead, literally.
Naomi pulled her scarf down and revealed her mouth, pulled thin in annoyance but she grinned, showing pointed teeth, "We shall see... no man has beaten me yet."
Will this be the being who will kill me? "Even the ones that kill for the fun of it cannot best me in my bloodlust."
"Fun! I don't fight because I find it fun. I fight to keep those bastards out of my country and away from my loved ones. Sure it gets intense sometimes but I don't go looking for a fight really," Thomas replied in disdain.
For fun! This IS without a doubt the Ghost. A woman though? How in the world could a woman be the Ghost? I mean the Captain said so but I didn't believe him. FOCUS!! "And besides, there's always a first for everything," he said running forward with his ax held to his side. Once again he was oblivious to the dead bodies around their feet and pitched forward on the leg of a decapitated body. He fell with a heavy thud and thankfully his breastplate took much of the impact. With a curse he rolled to a low crouch and pulled the axe head up into a position that would deflect a straight attack.
Idiot!
No attack came. Instead she held one blade out towards him, and the other rested against her leg. The feathers behind her ears were perked up, and her gaze lay to the side. "Something's coming." The ghost muttered, her attention completely off of the man in front of her, "I suggest you run."
"Like Hell. I'm not going anywhere," he protested staring at her intently.
Why didn't she attack? "I am ready for whatever may come," he said his chest puffing out slightly and his chin raising slightly in indignation.
What the hell is going on here?
The earth started to rumble as some
thing ran their way, finally bursting through the treeline with a roar. It was a mix of things, more rhinocerous then anything, with spiked plating and tusks as well as the horns normally adorned. Naomi's eyes widened and her mouth set into a gleeful smirk. Her cloak billowed out behind her, and the moment the creature came at her she avoided its charge easily, lightning quick to land behind it, still smiling.
Thomas unceramoniousl
y threw himself to the side out of the way of the massive beast. "By the Gods what is that thing!?" He landed with little grace and stood quickly his mind trying to grasp how to combat a beast such as this. He was also thinking about the Ghost and if she would take the opportunity to end his life during the fight with this thing. Or if she would even have to try considering he did not think his chances against it were very good.
Running at it with one weapon out, Naomi grazed by it and was rewarded by a roar of annoyance. The beast of Benisin, as they were called, charged again, only to skid into some trees and completely missing her. It bellowed and backed up, the Ghost laughing at it's blundering attempts to flatten her. "So clumsy." She muttered, a glint of excitement still within her eyes. This thing would die tonight.
Taking the element of surprise Thomas gripped the haft of his battle ax and leapt onto the beast's back hacking away with all his strength. He really didn't care about staying on the creature, he just wanted to cause as much damage as he could as quickly as he could. He was quickly thrown from the beast's back as it bucked to and fro trying to dislodge the cause of its pain. Covered in blood Thomas fell to the ground somewhat out of breath but stood shakily anyway.
"Stay out of this, Human! It is mine-" She yelled at him, crouching on the ground and snarling. Her nails extended into claws, and both her weapons were on the ground forgotten. Yowling, Naomi flew into the air and slammed down onto the beast of Benisin, tearing out it's eyes through the armor. It roared and tried to throw her from it, but she skittered to its back where Thomas had done some damage. Then she disappeared from view. Screeching, the thing went crazy, bucking and running in circles before it skidded to a halt, moaning. As it fell to the ground, the Ghost tore her way out of it, drenched in its entrails and screaming in triumph.
Thomas stood transfixed in place viewing the carnage that had been wraught and felt the blood in his veins go cold. As a soldier he knew he would have to kill, but this was almost too much even for him. The bloody visage of the Ghost stood before him and the only thing he could think of was his sister and father back in his home village. Their images flashed before his mind's eye and then he though of what had happened to his mother and why he had joined the army and his heart began to pace faster and faster as his rage slowly grew again. His view of the woman before him changed and for some reason he felt somewhat attracted to the woman, and scared to death at the same time. He was a quiet maelstrom of thoughts and emotions at that moment as he stood mute staring at the Ghost. "Are you real? Am I just dreaming this," he said slowly almost too calmly. He grimaced as he realized that what he just said was ludicrous, almost insane. "Don't answer that," he said raising his voice in frustration. "In fact don't even move if you value your life you... you... evil... THING," he yelled rasing his axe threateningly.
Naomi turned, her head tilted and her grey eyes fixed in a glare. Then, she smirked and licked some blood from her lips, "That's right. I am evil. However... I know you are no match for me. If you knew better you would put the axe down, not knowing if I have saited my thirst for blood yet tonight." Walking over to her weapons, she picked them up, retracting the blades.
Thomas threw the axe embedding it in a tree near her and drew his sword, the better of his two weapons and stood ready. "You do not know that," he yelled with anger in his voice. "And besides, if you truly were evil and you were such my superior as you claim then I would be dead now wouldn't I," he spat barely controlling his voice.
Her smirk fading, Naomi turned fully around to face him, "Hmmm well I guess you're right. Not completely evil I suppose."
Stumble!