Creeping closer to the sounds of laughter of what had to be at least two men he could feel his heart thumping in his chest, he would have perhaps heard it but his breathing was too loud for him to focus on that.

  Snow gave him a strange look of fear and worry. He smiled and said, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He suspected the pup could smell lies because it whined and looked away from him.

  Ash had to convince himself that he was doing the right thing, and what was the right thing anyway? He tried to walk as carefully as he could, but he could barely move without making a sound. Lyra had been the only one who could move around without making a sound, thinking about her made him anxious again.

  Ash was slowly getting closer, the sound of men grew louder. He tried to push past the tree branches slowly without making much noise.

  It did not take long before he came by a huge tree trunk, he leaned right next to it and peeped over the edge to see a small space a few feet ahead. It was a clearing where three men gathered, they were all armed from teeth to nail with crude weapons and armour. They wore slightly rusted chainmail and had helmets, to Ash they did not seem to be of any grand cause. If anything he would say they were bandits but not the one that came after him earlier.

  What perhaps was the main event was not the three crudely armoured men but what was in the middle of their campground. There was a bundle of woods piled well in a somewhat decent circle and it was kindling, orange flame clawed out of the flame and crackled.

  Hovering above the flame by a few centimetres hanging upside down was a man bound with chains. He was so close to the fire that his hair was smoking, he screamed at the three men who Ash presumed to be his captors. But they laughed, eventually one of them pulled back on the rope that kept the man suspended over the fire bringing him over the fire by a few feet. He then secured the rope tightly around a small tree not too far from them.

  "How do you feel not thief, any more smart words to say?" Laughed one of the captors.

  Another pitched in. "He finally shuts up."

  Ash tries to get a closer look of the man tied above the fire, but before he could lead any further something fell on his head. His soul jumped out of him for a second, a second later an acorn fell to the ground. He felt another one fall on his head, then another.

  Feeling something wrong he swallowed hard and slowly looked up, above him was the familiar sight of a pointy-eared silver haired girl standing on a tree branch up on the tree. Their eyes locked and got a second he felt relieved that she was not the one over the fire but then he drew a puzzled look on his face wondering why she did not choose to help the man in trouble but she silenced him by motioning with her fingers to her mouth.

  Their attention was from back to the scene before them as the man over the fire spoke for the very first time. His voice was nothing short of a grandeur, it had a level of conposure and etiquette that would lead one to believe that it was one of an established man.

  "By the devil's arse! You brutes can not see that you've got it all wrong, you even tried to cook me." He said in a rather controlled manner for someone who had been practically almost one with the fire. "I stole nothing from you damn knaves."

  They looked at themselves and laughed so hard even Ash felt bad for the man over the fire. One of the captors stopped laughing and flashed his blade bore the chained man, "You came into our camp freed all of the slaves we captured and threw the brotherhood into disarray and all for what? A penny?" Ash could feel the hot rage seething through the man's voice, it almost made him shiver from where he hid.

  The man over the fire seemed unaffected by the taunt. "Yes, all over a penny I say."

  The man gritted his teeth and took out a small object from one of his pockets, it was hard to tell what it was from the distance but from the way it reflected light and by it's size it almost looked like a coin. The man tossed it into the fire and turned to look at his prisoner. "The coin I tossed into the flame?"

  "Yes, the one you tossed into the flame. You brute." The man chain spat into his face.

  The other two froze in shock as the witnessed the scene, the first captor wiped the saliva from his face and growled at the chained man. For a second there was silence and the next there was an explosion of force as the man rammed the heel of his metal boot into the face of the chained man.

  The blow was so loud that Ash shuddered where he hid, not given a second to recover from the first he heard the sound of another boot ramming into the chained man's face over and over again. In just a few seconds the chained man's face was reduced to a pulp.

  The other two men laughed even harder, it made Ash's stomach churn at the sight of suc brutality.

  "You really messed him up, didn't you boss?" Said the first. "But he's useless now anyway."

  The second chimed in. "Should we just kill him instead?"

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  The boss captor grinned like an ugly monster that had escaped from help itself. "Why waste good meat, he already smells so good. We did loose a lot of food because of this cunt, and besides there's nothing to hunt here."

  Ash felt his blood boil, he attempted to take a step forward and do something but his body froze. Hot sweat broke on his forehead, "They're animals." He told himself multiple times.

  Lyra stood on the tree branch observing him in his dilemma, he looked a little disappointed, like she had expected him to make a move regardless of how dire things looked. But unlike him she did not care about the scene before her, people died everyday and it was much better if it were the humans who were no different from animals.

  Her curved blades gleamed by her hip, they begged for blood but she stayed calm. "Humans never change, they are all despicable monsters."

  "Wait! I'm not dead yet!" The chained man sparked back to life shocking all three of his captors. Everyone had thought he had died but by some grace he was alive. "You kick like a bag of shit, I almost fell asleep."

  Lyra leaned over the branch and looked down at them thinking, "Why?"

  The three men smiled almost at the same time, their minds contemplating things they would do. The boss wasted no time resuming his torture, only this time taking a new area. He took out his weapon, a spear with a long wooden shaft and a very sharp metal edge. He put the metal edge into the flame and smiled deeply. "I'm am so moved that you stayed with us thief, that way I can carve out your crimes on your ass."

  The chained man laughed, "Too bad my ass won't be enough to cover them all." Thick streams of blood and saliva drooped down to the flame only to be extinguished.

  The boss took out the already hot spear and raised it above his head and grinned madly, his comrades bellowed proudly. They did not expect to be interrupted by a young boy that appeared out of the forest.

  It happed so suddenly but soon their world of enjoyment was silenced by a lone voice. "Stop that you animals!"

  The forest became more quiet than a coffin itself. Lyra's eyes grew wide with a level of shock she had never experienced before, she had only taken her eyes off him for a little while and he had gone to challenge these strange men.

  "Humans always a pain in the arse." She said between gritted teeth pondering why he had chosen to risk his life, it was then it hit her. "That little bastard, he knows I'll step in to save his life."

  He had exploited that and used it to his advantage, to be fair she had initially wanted to kill them but only when they were distracted or separated. That way she would have an already made campsite, but this would not make any difference. It was just a three measley humans.

  Or so it had seemed.

  Lyra was still in the middle of contemplating whether to jump in when she caught on to something. Her ear twitched slightly and her breath stopped, she listened to the forest and tried to shut the sound from the group below to focus on what she had perceived.

  "By the moon goddess, there's more of these bastards." She told herself as she looked from the tree branch to see a number of men coming in their direction. They looked similar to the group below, they were also armed teeth to nail. They were well hidden under the canopy of trees, she counted near a dozen before she took her eyes off them. "Barely a few minutes away, you just had to jump into the heat of the moment now."

  She allowed herself to breath slow and calm, she steadied her gaze at the sight below. She knew she had a very limited time slot to save her foolish human counterpart, her mind went back to her teachings as a moonblade assassin. She had to weight her options greatly before jumping into a fight, no matter how little a fight was if one went in blind and failed to see the full picture it would be fatal. In other words, one mistake was the only difference between life and death in the cruel world they lived in.

  She sped up her thoughts, the bandits did not seem to be good fighters. But they were still spread out, the highest she could kill was two in a small fraction of time but the other could scream and alert the coming group, and that would be disastrous. But she was also confident that she could kill the third in time too, then left a bigger question.

  How would the chained man react?

  He could cry out to them to save him, giving their position away to the enemy.

  Lyra tried not to dwell on it too much as she thought, "I'll kill him too." In the end every human down there would die by her blade.

  She quickly slithered down the tree as quickly as she could, she only hoped that her human counterpart would not kill himself in that little time.

  On the ground below Ash was standing heaving and huffing as he looked at the three hefty armoured men who stared at him with confused eyes. For a reason he could not decipher yet, he was also as confused as they were. He broke into a hot sweat, "Cripes, I actually came out." Snow looked up at him, her body trembling against his.

  The one who had been called boss was the first to free himself of the reverie, he broke into a deep laughter that sounded like avwild boar squeaking. His fellows followed shortly after.

  The boss faced him with a dark expression. "Well what do we have here, a noble little rat come to die."

  Another added. "Maybe he wants to see us flay the man."

  The third for some reason felt the need to add his own snide remark which he did, "Come boy, pay respect to your betters. We ain't going to bite, yet."

  Ash let his eyes drift to the chained man still hanging upside down over a flame, his body looked very much like a bot bloody mess. It was hard to know which part of his face was still together. He felt the need to throw up but held it back just barely.

  The chained man looked at him with a bit of surprise before letting his lip curl in a wide grin. "Now who do we have here, a fine young man walking to his death." He paused for a bit and then spoke loud enough for the stranger to hear. "You look like a hero looking to die, would you kindly come free me from these bonds, they are rather quite uncomfortable. And leave the big guy to we, I still have business with him."

  The boss turned to face the chained man, delivering another kick to his face. A loud crack followed shortly after.

  Ash still struggled to comprehend the totality of what was happening or how he could avoid any of it, "If you're there, please help me." He said to the wind and waited for an answer.

  While the boss was still distracted by the chained man, there was there were two flashes of white light dancing in the air. The spun so fast that it made it hard to decipher or react to, they fell from the trees and spun for the two armoured men who were none the wiser to react. The dance of white light ended with two long curved silver blades lodging themselves into the middle of their faces and the black wooden shaft staying outside. There was a sharp satisfying sound of the slicing of flesh and skull, it happened so fast that the two men had died before they realised it themselves.

  Ash felt his breath leaves him for a few cold seconds before a figure landed a few feet from him. He recognised the familiar silver hair, long and braided, and the sleek black battle cloth, and the posture of an indescribable person that appeared without form.

  The sound of two heavy thuds alerted the boss to what had just happened behind him, but just as he was turning back she was already on the move. Sprinting forward like an arrow launched by a crossbow, her legs almost became one with the wind. She slid on the ground without losing momentum and dislodged one of her daggers from the head of one of the fallen man. Her calloused fingers became a firm grip on the shaft of her curved blade, then in one swift motion the sent it flying through the air in another spin.

  The boss turned back just in time to meet the blade flying for his head at such radical speed. Somehow to both the elf's and Ash's surprise he deflected it by raising his long spear to block it. His face grew in confusion, before he could get a grasp of the situation and who his opponent was what appeared to be a silver haired woman bombarded him with a weapon that he could not see.

  He uttered a curse as he tried to deflect this attack too but could not, the silver haired assailant managed to strike him cleanly on the neck. Blade cut through flesh then bone, in one swift motion there was a large cut over his neck. Hot red liquid bubbled out of it like a restrained dam, then he gurgled on his blood and gripped his neck in a pathetic attempt to hold on to his life for a second more.

  He looked down at the one who had ended his life so swiftly and his eyes flashed wide in horror. What he saw froze him in unexplainable feat. In his mind's eyes he saw seeing a woman with silver hair, face half bathed in blood, holding up a silver blade with his blood dripping down it's sharp edges. Her eyes were unlike any he had seen before, they were empty and only did one thing; reflect his pathetic dying face back to him.

  He felt like he was staring at an abberation, at the face of death itself. And those were the the last things he saw as he died, the face of death.