Unbound: Slave to the Desert Sands

Razaak Attack

    It was pandemonium. People started screaming all at once. Kaia didn't know exactly why, sure it was horrible, Grimold was likely dead or else severely injured in order to produce this much blood, but why were they screaming? Why were there fires in the mountains? Kaia's head hurt with all the sounds of the people panicking. She turned, still holding Night Runner's bridle,  to see Markus Joint standing about ten feet from her. He had a look of terror on his face, staring at something she couldn't see. Her line of sight was obscured by people running past but what ever it was had Markus slowly backing away, his hands raised as though in surrender. Kaia squinted in the dim light and could just make out a black form of something emerging from the shadows. What is that!? Kaia thought, frozen in her own panic. It looked vaguely human, although stood two feet taller than Markus Joint's head, and was so black it sunk into the darkness as though all the light had left that one spot and just left a hole of nothingness. Whatever it was moved like an animal, stalking its prey as it approached Markus. It was almost as though they were dancing, the creature took a step forward and the petrified butcher took a step back. Something flashed at its midsection, like silver reflecting light. Markus let out a strangled scream and turned to run. Quicker than Kaia had time to blink the creature was at his side before he had fully turned, another flash of silver light, a weapon! Kaia realized, and then the dark figure was gone. Kaia stared, petrified, at the back of Markus Joint who stood immobile for a fraction of a second until he collapsed on to his knees and then fell forward onto his face. From the angle he fell Kaia could see clearly that the man she had seen dancing on the table in the Rusty Nail a mere hour before was now dead, his throat slit from ear to ear. 

    Finally Kaia pulled herself together, people were still running this way and that, seemingly unaware of the scene that had just occurred. Kaia looked up at Night Runner who was stomping his hooves in alarm. Swiftly Kaia swung herself up onto his saddle and steered the giant horse toward the barn behind the Rusty Nail. She had to find Miss Bucket and they had to get out of there, now. She tied the reins in a quick knot on the hitching post and ran for the back door, barely realizing her dress was now soaked with what she could only imagine as Grimold's blood. Poor Grimold. She threw open the door to the kitchen.

    "Miss Bucket!?" She called racing through the rooms, the front room looked like a windstorm had blown through it. When did that happen? She thought wildly. She ran from room to room but Miss Bucket was not there. "MUM!" She shouted desperately. She never called Miss Bucket her mother, even though she had always thought of her as one. She had to get out of here, Miss Bucket wasn't here, perhaps she had taken shelter elsewhere. But where? Kaia grabbed a large paring knife off the counter and wrapped it in a cloth, shoving it into her apron pocket. She tore out the back door and ran to Night Runner. She was fumbling with her crude knot when she heard it. A low chuckle came from behind her. Kaia whipped around staring wide eyed into the darkness, the sun had fully set now and everything was in shadows. From the darkness a shape emerged, the same shape that she had seen murder Markus earlier. It stalked toward her, almost like it was floating it was so graceful. As it approached Kaia could see now that it was not a creature but a man. A man covered head to toe in black cloth with only dark eyes visible through a slit in the fabric. Around his torso was leather armor, black as night. His feet appeared bare save strips of black fabric wrapped around them, allowing him to walk silently. At his waist, Kaia glimpsed another flash of silver, which she saw as the fabric moved around it to be a short sword, straight at the handle and moved into a slow menacing curve at the end. Kaia stood horrified as the man approached. A man's voice called from the other end of the alley, behind Night Runner, Kaia in her terror did not hear the words but did register the strong accent. Who ever it was was not speaking to her, but to the man before her. 

    "Stay back!" Kaia shouted at the man, pulling the knife out from within her apron and brandishing it at him. A moment of pause, before Kaia heard cackling behind her. The other man had clearly approached. She was surrounded. Kaia kept her back pressed again Night Runner, but kept her eyes on the figure in front of her, refusing to look away. The man paused, regarding her, his head c****d slightly to one side. A breath caught in Kaia's chest. Before she could release it the man was in motion. Quick as a snake he moved almost faster that Kaia could see. He moved left then right, a quick tap to her wrist and her weapon was sent soaring through the air and landed with a clatter on the cobblestones far out of her reach. Suddenly he was behind her,  with one hand he held one of her arms folded behind her back, pinning the other beneath it. She was completely immobilized. With the other he gripped her chin looking down at her face. He twisted her side to side, looking her over. 

    "Not a bad find." The man's companion had come closer. His voice was a soft hiss, heavy with accent, and he did not say the words in the basic tongue of Creed. Instead, he spoke in a language Kaia recognized as her blood ran cold, as Razaaki. The men were Razaaks. Grimold's information had been correct, but it had come far too late. 

    Suddenly several things happened at once. In the distance there was an enormous explosion. The ground shook beneath them with the force of it. Night Runner, petrified reared up, splitting the post he was hitched to and kicking madly in every direction. With her captor distracted, Kaia twisted her face suddenly catching his fingers between her teeth and biting down hard. At the same time she stomped down on one of his feet behind hers. The Razaak man let out a strangle curse and let go quickly. Kaia was free!.... but just for a moment. Lightning fast the man whipped out his uninjured foot and snaked it around Kaia's ankle as she made a run for it. The cobblestones rushed toward her face and everything around Kaia went black, although she could swear as her consciousness faded away, Kaia could still hear her captor cursing her.