Over Enemy Lines

The villagers they passed stared at her with hatred and fear. Kyra knew what they must be thinking, why would one of their own bring an enemy to walk on their land? She hardly knew why she herself had crossed over the forbidden wall. Now that she was on the other side, the place she'd always dreamed of going, she began to think of the consequences to her action.
Kyra couldn't go back, her people wanted her dead, but possibly following this boy could result in her death also. Still, she followed him. She was scared, and didn't know what else to do. Soon they were deep into the forest of redwoods and had left the few border villages behind. The boy stopped abruptly and spun around to face her.
"I'm Jem," he said introducing himself.
"Kyra," she whispered. She should have asked him then, his motives, why he had helped her when they were sworn enemies, but she didn't. Unspoken words were caught in her throat, and silence fell over them like a soft blanket. Jem looked at her different, she didn't know how else to explain it. There was respect in his brown eyes, but fear also, and a secret, there was a secret there to, but there was no hatred or contempt as she had seen in the villagers' faces.
"Kyra," Jem began slowly, seemingly unsure of what he was to say, "there's a lot that you don't know, about your past, about your future..." he stared at the ground as if gathering his thoughts. "I am not the one to tell you, my leader will when he feels you are ready. You see I wasn't even supposed to bring you here. I'm just an apprentice, not a warrior. I directly disobeyed orders, but I had to, they were going to..." he eyed Kyra questioningly as if asking her silently if she knew that her people had betrayed her. She took a deep breath.
"I know," she whispered, "they were going to kill me." A chill ran through her as she said the words. For a while she had been thinking them, but they hadn't really set in.
"You're not safe anywhere now," Jem sighed, and just as he said the words they seemed to come true as the two spies appeared soundlessly behind Kyra.

Enemy befriended

She was sitting on the bed. She was alone, alone until company came to wish her well into the after life. Her heart was a gentle thrumming. She wasn't scared, she didn't quite understand it, only that she wasn't scared. It was as if she knew she wasn't going to die. As if a simple girl named Kyra could have predicted the boy who came through those tent doors. As if she could have known that it would be the same one she had met before. An enemy who would be her only friend.

"You have to get out of here." He whispered "It's time they see you with their own eyes." Kyra didn't even question following him as he led her out of the tent and through a hidden trail. She didn't know who to trust anymore. Her own people who wanted to kill her, or her sworn enemy who was trying to save her? Everything seemed wrong and different, and in confusion Kyra found herself following soundlessly over the wall.

The Decision

Kyra groaned weakly, her body felt stiff and numb, her eyes like weights pulled down comfortably but not ready to open. There were whispered voices around her then a gentle touch and the warm breath of some one very close. The person's hot breath was tickling her ear as the familiar voice of their leader whispered, "Can you hear me?" Kyra didn't want to open her mouth, she was comfortable, but she made the effort to move her head. It was quite difficult, like waking up much to early from very little sleep. Her body didn't want to move. When she was finally able to twitch her fingers, Kyra's other senses seemed to leap to life also. The smell of the canvas tent she lay in hit her first, other smells of herbs and medicine flew gently toward her and she could even smell the faintest bit of blood. Sunlight streamed through her closed lids for a fleeting moment before it was gone. Someone else was now standing beside her.
"What happened?" The man whispered, Kyra recognized his voice as the leaders son, next in line to inherit after his father. He was a good man, strong, tall, and handsome as Kyra remembered, she thought she might open her eyes to look at him, but suddenly she was filled with a longing to confirm what had happened to her. Though she could ask, would they tell her the truth? Kyra knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but it was about her and she had to know. KioNish sighed and sat on one of the nearby cots.
"It's not safe for her any more. They know, they always knew." The leader spoke gently, his son Ataris, came to sit beside them.
"We can't send her back." Ataris' voice was frightened, uneasy.
"Yes," KioNish sounded thoughtful, Kyra's heart thumped loudly and she fought to make her breathing seem slow as if she were still sleeping, "I endanger the whole village by sending her back, and it is obvious that she can't stay here safe any more, she's getting ideas. I would let the spies do what they want, but it will be difficult for them to kill her." KioNish paused, fear was building in Kyra now like a terrible sickness. "Yes," KioNish said slowly, as if deciding "We will have to do the deed ourselves." Kyra's heart seemed to leap out of her at that moment, she couldn't take it any more. A scream was building in her voice, a cry in her heart. Her own people, they were going to kill her.

A Shield

"Quick before she blacks out again." Lison commanded, Sam didn't need to be told twice. He nodded and jumped out of the tree landing in a crouch. Quickly and smartly he slid the curved sword out from his sheat strapped to back, hidden underneath the cloak. Spies may not kill regularly but there had been occasions when the council of spies would come together and agree that one secret was too great, then they would send them. Sam and Lison were part of a special team of spies, trained to kill, they were there to destroy the secrets too great, too powerful that even Tran had to be afraid of them.
The spies tried not too get involved with the wars, they simply spied for whichever side hired them. Rarely did they get involved such as this, but Tran was afraid. Afraid of an inherited power that had been given to a girl much to young. They had no cause to be afraid of her parents, but this child was not ready, she herself had no idea what fear and trouble she caused Tran. Spies always hated to get involved in matters that were not theirs to get involved in. Sam paused before going to the girl, remembering the last time her picked up a good sized pebble in his hand and threw it hard. Inches before it hit the girl it exploded into fine little bits. Sam smiled in defeat.
"Too late," He informed Lison "At the rate of these black outs she might be dead soon anyway."
"Let's not get to cocky." Lison said shrewdly, "The warriors are waking."
"This is going to be such a pain!" Sam sighed sliding his sword back into it's sheath "Next time we'll probably end up fighting a body gaurd or something, this shield thing makes it ten times more annoying!" Lison jumped out of the tree to stand next to his younger comrade.
"There has to be a weakness," Lison said "There always is."
If you had blinked your eyes you would have missed the two spies as they made their escape.

Unconscious

There was something about this death that didn't seem right. Something strange, something peculiar. Was it the way she could still feel her hot breath on her hands, or the fog in her head like a veil making everything seem dizzy and far off. It was strange, this couldn't be death, Kyra thought, or could it? She was vaguely aware of noise, somewhere though she could not place it. Kyra simply seemed to get irritated at the noise, go away she wanted to tell it as she concentrated on the fog covering her brain. At last the fog began to clear, shapes danced in front of Kyra's eyes then the pain hit. It was terrible, excruciating. The pain was reminding her of a hurtful fact, she was still alive. Kyra had remembered wanting to fight once before, now she wished she was dead for the pain felt like too much.
It came from her side where she could feel something sticky, blood. Kyra groaned and with much strength and will power, fluttered her eyes open. She was lying on the ground. The dry dirt clotted and red with her blood. Strength left her and she felt the fog returning, no, a voice somewhere far in the back of her head thought, don't let it get you, fight! But Kyra didn't want to fight and she slowly rolled into unconsciousness once again.

The two spies sat in the tree. The one man, Lison, kept a careful on the warriors camp while the other whose name was simply Sam watched the girl. Finish her in one blow, they'd told them, as soon as she blacks out it's over. Sam hadn't truly known what that had meant until just recently. He stared down and his hands covered in blood and then he turned his gaze back toward the girl. Such power one little girl could possess! That wasn't the least of it, since her parents death she'd inherited that power, and so young! She was still clueless, though, which left them another chance. They would not fail, not like Sai, they were trained to kill and they wouldn't give up. One little girl would never get the best of them. He sighed, then the girl groaned. Sam nearly jumped.
"She's awake." He whispered.
"Good" Lison answered "Now finish her."

Never to fade away, it's time to fight!

Kyra stood stunned. Her heart pounded, though she did not move. She could not think to move. Her brain was an empty hole of painfull memories. She saw the men slightly, though she looked beyond them to the shadows of tents that danced about the fire light in the warriors camp. The memory of rejection came back all too clear. Kyra pushed at the memory with such a force, trying desperately to hide it away as she had the last year. Her mind recoiled and she shot back into reality. She had one scream, one scream, that was all. Kyra tried to bring saliva to her mouth but her throat was much too dry. On the ground the bucket moaned as the wind rushed through it's hollow center, rolling it in a circle. As Kyra stood there staring at the men she knew she couldn't give up on life. She couldn't just simply die and fade away. With horror, Kyra realized that was what she had been doing this past year. She had been making herself fade away, to become nothing. Kyra had accepted the destiny chosen for her instead of fighting it, and now she stood defensless before two highly trained killers.
It didn't matter what illusions she tried to create for herself, that's what they were. Killers. She could feel her hands clenching into fists at her side. Kyra could see her brothers face, lit up with joy as his father carried him about triumphantly, her father. She had wanted that! It should have been her, she should have been the warrior. Kyra should have been the one standing here, trained and ready to fight these two men. Instead she was defensless and no one would miss her once she was gone. The figures stopped suddenly, hesitant now.
"Are you sure she's the one." One of them whispered and she saw that he was panting. They were afraid of her! The realization struck her. But why? Why could two killers possibly be afraid of one small girl?
"Have you heard what she can do?" The other one responded, his voice shaking a bit.
"I know." The one closest to Kyra replied grimly. Then they both continued forward, slowly and cautiously. Now more hesitant than ever, as if they were reminded of some deadly weapon this defensless girl had hidden up her sleeve. A peircing cry shook through the still night air as Kyra screamed, her last breath into this world.

Routine

Kyra's mother was standing outside shaking out the rugs. Kyra took one look at her upset face and snuck around to the back window. The curtains blew in the morning breeze, pushing against Kyra as she scrambled into the warm room. A loud thump sounded through out the house when she hit the small wooden planks covering the dirt floor. She blew her hair out of her face and stood up. Her room wasn't much it was small with one larger pad in one corner which her and her younger brother, Arthur, shared. The pad was covered in a bundle of brown blankets, at the foot of the bed lay the pile of clothes, they mainly consisted of browns, greys and whites, the few green peices belonged to Kyra, those she had made herself. One of her favorite corners though, was the one cluttered in books. Large volumes left open or stacked one on top of the other. Her father had given them to her to study in case she became a warrior, normal housewives didn't need to be educated, now those books would just lie in that corner, gathering dust until one day Arthur would read them, he was twelve he could be apprenticed next leaf fall. Kyra could hear her mother scolding Arthur outside and she sucked in her breath, gathered her courage and opened the door to face her. Min stood in the kitchen, Arthur in front of her face down. She noticed Kyra's entering footsteps almost and once and spun around to face her. Arthur looked up grinning, he wouldn't be scolded any more today, it was Kyra's turn. Arthur shot out the open door as quick as he could, the dog barked and began following him as he ran off. Min's face showed she was disgusted, disapointed and annoyed. She always displayed her emotions clearly, when Min was younger she was a girl with dreams, just like Kyra. She used to tell Kyra how dreams were wasted, her name was Mayrenne than, it meant fair like the sea. She was beautiful with long silky blond hair, Kyra had neither Min's hair or her fathers reddish-brown hair, which Arthur inherited. Sometimes Kyra wondered where her brown hair came from, when she was younger she used to believe she had inherited it from the earth and her eyes from the treetops, she used to pretend she was the forest and the forest was her. But those were also foolish dreams. When it came time for Min to change her name on the day of her wedding when she would pass from young women to adult she wanted something simple and plain, she was just a housewife afterall, and Min became her name. Kyra remembered how her name used to be Kee until she was eight leaf falls old.
Min stared hard at Kyra for a while, she opened her mouth once than decided better of scolding her and pointed to the metal tub on the floor, filled to the rim with water. Kyra sighed and pushed past her mother to do the dishes. Min was out of the room by the time Kyra started on the first dish and Kyra hated her life more than ever. Why should KioNish get to decide your destiny? It was a question Kyra asked herself everyday of her life for the next year, soon preparations for leaf fall were there once more. Kyra wore only brown clothes now, her beautiful forest green ones lay crumple in the corner. Arthur was especially excited this year, he was hoping to be chosen. Kyra just smiled at his excitment and pushed the memory of the year before from her mind. It had become a routine for her now, to wake up past sunrise, wash the dishes cook breakfast clean the house, take care of Arthur, fix lunch and dinner. In Kyra's free time she would lay outside the house in the grass her layers of brown skirt flowing out around her, staring at the clouds. Leaf fall was to be the next day and Min tried to encourage Kyra to wear something pretty, but she refused again and again. When leaf fall came Kyra went to the ceromony wearing a simple longsleeved brown and white layered dress, her white apron tied around her waist. The dress was long unlike the ones she used to wear, it nearly touched the ground, the tips of her brown boots barely showing through. Kyra had let Min cut her hair just above her shoulders, she cut it quite nice and Kyra always kept it brushed. The campfire glowed bright on all the eager faces as KioNish came out, four young warriors at his sides. Kyra could see Aaron, Fey and others she used to play with hiding in the shadows behind their leader. Arthur's name was called first, instead of rejoicing for him, Kyra shrunk farther away, hiding her face. As she saw her friends and heard the names being called she couldn't stop the memories from flooding back in. There were vivid in her brain and they hurt terribly. After the ceromony was like a nightmare, Kyra's father was holding Arthur and congragulating him, both his and Min's faces were glowing with pride for their son. They paid no heed to Kyra, except for when Min asked Kyra to go fetch water from the stream.
Kyra's feet dragged along as she carried the heavy metal bucket at her side. In her other hand she held a lantern, something she had never carried at night before. She was nearly to the stream when she saw him. A black figure stood leaning against a tree, another jumped out of the tree landing in a crouch. The bucket fell to the ground and rolled away on the dark ground. Kyra did not try to pick it up, she only kept her eyes fixed on the two hooded figures that were now staring at her and walking forward. A night so long ago played back in Kyra's mind. The cold hand at her throat, the emerald green cloak. These cloaks weren't emerald green, though, they were a deep blue, the color of the man who had tried to kill her that one night, now they were here again, only this time there were two of them, trained and ready, and there was only one of her and no figure dressed in emerald green to save her.