A knife in the Dark

[Alivon]

He was crouched in a ditch, his eyes barely peeking over the edge at the group he saw a bit of a ways ahead of him. It was almost pitch black, but the group was carrying torches, which made it easy to find them

Alivon had observed the group beating several people down and taking their possessions earlier, he figured it was time to return the favor on them. He let his cloak slide off of him, and began to crouch-walk through the grass. he got within about fifteen meters of the group, and slid the bow from his back, placing it in his hands. He sat there for a few minutes, trying to make out how many in the group there were, there seemed to be about...five. He'd have to be careful with this group so they didn't surround him, he thought.

He practiced for a few more minutes with his bow, seeing how fast he'd be able to switch targets, he was hoping to take two of them down before he had to switch weapons and go into melee combat with the group. He waited a few more second until one of the group had entered the tent, and fired an arrow at the one who was making the fire.

The arrow whizzed across the open distance and passed through the man, dropping him into the fire. The other members of the group jumped up in alarm, shouting out various things. Alivon forced himself to concentrate, and aimed the arrow at the second target, standing beside a tree, he hoped it would hit, because he'd have to move after this shot, or go into close quarters with his short sword.

[Yuliya]

Yuliya was riding her black Arabian mare, Black Jewel, down the dusty road to get back to her camp, in Bretagne. The night had been relatvily serene and the stars above dotted the path with spotted lights. Ghadtly shadows fell down on both sides of her. She was glad to be in her usual thick clothes with a meadium blue cloak. She hated the white dress and white cloak she wore when she was undercover, because she couldn't carry anything else with her.

Black Jewel's hooves made a soft rythym on the packed dirt, when suddenly, an arrow whizzed in front of her. Moving like lightning, she swooped off Black Jewel and sent off her beloved mare away from the attack. However, green-grey eyes piercing the darkness, she deemed that it couldn't have been aimed at them. Never the less, her own willow bow was out and fitted with an arrow.

Now she could see the mysterious archer's target, a group of men with a tent, and a fire. She pondered over a reason, there could be many, these days.

She calculated the angle at which the arrow came, and as her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, she thougt, just barely, that she could see the vague outline of someone behind a tree. The archer? The long curve by him or her could be a bow. She lowered her bow, deeming it useless.

She lifted from her belt her long tachi sword, and advanced towards the tree. Friend or foe? she wondered.

[Alivon]

Alivon was so concentrated that he did not notice the other being moving closer, he let loose his bow, the arrow whizzing across the distance again, and spearing the man in the head.

The men began to advance on him now that they could figure out where he was. He burst into a run towards them, sliding the bow away and drawing his short sword. Reaching into his belt he would take out a handful of smoke pellets, and smash them into the ground right before he met up with the bandits.

smoke would envelope the small group of people, and he'd dive in between the three that had charged him, slashing backwards and getting one of them across the back, but not taking him down. He'd have to hope they couldn't figure out his location any time soon, he was no great fighter when outnumbered in close combat. It was only now, after he had left eh cloud of smoke, that he noticed the other individual.

[Yuliya]

Yuliya squinted her eyes, trying to see through the smoke that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Finally, she saw the acrcher, well, fighter, up close. He was young, probably younger than she was. When she saw how dubiously outnumbered he was, her sword clanged with one of the others. She grinned as the electricity flew through her, filling her with foolish glee.

She spun around, cloak flapping about her, her long wavy golden hair flipping in the wind she created. How she loved to fight, how she loved to fight when she knew she would win. The only thing that confused her was the smoke. Who had the power to make smoke appear without a fire? Was this young warrior some type of mage, a sorceror?

She was glad, however, when she knew Black Jewel was safely away. The mare would come back after the fight was over. Although Black Jewel was extremely loyal to Yuliya, and would gladly fight by her, the Arabian knew her master's obsession with her not getting hurt. Yuliya beamed as she blocked yet another blow.

[Alivon]

He gave a quick nod at the person ho seemed to be helping in the fight,and then quickly turned his attention back at the person who was currently charging at him, with a longsword.

He ducked and winced as the longsword passed inches above him, the upside, was that the man ran full speed int him and alivon pushed himself up, flipping the man over onto his back, thanks to the bandits own momentum. He easily finished him off and looked back to see how the other person was faring.

[Yuliya]

Yuliya swung her sword quickly into the last bandit. He grabbed her sword by the blade, and swung a rough punch at her. Bending down, she felt his fingers through her hair, then she felt a hard yank on it. She screamed abd brought her head up, slamming her free hand into his face.

After that, she raised her leg and gave him a hard kick in the chest. In the moment of his pain, she realeased her sword from his grip and stuck him through. She sighed as she wiped her dirty blade on the grass, although sickened by the drying blood.

[Alivon]

alivon watched the last bandit trying to sneak up on her, he dropped his sword and went into a dive, grabbing his bow in the roll and coming up on his knees. He pulled the arrow back on the string and let the string go.

The arrow would whiz over her head, and get the guy in the knee. This one was huge though, muscle bulking everywhere. He kept coming even though his knee was wrecked, obviously slower though. Alivon struggled to grab another arrow from his quiver to shoot in time.

[Yuliya]

Yuliya whipped around to see the bandit was still up, and coming right at her.

"Oh frick..." she muttered. She put all of her weight behind her sword and ran forward, hoping to stab some vital organ, but when she fell back, she saw that she hadn't gotten near the heart. She wasn't tall enough for this giant. She let her bow fall from her shoulder into her hand and fired arrow after arrow at this thing, hoping to stop his movement at some point. Each arrow flew fast and true, with feathers of a falcon balancing them.

[Alivon]

Watched in amazement as the large man finally collapsed under the beings barrage of arrows. "Er....that would be one way to do it...?" He picked up his sword and wiped it on the grass, then slid it back into the sheath. He walked over towards the person, while sliding the bow back over his shoulder. He stepped around two of the bodies that they had taken out, on the way over.


"That was some pretty good shooting..." He said, not really knowing what else to say to her. He scratched the back of his head, waiting for a reply.

[Yuliya]

"Thanks," Yuliya said, slipping her bow back over her shoulder. "By the way, who was I killing? It one of those things that's nice to know..." Looking over herself, she was thankful that there weren't any bad wound. Just a couple of scratches, but nothing deep. Turning to the mysterious person beside her, she saaw he had come out fairly unscathed too. She raised her hood to cover her long hair, wincing in pain at the sore area on her scalp.

[Alivon]

Eh....they were a couple of bandits I saw beating some travelers down earlier today...thought they needed to be taken down.." Alivon had grim look on his face, he obviously enjoyed fighting to some extent, but obviously not when it lead to death, he was not one to kill for fun.

"thanks for the help, that last one probably would have gotten me if you hadn't of shown up." He looked around at the darkness, wondering how many other bandits were in the area, who would likely commit similar crimes the following day, only to have him sneak up on them...

[Yuliya]

"Oh good, I'm one of the good guys still...my name is Yuliya," she said, carefully leaving out her last name, as always. Even though people most likely wouldn't connect the name to the person who believed their great-grandfather was the son of a king, she didn't take any chances. She put her fingers in her mouth and blew a high-pitched whistle that started the thundering of hooves. Over the hill, Black Jewel came cantering back to her master, throwing her head over her shoulder.

"I'm your safe, my jewel," Yuliya whispered.

[Alivon]

alivon looked at th horse that came as she whistled. "so, what are you doing out here?...kind of a random spot to be traveling through isn't it?" he motioned around at the empty field that was pocketed with ditches and small hills.

He walked over to one of the ditches, and picked up his cloak, wrapping it around himself. It made it more difficult to see him, since now not even the dull gray of his sword could be seen, just pitch black, and a head.

[Yuliya]

"I'm going back home, well, as home as my home could be..." Yuliya wrapped her arms around the black mare's necking, breathing in the wonderful scent of cinnamon, clove, and pumpkin. Black Jewel snorted and tossed her head slightly. The hot breath tickled Yuliya and she jumped back while laughing.

"What are YOU doing here? This isn't a usual place to camp."

[Alivon]

He smirked and looked around. "well, judging from the dead bodies, I was hunting bandits again? I was hunting them from earlier today..." He looked around the pitch black field once again, and grinned as she laughed. "where is your home anyways?"

The Night was completely silent, save for the chirping of grasshoppers, it was the kind of night Alivon would be walking in normally, where no one could see him. He didn't mind the company though, he only talked to someone every couple of months after all.