What was Lost

More Honor Among Thieves

A second before he brought his sword down on me, I stood up abruptly and swatted his sword to the side with the back of my hand. He stared at me in blatant shock, and then I sucker punched him in the gut.

He went down like a sack of potatoes, and I quickly jumped over his body, drawing Baxter from his sheath. Around me, my thieves had engaged in fights with the guards, and from the leers and laughter I could hear, they were winning. I smiled, extremely proud of them, they had actually listened to my training.

My smile was cut short however, when I saw in my peripheral vision, a blade whip down, aimed at my shoulder.

I dropped.

Crouching in a squat, I extended my left knee and swiped it backwards, turning with the motion, whipping the guy off his feet. He stumbled, and fell on his back much like the first one, and before he fully hit the floor, I was up on two feet and moving.

All around me, there were guards on the floor, unconscious or trying to crawl away. They had come together, hoping to overpower me by sheer numbers, and now they crawled away defeated.

I stood there, appraising the carnage when I saw a guard rushing towards me, or so I thought. In fact, he was aiming to surprise attack Rafa who was facing me, fighting with another guard. Not only were these guy's cowards, but they liked to play dirty too.

I rushed forward, and the guard who was coming at Rafa didn't notice me till it was too late. As soon as I was about half a metre away from him, I crouched slightly, bending my legs, then pushed upwards into a back flip. My foot connected with his jugular in an instant KO. If he was lucky. I had tried to not use a lot of force, but a crushed larynx was a crushed larynx. He would not be able to come back whole from that.

I put my guilt away, and chided myself for being so forgiving. It wasn't like he was a man of upstanding character. I felt a hand on my shoulder. Immediately I moved my hands to grip the arm, and leaned forward, ready to floor the person when a familiar voice screamed out.

"Wait! No! Stop!" I recognised the voice as Rafa's and my grip slackened. He slid down to the floor and then scrambled to his feet clumsily, laughing.

"Wow, Ari, you sure don't mess around do you?" he said.

Since when had he given me a nickname? Together we looked around, assessing the damage. The fight was over, and most of the guards were gone, the only few remaining being the one's too injured to move, and even they were slowly dragging themselves out.

So much for camaraderie, there was more honour among thieves. None of the guards able to flee had bothered to help their fallen, and yet all around me, the thieves were pulling each other up off the floor, dusting each other off and rejoicing in their victory.

I didn't have time to enjoy the irony of the situation, as once again, the green lump on the wall caught my attention. This time, I was closer to the lump, close enough to identify what it was. When I did, it felt as if liquid ice had been poured down my spine.

The green lump which had a white cross on it, as I could now see, was a first aid kit.

Not only could it never have been of this time, but it was Castiel's.