The seven soldiers walked towards her in unison, and with every step, Kidd’s fear tripled. They were only a few feet away from her and Kidd had a hard time trying not to show just how afraid she was right now.
Two soldiers were first to attack. With more luck than actual skill, she managed to push the first one away by kicking him right into his stomach, but the second one, which seemed like a female soldier at second glance, was more difficult to handle. Kidd reached out to perform a vertical slash, but her hands were gripped by the soldier’s before she could move the sword downwards. Her grip was firm, unyielding and Kidd was shocked to feel so weak within this grip.
However, she had to act before the other five soldiers attacked. With her free right hand, she took the sword out of her left. Now with her free left hand, she pulled hard at the soldiers’ grip, knowing that she wouldn’t let go. The effect was just like she had expected. Surprised by Kidd’s harsh tug, the soldier lost her balance for a moment. That was just the moment that Kidd could easily bring her sword to the opponents’ throat. The soldier gasped in surprise, but didn’t dare to move. Even the other five soldiers, which had been just about to strike, now froze in motion and took a few steps backwards.
From the look in their eyes, Kidd could tell that they hadn’t been prepared to actually fight her. An evil smile crossed her face, as she pulled the soldier closer to her.
“Drop yer weapons or she’s gonna die!”, Kidd yelled commandingly. The soldiers did as she told almost instantly.
“Now turn around!” The soldiers looked suspicious, but obeyed. However, one of the soldiers turned back and charged Kidd with his bare fist. Kidd was caught by surprise, but managed to dodge the attack by taking a step to the side. Then she got rid of him through a fierce kick with her knee.
Her mind was spinning. She didn’t expect one of them to actually dare attacking her and it was sheer luck that she managed to handle it. Also, she feared that she’d accidentally hurt the soldier in front of her. She didn’t intend to hurt her, much less kill her just because one of those idiots dared to attack. Initially, she had wanted it to be just like the time at Viper Manor, when she took Riddel hostage. Back then, she had told Riddel not to worry, but now, things seemed different and Kidd obviously had to be a little more…harsh.
The sword trembled in her right hand as she pressed it a little harder against the other woman’s throat, partly because of her wounded shoulder but also because she was nervous and afraid to kill her. These swords were amazingly sharp and if the others were to catch her by surprise again, she didn’t know how she would react.
Still, Kidd had to regain her composure to pull this off. Soon, a thin line of blood appeared on the soldier’s throat, causing her to wince. Kidd stared at the other soldiers.
“I’m serious, ya hear? And if ya don’t turn around, I’ll bloody slit her throat!”, she shouted. This time the soldiers relented and turned around, anxiously awaiting her next action.
They patiently waited and turned back around no sooner than they heard a loud splash.
When she opened her eyes, she found that she was in a room. She knew this room, but at the same time, couldn’t tell where it was. It felt as if it was on the tip of her tongue, not quite remembered…but not forgotten either.
There were faces too. They were too blurry to be recognized, but Harle had the feeling that she knew these people. And as the voices of these persons came through, that feeling was confirmed.
“Hey, she opened her eyes! Harle, can you hear me? Harle?” It was the voice of a young man. Harle tried hard to see who it was, but soon gave up. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to withstand the wave of nausea that suddenly came over her. She swallowed hard and slowly opened her eyes again. Her vision was still the same as before.
“Where…iz…moi?”, she whispered as she laid her right hand onto her forehead, feeling a terrible headache coming.
“She talked!”, she heard a few voices say and the faces above her multiplied.
“Quiet, you’ll just confuse her. It’ll be better if we leave. Let Jack talk to her alone.”, a deep voice said and soon after the room was quiet.
‘So it was Jack’, Harle thought. She felt odd for not remembering his name earlier. But then, she felt odd in general. Tired, weak, dizzy.
“How are you Harle? Are you okay?”, she heard Jack’s voice say, thick with worry.
Harle wanted to answer when it suddenly came to her mind. “Where iz Kidd?”, she asked urgently. However, her eyes still looked as empty as before. For a moment, Jack thought she had gotten blind.
“She…I…We don’t know. We just found you floating in the ocean, but there was no sign of Kidd. What in the world happened in Marbule?”
Harle tried to remember. Why did she float in the ocean? And what exactly happened in Marbule?
Suddenly, the floor trembled. These heavy footsteps were back. Coming closer and closer, resounding in her mind. So that was it…she should have known. Should have known that she could never escape and also, that being with other people would bring nothing but misfortune to them. She tried so hard to believe…
Soon, the footsteps had gotten incredibly loud, threatening to deafen Harle. She rapidly covered her ears with her hands and shook her head violently, trying desperately to make the steps go away. It didn’t work. She closed her eyes, wincing with each new step. She tried so hard, she tried so hard…why her!
“Harle! What is it!” Jack jumped up from his stool and leaned over Harle. He gripped her shoulders, shaking her, trying to make her open her eyes. After ten endless seconds, Harle opened her eyes, tears running down her cheeks.
“Ze…dragonz…zey have returned…”, Harle whispered, her eyes so empty, yet so full of pain that Jack could hardly bear looking at them.
“The dragons…?” Jack was puzzled. He didn’t know much about them, besides that they hadn’t seemed to like humans very much. And also, he knew that Kidd and Harle had killed them. All of them. They had never told him why, though.
And now that he thought about it, he wondered what kind of reason they could have had to do so.
“What did they do to you? Tell me what happened, Harle.” Jack didn’t know what to think. Was Harle just hallucinating?
His suspicion grew even more when Harle suddenly started to smile.
“Did he do somet’ing to moi? Non, non…moi didn’t let him.” Harle answered, almost looking content if it weren’t for her dead looking eyes.
“And Kidd? What happened to her?” Jack knew that this probably wasn’t the best topic change, but he just couldn’t handle this Harle in front of him. She didn’t seem normal, but not crazy either.
“Kidd…you don’t know, do you, mon ami? It waz moi…who killed her.”, Harle answered, the smile on her face still present, even though she was crying.
She was almost there. Finally. It would be all well and good again once she reached that damned island in front of her.
The dive into the water had been a really bad idea, all things considered. It began with the salt water and her right shoulder, which hurt so bad Kidd hadn’t thought she’d survive it. The several light burns she had received weren’t any better off against the water either. Next was the distance between her and the nearest island, which was ridiculously large and therefore, close to impossible to overcome in her state. And finally, she had been so stupid as to take the soldier down with her. It had seemed like a good idea at first, because by pulling her with her, she eliminated the chance to be backstabbed in the very last second. But now when she turned her head and looked into the angry eyes of that particular woman, she regretted it. Wholeheartedly. It was a good reason to keep swimming, though.
So she had swum at full speed for the last twenty minutes, which actually seemed more like twenty hours to her. But now, she could already see the shore. And once she had reached it, she would get rid of that annoying woman behind her. One would think that she cared more about her own life than to chase unarmed after someone with a very sharp sword. These soldiers nowadays were the worst. Kidd herself would never go that far just because of a job.
Eventually, Kidd felt the ground under her feet and dashed the last couple of metres out of the water towards the beach. There, she turned around to face her pursuer. The soldier got out of the water more slowly, puffing and panting. It must have been considerably harder for her to swim all this way, regarding her clothes. She wore long pants and even a jacket, while Kidd only wore her short skirt and top. Most of the vest had burned away, so it hardly counted as clothing anymore.
Kidd just smiled at the sight and took her sword, holding it with her weaker, left hand. However, the soldier didn’t know about her strong and weak hand, so she didn’t worry about that.
“Do ya wanna die? Ya should be thankful ta me for not killin’ ya earlier, and yet ya follow me ‘til here. Whaddaya want?”
The soldier just shot her a hateful glare, and took out a dagger from her jacket. “Revenge. For my brother.”
Kidd only managed to gasp in surprise. That was her dagger, no doubt. This blade, which shimmered in every color, and the handle, with a bandage covering it. This was hers, definitely.
“I see. So that was yer brother. Do ya want the same fate?”, Kidd asked provokingly.
“You almost killed him!”, the soldier now shouted and charged Kidd.
“Almost? Too bad, I thought I had finished him off for sure.”, Kidd mocked her, blocking the first attack with ease. However, deep down she was genuinely surprised, and relieved to hear that she hadn’t killed him.
“I’ll kill you!”, the soldier screamed furiously and attacked anew.
Kidd dodged the blade and struck her elbow deep into the soldier’s side, causing her to tumble to the ground, clutching her side and breathing hard.
“Like that, eh?”, Kidd said and laughed, walking towards the soldier. She was glad the other woman didn’t turn out as tough as Kidd expected. She was pretty tired herself and just wanted this to be over as soon as possible.
Just when Kidd tried to take the dagger from the soldier’s grasp, the woman quickly rolled aside and managed to stand up. She wavered a little, but Kidd could clearly see the strong will in her eyes.
“You’ll see…you’ll die soon enough…just like that annoying girl…Harle was her name?”, the soldier said, a wicked grin forming on her lips. She clutched the dagger tightly in her trembling hands, preparing herself for the next attack.
Kidd froze. Time stood still for her and she could only think of one thing: Harle was dead. This couldn’t possibly be true, yet the instant these three words appeared in her mind, she dropped the sword, barely escaping the dagger she was attacked with. Staggering a few feet backwards, she fell onto her knees. Tears ran freely down her face and her hands were trembling as she tried to wipe them away.
“You’re lying!”, Kidd screamed, shaking her head. “You’re a bloody liar!” She didn’t even look at the soldier anymore, staring at the ground in shock. She wanted to pick up the sword again, but her hands were trembling too much and so it fell onto the ground again with a thud.
“I’m afraid I’m not.”, the soldier said as she picked up the sword, carefully watching Kidd for any sudden movements, “I didn’t see it myself, for I am not in charge of the dragon, but the others told me about it. I heard it was suicide too. How pitiful.”
“Don’t ya dare sayin’ that.”, Kidd scowled. Trying to compose herself, she managed to stand up. Clenching her fists, she made a few steps towards the soldier, not bothering with the fact that this woman had two weapons and she none.
“Why shouldn’t I? She was a coward. Instead of trying to survive by fighting, she ran away. That’s just pathetic.”
“Don’t ya say that!”, Kidd yelled furiously, charging the woman with full force. She ducked under the first slash of the sword and blocked the dagger with her bare hand. Before the soldier could react, Kidd had already leapt onto her and gripped her throat with her left hand, squeezing it tightly.
After a few seconds, the soldier’s arms fell limp to the ground. Kidd didn’t care, squeezing even harder now. The soldier coughed and choked, trying desperately to breath despite Kidd’s hand destroying every possibility to.
“…please…no…don’t…kill me…”, was all she could manage to say, the fear evident in her eyes.
“You killed her!”, Kidd screamed, lifting the soldier’s head a bit, only to smash it down onto the ground again.
“You killed her!” Again, she thrust her head to the ground.
“You killed Harle!” The beating stopped. A river of tears ran down Kidd’s cheeks and dropped onto the soldier’s face, from where they finished their way to the ground. The soldier’s eyes were wide open, not because of the pain, but the image right in front of her.
“Harle…” Kidd choked on her words and lost herself in sobs. Her grip around the other’s throat loosened, but the woman’s desperate gasps for air didn’t even reach Kidd’s ears anymore.
She just lay there, motionless. Waiting for Kidd to do something. To kill her, or to get off of her. She couldn’t stand to see those tears, hear those sobs, anymore. She felt guilty.
After a while, Kidd stood up, looking down on the other woman with a look that the soldier couldn’t quite describe. It wasn’t that look so full of hate and despair that she saw just a few minutes ago, but it wasn’t a friendly one either.
“Ya begged for yer life…that’s just pathetic.”, Kidd said emotionlessly and walked away. The soldier turned her head, her eyes following Kidd. She saw Kidd casting a Heal element on herself, draining almost all of her stamina with that. But soon after, as the wound on Kidd’s hand almost stopped bleeding and her shoulder started to look better, the effect proved itself worthy of that. Now Kidd took off the remains of her vest and tore it to shreds, which she used to bandage her hand.
The soldier saw the tired expression of Kidd as she came back to take the sword and dagger from her hands, and it made her worry unwillingly.
“So…ya never told me yer name.”, Kidd said as she sat down at a nearby tree, still the weapons in her hand. With her dagger, she scratched a few lines and circles into the ground lazily. She wondered if there was any worse use for her precious dagger.
A few minutes passed, but still no response came forth from the soldier. She just stared at Kidd, wondering what was happening. After a while, Kidd looked up, meeting her gaze, smiling faintly.
“It’s…Eve.”, she said hesitantly, rubbing her throat unconsciously.
“Now that’s some name…”, Kidd chuckled, “for a soldier.”
Eve looked surprised for a moment, wondering yet again about the odd behaviour of this stranger.
“Well yours ain’t better. Sounds like a name you made up for yourself when you were five.”, Eve said, a small smile appearing on her face.
“How did ya know?”, Kidd asked with a surprised look, and both of them started to laugh. It surprised both of them that they were laughing at a time like this, under such circumstances.
“I was six though.”, Kidd said, chuckling. She smiled as she remembered that day, when she had run to Lucca, telling her of her cool new name. Back when she had first come to the orphanage, she couldn’t remember much of herself. Her name, her family, such things. But all of Lucca’s names for her had sounded too girly, and so she had made up one herself.
Eve still giggled, looking up to the perfectly blue sky above her.
“Why do we talk like this?”, she asked, sounding serious again.
“Why not?”, Kidd asked back, joining Eve’s gaze at the heaven.
“Just a few minutes ago you tried to kill me.”, Eve stated the obvious.
“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that. It was just…they way ya said it…I lost my mind for a moment.”, Kidd answered, looking away from Eve. She was surprised at herself, to have lost control like that.
“Why did you stop? Shouldn’t you be avenging her? Doesn’t she mean anything to you?”, Eve sounded desperate, suddenly bewildered at Kidd’s indifferent attitude.
“More than ya could ever imagine. But there’s nothin’ ta avenge.” Kidd said calmly. “’Cause Harle isn’t dead.”
Eve gave her a puzzled look. “How…how can you be sure? The others…they saw it.”
Kidd just looked at her, shaking her head. “I know it. After all we’ve been through together, she wouldn’t leave me like that. She would never do that.”
Eve looked sceptical. She still didn’t think that this girl had survived despite what the others had told her, but she decided not to speak it out loud.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right. After all, Viper told us some pretty impressive tales about you two, so I guess she could deal with a dragon alone.”, Eve said cheerily, sitting up.
“Dragon…?”, Kidd repeated, staring at Eve in shock.
Harle stood in the lookout above the middle of the ship, watching the ocean far below her in wonder. It almost felt like she was at that cliff again, only that the waves now clashed more fiercely against the ship than they did before onto the beach. Jack had told her that she would have drowned if he hadn’t found her. Drowned within these fierce waves, ready to swallow everything.
“Are you…angry? Do you want moi back?”, Harle whispered, staring at the waves. For a moment, she saw a huge shape below the surface of the water, but it was gone again before Harle could take a second look.
“Zey are waiting...moi shouldn’t let zem wait…zey call moi…” Harle could hear these heavy, slow steps again. But this time, she didn’t even try to cover her ears. It was no use. It was no use to be afraid anymore, so she just stood there, feeling the whole ship sway and tremble under the dragon’s steps.
She had a little trouble to keep her balance as she stepped onto the edge of the lookout, her arms spread widely. Her view got a little blurry again, as it always did when she moved her head too fast since she had woken up. It was annoying and Harle wished it would just go away. But she already knew that the only way to get truly rid of everything was death.
Harle looked down on the deck and saw people gathering there, looking up to her in shock, shouting. Harle could tell they were worried. But no, they couldn’t help her, they couldn’t change her inescapable fate. Oh, how she had wanted to live with them, at Kidd’s side, in indestructible happiness. But the dragons were stronger. They always had been and always will be. Forever and ever.
“Harle! Don’t!”, Jack cried at the top of his lungs. The shock was written all over his face and he didn’t have a single doubt that Harle would jump, if she truly intended to. However, he was prepared to catch her. He wouldn’t let her die while he was there.
“It’s no use.”, Harle said in a low voice, smiling. She saw how much Jack cared, and she was glad. But to follow her fate, to protect those dear to her, and above all, to atone for her sin of letting Kidd die because of her cowardice, she had to do this.
“No Harle! Believe me, believe me Harle, we’ll find Kidd! You know she isn’t dead!”, Jack shouted, tears in his eyes. He didn’t understand anything. Why Harle said that she had killed Kidd and why she thought of Kidd as dead in the first place. The only thing he knew was that Kidd meant everything to Harle, and that she was the only one who could stop Harle now.
Harle looked down to Jack and favoured him with one last, apologetic smile. Then she saw that shape again, and jumped.