When the Sun Goes Down

Kamyar

I left to relieve myself for three minutes and already someone tried to rob me.

She was examining a map of mine, kneeling on the forest floor and the next thing I know the girl was sprinting away with my stuff.

"Hey!" I yelled. I quickly grabbed my pack and stuffed my map inside, slung my bow on my shoulder, and started running after her.

Although she had gotten a head start, I was gaining speed. She started relying more and more on her left leg and I noticed she had cloth rapped around her right calf.

With a burst of energy, I lunged at her and we both went down.

I've been in several bar fights, even broken up a few. I definitely know how to throw a decent punch, but this girl could fight. We scrambled around and wrestled each other. I was hesitant to hurt her at first but it became a full on brawl.

She kicked at my shins and punched my face. I hit her in the stomach. Somehow we both got up and stood while continuing to fight.

She faked a right hook and instead of hitting me, she suddenly took off again.

The chase lasted for another minute before her leg gave up on her and she tumbled to the ground. I caught up and notched an arrow.

"Hand over what you stole from me." I said, hoping that I sounded serious.

"And why would I do that?" she said, still on the ground. "You really shouldn't just leave your stuff lying around for people to take."

"Hand it over or I'll shoot, and I would really hate for things to get messy." I tried to mimic the bad guys in the books I've read. Hebert Gilder from Last Breath will do.

Instead of giving the supplies back like Arabella Heartline did, she calmly got up and brushed herself off, leaning against a tree. "Oh, well then we should just forget all of this and go about our days, hm? I'll leave you be if--"

An arrow slammed into the tree, pinning her sleeve with it.

"Aw, you know, that's really cute. But you and I both know that you don't have the stomach to do it. So if you excuse me--" her words were cut off by her grunt of pain and shock. She had reached over to pull out the arrow that pinned down her right arm but another arrow was launched, this time cutting into her skin as well as her sleeve.

As she struggled to free herself from the awkward position, I walked over to open the pouch around her waist.

After rummaging through it, I removed the dried venison and the silver pieces, leaving behind what was hers.

"So what's your name?" I asked the girl while I put the stuff in my pack.

She stared at me, emotionless. She gave up on escaping and stood with her arms pinned to the tree.

"Well, I'm Kamyar, just letting you know."

I took focus off of trying to be intimidating and genuinely looked at her.

Long black hair was braided down to her hips. Her eyes were dark and round and her skin was a pale white. I would put her at about nineteen or twenty, twenty-three at most. She was dressed in warm clothing and leather armor with an empty scabbard at her side. A poorly put together, thick fur coat draped on her shoulders almost reached the forest floor.

I could tell she was examining me the same way. Like she had done it many times before.

"You're a guard?" I asked. She reminded her of the guards back home, but what was a guard doing in Yler? And robbing a person?