The woman made her way over the group of men that had been discussing a situation before, embracing one of her before wailing out her problems. She turned to look in the direction her eyes had been shadowing, listening carefully to the words that were spilling wearily out of the distraught woman's blubber gob.
"Jaeden, It's...it's...my husband, and my boys!" She took in deep breaths between sobs, her words coming out erratically as she hugged her husband's friend. "They're after the bounty on the creature. He left me a note this morning and took both our boys. I...they...if she don't come home, I'll just die!" The men seemed to all know of her husband’s plight, for there were shouts of condolences as they comforted her.
There was a certain attractiveness to the dangerous mission that was laid out in front of her. The fact that she had been present when this conversation took place made it all the more perfect.
"Sounds like there is some extra coin to be earned..." Lamira said under her breath; the idea of battle giving her good bumps.
Lenobia approached the group across the way, interjecting in the middle of their conversation. He spoke loud and forcefully, commanding their attention. "Hey. Listen. Tell us where this creature is, tell us how much it's worth and my friends and I will return with its head." They turned their heads towards her and inspected him. At once the entire group roared with a boisterous laughter, calling out to her.
"You? You're tiny!"
"The beast would eat you in one bite."
"Go back to your home child, we don't need more deaths on our hands."
Normally, the insults would not bother Lenobia. These men, however, were insulting her combat ability without knowing anything about her and after the events of the past few years it was a rather sore subject.
She sprung in to action, bringing her elbow to the first man's face, extending the same arm forward and delivering her fist to the second man. She grasped the third man by the back of his head and pushed forward, driving the man's face down to the lacquered wood top. Pressing her hand, and summarily the man’s face, firmly against the table she brought her own head down to the level of the poor man's face.
"Now, tell me where to go and how much I’m getting paid."
The man delivered the information; somewhere on the River and thirty gold pieces for proof of the creature's death. Lenobia smiled contently as she released him, speaking to herself…
"I’ll eat first and then tackle the creature." The waitress arrived with perfect timing, bringing her two healthy plates of roasted meat and earthy vegetables. Lenobia sunk back down in to her chair and ripped in to the meaty chunk before her.
*************************************
As the tree line faded, her target came in to view. Beyond her was everything that had been talked about in the tavern; there were three human figures fighting the most impossibly inhuman thing Lenobia had ever seen.
The creature’s base stood in the water, though it did not seem that it needed to. It was large and hulking, powerful front shoulders leading down to a series of jagged claws on each arm. Its head was nearly as large as Lenobia’s body, equipped with dangerous slits of eyes and rows of sharp teeth. Worst yet, off each arm and off its back were wild tentacles that searched through the air for a target to constrict and likely destroy.
The three before her were doing battle with the thing, the smallest of the brothers standing far away with a bow and arrows, firing inaccurate shots at the terrifying creature. The father wielded a large claymore, and was a seemingly adept fighter. Even with the mighty weapon in hand he managed to duck and weave under its swipes and tentacle attacks, stinging back it at whenever he could.
The eldest of the two brothers bore a long sword and a large heater shield, though the shield seemed quite superfluous as he wouldn't be able to stand her ground against the giant thing's attack. The three rolled around the riverbed, avoiding the creature and firing what seemed like pointless attacks back in to it.
Lenobia watched excitedly as the vision of the tentacle beast lit a fire inside her. She slowed her horse quickly, a stubborn whinny coming she reared and reluctantly stopped. Horse tail flickered wildly as she got nervous, watching the battle unfold in front of her. Clicking hooves gave away the panicked equine heart as she Lenobia turned her to the side, blinding her. Lenobia stood up in the leather foot restraints and with a hoot of exhilaration, she jumped down; tying the reins to a tree stump located relatively close by.
The battle with this creature was taking too long. He could feel her muscles tiring as she watched the men: avoiding tentacles and claws and all manners of gnashing, destructive attacks. Striking back whenever they could, they weren’t making any significant progress aside from the first salvo and medium sized cuts on different stages of the beast's form.
Suddenly, there was an opening. Lenobia was able to wade in to the water by the thing's side. It turned towards the men issuing arrows and taunts; caught off-guard by Lenobia's sudden attack; rearing up and flailing wildly as she went on the offensive. Seizing the opportunity, Lenobia took off towards it in as much of a run as she could muster. He lifted her legs high, muscles burning as he churned through the water. The beast, suffering from the efforts of Lenobia, had pitched to the side and was leaning away from her, exposing its soft underbelly.
Grasping her newfound sword in both hands, he loosed all the air in her lungs and produced a growling, guttural noise as he plunged the blade in the creatures exposed flesh.
She ducked low in the waist high water, staying out of the thing's field of vision. Terrible roars were coming from it now. Its blood was filtering into river, staining the crystal blue water with a disgusting cloud of ever expanding blackness.
The beast emitted a high-pitched screech as the blade sunk in to its most vulnerable point. Lenobia' blade ripped further down its stomach, exposing her to acrid stench of the creature's insides.
As a latch ditch effort it swung a tentacle down at him, and being in waist high water he couldn't easily avoid it. It caught her clean across her midsection and flung her backwards, knocking the air out of her. her grip on the sword ended and it stuck out of its belly, the killing blow unfinished. However, the creature had never been in worse condition and was very clearly losing this battle.
Standing up in the shallow water, Lenobia inhaled deeply and pointed at the clearly dying creature. She was going to finish this thing even if it killed her!
Of course, in the end, It was Lenobia who walked away with a fat sack of coin, smiling wide as she took off with her horse to a upstream location where she could both clean up and make camp. She had to stay moving, for fear that she would miss a bounty elsewhere.
