Have Sword Will Travel

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The young man smiles as the wind blows through his hair, setting the edges of his mantle fluttering. The sun is high in the cloudless blue sky, but the breeze takes the heat away. Oh, sure, he's a little hungry, but this was the Hundred Kingdoms; there'd probably be a village over the next hill where he could help out in some way for a decent dinner.

It's a fine day out.

Or rather, it was a fine day. The sound of a lone woman's voice being drowned out by the sniggering of thuggish men is unmistakeable, and to Lance's regret, increasingly familiar to him. There's nothing to be done for it; with a single bound, he's already in the branches above. Not even a single leaf falls as he bounds from limb to limb, towards the sounds' source...

Meanwhile, the pink-haired girl in the clearing is backing away from the large man advancing toward her with a nasty smile on his face.

"Hello, my pretty... it's dangerous for a nice girl like you to be out here alone like this..." Lilith can't help but notice the large, notched axe at his belt, and the daggers and machetes his friends are carrying.

"I... I'm just heading to the nearby village... I am but a humble medicine woman," she says, indicating the pouches and bags of herbs and other supplies she's carrying. The large man, who also seems to be their leader, raises an eyebrow. "Well now, that's some luck for both of us, then, isn't it? Why don't you come over to our camp and take a look at some of our men? We'll make it worth your while..."

A quick glance to either side reveals that they're slowly moving out to surround her; or rather, they've already surrounded her, and now she's being backed into a treetrunk by the leader advancing toward her. "Actually, why don't you wait until I set up shop in the village? Then you could bring your men to see me there..."

The man laughs evilly, and Lilith feels the hard, corrugated bark of a tree against her back. "Please let me go," she pleads. Of course, she knows it's hardly likely to work; but still, she had to give them a chance to save themselves before she shredded them with the gifts of Luna.

"I don't think so, girlie," he rasps. "In fact, I think you'll be coming with us. Skilled slaves fetch more from the Guildsmen, and we can get a good price for the pretty ones. Now come along quietly, or you'll be the sorriest woman in the forest by nightfall."

"Or the sorest," one of his cronies quips, and the group bursts into laughter... laughter that is abruptly curtailed by the sight of a man in a brown travelling cloak suddenly descending from the trees between Lilith and her tormentor, landing just on his toes and sending him stumbling back, squealing like a stuck pig from the pain of his squashed feet. Lance pays him no heed as his eyes make contact with Lilith's, and in that split second, it seems as though lightning flashes from her soul to his, and resounding thunder crashes through Lance's head in answer. He's never met her in his life, but somehow he feels that he knows her, that she belongs in his life somehow.

"Uh. Hello. My name is Lance and... are these men bothering you?" he stammers. "Do you want them to stop?"

On her part, Lilith is still trying to process the feelings running through her heart, though she can sense her nervousness mirrored in him. The large man starts up at Lance, yelling at him to "get his own girl" and "stop interfering in our business". Lance ignores them. She knows his eyes can only see her, but she forces herself to ignore the rising swell of emotions they bring. Battle was no place to feel, after all.

"Yes," she replies, in a dull, inflectionless tone. Lance still looks a bit worried about her, but then she sees the large man signal his compatriots to attack, and Lilith calls out a warning to him.

"Behind you!" she says, but Lance seems to have started moving even as the words began forming in her mind, and in an expert movement, he seizes the wrist of the hand swinging a machete down on him and simultaneously relieves its wielder of it by bashing the back of the controlled hand hard into the face of a would-be backstabber. He releases the nerveless appendage and simultaneously arms himself with the falling weapon, before turnng to survey the chief thug and the underlings he's called to himself for this fight.

"Think you're so tough, eh, kid?" the large man grunts, unlimbering his axe. "How do you like facing six guys at once? Whaddya say to that, huh?"

"Get more men," Lance deadpans, beckoning the bandits to give him their best shot. Their leader is only too glad to oblige. "Attack!" he cries, and as one, half a dozen assailants rush in on Lance at the same time. Lance doesn't move, doesn't seem to react, doesn't even seem to be breathing, all he's doing is slowly watching as the thugs close in on him...

[I]Zwing.[/I]

The halo of silvery-white Essence is still hanging in the air as the six thugs Lance has struck down simultaneously crumple to the ground in a heap. Surprisingly, there's no blood; Lilith's expert eyes can tell that the blows struck were made with the blunt back of the machete. The lead thug doesn't quite seem to believe his eyes as Lance walks out of the heap of fallen men to approach him. "Y-y-you!" he exclaims as he feels a nearby boulder press up against his back. "Who - what are you? A god? a demon?"

"I am the kind of thing that happens to people like you," Lance replies. "Oh, and I believe this is yours."

In a single, swift movement, Lance buries his stolen machete up to the hilt in the large man's chest... or rather, he drives the sword into the gap of his armpit and hilt deep into the stone behind it.

"Please take better care of your possessions before trying to claim new ones. Now get lost."

The bandit leader gulps, not daring to take his eyes off Lance as he backs away from the two of them, before just giving up and running away at full tilt. Lance doesn't give chase, but instead turns to Lilith with a faint smile on his face. "No worries," he smiles as he indicates the downed bandits. "I used the back of the machete, so it shouldn't have killed them." Lilith's not really interested in what he has to say; rather, she's looking at the rivulets of carmine dripping down his wrist and fingers.

"Hurt," she says mechanically, pointing at his arm.

"Oh, that?" he replies. "Well, it doesn't hurt that much, and it doesn't feel like there's major damage, and usually if I have time I can just walk-"

"Sit," she commands, and Lance suddenly finds himself sitting down obediently beside Lilith as she expertly cleans and dresses the wound. He tries, and fails, to fill the silence between them, until Lilith flatly announces, "Done."

A bemused Lance looks at his bandaged arm, flexing his fingers and rotating the limb. "Wow. It feels like there's no bandage to hinder my arm. Thanks, you do good work."

That seems to snap Lilith out of her hardened shell, and she looks at Lance with new eyes. "What did you say?" she asks.

A somewhat confused Lance repeats, "Um. I said thank you. Because you helped me, and... it's only polite to thank people who help you, right? Say, speaking of which... I'm not sure if I've told you, but my name is Lance and-"

"Lilith," she says softly. "My name is Lilith." Lance takes a few seconds to consider this before smiling to her.

"Thank you for bandaging my arm, Lilith. That was very kind of you."

"You're welcome," she replies, and the smile she answers with spreads a warm glow like a fireplace through his heart. That just seems to make Lance nervous, though.

"Hehehe... er... well... there's a chance you might meet other people like that on the road... would you mind if I offered to escort you to your destination? Just to, er, make sure you're all right? It would put my heart at ease..."

Lilith suppresses a grin at her savior's awkwardness. "Well, I'm not really going anywhere; just seeing where the road takes me. But I would appreciate the company..."