Love's Last Words

[Naiya]

33rd Day of Winter, 515 AV
Fourth Bell of Morning

Naiya lay tangled in the arms of her lover, her sleep light and happy, her worries washed away by his embrace. When Shahar awakened, removing himself from her embrace, she didn't question him. Her mind slowed by the heavy hands of sleep did not process the tension in his body, nor the silence of the night.

Love, she pressed into his fleeing skin, "Come back soon." Her words were barely a whisper, holding no urgency. She knew he was going for a walk perhaps, to chase down the feelings given to him by the god mark on his arm. Only a few days ago he'd stirred in the night and been dragged on an adventure, one he'd shared with her the next morning.

She was curled into the warm space left behind, nearly tucked back to sleep when Shahar's warning rang out through the night. Snow howled along with her master as Naiya stumbled to her feet. An attack, that was what he'd sensed and she let him face it alone.

She scrambled for a weapon, her bow was stowed with her gear out in the wagon, instead she found a dagger, stowed with her boots. She didn't have time to dress not when she could hear the muffled sound of battle, the cries of their horses.

A javelin lay in the corner, she grabbed that too, she wasn't any good at throwing them, but she could brandish it like a spear. She put the dagger to her mouth, holding it in her teeth while she readied her spear, tumbling out of the tent to find that chaos had befallen the entire city, not just her own home.

Black ships, trails of blood, a city in tatters, her vision flashed behind her eyes, as panic set into her heart. Where was Shahar?

Tracks gored the mud, and then a long deep gouge, dragged. She traced the path with her eyes, finding the familiar form of her husband tangled beneath the huge form of Snow. She dashed after them, a scream of fury bursting past her teeth.

A man, not a Drykas, an intruder followed her, appearing to have come from the back of the pavilion. She spun to face him, the sound of his heavy boots sloshing through the mud alerting her to his pursuit.

She snarled at him, teeth bared around the dagger, he seemed to hesitate only a moment before continuing forward. She shifted her grip on the spear, ready to poke at anything he put into reach.

He lunged, swinging wide around her spear, and she stepped back, pulling the butt of the weapon back behind her hips to angle it for an attack. He slid in the mud and she stabbed at him, catching his arm with the point. He shouted at her in a language she didn't know, swinging his cutlass at her.

The thin point of the spear came free easily enough as she stumbled back away from his blow, swinging the shaft to block the arc of his weapon.

InjuryA cut to the outside of her forearm
.
.
.

[Naiya]

The pain of her attack softened his blow, his swing wild and off balance, it gave her enough time to react, the pole of her impromptu spear feeling awkward in her hands.

He swung at her again, and she ducked beneath the blade, her legs tight with muscle. Her body shifted, feet sliding through the mud, she had only fractions of a tick to decide what she would do next. Her dodge was unexpected after her block, or perhaps the man was just not well versed in actual combat, his swing spinning him past her so that she had the advantage.

She tightened her body, coiling like a spring before lunging forward, spear aimed just below his sternum. She pressed forward with the entire weight of her body, adapting the little she knew about daggers to the technique of her spear. The man evaded her attack, and she screamed at him around the dagger in her teeth, she didn't have time for this fight, she needed to get to Shahar.

Her momentum propelled her through the space, and she had overreached, his blade scraped down her back, the wound glancing but painful all the same. She pivoted, her back foot swinging around so that she was facing her opponent once more. She stabbed at his gut once more, forcing him back, out of the range of his shorter blade, then with a wild abandon she swung the spear around her head, building speed until she could cast the long blade out towards his head like casting a pole for fishing.

Surprise was on her side, the blade slashing across his face, stunning him for a moment. It was long enough, she dropped the spear, clunky and uncooperative in her hands, pulling her dagger with another bellow of war she dashed across the distance between them, both hands rounding the forward grip on her blade.

The man turned, raising his weapon too slow, she had already crashed against him, too close to be hit with his mid-range weapon. Her dagger slid into the weak point where his chin met his neck, the cold iron sharp as ever, sliding in until she hit bone.

The man gurgled, his weapon falling loose from his fingers as she pulled her own weapon free. She paused only long enough to swing the scabbard loose from his hip and the cutlass up into place on her own hips, the false spear back into her hands. She ran, full tilt towards the forms that had her husband, his name falling from her lips in a cry of fury. The shout was a promise to those who had him, she was coming to retrieve him.

The forms were small on the edge of her vision, heading towards the black masted ships. She was undeterred, her feet beating a rapid tempo against the blood soaked ground.

They were too far ahead, her breath came in gasps, her legs ached. She pushed on, she had to reach them. They crested a hill, falling from her line of sight. She pushed harder, propelling herself upward, forward, fighting gravity with each step. Mud splattered her body, slipping out from under her feet as she reached the apex of the hill, the soft ground slipping out from under her and sending her sliding down the side.

At the bottom of the hill a woman was waiting, brandishing a weapon with a sharply curved blade. Her legs protested their further use as Naiya scrambled to her feet, whipping her spear across the space in front of her to force the woman back away from her.

She gripped both the spear with both hands, her grip weakened by the dagger clutched in her right hand. She couldn't see Shahar, the howling of animals and people drowning out the distinct sound of Snow's familiar howl. Her eyes scanned the city turned battle field. Her distraction earning her a wound on her thigh.
InjuryA shallow cut from the top of left shoulder to the bottom of the right sholderbade, scratches along her right leg from her slid in the mud, a cut along the front of her thigh
.
.
.

[Naiya]

Pain drew a snarl from her lips, baring her teeth at the woman hoping to startle her. The woman said something in a language Naiya couldn't understand, gesturing with her weapon. It didn't take Naiya any time at all to react, as soon as the woman moved her weapon she stabbed at her with her javelin.

The pirate jumped back, the swears she spat at Naiya needing no translation. The woman was a far better fighter than the other man, she battered Naiya with attacks, and the Drykas struggled to keep on her feet.

The javelin flew from her grasp when the woman hooked it with her blade and pulled, but Naiya followed the two weapons, closing the distance between the two of them. She made a fist, swinging it with the full force of her body's motion. Her knuckles connected with the woman's cheek, not nearly having the force at that point of impact that Naiya had hoped. She followed the first punch with a swing of her dagger, aiming for the woman's throat, but she kicked out at Naiya forcing her backwards. The distance allowed the woman the use of her blade once more, and Naiya was forced to pull the cutlass free from the scabbard.

Her draw was clumsy, and she had to scramble backwards to get it out before the woman could attack her. She wasn't sure how to use a cutlass, but the man had treated it as a swinging weapon, so she could do the same. She watched the woman, trying to learn what she could about her weapon to see how she could counter it. The woman swung high, and Naiya tried to catch the fallling blade against her own, arm swinging up to stop the decent.

She staggered under the strength of the blow, stepping aside from the attack as she might in an unarmed fight. When the woman lifted her weapon, Naiya used the opening to cut inwards, slashing from her block position towards the woman's torso.

Her cut was clumsy, the weight of the weapon unfamiliar as it wibbled through the air, and the woman easily knocked her attack away. A scream of frustration burst through Naiya's lips. Her husband was getting further away, dragged off by these villains. She didn't have time to learn a new weapon, but she couldn't get by the woman another way.

She swung the blade again, swinging it down from over her head, letting gravity guide her attack. It was no good though, the woman was skilled, and chased her blade away with barely a thought. She pressured Naiya back, forcing her one step at a time until Naiya's blade caught just right, and the woman shoved against it, knocking both Naiya and the weapon down into the mud.

She pressed the tip of her weapon into Naiya's cheek, seeming to size her up, as though trying to decide what to do next. A male called to her in the same unfamiliar language, the woman, having learned from her first mistake, didn't take her eyes or weapon off of Naiya, digging the tip into her skin to keep her still as she answered the man.

He appeared from off to their right, sizing up Naiya in the same way the woman had. He shook his head, dismissing her, but the woman seemed to argue, her posture changing as she said something more.

The man turned his gaze back to Naiya seeming to reconsider for a moment. He shook his head again then, clearly dismissing the words of the woman. She grew angry, turning her head to argue once more. It seemed the best chance she would get. Naiya used her hand to shove the blade off her face, ignoring the sting of pain as it cut her cheek in a line from just below her eye to nearly her ear. Her palm sang a similar note of pain, but Naiya ignored it as she dove for the woman, her dagger forward, slamming into her stomach with the full force of Naiya's weight.

The woman fell, the man shouting a startled cry, but Naiya didn't stop, forcing her dagger into the woman twice more in hopes of hitting her heart before leaping away, rolling through the mud as she had learned in her training. She came to her feet in the same movement, her spear beside her she swooped to pick it up, circling the man who looked as though he had never seen the possibility of her escape. Good.

If they continued to underestimate her she would kill them all.
InjuriesSmall cuts and bruises along arms and legs, a strong kick to the chest, a shallow cut from the apple of her right cheek across to her ear, a cut across her entire left palm

.
.
.

[Naiya]

She panted, breath heaving from her chest with every strained intake. She spun to face the man, crouched low so that she was ready to pounce as soon as she had an opening. He looked frightened, and she grinned, a look the promised an end to his fear.

She circled him, waiting until his thin poking sword was drooping under its own weight, he didn't have the determined strength that she did. He was fighting to take, Naiya was fighting not to lose.

She lunged towards him spear poking towards his chest, waiting until he raised his weapon once more before dropping the spear and rolling beneath the strange weapon. He poked her with it, a strangely dull feeling in her bicep as she shoved her dagger into his chin.

He fell away from her, his weapon hanging limply from her arm. She examined the wound, the tip had gone all the way through her arm. It was oddly muted pain though, perhaps it was in injury that didn't hurt much. She didn't have time to worry about it, pulling it free and bringing it with her in lieu of the cutlass. She knew how to use stabbing weapons, it was like her dagger with more reach. She grinned at that, her javelin in her other hand and dagger wiped clean on the man's clothes before she put it back in her mouth, holding it with her teeth.

She continued her race, not quite sure where she was going any longer, her legs ached as she ran, the throbbing in her arm growing stronger with each beating step. She came up on a man, dragging a woman who was snared in a net. She was behind him, so it was easy to aim her spear and run him through with it while he struggled to pull the woman. She lined up the point, thrusting forward as though it was her dagger. She caught him in the back, and he shouted as he released the net. The wound didn't seem to have killed him though, as he turned, pulling the shaft of the javelin free of her grasp as he moved.

She didn't give him time to recover, ducking low to confuse him as she readied the long thin weapon. A rapier, the word returned to her finally. She forced it forward, jutting out from her body like an extension of her arm.

She stabbed it into his neck, the fine point too small to kill him right off. She couldn't slash with it at all either, not like her dagger. So she pulled the weapon back, aiming again for his torso. She used her arm, just turning her hip to ready each attack as she poked the tip through him a few more times. He managed to swing his arm, pure strength of will keeping him standing. He caught her on the forehead with enough force to break the skin, sending a river of blood across her eye before he fell.

She turned to the woman tangled in the net. "Be still." She said simply, grabbing hold of the net only to find it sharp with metal ans shell fragments. She cursed, having let go of the net in her surprise. She took hold once more, her hand already cut by the woman's saber. Her other hand cut with her dagger, tearing a hole in the netting with little grace. She made sure the woman could get free before leaving, telling the woman of the cutlass laying in the mud only a few chimes away.

She nodded, the look of determination shared between the two before they parted. Naiya was at a loss. She stood in the mud, blood dripping from her body, both her own and blood of the others, the enemy. Where was Shahar?

She ran for the shore, clearly these invaders were on the ships, they must be taking the captives there. She raced against a clock that she couldn't see, fighting her way towards her husband, but when she reached the shore she found the ships retreating, escaping, only a few pirates still stood on land, and they were making haste towards the larger vessels in their little rowboats.

"Shahar!" She screamed his name, searching the shore, searching the boats with her eyes, but she couldn't find him.

He must have escaped, she told herself, and made his way back to the camp.

Oh, the camp! She had left it alone, Seirei and the children. She turned once more, desperate to reach her camp and see that her family was alright. If Shahar wasn't here, and he clearly wasn't here he must be home.

InjuriesA stab wound through her bicep, a cut on her forehead from the peak of her hair to her right temple, cuts to both hands
.
.
.