Anaya had thought having Rue behind her rather than up front would be less distracting. But as it turned out it wasn’t, exactly. Rue’s hands were on Anaya’s hips. Of course, it couldn’t be entirely avoided unless Rue wanted to risk falling, but even if she wasn’t behaving quite as ‘free-spiritedly’ as during the previous day, Anaya just couldn’t help feeling nervous being so close to her, even after having slept while holding the smaller woman against herself. Perhaps it was precisely because it was Rue doing the holding this time. She shook her head. It was not the time for such thoughts.
They’d eaten everything Rue had foraged in a hurry while getting the horse ready to leave. While it helped a little, it wasn’t exactly a hearty meal even for one, let alone two, and given her condition Anaya had convinced Rue to have most of it. Once they got moving, Anaya opted to head north along the forest. It was slow going until they reached the grasslands again. Luckily, they came across a stream shortly after, which allowed them to let the horse drink. Having recuperated somewhat, Rue had used her strange magic to fashion wooden drinking flasks for them, so they could also take some water with them. Her ability to manipulate… well, as far as Anaya could tell from what she’d seen so far, probably pretty much anything that was or had been a ‘living’ thing, like a plant… seemed quite extraordinary.
From what Anaya could recall of the maps she’d seen, she estimated it would take two weeks to reach Ysseria, assuming they could keep up a decent pace, which was by no means a given in their situation. But for now, she was just hoping to get a bit more distance to the main road, just in case.
Looking up at the sky, she estimated they had perhaps five hours of enough light to ride by left, given it was almost midsummer and the days were long.
Keeping to the low ground while traversing the hilly grassland, they’d been making decent progress when they came across what looked like a camp. The problem was that it was occupied. Anaya had considered the possibility of running into something like this but had thought the odds very unlikely. Perhaps she truly had used all her luck while escaping the execution and getting out of Illion.
The real problem was that even before the people in front of them grabbed their weapons it had been almost certain that these were bandits. There wasn’t much reason for anyone else to make camp in a place like this, a vast grassland with no permanent inhabitants and no resources to speak of, except for the occasional animals. But no one in their right mind would’ve been hunting those with a group of this size.
“And just who might you two be,” called out one man, while the rest – Anaya counted half a dozen of them, but the size of the camp suggested there might be more nearby – eyed them with suspicion, glancing back and forth between them and their apparent leader.
“Travellers,” Anaya announced. “We have no interest in you, whoever you are. We will be on our way.”
“Now, now.” The leader gave them a toothy grin. “Why not stay? That’s a fine horse, and some fine armour.” Anaya sighed.
“I guess we are doing this, then?” She drew her sword.
“Well, if you insist.” Anaya half-turned her head toward Rue.
“If you can, stay on the horse,” she whispered. “I’d rather keep it away from the fighting so that it doesn’t get hurt.” Rue nodded. “And if you can, do something about their horses in turn.” Another nod. The leader had been right, theirs was a fine horse, and certainly so compared to the ones the bandits had, which appeared mostly ill-kept. It might’ve been possible to outrun them, but aside from not wanting yet another group chasing them and not wanting their possible future crimes on her conscience, two of the bandits had a bow. Since they would want to capture the valuable horse, Anaya was betting on them not trying to shoot it, and therefore also Rue. But if she charged at them while on the horse, they might not be so careful.
The leader was just shouting at his men to attack as Anaya slid off the horse and drew her sword, keeping an eye on the bowmen. She was still new to having Rue on her side, and soon realized she shouldn’t have worried… and yet it was better to worry too much than not enough, she thought, shortly after the bowmen yelped, the shafts of their nocked arrows suddenly wrapping themselves around the grips and strings of their bows, rendering them useless.
Taking the opportunity, Anaya sprinted toward the bandits. The first two to get in her way seemed intent on protecting their leader. Misplaced loyalty, she wagered, as she was pretty sure said leader didn’t care about them one bit, given how these things usually seemed to go. Either way, she had to start somewhere. She took the initiative, starting with a feint overhead swing, only to turn it into a horizontal slash left to right with a twist of her arms and body, going under the sword of the man on the right. It cut at his arms, raised defensively as they were. The deep cuts made him drop his sword.
The man on the left was wielding a crude club, but it made little difference as Anaya turned her slash into a quick spin, followed by an upward-arcing slash that the man was too slow to react to. It was not a move to use against skilled opponents, but if her fellow guards had been pushovers, then these bandits certainly were no match for her father’s teachings, nor did they even wear any armour worth mentioning. As a result, the second man was sliced from waist to neck. The first man was on his knees, cradling his arms, and to be on the safe side she gave a swift kick to the side of his head, knocking him out.
She had no time to look around much as more bandits were already on her, shouting encouragement to each other and deriding her, but she could hear horses neighing in a panicked manner. That told her Rue was doing her part; not that she’d doubted it, even with the witch being far from properly recovered.
Not having the luxury to pay more attention to her companion, she faced the next two bandits. She could see the leader behind them, his earlier grin turned into a frown. That’s right, Anaya thought to herself. This was not going to go as you’d expected.
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