"Sitacy?" Sitacy's mother gently shook her daughter's shoulder, "Sitacy wake up dear." Her voice was becoming slightly edgy.
"Mmmm..." Sitacy rolled on her back and looked up at her mother with half open eyes as she stretched then smiled looking up with cheerful eyes, "Yes mom?"
"Sweetie, where is the gun I gave to you?" The mother's voice was more urgent than before.
"I..." Sitacy's mind flashed back to the forest where she had encountered her first lychen, but didn't fire the gun and instead dropped it when he had grabbed her upper arms. She must have forgotten to grab it when she headed back home.
"Sitacy!?" Her mother gripped her daughter's arms the same way Hython had.
"It's in the barn." Sitacy lied quickly and her mother let go.
"In the barn?" Her mother sat down on the bed as if waiting for an explanation.
"Yeah, ya see I left it there so it wouldn't get stolen as easily if someone were to break into my room in the middle of the night." Sitacy sat up and jumped onto the floor throwing a jacket on quickly, "I, I better go get it so I can start my training right away."
Before her mother could object Sitacy was out the door and walking as quickly as possible to the forest. She started to jog but that was about as fast as she would allow herself to go, not that she couldn't run, but when her heart was racing she normally couldn't control her gift.
Non-the-less she was back in time before her mother started getting suspicious about her daughter's extended fetch to the barn to get her gun.
"I'm back!" Sitacy called out when she walked into the kitchen. When she didn't get a response as she hung up her coat she became weary. She called out again but still didn't get an answer. She grumbled to herself as she walked into the living room holstering the heavy gun in its place on the right side of her thigh. She flopped down onto the couch and picked up her book from underneath the couch where she had left it from last night. She paused briefly as she wrinkled her nose as if she might sneeze, but then continued grabbing her book thinking nothing of it
'... and in the night she slowly ventured forward into the open plain where she would soon find what had been awaiting her since the day she was born. She would...' She left her place in the book not getting far at all as she perked her attention to something behind her.
"Mom?" Sitacy marked her book again and slid it under the couch as before. She got to her knees and looked over the couch behind her. At first nothing seemed unusual, then she noticed a shift in lighting on the walls. When she had gone outside there wasn't a cloud to see for miles, she narrowed her eyes and was able to make out a faint shape. Her eyes widened as she sensed somebody close behind her. She whirled around on her knees to face it and it was a lychen staring her straight in her face.
It's breath was foul and sent a nautious feeling through her stomach as she choked on it with one gasp. She fell off her knees and onto the floor covering her nose and mouth with one hand to get the stench to fade. It didn't the smell was horrible and it wasn't just his breath it was him all together.
The large lychen snarled deep in his chest and towered over her as she stayed on the ground. She looked up helplessy as he smirked a wolfy smirk down at her. She scanned the wolf from ear to paw but stopped on his paws and noticed they were covered something. She followed a path of pawprints tracing out how he had come up from behind her. The prints were red, becoming darker as they became further out of her sight but fading as they came closer to her. She took her hand away from her face but sneared instantly and put it back reaching for her gun with one hand.
The lychen slashed at her thigh ripping the holster and the gun from her leg and leaving four deep gashes about 3 inches long down her leg. She groaned in agony as she hobbled away starting to stand on her good leg. The wolf followed close behind without any trouble watching her closely and letting her get away as if taunting her and using her as a pawn in a game.
"Run, I'll catch you anyway." He snarled going into a playbow.
She stared horrified at him then began to run as fast as she could despite her leg through the house and out the door.
"Hm hm hm..." the wolf chuckled, "3..."
Sitacy had reached the edge of the forest as her heart began to race faster and faster with her sweeping emotions of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, and many other things.
"2..."
Sitacy started looking over her shoulder wondering if the wolf was actually going to persue her. She started to burn feeling hot as she ran but not from the heat, not even from running just hot.
"Heh heh heh," The wolf chuckled again rearing up for the last time.
Sitacy had fallen to all fours from the swelling heat she felt and from the pain in her leg.
"1..." The wolf launched itself out through the window an landed on the edge of the forest and was on her trail immediately. He sampled the air and was tracking her down with ease.
Sitacy had curled over herself and began to dig her nails deep into her sides unable to bear all of her emotions at once. She snarled at herself and began lashing out fisting the ground and punching straight through the solid dirt creating deep craters with her punches. All at once her body burst into flames as she screamed in agony still on her knees.
The lychen ran towards the screams knowing the girl's scent, but halted seeing her epidemic. Was this the same defensless, hobbling girl he had just injured?
"You worthless dog!" She screamed looking up at him finally. "You killed my mother." She stood and began to limp towards him as he positioned for attack. "You stole her from me..., and you're, still, hungry?!" She lashed out in anger and hurt throwing the lychen in full flames making him fall on his stomach. He yowled in agony as his thick fur cinged into ash by the flames and began to roll helplessly as the flames reached his skin and began to disinegrate him.
Sitacy fell to her side as the flames dissipated, she curled over her stomach again wrinkling her nose and covering her nose and mouth this time with both of her hands. She kept her eyes open as she watched the lychen roll, then stop and lay there as it burned before her eyes. This was Sitacy's first time ever killing something, she'd never thought she could commit such an obstrocity, but she did.
For the first time in her young life she knew what it felt like to be vengeful.