Warning: light graphic violence. I debated marking it as mature just because it’s the first chapter and I don’t know what people are expecting, but there’s really only a few bits that might be bad, so I’m just putting this warning instead. Please, please let me know if you think it’s marked incorrectly and should be mature.

(Year 0)

A soft footstep crunched in the snow behind her.

Esfali narrowed her eyes, bringing one hand to her belt and running it across the thick, rounded disc that was attached next to her hip. The second disc behind it was separated by only a tiny bit of space; just enough for the string that was wound tightly around the center axis.

Another footstep confirmed her suspicions. She slowly slipped her middle finger into the loop the string made, but made no further move indicating that she was aware of the creature’s presence.

She could see an opening through the thick white-dusted evergreens ahead, leading to an expanse of snow just barely visible through the slowly swaying needles. Her fingers brushed across the weapon at her hip as she contemplated. Deciding she would have a better chance of living if she stayed in the trees, she carefully altered her course so that she steered away from the open expanse of snow, moving parallel to the tree line.

Fighting. Just like before. How did I think I could escape this? she asked herself in resignation. I’m so good at it, it seems to follow me no matter how far I run.

But monsters in the Forbidden Peaks could be killed. That was better than kidnapping children to overthrow the monarchy.

The snow crunched to her right, joining the soft padding she heard behind her, but she made no alteration to her posture. She walked with her head low, her tall black boots stomping through the thick, powdery snow. A cloak rested about her shoulders, its woolen hood pulled low over her head. Despite the cloak, the freezing air penetrated her thin black shirt, making her shiver.

A sudden frenzy of movement to her right alerted her of the attack. In a fluid, breathless movement, she used her left hand to fling her pack and cloak off, while using her right to quickly pull the weapon away from the belt. She turned her eyes and watched the creature as it seemed to fall toward her in slow motion, claws outstretched. With blinding speed, she turned her body toward it, ducking at the same time, and used the momentum to fling her right arm out. Her yo-yo spun outward in a flash of violet, flying with deadly accuracy to strike the monster in the chest.

The cat-like creature fell back, skidding to a halt in the snow. Esfali stood up calmly and flicked her wrist back, twitching the yo-yo up into her hand. She knew her eyes were glowing with blazing gold light, as they always did in battle. They had stopped glowing red a year ago, when she had stopped feeling emotion.

The creature was a bit larger than Esfali, which wasn’t entirely impressive given her four feet seven inches in height. She’d first seen it as feline, but now noticed some features that reminded her of a wolf as well -- a slightly elongated nose, a fluffier tail. Fur too purely black to belong to any regular animal.

After a few moments, it growled, and a second cat-like head emerged from a thick group of trees, followed by two more.

Esfali and the four creatures regarded each other, statues of dark in the world of white. Esfali could no longer feel the cold, though her cloak was resting in the snow behind her. Funny, how people back in Falcondar worship a cat for a god, she couldn’t help thinking. That wasn’t entirely true -- Dasaria was one of many gods to supposedly preside over the world -- but the fact that she was a cat still made this feel slightly ironic.

With her left hand, she brushed her raven hair behind her ear.

One of them lunged for her. She took a split moment to judge the height of its jump. Then she crouched and launched straight upward. She spread her legs and twisted, turning her jump into a spinning flip as the feline monster passed beneath her in a rush. She landed in a crouch behind it, then stood and flipped her hand outward, shooting the yo-yo forward. This time, blades popped out as it flew, singing through the air. The weapon embedded in the flesh of the beast, and it let out a hollow scream, crimson droplets coloring the snow beneath it. It turned toward her again, panting.

Esfali once again pulled the yo-yo back to her hand, and the blades retracted as it returned. This time, she didn’t have to wait. A yowl of challenge sounded behind her, and she spun around to see two of the monsters flying at her. She shot her yo-yo out to the side, and as soon as she heard it stick in the rough bark of an evergreen, she tugged the string. It wound in, pulling her off the ground. She flew through the needles and landed sideways on the trunk, holding the yo-yo’s string to keep herself from falling to the ground.

The beasts charged toward Esfali, and she didn’t pause. Grabbing a branch of the tree for a second, she threw the yo-yo out again, pulling herself to a tree behind them. This time, however, she brought the yo-yo back to her hand and jumped off of the trunk, rolling in the snow. She regained her feet and immediately sent the yo-yo out, and the blades swung free as it flew toward one of the beasts. It lithely dodged to the side and dashed to her right, while another mirrored it to her left.

The girl pulled the yo-yo back to her hand, then immediately flung it back out to the place she had just sent it. Before it fell to the ground, she twitched the string sideways, and it swung in an arc. She guided it around to her right, and it slashed inches from the pelt of what she now assumed was the Alpha. She continued to spin, but the other creature dodged as well.

Want to see another thing this can do? she thought as her yo-yo returned to her hand. She sent it out at the Alpha, but yanked back sharply before it reached the creature. The yo-yo began to spin in midair, its violet color transforming to fiery orange.

Esfali allowed herself a cocky smile, for the sake of old memories. She flicked the string, and a massive explosion burst from the spinning weapon. The two beasts who had remained in front of her were blown backward, and the recoil sent the yo-yo whizzing over her head. She held onto the string with both hands as the sheer momentum lifted her away from the trees. She pulled herself to the yo-yo, continuing her flight path for a second. Then she felt her stomach flutter as she dropped back toward the snowy ground. Through a break in the trees, she saw two dark shapes streaking across the snow toward her. After a split second, they disappeared from view as she plummeted in among the evergreens.

She realized that she was down to her last explosive charge. I’ve got other tricks, she thought wearily, saving the charge in case it would be more needed later.

The monsters burst out of the trees ahead of her and fanned out, then began to prowl forward. The Alpha bared its teeth and let out a catlike hiss.

Esfali burst into motion without any warning. She dashed to the side, her boots skimming over the powdery snow, and the creatures followed, the Alpha in the lead. She ran straight at the trees as fast as she could.

When the Alpha was about to catch her, she shot her yo-yo at a sharp angle to her right and behind her. The blades popped out and dug through the snow, into the wet ground beneath. The string pulled taut, and Esfali jumped up, swinging around in a wide arc. The wind rushed into her face as she flew around, and her boots skimmed the top of the powder, drawing a half circle on the ground. She skidded to a stop almost directly behind the creatures, digging her free hand into the snow to stop herself. Then she pulled yer yo-yo back and immediately shot it just past the Alpha’s neck as it was turning around. She flicked the string, whipping it to the side. It bent against the neck and flew into a tree, and this time the blades stayed in. It bounced off of the trunk, around the other side of the Alpha’s neck.

Esfali lunged to the side, catching the yo-yo mid flight with her left hand, then jumped over the pair of strings, twisting them beneath her. When she landed, she pulled them apart hard, pushing the twist closer to the Alpha’s neck. It tried to jerk free, but she rushed forward, pulling as much string back into the yo-yo as she could. She reached the Alpha and shoved her knee up under its belly, knocking it back, and landed with her boot pressed into its chest. Her string was still wrapped about its throat.

She bared her teeth and mirrored the hiss it had made seconds before, pulling the string as tight as she could. A growl rumbled close behind her, and she jumped up, kicking out with her legs. Her feet hit the other creature’s head with a thud. Esfali ended in a handstand on the Alpha’s chest, continuing to strangle it. It bucked beneath her, and she rolled forward, keeping a firm grip on both ends of her yo-yo. Another of the monsters lunged at her sideways, and she pushed backwards up into a handstand, then swung her legs around and connected her boots squarely to its head. She twisted around, making sure to spin the way that would make the string twist tighter about the Alpha’s neck. Her knee landed back against its chest, her other foot pressing into its head.

At last, the Alpha fell still, its head flopping down in the snow. As soon as it did, Esfali let go of the yo-yo’s discs, tugging from the loop about her finger to make it unwind from the creature’s neck. It snapped back into her hand, and she turned around to face the other three creatures. The one she had cut before eyed her nervously, its side still bleeding, then pelted into the trees. The other two, however, began to circle her.

Her eyes followed them warily, trying to keep a watch on both at the same time. Her breath came in sharp, painful gasps, and her entire chest thudded with her heartbeat. She saw the world through a veil of gold, her eyes burning steadily brighter. Every second passed by at a crawl, and time seemed to stretch for longer and longer.

They attacked in unison, and the moment of stillness ended as the world hurtled back into furious motion. Esfali lashed out with her yo-yo, striking first the monster on her right and then the other as she completed her spin. They continued their assault, and she swung her yo-yo around her at blinding speed, pulling it back and shooting it out again and again in a whirl of motion. The air was a tornado of slashing claws and singing metal. A chorus of raging snarls filled her ears as she struck out again and again, tearing into the flesh of the creatures. Clouds of matted black fur tore free from the beasts’ hides and were whipped up in the torrent of the fight before settling gently into the snow.

At last, the beasts fell back to regroup, eyeing Esfali warily. Blood dripped from long gashes in their hides, but they didn’t seem ready to quit. The girl flicked the yo-yo back to her hand, then squared her shoulders and raised her chin, giving them a glare. She couldn’t afford to show them she was getting tired; that would mark her as an easy kill. She dropped the yo-yo and let it spin for a second just above the ground, then twitched it up again.

As if responding to her unspoken dare, they attacked again, charging across the snow. Esfali ran to meet them, but at the last second, she shoved her feet out in front of her and skidded between the legs of one of the beasts. As she cleared its rear legs, she rolled onto her stomach and threw her yo-yo at it, and the blades swung free again. It caught it in the thick muscle near the base of its leg. The creature let out a howl, one that sounded more like a wolf than a cat.

The other creature spun around and charged Esfali once again. Keeping her yo-yo firmly lodged in the first one, she ran and jumped. It reacted quickly, lashing up, and caught her leg with a claw.

She fell to the ground behind it, her leg pulsing with pain as blood dripped from the long gashes in her flesh, but she didn’t scream. Instead, she yanked the string of her yo-yo to the side, rolling as fast as she could and coating her leg in snow in the process. Firmly anchored, the string caught the second creature’s feet and knocked it over.

Esfali shoved herself to her feet and forced herself to move, running around the creature she had entangled with the string. The one with her yo-yo in its leg tried to snap at her, but the string pulled against the other and held it back. The two creatures were stuck together.

One more trick, Esfali thought. She jerked the string up and then down, then pulled back sharply. The yo-yo began to glow electric red, and the string became stiff and hard as red light engulfed it. Esfali began to spin, tugging the string around, and as if the string were a pole, the two cats were swung in a wide arc around her. Finally, she lifted her hand, and the yo-yo pulsed with a blinding flash of red. The creatures were lifted into the air, hanging from the end of the stiffened string.

Esfali yanked down. The creatures smashed into the ground headfirst. A cloud of powdery snow flew up in a burst, then slowly settled away to reveal the two dead monsters.

Esfali nodded once to them. Then she pulled her yo-yo back to her hand and attached it to her belt. They did tell me the Forbidden Peaks would be hard to survive. She moved back to where she had dropped her pack and cloak and retrieved the supplies, doing her best to shake the snow out of her cloak before wrapping it around her shoulders. Lowering her head and clutching her arms to keep warm, she began to limp toward the edge of the trees, heading for the snowy plain and leaving a trail of blood behind her.