Library: Encounter at Tyr-awood

The wind whistled through the trees and thickets. Dark and creeping mist gathered in the shadows, causing Derendil to give pause in his thoughts. Why was this taking so long? He thought to himself, and where the hell are the other scouts. He glanced quickly up at the moon, and noted the time through his mystic watch, which was powered by moonlight. Based on the time, he thought to himself, this is clearly our scheduled time to meet up and share notes. Rathwind would not be happy that his report included missing scouts. As a Scout Team Leader, especially one tagged for advancement, this would not look good on his record. Derendil shifted his cloak, making the Elfas cloak tighter around his body, and covering a previously uncovered toe, up again. Only another Elfas Scout could find a well cloaked and hidden scout, it was something the learned in basic training, and really it was a game growing up among Elfans. I?ll give it 3 more Zah?adron, literally many many heartbeats, he thought again. Elfans had a constant inner monologue, when in close proximity to other elfans, they communicated telepathically, so talking to yourself was common place among their kind. Derendil waited with bated breath, he was growing more nervous by the Zah?adron, every small squirrel, every little rodent, each rustle of a leaf, caused him to grow on edge. A ranger would know the difference between skilled woodland enemies, and just typically forest noise, but a scout was not at that level yet, even a leader. It was a rare scout that made it to ranger these days, with the war and all. Well, ?skirmishes? was the official name, but what do you call a protected conflict with many battles and numerous casualties on both sides. Derendil was just 23 these days, a mere babe in arms in Elfan years, most Elfans didn?t even start service till age 45, and even that was considered young. But Derendil was different, he was stronger, more agile and larger than even most full grown Elfans, and had quickly outpaced his peers in both basic, scout, and intelligence tests. Thus at 23 he was poised to become the youngest Lieutenant-Initiate Ranger in Elfan history, but then every day he did anything he was the youngest to do it. Hell the first time he did something and was complimented on young he was he might die of shock! At any rate, the one thing he always lacked was experience, because he mastered everything so quickly he rarely did tasks or experienced events long enough to make them second nature, one day he knew he would have to start dedicated time, but Time! Its what he always had in short supply. Reading, writing, agility, and training at arms, he never seemed to have enough time in the day; he said as he realized he spoke outloud! Derendil was strange among his kind, he spoke more than he used telepathy, it was another of his quirks that made him a bit of eclectic among elfans. He also tended to think and converse with himself too much when he should be focused on the task at hand. That?s when he heard it, he had only read about Ranger skills and tactics, but he remembered an ancient trick for detected skilled woodland enemies, and know that he was attuned for it he realized that, although they didn?t know his precise location there was approximately 12 enemies creeping toward his general whereabouts, at this very Zah?adron! 12 was 8 more than he had ever engaged at once, and was 11 more than you should engage if you wanted to survive, let alone skilled men who could approach him for this long undetected. Shazahah, excrement in elfan, he cursed in his mind; this must be the fate of his fellow scouts. If he can survive this he will have a damned good reason and heroics of battle to make up for him losing his companions, Sha?lemloem to them. He quickly martialed his thoughts, a scout trick for preparing for battle, remembered his long ago multi-enemy engagement training, ignoring the first five lessons; with such gems as DON?T ENGAGE MULTIPLE ENEMIES! In them. Lesson 6 force them into a series of mata-i-mata?s, use the terrain to your gain, and always go for the quickest disable; wrists, calfs, hamstrings, eyes, etc. Using his Altarian-gifted ears and eyesight, he slipped into Frenz?ary, and started his Scout Pace, a way of walking quickly without making noise. He quickly located his first target, and the 2 after that one. Between two giant elderberries, with a large thicket of brambles separating the other two, about head height for them, but just above his midsection for himself. Using his superior reach, he slipped his dagger into his first foes neck, severing any chance of a shout, while grabbing a mini flechete from his bandolier tossing it the left foes mouth, he hit stopping him from making noise as well, all of this within one Zah?adron, with the next heartbeat he backrolled over the first foe, using the platform to vault over the bramble and shoving his dagger clean through the last foes neck, not many could decapitate an enemy with a dagger, but Derendil could. Having done all of th is in such a short span, clearly taxed the young Scout Leader, and his breath was coming in quieted gasps, as he sucked in air. He slipped back into Scout mode, scanning for the other 9 quarries. Unsure if any of the other combats would go as easy. He located the next target but realized he had no chance of reaching the foe undetected, she was perched atop a large branch, several trees from him, locating Derendil exactly as he located her, He reached back for his Galad?hdran, a fearsome weapon made from an entire yew sapling measuring 13 and a half feet long unstrung, put a whistler round into its shaft and pulling the knockring back to his jaw. As he did so he noticed a bolt spring from the tree and come racing toward him, he managed to get off a quick shot back at the tree and spin roll away from the quarrels trajectory, it skimmed his arm with the barest of touches, and he heard a thump from the direction of the tree. 4 down he mimed telepathically! If this was only a Stage One multi-encounter he?d have passed with flying colours. Instead he had 8 more foes, at least by his first estimate. Well at least he would go down in a blaze of glory he chatted to himself, darkly. The last downed foe had to have created some noise, he said ironically, as he heard the sheer amount of noise the foe was making, Deep caterwauling shrieks and moans, as he came rushing back to himself. Luckily he could here quick shuffling steps moving towards the noise from 3 directions, and toward him from two. He threw his bow into the top of the brambles, and unsheated his long broadsword, with this and his dagger he we see what comes of Close Quarter Combat with the next foes. The first one was clearly the largest of the group almost touching Derendil?s chin, and the other might have been the smallest adversary he had ever seen. To Derendil?s surprise the large one reached him first, and went down easily to quick cross-block, tension parry, and riposte, to his midsections side. The small one, reached him a half step after, and Derendil?s over-confidence almost cost him dearly, as he just barely managed to meet the inhumanly quick strike, and power from the small foe. Luckily Derendil wielded the largest broadsword seen, in elfan lands, and was easily the length of the smaller advers arys entire body. He used that unexpected length, to roll up the foes, strike, and slice off the fingers of its hand, And threw his dagger at the foes chest with all the might he could muster. The enemy tried to stop the dagger from penetrating its leather boiled breastplate with its hand?it failed. The blade pierced through with ungodly force, and got stuck in an elm behind it. 6 Down! He chanted to himself, in a mantra. The Three he had heard move toward the downed alive foe, had done whatever dark deed they had perpetrated on that poor soul, as she had quieted down, and had turned to face Derendil. Derendil noticed that they all had shocked looks on their faces as they turned, and slowly all keeled over. 9 Down? What in the Avarasiely just happened?!? He had very little time to ponder this, as his final foes had caught up to this advance party and were arrayed in front of him. These all took a very defensive stance, very akin to Ahlen-Man techniques he had learned with much pain in Scout Training. Uh oh, these would probably all be a match for him just mata-i-mata, let alone 4 on 1. He shed all the blood from his broadsword, and in the same motion carried his Elfan shield down from guige strap onto his arm. Elfan shields were distinct, as instead of being shaped in a rounded fashion thy were shaped as a cross, with serrated edges all along each edge, and were made to fit along the forearm and secured by a strap to the shoulder, and elbow. Used for blocked, bludgeoning or small in-step body cuts, it made for a deadly type of combat for anyone involved in CQC. He bit hard into his lip, and roared in Elfan fashion, quickly, ramping up with his implant provided Adrenals, and Drugs, it would shorten his life, but not nearly as much as losing this fight would. He was already well past the safe zone from his natural born, battle-ready body, let alone with Elfan Alchemist implant technology. In the next breath he started to whirl faster and faster, and as he came down onto his main foot, sprang at the group of adversa ries, with all of his might and vigor. The next few heartbeats, Derendil became Hellavas-on- Avarasiely as he waded hack and slash and block through his foes. Without his Scout Gear, and Elfan technology, he could tell these 4 would have taken him down easily, as it was a stiletto had pierced his kidney, and was bleeding slowly down his back, and his arms and cheeks were litany of deep lacerations, and cuts, if he survived this it?d be a miracle. Suddenly his body started to seize and ache, what is this, what side-affect were they not telling me about? He promptly slayed his last foe, with a powerful stop-thrust that ended with the point of his Long Broadsword, 2 feet behind the foes skull, and started to do a battle survey on his body mentally from quick mediation. His body hurt like he had run the Quen?alayh marathon, with full plate on. What was affected him so, the kidney was severely hurt yes, but it would clot and heal, as far he could tell, and as long as he got out of here soon he could patch it up for a long but direct route home. Poison. Shit. Was it the Stiletto? Or the arrow? Now he could feel it, the first wound he took had barely grazed him, but it would be his end. He dropped to his knee, and started to do a mental inventory on himself. Wait. If they carried poison they must have the antidote. As he thought this a cleaving whistle rent the air, and he duck-rolled to his non-hurt side, as he looked back he say the axe pierce the tree next to him. As He turned to look at it?s source he saw the arrow go screeching at the foe, and pierce him right in the jaw, and eye. He feel like a marionette with its strings cut. Glancing over at the source of the arrow, he came from the downed woman. What the hell?! He thought to himself. Looking at the foe the arrow took down, he didn?t know how he had dodged the shot, as this foe clearly outclassed Derendil, and every foe he had fought combined. There was no way at 23 he would have withstood the foe, fresh, let alone after fighting so many other adversaries. Well, this would be quite the tale to tell back home, he thought to himself. Not knowing if the downed archer had another gift for himself, he quickly fell into the brambles, retrieving all his equipment and moved into a copse of trees that shielded him both from sight and arrows from the last quarry. He started patched his wounds and cleaning out what he could. The poison was still raging in his veins, but the adrenals would keep it at bay until he could approach the downed enemy and get an antidote. He hid all his gear save the medicine, and his long dagger, and crept stealthily towards his downed foe. As he approached he noticed she had far more wounds than his arrow could have caused, and was bleeding from many sources. She was starring at him with complete rage, and utter hatred, but did not draw her bow, nor nock and arrow. Derendil spoke telepathically at her, of course the foe being Hu?hman and not Elfan could not hear him. He spoke aloud. ?Que Ah?ten, foe??. She laughed mirthlessly, ?You know as well as I that I don?t ken to that Elfan crap, speak Human for Christ?s sake?. Derendil said only one word, his human not very good, ?Why??. She spat, ?Well you must wonder what happened to me to shut me up, after your arrow pierced my clavicle and knocked me out of a 20 foot Tree, yah no??. Derendil nodded, he had thought they had killed her, went unsaid. ?They started to?.to..Assault me, uh, physically?, Clearly uncomfortable. Unsure of euphemism, and let alone in a foreign tounge, Derendil did not understand. ?Que Ahno??. The woman shrieked, ?I said Human god damnit, fucking speak it, or I will just slit my throat now, and save us both the trouble of whatever happens nexts?. Derendil did not know what to make of this strange beauty with dark olive skin, and raven colored hair. She was clearly beautiful even from Elfan standards, though a bit primal comparatively. ?Ah-polow-gees, miss, I speak more often then my fellow Elfans, but mostly in my native tongue, I only know Hu?hman in passing?. He said all of this slowly, and halting as he conjured the words together. ?Are you saying they violated you?, he asked poorly again. She looked at him fiercely, and nodded. Well that explains why she started killing her companions, and why she was still alive. ?So?what happens now?.??, She paused waiting for his name. ?Derendil? He supplied. ?Ashana?, she supplied back. ?I guess we call a truce, and give you this antidote, If you provide me safe passage anywhere?, she said cautiously. ?or I shove my boot-knife into your testicles before you can flinch?, as she moved her eyes down to his location. Derendil quickly said, ?no need for that mam, I will honor you, and take you somewhere save, if you hold to option 1? He blurted out in Hum-Elfish, clumsily. Ashana nodded, she had understood enough of him, to know that, if he had called her bluff, they?d both be dead, and why fight, when they so clearly had some mysterious connection. In the distance, a large wolf howled at the moon, as two strangers, started to heal one another, after quite the encounter, in the woods. Maybe there was hope for their peoples relations after all, he thought longingly, as he stared into this gorgeous woman?s eyes.

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Library: Encounter at Tyr-awood