Silver Waves

Two

Nami wasn't sure what woke her. It seemed that there had been a noise, yet everything was silent but for the sleeping sounds of the girls around her. It was still dark, and it felt like not much time had passed since she had fallen asleep.

She sat up, sleepy and bleary-eyed, and looked around. No one else had awoken. Maybe it was something from my dreams...

She almost started to snuggle back down into her bedroll when she heard the quiet whisper of footsteps running lightly over the ground.

She sat upright again, ears alert for any new sound, eyes scanning the shadowed hut, now wide awake and wary. Her heart stuttered in her chest. She lightly shook Kaia, and prodded another of the older girls, Sprigg, with her foot. When they blinked up at her, confused and sleepy, Nami motioned them over to her bedroll.

"What's goin-" Sprigg began.

"Shh!" Nami cut her off, placing a finger to her lips. Kaia raised a concerned eyebrow at her friend's harshness, and Sprigg tried again, her voice barely above a whisper.

"What's going on?" Her blue-green eyes were wide.

"I'm not sure," Nami whispered back, "but something's... off." She nudged Kaia, her naturally leader-like personality taking over. "You two wake the older girls, and have them help you get the younger ones to the back of the tent."

Sprigg and Kaia nodded, fully trusting the instincts of their Huntress friend, and began creeping over the sleeping forms of the other young girls and women, shaking them awake with silent urgency, shushing them and pulling them out of their beds.

Nami slunk over to the covered door of their hut, keeping low to the ground, moving slowly and steadily. Her limbs, accustomed to the necessary quiet of hunting, carried her with ease. At the opening, she squatted, feet flat on the ground, and twitched the door covering aside.

At first glance, everything looked completely normal. The lumps of huts sat dark, as they should have been. The main fire had burnt to embers, ready to be rebuilt in the morning. Nami knew her home. Knew every small detail. Nothing looked amiss.

But something inside her whispered that everything was not as it seemed.

Abruptly, the covering of the tent was ripped out of Nami's hand, and she was yanked through the opening of the hut. A rough hand covered her mouth, smothering her attempt to call out. She struggled in the unexpected embrace of her captor, and something cold and sharp pressed into the delicate skin of her neck.

"Quiet now," a gruff voice whispered in her ear. "Look at your friends." The strange hand moved from her mouth and tangled itself in her hair, forcing her head to turn. Her own wide, frightened eyes were reflected back on the faces of the other girls in the hut. "You don't want them to get hurt, do you?"

Nami didn't respond, frozen as she was with fear, and the stranger shook her roughly. "Do you?"

She shook her head, and the cold, sharp object was moved slightly away from her throat. She twisted a bit, trying to glimpse the stranger that held her. She saw pale skin and dark red hair that glowed like dull fire under the light of the moon, before the man forced her to face the hut again.

Another man stepped up beside Nami and grinned at the restrained girl, showing black, rotted teeth that made his mouth look like a gaping pit against the bleached skin of his face. He turned and leered at the other girls in the hut. "And none of you," he said to them, "want your friend to get hurt either, right?" He spoke cockily, drawling, knowing that he was in charge, knowing how this would end. The girls in the tent shook their heads, staring worriedly at Nami and her captor.