#We're talking Blade-levels of scattering

[tarmac-rat]

*Wakes up from sleeping*

*Writes "IN CYBERPUNK 2077 CYBERWARE STYLES ARE A METAPHOR FOR HONESTY AND INTENTION" in all caps.*

*Goes back to bed*

[storydays]

"Gods have mercy!" Scholar Vash cried. "Angus...Grenn..." Ezra placed his head in his hand. "Oh no.." Nia covered her mouth with her hands, before kneeling down next to Agnus' body, brown eyes glistening with tears. Her lips moved in a silent prayer. A faint golden glow surrounds her, and a warm breeze rustles the overgrown grass..but then faded away. 

"I can't help them, they're gone. Beyond the Light's reach." she said sadly. "I can't believe this. We saw them alive just last night." Ezra muttered. "With the adventurer, Mal! Y-You don't think..." Kade looked at his brother nervously. "Mal didn't do this. I can't know for certain but..I don't think this was his doing. There's nothing in it for him; neither Angus nor Grenn had anything worth stealing." Ezra said, firmly. 

"Yeah, I agree. I don't think this was him." agreed the younger. "But then...where is he? And who did this?" looking around as if the brunette was hanging around. Scholar Vash paced around, shaking his head.  "This is an affront to the Light! A blasphemy! Whoever is responsible has desecrated a place of worship. A holy place!" He ranted. 

"Ezra, what should we do?" asked Kade, looking at his brother hopefully. "I'm going to examine the area. There are bound to be clues around here." The thick, unkempt grass is difficult to see through, but after a moment, Ezra's sharp eyes could see a pattern emerging. His hand hovered over the faint trail of trampled grass, until he saw multiple pairs of footprints. 

"Looks like the victims were ambushed here. Probably by a group lurking behind this column, there's at least six sets of  ambushers' footprints. " He mumbled out loud, forgetting about his audience. "Six?" Nia squeaked. "And one of them is massive." The elf concluded. 

"Six enemies, one of them massive...not a fan of those odds. Do you think this has something to do with the relic?" Kade asked, running a hand through his hair. "Speak clearly now, boy. What relic?" Vash turned towards the teen, who shrugged. "I don't know! It's just something Mal said back in town! That he had a tip there was a powerful relic, and he was going to find it."

"Then it's true; I had to hope it was a myth, but by the Gods above and below, it must be true. I believe there is an ancient artifact hidden deep within this temple. Forgotten to time, relegated to legend. An Onyx Shard." The old man said mysteriously. "Seriously? The Onyx Shards are real?" Kade gaped. "You've heard of them? Kade, what's he talking about?" 

"They're the last relics that the Shadow Court left behind after the Great War. Cursed artifacts of terrible power. Very very very bad stuff." Kade explained. "I came upon the locations of the Shards in an ancient text last year. Seeing these bodies here, I may not be the only one who knows their location. Please! If whoever did this is after the Shard, we need to protect it. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands!" 

Ezra shared a look with Kade, noting his reluctance before clapping his brother's shoulder, then looking at Vash. "We'll accompany you inside to get this Shard. But if we bump into whoever did this, we're all running like hell. Understood?" "Let's just hope we find it before they do."Vash said gravely. Ezra drew his sword, and led the way to the main archway into the temple grounds. 

"This place isn't the best shape, is it?" Kade coughed. "Once it was majestic, regal. Packed day and night. Have we truly fallen so far from the Light?" Vash lectured. Ezra sighed at the sad vines; seeing nature so sad hurt his heart. The group stopped in front of the tunnels, one going left and one going right. "Stop...something feels off. Be careful where you step." Ezra warned. "Ezra? What should we do now?" Nia asked. 

"We should look for traps." He crouched to examine the floor tiles on the left side, noting one was raised an inch above the others and gave in slightly when he touched it. "That's a pressure plate if I ever saw one. I think this way's booby trapped." He glanced to the right looking at groove in the floor tile like centuries of feet have worn out the stone. 

"The right path looks well-traveled. Let's see where it leads." He decided. The group followed the path which began to slope down, spiraling in on itself. "Gods, how deep does this thing go?" Kade asked aloud. "Only the top level of the temple was open to the public. The lower levels, the catacombs, were for the priests and priestess." Vash explained. "To study and pray?" Nia wondered. "And to hide away from the dark." said the old scholar. 

Finally they reached the path deep below the complex. A stone door stands before them, but it was clearly forced open.  Ezra held the door open and gaped at the treasure piled up in the grand chamber. "I can't believe this has been here all along! If we explored this place ourselves, we could've become ri--" Kade cleared his throat, catching Scholar Vash glaring at him. "Ri....diculously pious adherents of the Light." Ezra snickered at his brother's misfortune. 

Vash approached a pedestal with scattered with golden chains and goblets. He gently picked up a large green crystal the size of a watermelon from the pile. "That is definitely not onyx." whistled Ezra. "No, it's not the Shard," chuckled Vash, "but it's still quite fascinating. I must bring it back to Whitetower with me for further study." Everyone was distracted looking at the treasure. Even Nia was admiring  a jewel encrusted old tome. 

"I can't believe it...how was here, all this time? And no one ever robbed it?" Kade furrowed his brow. "Maybe, no one knew it was here. Kade, we live a day away and we  had no idea." Ezra mumbled. "Yeah, well, it's pretty, but I don't like it one bit. If the people who murdered Angus and Grenn weren't after this treasure...Then what are they after?" "The Onyx Shard." Nia said solomonly. 

"We'd better keep moving." Ezra said, standing up. At the end of the room sits a heavy wooden fortified by twisting metal runes. Scholar Vash examines it closely before brightening. "Ah, yes! The ancient elves often used elaborate mechanisms to lock their secrets away. I've always wanted to solve one. They test your deep knowledge of elven linguistics!" He continued on to himself. 

Ezra rolled his eyes, Nia and Kade giggling at his dry remark. "That sounds....delightful." Scholar Vash ignored him and focused on the puzzle in front of him. "Seems quite simple...If I just press this...and turn this." 

Nothing happened. 

"Ah, well. I may need a moment." He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. Kade cleared his throat quietly. "Psst, Ezra. While he's busy with that, what do you say we keep scoping out  this treasure room? I think there's some hidden rooms down the back! We could go check them out...see what else this place has to offer." "Oooh! I would be interested in that! I recall seeing some fascinating statues.." Nia and Kade looked at Ezra expectantly. 

"Let's do it. That sounds way better than just sitting around here. Let's take a quick look around and see what we can find." While Vash continues tinkering with the door, the three younger ones headed deeper into the vault.  "So Nia, any idea why this treasure is all here?" asked Ezra. "These are offerings. Believers used to bring them as tribute to their Gods." Nia explained. "So like..bribes? People paying off the Gods to grant them fortune and favor?"

"No, not like that. The offerings are given voluntarily, with no expectations of reward. They're a reflection of gratitude, of thankfulness." Nia smiled. "Huh, that seems wasteful." Ezra mused. "Wasteful?" Nia asked, eyes wide. "I'm just saying...think of how many people this gold could feed. Think of how many sick, and wounded, and vulnerable, it could provide. " Ezra bit his lip in irritation. Nia paused, deep in thought. 

"I do see your point. There is much practical good that could come from this wealth, but there are other concerns here other than the materials. Faith and devotion, for example. It's not enough to live; It's a question of what you live for." Her smile fell when Ezra scoffed slightly. "Tell that to everyone who's starving." Kade looked around, curiously. "Rationally, I know I should be way more scared given we're in an ancient temple and we just found two people brutally murdered..." he broke into a giant grin. "But I still can't really believe this is happening! We're on an adventure! A real adventure! Imagine what an amazing story this'll make!" He danced excitedly. 

"You really love telling stories, don't you Kade?" giggled Nia. Kade's smile dropped slightly, and Ezra's gaze soften. "Well, yeah. Stories are really important to me. They're how I see the world." He hesitated, a somewhat sentimental expression on his face. "I-I was a really sick kid. Bedridden until I was 6, on the brink of death. Stories were all I had, I read every book in town, and when I ran out of books to read, I started to write them." 

"Kade was a precocious kid." Ezra spoke softly. "I always thought that was how I'd  live life. Ezra was the adventurer, the dreamer. I was content to just read about things like that. But maybe I misjudged myself. Maybe I can be someone who goes out there, who has wild adventures, who sees the world." He peeked through his lashes shyly at Ezra who smiled with joy at his brother. "Maybe I be a hero." Ezra's grin grew wider. "Damn right, brother."

"Look! Over there! A passage!" Nia led the way into a vast hall with mostly crumbled ancient statues. "This is a Hall of Gods! It must be hundreds of years old." The group spread out, gazing at the statues. Ezra walked towards the statue of a winged monstrous warrior clutching a spiked club. Nia followed the elf warily. "I don't know this one...It isn't one of the Gods I recognize." Ezra blinked. "You don't know all of the Gods?" "If you go back far enough you'll find different pantheons and interpretations....But I've never heard of one like this." 

Ezra studied the statue's brooding expression, its marble eyes simmering with hate. "I don't like it. It's too realistic." mumbled the elf. "Me neither." Nia shuddered. "Hey!" The two turned towards Kade's shout. "Wanna see something hilarious?" The teen held up an old ceramic vase with a creepy face painted on, and tries to copy its expression, but drops it and winces as it shatters. "Oops." He chuckled nervously. The shards shake and rattle and a spectral shape bursts out, lashing through the air with tendrils of smoking flame. 

Ezra quickly ran over to his brother's side, hand on his sword hilt. The spirit hissed, clearly pissed. "What in the hell is that?" Ezra cried. The creature's body pulsed and swelled, hungry eyes boring into the white haired elf, before hissing angrily. "Wait! I know what this is!" Kade called from behind Ezra. "It's a vorglin! I read about that in the Tome of Beasts that traveling merchant had! It's a spectre that feeds off psychic energy, specifically fear! " he explained. 

"So," Ezra hummed, "What if we feel other strong emotions? Could that drive it away?" "Actually....yes! That just might work! Think about something other than fear! Think of a time when you felt something really intense!" Kade stated. The vorglin hissed, clearly annoyed. Ezra turned his gaze back onto the red spirit, one of his saddest, painful memories coming to mind. The day he and Kade had laid their mother to rest; their father passed a few months earlier and it seemed their mother couldn't bear to be without her love. 

'It was raining, cold and wet. Kade and I were standing side by side, in the field as they buried her, right next to her  love. She and Father were the town's best seamstress and farmer, and they would sorely be missed. I was so heartbroken that day, I shut everyone out, Grenn, Annika and I even shut Kade out for a few weeks. I remember saying goodbye.' Ezra blinked when the vorglin pulses, gorging on your emotions. It lets out a satisfied wheeze, before disappearing into a puff of smoke, dropping something on the floor with a heavy thud. 

Ezra cautiously approached what was on the floor and nudged it with the tip of his boot. "T-This is solid gold!" He exclaimed in surprise. "Then we're lucky! When a vorglin is fed emotions it doesn't enjoy, it transforms them into an elemental discharge! It's usually iron or brass...but gold? Jackpot!" Kade cheered. "Are you saying that orb is the creature's waste?" Nia exclaimed, disgust clear in her face. 

"Heh, it literally craps gold." Ezra snickered, before breaking out into a loud laugh, Kade and Nia laughing along with him. Kade picked up the orb and tucked it into his bag. "Are you all right with is keeping this, Priestess? It's not an offering, and it might be worth quiet a bit." Kade's green eyes shine with glee, and hope. Nia bit her lip before replying hesitantly. "I...suppose." She said finally. 

"Now then, let's head back before Scholar Vash realizes we're gone." Ezra said, leading the younger two to Vash, just as he traced a final rune, and the door swung open with a whoosh! The scholar laughed in triumph. "There you go! A piece of cake, as they say! Nothing to it!" He looked back at Ezra who was hiding a grin. "Thank you for waiting patiently, I do hope it wasn't a bother."  Gold eyes look over at Kade and Nia before looking back at Vash. "Not. At. All." He chuckled. 

Vash gestured ahead, and with a firm grip on his sword, Ezra led the way. "Wait." He murmured lowly. "Does anyone else hear voices?" Knowing his brother's hearing was sensitive, Kade quieted down, and gestured for Nia and Vash to do the same. Ezra motioned for the others to be quite, until Nia spoke up. 

"What is that?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

@imturaxamara @tyrils-star @choicescommunity @bladesappreciationweek #bladesAW

https://bladesappreciationweek.tumblr.com/

[sunstriderling]

Since we're on the topic of Hanzo and you offering to write any fic, how do you feel about a Blind!Hanzo AU? Idk i just finished Avatar the last airbender and Toph's seismic sense helping with her blindness was an insp for this idea.

[Widowmaker voice]: what’s an AU

( AO3 )

Snow flurries across the abandoned temple’s courtyard. In the moonlight, it’s barely more than a whisp like a spirit scurrying down the cliff, scattering as the ground vanishes from beneath it and the wind carries the icy particles into the valley below. Genji shudders - everything here seems so different now. Distorted, somehow, now that the Shambali no longer light the fires at night.

He slides his katana out of its saya, its edge pulsing with its low neon glow against the blue of the snow gathered over the tiled ground. He tilts his head as he walks silently forwards, listening to the idle static carrying through his communications link: this far up, no one can hear him, and he can’t hear anyone.

Good. Whatever hides here, he’d rather face on his own.

The doors are broken, and even the entrance to the shrine has over time filled with snow. It’s gathered into the corners and spread like a carpet over the floor leading forwards from the doorway. Genji’s footsteps leave marks over it as he heads left, passing down the stairs he used to know quite well but which now lead into pitch black darkness instead of the warm glow of torches and the sounds of prayer, of wind chimes and the bells carried by the monks.

He can still hear speech, however. As his visor adjusts to the low levels of light around him, easing it for his eyes to adapt as well, he searches for the source. It seems to come from the room above the pit, so he heads there, feet light and his hurried steps barely making a sound.

Talon agents. He can see them, huddled around a light source, with… pieces of an omnic in their midst. Not a monk, Genji notes at first - looks like some Bastion model. He doesn’t know why they’re here, nor does he particularly care; his instructions were clear. Seek, destroy.

Just like the good old times.

A smirk pushes its way onto his lips, a breath carrying out the vents of his mask. Damn, he thinks; it’s been too long since he had a good one-on-five. With the advantage of surprise on him, his form flashes into the room. There are yelps, and then gunfire; a bullet bounces off the armour on his shoulder, scrapes the side of his head with a sound like fabric tearing, but it barely concerns him. His visor dims the contrast and prevents the following blindness after each gunshot flashes the room with white, and effortlessly, he bouncs back into the darkness, blood dripping off his sword.

Don’t kill if you don’t have to, he reminds himself; Waste of life is beneath you.

One of the agents crouches on the floor, holding a bleeding gash on his side. 

“They’ll come get you later,” Genji promises him under his breath, his form melting into a black corner of the hall as his enemy points lights around in a disorganized manner, trying to find him there. “You will have justice - as long as you stay down, of course.”

A light bounces off his form, and with his frame’s power system flaring to light, he charges out of the bullet spray that follows. He lands lightly onto the platform - the heart of the shrine - in the middle, and vanishes inside the altar room beside it. His heart beats with excitement as he hears the agents following him, shouting orders that echo from the endlessly high ceiling and drop like stones down into the pit below. When they step there, he raises his katana again, lifts it before him, and speaks a low prayer into the thick silence of the room that conceals him. Then, with the glow of his body intensifying, he charges out and strikes. One, two - three out of five down. He turns for the fourth, but then, something catches his sight on the walls separating the platform from the corridors. A dark shape that doesn’t belong there, crouching over the edge. He turns towards it, preparing a blow, but the sky blue sash dancing in the draft stills him - stuns him, just for long enough for a bullet to hit where it hurts.

A muffled sound escapes him as the impact tears apart the underside of his shoulder blade, digging into the artificial muscles of his arm and chest. He stumbles forwards, lands on one knee, and twists around to deflect a bullet; it changes course, hits the wall and scatters down a rain of dust and grit. His focus seems as splintered; his systems suppress the pain quickly enough, the information spreading at the edges of his vision a confirmation that the injury would not prevent him from carrying on the fight, and he can see his enemies taking aim again, a woman on one side and a man on the other, but - 

there is one at his back, a ghost, an apparition from his past that cannot and would not be here, even if, even… if - 

The woman falls first. There’s a flash of blue, like the darkness has fractured and revealed from beneath the brightest shade of sunlit clear skies, and then a splatter of blood from her neck, a spray of it, that turns to a flow like a black river down her throat and into the deepening dark of her uniform. Genji’s katana falters, falling an inch or so from the position his deflection left it at, and he turns towards the man taking aim up now, and a strange calm sense of expectation, like waiting for something quite natural to happen, settles into him.

Another blue flash punctures the man’s skull through his forehead. He collapses backwards, the light of his weapon falling like a beacon down to the floor.

A silence consumes the shrine once more. Genji, his body’s neon glow pulsing gently as his systems stabilize, stands up and turns to face the man now standing up on the wall. He looks at him properly now, the way he slides his bow back around his body and then crouches down, fingers sliding along the wall’s edge as if to mark it down. Then, his body slides smoothly down from it, and he lands like a cat on his feet, silently, with the blue sash filling up with air and then falling back to his side just barely grazing the dusty floor.

“Hanzo.”

“An unlikely place for us to meet again,” the older brother says, his voice concealing any emotion that might burn behind it. 

Genji watches his fingertips move over the golden cloth covering his eyes, brushing over it as if to make sure it’s still there. Slowly, the cyborg moves closer - he lets his feet make sound this time, allows the soft pads to meet the ground carelessly enough to cause the quietest of echoes through the space.

“What have the years done to you?” he asks, lifting his hand between them; it stays there, shaking ever so slightly, until Hanzo’s meets it in the middle, his fingers sliding between the metallic joints and brushing against the touch-sensitive pads on the underside. 

“Not the years,” he answers in a calm, if a little melancholic tone; “Bad choices.”

Genji lets him run his palm down his own, lets his fingertips seek out the edges of each part of his hand, then his wrist, and from there reach up to his mask. There, he moves in himself; this time, his hands are clearly shaking as he lets his visor down, breaks it off the frames, and reveals the upper half of his face from beneath.

The world is suddenly much darker, even for his enhanced eyesight, but Hanzo’s touch is light as it travels down the bridge of his nose and up the curves of his brows. Finally, the other man retreats his hand.

“Bad choices, huh?” he repeats, his tone as shaky as his hands, “I haven’t seen you since the war started. I thought you dead.”

“Returning the favour has been my pleasure.”

“So this is all just a measure of revenge?” Genji asks, grimace tinting his voice now.

Hanzo chuckles. He lowers his head, his overgrown hair falling over his features, tangling up with the cloth over his eyes.“I never did know how to give you an answer to the question you never asked me,” he says then.

Genji swallows.“So you said nothing instead.”

“Precisely.”

“You are an idiot,” Genji snarls.He brings his hand up to Hanzo’s face, presses his fingertip against the edge of the cloth, and pushes down with only implicit pressure. Hanzo cocks his head, his hair falling back off it, and slips his fingertips under the cloth; when he removes it, the scarring underneath reminds Genji of a broken cobweb.

“What happened?” he asks again.

“The war happened.”

The blindfold falls loose and silky over Hanzo’s fingertips, and his hand fists around it, tucks it underneath the sash on his waist.

“And yet you are here,” Genji points out, “Yet you saved my life.”

“Your life needed no saving before you spotted me. All I did was prevent my own carelessness from harming the enemy of my enemy.”

“So that is what I have become - the enemy of your enemy.”

The older brother smiles, his head bowing down again.

“I will not ask you how you did it. You clearly will not tell me. Good - we will both have our secrets, then,” Genji sighs.

“Then what will you ask?”

A low, breathless chuckle escapes Genji.“Still sharp, aren’t you.”

“I have to be. Now more than ever,” Hanzo says, the smile on him turning crooked as he tilts his head, “Speak it - the life you spared is bleeding out, and without him, your allies will never have the answers they sent you here to seek.”

“Very well, then. No more small talk.”

Genji watches Hanzo for a moment, his heart now beating out of nerves rather than the fading adrenaline of the fight. Regardless, it still beats - a fact ensured by the phantom before him.

“You said you never knew what answer to give me,” he begins then, and Hanzo lifts his head, a sliver of white peeking from underneath his scarred lids, “All I ask now is whether you still want an answer, and if you would let me give it to you, should you still feel that you cannot find it on your own.”

The man before him lets out a breathless, yet amused - perhaps relieved - chuckle. He turns his head towards the fall beside them, his gloved fingers sliding down the side of his hip.

“What use would a blind man be to you?” he asks.

“What use is the sky to the earth?”

“I am nothing, Genji.”

“You are still my brother.”

In the silence that falls between them, the halls echo with the wind’s howl. It sounds like an endless exhale pushing against the mouth of a bottle, and its vibrations ache inside Genji’s auditory channels. Finally, Hanzo nods.

“Tell me then, my kin - what is my fate?”

“To follow me back down, where I hope a warm breakfast will end this night for us both. You look like you could use that.”

The next smile on the older spreads warmer, wider than the one before. Sighing, he pulls out his blindfold again and slides it over his features, his fingers tugging his hair out from beneath it and then untangling his hand from amongst the uneven locks.

“You ask for very little,” he says.

“What did you expect me to ask of you? An empire, the world, your soul? All I wish for is for us to walk this path together once more, brother; whichever way you would.”

The other’s smile trembles, but he hides it behind his palm, his fingers running over the corners of his mouth and down the greying beard covering his chin. He turns towards the room where the bleeding man must still be waiting, and Genji watches him breathe as he returns his visor over his own features, bringing back the desaturated glow into the room.

“Lead me, then,” Hanzo finally says, “Perhaps I am finally ready to follow.”

[nihilisticbrock]

Taedmere|Show Them What The Willow Holds(TWO)

(Also posted on my wattpad tatedixon.)

"Show them when—"

"Het.Jank 'what'.Madin laka.(No.Its 'what'.Start over.)"Adianna stood over Chloe's shoulder watching as her finger trailed the old book of Nazdust to English.

“Show them what the Willow holds."Chloe said with a smile,although a little weird out by the odd language."Giena cotali(very good)!!"Adianna praised as the smaller girl got up and ran to her father,repeating the English words until they became familiar.

"Laman(Father)!Show them what the Willow holds!"She said with glee as she climbed onto her fathers lap,smiling when his face lit up."I am a good teacher,no?"Adianna smirked as she leaned against the door frame,looking into Codie and Cameron's room."Very.I'm surprised anything you taught her actually stuck she barley could introduce herself last cycle.Klang h hon lonlil panak(look at my little girl)!"

"I think we start on the alphabet tomorrow,now that she knows our words.Cotali(yeah)?" Although the smaller girl didn't understand what was said before,she nodded vigorously,eager to learn more English.

"That sounds amazing.For now,go into town and find your brother,please?"Cameron gave the girl a puppy-dog look,pouting while fighting his smile."Where should he be?Make my job easier?"

"The worship hall at the edge of town,probably.He was helping John with the bunker."

"Bani(see you)!"She shouted as she stepped out the door and quickly made her way to the worship hall at the end of the market road.

Not bothering to knock or call out for her brother and uncle,she immediately when through the main hallway and out the back door,making her way to the bunker."Jaren?John?"She called down into the hole."Hen justal(you there),Jaren?!"

"Cotali(yes)!"His face popped up infront of the girl and scared her,knocking her back into the bush over the bunkers entrance."I'm sorry,lanoka(sister)!"He said as he crawled out,John behind him."Z-zanapop hen,lanon(fuck you,brother)."The blonde said out of breath,leaning into the bush,making the men chuckle."Cameron called me to get you,"she said,grabbing John's hand as he pulled her up.

"What's he need?"

"I don't know."The girl shrugged,wiping off her dress.

"Real helpful,Addi."

A shrill scream broke their conversation,all the way down the market road and at the edge of the docks.They ran quickly,meeting up with a large crowd of people scattering the opposite way,including their family."Het(no)!!The vikings are coming!"Codie pulled Adianna to their home while the men helped the civilians into the bunker,quickly covering the hatch up and running back to the home.

Chloe hid under a bed Adianna,holding her hand as she sung a song that her grandmother used to sing her.Loud war cries could be heard approaching the home at the edge of town,growing louder by the second.

The Huckslie's left the door wide open.Standing in the main room with stone impressions on their faces."Where are all your people?"A man with puffy hair asked,flipping his hair as her got close to Ryissa.

"They're all in Konpeir.We expected this would happen so we prepared,"Ryaan spoke as calmly as possible,holding his wife's hand."Are they now?"The mans voice was extremely deep for his face.He appeared only 19 years of age yet sounded like the grown man you expected to run a viking clan."Because,"he handed his battle ax to a younger boy next to him,"I don't particularly like liars.If you would like to tell me we're your people and your valuables really are...I'd consider not skinning them all alive."

"Konpeir."Ryaan stood strong."It is just us."

"You know,that's odd because we've already taken over Konpeir..."the mans words caused the family's hearts to hit the floor,"and I've not heard of any large groups staying there.Have you,Malaki?"

"No."The man in the front of the group hummed,cracking his knuckles before throwing a hard punch at the Ushtonna leader."I said I didn't like liars,Mr...I'm sorry,I didn't catch your name."

"Ryaan,Huckslie."The father said as he spat out blood,looking under the bed form his new place on the floor and giving the girls a reassuring smile and mumbling that he loved them."Well,rest in peace,Sir Huckslie."The vikings swung down his ax,taking of the mans head in one quick hit.The family all screamed,huddling into each other while Adianna's hands covered Chloes eyes and mouth,trying to keep their whereabouts hidden from the pagans that killed her father in cold blood.

"Now if someone wants to tell me,where's your crap?!"He grabbed Ryissa's elbow and yanked her to him,her back against his chest."Someone should tell me...before momma here gets hurt."

"Don't,"Ryissa strained against the dagger pressed flush against her neck,"don't do it."

The family kept her wish,instead watching silently as the man killed her,leaving three of the Huckslie's orphans.

As she watched her mother's body fall next to her fathers,a particularly loud sob wracked Adianna's body."Who was that,"finally another viking spoke up."'Twas me,"Codie said,trying to keep her daughter and sister save."You don't seem to be crying,red bird."The younger boy, know as Malaki,pushed Codie to the floor and walked over to the bed,hearing the sobs and sniffles grow louder.

"What have we got here,"Malaki said,easily flipping the bed and looking down at the girls as they scrambled to get up,Adianna letting Chloe run out to the back door and watching her run to the woods before the viking boy pulled her back."Oh no,no,"he said softly,looking at the girl as she struggled in his arms."Chloe,keep running!Find Janson!"A hand was slapped over her mouth and she was pulled away from the door.

"Looky here,"Malaki pushed her down,smirking as she backed herself into a wall.Her hair was stuck to her head and her eyes were wide as she saw her parents corpses closer,her jaw hung open for a moment before the raven haired boy pushed it closed."Wheres Chloe,"Cameron asked,on the verge of a panic attack."Shut up,"The main viking said,walking to the girl."She ran.I told her to find Janson."

"I said shut up,girl,are you deaf?"She looked up to the man and held no expression,the only clue to what she was feeling was her tear stained cheeks."Are you deaf,I asked?!"

"No!I'm not deaf!"

"Who are you?"Malaki asked,seeming not so menacing as he leaned down to her level."Adianna Huckslie."

"Oooh.Sorry 'bout that then.Was that momma and daddy dearest?"

"...Yes."Her voice broke,making the vikings chuckle,her family look down in shame."Have you lost someone like that before?"She shook her head and kept her eyes straight at the wall infront of her."Would you like to loose more like that?"She shook her head again."Then you can show me were your people are?"

"Addi,no,"Jaren was cut off by a man slapping him,sending him to the floor,John quickly bending down to help him."Well?I can promise that I will spare your family."

"Vikings are dirty cheats,and their promises mean the same as chicken shit."She hissed,finally daring to look the man in the eye,tears freely falling,not stopping her."Huh.Cute."He stood and made the family stand in a line.

Malaki stood beside the girl all the while,staring down at her and taking in her features."I wonder which one of these assholes you care about most,Addi?Want to make it easy and tell me?"

"Zanapop hen(fuck you.),"she whispered."What was that,doll?"She slowly stood up,"I'll show you...Our people,our gold.I'll take them to you."

The family protested,not daring to move with the archer pointing at the line."Good,"he said in a menacing tone,"you don't mind if we tie up your hands,do you?"She rolled her eyes and held out her wrist.

She lead them down the road,gulping to try and ease her tension."Whats your names,"she asked suddenly,still looking forward."Mines Ezra,this is my brother Malaki,"those were the only names she memorized,only taking others into the back of her mind.

"I don't apologize for killing your parents,"Ezra said,"it had to be done."

"Sure,I get it."Her words shocked the group."You do?"

She nodded,"power does not come easily.And neither does ego.You killed my parents because you could,you wanted to.Wanted to prove a point.The point that you think you are stronger than us but in reality you haven't realized yet that we all have much stronger mentalities than you pagans."

The girls sass truly amused the vikings,most woman in places they've taken over had been sobbing and screaming,kicking and praying to be let go.But this girl told them right to their faces that she believed them to be cowards.

"A sassy little girl like that needs to be claimed,"a man said with a snicker,making Malaki stop and turn to him with a deadly glare."No,"he slid his blade across the mans neck,making everyone stop and look on in confusion."Nobody should talk about a princess like that,"he said in response to the looks people gave him.

“I'm no princess."She said simply,ignoring the blood on Malaki's hand and he grabbed the rope around her wrist and dragged her quicker."You will be the Taedmere princess.You will marry me,"he said in a matter-of-fact-tone.

"What?!"

"I didn't stutter,Addi."