The Story of Evil: Volume I - Heroes of the Siege (21 page)

What are you doing, Kari?
She lowered her arm and blushed as she thought about how stupid she must have looked to the jouster she had a crush on.
Of course he knows how many points he needs. He doesn’t need me to tell him.
She saw that everyone in the crowd was starting to copy her gesture and raise their arms to put two fingers up. Kari put her two fingers up for the second time, to join in with the rest of the audience; this time higher than before.

She had overheard a group of women talking about this Stephen Brightflame a couple weeks ago when he was progressing through the Celestial Qualifiers. They spoke of his kindness from when he helped them as a warrior during his daily patrol. Whether it was carrying their groceries or walking alongside them with an umbrella, whatever the warrior did, he was always a gentleman, and he always treated the ladies with respect. The girls blushed when they discussed his attractive features. Rumor had it that Stephen Brightflame was single.

Kari hadn’t ever met him before. Last night, she had a dream that she was the one he was helping out. She had been out in the woods, hunting for animals with her bow and arrows when she was attacked by a huge phoenix. Stephen came charging into the clearing on his large brown warhorse and ran his lance right through the monster. Then he protectively sat her in front of him on his horse. He grabbed the reins, enclosed his arms around her, and safely returned her to Celestial.

Kari smiled as she was reminded of the dream. Stephen looked like the perfect man. She didn’t see any flaws in his physical person and more importantly no flaws in his character. Maybe Kari thought of him this way because that’s how Celestial’s propaganda wanted him to be perceived, as their flawless hero. Still, she allowed herself to believe what she had heard and read and couldn’t help but have feelings for this seemingly perfect gentleman of a warrior.

Kari had always come to the Warriors’ Joust with her father. It was tradition that he would take her every year as a father and daughter weekend of fun and activities. There was nothing like sitting next to her dad as they both cheered along together in favor of Celestial’s jouster. Her father had been a warrior and a gentleman, just like this Brightflame character seemed to be.

But then the incident happened.

Even though he was no longer around, Kari continued on with the tradition. She had not missed one tournament since her father was murdered.

Like the warrior she was watching, Kari herself was quite the sight for sore eyes. She was twenty-three years old. She was half-Human and half-Elf. Her father was a Human and her mother was an Elf. She had an unblemished, light skinned face underneath straight, black hair. Usually she just let her hair flow straight down to the middle of her back and over her slightly pointed ears. She never allowed her hair to cover up her pretty face. Kari hated having her bangs distract her view and other’s view of her. When she did allow her bangs in front of her face, they wouldn’t go below her perfectly thin eyebrows.

Her eyes were the most captivating thing about her. They were large and round and a rare deep blue. If you looked very closely, you could see a black sunburst-like effect. Similar to the spokes of a wheel, a dozen thin black streaks cut through the amazing blue color. They were eyes you could stare at for days and get lost in.

Her teeth were as white as ivory. The bicuspids on the top row of her teeth were more prominent than the rest. It made her smile look better than if her teeth were perfectly straight. It was a cute, attractive smile surrounded by luscious full lips. Men and women in conversation with her spent half as much time speaking to her mouth as they did looking into her eyes. Either place of focus was captivating, just like she was.

Her figure was thin and muscular. Her body was well toned. She had large curves in areas that men spent too much time looking at. Even women sneaked a jealous glance wishing they could look like she did.

Kari’s voice was like no other. The sound that came out of her 5’10” 160 pound frame was nothing short of angelic. Pure and clean voices like that were a gift from the good god. It was a shame the talent disappeared the same day her father died.

People used to be able to hear her lovely voice from blocks away, cascading through the air along with the birds that glided past and chimed in their own choruses. No one had any idea how she was able to pull off the notes she could; notes that were high and long and beautiful.

Everything about her was attractive. But despite her deadly gorgeous looks, she was equally dangerous. She always carried her father’s bow and quiver behind her shoulders. It was a steel bow painted green, his favorite color. His father, who was a blacksmith, had worked on crafting it while Kari’s father was in Warrior Training. Kari’s grandfather gave it to his son the day he was drafted and officially became a warrior. Her father loved the bow second only to his wife and daughter. With its professional and intricate design, he felt like he could take down anything he aimed at. Kari’s father used that bow and became one of Celestial’s most notorious archers because of his accuracy.

Carrying the green bow around with her was a way to carry around her memories of him as well. Her father won many archery tournaments with his accuracy. He never bragged about his skill, because others did the bragging for him. His warrior friends would tell Kari, “You’re father is the best shot I’ve ever seen.”

Kari found that she inherited her father’s accuracy. One morning, when Kari was only six years old, her father took her hunting in Whitebark Woods. He was going to teach her how to shoot. As she sat with him in the saddle, he talked about the importance of hunting.

“I don’t know when my time will come, and hopefully it is not until I’m old and gray and you have a family of your own, but until then, I will not leave my family unprepared if something happens to me. You are a smart, beautiful girl, and most fathers wouldn’t teach their daughters to hunt. To them it is improper, but I believe if you have a talent, then who is to say you can’t use it whether or not you’re a boy or girl? Kari, I have seen you with the toy bow and arrow I gave you for your birthday last year. You are only six, yet you hit your targets with better accuracy than I. We were given a gift from the good god that we can use to help provide for our family. I want to make a habit of this, you and I hunting together in the woods. Now that you are old enough to remember, I can begin to teach you the techniques I have learned. And someday, I will pass on to you, the bow that my father made for me.”

While they were sitting in the quiet and stillness of the woods, Kari burst into tears. “Dad, I don’t want to do this. I can’t kill an innocent animal,” she cried.

Her father let out a big sigh and set down his loaded bow. He put his arm around his daughter, wondering if he had brought her out here too soon. He had been only five when his father first took him out hunting. After a few minutes of letting her sob in his arms, he explained the purpose animals serve.

“The good god created people. The evil god created monsters. Both of them created animals. They are neither good nor evil. They are neutral in the ongoing war between both sides. They serve their created purpose of work, war, or food for both monsters and people. Some animals are better equipped to be put to work. Those, we can use to plow our fields and do other hard labor. We use others in war, like we do with horses and elephants. For food we domesticate animals. Luckily the monsters don’t understand domestication, so that’s why they fight over animals the way they do. Live animals are the only food that monsters know.”

Kari eased her crying at the soothing sound of her father’s calm voice. She pulled away and sat next to him, using her cotton sleeve to rub her nose and dry her eyes.

Her father continued. “Sometimes I sit out here and I don’t see anything at all. Other times I see an animal and take the shot. I see it this way: I am here for a reason, to get food for my family. The animals were put here for a reason by the gods. Their purpose is to be the food that feeds us. So when I see an animal, I kill it, knowing there is a valid reason for its death, and it is serving its purpose in life.”

“Do they hurt?” his daughter sniffled.

“If you hit them in the right spot they don’t hurt at all. We want them to die quickly and painlessly. Over time I will show you, and you will learn the weak points for each animal. I want you to always aim for those spots, Kari. No person, animal, or monster deserves to be in pain more than they need to be if it has already been decided that they are going to be killed. And when we kill, it is never done for the fun of sport. Work, war, and food…other than those three, in addition to self-defense, there are no other reasons you should ever kill an animal. Do you understand?”

Kari nodded her head.

“You have to be careful out here, Kari. Even though animals serve their purpose as our food, they can be dangerous. They may not be able to talk or use elements like the monsters, but they can hurt us just as much. Usually animals won’t bother us. Most of them are too small to hurt us: rabbits, squirrels, fish, birds, deer, and many others; but there are larger animals, like lions, wolves, bears, and wooly mammoths. They don’t always feel like running away. If their space is aggravated or if they feel threatened, they will attack. So we always have to be careful. But I will be out here with you until you are old enough, so you don’t have to worry about that. Does all of this make more sense to you now? Do you have any questions?”

“No, I understand,” Kari said, no longer crying.

“Good,” her father watched her for a minute as she contemplated everything he had told her. “I’m sorry I didn’t discuss this with you before we left this morning. You know I’ll never make you do something you don’t want to do, Kari. You don’t have to hunt if you don’t want to. We can sit here for the rest of the day and talk if that’s what you want. As long as we’re together, I’ll be happy.”

As soon as he said that, a squirrel hopped across the ground and scurried up the front of a tree facing them. Kari reached down and picked up the bow and arrow in a flash. Her reaction speed had always been extraordinary. For fear of not scaring the prey, her father did not say a word. All he could do was watch as his daughter soundlessly lifted into a crouched position and aimed at the upwards moving squirrel.

She was too young to pull back the bowstring like he could, but she could pull it back far enough. She inhaled, held her breath, and released the arrow. He followed the arrow with his eyes, seeing that it had stuck into the tree. The squirrel’s feet and arms let go of the bark and hung limp from its lifeless body. The arrow has gone right through its back.

“I’ve got my dinner for tonight,” Kari said with dry eyes as she handed her father the bow back.

Chapter 18

That was the first and last time Kari hunted with her father. He was murdered on duty as a warrior shortly after Kari’s first foray into hunting.

Kari never found out who the man was that murdered her father or what exactly happened on that dark night. All she knew was that many other warriors were killed by the same man. She didn’t even know if the murderer was still alive, if he had been captured, or if he had been killed. Occasionally she would have nightmares that the faceless man was stalking her. Kari would dream that she was firing arrows at him, but even though the arrows entered into his body, none of them hurt him or slowed him down. The man kept coming after her, until she was cornered. He would then violently kill her, causing Kari to wake up in a cold sweat.

The questions in Kari’s mind were never abandoned. It seemed that as time went on, the answers she desperately longed for slipped farther and farther away. She wanted nothing more than to put an end to the frustrating mystery surrounding her father’s death. The one thing Kari did know was that if she found out the murderer was still alive, reality would be different from her nightmares. She would stop at nothing to exact vengeance against the murderer.

After her father’s death, Kari’s mother did not provide for herself or her daughter. She would stare absently at blank walls, had no appetite, and apparently did not think Kari had one either because she did not cook any meals. Kari took her father’s bow and arrows and got her own food in the woods once their gold ran out.

Kari would sneak out of the city, usually by hiding in the backs of empty wagons, heading out to the farmlands to collect the harvest that would be brought back into the city. From the fields, she walked alone to the woods. She knew it was risky being alone, but she felt at peace in the Whitebark Woods. One of her final memories of her father had been him proudly looking down at her as he reached up and pulled the arrow out of the tree and handed her the squirrel.

Kari went hungry some days when she couldn’t find any game, but when she did see an animal, she did not miss. Kari tried to feed her mother, but she did not eat anything. She had no motivation and barely said more than two words to Kari. It wasn’t long before Kari knew she needed to seek out help for her mom.

One day instead of taking a right towards the forest, she took a left and headed further into the city. She had only been to her aunt and uncle’s house a handful of times, but she remembered what it looked like. Who could forget such a magnificent place? Kari waited outside in the bitter cold of the winter until late at night, when her aunt and uncle finally came home. After sitting by the fireplace and warming up, she told them about her mother’s depression.