Something burned.

Not wood.

No, it was acrid, chemical, like scorched oil or overheated metal. Eamon stirred under his blanket, nose twitching. Probably just the fire burning out, he thought. However, he didn't open his eyes.

A faint breeze carried a trace of something metallic, a little sweet, but very pungent.

The forest was quiet. Too much so for Eamon's liking.

No wind beating the branches. No insects. No birds. Just the low sound of embers cracking and something else… movement? Barely audible. A footstep?

Probably Theah, she always paced when she couldn't sleep.

One pair of footsteps, two… three!? How could Theah be making all those by herself? Unless she wasn’t.

Eamon shot up, his eyes as wide as they could go, barely having time to adjust to the darkness around. He could roughly make out five figures with Theah in the center. Each shadow seemed to dance with Theah until. A flash of red sparks flew off of Theah’s metal shoulder guards. That means one thing. She is in trouble!

Eamon stood up as fast as possible, almost falling over in the process. “Theah!?”

She glanced over just for a second, her voice slicing the air.

“RUN, EAMON, GO!”

It was too late; he was already running to help her. His aura flickered weakly, still drained from the dragon fight, but the blade came to life anyway.

One of the assailants broke off from the group, rushing towards Eamon.

Eamon gritted his teeth and hurled the black dagger at the attacker. The attacker instinctively dodged the knife. Eamon teleported behind the assassin in a blink.

He swung.

The edge of his blade meets the flesh of the man's side. Blood sprayed, but not enough to slow him. The man whirled around with a brutal elbow, striking the center of Eamon's chest.

Eamon staggered back coughing.

Another blow came to his side. Eamon barely parried, the force of the blow driving him to a knee.

Eamon threw the dagger again, but before the assassin had time to dodge, he teleported to it. He gripped his dagger and then sliced open the jugular of his assailant. 

He stood, panting.

A second assassin came from behind.

A sharp crack against his skull.

The world tilted for a moment before fading to black.