1874-02-12: Red Hood
Red Hood
Summary: Bandits in Gendiel need dealing with.
Date: 1874-02-12
Related: None
NPCs: {$npc}
Players:
Myrana  

Brass bells rang through the snowy glen, keeping time with the steady crunch of ice under the hooves of the magnificent dappled grey charger plowing through it. A singular brighter note jingled just at the throat of the woman up in the saddle, wrapped up in a coat of brilliant crimson wool trimmed with gold buttons and soft fox fur. Her white braid bounced down her back, and secure in the stirrups, the gold toes of her riding boots flashed and winked in the freezing sunlight. Every piece of jewelry and tack polished and fine, and a bundle tied to the saddle behind her that bulged with what one could only suspect to be fine gifts… or at the very least, something expensive.

The man that stepped out from a blind corner in the icy trees was not so well-dressed, nor did the pleasant aroma of soaps and dogroses cling to him. Quite the opposite, in fact.

He interposed himself like a magic trick between the beautiful lady and the road ahead with a grin, holding a woodsman's axe in his hands.

"Dismount, lady, and hand us your money."

The red-clad lady reigned in her horse and looked down at him, blue eyes widening and cheeks pinked by the freezing air. "Ah…! Oh dear." She leaned back, putting a gloved hand to her breast. Under the sleeve of her riding-cotte, gold bracelets winked. "Oh dear. But aren't you just one bandit?"

"Aren't I enough?" He laughed, and on cue, five more men melted out of the undergrowth, boots crunching as they circled the horse and rider, breath fogging and clothes filthy and wet from the snow. "I've never been with an albino, have you, lads?"

"Six," The lady sat still in the saddle of the charger, who danced to the side a few steps as the men approached, nervous despite their numbers thanks to a snapping bite that just barely missed the closest man's reaching hand. "Six altogether." Reaching up, she showed her empty hands to the bandits, and gave a sigh, blue eyes calm. "Take it, then."

Their leader blinked at this lack of screaming- not at all what he was used to- and stepped forward boldly to grasp the reins of the tremendous horse—

—Only to scream as, from every direction, a hail of arrows whistled down and found the backs, legs, faces and arms of his men. One buried itself in his throat from the riight and his scream gurgled to nothing as he fell back clawing at his collar. Another man fell as an arrow sunk into his thigh, then was knocked utterly onto his side as another slammed in through one ear and out with a terrible sound out of his opposite eye. Thuds and screams and the whistling of arrows filled the previously quiet glen, and the warhorse danced in place as men fell in quick succession in a ring around horse and rider.

Myrana D'Armaz looked down at the gasping wreckage of the bandits catching merchants and woodsmen's wives on the forest roads of Gendiel and let out the breath she'd been holding. Then she turned her face towards the wooded slope above her on one side, seeing her Thornesmen apparate from the evergreens like ghosts, dressed in winter white and grey, holding their longbows. Four of the twelve drew long knives from their belts and finished off those bandits on the ground who had suffered only debilitating wounds.

Sage tossed his head and picked free of the ring with delicacy belying the charger's size. One of the Thornesmen looked up as he wiped his knife, frost in his short black beard.

"Done, Lady."

"Thank you, Marcus." Myrana shifted in the saddle with a tingg of the lightsilver bell pendant at her throat, gathering Sage's reins more securely in warmly gloved hands. She did not look down at the bodies that Sage stepped over, but brushed the bangs from her face, blue eyes still cold. "The ground is too hard; put their bodies away from the road where they won't attract wolves to the woodcutter's wagons, then return to Herensurge."

"Yes, Lady."

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