Wicked crown

She stumbled out of the forest on to the field that parted her from the watchtower. She was shaking and injured.

Her beautiful ivory dress was just a memory now, as was the whole evening.

She glanced over her shoulder, darkness and silence surrounded her. Or not complete silence. She could hear the ragged breathing the creature took, thuds from its feet hitting the forest ground and whimpering.

She had been able to slice the creature on the leg with her magnificent double sword Malia. Named after the goddess of stars and the moon.

But now that too was just a memory. Her beautiful double sword was in millon small pieces scattered around the forest floor like stars in the sky.

Immediately after she'd cut the creature Malia had started to vibrant and illuminate bright bright light, like a star had appeared inside the blade. Malia herself. And then the sword exploded in bright midnight blue light and a sad longing sound that echoed throughout the lands of Hazelia.

The blast threw her tovthe edge of the forest and from the sounds of it the creature far behind to the opposite direction.

She picked up the reminds of her dress hem and ran.

The mountains raised towards the sky far far away, like some animal bearing its teeth trying to cut the sky open. The clouds laid low, drifting across the dark sky, parting once in while to show the stars. It was like Malia gesturing to her to hurry up. The watchtower was up the hill, through the small patch of wood.

Half across the field she heard the creature burst from the forest. She didn't dare to glance behind her.

Faster, run faster, a voice whispered to her across the field and she did, even if it felt like her lungs were about to collapse, her muscles screaming with ache and her heart breaking with sorrow. Her father spiked on the outside wall of the castle, her brothers fighting until death just to spear each other in the middle of the ball room. She could hear their shouting at each other for the other one to just end it.

She could see them both go limp over the other ones sword now sticking out from their torsos, tears still rolling across their cheeks when life left her beloved brothers.

A harsh whimper escaped her lips. She stumbled but hold her balance.

Tears filling her eyes she gathered all the strength she had left. This wasn't over. She wasn't going to yield.

She felt like she was flying across the field, her feet steady and strong against the ground, calm cold glory erupted inside her when she run up the hill. The trees just a blurr in her vision.

She halted to stop in front of the watchtower and the feeling of cold glory disappeared, leaving her sagging against the watchtower door, gasping for ear, ears ringing, blackness crept on the edge of her sight. She closed her eyes and breathed.

1... 2... 3...

Snap out of Arlinda!

...4...

Open your eyes and keep going!

She opened her eyes, merely to see two big gleaming white eyes watching her from down the hill.

It was like an electric shock that shook her numb limbs enough to make her move.

She whirled around, pushed the stone door to the watchtower open and ran for the stairs.

She had played here enough times as a kid to know the stairs that had been molded from the tower itself, to know witch steps to avoid and where there were no steps at all.

She was at the second landing when the whole tower shook, a boom that she could feel in her core, echoed through the tower when the door slammed to the ground and the creature charged in, it didn't hesitate a second when running towards the stairs.

She was so afraid, petrified, that she just stood there, waiting for her death to come. She could hear the shallow breaths the creature was taking, could smell rotting flesh, she never considered that her death would be like this.

A could wind swept down, taking the awful smell with it and yet again she felt that cold glory fill her veins. She looked up and saw the moon sparkling in the sky, cold and glorious.

Malia.

Malia was there with her.

With the mighty new power her fear disappeared and she finally new what she was supposed to do. She decided her own fate, she decided how she would die.

She glanced down at the creature and grinned with wickedness. A low, hair standing growl responded.

She'd never felt power like this and never again would.

But it was fine.

She came to the top of the watchtower and halted..

The cold wind was whirling around her, making her hair dance around her head like a wicked crown.

Like the creature could sense the change of vibe that rippled from her and around the watchtower, its phase slowed to a predators steady walk, one that knew that the pray was trapped.