Rune Stealer

Hunting

Slipping into the forest, dagger in hand, made me feel like myself again; I felt free like how I used to be. I took a big breath of air; air that wasn't polluted by the palace or by Kian.

I don't think I'll get much of this air for a while, I thought with a scowl.

I flicked up my hood and let my instincts, fabricated over many years of isolation, kicked in.

My senses were alert and I felt the air around me for souls. Immediately bombarded with a plethora of small souls, I zeroed in on the large animal souls.

A fat rabbit bounced straight ahead, while a buck grazed to the left of me. I could feel Zyn's soul vaguely creeping behind me, but I could not hear him at all. His stealth rune was pretty legit. As I headed off to the left, Zyn's mind quivered with a sudden decision and he continued on straight; his soul faded away in the distance.

Alone. I was all alone. My heart fluttered at the fact that I could make a break for it; I could get away and never come back. Those fools – Story. What about Story? And my parents. What would the King do to them?

"Ugh," I groaned, pressing my palm to my forehead. How did I let myself get into this, I thought. Tonight. I nodded. Tonight I start to plan my escape. But till then, I had to be obedient... ish.

I resumed stalking the deer, making sure I remained as quiet as the breeze. The deer's soul was near and I peered past the trunk of a tree and saw the antlers of the large creature.

Slowly, I bent down and picked up a rock and positioned myself so I could react quickly. I tossed the rock near the grazing animal and it perked its head up, alert. Instantly, my knife flew from my hand and imbedded itself in the creature's eye socket, which was followed, quickly, by another dagger that went hilt deep into its neck. The buck didn't even have a chance to shriek before it fell over and began convulsing in pain. I galloped over to the dying animal and promptly put it out of its misery.

"Thank you," I whispered, pushing away the familiar twinge of guilt.

"Impressive."

Tearing my blade from the buck's eye, I spun around furiously, ready to attack whomever snuck up on me. But it was only the translucent Zyn who stood with one, jet black eyebrow raised.

I laughed nervously. He had really frightened me. Why did I not sense him behind me? My eyes widened as I realized that I could not feel his soul in the atmosphere.

"That stealth rune is no joke, isn't it?" I scoffed, wiping my bloody blade on my pants and then sheathing it.

"Hm?" Zyn grunted. I bent to retrieve my other dagger that rested in the deer's neck.

"I can't even sense your soul," I mumbled. I stood back up and met the boy's ice-blue eyes. "You may be the only person who can sneak up on me."

"Interesting," he said with a grunt that might've ben a laugh, but his face remained still as stone.

He was a different kind of emotionless than Kian. Kian was an angry stoic and was always glaring. Zyn's face was black – empty; almost as if he possessed no emotions at all, not even behind his mask.

Zyn's mind wasn't very guarded so I slipped in easily, but there wasn't much to see in there; it was pretty much a white landscape. Not in the way that he was incredibly simple, he was very intelligent, but more like he felt absolutely nothing. Then it clicked in my brain as to why. The pale skin, black as night, shabby hair, and the emotions of a rock, it all made sense.

"You're from Leipolah, aren't you?" I smirked.

"What gave it away," he said, his brows lifting again.

"Oh you know, the pale skin and the mysterious dark hair. Not to mention your eyes are the color of ice. The trademark look of those who decide to take refuge in the frigid mountains of Leipolah. The tipping point, though, was the no emotions. It's all empty up here." I tapped my temple as I said that. "And I heard a rumor that there's a region in Leipolah that views emotions as a weakness and people are brought up and trained to basically not feel anything that all." I chuckled. "Sounds exhausting."

"You get used to it," he mumbled as he shrugged slightly.

"So why are you in Galabee?" I asked, curious and suddenly his mind wasn't so empty. Red anger, the dark, rust color of blood, flooded his mind and soaked every corner, every surface of his brain. But it was gone as quickly as it came.

"Exile," Zyn breathed through almost gritted teeth.

My grin widened as I asked, "What did you do?" I pressed further, hoping to get a flash of that blood red anger; it was adrenalizing. Zyn was quiet for a long time, searching for an answer I assume.

"I wanted to feel," he finally said as he bent and scooped up the large deer and threw it over his shoulder as if it was nothing and he began to walk back to the camp.

"So why don't you?" I hastily asked as I jogged to catch up to him.

"They beat it out of me," Zyn growled with a flash of red. So he wasn't much different from Kian after all.