She crouched in the tree's branches, looking across the golden fields of long summer grass at the village and the castle that rose up from the middle of it. The sun was just beginning to set, giving everything a fiery glow. Eyes narrowed, seeing the guards moving even over such a great distance, and she carefully began to move. Dropping soundlessly she moved into the grasses, her clothes and coloring helping her blend in. Silently, leaving barely a ripple in her wake she moved across the deserted fields. She reached the edge of the grass and knelt there, barely breathing, a pool of perfect stillness. The sun fell behind the hills, shadows stretching, and in a shot she sprinted to the nearest hut. Leaning up against the wooden wall, she seems to disappear once again. Carefully, she climbs up to the roof, gracefully balancing there. She watches the guards up on the castle wall, and each time they turn away, she jumps from roof to roof. Reaching the hut nearest to the castle wall, she settles there silently, waiting again, patiently. The clouds crawled across the sky, and the faint shine of stars began to appear. The guards moved, one shift going off, another coming on, and she moved. She leapt up against the castle's outer wall, digging into the stone, and like a cat slinked up to the walkway. Pausing only for a moment muscles coil, and she jumps again to the inner wall. She climbs swiftly, reaching the brown mud tiles of the roof, and disappears once again. Keeping low she moves across the rooftop, making her way along a carefully memorized course while avoiding any loose tiles. Pausing occasionally whenever she was in the line of sight of a guard, she reaches a certain window, gently and silently opening it. She climbs inside, dropping down into the darkened, torch lit hallway. A sound, and the shadowed figure seems to disappear. The maid walked around the corner, a bounce to her step as she strode down the hallway. Dressed in common garb, she pauses by the open window to pull it shut, then walks onward. She turns around another corner, and is gone. Clinging to a beam up in the ceiling, she smiled slightly. She drops down to the floor silently, a shimmer of light dancing across her slim body. When she lands, she bears the appearance of the maid. She pauses, adjusting ...something under her skirt, then walks the other way than the maid went. Moving down the hallways, smiling pleasantly to anyone she passes, she soon reaches a certain door. A hook on a long piece of string comes from a pocket, and is carefully released through a gap at the top of the door. A certain, exactly measured length of thread is released, the string is turned and tugged, and the latch releases. She slips inside, and with a soft glow she reverts to her true form. She moves across the darkened sitting room, easily avoiding any obstacles with her piercing vision. She reaches the bedroom door and produces a small can of oil, putting a bit on each hinge. She waits a moment for it to soak in, then slowly and carefully opens the bedroom door. The room is lit only by a closed window, easily in the line of sight of guards outside, but frosted slightly so they could not see in. She moves across the bedroom like a cat, reaching the bedside where she stands silently. A blade is carefully drawn from her clothes, and she kneels beside the sleeping figure, only to hesitate. Short red hair curls at the neck, a face childlike and innocent in repose. The green eyes that were wise and perceptive now closed, soft breathing causing the chest to gently rise and fall. The leader of her people, the youngest of a generation, and her target. She had followed her invisibly these past few weeks, studying and preparing. Watching this wise, good leader and the people of her lands that loved her so much, looking for the best place and time to strike. And now... The hand holding the blade shakes, moves, then finally stops. She stands, shaking her head, hands clenched as the blade slides back into it's concealed home. Renamon looks up, murmuring softly, "I can't do it." Renamon, for the first time that night, stands fully exposed to the moonlight. With her long, lean brown and white body, three fingered paws for hands and feet, and a long, silken tail that reaches the stone floor, she is clearly not human. Her triangular face is that of a fox, but it is expressive none the less, bearing eyes that are deep and perceptive. Renamon looked down at Lady Rika, knowing that this failure meant that her own life was now forfeit. She knew too much about the Guild that had raised her, the strange, furry bundle that had appeared at their doorstep one winter night so long ago. Renamon moved to go, when an odd look passed over her face. "If I'm going to break the rules," she smiles, "I may as well do it all the way." Turning back Renamon walked over to the bedside, kneeling down there to gaze at Rika once again. She reached out, gently shaking the girl's bare shoulder. Rika just grumbled softly, shifting uncomfortably. Another shake, and a mumbled, "Go 'way." Finally, like the maids Renamon had watched, she carefully pinched the flesh between her fingers. With a soft yelp Rika sat up, looking around her blearily. Her gaze settled on Renamon, and her eyes widened. Rika sat straight, tilting her head up and exposing her throat. With great dignity she said, "Strike and make my ending quick, please, whoever you are." Quietly, Renamon said, "My name is Renamon, and I mean you no harm." Rika looked over at her disbelievingly, and Renamon conceded, "It wasn't my first intention, but it seems I couldn't go through with it." Rika's eyes narrowed shrewdly, "What are you going to do?" Renamon ignored that question to tell her, "I was hired by Lord Takato." She rose to walk to the window, then she tensed, a shining blade appearing in her hand. She threw, and a figure dropped from the shadows, the blade buried into his neck. "My back up," Renamon murmured, "sent to kill me or you if I failed." Intensely, Rika asked again, "What will you do, Renamon?" "Run," Renamon answered her quietly, "run until I cannot run any longer. I will make my stand there, and take as many of them with me as I can." "Then stay," Rika said quietly. Renamon looked at her in surprise, "What?" Rika smiled slightly, "The guild doesn't give up once they take on a contract, even I know that. And they won't stop hunting you, for choosing not to kill me. So why not make your stand here, and be my bodyguard?" Renamon blinked a few times, "You're mad." "More than one has said so," Rika admitted. "Who better to protect me, than one who knows the ways of assassins, herself? And at least here, you can keep your back to a wall," she said quietly. "How do you know this isn't a trick," Renamon asked, "a means to stay at your side until I strike at a time and place of my own choosing?" "I don't," Rika admitted, "but there's something about you." She paused, "I want you to stay here, until I understand it." Renamon was startled that Rika was feeling something like she was. Not giving herself time to think about it too much she said, "I'll stay." Author's Notes: The idea of Renamon as a ninja comes from her early appearances, mostly. She appears and disappears mysteriously, sticks to the shadows, and moves like a cat! Even her attack, 'diamond storm' made me think of a hail of throwing knives.
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