blah blah ,something something

Basically I wanted someplace to put my writing testers so that should anyone be good enough to write with me then I can direct them here and they can decide if they like or hate my style or whatever. If you have stopped by in passing I hope the rest of your day is more interesting.


Sigdom's Blade

.Rudiger

Dawn. I walk through the corpses on the battlefield, my feet crunching the hard packed snow. My breath comes out in great plumes before freezing to my beard. Overhead, crows begin to circle, cawing in excitement at the coming feast.

As the sun casts its sickly pale glow across the land, I take my first good look at my surroundings. Thousands of bodies lay before me in various stages of death and dismemberment. Decapitated heads, gouged eyes, spilled entrails and severed limbs form a bloody, gore drenched carpet over the snow, staining it a rusty brown colour.

In the distance I see my companion Bleidd working her way through a cluster of corpses. The half elf has a keen eye and even keener hearing which allowed us to follow the army undetected across the Sordkapp Mountains until they arrived here, on this vast open plain and did battle with mutant Norsemen. The battle had raged all night, Count Vorstadt’s forces fighting valiantly but ultimately suffering a crushing defeat. The survivors had retreated, chased by hordes of Norsemen back into the mountains. The screams of the captured humans being tortured and killed had pierced the night and given me goosebumps.

I gaze at one of the Norsemen. Vile, mutated, barely human creatures, the Norsemen were the product of decades of inbreeding and black magic. The one at my feet died from massive trauma to its head, the axe that split its overly large skull still embedded deep in the flesh and bone. I gaze into its face and feel the bile rise before moving on.

Corpse looters, that’s what Bleidd and I were now.



Bleidd

Sensitive hearing is one thing , Hawk like vision is also perfect for jobs like these, however an exceptional sense of smell , is neither required nor recommended and by the 'Stalkers Blade' I wished for the dozenth time that I had no nose. Drenching my scarf in Lavender and Marjoram in an attempt to disguise the smell, of death and feces, I fought the sensation of my stomach attempting an escape. If I thought the Norsemen smelt bad alive, they were a positively other worldly dead. As my fingers swiftly tackled the buckles and fastenings of yet another half frozen corpse I had to wonder why the Hell I was here instead of taking the cushy little scouts job going South. Subconsciously my eyes scan the field until I find him, and sigh , the job South had been a one man affair. My attempts to convince the self important caravan leader that Rudiger would prove his worth should trouble arise fell on deaf ears. They wouldn't pay the extra fee, so corpse looting it was. ' The joys of having a partner.’ That wasn’t fair, the pro’s far outweighed the cons , it was just right now I’d give our entire haul for a warm ale.


The harness sticks so out comes the skinning knife, a swift circular cut and the fastenings drop away. There are a few Items of Traditional jewellery most likely snatched from some victim of the last place they raped and pillaged their way through. Nothing worth shouting about, we didn't have long before the heat upped the stench brought the corpse eaters out.

I could maybe get through another three before we needed to decide if it was worth the extra trouble to hang on through the day.

Looking back up to Rudiger , I signal to know if we were still clear. We have worked together long enough to have established a series of hand signals to communicate over places like this so we aren’t shouting and attracting the wrong kind of attention.

The fine layer of frost that had formed on my armour was just starting to defrost making everything feel damp. I stand up waiting for his reply , he’s hardly a small man as it , standing up on the rise withe sun coming up he looks more akin to a bear than man. Chuckling i consider I might keep that to myself incase he doesn’t appreciate the comparison.

No more Games

8months earlier

" He's lost his way, he lets his vices rule his head, he thinks they don't but they do, he should have been back. Should have worked out what the box was for." The old man sighs. He paces slowly ,hands held behind his back.
The girl bows low , from her position kneeling before him , her forehead to the ground , she lifts it only when she Is motioned to.

" If I had been given the chance...." She begins

"But you weren't child, despite your gifts and training it was he that received the visions not you, and in this instance I am truly sorry ."
Her sensei gives her a gentle nod, and rests his hand on her shoulder .

" You must bring your brother back , but first you must get rid of the distraction , permanently."

"Yes sensei" the girl says without hesitation bowing low again and remains so until the old man has long gone.

Present Day

Echo, was the moniker she was given . It fitted because that is all she is , a reflection of another ,with no identy of her own she merely took the shape of one that had been before.
She could mimic every part of them enough even to convince those that loved them, that she was the true other.
Today though she was just a shape a shadow.
She felt the limo draw to a hault, breathing shallow as she felt the weight of the woman sit on the seat above her legs.
Sliding the hyperdermic needle through the seat and into her targets thigh,smiling as the woman curses the poor Rio workmanship on this limo. Echo on the contrary had found the craftsmen excellent, they were fast and precise , you had to be here , it cost you your life if you weren't . The woman became dead weight .

12 min, that's how long she has , taking into account the terrible traffic.

Lifting the latch and pushing the seat up she climbs out of the body bag , she brought to contain the fluids. She didn't have time for the woman to die from the poison so she was going to bleed more than Echo would have liked.
Pulling her 5' 6" frame out from under the seat, this wouldn't be the first time she thanked her slight build.
Once she has lifted the other seat she Begins the process of manoeuvring the woman into the body bag ignoring the widened flickering eyes ,the lungs should paralyse soon. Rolling her face down, slides the cheese wire garotte over head and beneath the lower edge of that charming collar.
Honestly what human with an ounce of self respect gives them self over to being kept on a leash.
Echo hisses slightly with disgust, everytime she meets another female assassin they are broken and wretched creatures. To be honest she finds the Nikita stereotype a dreadful bore , still now they are dead. As will this one be.
Once the garotte is in place she zips up as much of the body bag as she can whilst still leaving room for the wire to move through. Then in one deft movement she slices through to the spinal cord , then using a small Maple handle , slides it through the wire and twists and twists, third twist brings it between the c7 and c8 vertebrate . It had to be that low because of the collar. She closes the bag for 30 sec, checks her watch.

6.5 min left. Bleeding should have slowed. She opens the bag slightly.

3.25min left.
They stop at traffic lights the left hand door opens hands reach across from a Rio police car, she slides the body bag across, they snatch the body bag and disappear.

37sec left.
The collar is left spotless on the back seat of the limo, and taken back to the hotel.




45 Mins Later ;
Echo watches as the Limo pulls up in front of the hotel. Someone's calling upstairs . 3 min and 12 seconds later he appears. Walks to the Limo and opens the door. Impressive , not a flicker . She would hope not, they said he had gotten lazy not incompetent . He leans in and picks up her gift, as he shuts the Limo door a young boy runs up to him, a street kid by the looks of it says he was to give him this box.
The man asks who ,
The kid points in some random direction near where she was watching . Clever, even the kid knew he would check the opposite direction first , and he did , instinctively . Then he looks where the kid was pointing ,she wishes she could see his expression when he opens the box but she can see his jaw muscle twitch .
He knows , and with that she leaves stepping backward into a shadow she vanishes.

Solace

Having spent a long night waiting Solace stretched, her cold stiff joints objecting to the motion,her muscles even more so. The rising sun brought a soft smile to her features. Pale skin reflecting the array of colours the sky had to offer as the Sun first peeked over the horizon .
If her decision was accepted she would only see one more sunrise after this , then there would be darkness. Everyone else would be safe though, for a while at least.
Exhaling , the brisk air making breath visible from rose pink lips , her mouth promised tenderness , warmth, fragrance, comfort a place to fall into and lose yourself. Raven black waves that could have been gifted by Nyx herself, framed her face, pulling her hair up into a bun, unruly tendrils escaping reflecting some of the girls nature , her desire to be free.

When the sun finally rose high enough to cast back the shadow from her eyes it revealed they too were as dark as the sky had been that moonless night. They showed no fear at the weighted decision she had made, no indication that she had given up her right to any sort of future.
In her minds eye she had cast off the chains that bound her to an existence once filled with fear. By taking the choice, by making it her own, it had lost all power over her.

The walk back to the village was enough to ensure any doubts remained buried, as she watched children play carefree in the morning sun, a few of her peers, other girls as yet uncoupled still wore worried looks as they made their way to the Patriarchs holding. Some parents held onto their girls weeping, hands clasped in silent prayer, others were stoic in their resolve , if fate spoke then so it would be.
Tonight would bring the last night of the new moon, the three chosen girls would be prepared. Well fed and good wine to warm their bones , in the hour before dawn they' d be taken and bound at the mound south of the village gates and left to await their fate.
Solace stood quietly , she had no family to pray for her, no suitor to beg for her , alone she would stand listening. The pleas, the reasons, so many reasons why their daughters could not go, would not be taken. At least 3 had given away their Maidenhead in the last three nights, much to the chargrin of the Patriarch. Soon sorrow turned to anger and bickering, families at each other's throats, a young girl, too young was pulled into the fray her mother howling, distraught with the pain that only a mother knows at the loss of her child.
Finally Solace stepped forward, the melodic lilt to her voice too quiet to be heard over the rabble, and chaos . Fear making them deaf and blind to their surroundings. Once again she tried to make herself heard to no avail, though something caused the Patriarch to look up from his placement at the head of the table, his grey eyes scanned the room until they met the girls soulful orbs. For a moment they regarded each other, Solace offered nothing more than a slight nod , his brows furrowed for a moment, then understanding became apparent in his expression, he gave her a moment longer only to consider her decision . Seeing that she remained resolute , he nodded.

The Patriarchs voice bellowed as he stood raising both hands and slamming them down on the table.
" Enough, the decisions are made, those of you with families make your arrangements, say your goodbyes and return here at midnight!"

The entire room stunned to silence , then came alive with the sounds of mutterings and questions , eventually the questions became theories and speculation. 'What had happened ?' 'Who had they decided?' Then realising that it might be better to simply leave, rather than question their good fortune the remaining families and girls scattered, hurrying back to their homes.

Solace watched as the young girl who had been dragged into the argument terrified and confused allowed a smile to turn the corners of her lips and her pale blue eyes brimmed with tears of relief as her father wrapped her in his arms and took her away. That simple scene was enough to reassure Solace she had made the right decision. In five years when this happened again, hopefully she would be coupled and safe.

Life as a wife , barefoot and pregnant from the night of her coupling was not in the dreams Solace had. Death was most certainly preferable to that fate. She knew not why she had feared that future so much. Whilst most girls giggled behind their hands and made eyes at those they were promised to, and even at those they weren't , Solace would spend her days running with the dogs , hunting or tracking. Her nights camped out up a tree.

They made fun of her figure, lithe and lean, her movements feline in their grace, and with an efficiency rare in someone untrained as she was. No muscle moved unless it was required for the job at hand, it gave her a confidence in her body that others did not have. Although she was aware she would never be considered a muse for a great lovers sonnet, and no-one would wax lyrical over her luxurious figure or generous curves, she was content to be as she was.

So the night came , she sat quietly ,when fear threatened to overwhelm the others, she sang them songs from their summers. Lifting their spirits enough so they might eat, encouraging them do drink a little more than perhaps they would have , because she knew good food and wine would bring on sleep. Sure enough she helped them to their cots, she brushed their hair and kissed them both goodnight as their mothers might have done.
Sleep did not come for her though, she sat and watched the fire, made stories with the images she saw in there.

Two hours before dawn she woke the others, loosed their hair , dressed them in the simple white shifts that was all they would be required to wear. Finally she loosed her own hair it cascaded as though the night itself had been painted down her back, stopping at her waist. The shift was only slightly paler than her own skin, open to her breastbone and the length stopped midway down her thigh. Not a lot to guard against the brisk morning air.
They stepped outside, the village stood and greeted them, gave them offerings, more than a few raised an eyebrow when they saw Solace placed between the two who were already known to be sacrificed.

The sky had just begun to grey , the darkness receding ever so slightly as they reached the pillars where the girls were to be bound. Again Solace did her best to calm the other two, showing no fear of her own, but she did feel sadness for them. Hiding it well for fear it would escalate and become hysteria. Finally she stood her back against her pillar ,placing her hands behind her and allowing them fastened. As the footsteps receded into the distance, one of the girls began to sob quietly and again Solace sought a song from their childhood with which to calm the girl.

Whilst she sang the horizon began to pale then light up, and for a moment the dawn was before them, only to suddenly be replaced by an unnatural darkness, what brought that darkness she could not see.