The Shadow Rising.

Chapter 3. (Airoy One Eye)

Chapter 3

Airoy One Eye

Year 231, month 11, day 330, of the second Glynravian kingdom. All killers off man are heretics.

Airoy Was his name but everyone called him One Eye. He was an ugly brute with only one eye, crow black hair and brown eyes. He had lost his eye in one of the many fights he had been in, a knife slashing his face.

Airoy was a bandit without equal, or at least no equal that he knew of. Airoy had his own bandit gang, they were twenty all together, men and women. All tired of the nobles riches and their own poverty.

Airoy had once been an tax collector to Duke Barmon. But his greed had been to large and he stole some of the money, every time he collected. That had been working for the first few years, without anyone noticing.

Then that snivelling annoying kid Matt, from one of the villages had seen him, take money. Matt had been easy to bribe for silence, but Airoy had been fooled. Matt had taken the money and told the Duke's guards.

So now Airoy led his own bandit gang, in the deep forest surrounding Duke Barmon's land.

His highest wish was that one day Matt, would be travelling down just the road Airoy was watching. It wasn't likely to happen as the villagers almost never left their homes, but it could happen.

With a discomforted grunt, Airoy looked around him. He and his gang had been lying still in the forest for the entire day now. They had been waiting for a tax collector that should be passing here, when the sun stood high, it was now night.

The sky had a green colour this night, something Airoy had never seen before. It was scary to be without any fire now that the sun was down. Normally Airoy wouldn't worry, but this green sky made him think about the size of the wolves, in Glynrav.

They are like a horse in size, but with lethal fangs instead of hoofs. Airoy had only seen one once, it's dark grey fur showing between the trees, one day when he woke up. It had ripped a man in half and maimed two others.

But even if Airoy was afraid of wolves and really wanted a fire going, he wouldn't give up on his prey. That tax collector and his guards would arrive sometime, they just had to wait. Waiting was the thing Airoy did most these days, waiting for prey and waiting for gold.

“Um, sir what are we waiting for?” One of the men behind him asked. Airoy could clearly remember, he had ordered silence.

Airoy crawled over to the man in the darkness. His body not cracking a single branch, so used to the forest was he.

“This.” He whispered in the bandits ear.

Airoy had been holding a dagger in his hand. He pushed the dagger into the man's throat, a gurgling sound escaping. But the man was dead after only a second, his lifeblood creating a pool, on the ground.

Airoy wouldn't tolerate disobedience in his gang. Everyone did as he said and they came out alive.

Every time he had let someone live after questioning his order, another person died later. Airoy was the best at what he did and nobody told him otherwise.

The dead man had some coins in his pocket, Airoy relieved him of them. There was no reason not to and if there was something Airoy liked, it was gold. Or any money really, only you could buy things with it.

Airoy and his gang had a sizeable stack of loot hidden away. There was one thing Airoy had never thought about, he couldn't spend it all. If he had tried to go into a city, with a bag of gold, he would have been arrested on the spot.