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Troops ran and kept running until she dared to look behind her and knocked herself out by running head first into a tree. A really heroic way of beginning a story.
Troops woke to the smell of wet grass, dew and pine needles. It took troops a moment to register that she was lying on grass. She’s allergic to grass. Before you get all smart and think, “oh yeah that’s common” or “oh yeah, I’m allergic to grass“ or “so and so is allergic to grass” because you probably haven’t experienced this kind of reaction to grass. Troops swore as she pulled herself up feeling sick and feeling her face to assess how bad of a reaction it was. she realised that it was bad because when she talked she literally sounded like a dying frog. I’m not even exaggerating.
Troops was feeling sorry for herself but suddenly she heard a bang from behind her that sounded like somebody crashed huge cybles so hard together that they were dented deeply. Troops turned around slowly, dagger in hand expecting to find a not so stealthy serpentina but was astonished to find a small child in pajamas with a large sledge hammer in her hand coming charging at her, the child couldn't have been more than seven so it was easy for troops to grab it by the arm, lift it of the ground and disarm it.
‘MOW OR ONPERS!’ it seemed to be screaming gibberish until troops listened closely.
‘NO MORE MONSTERS!!!!’ Troops made out
‘Its ok, I'm running from the “monsters” to’ troops said, trying to soothe the young child's nerves.
Troops thought that it was wrong in so many ways for a child so young to be so scared about something that one glance of it would give any regular human nightmares for years. The child seemed to calm down but it still didn't seem to trust troops because it experimented by trying to kick her hard on the shins, a blow that would have sent Jesus himself into a dizzying spiral of pain. troops dropped the kid and side stepped easily, the kid tripped and curled up into a ball as if admitting defeat, being too worn out and that the “monsters” could eat it.
In the faint early morning sun troops could make out the strawberry blond hair of a girl around the age of seven. But how she got into the forest was a story that troops had a feeling that would send a regular person into insanity. troops reached down and using a comb, one of her only belongings now, she attempted to untangle the matted hair of the young girl but after about ten seconds the girl started crying hysterically so troops tried to be as gentle as possible. troops knew that it wasn't only the combing that was making her cry.
Troops wished that she could do more to soothe the young girl's nerves but after an hour of coming the beautiful hair was at its full length which almost reached the end of the young girl's spine.
‘Can I cut it?’ troops asked
‘Yeah’ the girl said
troops took out her dagger and hacked through the loverly thick hair that was a challenge to cut. After many touch ups and about ten minutes the beautiful hair was the same length as troops. The sun was starting to come up more so troops could make out more of the young girl's features. The young girl had beautiful eyes that were the colour of the ocean, her eyes would have been the most beautiful thing that troops had ever seen if they were not filled with pure terror and fear.
That night troops gave the girl her shredded blanket and let her use troops backpack as a pillow as she made herself a bed out of ferns and sat gard until she fell asleep, having none on guard duty is very risky when there's many monsters plotting in the shadows.
In the morning, such a bland way to describe the beutiful sunrise, the rolling clouds that seem to play and dance across the sky, the beautiful forest filled with life, the gently flowing creek that seemed to sparkle and two children both under the age of twelve asleep under a magnificent pine tree.
troops awoke to a young girl looking expectantly down at her, troops was confused until she remembered yesterday's events.
‘Food!’ demanded the girl.
‘Not until you tell me your name, age and birthdate’ a stern troops replied
‘What's a birthdate?’
‘What's your birthdate means whens your birthday’
‘Ok, I guess I trust you’ The girl decided
‘My name is Hestia, I am six years old and my birthday is…um…the twenty third of august.’
‘Your named after the Greek goddess of the hearth?’
‘Yeah i'm asked that question a lot’
‘Its ok’
‘What's your name?’
Troops hesitated
‘L-troopes, i am troops’
painful memories that troops did not want to remember opened in her mind.
She opened her backpack and sighed, there would've been enough granola bars in there for a week if it was only her but she couldn't leave Hestia. So there would only be one and a half granola bars for each of them a day that should last them three days.
troops would have to either find a small town soon or find the village, fast. She didn't like to steal but sometimes when you're desperate, you have to.
Lillian handed hestia a granola bar, which she wolfed down, and explained the system to her. Hesitate was not at all fond of the plan at first but when Lillian reminded her that she had probably been starving for ages she seemed to comply although she didn’t speak and Lillian felt guilty because this small child had probably gone through more than she ever would in the life in a matter of weeks.
Troops' feet were torn, cut, blistered and bruised so much that when she got up and tried to walk, the pain made her legs buckle causing her to fall to the ground. Hestia helped troops get to her feet. The pain was almost unbearable from running away from the serpentinas that had mobed her in an ambush. Hesita helped troops up and they began walking again. At first the pain came and went but sooner or later the pain ceased to exist. How relieved troops was when she realised that all the pain was gone. The village of power was the only thing other than 7 eleven granola bars that kept her going and trudging on. That's why everyone called her trooper, she never gave up unless she could see more than a gazillion ways that it could go wrong.
The village of power was a place where kids like Hestia and troops could grow, learn and train to fight the monsters that lived everywhere trying to hunt them down and get a free meal. The monsters didn't eat normal mortals because they were cursed way before the dinosaurs to only be able to eat children of power. none knew why or how but that made life a lot harder for us “children of power''. Troops had powers over fire, could make fire just appear and it came with a bonus of fire resistance. Hestia hadn't said anything about her powers but troops knew that she had ice. Troops didn't know the little details but it had something to do with ice.
After about five hours of walking hestia tripped and got a nasty gash on her knee so they decided that it was probably best to set up camp and get some sleep. The fire part was easy but Hestia spent twenty minutes quizzing over how troops had lit the fire so fast and beat her in “who can set up their bed the fastest”. Don't worry, troops didn't know that was a thing either until a few seconds ago.
Troops looked at the cut on Hestia's knee and immediately knew that she should have cleaned it before setting up camp.
‘Stay here so I can find a little water to clean it,’ troops told Hestia as she started to get up and head towards the faint sound of running water in the distance.
Troops did not like splitting up and leaving hestia alone undefended so she handed hestia her dagger. A risky move because if troops encountered a monster she'd be defenceless.
When troops found the water, a slim and shallow stream that didn't have much water but was enough, she found a big leaf, bent it into a kind of cup and scooped up as much water as she could. When she started to walk back the sun was starting to set as she waded her way back to camp. Hestia was lying on the grass and looking at the sunset dreamily. Troops carefully poured water on the girl's wound and bandaged it up in a piece of cloth.
The fire had blown out so troops walked over with hestia looking at her with a look that said: teach me your ways. Troops smiled as she thought of the awe struck hestia that she would see in a few seconds. Troops sat down next to the firepit that she had dug earlier and moved some of the wood and kindling into the pit and with a flick of her wrist stent at least twenty embers into it. Only a couple started burning into a fire as she added more kindling. Troops turned to see a shocked hestia with her jaw almost grazing the ground.
‘Can't let you be the only one with powers’
Hestia looked away and mumbled:
‘I thought you had them too but I didn't want to bring it up in case you didn't.’
Troops understood completely.
Troops had realised that hestia was a lot more observant of the little things than than the entire picture. This came in handy the next day when they had taken down camp and started walking under the lush canopy of trees when hestia froze. She pointed to a shadow. I looked over just in time to see a wave of fire come shooting at hestia. Without thinking troops shoved hestia down into a ditch.
hestia screamed.
The fire slowed to a stop but Hestia was already clambering up the rugged edge of the dich and looked, fearing the worst, but saw troops next to a dead dragon with the hilt of a dagger sticking out of its head and pale blue blood covering troops hands and face. Before troops could yank her dagger out from the dragon's rough, scaly head, hestia ran at her with so much force that troops was partially winded when hestia wrapped her little arms around her.
Just as suddenly as this forceful reunion started it was ended by a rustling of bushes. Troops shoved hestia behind her and grabbed her dagger just a blurred shape grabbed both of them and sped away just as fast as it had come, not slowed down by the extra weight, as if the two girls were just some trash bags that needed to be thrown roughly into the bin. Troops reacted immediately, days of frustration and sleeplessness disappeared as troops swung wildly with her dagger at the shape, this only resulted in a couple of pained grunts and small belows of pain. Not what she was aiming for but hey, it worked. Well at least that was what troops thought as the shape staggered and fell into a fast flowing stream.
She felt the hands that had been pulling her along let go of her so naturally she opened her eyes ignoring the stinging and kicking at the hands that were trying to grab her ankles and looked around in a panicked state looking for hestia. Hestia was nowhere to be seen and troops was running out of breath. Troops wildly kicked, trying to get to the surface when a horrible realisation crossed over her.
What if those hands were hestias?
troops ' panicked state was not helping her lack of breath. When the hands came again she had run out of strength to resist and let go of the last bit of breath she had left. The wave of relief that crossed troops was half panic because the hands were way too strong to be hestias. Just as she had accepted her fate of drowning she felt herself falling though something that wasn't water.
Air
A luxury you do not appreciate until you almost drown.
Just before she blacked out she felt a pair of strong hands catch her before she hit the ground, troops blacked out to the sounds of voices that she couldn't make out in her fight to stay conscious.
When she finally awoke it was dark out. She realised that she was in a bed that felt like the one in the sickbay in her old school.
School
A word that she had not thought of for months. What did her teachers and friends think and do when her sudden disappearance occurred?
Across the room was hestia asleep in a chair.
‘HESTIA!’ screeched troops followed by a bewildered hestia awaking in the chair.
‘Your awake’ said another voice.
Troops, still not trusting anything but herself, not even hestia, she reached for her daggers sheath but suddenly realised that it was empty. She looked at where the voice had come from wildly making a plan. A boy, no older than fourteen stood in the doorway, he had cropped blond hair, his blue eyes were as piercing as a blunt sewing needle . Before he could talk, troops fist landed on his nose. The satisfaction of the sound of it breaking was short lived as he wildly swung his fist, a sloppy punch that she dogged easily. And countered with a roundhouse kick to his thigh in ugly jean shorts followed by a step behind push kick to the stomach a bow that made him dubble over in pain. How proud her old taekwondo teacher would be.
‘WHAT DID YOU DO?!’ yelled a voice that was just running down the hallway.
Before troops could react a fist was planted in the middle of her face. When she staggered back to doge another one, she realised that the person was not only armed with a dagger, but had cut her forehead so the blood would seep into her eyes to temporarily blind her. She smiled that crazy, insane smile that she was known for at taekwondo. They said when she smiled like that, RUN. her other senses were tuned perfectly from being in the wild for so many months, she punched and judging from the painful grunt and crunch that followed, she had broken yet another nose today. Let's just say that that wasn't her objective this morning when she woke up.
Troops heard more voices coming from down the hallway. She was listening to the voices and not the person in front of hers moves so that resulted in a punch in the stomach. Troops put on the other face that she was known for. YOU'VE DONE IT NOW is what the face means. Although her stomach ached she roundhouse kicked them in the head and kicked them in the shins straight after. The voices in the hallway had organised themselves and were running down the hallway and yelling.
she felt something small and sharp perce her skin. She instantly collapsed next to the two knocked out bodys on the floor though she was still fully conscious.
‘Ok, I think we need to explain what is going on before the dart wears off and she knocks us all out.’ one of the voices laughed
‘Well done Sherlock’ said another sarcastically.
‘Ok, settle down.’ this voice was older, as soon as he talked everyone hushed. Except troops.
‘Ok, so you brang me here, I knocked someone out, someone temporarily binds me,I knocked them out, and y'all came and started talking about sherlock holmes’ troops summarised.
‘Before we get into the complicated stuff, what's your name?’ the older voice asked
‘Trooper, or you could call me troops’
Whispers broke out in the crowd.
‘Thats a…. Odd name’ troops could basically hear the older boy's eyebrow raise.
‘That's not her real name!’ exclaimed the voice of hestia
‘HESTIA! YOUR SO LUCKY I CAN'T SEE YOU’ screamed troops.
She knew she was being unfair but the flower of old memories had opened.
‘ Wait, hestia…. I never told you..’ troops released.
‘ you stuttered when you told me your name was troops’ hestia admitted
‘ Tell us your real name.’ insisted the older voice.
Troops couldn't talk. She shook her head. The flashbacks here already, there was nothing she could do. She felt the presence of somebody crouching down next to her and using a rag to wipe away the blood that had poured into her eyes. As she blinked away the excess she turned and noticed a mirror that she hadn't noticed before. She was bewildered and looked it to. Her hazelish amber eyes were a lot brighter than usual. Not metaphorically, I mean literally. She looked over at Hestia who looked as bewildered as she did.
‘ your name?’ the older boy dragged on
‘ troops.’ troops forced
Now getting a look at this older kid, he looked around eighteen, had piercing green eyes and choppy blond hair. He wore a dark blue shirt and jeans like the rest of the kids.
‘ your real name.’ she could tell he was starting to lose his patience.
‘ L- Troops.’ she had almost cracked.
‘So it starts with the letter “L”. guess we have to start brainstorming.’ He directed the last part to the others.
It is not that she didn't like her real name, she actually loved it, but it opened unwanted memories and old scars felt they were reopening. She hated how this kid thought that he could just pry although she said no.
‘Oh by the way, you're not from here are you? Your accent says…. Country maybe?’ the older boy asked.
‘Australian’ with that closing note Troops sunk into the sorry excuse of a bed but Troops had been sleeping on the forest floor for ages so she immediately fell into a deep slumber.
The next day she was still in the infirmary. She was rudely awoken by hestia running in, her eyes shining and as large as dinner plates.
‘Were gonna play hide and seek today!’ she squealed shrilly like a kookaburra.
Then the older boy came in. He reached out to feel troops ' forehead but was swatted away while troops got up.
‘ To play hide and seek you need to be the last one still hiding, if you are found you will need to battle for your freedom, not to the death but until you're in a position where you can kill the other person with a flick of your wrist. You can hide anywhere in the woods, be careful of the dragons and other monsters that are let in for a little challenge but nothing too severe’ the boy said.
‘If you're gonna pressure me until I tell you my name you could at least tell me yours’ troops rolled her eyes.
‘Sorry, I'm Niles, I'm nineteen and I'm the head counsellor.’ Niles concluded.
Niles looked at troops as if assessing her. As he studied her face he looked bewildered for a moment but quickly masked it.
‘When do we play hide and seek?’ asked troops eagerly
‘Twenty minutes, well have to get you a village uniform and rank but well do that later’ he mused
Twenty minutes later troops had been given a dark blue village shirt and jeans. When hide and seek teams were being chosen, she was escorted by an extremely eager hestia to the pavilion.
When hestia and troops arrived all the teams had already been chosen. Niles was standing at the front of the villagers on a small crate that looked like if somebody put a grain of sand on it the crate would cave in resulting in many painful splinters. Niles had a look of disappointment on his face while he was rubbing his temples and trying to explain to somebody called Jack that was trying to decapitate somebody from the other team.
There are two teams, the seekers and the hiders. Pretty simple right? WRONG! There are a lot more hiders than seekers because it's like build ups. After you're found you are a seeker with the person who found you and the other people. But the catch is that the seekers have to tag the hiders they find so you could basically run free and sprint until you collapse. But who in the right mind would even consider that.
Well good thing Troops isn't in the right mind.
Troops considered her options but before she could come up with a plan the hider horn pierced through the air. Troops had no other choice but to run and improvise. As she ran towards the heart of the forest she hatched a plan. She knew what she was capable of but there was a part of herself that even she had not ventured into.
Troops sprinted into a tree. For the second time that week. Troops got up and hurriedly looked around at the trees surrounding her. She couldn't recall being here before but it all seemed so…….. Familiar.
A piercing sound disturbed her peace of mind and sent her off running.
The seeker horn.
Not long after Troops had started sprinting she heard voices shouting, leaves crunching underfoot and the painfilled wailes of defeat.
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Troops froze as she heard the familiar but unfamiliar voice. She slowly turned around in a circle but saw no one. her senses were tuned to the wild so she closed her eyes and listened. She heard nothing.
After she opened her eyes the crunching of leaves startled her out of her thoughts. About ten seekers stood in front of her all looking about as perplexed as she felt.
‘Tom, were you scouting this area?’ somebody asked
‘i checked here like a gazillion times!’ another person, who she guessed was tom, responded
A silent resolution passed between all the seekers before they started advancing from all angles towards Troops. She looked around wildly until she realised that she could fight to get out of this.Troops reached for her dagger but was met with an empty sheath.
I forgot to take it back from hestia! The realisation hit her with the force of a thousand trains. No, she couldn't fight her way out unless she used her bare fists but that would give them every opportunity to tag her. Troops glanced around in a hurried state, there was nothing around that would help.
The tree.
Of course! Troops bent down and grabbed a fallen branch. The seekers seemed to be savouring the moment before they released what she was doing. The branch was roughly around half a metre long but the reason she choses that particular branch is because of the jagged edge leading to a lethal end as pointed as a spear.The seekers were now charging at her with weapons raised.
Troops was swerving from opponent to opponent moving in a dangerous dance. She didn't realise that she was subconsciously counting how many opponents she had taken out but after she was standing face to face with the last seeker her mind screamed eleven down one to go! The thought was exciting but failed to give her any more energy. Troops was drained. she wouldn't be able to fight any more but she had to pray that she would have an adrenaline boost but for the meantime she would have to act like she was still full of energy and as ready to fight as ever.
It's that tom kid. Her mind yelled, why was she calling him “kid”? Tom was easily four years older than her eleven year old self and way more experienced.
‘Looks like its pointy stick against pointy stick’ Troops said to Tom's sword.
‘May the best pointy stick win’ He responded with a chuckle.
The seekers were looking on in amazed grins that gave Troops a feeling that they had a pretty good idea of who would win. So did she but it didn't involve her walking out of there without two dozen wounds of varying kinds.
Troops made a threatening jab but never meant or tried to hit tom. Tom on the other hand took this as an opportunity to take a swipe cutting her stick clean in half.
‘Pointy stick against half a pointy stick.’ Troops muttered,
THE TREE YOU IDIOT!! Her mind seemed to scream.
Of course! Troops ran towards the tree and years of climbing gum trees finally paid off. Tom didn't give her any time for a head start as he sprinted after her but when she reached the tree she knew she would get out of this. About a meteor and a half away from the tree she leaped and clasped her feet against the tree with enough force that she didn't fall. Troops hands were busy grasping at bark and pulling herself up the tree.
Tom looked in awe as she scaled the tree easily. Then he seemed to gather his thoughts and threw his dagger only ten rough centimetres above her hand. Troops looked at the dagger with confusion until the bark of the ancient oak tree caved and sent her falling a good twelve metres to the ground. Time slowed as Troops fell, when all hope was lost she shot her arm out and a vine dropped from the canopy of the trees and knotted around her wrist.
If you've just joined us on the hide and seek fiasco Troops is hanging seven metres in the air from a vine and her wrist. The seekers looked up at her in awe as she hung there. Troops brain finally started working again on the vine retracted like a winch yanking her up the tree and into the canopy of leaves and twigs.
Troops knew she didn't have long until they found her. Troops took a running leap and landed on the branch of the next tree. This continued through the forest until the sun started setting and she could hear people shouting.
‘Troooooooooper!’ A voice, Niles' voice, was calling her name.
Troops dropped upside down Spider-Man style about two meat ears behind him and simply said-
‘Call me troops’
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