Something I Guess

Overly Boring Chapter 1

                Brooke perched on a gnarled branch of her watch tree, her dark green eyes glittering ravenously. Every muscle tensed in her body as she clenched her jaw. Every mission, waiting was the unbearable part. The anticipation of being able to hide behind a guise was nearly overwhelming. Having a defined reason made it her job. She was usually assigned to missions where she impersonated somebody else. Her victims always had to die, of course. They always seemed to be minor people anyway. Nobody would miss them. What she did with their life was a mercy. They were pawns, and had to be repurposed. At least, that was what was constantly drilled into the students' minds. Brooke's confidence began to falter. Chameleon Seeley was hesitating to give the signal. Her brows furrowed. She bobbed her head, trying to see him in the next tree. It's safe, she wanted to hiss, what are you waiting for? A wisp of mousy hair slipped out from under her hood and she blew it away irritably. She began to shift to get a better vantage point, but froze in place as she heard a foreign voice. At the base of her tree. Her breath snagged in her throat.

                "It's paranoia! Have you honestly ever seen one of the... what did the stories call 'em?" A cold, distracted voice hissed. "They en't really got a name. Maybe shapeshifters? I dunno." Brooke warily leaned forward, trying to see their faces. She nearly recoiled in terror as she caught their faces in the moonlight. The princess' bodyguards! Her face burned with shame that she hadn't seem them before. Repulsive men they were, but definitely loyal. In spite of their drunken, drawling voices which may give somebody else a different idea about their intelligence, they were also cunning. Dread writhed in her gut. Am I really going to have to...  An understanding grin slowly spread across her pale face. Chameleon Seeley would never allow them to be caught, unless he deliberately allowed it. However, this wasn't included in the original plan. Still, she knew if she could trust anybody, it would be Chameleon Seeley. The fact that she'd been paired on a mission with him confounded her greatly. She never thought herself to be exceptional in her line of work. And this was the Master Seeley. It was common knowledge, at least amongst their people, that his abilities extended beyond manipulating his own somatic cells. She couldn't think about it now, as she realized she only had a narrow window of time for her to reach the princess.

                Brooke slowly crept through the branches, her flesh itself tingling with anticipation. Her training would pay off here. She suddenly soared noiselessly over their heads, landing yards behind them. Her eyes flicked to the second tree, watching for Master Seeley. Of course, she saw only the darkened boughs of the tree, nothing else. She nodded slightly and sprang over the shallow stream that the men must have stepped over. She should have heard them then. Still flummoxed, she stalked into the quieting camp roosting on another flat hill. It wasn't extraordinarily difficult to find the princess' tent, the largest and most sturdily set one. Brooke slowly unsheathed her dagger, no metallic hiss following, as it tended to be smarter to have a leather sheath when you are going for stealth. The mat metal barely reflected the light of the moon eagerly hanging above them.

                Brooke double-checked for any traps and slunk through the entrance of the tent, bracing herself. She'd done this twenty times over. It made no difference to her this girl was a princess, but she felt a small, familiar though foreign ache in her chest. She didn't know what this was. Pity? Disgust? Fear? In any case, she'd been taught to ignore it. Apparently none of her peers felt it. They could eliminate the targets without the burden of the strange feeling. She blinked, her eyes stinging dully. She rose to her full height, which wasn't very impressive. She'd always been a smaller student, but her slight stature did very well for her on missions such as these. The princess had a similar structure. This was key for a convincing guise. Going through the victim's entire past and mimicking their habits and personality was a bit more complicated.