The Knights of Grimm - Act 2 - Captured

Chapter 30 - The Curse of the Leshen

Nora

Thirteen years ago...

A trading wagon trots across the paths of Anima in service of selling goods. The wagon is filled to the very top with supplies, from food to ammunition and other needs that other places need. Hailing from Kuchinashi, they are sending these supplies to other towns along the way. At the front of the carriage, guiding the horses that pull them is a man with blonde hair and brown eyes. He is a muscular man with a hammer next to him, one that looks very similar to Magnhild. Except it is not pink, it is grey with green streaks of pain across the plates. He is a muscular man with some scars on his chest, clearly a Huntsman of some kind. He looks back at his beloved wife; she has orange hair and cyan eyes, tending to a little girl in the back. The wife is wearing a deep green dress, wiping some dirt off her daughter's face. "I told you that you would make a mess." The mother says to the small girl who shares the same coloured hair and eyes. She shyly smiles at her parents as the cart continues to move across the trail.

"Sorry, mommy." The girl sadly says, her head looking down. The mother sighs, her finger touching her chin to pull her head upwards so then she can see her older reflection.

"Nora – you have to be careful out there in the woods. The stories we told you? About the monsters that lurk in there?" She asks her, looking into the dense woodland beside them as they move slowly through. Younger Nora looks at the dark mysterious forest and then at her mother again. "They're true – there are monsters out there. I just want you to be safe." She says to her daughter. The father touches her shoulder and looks at him.

"Cyanna..." He says to her. "She knows who we are."

"I know it's just...I don't want her to get hurt out here, Khaki." Cyanna explains to him, holding his hand as she observes her daughter playing with a tiny wooden hammer that she found in there.

"It's okay, but there's no need to scare her of what is out here. She will see them sooner or later, like we did – it would be best for her fear to be rational. Not off stories." Khaki explains to her. She sighs, closing her bright eyes and then she climbs back over to his side, kissing him along the way. She crosses one leg and she holds his hand. They both share a similar symbol on tattoos that mirror one another. The hammer with the lightning bolt cast through the head of the weapon. The Valkyrie Symbol.

Nora sits there, happily playing with her toy hammer, hitting some tiny nails into the wood with a big smile on her face. Her attention however is stolen from the little nail and hammer, when she hears the sound of crows flying around in the distance. Lots of them, converging on one point. Her eyes widen when she sees it, hearing their caws echo for miles. She tilts her head when she looks at it. Khaki looks up at the sky, seeing the sun beginning to fall behind the mountains, the once blue clear sky turning orange.

"The sun is setting, best make camp." Khaki says, stopping the horses at a safe spot on the trail and he gets the campfire ready. He had collected lots of dry logs of wood and plenty of materials to light a fire. Along with a tent large enough for all three of them to stay. Khaki lights the fire and they all sit down around it, picking up marshmallows that they have collected. Nora fits one marshmallow onto her twig and she holds it over the fire.

"This is nice." Cyanna says with a smile on her face, stretching her body out where she sits. Nora continues to cook her mallow and then looks at her parents as they sit there.

"What was it like?" Nora asks them both curiously, and their attentions are peaked.

"What was what like, sweetie?" Cyanna asks her.

"Being heroes?" Nora asks. They both look at each other and they smile at that, the way she asks them so sweetly. Clearly she wants to know what it was like to be Huntsmen and Huntresses.