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"Lyther, hey, are any of them still chasing us?"

It was the middle of the night, two criminals were sprinting through the backstreets of the city of Lion's Heart, following close behind them were two armored guards, both cursing their targets under their breaths

"Two of them, ignore them. Just keep running, Ryonna's shop is just a few turns away!" The elf known as Lyther reported to his partner in crime. As they ran, his hood finally slipped down, but the scarce lighting kept his features hidden, however, when they passed the few lit sconces on the walls, one could see his features, his olive skin tone, pointed ears, red eyes, and amber colored hair to top it off, the rest of his body remained covered by his cloak

"I'll knock them off our tails, just give me a second." The other, Ludwig, was much more noticable, even in the dark. His head held a muzzle in the front, and two partially rounded ears on top with a mohawk-esque hairstyle between them, his fur was all shades of brown, though his eyes stood out the most with their yellow sclera and burning red pupils "I'm sure they wouldn't mind a loss... Or two, if I'm lucky!"

While they ran, Ludwig pulled free his bow and notched an arrow, a murderous intent in mind, he raised the bow in front of him despite the targets being behind him "Here goes!"

"Wait, Ludwig, don't kill them! We have enough trouble already!"

"Ugh, fine!"

With an annoyed groan, Ludwig slowed down his pace, and in a quick motion, he spun around, loosed the arrow, and turned back to face forward once again, not even concerned whether or not his arrow hit it's mark. Though it was made official when they heard the thud of it impacting into a guard's leg which toppled them, causing them to trip their fellow guard over them once they hit the ground

"Did I do it?" A quick peek over his shoulder confirmed it for him "I did it! Hah, no compliment, elf?" Ludwig asked, recovering from a laugh

"Why didn't you do that sooner?" Lyther mumbled, the words barely audible

"Waited for dramatic effect, obviously!"

There was no response for a good while, the duo remained silent until they reentered the main streets due to their pursuers being disabled temporarily, then they spotted a familiar sign, a round potion bottle with a crescent in it "Ryonna's Apothecary!"

The door to the establishment was slightly cracked open, peeking through the opening was Ryonna herself, a pale skinned human woman. Upon seeing the gnoll and elf approaching quickly, she flung open the door and gestured them inside, sensing that they were in trouble

"Ryonna, Ryonna we got the map!" Lyher announced, trying to do so as quietly as possible

"Excellent, now come on in, hurry up!" Ryonna held open the door still, closing it immediately after they entered

Catching his breath, Ludwig pointed to the elf "It was a bit messier than we thought it would be, but we were able to catch the patrol off guard and take their map! Our friend here has it."

"You were right, it does have all of the patrol routes and the times they are sent out too." Lyther pulled out the rolled up parchment and handed it to the woman

"I sure hope so, I would've hated to send the only hopes for our kingdom to their deaths!" She grabbed the map and unfurled it onto a counter, she tried to make sense of all the markings and notes but she found what she needed "Yes. Yes, just as I thought."

"What is it?" Lyther inquired, peeking over her shoulder with an intense curiosity

"There are markings on certain areas, the markings indicate locations that the king is suspicious of, therefore the guards must stop by and... send a message, if you get what I mean." Ryonna answered in a solemn tone

"A message..." Ludwig thought about it, looking at the marked areas on the map, and the locations associated with them- and the 'accidents' that occured there late at night. Fires, robberies, murders... this map confirmed that they were all organized by the higher powers "How lovely."

"You're sure of this? That these markings mean that?" The elf wasn't doubting her, but he was in such disbelief that he had to make sure

"Yes, the notes scribbled all over here, they flat out say it. The crossed out markings mean they've uh, paid them a visit already." The pale woman sighed, moving away from the table to have some thinking room

"Well, what now? We have this marked up map and you found out all the information from it, is that all you needed it for?" Ludwig asked, he wasn't one who enjoyed staying around, so he was eager for their next move

"One second Ludwig, there's something odd here.It's a marking around this building- it's the home of Ullurk Stormwind, the current leader of the daytime guard patrol."

"What? Why would they want to take out one of their own?" Ludwig asked with a voice full of confusion

"It says here that he's under suspicion of being associated with 'rebellious forces', and that although he's under suspicion, action will not be taken until tomorrow night." Ryonna read "What does that mean, associated with rebellious forces? We are the closest thing to that and they only know of us because of our symbol. Did you guys know about this?"

"Not a clue, I tend to avoid guards, they don't really like us beast folk." Ludwig scoffed, crossing his arms

"Ullurk Stormwind.. Wait, yeah. Yeah, that was me."

Upon hearing the elf speak, the astonished woman and gnoll turned to him and said in unison "You what?"

"Yeah uh, it's quite the story. Half-orc guy, right?" Lyther looked to Ryonna who nodded yes "Mhm, I met him- or rather saved him a few days back, I was on my way back home into the city from that small riverside town, Eagle's Perch when..."

Lyther stopped mid-sentence when the other two both took a seat, watching him and listening intently "...I suppose it's story time."

"But as I was saying, I was heading home from some business in Eagle's Perch..." Lyther's voice continued, starting a story which took place a handful of days prior

---

"Thank you so much sir." A young girl's voice said, gratitude evident in her tone

"It's my pleasure, you're lucky it was I who found your beast and not my partner, he would've eaten it right up." Lyther joked, handing a large boar's leash over to it's owner, she was barely half of Lyther's height and looked as if she could ride the hog if she wished to do so

"I'm sorry for the trouble, my taming skills aren't as good as i thought, so I wasn't surprised when he ran off!" She nervously laughed, toying with the rope leash in her hands "Before I go, thank you again!"

"No problem, uh..." Lyther waited for a cue from the young girl

"Sasha, my name's Sasha!" The girl, Sasha, told him cheerfully with a bright smile on her face

"Right." Lyther waved at her as she left, smiling in return

The walk back to Lion's Heart wasn't a long one, but it definitely took some time. This gave Lyther some time to think, to think about how he went from a simple ranger in his homeland to doubling as a masked rebel attempting to rid a city of it's corrupt ruler. What a life.

His destination drew closer, a sign being the odd blood-red flowers that were appearing more frequently on the side of the road, these only grew around the city for an unknown and unnatural reason, but it was a popular tourist attraction "Wonder what Ludwig is up to right now."

"How did he kill two? There's five of us and one of him, kill him!" A harsh voice shouted up the road

"It'll take more effort than that to bring me down!" Another person shouted, followed by a scream that was assumed to be their next victim

"Wouldn't be a trip if there wasn't trouble on the way home." With a sigh, the elf sprinted up the road to join the commotion. At the scene, he saw three bodies on the floor, they were wearing poorly made pieces of armor, four more were still standing with the same type of armor equipped "Bandits, lovely."

"Come on, come on! Come at me!"

Aside from the bandits were two other figures, both in Lion's Heart guard armor. One was on the ground, clutching their leg, but the other was standing tall in order to protect his fellow guard. The man under the armor, or rather the half-orc, was incredibly tall, standing at what Lyther observed to be 6'4 and his armor was trying it's best to stay on him, his build was bushing it to the limit- Lyther couldn't tell, but the guard was definitely of a strong, stocky figure and he could spot his black beard and long, tied back hair under his helmet. This isn't what caught his attention though, his sword did. It was a large zweihander with a golden pommel in the shape of a lion's head, and the blade was soaked in blood, this let Lyther see that something was carved into the blade as well

"What a time to turn coward!" Nodding in the direction of a headless corpse, the half-orc mocked "He was the one who said the remaining five of you could kill me, so try it! ..Well, there's just four of you now!"

"You are one to call others a coward, you and your friend there tried to sneak in on us at camp," The bandit spat out, growling "Too scared to take us head on, and when you did, he got hurt!"

"You want head on, I'll give it to you!" After those words were spoken, the half-orc charged at their axe-wielding conversation partner, and the said axe was easily knocked aside by the orc's own blade, which he followed up with another swing, which nearly cleaved the bandit in two, blood splattered onto the dirt road as he withdrew his sword "Is this not what you wanted?"

"Ullurk, behind you!" The injured guard tried to warn his partner, but was too late

"What?" The half-orc spun around, but the bandit that got behind him was already driving their blade down, and it struck him directly

Or it would have if Lyther didn't jump in the way to parry the attack with his Ember "Ullurk, is it?"

"Yeah, that's the name." The guard, Ullurk, confirmed for Lyther

"Well then Ullurk, I hope you don't mind me cutting in!" Partially a pun, Lyther quickly completed his counter and dispatched the bandit

"Thank you, my friend!" Ullurk laughed, raising his sword to fend off one of the remaining attackers in front of him, Lyther did the same, his back facing Ullurk's

"Name's Lyther, if it matters. There's two left, so let's make this quick!"

"Couldn't have said it better myself!"

Swords clashed, voices shouted, bodies fell, but the injured guard on the ground saw something that worried him- the symbol on the elf's cloak, an eye with a star in the middle, the reported mark of the new rebels "Oh no."

Out of breath, Ullurk let out a hearty laugh "Over already? All bark and no bite!"

Pulling his sword out of the corpse, Lyther saw the injured guard watching him and asked aloud "Is he going to be okay, sir?"

"Call me Ullurk, saying sir makes me feel old!" Ullurk spoke, he walked over to his injured ally and helped him walk "He'll be fine, he's just overreacting!"

"Let's just go captain, we can't be seen with a reb-"

"He saved us, I can stay as long as I'd like!" Ullurk cut off his ally, smirking down at him before looking over his shoulder at the elf "Go to Central Lion's Heart, I run a bath house there, feel free to stop by at night, Lyther! I'd love to get to know you better, friend."

"A bath house, him? How strange." Lyther thought to himself before saying out loud "Will do, I'll see you around!"

Lyther waved, seeing the duo off, he had a bad feeling about the other guard, and he was right to do so, as he'd be the downfall of Ullurk in the present day.

---

"...and that's how I met him."

"Did you really tell that girl that about me?" Ludwig scoffed, offended

"Hold on you guys." Ryonna stepped in, sounding nervous "They plan on taking action tomorrow night, remember? We have to warn him, someone turned on him."

Lyther made a fist and rubbed it "I know who, too."

"Right!" Ludwig shot up and pounded the table "Let's go kill the entire night patrol so they can't send anybody to kill him, and let's kill the remaining day patrol too, why not!"

Lyther and Ryonna looked at Ludwig as if he was insane, which is what that idea was "No. Ludwig, no. we're going to warn him first thing in the morning, before his shift starts- and whether he believes us or not, we then have to prepare for that night, we can't let the king's little murder squad get away with everything they've done up until now."

"So," Ludwig looked around the room awkwardly "On that night is there going to be a fight?"

With a sigh, Lyther answered

"Yes, there will be a fight."