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Disclaimer: I don't own the Soul Calibur series or the play Antigone. It's a great play, but Shakespeare didn't write any until the years after 1591, so I can't have anything like Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, or McBeth. Sorry.

Chapter 4: Realization

It was hard to weave around to get a good view of the stage. Miser didn't really seem to mind the bustle as much as I thought she would. People were coming from left to right, and I could barely get myself through an opening to see the actors. I did, however, have a funny feeling that it wasn't going to get any better than this. Turning around to see the horizon, I saw that the sun was beginning to sink into the orange and purple sky. The play would soon commence.

An applause rang out as a middle-aged man dressed in what looked like a white toga recited the prologue of the plot. Oedipus, who was a king of an island of Greece, had a curse in which was caused by his father. His father had raped a boy and was cursed by the gods of Greece. Oedipus had been sent away in his child hood, so he never knew who his father was and had been told that he would have to become king, but kill the present one. That king was his father, and Oedipus married his mother and had four children through her; two sons and two daughters.

Oedipus eventually died and he gave his kingdom to his two sons, Ectocles and Polyneces. The two brothers shared a kindom, once a month the other would rule. However, the two got into a disagreement and declared war on each other. None of them got to receive the throne because the brothers literally killed each one another in battle. The man who did, Creon, was their uncle. Polyneces, who was considered a traitor, was not allowed to be buried or would be handled with as Creon wished. The story continues with one of the two sisters, Antigone.

As the play went on, I was beginning to understand it more and more. My favorite character was definitely Tirisias. The chorus was well consisted of people looking like the common people of the town of which the play took place. They would take sides with anyone and repeat after another character or quote some form of forshadowing statement.

One of the members of the chorus that caught my eye was a person in a hooded cloak. After Creon left to free Antigone, I saw Aislne Drossel's blade revealed. In mere seconds, the whole cast on stage was butchered to pieces like beef for stew. That violet-eyed killer Tira was standing in the middle of the stage, like she wanted to select her next victim. That was a stupid move on her part; she revealed herself in front of a crowd! "Mel, I'll meet you at the creek if I can. Get the hell out of here!" I turned to my partner-in-crime, she had drawn her sword already.

"But, Miser!"

"I mean it! If I fight her, she can't get to you!" As soon as she said it, Miser followed the psychotic assassin as I pulled my skull mask to my face. As the two fought atop stage right, I took stage left and ran to the back streets until I found the forest just outside city limits.

Thank goodness that Tira didn't spot me as I fled. If she saw me, I wouldn't have made it out of town. The memory of the creek's location slowly came to my mind as I raced through the forest. Behind me, I heard a flapping of wings; it was a raven. It flew up ahead to a tree in front of me and perched on a branch.

Stopping dead in my tracks, I looked at the bird as closely as I could from my view. No doubt that it was one of Tira's minions, or it wouldn't have behaved like this. It didn't look like a normal raven, either. The feathers gave off a dark violet glow and it's eyes glowed a bright and bloody red. Also, the creature seemed to smile sinisterly at me. An unearthly shriek came from its beak as the raven dove down from its perch to attack me from above.

As I drew my sword for a battle, a wide and familiar-looking blade came down and decapitated the creature. The head rolled to the side and a glowing purple mist emanated from the neck. I gasped just as I saw the body of the bird flop as its wound bled out blood and the same purple haze. A gloved hand covered my mouth however as I did so and didn't let go until the mist faded. Once I was released, I turned around and held out my sword. The end touched a blade by only so much; it happened to be the zweihänder from the store. Its owner was wearing armor, that was all that I could see at first because he was crouched behind it. As the breeze blew, I saw long blonde hair over his shoulder. My tuition had told me that he was the man from last night, but how good was he, anyway?

My question was quickly answered as quickly as I had to dodge his attack. He had swung his blade to knock me into the air; I had expected that. Once my feet touched the ground, I swiped at him and landed my blade on his armor. As a matter of about two seconds, he had knocked me down by whacking me with the flat side of his sword.

I landed on my backside as quickly as I stood back up. Surprisingly, the swordsman didn't attack me; instead, he just swung his large blade on his shoulders, looking impressed. Walking closer to him, I saw the scar on the right side of his face. It didn't stand out as much as his long hair did. It was halfway down his back, but he seemed very serious and (from what I experienced earlier,) dangerous. "Who... are you?"

Blue eyes calm, he answered me with a voice I didn't expect to hear, "Siegfried." The way he spoke to me sent chills down my spine as those dark eyes of his seemed to pull me closer into them. "What is your name?"

I had no idea why, but I had a hunch that I could trust this Siegfried, "I am Melanie." His somewhat soft voice seemed a little more like his personality, mysterious but blunt, "Melanie, it's too dangerous for you to get involved with this." What was this that he was talking about? Did he know what I knew? With his mood sounding irritated, Siegfried turned and continued, "I'll be staying in London for a few more weeks; come find me if you need anything." Confused, I just shrugged as he lowered his sword on his back. It looked so much taller than even he was. Siegfried started walking away; I couldn't let him go, not when there was so much I needed to know!

"Siegfried, wait!"

He stopped after I called out to him. His long hair was slung over one shoulder as he turned towards me and asked, "Ja?"

"How much do you know about Cervantes de León?" There was some sense of concern in his eyes, but that was all that I could see as Siegfried answered my question, "I know more than I want to, let's just leave it at that. To explain how or why would take days that we do not have; you need your rest now, anyhow."

Before he left, Siegfried added, "The creek is over there to your left, take ten paces." Immediately afterwards, he tossed me a small cloth sack similar to his larger one. Right when I caught it, the man was completely out of sight. Just then, I remembered that I needed to also hurry. Sheathing my sword and carrying the bag, I headed towards the creek to meet up with Miser.

..

When I finally reached it, Miser was limping towards me at the same time. If I wasn't close enough for my shoulder for support, Miser would have collapsed to the ground. "Damn that Tira," she panted, "I hope that Chester doesn't find out that I fought her."

I helped her sit down near a tree as she drank from my canteen. "How many were killed?"

"People?"

"Yes. How many of them were killed?"

She thought for a moment and answered, "About twenty, maybe more than that. I came very close to running her into my sword, but one of those stupid ravens clawed at me almost the whole time we were fighting!" Miser rolled up the torn sleeve to show me where she was scratched by one of Tira's pet ravens. The cuts weren't open wide nor bleeding much, but a purple mist from before emanated from the cuts. "Miser, do you see what I see?" came straight from my mouth.

Looking it over, she shrugged, "It's nothing, it doesn't hurt much at all; like any of the wounds I've had. What's wrong?" I couldn't say anything about it at the time, but I insisted, "Still, let me get that cleaned up so it won't get infected." Ripping one of the cuffs of my leggings, I folded it and heavily sprinkled water over it before rubbing an herb's leaves on it. After that, I pressed it gently on Miser's arm. As soon as my hand came in contact with the cuts, the haze vanished and the flesh halfway cleaved almost immediately.

I expected a thanks from her; but it was just a hope. "Tira was after you, Mel. That was all that she talked about during the fight." Whatever that meant to Miser, it wasn't good on my part. "She's a naturally psychotic person anyway, you and I both know that. But what got me was that she was obsessed about it, too." It definitely had something to do with what Siegfried had said earlier about getting into danger. But what would a mere assassin like Tira be involved in?

Opening the bag that Siegfried had given to me, my fear almost subsided as the two of us silently ate the loaf of pumpernickel bread inside.

x-Hikari Akatsuki-x: I hope that you liked this chapter. Of course it was obvious that it was Siegfried in chapter two, I mean...who else has long blonde hair and a large sword? Note that I said long blonde hair, not spikey blonde or long silver or anything else like that. One thing I love is describing characters in first POV. Tell me what you liked or didn't like about the chapter and ask about any suggestions. Please, I'd love to hear from you!