Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Feathers and Flame

Safely hidden away behind one of the thickest tree-trunks, Faye examined the wound around the knife. She hadn't gotten a good look when they had attacked her, but now she could see that it was quite a small blade. It could not have been bigger than the space between her wrist and the nail of her middle finger. She touched the knife, hoping to see the cut better, and pain shot through her. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the tree while suppressing a cry of pain. She bit her lip until she tasted copper and the pain faded. Then she looked at it again.

The blade wasn't in all the way to the hilt but it was buried deep enough to be lodged. Blood pooled around it and ran down her cold arm in long, hot streams until it gathered at her finger-tips and dripped to the floor.

Although it was bleeding quite a bit, it wasn't the source of her most immediate danger. She peered out around the tree to see if the attackers had followed her. They had jumped out while yelling in an attempt to scare her into obeying. Faye's training made the kick she gave to the man's face instinctual. His friend had stabbed her and she had run off the path and into the dense forest. She couldn't see the men who had attacked her, but she could hear them approaching.

"Come on out."

The voice that echoed through the trees was male. The echo made it hard for Faye to tell exactly how close they were to finding where she hid. There had been more than two of them, but she couldn't tell how many more. It had been a rush of panic and pain that made it difficult to remember the details.  If they hadn't surprised her like that she could have handled it better. Although, that was an excuse. She should have been ready for anything.

The fact that they had followed her was not a good sign. Most bandits would give up quickly on a quarry after they fought back. So either they really wanted their knife back or they had decided that she was worth the extra effort. A weird kind of compliment but a girl had to take praise where she could find it. 

It would be a bad idea for Faye to be leaving them a dripping trail of blood to follow. She had to do something about her arm, and soon.

She closed her eyes and tried to block out everything but the sounds of the men, like she had been taught. She tried to hear not just the voices, but the snapping of twigs as they walked through the undergrowth. Their quick breaths. The sounds of animals scurrying or flying away. Anything that would make it easier for her to locate how close they were. 

She hadn't found this exercise to be all that difficult while training but things were a little different now. It was much harder with a knife sticking out of your arm and blood freely flowing down to your fingers. The pain was distracting, cutting through her focus like a razor. It took time but she could make out that there were four men, less than she had initially thought, and they were coming her way.

"Here girlie girlie." Another voice, again belonging to a man.

Faye untied the strap of leather she wore wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. She folded it to make it thicker, put it between her teeth, bit down and ripped out the knife. She didn't quite manage to muffle the scream completely as it made it's way out of her mouth. She paused, waiting to see if they had heard her. They had stopped calling out to her. She concentrated hard but couldn't tell if the lack of movement was because they had stopped to listen or if the pain was too much for her to use the technique.

She looked at the little knife, coated with a layer of her blood, and dropped it into the dirt in disgust. Then she used her uninjured arm to fix her bow back around her shoulder. It was strange feeling the weight of it on the opposite side than she normally did, but she needed full movement of uninjured arm.

"We know you're there." The first voice again, much closer than she was comfortable with.

She checked it to ensure that the bow was secure before moving onto her next job. She hesitated only slightly before opening a pouch at her belt and removing a package of pig skin.