Ever Dream

Ever Dream

Ever Dream – N.L.Jones

Raechel paused as she hit the brow of the hill, turning back towards the place she’d once known as home. Her eyes narrowed in anger, even as she watched the place fall. It would seem like they’d come back. Even as she stood there she made a silent promise to herself, that the deaths of her parents wouldn’t go unavenged.

Sharply she turned away, the braid of hair hitting her back as she did. With her hair as long as it was – reaching down towards mid-back and dark chocolate brown in colour – it was often easier to keep it tied back out of the way. Even more so with the type of life she was entering into now.

She checked that the crossbow she had taken from the house was in good condition and ready to fire. The quiver of bolts was on a belt that wrapped itself around her waist. She knew she would probably need this. Pushing a few escaped strands of hair out of her deep brown eyes she walked off into the night.

In a way, as the hours passed, she was thankful of her fathers training; for it had given her more then just stamina… he’d taught her to navigate the treacherous ridges of the landscape even during the night. So far she’d skirted around a few lit camp fires, for she never knew, nor wanted to find out, whether it was bandits or demons. Both were rife in this country, and until she had gained further knowledge – at least on the demon front – she had no idea to face one.

Fate, unfortunately, oft has a way of forcing things quicker then the person whom they are forced on would want. It was no different in this situation. A lone demon was on the prowl, had been for sometime. It had picked up Raechel’s scent, and to its primitive mind… human sounded good to eat.

After a few more brief moments of it tracking it cut off the path Raechel was moving along looping in front of her, his aim to cut her off. As Raechel saw the silhouette of the demon – for the moon was behind it – her eyes widened in fear. She gave a low growl in anger “get a grip, Raechel,” she muttered to herself. She knew the brute in front of her would quite happily kill her, and probably eat her as well. That wouldn’t get her anywhere close to her goal. With a shaking hand she raised the crossbow, and to her it felt heavy. The crossbow wasn’t particularly made for a female… it was the full weight, a weight Raechel hadn’t had the time to get a lot of training in with.

Even as her finger tightened around the trigger, allowing the string to whip forwards, projecting the bolt out of the shaft and into the air she knew her aim was too off to cause any serious damage. It took her off guard then to hear the demon give a pained yelp, even as she remembered to loosen the muscles in her arm to absorb the kick easier. By the time she’d loaded the next bolt it was already falling to the ground, dead presumably.

“What the devils do you think you’re doing out on a night like this, damn fool woman,” a gruff male voice came out of the darkness, shortly followed by the owner of that voice.

Raechel looked the man up and down taking in his appearance. Twin blades one sheathed on either side, and a crossbow. It was presumably the crossbow that had taken the demon down. His clothing was pretty dark coloured, and close fitting, spattered with mud showing clear signs of having seen better days.

“Well, you gonna spend all night gawping?” he asked gruffly, as Raechel was just formulating a response.

“No, I don’t plan to waste a night gawping, I believe it would get very boring, and as to what I’m doing out, I’m out to become a Freelance agent, and to avenge the death of my parents,” Raechel responded, unable to help but to use a slightly witty sarcastic tone of voice at the start.

“I think you’d be wiser to git on home, Freelancing is no job fer a woman,” the man responded.

“It is when the man fails,” Raechel snarled in response.

The man sighed before stepping to one side. He’d really hoped that she wouldn’t do this, that she would take his advice but still. He stepped to one side to allow her through. He would follow her for a short while; after all she was pretty in her own way.

Raechel walked around the demon and past the man ignoring him entirely as she continued on her route, taking a more dangerous descending route down into a valley. She knew the land though, she knew it well. She remembered the times she used to ride down here into the village that should have been in the bottom of this valley.

She shuddered slightly as she heard a howl looking up, seeing silhouetted against the full moon a black wolf like dog. She turned her eyes back to the treacherous path in front of her, turning the corner to get around the outcrop of rock that kept the village blocked from sight. What she saw caused her to hesitate in her pace. The village itself was a burnt shell of what it once had been. Yet there were still signs of life here.

“I suspect we’ve got ghouls,” a familiar gruff voice spoke from the darkness behind her.

“You were following me,” she snapped slightly.

“Fer your own safety, ‘sides, you have grit, somethin’ not often seen in a woman,” the man responded.

“Oh why thank you for the compliment,” Raechel couldn’t help the sarcasm in her response.

The man rolled his eyes before he headed off in front, pausing only to sling Raechel one of his spare quivers of bolts. Raechel frowned, instinctively grabbing them.

“The meaning being?” she enquired, moving to catch up with him.

“You’ll find them more effective then what you’ve got now,” was all he responded.

Raechel sighed, unbuckling the belt long enough to slide the quiver on before she had to run to catch back up with him. He looked back at her, shaking his head slightly before he continued down into the village, drawing his twin blades as he did. He always had preferred the twin blades over the crossbow.

Raechel couldn’t help but to give a challenging stare as he’d turned back to look at her and shook his head, moving to keep up with him. Admittedly she’d taken her own cue from his drawing of his blades, loading one of the new bolts into her crossbow ensuring she was ready to fire. She knew in this game, again, she would need all the advantages she could find. The Crossbow wasn’t a rapidly reloading weapon nor was it particularly light weight, it was a solid build and as thus weighed heavily