Merciless Moth

Charlotte began to slur awake. She was greeted by the sight of Lucky and Regenold chewing on some vegetables, and a few berries. She looked to her side to see a boy with hair like snow, and brown eyes, a scar present on his throat. He looked up noticing her awake and started panicking. "W-who are you?!" She asked getting up. She winced seeing her bandaged arm.

He rushed over and lowered her back down. "Answer my question!" She yelled at him, causing him to flinch. He was shorter than her by a couple inches, his face turning paler than it already was. He started waving around his hands in different motions. "Ah- you're mute, aren't you?" She said feeling ridiculous. He then brightened up and walked away, returning with some paper.

He scribbled something down on it and showed it to her. "Nero. So that's your name?". He nodded quickly and wrote something else. Before he could show her though, Nora ran in. "Charlotte, are you okay?!" She said, the poor boy clutching his chest out of surprise. "Sorry Nero!" She said covering her mouth as he gave a light smile with a thumbs up.

"What happened? All I remember is getting his by an arrow.... Oh.". Her thoughts all came flooding back to her and she said "Where are we?".

.

"Of course. We're in the center of a kingdom that wants you dead, worst yet, inside of a place full of criminals." Charlotte said. "Things could be-". Charlotte covered her mouth and said "Every time you say that, something happens and one of us almost dies!". Nora took her hand off and said "Fine, just don't try and keep me quiet.". She grabbed her bottom jaw and looked her in the eye.

"And why is that?" She said staring her in the eyes. "Because princess....". She then moved her head and bit her index and middle finger. She pulled her fingers out and Nora said "Some of us bite~". Charlotte's face turned red, right before nero came in before Nero came in. "Nero, what's up." Nora said with Charlotte still processing. She saw him move his hands around. She got a shocked exprssion and grabbed Charlotte's bag.

"Regenold, Lucky, get in!" Nora commanded as they rushed inside. "What's going on?!" Charlotte asked putting on some warm clothing. "We need to go! My mother is here!". The two got outside, a few thieves dressed in white, fighting. "Nora~" Her mother called, stopping her in her tracks. The two turned around to see her mother with blood splashed on her face, twirling a knife.

"Nora c'mon! .... Nora?" Charlotte said seeing her frozen in fear. "If you come quietly now, maybe I won't place a few more cuts. It does get tiring on these old bones...." She said. Nora grabbed Charlotte's hand, running faster than she has in her life. "Nora-" Charlotte said trying to talk to her. She just continued dragging her along.

*2 hours later*

Nora had brought the two of them up into a tree, waiting for it to get dark. ".... Nora, can we talk?" Charlotte said getting her attention. "Yeah, why not. What do you want to talk about?" She said confidently. ".... Why are you scared of her?". Nora's eyes shot open and she said "I AIN'T SCARED OF SHIT!!!!". Charlotte sighed and said "Tell me, or I'm jumping out of the tree!".

Nora smirked and said "Oh please, you don't have the-". Charlotte then began to dangle her legs off. "OKAY, OKAY!". Nora sighed and said "Litsen up, cause I'm only going to say this once!". Charlotte leaned against the base of the tree and listened. "Okay, so when I was younger, my parents were together on everything. They were unstoppable.... 'Were' unstoppable.".

She sighed and said "My father was satisfied with what they'd accomplished, but my mother wanted more. So of course she decided to train me to be able to complete this task. It was.... Nice. For awhile anyway.". "Then what?" Charlotte asked. "Well, at first, I thought she was just tired and impatient.... Telling me not to wear pretty dresses like a real princess, no pets allowed, just the usual stuff.".

Charlotte could tell it was getting worse. "Then.... She started doing this....". She heard her remove her top layer of clothing and say "Take a look.". She looked around the tree and paled. All over Nora's back were dozens- no, hundreds of scars. Charlotte covered her mouth in shock and Nora said "You can already imagine how my father reacted when he found out.".

She put back on her top layer of clothing and said "It's alright though.... Even though sometimes I still have nightmares about it, it's not that serious!". All of a sudden, she felt tears streaming down her face. "Ha ha! I'm crying, how unlady-like of me!" She said wiping her tears. A few seconds later the two heard a knock on the wood, looking down to see her mother. "Hello~" She said smiling at them.

".... I'm gonna kill her.". "What?". She handed Nora her bag, and jumped down, picking up a large branch. "If you wanna stop me, you're going to have to KILL ME!". The glare she gave sent shivers up the woman's back, and she backed up saying "Holy shit.". Nora began to scramble down the tree until her mother charged at her. A mistake she would soon regret.

Charlotte lifted the branch, and swung it at her head, a resounding *CRACK* filling the air. Nora watched as her mother dropped the knife stumbling backward. She then tripped and fell to the ground. "There is so much rage in that one body." Nora said. She then took the branch from her and said "Are you okay? Get that all out of your system?". Charlotte nodded and said "Yeah, I know where we're heading next.".