"Alright." I did not think that they were siblings. They did not act the way siblings normally do…I think? Looking back they didn’t do anything ostensibly inappropriate, but they just felt…weird. Siblings.

"So what does a pair of siblings have to be so paranoid for?"

"Someone is after us." The boy spoke.

"I've gathered that." I didn’t even try to suppress the annoyance in my voice.

"There is a bounty on us sir." added the girl.

"A hefty one?"

The boy nodded.

"What did you do to get that?" bounties were fairly rare, mostly issued by the kings or high justiciars. Though sometimes there were murders vile enough to warrant one.

"We killed someone sir." the boy's voice was filled with grief and sorrow, as were his eyes. "We…I...had to."

The boy spared me a look, but when he realized that there were answers left unsaid, he continued on. Meanwhile the girl started to brush his back, trying to comfort him. It was probably the first time this boy had blood on his hands.

"He was our guard at first, issued to protect us. We knew him since we were very little. He was skilled in battle, proclaimed to be one of our best fighters. As he was a family friend we were glad to have someone close be our guard. But he started to act suspiciously after a while. He avoided direct eye contact, started calling us by our family name and title, acted cold, like he did not know us anymore."

"I noticed that he tried to get us alone." the sister jumped into his retelling. The boy flashed her a glance but relaxed at seeing her smile. "He tried to lead us through back alleys, he wanted to ride only through the dark. I started locking our doors after that. Once, I woke up in the middle of the night and saw someone trying to pick our lock. Before I jammed the key inside, I spotted him on the other side through the keyhole."

"When my sister told me, we knew we had to leave, he tried to stop us and I…I stabbed him with my knife. We heard the alarm raised behind us when we ran."

"You, killed one of your family's best fighters." The boy was too scrawny to even hold an axe properly´.

"It wasn’t a fair fight." he summarized. "We have been on the run since. Two months back we noticed a weird group following us, we managed to run from them a few times, but then at every major city, we spotted them again. We are sure that they are after us."

The kid did not seem to be lying, neither did she. Although I was sure there were things left unsaid, I decided that they have trusted me enough with this, I might as well help them a little. It may just calm my bloody heart for some time.

"What do they look like?"

"Well...uh."

"I will help you, you told me enough now to better hope I will anyway."

The boy let out a sigh and brushed his hand across his face.

"It's not that we distrust you, its just...we have never seen their face. They wear black clothes, though they definitely aren't wearing anything similar between each other, some had capes, some shields, all of them bore a hood and a red mask." said the girl.

"Must be easy to spot, no one smart would brandish something so out of place when tailing someone."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"You'd think that, but they hide somehow. We are never able to spot them before they spot us."

"Alright, you can stay here for now. We have to make sure of whether someone really is here or not. In either case, I would advice against going out, or putting the blinds out of the windows." I hanged a couple of blankets across my windows, made the house feel more private.

I stood up and grabbed a belt with my axe. When I was walking out the door the girl grabbed my hand. They were soft and cold, too cold actually.

"You'll come back alone right? You won't sell us out?"

A part of me wanted to joke, a different part wanted to say nothing at all, though the one that won was the smallest of those, it definitely was the most intense.

"I will." I said to her big blue eyes as I walked onto the street.

--- --- ---

For most of the day it was business as usual. I had worked outside the weapon storage hut, where I had a clear view of my home and surrounding streets. The grindstone laughed at me as I pressed a rusty axe onto it, as if to mock me for how naïve I was. It was true. They were complete strangers with a bounty on their head and yet I have decided not only to believe them, but also to help them.

Magics surely, I wouldn't have acted like a soft-hearted oaf otherwise. The pristine, clear and innocent eyes came to mind again and my face reddened. I was not old, but I had aged some. She was too young for someone who raided for over ten harvests. Not to mention that she only wants help, nothing else.

As I debated with myself whether or not my morals degraded since getting literally back-stabbed. I felt a gust of wind bring chill down my spine. An ominous feeling ran through my whole body. I relaxed and continued my work. With the way I was feeling, I would stick out like a sore thumb if I let it show.

It didn't take long until the men that she described came.

They bore black armor, not just clothes, though all the fabric had been dyed as well. Their armor was a lot like the ones dry-men use, trading a lot of flexibility and comfort for a steel shell, though their looked surprisingly maneuverable.

The knights were just questioning a passerby, when one of their number looked my way. As I noticed the last detail, I had to manually hold my heart, lest it jumps out of me.

The men did not have a painted red face. They had a painted red skull. They were the ones patriarch warned me about.

When I came to from my surprise he was already in front of me, holding an unfolded scroll picture of the siblings before him.

"Hello sir, have you ever seen these two?" his voice was strained, as if speaking itself proved a challenge. His pronunciations quick and sharp.

"No." I blurted out, pretending to be busy with work. Though I couldn't help but notice the overly large sum bellow their picture. Someone wanted them a lot. This was not a bounty for a single kill.

"These two individuals are very dangerous sir. Any information provided will be rewarded."

"Aye." I acted as uninterested as I could. "What is with the getup, you don't look like one of our guards."

Something terrifying only partly resembling a laugh came from behind the mask.

"I can assure you, if we are not one of you, you are definitely one of ours." he said, the unfunny joke only adding fuel to how uncomfortable I felt.

When his laugh faded away, he produced a second picture. This one was a fairly tall man with long brown hair, shaven beard and a green tunic. A man most would think was dead by now.

"We are also looking for Logher of the Shieldbearers, his family misses him and we promised to help them...reunite. Have you any information on this man?" Though I did not see the man's eyes through his mask, I felt the weight of their gaze on mine. Was he testing me? Threatening me?

"No."

"You do have a very similar tattoo." he pointed out.

"Aye, it is common. It shows the phoenix Phobo, rising from its ashes, knowing that it's destiny is to die again."

The man measured me for a bit, then he grabbed his two scrolls, folded them and hid them again.

"If you'd wanted to be rewarded, bring the...information, to our outpost. About two kilometers west, following the river." after the dark figure watched me for a little while more, it bend a little showing respect, then turned around and joined its brothers.

When I was sure that they left, I dropped the sword I was repairing onto the floor.

My hands were shaking and I could not stop it.

It seems like there was a first to everything.