There were three guards.
He counted them twice on his fingers to be sure. Math had never been his strong suit. This however was something he excelled at.
The wagons formed a defensive circle around the roaring bonfire. No mere campfire, as this group of merchants was comprised of 3 or 4 individual wagon traders, and an impressive number of soldiers. This many Southern men sharing a fire meant they were working in numbers. It seemed that they were getting smarter. Not that it would help them.
He stalked down the hill face like a house cat. His speed and agility unfitting of his sheer silence. He rolled to a stop and peered through some dried brushweed cropping up within spitting distance of the nearest wagon. The first guard rolled his arms in their sockets, yawning. His nondescript leather armor revealed him as a low class mercenary. Probably never even had to used the sword on his belt. As he suddenly stopped yawning and decided it would be time to lay down, and quickly. The crossbow bolt in his neck made sure of that. Not a sound.
"Wun" He whispered.
Tiptoeing around the outside of the wagons, he stopped for just a moment to run his finger over one of the smooth wooden wagon wheels. One thing the Ivors knew how to do was make a good wagon. These wheels would soon be lining his pockets with silver.
The second and third guard circumnavigated the campground slowly, looking out into the dark. They bantered in the gritty Southern tongue. It was clearly a nervous conversation. They were scared. Good.
The first one fell with a shot to the knee. The inside knee of course. This toppled him over throwing his companion off-balance, the two spilling to the ground in a jumble of limbs, armor, and a lit torch. Moving quickly and quietly he ran up and knifed them both before they could untangle themselves. They had made some noise.
"Tew and Tree" he whispered to himself to give confidence, yet he glanced around cautiously. He wiped the blood off his tiny blade and began digging through the pouches on his belt to find the sack.
The arrow struck the ground not two span from his feet. He cursed to himself. Four! Four came after three! He knew he had miscounted. The fourth guard shouted a warning to the campground, and suddenly the night came to life.
He had to move quickly. These Southerners would have weapons in hand and be ready to kill in seconds. Jumping behind the body of the second fallen guard he leveled his crossbow just long enough to take the fourth guard in the eye before he had time to even string another arrow.
Then he ran. Not away from the wagons, but into them. He slid right under the nearest at a full run, feeling the bottom knock the hat off his head. He rolled out into the camp of confused shouting Ivors and came to his feet. They pointed and roared. A horse reared up in a equine shriek of terror. He used the chaos as his shield. He threw the sack he had been digging for into the bonfire. A simple campfire would have worked fine, but a bonfire was even better. The bigger the fire, the bigger the--
K-BOOM
A chromatic explosion of leaping cinders erupted from the roaring flames. Burning pitch struck both man and wagon. He didn't wait to watch the wagons burn. He just kept running, right out the other side of the encircled camp, and out into the night.
They were chasing him, he knew, but he had given the signal. As he sprinted back up the hill, angry soldiers hot on his heels, he was met by the first wave of his friends. The Soldiers were met head-on by five bloodthirsty desert warriors, who had been waiting patiently for the explosion before charging. He just kept running, and let them do their job. The other wave would be coming from the east and they would finish off the merchants, and collect those precious wheels.
It wasn't a perfect execution, but he had pulled it off. He was good at what he did. That is why the boss trusted him. That is why he made the good money. Well, good money anyway for a goblin.
His wicked little fingers pulled another bolt into place in his fine crossbow as Geebris disappeared into the dark.
No comments:
Post a Comment