The Cripple and The Shieldmaiden II

// 25 //

Torhild her eyes flew open from the moment she felt a hand covering her mouth. Ivar leaned over her, placing his finger against his lips before pointing. Torhild turned on her stomach and looked over the landscape. They took a small break, the horses were tired, Torhild was tired and Ivar wouldn't admit he was tired. They had traveled more than a day, causing to fall into darkness again, hiding in the woods to take some rest. 'How many?' She whispered, gazing to the two men walking on the egde of the forest. They weren't that far away from where she and Ivar layed. The horses stood on lower ground, exacly fort his kind of problems.
'I counted six.'
'Why didn't you wake me up earlier?' She reacted, looking aside to him.
'You looked so peacefull.' He reacted amused, Torhild hitted him against his shoulder and he had to do his best to supress his laugh. She looked back to the two men patroulling the area before her eye felt on a little campfire, to far to extually count the people around.
'Do we kill them?' Torhild asked on a low voice.
'If they notice the horses we have a problem.'
'So we kill them.' She got up, already eager to get something killed but he pulled her down again. 'What?' She asked.
'The reason why you always get in trouble is because you don't think before doing something.'
'I did think. I kill them, you can shoot them from a distant.' She petted his cheek and stood up again, pulling her axe out of her belt.
'How do I shoot without even have something to shoot?' Torhild ignored his question and walked through the bushes, closing in on the two. They stood with there back towards her, what was easy. She grabbed her knife and approached the first one, covering his mouth before slittling his throat. Before the other realized what happened he had a axe in his chest. He dropped down with a little groan and Torhild grabbed the both of them with their color, pulling them into the forest. Ivar sat against a tree with crossed arms. She grabbed a bow and threw it at him.
'What was it that you needed?' She asked again, amused. Ivar started crawling over the ground and Torhild walked after him until they were on a safe distant from that fire and the soldiers. 'Five.' She whispered, crouching down aside him. Ivar pulled himself up and placed a arrow on his bow. Torhild grabbed her axe tighter and looked aside to him, he nodded only. She walked out of the woods and approached that fire, the soldiers where laughing about something, not paying any attention. It was when Torhild was close by that they jumped up. The first one that drew his sword got hit by an arrow. Torhild stabbed another, ducked underneath the fat one who got hit by another arrow before she focust on the two left overs. They both stormed at her, she lost a little balance to fend of the one while the other left a small cut over her stomach while falling down. Torhild kicked her axe in his head and pushed the other away. She tightened her gribb around her sword while he walked over. And just as she was planning on attacking he got an arrow in his throat. Torhild raized her hands and turned around to Ivar. 'I had him.'
'You can't get all the fun Torhild.' He reacted, his eyes traveling down to the red stripe over her clothes. 'You're hurt.' He noticed. Torhild shook her head and putted the fire out.
'It's nothing. We need to get going. In case somebody notice those bodies and double the guards.' She pointed out while dragging them all to lower grounds, harder to see them from on the egde of the forest.
'Let me look.' He pointed to her stomach. Torhild rolled her eyes and returned with him to the horses, they both were sleeping. She felt sad for them, getting all into work again. She maked everything ready to leave and when she turned to Ivar who was just looking at her, on the egde of his chariot.
'Fine.' She sighed in frustration. She walked over to him and pulled up her shirt so he could see how not badly injured she was. When she looked down to him he wasn't looking to the wound, she felt his cold fingers on a very different spot, her stabbwound scar. She gasped a little by his cold touth, the lingering movements his fingertips maked by stroking that scar.
'I lost you almost then.' He breathed out. She pulled his hand away and lowered her shirt getting the leather protection from in his chariot back on her body. She never thought back to that moment much and she never spoke much about it either.
'We need to get going.' She rested her fist for a moment against his chest before she smiled and walked away, thinking back on the moment she almost lost her life.