Lina sat on a branch of a large tree next to the road, watching intently the caravan before her. Turmoil flowed through her mind, knowing what lay ahead of it. Conscience battled with common sense; sympathy battled with greed and all emotions created a physical torment that far surpassed any physical.
A group of bandits awaited the travellers just around the next bend. Lina was torn between warning the caravan, or waiting till it was sacked before offering to retrieve the stolen purchases...for a price. Deciding on waiting, even though she knew some travelers would be killed, Lina started to move to a better position to wait. Her sense of survival overrunning her sense of compassion.
A movement caught her ruby-colored eyes and kept her in her spot: a small child had wandered into view. The little girl walked along slowly, but suredly, carrying a small, simple doll in her arms. Soon after, an older woman - resembling the girl in the ways of curly brown hair and emerald eyes - walked over and picked up the child. The little girl giggled with pure delight and tugged at a piece of her mother's hair. The older woman smiled and both continued walking.
Lina had made her decision, no matter how much her mind screamed at her to reconsider. Her resolve would not be shaken. Moving forward as quickly as she could, she headed towards the place where the bandits were waiting. The caravan would be saved.
Leaping from branch to branch, tree to tree, Lina gained ground on the caravan with almost inhuman speed and agility. Rounding the bend by tree-top, she paused for a moment in surprise. She then moved to flank the enemy before her, to avoid any unexpected sightings before the proper time. There were twice as many as there were supposed to be. Her source of information was obviously not one of her fans. Thankfully, these bandits were rumoured to be dense. Hopefully their level of intelligence was under-exaggerated as their numbers were. Scanning the crowd quickly, she took into account their number, weapons, and apparent skills that might be obvious.
Closing her eyes and taking a flying leap off of the last branch, she straightened her body and twisted in the air, limbs taught at her sides. Giving a flip and another quick twist, Lina landed softly in the midst of the bulk of the bandits, surprising most of them. As soon as her black cape stilled behind her, she shot open her eyes. Taking in the view before her, she inwardly grimaced. Not only were these bandits many in number, but lacking in good looks as well.
Giving a quick flip of her wrist to give an arrogant toss of her fiery-red hair, she winked and tossed a well-placed fireball into the nearest bunch of bandits. Seeing their comrades laying burnt before them, the rest became angered and moved forward to attack the "little girl" that dared attack them. Lina counted on this. Starting to run, to lure the bandits out of the path of the caravan, she actually was thankful for her youthful body. Despite appearing to be about fifteen years of age, she was actually a bit older. Four years older to be exact. But of course...the bandits didn't know this.
Looking back over her shoulder, Lina was finally satisfied that they were far enough away from the caravan and that all the bandits had followed her. Slowing down and finally coming to a stop in a rather large clearing, Lina prepared herself for battle. Her optics scanned the crowd quickly and reassured her that all was there. Their intelligence was just as low as she expected, and she was grateful for it. There would be none left to ambush the caravan while she was busy with only half.
From her previous examination of bandits, and their idle actions as they waited near the bend, there were about a half-dozen that were serious threats. A knife-thrower, practicing in his spot by flipping two daggers into the air, simultaneously, with one hand and catching them again; a fencer, standing almost rim-rod straight with his arms crossed purposefully across his chest; an archer, carrying a bow with 5 taught strings stretched across its bulk; a pikeman, spinning his spear with an accuracy rarely seen; an axe-wielder, carrying an axe nearly as big as massive as himself; and a magic-user, his black cloak and lack of any other weapon, plus his stance, proved that. All were probably hired to fight with the bandits, in case their numbers did not prove enough. Someone here had a little sense. she thought to herself; however, she could not see any reason why anyone would want to hire out to bandits. They must be in desperate need of a job... With a sigh and a shake of her head, Lina decided to avoid those six while she took care of the rest, then confront them when she was good and ready.
The bandits must have been thinking along the same lines as well, for the six remained back while the rest of them came massing forward. Sending out a few random flare arrows, Lina back-flipped away from a few swinging clubs, axes and swords. After making a flippant landing and another toss of her hair, she smiled at the group arrogantly.
"Surely you can do a little better then that." she taunted. Angered beyond anything more then a few enraged grunts, the bandits rushed forward with blind hatred, their swords and maces flying wild. Lina didn't have to do much in this area, considering the bandits were only wounding themselves in their rush to get to her. One bandit lost a limb, another an eye, and yet another one a limb! Soon though, they were wising up to her tactic and spread out to surround her. Glancing behind her without really turning her head, Lina waited until the circle began to close in on her. "SPREAD FORCE!" As the words were yelled, a circle of angled flame spread around her tightly and then rushed outward, charring and catching aflame anyone caught in its path.
Looking around at the heaps of burnt bodies, Lina smirked. There were only a few bandits left, and those were running for their lives. They earned a few fireballs aimed in their direction, but no further effort then that. She then turned to face the six that had been holding back; each had a gleam in their eyes. The gleams were that of challenge. Obviously, they had not had one for a long time...and they were ready for some action. Suddenly, all six turned and nodded to each-other and Lina realized that the situation was a lot more dangerous then she had first thought. The odds were just thrown about ten times in the other's favour: the six were a team.
Not getting even much time to blink, the six quickly spread out and attacked simultaneously, not giving Lina a moment of rest. As she dodged a sword lunge from the front, she then quickly arched backwards, an arrow barely missing her nose. Then, she did a forwards flip, dodging the axe that buried itself deep in the ground where she had stood before. She let herself have a little chuckle as she saw that the one wielding the axe could not get it out of its resting place. The chuckle, however, was cut short by her effort to dodge three daggers hurtling her way. She didn't escape unscathed, her arm receiving a deep gash for her idleness. The thrower smirked and muttered, "First blood." towards the magic-user, but Lina was too busy dodging more swords and arrows to notice.
Finally getting a good chance to break away, Lina jumped back and readied herself for a power-charged fireball; only did her unconscious mind notice that only five stood before her. Suddenly, two massive arms wrapped themselves around her torso and squeezed hard. Gasping for breath as she felt her ribs creaking under the pressure, Lina managed to tilt her head back and see her captor. The wielder of the axe had somehow managed to get his bulky form behind her and was crushing her! Giving a startled yelp and a few kicks as the pressure grew, four of the five in front of her relaxed a little, sure of their victory; the magic user remained in a standing defense.
Seeing red and darkness creeping into her vision and feeling the air being forced out of her lungs, Lina began chanting under her breath, "Darkness beyond twilight, in crimson blood that flows. Buried in the sand of time, is where your power grows...ah!!" her spell was interrupted a moment by extra pressure on her chest.
"Saying a prayer?" the axe-wielder mocked, his deep voice sending vibrations through his chest and into her back. She ignored him and continued her chant.
"I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand, against the mighty gift bestowed in my unworthy hands..." Energy and light crackled in her hands as she struggled to keep in front of her. Her lungs were screaming for air, especially since she had just expended most of it with her chant, and her bones were cracking slightly at the growing pressure.
"Give it up girl, there's no hope for you now..." the axe-wielder taunted again and then laughed.
Lina gathered as much breath as she could inhale and finished what would hopefully save her life. "DRAGON SLAVE!!!!!!!" The explosion that followed nearly blinded Lina as she set up a barrier shield around herself alone. The axe-wielder had let go some time after the spell was cast. After the brightness and heat left, and the bits of debree falling from the sky ended, Lina opened her eyes and looked around. What had been a small, green clearing was now a large black clearing. The nearby trees had been blown over and charred beyond recognition. The team of six was no-where in sight. Snorting, Lina flipped her hair back. "Little girl indeed."
Sighing with gladness, she started walking off slowly, her bones still fragile from the death-grip she was in. She stopped suddenly, however, when she saw that there was indeed one person left: the magic user. Spinning to face her opponent quickly, she readied a fireball behind her back. The barrier spell that had protected the one before her faded and soon dispersed, leaving the magic-user unprotected. Lina took this chance and hurtled the fireball as fast as she could.
The magic-user merely side-stepped, avoiding the projectile easily. With an amused chuckle, the magic-user reached up and pulled off his hood, revealing an eagle's head instead of a human's, the white feathers shimmering in the sun. Two feathered ears - pointed back like a dog's - flicked once, jingling the golden hoops attached there. "You have skills young one. But I'm afraid it will not be enough to defeat me." Raising his hand, he started chanting something Lina didn't recognize and then shot his hand forward...but nothing came flying at her. Blinking in surprise, she noticed he was still chanting; the spell wasn't over yet. Suddenly, something about his appearance changed. "First Blood!"
Lina felt heat and pain running its course through her body. Metallic lightning emanated from every pore, its most intense electricity coming from the wound in her arm and starting inwards. Nearly blinded with the excruciating pain, she barely managed to look in the eagle-man's direction.
The eagle-man looked as if he was about to cast another spell and Lina readied for it the best she could, still being wracked with the immeasurable pain...only to have her opponent jerk forward, loosing the spell all-together. The 'First Blood' spell ended with it too, releasing her from its painful grip.
Lina watched as the eagle-man's sharp amber eyes went wide and gaze was directed downward where the bloodied end of a sword protruded. With another sickening jerk, the sword disappeared back to where it came from and the magic-user fell forward in a crumpled heap, revealing a large and muscled bandit behind him. By the way he held himself, Lina figured he was the bandit leader that she had noticed wasn't present during most of the fighting.
"You little witch." he spat out vehemently. "You destroyed most of my band. They may have been stupid, but they followed my orders!" he sneered as he pulled out a sword as long as Lina was tall. "You'll pay for that!"
Still fairly sure that she could handle the situation, Lina gave an assured smirk, although her insides were still rather sore. The threat was not exactly ignored, despite her pose. Inside she was rather nervous. Most of the time, when someone had a sword that large, they knew how to use it. And besides...if this was the leader that had thought of hiring the team of six and using them, then this wasn't someone to be underestimated.
Not charging her, as Lina expected him to, the bandit-leader merely walked towards Lina's direction, the tip of his large sword dragging alongside him against the ground. It aggravated Lina to no end. She -hated- waiting when she was fighting. She had no patience for it. Pulling out her own sword, she rushed forward, preparing a spell on the side.
The bandit leader smiled and raised his sword swifter then Lina thought was possible, blocking her sword as it arced down to greet it. Without delay, she jumped back, nearly avoiding being gutted as the huge sword swung in her direction. Then another dodge as the sword came crashing down to her side. How can that guy move that thing, let alone that fast!?!? her thoughts raced, but found no answer to give. Jumping forward, she managed to rake the tip of her sword across his cheek, drawing some blood. The bandit leader backed up and lowered his sword, wiping a hand across the cut and bringing it in front of him. Looking up with nothing more then a smile, the bandit leader then plunged forward, swiping directly at Lina's mid-section.
The grass was stained red with the blood that had just been spilt. Splattered in an arc from where she stood, Lina stared at the blood on the ground, then at the blood all over her hands...and the blood trailing down the front of her stomach and down her legs. Falling onto her backside, she gasped for air in a fit of semi-shock. Looking before her, the bandit leader stood in the end of his swipe, one knee almost touching the ground while the other leg stretched behind him a ways; his arm still outstretched holding the huge - and now completely bloodstained - sword. His eyes were open wide and barely focused on the long, thin sword protruding out of his upper-right chest.
Lina, finding a bit of her strength, lifted an arm and started chanting weakly. The bandit-leader's eyes focused on her for a second before his features contorted into a strange sort of smile. "Lightning..." Then there was just the body of the bandit leader, his already-dying heart stilled by the current of electricity running through the sword imbedded there. Not having enough strength to retrieve it, Lina left the sword in the bandit leader and crawled backwards to the closest rock she could find. Leaning against it, she attempted to cast a healing spell on herself but was too weak to finish it.
With wounds still deep enough to be fatal, Lina could feel herself slipping into unconsciousness, her vision becoming blurry and distant. Although invisible to the road, she had a clear view of any travelers thereon. Her last sight, before passing out, was of the little girl and her mother, walking safely by...
Chapter 2 | Fanfiction