Music is "Departure to the West" by Joe Hisaishi.
The girl stood crouched in the sparse, crisp grass, not daring to breathe for fear that her target would hear a stray blade break and decide this brown meadow was not the place to forage for food. A brown long hood covered her head and most of her light brown hair, while the cape attached to it hid her body from the rest of the scattered wildlife in the sparse woods. Her blue eyes, once bright and oblivious to the ways of the world she lived in, stayed focused on the slender, spotted deer. The first one she had seen in a week.
"One shot," she thought to herself. She drew the string to the tip of her mouth and looked down the tip of the arrow, aiming it at the deer's heart. The bow's limbs quivered under the weight of the string. The arrow flew from the string...
"Aunt Eliza!"
And struck the deer's hind leg, for at the first sound of the snapping grass blades, the deer fled from the scene for its life.
Eliza sighed, pulled herself to her feet with her bow, and tossed back her hood, revealing light brown hair twisted tightly into a bun. Now she would have to track the deer down through the forest, likely till dusk when she would inevitably lose track and come home empty-handed. Not that her niece would mind that...
"Becka, what on earth were you thinking? You could have been killed! If I'm startled like that, who knows what'll happen to the arrow."
Her niece lowered her head. Looking closer, Eliza could see the redhead had tears in her eyes and a slightly blotchy face. "I-I'm sorry Aunt Eliza. I know you wouldn't kill anyone, even by accident so I figured it was okay."
Well...
Eliza pushed away those thoughts, barring them behind iron bars in her mind. You're fine. Focus on Becka. You can deal with that thought later.
"What's wrong? Why did you scare off our only source of money this week to come find me?"
"I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean to scare it off. I thought deer had horrible hearing, so I would be fine!"
Eliza fought the urge to raise her eyes to the sky. Heavens, raising a girl was difficult. She could see why Ly- her sister always had dark circles under her eyes.
Give her time. You had to begin somewhere too.
She turned back toward her niece, who was rubbing her eyes. "It's okay, Becka. You're still learning. You can help me track it down, so it won't suffer for long, okay?"
She wiped her eyes with the corner of her cloak. "Ok-kay," she said, sniffing.
Eliza smiled at her young ward. Then, she crouched down, so she was at eye level with Becka. "Now, why did you come find me?"
Becka sniffed. "Some men...came to the house. They had uniforms with the king's crest on them. I didn't answer the door, but they came inside anyway. They said...if I didn't find you, they would take me instead and wait for you to come find me. So...I ran all the way here."
Eliza's eyes widened. "Were they watching you as you came here Becka?"
"I don't know. I just ran here to find you so they wouldn't take me."
Eliza pulled up her hood and whipped around to face the direction where Becka had come running from. Sure enough, she spotted three horsemen in the distance. One appeared to be falling off his horse, but the other two appeared to be decent riders. Darn. He had to send mostly competent knights.
"Forget the deer. Becka, I need you to promise me something. Now. Promise me you'll do as I say, even if you don't want to. Please." She crouched down to look her niece. "I need to know I can trust you. Please."
She could see in her niece's eyes that she didn't want to promise that. It would go against what their family had always believed in.
Finally, Becka lowered her eyes and sighed. "I promise. Please...Aunt Eliza...don't do anything crazy."
"I promise." Eliza said. With those words, she wrapped her niece in her cloak and ushered her into the wooded area of the plain.
. . .
Any wildlife in the forest soon scattered with the sound of Eliza and Becka's hurried footsteps. Having hunted in these woods for years with her father, Eliza knew the fastest way to get back to the house, but would the king's knights know it too? Or worse, were their horses adept at picking up paths through this wooded place?
These questions hounded Eliza as she ushered Becka through the trees and back onto a path toward their small cottage on the edge of town. She could hear the rumble of hoofbeats behind them, two horses probably if the third rider had managed to get back on his horse, but nothing else. No shouts of "Stop in the name of the king!" or "Hand over the girl!" so she assumed...perhaps foolishly...that they were safe.
Until they reached the edge of the woods and the blockade of soldiers guarding the exit.
Great. Of course. Why didn't I think of that?
"Becka...sweetie...you didn't tell me how many soldiers showed up to the house."
She peeked out from underneath her hood. "Oh...yeah...I can see why you'd need to know that...sorry."
"Just...remember your promise. When I go up to meet the soldier, you need to run to the house and get in the cellar. Lock yourself in. Don't let anyone in unless they know the password. Understand?" She looked down at her young niece, tears welling up in her eyes.
What happened to Lydia...and James...won't happen again.
Becka nodded. She drew her cloak around her and prepared to run.
Eliza drew her into a hug, wrapping her arms tightly around her, for what she believed to be the last time. Then...she pushed her to the side, gesturing for her to get on with it.
She lowered her hood and stepped out to meet the men. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small shadow tripping and falling through the bushes toward her home. Praying the men would focus on her, as she was sure she was the only one they wanted, Eliza addressed the king's finest men.
"Gentlemen, what brings you here to my fine domain?"
The most important guard of all, showcased by his bedazzled cape and long plume, kicked his starved horse and trotted up to Eliza, hanging back a few feet. "Elizabeth Manwaring, you're under arrest."
"For hunting?" she said, gesturing to the bow, "Surely we haven't gone back to the days of yore, when men were forbidden to make a living finding food for the hungry."
The guard scoffed. "If you pay your taxes, no. No, my dear Manwaring, this little summons of His Majesty's is different. He just wants to speak to you...and keep you in his castle overnight because he is too dreadfully busy to see you today. He apologizes for the inconvenience, but says it will be worth your while."
"And...if I refuse?"
The guard smiled, stroking his plume. "I met your niece today...I'm sure she would enjoy..."
"Fine, fine, I get your point. Just let me drop off my equipment at my house and I'll come with you." She made a move to step toward her cottage. The guards nudged their horses and tried to block her path, but those were the same horses that had just run three miles chasing Eliza...thus they refused to budge. The knights slumped in their saddles.
"Oh don't worry boys," she shouted, as she sprinted down the road, "If you feed your horses a good hearty meal of grain, they might be able to survive a short sprint!"
Finally, the plumed knight managed to get his horse to canter down the road, his rainbow cape whipping around him like a peacock's feathers. He stopped his horse in front of Eliza.
"Actually..." he said, his hands clutching his sides, out of breath, "the king...requested you...bring your...weapons."
Eliza's dark eyebrows raised in surprise. Out of excuses to go let her niece out of the cellar, she allowed the plumed knight to swing her onto his horse and lead her out of the barren wasteland into the king's scarred fortress.
Sink me, I'm actually attempting NaNoWriMo this year. While in nursing school. Feel free to shoot me now.
But this time, I've actually invested money into finishing this project! If there's anything I've learned over the last couple years, it's if I actually invest money into something, I'm more likely to do it/finish it. Sigh.
My username is theactualbeppster on NaNoWriMo if you want to buddy me and watch my demise. But it'll be fun while it lasts!
Oh, I should probably mention I'm rewriting this book from scratch. Again. Forgive me, but there was no direction with the last draft. I've unpublished all those chapters so there's no confusion. :)
Now, I've decided with this draft to post a meme in the author's note every chapter. Why? Because I can!
And...to expose you to my weird tastes. :)