Queen Of Monsters

Ru Naya woke up at dawn. She got out of her bed excitedly as the sun's rays began to peak over the horizon, signalling the arrival of the morning she had been so eagerly looking forward to.

After all, today was the day of the much awaited hunt in the dark forest.

The rays alighted her dilapidated room. The small area contained her rickety bed, a shabby cupboard, a mirror that was a birthday gift from Zan Mei, and Ru Yaya's old vanity table that also doubled as her bedside table. The decrepit walls had deep cracks running through them, and the shoddy floors were squeaky from being unmaintained; there was also a permanent musty smell that permeated through her room, and no matter what she did, the smell wouldn't go away. She had given up on trying to make the room presentable as it was obvious that no one cared what condition she lived in. However, she still put some effort to make the place more homely: like putting up crude drawings made by Yan Lin when he was a kid, as well as she hung some of the jewellery Zan Mei had gifted her after coming back from trading with her father. Nonetheless, it did sting that most of the servants of the household had better rooms than her. When she had been a kid, she had almost gotten a bigger room but Ru Yaya kicked up a fuss about it, and because her parents adored Ru Yaya, they gave a crying Ru Naya her current room. Ru Naya never knew why her parents had chosen to listen to Ru Yaya when she already had the grandest room in the house, but then again they would always listen to their little darling rather than their younger daughter.

After all, they firmly believed that Ru Yaya was going to be the future princess and the queen, so why should they spend their effort on the one that clearly wasn't going to anything good with her life?

The floors creaked from her movements as she sneaked over to the table where she had put her neatly folded hunting attire, alongside a sack that contained extra garments, food, water, and her hunting knife. Her camping gear was stored in Yan Lin's house because she knew if her parents found out about it they would have it thrown away.

She sighed as she changed into her clothes. She wore a dark top with tight pants that wouldn't cause her hindrance incase she had to fight or run away in the forest. In Bon Sicini, it was looked down upon to wear such immodest clothes as proper ladies only wore dresses or gowns, so being able to freely wear pants made her feel rebellious. She couldn't imagine how the ladies of the high society wore such big heavy gowns and jewellery all the time.

For someone taught to be weak and gentle they surely were strong enough to do it daily.

She put on a jacket and tied her long hair, before sneaking out of the Ru household. No servant was up so early in the morning and the guards were snoozing when Ru Naya slinked by stealthily.

After she was out of the danger zone, Ru Naya raced to the border, excitement growing with every step. She could already imagine hunting some rare forest animal whose meat and carcass would fetch a lot of money, especially from the wealthier families. Though all the forest animals were dangerous, the truly deadly and terrible creatures lived deeper in the jungle. Most of these animals had never been hunted, but had killed many hunters before. Therefore if one was able to kill and sell these animals, they would fetch a lot of gold.

Though she would rather give the animal to Yan Lin, but he hated charity and thus wouldn't accept any spoils of the hunt that didn't come from himself. She would rather face his wrath and send it to his household than worry about him starving.

She finally arrived at the border and saw the patrolling guards talking to a group of people carrying bags. Ru Naya immediately recognized the group that would go hunting with her alongside Yan Lin and Zan Mei.

"Nana!" a voice called out to her excitedly. Ru Naya turned around and saw her bestfriend running towards her with a lagging Yan Lin behind. Poor Yan Lin was carrying quite a few camping bags, and looked out of breath. Ru Naya hugged Zan Mei hard before she quickly went over to help him. When she reached forward to take a bag from him, he hurriedly stole a kiss from her lips before letting the bag go. She blushed and then walked with him to his friends.

"Wow, Ru Naya is joining us today! Yan Lin you better concentrate on the hunt, buddy." One of his friends teased.

"Are you serious? a hottie like Ru Naya is coming along. She'll kick everyone's asses, if Yan Lin doesn't concentrate he'll get his a.s.s kicked by her as well." Another man snickered.

"Guys," Yan Lin complained lightly, "give some respect to your group leader, or i'll get Ru Naya to badly beat all of you up!"

"Aye captain!" the men chorused together.

Ru Naya and Zan Mei laughed at the men. She patted Yan Lin on his back, not noticing the fleeting dark look in Yan Lin's eyes.