The sun streaked through the overhead canopy, throwing golden beams across a well-trod cobblestone road. There was a serene stillness here, something that spoke of a place that had been made by people and then abandoned, but not for long enough that the wildlife had come back. A very slight breeze blew, shaking the trees and filling this slice of the world with the low mumble of disturbed foliage.

After what seemed like an age to the wind and a blink to the trees, three voices raised in song disturbed the peace. The song they sang was of no consequence, but the spirit in which it was sung; bawdily, poorly, and loudly, communicated a wealth of information to any listener. These were three voices that had done this before and often. Even more so, these were three voices that knew that their singing annoyed at least one other listener.

"That isn't even how the song goes!" a voice said, aggravation clear in their tone. "You're getting the words all wrong and butchering one of my nations greatest gifts to you backwards savages."

The other three voices laughed at the consternation, but ceased their musical teasing as they continued their seemingly interminable journey.

A group, five strong, moved along the mostly-forgotten road together in silence for a little while. Each was lost in their own thoughts until one of them spoke.

"Hey Gaith, why isn't this road used anymore? It seems nice, well kept." The speaker was slight of frame and indeterminate of gender, riding a dappled roan horse they had named Muffin. They travelled light, with a simple waxed canvas bag and hard-worn travelling clothes. The only weapon that they kept at hand was a long, single edge, straight knife. If one were to look closely at it with a weaponsmiths eye they'd see the telltale marks of novice work with solid construction as well as several deep gouges in the blade that spoke of a untrained defense against a foe.

"That's an interesting question, Rhian. It's an old Empire road. It was constructed hundreds of years ago, but the new kingdom didn't want any remnants of the old Empire so they built newer, worse roads where they could and forced the use of those. Most people have forgotten these even exist except for some of the smaller towns, some merchants, and . . . . Bandits" The speaker was a slight man, tall and willow-thin with a great coat on that seemed to have an endless number of pockets and pouches sown to it. He rode a mechanical beast he called "The Contraption" that balanced on two wheels and rocketed around at higher-than-reasonable speeds. He spoke with the unconsciously aloof air of someone that had gone to university and was, unfortunately, usually correct.

"Don't take any cues from him," a new rider said, leaning over and speaking sotto voce to the first rider. "He's always bad at this part and if you talk to him about it he'll blow our cover." She was clad in shimmering plate mail, riding a white steed with blonde mane and tail that seemed to shine just as brightly as her armor. She carried with her a shield polished to a mirror shine and a war hammer that would have seemed absurdly large on a man twice her size. On her chest plate the holy symbol of The Blood was emblazoned in deep crimson.

"I am not!" Gaith said in mock offense. "Laia, my lovely lady-wife, how could you say that about me," he pleaded, reaching a hand toward her in supplication.

Laia took the chance to slip off her gauntlet and slap his hand away, prompting another high laugh.

The wind gusted, rustling the trees with more violence than normal, prompting the fourth rider to drop back from his position at the front of the small group. "First sighting," he said warily, prompting a high, nervous chuckle from the thin man. "They're following us, but they shouldn't do anything yet. I'd guess we'll go past two more bends in this road before they do anything." He clucked at his mount, a large strawberry blonde dog with mid-length fine hair, urging her back to the forward position in the small formation. The dog gleefully bound forward, tongue out and lolling, running crossways about the road and pulling small, tight circles much to the riders chagrin. "DONNA" he chastised her, getting her to run back in a straight line.

"Jonas never could get that dog under control, could he?" Laia said with a smile. "We should let Ceri know."

Laia held a finger in the air for a moment, calling for the final member of The Party to appear. She wore a long blue coat with an embossed pattern, with a vest and pants of deep blue underneath, standing in perfect contrast to her sun-kissed skin. She descended from the canopy on a broom, confirming what the lead rider had said. "I can see them moving through the underbrush now. They'll be on us in a little while." She looked down at Rhian, asking "How are you feeling? They're far enough away that they won't be able to hear us."

"A little nervous" Rhian said, briefly hooking their reins over the saddle horn an rubbing their hands together. "What's the play here? How do I fit into it?"

Ceridwen sat back on her broom and thought for a second. "Well, there's a pretty good chance we'll come to no fighting, so in that case nothing. But we always want to be prepared for whatever may happen, so I'm…." She trailed off in thought for a second. "You know what, how do you feel about sniper patrol?"

"What's that?" Rhian looked up at the trees curiously. They had good memories of climbing the trees back at their home village, but these seemed larger. Of course, Rhian was larger too, so maybe it'd work out fine.

"So just like with Gaith, we're going to assume that they have hidden shooters in the trees."

"Luckily they're just crossbows or short bows, nothing like ol' Dylan here." Gaith said, patting the long rifle on his back.

"Yes, we're aware that we're in my technologically inferior homeland" Laia said with an eyeroll and gesturing for a much-annoyed Ceridwen to continue.

"So what we're going to do is when we first spy the roadblock they've set up, Gaith is going to dismount and find a good perch. We'll assume that they've got people stationed up in the trees too, so we need you to dismount right after Gaith and then move around the side through the forest. Keep a watch in bushes and up in trees and take out anyone that's perched for cover. Laia, Jonas, and I will take care of the combatants that decide to confront us. If you feel comfortable with it, shimmy up one of the trees and take a crossbow for yourself, that'll rattle them."

Rhian sat and thought about it for a second, nervousness at the coming violence building up in them. "Okay," they said, their voice unintentionally small.

Laia rode a little closer, bending down to put a heavily armored hand on Rhian's shoulder, concern in her eyes. "It's okay to say no. Only do what you're comfortable doing. Sniper patrol means you're probably going to be the first into the fight and it also means you're doing it without an easy safety net, so if you're not ready for that it's okay to say that you're not ready for it. It's a dangerous job." Rhian could see Gaith and Ceridwen politely looking away from the conversation, but both were unconsciously nodding their heads at Laia's statement.

Rhian looked at their companions before steeling themselves. "No," their voice came in stronger, "I'll do it. It'll be fun!" Rhian worked hard at the internal emotional alchemy of changing fear into excitement. It worked about as well as all those lead to gold experiments in Valtoria, which is to say not well at all.

"Don't worry, Dylan and I can cover you for most of it." Gaith said. "it's going to be harder for us if you're down on the ground, but up in the canopy we should have a clear shot for most of the road."

Rhian nodded in thanks, but sat consumed with the thoughts of the upcoming violence. Their mind played out all sorts of scenarios - they failed and died. They failed and their friends died, they were all captured and sold, they were captured and tortured, and easily the worst of all - only Rhian was captured and then after being saved, was lectured at by Laia and Jonas. They couldn't take the lectures.

Stolen novel; please report.

They were so consumed by their concerns that they didn't realize that Gaith had already peeled off from the group and ascended a tree. It wasn't until Ceridwen loudly cleared her throat that Rhian looked up and finally pulled their horse off the road and into the forest. They dismounted, patting Muffin on the side and whispering comforting words to the horse before tying her off to a tree. Muffin wasn't a war horse, and was still skittish when gunshots and violence rang through the air. Rhian commiserated with her over that.

Rhian began moving through the underbrush on the wild forest floor, keeping eye and ear open for any telltale sign that snipers lurked about.

"Ho there travelers, you seem to have come upon our FULLY LEGAL and SANCTIONED BY THE CURRENT KING old road checkpoint!" A voice rang out over the road. Even deeper into the brush, Rhian could hear the smarmy smirk on the brigands face. A low, angry rumble started from Jonas before Ceridwen took the conversation over, but Rhian couldn't make out anything being said.

"Hey!"

The voice came from above Rhian, and five million thoughts blasted through their mind. "I'm Caught. I'm Doomed. I'm going to be lectured at," all before they could take a breath and look up.

"Hey what are you doing down there? You're the new boy right?" A face was looking down at Rhian from the treetops, earnest and concerned. "Don't be down there that's where all the fighting is. Scamper up here, double-quick!"

The voice belonged to one of the brigands. He wore some homespun clothing, loose but made well enough that it showed little wear. It was blacks and greys in color, and looking back down at themselves they understood how the brigand made the mistake. Rhian was dressed in almost exactly the same way.

Rhian was so taken aback by the turn of events they fell back to what had become rote for them. "Not a boy," they said, still not really believing what was going on.

"Girl then. Get up here!"

Rhian shimmied up the tree as quickly as they could, and once up there they could see what was happening on the road. A tree had been felled, not more than one bend after Jonas had first warned them about first sighting. They were sure that Ceridwen was going to be teasing him relentlessly about that.

"…pitiful adventurers don't know they're outnumbered and surrounded," the brigand said as Rhian tuned back into their own current situation. "We'll have them divested of their valuables here in a moment and things'll be right as rain."

Rhian looked at the man and still had nothing to say, so fell back on yet another tried and true reaction. "Not a girl either."

The brigand looked back at them. "Oh, an ascetic ey? Have me a cousin that's an ascetic. Lovely person. Wrote a whole book on clover biology and won a scholarship into one of them fancy colleges. Heard they teach there now." He sighed a little heavily. "Always fancied I'd follow their example. Had me a year working a cannery and studying gutfish biology but, you know. Here we are!" He took his hand from the trigger of the crossbow to scratch at his chest.

Rhian took the opportunity to draw their weapon and knock the man out, aiming at the spot that Laia told them was most effective at rendering men unconscious. They used the butt of their knife and struck.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for!" the brigand turned and looked at Rhian incredulously.

"Sorry." Rhian said, actually feeling apologetic. He seemed like a nice brigand. They hit him harder on the forehead and caught him before he tumbled off the tree. Blessedly, he barely kept a hold of the crossbow long enough for Rhian to sheathe their knife and take hold of it and the quiver of bolts he had slung on his hip.

Rhian, using muscles toned by years of work on their families fields, flung the man like a sack of potatoes over the sturdy branch they both sat on, using him as a stand for his own crossbow. They immediately regretted it as they moved their head down near the man to properly sight along the bolt. The smell was overwhelming, immediately setting their eyes to water.

"No, it is you who don't understand the situation you're in!" A voice cried, clearly enjoying their own theatrics. "For you are surrounded by the best marksmen in this forest!"

"Doubtful" Ceridwen responded.

Rhian cleared their eyes just in time to see Gaith gesticulating wildly in their direction. When he saw that he'd gotten Rhains attention, he pointed at another tree in her sight line that had a figure with a crossbow in it. Rhian turned slight, sighting down the bolt and raising the nose of the crossbow ever so slightly before nodding back at him. He turned back to sight along his own rifle, raising a hand in a "wait for it" gesture.

"Oh, so you doubt their skill? Or do you doubt … their very existence!?" The lead brigand said, waving his hands about in a manner that less said "Charismatic outlaw" and more said "Amateur stage play."

"I doubt their combat capability," Ceridwen said, raising her off hand over her head and snapping.

KRAK

THWUMP

KRAK

Three bodies tumbled from the canopy, two with gunshots through their hands and one with a bolt lodged in their calf. All three took to screaming bloody murder as they landed on the ground, quickly overriding the cacophony of gunfire.

"Oh." The leader deflated a little at the revelation that he wasn't as prepared for these negotiations as he thought he was. Rhian took a moment to recompose themselves, slinging the bolts and crossbow over their shoulder and then dropping the recumbent body of the brigand off the tree limb and onto the softest bush they could see. Gaith had been adamant about repositioning after every shot, and they weren't about to sit in the same place they had shot from for long. They could even see Gaith moving from treetop to treetop in an effort to stop the brigands from finding him. "Never be where they know you are," his words ringing in their ears.

Just as they settled in a new tree, a group of three brigands found the unconscious body of their compatriot. The brigands roused him quickly, and Rhian thanked the Elements that he seemed to come to no worse for the wear than a bit groggy and a bit angry.

"Well, certainly you don't think that those were the only men I brought to this little Soirée? Our band numbers greater than your little 'adventurers party.'"

Rhian didn't know how he spoke the quotations marks around adventurers party but they could hear it somehow. They hoped to figure it out one day.

"Oh Honey, greater numbers isn't the tactical advantage you think it is." Ceridwen said, making a gesture behind her back. Rhian looked at it, then looked at Gaith, with whom they had a very fast and very silent conversation using only their body language and expressions.

"She wants us to shoot someone, but I don't have a target!" Gaith said, pantomiming shooting and then shrugging animatedly.

"I have three, but I don't think I could take all of them with just one bolt. I'd have to displace after it and they'll see me!" Rhain communicated by holding up three fingers, then pointing to the crossbow and using their fingers to make a little running motion.

Gaith looked down at Ceridwen, who was still making the gesture behind her back while staring down the bandit leader. "Okay," he nodded his head, "You shoot one of them and displace toward me," shooting motion, running fingers, pointing at himself. "Then I'll take the other two as they chase you" two fingers, shooting motion, drawing line across neck.

All told, the conversation took about five seconds. Ceridwen was going to be pissed. Gaith looked at Rhian and pulled his hands up his chest while breathing in then back down while breathing out, a calming technique he had shown Rhian when they were new to the party. Rhian went through it quickly, then without giving themselves any time to be anxious grabbed the crossbow and shot the nearest brigand in the leg.

The brigand was falling and screaming right as Rhian hit the ground running. The other two brigands saw the motion and took to chase like wolves running after a rabbit.

Rhian's breath came hard and fast, adrenaline and anxiety quickly pushing them past their physical limit while they sprinted away. Rhian could hear the two pursuing bandits behind them, all three combatants breathing hard with exertion as the chase continued.

Two cracks perforated the silence in succession, one brigand falling with a loud cry and the other thumping to the ground silently.

Rhian offered a silent prayer and broke through the underbrush back onto the road to see Jonas picking the Bandit Leader, stiff as a board, up off the ground.

"What . . . Happened . . . Out . . . Here," they asked between labored breaths.

"He broke first," Ceridwen said with no small amount of satisfaction in her voice. "When that last rifle shot went off he fidgeted towards the wood and I knew we had him," she said while tapping the side of her nose and winking.

Rhian hadn't known what that meant when they first met Ceridwen, and had to pull Jonas aside privately to ask. "She uses it to mean that she was being clever." He said, exasperation and warmth filling his voice in equal measure. "She picked it up while we were working in Valtoria. Same place she got that blue coat she loves."

"What happened in there," Ceridwen asked, gesturing into the forest.

"I took two that lived and one that didn't" Gaith said cooly as he walked up with The Contraption. "I think the kid took at least two alive?"

Rhian nodded and pointed back into the forest "Leg shots, they couldn't have gotten far."

"Two I shot in the hands, they're probably gone." Gaith confirmed.

"Okay" Ceridwen said with knitted brows. "Jonas will stay and keep a watch on our friend. Hog tie him and throw him on Muffin. Laia, Rhian, and I will go get the others. We'll tie them behind Perfection and have them walk, that okay with you Laia?"

Laia looked over at her horse, who nodded back at her. "Perfection's okay with it!"

"Gaith, go get Muffin and bring her back here, then you and Jonas make sure everything's road-ready for when we get back."

"I hate horses," Gaith mumbled under his breath before saying "Got it."

Rhian still didn't understand how smart that horse was but decided that they would ask once out of the horses earshot, in case they offended Perfection.

It took ten minutes and a very short scuffle in which Laia hit a brigand so hard she had to carry him back to the road for them to gather up the wounded brigands. Gaith and Jonas hadn't only gathered everything up, they had bandages and poultices ready for the wounded, binding their wounds and making sure that they were ready to walk.

"Seems awful nice for pawns of the Governor," the brigand that had spoken to Rhian said. They decided that his name was Gutfish.

Jonas looked down at Gutfish with a completely impassive face. "It's a job," he said dismissively before tying off the bandages and attaching Gutfishs tied-off hands to Perfections' saddle with a length of rope.

After finishing with his work Jonas walked over to Rhian. "Don't engage," he said low. "They're a payday now and a sympathetic figure if you engage. We wouldn't have been sent out if they hadn't done anything they shouldn't have been doing, so just take the payday and ignore whatever they're going to try to talk to you about."

Rhian nodded, concern clear on their face. "I've already sort of engaged," they said worriedly, scrunching up their face and pulling up their shoulders in what they hoped was a physical expression of apology. "He spoke to me earlier and mistook me for one of theirs."

Jonas harrumphed and looked at Rhian with a face like a rock wall. "I'll move him," Jonas rumbled while untying Gutfish's rope from Perfections' saddle. "I'm riding rearguard" he said to Ceridwen, who arched a brow at him. In response, he gestured to Gutfish and then back to Rhian. Ceridwen nodded.

"Okay, Jonas is rearguard. I'll ride forward, y'all ride together just in case. Laia in the middle with Gaith and Rhian on either side, keep a watch on the prisoners."

Jonas walked back to Donna with Gutfish's rope in his hands. "We're riding rearguard girl," he said to the giant dog, slapping her on the side. She seemed to understand him and lowered her head in disappointment. "I know. I'm sorry. Extra treats when we get back to the town." She whimpered and hung her head, walking slowly at the rear of the party the entire way back to town.