Katrina

The cool winter air blew her red hair across her face. Katrina… She heard whispered on the wind. Katrina stood a frozen pond with the sun just coming over the horizon, it’s light gleaming off the katana in her hand. Katrina… She heard whispered again. She closed her eyes tilting her face up letting the sun warm her face. Katrina… came the whisper. There was a sense of concern and caution that followed the whisper. She knew who it was coming from. Demetri. She thought. Demetri the man who found her around a year ago and had become her teacher in that time. She had been on the verge of admitting herself to the hospital on account of the things she had been seeing. To find out they were memories was a relief in a way. Finding out she's part of a rare group of people that are blessed with reincarnation was a whole other thing. The depth of memories was hard to fathom and she had not retrieved them all yet. According to lore, their kind go through a rejuvenation cycle at points in their lives, sometimes more than once. The mind takes a break letting you live a completely normal life with no knowledge of previous lives. There is an exception to the rule though. If there is a traumatic event in one’s life, the mind, attempting to protect itself, will start bringing back your former memories. Her lover was murdered a year ago with no clues as to why or who did it. Images of that night still haunt her. Angie’s body crumpled on the ground next to a thick wooden beam blood everywhere. A double-bladed axe stuck in the wooden beam with her head sitting on it her eyes still open in terror. Katrina shuddered pushing the thoughts away.

The frozen pond was a familiar safe place for her. She had spent many hours alone out here skating. Today she was not alone. A large brute of a man stood across from her. He wore gray fur boots, loin cloth and a wolfs head that covered most of his face. He was over a head taller than her and heavily muscled. His dark tanned tattooed skin was in high contrast to her fair skin. The cold didn’t seem to bother him just like her. Growing up her family had always thought it strange and until a year ago she just thought she was a bit of a freak. Apparently, it was a physiological side effect of who she was. Her clothing was given to her by her teacher which consisted of a silk rob of a vibrant red with thin blue designs. Which felt amazing against her skin. There were slits from the waist down on both side and one in the back for freedom of movement. Underneath the rob she wore black combat boots, black tactical pants, and black tank top. He also gave her a black tactical bullet and knife resistant vest that protected her stomach and small breast. She had always been self-conscious of her small breast, but she had a nice bubble butt from many squats and leg exercises, so she wasn’t to down on her body.

The man across from her carried a large war hammer. He raised it slamming the spiked handle into the ice than took off his helm placing it on the ground. He had long dark shiny hair that was braided and laid over his shoulder. She met his dark eyes which looked like black gleaming metal. He smiled. “Hello Katrina.” He said in a deep baritone voice. She remained silent. “Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.” She remained silent. He tilted his head staring at her. “What say we call this off, you don’t belong out her with me?” He said looking down on her, literally. He rested an arm on his war hammer leaning on it. “I mean no offence to you because I have known many female warriors that could hold their own in a battle, but it is your master that I wanted. Why he sent you baffles me.” He said scowling. “You are a small thing. My hammer is bigger than you.” He said gesturing to the weapon. The condescension in his voice irritated her but she remained silent. He shook his head. “Concede victory to me girl and you can live the rest of this life in relative comfort as my servant. Better than you have taken this route. I do not make this offer much, only to the pretty ones.” He let his eyes roam over her body. “You are a beautiful female specimen.” Her irritation level rose but she stayed silent. “We should fuck not fight.” He said smugly as if he was god’s gift to the female species. “Something you are good at?” He said raising his eyebrows. Her hand tensed on her sword and a disgusted look crossed her face for a moment. He stood a little straighter and his demeanor slightly changed. “If you make me fight you, it will not go well for you after. You see, I won’t kill you. At least not at first. I will beat you to submission and then whatever is left of you I will fuck and…other things till you expire.” He said with a smile. “It could take a long while depending on my mood.” Her gut rolled with disgust at the thought of this man touching her and her anger turned to rage. Why is someone like this allowed to live again and again? She thought but said nothing. Her teacher warned her about this man. He liked to raise the anger and the defiance of his opponent. Much more satisfying to kill or submit a defiant opponent than a fearful one. The man smiled at her again, he could see the rage in her eyes.

Katrina’s rage is consuming, fogging her mind beyond reason causing a burning sensation. At its crescendo a pop rings through her mind and the lost memories from ages past began flooding in. Her eyes closed as everything she had ever felt, seen, and done came back to her in a rush. Her mind was as a storm raging, memories buffeting her mind like ocean waves against a cliff, with her holding on by a slender rope. Just as quickly as the storm began it ended and a calm she had not known in this life came over her. She opened her eyes looking at the man in front of her. Her rage now subdued mixed evenly with her other emotions. The man across from her looked confused as her demeanor had completely changed. Her muscles relaxed her eyes slightly narrowing as she looked at him. Then she smirked and tilted her head. “Oh child, I remember you.” She said softly. “Emil Volkov.” He had been known to many for being one of the most brutal of their kind. Guilty of murder, rape, and torture of all kinds. He scowled, at the mention of his previous name, uncertainty on his face. “You were the one with that fiery little woman with the crown of blood red hair a few centuries back.” His eyes widened. She let out a soft laugh. “Oh, she was a feisty one, wasn’t she?” Emil gripped his hammer yanking it from the ice. “How could you know her. Only I and your teacher was there. He killed her.” He said pointing his weapon in accusation. Katrina shook her head. “No, no child. Your woman…if you could have ever called her that…didn’t die at that meeting.” He scowled. “What are you saying?” He asked. “She was only made to look like she was dead.” She answered. He shook his head. “No! I held her lifeless body in my arms. There was no breath in her, you can’t fool me.” Katrina smiled. “Yes, it did seem that way. I was…proud of that one. Even my teacher did not expect anything.” She said with a faraway look reminiscing. “You see, she took a shine to me, and I showed her pleasures she had only imagined of while you grunted and fumbled around on her. She knew she was only a prize that you had won from someone you had conquered and that you would never let her go. So, one night while laying naked in bed, our bodies sweating and intertwined, she asked me to get her out. She actually lived a very long happy life as my companion.” Emil Volkov’s eyes were so wide it looked like they would pop out at any moment. He screamed jumping at her raising his hammer over his head. “I’LL KILL YOU….!!!!”

He’s faster than he looks. She moves to her left side stepping the hammer as it barely misses her taking a chunk out of the ice. His right arm lashes out almost taking her in the chest, but she is a hairs breath ahead of him. She falls back, his arm barely missing her, using her momentum to roll backwards and spring to her feet. He screams turning and running at her swinging his hammer in a round house to her left side. She arches her back the hammer swishing by her midsection. He is slower to recover from the swing then she is. Her katana flashes leaving a deep six inch cut on his forearm. He yowls in pain. He swings his hammer back the opposite way, but she ducks and side steps to her right coming up on his left where her katana flashes again leaving another deep cut on his thigh. He yells in pain as he limps out of reach of her katana. He looks at his wounds, blood flows freely from them. He flexes his fingers and his leg. He winces. Good. She thinks. But he’s not out of the fight yet. He looked at her with murder in his eyes. He swung his hammer releasing it mid swing sending it flying at her. She ducked and rolled to the side. She knew what was coming next. The hammer was only to distract her. He had followed the hammer and was on her grabbing her sword arm and trying to get a hand around her neck. His grip is like iron as he clamps down causing pain in her arm. She winces but had the presence of mind to have one of her knives in her left hand. Her knife flashed up then down scoring the wrist of the hand reaching for her neck and then the wrist of the hand gripping her sword arm. He yowled in pain throwing her away. She landed hard sliding across the ice. She regained her feet while trying to catch her breath from the impact. Emil had retrieved his hammer and was coming for her, but he seemed slower and was breathing harder. She could see that the hammer was getting heavy in his hands. The blood loss. She ran to meet him. He swung his hammer in a round house trying to take her head, but she jumped instead of ducked landing nimbly on the hammer then leaping off it. She flipped over turning in mid-air coming down her katana digging deep in to his back exposing his spine from neck to butt. He crocked stumbling forward his hammer dropping to the ice. He fell to his knees. She moved around him looking him in the eye. “I’ll find you in the next life.” He crocked out. She shook her head. “No child you won’t. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I'm far older then you realize and I know how to kill our kind.” She winked. His eyes went wide as she backed up and took a big step forward swinging her sword with all her might. Emil Volkov’s head fell and rolled on the frozen pond.