The Thieves of Otar

Peace, Be Still

Zia dropped her sword and allowed herself to fall to the ground. She was quick, but not quick enough to escape the knife's death path. She cried out in pain as it bit through the soft flesh just below her right shoulder. She clenched her teeth in pain as tears swam before her eyes. Gripping her wound tightly, she could see blood beginning to darken her tunic. Tentatively, she peeled back the material covering her wound and cringed at the sight before her. The wound was wide and deep, and Zia thought she saw a glimpse of white bone among the blood.

She turned her eyes back to where she had last seen Elaina, but there was no one there. Instead there were two forms wrestling on the ground.

Heath had Elaina's shoulders pinned to the ground and she was struggling to get free. She brought her knee up and jabbed it into Heath's stomach, causing him to loosen his grip on her. She shoved against his chest and managed to roll out from beneath him and get to her feet. Heath quickly followed suit and leaped to his feet. He pulled his bow from off his shoulder. He didn't have any arrows, but he used the weapon as a bo staff, twirling it around expertly in his hands, blocking all of Elaina's kicks and punches.

Zia tried to get up, but both her leg and her arm were screaming at her and she thought she might pass out from the pain. She spent most of her energy trying to keep herself awake, though she hated herself for it. She needed to help.

It was hard to tell who was winning the fight. Elaina must have either learned how to fight like a trained professional since the last time they had been together or had simply been hiding her abilities in hand-to-hand combat, because she swung, kicked, and punched with extreme accuracy and potential for injury. And while Heath blocked many of her blows with his bow and landed a few of his own, it was clear that the fight could go on for hours before pure exhaustion revealed which of them would win. 

Elaina lifted her leg up with a kick aimed at Heath's jaw, but he turned his bow just in time to block it. Before Elaina could retract her foot, however, Heath quickly turned the bow so that Elaina's foot was caught between the wood and the bowstring, trapping her. Elaina tried to escape, but Heath twisted his bow at a sharp angle, causing Elaina to cry out in pain. 

Zia could only watch as Elaina suddenly went limp and fell toward the floor, dragging Heath down with her. But before Heath fell on top of her, she used her free leg, her arms, and the momentum of his fall to throw him over her head. He went soaring through the air and landed with a sickening crunch on the stone ground near the door from which he had charged through only moments ago. His eyes closed and a weak groan escaped his lips. 

"Heath!" Zia cried out, her pain momentarily forgotten. She reached for her sword and tried to use it to help her make her way to his side, but the strain was too much for her wounds and she had to stop. Her eyes searched Heath's body desperately for any sign of life, but she could find none; she couldn't tell if he was moving or breathing at all. For all she knew, the force of the landing had cracked his skull.

Breathing hard, Elaina freed herself from Heath's bow and snapped the weapon in two over her knee, leaving it connected only by the drawstring. 

Elaina threw the weapon aside and turned to face Zia, who was still trying to make her way over to Heath's limp form on the ground. She found her knife which had clattered to the floor and stepped in Zia's path, blocking her way to her friend. 

Zia narrowed her eyes and glared at Elaina with deep loathing. She felt more anger toward this girl before her than she had ever felt towards anyone except for maybe Daxtor. Looks like the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, Zia thought angrily.

"It's all over now, Zia," Elaina said. "You won't be hurting anyone else ever again."

She raised her knife high above her head, but Zia's eyes weren't on the weapon that was about to end her life. They were on Heath's eyes as they peeked open and he quietly got to his feet. She could have sighed with relief as she felt she could breathe again. Not wanting to give Heath away, Zia forced herself to turn back to Elaina. She glared at her with complete hatred.