The Forest Chapter 5 (Part II)
{Hello and welcome to the last part of the bonus chapter! The next chapter will be back to normal again!
...Reviews:D...
ROC95: Thank you!
Kayce Skywalker: Aw, I hope you had a great birthday!
Sarafinja: Thank you :)
Vampirereader99: Thank you, it's here now! I apologise for the long wait, I procrastinate too much.
SammySpartan: Haha!
...
Character list:
Altair Ibn-L'Ahad
Malik Al-Sayf
Kadar Al-Sayf
Giovanni Auditore
Mario Auditore
Ezio Auditore
La Volpe
Bartolomeo D'Alviano
Caterina Sforza
Desmond Miles
Rebecca Crane
Shaun Hastings
Abby Freilich-Jones
Okay, I hope you enjoy the last part of this bonus!)
Bartolomeo
Ah, I am glad they really are as thick as they look! But if only I had my bella Bianca... oh the heads I could chop off then... Bartolomeo thought as the group of guards all turned to him, giving La Volpe the opportunity to escape and hide. Although his stomach hurt from lack of food and his throat was aching, even more after his shout, he was raring for a fight and eager to help his friend.
"Well what are you waiting for? Come and fight me! Or are you too afraid of getting hurt?" Bartolomeo snapped, hoping to provoke the guards more. It worked as he could see them tense and step forward.
As soon as the first man got in range, Bartolomeo rushed forwards with such force that he was able to shove the man to the ground while wrenching the sword, successfully, from his grasp. He then finished off the man as the others recovered from their shock.
But Bartolomeo was ready and waiting for them and sliced at one man's neck before knocking another unconscious with just one blow with his meaty fists. A millisecond later, the pommel of his newly acquired sword slammed into a brute's thick metal helmet, stunning the guard while enabling Bartolomeo to skewer the man straight through the heart. The remaining man, cowering in fear, ran off after Bartolomeo took just one step towards him. Bartolomeo gave a hearty laugh as he watched him be swallowed up by the mist.
"Hmm..." he said, taking the time to look over the guard's sword in his hand. It wasn't too bad, it was balanced and fairly light. Bianca could do far more damage though and could withstand more pressure with ease. "Ah this will have to do until I find cara mia Bianca. Speaking of which... I hope my Pantisilea is not here, especially with all of these guards about. I do not know what I would do if she were to die."
Recovering from his worry, he crouched down and looted a sheath from a dead soldier so he could carry his sword properly. He then looted all of the supplies he could from the men before escaping the area in case someone searched for their missing men. He was soon lost in the mist and the maze of trees.
Malik
Malik had been wandering for hours yet he felt like all he was doing was just that, wandering. He had no idea where this place was, what direction he was heading in or even where he was supposed to be going. He was just walking and avoiding guards he had seen also walking through this very green space – this place held more green than he had ever seen in one place before.
"Chris?" a nearby voice asked just as Malik forced himself to take cover in the lush ferns he was walking through.
"Yeah?" another, similarly accented, voice said. Malik mused this was the man's partner.
"Tell me again why we signed up for this stupid shit?"
"We're getting paid twenty bucks an hour for just walking about! It's the easiest money I've ever earned."
"Aren't we supposed to be looking out for Assassins and killing them."
"Hah like I'd trust you with a weapon! Nah, the traps they set in the clearings are basically doing that for us. All we have to do is look around, pretend we saw them then do exactly the same everyday."
"Won't they know we're lying y'know since they have..." the end of the man's sentence was lost under a sudden burst of static.
There are traps in the clearings. Malik reminded himself never to go in one of them since he would rather not lose a limb or die succumbing to a trap made for him and his brothers – he liked his body the way it was. He also thought to warn any other brothers if he came across them.
However, before he could think anything else, a loud bang was heard and something invisible embedded itself into the earth just in front of his feet. Malik was startled but remained still incase it was just a misfire. He scanned the area and saw the two men he had previously been eavesdropping - one was pointing a weird and unfamiliar weapon directly at him.
How did they see me? I made sure to keep myself hidden and they walked right past me without noticing!
Reacting the quickest he could, Malik leapt out of the ferns at the man, disarming him and hitting him round the head with his weapon in one fluid movement. He then held up the weapon to block the smooth batton coming down on him, he pushed the other black clad man away but he also detected shouts of more men approaching and since he was armed with a weapon he did not know how to use, he decided it best to escape. That he did, running as fast as he could through the humid air and the dense forest.
Once he had both lost them and, unfortunately, his familiarity with his surroundings, Malik slowed to catch his breath and calm the burning of his throat.
Rebecca
"Finally!" she croaked as the source of running water came into view, it was a small river just wide enough for someone not to be able to just step over it. The water flowed at a sluggish speed and was completely clear.
Rebecca stumbled over and knelt by the river, lifting handful after of handful to her lips. It had such a long time since she had had water and she wished that she had decided to have that green tea before going to sleep. She had managed to stumble her way through the forest, having to ignore her burning throat, dizziness and the urge to just lay down and sleep. Once the current handful was gone, her throat burned in memory of the dehydration and she had to drink again.
"Ah, Rebecca! Finally I see someone I know." Came an all too familiar slightly-relieved British voice from just in front of her.
She looked up and saw the man himself standing on the other bank of the river, watching her drink thirstily. The water fell from her hands as she saw him, she hadn't expected to see anyone in this forest let alone him.
"Shaun? Woah... wait what are you wearing?" Rebecca asked with her still painful throat, looking at his change of clothes. She was so used to his usual grey sweater, crisp white shirt and jeans that she had actually forgotten that he may actually own other clothes.
Shaun was now wearing his usual shirt but now with a black suit jacket, tie and fashionable black jeans. If anything now, he looked like some sort of James Bond - he was even British which completed that comparison even though he sounded nothing like the international spy.
"Oh, of course Rebecca, I forgot that I only owned one pair of clothes." He said, as sarcastic as ever.
"How did you change?" Rebecca asked since she was in her normal clothes and hadn't been changed out of them.
"Is my clothing really that big of a deal? You don't have anything bigger and more important to worry about."
That reminded her that she was still extremely thirsty and she cupped more water to her face.
"Hey, are you alright?" his voice was gentler now as she cupped even more water and drank it thirstily. It made Rebecca look up from the river at him and his concerned eyes.
"...Yeah, no, I'm fine. Uh, thanks." she said rather awkwardly after her thirst was satisfied. This had never happened before, he had never been nice to her. She had no idea what to do. "Y'know I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone else here."
"I didn't either, this place is bloody massive!" he said, spreading his arms like he usually does when emphasising. "And I still have no idea how exactly we got here or even why."
"You and me both." she said with a small sigh at the sudden homesickness she felt - she was pretty sure it was that and not her hunger pains.
"Your miss your 'baby' don't you?" he asked, showing this newly discovered gentler side again although there was a slight hint of his usual non-caring-towards-her tone.
"Yeah I do though I think I miss food more." she joked though she really did miss her nice veggie food a lot. "Ugh what I'd do to get a veggie burger right now."
"Well it's no veggie burger, not even close, but I have this." he said, sheepishly holding out a clingfilm wrapped package of food.
After a few moments of just staring at it, Rebecca reached out and took it from him, opening it in awe filled silence.
Inside the wrapper was a plain cheese sandwich but it was enough to make her eyes water. This was, without a doubt, the only food Shaun had on him and he hadn't eaten it - he may have been saving it but he hadn't eaten it- and had given it to her, leaving himself to go hungry. This was the kindest thing he had ever done for her and she felt warm all over, the warmth spreading from her core outwards.
Slowly, she brought the, still relatively fresh, sandwich to her lips and relished the taste of the sandwich she had always found too plain.
All too soon, she had devoured the sandwich and her stomach growled - eager for more sustenance she couldn't get. She hadn't seen a single vaguely edible plant around and she didn't trust fungi enough to eat them considering how easy it was to pick the wrong one.
"Thanks, really, you didn't have to do that." she said, dipping her hands in the water for another drink to counteract the dryness of the bread.
"You needed that more than me, considering it was gone in a second. Thank god you're not a vegan otherwise you would have been screwed."
"No, I'm just a 'stupid' veggie." she said, slightly annoyed when remembering his previous jibes at her eating choice.
"It's not stupid, it's just impractical." he said with a roll of his eyes though he didn't launch a long attack on her. "Anyway, focussing on the main issue here, we should get going. We have no idea what else is in this forest so it would be best to move on."
"What about water? I doubt we'll find another source in this place."
"We can follow it then, no doubt there'll be something to eat around too."
"Yeah, I know you're appetite is huge. I'm also really surprised you've lasted this long without your coffee as well." she said, managing a mischievous smile even under the circumstances.
"Well considering I doubt a magic espresso machine is going to appear out of nowhere, I'm going to have to deal with it whether I like it or not." Shaun said as he began to move away from her and the river.
Immediately she followed her only friend-like-person in this place which she didn't know even contained any other people. Yes he was annoying, stupidly sarcastic and not, usually, very nice to her but he had shown her another side to him which was much better than that - a caring side she couldn't forget now that he had let her see it.
That was what kept her following him even when he ranted about 'important' historical battles and events that all had something to do with forests.
Mario
As a keenly sharpened half of a pair of scissors thudded into the tree just behind him, Mario smirked and carried on running at the same pace, not speeding up in any way. He was waiting for his pursuer to make a move and land right where he knew they would.
Thud.
Ah, perfect. Right where I wanted them.
He had no intention of truly running from them, oh no, quite the opposite. He loved combat so much so that he was convinced he would never love anything more than he did that. No the running was just a ploy to make them think he was scared, for them to underestimate him, for them to think that they had the upperhand when in fact he had been waiting with excitement for the moment to arrive when he could strike. He could hardly wait for the moment of his victory.
He stopped and looked at the trees all around him, as if anticipating trying to escape as the woman in men's clothing approached. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye and saw the short, blond haired woman twirling the other half of her weapon around one finger, attempting to be menacing. It worked to an extent.
"Your time is up Assassino, are you willing to stand and fight until I take your last breath?" she said both with bravado and malice.
He was still coming to terms with things like that escaping a woman's lips. He was not as rigid in the traditions and beliefs that women were property and whose purposes were to bear children and look after the home. He knew they were more than that but still disliked them being so vulgar or ever being involved in combat or anything dangerous.
He appeared to calm his 'nerves' and removed the scissor from the trunk and gripped it.
"As long as you are willing to do the same."
He caught a ghost of a smirk on the woman's face as she prepared to be underestimated and win.
He begged to differ.
As soon as they both became close enough to strike one another, Mario struck, hitting her blade once, as she expected, but the immediately spinning on the spot to attack her other side while she was still gathering herself.
She fought off his strike with ease and pushed him back but that did not deter him. He feinted a slash at the neck before swiping at her stomach, his blade ripping the fabric and causing the woman to roar in outrage and anger. He smirked and that seemed to anger her even more and cause her to strike at him in anger and not skill. Mario was able to easily deflect the blow but let her regain herself once again instead of counter attack her - he did not know when the next chance to fight would be and he was very much enjoying this.
She seemed to regain her senses after a few moments since she strafed backwards and awaited his attack instead of launching her own. Mario did not give her a chance to analyse him as he launched attacks on her at such a pace and strength that she struggled to hold her up to defend herself. At the fourth strike he aimed his strike a little more to the right and his blade hit her wrist with a sickening crack.
The woman screamed and dropped her blade as she stumbled away from his blade. The wrist was definitely broken but also almost severed by the force and sharpness of the blade. Blood sprayed from in between her fingers as she tried to nurse her wound and stop the bleeding. With one more scream, this time in rage, she glared at him and ran off.
Mario watched smugly as she did, spinning his blade around his own finger, imitating the woman's earlier move with a hearty laugh before sheathing his newfound weapon and striding off into the woodlands alone.
Giovanni
Saving the stranger from that courtesan-like woman was what dominated his mind as he walked through the very humid forest. How was it that he thought he had seen that man before but knew he hadn't? Why had the man looked both happy and shocked to see him with recognition clear on his face? He had never done anything like this without his robes and his face obscured from view. Considering he was in nobleman's clothing he really doubted the man had just seen him on the streets killing a guard... it had to be something else.
"Giovanni? What the devil are you doing here?" came the gruff voice of his brother, Mario. This snapped him out of his thoughts as his older brother approached.
The mystery of the stranger would have to wait until later.
"I do not know," he pondered for the first proper time. He had been too concerned as to where he was and where he should go to find sustenance to even think about how he even came to this place. Did he drink and wander here in a drunken daze? Was his brother here to collect him? "Though I ask you the same question."
Mario paused for a second to think, which Giovanni often teased that he hardly ever did, before shaking his head and grinning. "I have no idea either, maybe I should go easy on the wine in the future!"
Both Giovanni and Mario laughed for a moment, him glad for his brother's lightheartedness for once.
"I know not to expect that from you brother." he finally said with a grin of his own after their laughter faded.
"Ah, why give up something so enjoyable when you can relish its fine taste?" Mario said as he produced his wineskin from its place at his side and taking a drink.
"Where did you acquire that? I came here with nothing, not even that." Giovanni said as he looked down at himself and his bare belt.
"Maybe in your drunkness you lost them or maybe you left them at the brothel last night." his brother suggested though more as a joke than any useful suggestion.
Giovanni glared at him all the same which provoked a cocky smirk to arise on the man's face.
"You know I have never visited one of those places, especially not now that I have met her." Giovanni said, as always keeping Maria a secret from his brother lest he think of tormenting her with vulgar stories from the brothers' past - or let slip their true careers.
"Ah yes, the mysterious lover whose identity you delight in keeping withheld from me. The one who has stolen your heart from you."
"She has not stolen it, I gave it to her freely." he defended, knowing that he should not let his brother provoke him. "Must you really do this when we are in such a strange place."
"I guess this can wait for another time fratellino." Mario agreed as he handed the wineskin to Giovanni.
After taking a drink and savouring the only liquid he had had for a large sum of hours, he passed it back and looked around briefly.
The mist had cleared but now the air lay heavily on them, saturated with water and practically stifling them. The fact that the sun shone brightly through the trees only made matters worse. The only pleasant thing about the place was the amount of greenery around and the fact that the moisture made the leaves almost sparkle.
"Do you know the way home from here?" he asked as he finally looked back to his older brother.
"No but I doubt we will be able to find it easily in this place. We look to be the only ones here as well, I have seen no-one." Mario said though Giovanni could have sworn he saw something dark cross his brother's face before he spoke.
"I saw a man in here though it was yesterday afternoon and he was under attack, he has probably fled by now if he had any sense." That brought Giovanni's thoughts back to the strange for the briefest of moments before he, once again, pushed them away.
"Under attack? Then how do you know he survived at all let alone fled successfully."
"I stepped in and saved him although it was a woman who was his enemy. Stranger than that, she knew exactly of the war between our Order and the Templar's, she even claimed she was allied to our enemies."
Mario was unusually quiet for a moment though Giovanni guessed he was thinking over the strange scenario for himself.
"Where was this?"
"I came from this direction," Giovanni pointed to the direction in which the thickest canopy of leaves blocked out a lot of the sun. It looked quite eery when he looked back at it. "I do not know exactly what that direction is on a compass but I travelled from that direction that I am sure of." he said, still studying his brother's now serious expression. "But I do not think it important, he will have moved on." he added when the man did not speak.
"Of course." Mario said as the expression faded from his face.
"Are you okay brother? You seemed troubled."
"Ah it is nothing," Mario said, waving off his concern before drinking from his wineskin again. "I was just thinking of if we are not truly alone here. We cannot trust someone just because they are here with us."
"I know that brother, still if they are not someone we can we might still be able to get out of the directions back to Montergiggioni."
"Why must you always be the one with the wise ideas!"
Giovanni rolled his eyes at his brother's teasing but followed his brother's lead and waked in the opposite direction to the gloominess he came from.
Desmond
"Shit." Desmond finally said in realisation after it had gotten dark and after enduring hours of solid walking with only a few rests once he found a gentle stream that wound slowly through the trees. The water was clean and fresh and stimulated his mind and quenched his thirst. He stayed close to it as he walked so that he could stop himself dehydrating too much.
Once his mind was in full working order and the grief that lay in the pit of his stomach had toned down just enough to be roughly bearable-ish, he realised he had been an idiot to leave Abby. She had all the supplies and even had a rough idea of the place. She was also someone he could trust.
Why did I even run in the first place?
Of course Shaun's death had hit him hard, as much as the guy was always such a dick, the knowledge that he would never see him again or hear the banter between him and Rebecca did make him miss the jerk. Not to mention the horrible way he went, bleeding out onto a bed of leaves, leg ensnared in a rusted, bloodied, old trap made for animals. But there was something else that made him leave.
Ezio.
The part of him that was Ezio yearned for Abby and that had affected Desmond a lot when he was near her. When she was resting next to him, it was all he could do to stop Ezio reaching out and caressing her face like he had done when she had slept better and when he had come down to watch her sleep when he couldn't.
When observing those secret memories of Ezio's life, Desmond had felt Ezio falling so deeply in love with her, it had almost overpowered him. Ezio adored her, she was all he thought of at some points and that feeling had stayed with him even after he had to leave her and even when his father had subtly started to train as an Assassin and shut the door on dreary banker life and then even when he was a strong Master Assassin.
No, Desmond couldn't stay otherwise he would have to wade through all of those emotions as well as his own and the potentially dangerous situation they were all in.
"Where are they all?! I thought we were promised we could bring the Assassins to a swift end rather than trudge through this stifling place." a voice drifted through the trees to him, ceasing Desmond's thoughts and capturing his attention. His English accent was enough to remind Desmond of Shaun even though it sounded nothing like him.
"Patience Charles, the Assassins are anything but unskilled and this place is not exactly small either."
The voices sounded relatively close but they were not moving. They were also unfamiliar and this made him wary though he took curious steps closer.
"And wot about those new fings that were supposed to 'unt 'em out 'Aytham? We ain't 'ad a single alert since we came 'ere." Another rough and cockney sounding man leered at the more civilised of the bunch. This new voice, however, sounded pretty drunk and less awake than the other two.
Firelight cast the men sitting around it in an orange glow as it crackled and the men cast shadows on their canvas tents, pegged around the fire. There had to be at least fifteen tents two man tents, five of which looked occupied, in total all were standard issue though they looked relatively new in condition but old in make. Desmond stopped four lines of trees away from them incase
"So much for modern technology." another man muttered dryly just as Desmond pressed against his tree and hid so that only a fraction of his head could be seen and even then only if someone looked hard enough.
"Ah, you will have to keep your opinions about that until later - we have a visitor. How about you come and introduce yourself to us in person Desmond?" Haytham said, looking in Desmond's direction just as he felt two presences behind him.
Immediately he struck out and elbowed one of them in the face as he swung an expert punch at the other's unshielded temple. That man crumpled to the ground as Desmond caught the man's bayonet and hit him round the head with handle. There was a crack and he fell too but Desmond didn't stay to admire his handiwork or even catch a glimpse of the men themselves, he was already running - he heard the curses of the firelight men as they were now alert.
"Double shit." Desmond cursed quietly as he ran. He was lucky that it was so dark, the men couldn't see him now and so he heard them fall back. His fists stung but he gladly took the pain since it was either that or lying on the floor dead.
When he was sure he was safe, he slowed down and found a suitable branch to sleep on.
{I've done everyone! :D
Once again, I apologise for the extremely long wait for this, there were so many scenarios to do and I wanted to get them right.
How was Malik spotted? Why is Mario saying he hasn't seen anyone even though he has? Is Desmond really safe? And, most importantly, HOW THE HELL IS SHAUN STILL ALIVE?!
Are all questions you will have to wait until the next bonus chapter for! *insert evil laugh here* Or maybe I'll show you before then...
Until next time, I hope you enjoyed and good day/night/evening/afternoon/past your bedtime/too late to be staying up time!}
{Edited a little}