Ranya

A.N. : Very first draft; mainly want to know if this is a viable story... is it interesting enough to continue working on? or does it come across too stilted or fanfictionish? This is not fanfiction. Thanks.

Chapter 1

Ranya heard the hooting call on the Summer's breeze. Now, it promised. The shift from stone stillness to lion's speed flowed through Ranya's limbs in a quarter of a second. They took off running before her mind had even recognized the call. Joycan, who had come with her to learn of the forest, was left gaping at the perfect loctus berries rolling from Ranya's sturdy woven basket and then lying still on the dusty forest floor.

"Now. Now. Now," the word pounded in each beat of Ranya's heart and each slap of Ranya's feet. Before her loomed branches thrusting and twisting as if to trip her, so that she would be too late. Ranya set her teeth; she was the village Keeper and she would not fail.

As she pushed her way through the last curtain of limbs, she burst from the forest on the hill overlooking the village. She would have been breathless if she had been breathing, or stunned if she had been working off anything less than instinct. They had indeed come. As threatened, as promised, the forces of Dark had chosen this seemingly insignificant collection of huts and farms as theirs. There was the ugly ship of scavenged iron, breathing fire like a dragon. Black man-beetles scuttle from its belly each armed with sword and gun. Ranya could see the village men, farmers and merchants, standing with their axes, hoes, and pitchforks. Though their hands were trembling, Ranya could see their clear eyes. No darkness would be welcome here. The men would stand against these invaders with their last pulse of life.

Ranya gulped the cold mountain air and slowed the beat of her heart. What they needed was more time. Ranya pressed hard against that elastic band of time, slowing the distance from heart beat to heart beat so that for a moment the world stopped. In this breathe of space, Ranya stuck. "Mirros. Achtos. Nomlos," the words cut the air as thrown knives. Ranya let time flow. The recoil of time as it bent back into shape flung her words with more speed and added potency. The first word fell on those beetle like men as thick, black mud - heavy and full. They staggered. The second circled round the village crackling with the fierceness of flame. Indeed, a wall of fire encased the whole village from direct attack. And the third, the third flew like an arrow for the ship's deck with the speed and force of a hurricane towards a lone figure in black robes, a man with red hair. With just the space of a hair, the man threw up a word of steel and Ranya's missile glanced off into the water.

The man's eyes narrowed on Ranya's location, though she stood half a mile from the ship. A grin spread across his face.

"Pormith!" the man uttered a titan wave towards the little village.

"Yomous!" Ranya cried a gale towards the impending wave. It was not enough, she let her spirit fly with the wind to help push back the wall of water and slowly she felt the water give way. Ranya pushed her whole resolve and focus on stopping the wave.

"Lorn," the quiet word wrapped itself around Ranya's feet and caught her unprepared. It clamped her tongue and her limbs under a heavy weight. Ranya fell to the ground and could not rise, could not speak. The wave fell like a spring rain on the village, extinguishing the protecting flame. She could see the beetle men storming up the hillside; not towards the village she had worked so hard to protect, but straight up the hill to where Ranya lay. The chief of these soliders swung her on his back and the whole company was blown back to the ugly ship riding on the edge of the red man's "Trilneth."

Ranya still lay under the burden of the word, who had blindsided her. The red headed man swept up the the prone Ranya, grin fixed in place, "No need to get up, Princess. We are going home." A laugh ripped through the man's throat, and Ranya knew what he said was true.


Chapter 2

The truth had come too late for Ranya, as Gorman knew it would. Deceit had been necessary.

Ranya would never go back willingly and any straight forward challenge would leave her attackers fallen. No one knew words as Princess Ranya did. And, deceit had nearly not been enough. Only Gorman knew how close Ranya's word arrow had come to piercing his heart. But once he focused her attention on that precious village of her's, he knew she had lost. He let loose her true name without her noticing in time to block it from binding her. All he had to do was get her home, keeping her there would be someone else's problem.

But he, Gorman, would deliver the wayward princess to her father, brother, and fiance. Surely between those three men of words, they could find someway to bind Ranya. He had warned the King of his daughter. A girl strong in word and strong in mind was not going to let duty (such a flimsy word) govern her. Especially if the duty was to marry Hilder.

Gorman thought sourly, "I probably would have run too." What had surprised Gorman was how long she had waited to flee. There was something not quite right about that. The fire he saw in her eyes and the force he felt in her words did not seem to speak of a person heistant in their actions. But instead of running at the first moment and making it halfway around the world, Ranya had waited nearly a month and was found only a day's journey away from her home. Yes, there was something there that Gorman did not understand and it bothered him. He had his own reasons to want Princess Ranya home, so for now, he continued his duty.

He would find out soon enough.


Chapter 3

Ranya had to think about each breath. Her body had abandoned her when it recognized its name. At least these people seem to be in a hurry to get her home, the village should be safe. But how safe could it remain without a Keeper? She had hoped to train Joycan to take this job. It was only a matter of time before Father or brother Grayson or ... Hilder... lost paitence or fumed enough to come after her. She had not expected such a quick response nor that they would send Gorman. He must have been sent after her as soon as they realized she had gone for him to have found her already. Damn. She had counted on a few more months, maybe even a year before the inevitable. What was the rush? Why Gorman? Ranya asked again, but could get no answer.