Sun-King Avad's Selection

Chapter 1 - Daughter of Darav

In the tall grass deep in the heart of the Jewel, the aspiring warrior watched closely and carefully, as the four-legged machine resembling a panther, patrolled through the trees and shrubs. It was a Sawtooth with glowing blue eyes and an antenna on its back. A fearsome predator, albeit not the largest or the most deadly. Someday, I'll get there, but first, there's you, the young female Carja thought as she waited for her chance to strike.

Emily Darav had just turned eighteen and instead of celebrating her birthday back home in the Brightmarket village, she was out in the wilderness honing her skills as a warrior. Emily had dreamed for so long to become a skilled fighter. Despite her sex, the Carja still had not allowed women into the military yet, but with new laws being formed, she had hoped for a change soon as there were already changes elsewhere. But that didn't stop her family, especially her father from holding a firm grip on what happened to his children.

Emily was the eldest of her siblings, and any young man in the village thought she was pretty whether she wore her Carja silk dresses embroidered with machine parts or her light Carja Blazon that exposed her midriff that she felt more comfortable in. She had long wavy fiery red hair that went just below her chest, some say she could easily be mistaken for the famous huntress Aloy of the Nora, until they saw her hair was redder with no braids, along with her deep emerald eyes, and pale skin. Skin that refused to tan despite being in the sun all the time, Emily didn't care. The one accessory she always wore with anything and everything was a small tiara made from the heart of a Thunderjaw, one of the largest machines that ever existed. It was given to her by her grandfather when she turned five and heard his tales of the machines he fought and her own interest in the skill blossomed. She never took it off except when bathing or sleeping. The other Carja women wore larger and fancier headdresses but Emily preferred to keep it simple.

Emily also decided that today she would sneak out because she knew coming of age would result in the lecture from her father that she dreaded for months. Even though the Carja were making small steps of improvement away from their old patriarchal ways, her father was still old-fashioned and there was only one thing he wished for his eldest daughter to have once she was of age. Desperate to delay it for as long as possible. Emily snuck out of the house before dawn with the spear she spent her entire savings of shards on back when she was twelve and hoped to stay out of the village until nightfall. Perhaps by then her father would be too tired of searching for her and be asleep by the time she returned.

The chances of that are slim, but I will stall for as long as I can, then maybe I can run away from home after that, go live in the Forbidden West maybe, they won't dare go after me there, I'll be free, she thought, watching as the Sawtooth rounded another corner.

This is it, here it comes, I'm ready, she thought and waited until the Sawtooth came closer. It was less than a meter away when she sprung out of the grass and plunged the spear into the left side of its metal torso. The beast roared and then she swung again, but this time it was lunging at her, and headbutted her to the ground.

"Ow!" she shrieked, so that's how it's going to be? Fine. She rose, bruised but not severely injured, and then she charged toward the Sawtooth with her weapon in front and leapt into the air like a frog as the machine prepared to lunge again, unleashing a mechanical roar. The Sawtooth missed and knocked over a nearby palm tree as Emily landed on its back and this time struck it at the foundation of its antennae, the component tore off and fell to the ground.

But the Sawtooth did not take this lightly. It shook its whole body in agony and Emily struggled to hold on and fell off from the impact landing on her back. The Sawtooth lunged again and she rolled aside as both its anterior claws missed and knocked over a smaller tree.