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"We just keep running into each other lately!"-Reno of the Turks
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Kilisandra Wildheart watched in silence as the three forms entered a helicopter. Her expression was a wild grimace of anger, her teeth bared like an animal. She held herself as a wild animal would-tense and alert. She was crouched, one hand on the ground, the other pushing her mane of brown hair behind her ears. Her bright green eyes traced the chopper as it disappeared into the clouds, narrowing with thoughts. Her clothes-or what had once been cloths-hung over her thick form in tattered rags, managing to cover her for the sake of modesty, but little else. She was by no means fat, just heavily muscled from a hard life. A battle-axe was slung onto her back, tied on with a make-shift sheath of old wires. Her face was weathered but still kept some of the softness of youth. Her nose was long and resembled the beak of a raven while her lips were thin and pale.
Kilisandra growled deep in her throat, sounding like an angry wolf. She stood up from her crouch, stretching her legs. She glanced around, sensing someone but not knowing exactly where they were.
"Whatcha doin', Kili?" a voice taunted.
Kili hissed through her teeth, searching the area for him. She made no answer, waiting for him to make his appearance. She didn't have to wait long.
Bruce Bearpaw stepped out of the shadows to her right, his expression a mixture of curiosity and mockery. He was taller and thicker than Kili, his complexion much darker. He had long black hair that lay about his head in a tangled mess. His dark eyes calculated everything around him. His right hand rested on the hilt of a long sword that lay at his hip. Where his left hand should have been there was nothing. His arm ended only a few inches under his elbow. He was still handsome, despite the disfigurement. His clothes were in just about the same shape as Kili's, his feet bare.
"You know, Kili, that curiosity killed the cat, don't you?" he mocked, lips pursed.
"And what cat would that be? Your-"
Bruce made a sound of disapproval. "Now now, Kili, I'm ashamed of you. You need to learn to tame that tongue of yours. It might find you unwanted…problems."
"And I'm sure that you're an expert when it comes to those types of things, right?" she replied sharply.
"So, Kili, what did you find out about those men?" He took a step closer to her, crossing his arms over his chest.
She spun around and stalked off but before she could get five paces, his hand grabbed her shoulder. She gritted her teeth and stood in place. "Do not touch me."
"I'm insulted. I didn't think I was that horrible a person," he laughed, arching an eyebrow.
Kili spun around and pulled out her axe in one smooth movement. She held the blade of it to his neck, her expression grim. "Either you leave me alone, or I finish the job that those men should have finished years ago. I'm positive you'll find it hard to maneuver with no grimy hands," she growled.
Bruce's expression went dark, but he took a few steps back. His hand was now tightly gripping the hilt of his sword so that his knuckles were white. He opened his mouth, closing it again.
"Caught you speechless, didn't I? That's a first. Now, leave me alone."
"You ungrateful little-" he snarled.
"Yes, you helped me in the past!" she cut in," but that doesn't mean I must pay for that service my whole life. Get over it, Bruce. I've paid you back and I'm going to live my life how I want to, not how you want me to."
Bruce barred his teeth at her and growled. "I'll get you for this. Don't doubt my words, little witch."
"Oh, I do doubt your words. I doubt you're whole personality. The only thing I don't doubt about you is your persistence," she retorted. "Get out of here. Now." She pressed the axe blade harder against his neck, causing a small cut.
"I'd pull my sword against you, but you are a woman. Until next time, Love," he replied, trying to cover up his bruised ego. He turned around and ran, disappearing behind ruined buildings and out of sight.
Kili let out a sigh of relief, sliding the battle-axe back into its sheath. She was more than happy to be rid of Bruce.
Kili slipped through the shadows in the opposite direction that Bruce had taken. She headed to her favorite part of the ruined city. A ruined church.
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"Momma! Please, momma! Come back!" she wailed, her voice a high-pitched scream.
The tall figure continued heading away from the city, cloak flying behind in the wind. If the figure felt any emotion, it was unknown to any but herself. She continued on her path, unwavering in her stance.
The child wailed again, running after her mother. But she was too far away, and still too little to run far. She tripped over a pipe, falling into a huge puddle of mud.
"Momma!" she shrieked, her voice even more panicked than before.
The cries fell on deaf ears. The child's eyes were puffy and red as she struggled in the mud. She continued calling, but the form had disappeared behind the rise of a hill and out of the child's life.
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Kili woke with a scream. Her heart raced and her eyes were filled with tears of unhealed emotional scars. Her hands were held in fists and her teeth were bared.
She remembered that day more clearly than any other in her life. It had been ten years before, when she was only six. Her mother had left her young child after the death of her husband, giving up entirely on raising the near-wild Kilisandra.
Kili had never forgiven her mother for that, and knew she never would. That was how Bruce came into her life, giving her small meals in return for hard work. He never respected her as anything more than an animal used to finish tasks he himself didn't want to do.
Kili stood up, shaking her hair back from her face. She scratched her ear as she looked at the building she stood in.
It was a place of beauty and peace. The one place she loved more than any other place. It was an old church, back from when the city was new and the slums were not yet slums. She knew that much about it. But there was something that made it special and wonderful. That was the flowers. They had obviously been well cared for years before the destruction, and then during the years the city lay in ruins, they flourished. They grew everywhere. And, to add to the beauty, vines grew up the walls and out windows. The whole church had a peaceful feel to it that made Kili feel safe.
Kili stepped out of the church and onto what had once been a street. After cautiously looking both ways, she moved to the right of the church. She made her way past much debris, heading through another area that had been a sort of town in the slums before they had become the ruins they now were.
The smell of water touched her nose as she left the town area. An old house lay in ruins, but it still looked wonderful in her eyes. Kili walked over to where there was a pool and a type of stream leading from it, crouching down. She began drinking out of the water, on all fours like a beast.
"I told you I'd pull my sword against you, Kili," a voice growled from above.
Kili grabbed her axe and jumped away from where she had been. She looked back over to see Bruce, a grim smile on his face. He was crouched on the roof of the ruined house, sword in hand.
"We meet again," he snarled, leaping from the roof to land in front of her. He immediately went for her chest, missing by mere inches when she deflected his blade with the blade of her axe.
"Are you sure you don't want to back out now, while you still have the necessary skills to do so?" she taunted.
"No reason to. You stand no chance against me," he replied swiftly, slicing at her gut.
She jumped back easily, not even scratched by his blade. As soon as the sword was out of the way, she lunged at him, cruelly aiming her axe for his neck.
He dodged to the side, his shoulder getting nicked by the blade, but not enough to cause him any handicaps. Only a small amount of blood trickled down in a small stream down the front of his arm.
"You're better than most would expect," he said, arching an eyebrow.
"Sucks for you, doesn't it?" she snarled, kicking at his groin.
He jumped away easily from the kick, clicking his tongue with disapproval. "A bit below the belt. Didn't you're mother teach you better than that?"
"You leave her out of this, Bruce," Kili snarled, her eyes lighting with anger.
They continued to fight, moving over the ground. Their tracks led all over the place, from the stream, to the house, back to the stream, slightly into the stream, near the pond, and even more places. After a while, though, Kili stood against the wall of the house, panting heavily. Bruce stood in front of her and they sat there for a short while, staring at each other.
Bruce suddenly pulled his arm back. "If you apologize, I will let you live, Kili," he said, almost sadly.
"I'll apologize as soon as you admit that you're a-" Kili began.
"That's a no, then," Bruce replied sharply. He swung the sword at her neck, putting all of his force into the movement.
Time seemed to stop for Kili as she remembered the past hardships. Searching for food, working for him when she was almost starved, hiding when he looked for her, running when he was angry with her, begging from him to feed her a few scraps of rotten food…left alone by her mother.
Anger flared up inside Kilisandra. Time started again, her eyes blazing with primal anger. She ducked under the sword and brought her axe up hard, mindless in her rage.
Bruce's eyes widened in shock, his mouth falling open. The sword fell from his hand, clattering to the ground. He stumbled backwards, grabbing at his stomach. He looked down numbly, staring with incomprehension at the axe which seemed to be a part of him. He stumbled into the water, falling over with a splash onto his back.
Kili watched with little emotion. She simply walked over to him and retrieved her weapon as the light in his eyes seemed to flicker away. She felt nothing as she walked back to the church, leaving a scene of horror behind her.