The Shadow Rising.

Chapter 6. (Running)

Chapter 6

Running

Year 231, month 11, day 331, of the second Glynravian kingdom. Praying is the way of the noble man.

Airoy had never been a religious man, only going to church when it was required. But last night he had been praying every second, off every minute. The damn dead had awoken and then all that men could do was pray, at least that was what the priests, always said.

Airoy had tried something a little different, his blade singing on the same time as he prayed. It had worked, so the priests had been lying to him, men could kill these things. Not that it was easy, Airoy had hacked them apart, piece by piece.

Now when morning had arrived, there was only ten bandits left of the original twenty. There had only been four undead at the start, The bandit Airoy killed, the two knights and the tax collector, but for every bandit they killed, they had increased in number.

Airoy wasn't sure how the dead could walk at all, usually the dead stayed still. He had heard of some place up north called Fellmoore, were the dead supposedly walked around. Airoy had thought it was a story to scare children, he didn't think that any more.

Right now Airoy lay on the snowy forest ground, panting and sweating. He and his ten bandits taking a break from running through the forest. None of them had wanted to stay at the place were the dead walked.

So they had been running through the forest since dawn and now the sun stood high in the sky. Showering the land in it's beams of light. Airoy would laugh if he had the air for it, he had never been so happy about the sun before.

Airoy didn't think the dead walked on the day, for surely they must be afraid of the sun. All the other evil creatures, he knew of stayed away from the sun. So now all they had to worry about was patrols of soldiers, that could slaughter his reduced bandit gang.

Looking around, Airoy could see that the rest of the gang were also exhausted, after all the running.

They lay slumped against trees and stones everywhere in the clearing, they had stopped at. There was four girls and seven men left including Airoy.

“We have to move again.” He called out to them, now that his breath was back to normal.

“Can't we just sleep here?” One of the men asked. Airoy was getting tired of people questioning his orders.

“No, we are way to close to a road.” Airoy growled at the man.

It was true that they were close to a road. Airoy could see the side stones of a road through the trees, just to the left of them. It was always bad to stay close to roads with side stones. They were wide enough for patrols to walk on.

“Perhaps I don't care about the road.” The man growled back. Now this was getting dangerous. After the walking dead the gang might want a new leader.

“Oh so you don't care do you.” Airoy was standing now, pulling his sword from the scabbard.

“No I don't think I do.” The man stood up in front of Airoy. He was a bit shorter than Airoy with brown hair and a nose that looked like it had been broken more than one time.

“That's a pity, cause I do care.” Airoy leaped at the man.

The man both used a short stabbing blade, with a dagger as extra weapon. It was what most bandits used, as it was better wit short blades in the forest. Airoy on the other hand used a sword taken from a dead knight, it's handle filled with gold symbols and the blade, long and sleek.

But the Airoy's long sword was only a diversion, his true skill was with the daggers. He trained with his daggers everyday to perfection. He could kill anything with his daggers, even if it was eight meters away.