Lady Thief [on hold]

~ Chapter One ~

((A/N - Happy Thanksgiving/Hanukah/November 28th.  I figured that, in the holiday spirit (not the December holiday spirit, but the end-of-November holiday spirit.  I'd post the first chapter of Lady Thief a few days early.  Why not?  Enjoy? :)

NOTE - this chapter has been edited because of dialogue problems.  It is now slightly changed.))

{{Part One || The Demons}}

The Twisted Forest, which stretched out over an unfortunately large part of Francea, wasn't referred to as 'Twisted', for nothing. Much like Key, it had accumulated several names over the years: Demon Spawner, Darkwood, and Devil's Keep, to name a few of them. The official name, the one that was written on the maps, was the Forest of Tamberlin. More often than not, though, it was referred to as the Twisted Forest, and it was easy to see why.

Unlike in a normal forest, where the trees stood separate from one another, their leafy canopies stretched out to reach all of the sunlight they could, the trees in the Twisted Forest grew in a haphazard pattern, too close together, almost claustrophobically. Some even grew entwined around each other as they struggled to strangle and choke each other out. Their branches were leafless, widespread and tangled horribly around each other, shutting the light out and leaving the forest floor lost in darkness. It was good, Key thought, because it made it easier for her to hide, but it still made her quarry harder to track.

Winter was just over, but the land had not yet fully succumbed to spring. The ground was only just beginning to thaw, making the ground soft and impressionable. The king's footsteps were all too easy to make out, at least for Key's trained eye, which begged the question: 'Why go hunting in the Twisted Forest without a guard?' All too many people had died here, in years passed.

The footprints were getting fresher as she followed them. They were getting close. She turned to Link, opening her mouth to comment, but got cut off before a noise could escape her lips. “I’d be quiet if I were you.” he whisper-shouted. “There’s been a demon stalking us for the past quarter-mile.”

Demons?

Key cursed herself silently. How hadn’t she noticed them before? Her head whipped around, scanning the surrounding trees until she spotted a pair of luminous yellow eyes glaring out at them. A demon. It was a miracle that one hadn’t found them before now. They were the reason this forest was so renowned. They were all different, and how they came to be were beyond the understanding of even the most wizened scholars. Most believed they were tormented escapees from the hellish Nether-Realm, but Key wasn’t quite so sure.

“For the past quarter-mile, huh?’ Key mused quietly, reaching inside of her trench-coat, which she found much more suitable than the dress she’d worn the evening before. Her fingers closed around the hilt of a dagger stowed in one of the well-concealed pockets. She tensed, poised to flick it out and hit the creature right between the eyes.

“Key! What are you doing?”

She stared at the eyes, the eyes started back, and she let it fly.

The creature let out a horrible dying screech, the knife blade stabbing through its skull, and going in up to the hilt. The body of a weasel-like mutant fell out of the tree, landing with on the ground with a dull thump.

“What did you do that for?” Link exclaimed, his voice barely below a shout.

Key narrowed her eyes in annoyance as she pulled her dagger out of the thing’s revolting carcass. She studied the gore-covered blade in dismay. The demon’s near-black blood was actually acidic. The metal on the edges of the knife was already corroding away. She wiped it on the ground, smearing the blackened sludge into the dirt. She slid the metal back into her pocket.