Lady Thief [on hold]

~ Chapter Two ~

The world went into a frenzy of hoarse screams, deadly movement, and fear, choking fear. For a moment, Key was absorbed in it, her mind carried away by the unrelenting torrent of her own terror. Then, a pair of golden eyes latched onto hers. Link’s eyes. Her mind snapped back to reality, and from a belt around her waist she produced a steel blade. It was not, unlike most of her weapons, a dagger.  It was a sword, a simple one with a long, tapered blade. She didn’t remember where she picked it up, but she kept it for times like this.

Instead of striking out at the tidal wave of demons coming at her, she crouched to the ground, pulling her cowl over her head and curling up, bracing for impact. In a few seconds they fell upon her body like a deadweight, bouncing off of her back, some latching onto her cloak with sharpened claws, and other trying to strike her head. For a split moment she tensed, harboring her strength, and then she exploded upward, sweeping out with her blade in a deadly arc.

It collided with the lithe, muscular bodies, some being severed through, others taking the blade like a club. The demons around her fell to that blade, landing in heaps upon the ground.

For every abomination that was slain, there were two or three more to take its place, and the demons weren’t the only ones taking the blows. The lower half of Key’s cloak was torn away by a demon that had latched onto her back, which she had decapitated soon after. She had rough a dozen scratches and cuts, all of them stinging as if acid had been poured on them. The sheer agony from those mild injuries alone was enough to make her scream.

Just as Key severed the spine of another creature to her left, there was a blur coming in from her right. She reacted an instant too late, whipping toward the movement with her blade swinging in an arc that might only clip the hairs off of the tip of his tail. Too late. Treacherously too late.

In an instant he was there, and a hellish creature was batted out of the air with ease. A rush of gratitude enveloped Key, and she glanced over, to flash Link a smile of thanks, but instead found someone else. The lop sided grin died on her lips. It wasn’t Link. Instead it was a man with short cut, dark reddish hair, more of an auburn color. Instead of a staff, he held out an ornately decorated blade, the hilt decorated with gold and claret red rubies. One of the princes.

Key glanced away as quickly as she could, with was a good thing because there was another demon coming in at her. With an adept slash, she struck it down in mid-leap. Then came another, which she took down with ease, then another, and more after that. Soon, her limbs started to drag from exhaustion. Every swinging of her sword was its own battle, and every new nick and scratch was just another pound added to the loadstone of exhaustion that balanced precariously on her shoulders.

Finally, when she thought she could take it no more, Key gave a final swing of her sword, only to find it slice through empty air. Her blood lust and rage left her feeling empty and hollow as she surveyed what was left around her. Nearby stood the red headed prince, across the clearing was his brother and father, and some distance away Link was hunched over, leaning heavily on his staff, looking as if he would pass out.

Strewn all across the ground were lay the huddled bodies of the demons, festering in death as the acid in their own blood ate what was left of their flesh. Key’s nose wrinkled at the thought. She picked her way through the mess and reached Link’s side.

“You really are a mess, Link.” she said. He managed a grim smile in return.

“Well, well, well.” mused the king. “Isn’t this a motley pair we have here? And why would you be in this forest? Following us, of all things?”

Key snorted in indignation, an insane laugh bubbling up inside her. “I don’t know about motley pairs, but I do know that someone here owes me a sword.” She hefted up her own blade, or what was left of it. The metal was warped into an odd, asymmetrical shape, and was still dripping with the black ooze.