Minstrel

Chapter #5 ~ Creak/Riptide

Rip stood, his jaw hanging open at the girl in front of him. Her plain, woolen dress was a patchwork of tatters, her hair a frizzy, wavy rat's nest on her head. Her eyes, glowing warm with insanity and her tan, round face, with high cheekbones and chapped lips split in a crazed grin. He had never seen anyone so... mad, but not in the angry sense of the word. The girl in front of him, who couldn't have been more than a year younger than him despite her short height, was looney and frightening.

"Are you alright?" He asked tentatively. He waited for an answer, but soon regretted the question when it was obvious she clearly was not okay. Curiosity gnawed at him. Who was this girl? Was she alone? What was wrong with her?

Suddenly a sharp laugh burst from her lips, making Rip flinch back. 'What!' He thought in horror, glancing back to find nothing. 'What's so funny?' The girl's laughs turned hysterical and soon she was bent over gasping for air.

Then just as quickly as it had come, it was gone and the girl slowly looked up at him. Pity and shame flickered through her eyes as she studied him, her gaze sending shivers through him. There was something eerie about her, something that unsettled Rip. Even covered in dirt she had an unmistakable beauty to her, but the insane grin that once again broke her face was nothing short of a nightmare. And her eyes, they seemed to scream out in horror beneath whatever expression she was wearing. They were a warning of something evil and dangerous, something trapped inside her. When her eyes caught his, he blinked. There was something else mixed in with the nightmare of her gaze. A plea for help, a desperate need for a savior.

Rip gulped, his adam's apple bobbing up. She needed help...
His thoughts were lost as a sudden blush overcame the girl's face and she quickly turned and began to walk away. Rip reached out to grab her and drag her back to him, but his hand only swished through the empty air.

Rip watched after her as she continued down the street, her shoulders slumped in defeat. Then she stopped and took a deep breath, her narrow shoulders rising up to only fall back down.

With no warning a strange, foreign sound came out of her and it was beautiful. Before he knew what he was doing, Rip drew his sword. Though lovely, the sound was evil or so the king had taught all his knights to believe. Rip had never heard singing before, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was what the girl was doing. She was singing. She was committing treason and it was Rip's job to put an end to her.

As he drew closer, the girl turned to look at him, her mouth opened to let the evil escape out of her. He glared at her and she responded with a disarming grin, so carefree one might think she wasn't breaking the king's law. The grin threw him off and he stopped with his raised sword beginning to drop uncertainly. She was just a fifteen year old girl. A beautiful, mysterious girl with a nightmare screaming in her insane eyes. Eyes full of pain and shining with regret. How could she do any harm? How could he hope to hurt her?

He violently shook his head. 'She must be controlling me with her musical mind powers!' The uncertainty gone, he raised his sword again and quickly sliced down... only to hit nothing but empty air.

She was gone! Searing hot anger burned like a fire through his veins and he whipped his gaze in every direction. There! The fleeting glimpse of dirty, bare feet disappearing behind one of the village's many alleyways. 'With any luck the girl will find herself at a dead end,' Rip thought, the anger coating his face red, meaning the statement quite literally. Keeping his sword ready Riptide ran after the girl, following the sound of her enchanting voice.

* * *

Creak ran, her lungs straining to sing while running for her life and becoming quite tired in the process. 'That young man,' she thought. 'He was a knight! He had a sword! He was going to kill me!'