"C'mon, just go already! The wind will knock you off if I don't push you first!" the voice of your brother rang in your ears. You turned back to you at him, shaking your hand dismissively. "Shut up! I'm going." you called over the wind, sliding into a crouch as your feet nimbly stepped onto the pointed wooden plank. The wind almost pushed you off the edge, but you managed to study yourself and peer over.
"Quick, before the archers spot us." he urged.
Your stomach lurched as the real height of the jump hit you. Below the building you were on was the town central, not too populated since it was a Sunday and everyone was most likely at the church. It was a long fall to the hay cart below, and the thoughts of What would happen if I missed the cart? came freely flowing into your already racing thoughts. Your brother called to you again, clearly growing impatient with your hesitance.
You chewed on the inside of your cheek, slowly standing upon the very tip of the edge. A little gust of wind could easily waver you and send you flailing to your death. Closing your eyes, you shoved the thought away, holding your arms out to your sides, mimicking a bird.
"You can do it, (Y/N)! Just like the Assassins!" he cried, now trying to be as encouraging as he could.
Just like the Assassins.
You and your older sibling had watched a lot of different Assassins perform this wonderful, but risky Leap of Faith. You had seen most of them throw themselves out of the hay piles with not even a scratch, but unfortunately, there was an occasional accident, and you hoped your name wouldn't be added to the list of unlucky people who had literally turned into a deformed pile of gore on the hard stone floor below. As you sucked in a deep breath, slightly bending at the knees, you closed your eyes and waited another second.
Then you jumped.
The feeling of being forced back down to the ground by gravity was as terrifying as it was amazing. Cold winds whipped at your face as you performed a slow somersault, looking up at the blurry dot that was your brother looking down at you. A stray eagle circled overhead, letting out a squawk. A few seconds past and you suddenly whirled a little faster, hurling into the hay cart with a soft thud, the sun and all the light suddenly disappearing from beneath the soft hay. You thrust your arms and head out of the cart, letting out an excited cry as you realized you had made it, hearing your brother faintly cheer from atop the building. Once your legs had stopped shaking, you rolled over the side of the cart and onto the floor below. Hay stuck to your clothing and you hurriedly brushed it off, looking up to now see your brother copying the same bird-like pose. From the ground, you saw the winds feverishly flapping his clothes about, almost strong enough to pull down his hood. He got into a half squat and was about to jump when he let out a pained cry. You could barely see the ugly flower of red that blossomed across his white jacket from where you were standing, and you saw him stumble and slip off the edge of the wood plank. Your heart sank, a scream tearing past your lips as a blur of white came hurling down towards the ground. An archer was standing on the wood plank now, holding his bow and looking down with a confused expression, and you now realized what had happened. With your brother wearing a white jacket, and with the hood up, the archer must have mistook him as an Assassin and not a regular fifteen year old boy. And so the archer shot him with an arrow.
Your feet were frozen to the ground as he inched towards the ground with neck breaking speeds. Sirens were going off in your head as the world slowed down around you, your heart pounding heavily. Your throat was raw and hoarse from screaming, but he was falling so fast there wasn't anything you could do but stand and watch as the last piece of your family was about to meet his death on the jagged stone floor below.
He was about halfway down when the body of the same archer who had shot him came rolling off the building, slamming onto the floor, his throat slit.
What happened next shocked you, as if you couldn't be shocked enough.
A figure cloaked in white robes with the oh so familiar red sash laced around his waist had taken the same fateful leap and was now falling faster than your brother and managed to get underneath the boy, wrapping his arms and legs around him like a human blanket as they fell soundlessly into hay cart.
You cried and ran over to the cart, jumping back when the man jumped out of it with your brother slung over his shoulder. He was either unconscious- or dead- and you could barely muster a single word, your eyes wide.
"A.. Assassin.."
The figure turned his head to you, making you freeze up. His golden orbs locked on you for a moment before he began to speak.
"He's taken an arrow to the chest, but it missed his heart. He is bleeding out and needs immediate medical attention. Follow me." he said quickly and whirled away from you, taking off down the street. You glanced at the archer's mutilated corpse that laid a few feet away from the cart before taking off in a run to catch up with the Assassin.