She landed lightly on a branch in the tree above D and quickly drew out her bow, and took an arrow from her quiver. She had to stop him. Even if it meant hurting him. She didn't have time to do much else, because with one swift stroke, D's sword severed the connection between bough and trunk, and sent the place she'd stood crashing to the ground. But catlike and quick, she'd already sprung to another tree, another bough. And now D couldn't see her. The sun was rising, but it was still a twilight time of day, and shadows were everywhere.
Shadows that Ziri knew how to slink in and out of easily enough. Meanwhile, as D focused his energies on finding her, she was carefully setting her bow. She did not mean to kill D. She heard great things about him. Terrible, but great nonetheless. He'd saved many people, and that she knew was true. But she needed to hurt him enough that this mission would be hers alone. No one else's. She closed one eye, and took aim. The sound of the twang of a bowstring and a whizzing arrow was all D heard. He wheeled around just in time to see it flying straight at him. With a stroke of his blade he clove the shaft of the arrow in two. Now he knew where Ziri hid. He leapt off his horse's back, flying straight at her, blade before him. She froze, then at the last second, summoning her wits, leapt from the branch she stood on just before the tree she'd perched in lost its top half.
And she knew that the stories were true. He was not just another hunter. Not one that would give up or lose as easily as she hoped. She knew that magic was the only way she could help herself now. She pulled out another arrow from the shadowy branch where she crouched, and this time, whispered a few words under her breath, too soft, even for D to hear. With a slight blue glow the arrow was bound in a spell. She took aim, and this time, with all accuracy, aimed straight for D.
Not allowing the bowstring to thrum as loudly she had before, she let her arrow sail. It only had to pierce the skin. And that it did. D had his back to her, and had only time to turn around and face her arrow as he heard it, and it plunged into his chest. The blue glow that had surrounded the arrow spread quickly over D's wound, and then disappeared inside him. He fell to his knees, and looked down at his chest. Blood dripped from the wound. With a lightly shaking hand, he took the arrow's shaft and pulled it from within him, wincing at the pain. Ziri leapt down from the branch where she had until then remained hidden.
"A simple spell." She said, as D clutched the place where he had been wounded, and blood spilled out over his white hand. "You won't die..." She said, looking at the pain on his face, "You'll just be out of commission long enough for me to take this bounty for myself."
D's shoulders hunched, he doubled over from the pain. Normally a wound like this would not hurt as much. But it seemed that along with the arrow a burning ice had run into his veins. His every nerve seared with agony.
"It's really just a pain charm. It paralyzes the victim with excruciating pain until the effects wear off, in several days." Ziri stood over him, smugly looking down at his feebleness. D looked up, his face creased,
"What did she do to you?" he asked haltingly.
Ziri's eyes widened. How did he know? She crouched down to eye-level, and looked at him long and hard, then a smile curved on her lips and she patted his cheek.
"Have a fun time." She sneered, and then stepped over his slumped body, returned to her horse, and rode into the morning.