L'assassino Volpe
By: Silent Shadows
Chapter One: Una Infida Volpe
A shadowed figure crouched upon a high eave, easily six stories above the crowds below. The hood of his cloak hid all but the lower half of his face from prying eyes as he examined those below him. The three guards that had watched over this section of wall had all been felled. The first by a throwing knife from an adjacent roof, the second had been taken by a bolt fired from one of the covered stalls, and the last, killed by his own sword, stolen from it's sheath and thrust through the mans back before he had time to utter a cry of alarm. They had been laid to rest, the customary Requiescat in Pace offered over their eternally sleeping forms, all three bodies hidden from view in a nearby hay bale. Now their killer crouched, a bird of prey among the masses, watching the troops amass at attention before a giant of a man.
The time to strike was close, and the hunter shifted, allowing the blood to flow back into his legs. The motion did not go unnoticed, as a shadow shifted within the alcoves at ground level. Suddenly their was a shout, loud amongst the silence of a stolen word, and with it came a whirlwind of motion. Assassino! That one utterance may very well spell failure as the guards drew weapons, heads swiveling to glare at him, archers knocked arrows to strings, and his target turned tail, fleeing toward the heavy double doors on the far side of the courtyard. The Assassin sprang into motion as well, leaping from the eave in a daring swan dive, trusting his life to the whims of fate. Time seemed to still for the assassin, as he completed his semi revolution, his back facing the ground. He felt the impact from three heavy canvases, felt them slow him as they gave way, his eyes closed. As he passed through the third he finished his flip, landing in a deep crouch, his head bowed, face hidden from view.
The assassins would-be attackers paused in their mad rush forward, fear coursing through them as they realized this man had just leaped from atop six stories and landed no worse for wear. The assassin lifted his head slowly, gazing out at them from amidst the shadows of his eagle cowl hood. That singular gaze chilled their blood to ice, not a one wanted to be the first to engage this professional killer. This was not to last as a shout from the large man, the regional commander of the Templar Knights, startled them into motion and they attacked en masse. The first three to move forward did not make it more then two steps, a blur of motion from the assassin and the three fell where their feet had fallen, a dagger protruding from each of their throats. Those behind glanced towards their fallen comrades, and that was all the time that the hunter needed.
Springing into action, the assassin darted forward, dodged, spinning under the hastily swung sword of the man he had closed distance with, and cut the guards throat with his own dagger, taken from the mans belt. Using the momentum from his spin, the assassin hurled the stolen dagger at a guard in his path, rushing through the gap a hairsbreadth ahead of the halberds blades that closed the hole behind him, leaped into the air and came down with his hidden blade in another guards throat. Losing no speed, he rolled forward, withdrawing his hidden blade, coming to his feet in a dead sprint. The guards attempted to cut him off, but he changed direction, darting toward the wall that formed the eastern side of the courtyard. They believed they had him, charging forward with spears to skewer the foolish assassin, but they could not have been more wrong. Hitting the pillars with leading foot forward, the assassin started a 6 step vertical run, culminating with him grabbing the fine wrought iron catwalk balcony above him. Pulling himself on to it, the assassin ran along the walkway, closing distance with his target on the floor below him. As he leaped into the air, the Templar Captain standing stunned, horror written upon his face, the assassin smiled, knowing that after this, his family would be avenged, fathers work fulfilled. As the assassin fell toward his target, hidden blade drawn and seeking blood, an arrow fired from the shadowed alcoves of a balcony leapt forward to meet him. Catching the motion out of the corner of his eye, the assassin knew that he could do nothing to prevent it, lifted a hand in attempt to protect himself, and was caught in the chest by the speeding shaft.
The force of the arrow tossed him backward into the ground, the collision forcing the air from his lungs, as the remaining guards circled in, weapons drawn and at the ready. As they moved to deal the blows that would signal the end, a voice cut through the courtyard from the direction the arrow had been fired from.
"Hold! Take that one captive and bring them to the front! We'll see the face of the one who tried to kill our Commander."
The assassin raised his head to behold the one who had spoken, and was shocked to see a fellow Assassino step from the shadows, his hood low against his back. The soldiers lifted the would-be killer roughly, blocking the other assassin from view, and dragged him to a position five or six feet before the large Templar before depositing him roughly upon the floor in a crumpled pile. The other Assassino leapt over the balcony, landing with grace before the fallen. Lifting the wounded hunter roughly to his knees, he gloated for a moment.
"Did you really think it would be this easy? They've known you were coming from the start, I told them. This whole setup, everything you have witnessed within the city in the past few days, has all been to bring you here, at this moment...to die. You've just had the pleasure of performing your last mission Assassin, know that even though you failed, you had the honor of dying in service to your Creed."
"That oversized Templar Rat over there...was never my target. You were," The Assassin replied in a calm clear voice, lifting their head slowly.
Uncertainty flashed in the eyes of the other, he knew that voice...it belonged to... Tearing the Assassins hood back, he revealed her face at last. Bright green eyes, black waist length hair, elven features. The assassins eyes were lined in deep black, it brought out the color of her eyes and accented the exotic angles. High cheek bones and full pink lips, every feature perfect save one, the scar that bisected her left eye from forehead to cheek, the eye it crossed paler then the other, not blind but certainly less useful.
"Elena Di Venezia...or should I say, L'assassino Volpe? You must have had great faith in your creed to have come here, in pursuit of me. Tell me, do you trust Ezio Auditore enough to have placed such blind faith in him?"
Elena did not answer, she stayed silent, and as the traitor before her turned to look back at the Templar behind him, she struck. Pulling the arrow from the steel-backed leather pad that she had worn beneath her attire, she drove the point of it deep into the traitors foot. As he yelped in pain and stumbled backward in an attempt to escape her, she rose to meet him, hidden blade sliding from it's sheath to find his throat. The arrow pinning him to the floor caused him to fall backward, and Elena settled into a crouch that straddled his chest, her hidden blade buried deep in her target. Leaning forward so that her mouth was mere millimeters from his ear she whispered words for him and him alone.
"Come ti permetti di parlare di fede, Michelangelo! Tutto quello che avete fatto รจ eresia. Tu sei un traditore contro il nostro credo, e di aver trovato la tua punizione. Requiescat in Pace, bastardo!"
Elena looked up to find the rest of the brotherhood, their white cloaks aflutter as they moved, mopping up the rest of the Templar Knights. Ezio Auditore himself was closing the eyes of the Templar Commander, and his actions reminded Elena to do the same. Michelangelo had been an old friend, his betrayal of the order had left Elena feeling empty...when they had located him, she had asked Ezio if she could be the one to carry out the task of ending his life. He had been adamantly against such a thing at first, but after considering it for some time, he had asked her why she wished to be the one to kill him. Her answer had been simple and honest, he had once been her friend and had saved her life on more then one occasion in the past. She felt she owed it to him for it to be her blade that found his throat. Ezio himself could not argue with this, and had given her the permission she needed to take the task as her own. The plan of attack had been of her own design. She knew how shrewd Michelangelo was, she had needed to ensure that her entire focus during the assault seemed to be elsewhere. Only then would he have shown himself, only then would he let his guard down enough for her to get close.
She had devised the strategy to make it seem as if she was after the commander, an individual Elena had known that Michelangelo would be close to. Elena knew that he favored the bow, and knew that he always killed or wounded with a single arrow, aimed at the chest, just to the left of the heart. She had protected herself with 3.5 mm of steel that had been surfaced by a half inch of cured leather. She had hidden it carefully beneath the folds of her clothing, over her breasts, which she had wrapped to hide the fact that she was female. The cleverly designed shield had stopped the arrow, but the impact had sent her reeling. The collision with the hard marble floor had knocked her unconscious for a few moments, and she was grateful in some small way that Michelangelo had wanted to see the face of the one he was about to kill. Her best friend was dead by her own hand, but Elena knew this was only the beginning. Following behind Maestro Auditore and the rest of the Brotherhood, she allowed herself a moment to straighten herself. As L'assassino Volpe recollected herself and raised her hood back into it's position, casting her face once more in shadow, she vowed she would find the truth beyond this conspiracy if it meant her death.
End Chapter One
Authors Note:
A quick translation of what she said to him in his final moments is:
"How dare you talk about faith, Michelangelo! All you that you have done is heresy. You are a traitor against our creed, and you have found your punishment. Rest in Peace, bastard!"
Translation of Story Title is: The Killer Fox/ The Assassin Fox/ The Murderous Fox
Chapter title means: The Treacherous Fox
Assassino is self explanatory, or at least one would hope. This is my first attempt at writing anything related to Assassins Creed, so I do hope that I have at least stayed true to some of the interesting things that an assassin might be capable of. I had originally thought to make the main char Altair, but then changed my mind to Ezio...in the end I decided that a FEMALE character of my own design would be many times more interesting, and I hope that my decision is echoed by my readers. Please forgive the style that the first chapter is written in, I wanted to avoid letting the my readers know that the Assassin was female for as long as possible. This will be my first post on Fanfiction , and I do hope that I am well received. Comments and reviews are, as always, highly appreciated, and please do not be afraid to tell me truly how you feel about my work. If it's crap, tell me, but at least be able to offer some helpful advice, or have a decent reason for why you do not like a story I have written. I have not, nor will I ever accept, "I don't like what your writing about" as a legitimate reason for saying you dislike my work, because my question will forever be, "then why did you read it?" I have more in my mind for this particular tale, but I want to know...do you all think I should continue it? Do my readers wish to see more of L'assassino Volpe?
End Authors Note