HOARDED

Prologue

Devil draped in black. Devil... because even when surrounded by dozens of armed tribesmen and women on all sides, her lupine smile grows bigger and bigger. she is dressed in black from head to toe. It would have been impossible to distinguish her from the night, with the dense forest and the starless sky backing her, if it weren't for the glint of light clinging to her neck. It is a necklace with pearls arranged in a pyramid fashion. And the glint is coming from a single stone on the central pearl. 

She has a bow slung across a shoulder and a sheath of arrows peeks from behind the other. Arrows against the nimble tribesmen is as fragile an attempt as sword against canon. I cannot help but smile at her naivety. She lifts her hands. And all I want to do is cry out that a bow and some arrows are not going to protect her from the tribesmen or the king would have had his own army instead of relying on some tribesmen who cannot even defeat a women firing some arrows at them. But she doesn't reach for the arrow as I anticipated. Instead she pulls the necklace from her neck and adjusts it on her palm. Her next few movements are so quick that it passes as a blur.

And there she stands poised with her bow loaded with an arrow, ready to fire it at the nearest tribesmen. I want to believe that she has no idea what she is doing. But her posture says otherwise. Warrior it screams. I know because I have seen the tribesmen firing darts, about a million times, while wandering the forest during the night. But none had such a posture, such a stillness, such a predatory glance, such a feline smile and such steady arms while holding their weapons. She runs her free hand parallel to the arrow dramatically. The metal arrowhead reflecting the light from the stone on her necklace. Bizarre I think. But then I see it as her hand reaches the end of the arrow and she pulls the string of the bow to her mouth. Fire. Blazing at the arrowhead. Fire dancing graciously on metal.