Ruki by Alex Michala (free e books to read online txt) 📖

Ruki felt the cold air hit her straight in the face the second she took a step out of her den. She shivered at it, but decided to go out anyway. She had to do some hunting, and her herb stock was running low. She also wanted to scout to see if there were any people about. She didn’t want people finding her den.
Ruki slipped through the bushes, until she came to a small path. From this small path, there were at least twenty more. There were lots of paths in these woods, and most people had no idea any of them existed. Though, the thing is there aren’t many people that dared to come out into the woods.
She pulled her bow from her back, and strung it. She held the arrow in place and stalked quietly up the path, listening for any sign of prey in the woods, though so far she couldn’t hear anything. There was no rustling or anything. There wasn’t going to much hope for finding prey today. Maybe later on throughout the day.
She unstrung her bow, and strapped it back onto her back. Carefully she walked back down the path, when she heard someone coming. Quickly, almost without though, Ruki leaped into the bushes, ducking down, and watched and listened carefully.
Finally she saw someone, a man walking down the path. Tugging something behind him. Then, squinting through the bushes Ruki realized that what he was dragging behind him, was a child. A small child and she were crying. This man was dragging her just by her hair; Ruki didn’t like the look of this.
The girl finally pulled away from him, and she collapsed to the ground, and then managed to stand back up. She dried to wipe away the blood that dripped from her knees, but it was no use. The man had turned around to glare at her, and in his eyes Ruki could see a deep darkness that formed in his eyes like pools of pure evil.
“Girl, what are you doing?” He said, and his voice was deep, and it radiated authority. So, it was obvious that he thought himself of the boss of her, and they way he talked so easily, it seemed like that was how he probably talked like that to everyone. So, this man was a jerk and thought himself the boss.
“What do you mean, what am I doing?” The girl whimpered, “You’ve got no right to dray me around like a doll!” The girl almost screamed at him. She was shaking, was it was because she was scared, or because it was cold? It was hard to tell, it was freezing, but that might not have been the reason why at all.
“You’ve no right to talk to me like that, Girl. Just to make it clear, I am the boss of you, so you do what I say, and I’ve every right to drag you around like a doll, if I wanted to.” He said, with a small smile. Though, that was a complete lie, even Ruki was able to tell that, and she lived away from people and the city.
The only people that could say they were the boss of somewhere were the guards and the council. Though, the council ruled over the guards but still. Normal citizens weren’t allowed to have control over any other citizens, even the children. Though, some could take children under their wing, and give them rules and such if they still wanted the protection and food of the people, but that different, you can’t say you are the boss, and not give them a choice on rather or not they wanted to be with you, it just wasn’t the way this world worked anymore. Though, even though it was a rule, the guards and council wouldn’t really care about it. This, in her opinion, was sad.
“You know that isn’t true, everyone knows that isn’t true, unless you are stupid enough to believe that is true. You’ve got know lethal right to claim you are the boss of me, and control what I do. I am my own self.” The girl said, completely angry.
“So what are you going to do now, Girl? Are you going to run away and live on your own, huh? Well?” The man asked, and after the girl nodded, he continued. “ How are you going to be able to survive? You’re not old enough to work yet, and you aren’t going to live out here are you? Its illegal to be out here, and besides, you’d get eaten by a bear, or die of the coldness. So what choice do you got but to stick with me?” The man said, and the girl obviously didn’t want to admit it, but obviously he was right.
The man reached over and grabbed her arm, and yanked her over to him, then he turned around and began walking again. The girl started crying again, obviously sad that she had failed at her attempt to freedom. Though, this world was ruff, and that girl was learning its ways. Though, it still irritated Ruki.
Normally, if Ruki had just seen that she would have just gone on her with her day and acted like nothing happened, but this was on her mind, and she just couldn’t let go of it. Something about that girl was very important, and she just couldn’t leave her with that man, it just felt like the wrong thing to do.
Ruki stood up after she knew that they were gone down the path. She carefully strolled back to her den, and when she got back to it, she climbed inside, and into her nest where she curled up in a little ball. She wanted to sleep, she was tired, and she didn’t have anything to do for the rest of night, so a little extra sleep would be nice. Though, as a few hours passed, she just couldn’t fall asleep. All she could think of was that poor little girl that had seen, she didn’t want to just let that go on. For any other kid she probably wouldn’t have cared much, but that child just seemed so important, something about her was so familiar, it irritated Ruki. Ruki sat up. She knew what she had to do. She was going to go save that girl from that man, and find her a better home, a home that treats her right.

Ruki stood up and she slid out of her den, and was shocked at the air temperature. It was no longer cold,it was completely freezing. Ruki shook herself, then ran through the bushes until she found the path and she ran down the way that the man and the child had gone. The made had brown hair, and it looked like he had quite a bit of muscle. Though, either way if a fight broke out she’d be able to take him, easy. It would be no problem for Ruki.
Ruki finally found her way to the village. She was planning on just climbing over the fences, but then she realized that they were now electric fences, so that way cougars and bears wouldn’t try climbing over them. Ruki had no idea how the man and the kid had gotten in and out, there was no like entrance, saying ‘come in and out of the village, here.’ Ruki walked around the edge of the fence for a while, until she found a tall maple tree that was right next to the fence. Perfect.
Ruki climbed up as quick as she could, which was pretty quick. She climbed to a branch that was right above the fence. She didn’t want to think about the fifteen feet that stretched between her and the ground. She pushed off the branch before she chickened out. She landed in the normal way of landing, and she was fine. No broken ankle, or anything like that.
Ruki quickly ducked into an alley. If she was seen, she might be questioned, and well that was something that she really didn’t want to happen right now. Ruki walked in the alley’s for a while, then she ducked out onto the main street.
She ran around for what seemed like hours, until she came to a small brown house, and she knew somehow that this just had to be the house, and sure enough she saw the man through the window. Ruki stationed herself in a tree nearby and just waited for whenever someone would come out. She would wait hours beyond ours if she had to.
Though, luckily she didn’t have to wait hours for someone to come out. In just a few minutes the man came out with the girl, and once again he was dragging her by her hair, and she was crying. Ruki pushed herself off the tree branch and landed directly in front of them. The man glared at her the instant she saw her, and the girls eyes were just dull. She had no idea she was about to be saved.
“Who are you and why are you here?” The man asked in his voice, that was of course filled with authority.
“I am here to take that girl to a better home somewhere. I’ve seen the way that you’ve been treating her, and I honestly don’t like it.” Ruki said, and she didn’t even hesitate when the man let go of the girl and walked right up to her and stuck his face in hers. She didn’t blink when she saw how angry he was. She wasn’t scared of him, she wasn’t scared of anyone, and she never would be, she would be scared for people but not scared of people.

“Who do you think you are, just marching in here and acting like you can actually take this girl away from me. You’ve no right to take her away from me.” He said, and his voice was filled with anger. She had been hoping to do this without a fight, but in the end it might turn out in being a fight.
“Who do you think you are, treating this girl like worthless crap? You may got a right to stop me from taking this girl from you if she doesn’t want to go, but if she does then you’ve got no right at all to stop her from coming with me.” Ruki said, straight into his face. The man took a step back, and looked at the girl.
“So, Ash, do you want to go with this woman?” He asked. Ruki could tell that the girl was scared, and that she was afraid of what would happen if she said yes. There was no doubt that if she said yes, there was going to be a fight, but if that’s what it took, then Ruki would beat him so hard he cried.
“Yes. I want to go with that woman, anything is better than being in this hell house with a controlling idiot like you!” Ash snarled at the man, and she tried to step forward, but the man stopped her, and then turned around to face Ruki.
“If you want this girl, you’re going to have to fight me for her.” The man said with a smile, “Though, its not going to be much of a fight, you’re going to lose.” He said, as if for sure he knew that. Ruki saw that Ash seemed scared for her. So obviously, he was strong, and Ash knew it, but Ash didn’t know just how strong Ruki was.
Ruki shot at him, and she socked him straight in the face, then