39: Bandits

The sun was nearing the horizon as I set out from the gate. I took comfort from the peaceful breeze that rustled the trees and made the birds sing. I drew my robe closer around me and put up its rather thin hood, trying to keep out some of the chill that was beginning to enter the air. Night was looming over the mountains, and I wondered if I should have waited until morning to depart. It wasn’t until later that I realized how feeble I must have looked, hunched up and hobbling along, and how much of an easy target for bandits I was. The first arrow hissed towards me from behind, it was about to puncture the back of my neck…

Roll! The idea screamed through every fiber of my mind and body, forcibly bending me down onto my knees and onto the stony road. It wasn’t so much a roll as it was a collapse, and my body slammed onto the road. Lay Still… The two words shuddered in every fiber of my being, holding me down to the rocks and straining every one of my muscles. I heard a cry of triumph come from the archer who had attacked me, and some rustling in the bushes that concealed him. I heard him… THEM come closer to my fallen form. I struggled to break free from the invisible hand that held my body motionless, but to no avail. Wait… the words held me down, and I waited. The boots crunched closer, yet the icy voice in my muscles and bones still said Wait… My mind screamed with fury. The boots stopped mid-step, and I heard a confused voice go “What?”

Now! The ice released me.

I spun up from the ground, releasing my aggression in one smooth swing of the Dark Staff. The end connected with the startled bandit’s face, and I swear I saw the staff sprout spikes just before it hit. He spun and collapsed. I turned to face the other bandit, who was a Redguard woman wearing thick plate mail. She snarled and pulled a large sword from where it hung at her waist. I smiled viciously at her and concentrated on a spell. Streaks of flame lanced out from the staff towards her. She leapt away from them, but they followed her enough to burn through a portion of her armor on her leg. She screamed and dropped her sword, and I was just about to deliver a finishing blow when she was back on her feet, sword in hand. Damn she was quick. I swung the staff at her leg but she parried and retaliated. I blocked the blow with the back portion of the staff, narrowly avoiding death. She snarled and spit on me, hitting me square in the eye. My eye burned, and I fell backward over the body of the other bandit. I tried to jump up, but I forgot that my toes were missing, and fell back down again. Luckily, the Redguard had planned on me having toes, and as such her sword swung several inches too high. She lost her balance slightly, and I took the opportunity to swing the staff at her burned leg. The sickly crunch and scream revealed that my attack had been successful. She crumpled to the ground and whimpered. I stood over her, clearing my eye of the acidic saliva. She continued to whimper at her pain, clutching her burned, broken limb in her hands. Pity overtook me. I started to walk away from the scene, when a scream of rage shook me. I spun around and raised the staff to block. A sword clanged onto the metal of the staff, almost knocking me backwards. She had healed herself! She was weakened though, and as I swung the staff around she couldn’t move in time. The staff smashed her skull and killed her instantly. I sighed and knelt to clean the blood and… brains off of the staff. I was further disgusted to see the staff sucking them up. The Dark One laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not eating them. Just… disposing of it in an unusual manner. Believe me; it will stink less this way.” I grimaced and went through the bandits’ pockets.

I found a fair amount of coin, and the healing potions would make a nice addition to my current stock. I could have salvaged some of the armor from the bodies, but I decided it wouldn’t be worth either the chore of stripping the bodies or the added weight I would have to carry. I dragged the bodies away from the road a ways. Nature would clean up the rest.

The road sloped gently towards the Imperial City, I hobbled briskly along, gripping the warm metal of the staff to keep my hands from the chill. The sun set, but I continued on my way. It hadn’t seemed this long to the Circle road before. Eventually I could see the twin moons’ light glistening on the waters of Lake Rumare, with the white walls of the city beyond. I smiled and began looking around for the ruins of a fort. It took about ten seconds.

The crumbling walls were still quite tall, and I couldn’t see if anyone was moving about in the ruins. I decided to wait until morning to approach the ruins, because the darkness always holds surprises. Ruins especially hold surprises, and not the kind that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside (unless by “warm and fuzzy” you mean “Adrenaline rushing through every inch of your body because a flaming sphere has just been thrown at you when you stepped on that little tiny square on the floor”). It can wait ‘til daylight.