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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clark411" data-source="post: 270868" data-attributes="member: 4768">Chapter 1 continuedAs Khamal rose, scimitar bespeckled with traces of winter snow, the heavy tavern doors shuddered from the heavy blows of Graddock.  Dalen, looking about the tavern, saw the commoners shouting and pointing at the smoke rising from the torches.  The Men-at-Arms were on their feet, longswords drawn and looking to the ox, who slammed against the door as hard as he could.“This isn’t working.  Stay here.” Dalen said to the cat, whose ears were folded back as it looked at the flames.  Without another word, Dalen ran to the window that Khamal had jumped through, and leapt out of it, landing roughly on the snows behind the scimitar wielding bounty hunter.  Standing beside Khamal, he shouted to the four horsemen.“Drop your weapons and torches and we shall see that you receive a fair trial in accordance with the laws of this land.” He stated clearly.Khamal’s eyes rolled, as he moved to remove the wagon that was holding the tavern door slammed.  Like that’ll work, he thought—his arms knotted with muscles as he strained against the wagon.  Graddock made the tavern door shudder with a loud thump, and the shouts of the Leelmen organizing the peasants to extinquish the fires were quickly overtaken by the screams of fear that attested to the rapidity with which the flames grew along the walls and up across the ceiling.  Torches thrown on the rooftop set fire to thatching that curved upward into the air as cinders and ash, and from his vantage at the hilltop, Anton could see the ring of horsemen surrounding the tavern.  By the time he reached the outskirts of the tavern grounds, two men had appeared from within the building and were confronting the horsemen.  Reasoning that a fight would happen soon, Anton dismounted and quickly hit the horse’s thigh, which sent it away from the danger.Hearing no response from the horsemen, Dalen pointed his sword at one of the riders.  “Why do you attack this tavern?  These people are all innocent farmers and commoners!”One of the riders, sword in hand, responded.  “There are no innocents in the lands of Leel!”  With that said, he snapped the reigns of his horse, and moved towards Dalen, sword raised to attack.The others horsemen closed to attack, and Dalen dove between the horses, barely dodging one sword, he felt the hot sting of steel slicing across his arm.  Whatever sound he made, it was sufficient to gain Khamal’s attention, who moved from the wagon to slice at the lead horseman with a blow that struck true.  A blood stain formed through the man’s chain armor, and he gathered the strength to return the blow, finding Khamal’s scimitar instead.Wagon aside, Graddock’s final slam was met with no resistance, and the ox of a man barreled through the door and into the melee, his face dark with the stain of smoke.  Greatsword in hand, he took a second to appraise the situation.  Raising his blade to strike down the closest rider, he paused in surprise.The grass was moving.  At the very edge of the line between the light of the fires and the cold dark of night, Anton completed his entangle spell, causing the still living grasses to grow through the snows and wrap themselves around the legs of the horses and Dalen’s boots.  Caught off guard by this development, Dalen found himself unable to break free from the grasses.  Slicing at the nearest rider, he found naught but air.  His attack however, left an opening that the rider took advantage of.  With a swift stroke, a splatter of red struck the grasses, and Dalen fell.  As the flames of the tavern dimmed, and he plunged into nothingness, the spellsword felt the grasses slowly wrapping themselves around his arms, neck, and face.Seeing his new acquaintance fall to the ground, Graddock roared with anger, and struck one of the riders with a force that felled him instantly.  Behind him, the two Men-at-Arms emerged from the tavern, and found themselves entangled along with the horses as they moved into the fray.Khamal, finishing the lead horseman, took his net from his belt and attempted to pull Dalen from the fray with little effect.  Dropping the net, he turned to the next foe, who’se blade was quickly dodged by the large Graddock.  From the distance, a sling stone flew from Anton, striking the shield of the third rider.  Seconds later, another found it’s mark, hitting the man’s helm hard enough to make him dribble his front teeth into his armor.Graddock swung at the final horseman and found only air.  The Leelmen were unable to escape the tangle of grasses that had wound its way up to their knees, and Dalan was bleeding to death as Rove meowed pathetically from the tavern door.  Khamal had to do something, and had no time to think.From the rear of the horse, he jumped upward, stepping off it’s hindquarters, and planting his left hand on the helm of the rider, he twisted himself to land with his left foot on the man’s saddle, and his right on the horse’s neck.  The startled rider’s sword was half way to a defensive position by the time the curve of Khamal’s blade opened his throat.As he jumped down, Graddock slapped the thigh of the lead raider’s horse, and as it sprinted away from the combat, the raiders positioned by the back of the tavern and the stables rode to join its side.  One of the Men-at-Arms managed to break free, and moved to Dalen.  Placing his hands upon the wounds, he administered crude first aid.  “He might live, but he’s lost a lot of blood.”Anton, who only now chose to approach the tavern as the peasants streamed out of it, stepped forward.  “Allow me to help.”The druid knelt beside the guardsman, and placed his hands upon Dalen’s chest, chanting.  Beneath the guardsman’s hands, the wound that felled Dalen closed.  After several moments, Dalen’s eyes opened.  The first thing he saw was Anton, and then Khamal and Graddock.  The soldiers were busy moving the tavern-goers to a safe location away from the tavern, which was now a conflaguration of fire and cinders.“Ladies, Sers, your attention please!  We’re going to take you to one of the military barracks in Taranis- there you will have free lodging.  Unfortunately we’re going to have to walk through a good part of the night to get there.  There’s no other course of action beyond freezing to death out here, and we can’t stay here.”Graddock offered Dalen an arm, and as he stood, he turned to thank Anton.  Rove, by this point, had managed to perform the “cat-walking-in-snow-walk” (one paw step, shake-shake-shake, one paw step, shake-shake-shake) long enough to arrive at Dalen’s feet.  Scooping the cat up and placing him under his cloak, Dalen looked to the others.  “Well, we should probably follow them.”Khamal nodded, “A bed’s nice, and a free bed is even nicer.”With that said, the four of them set off behind the crowd of displaced women and children.  Travelling through the night, they reached the city gates in the bitter, silent hours before dawn.  If Taranis were the Jewel of the North, set upon the strong River Leorrin that Dalen had heard of, it was at this hour little more than a dull piece of glass, set upon a frozen ribbon of still ice.They marched through the empty night streets, and they marched across the First Bridge, and they marched into the barracks.  Of all the sights that Dalen had seen in his travels to the Northlands, the splintered wood and hard mattress of a lower soldier’s empty bunk was the most beautiful sight of all.</blockquote>

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