Soul Fraction

Chapter 3: Looming Threat

The burning embers drifted across her vision. There she stood, at the center of town just in front of the fountain, unable to move, unable to speak, only able to watch the chaos rage on. Citizens fled in panic down the roads, only fighting for themselves. Horses and carriages barreled through the crowds, knocking down anyone standing in their way. Blood stained the streets as shadows pierced bodies with their blades. One by one, the citizens either escaped or became corpses. The streets suddenly became vacant. In the blink of an eye, the bodies that once littered the streets had vanished, only leaving puddles of blood where they once laid. The village was now eerily silent: no wind, no crackling of fire, no screams, no breathing, just silence.

Her body stood frozen atop the red wine-colored road, staring down the main street of the Tsuri village. A noise began gradually growing louder and louder, closer and closer. A clapping noise echoed through the streets, but there was nothing, nobody. She soon realized it wasn't clapping, but the slow walk of a single pair of boots clopping against dirt. Todoroki, the ax-man, materialized before her just as he had during the attack on the Royal Capital.

Her mind began to panic. It told her to run, to fight, to do anything except stand there, but it was no use. The ax-man's arm quickly whipped behind him in an all too familiar stance. The black chain began to materialize link by link until the entire ax formed. The only thing able to move were her eyes, which followed the materialization of the chain-ax.

Todoroki's arm came hammering down toward her. She tried to scream, but it only echoed against the walls of her mind. The ax grew closer and closer, causing her heart to race faster and faster. Just before the ax was positioned above her head, her arms broke free, but the only thing she could think of was to throw them in front of the pitch-black ax that hurtled toward her.

Rin's eyes shot open just as the blade of the ax connected with her skin. She awoke to her forearms crossed in the shape of an X, hovering over her face. Her chest rapidly pumped up and down as she breathed heavily through her nose. Sweat droplets covered her body from head to toe and seeped through her clothing onto the bedroll.

Rin tried to gather her wits, but her mind kept replaying the final image of the ax slashing down. Both her jittering arms fell to the ground at her sides, clutching the bedroll, as she began to slow her breathing by focusing up at the tip of the teepee. The smaller parts of the nightmare had already begun to fade away, but as she gazed up, she saw the image of the ax-man plain as day. This was something she had feared would happen if she fell asleep. It didn't help that it was the only thing that had been on her mind the last five days.

As her heart rate began to slow, a comforting aroma made its way into her nose, meat. She forced her aching body upright. Her wound, her muscles and tendons, and her feet all felt the same fatigue coursing through them. Her palms rose up to her face, finding themselves resting on her cheeks. She applied a light pressure and slowly dragged them down her cheeks, pulling her eyes open wider to try waking herself up.

With her alertness catching back up to speed, the smell of meat grew even more prominent. She quickly rubbed her eyes, then crawled out of the teepee into the glaring brightness of the sun to find Christoph and Emiko kneeling next to a dwindling fire. The two were trying to roast some of the remaining rabbit meat, but the fire was no longer hot enough, even with the fresh twigs that had placed in the pit. Rin's mouth gaped open suddenly, releasing a long yawn. That's when the kids finally noticed her and took their attention away from the rare-cooked meat.

"Hi, Rin!" Emiko blurted with a wide smile.

"Hey, what are you two up to?" she asked, releasing another yawn.

"We're making dinner!" Christoph shouted with excitement.

Rin's eyes wandered to the tree line to discover that it was dinner time. The bright orange sun had just begun its descent behind the horizon. There was still a gentle breeze weaving through the trees, but the temperature was cool enough without it. The way her eyes reacted earlier made her believe it was early morning. "How long did I sleep for?"