Disclaimer: Any names or things you do not recognize, are mine.
Don't Ever Underestimate a Yamani
Author's Note: About three weeks have passed, and they are heading out for their base camp at Mindelan, preparing for battle. Oh and about Ferdinad; yes, I know that I and probably most of the female population would hate a guy like that, but cut him a little slack, at least he's er, loyal to Kel. But I'm still all for getting rid of him, which you'll have to read more to find out...
Division 4: The Perfect Crime?
Children playing at the sides of their home could look out onto the main road that day in alarm. Hundreds of men (and a woman) on horseback rode out of the city of Corus, facing the cool wind that whipped their hair back and forced them to squint, lest sediment get their eyes.
Through all the glamour of the departing soldiers, the children of that home could spot the distinguished lady knight, riding with all her fellow warriors with an air of determination. But what they would always remember was when the famed lady commander turned and gave a small wave in their direction, acknowledging their presence. Yes, it was a day for greatness; a day to remember.
~
Several hours later, at Mindelan:
"We must have the infantry and foot soldiers in the front, accompanied by cavalry on horseback. In the far back, on that cliff, we must have the archers positioned, so they can shoot all who are sneaking up on us." Kel indicated on the small layout of the area.
"But what if the Yamanis have their horseback riders in the front? They will slaughter our infantry." Yancen of Irenroha pointed out; he and a few other knights were with her, surrounding a small table and listening to her orders.
"If that happens, then our infantry will fall back allowing our horseback cavalry move to the front. And we will have out archers take care of them as best they can. Now if you will excuse me, I must check our supplies." Kel turned and walked away, nearing their cartloads of supplies and equipment.
She passed Neal as she walked and quickly asked, "Have you the spell ready?"
"Yes." was all he could say before having to walk away, carrying healer's tools to a nearby tent. Kel let out a satisfied breath of air before walking up to the cart and rummaging through it for some rope and a hook.
Tucking the items into her backpack, Kel turned away to supervise the defense being built around Mindelan. If only it had been Trebond they wanted to attack, Kel thought wistfully.
Trebond was built as a defense fief; raiders attack it almost every year, hoping to make it past Trebond to Corus. The way Trebond was positioned made it harder for the raiders to get past, and it had guards that stood vigil at all times. If it had been Trebond they were at, they wouldn't have to construct any defenses at all.
~
Inside the Mindelan castle, Ferdinad:
Ferdinad wrung his hands anxiously and dared to look out the window again; they were tramping all over the ground, flattening the grass and making it look repulsive. The moment he saw the hundreds of soldiers ride through the Mindelan gates earlier that day, he knew something was going on.
He even had rushed outside to demand what was going on, but the huge, surly knight in the front had brushed him off, muttering something incredibly vulgar. Offended, Ferdinad had walked meekly back inside, attempting to hold his head high with pride. Which was kind of hard when inside he was thinking desperately, 'Where is mum when you need her?'
Ferdinad glanced outside just as his beloved Keladry passed. His heart leapt; his exquisite darling had come back (I told you he was a femmy)!
Emitting a extravagant, happy sigh, and smiling ridiculously, Ferdinad almost ran out of the castle. Taking a left-- huffing and puffing the entire time-- Ferdinad ran to the back of the castle where Kel was.
~
Kel's POV:
Kel stood, overlooking the workers, and advising on how they build it. If you build the defenses a certain way, it may give their side a little advantage. She was talking to all the men, explaining the situation, when a well-known voice called out to her.
"KELADRY! Oh, my wife! My beautiful wife! I thought I had lost you forever!" Ferdinad called.
Kel froze, and remained staring straight ahead in horror, paling to a whitish color. Her knees shook and her mouth was slightly open. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ferdinad standing in the most absurd pose, while puffing his chest out proudly.
Strutting cockily over, Ferdinad observed the men who were staring at him and his colorful clothing. He figured that they were just jealous that they weren't wearing the wonderful tunic and hose. Kel finally turned her head slowly to see Ferdinad, and swallowed hard.
"Uh, Ferdinad, we have work to do, you really shouldn't be out here." she said, but was inwardly thinking about how badly he could embarrass her. Imagine, seeing your commanding officer's husband-- a cowardly feminist.
"Don't be ridiculous, my dear, I'm a man. I can work just as well as any of them." he said and picked up a wooden shovel. Looking distastefully down at it, he asked plaintively, "Is there any shovels, er, lighter?"
His statement had an immediate effect on the working men; they either turned away grinning, laughed, tried to hide their laugh, or snorted in disgust. Kel bit the inside of her cheek and thought with grim good humor, 'maybe I should've killed him.'
~
In the forest beside the Mindelan castle:
"Would you remove your foot from my head?!" Nacean snapped up at Katei. They had climbed a tree and were now spying out over at the castle, watching.
Katei ignored the cold, younger man below him and squinted to see where Kel was. Letting out an annoyed growl, Nacean grabbed Katei's legs and pulled hard. Without yelling out, Katei fell from the tree into several bushes, becoming scratched all over along the way.
Nacean calmly pulled himself up to the next branch and started peering out across to Mindelan. Below, Katei scrambled out of the bush, with much less grace than usually composed by him.
Glaring up at the Shang, Katei picked up and rock and threw it at the icy man. His aim proved true, he saw and grinned cockily; Nacean had been hit in the back of the head.
"Son of a bitch." Nacean cursed and dropped down from the tree, landing on his feet. Pointing his index finger at the taller Katei, Nacean said quietly through clenched teeth, "You will pay for--" he was interrupted by Katei punching him hard in the jaw, adding a low left kick.
"What's the matter Shangy boy? Can't fight me?" Katei taunted, moving fluidly to the side, kicking Nacean's doubled over figure. Nacean said nothing, but jumped out of the way and charged at Katei knocking him down forcefully.
~
Four hours later, Mindelan:
"Any sign of them?" Kel asked the sentry as she finished climbing to the top of the watcher's tower. The man there shook his head and continued to peer out over the landscape for any sign of the enemy.
It was too quiet for Kel's liking, she raised her eyebrows and her breathing grew quicker, she didn't like being up here anyway. "Hand me the spyglass, will you?" she asked and gripped the tool as it came into her hand.
Sliding the shaft out of it's full way, Kel closed one eye and looked out the instrument with the other. Turning her watch away from the ocean, she spied over the coastal hills and brush. There! Just out of the western forest was positioned a small band of men. But from what she knew about the Yamanis--
"ATTACK! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" a sentry from a nearby post yelled out over the fief camp.
They cry had an immediate affect on their camp, soldiers jumped to their horses, grabbed weapons or situated themselves in correct stances upon their defense.
Knowing that they had been seen, the Yamanis began to ride or run across the featureless field that ranged from the forest to Mindelan. Kel was about to make her way down the ladder but saw that the charging sides would soon collide with each other, making it impossible to descend. So instead she turned around and grabbed the hooks that were kept in the lookout turret for emergencies, and vaulted out the side of the tower, grabbing the cable with the hook. She slid down the cable, wind whipping almost painfully against her face, and brought her legs up to give her leverage as she landed on the balcony of her castle home.
Sprinting hard into the building, she grabbed a nearby glaive that had been conveniently leaning against a wall in the next room. Kel bit her lip and paused for a second, getting herself under control. Then, she made her exit, hearing the cries and yells of the battle outside with anxiety.
As she at last burst out the doors of the castle, she came to a dead halt. The battle was not anything that she expected; it was pure slaughter. Nothing but a gory, gruesome, offensively violent slaughter. The Yamanis whipped through the majority of the ground warriors, either injuring them and thinking them for dead on the ground or truly slaying them without vacillation.
She had seen battles and heard stories of gory strives throughout her entire life, even since she was but the age of five-- but none of that seemed to come close to what she witnessed.
Gripping her glaive, she yelled out and ran into the battle, slicing people once and awhile. So much for control, she would've thought distractedly. Kel ran into warriors and fought, both with her glaive and her legs-- she never stopped moving. She emerged from another skirmish with one of the men bloodstained around almost her entire face and neck; any exposed areas of skin were splattered with blood. Biting her lip so hard that it began to bleed, she turned to look through the anarchy and came face to face with a tall, formidable Yamani.
Kel brought up her hand and curved her fingers inward, challenging the man openly. Before she knew it, the man was shoving his glaive toward her midsection, and very quickly at that.
~
Outside Mindelan at the start of the battle, Katei and Nacean:
"Take that!" Katei spat and punched the younger man in the jaw and stood up, cockily walking back to the tree, assured that he had won. Jumping back into a branch, Katei resumed looking out to Mindelan and froze.
His intrepid grin dropped instantly as he gaped out to the formerly empty field. All he saw right now was Yamanis. Yamanis charging and colliding with a line of Tortallan infantry.
"Holy shit." he whispered to imaginary presence's and dropped from his perch. Dashing to the barely conscience Shang Eagle, he kicked him and yelled-- not loud enough to be heard by the nearby Yamanis-- urgently at Nacean.
Shaking his head angrily, Katei decided to leave him; Nacean would just slow him down after all. So Katei turned and sprinted as fast as he could down the path that led to Mindelan, hoping to reach Kel soon before anything to epic happened.
~
Yamani base camp:
"Our standings are doing very well." commented Captain Samus, observing the battle from an tall tree in their temporary encampment.
"Well! It's manslaughter our there," a young recruit next to Samus burst out but paused for a second and continued carefully, with caution in case the famed Captain lost his temper, "It doesn't feel right," when he saw Samus frown, he added quickly, "It should be more of a challenge, that's all."
Samus nodded grimly, it was all to easy; after all those thoughts of not making light of his enemy, this was almost a letdown. He had expected the Tortallans to be more prepared! But then again, he thought snubly, their commander is a girl.
"Where the hell is Ridely?!" he demanded of the recruit; Ridely was his second in command and needed to be here.
"I think he went on the field, sir"
"Knowing his luck, he will probably be killed by some common Tortallan warrior. If that is the case, I will simply appoint you the second in command." he spoke as if it did not matter either way if Ridely lived or not, which he didn't.
"Right sir, thank you, sir."
~
Back to Kel:
Kel dodged the man's lunge and swung her own glaive in a wide arc, which was barely blocked. Inwardly Kel cursed; of course and born and bred Yamani would be better with a glaive than she! If only she had a sword!
"Why don't you just give up?" he breathed in raggedly, jabbing the glaive in frantically again and again, missing everyone.
"I won't. I never will give up." she whispered firmly, and had a sudden feeling of deja vu; how many times had she said those words during her training to be a knight? She never gave up then, there was no reason to now.
Kel tried to dodge more than block, though it didn't do much for her balance, it did leave her hands more free for counterattacks. Suddenly inspired, Kel lunged in, knocking his glaive aside clumsily and jutting the jagged point into the man's stomach.
There was a gagging sound, the man's mouth was hanging limply open, eye wide and unblinking as he fell to his knees as a result of pain and shock. Turning away so not witness more of the man's struggle for his last breath, Kel remained calm. She didn't enjoy killing, but if the person deserved it, she could not feel guilt for what she did. She wasn't bloodthirsty, or cold-hearted either, just a warrior. She was born to fight and that's the what she would do, and that had to include sending someone to their death. Turning to look up, trying in vain to block the sounds of dying and anger of the chaos, Kel noticed the sun was setting and she had been fighting for hours.
"Kel!" Neal and Cleon ran up to her, dodging various blows from the few men that were left. The armies were beginning to retreat; their first battle was over, Kel knew she shouldn't, but couldn't help but feel relief that it was done.
"Kel, if we want to accomplish our er, duty, then we have to do it now." Neal breathed, and Kel noticed that he had several cuts and there was blood-- whether it was his or someone else's Kel couldn't guess-- splattered over his clothes as it was on Kel's and Cleon's.
"What? Now? Neal, Cleon, I- I can't! Our first--" Kel stopped at the determined looks on Neal and Cleon's faces and sighed, "Where's Katei and Nacean?"
"Here." Katei panted as he ran up to them, looking slightly out of place because he had no blood on himself, though he did have a black eye and some bruises. "What's with you?"
"Nacean wasn't exactly the friendliest of people." he replied vaguely.
"Where is Nacean?" Kel, Neal, and Cleon eyed Katei suspiciously.
"I think he's unconscious."
Kel looked frankly at Katei and then shook her head, "He'll be fine, he is a Shang. But we have to do this before the battle has completely dispersed, elsewise people won't think it was the Yamanis who did this."
They looked at each other and nodded, splitting up in the way that they had planned.
~
Katei's POV:
Katei had originally planned on pairing up with Kel when they split up for the plan, but now that his purpose had changed, different than the rest of them, he had to make sure that the only person who knew him well enough to stop him was not his partner.
And Cleon barely knew Katei except for that he had been a murderer and Kel's er, 'friend'. So Katei was paired with Cleon and Kel with Neal. Knowing the layout of Mindelan by heart, Katei started off toward his post with Cleon following behind. They would be the ones to carry out the core procedure.
Neal and Kel would be the ones who controlled any and all distractions or interference's that threatened their plan. You know how in all operations there is usually a person who always controlled the computers and technology, making it easier for their crew to carry out the mission? Well that's basically what Kel and Neal were, just a little more primitive; but still the brains of the operation.
Katei and Cleon slipped through the main doors of the castle, edging alongside the shadows. On their feet were custom boots that Katei had somehow gotten. They were specially designed for infiltration; like stockings except thicker and quieter, with small scabbards for knives. Cleon wouldn't be needing knives, but Katei would.
~
Kel's POV:
Kel tried again to throw the rope with a hook at the end of it at the castle wall, in hopes of scaling it. Yet another miss. She hadn't been trained for this sort of thing and was getting slightly frustrated. They were to climb the wall and enter through the roof, that way they would be able to find Ferdinad easily.
"It's all right." she whispered to herself over and over and reeled the rope back in for another try. Next to her, Neal wasn't doing much better, he did get the rope up there, but it fell a few seconds later when he tugged on it.
"Got it!" Neal said happily and tugged on it gently to make sure it was sturdy enough for his weight. A relieved Kel walked over to stand beside him as he began to climb the wall.
When Neal had finished scrambling up the wall, he turned and watched Kel as she tried her luck, knowing very well how she felt about it.
Kel's slightly open mouth trembled and she cleared her throat twice; this would be harder than she had thought. After a couple of years without height practice, Kel's fear had seemed to escalate as high as it had been when she was ten years old.
Exhaling, she gripped the thick rope and hoisted her legs up so that they rested against the wall. All she needed to do now was not look down and carefully take small steps up the vertical barrier. So she did so, closing her eyes tightly. Unfortunately, about half way up her left foot slipped on the damp wall and she looked down to correct the footing.
Her eyes were wide and timorous, her arms shaking slightly. She heard Neal call her name, but ignored him, the only thing that mattered now was how far she was from the sturdy ground.
Sighing, Neal grabbed the hook end of the rope and grunted, pulling the cord up with Kel hanging onto it helplessly. Neal tilted her head up and said firmly, "Kel, snap out of it, this is no time for your fear."
For a few moments, Kel was still dazed, but then she blinked and pulled away, no longer shaking from fright. "All right, let's go get him."
~
To Katei and Cleon, third person narration:
"Would you stop walking so fast?" whispered Cleon contentiously, still trailing behind Katei by a few feet. Katei remained silent, eyes narrowed and darting attentively around the corridor.
"Hey, Katei--"
Katei pivoted around and placed a finger to his mouth, signaling for Cleon to keep silent. Cleon would've made an annoyed face but decided against it, he should just follow Katei, after all, he is the expert break-into-a-home-and-murder person around here. Cleon thought reasonably.
Strangely, Katei tilted his head up and sniffed the air. It was not like he had dog senses or anything, but something smelled. Smelled like perfume that is. Who else in the palace would where perfume? Kel wouldn't be caught dead in the stuff after having to put up with living with it. Ferdinad.
'Just follow your nose.' Katei thought to himself and grinned. Sticking his nose out further into the air, Katei inhaled. Cleon, who still behind him, just came to the conclusion that Katei had gone insane, and tried to pass the older man. Katei put a hand out to stop him and then took a right at the crossways.
~
To Ferdinad--- BRIEFLY:
Ferdinad was worried sick, his wife had been gone for hours and now that the fighting was over she still had not returned. He closed his eyes and pictured Keladry on their wedding night, goddess (note that he thought of the Goddess and not Mithros) she had been beautiful. Ferdinad sniffed his hands and sighed contentedly; at least his cologne was still working nicely.
~
To Nacean, who just woke up:
Nacean groaned and sat up groggily, looking around he realized that night had fallen; he had to get to Mindelan!
Now Nacean was trained how to camp and hunt and all that. But without the Gift to tell him the directions, or sun to show him, he didn't know which way he was headed. He stood and shook his head to clear it, his apathetic azure eyes glinted dangerously as he realized that Katei had knocked him out and left him there.
Nacean decided on a road and started to make his way down it, not knowing in the slightest where he was going.
~
On the roof:
"Just grip the other side then, yeah, that's right. Okay, on the count of three. One... two... THREE." Kel grunted as she and Neal forced the rusted roof window that was their only entrance open. Straightening, Kel glanced at Neal once before stepping onto the railing and vaulting over the side, down into the darkness of the castle floor below. Shaking his head, Neal followed suit, lowering himself down as graceful as possible.
Kel landed lightly on the ground, and as quietly as she could, and glanced about the abandoned corridor. A horrified thought came to her mind; she was in the wrong place! This room had been locked up for years, ever since her parents had died in it. Lifting her head to the opening, about to yell for Neal not to jump, she saw that she was to late. Neal was now on the ground beside her, looking around.
"We're trapped." she mumbled.
"Come again?"
"We're trapped down here. The door is locked from the inside as well as out. And now that you're down here as well, we have no way of getting out of here."
~
Ferdinad's Bedroom:
Ferdinad hopped into his bed and clutched the blanket that covered him tightly. Needing to embrace something else, he grabbed (to they have teddy bears?) a stuffed pillow in the shape of a bear cub and snuggled down further in the bed.
Katei crept up to the door silently, and placed his hand on the knob. Knowing that some door knobs creak, Katei held his breath in anticipation.
Ferdinad opened one eye and glanced at the door, the knob was turning! His face broke out into a huge, goofy smile; Kel was back! Leaping up and out of his bed, Ferdinad hastened to the door, and hid at the side of it, planning on giving her a nice, happy surprise as she opened the door to greet him.
Cleon finally caught up to Katei and saw him push on the door, about to open it. This was it, he thought, let's just hope that Ferdinad is a heavy sleeper. We wouldn't want him waking up as we ride out to Scanra.
Katei opened his eyes and let out his breath, he pushed hard on the door and opened it.
This was it! Kel was finally here! Ferdinad thought ecstatically and just as the door opened, Ferdinad jumped out into the line of sight of that person. Ferdinad's eyes widened as he realized his mistake, but it was too late.
Katei was taken totally by surprise as Ferdinad jumped out of the shadows at him wearing a nightdress and yelling, "WELCOME HOME DARLING!" Katei's instant reflexes sprang to action as he whipped out his sword and plunged it into Ferdinad's chest. He watched as realization dawned on the dying man and he fell to his knees, gasping for air.
Cleon's eyes widened as he heard the quiet scream and gasp in the other room and ran in to see Katei standing over an unconscious Ferdinad. Cleon ran over and bent down to examine the body; his chest was not falling. Cleon hastily checked the pulse, and found none; Ferdinad of Olau and Mindelan was dead. Gone from the realm of the living.
~