She couldn't necessarily say it was a nice awakening, seeing as a guard kicked her door open, firmly yelling, "Dahlia, let's go! Two individuals sighted running down the road after a mugging, both are male, we're tasked with cutting them off." 

As Dahlia shook off her sleepy delirium, she soon recognized the guard was her personal mentor, captain Guazima, a stoic human women, in her late 40's, with her signature halberd in hand. 

"Well? C'mon!" Yelled the captain, turning and dashing down the hallway. 

Dahlia cursed her luck as she hopped out of bed. She was exhausted from the previous days training, which was made to be much more thorough thanks to orders from her father. However, as she armored up she couldn't help keep her excitement down. So far the most she's ever done that was remotely guard like was guide drunkards home, or chasing some troublemaker kids from the graveyard. 

She grabbed her shortsword, buckling it to her side, then she grabbed her fathers old glaive. "An elegant weapon, for those who are destined for greatness," her father would constantly say. It was pretty standard, an iron studded hickory pole of about 4 feet in length, with a long curved blade at the end, about 1 1/2 feet long. Another hand-me-down from her father as he rose the ranks, and being granted a much more extravagant glaive for his service from the king himself. 

Realizing she got distracted, she hurriedly ran out of her room and chased down the captain. 

As Dahlia ran outside, the captain turned to see her. The captain was a tall human women, going into her late 40's, however she was built like a brick wall and had enough scars to tell stories for hours. 

"Took you long enough." Said the captain impatiently. 

"It's been 2 minutes," said Dahlia, "I bet it took you 5 minutes just to put your hair up." 

The captain smirked, "My hair? I did that in less than a minute. Funnily enough, that's about twice as long as I'll need to kick your ass if you keep talking." 

Dahlia chuckled, "yes ma'am." 

"Anyways, we've been told to just keep a lookout in case they run this way-"

"What?! You made it sound like this was going to be way more exciting!" Whined Dahlia.

The captain looked at her sympathetically, "Kid, I know your itching for something more than drunkards and POS kids," said the captain, "But there's a reason why your father sent you here to be trained. While being a soldier sounds like glory and excitement, the grunts like us guards are mainly here to sit and look scary." The captain leaned against the wall of the guard house, spinning her halberd on the ground. 

Dahlia tried her best to hide her disappointment, "Well... we might as well get ready for them to show up, right?"

The captain grimaced, "Don't get your hopes up kid. Just think about it, only idiots would willingly run towards the guardhouse." 

Dahlia copied the form of the captain, leaning against the wall and crossed her arms. "Well I sure hope they're idiots." Dahlia pouted. 

They sat in silence for about a minute, until Dahlia broke it by letting out a loud groan of boredom.

"Which road did you say they were on?" Question Dahlia.

"Well, if the message was correct, they should be close to the intersection down that way," the captain pointed down the road they were watching over. 

Dahlia felt like she had a chance for some action, stating, "well, shouldn't we patrol? Like you said, they won't be running around here, we could just patrol the road!" 

The captain gave it some thought, and after a few moments, said, "I guess that isn't the worst of ideas, but don't think we're leaving this road. We have our orders Dahlia, and we must follow them." 

Dahlia jumped with excitement, "YES! Uh-I mean- yes ma'am!" 

As patrolling for a while, they heard distant yells, very distant. 

"Hey," started Dahlia, "when they get here, do we have a plan?" 

"IF," the captain corrected, "IF they come over this way, you aim for the legs. No killing blows, our goal is to trip them up a bit. Then, just restrain them; there is a reason our armor is so heavy." Said the captain, banging a gauntlet hard against her chest.

Dahlia nodded and committed the plan to memory, only for a few moments later, a blue glare to catch her eye. When she looked up, she watched as an arrow hit a wall across the road. That arrow was moving way faster than any bow could shoot it, and it whistled throw the air like a lightning bolt, startling her.

As she looked at the peculiar arrow, another blue glint caught her eye, this time to see a guard pushed through the mud about 10-15 feet, and notice two figures run into a nearby inn. 

"They're here!" Said Dahlia, with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. Afterward she ran towards the guard on the ground, and began helping him up. She recognized him as an older half-orc, a nice guard she had talked to only once or twice. He looked to be half blind, and was missing his right tusk. 

"Hah, thanks girlie." Said the elderly guard in a gruff voice, getting to his feet. 

The captain placed a hand on Dahlia's shoulder, "ok, let's get a closer look, but stay. Behind. Me. These could be deranged lunatics. They've already attacked a guard. You, Garrick, are you ok?" Question the captain in a stoic voice.

Garrick, the half-orc, sighed, "I think so... I'm not bleeding and nothings broken. It just felt like a hard shove, that's all." 

The captain gave him a soft punch to the arm, "you retreat, you've done all you needed, we've got plenty of guards here." Said the captain while looking at Dahlia. "Let's go, kid." 

As Garrick left and the pair moved up, they were given the situation by the group of 5 guards outside the inn. They were told about how the pair of criminals locked themselves in a room, and they could hear them arguing. As they were being told this, Dahlia was picturing just what would come out of that door when it opened. What sick monsters of men could walk out. Would they be old, young, clean, dirty, scarred. Would they go quietly, or try to take some of the guards down with them? Dahlia was getting in her head with all the possibilities, and readied herself for them. Sadly, she could not have expected what came out of those doors. 

The guards surrounded the doors, stacking behind each other, prepared to rush in. 

The captain in front started to yell, "3! 2! 1-" at that time, the door opened willingly, and the guards were met with a brilliant blue light, momentarily blinding them. The next thing that came out, was the yells of the word "MOVE!" multiple times in quick succession. Finally , what came out, at a violently quick speed, was a large and heavy dresser. Then a large trunk. And then the sheets and pillows of a bed. Each of these items knocked back 2-3 guards each, and the sheets covered and confused the guards, disorienting them. 

Dahlia found herself covered in sheets, and hit hard with two pillows, all she could hear was the same voice that yelled 'move', yelled, "Sorry 'bout that!" Followed by a different voice, saying, "don't say sorry! Run!" In a scolding voice. She felt movement overhead and swung her glaive, wildly. After missing 2 swings, she took a wild one behind her, and felt it take purchase. She felt proud! She was ready to chase these criminals down!