Starsong

Scene 1

Part 1: The Fox's Flute

{--} Ren {--}

          "It's getting dark out, miss!" The voice came muffled behind the slammed door.

         Ren sighed deeply, trying to ignore her. It had been hours. The sky outside had darkened, and yet the young voice was still there. Stars, was she dense.

          "I don't have any food!"

          "Then go buy some!" Ren roared at the door, hoping to scare her away.

          "I don't have any money!"

          "You go rob the village blind, then, for all I care." Ren grumbled.

          "What?" Piya called, not hearing her behind the door.

          "Get out!"

          "C'mon, miss! I came all the way out here!"

          "Tough stuff, kid!"

          "My name's Piya!"

          "I don't care!"

          "Pleeeeeaase!" Piya whinged, though she sounded much more annoyed than desperate.

          "I'm not an adventurer! I don't know where you got that idea from, but I've never been one!"

          "What about your scars?"

          Ren felt a sudden chill, and her hand drifted up to trace the long, white gash across her middle, a blade gone far too deep. Then she scowled, "You're in no place to ask me about those! You're what, seven?! Where are your parents?!"

          "Never knew 'em!"

          Ren stopped again, a different chill creeping through her. She looked back down at the dagger on her table, its metal dulled from years and years of use. A different Renara could have seen her reflection in it, once. The lamp cast a golden light over the room, making the dark outside seem that much more suffocating.

           Well, hey, little one. Aren't you a special breed--?

          Oh, no, I know. I know. Come here. You fought so bravely--

          You're quite a fighter. You'll stop resisting me if you know what's good for you, though. I'm going to be taking care of you now--

          I can help you make him pay, little filly. He deserves to, doesn't he? You can feel it. That kind of drive is so unfairly looked down upon, you know. But not by me. No, I think you deserve to know how--

          There are worse people that can take in a child. Much worse.

          "You got anywhere to stay, kid?" Ren called, though her voice was noticeably fainter.

          "If I did, miss, I wouldn't be standing outside a stranger's house!"

          "Right." Ren mumbled to herself, then stepped closer and opened the door again. She took in Piya's huge eyes, the way the purple shimmered in her lamplight. Piya cracked a wide, toothy grin, and Ren felt her resolve finally break. "Fine. Come inside. But I'm not your mentor. I'm just going to feed you and bring you somewhere where we can find whatever decorated adventurer you want."

          "There's no heroes in the villages, miss." Piya said, a strange note of exhaustion to her peppy voice.

          Ren nodded, then started thinking. Eventually, she sighed. "Right. Well, I know where there are some. I'm going to take you to Springspire."

          Piya's eyes went wide with excitement, and she began to wiggle again, "Springspire?! Really, miss? Oh, stars! My first real quest and--"

          "This isn't a quest." Ren shut her down, a bit more coldly than she meant to. "I'm just taking you because I don't trust anyone else to. Anyone offering you to take you somewhere could be a mugger. Worse, an assassin." The word assassin rolled bitterly off Ren's tongue, and she had to swallow to get rid of the phantom taste of blood. "So I'll take you myself. We go to the city, find some adventurer willing to take in a kid, and then we're done. Understand?"

          Piya swung her arm in some large signal that Ren didn't recognize, bowing slightly. "Yes, ma'am! Thank you!"

          Ren acknowledged it with a short nod, then impatiently waved her inside, "Now come on. Before bugs get in."

           "I love bugs!" Piya chirped as she stepped inside, "I used to eat dried-up bugs all the time back at my old home, y'know! Sometimes I even caught scorpions! Those were good. I knew to cut off the tail and all that first. Have you ever eaten a scorpion?"

          "No." Ren answered bluntly, then she turned back to look at Piya's tanned face, her rough paws as the implication sunk in, "...So you were born in the desert?"

          "Sure was!"

          Ren felt her eyebrows knit together. It would have been one thing if her parents had been immigrants, if she'd been born here than orphaned. That would have made sense. But if she was born in the desert, let alone grown up there long enough to be able to hunt... It can take months, years to travel that far on foot. "Who brought you to the Plains, then, kid?"

          "Nobody!" Piya grinned proudly, standing tall so the lamplight now illuminated every scar and rough patch on her young face, "I came myself!"

          "You traveled all the way here yourself?"

          "Yes, ma'am!" Piya grinned proudly, yet Ren felt a deep anger rise up in her. Why was she here? Who would let a kid travel across the world alone? She was lucky to be alive.

          "Got any injuries you know about, Piya?" Ren rumbled, unable to keep the fury from her voice. It seemed Piya could sense it, because her face fell into a confused frown, unable to understand what had upset Ren now.

          "Uh, no, ma'am. I don't think so. I can clean up my own cuts really well, though, miss! Don't worry!"

          The problem is why you learned how. Ren thought bitterly. She only sighed again, trying to push the memory away, "Have you had anything to eat?"

          Piya shook her head, "Not for a while, miss!"

          Ren moved to her table, uncovering the tough, salty meat she'd prepared, "Your stomach got an issue with meat?"

          "No! I love meat!"

          Ren nodded slightly in acknowledgement before taking her dagger and hacking a chunk clean off. She handed it to Piya, who took it with wide, hungry eyes. Ren felt her shoulders slump with an old exhaustion. She knew those eyes. Piya grinned up, "Wow! Thank you, miss!"

          Ren nodded again, then glanced around the room. She didn't have much furniture, except for her large, soft sack in the corner. She sighed. It's not like this was the first time she's slept on the floor. "You can sleep there tonight." Ren pointed towards the sack, "We're leaving in the morning."

          "Wow! Thanks, miss! Or, I guess if we're going to be traveling together, what should I call you?"

          Ren looked back at her again as she settled down. Piya was so small on her sack, her lute now unstrapped and lying next to her. It almost swallowed her up. She softened, just a little more, even as Piya's story made old ice creep through her body.

          "My name is Ren."