Man From The Shadows

North Bound

Raleek, looked at the female assassin who had raced towards the four children that he had helped get out of the tunnels and then turned his gaze to Olive, who simply shrugged and laid a hand on his shoulder; indicating that they should leave. Not caring to stick around any longer than he had to, he used his cloak to strap the twins to his chest and reached over to take the bags off her slumping shoulders. She was not used to carrying so much weight and he felt kind of bad that she had to carry them for as long as she had.

“Let me have Oli, so I can fasten him into the sling, and you go get Ra from that man.” Raleek quietly instructed as he pulled his plump little son out of her arms. She looked at the baby and then up at him as he carefully positioned the child against his heart.

“I thought I had Ra.” She absently said, she still found it difficult to determine which one was which.

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is Oli, he looks nothing like his brother.” Raleek said a little bewildered, it was easy for him to tell the boys apart. They each had distinct expressions and scents. He was dumbfounded that Olive couldn’t tell them apart. True they were identical, but they were still their own person.

“How can you tell them apart.” He glared at him folding her arms in a challenge. The way he was looking at her made her feel like he thought she was clueless. Which she was, but that was beside the point.

“They are two very different people Olive, now please just go get the baby, would you?” he retorted, not liking the fact that she was glaring at him in the first place. “We’re wasting time, and we need to go find your parents.”

She didn’t respond to his remark. Instead, she huffed, clenched her fist at her side, and stomped her foot before turning on her heels to go get the baby. He exhaled and shook his head massaging his forehead. “How did I get into this situation?” He asked himself for the umpteenth time.

It wasn’t very long before Olive, returned with the other baby and he didn’t waste time in carefully securing him next to his slightly agitated brother. Once he had the children secure, he took Olive’s hands and pulled her into the trees, back towards the village. Her parents were still there and they were probably worried sick about her and the children. They didn’t get very far before they were forced to slide to a stop as the village seemed to explode into flames. Olive screamed and attempted to race toward the burning buildings, but he caught her and held her back.

“Don’t go rushing in there and getting yourself killed.” He softly said into her ears. Her struggles came to a stop, realizing that she couldn’t escape the prison of his biceps without hurting the babies in the process. “I’m not raising these boys alone.” he relented. She looked up at him in wide-eyed surprise, she hadn’t thought that he would be raising the babies with her. She was almost sure that once they made it to the Island, he would disappear on her.

“What about my parents?” That was all she could ask.

“I noticed a small cave a little way back, you and the kids can stay there. While I go find your parents.” He offered pulled into motion; going back the way they had come. They only traveled half the distance though, before he pulled her off to the side and crouched down near the roots of a large tree and pulled some ivy vines to the side. The opening was only big enough for them to enter one at a time and the whole thing only seemed large enough for her, the twins, and their travel packs. He shrugged the bags off his shoulders and tossed them in first and then looked at her. “Go, I’ll hand them to you.” He softly instructed.

She gulped and nodded before sliding down the small incline to enter the cave. Now she wasn’t just worried about her parents, but she was also worried about him returning. She kept that to herself though as he gently handed the children down to her one at a time.

“If I don’t make it back by morning, head North, there is seaport there. Give them this…” he pulled out a strange-looking pendant and gently placed it in her hand. “Tell them that you need to go to the Island, and they will make sure that you get there.” He carefully said holding her gaze. He knew that she was afraid, and he was sure that she knew which way was North.

“What about you?” She gulped as tears pooled in her eyes.

“I’ll catch up.” He winked, offering her a slightly crooked smile before he stood up and darted out of sight. He didn’t give her any time to respond to his gesture of assurance, because he wasn’t all that sure that he would make it back alive and he knew that if he waited longer than he had, she would have caught onto that. She was way too smart for her own good.

It only took him a few minutes to get back to the village and slip in from the side. He used the blackened smoke to hide his movements, as he pulled his shirt off and tied it around his nose and mouth to filter out the smoke. It wouldn’t do any good for him to get smoke inhalation while trying to rescue people. He carefully placed one foot in front of the other keeping low as he looked around through his burning eyes. He could see shadows of people running around in a panic, and he could make out several barred prison carts full of people screaming as they pleaded for help.

“Well don’t just stand there! Go help them!” A strong female-voiced shouted at him from behind, startling him slightly as he spun around to see the female assassin, racing toward him from the trees. She had the same idea he had. He grumbled as she raced past him toward the nearest cage, to free the people. Deciding that he hated this female, he followed her example and raced into action. He figured that she could handle the cages, and he veered off to help those still fleeing. To his surprise, the aggressors turned out to be of the human variety. They had caught wind of Half-bloods being in their village and their hatred consumed them; so, they set the place on fire. To top it off, they were rounding up those fleeing for their lives and putting them into cages, fully intending to sell them to the Dark Elves for slavery. They didn’t realize that the Dark Elves would take them as slaves instead of giving them money. The idiots were doing all the work for them.

A small crying child screamed, clinging to the sleeve of her dead father as one of the attackers tried to pull her away to put her in one of the cages. Raleek didn’t hesitate as he shot forward and slammed his fist into the guy's jaw, using his momentum to increase the power of his strike. There was a sickening crack as the guy hit the ground and Raleek caught the child by the ankle right before the top of her head hit the ground. Exhaling he thanked the powers to be that his reflexes were on target and used his other arm to encircle her waist righting her. Looking at her he realized she was not much older than two if she was even that.

“Get her out of here ye fool.” Ma suddenly shouted from somewhere on his right. He cradled the girl against his chest and protected her head with his free hand, as he spun to face the voice. “Toss me another crossbow Pa,” Ma shouted and reached out to capture a new crossbow as she tossed the old one back to Pa.

“Looks, like yer family be growing fast, went and got yer’ self a daughter to boot,” Pa called out to him as he reloaded Ma’s discarded weapon.

“Wha…...,” Raleek was thrown off by the comment but managed to duck curling his body around the girl as the building behind him exploded sending splintered wood out around him. “Another kid? F***.” he cursed and shot toward them as more buildings began to explode around them. “Why are they all exploding?” He demanded sliding to a stop next to them as Ma fired off another dart or two.

“Well that there is a funny tale to tell…” Pa awkwardly said pausing long enough in his task to scratch the back of his head.

“What happened?” Raleek narrowed his eyes at the older couple.

“Well, you see, these here villagers thought they were being funny in trying to take hostages, and there ain’t nothing like that, that ruffles Ma’s feathers.” Pa nervously chuckled and Raleek looked at the older woman who was shaking her fist in the direction of some aggressors.

“You be thinking you smart! Get on over here I give you some!” Ma shouted and knocked another dart into place. “Bring yer scrawny behinds on over here, you no good….”

“Ma…” Pa interrupted. “Language, there be children present.” Pa scolded, motioning towards the frightened child Raleek held protectively against his chest. Raleek on the other hand was lost for words and his jaw dropped at the outburst of the elderly woman.

“Pa!” Ma shouted as she looked at Raleek, placing a hand on her hip and dangling the crossbow at her side.

“Yeah, Ma!” The older man called back as if it was everything as usual.

“Shoot that fool on that there, roof, who be aiming at our Raleek.” She ordered pointing at the cloaked figure that was aiming at Raleek and the child. “And you get your skinny butt on back to that family of yer's, before I am shooting one of these in your…...”

“Ma! Language!” Pa scolded again as he shot the man she had been talking about.

“It ain’t never hurt anyone.” Ma defended with a wave of her hand earning her a stern look from Pa. “Eh…. Fine, you get on out of here and head North.” She turned her attention to Raleek, while Pa laid down a series of his own shots. “Don’t you be thinking that you are getting out of “Winter Feast” because of this here. Pa and I will be there wanting to eat. Now you run along.” She finished and started aiming her crossbow again.

“Olive will kill me if I go back without you two,” Raleek argued.

“You just tell her we be finishing up here and are heading home. Those damn hell hounds won’t be too happy if we be waiting longer to get on back. Oversensitive pups, they are.” Ma grumbled waving him off once again. “Tell her we be coming to yer place for that winter feast.” She added exploding another building, sending two aggressors flailing out some windows.

“Stop using them exploding bolts Ma…” Pa snapped. “They be hurting my ears, dammit woman.” He added placing a finger in his ear to ease the ringing.

“Quit yer crying and get to shooting, Pa.” Ma snapped back, forgetting all about her argument with Raleek.

He shook his head and darted down the ally and back into the trees, since the child was beginning to have trouble breathing, with all that smoke. He just hoped that Ma and Pa knew what they were doing and would be fine. He didn’t want to have to deal with Olive’s anger for the rest of their lives. It didn’t take him long to get back to where he had left Olive and the boys, but he was a little nervous about how he was going to explain to her that they now had a daughter too.

“You need to stop racing in to save people Raleek.” He sighed slowing his pace. “This is a strange world I’ve found myself in.” He took a deep breath and looked at the little girl in his arms. She was silent and sucking on her thumb, but her eyes were full of fear and sadness. “Aw, come on. Please don’t look at me like that.” He pleaded with her, but she didn’t turn away. “Alright, Alright. I promise your safe and I’ll keep you that way. Everything is going to be okay.” He softly said reaching up to wipe a tear off her soot-covered cheek. She nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her head on his shoulder. Sighing he closed the distance between him and the small cave.

“Olive, come on we need to go.” He called down to her and she poked her head out from behind the vines.

“Ma and Pa?” She asked ducking back inside to get the boys.

“They're fine, they said to tell you that Winter Feast will be at our place this year, but they needed to get home to their hounds…” He answered crouching down to take the first baby from her with his free hand. He wasn’t sure how he was going to secure them in place at the moment since he was still holding the girl that clung to him like her life depended on it.

“Eww, yeah they are very sensitive, I’m convinced they have separation anxiety.” She inhaled sharply and ducked back inside to get the other baby.

Balancing the baby on his knee with the little girl he reached down to receive the second baby. She didn’t seem to notice the child yet as she began tossing their travel packs out of the hole and then crawled out herself. Halfway out she froze on her hands and knees staring at him. Her gaze shifted from him to the little girl in his arms. There was no way he would be able to stand up and run away from her at this point.

“You have better be able to provide for all of us.” She sternly stated and then continued out of the hole to stand up and dust herself off. “Since you have decided that the first two weren’t enough.” She continued and placed her balled-up fist on her hips.

“I don’t think now is the time to debate whether or not I can provide for my family.” He hissed.

“Very well, but this conversation isn’t over. I’ll carry the twins first and then we’ll switch off once our newest member of the family is more at ease.” She stated in a matter-of-fact tone and fastened a sling for the twins around herself. He bit his tongue and tried to remain calm, to avoid frightening the poor girl, as she carefully took each baby from him and placed them in the sling carrier that she made. “You can get the bags.” She stated spinning on her heels and starting North, with her shoulders squared and her head held firmly high to indicate her temporary displeasure.

“You can get the bags.” He quietly mimicked her and snatched up their packs as he followed her. It didn’t take him long to fall into steps next to her and they walked in silence for quite a while. The sun was setting, and the night air was getting cold, too cold for the children. “We’re going to have to make camp soon. We need heat.” He suggested finally breaking the silence that had fallen between them. “And the kids are probably getting hungry.”

“Oh, and what are we going to feed…. Well, what did you name her?” Olive asked realizing the toddler still didn’t have a name.

“Rabbit.” He absently answered the first question before realizing that it sounded like he was naming the child.

“Rabbit, well that is an odd name.” Olive pointed out, arching her brow at him. Hiding the fact that he felt rather dumb at the moment he squared his shoulders and masked his features.

“It’s a perfectly good name.” He defended, although he hadn’t meant for it to be her name. He wasn’t going to admit that to Olive though.

“Rabbit, it is then. So, what are we going to feed Rabbit?” She pressed folding her arms and came to a stop.

“Food.” He retorted and took the lead. Olive couldn’t help but smile at the red tint on his face. She knew he didn’t intend for the girl to be named Rabbit, but she figured she’d let him keep his pride and not call him out on it, Rabbit was as good of a name as any. She would even go so far as to call it cute. “There is a somewhat protected area just up ahead. We’ll camp there.” He changed the subject, as he pointed at a hillside near a dried-up, riverbed. Most generally when the lay of the land looked like that, there was some washed-out section that would serve as a somewhat protected area for camping.

Raleek silently cussed, when they turned the corner to find the female assassin, her husband, and now six children sitting around a small fire in the washed-out section of the hill that he had been intending to use for his family.

“Oh look, it's Wolfme and his family.” Olive smiled and headed towards them. Raleek looked at her questioningly. When did she learn the guy's name? Had it been said, and he just didn’t notice? Or did he notice and just choose to forget? He couldn’t make sense of it. There had been too much happening, and he was already too exhausted to continue thinking about it.

“Welcome, Welcome come and join us. We’re more than willing to share our fire and meal with you. If you here, then you must be heading North to the port city as well.” Wolfme quickly got to his feet to greet them and motion them forward.

“I have got the worse luck,” Raleek whispered but followed Olive anyway. Rabbit was probably starving, and it might take a while to hunt down their food, not to mention the skinning and preparing of it.

“I was wondering if you were fool enough to stay too long and got yourself captured.” The female assassin stated when they all sat down near the fire and Olive accepted the food that Wolfme was offering, for Rabbit.

“I may be a lot of things, but a fool is not one of them.” Raleek coldly responded as Rabbit stuck to him like glue, while she ate.

“I see your family has grown.” Wolfme jumped in trying to change the subject before things got tense between Raleek and his wife.

“Oh yes.” Olive smiled reaching out to stroke the toddler's head. “This is Rabbit, our first daughter.” She said proudly. Raleek rolled his eyes and leaned back on his elbows. Olive might have insisted that they join these people, but that didn’t mean he had to be sociable. So, he sat across the fire from them and let Olive accept the offered food, for Rabbit.

Wolfme and his wife decided to take first watch so, Raleek and Olive snuggled the three children between them and slept lightly. His body temperature usually ran a little high, so he served as a fairly decent heater for them all. It was early morning when it was their turn to keep watch, and Raleek insisted that they let Olive sleep to keep their children warm. Besides, he figured that she was pretty tired from all the activity and once again he credited that to her not being conditioned for this sort of thing.

As the sun was coming up, Raleek noted that it sparkled off the frost that had settled on the ground. It was a little early in the year for a frost like this, but they were also heading North, and it was always colder up that way. He knew that he would have to find a way to get more clothing for them all soon and he wasn't sure how he was going to manage that. Not to mention they were almost out of milk for the boys and that was something else weighing heavy on his mind. He let them all sleep a little bit longer while he was trying to figure out those little details. It was probably mid-morning before he finally woke them up.

"Wolfme, says there is a little farm a couple of miles ahead." Olive softly told him as they walked through was seemed to be a field surrounded by trees. Raleek looked up at the sky and calculated that it was about 11:30 am, it would take them at least an hour to go a couple of miles if they were running. Unfortunately, they were walking at a leisure pace and that added at least two more hours, especially with the kids.

"Wolfme, huh, you two have become rather close, rather quickly," he stated feeling a little salty about that.

"Are you jealous?" She mused looking up at him. He averted his eyes and ran his finger over his lip as if he had an itch.

"No, why would I be jealous?" He lied as smoothly as he could. Even he had to admit to himself that he was very jealous, but he wasn't going to admit that to her at all. Judging by the look on her face he could tell she saw right through him though. That didn't stop him from being surprised when she wove her fingers through his. His eyes darted to their hands and then up to the babies that were sound asleep in the sling securely fastened around her, and then up at her gentle smile and knowing gaze. Playing like it didn't matter to him he turned his eyes forward once again.

It was early afternoon when they came to a small hillside overlooking g a lower section of land and noticed thin tendrils of smoke rising out of a chimney stack of a farmhouse, that was far more lavish than it should have been; given the times. It screamed trap, but at the same time, the need to gather things for his family was far too strong to avoid it.

"Olive, wait." He softly said pulling her to a stop. "I want you to go with Wolfme, and fallow the tree line. I'll meet you on the other side of the field." He grudgingly finished. He wasn't too keen on the idea of sending her with the other guy and his family, but her safety and the safety of the kids were more important than his personal feelings. "WOLFME..." He loudly called to the other family as they started to circle, around. Heading towards the tree line. "Take Olive and the kids with you...... Please." he nearly choked on the word please, but he got it out anyways. Wolfme nodded and motioned for them to join them. Raleek crouched down and placed the little girl he was carrying on the ground. "Listen Rabbit, I need you to go with Olive, and I'll find you soon." He sweetly said placing her little hand into Olive's. Then he kissed her on the forehead and stood back up, kissing the twins on the head, and Olive on the cheek. "Go." He whispered to Olive and gently pushed her towards Wolfme's group.

Knowing that he was going to probably do something stupid, she reluctantly agreed and started towards the other group. When she looked back over her shoulder, Raleek was weaving at a high pace through the tall grass, toward the farmhouse.

"Doesn't he realize that it's a trap?" Wolfme's, wife hissed motioning towards Raleek, who was increasingly harder to keep track of since the momentum of running down the hillside increased his speed considerably.

"He knows." Olive sighed, "He just doesn't care." She finished and the woman rolled her eyes annoyed.

"Follow the tree line to the other side and make sure that you stay well hidden in the trees. I'll meet up with you on the other side after I make sure the idiot doesn't bring unnecessary trouble down on us. If we're not there in about an hour, continue heading North, I'll catch up." She instructed Wolfme. Then with a low growl, she shot towards the farmhouse in much the same way that Raleek had moments before.

"What does she mean, I'll catch up? Is she planning on doing something to Raleek or leaving him behind?" Olive inquired.

"Nah, she won't leave him behind." Wolfme grinned. "She might hurt him and drag him back if she has to, but she wouldn't kill him or leave him behind." He promised. "Come on let's go. We're going to have to keep moving to get to the other side before they do. Whatever they are doing it isn't going to take them long to finish it,"

"Right," Olive said, still a little unsure about his answer. Despite all his promises, his wife was still a bit scary. Without another word, they continued on their way with the 9 children in total. Wolfme's six and her three. "Wait he was probably trying to get supplies for the kids." Olive gasped after a few minutes of silence.

"Most likely, but we have enough to get us through a couple of days before we'll start having to worry about supplies, so you shouldn't worry. We're more than willing to share ours with you and the kids, while we wait for them to return." Wolfme shrugged. He was pretty sure that was exactly what Raleek was intending. Since his wife had mentioned backtracking that night to do the same thing. It was amazing how similar those two were.

The evening was rapidly approaching as Wolfme, served some freshly cooked meat to all the kids. He had sacrificed some of his favorite drink of goat's milk for the twins and was now tossing twigs onto the small fire, telling stories to the older children, who were completely transfixed on his skills of weaving a tail in the firelight. It was well past an hour and Raleek hadn't returned with his wife. Olive was growing anxious and paced back and forth just outside the firelight. They had done as they were told and continued North, but there was still no sign of their partners. The twins were sound asleep on a bed made of furs, near the man and seemed perfectly content to sleep the time away.

(Well, they're not worried.) Olive thought to herself. Normally Oli would cry if something was off or dangerous, even though he didn't understand it. Ra on the other hand always seemed to get excited when danger presented itself. When danger, was near, that was the only time that she could tell them apart, but Raleek could tell them apart with ease. This kind of made her wonder about what type of being he was. Was he elf, human, something completely different, or what? She didn't know and honestly, she didn't care. He was a highly skilled and good person and that was all that mattered to her at this time.

Suddenly Oli started screaming at the top of his lungs, startling her as she heard a twig snap somewhere in the darkness directly in front of her. Wolfme slowly stood up and held out his arm as if stopping somebody from moving forward or as if he was shielding the children. Olive gasped and slowly started backing up still unable to see what was in the darkness that had Oli all worked up. Wolfme's eyes narrowed and did something that ended up placing several small seeds into his palm.

"Olive, your baby is crying. Perhaps you should see to his needs." He calmly said, never lowering his gaze. Olive spun on her heels and rushed over to stand behind him, pulling all the children toward her in a huddle.

"We don't want any trouble, so please move on," Wolfme called into the darkness as he subtly scattered the tiny seeds into a half-circle in front of his group.

Quiet laughter came out of the trees from a semi-scattered formation and Olive was suddenly very worried about how things were going to turn out.

"It seems that you have trouble whether you want it or not." A man said stepping into the light as other shadows began to take form. "We don't always get what we want do we?"

"Apparently, not." Wolfme rolled his eyes in exaggeration. He wasn't a violent person, but he wasn't really a pushover either, but if he could avoid conflict, he most generally tried to do that. His wife, on the other hand, would have ended the men before giving them a chance.

"I'll tell you what, if you give us what we want, we'll leave you be." The leader started the negotiation. "Just give us the toddler and the twins, and we'll be on our way."

"Never!" Olive shouted angrily as she pulled a burning stick out of the fire and stood up to defend the children. She didn't know if the man Wolfme, would hand over her kids or not, but it wasn't happening as long as she was alive.

"I have to decline, your offer. You see, as you so elegantly pointed out; we don't always get what we want, do we?" Wolfme calmly stated with a crooked smile playing across his calm features. Despite himself, this part always seemed to be fun for him. Olive looked at him surprised, he had never shown this level of arrogance in her presence before, except when he had stood up to Raleek but even then, he seemed scared about doing it. Yet, here he was as calm as could be and facing several more opponents than he had been then. Raleek must have some sort of fear factor about him because this was a complete turnaround for Wolfme.

"Trouble it is." The man laughed. "Bad choice for a weak man and a skinny little woman to make in a situation like this."

"Yeah, I remembered when my wife told me that, as she tried to end me. Seems I made a good decision then and so I figure it's a good decision now since I'm still very much alive." Wolfme chuckled using his unused hand to rub the back of his neck under his shoulder-length hair. He appeared to be feeling awkward to everyone around him, but in all actuality, he was pulling a pouch out of the back of his shirt.

"Looks like he's feeling nervous now boys." The leader taunted earning laughter from the group that followed him. They were about to discover the severity of underestimating him.

"Maybe a little." Wolfme played it off. "I'm more afraid of what her husband will do to me if anything happens to her and their kids, then I am of your lot. Not to mention I don't want to deal with the drama, I mean my wife, will fight her husband to the death if he tries to kill me and it would just be one big mess." He continued nonchalantly.

Olive's jaw dropped, what was he playing at? How could he be so nonchalant at a time like this? He was worse than Raleek, and at least he had something to be arrogant about.

His nonchalant attitude seemed to rile up the enemy and they charged forward only to slide to a stop; when Wolfme forcefully threw the pouch into the fire and it immediately filled the area up with thick smoke reducing visibility down to zero for the enemy, but it moved outward instead of smothering them and the children. Tiny little vines erupted from the seeds that he had scattered and shot into the smoke with deadly intent.

To be continued......