She awoke me from my eternal slumber with an unsettling banging on the heavy wooden door. I was distressed and weary of answering, but the presence entranced me to do so. I opened the door and saw her standing there in chaotic form. Her clothes a mess, but still her beauty was prominent. The boys called her Sherrie. I just called her Flow and this was based on the fact that she usually went where the wind took her. At first, I was not paying attention to her, but whatever she was talking about it was urgent. Beyond her elegance I caught my reflection in a puddle by her feet. My hair was fizzy like a volcano about to erupt, which was equal to the feeling of my sore back. I was still tired from all the work I was doing from the night before. Flow was a talker, what did she just say? It sounded important.
“Did you hear me? They have come for you.” She said. I definitely heard that.
“Look, everyone knows about you and the Princess. You went too far. You have to run now.”
Ah yes. Now I remember. I am definitely in trouble. I just figured it would take the King longer to figure out I was seeing his daughter, the Princess. The King of my homeland, the Eastern Wasteland, was a corrupt piece of trash. Like most great Kings of this world he did his job well and was very thorough. Especially when it came to his punishment and the Princess was worth it. Anyone who even stared at her was either hung or whipped (The latter being worse in my opinion). I had been seeing her on a constant basis as I did my assassination jobs for the King, chores, as I like to call them. All this time I was getting a little extra incentive from the King’s daughter. This went well for me. I am not the humble assassin the King presumed me to be. He should’ve known this based on the chores I did. No one else would do tricky stuff like blowing your cover without a weapon or eating feces for a truce. I do the things people consider borderline psychotic just to get by. There was a bell ringing loudly now. No doubt it was the main bell from town hall. It was a warning for any danger, me. I asked only one thing before I told Flow to be on her way.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“You know where,” she said as she slipped out through the back gate.
Sadly, I knew exactly where she was and I had very little time to intervene. When a King finds out one of his own men are messing about (Intimately) with the royal family it means he will do only two things. First, send that person royal or not off to the Forgotten Kingdom with the blue bloods for ten years. The Forgotten Kingdom is no fairytale; it is a devilish place where the old generations of the rich and powerful refuse to die. They involve themselves in far worse taboo then blood worship. Mainly incestuous relationships are common practice to stay alive hence the blue blood. I could not let her accept that fate. Sleeping with her old cousins or grandfathers is a torture no one should bare unwillingly. Second, my death is to come swiftly by the King’s top assassination squad. Only problem is I am one of them. The way assassins worked in each kingdom was by one main ranked squad of the five best and then another rank of replacements with ten. I was main rank five which could only mean they would send main rank four after me. On top of all this my back gave out during my last chore and I have yet to fully recover from the ordeal. As an old saying goes, nothing’s easy. Knowing the King, he would have prepared for these two steps already, which means I am short on time. I cannot think about this anymore. I must get to the Princess before she is shipped off to the Forgotten Kingdom. There is also one last thing I forgot to mention about the main rank five. Everybody in this top rank has a special trait; it is what makes them so elite. This kind of makes the ranking system in the top five a little open to interpretation. For example, even if main rank one were better than main rank two they would still have very different traits, which could impact the battle if them or anyone in the top rank fight each other. My trait was stamina and fighting the elite assassin’s is now my fate. I also think that personally my trait stacks well against the others. Even if I was bleeding to death, I do not stop fighting. I just keep going. Hell, I even ran halfway to the Western Kingdom once as I was chasing a bounty before I took a break. Also, I damn near made it three quarters through the Desert of Death without water. I don’t know why, but I am a glutton for punishment. Every time I do a chore, shit, converse, or whatever I just never give up till someone caves. Till my last bone crumbles to dust is how I live. I would be doing the same for this girl and I barely had any time left. I was going to be late. I had three obstacles to get through. The King would send the three assassins ahead of my rank. This saves main rank one for a higher priority, like lunch. I just had to make it out of this village alive. I will take the south exit. No big deal. Then hop the steam train to the Uphill Forest and on the other side is my destination. The Relics of Time. This old fashion transport system is where my girl awaits. So simple a baby could do it, but it would be only me. I equipped my two steel stilettos, rations, and light armor. I opened the back gate going the same way Flow went. And to my surprise she was still there, but with an oddly shaped yellow blade splintering her neck. I greeted them.
“Flow and main rank four. The best tracker of all the kingdoms.”
“Nice to see you as well, main rank five, how is your back?” Main rank four replied.
I did not answer him. I quickly took out my stiletto and threw it straight up in the sky as high as I could. He stared at the dagger as it twirled high in the blue sky right into the sun’s light. I moved quickly as main rank four’s attention was to the sun. I took out my second stiletto and went right for his head pinned behind Flow. He increased the swords grip on her neck and blood began to spew everywhere.
“Sorry Flow,” I whispered.
I went right through the side of her neck ever so slightly and stabbed main rank four with my stiletto through his eye. He was dead instantly. Flow screamed as the sword’s grip loosened. I quickly jabbed the stiletto out of the two of them, but the damage was done. She just smiled at me as she slowly bled to death. I put my hand on her heart and felt it slowly pound fainter off into the darkness. I put my two stilettos back as I watched the two of them lifeless as they were sleep in silence. I closed Flow’s eyes one last time and was on my way. I was lucky enough to catch the last steam train before the knight watch passed by. The elite Knight Watchers would no doubt be on alert for me. I was in a rush so I held the steam train engineer at gunpoint, with a slight gesture from my hand. A cheap trick, but I was short on time. He went full blast to the Uphill Forest. I told him to drive past the forest and head to the Western Trade Zone. He zoomed off as I jumped down into the dark green trees. Hopefully I bought some time, but I hit my head instead and rolled with too much momentum. I blacked out. I was dreaming now or at least what I saw next wasn’t real, it couldn’t be. I was in a room painting a wall black while the others lay there black as the night. When I finished I stared at my freshly painted black wall and saw nothing but darkness. For an instant I closed my eyes and then suddenly I saw the full moon shining straight at me from my newly painted wall. There was no wall anymore and just the darkness of a night’s sky. It was amazing. Next I saw the slight glow of a woman in this wall. It was the Princess. I looked right at her. Her elegance was now in full view from the light. This was a beauty worth fighting for. I wanted to tell her everything would be OK, tell her I was on my way, but no words would come out. She walked straight out of the wall and moved no more then an inch away from my face. In the most peaceful way she smiled and said,
“Don’t be late.”
I smelled burning tar. I was awake now. I was tied like a pig to a stick above a boiling pot of tar underneath me. It was main rank three preparing my torture.
“Welcome back five, you were out for quite a spell. I am sure you already know my specialty, stealth. Which is why I waited till you got to the forest before I did you in, but to my enjoyment you did yourself in with that fall.”
I only smiled back as he began to chatter away. That was one thing that always bothered me about the rest of the main rank. Main rank three especially never shut up when they got the chance. They would always be talking about missions and skills. I hated it, but all the assassins were known for their prideful rants. I did not have time to worry about this now, I needed to go, and the Princess could leave any second now. As he waited for the boiling tar to heat up further I looked for my weapons, which were gone. I began to flex my wrist and put as much pressure as I could on the muscle there. Slowly a small blade was coming out, my hidden blade I used during extreme times. I cut the ropes and waited for any chance to hide. He was near the end of his boring monologue now and he very calmly turned his back and closed his eyes to end his speech. I ducked behind the tar pot during this moment of chance.
“So main rank five, any last requests?” He opened his eyes and looked directly at the fire.
“Where the hell? I will find you!” He screamed. “Do not forget who is the stealthy one here.”
He walked over to the tar pot. I knocked it over and it spilled all over his legs, crippling him instantly as it burned and seared his body. He was laughing, the sick Bastard, to his delight.
“Hah, you will never make it in time, you know who else waits for you, I was just the decoy, you’re already dead!”
I ripped the blade out of my wrist and chugged it straight into his corrupt and twisted heart. I picked up my gear and ran off past the dark green trees. The problem with the Uphill Forest is just that, it is uphill. I was short on time and out of breath. I lived for these moments of late. My back was burning as I ran. It felt like torture but I pushed myself. My throat was croaking now and I could feel blood in the very pit of my lungs, yet I pushed on. The sun was hitting through the forest just barely glaring into my eyes. As I coughed and choked to death from the pain, I felt at peace. I was running faster now knowing my final destination lie on the downhill slope. My Princess awaits, my lady, my prize. My lungs burned with passion as my feet carried me on. I thanked the Gods, the Devils, and the Creation for this day, this very moment in my life. Finally, I arrived at the station, The Relics of Time. I was a bit reckless and rushed out into the open as I searched for her. The station was an old untouched relic full of dust, rust, and glamour. Only one transport lay here, it had to be hers. So I ran to it. I ran as hard as I could. I ran so hard that I did not look ahead of me and I tripped stumbling right before the lifeless transport. I picked myself up and opened the door to the driver’s seat. The driver unchanged by my sudden appearance looked straight at the cockpit and began to mess about with the controls. I grabbed him so fast that dust from all over had temporarily fogged my vision. He was nothing but dust to me now, as he lay lifeless on the ground before me. Suddenly, as the dust cleared, a cold dark feeling grew at the pit of my stomach. I was late. I had a feeling. As the dust cleared another transport lay perpendicular to the one before me.
“Another one?” I said dully to myself. My voice echoed through the station.
This was odd and unexpected. I immediately opened the passenger door to the current transport. Empty. Was I expected? No, I had no time to think about this. I rushed to the other transport. I opened the passenger door. A cold searing pain lie at the pit of my stomach and this was more than a feeling. The plain frown of main rank two lay before me as his jagged edged claymore stabbed through my body. Instantly, the blade ripped out of my stomach and blood began to spray everywhere. I fell to the ground as the blood made a beautiful noise leaving my body. Something similar to the noise a slow streaming waterfall in an untouched forest would make.
“Where is she”, I screamed.
He coldly replied, “You can talk with all that pain? Your specialty presides even my own. I was always jealous you know. I had pure strength, the muscle of the Eastern Kingdoms, but so what? We all have muscle. You have the best trait. A high tolerance for pain, amazing stamina, the list goes on.”
“Where is she?” I demanded again at the top of my lungs.
“Stand before me as the powerful assassin I know you are and I shall present her here.” He said without a moment’s hesitation.
I loved this feeling of Hellish pain as I slowly stood up. He was right about my stamina. It was what got me this far or maybe it was something else. I was barely focusing on his figure in the bright daylight now shining throughout the station. I took out my stiletto.
“Very good and as promised.” He glanced behind me pointing with two of his fingers shaped like a gun.
I was sure he had a dirty trick up his sleeve, but I looked without hesitation. There she was, crying in a beautiful gown of gold and red. I smiled as the sun shined upon us both. This was not Heaven, but to see her like this even in a wasteland of death was enough to motivate me. I was now ready for the final act. I was going to kill him before I died. At this point I was almost compelled to kill him five times over. A shadow was blocking my sunlight. Ruining the moment. I turned around and saw main rank two’s heavy blade swinging inches towards me. He was blocking my light during this magnificent moment. I just stood there and watched the powerful weapon swing towards me. This was it. I closed my eyes and remembered. Remembered the full moonlight. This was not how I expected it to end and it didn’t. I opened my eyes again, but this time stood above him with my stiletto jammed in his hand. The unexpected force of my strike had knocked him down. He was struggling to get back up as I picked up his claymore. Very simple like I walked over to him and whispered only one thing,
“You blocked my light.”
I slammed the thick claymore into his head. I fell back. The sudden change from the claymore’s impact and my lack of blood was beginning to take a drastic affect on my body. I was weak. I was dead. I closed my eyes one last time as I fell to the ground. Instead of the dust surrounding me a heavenly scent of the Princess was before me. I opened my eyes to tears of joy among her face as she shook to my warm embrace. I looked at her and smiled; with one kiss to her tender lips. She said only one thing,
“Lets go,” she whispered this as our lips touched again. We were lost in the moment.
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