The First to Fall

[Anonymous]

"Don't move!"
Just as Ashara was beginning to open her eyes and reach to try and touch the source of the throbbing pain on her head, the voice snapped at her not to do so. The pain took precedence over the warning anyway and she tried to massage her forehead...until she felt a warm, moist feeling on her palm.
"I thought that I said don't move," chastised the voice as Ashara felt her arm roughly grabbed and slammed down to her side.
She grimaced and groaned after receiving such gentle treatment. Ashara tried again to open her eyes, and quickly found herself blinded by a light that forced them shut again.
"You probably won't be able to open your eyes yet. It is a bright afternoon without a single cloud outside, and this hut hasn't any curtains," said the voice as something soft, a cloth material, was pressed onto the painful area on Ashara's forehead.
She took a couple breaths and asked, "Where am I?"
The voice sighed, and Ashara was finally able to discern that it was a male's voice as it spoke, "This will be difficult..." A pause, then the man continued, "Listen to me: Your name is Ashara Neifate. You are under the employ of the Vex Family and fought with them during the Triad civil war. While you and several others were chasing renegades from the Argos Family through this town, you suffered an explosive fire blast to the head from one of their mages. Lucky he had not hit you dead on, or I'd be burying you instead of bandaging you."
Ashara groaned and tried to turn her head to the side, but failed to do so as more pain shot up through her neck and sent shivers back down her spine. "...Who are you?"
The male chuckled to himself and answered from a spot a little further away this time, "My name is Detris Tsurin, obviously from the Minor House Tsurin. I am a physician and I damn well saved your life. Your comrades are out in the town persuing the last few renegades, and I expect that they will return shortly enough. As for you...well, we'll wait for your mild concussion to wear off..."

[Anonymous]

Time passed, as Ashara slipped back into unconsciousness...


!!!!
Ashara suddenly sat up on the table, and she managed to open her eyes as well. She was in the middle of a cozy little shack, merely twenty feet wide by twenty-five feet long. The sunlight poured in from the only two windows in the house, each on either side of her. She couldn't help but to squint her eyes because of this, and she lefted her left hand to her forehead to provide her sensitive eyes with a little shade from the sun's rays. Looking out the window on her right, she saw many other shacks and houses not unlike the one she was in on a downward slope that eventually led to the bright blue ocean, which held several fishing boats near the shoreline.
After getting a bearing on her location, Ashara noticed two other things: The pain in her head had subsided, and that there was a note on her lap.
Picking up the note, it read:

Ashara Neifate, I have treated you with some medicine for your forehead. You will be out cold for a while, but should wake in due time. I have gone out to aid your comrades, as one of them was injured in the pursuit of the renegades. You have my trust that you can take care of yourself until I return.
~~ Detris Tsurin

So...he just left me here alone, while unconscious, when the enemy was somewhere in the area, thought Ashara.
Perhaps a few words, naturally among maybe another thing or two, might help him realize the faults in his actions.
Ashara turned her body sideways so that she was sitting on the edge of the table. Then she noticed, on the counter top in front of her, her bow and quiver rested. At least Detris had the common decency to leave weapons lying around in plain sight for any would-be assassins that might have come to kill her in her unconscious state.
Add that to the list of reprimands he had coming...
Ashara slid off of the table and onto her feet, reaching out to take her bow-
When the sound of the wooden floor creaking on her right caught her attention.
!!!!
She had a split-second to see a masked dark elf before a boot was roughly driven into her face, knocking her down and flat on her back.

[Anonymous]

The masked dark elf quickly fell upon Ashara, bringing his right hand down fast-
Her only chance was to cut him off with a quick knee up into his stomach to hold his main body at bay, and to horizontally block his incoming arm with her own left arm, which Ashara managed to pull off desperately.
The fun and games were only starting though, as she noticed why he drove down with his right hand - it clenched a large dagger that was drenched in a glistening liquid...
Poison, no doubt. It was almost as interesting to think about which of various and very nasty poison it could be as it was terrifying to see it hanging half a foot over your face.
Ashara clenched her teeth as Knife began to use his weight to try and inch himself and his dagger closer and closer to her flesh. And at the very tip of said dagger, a small drop of the poison was slowly gathering...growing larger and larger-
Drip.
The drop of poison splattered on Ashara's cheek, dreadfully close to her mouth or nose or eyes where it could have entered the body and caused some real damage.
Now or never.
Ashara kicked her free leg against the counter to her left for some momentum, then successfully rolled Knife off of herself to the right and between the legs of the table, all the way to the other side.
Both Ashara and Knife jumped back onto their with equal speed and timing-
But it was Knife who had the initiative - he chucked an oversized throwing needle at Ashara, forcing her to throw herself back down onto the ground the nearly avoid being punctured.
Dropping back down as well, Knife uncorked a vial full of a yellowish liquid and poured it on the ground in Ashara's direction. The liquid turned out to be acid, and it hissed and steamed as it quickly ate through the wooden floor while snaking its way towards her.
Ashara's eyes widened, and she rolled backwards and up onto her feet to avoid the small river of acid that quickly dissolved through the floor where she was only a second ago.
Knife was already on the attack when she reached her feet - staying low and closing the distance in a couple seconds.
To be greeted by a sideways kick that sent him back and tumbled across the table, finally to crash to the floor on the other side, the sight of him blocked by said table.
Now with some distance gained, Ashara quickly took the few steps forward necessary to grab her bow and an arrow and backpedaled to where she was. She loaded an arrow back and aimed as soon as she had her ground.
She had him; now all that was left was for the fool to stand up so he could die like a good little boy.
....
Ashara narrowed her eyes after more than just a few seconds went by and there was no sign of Knife. She had saw him drop down on the other side of the table...was he seriously going to stay there?
It was then that the quiet sound of creaking wood from behind and above her caught her attention.
And she turned around just in time to be on the receiving end of a face-full of blinding powder.

[Anonymous]

The extreme burning sensation in her eyes caused her to instantly drop her bow and arrow and futilely claw at them in an attempt to relieve the pain.
She backed up quickly, relying on literally blind chance not to bump into the table in the middle of the house. Blinding powder was a common enough tool used among assassins, so the vigilant individual would carry a salve with them that counteracted the effects of the powder lest they actually wanted to be overcome if they were so unlucky as to run into it unequipped. As such, Ashara frantically patted around her belt for her salve, listening for-
Movement.
Despite the efforts of this apparently new attacker, Ashara heard his ever so quiet feet when he dropped to the floor.
And that's when her back bumped into the table in the middle of the house, just like she had hoped not to do.
Quick.
Think.
The window. On her right.
If she was wrong about it, she was dead. If she was right, she had a few seconds.
Ashara lunged to her right-
And felt herself break through glass. She rolled to a stop outside of the house, which the packet of the salve in hand. With no time to waste, she squeezed the packet and felt it burst as well as the cool liquid all over her hand now. Ashara hastily wiped the salve across her eyes, feeling relief as the burning subsided and the ability to open her eyes returned to her.
She quickly turned around to face the house.
!!!!
Nothing.
No blades flying toward her, no one running at her, no bolts of magic coming her way either.
Just nothing.
Nevertheless, she drew her own daggers and waited, watching the house and all of its exits intensely.