Chapter 2 - Hunting Bandits

This chapter introduces another set of main characters and adds some action to the story.

                The group of bandits entered the forest trying to outrun the mercenaries who were chasing them. The fourteen men had once been part of a guild called The Blood Thieves. The three drops of crimson blood tattooed on the back of their right hands had once been a sign of their loyalty to the band of criminals.  Now the brand had turned into black eyes, causing constant pain and marking them as traitors.

          The trio of mercenaries made their way to the entrance of the forest.  Their target was this band of rebel thieves who called themselves The Black Eye Bandits. Of the three, the youngest started to dash forward to the tree line and looked back. “Come on guys! They can’t be much farther ahead,” shouted the young man. As he ran he put a great deal of distance between himself and the other two. One of the two began to call out at him informing him not to get too far ahead. He kept running anyway until his foot hit a rather large log hiding amongst the tall grass of the Emerald Plains.  He crashed to the ground with a thud, crushing the grass under his weight and kicking up dust into the slight breeze. The other two mercenaries caught up to him and watched as he rolled over onto his back. The young man groaned and looked up at his companions. The one on the left had a sour look while the other on the right held a large grin. “Well that hurt a bit,” said the young man. The man on the right laughed deeply and helped the young man up. “Thank you Nigh,” said the young mercenary. He looked over at the other man. “Dargos please don’t lecture me. I know I messed up. I just got excited,” said the young man, sounding slightly embarrassed.

“You know Dargos if he attacks those bandits like that log I say we’ll be in good shape,” chuckled Nigh, looking over at the young man who was now grinning. “Actually we may not have to even lift a finger.” Nigh glanced over at Dargos who was studying their young companion. He didn’t seem eager to join in on the conversation. He seemed like he could be upset, although it was hard to judge Dargos sometimes; he rarely showed signs of emotion and his rugged appearance made it hard to gauge him.

Dargos turned his attention towards Nigh. His battle scarred face flared with annoyance, “I think that this is something we shouldn’t be joking about. The bandits we’re seeking would have killed any one of us had we made such a mistake in their presence. We are hunting dangerous men and mistakes will cost us our lives,” lectured Dargos. Nigh looked taken aback and looked over at the young man, as did Dargos. The young man tried to explain himself, but Dargos cut him off, “I’d think you both would know this. We’re the ones outnumbered here and they know we are pursuing them. Rushing ahead was foolish and irresponsible. Had there been a trap or ambush you would have died!” Nigh began to say something, but again Dargos cut off any input, “I would think a knight of the Order of Valor would have known this, especially a knight of your rank.” lectured Dargos. Both Nigh and their young companion looked defeated after the words fell from Dargos’ lips.

Nigh’s composure quickly changed as he fixed the cracks in his emotional wall. He directed his attention to the young man, “Don’t worry about it. Dargos is just a bit tired from all the traveling we’ve been doing,” said Nigh in a calm voice. His words seemed to help ease the young man. Nigh had a way of making things right, even when all things around him were crumbling to dust. “Also I think he is still a bit upset about that joke we made,” continued Nigh as he got a bit closer to the young man. “You know the one about his eye patch and the women at the last town,” whispered Nigh. Nigh and the young man both roared into a fit of laughter. Dargos threw back the hood of his long, full-length black cloak. His wild, black hair blew lightly in the breeze and his one eye stared at Nigh like a deep green poison.

   

 “You’re too soft on him Nigh,” said Dargos. “He can’t learn if he has no reason to. If he keeps on this way we’ll have to abandon him,” continued Dargos.  He motioned with his head for Nigh to come toward him.  As Nigh walked over his expression was calm but his normally kind, brown eyes shone with fury.  This did not escape Dargos’ notice, “I can see you’re upset but now is not the time for discussion on right and wrong.  I know you find things like youthful mistakes funny.  I see charm in them as well, but now is not the time,” said Dargos. As the words left his mouth he heard a loud snap. Dargos and Nigh both looked toward the direction of the sound and saw a flash of the young man as he darted off into the forest. The two men started to run in after him. “We’ll talk about this later,” said Dargos. Nigh nodded his head and within seconds they were both in the forest as well.

          The term ‘youthful mistakes’ swam in the young man’s mind as he ran for several minutes. He could feel fatigue start to set in his legs and began to slow down. He decided it was time to take a break. “How could they talk about me in such a way? I’m not some small child. I can fight as well as any of them. I could easily take on a group of bandits by myself and that would show them how wrong they are,” muttered the young man under his labored breath. He found a spot under an enormous oak tree that had a part of the trunk carved out. He sat part way into the space of the tree and looked around the forest.

          The Elder Forest was a place of natural beauty. Autumn was beginning and while most of the leaves were green, a few had changed from their dark green to bright orange or a radiant gold. The young man was enjoying the small break and could feel his mind start to overcome the flames of fury he was feeling earlier. “Dargos is sure going to yell at me when this is over,” the man laughed to himself. He took out the water pouch he had with him and took a few sips from it. The water was cold and felt good running past his lips. He continued to study his surroundings. He remembered Dargos and Nigh talking about this forest and its history. The Elder Forest was said to be the first place the god Natu, the god of nature, started to work when Cinda was being created. It’s known to be the oldest forest in existence and is home to every kind of the tree found across the world. He laughed to himself; Dargos was always complaining about him never remembering anything and here he was recalling the history of The Elder Forest.

          A loud snap followed by crashing footsteps rang out in the forest. He could hear the sounds getting closer. “I guess Dargos and Nigh have found me,” muttered the young mercenary. He thought about hiding and maybe giving Nigh a good scare. However, he dismissed it and decided to wait for his two companions. As the sounds got nearer the young man got up on his feet and started to stretch. He was glad to have gotten a small break from all the traveling they been doing. He looked in the direction of the sound and noticed the shadowed outline of the two approaching companions. As he watched the figures enter his field of sight he noticed two things. First, the two people were not Dargos or Nigh. The second thing he noticed was a third figure, standing in the shadows just beyond where the light filtered through the trees onto the floor of the forest. Fear took hold of him for a few seconds and robbed him of his thoughts and senses. He was in a bad situation.

The two human men ahead of him both drew their weapons. One held a heavy two handed axe which looked to have been made for a dwarf. The other held a short sword in the right hand and a dagger in the left. The mercenary looked at the men in front of him and noticed the mark of the black eye on both the men’s hands. He reached back and grabbed the swallow strapped to his back. The swallow was his weapon of choice. It was a double bladed staff weapon with blades at either end, curving in opposite directions of each other and was shorter than him by mere inches “Nice weapons, guys.  You know, for members of a thief’s guild you’re pretty loud.  Maybe if you’d caught me by surprise you would’ve stood a chance against me,” stated the young man callously.

          The two men hesitated for a moment at this.  They looked at each other and the one on the left, Codin, nodded to the other and motioned his head back in the direction of their companion, still standing in the shadows.  The man on the right, Marcus, nodded in agreement and they began to walk slowly forward.  “Those are strong words for such a young man.  It’s too bad you won’t live long enough to learn from your mistake,” he said and the young man’s eyes lit with fury.  Marcus motioned with his hand and the two men began to circle in opposite directions until they were on either side of the young mercenary.  The third bandit began to chant loudly in the magical language and at the sound of his voice both men charged the mercenary.

          Marcus closed in first from the right, stabbing his sword at the young mercenary. The young man raised up his swallow and deflected the sword easily, setting the bandit off-balance for a moment, but he recovered quickly, spun to the left and swung his dagger. The mercenary avoided the dagger by swinging his swallow under the blade knocking it up and while doing so began to roll left. As he rolled, Codin’s heavy axe came down where he once stood. As Codin attempted to regain his balance after his complete miss, the mercenary stopped his roll and planted his feet firmly on the ground. He lowered his stance and with great speed leapt into the air at the axe-wielding bandit. He was still trying to lift the axe when he was slashed across the chest as the young man passed him while still in the air. The wound was deep and blood instantly stained the bandit’s light leather armor. After the initial blow the mercenary spun around in midair and slashed the bandit across the back.  The mercenary could feel the blade of the swallow bite into the bandit’s body and soon after felt the blade of his weapon hit and sever the spine. The bandit let out a gurgle as blood filled his mouth. Shock filled his eyes and slowly faded until they became lifeless and he fell to the ground dead.

          Marcus watched the events unfold before him and was helpless to do anything; it all happened so quickly. An ice cold shiver ran down his spine and his hair stood on end. One of his fellow bandits was dead and the attention of the mercenary was on him now. The bandit quickly looked in the direction of the third bandit hiding in the tree line to see if he was still there. He saw his outline and felt the burn of fury. Why was he taking so long? Magic couldn’t take this long could it?

The sound of running footsteps alerted the bandit that the young mercenary was on the attack again. He turned just in time to see the left side of the swallow bearing down at him. He was able to side step it to save his life but felt the blade graze the side of his face above his eye. Blood poured from the cut into his eye, temporarily blinding him and he reeled back several paces while he tried to recover. The pain was intense and his mind couldn’t focus on anything else. He growled loudly like a savage beast and felt anger building from the pain. He wiped away the blood with his left hand while still holding the dagger. The mercenary stood before him.  His feet were planted and he held the swallow straight out at shoulder length with his left arm, parallel to the ground, a look of youthful arrogance on his face.

                    The bandit let out a loud savage war cry that shook the forest. He charged ahead, still half blind from the blood that continued to run into his eye. He swung wildly with both dagger and sword. The young mercenary easily parried each rage induced strike using the swallow.  He alternated between both blades on each side of his weapon. The young mercenary held against the onslaught until he found his chance to return the bandit’s unkind attempts of death.  He began to spin the swallow like a staff deflecting the bandit’s blades and disorienting him. The mercenary then began pushing the bandit back and in mid-spin brought the right side of the weapon down on the bandit’s left hand. The blade severed half of the bandit’s hand effectively disarming the dagger. The bandit dropped the sword in his right hand to grasp the bloody remainder of his left. Tears of pain welled up in his eyes and he choked on the air in his throat. His vision grew fuzzy as he began to lose sight and awareness. He didn’t even notice the blade of the left side of the swallow run across his chest or the blow that followed.

The bandit’s mortality started to fade from Cinda and he offered his soul up to the god Leema, keeper of the life cycle. Marcus looked up with last of his body’s strength and fixed on the young mercenary. His dying eyes could clearly see the young man and they grew wide with understanding then glazed over with the shine of death.

                            

The mercenary slid the dead bandit’s body off the blade of the swallow and as it hit the dirt the third bandit shouted out the final words of the spell he had been chanting. As orbs of blue and green flame formed a vertical half-circle around the magic using bandit the young mercenary realized he was in trouble. The orbs flew in his direction and he dashed towards the bandit while trying to dodge them. One orb hit a few feet in front of him and he lost his balance as he sidestepped it and while he tried to recover he was struck by three of the flaming orbs. Two hit the mercenary in the chest and the third on his backside. The flames exploded around him. The light from the blast blinded him and young man dropped to the ground with a loud thump. Dazed, the young man tried getting back on his feet but his body refused his mind’s calls. The heat from the impact was still burning his skin as if he had worn no armor at all and pain surged in all parts of his body.

The bandit slowly walked to the mercenary lying on the ground, “I have a feeling you must be in a lot of pain. You know, that spell I just performed was one of my favorites. While it may not be lethal it does cause the feeling of burning. It also passes through any non-magical armor so no matter how heavily armored your opponent is, he will still feel the pain,” said the bandit. The mercenary groaned loudly as he rolled on the ground in pain.. “I guess you know that now,” continued the bandit. He looked around the clearing, “I know you are a part of a three man group following us, and I could kill you here, however, being in the business of thieves has taught me that a bargaining chip is always good to have,” explained the bandit. He once again looked around the clearing and stood for a moment trying to listen over the cries and groaning coming from the ground. Reta Nos Mar,” yelled out the magic user and the burning instantly stopped.  As the mercenary tried getting to his feet the bandit called out another chant, “Nos Mar Mooda”. With these last words the young man’s movements stopped and he became unable to move, save for his eyes.  Terror gripped his heart.  He had never trained with Dargos in dealing with magic and wished now that he had.

“Ah! I see the shine of fear in your eyes. Good. I could have paralyzed you from the start but I wanted you to experience the power of my magic. Although, I will admit to wanting a bit of revenge,” sneered the bandit.  “I hated Marcus as much as a mortal can hate another and will not mourn his passing.  I did, however, enjoy Codin’s company and he is dead by your hand.” A loud snap rang out into the clearing and the bandit’s head jerked up in the direction of the sound. He saw a large group of deer passing by the outskirts of the area. His composure was slightly shaken and he immediately grasped the mercenary and started dragging him back the way the three bandits had come.  After a bit he stopped and rested, but before he continued on the magic user chanted a spell. A blinding flash of light filled the mercenary’s vision and a bolt of pain forced its way into his head. In the next moment his head became numb and within seconds he was asleep.  The bandit continued dragging him onwards.

Author's Note

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