I blinked into the forest, but I didn’t stop, I blinked again and again until I felt my head start to hurt. Then I stopped, Dropped from the massive tree branch I was on, took a few unstable steps, fell to my knee’s and began to cry.

  I shuddered and my mind raced with everything. It was all too much, but I couldn’t let it show. I was a great Ninja! I was trained by the Sword master Ninja himself! I couldn’t be weak, I had to show strength and positivity.

  I wiped my tears, attempting to stand up, only to fall again. My head spun, The revelations just kept coming and coming and coming. I was a Princess?! I was royalty?! Saki, who had literally been trying to trick me into helping her suddenly cares and is my best friend?

  I felt it inside my soul. It all felt so strange. What was going on? Sensei said the world would be hard and I would face a lot. But I had just started!

  Nobody seemed to realize I could hear them. I could hear Saki talking to Talia in the hallway, I saw the way the guild looked at me. I wasn’t stupid! I was just.. I was just.. afraid.

  The word sunk in and I shook my head. NO, I wasn’t afraid, Tama did not get afraid she was the greatest ninja! The words felt hollow in my mind as I felt like I was going to throw up.

  After a moment, I pulled out the small shield and looked at its surface. I couldn’t read what it actually said, But I knew anyways. “Fuyuki Tamaneko: Third Person Tempest”. Third Person Tempest I thought of those words over and over.

  Did Saki truly see me that way? I admit, I was a bit.. rash in my actions sometimes. But I didn’t think I was this tempest! A destructive force of nature? It was true at the time I had accepted it. I felt.. safe around Saki. Every single training instinct told me that Saki was dangerous, that she was going to stab me in the back.

  But something.. deeper.. told me she was trustworthy, at least, to me. That I could trust her with my life. The conflict was hard to understand, but I needed.. someone.. to help me.

  So I chose her, and while she had lied to me and tricked me. She had only done so in a way to help me. She was right, I didn’t want to be royalty… I sniffled as that whole thing reared its ugly head.

  I was a princess?! What kind of insanity was that? I was trained my entire life in a forest in seclusion to be a ninja, and before that.. before that… I shook my head clear of the memories.

  I took a few deep calming breaths as I recalled Sensei’s training. Putting myself int a meditative stance, I closed my eyes and felt nature around me. Deep, Calm, Endless. That was nature, that was life. A never ending cycle, meant to be protected and harmonized with.

  I felt my anxiety fade and my fears simmer to a cool heat. They weren’t gone, I knew I was going to have to face them at some point, But that day was not today.

  Sensei had warned me of letting emotions simmer instead of solving them. Perhaps he was right, but Sensei was not here to fix my problems. I had to fix them alone, and I didn’t know how to do that.

  As I sat there, in slow quiet breathing meditation, I heard it before I felt it. Growling, the almost silent sound of footsteps, pawed footsteps. I kept my eyes close as I heard them surround me. They considered themselves stealthy.

  Nothing got past me though, ever. I heard the one on the right suddenly leap from the ground. In one swift motion I unsheathed Serenity and stabbed forward in the direction.

  I felt the impact and immediately swerved as I narrowly dodged the second creature. Eyes still closed, With a sharp jerk of Serenity, I felt the weight slip away as the corpse thudded to the ground.

  I ducked as the third one flew over my head and attached a water chain to my dagger before throwing it to the right at the approaching footsteps. The sound of a whine and a collapsing body signaled another down.

  Based on my estimations, three left. I jerked the water chain and the dagger flew back to me. I caught it as I swerved to the right, twisting as I stabbed down. I impacted something another high pitched whine and another body hitting the ground.

  Two. I summoned my veil right as one of the remaining managed to hit me from behind. I smiled as it made contact, simply spinning in a one-eighty arc and pushing my bare hand against its fur. A sharp dagger made of water formed out of my hand impaling the creature in its chest.

  The water dagger faded right as I stepped back, ducking in time to dodge the last one as it flew over my. I put away my real dagger and grabbed Serenity in both hands again.

  Eyes still closed, I used a mixture of my wind and shot water into the air around me. I sped up the water to quicker and quicker speeds. I felt the whistling of the water as it sped around me at alarming speeds.

  Then I heard it, the sound of a body hitting the barrier and bouncing off. I dropped the barrier and slashed in the direction. I made contact and the slice was clean. The last body fell to the ground.

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  I waited, perking my ears up. Tail on standby as I listened carefully for anything. Silence filled the forest, the predators that had attacked me having scared off the local wildlife.

  Slowly, I stood and sheathed Serenity. Putting her back in her sheath before slowly opening my eyes. Around me five wolves lay dead, each stabbed or cut by one of my blades. My eyes narrowed suspiciously.

  Wolves weren’t normally in this part of the forest, unless I had gone deeper then I thought, which wasn’t likely. Even in turmoil I always knew my way around this forest. Massive though it was, it had been my home my entire life.

  I walked over to one of the wolves and looked closely at it. It looked hungry, Like it had not eaten in weeks. I frowned at that, normally the wolves were well fed by the local wildlife. Things were not adding up.

  I decided I should investigate, I looked at the wolves corpses for a moment before shaking my head, I would have to come back later. If another carnivore got them first, well. It wasn’t like I was overly hungry.

  I jumped into one of the trees upper branches and began jumping from tree to tree, sprinting in the direction the wolves had come from originally.

  I didn’t blink as I needed to keep my senses open. My ears remained perked up and my tail swayed in the breeze, helping me navigate better and keep my balance.

  I didn’t get very far before the smell hit me. A stench so strong it made me scrunch my nose. It was so painful. It reminded me of… I tripped on a branch as my mothers dead eyes flashed into my vision and I feel from the tree, catching myself by stabbing my dagger into the tree, I climbed back up and sat there for a moment.

  It was undeniable, I knew that smell. That was the smell of the horrible things that had killed my family. My mothers dead eyes played in my heads again, her face a Richter of horror. Tears filled my eyes but I wiped them away.

  Rage filled me, but I calmed myself with deep breaths. This part of the forest was normally protected by my Sensei, it was the outer edge, but it was an area he patrolled regularly. Surely, he would have noticed this smell?

  This was all kinds of wrong on so many levels. There was no way Sensei would have been unaware. That made a shiver run down my spine. There were only three possibilities that Sensei wasn’t here fixing this.

  The first was that he simply had been and it took time to heal. This one felt the least likely, and the most hopeful one she had.

  The second option was that he simply didn’t think to fix the problem. This one was not only heavily unlikely, but extremely against her Sensei’s nature.

  Which left the third option, and the one that she didn’t even want to consider. That whatever had done this.. NO. He wouldn’t have died like this. That couldn’t have happened.

  Even so, I had to admit it was the most likely scenario from a logical perspective. Sensei would have never let this happen if he were alive. Fear began to ebb into me at an alarming rate.

  I couldn’t take it anymore, Sensei had told me to never return, But I had to know. Something was very wrong. I would just pop in for a quick look and leave before he noticed me. In and out! I could do it right?

  I started sprinting toward the cabin at full speed, The smell became stronger and stronger and my fear only grew. After only a few minutes I started blinking to get there faster.

  When I finally reached the farm cabin, it had been two days. I was starving, I had not eaten or rested. My eyes were bloodshot. But I had finally arrived. I hopped down from a tree and walked into the farm clearing.

  My blood turned to ice and tears welled in my eyes, I fell to me knees at what I saw. no..no That’s all I could say, that’s all I could think.

  In front of me lay the ruins of my childhood home. Decay and rot filled the air, the pigs, the chickens, all undead wandering the farm. My Sensei, a mindless husk standing in the torn apart cabin. His skin gray and lifeless, His eye sockets empty and devoid of life.

  My body moved before my mind did. None of the undead animals put up any resistance and were dead before they had time to take another step. I stood at the food of the destroyed cabin looking up at the man I had once called my Sensei, his lifeless eyes stared back at me.

  I walked up to him, and with a swift motion, I freed him from his undeath. His head rolled on the floor and his body collapsed unmoving, finally at peace.

  I fell to my knees, my tail wrapping around me as my ears flattened on my head. I felt my world shattering and all I could do was sit there with a cold distant look. Fear was gone, Hunger was gone, only one emotion remained, emptiness.

  I don’t know how long I sat there, minutes? Hours? Days? It didn’t really matter. I didn’t really care anymore. I pulled serenity, its calming waves not enough to comfort me anymore. I raised it and pointed at my chest as tears began to streak down my face. I closed my eyes.

  What do you think your doing? Tama turned around to see her Sensei smiling down at her. “I..” She caught herself as her voice sounded.. young. “You know better then to go and give up like that! taught you better!”

  Her sensei said, looking down at her in the same way he always had. A kind if stern smile on his face. “But, I.. You don’t understand!” I said, trying to get the words out. But he simply shook his head.

  “I understand perfectly, You planned to give up because you are upset and feel like a failure do you not?” His raised eyebrow caused me to wince.

  “I.. yes.. but you are…” He raised a hand before I could finish. “No Tama! I am not important in this. The only person that matters is you. One day, I may not be around anymore. You need to keep moving forward. That is the path of a true ninja! Do not expect me to be there to always clean up your messes!”

  I began to sob “You made it sound so easy!” I said as my voice cracked. “But it’s so hard, and I can’t do it!”

  “You can, You are an ocean in a drought. The endless optimism, the one and only Future Ninja who will save this land.” He said simply as he looked at her.

  “BUT I’M NOT YOU SENSEI” I screamed at him using all I had left. He simply smiled at me and saying “I know, and that’s what makes you better.”

  I stared at my Sensei for a long moment, speechless. The memory, for that’s all it was, a memory. Caused me to pause, I slowly lowered Serenity and looked at it. For Sensei, I would continue. For Sensei, I would stop whoever did this and above all, I would complete my quest.