The Wandering Cleric: Chapter 1, Part 2

"Well, well look what we got here;" the dirty looking man responded as he circled Enialis, "you lost?"

"No, I am not I was merely traveling to Narshe in the hopes of perhaps finding a merchant that I could travel to Figaro with..."

"Oh so you're a traveling to Narshe are you? Well friend me and my boys we work hard to keep these here mountains free of danger, and we're running kind of low on supplies."

"Well if I recall correctly," Enialis said as he looked past the leader to the other three men one much larger than the most, the stubby tusks betraying an orcish heritage. The other two looking near emancipated, one holding a twisted looking bow and the other a wooden spear, "Narshe is but a day away further down this trail, if you would like I could accompany you down the trail."

"Well we were thinking more along the lines of you providing us some payment and we let you continue on your merry way," the man responded. Behind him one of the thinner men elbowed the other as they chuckled at their leader's response. The leader tapped the tip of his long sword against Enialis' bag, "so may haps you've got some money in that bag of yours."

"I'm afraid I did not leave the cathedral with anything save some clothes and some food," Enialis said as he gripped his staff tightly as the leader brought the tip of his sword to Enialis' throat.

"We'll I'm thinking you better hand over your bag, your stick and that fancy looking tiara of yours or we'll kill you and leave you here in the snow for the wolves.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Enialis responded curtly and pushed the sword away with his free hand, "please allow me to pass. I am but a simple priest of Luna and I have done nothing to slight you in any way."

The man laughed aloud and even the half-orc man let out a guttural laugh as he hefted a massive double headed axe to his shoulder. "You see boy, it ain't that you slighted us it's that you're here and you got some goods that we want and we're meaning to take them from you. Whether you're willing to hand them over or not, it doesn't matter if you're the high priest of the entire mountain range or a farmer. We take what we want and there's not a lot you can do about it."

"I suppose not," Enialis said in response, "so I guess I will have to give you something."

"Now that's more like it, you'll be handing over you're things now."

"Well," Enialis said slowly, "that's not what I meant."

"Oh than what?"

"Luna forgive me..." Enialis whispered.

"What's that boy?" the sword man asked as he leaned closer to Enialis, when all of a sudden the silvered staff smacked into the man's face. Enialis was off and running, he ducked under the half-orc's reaching grasp and continued down the trail towards Narshe when an arrow slammed into his left shoulder and sent Enialis stumbling forward to fall face down in the snow.

"Now you just made the biggest mistake of your very short life," the man with the sword asked as he pushed down on Enialis' back pressing his face into the snow.

"We were just going to take your bag and let you off but now Edali there is gonna have some fun with you." Behind him the skinny man holding a bow in his hand laughed aloud.

"Yes, yes, we gonna have some fun before we feed you to the wolves."

Enialis was lifted into the sky by the massive half-orc and the leader slammed his fist into Enialis' stomach. All the air was blasted from his lungs and he sagged forward. Tears poured from his face as a second and a third punch crashed into his stomach. Enialis gasped, "Please I'm just a priest."

"Yeah well we were going to be kind to you, but you blew that with your little stunt back there." the leader said as a heavy backhand slapped Enialis across the face.

As the man was a bout to bring his fist driving into Enialis' face a soft voice called out to the group, "now who do you think you are assaulting a priest of Luna? Even brigands know enough not to assault the priests into the mountains."

Standing on top of an ice covered boulder stood a sandy haired woman wearing a studded leather breast stained a dark chestnut. In her hands she held a black bladed short sword and in the other a glowing orange dirk. With a shout Edali turned and fired an arrow at the woman. The arrow shattered against the boulder as the woman flipped over the head of the man with the spear. Landing in a crouch she drove the short sword into the small of his back and sent the dirk spinning through the air to catch Edali in the forehead. She turned as the half-orc dropped the unconscious Enialis to the ground and charged at her with his axe raised high over his head. The woman spun to the left around the downward chopping axe and with two swift pumps of her arm drove the black bladed sword into his stomach twice. The leader advanced slowly over the slumped over half-orc, his long sword held side ways perpendicular to his chest, "you think I'm scared of you woman?"

"Well I did just kill your friends, one would expect that to garner some sort of response out of you," she responded as she stepped into action her left foot came forward stabbing the sword towards his arm a clever feint that the man easily side stepped, and brought his own blade swinging for her neck. The short sword came up and met the oncoming blade, with a twist of her wrist she locked the two cross guards together and pointed both blades to the ground. The man's foot crashed into her chest and sent her skittering backwards. The woman dropped into a backwards somersault and came up near Edali's corpse with the glowing dirk in her arm. The swordsman came forward again stabbing his sword towards the woman's chest and again the short sword pushed the blade off to the side, this time the woman spun inside toward the man and three times the dirk flashed in the dim moonlight.

"H-h-how?" the man asked as he dropped his sword and his free hand touched his side.

"The hand is quicker than the eye," the woman responded smiling.