Fanfic:First Blood
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It was early dawn in the Lrithan lands. Shienar had not yet awakened completely, and frost was still in the air. Winter had been long this year, and many animals had died from hunger and cold, many people from the same. Losses had been few in the Larithan lands, thanks to lord Lukar's foresigth. True to the traditions of the larithan family, the borderlander lord always prepared for the worst, and so his lands was spared much of what ailed the rest of Shienar. And the lands around the Crytal Lake was still some of the most beautiful in all Shienar.
This morning, with a frosty mist hangeing in the air and ice crystals on every surface, a small group of men was gathered in the courtyard of the Larithan Fortress. it was actually more a welldefended estate, but everyone called it a fortress, and it served that purpose well. There where ten men, all clad in chainmail and all wore at least one sword in sheaths either at their side or on their back. All had lances straped loosely to their saddles. And all had the shaven heads and topknots of Shienarian warriors. They sat their warhorses easily, chatting and laugheing. In the centre of the group was a young man, mounted on a huge, black warhorse with a mane and tail the colour of snow. He was cleanshaven, and on his back a serpentine twohanded sword hung in it's scabbard, underneath the black cloak with the Broken Trolloc Skull worked in white that identified him as one of the Larithan noble family. More prescisely, he was Urikanu shin Larithan, oldest son of Lu! kar Larithan. And today, he was the leader of the patroil hs father sent out to check the boundries of his lands. And so, when everyone where ready, urikanu made sure that everyone had the cummunication horns that where standard equipment for all Lrithan soldiers, and set of, leading his nine warriors out into the winterlands. They rode together for a long while, chatting and jokeing. And then they split up, into two groups of five and continued on their way. Urikanu and his four companions rode on, chatting about what they had been doing lately and what they intended to do, what was happening in the borderlands, and of the comeing summer with the renewed activity of the Blight. All in all, the spirits where high as they rode, and they encountered no trouble in the villages they passed, and where greeted with good spirits whereever they came, for lord Lukar was well liked, and most people knew his son as being his fathers image. And they looked alike. Both where tall, strong! men, with strong features and pierceing eyes. An air of confidence hung over Lukar, and was developing with urikanu as well, and their leadership was never questioned by anyone but the most unruly soldiers. And so, Urikanu smiled back and returned the greetings that where offered, often stopping briefly to exchange news with youths that he knew from his many rides arounf the Larithan lands.
But as they reached the northern border, things changed. Here they split again, two men rideing east and Urikanu rode west with the two others. Soon, they encountered they first trouble. Tales of bandits roaming the northern border grew frequent, and the peasants were scared. Urikanu grew worried. He would have to speak with his father about this. Perhaps he would have to send out his scouts to root out these bandits, if there was nything to the stories...
And there was. as they sun reached it's zenith the three riders reached a small farmstead. or what had once been a small farmstead. Now, only charred ruins remained. The pens where sheeps and cows had been kept dureing the winter was torn to pieces, and a trail showed where the inhabitants had been herded away. The barn was burned down to the ground, and only the walls remained of the main buildeing. The family that had lived here, a middleaged couple, an old man, and four children where dangling from a tree, their bodies stripped of clotheing and the males hideously slashed, as if they had been killed by repeated swordstrokes.The women had clearly been shot where they hung, seeing as how stribes of blood still ran from where arrows wher angleing up into them. And in front of the tree, sitting on the ground, was a young girl, around Urikanu's age. She was pretty enough, with long auburn hair, weareing a simple dress. And she was crying. urikanu reasoned that s! he had to be the oldest daughter of the house, and had been fortunate enough to be away when the farm was attacked. So the young noble dismounted and walked over to her, his boots cruncheing in the snow, eventhough it was mushed up by the boots and hooves of many men and beasts. When he reached her he knelt down beside her and mumbled.
"The light guide their souls... " Then he looked at her. And she looked up as well, tearreddened eyes locking on his. Through sobs she spoke.
"They were my only family... " She burst out crying for a while again. "Where do I go now? What do I do? " her voice was trembling, and she was sobbing frequently. And Urikanu felt helpless. What did he do? What did he say? And suddently he noticed something. The two soldiers that had come with him were whispering together, eyeing the girl with lecherous grins on their faces. And suddently they starte off towards them. Urikanu got up and walked over to them, placeing himself in front of them.
"What do you think you're doing. I told you to remain with the horses! " Urikanus voice was strict, his eyes hard as steel. But the two soldiers didn't slow down, merely drew swords.
"We're gonna have some fun, " one of them hissed, his eyes gleaming. "And no child like you are going to stop us! " The other soldier, a large, burly man, added. But neither of them where Urikanus height. And with an angry snarl he drew his sword, a blade longer then most men could handle. He gripped it in both hands and assumed the ready stance he had been drilled into dureing many years of sword practise.
"Two mistakes... " His eyes where shineing with a cold fire. "One, never call me child! Two, never, ever harm a woman while I'm near! " And with those words he leapt forwards, his blade slasheing forth. He heard the girl scream as one manleapt back and the other parried. Immediately, urikanu broke contact, leaping back, landeing lightly only to spring back forwards, starteing a rotation motion as he came. This chaught the soldier off his guard, and forced him to drop his sword and leap away from the whirlwind of steel. The other soldier waited until Urikanu had landed and pressed in, hopeing to catch the young warrior off guard. But he failed, only suceeding in pushing urikanu a step back before he had to defend himself against a fury of blows, a sword form known as Strikeing the Sparks. He smiply hammered away with the blade, a highly effective technique qith a twohanded sword, but one that required much strength. And strength Urikanu had. The soldier stagger! ed under the sheer poqer of the blows, and was only rescued by his partner comeing to his aid with two daggers, forceing urikanu to defend, for a while. Butthen Urikanu lashed out, and as the soldier could hardly block a greatsword with two daggers, he fell with a nasty cut on his chest, nothing lethal, but draining in the long run. And the other soldier, trying to press the advantage,overstrethcd, and as a result got his left arm cut off by Urikanus upswing.
The situation was tunring to Urikanus favour. And that made him relax his guard. He was fighteing less concentrated now, thinkeing the battle won, and learned different as a dggare slipped past his guard to cut a painful line over his forehead. And the other soldier, now fighteing for his life, managed to cut him across the chest before he could gather his gaurd. And then, anger flared in him along with the pain. And he struck out, once, twice, thrce, in a pattern taught to him recently, an attack he had had trouble learning, but one he execuyted flawlessly now. Three streaks of red followed, and the two men slumped in the snow, on with the head cut half off, the other with his gut's spilling, and his leg hacked off at the knee. And urikanu slowly stretched and wiped his sword on one of the deads coat-of-arms.
"You shouldn't have called me child... " was his only comment when he turned to the girl and sheathed his sword. And his grim expression immediately softened. She was terrified, eyeing the dead men with big frightened eyes, as if fearing he would kill her as well. he smiled and held out his hands, palms up.
"I won't hurt you. They intended to, and they are dead now. " he smiled, and his voice was soft and warm. "Come, I will take you to the Fortress. I'm sure we can find work for you there, if you decide to stay. " She slowly got up, still not sure whether or not to trust him. And he understood. He must be an awul sight, splattered by blood as he was. "If you can ride, you can take one of their horses. Else you will have to sit in front of me. " At that, she laughed.
"Who have ever heard of a Shienarian who didn't know how to ride? " her voice was still choked, but a hint of music could be heard in it now. And she walked briskly over to the horses and mounted, sitting her saddle sideways as her skirts didn't permit anything else. As they rode away from the farmstead she only looked back once, as they stopped on a hill, and thensomething occured to Urikanu.
"What is your name? " He asked, a bit embarrassed that he hadn't yet. She smiled at him and said:
"Shirina I am called... " she said and turned her horse away from her home and towards the Fortress of Larithan...
