Girl of Steel and Stone

Chapter 1

I tried uploading a picture of what I thought Jarran would look like, but it didn't work.  Anyways, read, like and comment!

Chapter one

The night was silent. You could only hear the soft wind billowing through the trees, making the leaves rustle and masking every sound of approaching men.

   No nightlife sounds.

   My gun was clutched in my hand as I waited, like I had done all night long. They were out there, I knew it. But when would they come? Would they forego this village of nothing?

   If I hadn't wanted to stay perfectly silent I would have let a bitter laugh escape at the thought. That we were a village of nothing, with no casern nearby, meant we were only more of a target. A village without defense, to plunder at their will.

   I was sure they were licking their lips at the thought of food to eat and women to rape. Of people to kill.

   Shame we wouldn't go down without a fight.

   They weren't the first. And they would certainly not be the last.

   I tried to relax all my muscles while I listened to every sound. The soft snoring of my cute little brother in the room next to mine, the rustling of sheets from my mother's room across the corridor. I blocked them out to listen to the rustling leaves, trying to find that one sound that would tell me where exactly they were.

   I knew I wasn't the only one.

  Every other between fifteen and twenty-five was listening, waiting for that one sound that would throw us all into action.

   And then, there it was. A cracking sound, probably a branch, to the south where the trees were high and tall, with enough vegetation at the roots to hide a big party.

   I sat up, throwing the covers from my legs, only to slide my feet in my boots and lace them within seconds with an efficiency only gained by years of practice.

   I checked quickly if all my knives and daggers were well strapped and took the second gun from under my mattress.

   I finished counting in my head. Twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven... I climbed onto my bed, ignoring the stains it would leave, pushing myself against the wall next to my window.

   Twenty-eight, twenty-nine...

   I put my hand against the glass, ready to push it open and jump through.

   Thirty.

   With bangs, windows and doors were thrown open as at least of fifty of us leapt out of our houses.

   I threw my window open, using support of one hand on the windowsill to leap through and fall through the air, since I slept on the second floor. I landed on my feet with practiced ease before rolling over my shoulder to lessen the impact.

   My eyes took in the scenery in in less than a second.

   The first row of dark blue soldiers had just come out of the tree line. Dark blue, the color of the Freedom Fighters. After their ruined putsch they had started some kind of guerilla war, not unlike at least half a dozen other groups. And villages like ours were the ones who paid the price.

  The surprise on their faces would almost have been comical, weren't it for the fact that I knew exactly what they had planned for us. And how many of them there were. There must have been at least a hundred of them and more still hiding in the trees. This was one of the biggest parties ever.