Suvudu Universe

Not quite right - Tammi would almost certainly have plaited her hair!

Tammi cleaned off her knife and held it up to the light. Sunlight glittered on along its edge.
     ‘For an eating knife, it must be very sharp,’ commented Zavardi.
     ‘It is very sharp,’ replied Tammi. ‘My mother gave it to me when I left home, and she had leather pockets sewn into all my boots and shoes so I could always carry it.’
     ‘Ladies carry no weapons in my country,’ said Edeanna. Her voice sounded disapproving. ‘We carry our eating knives only, hanging from our belts.’
     Tammi stowed the knife safely back in her boot and smiled nicely at Edeanna. ‘My father is a great believer in women being able to defend themselves. I trained at arms with my brothers, and I can still beat the younger ones.’
     ‘Is that so, Tammi?’ Beverak was looking at her as if she’d suddenly sprouted another pair of limbs.
     ‘It is so, my lord.’ Tammi grinned at her husband.
     Beverak scrambled to his feet and made for the horses. ‘Wait a minute,’ he called back over his shoulder. ‘I’m going to put you to the test.’
     He was soon back, bearing a small bow and a quiver of arrows. ‘Borrowed it from one of the older pages,’ he explained. ‘It should be just right for your size and weight. Do you reckon you can hit that sapling on the other side of the stream?’
     Tammi stood up and took the proffered weapon. ‘Of course I can. In fact, my lord, I’ll lay you a wager. My little knife against the silver pin on your cloak that I can hit not that sapling, but the bigger one atop the far bank.’
     ‘But that one must be thirty yards away,’ said Melrad. ‘Surely a girl can’t shoot that far.’
     His voice carried an undertone of ‘a girl can’t shoot at all,’ and Tammi was determined to prove him wrong. ‘I can shoot much farther than that, and hit the target. This is only a little bow, brother, or I would show you.’ She found an arm brace tucked into the quiver and deftly strapped it onto her left arm single-handed. She chose an arrow, examined it, discarded it as being unbalanced, and selected another. She nocked it, took her stance, raised the bow...
     The arrow flew in a glorious arc like a bird flying to its roost, but with a satisfying thwunk that no bird would have made. Tammi lowered the bow and held out her hand to Beverak.
     Shaking his head in disbelief, Beverak reached for his cloak and removed the pin.
     ‘Well shot, sister,’ said Volran. ‘If we ever have cause to go to war, we’ll add you to our archers!’
     Tammi smiled her thanks and stuck the pin into the fabric of her gown. Beverak kissed her on the cheek and whispered,  ‘I’ll put you to a different test tonight,’ and Tammi had to stifle a giggle.
     Melrad picked up the bow Tammi had discarded and examined it closely. ‘How on earth did you manage that with this paltry toy?’
     Volran and Beverak peered over his shoulder as he tried to replicate Tammi’s feat, and soon they were in competition and Beverak had gone to find more arrows while his brothers stood arguing about trajectories and angles.
     Edeanna looked quite put out by Tammi’s success, but she simply changed the subject. ‘I wonder if the stream is very cold?’
     ‘Let’s find out!’ Zavardi took off her shoes and hose and dabbled her toes in the water. ‘Ooh, yes, it’s cold!’ she shrieked.
     Edeanna dipped her hand and frowned. ‘No, not cold! In my country, the streams are frozen already! But swim I would not.’
     Tamirayne laughed. Like Zavardi, she had removed her footwear. ‘You are both cowards. Look at me!’ And she was in the water and away, hitching her skirts ever higher as she waded upstream, carrying her boots and hose in the other hand.
     ‘Defeated by Aristand I will not be!’ Edeanna exclaimed. Tammi turned to see that she had also got rid of her shoes and hose and had taken to the water.
     Zavardi must have felt she had to uphold the honour of Kyrisia, for she was following Tammi and Edeanna in the time it took to blink. Only a few yards upstream, however, she stopped to admire a berry-laden shrub and called to Edeanna, who waded back to join her.
     Tammi went on alone. The water was certainly cold, but she wasn’t going to let Edeanna see that it troubled her. Once she was out of sight of the party, she scrambled back onto the bank and sat down, rubbing her feet to warm them before replacing her hose and boots. She stood up, shaking her skirts. Despite her care, the hems were sodden. Perhaps it hadn’t been such a good idea to go paddling after all.
     As she was wringing the hems, a swishing noise overhead caught her attention. A shadow made her think it was a huge bird, but no bird of that size would be flying within the forest. As she turned on the spot, a hand shading her eyes in an effort to see the strange creature, the swishing sound came again, and this time she caught a glimpse of its source.
     A huge bat ... but was it? No bat was ever that big. And its legs — they looked human! Tammi stifled a scream, cramming both fists to her mouth.
     The creature vanished over the trees, and Tammi took a deep breath. She must have been mistaken about the legs. She must ask Beverak about the bats here. Maybe they were bigger than the ones at home.
     But the creature returned, and its next pass, lower than the last, cured her of any idea that this was any kind of bat. It had a human — or almost human — face. Its whiteless eyes glistened unrelieved green. Matching slime dripped from vicious incisors. It was close enough for her to catch a whiff of its stench, reminiscent of pond slime laced with manure.
     Tammi screamed. And ran.
Picture courtesy of http://www.123rf.com/