Caught (TWC ch1)
Caught: Chapter One The girl stabbed the wooden spear into the water, only to see the fish dart away, a silver flash. The girl flicked her tail in annoyance, she'd been out since sunrise; the sun was nearly halfway across the sky by now and her attempts at fishing had yielding no success. She'd done exactly as Mother had taught her, standing completely still in the water until she made her strike. But once she moved to spear the fish it would always dart away."Oh mother..." she thought, with a sigh "where are you?" The girl remembered the men. The men, in their shiny metal suits, had knocked on their door. The girl remembered her mom telling her to hide, and she listened, running away to the back room. The girl had sat there, shaking in terrified silence, as she heard the men's deep, angry shouts as well as her mother's horrible screams. The girl had stayed hidden until long after the shouts and screams had left. She remembered creeping from her hiding place and looking over the wreck the men had made of their hut.That was nearly two weeks ago and by now the girl had exhausted the small supply of food saved in the hut. They had never bothered to keep large stores of food this early in the spring since they wouldn't usually need it until winter. Is was up to the girl now to find her own food though, while she waited for her mom to get back. She had a breakfast of berries and had planned to catch a fish for lunch, though it was looking more like dinner at this point.The fishing spear felt heavy and unwieldy in the young girl's small arms, and she couldn't move it nearly fast enough to spear any fish. The girl saw another fish swimming near her, and carefully she crouched. She held the spear tight, doing her best to hold onto it despite the fact that it was greatly oversized for her and she couldn't really get a good grip on it with her comparatively small hands. She stabbed again, the spear shooting into the water after the small fish. Again the spear only stabbed water as the fish darted away from her.Grunting in frustration the girl threw the spear to the side and began to climb up from the river. Shivering in her wet clothes the girl climbed out of the river and went to collect her spear. Hopefully mom will be back soon. She thought to herself, fearfully wondering what had happened that night they took her mother. As the girl bent down to pick up her spear, she heard the "clomp, clomp, clomp" of nearby animal hooves. Deer? she wondered, though it seemed too loud to be deer."What is it?" She suddenly heard a gruff, male, voice shout, causing her to jump. The girl looked up, her unnatural yellow eyes scanning the forest around her where she saw shapes hidden in the trees."It looks like a Maiyow." Said another, higher voice, from the trees."Stop being an idiot. Everyone knows those are just fairy tales." The first voice responded. Suddenly, a man on horseback road forward, breaking the line of trees. He was dressed in mismatched clothing. He had an iron helm, but unlike the shiny armored knights who took the girl's mom the rest of his body was not armored. He was dressed in an awkward mishmash of cloth and leather of various colors and qualities. The man did brandish a sword though, as he revealed himself. He was soon followed by four similarly dressed men.The men fanned out around the girl, their faces hard, hands on their weapons. They encroached with a semi-circle around her, her back toward the river. She stood up, holding the spear in front of her with shaky hands. "W-what do you want?" stuttered the girl nervously."It can talk!" said one of the men in surprise."Of course I can talk!" Responded the girl, indignant. "What do you think I am?" "We don't know what sort of beast you are." Said the largest man, "That's what we've been wondering." He said with a suspicious eye."Well that, and how much you're be worth." Added a lanky, awkward looking man."Worth?" The girl asked, nervous and confused. "Grab it." The larger man responded, instead of answering the girl's question. The men quickly closed in on the girl, who jumped into the river to try to run only to find one of the men landing on top of her."Let go of me!" She shrieked, lashing a claw out at the man's face. He cried out and the girl squirmed away kicking at the water. She lept away from her capture only to find another man wrapping his arms around her. She clawed, squirmed, and struggled some more but this man held tight. She soon felt more arms on her and a rope being wrapped around her arms, tying them to her sides.After a few more minutes of writhing against the men her energy began to run out, and she dropped from her panicked frenzy. Her vision cleared, allowing her to see the men, soaked in water dragging her back to shore. "Kill it!" insisted one of the men, the blood running down his face suggesting he was the one the girl clawed.The lanky man who had mentioned selling the girl earlier though shook his head. "Who knows how much some lord would pay for a freak like this. Keep her tied up and let's get back to camp." The girl squirmed again. "Let me go!" she screeched. Again, the girl writhed against the rope and the man holding her. She never saw the fist until it crashed into the side of her face, blurring her vision and ending her struggles. "Look beast," The man holding her began "you have a choice. Come with us and be a good prisoner until we figure out what to do with you." "Or?" asked the girl"Or we can cut that ugly head off your neck and see how much a collector would pay for your pelt." Said the man, drawing a knife and holding it against her neck"That... That hardly seems like much of a choice." The girl said, her defiant nature revealing itself despite the knife at her throat.That one got a chuckle out of the man. "Maybe not, but that's what you get." He told her, his face a surprisingly pleasant visage, juxtaposing the knife he held to her throat. "I'll... I'll do what you say." She said, her voice edgy and nervous."Good." Said the man, loosening, though not releasing, his grip on her. "Now tell us, what are you?""What do you mean, 'what am I?' I'm a girl." The man scowled. "Girls don't have ears bigger than a bat's and tails like a monkey. What are you?""I... I don't know." Said the girl, realizing it for the first time herself. Her mother had never told her anything about being different. The girl had assumed it was just like having a different hair color, or the way her mom was taller. She had never thought she was different, but now she realized that the characters she had read about in the stories never had ears like her's. What am I? She questioned herself in wonder. "I really don't know." The girl admitted to the man, despondently."Tell us!" The man said, raising his hand threateningly. "I can't!" She shouted, cowering before the threatening fist. "Look how young it is." Said a younger man, his hand on the other's arm. "Let it go, we'll figure it out later but I think it really doesn't know." Reluctantly the man lowered his arm. The man who had saved the girl from another beating looked at her, his eyes softer than his companions. "Do you have a name, girl?" He asked gently. "Anya" The girl responded softly.The man smiled. "Let's get back to camp before night falls. It's a long ride back." He turned and began to walk back into the wood the way they came. The man holding Anya released her and took the knife away from her throat, allowing the rope to fall to the ground as well. "Get moving Beast." He grunted. She didn't like the way he kept calling her 'Beast'. He knew her name, and she wasn't a beast. She was girl, albeit a unique one. All the same, she began walking after the man back toward the horses. "Get up." He told her, gesturing to a large, dark, horse. "I... I've never." The girl protested, looking at the monster of a horse in front of her. The girl had never ridden a horse before, and felt apprehensive about trying to climb onto the large Friesian. "Get up." The man grunted again. Raising a threatening hand. Not wanting to get hit again the girl had to jump just to get a foot into a stirrup obviously designed for a large, grown man, and not a girl of eleven.The girl struggled to climb onto the saddle, but the animal would not sit still, and was so much taller than her. Eventually the man helped her get her small foot through one stirrup. After that she attempted to clamber onto the back of the large animal. "Ahh!" She shrieked in pain and shock as she felt herself fly through the air for a split second before crashing to the dirt. A sharp, burning, pain shot through her back, but luckily her head avoided the brunt of the fall and it didn't feel like anything was broken. She blinked a few times to clear her head before the girl felt herself pulled to her feet. The man who had defended her earlier looked down at her. "I'll take the girl, Bruce." He said, taking Anya's hand and guiding her to a much less intimidating looking chesnut mare. Anya approached the mare, though it too began to grow skittish and move away. No matter what the men did, this horse wouldn't let the girl get close to it. The man's eyebrows furrowed."Let it walk." Another man suggested. A suggestion which quickly became accepted by the group. The man mounted their various horses and soon the group was off, Anya struggling to keep up. An eleven year old girl struggled to keep up with five horses, even slow walking ones, but Anya had always been an unusually athletic girl, an aspect only aided by the hard work of living alone in the forest. All the same, her legs quickly grew sore. She didn't dare stop though, every time she slowed down Bruce drew his dagger threateningly. She considered trying to run, but the horsed men surrounded her on all sides and she knew she couldn't outrun them. After a long walk the outlaws and the girl eventually reached a camp. There looked to be fifty or so men at the camp, more a small army than a bandit party. There was also an outlay of tents, a makeshift kitchen, and a large fire in the center. It was obviously a temporary camp, not made for a long term stay and easy to pack up and move at a moments notice. . The men tied her to a tree, which she collapsed against, too tired and sore to care at this point. The knights will come save me soon. She knew. She had read the stories. The knight would always come and save the damsel before anything happened to her. They'll bring mama back too. The girl didn't know why the shining silver men had taken her mother, but the girl knew they would bring her mom back soon. Soon the men were eating their meal, well-cooked venison and semi-staled bread, and sitting around a fire. "Hey!" Anya called over from her tree. She had to call three more times before one of the men eventually came over to her. "What?" He growled softly to the girl."I haven't eaten all day." She complained. Technically she had berries early in the morning but that hardly counted. "So?" Said the man unsympathetically."So, I'm hungry." The girl complained."Not my problem." With that the man turned and went back to the fire and his own meal. The girl's stomach complained loudly, a complaint she had no answer to. Her stomach aching the girl settled in for a cold, hungry, deeply uncomfortable night tied to a tree. Despite her discomforts the girl soon found herself falling asleep against the tree. Fighting a band of outlaws then walking for hours on end was far more than any eleven year old should be forced to handle, and her aching body quickly fell into a deep and dreamless, if not comfortable, sleep.