The Broken Sunflower

Just a Handshake

   "Guards! Seize her!"

   Athena shot up from her chair, reaching for the blade on her counter. She glared out her curtains towards the main road in front of her little house. A brown haired girl was barking orders at two very confused guards seemingly about some other girl who was too far down the road for Athena to make out any details.

   She slowly pushed the door open to hear the commotion better. That seemed to be a mistake however as the girl turned her attention towards her.

   "You! You, go chase down that girl! You're the daughter of that monster hunter aren't you?!" she shouted.

   If it weren't for the fact that the girl definitely had power over Athena, she probably would have yelled her off. Alas, the girl was the princess of the land, Ema Skye.

   "Nice to see you, princess. What exactly is going on?" The princess may be able to get away with telling her to do anything she wants, but it's kind of hard to chase after some stranger without any context.

   Princess Ema glared at her. "That girl you just let get away happens to have been causing quite a few problems, Miss Hunter," she said, sneering.

   "So what exactly do you want me to do about it? I only know what my mother taught me about those she tracked. How exactly is that useful for following some village girl."

   "That girl just so happens to be a vampire that's been pestering this part of town for weeks," the princess chided.

   "We've been having vampire problems for weeks and I'm only hearing about this now?" Athena questioned. She muttered a quiet "Sounds like a likely story to me..." under her breath.

   "Don't you dare try pulling sass with me. I could have you hanged in front of the whole kingdom just for that."

   "And I could eliminate you in many other overly dramatic ways: a stake to the heart, crossbow bullet slowly causing you to bleed out, maybe just introducing you to sunlight for the first time in your life. Ooh, or maybe an entire mob of people taking you down with pitchforks and torches," Athena shot back, counting each point on her fingers, accidentally dropping her blade in the process.

   One of the guards chimed in, "Uh, Prinzessin, perhaps it's a bad idea to-"

   Athena dropped down to retrieve her knife as the princess responded, "Oh can it, fop. She knows she can't defy me if she values her life."

   The other guard chuckled. "She also knows she's the only monster hunting resource you've got."

   Princess Ema glared at him. "Whatever. Just kill the woman." She dropped a paper into Athena's raised hand. Luckily everyone seemed too distracted to notice her fumbling to pick her blade back up.

   Athena stood up after properly receiving the paper. "Alright, I got your orders. Though I have to say the problem this week has been fae and not vampires," she retorted. She peered over the note, marking certain parts down in her mental checklist.

   When she glanced up, one guard seemed desperate and the other two at her doorstep seemed very unamused. "So you want me to go find this room full of vampires or something, and kill them all? By myself, with no help?"

   Princess Ema scoffed. "I never said you had to do it alone. I just said I wouldn't provide you help from the kingdom. It says so in the fine print," she said pointing out a minuscule doodle.

   "I can't read that."

   "Too bad. Look, if you need help, you can take these two doofuses." She shoved both guards towards the doorway. "I have no use for them anymore anyway." She strutted off down the other side of the road.

   Both guards seemed disoriented by the sudden push. The taller of the two straightened themself out and leaned forward. "It's a pleasure to be assisting you now, Fräulein Huntress."

   Athena tilted her head. "Why are you speaking... What's the word? Allemand? No, that's French..." They looked at her confused. "German! That's the word! Why are you speaking German?"

   "Oh!"

   The other guard groaned, "Not this again..."

   The German speaking guard frowned at him. "It's my mother tongue, though I normally just speak parts of it out of habit now."

   Athena nodded. "I get it. Old habits die hard. So what are your names?"

   "Danke. I'm Klavier, and that's Daryan Crescend," the leaning man replied, a grin on his face.

   "Cool." She looked between the two of them. "Any particular reason you didn't share your last name? Or...?"

   Klavier and Daryan's eyes widened. "Uh, I shall go prepare for the search, ja?" The German took off running.

   "Oh yeah, and I... have to go speak to the Earth. We'll meet you back here tonight." Daryan ran after the other yelling something in what Athena was pretty sure was Italian, but he was too far away to tell at this point.

   She sighed and shut the door. This was turning out to be an interesting adventure already. She rested the knife back on her counter, and looked over her bookshelf in the corner of the main room. She'd need to double check some of her mother's notes before heading out for sure.

   Athena snatched a book on tracking specifically before plopping down by the window. Looking out the glass pane, she noted that she'd have enough time to review what she needed and eat before the guards returned. Most of her travel items were luckily packed already.

   A few hours of studying and just sitting around later, Athena finally managed to convince her body to let her make something to eat. There wasn't much in the cabinets, but it's been years since a time when there was a wider display of food and ingredients. Her loved ones were still around then.

   She sighed. Now wasn't the time to reflect on that. She needed to motivate herself, not start the most lonely nostalgia party in her life. Eventually, she just decided on eating jam and bread. Or was it bread and jam?

   The meal was reduced to crumbs by the time a friendly knock reached her door. Athena opened the door to be greeted with Klavier and Daryan again as well as some other guard it seemed.

   "Have fun! Don't kill yourselves out there!" The other, shorter guard giggled, patting the two on their shoulders and taking off.

   Daryan grumbled, but shook his head with a smile. Klavier laughed himself. He then lowered his hand out for the huntress. "Are you ready to go, Fräulein...?" he trailed off.

   Athena snatched her bag, and took his hand in a handshake. "Cykes. Athena Cykes." She let go and closed the door behind her as she exited. The confused looks on both guards' faces puzzled her. What she did wasn't that weird, was it? After all, it was just a handshake.

   She shrugged it off. She could question them about it later. They still had a few stops to make before fully leaving anyway.

(A/N: Welcome to a new story! I hope you enjoy your time here! Feel free to ask any questions! We will be seeing other important characters soon!)