Zoa Two Tails
Cloak and Dagger Artist
Long Summer Nights
It was a quiet summer night. I was just sitting there around the fire. The boys and I were telling of how we came to be the assassins that we are today. Just as Sebastian finished his tale of his first contract the group fell upon me to be the last storyteller of the night just as they always do.“You’re up Zoa;” was crisply heard from Louis “tell them of what your brothers got for messing with you on the full moon.”
“Well I guess it was officially time to come clean with the group about what happened that night. It wasn’t a random werewolf attack like they had always been misled to believe. No, no it was much more fearsome than that.” As I finally found the words to begin my story I remembered what it felt like to go through that day again. “It was in the brisk morning air when it all started. The village was just beginning to awaken and as the sun rose I was once again reminded of my left arm. I was pushed to the outskirts of this society because of my birth defect. The only thing I could look forward to each day was the fear of what was soon to happen. People had always picked on me because I couldn’t defend myself properly because it was half-sized. I only had one good arm the other was just something fill the sleeves of my shirt.”
To start each day my two older brothers would come through the trees to taunt me once again. Every day this would happen and every day they would make the same gestures about my arm as they shouted names like “half-man,” and “stubby.” I would then roll out of my hammock and start the day off by walking back into the village to complete my usual morning chores. Throughout the village people would assign me various tasks that were so menial and redundant that I would finish them within minutes. They would have me clean the dishes used from the last night to be ready for the breakfast that was being cooked. Then as everyone else would eat I would begin to chop wood to bring to the blacksmith so he could forge weapons and armor for the tribal hunters and invaders. When everyone was done eating the chef would compile the scraps onto a plate and I would finally get some breakfast to start my day off with. The dishes would need washed again and then my morning would be finished so that way I could have some time to myself.
During my free time in the days I would usually spend my time training myself so I could finally become one of the invaders. My short arm could be used to hold a shield and my other a sword but nobody believed I could last in a battle. The only equipment I had was some basic wooden training equipment because I didn’t have enough money to have the blacksmith make me some iron or steel weapons and armor. This time things would be different though and I went to go steal my two older brothers’ bows. I was getting fed up with them bullying me so I was going to get back at them by stopping them from going on the hunt to slay a bear that had mauled my mother. Nobody believed me when I told them I could become the greatest killing machine this village has ever seen and this was the only way to get a chance to prove it to them. They shunned me like usual though and my father went with a few hunters to track and slay the bear.
When my brother found out that their bows were missing they were forced to stay behind and watch the village to make sure nothing harmed it while the group was away. I hid the bows in the trees above my hammock on the outskirts of the village so they wouldn’t find them. This didn’t work though because just as the night began to fall, the wind began to blow and their bows tumbled out from the trees above.
This just so happened to catch their eye and they began to get infuriated with what they saw. They knew those two trees were the ones that held my hammock so they thought I had stolen them. They were right but that didn’t change was happened next. It first started out with a few questions.
“So Zoa how did these bows get up in your trees?” they would say. “They didn’t climb up there on their own did they?”
It was then that I knew they would become violent so I tried to punch then in the nose with my right arm but they only dodged it and threw an uppercut into my ribs. The fight was on and they wanted to teach me a lesson and pay me back for what I did. My eldest brother wrestled me to the ground and began to choke me out. It was then when I began to feel the barrage of punches hit me in the body and head. Before I knew it was over I was out cold just lying in the dirt as they walked away.
This was proverbial straw that broke the camels’ back of what I like to call rage. When I awoke in pain after about two hours it was midnight and everyone was sleeping in the village. The only light was in the fires and the only witness’s to what would happen next were sleeping on the guard’s towers. I snuck into the village and stole a steel dagger, a steel sword and shield and some leather armor from the blacksmith’s shop. I then went into their huts and slit their throats with the dagger I stole from the blacksmith and walked out of the village like nothing even happened. I was forced to run from my tribe at this point only to be chased by a group of the invaders who wanted revenge for what I had done.
My only saving grace was that there was a kind group of hunters that I stumbled upon that took me in. If this hadn’t happened I would have never learned how to stand up for myself against the people who try to keep me down. With the tribe infuriated these hunters became my new family and we would fight off anyone that was sent to kill me. Eventually a shadow assassin was sent to kill me but instead took me into his ranks for noticing that I finally stood up for myself. He saw the change that happened that fateful night and killed the hunters I was with to get me by myself. It was only then that I realized what I had become, or rather what society had made me become. I became what society feared the most; an assassin who would kill anyone who stood in his way or had a good enough price on their head. Eventually I only kept my dagger and leather armor that I had stolen from the blacksmith. This was all I needed. This was all I had.
“Well that was my story about how I became the feared person I am today, now let’s get some sleep. All of this smoke is making me tired.”
