Chapter 10: Githyanki Ambush

They had been moving quietly through Luskan for a few hours now and it was approaching midday. Nimbrethil was still uneasy about the obvious trail the gith were leaving, and when she spied what looked like a small village just ahead of them, she knew immediately that something wasn't right. She could hear nothing and sniffing the wind smelled something unpleasant. Looking over at Bishop, she waited to see how long it would take him to notice something was amiss. A few minutes went by as they moved closer, and when he suddenly stopped she knew it had finally hit him.

"Hold on, something isn't right," Bishop said quietly. The other two men stopped just behind him looking around with blank expressions. However, the elf was looking at him with a somewhat smug look on her face. "I don't see any villagers."

"No kidding," Nimbrethil chuckled slightly. "It's not just the villagers though, there's no livestock to be seen either."

"Good eyes," Bishop drawled.

"That goes without saying, I am an elf after all," she couldn't keep from smirking at him and saw him smile sardonically in return.

"Just how long have you known?" Bishop growled at her, a little irritated that she was still testing him.

"For a few minutes now," she answered. "I can also tell you that the gith are waiting to ambush us. I caught their acrid stench on the wind." Turning around she held out her arm and Thorondor flew down to land on it. "Go find where they are positioned," she ordered him and he took off silently, flying high up before circling the village.

Bishop merely shook his head and folded his arms across his chest to wait for the falcon to report back. He saw the paladin move closer to her and give him a dark look. The man didn't like him or trust him, and he seemed to be irritated by how friendly she was with him. The dwarf was shifting from foot to foot impatiently, obviously eager to charge right in like an idiot, but willing to defer to their leader's caution.

Nimbrethil looked up to see Thorondor coming back and when he landed talked with him about what had he had seen. The bird was very smart and had easily recognized that some of them had magic. "Okay, there are a dozen gith scattered throughout the village. There are three magic users amongst them ranged near the rear of the village so Bishop and myself, with Thorondor's help will focus on them. Thorondor, show Bishop what you saw," she told him and waited until the ranger nodded. "Not only that, there is another large group, about a dozen of them, hanging back outside the village, ready to come in when the first group fails, so be ready for them."

Looking at Casavir and Khelgar she saw that they were ready. "Once we've taken care of the magic users, we'll focus on the rest of them, you'll just have to hold them off us for a little while. From what Thorondor could tell it looks like the majority are hiding behind the first two houses and you'll be set upon rather quickly, so be ready." Nodding at Bishop she moved towards the village and a vantage point just to the left of the entrance while he moved to the right. As soon as Khelgar and Casavir passed the first house in the village, the gith sprang their trap. She heard the dwarf yelling his battle cry as he met their rush head on. Thorondor immediately flew over to the rear of the village and dove at the first mage, distracting him and allowing her to get off two clean shots, dropping him quickly. Bishop had already taken out the second mage and both of them fired at the third while he was distracted by her falcon. Once down, she turned her attention to a group surrounding Casavir and quickly took out two, while Bishop took out a couple surrounding Khelgar. Very quickly the first group was dead, and then Thorondor shrieked as he flew straight into the faces of the backup group that rushed in. This caused their charge to falter just enough for her to kill two of them where they stood. Casavir and Khelgar charged the group, while Bishop and her rained arrows into them. When a bolt lodged into her shoulder she realized that there were more archers in this group and after yanking the bolt out, refocused her attention on them. It was hard because the bolt had hit her right shoulder and it hurt horribly when she pulled on the string, causing her aim to be slightly off. Fortunately, it was over soon after and she went to join the other two in the middle of the village.

Seeing the blood trickling down her arm, Casavir quickly hurried up to her. "You've been wounded my lady," he said in concern.

"It's just a little scratch from a crossbow bolt, nothing to worry about," she calmly told him. Loosening the straps to her armor top she pushed back the shoulder to get a better look.

"Let me heal that for you, otherwise your aim will be affected," Casavir told her, and when she nodded he placed his hands on her and chanted a healing spell. She saw Bishop staring at them with a strange look in his eyes. If she didn't know better, she'd say he was jealous.

"Not a bad little ambush they had planned, too bad they didn't count on your falcon or they might have done a better job with it," Bishop drawled.

"Yeah that was a good bit of sport," Khelgar chimed in, grinning. "Shame they didn't last a little longer."

"If that was the best they could do we'll be fine," Nimbrethil said cooly. "However, their forces are divided now so they'll be moving quicker and not leaving an obvious trail this time for us."

"Well aren't you a bright little ray of sunshine," Bishop scoffed at her.

"She was just stating the facts Bishop," Casavir growled at the man, coming to her defense.

"Why don't you let our leader speak for herself paladin, instead of speaking for her, eh?" Bishop sneered at him.

"I was not trying to speak for her," Casavir snarled back.

"Well don't then and maybe next time I'll believe you," Bishop was now standing right in front of Casavir and the two were glaring at each other, seeming to have forgotten those around them. So they were surprised when a dagger thunked into the ground between them. Looking around they saw Nimbrethil glaring at them.

"If I had water I'd throw it on you," she growled. "That's the best way to seperate two snarling dogs." She stalked over and snatched her dagger out of the ground.

"Where've you been hiding that?" Bishop asked in surprise. He hadn't seen it before and was a little disconcerted to have missed it.

"Not as observant as you think you are, are you ranger?" she grinned at him as she slid the dagger back into the inside of her boot. She had to hold back a chuckle when he simply glared at her. "Let's get moving before the gith get too much of a lead." She turned away and started heading for the rear entrance when she heard a door open and a young woman hurried over to them. She was wringing her hands and looking pathetically helpless.

"Excuse me are you hunting a woman, Shandra Jerro," the woman asked while looking at her.

"Yes we are, and the longer you delay us here, the farther away she gets. If you have information then spit it out quickly," Nimbrethil said coldly. This woman was twice her size and yet she had cowered in her house while the gith laid their trap.

"Those monsters, they took her north into the mountains, she was screaming," the woman stammered, unnerved by the cold green eyes staring at her. "Oh, where are my manners, my name is Alaine," she introduced herself as she held out her hand, only to drop it when the elf just glared at her. "Please you must hurry, she's my friend, and thank you for saving us, really."

"We didn't save you, we survived a githyanki ambush," Nimbrethil growled, irritated by the woman's syrupy words. "Consider yourselves lucky that we did or you'd have been next on the list. Now get out of our way." She pushed past the woman and stalked away, furious at them for allowing the gith to be there.

"Listen to our leader girl," Bishop sneered at Alaine. "Next time fight and don't count on someone to come rescue you because it won't happen."

"These people are not soldiers and the githyanki are dangerous foes," Casavir spoke up. "I think their behavior can be forgiven." He frowned at Nimbrethil, upset that she seemed to not care what happened to these innocent people.

"I'm not going to stand here and trade semantics with you or anyone," Nimbrethil turned back and snapped at him. "I'm going after Shandra and the gith, you do whatever you want." Giving him her back she stalked away. Bishop and Khelgar gave one last look at him and hurried after her.

Sighing, Casavir turned towards Alaine. "I give you my word that we will bring Shandra back safely, and there is no need for you to apologize for what happened here." He watched as the woman gave him a small smile and hurried back to her house, then turned to follow the others.

He didn't have to go far, for he saw that they had stopped just inside the village gate where they appeared to be conversing with a small boy. As he approached he heard the boy asking to look in Nimbrethil's pack. He saw her open her pack to let him.

"No, you have nothing I can use," the boy shook his head. Turning to Bishop he said, "What about him?"

"What about me?" Bishop looked at the boy suspiciously.

"You're knife, it's different," the boy had a strange, almost cross-eyed look on his face, like he was seeing something they couldn't.

"Bishop give him the knife," Nimbrethil said not taking her eyes off the boy.

"No. The only way he's getting it is between his eyes," the ranger snarled at her. He saw Casavir glare at him and open his mouth to say something, but Nimbrethil beat him to it.

"Just give him the knife okay," she looked at him. "Keep travelling with me and I will make sure you are rewarded ten times over for it."

"Fine, but don't think I'll forget how much you owe me," Bishop growled but gave the boy his knife.

"I wouldn't expect you to forget," Nimbrethil smirked at him and then turned to continue out of the village and towards the mountains.

Bishop watched her walk away, barely acknowledging the boy's last words about seeing them again. He never seemed to get the last word with her, and while he found it irritating, he also had to admire her spirit. She never seemed to be afraid of his anger like so many others had been. He saw that the paladin was still fuming about earlier and bit back a snicker. She certainly knew how to put that saint in his place. This trip was definately turning out to be much to his liking, despite the presence of the stiffs. Quickening his pace he caught up with her to walk side by side up the mountain path.

Casavir frowned at the two of them from where he walked beside Khelgar. The man was trouble and yet she didn't seem to be aware of it and that worried him. She was a good person and he was afraid Bishop would be a bad influence on her. He didn't want to see her get hurt. He was so lost in his thoughts he didn't realize at first that Khelgar was trying to say something to him. "I'm sorry Khelgar, what did you say?"

"I was just saying that you don't need to be protecting her all the time. That little girl can certainly take care of herself, and she don't like it when people try to step in. I didn't really trust her all that much myself when I first started traveling with her and the feeling was mutual. However, we each came to realize over time that the other was worthy of trust. You need to trust her a little more or it's going to cause no end of problems. Also, she don't like it when people get too emotional and it tends to make her want to run off, so try not to rise to the ranger's bait okay?"

Casavir nodded at the dwarf, realizing that he was right about her. He had seen how she retreated whenever Khelgar and Neeshka started bickering too loudly with each other, or when an argument broke out amongst the tavern patrons. However, she didn't seem to mind fencing words with Bishop, which made him wonder if she was falling for him or something. He would just have to keep his eyes on the man and make sure that she didn't get hurt by him.