Rainwater mixed with the deep red liquid as it dripped down his face, obscuring his view. The wound was already beginning to close up, but not fast enough. He raised his arm, using the already stained sleeve to wipe as much as he could from his forehead. Lightning flashed across the dark sky above him, striking a tree somewhere to his right. Despite the wood being damp from the past few hours of rain, it was instantly set alight, crackling sounds filling the air as the tongues of fire claimed the bark greedily. Rain continued to pelt down from the sky, but at this point he was already soaked to the skin. It just made his grip on the shortsword in his hand feel a little looser. Not ideal when there were two soldiers slowly advancing towards him, their shields held up in front of their torso’s to protect themselves. Their blades pointed in his direction, one already dripping with his blood.

“Stand down Cassian and we can take you in peacefully! No more blood has to be shed here tonight!” One of them barked at him, he could barely hear the man over the sound of thunder clapping overhead and the clanging of metal on metal surrounding them. Cassian knew the others were preoccupied with their own fights but he was going to need help to get out of this one. He had come too far for it to end here, like this. Gritting his teeth, he readjusted his grip on the handle of his sword. Just as he was opening his mouth to let out a smart retort, one of the men let out a choked-off groan. He slumped forward to his knees, his shield dropping to reveal the sharp tip of a dagger protruding from the gap in his armour just below his neck. Alice. Cassian smirked, watching as the short girl retracted her weapon from the man, already plunging it into the second soldier before he had time to react to his fallen comrade. She was quick, he had to give her credit for that. 

“Cat got your tongue for once, Cassian?” She had to shout to be heard, grinning cheekily at him as she grabbed his arm. “Come on, we need to find Samuel!” He was tugged along behind her, stumbling and struggling to stay on his feet in the wet grass. By now the cut on his forehead had healed fully, a fact he knew because the only thing streaming into his eyes now was rainwater. It was nice to not have a red tint to his vision. The two of them ran past the tree that had been struck only a few minutes ago, now fully ablaze. The leaves had been completely consumed, all that remained was the trunk and the branches which had snapped off, littering the ground below. It reminded him of charred, severed limbs around a broken body. As dark as the imagery was in Cassian’s head, this tree was the only thing lighting up their surroundings. Ironic, really. Without it they might have missed Samuel. As it was, the light coming from the flames glinted off his helmet, highlighting him to the duo. Alice had clearly seen him too, she continued to tug Cassian along behind her. Like she still didn’t trust him to not abandon them. 

Samuel’s shield was hovering in the air behind him, blocking the soldier who was attempting to attack him. Cassian was impressed every time he saw him do that, even if he would never admit it to the older man. The soldier clearly felt differently, grunting in frustration as he tried to use his own shield to push it backwards but to no avail. Samuel himself was currently parrying a soldier in front of him, he was sandwiched between the two, but was faring well despite the best efforts of his opponents. He didn’t seem to have any visible injuries, the blood smeared across his breastplate belonged to someone else. Alice had let go of Cassian’s arm now as she surged forward to defend her friend, whereas he stood frozen in place. Fighting never really was his strong suit, not when he didn’t have the element of surprise anyways. Those two could handle it without him. Alice had already wedged herself between Samuel and his shield, her back up against Samuel’s as she used the shield to her advantage. It was a fair fight now, two on two. Samuel parried the soldier’s wild thrust again, this time using his leverage to push the other man backwards and send him tumbling to the ground, dropping his sword in the meantime. With the man defenceless there was no need for the next blow to be a fatal one. He instead brought the hilt of his sword down hard on the helmet, a metallic scraping filling the air as the soldier was knocked out cold. Alice was still ducking and weaving from behind the shield, but this was now a two versus one so they had the upper hand. With Samuel able to focus on directing the shield fully now, he sent it flying towards the helpless soldier with one sweep of his hand, knocking that one unconscious too. Enough blood had been shed in the past few days, senseless violence wasn’t the end goal here. Cassian jogged over to the other two now that the danger was over. 

Samuel frowned at him as he caught his breath.
“You could have helped.” He managed gruffly, in between deep breaths. He was getting too old for this sort of thing.

“You had it covered, old man, I’d only get in the way!” Cassian defended himself cheerfully, running a hand through his drenched hair which had been plastered to his forehead. Sometimes he was jealous of the helmet Samuel wore, he might look like a right dunce but his head was probably dry under there. 

“That won’t be the last of them, we have to keep moving! It shouldn’t be too much further now!” Alice had already wiped the blood from her dagger on the drenched grass underfoot and was now tucking it into the sheath on her hip. A quick glance up at the sky was all she needed to get her bearings again. Luckily, despite the horrific weather, it was still clear enough to make out the stars. “This way.” She pointed at a direction vaguely in front of her, grabbing Cassian’s sleeve again and setting off at a brisk pace. He was forced to follow along behind her, hearing Samuel grunt behind him, even over the sound of the thunder reverberating around them. Of course the old man found this amusing. Cassian was convinced he still held a grudge against him. 

“Are we almost there yet?” Cassian whined, the thunder and lightning had ceased now but the rain was still bucketing down. At this point he wasn’t sure he’d ever manage to dry off, he felt soaked to the bone. His clothes were stuck to him and it made walking extremely uncomfortable. They had been trekking through these woods for what felt like half an hour, but realistically had probably only been ten minutes.

“Clearly not.” Alice turned her head to glare at him, her steely gaze making him instantly regret speaking up. She really wasn’t someone he wanted to get on the bad side of but it was oh so easy to piss her off. He averted his eyes, looking down at the ground in front of him. Samuel cleverly chose to stay out of this. It was a good thing Cassian had decided to look down, as he spotted the stone entryway just before Alice tumbled down it. He grabbed her by the waist, pulling her back into him just before she took her next step, the momentum causing him to fall backwards and her to land on top of him. “Cassian!” She yelped, clearly unaware that he had just saved her from a painful fall at least. Alice jumped back to her feet almost instantly, spotting the square-shaped hole in the ground. A thin layer of stone bricks set it apart from the rest of the grass, however at this time in the evening in the pouring rain she could be forgiven for not having spotted it at first. Cassian was still sprawled on the ground, now covered in mud as well as being soaked.
“I saved you.” He complained, accepting Samuel’s outstretched hand to pull himself back up, “how about a thank you?” Samuel couldn’t help but chuckle, again he was going to stay out of this one. 

“You’re welcome.” Alice replied, she clearly had only been half listening to what Cassian was saying. The hole in the ground had captured most of her attention, not that there was much to see. It seemed to be pitch black down there, making it impossible to tell how deep it was. This had been what they were searching for though, so they would have to venture into it somehow. 

“Who’s volunteering to hop down there and risk breaking both legs to see how deep it is then?” Cassian asked with a grin. Already the brief moment of silence as they examined the entrance had bored him. When his question was answered by the other two turning their heads to silently look at him he took an instant step back, shaking his head quickly. “N-No way! Absolutely not! I’ve had my fair share on this little trip of ours and I really think it’s time someone else stepped up and took some responsibili-” He was cut off by Samuel clearing his throat. When Samuel wanted to speak Cassian knew better than to interrupt him by now.

“You’re the only one that can break both legs and be walking again within five minutes.” He stated simply, Alice nodding her head along in agreement with him. 

“It’ll hurt though! And I can’t repair the emotional trauma!” Cassian retorted, already knowing he was fighting a losing battle. At this point he had two options. Jump down the hole himself or get tossed down by the two of them. He knew which was more humiliating. Not that the three of them had much more time to argue about it. Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of a sword being unsheathed, the slick sound of metal against damp leather. They really should have checked their surroundings. There wasn’t any time to react. The next sound to be heard was a choked-off gasp as the sword slid cleanly through flesh, making a sickly squishing sound as it went. Like a knife through butter.