<span class="bbc_u"><strong>Name</strong></span>: Kiara<br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Location</span></strong>: The Streets of Atro City<br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Time</span></strong>: 11:45pm<br/><strong><span class="bbc_u">Tagged</span></strong>: Non-specified, open to interpretation for later posts<br/><br/>(<strong>Note:</strong><em>This is written in the <strong>first person, diary form</strong> for artistic effect and won't be continued until dramatically called for again</em>.)<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Que Music: Eternity and a Day - Paul Haslinger - Underworld OST</div><div class="spoiler_body">[noembed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FMD3t0KBA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FMD3t0KBA)[/noembed]</div></div><br/>"I love the night. The cool air seemingly releasing the oppressive pressure of the heat of the day. The darkness. That knife's edge of moisture in the air just before the rain starts to fall. I intend to pace myself tonight. I have yet to find a drinker worthy of a spent arrow. Random take-downs haven't been smart business moves in a long while. Too much blow-back. There are too many victims now. Too many drinkers who are getting more and more overconfident in their pickings to sate their thirst. It quickly becomes more than I could keep up with. All the while, the more I take down, the more I attract larger and more well organized groups of them. No I have to choose carefully to maintain my advantage.<br/><br/>"I move along the rooftops and fire escapes now. Much more at ease than before. I recently modified my prior hip-bone bow hook to be a part of my newly designed wide-mouth quiver. Rather than your normal cylindrical quiver that never really fit right on the back and negated the ability to place other items on top of a long shaft, the wide-mouth quiver opening was designed as a curve that more closely followed the exact contour of my back. Not perfect, mind you. The arrows still needed to go in straight, but the wide mouth opening allowed me to place ten arrows side by side in a V shape and allowed other gear to be wrapped around the flattened design. Other gear, like my bow hook and riser which I modified to fit on the back of the quiver itself. It allowed me to "hook" my bow, Athena, along the stabilizer, keeping it steady and stiff, freeing my hands to allow all of my freedom of movement back when not needing to have her ready at a moments notice, though I did have a quick release button that allowed me to nock arrows within a matter of double-digit seconds. When I need to be ready with Athena at any moment, there was only place for her to be; within my hands.<br/><br/>"Every so often as I make my way in between Atro's buildings, the fire escapes and the rooftops, I will quickly lower my low-light goggles and take a peak along the alleyways. Drinkers like to do their dirty work in out of the way corners like that. Tonight... nothing. Which actually is unusual.<br/><br/>"And then I see it. Not in an alleyway, but just simply<em>walking</em>along the sidewalk.  I don't need any sophisticated low-light goggles to spot this one. She, and yes, I could tell it was a she, is walking right out along the sidewalk.   Correction. Drinkers as they are, never really just<em>walk</em>. You can always spot a drinker from a crowd of<em>norms</em>.<em>Norms</em>on the street briskly rush between street light to street light, eschewing the dark for a false sense of security beneath the cheap amber lighting of the city of Atro. Drinkers don't briskly walk... or even walk. They more float or glide at an even steady pace from spot to spot. Much like when you watch one of those movies filmed at forty-eight frames per second or higher. That sense of unnatural faster than normal movement is spotted in your subconscious eye. That's how I spot this one. She is pretty, I could tell, pretty but<em>damned</em>.<br/><br/>"Luckily, she is going to pass below me. I reach behind my back and grasp Athena at her grip as I steady myself against the fire escape. I press the release attached to my quiver strap and Athena falls into my grasp. I steady my breathing and slow my heart rate while moving Athena out in front of me.  I reach back and pull one of the ten arrows out of my quiver and start to nock it. Not sure who she is but she seems to be on a mission. I breathe in steadily. I consider whether this take-down is worth it. She is not connected in any way to my current protected victims as far as I know. I breathe out steadily. I line up the release.<br/><br/><div class="floatleft"><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Kiara nocked at the ready</div><div class="spoiler_body"><pre>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/4d/Kiaranocked.jpg)</pre></div></div></div>I wait.... I hesitate... I'm not entirely sure why... I feel... an unnatural fear as if my role as hunter is reversing. I look over my shoulder for just an instant, just based on instinct.<br/><br/>"Hesitation and delays happen all the time. Every time they happen they offer the universe a random opportunity to change the direction and fate of it's participants. The universe today takes advantage of that opportunity.<br/><br/>"Before I even conceived the thought of release, a K-9 stalks up behind the drinker with unnatural speed and with one well placed swipe of it's claw beheads the drinker. Undead blood spills on the streets. I breathe in quickly now, re-aim my release at the K-9 who just as quickly escapes into the alleyways and darkness. What I am doing... the K-9 did me a favor. Why punish it just for that?<br/><br/>"I relax my nock. And I stop to think as the body falls and bleeds out. What the hell did I just witness... and why? I know that some one in the streets will notice the body, the blood and the papers within minutes... wait, papers?<br/><br/>"I slide my arrow back in it's quiver and swing Athena around my back, with much practice locking her stabilizer into the modified mount on my back. I feel her lock into place and start to move down the fire escapes. I will not need to walk far from the alleyway that I came down into. I scope around the location, flipping on the low-light vision, just in case. Nothing again. I make my move before it's too late.<br/><br/>"I grab one of the papers. Not papers, envelopes... formal envelopes, stamped with a very specific symbol of wax. I know this symbol. I've seen it before. I believe I know what I hold in my hand. I need time to read this carefully. I make my escape from the location, back up to the building tops, heading in a loose direction back to my safehouse. Sometimes the universe takes advantage of opportunities created by hesitations."<br/><br/>"Sometimes, A Huntress does the same..."<br/><br/>"The rain starts to fall... and I feel... Soon, I will become the hunted..."<br/><br/><br/>