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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hbarsquared" data-source="post: 3004122" data-attributes="member: 4550">Chapter One, Part TwoAbrina pressed forward to the mouth of the mist-shrouded alley, wherein she saw three figures assaulting a fourth, who lay face-down on the wet cobblestones.  One of the attackers lifted the victim by the hood of his cloak and thrust him against a wall as another growled, “Stay away from the orphanage, you got that?”She should have left, should have stayed out of it.  She was a stranger in this city, and therefore should not concern herself with its inhabitants.  They weren’t her province, not her responsibility.  Yet, Abrina could not stand by.  She did not know what orphanage the attacker spoke of or why the man on the ground would visit it, but she would not allow him to be beaten to death in a dark, wet alley.  Abrina stepped into the alley.“Let go of him,” she called, her voice strong, overcoming the brief gusts of wind and the pelting of rain.  She raised her spear.  “Let him go.”The attacker shoved the victim against the brick wall and turned to face her.  Abrina sucked in her breath as she recognized the face of the attacker.  A painted face, half black and half white with makeup, twisted into a harlequin’s grinning visage.  But no, this wasn’t the same face as her own attacker.  This was a man, and taller.  But the paint she recognized.“Bugger off!” the man said with a growl.  He reached to his side and drew his sword from its scabbard as the other two did the same.  Abrina kept her spear raised menacingly, but did not advance.  The bruised and battered young man forced himself to stand and stumbled toward Abrina with one hand trailing along the brick wall.  He was human, and young, with sunken eyes and scraggly hair that clung to his scalp in the rain.As he reached her, Abrina whispered to the young man, “Are you okay?  Did they take anything from you?”He shook his head, still taking deep, ragged breaths as he clutched his stomach.  Abrina patted him lightly on the shoulder and slowly turned to face the three men again.  Abrina met the eyes of each, in turn, and slowly lowered her spear.  It was folly, she knew, but these men had some connection to the woman that attacked her at the inn.  She bowed her head, as if in sadness or defeat, and sensed the four men relaxing their stance.Silently, with eyes closed, Abrina prayed to Ninurta to grant her strength.She opened her eyes to find the three standing open-mouthed, now looking up at her with open mouths.  Abrina now stood an imposing eleven feet tall, towering over the attackers.  At her side, she heard the young man reciting whispered words, and as he finished she felt the enveloping, familiar touch of a god.  She darted a quizzical glance at him, but he only smiled as he pulled out a mace she had not noticed before from his belt and began another prayer.The three attackers had regained their senses, realizing they still outnumbered her despite her size, and the teenage cleric had already taken a beating.  They charged with their swords held aloft, and Abrina clutched her spear, digging its haft into the cobblestones at her feet, and prepared to meet them.Abrina now took up the entire width of the alley and the cleric had shifted in front of her and to the side to meet the charge of the attackers.  The first, swinging his sword wildly, ran directly toward Abrina.  She clenched her spear, holding it rigid, and for a brief moment closed her eyes.  She felt a tremendous jarring, and barely kept her weapon from wrenching out of her grasp.  Her eyes flared open to see the first attacker now impaled on her oversized spear, his eyes rapidly glazing over.  The second attacker had already reached the cleric and Abrina could already see a new wound on his shoulder.  The cleric stumbled, clutching his arm to his side, and fell to one knee on the ground.  Angrily, Abrina pulled back her spear and with a jab at the ground shook off the body, and with a fluid, follow-through motion, she attempted to spear the side of the man stepping forward to take the place of his fellow attacker.  The attacker shifted out of the way and the bloodied tip of her spear found nothing.Clutching the haft in one hand to ward off the blows of the sword, Abrina leaned over to the small form of the cleric on the ground.  Whispering a quick prayer, Ninurta granted the cleric the energy he needed to rise.  One of the men lashed out with his sword, which she diverted with her spear as she lifted the cleric to his feet with her other hand.  The cleric shook his head, nodded a brief thanks to her, and ducked beneath another swipe of a sword.  Seeing an opening, the cleric swung his mace, crunching into the side of the man that Abrina had just wounded.  The attacker crumpled but did not fall.Gritting her teeth, Abrina found another hit as the two remaining attackers continued to press.  She did not have time to recover from her strike, and she could not defend herself from the other man with the painted face.  He slid the sword easily into her side, even as she managed to shove the butt of her spear into his shoulder.  Her vision dimmed as the attacker removed his sword and blood coursed down her leg.  She did not feel herself falling.  Abrina only heard a cry from the cleric and caught a glimpse of him crushing his mace into the back of the one who wounded her.  Then nothing.</blockquote>

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