Damsel in distress (cabalxxvi & Autumn Queen)

[Cabalxxvi]

The hour was late, and the bottom of the sun was kissing the horizon. Deep within the refines of the forest, perched atop a tree like a cat stalking it's pray, an Elven man stalked the area. His body adorn with all his gear. The man had two swords that rested on his hips. The scabbards were of custom design to hold the two magical blades. His clothing was made of the finest materials, and he looked as though he was part of a royal order of knights. Alas the man had two matching flint lock pistols that sat just behind the scabbards of the bladee. A coat covered some light armor that had its own magical properties as well. A set of dragon bracers rested around both wrists as well as a matching pair around his ankles over the boots. His hands were left bare so that he could feel everything around him. There was a hood that hung on the overcoat that was down at this time. It allowed the platinum long hair to wave slowly in the light breeze on the nights air. His skin was starting to fade with the night, and his emerald green eyes started to shine like that of a night stalker.

The ground was littered with the falling leaves of autumn, and they had started to change shades. The most beautiful shades of orange, and yellow that meshed in a state of harmony. The sound of horse's hooves were heard on the ground below as passers on the road traveled passed the tree that he was perched in. He watched as the people passed like he was the protector of the road, but his real intentions were unknown to anyone that could spot him in the tree. Though that was nay impossible.

As time passed, and the sun faded over the horizon, he moved back toward the trunk and leaped into the bush below. A low growl behind him rang in the night, and he froze in place. He had been playing hide and seek with his mythical black tiger that was as dark as he was. The large pink tongue flopped out of his mouth, and then lapped the drow's face. The man chuckled, "Reisender, what are you doing? You found me." He finished with a chuckle. The drow placed an emerald figurine on the ground, and a dark mist took the cat back to it's mythical world. Armond picked up the figurine, and then stepped onto the road pulling the hood of the coat over his head.

 

[Autumn Queen]

Further down that same road a nondescript carriage moved over the hard-packed road. The two horses were alert, as if they could sense the coming danger in the air. Inside the carriage were two guards and a young woman, her skin pale and her hair dark as the coming night. She shivered involuntarily and pulled her cloak tighter about her shoulders. The carriage was mediocre, not the finery that she was used to. Her guards seemed to be emotionless stone statues. Lady Joanna held a small box on her lap that contained a sealed scroll and four bars of platinum; a gift for the king.

She had never felt so alone.

Strapped to the lower part of her back was a small pouch that carried a single thing; a gift to the King's wife that the lady's master had hoped would sooth over the recent rift between Queen Beatrice and Duke Humphreys. The Duke, who had commissioned this special delivery, had special reason to want the queen to look favorably upon him. There was an important treaty coming up and he needed every advantage he could get.

Hence...Lady Joanna and her delivery. She wrung her hands and looked out the window at the darkening sky. Suddenly there was ~thump!~ and the carriage seemed like it ran over something.

"What... what was that?" She looked at her guards.

One of them knocked with a guantleted hand on the ceiling. "Rupert! Everything alright?"

There was no answer. He frowned and knocked again. "Rupert! Stop the carriage!" There was a hard smash on the carriage driver's bench, like someone had jumped on it, and the reins cracked as the carriage was being taken over. It careened into a small meadow and stopped abruptly.

The guard frowned and cursed under his breath. "Damned drivers. You can't find a good one for less than a king's ransom nowadays." He opened the door and stepped out, and a crossbow bolt slammed into his throat. The man's hands fluttered to his gushing wound like startled birds.

Lady Joanna screamed.

 

[Cabalxxvi]

Armond was walking up the road in the direction of the slowly approaching carriage. He didn't pay any heed at first, and was going to veer off into the bushes to let it pass by, but then the crack of the reins sounded, and the carriage took off. Armond had to dive into the thicket to avoid getting hit. The carriage was around the bend when the bandits took it over, and when it veered passed him, he didn't hesitate. When Armond hit the ground in the thicket he came back up to his feet with a quick roll on the ground, and was in a dead sprint to follow it. He slowed his sprint when the carriage stopped, and leaned up against a large oak tree to spot all the bandits. There were the two that took the carriage, and it looks like two of the guards had been paid off as well. Armond couldn't make out who's carriage it was though, it wasn't the queens, hers were more elaborate, and had three times the guards.

Armond ducked into a large bush that gave him a better view of the area, and listened in on the guards. "Hoi, what va hell, this aint the queens," one bandit stated. "I know it aint, but it was da only one that was comen," stated another. There was four of the bandits circling the area to make sure that they weren't spotted. Armond had noted that a woman was in the carriage for sure. The scream gave her away easily. It wasn't quiet. The bandit that was closest to him stopped and turned his back to the bush. He didn't say anything, and he was almost out of site of the other bandits, so Armond helped himself. He came out of the bush without a sound, and grabbed man on the forehead with his left hand, and his chin with the right, and jerked his head around before the man could utter a noise. Armond caught the body, and hid it in the bushes.

Armond reached into a small pouch that was on his side, and pulled out a handful of powder. It was all that he had left, and it would give him about 10 minutes to look like the bandit, and get all the information that he could get. So he sprinkled the dust onto him, and uttered a few Drow words, and his image to others changed to that of the bandit. He stepped out of the bushes just as another of the bandits came by, "Eh, whats you doing?" Asked the bandit. Armond cleared his throat and acted like he was adjusting his crotch, "Just taken a piss I was, what about you. Get back to patrol," Armond played it off.

 

[Autumn Queen]

Joanna scrambled backwards and nearly tumbled out of the carriage in her flurry to escape the death. Her breath was knocked from her chest and she found her legs entangled in the thick fabric and heavy layers of her petticoats and skirts. "No, no no no no..." She nearly moaned the word like a mantra, as if saying it enough could erase the events that just happened.

She tried to scramble to her feet or get away when strong hands grabbed her shoulders and shoved her towards the carriage. "Hey! It may not be the queen's carriage but we gots ourselves a little something ta play with!" The swarthy brute of a man licked his plump lips and eyes the lady's heaving chest. "Ello there, wot's yer name then? Cock sucker? Dick licker? Ows about my li'l playthin', eh? Li'l cum bucket?"

He began to grope her and she screamed again, kicking and trying to push him away. "No! NO! Let me go! Please oh God let me go!" Gone were thoughts of the queen, the gifts, or her duty to the lord who sent her. She was suddenly filled with the dreadful fear that she was going to be horribly used and then slain, and she wanted to live so desperately that she could feel her despair welling up inside and wanting to burst out.

 

[Cabalxxvi]

The next events happened almost to fast for the drow to react to them. The woman was being tormented by one of the bigger men, and Armond needed to act, and act fast. Well the drow moved fast that was for sure. The magic of the wrist guards, and the ankle guards kicked in. He moved much faster than a normal surface dwelling race, and was behind the large man.

The drow gripped the hilt of Alexander, and drove the blade cleanly, and silently into the back of the bandit that was roughing up the woman. Blood sprayed from the mans chest onto the woman, but the man stopped all actions and then dropped lifeless to the ground. The patrol didn't really have much time to react. They circled the drow and started yelling, "He farking killed him, we have to get this bastard." The words were spat in a panic. The dance of the blades happened.

Armond's hand went to his other blade, and he barreled in with a twirl. The movement was methodical, and perfect. His defense was impossible to breach, and the movement of the blades was so fast that slashes appeared on the clothing, limbs, and faces of all the men that circled him. The bandits didn't have a chance with their sloppy skills. One man came in with a spear, and Armond simply raised his foot and stepped down driving the blade to the ground. His scimitar met the mans skull, and sliced cleanly through it. The man dropped to the ground, and then were only four.

Armond stopped his dance and moved closer to the woman. The powder that he had sprinkled onto himself was starting to fade, and the man had the image of an elf. His ears, and part of his face were starting to show. He simply asked in a hurry, "Are you okay?" His words were interrupted by a sword clanging with his own, and Armond stepped back into the fight.

The two guards that had been paid off were circling, and watching trying to learn the movements of the well trained opponent. They couldn't keep up, and looked to each other. They had been paid so they nodded to one another, and sprinted for the horses. They didn't make it far when the sound of thunder cracked into the late night, and the light of the gunpowder lit the area. Armond had to close his eyes when he fired so the flash didn't bother him, but his aim was true, and both men dropped to the ground where they were running.

Armond went right back to the defensive, and into a low crouch. His blades held parallel and their sides in front of him, while he waited the next move.

 

[Autumn Queen]

Lady Joanna recoiled in horror as a blade burst forth from her assailant's chest and the warm, thick blood spattered over her face and chest. She tried in vain to raise her hands to shield herself from the death splatter.

"He farking killed him, we have to get this bastard." The guards shouted, their anger at their companion evident in the way their eyes took on a panicked but furious look. Joanna tried to climb up the side of the carriage or go through the thing to get away, but her body was in shock and her mind fought to disbelieve what was happening.

Then the man who saved her flickered. He went from human to dark-skinned, his ears were long, and his hair white. Then back to looking like the guard... and then faded to the dark-skinned Elf-like creature who turned to her and asked her if she was okay.

Was she okay? NO! She was being attacked and her guard was dead. Or he was a traitor. In any case, she had no guards!

But she just nodded and then when the swords began to clang again and she tried to crawl underneath the carriage to get to safely.

 

[Cabalxxvi]

Armond was paying little attention to the woman at the moment, and didn't notice her trying to climb under the carriage. He was pre-occupied with dealing with the 2 that were left. They were both coming in at him at the same time, and with Armond's skill they were easily defended. His blades zig zagging in and out to to clang steel against magical steel.

Without thinking it through Armond went into to a whirlwind attack towards the larger of the two, and the blades clanged with the opponent, but he was too slow. Armond's blade found their homes and buried into the head, neck, and chest of the man, and he fell to the ground. The blade in Armond's left hand was glowing a deep red, and the one in his right was glowing with a white light. Armond knew that the energy had built up, and it was time to release it.

Armond pointed both blades at the last man, and with a thought the man dropped to the ground in agony. He was gripping his head and screaming. The light pillar surrounded the man, and he was ripped to shreds by the searing light. When the lights faded, the man was gone, and the only things left was his clothing and equipment. Armond took a deep calming breath, and sheathed his blades.

The Drow didn't turn toward the woman at first, he scanned the dark area with his eyes in the infrared spectrum, and when he was satisfied that there was no on left he shifted back to the normal vision, and started to walk towards the scared woman. Armond didn't have a drop of sweat or blood on him. He was a fighter like no one had seen on the surface.

 

[Autumn Queen]

Oh gods, the screaming, the screaming! Joanna covered her ears as she huddled beneath the carriage. She couldn't bear to look into the light that was cast by the... man? Elf? What kind of a monstrosity was he, that he could slay so many men so easily? She felt her heart grip in fear that he would come after her next, though as of yet he made no move to assault her.

She backed away on her hands and knees, her eyes riveted on the man who was striding towards her. Surely he was some kind of avenging deity there to smite the world? What else could explain the way he fought and the fact that he was completely untouched by the men who now laid dead or dying around him? Her breath came in short, pained gasps. "Please, please, I don't want to die. Please don't kill me!"

She would have given him all the jewels bound to her body, her promised first born or anything else that monsters asked for in fairy tales when they were debating between eating someone and setting them free. Joanna's heart clenched at the thought that she would die that day and never see the capital city or hold a lover. She felt the disappointment of dying before she had ever lived.

 

[Cabalxxvi]

Armond paused, and looked down at the woman that was cowering on the ground. He had no intention or thought of hurting her. The spell powder that had changed him into a human was all but gone now, and she could finally get a good look at the black skin, and the emerald green eyes. It was fully dark now, and the eyes were glowing an eerie green color. He knelt down on the ground close to her, and smiled.

"Are you okay," He asked. Armond's voice was soft, and soothing, like that of a saint. He had no harshness when he spoke. There was a set of earrings that dangled from both of his ears, and his skin was smooth. He sat on the ground to get a little more comfortable, and leaned back onto his elbows. "So are we going to stay out here all night?" The drow teased. He was such a light hearted person. He had a side smile on his face, and would wait for the woman to calm down. He knew that she had just been through a lot.

The area was littered with all the dead, and Armond didn't have a scratch on him. He was trained for a long time in the war schools of the under dark, and he didn't even break a sweat. Armond also used almost none of his innate dark powers, that would have been overkill for the Drow. He cocked his head to the side a little, and waited for the woman.

 

[Autumn Queen]

"I... I... how did you...?" But there were no words for her lips. She knew that there would have been death, or worse, if the bandits had captured the caravan. And now, though her guards were slain, so were the bandits. She was alive and unhurt. The gifts for the queen and the messages were all intact, all due to the interference, no - the involvement - of his man.

Or... what was he? His ears were tapered like elves, but his dark skin and light hair... he looked like something out of a fairy tale. "You're not going to kill me?" She edged closer to him now that she realized that he was there to keep her from getting hurt, not to hurt her himself. "Th-thank you. I don't know where to go. I can get a room at the next town, maybe hire some other men to take me the rest of the journey...." her eyes met his. "I have a very important message to deliver to the capital. Could you take me far enough to hire an escort?"