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Krohska << Her back straight, her arms stiff by her side and her chin up, Krohska gazed steadily ahead while the band leader paced in front of her, giving her a dirty glance every so often in annoyance. Her eyes were disturbed, and that was strange. Nothing fazed Krohska, ever. Until now. Until she'd seen the dragons. More specifically, when she'd seen the hatching of the dragons. It had disturbed her deeply. But for now, the band leader still paced, his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed at the woman's stone-hard face. Yeren had known her long enough to know that something was wrong - not because of any facial expression or haunted look in her eyes. Actually, yes, because of that. He'd never seen any emotion displayed so clearly on her face. What he knew of her was that she was cold; cold, hard and steady. He doubted anyone else knew anything more of her either. And his assumption was correct. But in his description, he'd missed arrogant. And aloof. Those two had come before the coldness. "I just don't know," Yeren muttered, glancing from beneath his thick brows to Krohska. "You're normally such a good raider; you understand what has happened here, don't you Krohska? Half our band was lost on that-" He paused to muse on the correct word, "-ridiculous raid on the Weyr. You know they have more guards. You know it's basically inpenetrable. But you went ahead - without my permission - and raided the stores. No wonder you were caught. No, sorry," Yeren backtracked to clarify, "Everyone but you were caught. Where were you? Hm? Gawking at the Hatching?" Krohska didn't even react at the accusation in Yeren's voice, just stared straight ahead with her disturbed eyes. Sighing, the band leader gave a slight shrug, ceasing his pacing and coming to a halt right in front of her, peering at her face. "You came to us, Krohska, several turns ago now, as a young, rebellious, flighty Lord Holder's daughter. You gave us information about how to sneak into your father's Hold; we gave you shelter, food, and what you wanted most: adventure. You leave today..." Yeren paused long enough to catch the flicker of an unidentifiable emotion in her eyes, "You leave as a cold, stern, and sometimes cruel raider. But you won't be missed - because yesterday you showed that there's still the flighty Holder's daughter somewhere beneath your facade. Go." Her eyes hadn't moved from the air where they were fixated, and Krohska didn't protest at her leader's dismissal. She gave a sharp salute, and spun on her heel militarily-like, walking in crisp strides towards the camp to collect her belongings. None of the few raiders remaining met her eyes as she stalked into her tent, nor did she try and catch theirs; not that she ever did anyway. When she emerged a moment later, her tiny carisak containing her very few possessions, there were no farewells said as she left. Krohska paused once by the fire, holding out her hand though not looking down. The cook silently placed a small package in her palm, and then turned back to the fire. Krohska held it for a second, and then wordlessly placed it in her bag, without a word of thanks. She then left the camp, heading south. Only Yeren found it odd that she went back towards the Weyr. She wasn't really conscious that she did it. Krohska had to go somewhere, and didn't really think about it. Couldn't have thought about it. Her mind was a complete and utter blank as to what to do; she'd never thought that she would be dismissed from the band, never thought that she would have to make a decision as to where to go - Yeren usually did that, after all. A stupid mistake had cost her what she thought was her life - the first stupid mistake in her life, as Krohska couldn't remember any others. All because of that sharding hatching. As much as she wanted to forget it, Krohska couldn't - she normally wasn't affected by much, just took it how it was and worked it to her advantage. But the hatching of the dragonets had changed that; it had made her mad, mad her angry that things like that could happen. Her world was brutal, cruel - and then she had seen something that was so touching that it hurt her. Things shouldn't be like that. Life wasn't meant to be that perfect - she'd wanted revenge. And Krohska had done it in the only way she knew how - stealing. She'd tried for the feasts that were being prepared for the after-hatching dinner. Her decision to try had been totally unrational - but nobody even thought to question her, so wild she was after seeing such a perfect thing as the hatching and Impression of a young dragonet. Going over the summit of a hill, Krohska suddenly stopped on the very top, sitting down heavily and watching the sunset warily. She didn't cry, nor did she even frown - maybe she would have, if she could have remembered how. She hadn't cried in turns, or frowned - and neither had she laughed or smiled. The latter had been lacking from her life much, much longer. The sun washed Krohska's world with orange and red - she found this almost insulting. Things weren't meant to be that way... things weren't meant to be beautiful... or why had she lived her life the way she had? Why had she given up her family's Hold for a life of a traveller, of robbery? Her eyes never strayed from the glary red-washed world, until she caught movement on one of the pieces of grass next to her knee. She only saw the slight flicker because it was a windless evening, dead still and quiet. Crossing her legs, Krohska's eyes still lingered on the sunset as she leant over onto one elbow, impassively inspecting the rustle of grass. A rather large spiderweb was strung from one blade of grass to another, and a largish spider graced its middle. On one side, some kind of insect buzzed continuously, its legs caught in the sticky, ghostly white strands. Krohska didn't smile - couldn't, maybe. But she watched in grim satisfaction as the spider made its way to its victim, and within seconds had it securely wrapped up in its own personal coccoon, still buzzing desperately. The sunset was ignored as she still watched the large spider, gathering the bundle up in his front legs and towing it across the web to a pile of the same type of packages, numerous other insects caught by the spider and stored for later. The raider was satisfied. That was how life was, how it was meant to be - brutal, vicious and harsh. The strong hunt the weak, and the strong by the stronger still. That's just how it was - you had to be tough to survive. And Krohska was. She slept silently, though she was plagued with dreams that she wouldn't remember in the morning, as she'd been plagued with dreams since she'd left her Hold behind. They were usually of people asking her questions, becoming more insitent when she didn't have answers, until they were yelling at her, screaming at her to answer their questions. That night, however, it was of the hatching. And in the morning, for once she remembered it, and it gave her a feeling of unease throughout the whole day while she wandered, seemingly aimlessly. She met no-one, though she saw the occasional herdbeast that suggested that there were cotholds about; but Krohska didn't see any, nor did she want to. She wanted to be alone, wanted to wander alone... For the rest of the story, you would have to understand something about Krohska: she wasn't a leader. Well, she was - but she could only give orders, she couldn't formulate them. If she could, she probably would have been the leader of the raider band she was in; but the fact was she wasn't. She couldn't make important decisions about where to go, what to raid, who to make alliances with - because Krohska was still the flighty Holder girl, spoilt and basically worthless. She'd just managed to survive by following orders from her former leader - and now she didn't have him to guide her, she was utterly lost. Krohska didn't admit this, of course. She couldn't have realised it anyway. Which was why she didn't wonder that there was no-one about, in a prosperous area where normally people were tending beasts and planting crops. She thought that it was an isolated area; but in fact, the Hold wasn't even a mile away. She didn't stop once to think that there was Thread that day. She'd never had to think about it, and she didn't magically start to now she was on her own. The first signs she had were the sweepriders that seemed to be constantly in the air. Krohska didn't even glance at them before she hid in the bushes, huddling down so they wouldn't see her. The next thing that should have alerted her were wings betweening into the area. Some of the dragonriders might have noticed movement in the bushes, and wondered - but they had more important things on their mind. It was only realised that there was someone there when thread started falling. Krohska had made the unfortunate mistake of hiding in a bush near to a huge lake, that spread for miles each way. Since thread drowned in water, the wingriders weren't paying quite as much attention to the clumps falling in the water - only a few happened to fall on the ground, and all of these were quickly charred by low-flying small dragons. Unfortunately, a thread happened to land near Krohska. Sge panicked, of course, but still she didn't utter a sound, unused as she was to expressing her emotions through her voice - unused to expressing her emotions using anything, really. A green dragon was already on the trail of the missed thread, the green's belly brushing against the bushes in the open plain, her mouth open as she readied to char the acursed mycorhzoid. Bounding out of the bush at the same instant came Krohska, leaping away from the thread as it started to sear the bush and the grass around it. There was a horrendous scream from Krohska as she turned to face the oncoming dragon, and a screech from the dragon in surprise and a yell from the green's rider. Unable to stop short or stop the flame coming out of her mouth, the green shrieked once more, and instantly betweened. She never appeared again. Krohska didn't notice at all - because though as much as the green dragon had tried to stop the flame spurting from her mouth, she hadn't stemmed it all before going between. A single flame had managed to catch the thread - and Krohska, on the left side of her body as she tried to cower down. Another high-pitched, ear-piercing scream hung on the air as Krohska fainted completely, for the first time in her life, the left side of her face and neck totally black. |