The King's Persecution

Chapter One

Music is "Departure to the West" by Joe Hisaishi.
The girl stood crouched in the sparse, crisp grass, not daring to breathe for fear that her target would hear a stray blade break and decide this brown meadow was not the place to forage for food. A brown long hood covered her head and most of her light brown hair, while the cape attached to it hid her body from the rest of the scattered wildlife in the sparse woods. Her blue eyes, once bright and oblivious to the ways of the world she lived in, stayed focused on the slender, spotted deer. The first one she had seen in a week.

"One shot," she thought to herself. She drew the string to the tip of her mouth and looked down the tip of the arrow, aiming it at the deer's heart. The bow's limbs quivered under the weight of the string. The arrow flew from the string...

"Aunt Eliza!"

And struck the deer's hind leg, for at the first sound of the snapping grass blades, the deer fled from the scene for its life.

Eliza sighed, pulled herself to her feet with her bow, and tossed back her hood, revealing light brown hair twisted tightly into a bun. Now she would have to track the deer down through the forest, likely till dusk when she would inevitably lose track and come home empty-handed. Not that her niece would mind that...

"Becka, what on earth were you thinking? You could have been killed! If I'm startled like that, who knows what'll happen to the arrow."

Her niece lowered her head. Looking closer, Eliza could see the redhead had tears in her eyes and a slightly blotchy face. "I-I'm sorry Aunt Eliza. I know you wouldn't kill anyone, even by accident so I figured it was okay."

Well...

Eliza pushed away those thoughts, barring them behind iron bars in her mind. You're fine. Focus on Becka. You can deal with that thought later.

"What's wrong? Why did you scare off our only source of money this week to come find me?"

"I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean to scare it off. I thought deer had horrible hearing, so I would be fine!"

Eliza fought the urge to raise her eyes to the sky. Heavens, raising a girl was difficult. She could see why Ly- her sister always had dark circles under her eyes.

Give her time. You had to begin somewhere too.

She turned back toward her niece, who was rubbing her eyes. "It's okay, Becka. You're still learning. You can help me track it down, so it won't suffer for long, okay?"

She wiped her eyes with the corner of her cloak. "Ok-kay," she said, sniffing.

Eliza smiled at her young ward. Then, she crouched down, so she was at eye level with Becka. "Now, why did you come find me?"

Becka sniffed. "Some men...came to the house. They had uniforms with the king's crest on them. I didn't answer the door, but they came inside anyway. They said...if I didn't find you, they would take me instead and wait for you to come find me. So...I ran all the way here."

Eliza's eyes widened. "Were they watching you as you came here Becka?"

"I don't know. I just ran here to find you so they wouldn't take me."

Eliza pulled up her hood and whipped around to face the direction where Becka had come running from. Sure enough, she spotted three horsemen in the distance. One appeared to be falling off his horse, but the other two appeared to be decent riders. Darn. He had to send mostly competent knights.

"Forget the deer. Becka, I need you to promise me something. Now. Promise me you'll do as I say, even if you don't want to. Please." She crouched down to look her niece. "I need to know I can trust you. Please."