8/14/03-

Ah, yet another chapter, dredged from the depths of my convoluted brain… written while I was feeling bored and lonely. :( My mood always transfers over into my work, and I'm not quite sure whether that's good or bad. Many, many months for one chapter… this is too sad. I miss high school, where the curriculum bored me enough that I could write a chapter a week!

Ah, and in response to the question: C&C=Comments & Criticism. Thanks for the M&M's! (Forever ago.)

X.x =DOA (Desparate Online Author)

Fallen : Twilight of the Soul

By Kobi-chan

THE FOURTH SOUL : THE ARCHER

The mid-afternoon sun beat mercilessly down on the rest of the world, but not here in the little shaded hollow where a lone young woman was quietly stretching lean muscles trained for a specific purpose. Fingers moved in intricate patterns. Wrists, hands, arms, all completely synchronized towards one objective…

Another perfectly cooked pancake joined the others cooling on the worn tin plate beside the campfire. The chef eyed the stack, judged it to be large enough, and settled in to eat her lunch. Ah, pancakes for lunch… why did people think that was weird? If they tasted good, why couldn't you eat them anytime you wanted? It was a bit unfair, in her way of thinking, to confine them to one meal a day.

As she ate her freshly prepared meal, she allowed her eyes to roam around the little sanctuary that she had stumbled upon earlier that day. She had impulsively decided not to travel any farther today, as life on the road was becoming rather tiresome lately. Perhaps she had become too accustomed to a stationary life, where one woke up in the same room in the same house in the same town every day.

Ah, but wasn't that why she had taken to the roads again anyway? To see if she still had that something that allowed some people to be successful and happy while living the life of a vagabond. That was the way she had grown up, after all. Besides, after he left, there was nothing to hold her in that little house she had become so familiar with anymore. No one would miss her.

It wasn't like she had friends or anything.

She growled at herself for the small pang of regret that shot through her frame at the last thought. She didn't need friends, she had purpose! Determination! An objective! That was more than most people could say.

Freshly reanimated by her own short pep talk and pancakes, she decided it was time to exercise her other skills. She hopped to her feet and extended her arms lazily over her head. She managed to combine her stretching with a cleanup of her campsite, cleaning, collecting and organizing her possessions neatly and kicking dirt over her small campfire to smother it quickly. Still stretching, she made her way over to the large pack that currently contained her entire life. The tools of her trade were strapped to the back.

She carefully unbound one of the full quivers of blue-flighted arrows from the top of the pack, and then moved on to release her bow from its carrying straps as well. Swiftly stringing the weapon, she was an epitome of efficiency. With a practiced eye and hand, she checked her weapon for undue wear or damage before drawing the first arrow.

Taking up a position about thirty feet from her target, the roughly five feet remaining of a tree whose trunk had snapped in some forgotten past windstorm. She picked out one knot in the bark to aim for specifically and grew her arm back smoothly and effortlessly. Without a moment of hesitation, she released her deadly projectile.

It flew straight and true to bury itself in the trunk to a depth of about three inches, dead center in the warped wood of the knot. Another arrow followed the first, aimed at a patch of moss four inches to the left. The moss was subsequently skewered, and small, bright orange fungus was next. So it continued for the next few minutes, with her shots progressing from simple straight, perfectly aimed shots to more complicated maneuvers involving arcing arrow paths, deflecting off of handy objects or other arrows, and finally a practice of her running combat technique, involving all of the previous but allowing her to stretch her legs as well.

When she stopped and slung her bow over her shoulder, the trunk was peppered with arrows, and sporting quite a few more holes as well. Every few minutes she'd have to stop and pull out her arrows, designed with broad, flat heads tapering directly back into the shaft and no barbs for easy removal of whatever they struck, be it targets or small game animals to grace her dinner plate. She had a limited number of these as they were meant to be retrievable and not meant for killing or wounding anything large.

Such as, say, the massive shadow that had been stalking around her campsite for the last five minutes. She had picked up on its presence quickly, as her ears sharpened to be able to hear the wind and the path of arrows had easily discerned its heavy breathing. Listening to the air rushing in and out past long fangs and down a massive gullet, she silently checked her practice arrows for damage and gave them a perfunctory cleaning with her fingers before re-sheathing them in the quiver on her back, right next to the metal headed, wickedly barbed man-killer arrows.

She touched the end of one of her combat arrows, ever so lightly running her fingertips over the three notches she always carved near the end of the shaft that marked it as such without requiring a check of its more deadly end. After all, in a fight, one can't waste a lot of time checking what kind of arrow they're stringing up.

He ears picked up the sound of movement. The slight crunch of the bushes as the beast crouched, readying its muscles to pounce. The sharp snap of a twig announced its launch, and the female archer swing around, placing, pulling back and releasing an arrow in one practiced movement.

The tiger slammed into the forest floor, skidding to a stop against the tree trunk that had been so recently filled with the archer's arrows. The telltale patch of blue showed brightly against the tawny orange hide of its chest as it twitched one last time before leaving for a new plane of existence.

The young woman gave a pitying hiss, eyes roaming over the emaciated form of a once great beast. She walked over to crouch next to its still form.

"Tch. Poor thing." She commented, noting the crippled and half-nonexistent foreleg on the beast, "I guess you couldn't catch much more than us slow, weak humans anymore, eh? Probably a bounty on your head by now…"

She paused at that thought. She was running a little low on cash, but she generally considered it dishonorable to profit from another's pain, even if the other was a man-eating tiger. Sure, she would kill the thing to protect herself and others, but collecting the bounty on it was another matter.

"Well, I guess I won't bother… I wish I had time to tell the locals and give this one a decent burial though, but you have something else in mind I think?" She addressed the darkness that had been creeping up behind her as she squatted next to the cat's corpse. Reacting quickly, she launched herself using her toes and knees over the body, landing on one palm and using her momentum to twist around and flip herself up onto her feet, now facing her newest adversary. Raising an eyebrow, she pulled out another of her barbed arrows and drew it back on her bow, aimed at the center of the shadow.

"What do you want?" She demanded, her aim unwavering as the liquid blackness flowed upwards into a more solid and well defined form.

Its answer was simple, given in a growl that barely qualified as speech, "You."

"I don't like you answer." She replied, drawing another arrow tight on her bowstring. "As a matter of fact, I don't like your face either, so I think you'd best leave now before I put you in as much pain as your ugly mug is causing me now."

Normally, most anything would hesitate a moment before taking on an archer with an arrow aimed directly at their face, so the young woman raised an eyebrow in surprise as the beast launched itself at her. She released the arrow at its open mouth and then proceeded to duck and roll out of the way, which is a bit of a trick with a strung bow in your hands.

The Wraith didn't even try to dodge the arrow, simply creating a hole in its body to allow the projectile to pass straight through and bury itself in a distant tree. Undeterred, the archer strung another arrow from her crouched position about ten feet from the Wraith. The dark beast had landed on all fours, and swiftly swiveled itself around to face its adversary.

"All right, I'm done playing nice." The female warrior stated in a rather pleasant tone of voice. Her finger stroked the end of the arrow currently in her bow. More specifically, the four notches in it. "Quit now, and I won't pursue this."

"It is not you who should be presuming to dole out mercy, human!"

"You asked for it." She responded calmly, not even bothering to dodge its attack this time. Her arrow flew as true as ever, straight for the demon's neck. It attempted the same trick as last time, as was thus rather shocked as magical energy crackled around the arrow, and abruptly its flesh wasn't moving out of the way.

A satisfying 'thock' followed the arrow's lodging in the Wraith's suddenly solid throat. It gave a strangled screech and overshot the archer, who simply ducked to avoid its flying mass.

"Enchanted arrows? How…?" The shade ground out as it dragged itself to its feet again.

"When you've been doing this as long as I have you pick up a few tricks." Four arrows flew from the bowstring at once, each lodging in a massive, clawed paw, effectively nailing the Wraith to the ground. Magical current pulsed around the arrow shafts; burning the flesh of the Wraith everywhere it made contact.

Wailing in pain and fury, the creature nearly convulsed as it tore its feet free of the arrows, one mangled paw immediately going up to claw the searing arrow from its throat. Black demon blood dripped from its wounds as it staggered around to face the human again.

I've already wasted five arrows on this thing… I need to be more conservative. The young woman thought to herself, What can I do to take it out of action swiftly? It was hard to mark out targets on a creature that didn't really have a physical body. Sure, she could keep shooting it with arrow after arrow and slowly rip it apart, but her arsenal was rather limited. She stepped backwards as the Wraith, breathing raggedly and moving jerkily, began to advance on her.

There's nothing to be done for it. I have to end this quickly. She sighed, hating to waste it on something like this. Her hand reached back and flipped open a second part of her quiver, then proceeding to pull out an arrow marked with gouges in the shape of an 'IV' at its end.

"You should feel honored. I don't pull out my Mark Four arrows for just anyone, but you get to have an up close look at one." She sighted the arrow in her bow, aiming it at her enemy's chest.

The Wraith, half delirious from the magical arrows which it could still feel burning at its essence, reared up onto its hind legs, towering over the archer and preparing to simply crush her to death. Its plans were cut short as a new pain blossomed in its chest.

The woman watched as the arrow she had released hit its mark, dead center in the Wraith's chest, sending out ribbons of energy that shredded the being alive as it collapsed t the ground, writhing and convulsively lashing out at everything within reach. She stepped back and waited. After a few moments, it stopped moving, its body dissipating into a foul mist. After another few moments, she walked over to retrieve her arrow.

As she bent to pick up the luckily barely damaged weapon, the hairs on the back of her neck prickled and she whirled around to face the new intruder that she had sensed behind her, the Mark Four clutched in her hand.

"Who's there?!"

"Well well. You're the only one to actually kill one. How about that."

"What?" She blinked in surprise. This mysterious voice sounded vaguely impressed, but had an overall rather bored tone. She shook off her puzzlement and returned to the question at hand. "What do you want?"

"Well, as I believe our deceased comrade said, I want you, Takae Inari. I have been sent here to extend an invitation to you."

She growled in irritation. "Well then, why don't you come down here so I can deal with you too?"

"I think not. Time is of the essence, so we must leave immediately."

"Aren't you listening? I'm not going anywhere with you!"

"Yes you are." At this point the female archer noticed the lengthening shadows that were moving towards her. She had been too distracted with arguing up to this point to pick up on them, so they were now quite close, and on all sides. She glanced frantically around, looking for a clear patch of ground to jump to—

The first shadow slid up her leg, cold, numbness following it. She pulled at it, trying to free herself, but her other leg almost instantly met the same fate. The blackness moved up her body, drowning out her conscious thought until only one word was left.

Hell.

NEXT TIME: 'Chapter One : Awakening'

As always, C&C are appreciated!