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Swords, Magic and Monsters
(Fantasy/Medieval AU)
The sun was shining down cheerily on the lush foliage of the forest. A sole traveler clad in leathers and a red cape, walking down the widely beaten path. Her clothes seemed well worn and covered in the dust of the path. She was carrying her boots on her shoulders, knotted together by a red string of silk. Her thick battle gauntlets stuffed into the mouth of one boot. The sleeves of her shirt were rolled up past her elbows. Her cape was bundled up on the top of her head as a makeshift hat against the midday sun. Her steps were heavy, a testament of the long journey she had been through already.
She got to an enormous, hollowed oak at the junction of the road. A big, smooth rock was at the foot of the tree. She decided to sit down, rest and have a bite before she arrived in the closest village. After all, the peasants might have some very urgent work for her and they definitely wouldn’t let her eat in peace and it doesn’t do to slay monstrosities with an empty stomach. She let her tired feet dangle from the rock as she was enjoying the cool of the shade.
She seemed young, not a stray lock of gray hair in her mane of red tipped brown. Her grey eyes sparkled with a childish mischievousness despite the many scars littering her face and all other body parts that were seeable from her light armor. She travelled light, carrying all her gear either on her back or in pouches hanging from her wide, decorated leather belt. On her side an exotic looking, curved short sword, on the other a small, stained and well loved satchel for her provisions. She took some bread and water from it and started to eat her modest meal. The girl cheered happily when she found a morsel of cheese to go with the bread.
“Maybe I should buy a horse.” she mumbled to herself “Hmmmmm…. Next time I slay something I’ll ask for a horse instead of gold.” she raised a scarred and calloused hand to her chin and rubbed on it absentmindedly. A few more bites from her meal and she was tracing the scarred slash that ran over her chin.
Travelling alone surely did a number on her. It wasn’t like she didn’t have friends or companions along the road. Most of her people had already found their places and duties they wished to tend to. After all, it wasn’t uncommon for a hunter or huntress to settle down in towns and villages close to monster territories and defend the folk in turn of a nice little lodge and daily warm meals. Maybe she’ll do just that, but first she wanted to find the man folks tell tales and gossip so fondly. This man, who could fix anything and enhance equipment with only words. She had to find that man.
“I hope some village around here has some good steed. We are close enough to Dragonback mountain. The horses here have a reputation to be vicious.” She chuckled to herself “I’ll take the one that is crazy enough to kill just as many monsters as me. That would be something…. Horsie, the monster slayer.” The monster huntress even motioned like she was about to introduce the nameplate of a fancy inn. With that she continued her long journey in a far better mood.
She was halfway through the thick of the forest when she heard a monster roar. Which wouldn't have been suspicious, but the accompanying scream raised just enough red flags for the huntress to jump into her boots and ready herself for a fight as she darted deeper into the woods.
Another scream and she was running even faster than before. Damn her wee body’s limits, innocent lives are on the line. Fortunately she didn’t have to run much further to get a glance of what’s happening. She saw the raised paw of a giant Ursa.
Based on the noises it made, it was very very angry. It struck down with a great fury at the slender figure blocking the blow. The huntress stared in disbelief. She had never seen a living person block the full blow of an Ursa. Well, she had seen the aftermath but it was all nasty and a sight she always got the chills from. Whoever was the one bearing that hit, they should have died before they realized it and yet the person wasn’t as fragile as she looked. She still stood tall, even managed to push back and stagger the monster for a moment, though the girl looked rather fatigued after such a feat.
Judging by the look of it, this girl might have been something like the guardian of the other person who was currently hunched over, cradling a nasty wound on her side. It was easy to see, given the travelers all white clothes were slowly seeping through with blood. Fortunately the creature still struggled to keep its balance.
That was the only opening the girl in red needed. She charged in with her sword at the ready and landed a powerful slash on the hind region of the Ursa. She aimed to stab the monster again, hopefully severing some other body parts to slow it down even more. Come whatever, this way the attacked party will have a chance to outrun the beast. For such beasts it was rare for them to wander alone and she most likely will have to deal with the other first. This one was tired out enough so the other two could easily flee from it.
The angered Ursa swung an enormous paw at her and the girl deftly dodged the attack, countering with slashing her blade at the extended paw. A thick, oily substance splattered out. It smelled like months old rot and death in general.
The beast roared in pain and fury. The huntress danced around it. Dodging and chipping away at the monster, waiting for it to make the mistake to let her slip out of its sight. Then she’ll sever the fiend’s spine with one blow and they’ll get out of there before the mate of this foul thing joins the fight.
“Is your friend okay?” She asked, not letting the beast out of her sight, since it would be unfortunate if the same thing happened to her that she planned to do to the creature. “You should probably get out of here.”
She got no answer, but the one who managed to block the blow of the Ursa before looked at her. With glowing eyes? That was strange. It must be her imagination playing tricks on her. With all the adrenaline flowing rabidly it was a possibility.
To be all honest, she wasn’t sure what to do with these people. In the year and half she’s been travelling around the lands, she barely had to save civilians from creatures of the darkness. Most times it was peasants asking her to find their spouses, child or sibling dead or alive, or just a run of the mill ‘slaughter of the beast that’s been bothering us’ kind of mission. Right now she’s the shield and sword between death and these people so she must not screw up.
“You don’t tell me what to do, peasant.” The girl in white spit at her, but the insult flew over the caped warrior.
“There” She breathed out and got ready to land the critical hit, but before she could strike the girl in white charged at the beast with an expression of pure vitriol on her face. The white girl aimed at the heart or maybe the lungs of the creature. An attack like this could have killed a man on the spot. But the point of her rapier slipped on the thick hide of the monster, leaving her vulnerable.
The swordswoman only had enough time to yank her out of the way. This stunt resulted with the girl in red under the paw of the hellish creature, just about to be eaten.
“Run you fools!” She yelled, hoping the other two will take the advice to heart.
Of course she didn’t give up so easy, but there wasn’t much room to squirm under several thousand pounds of lurking death. She jabbed the butt of her sword into the Ursa’s eye, successfully blinding it to one eye and making it go mad with pain, the pressure let up enough for her to maneuver with her sword so she could at least try to kill the monster and avoid being a warm meal for the habitants of the forest.
Regardless of the awkward angle of her arm, she flipped her blade around and managed to slip it into the eye socket and pushed it as far as her trapped arm let her. Her joints strained and she might have heard a sickening pop somewhere among the pained roar of the beast. She pushed as far as she could, but it wasn’t enough to kill. The girl started to make peace with her luck running out. She held onto her blade for dear life, inching it deeper into the skull of the best even as every muscle in her body protested against the idea. At least the knowledge that she died with honor, true to her profession shushed her nagging subconscious. She stared into the bottomless darkness of the Ursa’s mouth with defiance and pride. Come what may, she was ready.
She felt unusually warm hands enveloping hers. One hand peeled hers off of the hilt while the other held onto it just as she was letting go. Were there a second set of hands? Whoever took hold of her sword they must have caught up with her plan to stab the monster in the brain. The Ursa jerked and struggled without a sound. The two girls pushing on the sword however fought with a war cry worthy of the gods even.
The creature’s whole body cramped up, the mouth that was moments away to devour the huntress, froze in position, but never snapped shut. The creature wailed its last as the foul, sticky black liquid flew from its every head-end orifice, and with that, it rolled over to its side and wheezed out its nonexistent soul with one very last jerk. After that it laid motionless.
Such as the huntress in red did. She couldn’t decide if she should be angry for these two endangered themselves or be thankful that they saved her. After it was nice being alive. She glanced at the other two. They weren’t faring better either. The pipsqueak in white was wheezing and doubled over, not daring to cradle her injury anymore. Her pale and pretty face scrunched up in pain.
The lanky girl looked… well… the huntress wasn’t sure what or who she was looking at. This seemingly fragile girl sported cracks all over her body, for what was showing from under her clothes, and said cracks were emitting a faint white-bluish glow. Her eyes were glowing with a vivid green light. Other than that, she seemed hauntingly like a human, but still really far from it. The unusual girl offered her a hand and a smile. The huntress took it. The girl’s body let out a general amount of glittery powder at the effort to help the other up. Once that was done, the glowing girl went to help the girl in white. Poor thing was barely standing up.
Once on her own feet, the girl in red studied the slaughtered Ursa closely. It was a mighty beast at worst, legendary one at best. Its blackened mutilated body was taller than a horse, even as it was laying on its side. The size of one paw could easily cover the round shields most warriors carried. This beast must have been really old. Or well fed. Or maybe both. Usually something this size required a team of seasoned hunters to take down. They were mad lucky.
She moved to free her sword. She had to tug on it with her left hand, which should have been easy but after getting a gentle body massage from death itself, her poor body was exhausted enough to struggle on the task.
“We probably should leave as soon as possible.” She said softly to the other two. For that the taller girl nodded. The other girl scoffed as her arm was gently guided around the shoulders of her companion.
“Name’s Ruby, by the way.” she said as she turned back to her task without getting the names of the two.
She had to free her sword. No way she’d leave it here. She’ll take the whole head of the Ursa if she had to. Just as she was about to get frustrated, she heard it. Birds have stopped chirping. That’s never a good sign. She looked around carefully, never letting up on the effort to free her prized blade. It finally budged! Just as Ruby got her hopes up a sickeningly deep growl shook the trees. The girl hung her head as she recognized it as the fallen beast’s friend.
“This will be a story to show off to the gang…”she murmured to herself”…or the tale of all our deaths.” She scarcely managed to dodge the incoming slash, so it landed on the bone and tissue holding her sword. She darted in to retain her weapon and with that, she swung the blade at the muzzle of the beast. She knew it landed superbly by the steady flow of stinky black goo and the roar of the creature. Wielding her sword with her left hand was an easy task. No surprise since her mentor made sure to be skilled in the blade with both hands.
This Ursa was just as enormous as the one before it, and luckily, just as sluggish. Ruby could dance around this one too, she wasn’t sure she could finish it off quickly, but as long as it focused on her, the other two could sneak away. Hopefully there won’t be more miscalculated stabs this time. The filling would leave her if she had to suffer being squished again by a giant paw.
“You two should leave now.” she yelled over the growl of the Ursa “Don’t answer, just go. It will notice you otherwise.” The taller girl seemed troubled, but complied and shepherded the injured girl away as silently as possible.
With that, Ruby was left alone with her opponent. It will be a piece of cake. No people she should worry about, only her and the fight for survival. She danced around the creature, chipping away from it one small chunk at a time. She was small, fast and really annoying. So she used it to her advantage. She always was strong at the patience game, so either she’ll kill this beast or it will stain the soil with the last drop of its grotesque blood. All it should take is a pinch of patience.
She lured the beast, nearly hypnotized it to follow her in their bizarre dance of life and death. The creature was reaching exhaustion and Ruby too took the opportunity to loosen up her sore shoulder. She rolled the joint back and forth. Her vision grew fuzzy from the pain and spots bounced around in her eyes as she wheezed away her pain as quietly as possible. Whatever this injury this was, it will take a lot to heal. Letting it settle wasn’t probably the best idea either.
The second of diversion was enough for the Ursa to get closer than she’d like. A gut-wrenching hit caught her midriff and sent her flying to land on the forest floor. She struggled to catch her breath, without success.
“Oh no! Not again!” She exclaimed as she peeped the Ursa charging at her. Her insides were twisting and turning at the thought getting stuck under a disgusting hunch of foul smelling death again.
She stared at the Ursa with dread as it grew closer. Rolling out of the way was out of the question. Given her injured shoulder, she’d soil her pants if she tried that. Ruby hooked the hilt of her sword in a root stump and waited for the beast to pounce. Hopefully it would be stupid enough to land face-first on the tip of the blade and not crush her to death in the process.
The Ursa never arrived. It was deterred from its original path when the lanky girl from before crashed into it at full speed. At that moment, seeing this girl filled with proud defiance, literally glowing, her ready-to -ight stance with her hair and clothes gently flowing with the wind, Ruby knew she was doomed. Not for death that was for certain, but doomed nonetheless. She looked at Ruby with concern, and let a shy smile occupy her lips when the huntress showed a thumb up and started to get back to her feet.
The two set out to finish off the beast. Ruby was growing concerned by the minute as the other girl was taking foolish measures to create an opening for the huntress to deal the finishing blow.
“What are you doing, uh….” Ruby yelled to the other girl as she slashed a chunk out of the beast to stop it from mutilating the poor girl.
“Penny. My name is Penny. Nice to meet you” Penny smiled sweetly like they weren’t in life threatening danger.
“What are you doing, Penny?” Ruby grunted as she dodged the clawed paw of the beast “You should be more careful!”
“It’s okay, Ruby. I don’t mind my body getting destroyed.” she parried the swing of the Ursa, more cracks appearing on her body in an alarming fashion “I was sent here to ensure your survival, so don’t feel bad, please. Make sure you survive, otherwise it will all be in vain.”
“Wait. What?” Ruby wanted to ask but the sight before her made every word stuck in her throat.
It all happened in slow motion. On the next attack of the foul monster, Penny threw herself at it, sacrificing herself for what. For a complete stranger who happened to run into them in the woods? That was Ruby’s job damn it, she had been training for scenarios like this all her life and some fragile girl pulls a stunt like this. What kind of crazy land is this with so many wee girl with souls of mighty warriors?
Ruby felt utterly useless.
All she could do was watch with dread the act unfold before her. It was sickening to say at least. Seeing a victim’s body while tracking down a beast is one thing. Watching the horror happen from a first row seat was way different.
“No! No! Nononononono” Ruby gushed helplessly. Her head hurt, her eyes stung like never in her life before. An otherworldly and eerie light filled the surrounding forest, it was so bright it hurt.
Then. Nothing. Complete darkness.
***
Ruby woke to the soft chatter of people. Her head felt like it was filled with bricks. Teeny tiny bricks that were rolling around and making her skull jerk every time she tried to move her head. Just existing took too much energy. With an immense show of strength she cracked one eye open.
She was laid down in a bed with the finest fabrics she had ever seen, everything was a spotless white, the sheets, the pillow, the bedside table, the chair on the other side of the bed, the walls, even the floorboards. It was a surreal sight to wake up to. Unless….
“I had no idea I was this good of a person in my life.” She sat up in bed and studied the room better. ”The gods gave me a nice place to spend eternity in.” She tried to open her arms to embrace the gift.
But she couldn’t. Upon closer inspection, it seemed all her wounds were cleaned and patched up. Her bad shoulder got amazing attention, it was fixed in an expert bandage. There were some strange shapes and symbols on the edges of the cloth, she couldn’t understand.
“You didn’t die, dummy.” A familiar voice scared her nearly to a bowel loosening state. She looked around, but saw no one.
“But I’m hearing voices.” Ruby looked around with suspicion. As the voice giggled she managed to find the source. It was a medium-large egg shaped ball of some green stone. It was resting on a lush pillow on top of the windowsill. The shimmering surface was decorated with similar symbols as her bandages. But in the orb’s case, they were carved in with great care. The orb started to glow faintly as Ruby got closer to it. The color was so strikingly vivid and similar. “PENNY?!”
“Yes?” The orb asked cheekily.
“I thought you were dead! I saw you… the Ursa….” The patched up girl tried to see the sense in all of this, but failed to do so. Instead she felt tears prickling at the corners of her eyes. She quickly rubbed at them “Don’t you ever do that!”
“I am sorry, Ruby. I was instructed to ensure your survival.” orb-Penny chirped without a care “You were rapidly losing blood. I had to make sure you would live long enough for the guardsmen to find you.”
The huntress stared at the orb in disbelief. Whoever Penny was and wherever she came from, she took the fact of dying with an alarming ease. How someone could get their body squeezed into a stone egg was out of her understanding, but this was a strange land after all. She definitely had to ask about it later.
“Do you do that a lot, Penny?” She couldn’t stand to not ask.
“No. But it’s always a life changing experience.” Penny said, deadpan.
“Life changing…..” Ruby couldn’t help but burst out to a bark of laughter. One laugh that her ribs weren’t too happy to go through. “I swear to the gods, if you do that again, I…. have no idea what I will do.”
“You could start by putting on the clothes prepared for you. You have some important business to attend to.” Penny requested. In truth, Ruby was bare as a newborn, despite her bandages.
For that, she grew hot all over and blushed a deeper shade of red than her cloak. She had no problem with being nude of course. But being beaten up and naked and alone with a cute girl who sacrificed her body to save her was an entirely different story.
“Uh… You didn’t see a thing, right?” She croaked out, practically letting out steam as she turned around to search for the clothes that were supposed to be prepared for her. Once she found the unsurprisingly all white set of clothes, she started to yank the items on to cover up as much as she could as fast as she could.
“No. I asked Weiss to place me so I looked out the window. I just like the scenery this time of the year.” Penny confessed with such honesty it was impossible not to believe her. That made Ruby breath a silent sigh of relief.
Wait.
“Who is Weiss?” Ruby was in the painstaking process of putting on the coat of the set. In the end, she gave up and draped the free sleeve over her injured shoulder. After all, it was a rather good fit. But she’d need to ask someone to loosen a bit on the pants.
“She is my mistress.” Penny said. After recognizing that probably didn’t tell much to Ruby, she added. “The girl you just saved.”
“Oh! Princess angry face?” Ruby said jokingly as she pinched out the unwanted wrinkles in her outfit.
“Your aim is impeccable!” Penny cheered.
“Heh, it’s not that hard to see that she’s always angry.”
“No. She is a princess.” Penny said and the huntress felt like ice water was gushing under her clothes. Ruby mourned her butt in advance. It’s so gonna get whooped.
“Shall we go, Ruby?
“Yes.” She croaked pathetically. With that, she stepped out of the room and was immediately greeted by two sour guards. They were wearing a similar outfit to hers. Without a word, they turned around and started walking down the corridor, a clear sign to follow them.
“Ugh, I hate this uniform… What even! These pants…. so damn uncomfortable” Ruby whined under her nose as she shuffled around in her brand new uniform. Trying and failing to wiggle herself to be comfortable even a bit. Why she couldn’t wear her usual clothes, was far beyond her. She dearly hoped they weren’t too stained or ripped to wear.
She glanced up at the two sour looking, all white guards. Of course they didn’t spare her a glance, they were here to ensure she doesn’t wander off or what? Slip the royal silverware into her satchel? But in the end it wouldn’t even matter, she’d make no use of anything if she starved to death. She dearly hoped these two lead her to the kitchens.
“I too find this form uncomfortable. Would you please turn me a little to the left?” Penny chirped, her cheery voice echoing through the masterfully carved Jade orb. The orb was gently glowing and pulsing with heat, just like a rhythm of a heartbeat.
“Oh, yeah, of course!” Ruby said sheepishly. Feeling a pang of guilt, she complied to the task. Ruby dared not to wonder if she accidentally held anything she shouldn’t touch. Only the thought of it made her burn with shame.
“Thank you, friend Ruby! Oh, I can’t wait until Father rebuilds my body. I miss having my own limbs. You must meet him! Your input might be invaluable in his research.” Penny said with her usual optimism.
“No problem, Penny. Am I…. am I not squeezing you or anything, right?”
“Not at all! You see, my core barely reacts to physical stimuli and is virtually indestructible but the presence of magic in you is welcome.”
All and any further words from Penny fell on deaf ears. Magic….. She got herself into some deep shit, there must be some misunderstanding. She has nothing to do with magic. She has not even an ounce of magic to be responsible for. She was deep in thought while her legs carried her along with the two guards.
“Psst! Ruby! You should bow.” The hushed urgency in Penny’s voice broke her train of thought.
“Wha? I have no arrows.” She mumbled.
“No Ruby, bow as in *bow*.” Penny corrected her “Also you should greet the Emperor with respect.”
The huntress took quick study of her surroundings. In fact there sat a pompous man with a hilarious mustache on an even more pompous armchair, or more like a throne.
“Hi, Emperor.” Ruby curtsied awkwardly, the unbroken uniform not giving her much room to move.
‘My soft bits will regret this so much tomorrow. No wonder all these people look so pissed….’
Ruby promptly made a move to rub on the sore part in question if not for the stern look from Emperor Mustache. A nerve was gently twitching on his face as he gave her a thorough up and down.
“Weiss. Was this the brave warrior who saved you and your guardsman?” He asked sweetly, his eyes piercing through Ruby.
“Yes.” The girl in question answered, keeping her head low. She hated how her father called Penny her guardsman but said not a word.
“Magnificent. If truly that is the case, you, my dear daughter should stay behind the protective walls of the manor. We wouldn’t want another incident like that to happen. Not until you make sure your guest is fit to leave.” The white-blond girl hung her head even lower than before. “And it would make me happy if you ensured her wellbeing.”
“You, huntress, is what my guardsmen say true? That you slew two ancient beasts to protect my daughter?” He looked down on her with disdain.
“I… uh… yes?” Ruby started sheepishly “But the first one was a team effort and the second one was with Penny’s help, so it wasn’t only my doing, you see?” She tried to squeeze it out as fast as she could. After all, the glory wasn’t only hers.
There was another sequence of nerve twitching out of sheer disgust and then, an alarmingly sweet smile.
“Welcome to the royal guard, huntress. You’ll like it here.” He said with so much fake honey in his voice, it made every fine hair stand on end on Ruby’s back.
“Wha-“
“But father!” The girl started, but was cut short.
“I said, she’ll love it here, Weiss. Make sure that happens. After all, you must be thankful to the brave hero, who saved your life.”
“Yes, father.” Weiss admitted her defeat. The small girl shot Ruby such a look of disgust and barely concealed rage, Ruby wished she would be back in the forest under the paw of the giant Ursa.
“Oh! Look, Ruby! She likes you!” Penny chipped in on the conversation. Ruby studied this Weiss-girl closely. With disapproval clearly written on her face, she looked not a bit as if she liked her.
“Penny…. What is she like when she doesn’t like someone?” For this, Penny didn’t reply. But the silence was a more telling answer than a thousand words. “…Penny?”