Daughter of a Dixon {Book Two}

01: Flaming Arrows

The skins were circled around our people below, and they had no idea we were there. Thankfully, the trees had thick branches, strong enough to hold two-to-three people at a time. As for me, though, I had one all to myself.

I squinted my eyes, surveying the dark scene below through the dark cloak covering my head. Alpha was standing in the middle of everyone, muttering words I almost couldn't make out. It was obvious she was the leader, and knew she was in charge. Not for long.

I looked around to my comrades in the trees beside me, and I could vaguely make out them nodding at me, signaling they were ready to light it up. I was just as ready as they were, even more so.

Inhaling a deep breath and closing my eyes for a split second, I lit a simple match in my hand. I opened my eyes, and lit the end of my arrow, engulfing the spear in a ball of flame. Very carefully, I placed the arrow in my bow, reared back, and fired directly next to Alpha's foot. It landed exactly where it was supposed to, and the whole forest became silent.

My crew mimicked my action, lighting their arrows, but not firing them yet. A circle of fire appeared in the trees, and everyone on the ground below looked up in pure shock. I smirked to myself, and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Now, here's how it's gonna be," I spoke, loudly enough so they could hear me below. "Carol, Michonne, Yumiko, Lydia, and.. Daryl. They are to be released."

I kept my eyes on Alpha, watching as she frantically looked around in search of who was speaking. She couldn't see any of us, though, only the balls of fire on the ends of our arrows.

"We don't take orders from you!" she yelled up to us, "or anybody!"

She didn't scare me, but I could tell, I was scaring her. "You will," I said, confidence in my voice.

I looked to my right and left, and my crew gave me a second nod, implying they were ready to follow through with the plan.

"If I get through counting, and you're still here, we will open fire," I told, and as soon as the words left my mouth, immediately began counting on my fingers, backwards from ten.

The whole woods went silent, and I watched Alpha as she looked around, becoming more anxious by the second. She had a right to be, and she would be terrified if she knew what was about to happen to her.

When I put down my final finger, I screamed at the top of my lungs, "Light it up!"

The flaming arrows all soared through the air at once, creating for a spectacular show, but the most important part was that most of them hit their targets: the enemies' heads. Sounds of death filled the air, and after that, panicked screams were added to the mix.

I watched as people scrambled, running away from the scene as more flaming arrows were fired their way. Some people were killed as they were running. Some people were missed by an inch. Others got away completely clean, including Alpha.

We fired at them until they had ran completely out of our sight, and even then, we shot a few extra, non-lit arrows for good measure. We didn't want them coming around, but if they did, we'd be ready for that, too.

The people we'd saved had stayed right where they were on the ground, directly in my line of sight. "Who are you?" Michonne yelled up at us, looking around the trees for any signs we were still there. I missed the sound of her soft, yet immensely authoritative, voice.

"Old friends," I said vaguely, and it pained me to leave it at that. "Stay safe. We'll be around."

I looked left and right, and gave the move out symbol. The people beside me passed it down to the others, and silently, all of us began shuffling down from the trees. It was still too dark for us to be seen in our dark clothing by the others, so once we hit the ground, we started running in our assigned directions to get back to the camp.

Knowing Michonne, though, I should've realized they were going to chase us. Among our scrambled footsteps, theirs could also be heard, chasing after any one of us they could catch.

"Scram!" I called out to my crew, and we all split, running in random directions to avoid being caught.

We made it for a little stretch of way, but then I heard a muffled, high-pitch scream from somewhere to my right. Someone had been caught, and I wasn't going anywhere without them coming with me - it was the code.

I started running towards the scream, keeping my head down and cloak covering my face. Hopefully I blended in with the darkness around me, so whoever I was about to attack wouldn't see me coming. I saw them ahead, in a clearing of trees, and thankfully, I'd seen them before they'd seen me.

I didn't let who it was deter me, even if they were family. I told myself that if anyone of my people were in trouble, they came first, and I'd meant that.

My dad had Thalia in a headlock, and I snuck up behind him and kicked both his knees from behind. He let out a cry and fell to the ground, and he instinctively released Thalia to break his fall. I grabbed her by her shoulders and pointed her in the right direction, then giving her a light shove to start her running.

"Get back to camp!" I yelled, and she didn't look back. The rule of 'no one gets left behind' didn't apply to me - I made that exception for myself, and everyone else always obeyed it.

I turned around just in time to meet the eyes of an angry Dixon, who was charging straight at me. He went straight for a punch, but I grabbed his fist and twisted it back, taking my free hand to go for a punch at his ribs. He wasn't able to dodge the attack, and let out a pained groan as the blow hit him.

That didn't handicap his feet, though. He swept his ankle under my own feet, and I helplessly collapsed to the ground. Before I could perform any move to get up, he yanked out a gun from his belt, and aimed it directly for my head.

"Don't move," he snarled, and even though I hadn't seen him in years, that tone still put the fear of God in me. I knew I was defeated, so I simply glared up at him with a coldness that could've frozen Hell.

I knew what he was about to do, and I also knew that he wasn't going to like it after he did it. I didn't try and stop him, though - I knew it was pointless.

Dad reached over and folded back the cloak hiding my face, revealing myself to him.

The recognition, and pain, in his face was instantaneous.

A/N: Told you. You haven't seen the last of Sidney Dixon..