This is essentially a piece that I wrote for an English Language project two years back, and since I haven't posted anything in this section for a while, I figured I'd post this, at the urging of a couple of friends. So here it is. I'd appreciate CnC, as always. Spoiler Suddenly feeling herself being dragged, Recora Sakura Layfield strained to open her eyes.Painful as it was, she managed to do so, and looked up to see whom it was dragging her, and to where. Two male humans, holding one arm each. The one on her right wore a dark green shirt and pants, with similarly coloured, heavy, metal boots. His head was shaved, and his ears were rounded, proving his humanity, but she could distinguish nothing of his face in her present condition. The man on her left wore an identical outfit, this one black in colour. He had a full head of hair, with apparently little effort taken to style or adjust it. Like with the green-suited man, she could not see his face properly while in her distorted condition. Exhausted from an ordeal she could not remember, and from being dragged by her pair of faceless escorts, she drifted back into a trance-like sleep. Opening her eyes, several minutes later, to the sound of a steel door slamming, Recora tried to take note of her surroundings. She blinked rapidly for a moment, hoping to clear some of the blur that occupied her vision. Finally her eyesight returned enough that she could see her now-cellmate. Immediately, Recora could tell that this girl was unusual. She had the rounded ears of a human, but had bright scarlet-red hair, a bizarre colour for human hair, which she must have been quite proud of judging by her clothes, as where there was no black, there was an identical shade of red on them. In a way, this was similar to Recora’s style, as her medium-blue hair matched well with her primarily navy coloured outfit. Finally feeling a twinge of strength, Recora hauled herself upright. “Take it easy, you don’ wanna be standin’ up too fast, now.” The red-haired girl said softly. Recora shortly realised she was correct, when she felt a sharp, but short-lasting, pain run down her side. As she winced, she felt the girls arms helping her up, before laying her down on something impossibly uncomfortable; a bed. Opening her eyes again, Recora saw the red-haired girl whisper something to herself, and a small but bright light travel between them. She recognised it as a Lunn healing technique, meaning that this girl had some Lunn blood in her, explaining the unusual hair colour. The red-haired girl opened her own eyes, and smiled. About half of an hour later, the girl had explained a little of the situation they found themselves in. Her name was Remmi Taylor, the offspring of Arumat Taylor, a red-haired Lunn, and Elizabeth Tanaka, a human. She and Recora had been placed in Prison 21, which was under the ownership of a group known as ETC, or Etcetera, which in turn stood for End To Conflict. ETC was apparently a peace activist group, but had recently come under new leadership, and become much stronger for it. In order to secure the assistance of her father, they had taken Remmi as a hostage, but Remmi admitted she knew little of why her father was so important to ETC’s new leader. Recora had been silent throughout the entire explanation, taking in everything Remmi had said carefully. “Still tired, huh?” Remmi observed, “your bed’s jus’ there, so you get some rest an’ we’ll talk some other time.” Recora nodded an agreement and, almost immediately after laying on the bed, fell into a deep sleep. Waking up after just two hours, Recora sat up with a jolt. She looked around, and could swear something was missing from the cell. Suddenly it dawned on her, Remmi was gone. Almost a million thoughts flashed through her mind as to what may have happened, all at once. Did Etcetera take her? Was she hurt? Was she even still alive? Amidst the silence, a slow, light, tapping sound came from behind the cell door. Then again. And a third. Slowly and carefully, Recora crept towards the door, preparing herself for the worst. Faster than she could react, the door swung open, almost coming off of its latches. Standing in the now-open doorway, was Remmi. Remmi smirked at her, waving a keycard in her hand like a fan. Though the sudden appearance of her friend had just shocked her, she could do nothing to stop herself from letting out a short, giggling laugh. They stood there, sharing their silent joke together for a long moment, but a sharp thumping noise, from the farthest corridor, snapped them out of their pleasant reunion. “Alright, follow me closely, and don’t make a sound,” Remmi instructed in a loud whisper “They won’ be so easy ta’ trick a secon’ time.” After a few minutes of quietude and running, the unlikely duo came to a large door that bore a bizarre scripture upon it. Though not having time to attempt to translate it, Recora inferred that it led to the guards quarters, and that the exit would be somewhere through it. “Make or break time, huh?” Remmi whispered back at her, her fingers dancing above the door handle. Nodding that she was ready, Recora held her breath in anticipation of the guard’s charge. The steel door opened with a whine, and the pair sprinted in, arms raised in preparation to fight their way out. But no surprised yelps or knowing shouts where heard in response, only the sound of the door sweeping shut automatically. The guards were nowhere to be seen. The two half-Lunns peered around themselves in semi-disbelief. The two of them, Taylor and Layfield, saw nothing but a few carelessly slung weapons, and what appeared to be a pair of sunglasses, with orange lenses. Picking them up and examining them for a moment, Recora decided that as these people had stolen her freedom, albeit temporarily, she too was going to take something of theirs. Placing the peculiar item upon the bridge of her nose, she turned to Remmi. The red-haired girl had apparently conjured a similar decision, placing a double-ended shockstaff on her back, and tossing a pair of matching shortswords to Recora. “Jus’ in case they ever catch up wi’ us,” she explained, raising her arms slightly in a shrug, “I don’ expec’ ya’ to attack nobody or anythin’.” Upon slipping the deadly instruments into her belt loops, she followed Remmi as she opened a second door, into the beautifully green outdoor world that she loved so much. Once they had walked relatively out of sight from the ugly prison, they stopped. Looking at each other, they somehow both knew that they would have to part ways here. Surprisingly, Recora initiated the conversation. “Why’d you come back for me? It would’ve been so much easier to do it alone” she asked, sincerely. “Well,” began Remmi’s reply, “Call me stupid, but I fel’ like I’d known ya’ forever. An’ besides, I couldn’ jus’ leave ya’ there ta’ rot.” “Thanks.” She looked to her side for a moment and added, “So what now?” “Well, I got a lil’ unfinished business back there, crazy as i' sounds” was Remmi’s reply. There was a long pause between them, as her words confirmed what they had already known. As if assuring both herself and Recora, Remmi smiled up at her. “Don’ worry yourself none, we’ll meet again” she said, matter-of-factly, “I’m sure of tha'.” “Yeah, you’re probably right” was Recora’s reply, and she managed another smile. They exchanged a brief hug and then Remmi turned, walking back towards the place they had, only a short while ago, liberated themselves from. Recora watched her as she shrank to a mere dot on the horizon, and then as she disappeared from her view completely. Looking up at the crimson, evening sky, she quietly said something to herself, and then took the first few steps back towards her home. “I guess maybe there are still good people in the world.”
Nice read, not much to say here. It was a lovely story (making me want to rethink my opinions of the hearts of people in this world) Actually I kind of want to know what happens next, at least to Remmi. Going back into that place . . . What reasons she had . . . If they do meet up again . . . I would definitely like to read more. Though, as a short story this is pretty stand-alone. The one thing I could say was that perhaps there wasn't enough detail into the background stories for the two of them. A lot gets left to the imagination of the reader. I'm not saying everything should be written in stone, but a little more to go on would have been great. Then again, perhaps explaining such things in a chapter/short story like this isn't that great . . . I digress. Your story was excellent, even for an English project.
