Chapter Ten

Panic flushed over my body as I scrambled out of my tent and to my feet. Simon was holding a large branch while holding off several intruders, with the royal symbol on their shoulders, it was still dark and I could barely see any of the intruders or how many of them there were. I rushed over to Simon, grabbing one of the advancing intruders, and kicked him in the back of his knee. He fell to his knees as Simon hit him in the side of the face with his stick. One of the intruders grabbed me by the arm and threw me over his shoulder, hitting my back on the ground. I rolled away and jumped back up to my feet. The man charged me while I was getting up and forced me back into a tree. He held my arms to the tree, pushing me back every time I tried to get loose from his grip.

The colors that they wear, the crest on their shoulders, the armor forged from Kandarian steel. These weren't just any intruders or bandits; these were the king's special hunter guards. These guards had to have been ordered by the king to hunt down the highest levels of traders within the kingdom and they don't obey anyone's rules, they only ever follow their orders.

"I watched you train in fields when we were kids," I said.

"By orders from the king, you are to be executed," He said.

"Not today," I said.

He looked intrigued as he pushed harder on my arms. I threw my knee up, striking him in his nuts. He released the pressure on my arms as I punched him in the throat. He fell onto his side holding his throat struggling to breathe as I ran over to the twin blades in my tent. Pulling them from the sheaths, I swung the blade in my right hand with as much force as I could generate at a charging intruder, slicing his throat open, all the intruders turned away from Simon and toward me. They pulled out their weapons, one with a spear, three with swords, and one with a short bow. They held their weapon's in the air as they charged at me. I lifted one of the blades above my head and held it outward by my ear and the other in front of my body, across my stomach. Simon disappeared into the thick bushes, as the man I knocked down stood up, but was barely able to straighten his legs. The man holding the spear jabbed it straight at the center of my chest as two men with swords charged from either side of me. Swinging my left blade, I forced his spear into the shoulder of the swordsman on my right side as I quickly spun around to the other swordsmen. I deflected his blade before he swung back and locked our blades together. The third swordsman rushed up behind me, thrusting his blade downward at my neck. At the last second, I broke the lock between the blades and threw my body to the side, escape his blade as he sliced his partner's neck. Motionless the man fell to his stomach as the last swordsmen went back into his ready position; An arrow passed by my face, slicing my cheek open and landing in-between the swordsman's eyes. Falling to the side slightly, I caught a glimpse of a shinny spearhead passing in-between my arm and side and sliced off the archers' head. My arm caught on the grip of the spear as I held on, stopping my fall. Gripping my right blade, I pulled myself up and thrust my blade into the spearman's stomach, and pushed my left blade through his neck. The swordsman's friend was lying on the ground holding his shoulder, unable to move as the last man caught his breath. He slipped brass knuckles onto his hand and ran at me. He was only inches away from punching me in the face when a horse hove swung up, smacking him in the jaw. The brass knuckles slipped off his fingers as he fell to his knees. In one swift motion, I slapped my horse's ass, convincing her to kick, smacking him once again in the side of the face.

"Um... we should get going before... before more show up," Simon said while pulling himself up onto his horse.

I grabbed my sheaths, slipped the blades inside, and quickly hooked them to my back before climbing onto my horse. Simon started to maneuver his horse around the bodies of the attackers. I went around the outside of the death circle. Looking over at the sac, I leaned over the side of the horse, grabbing it before pulling myself back up. Simon stopped at the entrance to the trail and kept watch as I hooked the sac to my saddle. Both our heads perked up like meerkats when we heard echoing voices coming from the other side of the circle behind us.

"Hey! over here! they're getting away!" The man who was holding his shoulder yelled.

Both Simon and I sent our horses into a gallop, racing down the trail. But it only took seconds before arrows started to fly in our direction as more hunter guards chased us with their horses. We moved back and forth across the trail, attempting to avoid the arrows the best we could.

"Simon! We need to get off this trail!" I yelled.

He looked at me and smiled as he pulled his horse off the trail, jumping over the large trunk of a fallen tree. I followed close beside him, jumping over small boulders, tree trunks, and creeks. The hunters continued to chase us off the trail until one of their horses tripped over one of the logs, causing a domino effect. We continued to gallop and swerve even when the hunters were too far behind us to catch up to us. After a while, the horses got too tired and slowed almost to a complete stop by a creek.

"The horses are too tired to continue at this moment... they need to stop and rest and, so do we," Simon said.

I agreed and stepped down from my saddle. We walked the horses to a nearby creek and allowed them to drink, rest and snack on the long grass. We were getting some rest ourselves; I kept my mouth closed as I cleaned the blood off my blades and hands with the creek water. Simon looked at me, but I refused to look back.

"I killed them," I said as I choked on the words.

"No... no, not all of them... They mostly killed each other... You are not to blame; you were only defending yourself against violent attackers," Simon said.

"Then why does it feel like my soul just split into multiple tiny pieces," I said.

"No one ever feels good after something like this... it changes a person for the good and the bad, you get to choose which way you go," He said.

"I don't know how to use the blades... I'm not a soldier... I shouldn't have them," I said while turning my head to look at him.

I forgot about the injury on my cheek but quickly remembered when I saw the look on Simon's face. The realization of a bright red liquid running down my face wasn't sweat or water; pain filled my mind and body. The cut started to sting and burn as applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Simon had already shuffled a small cloth from the sac before I even realized he stood up; he pressed it to my cheek as I took it from him and pressed it against the wound.

"Don't move," A female voice demanded.

"Kristy, don't make any sudden movements," Simon said.

The cloth in my hand had quickly turned red, a sharp pain blazed in the back of my head, suddenly I could see nothing but black and darkness.