March On 2

They had all been fooled for so long. So proud of their skills - no, us, Our skills - our abilities, our uniqueness. To stand apart even if it's to stand alone.

Her, too, maybe most of all. It could be such a joy to practice the arts and sciences and to move one's body so precisely. So of course, as soon as she'd gotten off her leash, Lina had gone to hunt. She was surprised how easily it came to her despite realizing slowly that she had been molded for just such a thing.

Now she knew. She had been sculpted into something, a knife with an eye maybe. Then she'd been set loose to find him. Whoever had started it all knew what an explosive reaction would result once she set her real eyes on him.

She was too tired of it right now to even get enraged at the thought again.

So intrusive. Such control, such lack of care for a woman's new emotions. But that was Their Way. Probably all they knew or could know.

All she could do was to reject it in her heart. They had already won a long time ago. She couldn't fight a war already lost, let alone win it alone.

But she could still march. They had tried to break her mind, her spirit, even her body. Her legs hurt. Everything hurt, actually. In and out. But let them try what they would. Let them come!

If her legs broke, she would crawl. If her knife broke, she would bite. If they ended her, then she would end, and make them regret as much as she could before she could do nothing more! If there was nothing but pure black after that, then so be it.

Once you'd been stripped down to nothing, degraded, beaten until you were a husk...they couldn't do much more to you. Once you accepted death, wanted to bleed.

Once the Bloody One had visited. It only took once. The light was on now, somewhere, always. That red red light that all should fear. Doubtful the pitch black of nothing could swallow it, even.

Let it try.

She grinned in the dark of her one-person tent, staring at the ceiling, at nothing. A tear leaked from each eye, first one then the other. She allowed this since she was only one person right now.

She wiped her face, her mouth, impatient. Expel filth, wash it away. Then be done with it.

*************************************************

When she woke the next day, she was alarmed yet gladdened by the flowers at the edge of her camp. Just simple forest flowers, but clearly picked with purpose and care, and set at the edge of what she had established as her territory for the evening.

"Do you even care if we live through this"? she asked the mare, who didn't even look her way. Surely the horse had known someone was coming. So surely, the intruder wasn't someone too dangerous.

Maybe they'd seen her in the last town she'd ridden through. She felt the need to be seen, to let them know that she was still at work, even if she couldn't trust a single one among them. Not even children - it seemed like They were perfectly happy to use children as their tools.

She quickly set about cooking the eggs she'd gathered the day before, chopping up some roots and greens she'd collected, too. She could feel the hunger making her stop and change the direction of her mind. Again, that darkness.

They dare, she thought. The very ones we need to protect, that we should all use our minds and bodies to shield from this harsh ugly world with all we have, are just more tools to be used!? Not just the children but the old, infirm, broken. Those who should receive tender care and made to feel safe, so they might heal into their true selves.

Nausea ripped through her as her stomach raged at its current situation. She couldn't help a low little growl coming from her throat.

One day at a time. One step at a time. But she was going. She was going to right this, and stop this downward fall that had been orchestrated over generations. How the parents thought they could continue to sacrifice everything including their children, she didn't know. But someone had to make them really See. Whatever it took, however long. If she had to be that beacon, so be it. She hated standing in the open, the Light, but...

She hated this world more. She hated Them with her whole being.