Chapter Three

Leanunya woke up early the next morning and she grabbed her stuff then headed out unnoticed. She headed towards the house where she was going to pick up the boy Nagos. Her tail was flicking; she felt something was off as she stepped onto the street the house was on. Leanunya pinned her ears when she saw Nagos's house door open. She swiftly crept to the door and heard the steps of heavy men as they walked around in the small home. It sounded like they were looking for something or someone. 

     Leanunya peaked inside and saw two large and rugged men as they were looking around moving things around. She entered the home and narrowed her eyes at the men saying, “what are you looking for?”, her voice had a slight hiss to it. 

    The two men turned to her and scowled; one with red hair and a scar across his face spoke, “get out of here if you know what’s best for you.” he pointed a bloody knife at her and she growled, “make me,” she pinned her ears and flicked her tail. 

    The man with the red hair charged at her with the bloody knife in his hand. Leanunya's feelings of anger and hatred for the men faded into the back of her mind as she focused on the man attacking her. Now, all she could see were the man's vital points, all of his openings and his blade. 

    She darted in so quickly the man didn’t have time to react and she took her own blade out of its scabbard. She stabbed the man though his heart then she swiftly pulled the blade free before quickly darting towards the other man without hesitation or pause. The man was much faster than his partner, who had already collapsed on the floor dead, and was able to block her blade with his own. The man was now on guard with his blade in hand, his eyes narrowed at her. 

      Leanunya grinned at this, her tail flicking. She had her eyes narrowed looking for any openings. She could see none but she darted to his left driving her blade towards his chest to create one but before her blade could make contact the man blocked it. The man then struck out at her and she easily blocked the blow and withheld from striking and killing the man immediately as she saw an opening. She was merely teasing him at the moment. 

       The man slid back from Leanunya, his blade at the ready. Leanunya darted in again and this time went for the right but rolled at the last moment and struck the man's heart. She removed her dagger from his chest and watched as he died swiftly. She felt no pity for the man but admired his skill in the blade even though it was still shotty. She wiped her blade clean, then put her blade up and looked around. Soon she found the body of Nagos's mother lying dead in a puddle of her own blood, her eyes wide and glossed over with death. 

      Leanunya looked around, then called out not seeing Nagos, “Nagos?” she didn’t hear a response but heard the sound of someone gasp softly. She sighed and spoke softly, “come on out Nagos, it's safe now. I’ve come to take you away from here, remember me from last night?” She heard a scuffle then saw the little boy peak out at her from behind a box. 

      Nagos ran to Leanunya seeing her and he cried, hugging her. Leanunya sighed, “come on we gotta go so dry your tears and move your feet.” She was never good with kids. Especially crying kids. Leanunya started to leave and was soon followed by Nagos who was still crying. 

     Leanunya walked towards the gate to leave town, Nagos following her. They were stopped at the gate by guards who asked, “what are you running from?” Leanunya coldly looked at them “I'm not running from nothing, but I’ve just been told to leave town and take care of the boy.” 

   She threw a glance at the crying Nagos at her feet. The guard paused then moved out of the way, “go ahead you can leave, take care of that boy.” 

   Leanunya nodded and left the town followed by Nagos. Leanunya kept a fast pace as they followed the road. Leanunya walked swiftly as they went along the road. She continued to walk till she heard a thud and she stopped turning to look behind her and sighed seeing Nagos picking himself off the ground. 

   Leanunya sighed, “sorry, guess i’m going too fast for you.” Nagos shook his head, tears in his eyes even as he tried to fight them, as he stood and looked up at her. Leanunya sighed, “here.” She picked him up and put him on her shoulders before she continued walking. 

      Leanunya walked along the road for a while even after they were out of the line of sight of the town. She walked along then she slowed her pace. She glanced around before she started off into the forest along the side of the road. Leanunya made her way along through the forest. Nagos sniffled as he held onto her back making sure not to fall off of her shoulders. 

Leanunya looked behind her and smiled slightly, relaxing some before continuing on. She walked along making sure no branches would hit Nagos in the face as she walked. She ambled along, she loved forests. She always found comfort walking through them. Though that may just be because she had spent four years training in the wood by herself. 

     Leanunya walked along, soon losing track of the time till she looked up and saw the sun’s overhead. It was around noon. Leanunya stopped and set Nagos on the ground before sitting down and watched Nagos stretch. Leanunya took her bag off of her back and reached inside it and pulled out some food. She smiled softly, handing Nagos some dried meat and some dried fruit. 

       Leanunya smiled slightly “here eat” Nagos tentatively took the food and started to eat slowly at first then he hungrily ate it all gone. Leanunya watched as he ate while eating her own share and thinking and realized neither of them must have eaten breakfast. 

      Leanunya soon finished eating and sighed, “we’ve got a long way to go.” She already had a destination in mind where she would train him. She stood, “you want to be carried or you want to walk?” she asked. Nagos paused before nervously answering, “I-I can w-walk.” Leanunya nodded, “ok then let's go” She started to walk slowly enough for the boy to follow her. Leanunya listened, hearing Nagos following her.

     Leanunya walked along till it started to get dark and she stopped in a large cave for the night. “We’ll stop here for the night.” 

   Nagos nodded. Leanunya smiled softly and started to gather some wood for a fire. She never made a fire but she was going to make one for the boy to keep him warm. Leanunya soon gathered enough wood and tried lighting the fire. She hadn’t lit a fire in a long time and it took her some time before she managed to light the wood on fire.

     Leanunya reached into her bag and pulled out some blankets and set them down for Nagos. Leanunya sat down leaning against the cave wall and took her cloak off. She saw Nagos staring at her wings and she chuckled.

    Leanunya smiled “yeah i’m not a Cattarina. I’m a Cattgon.” She knew that at one point or another during their training he would have found out that she was a Cattgon. Nagos nodded then a look of curiosity shone in his eyes and he couldn't resist asking her, “If your a Cattgon then that means you're wanted dead?” Leanunya chuckled at his boldness, “yes, though I’m wanted for many other things as well.

    Leanunya smiled seeing that he was starting to relax around her. Nagos asked another question, “what else are you wanted for?” Leanunya smiled “many things but I’m mostly wanted for trying to kill the king.” Nagos gasped, “really!” Leanunya nodded, “yes, now you should get some rest, then in the morning you can ask more questions as we walk.” Nagos sighed before nodding and he lay in the bedding she had laid out for him and she heard him mumble, “thanks” before he was fast asleep.

    Leanunya yawned slightly dozing off against the cave wall herself. She sat there partially asleep, when she heard the rustle of leaves and the sound of feet. She opened her eyes and saw that the fire was nearly out. It was probably around midnight. Lenaunya sat up, glancing about. She watched, listening. Suddenly there was a loud battle cry and about twelve large men jumped out of the shadows. The cry startled and woke Nagos and he cowered in fear in the blankets. 

      Leanunya growled standing; she would have to kill them, they knew. One of the men growled back and spoke, “we’ll get a hefty price for the Cattgon.” Leanunay flicked her tail and drew out two daggers one in each hand and she spoke calmly to the terrified Nagos, “Nagos stay behind me.” 

    Nagos immediately obeyed and hurried behind her deeper in the cave. Leanunya lashed her tail at the men. Then men chuckled, slowly coming towards her. 

     Leanunya sighed, “Nagos you may want to close your eyes.” She twitched her ears as she heard Nagos whimper softly. Leanunya looked at the men who were slowly closing the distance between them. 

   Leanunya gripped her blades tightly before she moved swiftly, the men too slow to react. Leanunya moved to the closest man and slit his throat before he realized what had happened. Using that momentum she slashed the next man under the armpit slicing his axillary Artery. 

   Leanunya dodged the next man’s sword by stepping in close and stabbed him in the heart before kicking him away, into the others. She lunged towards another who had stumbled back and split open the side of his neck. She stepped to the side, dodging a sword slash directed at her back. She growled and stepped in close to the man and slashed under his armpit. She dropped, crouching low, dodging an attack and slashed the attacker's inner thigh. 

    Leanunya jumped forward; flapped her wings to gain speed and attacked another, slashing his throat open. She stopped, deflecting a sword swing aimed at her neck. She stepped back to create some distance for a moment to analyze the men left. They looked to be in disarray and falling over each other by now. 

   She stepped back into the fray attacking the closest man who had tripped over his own colleague who she had just deflected his sword. She stabbed her dagger into his eye socket and hastily pulled it free. She then stepped into the four men left and slashed one man’s inner thigh. Leanunya then dodged a stab and pulled the attacker so he attacked and stabbed his own ally. 

   She then stabbed the back of the man’s neck when he passed by her and looked at the remaining man. She watched as he turned to run but lunged forward stabbing him in the back where his heart was supposed to be. She removed her blade and looked over the dead men. 

      Leanunya then looked over to Nagos who was crouched down covering his face in fear. Leanunya sighed and cleaned her blades and put her blades away before walking over to Nagos. “It's over”, Leanunya watched as Nagos opened his eyes and gasped at seeing the bodys but it wasn't fear in his eyes that Leanunya saw as Nagos looked at the bodys, but wonder.

    Nagos stood, “d-did you k-kill them?” Leanunya nodded, “yes.” 

   She watched his reaction and was slightly shocked not seeming to be scared but instead had admiration in his eyes. Leanunya smiled and gathered their stuff and looked up at the sky, seeing the golden rays of the sun's rising. 

  She sighed, “let's go.” Nagos nodded, smiling shyly as he stood up and ran up to her side. Leanunya frowned slightly and shrugged, walking off into the forest headed south.

     Leanunya walked slowly for most of the day, Nagos asking millions of questions. It seemed for every question she answered Nagos would get a stream of more questions. Leanunya walked, listening to another stream of questions from Nagos. She answered each question to the best of her abilities. 

   Leanunya stopped in a meadow for lunch and gave Nagos some food and she sighed in relief. Nagos was silent for the first time that day. She flicked her tail looking about and she smiled. They had made better progress than she thought. They would reach the forbidden forest by next week if they continued to keep up their pace. 

       Leanunya sighed tiredly as they finished lunch and Nagos continued to ask questions. Leanunya walked, answering questions as they continued on, learning a lot about Nagos. Nagos had been raised by his mother till she got sick and had barely eaten even before his mother got sick. Nagos had taken care of his mother all the time she was sick and rarely would his father come by to check on them bringing money and food and such when he could. Leanunya realized by this point Nagos had a similar upbringing as herself. 

     Leanunya sighed thinking about her past that night after Nagos had fallen asleep. Leanunya had been raised by her parents but they were barely ever around, more often than not abandoning her to an older woman who couldn’t even take care of herself. She had rarely ever gotten to eat but she would always practice fighting and killing. She had wanted to kill her parents. 

   Leanunya had been about to kill them one night but then the soldiers came. The king had put the bounty up for her people and before she could kill her parents they were killed by the soldiers. She had been furious, after they had begged the soldiers to spare their own lives, giving up hers in return. Although their begging nor bribing worked. It only brought their death by the soldiers faster. Leanunya had gone into a rage and had killed all of the soldiers and then went after the king. 

      Leanunya sighed, shaking her head of her past and closed her eyes to sleep. Leanunya rested for the night. Leanunya yawned as dawn came. She woke Nagos and they continued on their way. Nagos continued to ask questions throughout the whole day.

     Leanunya stopped in a small meadow before the duel sun's set and made camp for the night, once again making a bed for Nagos. She then laid out on her back, in the short yellow-green grass looking up at the quickly darkening sky thinking silently Nagos having fallen asleep already. Leanunya fell asleep sometime later and dreamt about her past. 

 Leanunya ran to the forest closest to the castle, having failed and been injured, she knew she had to hide. She ran panting struggling with the pain. She ran into the forest and didn’t stop running, going deeper and deeper into the forest. She could still hear the alarm bells of the castle ringing and didn’t dare stop lest she was caught. She kept a hand over her injury as she ran. Only when she could no longer hear the alarm bells did she dare slow down but she didn’t stop. 

      Leanunya had tried to kill the king; many men would be coming after her and she needed to find a place to hide. She knew of only one place she could go where no one dared to go; the forbidden forest. It was said to be an entrance to hell and filled with creatures from it. It was filled with notorious creatures such as crazed dragons, scourdges and worse, but it was the only place she could go to at the moment. She covered and wrapped her injury while walking, the blood having stained her fur on her chest and belly red as the blood flowed down. She continued to move, barely resting at all as She went. It would take at least three weeks to get to the forest and she didn’t dare dally. 

    When she finally made it to the forest she had hid for a year there. She had also trained during this time and found out the forest isn’t as bad as the stories tell. It was indeed more dangerous but if one was careful one could easily survive. She also had every intent to go back and finish what she had started. She would kill the king one day so she didn’t dare die. She had come close a few times but after a year she had mastered the forest. 

     

      When dawn broke Leanunya was already up sitting cross-legged planning ahead. Leanunya sighed, getting to her feet and woke Nagos before packing up the bedding and continuing on their way. As they walked there was now a peaceful silence between her and Nagos. Neither one spoke, unless necessary. 

     Leanunya walked through the forest with Nagos for the next week and a half, only stopping to eat, drink, go to the restroom or sleep for the night. On the fifth day she had them stop a little past noon and made a swift camp telling Nagos; “tomorrow we will be entering the Forbidden forest so be ready to face a few creatures like the scourdge, or the skiniuna.” Leanunya noticed Nagos nod readily as he sat down close to her as she sat looking up at the sky thinking about how she would train him.