Path of Their Own Ch. 01

Taking a risk she went down a few steps to a spot where she could crouch down and spy on the level below. It proved worthwhile. There were two indifferent-looking guards in the living area playing a board game of some kind in front of the fireplace. Neither seemed to have noticed anything other than their opponent's move as one rolled a pair of stone cubes.

Over in the dining area, the Neko spotted a girl with deathly pale skin and black hair. She sat at the end of the dining table sipping a glass of water and something shimmered around her body. Petra blinked. It may have been a trick of the light but she could have sworn...

The girl is glowing... purple?

The Neko squinted and looked to the side of her head, taking notice of her long, pointed ears and the golden rings that pierced them.

She found the Tree Elf, and the girl was waiting for her rescuer as close to the exit as possible. As though she expected to be taking to the shadows, the Elf was wearing a black pants and a black long shirt with the sleeves rolled down.

As Petra continued appraising her target, one more thing caught her eye. There was something on her left ankle, above her leather, buckled shoe. She had an anklet on that came with a small lock on its release strap.

Probably why she hasn't run away. If anyone sees the anklet, they know who she belongs to and they'd bring her right back...

Shaking her head at the primitive solution, Petra went around to the bedroom with only the ruby now on display and opened a window. Mimicking the call of a bird that usually flew at night, she whistled out her signal for Galen and Felyn and retreated to the stairs.

...

Weapon's safety on, his breathing steady, and his left hand trembling, Galen waited for the signal. It had been thirteen minutes since Petra scaled the wall and he had been waiting in this position for eleven. Checking his watch again, he prayed to God and Necela that nothing bad had happened to his Nekonian companion.

Then he heard it. A melodic whistle from the second floor of the house. He sighed in relief before he turned his head toward the back of the house and repeated the signal. A second later, Celia came around the corner, tiptoeing her way over to meet up with him. She stayed low and hugged against the house as her soldier's attention shifted back toward his objective. Keeping his left hand low, he struck one finger into a dull light and signalled the Drow on the opposite side of the house. An assured feeling seeped into his chest and he took in a deep breath.

Here we go.

Breaking from cover he ran full-tilt towards the guards at the door. The two men turned toward him with their eyes widening into dinner plates at the man about to plow into them. Before they could draw swords, the one farthest from Galen dropped to one knee and a steel boot slammed into the side of his head.

The other guard turned to see the short, cloaked figure standing over his friend and opened his mouth to yell. He didn't get the chance when the butt of an M14 impacted the back of his head to drop him right into Felyn's waiting arms. Despite the man's weight, the Drow was able to catch him and gently lower him to the ground as her Human ally knelt down over them. She just rolled her eyes as he struck his left hand into a glow and used his magic to heal any damage they had probably done.

Upon finishing he looked to his Elven companion waiting at the corner of the house and waved her in. Much to her credit, Celia's feet hardly made a sound as she bolted over to them. From there the three formed a line, Galen in front, Felyn second, Celia third. When they were in position, the soldier took a deep breath, released it, and then whispered, "Let's go."

Holding his rifle against his body with one hand, Galen grabbed the door handle and gave it a turn. Pushing the door open and raising his weapon without entering the house, he immediately spotted Petra perched at the top of the stairs and gave her quick wave. She held up two fingers and pointed toward the family room, then held her hands to her head to mimic long ears out the side of her head and pointed to the dining room.

"Who's there?" challenged one of the guards in a low voice. "Is your guys' shift done already?"

Galen held his breath and backed away from the open door, his trio restacking against the outside wall of the house. Clinking boot steps started approaching the door and they waited for them to draw in.

"What in Necela's name? Barris? Acklin?"

One of the men darted for the two unconscious guards on the doorstep. Right as he came through the entryway, Galen brought his rifle down and smashed the steel butt-plate right against the side of his head. When he dropped, the Private swung into the doorway with his rifle aimed at the last guard—

Only for the man to drop to the floor with Petra behind him pinching two fingers into where his shoulder met his neck.

"You have to teach me that," Galen muttered as he stepped into the house.

"Later," she replied.

Summoning the trinket he had taken off the drunkard at the bar, Galen dropped it onto the unconscious guard at the assassin's feet and turned toward the dining room.

Naipee was sitting at the table, curled up in a chair with her eyes wide and body trembling. Having a Human, Neko, and then a Dark Elf who were all dressed in black approach her only made the Elf's shaking worse. Whimpers escaped her throat as she hugged onto her legs and let fresh tears run her face.

Seeing her terror, Galen pulled off his helmet and slung his rifle over his shoulder. At the sight of his face, the Elf settled down some, even cracked a smile as he then turned and waved somebody in. A familiar voice graced her ears and banished away her fear.

"Naipee?" Celia asked, stepping into the room.

The Elf blinked, her body stilled. Nobody saw it coming when Naipee leapt off her chair and tackled her poor clan sister right into Petra. The Neko had to catch the two girls and heave them back to their feet as they hugged onto each other and sunk to their knees in a sobbing mess. A slew of Elven words fell in a whisper from Celia's golden lips as Naipee continued to silently cry into her shoulder. Even actively trying to shut them out, Felyn was clutching her chest as the emotions of their reunion slammed into her like a maul.

Together their bodily glows suddenly brightened. Celia's golden with Naipee's purple formed a brilliant show that, while quite pleasing to the eyes, threatened to give the group away to anyone who may have been watching.

*Make them stop,* Felyn signed to Galen, who stepped in, whispering words in their tongue that made the Elves turn their teary-eyed faces toward him.

In perfect unison the girls leapt forward and hugged onto him to squeeze the air right out of his lungs.

"Wait!" he wheezed. "Fuck—!"

Petra smothered her giggles as she listened to his protests as he fought for breath. When he managed to finally peel them off, he was left gasping for air. Who knew two of the slight forest Elves could be so strong?

With her bodily glow settling down, Naipee grabbed onto Galen's arm and pointed to her anklet. The soldier followed her finger down and knelt to examine the leather strap and the lock securing it to her leg.

"What is it?" he asked, frowning as he could sense a hint of magic within the metal.

Naipee gave him a tense look, her lips pursed shut before she glanced to the outside wall of the house. At that moment they heard a door in the basement open up, a pair of men chuckling aloud as the clattering of their armor came climbing up from downstairs.

"We gotta go," Galen said.

Felyn and Petra nodded and together the five of them went for the door. Using the butt of his rifle, Galen smashed the inside knob off on his way out and shut the door. Celia remained with him as the others kept moving and touched a green-glowing hand to the door frame, making her love watch in amazement as the wooden construction bonded with the house to seal the exit shut.

"That should slow them more," she said before taking Galen's hand and running after the others.

Into the night air the group ran away from the Sloss manor with their objective gleefully in tow. When they got no more than thirty paces from the house, Naipee let out a shriek of pain and dropped to the ground. A bright light flared from both her anklet and from some device on the manor's second floor. As if the visual alarm wasn't enough, there also came a god-awful screech akin to a dozen trucks slamming their brakes at once.

The group stopped and looked to the Naipee as she writhed on her back clutching her anklet, the leather glowing bright red from the runes engraved in its surface.

"It's an anchoring bind!" Felyn hissed, dashing to the Elf's side. "We need to break the lock and get it off her!"

"Can you pick it?!" Galen asked while bringing his rifle to the ready position, the safety coming off as lights all over town started turning on.

"No time!" Felyn growled as she pressed her hands around the anklet's lock. "Get something sharp and heavy ready, your healing as well! This will hurt!"

Naipee blinked in confusion as the Drow hissed more words in her native tongue. She felt a scalding heat build in the cursed device that bound her to this place and started squealing as the pain began again. With her first peep, the Neko of the group hugged onto her from the back while pressing a firm hand over her mouth.

When the metal was glowing red-hot, Felyn backed off and let Galen see what she had done. Not giving it a chance to cool, he held his arm out and summoned his entrenching tool to bring it down on the lock with everything her had. The breaking of bone and gut-wrenching shriek that followed tore his heart right open and almost made him hesitant to see at what he'd done.

But he looked.

The sight that greeted him was that of an anklet lying shattered on the ground.

Making his shovel disappear, he struck his hands into a glow and cast his healing spell as fast as he could. The odd-angle of her foot was corrected, and the swelling that was already developing shrank away. Pushing his fingers into the strike spot, Galen could feel her bones knit back together until Naipee gave that last squeal of pain to signal that the process was finished. With the men inside the manor kicking at the front door trying to get out, the Private scooped the Elf up into his arms and ran.

His group cleared out of the town square before anyone had a chance to see them.

...............

The bar had quieted down for the evening with last of the miners having gone home along with the cook in back. The young man working at the bar was separating his pay from the money he had collected this evening and put the rest into the strong box before saying his good night.

This left Rose alone to tend to the customers she had left, though several of them had already rented her single rooms to sleep off their drunken states. There were still ten of them left and several eyes were beginning to fall upon the raven-haired maiden that owned the place.

Not that she noticed as she sat at a table near the stairs, Flak seated across from her and maintaining her rapt attention with a story while keeping his AK close at hand.

"Yeah, those men were going into that village to kill those people for helping us. But my officer, and especially my men, we wouldn't stand for it," he recalled with a bit of an edge to his voice and a furrowing brow. "We marched for a night and half a day to beat them there and right away started digging in. And we waited. For a full day we rested and waited until they came the second night."

Rose leaned in toward Flak as a hard look came over him, his eyes growing distant as his fist tightened. "I was hiding in a house with a young mother and her daughter, rifle aimed at the door. When that VC officer kicked it open, machete in hand and screaming in Gook, I was waiting for him."

"What happened then?" she asked, hanging off his every word.

Taking a swig from his ale, Flak shrugged. "He looked at me, I looked at him, my rifle was that far from his head." He held his hands out at roughly shoulder-width apart. "And I let him have it. All my men opened up one big can of whoop-ass and cut down all those bastards in seconds. Those that tried to fight didn't last, the ones that ran, ran straight into my men outside that were waiting for them."

"Was any of your people hurt?" she asked, and with pursed lips he nodded.

"Two of my men got hit by stray bullets, one of the villagers got caught in the cross-fire, but that was it. Three wounded, none dead except the enemy."

"And you won. You saved the village," Rose praised.

Finishing his drink, Flak leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Yeah... yeah, we did. But they had to flee their homes because of that. Move to somewhere new before those Communist pricks came again. But last I heard that woman and her daughter that were in the house with me managed to catch a boat to my country. And good for them after what they did and risked for us."

Recognizing the longing look on the warrior's face, Rose rested her hands on the table close to the one of his gripping his drink. In a low tone she probed, "Do you miss your country, Mister Flak the Off-World hero?"

"Every day," he admitted solemnly. "I was so damn close, too. Twenty-two days. I wanted to start a band when I got back. Some of the guys from my unit wanted to join it."

She perked up slightly and chuckled, "You play an instrument?"

One corner of his mouth curling up in a proud grin, he answered, "I play a mean guitar. You have those things here? Guitars?"

With a quizzical look, she tapped her finger to her chin, "I can't say we do. What does it look like?"

Quirking his mouth and frowning, Flak thought hard for a moment before he started tracing the shape of the instrument with his hands in front of him. "It has a hollow body with a hole in the front to project sound and a long neck coming off the top. It has six strings you strum while fingering the neck to change pitch."

"Like a lute?" she guessed.

"Not quite. Guitars are-"

The front door to the inn opened up, a panting Galen coming in and swiftly closing it behind him. He had a blue jewel the size of his fist in his hand but then his eyes fixed on a Neko drinking away in the back with the other bandit types. The unfortunate cat-man failed to notice the Private closing his eyes to port the gem into a pocket of his mantel.

Hastily buttoning up his tunic, Galen then approached his Flak's table and sat down between him and Rose. Breathing a sigh of relief, he relaxed his shoulders and waited for the questions that would inevitably barrage him.

"Success?" Flak asked, and Galen nodded before nervously looking to Rose.

"Flak told me why you came to town," she admitted, making the Private tense up as she went to explain.

"I had met the Elf once, when the Baron held a party for the business owners in town. She was so terrified of everyone there that she dropped a bottle of the Baron's most expensive wine. When we questioned why the Baron would hire such a girl, and he fed us the story of her being a thief?" Rose shook her head. "I knew it was a lie but I didn't know the truth. She wouldn't say a word and that made me wonder about our lord ever since. He always seemed like an honest man but any time the subject of the Elf came up... he was a terrible liar. I just can't believe he would own a slave."

Relaxing in his seat, Galen shrugged unknowingly as he said, "Some good people can have dark secrets, I guess. But she's safe now. My friends are with her climbin' up to my room from the outside."

"Why aren't you going up there to meet them?" Flak asked.

"Keeping watch down here," Galen explained, shifting in his seat and glancing nervously toward the door. "She had a bracelet on that woke up anyone within a few blocks of the town square when we tried to run. So while she has a chance to calm down an' catch up with Celia, I'm makin' sure I'm down here to stop trouble from goin' up there."

"If Sloss or his son come, then I'll be telling them that some of the gentlemen in the bar here had just come running in," Rose said in a low voice. "Which reminds me..."

She stood from the table and went over to the last of her patrons. The mixed band of fighters leered at her as she called out, "Last call, gentlemen. A gold, one silver and twenty coppers is the tab."

"But one more round?" one of the men asked to earn a stare from Galen.

He was a seven-foot-tall, Humanoid mass of green-skinned muscle with tusks. He had thick steel plates protecting his arms but that was all he had for armor. Everything else he wore was simple leather pants and boots or a sleeveless, cloth shirt.

"You can, but tabs get paid up first," Rose said firmly.

The most sober of the group stood up; it was the man with the neck-tattoo that Galen had spied earlier. Bearing a wicked smile on his face, he reached for a coin pouch on his hip with his armored sword-arm. Under the careful gaze of the two soldiers at the table by the stairs, he drew out one gold and two silver coins to present to the barmaid.

"Tab's paid, ma'am. But the last of my friends and I, we're curious. Is there another room to rent? Yours, perhaps?"

Rose snapped up the three coins and dropped them into her apron. "This ain't that kind of bar. You can finish your drinks but then you'll have to leave or join your friends in their rooms."

"Don't be like that," he said with lecherous gaze and a firm hand planting itself on the neck of her apron. "We'll be sure you'll get both gold and pleasure in equal measure."

"The answer is no," Rose stated as she slapped his hand away.

"Best listen to what the lady says," Flak warned as he brought his AK up and rested it on the table. "Or we're gonna have a problem, and you don't want a problem with me."

Seeing the weapon come out, and remembering the warning he had given her about it, Rose quickly put distance between herself and the man that grabbed her. She retreated behind her bar to ensure she was nowhere near him if something broke out.

The man looked to Flak with a cocky grin. Behind him his men adjusted their seating in order to get themselves a better view of what they thought to be a pending fight. Reaching behind his back and making his 1911 appear, Galen glanced over to Flak and gave him a reassuring nod.

"I don't want a problem with you?" The man chuckled as he rested his left hand on the sword sheathed on his hip. "I've killed thirty men that were just as tough as you think you are, and many more that actually were. Giran has a bounty on me set at ten platinum coins for the blood I spilled. And that's not including my friends here. We've burned towns to the ground and have had lords bend their knees to us. Now tell me, you clueless cuck, who should one not have a problem with here?"

Flak looked to Galen with raised eyebrows and a knowing simper. Receiving that "go ahead" look from his young friend, he flicked off the safety on his rifle and slid his chair back. At the same time the front door was thrown open and a Lycan in full plate armor came storming into the room. Nine more Human men, wearing just as much protection as him, were close behind with weapons drawn.

The bandits all quickly drew their own weapons as these new faces surrounded them, though nobody dared make the first strike. At the sight of the wolf-man, Flak's body seized up, his knuckles going stark white on his weapon as his eyes widened.

Galen whispered desperately, "No, Flak, don't."

His thoughts battled back and forth between his primal fear telling him to unload his weapon into the canine before him, and Galen imitating his normal state of mind, ordering him to stay his trigger finger and put the weapon in his lap.