The chest.

[Claws]

          The chest.


Kei awoke from her light sleep with a start.
Her hand moved around the worn handle of her dagger ready to strike.
She searched the darkness but she knew deep down nobody was there it was the same nightmare that had awoke her again.
The same nightmare she had been having for the last few weeks.
Bathed in sweat she laid back down on her cot, not wishing to go back to sleep.

The day started with its normal red glow to the sky and the sound from the traders setting up there stalls.
Kei sat up and looked at her light armour it was her turn to do the rounds of the city, her turn again to patrol, it seemed it was always her turn.

She stopped and looked at her wolf mask on the cabinet beside the cot.
Lifting it of the stand she turned it over and over in her hands.
Something was wrong something had changed she could not put her finger on it but there was a change in the air.
She sat on the edge of the cot for what seemed like hours not moving but starring at her wolf helm.
She finally dropped the helm to the floor and her gaze moved to the iron bound chest at the foot of her cot.

It was a very old chest.
Rust pitted the iron bands running around it, the lock looked like it would drop at the slightest touch.
But she knew what looked like a simple lock was way beyond her skills or anybody else’s she also knew no force open it without the key.

The key.
She fingered an old thong which was bound around her neck, it was made of leather which had long lost its colour, tied to it was that key.
“You will know when the time is right to open the chest and not before”.
Her fathers’ words to her rang in her head.
Was now that time?

Her hands felt clammy as she pulled at the thong which snapped without any great effort.
How could that be it had been around her neck for years why had it snapped so easily now.
She moved the key towards the lock which started to glow a faint blue, hesitating she pulled back from the lock, sweat now ruing down her neck over her naked body.
She knew that she must finish what she had started she knew that now was the time to open the chest.

Kei once again offered the key up to the lock.
The lock pulsed blue as she turned the key there was a soft click as it sprang open and fell to the floor where it rusted away to nothing before her eyes.

“Well I can’t stop now I guess”, Kei thought to herself.
Lifting the lid slowly on what felt like new well-oiled hinges she peered into the chest.
There was a dark blue leather scrap covering the contents of the box, strange leather she could not identify.
Lifting the cover and laying it on the ground next to the chest she looked in to the chest.
Two blades crossed over each other, with a glow from within the metal they were made of.
She removed the blades from the chest and noticed they had no weight to them.
They had a strange glove like arrangement; she slowly placed her hand into one of the gloves and was thrown back from the chest into the wall behind her.
She frantically struggled to remove the glove from her hand but it would not come off, it was as if it had fused to her very skin.
As the initial shock from the glove war off she noticed how comfortable  it felt as if it was meant to be there it felt like part of her arm.
She looked at it the blades where thin, far thinner than any weapon she had seen before, but they were strong and sharp.
She tested the edge on one of the legs supporting her bed cutting easily with no resistance it was like cutting hot wax.
The bed crashed to the floor now on three legs.
A grin spread across Kei’s face.
She was now much calmer and thinking of the enemy she could easily dispatch with the blades, and with that calmness she found she was able to slide her hand from the glove as easily as she had put it on.
She placed it with the other blade and looked into the chest once again.

There was a full set of night blue armour made from the same strange leather which had covered the contents to the chest.
It was light and supple but felt like it would have the stopping power of full plate.
Removing it from the box piece by piece she laid it out on the floor.
At the bottom of the chest wrapped up in a dark cloak was a helm.
A helm the likes she had never seen before.
She removed the cloak and helm from the confines of the chest.
Kei laid them down with the rest of the armour looking at it for a long time.
The chest decayed into a pile of dust as if its time on this world was over.

“Well it’s now or never I guess” she said to herself.
Picking up the pants she inspected them more closely, they would be a tight close fit no room for undergarments a fact that she welcomed with a wide grin she got her self-dressed into the armour piece by piece.

It fit like a second skin, tight in the right places but it gave her a freedom she had not known before while wearing armour, it felt warm but not hot like other leather did.
She bent down and picked up the helm, it was then she saw it had no eye sockets, how could she see with that on.
She held it up to her face holding it just inches from her eyes, she could see right through the leather as if it was not there.
It had no straps to hold it in place just cut outs where her ears would go through.
She put it on and was amazed how secure it was.
Her eyes focused more clearly to her surroundings her vision and hearing senses became more acute.
The room began to spin Kei fell to her knees what had she done her mind was in turmoil, she blacked out. 

“Kei! Kei you in there, ya going ta miss ya patrol Kei you up yet?”
Kei woke up from her nightmare with a start the same night mare she had been having for weeks.

“I’m coming ya peon keep ya ead in ya bucket”.
She jumped out of her cot, a cot that for some reason was only resting on three legs.
At the side of the cot on the floor neatly folded was a suit of blue armour, “What the?” with two crossed blades, she turned to the cabinet beside the cot on the stand was a blue helm and not her normal wolf helm.