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She seemed to realize she couldn’t divert his attention to reach her weapons, and her expression turned back to impassiveness. “The needles are covered with a sleep potion; they should have given me time enough to work. I don’t understand why they didn’t work on you. And I’m just who you said: a thief. If it’s a name you need, you can call me Shadow. Now get off of me, you’re heavy, and my back is starting to ache.”

For a second, confusion shone through Kashan’s mask. Then he hesitantly moved his clawed hand to his neck, and felt a small piece of metal: a needle. He yanked it out, sharp pain reaching him as he did. After a second of inspecting it, he flicked it away, his mask of feelings complete once more

He moved his claws to her head again.

“Tell me your NAME, thief. ‘Shadow’ tells me nothing,” he said harshly.

“A name is what you call a person by. Whether it is given or self-chosen shouldn’t matter; it’s still a name,” she snapped at him, and continued, “Shadow is mine. Now, getting off of me?”

Kashan glanced uncertainly towards the unmoving bodies of Timier and Toin. Shadow obviously caught the motion, as she suddenly spoke out. “What, you’re going to sit on me for six hours, waiting for them to wake up? C’mon, that’ll get you bedsore, and my back aching even more!”

He whipped his head back to her. “Six hours? What kind of poison did you use?” he exclaimed loudly, as there weren’t many types of poisons available for sleep; only death, coma, which would require an antidote, or lethargy.

“A home made one,” she said, grinning. “So, getting off? I leave back to Varrock, you won’t see me again, no one gets hurt, and we forget the whole thing, approuver?” She resorted to elven in the last word, apparently hoping for her plead to get a better ground at the singing language of the elves.

As surprised as Kashan was that a thief such as her knew elven, he didn’t show it.

20-Sep-2006 00:21:27 - Last edited on 31-Oct-2006 20:27:48 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Instead, he slid his hand to her waist and unhooked a grappling hook he guessed was there; a good thief would need one to reach high levels of buildings. Solid thinking and logic can get one a very long way. He threw it towards his pack, keeping an eye out for any movement on Shadow’s part.

After a few seconds, he had dragged the pack to him, and unfurled a rope.

“Nope.”

End of chapter five.

20-Sep-2006 00:21:29 - Last edited on 11-Oct-2006 15:21:42 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Chapter 6 – Something else Entirely
Kashan and Shadow were sitting in the clearing. It had had been two hours since she had tried stealing his claws; only two more until Timer and Toin woke up. Assuming she had told the truth. At first Kashan had tried to unarm her, but after finding over three dozens of potions and various small objects, and a promise of dozens more, he had decided to make sure she couldn’t reach them instead. Her hands were now tied not only together, but tightly to the log she sat on as well.
The fire between them hadn’t been easy to light: Kashan’s surviving skills weren’t exactly something to make him a ranger, and he had been adamant on not releasing Shadow’s hands. It hadn’t been until he splashed the fire with a potion of Shadow’* that it actually started giving off warmth.
Shadow leaned to the side, as if trying to lay down, but the rope around her hands stopped her. She yanked at it frustratingly, and instead leaned back as far as the rope allowed. “So what do you plan to do with me?” she asked, though she didn’t seem concerned at all.
Kashan’s gaze had locked on the fire within ten minutes after tying Shadow to the log, and he didn’t even look up to reply. “For the moment I’m going to sit here and make sure you don’t escape. When my friends wake up, we’ll see,* he said in the stern manner he had seen guards talk to prisoners in the Edgeville jails. Shadow didn’t seem as intimidated by it as he had hoped.
When Timier and Toin regained consciousness, their first reaction was surprise. Their second was to argue.
“No, no, no, no! There is no way in Helvíti that we are bringing her to Falador! We can’t be dragging a thief along with us. 10 to 1 says that she’ll kill us in our sleep if we take her!* **** exclaimed as soon as Kashan had explained the situation.

20-Sep-2006 00:21:51 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:46:36 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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“I’m not a killer, you midget!” Shadow half-screamed, half-hissed at Toin when he offered his bet. *I could have killed you two thrice over in your sleep if I had any desire to do so!*
Toin opened his mouth to reply, his face red with anger, but Timier stopped him before it came to a shouting match. “You called her a killer; she called you midget; now call it even. Besides, what do you suggest? We leave her here? We can’t do that, we’re obligated to hand a thief in to authorities.” Toin looked up at him, apparently quite ready to argue with Timier in Shadow’s stead, but, again, Timier cut him off. “However, I do agree we can’t take her with us. We’d be better off going back to Varrock, we’re only a day away at traveling speed. We were pretty hasty in coming here.”
Toin seemed to make himself satisfied with that conclusion, but Kashan wouldn’t hear it. “No way. It’ll take us a day to get there, and another day back here, and who knows what they can do to Arya in two days. If you want, you can go back with her, but I’m continuing.” He turned to Shadow. “Would I be right to assume you’d keep your word?”
She grinned and raised her hand - as far as the rope allowed, at least - and said, “Of course. Thief’s honor. Now tell me about this Arya. Does the little clawer got a girlfriend?”
Toin choked on the water he had grabbed from his pack and Timier paled like a chalk. Neither of them knew what to expect from Kashan at the mention of Arya, but both knew that he hadn’t been himself since Xen took her away from them. To their surprise, Kashan ignored the mention of her. “Then here’s the way this will go. We only have three horses, but Rose can carry us both. You can’t ride with your hands tied like that, you’d fall off in seconds, so I’ll have to untie you. Do I have your word that you won’t try to attack me, my companions, or any of our horses in any way if I do?”

20-Sep-2006 00:22:19 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:46:56 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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For a second Shadow frowned, deep in thought, but then replied more sincerely than Kashan had expected from her. “You do.”
Kashan smiled. He had been thinking of adding “or escape” to the promise, but decided it would be pushing whatever honor she had. She would be more likely to keep her word this way, and with everybody conscious it’d be easier to prevent her escaping, anyway.
“Good. Then let’s pack up; we can eat on horseback.”
The makeshift camp was quickly packed, and within three minutes the foursome was riding towards Falador. The Gleaming City was still a six days’ ride away, but they would reach Barbarian Village by sunfall, assuming they didn’t take a break in the day’s ride. They discussed taking turns to sleep in their saddles, but decided against it: partly because of Shadow, partly because of consideration for the horses.
Kashan couldn’t help feeling guilty at his own reaction earlier, at the mention of Arya. He hadn’t felt sorrow, or loss, or even grief. Well, he did feel them, but it felt like a weak signal, like it was buried somewhere in the back of his mind, underneath a heap of other emotions. Barely a day had passed since her death and he couldn’t even mourn her properly.
He sickened himself. And the emotions his grief was buried under didn’t help his conscience in the slightest bit.
During the trip, Toin and Timier barely took their eyes off Shadow; every moment they expected her to make a move, but it never came. So the day passed in silence, each engrossed in their own thoughts.
That silence was only broken once.
“Kashan, this isn’t right,” Toin blurted out when he could keep his tongue no longer, *she’s a thief! *Probably* an assassin, even! Who’s to say she won’t **** our throats in our sleep?”
Shadow practically growled back at him. “I told you I’m not a killer, midget! And even in Gnome territory a person is innocent until proven guilty, you should follow your race’s law!” she yelled back.

20-Sep-2006 00:22:53 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:47:11 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Toin nearly fell out of his saddle with anger. He even raised Orodring, ready with a scathing reply and a sharp ax, but before his tongue spoke or his stroke fell, Kashan stopped him.
“Toin, lay off. She says she hasn’t killed anybody and we have no reason not to believe her; besides, I’m not about to suspect every common thief in the world of murder. There simply aren’t enough people. Now put down your ax, bite your tongue, and keep riding.”
The silence fell again; this time accompanied by many glances of surprise.

When they reached Barbarian Village, the sun had already disappeared under the horizon. Outside the city, a man sat on a crude wooden chair, obviously guarding the city gates. Well, gates…an empty space in the ten-foot wooden stake fence was what most unfamiliar to the village would see.
*Halt,” the man said lazily, standing up and taking a place in the middle of the “gate.” Both hands were gripped around his weapon, a large great-axe, but he didn’t hold it in a combat position; he just leant on it for support. “The village is closed to visitors for the night; I’m under strict orders not to let anyone in. You’ll have to camp elsewhere, folks.”
Timier leant toward Kashan. “It’ll take us half-a-day longer to ride around, and I’m not sure how safe the horses would be so close to the village but not safe in a stable. Can’t we bribe him?” he whispered, keeping his eye on the yawning guard.
Kashan nodded, and moved to open his saddle bag where he had a pouch of gold. Producing five gold coins from the pouch - incidentally the exact price of a mug of beer in the local tavern - he showed them to the guard. “We need to get into the village tonight, guard. Is there any way you can arrange that?”
A hint of alertness finally showed in the man’s eyes. “I’ll go talk to my captain, see if I can’t get you an exception,” he said as he moved toward them and snatched the coins from Kashan’s palm.

20-Sep-2006 00:23:47 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:47:28 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Only seconds after he got out of view Shadow spoke out. “You know he’s lying, right?” She said it like she was stating what she wanted to eat that night.
“What? It** a man taking a bribe we’re talking about here, what would he be lying about?” Toin exclaimed.
“Oh, he took your money, alright. But not a bribe. Didn’t you look at him? His fingers kept twitching, his pupils were dilated when he first saw us before he kept looking away, and when he left, he kept shuffling his feet and his arms were clenched together on the shaft. That little barbarian was lying to you, and doing a ****-poor job at it, too. I’d wager your claws he’s fetching some pals to help him rob you: his forearms were tensed like a bow string.”
Toin gaped for a second before crying out, “What on earth does it matter if his muscles were tense or not, or if he shuffled his feet?”
Shadow smiled. “It’s body language, dwarf. Didn’t you know you speak with your body just as much as you do with your mouth? More, actually, because you can’t lie as easily with your limbs as your tongue. His finger twitching, feet shuffling, arm clenching and muscle tensing all hint at concealed aggression. So does his pupil dilation, though that can also be because of fear, or, in his case, a lie. So are we going to get out of here or let a bunch of sleep-drunk barbarians shoot us down? They’ll be coming back soon.”
Kashan wasn’t convinced. He wasn’t completely off the idea, either, though that wasn’t for as many reasons: he hadn’t felt like the guard was particularly well equipped for his profession. “We’ll retreat to the edge of the forest, where they can’t see inside the shadows. If one man comes back out we’ll go into the city; if a flock comes out we’ll ride around and lose the half-a-day. Now hurry; they’ll be back soon.”

20-Sep-2006 00:23:48 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:47:48 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Three horses turned round in the darkness and blended with the forest’s shadows, and less than half a minute later, they saw how right Shadow had been. Four men with taut short bows popped up over the fence, two on either side of the gate, and three others kicked open the gate and rushed out, axes and swords posed in an attack position. One among them was the ‘guard’.
The coordination at which the archers popped up was such that each of them would have gotten a shot off before so much of a whisper of their presence could have traveled to the foursome. Even though Kashan’s reflexes might have saved him, Timier, Toin and Shadow would definitely have become an arrow richer and a lot of blood poorer by the end of the fight.
“Guess you were right…Shadow,” Kashan whispered in the darkness as one of the barbarians started scolding the ‘guard’, as their would-be attackers shuffled back into the village, irritated at the false alarm. “Now, I’m going to go into the bag with your…tools. What in there will knock that guard out cold for a bit? We need to get around the village, and I’m sure if he sees us we will have a lot harder a time doing it.”
“Needle pack. Purple tips. They won** *knock him out cold”, but he’ll be non-responsive to his environment for ten minutes and won’t remember anything. But I doubt you’ll be able to hit anything. Throwing-needles are difficult to use. Give them to me and that guy won’t be standing for long.”
Kashan leaned into the pack and found the pack of purple needles. “I’m fairly sure my aim won’t be too far off,” he said, his memory on the throwing knives he had used in the battle of Varrock, and how swiftly and easily he had learned to use them.
He took one of the needles out of the pack and drew back his hand to throw despite a glare from Shadow, and threw the purple-tipped needle in his hand. But just before it left his fingers, he froze.

20-Sep-2006 00:24:27 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:47:59 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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It was as if his entire existence was twofold, somehow. He felt like his bones were being pulled from out of his body – but without pain, as if he had been numbed. His eyes saw only darkness and his balance left him, and he felt like he was falling through infinite blackness, flailing around in nothing and falling…falling…
Words echoed in his ears like battle drums. “Nice work, Malkana…nice work…” The voice fell silent after that, leaving other sounds to reach Kashan’s ears. A battle-cry and mutterings of “Andskotinn!” and “nice going, Clawy,” reached his ears.
The darkness went away. He noticed the barbarian who had stopped their way before, and who had been his target, yell something into the village. Kashan looked around, puzzled, and saw Toin swing off his horse and grabbing Orodring. Timier did the same with his staff.
Shadow turned her head around, just as another barbarian peeked out of the gate, then yelled something into the village as well. “You missed that bulk of a target by more than ten feet, genius,” she sneered, “Now, I’m going to get my stuff out of that pack, and I trust you’re going to let me.” She followed her words and grabbed the pack with her things as she slid down off the horse.
Kashan was the only one still on his steed, frozen in his saddle. He knew they were about to be attacked, but he couldn’t move. No, that wasn’t true; he could move. He just didn’t. The usual reflexes weren’t there anymore. He didn’t know what to do.
The barbarian who had guarded the gate was running at the group now, rage from being mocked by his fellows fuelling him to leave them behind. With a roar, he hefted the battleaxe and rushed at Kashan. The barbarian’s bulky frame and weapon started filling his view, and fear, paralyzing fear, inched through Kashan.

20-Sep-2006 00:25:11 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:48:12 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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He was still mounted, and with a short-range weapon like his claws couldn’t even hope to defend himself from the height. It was only a wolf, summoned by Timier, that saved him by tackling the barbarian down into the ground.
Kashan was still amidst a flurry of movement. Timier was twirling his staff around, summoning more wolves to fight for him, and Toin was struggling to get the horses deeper into the forest so they wouldn’t become possible targets. And Shadow was –Shadow was gone.
Kashan couldn’t even search for her. The barbarian who Timier’s wolf had tackled to the ground had managed to get to his feet and slay his attacker, and was already raising his axe for a hit at Timier.
Toin hammered Orodring down at the raised axe, the force of his augmented weapon forcing the barbarian’s blade and the dwarf’s ax into the earth. Timier took the chance and jabbed his staff into the man’s chest when his guard was down; he gasped for only a few seconds - then fell to the ground, passed out.
Timier retreated back towards the horses and the woods, continuing trying to summon his wolves, but the barbarian archers, who had taken their place at the wall again, seemed to have taken a focus on him after their comrade’s fall. It was only the cover of the forest and weak wind spells, which he had never been adapt in, that saved him from being pierced to the ground.
‘Good,’ he thought, even despite his questionable situation, ‘They’re not shooting Kashan at all. He could take down all the warriors before the archers even notice they’re unguarded.’
But that never happened. Arrow after arrow fell on the trees he covered behind, either inaccurate or misguided, but nothing much happened to the warriors. Toin was fighting like a berserk, but he was alone against two, and they knew how to take advantage of their number, and never allowed him a chance to attack.

20-Sep-2006 00:25:12 - Last edited on 04-Oct-2007 18:48:24 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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