Go! Fight! Win!

Suzanne awoke with the taste of blood in her mouth. Did I fall out my tree? She looks up and confirms her musing; the branches above her, still draped with her blanket and knapsack, wave in the breeze. I hurt all over. Luckily, although her axe had tumbled out with her, it had landed next to her head – blade burrowed into the loamy earth and not her skull.

A rustle from nearby alerts her and she sniffs. Smells like sweat and fear. Reaching one arm out, and ignoring the bruising from where she hit it falling, she seizes her axe by the handle and uses it to support her as she sits up. “Who’s there?” a voice calls out, and the form it belongs to appears in Suzanne’s peripheral vision. Whirling round and springing up, Suzanne readies herself for an attack. Through the spots in her vision, she made out another figure approaching, blade already drawn. Two’s company, three’s a crowd.

The two boys were fighting furiously, but another had just entered the small woods as well. Suzanne rolled her eyes, murmuring to the floppy-haired newcomer, "sorry, Princess, this party's invite-only." Then, before he could react, she swung.