The night wore on and was completely uneventful, but Aerin had not slept at all even though the Queen had told her they wouldn’t strike tonight she couldn’t sleep knowing they were being watched. Draakin didn’t have very good vision at night it is why they preferred open spaces and mountains.
The Caravan rapidly packed up and prepared for another long journey towards the Kathari capital. Assuming the Queen was right they were going to be intercepted at some point today. Aerin has no reason to doubt this either.
As the day wore on, tension in the air continued to grow; it was clear some of the stronger warriors had sensed something off in the forest as well. Even Aerin started to notice that the birds that were flying about making noise had suddenly gotten much quieter.
Reaching behind her where her gauntlets hung slightly behind her hips she disconnected them and began to circulate her magic through her veins. Aerin could cut the tension with a blunt blade as her eyes scanned the massive forest around them.
Up ahead near the next small clearing, a lone man walked down the path hood pulled up obscuring his face.
The Envoy stopped in its path. Sila walked forward with one of the guards bearing the Draakin Empire’s standard alongside her. “I am Princess Silandra of the Draakin Empire state your purpose for impeding the movement of our diplomatic mission.”
The figure took down his hood revealing a man with feline-like features while he looked like a typical human male his ears were like that of a cat and his tail that poked out from behind him twitched back and forth as if it had a mind of its own.
“Kathari” the man’s voice spoke out “do not desire to work with outsiders! Begone from our lands!”
Sila sneered, “We have personal invitations from the council of your capital city. What right do you have to command us?”
“The Council doesn’t speak on behalf of all Kathari! Outsiders are not welcome here. This is your last warning.”
Sila took out her Jian sword and pointed it at the man who stood less than twenty-five meters from them. “Move or I will be forced to move you and report these actions to your leaders.”
The man reached for his side and pulled out two small blades that curved down over his knuckles coming to sharp points.
“So be it.”
As soon as the words left his lips large spiked bolts shot out from the forest rapidly from several angles both from the side and above in the canopy. Fortunately, the entire convoy was prepared and brought shields up blocking the first wave.
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Upon lowering their shields dozens of feline warriors leaped from the shadows and began weaving around the convey in an acrobatic fashion. Aerin watched Sila as the Queen had ordered, but she also had a duty as one of the Queen’s guards. Watching one of the Kathari brigands square up with her crouching low as if ready to pounce Aerin stretched both her arms shaking off any stiffness.
Aerin felt the need to shake off the nerves smirking at the crouching Kathari. “Come little kitty. Let me show you how Draakin fight!”
The provocation seemed to work as the Kathari warrior finally pounced with a hiss. The metal rings on Aerin’s hands were not charged yet with lightning elements so she merely parried the first blow sending a series of jabs after pushing back the lightweight Kathari.
Aerin was surprised at how lightweight and flexible they were compared to Draakin. The blows didn’t land firmly as the body seemed to give away whenever she made contact.
The Kathari warrior swiped three times at her clawed hand followed by a lone dagger. None of the blows managed to connect and she finally felt lightning pour out from her core into the ringed gauntlet. Swiping at him with a large arc a small spark of electricity shot out in an arc at the Kathari whose eyes widened in surprise behind a mask that covered the lower half of the face.
Whether out of instinct or ignorance, the male Kathari tried to block the the arc with his dagger only to have the electricity flow immediately into his arm which tensed up allowing Aerin to send a swift and powerful jab into his ribs on the exposed side sending him crashing into another Kathari who was engaged with one of the guards.
Taking a moment to spot Sila who was engaged with the supposed leader of the attackers she watched as Sila’s jian swirled around her back a swift kick to her shoulder sent her spinning which she used as momentum to send a spinning back kick at his exposed upper arm. Without stopping she sent the sword to his neck. The man did a one-handed backhand spring kicking the blade up and away in a different direction.
Sila didn’t stop and let fire engulf one of her hands which sent flying at the man who had just recovered only for it to impact him squarely on the chest blowing him back as it exploded on impact sending him crashing into a nearby tree.
At that moment the rest of the Queen’s guard and soldiers had mopped up the rest managing just as planned to keep these rebels unharmed.
Aerin smiled the Queen was definitely smart; they had received advanced notice from one of the council members that one of them might go rogue and to be prepared to fight them. That they intended to scare off the diplomatic mission, but not kill anyone. When the Queen told Silandra this and the rest of the Queen’s guard she immediately suggested we don’t kill any of them in retaliation as it would show Kathari we had restraint.
If the enemy wasn’t trying to kill anyone it was easy to exploit weaknesses when you knew ahead of time it was an act.
Sila turned to the guards. “Bind them up and put them on the wagons. We have a few hours before we reach the checkpoint where council member Maafri is set to meet us.”
Aerin couldn’t help but feel that these missions were plagued by troubles. First Goblins then rebels? It was like the world was set against the Draakin ending their isolationist tendencies.