Make me ruthless

Rán was the sound of rolling thunder that forebode a coming storm. She had barely slept, but still she had dressed herself for battle at the crack of dawn. She exchanged all those pretty woolen dressed with leather and cotton, and only the sides of her hair were quickly braided. She looked as if she was ready to kill, and Ranaan had to make sure to not to let someone unfortunate cross her path.

‘‘I've had it till here,’’ the woman exclaimed when she entered the training grounds where her guards resided whenever the Trygg family visited Ishgard. ‘‘Everybody in this place is mental. And it brings out the worst in everybody.’’ Her gaze found her captain of the guard. Arkyn was with her this trip to Ishgard, as were some of his warriors. It was all just for show, it was not like she could not protect herself. But she had two imbeciles of siblings who needed constant baby-sitting. They were trying to get themselves killed or killing each other, no in between.

How was she ever supposed to make it seem their family was still one of the toughest, most purest Odirian families? Everything went down to the drain without her father. She never realized what an anchor he had been to this family. But now he was gone, everything she had ever trained for seemed futile. She wanted to scream, she wanted to cry, she wanted to hit something. She tossed a sword towards Arkyn, for him to catch or get thrown in the dirt, she dit not care. She grabbed another, turning it in her hand, while she rummaged further through the supplies, creating havoc as she was. ‘‘And where is my fucking shield?!’’

Rán did not hear the steal clatter to the ground, so she assumed Arkyn must have caught it. It was the only thing that made a small smile wrinkle on her lips. They both knew what would follow next. And then she heard boots skit through sand, while a pebble skipped it's way towards her and hit a round piece of wood. And then came the clever remarks.

Rán kept her back turned to him while she stood for a while, him asking about her brother. ‘‘Him, her, both. All of them.’’ She bend down to grab the round shield and attach the grip tightly around her left arm. It was the people in this town that drove her mad. Her siblings were some of them, but also the fucking sorcerers. Rizals came to her like moth on a flame, trying to pick her clean. They were all after her family name and she had no idea how to protect or strengthen it with these idiots trying to get them all killed.

Rán turned the sword in her hand for a few times. ‘‘I don't want to talk about it.’’ The governess turned around, swinging her sword at Arkyn. She expected him to block her, she expected him to challenge her. ‘‘I wan't to fight. And you are the only one that I can hit without anyone screaming at me.’’

Rán's sword was met with steel. They were locked in this moment for a while why she looked up at him, their eyes meeting. He had this grin on his lips and she noticed that the other men were making themselves scarce. When did he order that? She did not even noticed, probably to busy with herself. The authority he had over these men was understandable. Arkyn was the strongest man she knew. He was ridiculously skilled and he worked two swords as if it was nothing. Not in a million years Rán would beat him in a sword-fight, even though she had been training for years and years too. But she would try for a million years if she had to. Giving up was just not her kind of style.

His words made her crack a small smile. Cheeky little fellow, he was. ‘‘You would like that, wouldn't you?’’ she said with a huff. ‘‘But my bet is on you. I tend to make little boys scream.’’ A glimmer of amusement shone in her eyes before his second sword was coming and she brought her shield up. A dull thud sounded when his sword made contact with the wood and Arkyn came forward. Rán twirled around and brought her sword backhanded from her hip towards Arkyn. She quickly fell in the rhythm of fighting again. It was like she was ten years younger again, where she didn't have to worry about anything but trying to keep up with the boys. And she could, and she would again.

Rán laughed when he said he wanted plenty more. She had not expected to lift spirits so soon, but somehow did that remark make her smile a bit. She looked from behind her shield at him, her stormy eyes amused. ‘‘Come get it then,’’ she said, before diving into her next attack. And with a challenge, both of them fell into the sparring, the ring of steel on steel filled the air.

Rán was not focused at first, her movements big and brutal. She just wanted to hit and she wanted to hit as hard as she possibly could. But fighting was like muscle memory, she soon twisted and turned with more accurate precision. Waiting for a moment that Arkyn would make a mistake, for her to strike though his defense. She fought against bigger men before and won, only because her technique was superior. But Arkyn was as good with a sword, if not better, then any knight trained at the royal castle.

And when she started to become more balanced, he started to push heavier against her. So she let him come, stepping back for one, then two steps, keeping her shield high to collect the blows, heels dug in the sand. But when he swung again, she dived under his sword and tried to slam her shield to the side of his knee, quickly turning to push her sword up to parry an expecting blow.

Rán was never careful. That was a words that did not exist in her dictionary. She would often act on impulse, do before thinking. And it usually worked out perfectly fine. It made her intimidating, strong, to stubborn to ever back down. And when she was angry, like today, she could only tolerate a few people around her. It often resulted in her doing things like this, fighting, hunting or riding out. But she had to admit, this was very close to actually having fun. Because what was more fun than the threat of losing a few fingers.. or a limb?

Arkyn proved to be devilishly hard to hit. Rán had found her head again for a bit, because she was no longer fighting to actually hurt him. It was more like a dance at this point, but just trying to find a weak spot in the other's defense. Arkyn did not show weakness, as he managed to get his big body out of the way just in time, every time she started to push closer. So when she lifted her sword high, her right hand trembling slightly as they locked eyes again for a moment. He just hummed and she pushed back at the steel again. She knew what was coming next, and as she was already slightly out of breath, she would just have to bite down.

Rán backed down, shield above her head. Arkyn was picking up the pace so much, she could only keep up, rather than striking out. She was still looking for a weak spot, but she had to watch out for two swords coming at her. And then she had to drop her shield low to stop him from making a deadly gash in her leg. And before she knew it she had dropped on her knee. ‘‘Fuck me-’’ she muttered on her breath. She twisted her sword in a last effort to slam into his hand.

Rán loved to fight, that much was clear. Ever since she was a little girl, she had reveled with the sound of clashing steel in the air. It had been clear from the start that she preferred the sword over anythings else. She wanted to see the fight up close, she wanted to feel the risk, to see fear in the eyes of her opponent. But never had she really had in a proper war. The closest she came to real battles, were some skirmishes with Northern raiders.

But the governess had been bested today. She had to keep her shield high to not lose a strand of straw-blonde hair. But in her last moment of frustration, she had been able to strike true and the clatter of a falling blade sounded to music in her ears. But Arkyn pointed his other sword at her nose and she huffed a smile. And after his words she chuckles and looked to the ground for just a moment. That was a whole different kind of rush. And she would not allow herself to be flustered while she could basically feel the other guards watching at a distance. Rán dropped her shield and fell let herself drop to the ground wholly, catching her breath in the moment. ‘‘Good fight, Arkyn,’’ she commented with a pouty face and looked back up at him, not so subtlety ignoring his remark. Rán pushed his sword out of her face with a hand as she used her sword to push herself on her feet again.

Well, on thing had helped with this fight, her mind was a lot clearer now. ‘‘I was going easy on you,’’ she lied to him with a cheeky smile. Because after all, Rán was a sore loser. She threw the sword down with her shield and she looked back at him, while she took a step closer. ‘‘And I don't ask for anything.’’ She blinked slowly as she looked back up at him. She raised her brow shortly, before lowering her gaze. ‘‘Let me take a look at that,’’ she ordered him as she pointed at his bloody hand.