Chapter 4 is here :)
Disclaimer: I do not own AC; characters you do not recognise is solely my own creation.
A normal person should not have seen the look of fear more than once but Altair was everything but normal. He was an assassin and as an assassin he was; he killed far more than you could ever count. The blood stains on his hands, his nails, his robes –they can never go away. But what else could he do but pretend that he never notices the way he looks at his blade extracting and shrinking back into its holder.
A normal person should not be pressing a blade to a person's neck.
A normal person should not be seeing the looks of fear on faces of everyone.
A normal person –a person that was someone but Altair, would have been asking what was the girl doing here in the middle of the night; not by pressing a blade to her neck and pinning her down onto his sleeping mat.
" What are you doing?" He asked, pressing the blade a little further and she sucked in a breath.
" N-Nothing," The girl stammered and squirmed when he placed his index and middle finger at her corated artery with enough pressure to feel her pulsing heartbeat.
" Who sent you here?" He demanded.
" N-No one! I was g-going to Acre and I saw your horse –" And then she stopped talking, distress clearly noted in her eyes and Altair held in a sigh. Her heart rate was normal; albeit fast but there were no signs of her lying.
He had known that she was of no danger the moment he first laid his eyes on her -first of, she had a circle of attention around her as she walked -no enemy of his would be stupid enough to draw so much attention to themselves. But not that he would tell her that -he had to maintain a strong intimacy level so she wouldn't do anything stupid.
Silence devoured them both and Altaïr was half as tempted to fake an attack just to see what her reaction would be. But that would be plain evil, even for him act upon so he just resumed to glaring at her shrinking form.
The way she bit on her lip made him painfully aware that he was avoiding her lips and into her eyes.
Yes, he would say that he found her rather... Attractive, for the lack of better words and never had he called the fairer gender attractive once. Up close, he could see the green orbs that once he was so enthralled in not so long ago contract with the closeness he was with her.
His eyes traveled to the gold freckles on her cheekbones and across her nose -a thin sharp nose.
He narrowed his eyes.
Now that he saw it -or noticed it-, her facial features were becoming more and more pronounce that she wasn't from here -from Masyaf and that she was like of the Europeans; fair and with wild eye colors.
But the slight dark tan across her skin and with her dark unruly locks they told him otherwise. Maybe she has a mix heritage, he thought to himself.
It took him a moment of recollection to realize that he had his hidden blade back into its holder but he was still pinning her now. He looked back into her eyes and she squeaked.
" Um..." She started, " C-Could you let go of me c-"
He clamped his hand over her mouth and he tensed up, as if a jolt of electricity went through his system.
A chorus of laughter rang into his ears and his assassin senses tingled with a prickling feeling. " Templars," He whispered, his eyes narrowing as he hastily stood up from her. " We need to leave."
" What –" The girl said, " Where are you going?"
Quickly rolling up the mat after the girl stood, Altair continued to move to Gazi, strapping him up to the set out. " Away from this place. Templars are –"
There was another chorus of laughter and then Altair saw familiar figures walking closer to them at the bottom of the sand hill –or at least what he thinks is a sand hill. " Hey, did you hear that?" A new voice protruded, and then the laughing stopped and Altair grimaced.
" Get on the horse," He demanded, pulling Gazi's reins, the horse's hooves digging into the sand with hushed pads.
The girl stood where she was, a dumbstruck expression lingering on her face as he moved towards her, " I have my own –"
" Your horse has left you; get on the horse now."
" What?"
An irritated growl of frustration rumbled behind his throat and he shoved her to his horse, glancing down to the figures that were moving closer to them. " Get on," He said again, " Now."
A red cross came to his view and the Templars arrived.
" Hey," The fat short one said, his sword raised to point at the both of them. " What do you think you're doing here? No one's supposed to be," And then he paused, as if noticing Altair's garments and his eyes widened in alarm. " Assassin! There is an assassin!"
He felt the girl tense up behind him and he nudged her with his feet, silently urging her to get on the horse so they could leave. There was forced movement and he knew the girl got up the horse as Gazi buckled beneath her weight but things were happening too fast for him to register it into his head.
The fat short Templar had came rushing towards him, but he was still a good amount of distance between them so Altair threw one of his throwing knives at his legs to slow him down. Like he predicted, the Templar stumbled and fell front, a groan escaping his lips. More enemies came into his view, roughly around four more he could say but none were confirmed as he mounted on the horse and rode off.
Altair could feel the back of his robes tighten against the girl's clenched fist on his robe. He said nothing about it.
They didn't make it far as a sharp pain embedded his leg and the next thing he knew Altair was falling off the horse with a knife wedged inches above his ankle as he landed onto the sand with a disgraceful thud. A string of curses left his lips and sucking in a breath, he pulled the knife out –the pressure of the wound increasing tenfold.
Ignoring the sneering pain on his left leg, Altair hastily stood up to face the smirking man. The man had clearly tempted death if he stood there with only a dagger in his hands –that could hardly ever lay a scratch on him. The wind blew and Altair disappeared along with the wind and reappeared behind the man, the smirk falling off his face as Altair pushed his blade spinal cord and effectively severing him dead as he threw the knife onto the ground.
The body fell onto the ground and he saw Gazi and the girl coming back for him. When they both reached near enough, he pushed himself up onto Gazi with his uninjured leg, a wince escaping his lips as he settled himself behind the girl.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. No matter how many times he had gone accustomed to injures, the pain seemed to double up on him each time he managed to sustain one. Double up, yes, but that didn't mean that he couldn't pretend that the pain wasn't there.
Gazi began to gallop faster, a moment in time, there was a bump, and Altair hissed in pain when his injured leg collided with Gazi's body. So much for ignoring the pain.
" Are you okay?" The girl asked quietly.
Altair blinked in his sleep driven state and stared at his bleeding leg, blood soaking into his grey pants with a stain. His leather boots had managed to prevent most of the damage but there was a large tear now –he had to get that patched up.
He looked back to his former campsite where it grew smaller and smaller with each stride. Surprisingly the Templars didn't follow them. " Yeah. Just keep moving forward."
" Okay," She said. " We should arrive at Acre within a few hours…."
" No," He said after a moment, eyes narrowing as he eyed the city before them, " We're going to Jerusalem."
As of right now, Jerusalem was the closet city to them and it would be the best choice for him seeing that Templars would be on high alert for an Assassin that was wondering around Acre's borders. And maybe while doing so, he could drop this girl off with Malik's company until he was done at Acre's and then bring her back to Masyaf.
Yeah, that sounded like a great plan.
" Jerusalem?" She said in disbelief. " That is so far away! This is ridiculous; we are going to Acre. And –oh my goodness, you're bleeding –" She pulled on Gazi onto a stop the moment she saw blood dripping onto the ground and turned around to look at him. " We're going to Acre. You need to see a healer and have that healed before it gets infected –"
" I am fine," He hissed, clearly vexed at her useless concern for him. Did she not get that he could not go to Acre right now? The moment he stepped in, they would have his head. " We are going to Jerusalem and that is final."
" But," She closed her mouth, as if the words after that seemed unacceptable at the thought and she continued, " Your wound…"
" Is a matter that is none of your concern."
The girl clenched her mouth, already knowing that she had no say in this. Fury raged in her green eyes and Altair was slightly amused at the thought of the girl in front of him could hold in that much of an emotion. The staring contest broke when she turned around and moved Gazi towards the direction of Jerusalem.
They both said nothing after that.
Ella hated that man behind her right now with a burning passion. If it weren't for the fact that Ella lost her horse and that she carried too little coins to buy herself a horse to ride back from Acre to Masyaf, she wouldn't have even bothered to follow the man's decision of heading to Jerusalem. Because who wouldn't hate him for adding an extra burden to carry? Now she had to follow this man to Jerusalem and who knows what would happen to her then and then make her way back to Acre and then to Masyaf.
Oh, joy.
Half of what had happened hours earlier had been forgotten in her mind as she was too absorbed in thinking of the best ways to have her revenge of Ahmad for bringing her into this mess.
It was only when the horse halted into a complete stop and the man behind her slipped out gracefully onto the ground despite having an injury on his leg, she remembered of the situation she was in. She stared at the reins in her hands; wasn't she the one supposed to be deciding whether or not if they were to make a stop? She had the reins after all.
A thought occurred to her so suddenly –what if she made a run for it with the horse? She could leave this man here and make her way back to Acre and be done with this whole thing she got herself thrown in without a second's warning. Green eyes went back to the, his sword strapped to his hip gleamed in her eyes as moonlight reflected in it.
No, running away from him is plain suicide –temptation of death itself.
Suppressing a sneer on her face, she dismounted the horse and made her way to the man. Just as she was about to take her first step, a voice lodged in her head.
Assassin.
Her steps froze and her eyes widened. Assassin, that man in front of her was an assassin. And then another thought flashed in her mind that the man that saved her wore the exact same clothes –was he the one who saved her? If he did, she could say that he meant her no harm as he had helped her before but assuming that he didn't –given that she had no way to prove if he did or did not save her –he was a dangerous man to be around. Staying with him alone in the middle of the night, like how she phrased it earlier; was temptation of death itself.
As if the man could read her thoughts, he said quietly, " I won't hurt you."
Ella stilled visibly, her eyes trained on him and she inched closer to the horse. " How can I be so sure, that you won't hurt me?"
Crackling silence followed after that as Ella watched him continue arranging his sleeping bag. His movements were apprehensive, unlike the gracefully ones he possessed moments ago. When he was done, he turned and look at her and all she could do was refrain her mouth from dropping to the ground. To say he was handsome would be an understatement of the century; she was gorgeous.
How could she have missed this fact the moment she laid eyes on him?
The first thing she noticed was his eyes, the dark orbs of his staring down into hers as if trying to read her face. The next was the thin scar that traveled from the upper right part of his lips to the sides of his chin, and Ella briefly wondered how would it feel like to have a scar on your face. Was it smooth like how people told her? Eyes wondering again, she drunk in the sight of him. For an assassin, he sure had the looks.
Assassin –
" Hurting you, would go against all I stand for," He said, his voice sharp as if remembering something distasteful as it snapped her out of her thoughts.
" And what is that you stand for?" She wanted to ask, but she knew her limits when they are far from oblivious. If he wanted to hurt her, he would've hurt her by now so Ella saw no reason to be wary of him –although standing at least an arm's distance would keep her frantic heart at peace. Or at least as much peace as she could get standing next to an assassin. " I will keep you to your word then."
He nodded and dropped to the ground, a hiss leaving his lips as he peeled off his boots and rolled up his pants as he inspected the wound. The wound was fairly deep, from what she could observe in the distance but she couldn't really say as it was too dark to see much. Shuffling her feet, she contemplated on helping him with his wound or not.
With a lament, she walked up to him. Since he saved her, she should at least repay him by tending his laceration before it got infected. His eyes watched hers attentively as she dropped the small little pouch she always carried around onto the floor and crouched down to his eye level, examining his wound for a moment before rummaging through her pouch to pull out the herbs she brought along.
The cut was fairly deep, as what she had thought, maybe an inch or two deep as a knife had after all, wedged it way through his skin. He should be thankful if it weren't for the fact his boots acted as a safeguard, the cut would've been much more serious than this. The bleeding had stopped a while ago, from the patches of dried blood on his skin but seemingly, it happened to restart bleeding again, only a little though.
" Do you have a clean cloth?" Ella asked, not bothering to look at him for an answer as she proceeded to move to the horse to grab a canteen she saw hanging from one of the straps.
When she got back to the man, a small piece of cloth was next to her pouch. It wasn't exactly what Ella could call clean but it would do. If the man had any questions on why she was aiding him, he did not voice it out and Ella was silently thankful for that. She didn't want to think that if she said the wrong thing, he would go back on his word and hurt her.
Shuddering away that series of thoughts, she poured a bit of water over the wound and the man jerked under the sudden contact but remained after that. She bit her lip; it was obvious that the man was in much pain even if he didn't show it and she couldn't do anything but help clean the wound and bandage it up. After cleaning the wound, Ella proceed to pull out the herbs she bought from that man the other day.
Now, she wasn't exactly sure on how to use it but the man had said it could be used internally or externally so she decided to crush the tiny leaves and place it on the wound. The man jerked again under the sudden contact again and Ella hurriedly took out her bandage wraps from her pouch.
" It'll be over in a minute," She murmured, more of a reassurance to herself than to him.
Ella never liked seeing people in pain, mentally or physically; somehow or rather she felt like the pain was her own. She didn't know how this thing occurred, but as far as she could reminisce, it has always been part of her life.
A minute or two passed and she was done; the bandage neatly wrapped around his leg.
The man sent her a nod when she stood up hastily, as though telling her thank you. Giving him a nod of her own, Ella walked a little awkwardly to the horse as she felt his stare burn behind her back but she ignored it. Sleeping would be the best thing to do right now, even if it was with an assassin and she was very much cold.
She just prayed that he wouldn't leave her when she woke.
Just a quick update :) I'm trying to make the chapters longer so it might take some time before I update again :3 Originally, I intended to have another scene where they make their way to Jerusalem and met Malik over there but it would take too long so I'm making that to the next chapter ;)
Hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I did writing it :D
Reviews/Favs/Alerts are loved very much and a big thank you to all who did those! xoxo
Review for a hungry author? And for some love for Altair?
Until next time x
