Whoa!! I am so sorry! I totally did not mean to leave you guys for so long. Life has kinda been crazy. Any way here's the next chapter, enjoy. I hope this answers some questions.
It was the unexpected speed and agility from the seemingly unconscious girl that had caught Will off guard. She glared down on him now, with eyes holding a variety of the different shades of green. They reminded him of the eyes of a panther stalking its prey.
The two remained in that position with Will's arm bent uncomfortably for only a few seconds before she suddenly released him and leapt backwards. Her feet skidded against the wet stone until she brought herself down to a menacing crouch.
The pose suggested a defensive strategy, she obliviously expected him to react with a sudden attack of his own.
Will simply held his hands above his head, palms facing her, while remaining on his back. He was forced to strain his neck in order to see her over his feet.
"Whoa it's ok. It's ok." Her eyelids fluttered but other wise, didn't move. He tried again, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to hurt you."
Still, she hesitated as if contemplating if she should believe him. Yet, soon after she dropped her gaze and heaved a sigh of what seemed like relief, and unfolded herself from her crouch.
"You didn't hurt me." The girl strolled towards him and Will could finally lower his head. "You just shouldn't have scared me like that."
When she was finally close enough, her hand stretched out to him. Will took the friendly movement as an apology and gave her his hand. Still, he didn't feel right about letting the small girl help him to his feet. So he simply heaved himself forward, only letting her take a fraction of his weight.
"I'm sorry. I guess I wasn't expecting you to react like that." He remembered the way she had quickly knocked him to the ground and suddenly felt a small admiration towards her.
She grinned with a slight giggle in return. "You and everyone else in the world, what's your name? Why are you here?"
"I'm Will," he began. The girl offered a half salute half wave gesture, "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Payton."
Will's eyebrows drew together slightly at the name. "Are you from Araluen?" Payton hooked her thumbs over her belt and shook her head slightly. "Well sort of. I was born here, but grew up in Gallica. I only recently returned."
Will explained to her his apprenticeship to Halt, the ranger, and the details of his capture. He couldn't help but notice how she seemed to be in awe of him when he mentioned his status as an apprentice ranger. "So why are you here?"
Payton leaned against the back wall as she explained, "Well my parents died while I was in Gallica. So when I moved back I found a job working for a blacksmith in Celtica." She suddenly frowned and her voice grew deeper with emotion. "Then those blasted Wargarls attacked the town; captured me and my mentor to make armor and weapons for the upcoming invasion." Will noticed that she was becoming agitated with the path that the conversation took. So he switched to something that was eating away at him like a parasite.
"How did you do that?"
"Make armor?" Payton stared blankly.
"No. How did you knock me over the way you did? That wrist lock that you used, and the stance you just had with your feet, where did you learn that?" Truth be told, Will was absolutely astonished, and slightly discouraged of his immediate defeat.
"It's sort of a complicated story," she replied.
"I'm listening." Will settled into a some what comfortable position on the ground. Payton smiled and folded herself cross-legged next to him.
"Well, it all took place in Gallica. My father was a fighter in an elite organization known as Les Ombre-"
"What's Les Ombre?" Will exploded before he could tame his sudden need to know about this mysterious group. Payton responded with a glare, obviously she didn't care for being interrupted. Sort of like Halt Will thought. "Sorry."
"I guess you could say that they are the equivalent to Arulean's Ranger Corp. They deal with, for the most part, the same variety of missions and they are specifically hand picked by the king. However, the major difference between the two is that Les Ombre," Payton made the sign of quotations with her fingers to emphasize her next words.
"does not exists." She smiled at Will's questionable, yet intrigued stare. "They're existence is a secret. To the public, they only survived in ancient times, but were terminated by a vote of the royal family, until fifty years ago, when the new king had them reinstated to help fight off an oncoming war. He thought it wiser to keep everyone outside of governmental power oblivious to their return. In which case an enemy would remain in the dark as far as numbers of the king's army, and would provide a more suitable surprise. Apparently my father didn't trust that I could handle myself and taught me how to fight in hand to hand combat, the way of les ombre. "
All of Will's discouragement fled. This girl overpowered him because he only possessed nearly a year of training with his bow and arrow; while she had been schooled for nearly half of her life, learning to fight with no weapons. She certainly had the advantage.
"Wait, but why are you telling me all this if they're existence is suppose to be a secret?"
Payton huffed, "Oh please. If you do actually go to Gallica and tell a group of random people that some girl you just met told you everything about them, they wouldn't believe you. People make up stories about les Ombre all the time."
"What about the hand to hand combat? Does it work that well?"
Payton's eyes fluttered. "What do you mean?"
"Well, what if your opponent has a weapon?"
She shrugged, "So? Did you know that ninety eight percent of a warriors trust is in his weapon? Well, what would happen when it breaks or you're disarmed?"
Will recalled the conversation he had with Gillan a few days ago. Payton smiled again.
"That's what I-"BANG!!! The door swung open and bounced off the opposing wall. Payton jumped to the bars and watched as five men entered, all heavily armed with swords and daggers storming towards them.
"What kind of training do you have with phscological torture?" she whispered hoarsely.
Will shook his head; he was growing alarmed by her question, "None."
Payton turned back to him; her green eyes were wide with intense concern.
"May God be with you then."
