Crescent Past

Chapter 1~ Poison Tipped

Lux

Lux awoke, dirty and in pain. She felt a throbbing in her head and a soar spot on her upper back, right in between her shoulder blades. Why she was feeling this way, she didn't know. In fact, she couldn't remember much of anything. Not where she was, why she was there, who she was... All Lux could remember was her first name, Lux, short for Lunixous.

When the shock of her throbbing head ache subsided and her vision cleared, Lux could see that she was in the middle of a clearing- no, a path- that cut through the thick trees around her. The sun sat in the middle of the sky, reflecting light off of some sort of red sap that splattered and covered the tree trunks. Blood...

Lifting her head a bit, she saw unmoving bodies laying around her. Her heart began to pound, but she managed to keep a level head.

Think, she told herself. Use the three keys.

Although, Lux had no idea how she knew what the three keys were, she remembered them clearly as if they had been carved into her skull.

I. Observe
Look around. Take in any information you can. Use all five senses.

Thinking quickly, Lux observed her surroundings again. This time, looking for any clues that could help find out where she was. I'm in the middle of the woods. There are bodies lying still on the ground. There is a path that's heading east on my right, and west on my left. There are no sounds besides the slight ruffling of leaves from a small breeze.

Tilting her head upward a bit, ignoring her head ache, she sniffed the air.

It smells of rotting and blood.

II. Defend 
Are there any other life forms around you? Are you at risk of any harm?

Her stomach churned a bit and growled.

Besides starvation and a massive head ache, I think I'm okay for now.

III. Analyze
Is there anything you can make use of? What are your options? Think of ways to improve the situation. Gain the upper hand.

The bodies and blood must have been from a battle. Recent by the looks of things. Maybe an ambush? Would have been a good spot for one in these woods. I must have been injured and knocked unconscious during it. I can scavenge what ever I can use from these bodies. They look to be wearing military uniforms, meaning they might have weapons, healing tonics, maybe even food rations?

As Lux was thinking, she propped herself up off the ground using her elbows, despite the aching in her shoulders, and began to shift on all fours over to the closest body. He had nothing of importance on him, just a small amount of coin and an arrow through his stomach.

"Some coin is better than non, you can keep the arrow though." She told the lifeless soldier. He didn't reply.

Taking a deep breath, Lux gingerly began to pick herself up off the ground, but stopped when her head began spinning and the trees began to swirl around her. As she carefully lowered herself back down, she decided it might be best to wait until her head cleared up a bit before standing. Squirming over to the next closest body, ignoring the pain that sharpened with every movement, Lux quickly combed through the soldiers pockets. Finding that he had nothing but the clothes on his back, Lux moved on to continue her hunt for supplies. While she was crawling, her already town and tattered shirt snagged on a bush. Annoyed, Lux reached back behind her to tug her shirt from the branch. She stopped short and lost her breath when her shoulders burst with searing pain. Lux turned her head and looked over her shoulders to see where the sudden pain had come from, only to find a crossbow bolt jutting from her back. It had barely missed her spine, sitting right in between in and her shoulder blade, and had turning the surrounding skin to a sickly green and purple hue. With some effort, Lux managed to sit up right and reached over her shoulder, which cried out in pain in return. Ignoring this, she reached until her hand found the bolt's shaft. She gave it a small tug and groaned at the wave of hurt it sent down her back. Lux scolded herself.

It is just an arrow. You're not going to die. The sooner you pull it out, the sooner the wound can heal.

Lux took a deep breath and yanked on the bolt. Fortunately, it came out relatively easily, it hadn't gone very deep into her skin in the first place and was a fairly small bolt. Unfortunately, it had also made her back cry out ache even worse than before. Gasping, she tossed the arrow aside and immediately felt the warmth of fresh blood across her skin. Lux tore away the sleeves of her shirt and began rapping it around her chest and back as a make-shift bandage. Despite her muscular build, the bandage was just long enough to wrap around about four times.

   Once the arrow had been taken care of, she finished her crawl over to the next lifeless soldier. This one must have been the medic of the party. He had a small bag of coins, as well as some herbs and three bottles of healing tonics.

"Sorry, but you won't be needing them anymore," she told the medic, grabbing his old belonging as she went. 

After searching through a few more bodies, Lux had managed to find a total of thirty-seven coins - thirteen copper and twenty four silver pieces, a rotten apple, some more medical supplies, a satchel full of blank scrolls, a dirty and torn hooded cloak - just long enough to cover her shins, and an iron dagger small enough to fit inside her boot.

Of all the bodies that were left by this mystery ambush, many of the dead soldiers wore white expensive high-grade armor and bore the symbol of a palace, unlike the ones in red who bore the symbol of a lion. Their armor was downgraded and cheaply made. From what Lux could tell, the white must have ambushed the red from the surrounding trees, leaving the red surprised, outnumbered, and practically defenseless. Lux contemplated replacing her dirty, torn white tunic and trousers for a set of armor, but decided against it. Instead, she just put on a good pair of boots and leather gloves that she found. As she stood up, Lux felt surprisingly... naked. Even with the tunic, trousers, and cloak, she felt that something was missing, but couldn't quite figure out what.

  Lux stood in the middle of the path, making sure she had gathered everything she could. Before leaving the scene and heading down the east road, Lux scanned her surroundings one last time. Despite her intentions of trying to forget the object, her eyes had landed back onto the bolt that Lux had taken from her own back and thrown aside.

  Might as well take it, she thought to herself. It might be good for something.

After inspecting the bolt further, Lux noticed that it was no ordinary bolt and had been tipped with no ordinary poison. It was engraved with subtle yet elegant designs and had a crest on it. The symbol represented a bird, a crow maybe, flying with its wings outstretched, carrying a crossbow and a battle axe on its back. As for the poison, it was completely unrecognizable to Lux. Even if she had her memories, she knew she had never seen anything like this in her life.

The poison's unique. Must've been expensive, some one must have either missed they're shot, or someone crafted this especially for me. But why? After thinking over the mysterious arrow, she decided to move on - she had more important matters to attend to.

     First, she needed to make it out of the forest and find someone to heal her wounds before she would be able to go searching for her memories. Lux had no idea how long the arrow had been leaking the poison into her bloodstream, or if it was even deadly.

First thing on the to do list: don't die of poison.

Ryane
Just letting you know now, I will try to keep authors notes to a minimum. But I just had to write this one. What do you think? I want to know if I have a good start so far and should continue writing. Any tips on how I can make my writing and this story better (typo's, plot ideas, wording, etc.) are very much appreciated. I will accept and consider any and all advice.
Thank you!