Chapter Two: The Free Company's Fifth Team

The two female warriors from Tusukuru moved through the forest at a fast walk, following their new, oddly-dressed companions. They were spread out, the two of them following slightly behind and to either side of Jaren, who had started to explain what exactly was going on in their adopted homeland. The other two members of the Free Company were spaced apart around the distance of a stone's throw, the man named Kyr in front and the woman named Lynia behind. They were both constantly scanning their surroundings, searching for anything out of the ordinary by the looks of it.

"I'll be giving you a summary of what's been going on, as I'm sure I don't know all of what's been happening. When we reach the capital, my commanding officer Captain Treyar Kern will be able to give you a more complete version. Basically, what's happening is that there's a very real threat of Tusukuru being attacked, but not in the usual way."

"What does 'usual' mean?" Touka asked the question, but Jaren could tell by Karura's expression that she was likely thinking the same thing.

"By 'usual' I mean with armies. The new threat is from people who mean to start a kind of subtle war, if there is such a thing. There won't be campaigns and the marching of soldiers like you're used to. Instead, they mean to infiltrate and cripple Tusukuru from within. This could be in the form of anything from destroying crops in secret, operating as disguised bandit groups who have an unusually good level of organization, sudden attacks on towns and villages that end just as soon as they start, and so on.

"In short, they mean to create a prolonged period of anarchy and chaos that will throw Tusukuru into such a state of weakness that when they do decide to send their regular forces in, there will be nothing left to resist them. They may even be able to play it off as sending a rescue force to help the former nation of Tusukuru. With all your leaders dead or powerless and your foundations crumbled, it would be exceedingly simple for them to "generously" declare the land as being under their protection, and minimize the chance of any conflict with your neighbors. After that, they'll either install puppet leaders in the government, or just proclaim the land of Tusukuru a protectorate of theirs, which has the same end result." Jaren paused to let the gravity of the situation he had outlined sink in.

"A disaster any way you look at it," Karura said. "How are we going to fight against this, and why us? How are we going to be useful if it's going to be like you say?"

"You all have some experience in raids and more, shall we say, unconventional operations. The two of you even posed as a band of ankuams to covertly help out with that rebellion in Na Tunk, after all. Yes, we were there too. I was in the area at the time as part of a First Division effort to help the rebels, but when your group showed up we ended up diverting to other areas so we wouldn't get in your way. You couldn't have known about it, but there was quite a struggle to keep enemy reinforcements off of the rebels while you were all raiding the capital. Frankly, we prefer our battles to be fought and won in secret, or at least have the credit given elsewhere. In any case, in the eyes of Regent Benawi and the officers of the Free Company, that kind of experience makes you perfect for what's to come. If it could be done with the rank and file soldiers of Tusukuru, there wouldn't have been a need for us to come out here and find you."

"It also means the situation is going to be a difficult one, in case you were wondering." Lynia had moved up from her position behind them all and was now keeping pace alongside Jaren. Her face had a serious expression on it with something else that hinted at a touch of annoyance. "They already managed to catch up, Jaren. Do we keep going and tire them out, or should we just make a stand in this clearing here?"

"Already? I would've expected them to be at least an hour behind us," he said with a thoughtful look on his face. "One of their lackeys must have started following the two of you right as you left and placed trail markers so the rest of them could find you. If they showed up this quickly, I'm going to guess they rode to within maybe a quarter mile of us, and then dismounted to follow on foot to try to catch you two off guard. Not like it would make a difference," he added with a chuckle.

Lynia wrinkled a corner of her mouth and cleared her throat. "Orders, Jaren?"

"Stand and fight, my harsh taskmistress, stand and fight," Jaren sighed, and sped up his pace to catch up to Kyr, still ahead of them. "They've gotten close enough Kyr, let's get ready to make a stand in this clearing," he said, falling into step with the taller scout. Kyr nodded, and unslung the large, drab green bundle from his back as he stepped off the road and melded into the tree line silently. They heard rather than saw him climb up into the trees and work his way into a perch in the high branches. Lynia moved into position beside Jaren, slipping on what looked like an unusually heavy and rigid pair of dark leather gauntlets, unsheathing the sword on her back when she was satisfied they were on correctly. The sword itself was quite long, a hand a half sword as far as Touka could tell, and the entire finish was a dull black color that didn't reflect any light. Jaren balled his right hand into a fist and touched it to his right thigh, Kyr and Lynia nodding in acknowledgment of whatever the signal meant. "The two of you are staying right where you're at right now during this. You can draw your weapons if you like, but I don't want either of you making a move off the spot you're standing on no matter what happens," he said to Touka and Karura.

"My, aren't we the prickly martinet all of a sudden," Karura said with an amused smirk. Jaren grimaced and looked to Touka as if to ask if this was going to be normal behavior. Touka just frowned and shrugged. "We'll trust in your judgment for this fight, son of Anterei," she said diplomatically, glaring at Karura afterwards. Karura responded by smiling with mock innocence and sticking her tongue out slightly. Jaren rolled his eyes and drew his weapons, the long knife hanging under his right shoulder and the short sword at his left hip. The finish on the metal of both blades was a dull black similar to Lynia's sword, and the grips were wrapped with what looked like dark brown cord.

"This might be a strange time to ask this, but judging from your weapons you seem to have a unique fighting style. I have this impression I have heard of it or seen it before though, almost like I know what it is," Touka said with a note of interest in her voice. "I thought it might," Jaren said as he turned around to face the road behind them.

"It's known as the Three Valleys Striking Style," he said over his shoulder to Touka. Her eyes widened. "That's an Evinkuruga style! How do you..."

"There'll be time for a proper explanation later, ma'am," Kyr whispered from the treetops. "They're getting close. Five in the main group, sir, three and three coming around the left and right maybe seven throws out," he said, directing the information to Jaren. "Ones moving to the flank are the only ones with ranged weapons I can see."

"Keep any flankers off of us, Kyr. Other than that, targets of opportunity, anyone with missiles first," Jaren said. "Aye, sir," came the muffled reply followed by a noise of a something being pulled taut and a sharp click. Jaren closed his eyes, breathing in slowly and holding it before letting it out again. He continued doing this for a time until the group of town thugs had come to within a stone's throw of where their group had decided to make its stand, at which point his eyes snapped open. There were five of them, as Kyr had said earlier. Touka and Karura recognized them as the thugs they had fought with earlier, some of them still glaring at Karura with a pronounced hatred on their faces, along with evidence of the previous fight. There was a mixture of swords, axes, and daggers among them.

"I'll give you credit for catching up this fast, and while I'm at it give you some free advice. Turn around and go home while your legs can still carry you. You're in the middle of a trap and don't even know it yet," Jaren said to the man he presumed he was the leader, a tall, broad-shouldered, man with a mean look on his scarred face and carrying a large sword.

"I'll overlook the attitude and the arrogance this time, wanderer," he said with a sneer. "Feel lucky that we're not looking for you. Just leave those two women here and walk, if you value your health. You're the one who hasn't realized the tricky spot they're in."

"Is that so?" Jaren asked the question casually, without raising his voice or making any movements. The noise of something cutting through the air broke the relative calm, a scream of pain from behind and to the left of the clearing. Three of the men in front of them flinched and looked around for the source of the noise. The leader and another lean, seasoned-looking fellow next to him made no visible move, keeping their eyes on the group in front of them.

"I think they've secreted an archer somewhere. What say you, Marr?" The leader held his large sword steady in front of him and kept his gaze fixed on Jaren. The other simply shook his head. "Didn't seem like your normal bow and arrow. He's a demon of a marksman and a tracker, to be able to hit our boys out there, let alone know where they're coming from." As the leader finished speaking, they heard the sound again and another yell, this time from the right.

"I bet the bastard is picking off our own archers," the leader growled. "If you think that's enough to scare us off, you're sorely mistaken. We've all fought our share of fights, some of us more than others. Marr and I here fought in the last war against Shikeripetim, been ankuams ever since."

"Doesn't say much about you if that's supposed to be impressive ," Lynia said. "You're not the only ones who have seen your share of war either." She looked even more serious than she had earlier, if that were possible, Touka thought. Her gaze seemed empty, dead, and the way she carried herself demonstrated an air of familiarity with dangerous situations. Touka could see the different effects her words and attitude were having on the armed band; the leader continued to hold his cocky smirk, while the man he had called Marr looked more and more concerned, and the other three who had flinched earlier when Kyr had started firing were exchanging nervous looks. She figured it was likely they had never met this level of resistance before, probably faced with inexperienced bandits and scared townsfolk who treated them with more deference than they deserved.

"Ha, well, we'll see who came out sharper then, won't we?" The leader lowered himself in a crouching stance as he sprang forward towards the group. Jaren stepped in front of the man, quickly placing himself directly in front of the man's advance. Instead of waiting for an attack though, Jaren continued to move, catching him off guard. The leader attempted a diagonal slashing cut from a downwards angle aimed to cut across Jaren's midsection and into his left shoulder, but Jaren neatly dodged the swipe and allowed it to continue harmlessly into the space he had been standing. As the man's sword reached the end of its arc and before he could follow through with another swing, Jaren slammed his short sword into the the tip of the blade. The sudden impact twisted the man's blade outwards, forcing his arms to move accordingly, trapping his dominant arm against his shoulder and his guiding arm at an awkward angle away from his body. Another member of the armed group took the opportunity to launch an attack at Jaren from the side, directing his dagger at Jaren's exposed back. Jaren quickly spun around, trapping the man's dagger-wielding arm in the crook of his own left arm, and delivered a hard stomp to the man's leading ankle. There was a nasty crunch, and the man dropped his dagger as he fell to the ground with a yell, his ankle broken.

"Three Valleys Striking Style, indeed," Touka mumbled, watching Jaren's movements. "I didn't know it was possible for the Evinkuruga to come up with something quite so... inelegant as that," Karura remarked with a smirk. Touka frowned at her companion's words, but did not reply.

Meanwhile, Lynia squared off against the man the leader had called Marr. Lynia had a slight advantage in reach with her hand and a half sword, but not by much as Marr had a slightly shorter double-edged longsword. Unlike the band's leader, Marr circled carefully, keeping his sword close to his body and only moving it to make quick feints at Lynia's equally guarded figure. Lynia responded by cautiously circling as well, only moving out of position to deliver a severe blow with the flat of her blade to the side of an ax-wielding underling who had tried to land a chop from behind. He stumbled forward in pain and from the strangled sound that came out of his mouth what sounded like a broken rib or two. At that point, Lynia took the time to step behind him and quickly deliver a kick into the back of his knee, toppling the man face first into the dirt where he lay still, groaning slightly.

An archer's face appeared along the periphery of the clearing's tree line, as he drew his bow and took aim at the two ankuams standing passively behind the brawl taking place. He went down just as quickly as he had appeared when the sound that had been heard earlier cut through the air once more, and he clutched at something now lodged in his shoulder. The leader of the group swore loudly as he caught sight of this happening out of the corner of his eye, and redoubled his charge against Jaren who continued to skillfully deflect his sword swings away from him. The last man of the group aside from Marr and their leader made to throw his dagger at Lynia, but stopped in mid-throw, disabled by another well-aimed shot. Touka and Karura caught sight of what looked like a shortened arrow with strangely curled fletching at the end of the shaft lodged halfway through his forearm as the man collapsed in pain.

Lynia took the initiative as the last possible distraction in her fight with Marr fell, running at Marr from an angle calculated to place her facing his weak side, away from the imaginary arc in front of his body where he would be able to use his sword most effectively. Marr countered by stepping back quickly, taking a series of rapid, shuffling steps that prevented him from being off-balance, making use of good footwork as he turned to realign himself in relation to Lynia. Lynia, however, was faster and rapidly closed the distance between them. Marr thrust his sword at her torso quickly, but was quickly parried as Lynia spun his sword out and away from her body. At the end of the parry, Lynia removed her left hand from the grip of her sword and swung a quick backhand at Marr's face. Her gauntleted hand made contact with an audible thud, dazing Marr. As he reeled from the blow, she quickly spun her sword around in her hands, one hand on the midsection of the blade and the other near the crossbar of the sword but on the other side of the grip. She dropped into a low crouch, quickly hooking Marr's trailing ankle with one end of the crossbar and pulling hard. Marr, already unbalanced from her strike to his face, found his center of gravity disastrously altered and fell on his back hard, slamming the back of his head into the dirt as he came down. Karura made a noise of approval from her vantage point behind the action.

Lynia stood up from her crouch and restored her hold on her sword to its previous one, exhaling slowly as she did. "All other threats cleared, Jaren, the rest is up to you," she said to Jaren and his surprised looking opponent.

"Hey, now, I don't think you have time to be making face like that with the fight in front of you unfinished," Jaren called out mockingly. He slid into his opponent before he could react, grabbing his right wrist and throwing his arm upwards before moving behind him. The man instinctively let go of his sword with his left, trying to twist around and regain control of the situation, but it proved futile as Jaren delivered a slash with the free long knife in his left hand to the outside of the man's arm near his elbow. The man grunted in pain as Jaren released his grip on him and jumped back the distance of a few steps. Facing Jaren once more, the man raised his sword back up in a guarded stance, wincing from the pain of the wound Jaren had inflicted on his arm. Slowly, the point of his sword began to waver. Staring in disbelief, the man attempted to steady the sword to no effect. His entire right arm began to tremble from bearing the weight of the sword, his right hand losing its grip on the sword and fingers loosening. Finally, the sword dropped out of his now useless grip, falling with a thud into the dirt of the clearing.

"What did you do to me? What kind of trick is this?" The man glared at Jaren as he asked him the question through gritted teeth. He had asked the question angrily, but they could all detect a hint of fear in his voice as well.

"I damaged the nerves in your right arm a bit. You'll be fine if you rest that arm and let it heal up for a month or so. Should give you enough time to sort yourself out, get out of the sword for hire game," Jaren said. The rest of the armed band were coming to, in varying states of injury. "The rest of you should take my advice as well. Go back to farming or whatever trade it is you can do. Leave the ankuam business to the professionals. Go home," Jaren yelled to the unseen fighters still skulking around in the trees and undergrowth around the clearing. "Last chance before my friend in the shadows starts shooting to kill instead of wounding, so I suggest you take it while I'm still guaranteeing you safe passage out of here. There should be enough of you to help carry your less fortunate friends back to town."

Jaren sheathed his pair of blades as the rest of the men emerged from the trees slowly, looking around them apprehensively for the source of the withering fire that had left many of their number wounded. They gathered up the weapons and injured before turning around and heading away from the clearing back in the direction of town. Their leader, still clutching his right arm tightly, turned to glare at Jaren before stalking off with the rest of his men. Lynia waited until they were just out of sight before quietly heading off in their direction, her hand a half sword still unsheathed and ready for use. Jaren motioned for the rest of the group to wait, and listened intently for any signs of further trouble.

Lynia came back into the clearing a couple of minutes later, sword sheathed. She waved her hand horizontally across her face as a signal to Jaren as she came closer to them, Jaren nodding and breathing a sigh of relief. Shortly after Lynia made it back to their group, Kyr climbed down from his perch in the trees. The loose scarf she had seen him and the others wearing earlier was wound around his head so that only his eyes were showing, and he carefully unraveled it to settle loosely on his neck as before. He was also carrying what Touka figured had been wrapped up in the bundle he had slung on his back earlier, but she couldn't say what it was exactly. The majority of it was made of wood painted a matte brown color, to prevent any light from reflecting as far as she could guess, and what looked like a half-sized bow mounted perpendicular to the rest of the wooden body. The rest of it was made of mechanisms whose workings she could only guess at, made of a dull colored steel.

Jaren saw the interested look on her face as she looked over the weapon. "I see you've taken some interest in Kyr's crossbow. I'll have him set aside some time and explain it to you when we're back at the capital. He'll need to maintain it anyways, so it'd be a perfect time for him to give you an idea of how it works." Kyr nodded as he busied himself with the weapon, pulling a catch on a weapon that slackened the bow, and re-wrapped the weapon up in the drab green cloth they had seen earlier. "Remind me whenever you have a free moment, ma'am," Kyr said politely, swinging the once again wrapped weapon over his back.

"I want to thank you for the help, First Sergeant Strasert, I really do appreciate it, along with being able to see your art of war up close," Touka said after the group had reassembled. "Please, no need to be so formal. Jaren is just fine," Jaren said, holding his hands out slightly in a gesture of appeal.

"Quite the demonstration, Jaren," Karura said. "I've heard stories about your Free Company, but getting a good look this close was much more entertaining. We should spar together sometime."

"All in good time, Lady Karura," Jaren said with a smile. "Let's get back to the capital first, though, shall we?" Karura smiled back, executing a mock curtsy, her hands lifting an imaginary skirt outwards. "Lead the way, Sir First Sergeant."