Songs Of War - What if everyone was related?

A Common Enemy

Somewhere in the woods, Lucan sits by a campfire, roasting...rotten flesh?

He also roasts a piece of steak, using his sword as a stick.

His head rests on his hand as he waits for his food to be cooked.

He suddenly senses a presence. He turns to the side, and a figure drops down and towards him.

Lucan dodges two blades almost cutting his legs off. He raises his sword, only to see the piece of uncooked steak still on it.

Without a sword, the figure kicks Lucan onto the ground. Lucan tries to get back up, but the figure holds a blade right next to his throat.

' You've got to be the worst Necromancer I've ever seen,' a female voice questions him assertively.

Lucan groans a bit as he shifts beneath the figure's confinement.
' Sorry to disappoint you, but this was just a trap!'

Lucan kicks her leg and she falls forward. Lucan rolls to the side and gets up. The figure whips around and draws her second blade.

' And what were you trying to catch?'

' Necromancers, like yourself!' Lucan rushes forward but the figure slips to the side and Lucan trips over a log he was sitting on.

' I'm not a Necromancer, you idiot! I'm hunting them!'

Lucan lights a torch from the burning campfire and rolls upright. ' So am I!'

Lucan holds the torch forward, illuminating a female Felina, who shields her eyes from the sudden light.

' A Felina?'

The Felina lowers her sword, realising that he's innocent. ' A human… That explains the poor eyesight.'

' Oh, my eyesight is bad?! You attacked me first!'

' Only because you had all this…' She motions to the rotten flesh, ' stuff! What is all this?!'

' I was hoping to draw out the Necromancers,' Lucan explains.

' The Necromancers aren't interested in rotten flesh. You'll just attract the undead.'

She throws the rotten flesh into the fire. Lucan looks towards the forest. ' I think I may have attracted both…'

The Felina hurries away after seeing a Necromancer in the distance, undead nearby.

' See, my plan worked…' Lucan turns around and trails off as he sees her run off. ' Hey, wait! Where'd you go?' He drops his torch and chases after her.

He reaches a clearing and looks around, confused where she had gone. Suddenly, he hears some noises above. He looks up and sees her climbing up a tree.

Lucan starts climbing the tree, and mumbles to himself. ' Well, this night's just a ton of fun… Climbing trees… Chased by zombies… What's next?'

He climbs into a tree fort. He looks around. ' Hey, where'd you go…'

Lucan is cut off as the Felina grabs him from behind and covers his mouth. ' Quiet!' she whispers to him.

They hear zombies below, and they both glance down. A Necromancer and a zombie are right below them. They look around, but soon leave.

She releases him. ' Why'd you follow me?'

' Other than fleeing for my life, I need your help.'

The Felina thinks for a moment. ' I can tell. Come on inside.'

She walks further into a tree fort. Lucan takes a moment to look around and sees bookshelves full of records, maps and other collections of assorted valuables.

' What is all this stuff?' Lucan asks. He reaches for an apple and picks it up.

' Don't touch anything!' the Felina tells him. Lucan puts the apple down.

' So, why were you hunting the Necromancers?'

' Ever since I survived the attack at the Basalt Mines…'

The Felina's eyes widen. ' Wait, so you're the survivor of the Basalt Mines? You must be Lucan. What happened? What was their attack strategy like?' She gets closer to Lucan. Lucan backs away. ' Hey, look. I don't know anything about attack strategies, or Necromancer plots. I just got forced into this…'

Lucan goes to a balcony on the side of the tree fort and leans on the railing.

He sighs. ' I'm not a warrior, or a hero. I'm just someone trying to get by in life. And right now, that means hunting Necromancers…'

There's a brief moment of silence as the Felina thinks. ' I'm surprised the leaders of Felden finally acknowledged their existence. I've been after them for years.'

Lucan turns around. ' Perhaps we can work together?'

The Felina wants to say yes, but stops herself. ' I work better alone. You can stay the night, but tomorrow, you're on your own.'

Lucan sighs. ' Yeah, I'm probably better off alone as well.'

He walks out the balcony again. He pulls out an apple which he swiped when the Felina wasn't looking. He is about to eat it, but stops and pulls out the Wither skeleton skull with his other hand.

He looks at both of the items, and at the night sky full of stars.

~*~

The next morning, the Felina wakes up. ' Lucan?'

She walks onto the balcony, knowing he had already left. She sighs sadly, and returns inside.

She starts looking around. ' Where did I put my map?'

' You mean this old thing?' she hears a familiar voice behind her.

She turns around and sees Lucan waving her map around.

' Hey, give me that!' she snatches her map back from him. ' I told you, I'm hunting the Necromancers alone!'

' Hunting with this bow?' Lucan holds up her bow tauntingly. ' Listen, we both might be more of the lone wolf type, but right now we have a common goal. We might as well use that and work together!'

He tosses her the bow and she catches it. ' Fine, but once we locate the Necromancer's base, you're out of here!'

' Deal, uh…?' Lucan holds his hand out to shake, but realises she hasn't told him her name.

' Niika,' she shakes his hand. ' Don't slow me down, Lucan.'