Marvin, Millie and Maya were following a path to the south, glancing around, holding a kind of relaxed pace. The way was clear so far, aside from the dense forest surrounding them from each side, the thick vegetation preventing us to see too far. If there was wild life there, or some branch cracking, the cold freezing wind was muffling most of it.
"Are you sure this is the way ?"
The old man asking their help to reduce the kobold population endangering the travelers wasn't that specific. But they just arrived in Peltarch and they needed to make some money.
And yet, so far, the most threatening creature they came accross was a small angry rat. The three of them were pretty enthusiastic about the adventures to come, already fantasizing it quite a lot. Everything was so different from their small village.
Maya smiled warmly as they approached some river, an old stone bridge standing from probably decades and decades. She pointed at the man in armor a bit further away.
"Wait, i will ask him !"
He was focused on the road, offering them his back. The shield at his arm, the long sword at his belt and the intensity he was displaying at watching for some travelers or caravan. Maya didn't had a single doubt ; he was probably a guard or some soldier.
She smiled warmly as she approached him, her steps pretty light on the grass floor. He seemed a bit startled as he noticed her, studying her with a grim expression, his gaze wandering along her rather simple and rough robe.
"Excuse me good sir, we are looking for Kobolds... We want to help, but i think we got lost."
Maya will smiling at him, her hands joined, like a schoolgirl knocking at some stranger door to sell cookies. The man, silent, looked up at the young gnome woman, then at the moustached man with them who didn't looked like such a threat.
The smile that creeped up upon his lips was nothing like Maya's one as he pulled out his sword.
"Well, well, well..."
Maya froze, her expression faltering to a really tense and shocked one.
"We don't mean... What are you..."
Her training was, for a second, completely forgotten. It was thing to practice movements in the opening, doing katas and picturing invisible opponents to defend yourself against. It was a completely different thing when the one in front of you wasn't here to show you some technic, but really intended to hurt you.
Maya barely evaded the sword slashing toward her, moving aside by survival instinct. As the bandit pressed his teeths, some mad anger in his gaze, and was straightening to go with another attack, she found herself overwhelmed, lost about even the idea of attacking back.
She was pulled out of her torpor as Marvin rushed in front and lifted his rapier to deflect the curve of the swinging sword, letting Maya keep her head on her shoulders for a bit longer.
Marvin and the bloodthirsty bandit were duelling relentlessly. If Marvin was agile, extending his arm and trying to hold some distance, the scoundrel was much more savage, throwing his sword brutally forward, putting Marvin in a difficult situation.
The bandit went from a wild slash, from bottom to up, striking hard in Marvin's belly. If the leather armor he was wearing prevented her mustached friend to see his bowels fall to the floor, the hit of the heavy weapon and the strength of his opponent were enough to make him stumble backward, his breath cutted, his free hand holding his painfull ribs.
Before the bandit was able to finish the work, Maya stepped in, swinging her weight, then throwing it forward, pushing him back with her two hands, her feets spread and rooted in the floor. The bandit loses his balance, almost tripping on the irregular ground, but a second later he was trying to impale Maya.
Maya was moving fast, keeping her center weight low, constantly changing her position to be out of the bandit trajectory. The few openings she got to punch him were mostly meeting his metal armor, hurting her palms as much, if not more than him.
When she saw an opportunity, she leaned to the side to evade an hard thrust forward, and redirected the sword over her shoulder, trying to control his arm, but she didn't saw the shield coming, the man using his other arm to slam the wide piece of wood in her, throwing her to the floor.
Maya's gaze widened as the man was towering her, ready to pin her to the floor and put an early end to her adventuring hopes.
And then, suddenly, a crossbow bolt whistled in the air and pierced through the man metallic breastplate, the pain surging from his pectoral to his whole chest. He locked his gaze on Millie with deadly intention, a raw rage distorting his facial expression, breaking the bolt sticking out of his chest to throw it away.
Maya sized the opportunity to kick his lower belly, punching him backward, before she kipped herself up, switching back instantly to a defensive fighting stance. But the bandit didn't got enough time to get back his balance, Marvin's rapier stabbed him hard from behind, piercing his chest until the tip banged the opposite inner side of the armor.
The bandit's arms went loose, before he falled on his knees, then collapsed simply on the ground.
They took a few minutes to catch their breath, still stunned by what just happened. But Maya's gaze didn't took long to stare down at the man with a worried, almost depressed, expression.
"Did we... Is he... ?"
"He is... In deep sleep... Maya."
Maya was not convinced at all and frowned, parting her lips to say something, really horrified at the thought they might have killed someone, as bad as he was.
But she didn't got much time to question it further, another bandit was already appearing in the distance, calling for help, and soon an half-dozen of mens were chasing them.
After a few long minutes running between the trees, Millie, Marvin and Maya managed to lose them in the forest. They caught their breath, finding their way out in a clearing. Maya was tense, glancing around cautiously.
"We should warn someone i think... Imagine if another traveler fall on them..."
As they were speaking, a man came out from his awning in the distance, gesturing at them to come. Maya, still tense, approached him fast to warn him about the bandits, but he seemed especially confident about dealing with thoses bandits.
He eventually offered them a drink, letting them vent out what they just came through.
But as he mentionned he was seeing a lot of faces around here, Maya couldn't resist the temptation. If many adventurers passed here... Maybe some of them were sharing stories... Or...
"Did you heard about an abandonned temple... ? Probably one belonging to Ilmater ? There could be an artifact hidden there..."
Maya's nervous expression seemed to melt to be replaced by an optimistic glow in her eyes. She started to speak about the stories the father Gorham told her and the good that that artifact could bring to the world.
Since she have been in Peltarch, no one seemed to know what she was talking about. Untill now...
Oscura... This name spinned in Maya's head for the whole day and filled her dreams. The bartender seemed to believe that such temple could be hidden there, under Oscura.
For the first time, she had something... Maybe even just a slight hint... But enough for her hopes to find that artifact become much more vivid.
She would go there, no matter where Oscura was... She would take months to search under any stone if she had too. But if there was something there, she would find it.
