These Old Bones

19-2

"Be on your way!" Tiera called. Setting her voice as firm as her shaking body could allow. "No-one else needs die here."

"A girl!" The female voice, older, more assured, almost laughed. "Not a guard, then. Maraki don't have no girls as guards. Not proper. An not a guard means we can kill yer."

"Good luck with that." Tiera didn't shout that, hissing it through gritted teeth.

The slamming against the door began once more and each slam opened up the door that much more, until the bottom hinge of the door gave way, causing it to hand at a listless angle. As soon as the gap opened, a rat faced man, painted the same as the girl raider, scrambled inside, a vicious looking dagger in his hand. He died upon Tiera's spear, snarling at her. She retracted the spear and set herself for the next attacker.

A boot kicked back the hanging door, pushing the desk and door aside and the tallest, biggest woman Tiera had ever seen ducked under the door frame. The paint on this woman's face seemed even more elaborate, covering several scars. Tiera thrust her spear towards the raider's stomach, only for the woman to catch it by the tip. She held it in her hand, even as Tiera tried to push harder, blood trickling from the woman's hand, a wicked grin on her face.

With a twist of her heavy muscled arm, the big raider woman ripped the spear from Tiera's hands, tossing it aside. Without a second's hesitation, Tiera drew her sword. She knew she would have to, at some point, she had hoped to kill a few more before losing the spear, though. A flash of movement caught Tiera's eye.

"No!" She reached out as Viriili stepped forward, thrusting her dagger towards the raider's ribs.

A huge hand swung out, catching Viriili in the face, sending her spinning away to crash into the wall, her dagger falling from her hand and clattering in the far corner. She had, however, caught the big raider woman. A line of blood dribbled down from a hole in her leather armour. The raider ran a finger through the blood and licked it, drawing a sword with her other hand.

Tiera didn't give her time to attack or defend. She launched herself forward, slashing towards the woman's face, hoping to give her another scar, forcing her to back up and block her fellow raiders from entering. The raider laughed as she watched Tiera's blade pass before her eyes. Then the raider began her attack, thrusting forward, changing the move in mid-thrust to an over head swing, crashing her blade against Tiera's, sending vibrations pounding up her arm. Tiera had almost missed that, the change in attack catching her by surprise. The raider woman was good. Too good.

Pushing the raider's blade aside, Tiera launched a punch to the woman's face and connected. As soon as Tiera saw the woman's eyes, she knew she had allowed the punch to hit, to show how ineffective the attack was. Unperturbed, Tiera slashed a back-handed attack upwards and then moved forward with a flurry of strikes. If the raider was this strong, perhaps her speed and agility suffered for it, she considered.

The speed of her attacks did cause a flutter of indecision in the raider, forcing her backwards, but this opened up a gap for one of her fellow raiders through the door. He moved towards Viriili as the big raider retaliated against Tiera. Viriili had started to move again, but she had no weapon. Tiera could not disengage from her own battle. But she had to.

She scooted backwards, inviting the raider forwards and, as the raider began her swing, Tiera rolled to the side, dropping her sword and picking up the spear. Before the raider could turn, Tiera ran her through, roaring at the woman. She continued pushing until the spear head burst through the other side of the woman, showering the door and desk with blood. Tiera ducked and grabbed her sword to move to Viriili's aid.

She was too late. The other raider's sword arced downwards towards Viriili's head, only the girl's hand between the sword and her skull.

Tiera screamed.