"Did you kill him yet?"
"No."
I turned to look at my friend, Azusa, and my frown deepened, no I wasn't able to kill him because one of his stupid guards stepped in the way and lost his head instead. My 13th attempt was a failure just like the others. Azusa's face dropped and her smug smile was replaced with a look of boredom.
"Don't look at me like that." I huffed, "You try killing the most powerful person on the planet." The red headed woman rolled her eyes before stepping forward and grabbing my arms before walking to camp.
"I might just try." Azusa whispered, I looked over to her and glared hard. "Alright alright, it must be difficult but it must be done." I nodded in agreement.
Azusa had been my friend for years, ever since I was 13 after she was caught in battle and saw the former king chop off my right leg. And yes I must have been pretty young but I wanted revenge and I was so close to getting it when I got distracted by an arrow that landed in my leg.
However, that didn't seem to be a problem when my whole leg was chopped off and used as a trophy. Now I have a metal one that can be handy at times but can get quite annoying. I tend to hide it as much as possible as I always got called dirty names and once almost had it stolen from me.
"What's for dinner?" I ask, Azusa made a face and I groaned, immediately knowing what she was going to say.
"Sorry." I gave her a look that said 'no your not', "Okay well i was doing more important things and besides we can just go right now?"
I huffed, "I'll get my stuff, and this means I'm not doing any of the work tomorrow alright?"
She huffs but doesn't say anything else, only walking away to her tent to grab her things. When I got to my tent I opened the zip and crawled to the back where all my weapons were, my favourite one was an axe as I found it easy to swing around and throw but I also used knives and a spear for hunting and fishing.
I grabbed the spear and exited the tent, making sure to close it before walking over to the unlit fire in the centre of our camp. I waited there for a minute before Azusa exited her tent and walked over to me with a bow in her hands.
We nodded to each other before walking north, further into the forest, to hopefully catch some food by the pond. The forest was beautiful with trees that had different coloured leaves, some were bright green, some were a pumpkin orange, some were even a light blue or a dark purple. The yellow trees were my favourite.
Yellow was my favourite colour, it was underrated in my opinion.
We walked past the dozen trees and minutes later we came across the pond that seemed to be glistening in the light. No fish lived in the pond however you occasionally would see a Newt or two.
We kept quiet and walked slowly around the pond to get over to the other side, trying our best to avoid twigs or crunchy leaves so we were quiet.
"So–" Azusa started but I immediately cut her off.
"Shut up please." I say quietly, the red head rolls her eyes but understands and keeps her mouth closed. I squinted my eyes when I saw slight movement and when I moved to the right I caught sight of a small rabbit holding an apple. I lifted up my spear and was ready to throw it when Azusa suddenly opened her mouth, again.
"So basically yeah–" I cut her off with a push, sending her to the floor before turning round and throwing the spear in the direction the rabbit went. I heard a thud and turned to look at Azusa with a pissed look on my face.
"If i haven't caught that rabbit, I'm cooking your arm for my dinner tonight." Her eyes nodded and she quickly stood up. I turned around slowly and walked to where I threw my spear and almost sighed in relief when I saw the rabbit on the other end. Its lifeless eyes staring up at the sky.
I would feel bad but i'm hungry so i quickly pull my spear out the Rabbit corpse and fling the Rabbit over my shoulder.
"You can hunt alone for yours." I say to Azusa and walk back to camp ignoring her shouting my name, the more she shouted the longer it would take to get food for herself and I am not sharing.
Yes, it may be a bit too harsh but if you don't learn how to survive out here you won't make it and this type of living is harsh, you don't get much food, mostly only one meal a day and rarely two. Sleeping is uncomfy and sleeping throughout the whole night is rare.
And talking whilst hunting won't get you anywhere, you scare away the animals and lose focus so it takes longer. And one last big thing about living in this forest is that sometimes you get hunters. Supernatural hunters who sell wolf heads and demon horns for money and other things like fairy wings.
Killing two at a time is quite easy but anymore and you will struggle, even I can't survive an attack by more than 5 hunters but with Azusa it's easier but even then we have to move quite a lot.
Our last big move was around a week and a half ago and we travelled far for 4 days. The attacks are getting more frequent and I'm worried we will have to leave the forest and go through a village since the forest doesn't last forever.
I sat down by the fire and took out a knife before I began to skin the rabbit and once I was finished I tied it to a twig and left it over the fire. It was long before Azusa came back with two small squirrels, she wasn't the best hunter. But she was a good fighter.
"Finally." She huffs, "Thanks for that back there."
"You need to learn." I look down at her, "You talk too much and get distracted too easily."
"Well we can switch roles then can't we? You hunt for food and do all the lady work whilst I go out and kill the man?" She shrugs and pointers her tiny knife at me and I suddenly have the urge to roll my eyes.
"You know I have to be the one to kill him." I mumble and lift up the twig before taking the rabbit of it and laying it down on the blanket beside me.
"I don't understand." She says quietly as if she doesn't want to say the words at all, "You're not the only one the king has wronged. Your family aren't the only ones who died because of the king."
I nodded and stood up taking the rabbit with me, I threw the knife down at her leg, missing it by inches. She flinched and looked up at me with shock.
"The king didn't kill your parents, the war did, and neither did he take your leg and use it as a trophy." I say without blinking, "I know how to survive living like this, I do not need help from somebody else, and yes I've failed thirteen times at killing the king but Failure paves the way to success and I will get there one day. I will kill the King and you will be there to watch." I see those last words and make my way to my tent, opening the zip and closing it back up once I get inside. I can't hear anything from Azusa and so I quickly eat most of the rabbit before stuffing it in my bag and laying down in my sleeping bag.
I can't sleep, thoughts floating around in my head telling me that I'm too harsh, that I need to calm down and be nicer. Maybe that way it would be easier to kill the king if we work together. But I'm too selfish. If anybody were to kill the king before me then I'd end my life. I've dedicated three quarters of my life to killing this man and no one will help me achieve my goal but me and my wolf.
Azusa needs to know that I will not allow her to achieve my goal before me. At this realisation my mind is finally at rest and my eyes shut, and I finally drift off to sleep.
But I don't wake up in the morning to the birds singing, I wake up to darkness and the shouting of men. I sit up quickly and open the zip to see torches far away, I quickly grab my knives, axe and bag and run over to Azusa's tent. I straddle her and cover her mouth with my hand so she couldn't make any noise and I lent down towards her ear.
"Don't say a word, they're here." Was all I whispered to her, her eyes widened and she nodded slightly. I remove my hand and sit up before slowly poking my head out of the tent door. They're getting louder now and their torches brighter. I grabbed hold of the redhead's hand and pulled her out of the tent after she grabbed the stuff she needed.
I wince when I realised we wouldn't have enough time to grab the rest of our stuff, the tents and sleeping bags would have to stay here and all the other bits that weren't needed. I swear under my breath and the two of us leave and walk the opposite way of where the hunters are coming.
I could hear the barks of the dogs and thought if it were easier to shift and run but it would be quite hard to take our stuff. I realised it was getting muddy now and our feet were making footsteps, I huffed and walked over the grass hoping it would hide it.
"How many?" Azusa asked quieter than ever before.
I shrugged and turned around for a moment, we could no longer see our camp and no longer saw the hunters, "Alot." Azusa gave me a questioning look, "Let's just say we wouldn't survive not even if we shifted.
We go south and cross the village.
My wolf said in my mind, I frowned. We've never cut across the village before and we don't even know what's on the other side of the forest. There could be more hunters or a prison for the supernaturals. There might not even be a forest at all. The last time I went was years and years ago when I was twelve and construction was being done. Most of the trees had been knocked down so what would it look like now after almost 10 years?
Just do it, if there's hunters then we die either way?
I nodded in understanding and took a deep breath before turning to my companion who had a sad look upon her face.
"We cut through the village, steal money to get food for the time being and then make our way to the other side of the forest."
We'll take the risk, I thought. If I die without killing the king then I'll have to come back and unleash hell upon the earth.
"Alright." Azusa nodded.
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1951 words.
Unedited.
First chapter of the book I hope you like it and if you don't then tough luck the door is right there.