The Assassin

Riu walked deeper into the forest, careful to keep to the shadows of the tall, ancient trees. Tales of the foreboding wood claimed the spirits of the gypsies slaughtered there centuries ago still lurked, ready to attack living intruders. Better safe than sorry.

She paused by a cluster of four giant trees. She carefully, thoroughly, studied the immediate area. Nothing moved, nothing stirred. A breeze did not even move the upper branches of the monstrous foliage. The normal early evening sounds of the day creatures readying for bed and the night creatures waking were missing. It was unnatural and did not go unnoticed by the watchful assassin.

Riu started forward again, both hands ready to pull one of her many weapons from the various locations on her body. The eerie silence was starting to put her nerves on edge. She was starting to think she should have listened to Gar and not come on this insane venture.

Who would live out in this dead, forsaken place? She thought to herself. Surely no sane person could constantly endure this painful quiet.

Apparently, the mysterious Dragon, who had set a crazy amount of reward money with the death contract she set out, was as twisted as the place they lived in.

Sudden laughter erupted around her and Riu went for her weapons. Shock filled her smoky gray eyes when she realized all her weapons, every last one, were gone.

“Silly female,” mocked a high, childlike voice. “You thought you could get through Her forest and Her minions would know not?”

“Silly female,” mocked another voice, almost identical to the first. “Trying to sneak up on Her. She will remove your bones while you still live and use them to kill you.”

“If only you were a male,” sighed a third voice, deeper than the others. “We have gone so long without them and the four fools She gave us are fading too fast.”

“Can we just eat her now? I am starving,” whined the second speaker.

The mention of being devoured drew Riu's attention back to her predicament. Weaponless and totally unaware of what the speakers where, she had no idea how to worm her way out of this one. The only hope she could think of was that they where walking things and bad climbers. If so, she had a chance to get away through the trees. This escape in mind, she backed slowly toward the cluster she was standing in the shadow of. She leaned against one, ready to spring up to the relative safety the high limbs offered.

“Escape is impossible in Her forest, female. You are a fool to try.”

That new voice, a beautiful one with an unearthly sing-song quality to it, came from directly behind her head. She spun but saw only rough bark until amber eyes opened and stared at her from the wood.

With the appearance of those eyes the creature's disguises were shed, leaving behind four fairy-like creatures in place of the cluster of trees. Two looked like perfect copies of the other. They were dainty girl-children with soft-yellow hair down in twin braids on either side of their heads and their matching ice blue eyes laughed at the assassin. Their smiles were anything but innocent as they looked her over and licked their lips. Another looked much like the roughens that frequent bars and dark alleys only she was obliviously female, even with her bald, tattooed head and square jaw. Her bored black eyes watched the amber-eyed vision standing directly before Riu.

She hovered a foot off the ground, looking much like the beautiful ladies that noblemen obsess over regularly. While all four were not as tall as Riu herself, this last one was almost the height of a small human woman. Her chestnut hair was perfect, going down to her knees and had a curl that could only be natural. She watched the human assassin, measuring her in a way she couldn't understand.

“This one is not for eating,” she said calmly and the twin creatures sighed noisily. “This one She may like. Hopefully she is in a better temper than she was yesterday.”

Riu took a deep breath. If she was going to talk her way out of dying she had to think fast. Before she could begin explaining, however, the fair fey raised one of her slender hands.

“We know you answered her call, mortal. We, or rather, I, am not so foolish as to not know your purpose.” That statement was directed at the small twins, who cowered from her disapproving gaze. “Lady Dragon will see you at Her palace.”

Riu nodded and decided to try another angle. “If you don't mind me asking, what sort of fey creature are you? I don't recall ever hearing of anything like yourselves.”

The girl-cretures giggled evilly. “We're pixies, female. Arvalonian pixies. Do you recall us now?”

It took all the self-control Riu possessed to keep her face blank. She did remember hearing stories about Arvalonia pixies, and not one of them was pleasant. They were servants of the gypsy death goddess that lived in the deepest parts of the large forest country far from gypsy villages. They delighted in torture and eating, their favorite victims and meals humans. They were an single-sex race, all females, and captured every male creature they could find to use as sex slaves and, in the end, the first meal of the new-born pixies. It seemed that after the goddess was destroyed and the gypsies slain that the pixies had taken over the forest and killed every other living creature. It was not good news.

“It is good news, human,” snapped the fairest pixie of them all. “Good news that we must first take you to Lady Dragon. She will decide your fate. If you are lucky She will let you die quickly.”

Riu nodded and inclied her head respectfully to the pixie. “Then, please, take me to your Lady, fair one, so that my fate can be decided. I've never been one to cower at the face of death so lets get this over with.”

The pixie laughed and it tickled down Riu's spine and sounded like little bells ringing. “Oh, you may not cower before Her, but bow you will. All pay respects to Death when faced with Her.”

She snapped her fingers and turned. The other pixies surrounded the assassin, the bald one behind and the little ones on either side. As the lead pixie started off into the forest Riu wondered if she would ever see her Gar again. Or anything outside this silent hell, for that matter.