Sorry it's taken so long for me to update. I've been on and off with a project for school, and I suffered some major writers block at the end of this chapter. It's not very long, and I feel it may be lower quality, but read and review.
Sacae
It had been four days on the road, and Elimine had suffered through every minute of it. Never having experienced a long journey in the saddle like Roland, she was unaccustomed to the hard riding. Of course, it also didn't help that she had fallen off her horse more than a hundred times, landing painfully on the gravelly road. The first time, when she had felt herself slipping, she had cried out before gravity drove her face into the dirt. Roland, trying to hide a smile, had dismounted with infuriating ease, and boosted her back into the saddle. The experience had annoyed her, but not so much as the pleasure she had felt when Roland clasped her hand in his when he helped her up. At that very moment, she felt the slight motion of her body sliding off the saddle. The minimal force of her slender arms fought gravity for a moment as she tried in vain to keep herself in the saddle with sheer willpower. Gravity won out, and she hit the ground yet again. Rising unsteadily to her feet, she felt a supporting arm wrap around her waist, and Roland's familiar touch. She smiled. Falling off a horse wasn't so bad if it afforded her opportunities like this.
Hanon watched the two figures from atop a nearby tree. They didn't look like bad people, she thought, but bandits will be bandits. She had received news off a small party of bandits that raided a little village every week at this time, and the two strangers might well be the advance party. Sighing, she raised the longbow and put a razor sharp arrow to the string. She wrestled with the thought of sparing the two on the chance that they were innocent. Instantly, a string of memories bombarded her mind. The day that two ragged strangers had arrived at her village, pleading for shelter. Seeing no imminent danger in the pair, the village elder had agreed to house them. When nightfall came, though, they struck, cutting down her father with their murderous swords. Her mother had pushed her, a ten-year-old girl at the time, out of the house and told her to hide in the woods. Hanon had raced out of the cottage, thinking it was some kind of game, never noticing the hut burning, never heard the sounds of people screaming and dying. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she loosed the arrow.
Roland heard the sound of the arrow before he saw, raising his shield and knocking Elimine to the ground. Oblivious to what was going on, Elimine gave way to a verbal assault on Roland.
"Get off of me, you clumsy buffoon!" she snapped. "I see you are utterly deficient in the concept of chivalry! If you had any less honor, that rock would..." Roland gave no answer to this, except to motion for her to stay down. It was then that she noticed the long arrow sprouting from his shield. "Oh…sorry."
Ignoring her frantic apologies, Roland scanned the trees for a glimpse of their unknown assailant. He knew his opponent was an archer of deadly accuracy, and could probably kill him with only a tiny, minute error. Warily, he turned in a slow circle, shield raised to deflect any sudden attacks. The moment he turned to the source of the first arrow, another hissing missile seemed to materialize out of nowhere, burying itself in his upper arm. Roland cursed, sighting his enemy for the first time, a small, green clad figure wielding a huge longbow.
Watching the arrow strike her target, Hanon descended from the tree with catlike grace, landing silently on the soft forest earth. She discarded her bow in favor of her sword, flicking the small blade out of its sheath, and twirling it in deadly silver arcs. Her lithe form covered the distance between herself and her target in a matter of seconds. She raised her sword high, prepared to cut the swordsman down.
Roland barely had time to unsheathe his sword before he was forced to bring in up in a lightning fast parry. Sparks flew as the two blades met with a metallic clang. As he brought his sword back for a return strike, he noticed the deep nick adorning his blade. Cursing silently, he resolved to be more careful with his blocks in the future. The smaller sword came at him from all angles, each time carving a deep nick in his sword. With the way his luck was going today, the blade would probably fall off. Sensing an opening, he slammed his shield into his opponent, sending her reeling. That was another problem altogether. Roland wasn't completely sure he could bring himself to kill the girl if peaceful surrender failed to be an option. Assuming victory was probable, of course.
Hanon slashed and cut with the speed of a whirlwind, never once stopping to spare her opponent even the tiniest of breaks. It was how she had learned to survive as a child. No mercy under any circumstances. If a foolish enemy provided a killing opportunity, it should be seized with all speed. She continued with her relentless assault. Her enemy couldn't last forever.
Elimine watched the fight from a distance, watched the smaller, faster swordfighter break through Roland's guard again and again, scoring countless tiny cuts and scratches on his exposed arms. The arrow wound had begun to take a toll on the swordsman through the extended fight, and the fight was coming to a close. At least, it would have, unless she intervened.
Roland was going to die. The pain in his upper arm was agonizing, and he could barely lift his sword anymore. He saw the thin, glittering blade rise up for a final slash, and knew it was over. And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, it was. A huge pillar of light erupted from the ground where his opponent stood, flinging her limp body high atop a vortex of holy light. He turned to Elimine, gave her a weary smile. Roland swayed uneasily, on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, then his knees gave out and darkness engulfed his world.
Elimine stood alone, quivering with nervousness. The light spell hadn't taken Roland's opponent out like she'd hoped, and now he was unconscious, and she was alone. The girl approached warily, anticipating another one of the devastating attacks, holding her sword in front of her.
"How should we end this, now?" her enemy asked her. "Oh, I do detest killing other women. Can't be helped though. It's really a shame that you joined up with those bandits. I have this feeling that you're not a bad person, really."
The light mage looked at the other girl, extremely confused.
"Who said anything about being a bandit? Do I even look like a bandit to you?" She pointed accusingly at the girl facing her. "For all we know, you're a roadside bandit, trying to shoot us as we passed by."
Hanon contemplated the logic behind the argument, then shrugged.
"I don't know if I can take that chance. You might be lying just so you can get through to raid that eastern village."
Further confusion showed in Elimine's eyes.
"Village? What village?"
Hanon's decision was instantaneous. She turned, whistled for her horse, and swung into the saddle of the little shaggy horse. She beckoned to the other girl to join her.
"Come on, we've got to stop that raid!"
Elimine turned to run after her, then shook her head.
"I can't, I need to stay with my friend for when he wakes up."
The nomadic girl never turned back, only to raise a hand backward in farewell.
For those of you who haven't noticed yet, the sword Hanon fights with is the Mani Katti. Just putting that out there. I was trying to make it pretty darn obvious in Chapter 2.