Fight the Real Enemy!
	A Helping Hand in the Dark

Asif's young inexperienced mind is torn awkwardly by the turn of events. His training from the best sword masters of egypt had given him the skills but not the experience needed in such a situation as this. For Aten forbid before today, never had he drawn his swords in anger and taken a human life. His eyes looked to the opening of the tunnel, and back again to the bleeding form of one who came of a tribe called elfs. Asif crys to the heavens in the tongue of his forefathers... "Great Aten tell me what to do!" His eyes look down upon the bleeding girl, and drops to one knee, whispering brief comfort to her. He puts a compress upon the wound and puts Rhunes hands upon it to hold it and says... "Pray not die Efendi, friends come soon. Keep eyes on light, strength it give... sleep not,.... turn eyes against darkness.... I be back soon." He then bolts down the corridor in pursuit of the enemy soldier, determined to return as soon as possible.. Asif flies like the wind out of the tunnel and to the left, the last direction he saw the other guard head. He does not see any sign of him, but vainly runs in the dark night alongside the hill the tunnel was carved into. He runs quietly, avoiding curses as his feet impact rocks along the way. Only the nearly full moon keeps him from causing himself injury, as there is just enough light for him to dodge the larger obstacles. As he rounds one large rock, he sees signs of life some distance away, lots of life. There appears to be a clearing with lots of men camped at it. Several are on watch, are at least are in a watch position. All that Asif can see are quite asleep, obviously fairly secure. Asif just sees a figure moving cautiously to his left through the rocks, nearly within shouting distance of the clearing. Knowing that time is short, Asif puts on a burst of speed and comes after the man, drawing his second scimitar while he comes. The man notes his approach, looks at the clearing, then draws his own long sword to fight. He brings it down in an arc at Asif's head, which Asif's lighter scimitar is able to deflect. However, the weight of the blow throws Asif's balance off and he is unable to make contact with his attacking weapon. The man, obviously in fear for his life, swings the sword around once again, to be met once again by Asif's second scimitar. However, this time the weight of the European steel is too great for the curved blade to bear, and it is beaten aside. It is enough to turn the blade to it's flat edge, which saves Asif's life, as the blade bangs down upon his skull. Ears ringing and eyes watering, Asif is still able to get around the overhand blow and land a return blow through the man's mail, slashing into his stomach from the right side. The man falls heavily, grasping his intestines that now are exposed to the dim light. He moans in agony, clearly dying, but taking his time about it. Asif breath comes in great gasps with the efforts he has made in the past minutes. Fearing that the groans of the slain warrior at his feet may attract further attention. He whispers a prayer to Aten, for the soul of the man dying at his feet then drive his blade through his chest giving him relief from the pain of life. He shall then look to the encampment for signs of movement, taking the nearest availiable cover to spy upon the scene.While watching, he shall tear off a strip of cloth from his shredded clothes and try to bind the worse of his wound, to lessen the loss of blood. Asif's strike is true, putting the man out of his misery. He then moves over toward the rocks from behind which he can observe the camp. It does not appear that anyone there noticed anything. Indeed, it appears that everyone in sight is quite asleep, other than a large tent in the center of the clearing that has some sort of interior illumination. There are something in the neighborhood of two hundred men in the camp, with a corral of somewhere near that number of horses. The men that you can see are very heavily armed, and there are various weapons scattered about the camp in piles. The tents are very fine, and the one in the center is particularly so, giving Asif the indication that this is a fairly well-off group of men. Flying above the central tent is a banner which Asif can barely make out as a white eagle. This means nothing to him. Asif shall continue to spy upon the enemy encampment, trying to determine if there is a means to sneek himself and his fellow travellers past them without being seen. He tries to gauge the distance between himself and the corral of horses, and tries to determine what guard pattern there seems there is to the camp. His mind agonizes over a potential plan to cause a distraction to allow their escape. A plan to set the horses free. ************************************************** At the cave exit... Rhune finds herself awoken by the gentle touch of a stranger, and older human whose grey hair reflects the moonlight just slightly. He leans a bit upon an oaken staff. Rhune is truly amazed to find a wound that she briefly thought the end of her has totally disappeared. Only the merest hint of a scar she can feel beneath her clothes reminds her how close to death she had come. Asif is nowhere in sight, though she is momentarily satisfied to see the remains of the warrior who nearly killed her lying near the tunnel entrance. Clearly, his wounds were not the result of this man's staff but of Asif's scimitars. None of the other members are anywhere in sight either, only the gentle stranger, who bends over her with a healer's touch. Dax sees his healing take effect, as the lovely young maid looks about. As she switchs to Infravision her deep purple eyes appear to begin to glow, then the effect is gone. Sitting up and taking her long sword she looks at the old man. "Thank you. I thought for sure that this time. . . well this. you know" she drops the sentence not really wanting to voice her fears. "I am Rhune. What is your name?" The man's eyes light warmly as Rhune regains consciousness, and he grins a bit as her long sword makes no move to put him in a similar condition to the one he found her in. "I am Dax," he says quietly,"Dax Wallace, at your service." His voice is tinged with a proper English accent, as he pulls slowly back from leaning over the fallen Rhune, leaning slightly on his staff. His right side moves somewhat more stiffly than his left, and the right hand that grips the staff is covered with a dark glove of some sort. "Y'did seem t'be on ye way off when I 'appened by," he says with a gentle grin."But no worries 'bout that now, I guess, lass." Dax's left hand moves subtly to steady a pendant swinging on a leather strand on his neck -- a deep blue crystal -- that was set in motion as he stood. "There was another person with me. Did you see him?" she asks as she slips her long sword into its sheath. As she waits for his answer she crosses over to the guard and begins searching his body, taking anything that would be of use. She even takes his shield and weapon. And if she can takes his armor. Someone in the party could use the weapons. The guard has a long sword and shield along with bloody chain mail, which Rhune deems too heavy and noisy to be worth carting along. She also finds that he carries a purse of good Italian gold, 33 in total, which she quickly pockets. Dax slightly raises a cautious, curious eyebrow as he answers, watching as Rhune searches the dead body. "Well, I was nearly run down by two 'o came runnin' out th' tunnel as I was comin' t' see 'but all th' noise. One o' 'em carryin' two rather nasty lookin' blades tha' prob'ly did in tha' poor bugger 'ose pockets ye goin' through ...." "That would be my friend Asif. I hope that he is alright." she says with a worried look down toward the tunnel exit. "Don' break m' 'eart by tellin' me I've gone an' saved a thief," he says, looking straight at Rhune with a steady eye, tinged with concern. She looks up at him for a moment, "Well. This person was working for The Bishop. I and some others have been trying to get out of these tunnels and not get caught again. This one blocked our way and I zigged when I should have zagged and you found me as you did. I have learned in the past that it doesn't pay to leave potentially useful stuff on a dead body." she says with a smile. "Mmm," Dax grins, with a sigh. "Ye smile too much t' be a thief an'way." "Th' Bishop, eh? 'Ad a couple o' 'is flock treat me right rudely back in town m'self." Standing up she looks around. She seems to be lost in thought, "I should go find Asif, but I need to tell the others that I am alright. And I need to see if they are alright. It didn't seem to be that far down the tunnel. Maybe I can do it." She looks back at the old man. When Rhune stands up he finds her to be about 4'5" inches tall and very slightly built as if he didn't know already from healing her. Dax tries to listen past Rhune further down the tunnel a bit. "Well, seems pretty quiet back tha' way now," he says. "I don' know wha' you an' ye friends were up te in there, but if they're still kickin', seems they'd 'ead up 'ere, wouldn' they? An', perish th' thought, if they're NOT ... well, they'll still be there after ye check on ye two-bladed friend 'o ran out, won't they?" She smiles at the man's words, "Yes I suppose so. Are you coming with me Dax or are you going to wait here?" she says drawing her sword again she steps over the body and towards the cave entrance. She moves to the cave entrance and looks out cautiously making sure that no one is near the opening that can see her. She turns to see if Dax is following her or waiting behind. Dax throws a tentative glance down the dark tunnel. "Now there's a poser ...," he grins and whispers, "... go off by m'self down some dark 'ole where it's more n' likely I'll fin' somethin' I wish I 'adn't or stay wit a charmin' new friend an' 'er sharp sword....." Dax hesitates a moment in mock indecision. "Right," he says definitively. "Off t'see Asif, then." Dax moves quietly to leave the tunnel, using his staff to add support to every step of his right leg (which moves more stiffly than his left) and letting Rhune and her sword go first. "There weren't an'one 'round when I came in," he whispers from behind her as she peers out the exit. "But y'er right -- better safe n' sorry." Rhune finds Dax to be a human male of about 40 years of age, about 6 feet tall and of average build, with sliver-gray hair and blue eyes. Rhune adjust to light caused by the moon and stars. She looks around taking her bearings. She makes note of where the entrance is and tries to see if there is anything that she can use to mark the place. If she can find something she does so. Then she turns to Dax and moving closer to him, "Dax, do you remember which way the two men went?" she asks him in a low whisper. "'At way," Dax whispers, nudging Rhune toward the left as they exit the tunnel. "Mind th' rocks," he says, alomost talking to himself it seems, as he begins to cautiously move the way he saw Asif and his quarry go. Rhune pulls her hood up and crouches low beginning to move slowly that way staying mostly in the shadows. Now that you are outside you can see that she has silver, curly hair and her eyes appear to glow a deep purple in the moon light. She will keep going off to the left side of the cave entrance until she can find Asif. She is moving slowly and thoughtfully. "An' don' let me slow ye down," Dax adds as he uses his staff to help him find sound footing in the dark. "Find ye friend. I'll be 'long directly." Calling over her shoulder in a low whisper, "Thank you. I will be as quick as I can." Rhune then changes direction and heads off to the left. She carefully keeps an eye out for rocks and anything else that might make noise. She looks for any sign of Asif and the other guard. She hopes that Asif is alright and is not lying hurt somewhere. She is not sure what she could do if she came upon any more of the bishop's men alone. She sees Asif's handiwork before she sees the man. Before a mound of larger rocks, she sees the second guard, with the larger part of his guts exposed to the moonlight and blood pouring from a very recent wound in his chest. He is quite clearly dead, and it doesn't look like he went quietly into the night. Looking about, she sees the aquiline profile of Asif upon one of the larger rocks, staring down past where she can see. He is totally silent and has not noticed Rhune's equally silent approach. However, the silence is intruded upon by Dax's clumsy intrusion, as he catches up to the quiet pair. As Asif stares down, a plan hatching in his mind, this is what he sees, and also what the other two can see by joining him from his perch. The clearing seems very quite and almost totally unguarded. The guards do not seem to rotate themselves, especially since all of those that you can see seem to be asleep. Else they are guarding on their backs. Asif is slightly elevated above the clearing and some hundred yards away.

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	Benjamin Lomax

This page was last updated on 20 January 2001