The night bled fire
Cries,wail and tears filled the night as Jael's boot stomped on scorched earth smoke training him like a shadow,his sword — blood-wet and glowing faintly — cut through the thick night air as he carved a path between the bandits and his boy.
"Stay close!" he said firmly without turning eyes focused on the path ahead. Kaelen gripped Lyra's hand tightly, stumbling over roots and broken carts, trying to keep up.
The town that once cradled them was now a battlefield — a burning maze of ash and screams. Jael's eyes darted from alley to alley, searching for the next move.
A cry pierced the air — a bandit lunged from the right, axe raised high.
Clang!
The two metals clashed.
Sword and axe.
Jael parried, twisted, and with one clean motion, drove his blade through the man's gut. The bandit crumpled to the ground like a puppet with its strings severed.
Kaelen had stopped — staring.
"Don't look!" Jael shouted, his voice laced with pain and urgency. But the boy couldn't help it. The blood, the raw finality of death — it was too loud to ignore.
Jael grabbed him by the shoulder. "Move, Kaelen! Now!"
Jael against what he hoped didn't go unnoticed, his swift fluid movement — like a water dance — brought him unwanted attention from the bandits around. *This was supposed to be a farmers village after all*
Jael charged towards the forked path, Lyra and Kaelen close behind, they ran straight ahead hoping to make it to the Ashen ridge. He planned to lose the bandits in the trees.
Four assailants came from the right cutting off their paths, One held a chain,the other one a curved sickle on both hands and the last two both held a long sword each.
Jael gripped his sword tightly,he knew he had no time to waste.
The chain lunged towards his face,a swift duck as he lunged forward, he kicked the man into a flaming cart — his cry filling the air. The other three attacked simultaneously, chemistry in their combination.
The fight was brutal.
Jael was caught between the three fighters parrying and weaving, one charged — Jael side-stepped, kicked his knee inward, and brought his sword down in one clean arc.
Jael moved like a storm let loose.
Two bandits charged .
Jael stepped forward, blade low, eyes locked. And then—
One breath. One strike.
His sword sang through the air in a blinding arc. The motion was fluid, almost too fast to see — like wind slicing through grass.
The first man fell before he could scream, throat split open.
The second stumbled, clutching his middle. A heartbeat later, he dropped — the wound across his chest clean, fatal.
Two lives taken in one motion.
Kaelen stared, frozen.
Kaelen's breath caught — was that his father? Or something else in his skin?
Jael didn't stop, he couldn't — not now.
The last bandit lunged for Lyra. Jael charged at him but was cut off by another attacker. Kaelen doesn't think — he throws something, anything. The rock hits the bandit. It buys a second. But that second meant everything.
Lyra stumbled back. Jael plunged his sword into his attacker's abdomen, moved — in a blur — and sliced off the hand of the last bandit. He turned to make sure Lyra and Kaelen were okay.
*Swish*
He cleaved an arrow that had been fired at him mid-air .
"Ahhh!!" Jael looked down to see another arrow stuck in his right side.
"Dad!!!" Kaelen screamed. One assailant had carried him off.
"Kaelen!" Jael screamed. For the first time in what had felt like an eternity, he felt fear again — the last time being when Sabrina died.
He could vividly remember that night — her hair disheveled as she screamed in pain. The pain of childbirth — it surged through her like molten metal poured into fragile glass, threatening to shatter her with every contraction. And it did.
She gave birth to Kaelen, and with her dying breath, made him promise to protect him — and here he was, about to fail.
He couldn't. He wouldn't.
"Run!" he said to Lyra. "Take the Ashen. We'll find you."
"Jael, the..." Lyra wanted to speak, but Jael had already sprinted off after the attacker. She turned and sprinted off towards the Ashen.
He can't lose him. He mustn't. That was the only thought on Jael's mind as he raced after the horse. He rolled over on the ground, grabbing a spear in front of him with his right hand, and threw with all the strength he could muster.
*Thwooom*
it tore heavily through the night a whistle trailing behind it as it cut through the air.
*Thunkk*
The horse raced on as the man fell backward — the spear had hit its mark. The horse slowed down,then turned around and came towards Jael.
*Good thing I had taught him how to ride*, Jael thought and smiled. Kaelen raced the horse towards Jael, who jumped on as it reached him. Together, they rode as fast as they could towards the Ashen — towards safety.
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