Ambush-Flashback [Cerus & Caelum]

[Cerus]

(This takes place in the southern portions of the Northern reason, but I didn't know where else to put it.)

The Great North, 505-Spring

He hated the southern parts of the north. Unlike Avanthal, the grounds down here were not frozen permanently. Rather, when the spring came, the mud came. Roxx hated the mud as much as his master, and always high stepped to the tallest up cropping of dry land he could find. They had come across a low field and trudged through it up to the top of the hill and not to Cerus' surprise others had the same idea.

It was the silence that gave away the seriousness of a situation. Men like this were never inclined to a sunny disposition, and it looked like he'd stepped in on an ambush. From the top of Roxx he could just make out a rider approaching from the other side of the hill.

One man turned when Roxx shifted to stomp the mud from his hoof and leg, and before Cerus could blink a sword was pulled from his scabbard and the man was charging him on foot. Another turned, and joined his friend while the remaining members, having lost surprise, would go after the original intended target.

“Run!” Was all he managed to yell, pulling the reigns back the horse.

[Caelum]

The world exploded into action, the ring of steel and the clapping shouts of men. It caused his horse to curve and shift beneath him, ears flattening even as Caelum's knees tightened against the mare's side. Golden eyes narrowed and a twist of his wrist popped a throwing knife, cool and cruel, into his hand.

Standing up in the stirrups for a view, he watched the man who had shouted warning to him buck in an effort to go backwards; and the thunder of those riding for him. Run. Well, he would have bloody liked to. Unable to abandon his herald, he landed hard back down into the saddle and wheeled Vega's head around, intent on taking a circular course that ought to bring him to the other's back.

[Cerus]

Roxx reared, and Cerus slid off her back onto his own. Luckily for him the ground was hard, and he rolled to the side instead of sinking in. However, it also knocked the wind out of him. Fear got him up onto his feet and moving to grab his bow off of Roxx.

“Move you great beast!” He yelled at the horse, bow and quiver in hand. He would have slapped him to get him moving, as he was now in more danger than Cerus. Knocking an arrow he pulled the bow up only to have it slapped away by the flat of a pole.

The man had rounded Roxx with no problem, and now had probably broken one or more of Cerus's fingers. He'd had only a fraction of a second to realize this before he'd been knocked back onto his ass by the pole.

It was a stupid notion to be noble, he realized.

[Caelum]

Had Caelum been privy to Cerus' thoughts, he would have whole heartedly agreed that nobility often was foolishness. He was being incredibly foolish right now, riding to assist the stranger rather than running in the opposite direction. With Vega's speed, he could have likely lost the ambush group with relative ease.

Too late, considering he was riding straight into them. He reversed the grip of the dagger in his hand while ducking in the saddle to avoid the blow of an attacker. Vega bucked and bit, fighting free a path, until Caelum was finally within reach to swing his arm and catch the man with the pole looming above the rescuer in the temple with the pommel of his dagger. It was a lucky hit, and someone else might have used the sharper, business end of their weapon and been wiser for it; but Caelum had spent too many hours toiling in the service of stopping blood to willingly start it's flowing.

Yes, nobility was a stupid notion.

[Cerus]

Naturally Cerus was cursing in Vani as he stood, now actually irritated with the whole situation. His fingers were broken, but still there and so was his pretty face thanks to his rescuer. He was beginning to wonder who'd rescued who. All that could wait for later. Now he was picking up his bow and taking an arrow to knock on the string.

There were still three to their two, or possibly more. He was far better with his bow when untouched, no warrior by any means he could only try and imagine the man running at him as an animal. Nothing more and nothing less. Though he closed his eyes as he let go, he knew the shot would be dead center mass.

The cry that came after the sound of flesh being torn ground through and when he opened his eyes to see the man bleeding out a few scant feet away it dawned on him that it wasn't so hard to kill a man. Especially when that man was still scrambling towards you in his last moments to still try and end your life.

Cerus backed up and notched another arrow, too focused on the man dying in front of him to be of much help.

[Caelum]

He had never been a killer. It was against the very grain of him, but his return to the corporal world had shoved and stretched all aspects of his soul. How recognizable they were to his Bright Lady, he did not know; but She had put him here, had She not? She had, and he was forced to make do.

In swift sips of sight, he watched his herald make what was, clearly, his first kill. The signs were unmistakable and empathy swelled. It had his jaw setting as his horse shouldered around, a frightened buck conveniently catching a dismounted attacker directly in the chest. He swung his saddle, daggers at ready, but they were alone now, he and the herald, surrounded by the dead or the dying.

"Shyke," he cursed, hastily dismounting. The dagger was flipped in his hand for a better grip as he sank down, touching a knee to the bloody earth and searching for the pulse in the man whom he had taken out with pommel blow. It was faint, but there, and he scrabbled backwards, ultimately looming over the horse-kicked attacker where he lay crumpled in the grass.

Bubbles of blood simmered out of the man's mouth, eyes open and pupils wide with agony. Caelum's mouth grew grim as he made a visual study of the man's wounds. Chest cavity was crushed, breathing coming in death rattling hitches and gasps. The healer in Caelum reached for mercy and he drew his dagger swift and deep across the man's throat.

[Cerus]

It had all happened so quickly that Cerus was still seeing things in flashes and leaps. He couldn't keep his eyes off of the man who was bleeding out and breathing slower and slower. He didn't know if he had mercy or malice when he stepped forward but he kneeled down next to the man and turned the arrow before yanking it out with a sick sucking sound.

"Go with your god." He said quietly before standing up. Cerus hesitated and then leaned back down. He took the sharp of the arrow removing a clump of dark and matted hair. It was customary to take something from the hunt up north, and he considered it a way to honor the prey.

"Too easy." He said shaking his head, now starting to gain clarity. "Oh." He turned just in time to see the one he'd rescued (been rescued by?) slitting a throat and he could only nod.

"Thank you? Or, thank us?" Neither one could have taken this group by themselves and the only one in danger had probably been Cerus.

[Caelum]

A flare of golden eyes caught his herald, his unexpected partner, as he gathered his legs back under him. The dagger was cleaned on a bit of a rag and he scowled down at the surrounding dead.

"You're welcome," he said finally, then added. "Thank you," because, truth, he had no idea who had saved who here. "Stick around to help me bury them? Ground's going to be hard, not completely thawed yet." He hesitated. "We could burn them instead."

It was an equally as respectful rite in his opinion, but he had found not many others tended to share that idea. Then, maybe this stranger did not care about the passage of enemy dead at all.

[Cerus]

His hand was throbbing, even in the cold and he knew that he would need to attend to it before even thinking about anything else. Roxx finally came back having sensed the danger was gone and took a stance in front of Cerus.

"I'm fine." He announced to the horse, and their company. "Well, I will be in a moment. And I wouldn't waste my energy on digging a hole for them. We will burn them. The ground is too cold, and we can't just leave them for the wild." He said something low in Vani which loosely translated to 'even bandits have mothers.' Which was one of his favorite sayings, until that moment.

"Be still Roxx. He could have killed me five times by now. I'm Cerus."

[Caelum]

"Caelum," the forsaken muttering, nodding briefly. A lean hip was sagged out, weathered leathers and linen encasing a frame made of little more than whipcord and bone. There were the horns, however, glittering like iodized copper in the sunlight and there was, always, his face, carved from the heart of a goddess.

He stared at the dead for a while longer before swinging around to approach his horse, reaching in to pull out a few supplies, tucking such things into pockets before turning back to Ceres.

"Want me to take a look at that hand?"