The skies were clear on this cool morning. The sun beamed down into the woods, flitting rays of light across the forest floor through the canopy. The silence of the peaceful day was interrupted only by a single band of men, carelessly blaring at each other to pass the time. Each carried a lovelessly made weapon forged from whatever was laying about: Rickety swords, hastily modified hatchets, and cheap blades on sticks. They wore barely suitable armor which did its job and nothing else. They talked about their current assignment, or of their hobbies, or of local women. In the back followed a young girl, struggling to keep up with the gaits of the much larger men.
Torva’s eyes were heavy, struggling to keep themselves up. Her body ached, stiff from improper use. She had exhausted herself the days before; both to save her life, and to save her sanity. But still, she pressed on. She needed to see what became of both her home, and the men who desecrated it. And so, she willed herself forward. Her legs screaming at each step, and her head lightening with each breath.
A few miles away from their destination, the troop of men came across another group. Their manner and equipment marked them as harvesters. Five of them were gathered sparsely around the trees, looking for their day’s harvest. The squad’s leader took notice of this find, and called out to them.
“Oi! We’re traveling to Gemisek to take care of a complaint! Do you fellows know anything about it?”
The closest man stopped what he was doing and straightened himself, before replying: “A complaint? No, I can’t say I know anything about that. Though, I can’t really speak for any of my friends here.”
The squad leader replied back: “Mind if we ask you about it anyway? You might make our job much easier, and it shouldn’t take too long.”
The harvester motioned for his friends. They spoke with each other, but they were too far away for any of the squad members to hear. Torva ignored this scene, until she noticed water starting to form around her hand. It coalesced and solidified into a short handle. She grabbed it, and felt its warmth, as the rest of the tool formed. A javelin formed in her hand, as a cautious fear rose up inside her. This is when she grew wary of the group in front of her.
She couldn’t quite see from her vantage point. Too many bodies scrunched together in front of her to get a clear view. So while the small squad was focused on the group in front of them, she walked over to the side to get an unobstructed view.
The group was a hundred or so feet away, so she didn’t have a clear sight of them. But even so, she realized she did not recognize any of them. Her village was small enough that she should know everyone in it. And no other village was close enough for their members to wander so close. Not seconds after setting eyes on the group, she saw them for what they were. Her eyes flared in anger. Her grip tightened around her newly formed weapon. And she charged, screaming.
“Hey, wait! Uh… hey, what’s that girl’s name again?”
“Why are you asking me? You just told me to suit up and march.”
None of the company tried to stop the girl as she charged out. Nobody saw the danger she was rushing into, or the intention behind her sprint. She charged unopposed into the group in front of her, intent on skewering them all through.
She reached the man closest to the squad and started striking haphazardly. Given plenty of time to react, the man easily dodged each strike.
“What is this? Why do they have a girl with them? Why is she attacking me?”
“Don’t hurt her! That’ll give us away! They’re eating out of our hands now, we can’t blow it!”
“That’s nice and all, but she’s pretty angry. I don’t think she’ll just sit down and behave.”
Calling this a fight would be a disgrace. The girl showed fierce determination, but her skill and strength were simply non-existent. She pushed herself as hard as she could, but her strikes were sluggish and weak. The defender simply stepped out of the way of each attack, desperately trying to find a way to salvage the situation. But Torva struck as fierce as she could, as she buried a growing fear with intense waves of anger.
The display ended suddenly when one of the men struck Torva from behind. It didn’t take much force to knock the girl out. With the scene finished, the men turned their attention back to the squad in front of them, and gave their most innocent smile.
“Heh, troublesome child,” one of them exclaimed out to the troop.
The troop responded: “So you know the girl then?”
It was obvious the squad did not get a clear view of the incident which had just occurred. Relieved, the false harvesters tried their best to gain the upper hand on the situation.
“Erm, yeah. Always a loud one.”
“Good. You should be able to take care of her, then. We really shouldn’t be having a kid around for what we’re doing.”
“And… what is that, exactly?”
“We were sent out to investigate a bandit attack on this village. Do you know anything about it?”
“Bandits? No, nothing like that here. Everything’s been quiet so far as I can remember. Where did you hear this from?”
“The girl, apparently. Said the bandits killed her old man and kidnapped her mother.”
“Oh, erm, I wouldn’t worry about it then. The girl has always been a troublemaker. She probably made the whole thing up out of boredom. You should probably just go on home, we’ll deal with her from here.”
“We’d better check out the village anyway. We need to make sure everything’s under control, you know. It’s a pain, but we’ll be quick.”
“Ah, such a shame to waste your time. But if you insist, would you like a guide?”
“No need to bother yourselves. We know its general location, and you folks look busy.”
“Oh I insist! These woods can be tricky if you aren’t careful. I couldn’t stand myself if you fine men got lost.”
“Well, we can’t say no to that. Alright, lead on!”
The squad approached the small group on their march to Gemisek. As they did, the bandits schemed their next plan.
“I’ll try to lead them away from the goods. Take care of the girl, rush to the main camp, and warn them this army’s coming while I distract them. We might be able to walk out of this yet.”
“It’s not much of a ‘Main Camp’ if there’s nobody there, you know.”
“Damn it, not now. Just get into position.”
The one bandit went out to lead the troop astray as best as he could. When they were out of viewing distance, the rest of the bandits turned their attention back on the girl.
“Well, no reason to stall anymore. Who wants to do it?”
“I’m not gonna stick a girl!”
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
One of the bandits brought out an axe he had hidden under his cloak. He approached her collapsed form as he hefted the weapon. He stopped by her legs, and lifted his weapon to a striking position. He didn’t notice the faint glow coming from the back of her head.
He struck, hard enough to cleave her weak body open. As he did, the girl’s legs kicked up behind her head. As he struck ground, the girl righted herself in a reverse somersault. The group looked on in a faint daze as they tried to assess the situation.
“You know, I’m really trying to like you.”
A voice, sounding much too mature, came from the girl who was unconscious just seconds ago. Her eyes were relaxed. Her mouth curled into a kind smile. Her head tilted slightly, playfully. Her weight shifted comfortably to her left side, as she twirled her javelin absentmindedly with her right hand.
Before any of the men before her had a chance to raise their voice, she continued.
“I understand your situation. You don’t have any skills or resources to trade. So, you’re forced to take what you can get, however you can. It’s tragic, really.”
She sang, more than she spoke. Her voice rang cheerfully as her body shifted playfully side to side. Every couple of seconds, she spun her javelin.
“I wanted to help you guys out. Really, I did. I even made a list and everything. But every time I think I have everything figured out, one of you guys does something stupid and ruins it.”
She substituted her quick spins with a throw, twirling her javelin in the air as if it were a baton with a quick flick of her wrist. Each revolution hid a small amount of vapor binding on to the weapon.
“Really, did you have to attack a little girl? Of all things, that was your best plan?”
The failed executioner finally spoke up: “Don’t give us that bull! You’re the one that attacked us! You think we’re just going to let you go when you try to run us through?”
Torva chuckled nervously, and brought her left hand behind her head.
“Heh, sorry about that. It seems like this body can get a bit too emotional. I tried to warn her, but she just wouldn’t listen. It seems like she misunderstood why I gave her the spear.”
She kept on habitually tossing the weapon without missing a beat. It had already lengthened considerably.
“What are you acting so nonchalant for? You think you’re getting out of this alive?”
She lifted her gaze up to the sky, as she continued her twirls.
“What a beautiful sky. It looks so much nicer through these eyes. The breeze is delightful… The smell, wondrous… How could this child be this miserable when she gets to experience such things?”
His patience lost, the failed executioner started:
“That’s enough out of you.”
He closed the gap between them in two steps. He swung wide, low, and fast. She dodged backwards with a slight giggle, as her lance spun in the air. He caught his axe’s momentum, and readied a follow-up strike. The same moment, she caught her lance, and it twirled across her fingers. The polearm’s dance ended when the lance crashed high into the opposing axe at an angle, as the axe came in for its second strike. The impact shattered the lance’s head from its handle, as it knocked the axe’s blade over the girl’s head. She leaned back, giggling slightly. The head of the lance wedged itself neatly into its opponent’s arm, as his hand fell limp. His axe flew to the ground, followed by a trail of blood.
“Now, I know why you’re doing this. You have to eat, after all. But I can’t just have you killing people whenever you want. I want to make you promise to never hurt anyone again, but I know you won’t. I don’t want to kill you, though. Already, I was too harsh on your friends.”
As the girl lectured her insanity, the bandit howled in pain. He squeezed his arm, trying to stop the bleeding. A star shaped blade jutted painfully out of the wound.
“So, I’ll just maim you instead. How does that sound?”
She walked, slowly and joyfully, to the man thrashing about. He backed away from her in a panic. She darted suddenly to him, her face coming within inches of his. She smiled joyously at him as she grabbed the center of the star jutting out of his arm. She let his fear do the rest of the work, as he yanked his arm away from her. The sudden trauma finished severing the nerve in his arm, paralyzing his hand.
He would never swing a weapon again.
It took until now for the bandit’s comrades to react. The three of them swarmed after the girl at once. She threw both parts of her lance over her shoulder, then jumped back three steps. The pieces arced together, twirled around each other, and formed before returning to her hand. Her smile never left her face.
The three of them came at once, but the one in the middle was forced to go around his injured friend. With this delay, only two of them were able to attack in unison. They both swung wide, overreaching to catch the fleeing girl. She focused on the one on the left.
His strike overreached. A duck and a wide step forward, and she was past his effective range. While he was off balance from his hack, she let her momentum keep her moving forward as she spun behind him. She broke off the bottom spike of her lance with her left hand, and used her circular motion to deliver her counter attack. Her momentum found its way to her left hand, and distributed itself across the right leg of the larger man as her spike found its target. Once again, her weapon found itself inside a nerve.
He would never chase a helpless child again.
She focused her attention on the closest unharmed attacker. This time, the man in the middle. He didn’t expect the girl’s sudden motion forward, so he was unprepared to defend himself. All of his vital spots were wide open for the girl to pierce. Instead, she noticed his leg locked up as he stopped suddenly. She grabbed the heel of her lance and swung hard, pushing against the weapon with everything she had. It made contact, and shattered his knee inward.
He would never carry away a haul again.
Three men incapacitated by pain, one was left to down. He had fumbled around the few seconds the fight took place, never being able to get a clear shot with her darting around his comrades. Seeing two of them downed in the same instant, however, he lost his resolved. He turned and ran. His longer gaits prevented the girl from catching up to him. Instead, she planned to stop him before he got a lead on her. Her weapon’s weight on her left side, she was in an awkward position to reach him. Instead, she spun the lance around her left wrist, raised her arm, and tossed it. It arced swiftly in the air, before it caught him in the left shoulder with its backward facing spike. It tore open the muscle supporting his arm.
Thus ended his bandit related activities.
Calling this a fight would be a disgrace. The men barely got a chance to defend themselves. Each was crippled by a single strike, and would never recover. The girl surveyed the damage she caused. Each injury looked bad, but none were fatal. She huffed a quick sigh, inhaled sharply, and smiled broadly at her work.
Half a minute later, a loud noise became noticeable. The victor of this skirmish jumped back, not allowing the men she dropped any surprise attacks. Comfortable at the distance, she looked back at the commotion. The troop rushed back over, each man wearing a startled face.
“What was that noise? What’s going on?”
The men surveyed the scene before them. They saw a girl smiling back at them, happy as could be. Blood was splattered all over her clothing. Behind her, three men lay in varying states of agony. And a fourth limped away with an uncomfortable tool lodged in his shoulder.
“H…how did you manage to fuck up this badly?” was the only response heard from the group. The fifth disguised bandit completely forgot his roll from the sheer shock of the scene.
“You… what have you done?” The squad commander finally spoke. He looked at the girl with complete fear and disgust. She looked back with complete innocence and joy.
“You get sent on a mission, to take care of bandits. You’re sent to a village, which was attacked by bandits. You escort a girl, misplaced 30 miles by being chased by bandits. You come across a group of men. And you don’t wonder if they might be bandits?”
She scolded him with a cheerful tone.
“Of course not. You just send a helpless young girl over to a group of men you just met, and hope everything is okay. Really, how hopeless. It’s a good thing I was here, otherwise these guys would have gotten away. Oh, and killed the girl in your protection, if you care.”
“…Bandits?”, was the only reply given.
The young figure sighed before continuing. “Yes~ bandits. Go check them. Weapons, maybe some stolen goods. Mind the wounds, they look painful.”
The men looked on in disbelief. This was not the same girl they had been escorting.
“I’m kind of uncomfortable taking over a body like this, so I’m just going to take my leave now. When Torva comes back, could you tell her that her water spirit is very cross with her, and to never attack anyone again unless she has to?”
The group looked on in silence.
“Erm, I’ll take that as a yes. And someone please carry this girl. You have no idea how badly these legs hurt.”
She turned her gaze back to the injured trio behind her.
“Well, they do, I guess.”
She turned back to the troop and smiled broadly.
“Until we meet again!”
Her smile faded. Her face and posture sank suddenly. She walked away, sluggishly. Over to a bloodied lance, left behind by a fleeing bandit. She grabbed it, and held tight to it, as if for safety. She walked back over to the troop, and stood in front of them; looking at their feet for several seconds. One of the men broke the awkward silence.
“The, um, water spirit sai-“
“I heard.”
She stood awkwardly for a few more seconds, before she gestured over to the side of the group.
“Maim him too.”
The troop turned their attention to the uninjured bandit, slinking away in the distraction. He turned his head back awkwardly at being discovered.
“…damn it.”
The troop stared at the bandit for a few moments, and the bandit stared back. He gave an awkward smile. Then he began his sprint.
The troop went after him immediately.
Torva turned away from the scene, and toward her village; finally so close. She slunk forward, walking in a sluggish gait. Her hands awkwardly grabbed her lance as if it were a comforting toy, as it melted down her arms.
The skies were clear and beautiful. The sun beamed down, flitting its warm rays across the cool ground. The leaves danced in the wind as the branches hummed a song for anyone willing to listen. Torva ignored all of this as she walked.
She would be home soon.
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