PART 4
The night sky was lit up with all the lanterns burning away, making it hard to see the stars. The constant shouting and bell sounds were not helping people sleep either. Guards from all over the territory kept checking each and every corner of the village the Flameberg Manor was located in. There were no signs of the young lady anywhere, not even a violet hair piece dropped on the ground to go off of.
This was supposed to be a really big day as it was the day the heirship of Enidia would be transferred to Evelyn. Though, a minor problem had arised, hindering the ceremony. The cause of the minor problem being Cyeen and the problem being her not being anywhere. The noble had finally gone through with her plans for a life free of nobility. Being free of nobility couldn't and wouldn't do herself any harm she thought.
Cyeen looked at the north star. She decided on following it as she remembered reading something in a book before. People back in the days usually built settlements to the north of another to keep a steady path going to each place. The "free" noble took one last look at the village and the manor before turning her back.
***
It was a quiet night. Cyeen was still in her room, refusing to come out. Maybe Zenith had been a little harsh on her. But a week inside that little room was sure enough to drive anyone insane. Her actions can't be healthy, she thought. Cyeen was still a rebellious teen, she was sure to experince mood swings, she'd probably forgive her mother at the end of the week and they would go back to their usual family dynamic.
Zenith had heard news of what happened from the maid that stopped Cyeen from banging her head on the walls. The duchess had gotten a little worried for her then. Though a bit extreme, it was a sign of rebellion and a clear signal that she was seeking attention. Her actions only showed her incompetence to lead Enidia. Zenith was sure Cyeen would drive the place into ruin. For some strange reason the conversation between her and her other child Evelyn had been awkward ever since Cyeen had her upbringing.
The air inside the manor felt tenser than usual. A single argument had the power to do all ofduches, further proving that Cyeen wasn't fit to wear the title of duchess. But all things aside, she wanted Cyeen outside of her room again. She had to do all of the "important" papers she assigned Cyeen by herself. Zenith went upstairs to knock on her daughter's door. As the Duchess knocked on the door she told Cyeen to come out in a monotone voice. Upon receiving no reaction from the young lady inside, she raised her voice and yelled at Cyeen to come out this instant. After not getting an answer again she decided to break open the lock with brute force. It took her approximately a minute to 'unlock' the door. What she saw in her field of vision was an empty room and an open window with winds blowing the curtains towards the inside of the room. Cyeen was nowhere to be seen.
***
"So; a scythe, some knives, blasters and strings are what I'm going to be working with for a while."
Cyeen said to the squirrel on top of the tree with her whole essence arsenal laid out in front of her. She held the knife inside her hand. It was a bunka type knife. She had probably seen it once back then when she was taking basic fighting lessons.
The noble dismissed the summoned weapons, recalling her past lessons. She began walking while mumbling the basics.
"Essence, the foundation of the universe..." Cyeen summoned a knife and slashed around a few times. "What was the next one..? Right, summoning and maintaining essence weapons actively drains one's essence reserve."
A mocking thought crossed her mind. She sounded like a nerd, causing her to dismiss the knife and focus on the road.
***
In the depths of the forest was a horribly pitched tent. So horrible in fact it would be an insult to call it a tent. It was solely made by hanging some expensive cloth in between two low hanging tree branches. Inside the tent was a violet haired noble, eating the last of the berries she barely managed to pick.
The luxurious white dress she had on her had gotten caught in the thorny bushes left and right, ripping small parts of it apart. The bushed weren't satisfied with just ripping her dress though, they had also left wounds whever they could.
Cyeen had given up wiping the blood as it just kept leaking. She furiously ate the last of her berries.
"Stupid shield, why aren't you protecting my body!" she yelled, angry at her invisible full body armor. "Oh, right... Bushes don't have harming intent."
Her anger had died out fast. It wasn't reasonable to get mad at the one thing that kept every person alive. A seed of embarrassment emerged which was quickly turned into anger once more.
"I need to sleep." so she did, she ploopped down on the ground covered by more expensive cloth, slowly drifting asleep.
***
A set of wild animal noises awoke her. Sun was shining, indicating the start of a new day. Cyeen couldn't care much about the sun though. She was focused on the sounds.
If she was lucky maybe, just maybe, she could eat meat today. The noble started tiptoeing towards the noises after exiting her miserable looking tent.
She was right, animals really were the source of this commotion. Two deers were fighting each other in an open area as a female deer watched them. The reasoning behind their fight was obvious.
Cyeen summoned a knife inside her hand, waiting for the right moment to throw it. It didn't take them long to give her the golden opportunity. One of the males had falled weak from the constant impacts he received from the other males antlers. The noble aimed the knife right at its head and...
She missed, the startled animals began to escaping in an instant. The noble watched them run away in disappointment.
"If only I knew how to summon a knife mid air..." she mumbled.
Then suddenly, as if the gods were sending a gift to her, the wounded deer Cyeen aimed at fell down halfway on its escape. The look of disappointment vanished from the noble's face as a grin took its place.
The poor deer could only watch in horror as the violet monster approached it with a violet scythe in hand. The monster raised its weapon as if she was cutting wood with an axe. A sharp pain filled the animal's body for a fraction of a second before its breathing stopped.
The corpse of the dead deer was dragged back to the makeshift tent, leaving behind a huge trail of blood.
Cyeen tried skinning the animal which resulted in her being covered with blood. When she was done with it, only half the meat remained on the bones. The noble then began trying to light a fire which she failed at countless times. By the time the fires touched the meat, morning had long passed.
Now some of the meat from the deer was laying directly inside the burning fire. A few minutes passed and the deer steak looked ready. Cyeen took it out before biting into it.
"... I burned it..."
Cyeen looked at the coal she created in disbelief. She summoned a knife to carve the outside of the steak-ish meat. It tasted disgusting but it was all she had, her berry stock was quick to run out and she was utterly horrible at hunting.
"It wasn't supposed to be this hard, I have read books where people had to live in tents like mine." she thought to herself.
Maybe it was time she made her way into the nearest village. As Cyeen came close to finishing her disgusting lunch she remembered a lake she found on her way to the deers which could help her take a look at herself.
The noble began making her way towards it as soon as her meal was finished. The young lady stood near the water as she stared at the reflection. Her dress was torn up in all sorts of places and its color had changed quite a lot from the deer blood.
Her form disgusted her for a second, she had never seen someone this dirty in her life. With a quick -and dumb- decision she decided to enter the lake with her clothes on.
Cyeen swam around the lake all while trying to wash the dirt and blood off her dress. The process took nearly an hour and yet she couldn't even wash sixty percent of the blood, causing her to give up. This was all she could do as the lake did not have any of the luxurious cleaning materials she had back home.
Cyeen got out of the lake and laid on top a flat rock nearby. The whole world seemed to be hand to hand, gathered just to annoy her. It was alright though. Zenith wasn't ordering her around anymore not that she could in this situation.
The noble didn't take into account how slow clothes would dry while they were being worn which costed her about three to four hours causing her to return to her base late at night.
It was time to retry cooking the deer meat. She had been keeping some of it for later since she figured a person would get hungry more than once a day. After her failure to light a fire the first time, she had managed to pick up a few things up and lit it up faster this time. It still took about an hour. An improvement though, she thought.
After carefully picking the deer meat up with the violet strings she summoned from her fingertips, she held it over the fire. Cyeen thought she learned her lesson last time so she pulled the strings that were wrapped around the meat back after a short while and hung it on a wide branch before kicking dirt onto the fire to extinguish it. Her mouth started watering by now. She finally grabbed the strings holding the cooked steak, dismissed the strings and took a bite.
"...It's mostly raw..."
With a slight hint of blood in her mouth, she looked over to the extinguished fire in shame. It still had enough heat to cook the insides a little more but that was not something Cyeen knew. She ate her dinner as it was. It was horrible again.
Cyeen threw a violet knife blindly out of the tent to vent out her anger. After that was done, the noble laid down on the ground before slowly falling asleep with plans to find a village tomorrow.
A guard from Enidia had stumbled upon a large forest on his search for the oldest daughter of Duchess Zenith. He'd rack a ton of money or even get a promotion as a reward for finding her.
***
While walking around aimlessly, a piece of shiny white cloth stuck on a bush got his attention. It looked to be a part of an expensive outfit that was ripped apart by the small thorns on the bush, which meant it most likely belonged to the rebellious teen of Enidia.
The second thing that got his attention was the blood stain on the dirt. From his point of view, it looked to be going both to his right and left. He decided on following it to the his left.
Something had been dragged across the woods, that was for sure. He followed the blood stains and passed by a lake while doing so. At last, he arrived at a place with a snuffed out campfire. There was a huge blood puddle close to the center of the place. What the hell happened here? He thought as he took a look around but couldn't find anything else inside the circle. He looked around a little more for anything, noticing a deep hole in a tree. Everything pointed towards a struggle.
And at last, he saw it. A second piece of the expensive dress was present close by. Although this time, it was dyed red.