Chapter 3: The Burning Sword
Kraaw, Screamed a raven parked half way up the oak, eyeing the darkly handsome figure leaning against his tree; the man had dark brown, almost black, hair cropped short with a wild look about it, and the only other wilder thing being his eyes. Anybody seeing the man for the first time would think he was a defeated sword-for-hire reliving his errors; but Jed did not make errors. Running for ten years now and the presence inside him that imparted instead of saying what it wanted, had caused Jed to hone his muscles and skills to the rock hard, blur of a vision they were now.
He looked up from his perch at the bottom of the tree to the raven he had obviously disturbed at some time during his reminiscing. He opened a small container holding someliqour from the last inn with a unel dagger that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. He took a long swig, to which the raven gave another cry; thump!It'shead was suddenly nailedinto the branch above it, a dagger protruding from where the bottom of the beak and throat met,blood squirting everywhere accept the dark shadow stalking towards the city in the distance, taking another long pull at the container before throwing it into the bushes on the side of the road.
He was thinking about which direction he would head in a few days, when he heard arguing issued from some distance into the trees tohis right. He smiled; he needed the release he got when taking the life of a man, and it was just some more unlucky farmers that would feel his daggers, not anybody important. He blended into the shadowy forest instantly and could have crept up on his own shadow if he wanted to; that was a joke he liked making to himself.
Grabbing a branch, he swung himself a couple generations of branches up and ran like he was still on the ground, making his way without a sound to the location of the farmers. It was not till he stopped directly ten feet above the two men that he realized they were not farmers, but soldiers. Excited at the prospect of fighting somebody more skilled than a farmer, Jed dropped from his location before the men got distracted from their discussion and lowered thier guard, which was the first mistake Jed had made in his life. Had he stopped and studied the soldiers, he would have seen the grace with which they carried themselves.
Halfway through the decent, the closest soldier whipped around with a slightly curved sword in his left hand, arcing for where Jed's mid section would be in a matter of mille-seconds, his dagger curved under his arm waiting in case the sword missed, swingingwide with his left hand and straight up with his right. Jed twisted between both the weapons, smashing his shoulder into the soldiers' face, which the soldier accepted to deal a blow to Jed's chest with his sword, sending Jed back onto the point of the second soldiers waiting sword, stabbing a few inches into his lower back and causing a short tiny stream of blood when it was retracted.
Jed was surrounded somehow by the two men who were working in what could have been called a beautiful symphony of life; the dance to protect innocent lives of the many Jed would kill in the years to come. All this happened in a split second, but more than enough time for two daggers to appear in Jed's hands, and the dance of death to begin. Spinning like a hurricane, Jed dipped high, and then low at the second soldier, cloak billowing in the wind, followed by a round-house kick to the first soldier's throat. A loud snapping noise ensued, but Jed didn't hear or see it happen; he just knew. Finishing the turn, he came from his lower left to upper right, gutting the soldier.
Jed stood there and watched both men slowly die before taking out a hip flask and draining all the components inside. Looking at the steaming flesh where the first soldier's sword had left a clean, but burnt black line down his chest that was already dead three inches surrounding the cut. Don't worry about it the presence in his head imparted to him, I will have that clean and healthy by the morning. Jed smiled evilly, enjoying the fact that the malicious presence in his head would never let him die, no matter what happened.
He was extremely interested in the sword that burnt as well as cut with the precision of a razor. Picking it up, he slowly pulled it across his left forearm, to which the sword grew a glowing, unholy red light leaving a black line where the sword touched skin. Jed wasn't surprised to find that he liked it, but to his astonishment, the sword seemed to like it as well The scabbard connected to the soldiers waist flew and connected itself through the back of Jed' cloak to his black leather armor underneath. "It seems the sword has chosen me" he said to himself and the being swelling with jealousy in his head. He continued down the direction he had originally assumed, frowning when thoughts of who the soldiers might have been, crossed into something he didn't like. Looking at his new sword caused him to forget, and he smiled to himself because of all the fun he was about to have now that he had a weapon like this.