The Arcana

The Cards (pt. 1)

I was trying to formulate a plan of something or somewhere I could go but all I could focus on was my breathing and keeping myself from tripping over all the underbrush and stumps of the Forrest. It all began to blur and I felt my claws sharpening as my anxiety built. I was completely alone and in over my head, I was fighting an unknown opponent in an unknown terrain. I was completely at a disadvantage and I didn't like it.

As my vision blurred my instincts started kicking in and I realized I was in fight or flight mode. My eyes sharpened and my hearing intensified, I could hear the sounds of light footfalls running on all sides of me. I felt wild and out of control, like a boar before its killed by its huntsmen. Suddenly they were all around me, men and women,and I stopped and spun around as I saw that I was caged in. I circled around erratically and unceremoniously trying to find a way out but it was futile, they were tightening the circle each step they took getting closer and closer to me.

I felt s claustrophobic, the air was just barely leaving my chest in short gasps and I knew I had to even it out or else I may black out. My voice was shaky as I nervously gave a terrible bluff that I was sure everyone saw as transparent.

"Who are you?! State your business and I may let you leave alive." Some of them had the nerve to laugh but I saw that the rest of the six men and women were very much unreadable, this I took as a bad sign.

My eyes landed on a young man about the same age as I who appeared to have a north eastern look to him, just like the McClallen Clans had. He was much taller than I, and had a shaggy red headed look to him. His green eyes glinted with something I couldn't quite discern. I started to understand that I may not be leaving this circle alive when the fiery haired man spoke up.

"Empress! We have allied ourselves here today to oust our common enemy." I tried backing up but I only got closer to the people behind me, I figured this would be it...

"Who exactly is the common enemy? And why is she or he your enemy?" I figured maybe the more I stalled the less screwed I would be. I pointed my question toward the northerner because he seemed like the leader of this little get together.

For a second everyone just kind of looked at each other and even Mr. Red Head seemed confused as he answered.

"Why, I thought you would have figured it out Empress." The leader broke protocol and began walking inside of the circle towards me as he made a hand gesture to carry on with his explanation, all the while making me more nervous. "You see it was brought to our attention through the Arcanian connections we share, that you, the Empress, have gotten very close to the high card, Death." At the mention of Death I raised my eyebrow quizzically, confounded as to where this was going. Clearing his throat and nodding his head over to where a large muscular man stood continued on.

"Well, to put things simply, we are going to use you to get to Death." And at that the muscular man behind me took hold of me as another member of the group placed a bag over my head. I screamed and thrashed but the man holding me was much stronger than I, and being strong was not one of my affinities as an Arcana. I felt my claws elongate as I wiggled my hand out to scratch something, anything, and I felt some satisfaction when my blow landed on someones face. As I heard a yowl of pain at my fingers digging into his cheek someone else took me by my arms and bound them with something heavy and hard. I cursed under my breath was I realized it would be hard for me to escape using my claws with metal chains binding my wrists. In the back of my mind I curiously wondered as to if I could possibly cut through something so thick and hard.

I felt a hot breath by my ear as a man's calloused hands wrapped around my neck as I heard the silent whispers from their leader.

"Don't worry princess, we won't rough you up too much. Oh and as for your lover Death, well he will be meeting his end sooner than he planned..." And as soon as those words left his mouth I felt a blow to my head that was almost as painful as the one felt in my heart at the mention of Death's demise.

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So I realize that this took forever to upload but I have been really busy with finals at school and working at my part time job!

Above is a picture of the mysterious red headed man :-)

Also I know it was short and left you on a cliff-hanger but rest assured Im already working on the second part! ;-)

So stay tuned and make sure to comment and vote!

Thanks as always, LovelyLilac