Huh.
It doesn't.. hurt?
It's a little jarring when I realize just how easy it is to do. It just went up and over, without me needing to brace myself for the right shoulder a single bit. The limb smoothly went up and down, too smoothly, that I had to take another moment to comprehend this painless state I find myself in.
In that moment when I stretch my whole body, I can sense the extent of this new, younger meatbag that I inhabit and have to suppress a shudder from taking over my head from how surprisingly alienating it is to feel.
"Suu… haa…."
I let a stream of breath with my eyes closed, feeling the fresh air tickling my lungs, feeling it expand without burning, and inhale a sharp gulp of air as I open my eyes back to the sun overhead. It hurt so I stopped immediately and blinked a few times to dissuade my eyes from becoming blurry. Another thing I have to keep notes of.
Some distance away Joanne just finished stretching herself, her hands back on the reign of her horse, leading it to the more grassy patch of the area where it can graze without bowing its head too low.
Sieghart also follows her lead and lets Spinel graze around the same spot and I take the chance to look at the field of flowers growing around.
A gentle wind blows and the grassland dances, bringing with it the fresh scent of pure nature and a sense of peace into my heart.
Yeah, I don't think I'll get to see this kind of natural scenery where I came from. Not without paying a hefty price, at least, so I'm going to savor this opportunity for a little longer.
Argh! If I had known that this place existed, I might have asked to have a basket prepared and thrown a picnic! What a waste of—
"?"
From the distance I see a figure moving. At first a dot but as I get a closer look, it turns clearer, the shape and silhouette indicating humanoid. A running one, in fact, considering there's another figure that's making itself known from the other side of the woods and I can tell that one is a running horse.
Ack, right, the fucking hunting! I nearly slapped my own forehead for forgetting that!
I'm about to turn away when I hear the scream coming from the running figure and pause. Stilled, would be more apt, considering I find my muscle suddenly stopping its movement so abruptly that I feel the feedback of the shock.
Look closer, observe.
The running figure becomes even clearer as they get closer, the chicken-comb-shaped fabric swaying violently as they run with all of their body it conveys to me a sense that they are running with all their might as they nearly stumble a couple of times.
Perhaps they are, desperate that is, but what I can tell is that the moment I see their face I know that I won't get to forget it even after I slept it off later.
Their head -which have been looking back to check on the pursuer- finally look straight and their eyes open wide when their panic spots us, limbs shaking as they try to make a heel turn and run in another direction but-
"Aah!"
Thud, and fall. It's not even funny to see them tumbling so hard on the ground considering the loud sound that it generated.
I can't hear what they're saying, a jumble of nonsense as their tear-stricken face crumple with pain, nothing, aside from the one word that's carried by the wind.
Right. That's enough.
Trudging through the grass, I'm somewhat grateful for the coordination of this body that I get to stride unimpeded through the grass and get to the side of the fallen 'prey' in an almost leisurely manner, without losing any of the grace that's been branded into Carlyanne's muscle tissue.
"Carlyanne?!"
I ignored Joanne's panic as I stood before the side of the shivering 'chick' to block any direct aim if it came straight from the direction they came from. My hands are crossed and my chin is held up tall as I look over to the galloping horse that seems as if it has no intention of stopping.
I keep my eyes level as I stare off at the rider, whose maniacal smile can be seen from far away, and meet his red shimmering eyes without flinching to signal my challenge.
The thunderous rhythm of hooves hitting the ground becomes louder, and louder, and louder as the horse gets closer, which then becomes almost deafening that all my other senses start panicking. Colors become vivid, and the scent of all the flora suddenly stings as my skin breaks into sweat.
The worst is yet to come to pass. The horse stops just a single step away from me, its hooves raised high and—
'Thud!'
-misses my left shoulder as it went back down.
My stare remains unbroken at the sight of the deadly driver it carries. The last chance to back away is, suffice to say, now gone for good.
"Theoderich."
"My my, what a surprise!" Theo steers his horse to back off from being so close to me, his figure cuts a towering frame against the blue backdrop of the sky, "To think that I get to see our little Carlyanne here! I almost mistook you for an obstacle!"
Sure, whatever you say, man. "Ran out of arrows already, I see?"
"Most of them have made their mark, logistics well spent, I'd daresay." The man twirls his bow like it's nothing less of a toy, smiling all toothy that it appears almost distorted and wrong. "Say, you don't so happen to see a little chicken running this way, do you?"
Theo turns his head around in a comical way to scan the land, then dramatically 'finds' the shivering person on the ground in a fetal position behind me. "Oh, there it is! I almost missed it because you stand in the way."
"That is the point."
Theo tilts his head to the right, his smile fixed eerily on his face, "Oh? How so?"
"I don't know what kind of game are you playing with Eric, but it's hunting, and in a hunt, finder's keeper's." I speak with confidence that I definitely cannot back while pointing at the terrified form on the forest floor, "I found it, it's mine."
A long silence, far too long of a quiet moment, pass in between the two of us. There's a sense of suffocation due to how stifling it feels to stand here and remain immovable, almost like the pressure of gravity and the air has been amplified ten times worse.
"Hah!"
Theo's little chuckle breaks through the oppressive air around us. The crinkle on his cheeks doesn't go away but instead, deepens, as if amused for what he's seeing. "My, is our cute Carlyanne wants to play along? You should've asked before!"
"Though I don't mind but, if we go by your logic," Theo points at the form on the ground with question in his voice and eyes, "You can't stake a claim on a prey that's not marked. Isn't that so?"
I turn to look at the shivering, terrified ball of fear behind my back and see that they are indeed, unharmed. Theo's challenging my stake has somehow managed to get them to lift their eyes, a very dark orange-brown that's dilated in fear and shakes like their whole body is, trembling among the grass.
Yes, there's a clear plea in those eyes no different than the 'rabbit' from before, but that's nowhere near enough to push me to act even after the revelation of today's outing truth.
"That is not a very hard criteria."
What compelled me is the sole fact that the figure perhaps can fit into my arms and disappear into my ribcage. The child reminded me of the niece I left back home.
Regret, that is all that is.
Decision made, I draw the small dagger holstered on my thigh and sliced through the child's forearm.
The red blood starts to gush from the wound almost instantly, staining the earth below as it flows down like falling water. No cries are heard from the child as they stare at me with bewildered, big round eyes. They seem to have fallen into a shock then, good. I hope the numbness lasts long enough until I get to shoo this creeper away from the vicinity.
"So?"
I look up to the man, telling myself to not glare even as the sun ray beats down my eyes in a way that hurts. It's kind of like how you scare a big, deadlier predator by telling them you're more threatening, so in this moment I have to find myself acting like the threat.
My response is.. a pair of hands that rests above the air. Signal of surrender. "Well, since you insist so much, I'd be very mean if I don't give it to you don't I?"
Nodding at the man briefly, I turn my head sideways to see that Sieghart is already on standby, taking the small child away from the active warzone, radius surrounding me and Theo.
I trust him to keep the kid safe as I'm engaging with the psycho so I turn my head up again, "Anything else?"
"Mm, I don't think so!" Theo twirls his bow one more time and finally makes the horse step back further enough to turn sideways without hitting me. "I've had good fun thanks to you, so enjoy that little one as a gift."
"Hm."
I watch as he starts to trot away and swear that the horse's whinny like I've killed its brethren. Maybe it's just my annoyance seeping into that lens, or maybe the horse is more like the owner than I thought, but for a moment I could've sworn he looks like he's throwing a tantrum. My eyes remain on his figure until I'm sure he's wayyy too far away to make a sudden return before I turn my back on the galloping man.
Either way, I now have an injured child in tow. An injured child who is no longer bleeding, thank fuck, praise be vampire novels for the useless trivia of where it's best to draw blood for a show without hurting the victim!!
So, an injured child to deal with and also, a very displeased Joanne to reason with. "Why did you do that?"
"Why not?" Don't shrug, don't shrug, hold in the instinct to shrug! "Are you going to lecture me about it?"
Joanne pursed her lips into the tightest line of frown I had ever seen on her face. Her brows furrow down so low that it almost touches, but none of it is going to change my stance on this. If I have to do one good deed, if I only get to do one while I'm here, then this one is it.
She ends up folding first with a sigh, "Very well, let us return to the manor then. That little stunt you pulled made me too faint to continue riding out-"
'Fwiing!'
I think it's weird to say that I sense it, that moment of retaliation, before the impact hits. It doesn't make sense until I see the arrow on the ground spooking Joanne's horse and it's at that moment that I knew she's not going to be able to move away in time.
So, like any normal person would do, I push her away. My palm makes contact and I do register her getting shoved away as I try to dodge for myself and fail. All I can see is the horse hoof coming down that this time it's not going to miss it's coming down—
"Crack!"
The force that hits my chest winds all of the air I have in my lungs.
I find myself on my back next, looking up at the sky above and the trees in the distance. Something broke, I can hear that, but I cannot tell what due to the heavy weight settling on my chest.
Look down. Check. Remove if it's dangerous-
"S-Stay still," The weight spoke, clipped and tense, "Do not move."
I nod. My brain slowly reboots and registers the voice, the face, and that back limping away as he approaches the panicking horse only after making sure that I am safe.
Then another person comes to my side, worried. The child's eyes are tearing up though I cannot tell why. My hand moves on its own to pat their head, like how I used to do to my baby niece, and utter the words I wish to hear to myself to her instead.
"Cry. Let it out, you are fine."
The child hiccups as they sobbed. I feel my lungs working once again as the sharp air hits my insides with tiny razor nicks and slashes on its way down and feel once again the vividness of the world receding to the background as I focus on the rampaging horses and another one looming above as he really did make a return.
'What a waste.'
He mouths, lips movement clear enough for me to read even from this distance, before he turn back again and gallops away.
I nod in my head as I see him leave for good.
Right, what a waste of of a human being indeed.