Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?
Kita tread softly through the trees surrounding the bandit camp. The dark, pre-dawn air was still. She usually enjoyed that calmness, but tonight it was different. It felt as though the forest was holding its breath awaiting the coming battle.
She ran between the pirate teams scattered around the walls of the camp, relaying orders from their newly-promoted first mate and making sure everyone was in position. They knew their orders, of course; the situation hadn’t changed in the handful of hours she had been gone to enlist their aid. The Captain and his landing party were still in a cage on the north side, guarded only by their shared trauma and one drowsing bandit.
Kita surveyed the camp as she made her rounds. The feast had gone long into the night and the bandits were sprawled snoring around campfires and in front of huts. A few still stumbled about, singing and laughing at their victory, completely oblivious to the danger lurking beyond the walls they thought were safe.
Well, maybe not completely. They still slept with weapons close to hand. She held out hope that they might attack each other when they were inevitably startled awake by the surprise attack. Any reduction in their numbers would give her rescue party an advantage.
She finished her loop and reported back to Lucas. “Everyone is in position,” she said in a low voice that wouldn’t carry.
He nodded. “We’ll wait for your signal.”
She leapt back up to the trees and made her way towards the Captain. Once the pirates breached the camp, it would be up to her to free the captives and get them to their weapons so they could join the fight.
She climbed to the top of the tree nearest the wall where she planned to make her entrance. It swayed gently with her weight. She stared out towards the sea, toward the horizon. It was already beginning to lighten.
Kita often watched the sun rise from a high perch. She loved listening to the island come alive as it rose, the warmth it promised and the joy it brought for a new day. She wouldn’t get to watch this day. She had work to do to make sure her new friends would see the new day to its end. Before she leapt into the camp, she prayed that when the sun rose, it would shine on their victory.
Notes: This prompt was in the last book, if worded just slightly differently. I didn’t write a story for it then, just waxed poetic about sunrise and sunset. For some reason I keep associating Kita and Leo with the rising and setting of the sun. The first time they appeared on this blog, I wrote a scene where they watched a sunset together.
As a ninja, Kita is most comfortable in the dark. I felt like she would see more sunrises since her “day” would actually skew more towards the late hours. Basically, when the sun rises, that’s when her day ends. But she’s also not a conventional ninja so maybe she just gets up early enough to watch it rise every day.
What about you? What’s your favorite? I’ll be watching the sun set over the Pacific this weekend so that will be new and exciting! I will have a new list of prompts for you as usual on Sunday, though the post itself might not have much substance. Gonna figure out what to write ahead of time after all. Have a great weekend!
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Closet Full of Notebooks 