By the Light of the Day

[Guest]

Thea straightened. "I don't know if you woke up on the wrong side of your cage this morning, but threatening us is not the way to solve your problem!" She immediately regretted her words as the man scowled at her with his deadly eyes.

She cleared her throat. "We don't-"

"Well, well...." Another man emerged from the shadows. His eyes were sharp and he matched the enormous size of his scarred friend. "You know my friend here has got quite the temper. You don't wanna see him angry. Trust me." Though he sounded like he wanted quite the opposite.

So these were the men Coram was talking about. Some low-life must have given these brutes information of their whereabouts to get to Ashven.

The scarred man took an interest in Khei. "Why are you covering that face?" he rasped. "Surely we can get glimpse of that face of yours, huh?"

[Khei]

Khei visibly stiffened at the mention of wanting to see her face. Her mind scrambled for something convincing to say. Nothing she could think of to say would stop them from removing her hood.

"I'd rather not. We've told you what you want to know now let us be on our way."

The scarred man and his friend bellowed in laughter before the scarred man spoke up again.

"That's not how this works. You see.. We ask the questions and you give us answers. If you fail to give us answers then we break your bones one by one until you Do give us answers. Secondly.."

The Scarred man stepped forward again before continuing.

".. you are in no position to tell us what we will or won't do. Now show me your face you little.."

His voice fell silent as he threw Khei's hood back, revealing her beastly face. He staggered back, his friend's mouth agape as well. The scarred man remained silent until his friend spoke up.

"Talon? What IS that thing?!"

The scarred man shook his head slowly a scowl spreading across his face.

"A demon. Obviously a minion of his."

[Guest]

"She is not a "thing", or a "demon" nor anybody's "minion"," Thea said.

The men's eyes roamed over Khei's face. Obviously Thea's words had little to no effect on them.

"We don't know where Ashven is! So why don't you leave us alone?!" Thea realised she sounded like a petulant child but she meant every word she said. Ashven was not here, so why didn't they just leave?

The other man, the one with the unmarked face, raised an eyebrow. "You honestly think you're the one giving orders around here?" he said. He looked to Khei with a chilling haze. "You are not something a person sees everyday. It speaks like a human, walks like a human. But isn't." She didn't like the way they talked about Khei. She wanted to give him a good slap, but what she feared was that she would get a hard punch in return. She was still tempted to though. Her hand clenched and unclenched.


The scarred man--Talon was the name she heard--loomed over them. "We were told he was seen with you two. You obviously know something and you're not telling us. Or perhaps you just don't know. But either way you've wasted our time. Tell us or else." He smashed his fist into the palm of his other hand. The threat was clear.

[Khei]

Khei openly growled, her hands balling up into fists.

"I think that's actually the other way around. You've wasted OUR time. We have things requiring our attention that you are keeping us from. Now if you don't mind.."

She started to head for the door when a third man emerged from the shadows and grabbed her arm. She yelped in angered surprise and spun around, arm extended, and slashed her claws across the man's face. With a scream of pain he staggered back, releasing his grip on her arm to cover the gashes.

The scarred man sneered.

"The hard way then. GET THEM!"

[Guest]

Here was the embodiment of the everything that Thea hated. Here was the bigger, stronger attitude that thought they had the right to everything, just because they could scare people.

Her first instinct was to get to Khei, but the second man kept coming at her.

"What's you name, hotshot?" she asked. Not only talking would distract him, it would catch him off guard, giving her chance to make a grab for her trusty knife.

"The name's Alistair," he muttered as she dodge another punch. "And I like making people hurt."

"What a charmer you are," she replied.

Thea made a quick movement and her knife was in her hand. Cause for celebration was over the moment she leaped at Alistair. His over-sized hand grabbed her wrist, crunching it with his mighty strength. Thea gritted her teeth and fought back the urge to let out a cry.

She always relied on her compacted strength and her quick movements, but what good was it when you were in a death grip? But as a soldier, well a former soldier, she would not go down without a fight.

She slammed the heel of my hand into his nose. She didn't just do it with her arm. The force came all the way from her hips as she launched her whole body into the strike.

She felt the nose smash under her onslaught.

He spent a few seconds staring at her in shock and gathering his fury.

He hurled his body at her, she flew across the room, hit the wall, slumping down slowly. The pain ripped through her like a blazing inferno.

The she saw the man heading for Khei.

Thea climbed onto Alistair's back as he lunged for Khei. She pulled at his his hair, raked her fingernails over his fresh wounds, anything that would get him away from her friend.

One moment she was on his back, in power for just one moment, then she was thrown over his shoulder, felt her hair whipped her face as she airborne for just few moments, before her back smacked the ground.

A tormented scream burst through her throat. She tried to move but her body turned feeble, like her muscles had frozen. She couldn't move. She could only feel pain.

She realised she had landed right next to her knife. Her vision was blurry, barely able to make out a coherent picture. She took a chance. She pathetically reached for it, fighting off the pangs of pain. She threw it. She heard a man's scream. At least she managed to get one down.

Thea collapsed but tilted her head, her eyes searched around for Khei, but her mind swam. She had to see her friend. She tried saying her name, but it came out more like gurgle.

She tried with all her strength to get up. But the darkness took over.

[Khei]

Khei screamed as she caught sight of Thea's fierce fight with one of the men. She wanted to help but she already had her hands full. Every time she tried to get to her friend to help, the scarred man or his remaining partner would block her.

She hissed and lashed her tail wildly. Finally, the scarred man lunged at her with his dagger. She dodged and attacked with her own crude weapon but struck only a wooden support beam. The force of the strike easily broke the blade, forcing a shard of metal into her hand, slicing the flesh open halfway up the inside of her arm.

She winced in pain but spun around to face the men. She lunged at the scarred man again but realized only too late that her injured arm would not respond beyond her elbow. Her tendons had been severed. The thug threw up his arm to deflect the blow he thought was coming but was caught by surprise when she bit deeply into his arm.

He screamed and started beating her over the head with the butt of his dagger but she refused to let go. She felt something land hard against the small of her back and found herself screaming in pain, crumpling to the ground. She tried to get back up but her legs wouldn't work. She felt something slam into the back of her skull with a sickening crack.

The shear force of the impact made the world around her spin and fade, seemingly becoming distant. She could just make out the sounds of the men and the vague sensation of her body being lifted by her hair. She saw, in the darkening tunnel of vision, the scarred man grin at her and lift his dagger to her throat. She tried to cry but it wouldn't come. She felt his blade push into her flesh and begin it's journey to the other side when a new wave of pain washed over her and carried her into the blackness.