On Guard

On Guard

                Prayrwin's mood was (as it had been for much of the journey) foul. She had always disliked Delani - a silly girl beyond her penchant for petty theft - but spending time in her company had proved remarkably unpleasant.

                That the girl acted as if they were friends was perhaps why it was so unpleasant. They knew each other, yes, but not that well - and Prayrwin only knew of Delani's secret gear by chance. Prayrwin would have told Delani to sod off, but the caravan's trio of bosses had told Prayrwin to keep an eye on Delani. Prayrwin sorely regretted mentioning to them that Delani was a thief; and more so mentioning that they knew one another.

                Noticing that Delani was once again approaching, Prayrwin sighed. "Hey Prayrwin!" Delani said, her voice almost bubbling with joy.

                "Evening, Delani," replied Prayrwin, shifting in her seat. She was on watch duty, which entailed sitting on the edge of the camp and keeping an eye out. This evening was easy - she merely had to stare down the hill in the moonlight. And first watch was the best of the watches to have.

                Delani took the seat beside her - intended for the later watches, which were two man shifts. The first watch was one man because half the camp would still be awake when it ended. "Guess what?" asked Delani, enthusiastically.

                "You figured out how to do something new with your gear?" asked Prayrwin.

                Prayrwin's lack of excitement had no effect on Delani. "Yeah!" she said, beaming, "This one's really useful though, watch!"

                Despite herself, Prayrwin stopped paying attention to the surrounding countryside and turned to Delani, who was busily lying herself out on the ground. Prayrwin stopped herself from saying something sarcastic (it'd backfire if Delani actually did something impressive).

                After Delani had settled herself into what Prayrwin guessed was meant to be a barely visible position, she suddenly disappeared. Well, not precisely. She blended with the ground - she seemed to be partially covered with grass that continued up from the ground, and part made of soil. It was probably useful?

                "Okay, so you can... Hide a bit better?" asked Prayrwin, "I guess no-one would find you in the woods or-" (mid-comment, Delani's camouflage dissipated) "-something, or if they didn't know the layout of a building. Doesn't last long, either."

                "I think I can make it go longer," said Delani, standing up. "But it's really sweet isn't it? I just look like part of the ground!"

                "Well, it's more useful than most of the powers you've figured out," said Prayrwin. It was true - beyond the initial useful things (shocking people into unconsciousness, producing light, producing tiny flames and an ability that somehow let Delani jump and fall further) many of the abilities were fairly lacklustre (such as temporarily changing hair colour, or sensing fine details in an area of a dozen cubic centimetres). The weaker abilities had their uses (especially for a thief like Delani), but not many.

                "Such a sourpuss," said Delani, mock-petulantly. In a strange way she appreciated Prayrwin's sombre nature. When she reflected on it she found it sort of poetic; the liveliness and hope of summer against the dullness and cynicism of winter. Prayrwin, had she been told this idea, would have made a different, ruder comparison.

                Prayrwin returned her eyes to the landscape below. "I have a job to do tonight, Delani," she said, "So don't distract me too much."

                This was Delani's cue to begin babbling the day's caravan gossip, and about anything else that took her fancy. Prayrwin had adapted to only half-listening pretty quickly, which allowed her to focus on her job (or think on other matters when she had nothing to do).

                Not long later, as she scanned the major approaches for about the twentieth time with Delani babbling something about how one of the caravan members being an excellent cook, a cry came from the other side of the camp. 'Bandits!'

                The cry came from within the camp as well, which was a bad sign. It meant the guard on the other side was either dead, working with the bandits, or if they were very lucky unconscious.

                Prayrwin was on her feet almost instantly, sword in hand shortly after. "Huh - oh no!" said Delani, looking up in the direction of the camp.

                "Do as you please, girl, but keep your sticky fingers out of people's stuff," said Prayrwin as she started jogging up the hill (sword re-sheathed after her eyes spotted no immediate threats).

                Delani's face shifted rapidly between her conflicting desires - help out, flee, hide, steal things while everyone was pre-occupied. It was a hard choice for her to make, but she decided to try to help. She'd run away if there were lots of bandits, though. The only valuable she had that she didn't carry with her was her horse, anyway.

                Rather than follow Prayrwin straight up the hill, Delani circled around a bit before making her way up. Prayrwin lost sight of her quickly as she reached the top of the hill. What she saw before her, in the slight dip the caravan had setup camp, was chaos.

                About twenty poorly armed bandits (identifiable via the blue bandannas they for some reason wore) were inside the camp. Most seemed to be busy trying to steal valuable but easy to carry items from the wagons, although a handful were fighting with guards or tearing jewellery off the traders. Despite the poor equipment of the bandits, they were far more than the caravan of thirty-odd (with only eight guards) could handle; and Prayrwin could see that a couple of the guards had been downed already.

                Many would have wavered before such odds, but Prayrwin was unshakeable in performing her duty (something she hadn't been paid to do, on the other hand...). She drew her blade and charged towards the camp with her blade held high.

                Almost immediately she found herself up against a pair of bandits - two men of similarly bulky builds. One wielded an iron mace, the other a javelin. Prayrwin swung at the javelin wielder, and allowed the mace-man to swing at her freely. As the javelin wielder stepped back out of her reach, she took hold of the mace-man's weapon and pulled him forward onto her waiting sword.

                Prayrwin kicked him to the ground, and he screamed as her sword slid out of him. Despite the volume, the scream easily blended into the cacophony of fighting and looting going on all around them. The javelin wielder, incensed by the injury of his comrade, came at Prayrwin fiercely. Though his javelin was crude, he wielded it well - Prayrwin was hard pressed to deflect all of the man's attacks.

                When a couple got through her defence (though not through her armour) Prayrwin decided it was time to change tactics. Instead of holding her ground or stepping back, she charged at the man. Doing so just as she deflected one of his jabs got her right next to him without harm, and one gauntleted fist to the face later he was unconscious on the ground. She stabbed him a couple of times to make sure he never got up.

                Her little engagement (though successful) had taken a bit of time - the bandits seemed to be withdrawing with whatever they had managed to steal. Several seemed to be out of action, but the caravan seemed worse off. And where on earth was Delani?

                Delani continued making her way around the hill for a while, then strolled up slowly. She wasn't really sure what she could do to help - she could catch the bandits unaware with some of the abilities the jewellery gave her, but it was unlikely that would work for long. This was a bad decision, she thought to herself, I should have hidden away until the raid's over.

                She fully intended to be an adventurer, eventually. And adventurers were usually brave. Although, being 'sensible' as Prayrwin put it was probably actually a better idea. Nothing too risky - at least, nothing that would get her killed or caught. She could do plenty with the powers the jewellery gave her, and with that advantage (and a little cunning) she'd be able to do anything. With preparation.

                So when she gained a view of the valley and the fighting below, she hid behind a tree and looked over the camp. It wasn't going well - actually, it seemed that the bandits were pretty easily grabbing whatever they wanted. She saw Prayrwin charge into the fray boldly (She doesn't think fighting down there's a bad idea? Although she did talk about 'doing what she was supposed to), and almost immediately manage to kill one of the bandits.

                Prayrwin's efforts did give her an idea though - if she helped out someone a lot, say by saving their stuff, they'd be very pleased. And that might make everyone else pleased, which in turn would let her get at their stuff easier! Or, maybe just make the trip more pleasant by helping her make an interesting friend or two, because Prayrwin was often dull company.

                With that idea in mind, she picked out a wagon on the edge of camp that a pair of bandits were busy scrounging through. They both seemed rather scrawny, but their appraisal of the many things in the wagon was lightning quick (just like the fence she'd sold stuff too for years). They were tossing anything that passed inspection into a couple of sacks - various knickknacks and small valuables, Delani figured.

                Carefully keeping in the shadows (and behind handy rocks and trees) Delani made her way swiftly up to the wagon. She overheard the two bandits atop the wagon talking - "What about this? It's a bit large," said one.

                "Rip the gold off if you can, or just toss it in," replied the other.

                Delani crept up behind the nearest of them, and grabbed him by the leg. He barely managed to start saying 'huh' before he was shocked into unconsciousness and toppling towards the ground. Delani grinned and rolled under the wagon.

                "Burry?" said the other bandit as he saw his friend fall, "What on earth..."

                She heard him clamber over, then saw him drop down beside his fallen friend. "Burry!" he said, checking the other man, "Just unconscious, great. Now I have to carry his fat ass back to camp."

                Unfortunately for him, Delani used the time he spent checking and then muttering over his companion to get behind him and use the other offensive power she had - a heavy physical blow. A solid crack came from where the blow slammed into the bandit's skull, and he fell senseless to the ground. Delani stood over him, gloating, before remembering to check her surroundings.

                Luckily (as usual) no other bandits were coming to the rescue - in fact, they seemed to be pulling out. Almost all of them were loaded up with loot; the only exceptions seemed to be the rear-guard who were holding the few guards still standing at bay with ease. She spotted Prayrwin moving to join them, so she made her way there as well (quite stealthily).

                "Hey Prayrwin!" said Delani, dropping down beside her from atop a wagon.

                "Delani," said Prayrwin. "Did you manage to do anything useful?"

                "Yep! I knocked out a couple of the bandits," replied Delani, sounding quite pleased with herself.

                Prayrwin stared at her solemnly for a moment, then turned to the withdrawing bandits. "No chance we'll catch 'em; and the last idiot who wanted to rush after 'em is over there," said Prayrwin, indicating an unconscious guard. Delani thought he was unconscious, at least.

                Prayrwin continued, "This lot are far more violent than anything I expected - the guards here too, for that matter. There's a lot of dead. And-"

                "And a lot of stolen merchandise!" yelled Nurm, one of the caravan leaders, as he emerged from his sealed wagon alongside them. "Burnt days, we should've hired more guards. Do you know how many are dead?" he asked Prayrwin.

                "Not yet. Delani - I can actually use your help with cleaning this mess up. Let's go," said Prayrwin, immediately back in business mode.

                Of the eight guards, three were dead. One would be out of action for months, and another for weeks. Of the remaining three, one had enough light injuries to need a few days of rest (or else risking infection), which left Prayrwin and a single guard keeping order while the caravan pulled itself back together.

                Seven others were injured, three severely. There were also a couple more dead, and five dead bandits, who needed to be buried. The bandits Delani had disabled were locked up in a caravan, along with another who had fainted from his sever wounds. With the caravan in such a sorry state, clean-up and inventory checking took most of the night.

                Prayrwin found out that the guard posted to the other side of the hill had taken three arrows to the chest, and likely died choking on his own blood. She wondered how three (or more) archers got that close to a 'trained' guard. The answer she got was that the guard had never actually been trained. Actually, most of the caravan guards had no training - although some had been guarding various caravans for years. Better than nothing, Prayrwin figured.

                A quick glance over the cleaned up caravan was more than enough for Prayrwin to know the results of the inventory. She learnt the exact details after she gave her report to the caravan leaders, who were in the middle of an emergency meeting (that conveniently got them out of all the repair work).

                 "Most of the larger goods are intact," said Kay (one of the other caravan leaders), "But those of us with small goods - especially the small valuables - have lost pretty much everything. I should say that, truth be told, the wool and wood is a cover; we're mostly traders of small luxuries. I sincerely hope that no-one betrayed us."

                "Of course one of the damn villages we went through sold us out!" yelled Nurm, "I swear I recognised a couple of the bastards!"

                "Calm down, Nurm," ordered Old Nurm - Nurm's aged uncle, and namesake. His money had paid for Nurm's share of the caravan, and he was also one of the 'leaders' due to the size of Nurm's share.

                The other three leaders were silent as Nurm ground his teeth, eyes staring at his uncle. "Fine," he muttered. "Prayrwin. Listen. Beat the location of the bandits out of the two we captured. Then take your friend Delani, the thief, and go get back as much as you can."

                "She's n- what?" said Prayrwin, somewhat incredulous. "That's not in my contract, Nurm. I'm not - what could we even do? We can barely carry a fraction of what they took, and if we took too much back they'll just attack us again!"

                "One thing," said Nurm, holding up a finger for emphasis, "that they took is worth more than all the rest combined. It's a small locked box. Brown wood, gold trim. They won't be able to get it open easily, but if they have, they probably won't recognise the contents. It's a small grey stone. Get it or preferably it in the box back or you and that damn thief are heading to the next village alone. No pay. Nothing."

                "A soilstone?" asked Prayrwin, incredulously. "You're transporting a soil stone with eight bloody guards?"

                "Get the location, get the thief, and go. If you're not gone in five hours..."

                "Fine. I'll try my best. If Delani dies doing this, I expect that to be enough."

                As Prayrwin headed off to find Delani, her feet stomping along, Nurm said, "Just barely enough."

                I’m going to enjoy my four hour nap waiting for those bandits to wake up, Prayrwin thought to herself. It's a good thing I know how long Delani's knockout lasts. Despite it being from personal experience.