The Hunt [Shai]

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

57th

Nightfall…but even in night he could hear the sounds and sights, almost see the figures hunting him in the night in the forest thicket. He moved skillfully through the forest and stayed behind a tree listening to them move. His ears tuned into the movements as they stalked through the leaves. They had no idea where he was and he could tell it. He pulled his nightsilk cloak around his form and took an arrow from the climbers quiver at his leg. On his right leg there was another pouch with a sponge at the bottom, on the outside of the pouch there were several vials attached. He picked one and dumped its contents into the sponge soaking it thoroughly. Carefully he placed the vial back where he had picked it out and then he pushed the tip of the arrow into the sponge coating it in the liquid.

He closed his eyes for a moment and then nodded quietly to himself as he peeked from around the tree and looked out at the shadowed figures moving about the woods to find him. He smiled at the closest one to him. He knocked the arrow in his bow and pulled back taking aim at the man. He then took note of his heart rate counting the pulses and then between beats he released the string sending the arrow whizzing toward the figure. It struck hard and bit deep…before the target could even let out a scream he was struck dead instantly. His heart stopped and his body lurched over into a pile. His form found itself being the tree again taking cover as the men hunting him still looked around for him. He dipped another arrow into the sponge poisoning it. He would weed out these men one by one as he saw needed…One by one they would fall like flies to the flame. Quietly…oh so quietly.

He thought though that there was another pair of eyes watching him from somewhere…eyes that pierced through the darkness and see him. He looked around and he knew when he felt another pair of eyes watching him…But he didn’t know where these eyes were. But if they were going to kill him they would do so by now. So he proceeded knocking another arrow and taking aim this time at a far target. The man moved quietly through the trees and he took a guess at where the man was going to be in a few seconds. Pulling back the string he then waited and as the man’s body cleared the tree it was met with an arrow. It hit the figure hard and just like the first one he dropped dead almost instantly.

[Shai]

Shai sat cradling the child’s cold corpse. It wasn’t her child but the child was Symenestran and that was more than enough to account for the tears running down the little woman’s cheeks. The surroundings blurred around her but Shai never gave them notice all of her focus was on the limp form clutched to her breast. “Who would dare?” She whispered accusingly out at the nothing. The backdrop being unimaginable was still of no consequence to the woman. Her next threat she screamed at the top of her lungs, “You will pay for this!” Lowered her voice again to a critical whisper she promised to the child in her arms. “They shall cry for mercy from every god before I release them.” Shai sat with the child for a spell more, rocking it and singing gently in Symenos.

The dream shifted. Shai crouched on an upper level tree branch watching a figure below. The child was gone and forgotten the tears along with it, although Shai still felt empty inside like she had experienced a great loss recently. Silently observing the figure told her much. He was a killer. Why did it matter that he was a killer? It didn’t really, Shai killed too, so why was she mad? The dreaming rogue began to crawl down the tree towards the archer. Natural tree bark was an usual surface for her, she thought it would hurt hands even with her hooks extended but instead it seemed to have no adverse effect.

Another figure dropped quickly to the archer’s arrows. It was impressive if nothing else. Shai couldn’t recall getting so close but she found herself only a few feet up the tree from the bowman. Her sense of loss was fading swiftly with nothing to fuel it and instead curiosity took it's place. He seemed to be hiding so she spoke in hushed tones, “Why do you kill?” Around Shai small scraps of black sheer reached for the ground, she was wearing a dancer’s skirt made up of eight strips of cloth over a black body suit. Lowering down to his level, the Symenestra landed softly next to him. His bow was next to useless in such close quarters, but she suspected he had more weapons at his disposal considering how deadly he was with an arrow. It was a wager that should he reach to draw a close combats weapon she could claw the life out of him first.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

He obviously hadn’t been paying attention very well. For he would’ve noticed the woman climbing down the tree at him. When he heard her voice he looked up and she was met with a set of emerald eyes…hers were amethyst. This threw him off but he knew her type almost immediately, even if he didn’t know her race. He had seen her kind…in the camp, women, children….well the children were more commonplace as the mothers died giving birth from what he understood here. He let her drop beside him and he placed a finger to his lips asking her to remain quiet for a few more seconds as he listened some more. There were still figures about in the woods that wanted him dead…and what they would do to her, there were far worse things than just simply dying.

The fact that she hadn’t attacked him straight off was a wise decision. As she observed him she would see two ornate looking daggers on his chest strapped over a black silk bodysuit and a very nice set of leather that was as pitch as the darkness that surrounded them. If she looked closer she would see that the bodysuit itself seemed to be made out of the very same material as his cloak, nightsilk. There was almost no possible way the men searching for him would find his figure in this darkness now. No wonder he was able to pick them off so easily. But with only one arrow? That was more than impressive there had to be more at play here…and there was. The smell of poison was heavy in the air around him, it emanated from his right leg. Something there was casting a very strong scent of poison. Shai would know it but only because she knew her poison. Anyone else would’ve mistaken it for an earthy plant smell…but Shai would know better.

His fingers found another arrow at his left leg and then pulled it out gently making sure it didn’t rattle around. It was gently pierced into the sponge in the bottom of the other container at his right leg and then brought up to his bow. The arrow was knocked and then he peeked out again from the tree. Another figure moving through the forest to them almost like he was investigating something. Were they catching on to him? It didn’t matter he pulled back, took aim and let the arrow loose. It flew and struck true like the others burying itself in the target…like the ones before it the target died quietly and fell limp to the ground instantly…Dira was having plenty of souls to carry off tonight.

He turned to the Symenstra and spoke quietly. “I’ve seen your kind before…in the camp…women mostly. Some children too.” He then closed his eyes and listened some as he put a finger to his lips to hush her as he put another arrow in the poison.

It seemed there was no other movement in the woods and he nodded as he then spoke to her. “I’ve tracked a very interesting business to this location.” His eyes were still closed as he listened and there….there was something out there…someone.

He looked out and there stood another man bending over having just found the body of one of the previous targets. The situation was easily remedied when he loosed another arrow into the man. It struck him in the shoulder deep and the man hardly had time to grab the arrow before his body went limp and he hit the ground dead. Serrif looked to Shai and then spoke in a hushed voice.

“I think you will be interested in freeing your kind from the camp. I can’t do it alone.”

[Shai]

The scent hit her and forced her to reevaluate the archer, it explained the quick kills. She nodded and remained silent, watching both the bowmen and the dying figures in equal parts. Her curiosity was stalled when he mentioned children, Symenestran children. Something about Symenestran children made her angry, and she was all ears about this encampment where they were being kept. “Do you mean slavers? How could they capture Symenestra, let alone children?” The very idea perplexed her, full Symenestra children almost never left Kalinor. Regardless she would help this man towards his goal if it meant helping her kin. It was also an excellent way to trap a gullible spider. It sounded suspiciously like a trap but even so Shai had to take that chance if it meant saving even one Symenestra.

She watched the last man fall to his arrows and then nodded to him, she would help. She began to rattle off questions in a hushed but brisk tone. “Where is their encampment? How many guards? How many Symenestra did you see? And finally, do you have a plan already or is these actions born of necessity instead of preparation?” Those were the most important things she could think of to ask. As she waited to listen his responses, Shai repositioned her lash for a quick draw. The lash was the only man made weapon she carried and the only one she really needed, if someone got past the lash they’d have claws and venom to contend with.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Serrif nodded and then spoke a little more to the woman. “They didn’t capture the children to my knowledge…” He said letting the only other option sink in as he believed that was all the speaking he needed to do on that part. She could put together the pieces from there she seemed to have sound and exact reasoning.

“I was there only a few days ago myself, from what I saw they have about seven women left…the others have died in childbirth already and I don’t know how many of them aren’t pregnant at this point.” He looked to her eyes directly and spoke honestly to her a feeling that was likely foreign to her, he exposed a hand to her and there on the back of his palm was a burned mark of a slaver.

“You have no reason to trust me, but let me level the playing field a little.” He dug in his pouch and picked out a vial with clear liquid in it. He handed it to her and then nodded. “That is what I have been using on my arrows. Apply it to your weapons, they should go down easily.” He waited for her answer as he then dipped another arrow into the sponge and held it knocked against his bow. Ready to use because you never knew when you would need to put an arrow into someone.

The tall man adjusted his harness slightly making a double check before he went with this woman to the camp. He still remembered where it was, as well as the layout. The would be approaching the camp from a cliffside. There on the cliff overlooking the camp were several archers and lookouts that would give them away in a heartbeat if they didn’t eliminate them first. And after that they had until the changing of the guards before anyone figured out anything was horribly amok. But then well…by then all the slavers here would be dead and gone. IF he had his way about all this; he nodded to her and then spoke again.

“I need you, but if you do this you will need me as well.”

[Shai]

Shai let out a hiss, the very idea of what he was implying was barbarous. If those in Kalinor knew of it they would surely have done something about it. Didn’t these slavers know that it would kill almost every time? They gained nothing from forcing the women to breed except motherless children who couldn’t take care of themselves. Children who were impressionable, Shai took a beat and a long breath, it had horrible inferences. Humans could train Symenestran children to do horrible things and further sully the name of Symenestra everywhere. Something had to be done. Shai accepted the poison and went about applying it the end of her lash. “Very well, I shall do this thing with you.“ She was very careful to only apply the poison to the edge of her lash and not the full thing; she suspected she would need to utilize its garrote functionality. Shai gingerly re-coiled her lash and attached it to her hip. She bent down and began wrapping the sheer around her legs, it looked like bandages but it allowed for support of her legs when she decided to pull more gymnastic stunts. As soon as all eight had been wrapped and tucked in she stretched making sure each allowed proper movement.

Turning to the strange archer she nodded. “I am ready. Lead the way. Should we require close quarters stealth, tap three times where I can either feel or hear it. Humans often only check routes they could take in espionage, they seldom expect spiders.“ She prepared to follow him, contemplating his reasons for helping her save Symenestra. Most humans found them detestable at best. She had to assume it was because of the mark he had shown her, perhaps he felt it necessary to free enslaved whenever he could. Regardless, in this, he was on her side and it was time to get to business. Those poor women had suffered long enough and the humans couldn’t be allowed to poison the children’s minds further.

"Lead the way." Shai scaled back up the tree, she would follow through the upper levels. It would give her a different vantage point to notice any of the encampment's scouts or it's defenses once they came within visual distance.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

Serrif nodded and he was about to see what Symenstra women were made of. He knew in a way that she had to be more than vicious, especially when saving her own kind. He knew there was much to be done tonight and he set off through the forest toward the overlook. The forest they were in currently was on what was a mountain pass. Down in the valley there were a set of five or so makeshift houses. But overlooking this camp on the ridge they were currently on was a small encampment of men looking out over the buildings about a good hundred and fifty feet below. There was a small goat path that led up the mountain on the inside form the camp in the valley…which was the only obvious way to get to the camp once they eliminated the guards here in the overlook. Serrif stopped about a good fifty or so feet away from the encampment and then spoke in a low tone to his associate.

“There are going to be three men at this post. Once we eliminate them we are free to move about the camp. We MUST eliminate them quietly without warning those in the camp that sits in the valley. But the guards here are too…ignorant of our threat. They will be busy looking over the camp to notice our approach.” He then motioned and the two moved off toward the encampment slowly. Stalking close to the prey.

Sure enough there were only three men in the small camp area. Two of them sitting near a camp fire just talking and the other one was playing lookout watching the camp in the valley. The two near the fire were armed with simple shortswords and the only one with a ranged weapon was looking out into the camp. He didn’t even have an arrow knocked. They were indeed quite lax tonight…it seemed they had never had anyone threaten them before. Serrif moved and then made a motion to Shai. He pointed at one man near the fire and then spoke very very quietly to her.

“I’ll get the other two, I’ll wait for you to get into position.” He stuck two arrows into the poison and then nocked one waiting for her to get into position.

Once she had snuck onto striking distance Serrif did his magic. He pulled back and fired a single arrow quickly to hit the man with the bow. He didn’t wait to see if it had hit and instead nocked another arrow and loosed it on one of the men by the fire. If Shai had taken action by now the other man by the fire would likely already be dead leaving this lookout camp devoid of any life. However if she had failed the night was about to get a thousand times more interesting for the duo.

[Shai]

One man? Too easy. Shai crawled along the three tops waiting for Serrif to get into position. Her preferred positioning was above the camp, she’d chosen a low branch with just barely enough width to hold her. Creeping forward she remained silent and eased the movement of the branch under her by remaining steady. If she did this properly it would look like a gust of wind if no one saw the woman in black crouching on the branch. When she was within 12 feet she felt it was more than close enough. Turning her eyes on Serrif’s position she waited.

Her muscles tensed as he readied the first arrow. She drew her lash keeping the coils in her hand so it didn’t fall loose and alert the men. The moment his first arrow flew Shai struck. She dropped the lash’s end and flicked her wrist to impress her will upon it. The lash flew through the night a small reflection from the fire’s light was the only hint it was coming. The lash wrapped around her mark. The man was as good as dead with the sharpened edge embracing his neckline even without the poison. But to make sure she yanked the lash forcing it to momentarily tighten before releasing and recoiling behind the spider’s position. The man fell backwards, hitting the ground dead with a happy grin oozing blood along his neck. Shai slowly re-coiled her lash, wiping off the blood on her leggings and reapplying her poison, before she headed back along the branch. Whispering to herself she gave Viratas her prayer, “Moz seh krevas dav'ene us obris zhevat”

Eventually she returned to Serrif’s position. “What comes next Archer?” This task had been firmly planted in her mind and now all that mattered was its completion, as her focus often did it blocked out anything unnecessary to her reaching her goal.

Looking out over the small scouting camp, she decided Serrif had been correct. There were only three, so Shai moved around the outside, sticking to the shadows. The flame’s dance in the night was the most helpful element towards her stealth. People expected shadows to make around fire, it was normal. Consequently people didn’t often notice when one shadow moved with purpose where the others were random. Eventually she was on the far side of the camp where she took to the tree tops once again she looked ahead trying to see what their following challenges would be.

[Serrif Von Chatlyn]

It was quite the event to behold. The way the woman moved was indeed inspiring to him. He had never seen anyone of her race move like that before her. She had such a grace about her…every step was light as air itself. She was quite the predator, as was he. The way she wielded that lash was more than impressive. There was no hint that it was coming to those who stood in its way, especially in the darkness that surrounded them. There was merely a flicker from the fire that even hinted that this weapon was coming to strike. And when it did, the results were devastating. She sure did know how to wield that weapon effectively. It was awe inspiring, and he knew that one on one he stood little chance against that weapon, especially when it was poisoned.

“We can take the goat path down and start eliminating slavers one by one. Start with everyone outside and then move into the buildings.” He looked out over the buildings from the perch and then spoke to Shai quietly giving her a tactical overview of the situation at hand.

Layout :

“There are five buildings down there with a set of crudely built subterranean tunnels where they keep some of the more precious slaves, like the pregnant women. The tunnel connects those two buildings.” He said pointing to the elongated building that looked to be a barracks of some sort and a smaller building to its south east. “I don’t know what that building is personally that it is connected to. The building in the south contains all the cages and cells for the slaves they have captured, but none of your kind are there in those cages. The building in the north east is a torture house and the one in the south east at the corner is an outhouse.” He nodded some and then spoke a little more.

“As far as the extent of the underground areas I am unsure if there are any more but I do know of one between the Barracks and that other building. There could be others, but that we will have to figure out on the go.” He peered through the darkness and could see figures moving about. A question pricked his mind as he then spoke to her.

“Is it true that your kind can see through darkness? If so how many guards do you see down there?”

[Shai]

“How good of a shot are you stranger?” She had to ask, as she surveyed the scene with night’s eyes. her eyes darting back and forth over the scene before them, taking in the skeleton of the situation as quickly as possible. Details could be observed later, she was a thief and opportunist, she couldn't let a chance slip through her claws.

It didn’t bode well for two attackers, even two who had the benefit of surprise. “I can see at least ten men. Their positions are as follows; three are by the barracks, there are two near the unknown building, and four by the cells. Additionally one figure just walked into the outhouse, and dear archer that one is all yours. I cannot quite make out the last area’s guards, only that there are some shadows there. My vision is improved, not complete, in the dark.” She sat back on her perch; the Symenestra began clicking two of her black claws together, it was a slightly sound and unless someone knew better it would be mistaken for the wind against tree branches. It was the tell-tale sign the woman was thinking, she was running through the scenarios like a hundred different combinations that a handful of puzzle pieces might make.

As the clicking back to slow in tempo, Shai turned towards her deadly companion. “At best, assuming they are out of view or at least isolated from the others, I can take out two men and maintain my stealth. Anything more and I require assistance. I would wager a guess that there are several more men than we can see here, especially since it is night and that is when humans prefer to rest. So to avoid risking an alarm we need to take out the men closest to their barracks first. That is the scenario I propose at least.” Swinging her body around she faced herself towards Serrif to see his reaction to her suggestion, voice was only a minute part of communication and she needed every hint about this man she could pick up. She especially needed to know if this was some sort of trap to gain one more Symenestra female for their scheme. This man could very well still be a slave and in their power, luring more victims to his fate. “If can see a better way, or perhaps can think of a way to draw their attentions elsewhere so we can pick them off from cover of forest, I would be willing to go with your plan.” Shai’s nails stopped clicking completely, her thought process was complete, it was time to decide on a course of action and rescue these women and children. “Oh, I suppose it cannot hurt to inform you. I am Shai. Not in temperament, but in name.”