The Man From The Shadows

Raleek was up early and out in the snow training when Olive woke up. She sleepily went into the kitchen area, made herself a cup of hot herbal tea, and then walked to the window to watch. He was too focused on his slow graceful movements to realize that he was being watched and she let a sly little smile cross her lips. He had been back for a week now and every morning he was out there training as if he expected more trouble. At first, it had alarmed her a little, but then she realized that it was just him. It was his routine, and of course, Wolfme pointed out the fact that he was an assassin so, it was completely natural.

“We’re going outside,” Alaya called as she led Rabbit out the door.

“Wait.” Olive sternly said turning to look at them, as she held her finger up in the air. The girls stopped in their tracks and exchanged a look before turning their attention back to Olive who was walking towards them. “Coats.” She told them when she noticed that they hadn’t thought to put their coats on.

They groaned and headed back to the coat closet to get their coats, about that time Caleb and a couple of Wolfme’s older children came racing down the stairs pulling their coats on, as they darted out the door to go have a snow fight. Olive looked at them blankly. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought a strong wind passed through the area.

“Hey! Wait for us.” Alaya called to them as she helped Rabbit put on her coat. Caleb slid to a stop right before he exited the building and turned to look at her in impatient exasperation, as he rested his fist on his hip, silently urging her to pick up the pace.

“Come on, you're taking forever.” Caleb sighed and quickly walked over to take over the task of putting Rabbit’s coat on her.

“Well, mom insists that we have coats on,” Alaya complained as she started putting on her coat.

“Well, she’s right. You don’t want Rabbit to get sick do you.” Caleb rolled his eyes and fastened Rabbit’s coat, before lifting her onto his back, so she wouldn’t slow them down.

“Caleb, you have better make sure that my baby girl comes back unharmed and in the same condition you are taking her out in,” Olive warned him. He gave her a lopsided smile and glanced at the little girl on his back before returning his gaze to her.

“Don’t worry Mrs. Stronenburg, I’ll keep her safe.” He promised, and she nodded. He bounced his eyebrows smugly at Alaya and exited the house, with Rabbit in tow.

“Alaya, you help him with your sister,” Olive told the older girl before turning back to the window to watch Raleek.

“Like he needs help,” Alaya grumbled and quickly left to catch up to the others.

Olive smiled pressing the edge of her teacup to her lips, as she watched Raleek acknowledge the children and even take a little bit of time out of his training to play with them for a moment before they continued on their way to the area, that was set up for sledding. Grinning he raised his eyebrows and watched them for a moment before returning to his training.

“If you want to learn to fight, you might just go out there or something like that.” Doe, Wolfme’s wife said entering the room with a mischievous glint in her eyes. “I’m sure he is fun to spar with.”

“I don’t know, I find it rather nice just watching him train.” Olive purred as she took notice of Raleek’s brilliant smile and dimples. “He’s very handsome.” She added.

“Oh yeah,” Doe rolled her eyes and sat down on a nearby chair. “And deadly, and dangerous, oh and let us not forget, relentless.”

“All qualities worth looking into.” Olive absently replied.

“Of course, he’s also an idiot, childish, and has a habit of finding trouble.” Doe slyly continued.

“Well, you can’t have the good without the bad.” Olive shrugged,

“He did say that he would train you,” Doe said sitting forward in her chair. “I think you should let him sooner than later. We never know when we’ll need to fight again.”

“You’re right,” Olive said looking at the woman, as memories of what had happened with the boys suddenly flooded her mind. “I think that I will go get dressed and get out there.” She added and headed into one of the bottom rooms since they had moved the kids into a room on the first floor. The twins were getting around more and more lately and they hadn’t wanted them to fall down the stairs and get hurt.

Raleek

Raleek noticed Olive approaching and stopped his movements to face her. His cheeks flushed he rested one hand on his hip and ran his free hand over his hair. They hadn’t talked since she had tried to kiss him, and he bolted, not ready for it. Things had gotten incredibly awkward between them, and he found himself wondering what he could do to change it, while he trained. He still hadn’t figured it out, but he knew that something had to change.

“Olive.” He greeted in a calm quiet tone, trying to ignore the heat rising into his cheeks. This was ridiculous, why on Earth did he always blush around her.

“Raleek.” She smoothly greeted in return, pretending not to notice the flush in his cheeks, as she carefully put the twins down. “You told me you would train me to fight, and I think it's time we get started on that.”

“Right.” He cleared his throat, he had hoped it was about something else, but a promise was a promise, and the boys were bundled up enough that they could play in the snow for a little bit. She was always so careful about making sure they were warm enough and he couldn’t help but smile at them.

“Raleek?” Olive questioned, dragging his attention back to her.

“Right, um… let's go over here and get started, they should be fine right here.” He stated and messed up the twins' hair, before leading her a short distance away. The boys looked up at him blankly, not knowing what was going on and he smiled at them giving them a wink over his shoulder.

“Raleek….” Olive began then fell silent, as she adverted her eyes and rubbed her elbow in awkward silence.

“We don’t need to talk about it right now.” He mused laying his hands on her shoulders to move her into the proper stance for training. She nodded and let him direct her stance to where he wanted it to be. “Just follow my movements the best you can. We’ll start with mimicry and then move on to the physical when I think that you are ready. While I am training you, I am not your husband I am your teacher, please remember that.” He added not knowing why he felt the need to do so. He just didn’t want her to think he was a violent spouse, but training was not going to be easy, and he knew that he would regret every lesson he made her endure, once it was over. However, the safety of their children was more important than how she would end up feeling about him and that was the only thing that deciding to train her bearable.

“I understand.” She flatly stated and he nodded, shifting into the proper stance to begin the movements.

He didn’t think she did understand, but he could be wrong. All he could do was trust her word on it. Either way, it was something that couldn’t be avoided with their current lives. Eventually, he would get them to that stupid Island, and they will all be safe, but for right now, they had to work with what they were given.

He slowly described every move as he did them and watched her execute them. It wasn’t long before he found it hard not to laugh at the twins who had waddled over and tried to copy them as well. They were doing it so wrong, but he didn’t expect the boys to be able to do the moves yet anyway. He just found it amusing. He didn’t say anything though, because he didn’t know whether they would stop or not if he did. He thought it was a good idea to let them try and copy his moves, it would inadvertently train them in the long run, and they would be able to defend themselves in time. Right now, they were pretty much stomping in the snow and waving their arms in attempts to do the moves and he found it harder to keep from laughing by the moment.

“There they are Pa!” A familiar woman’s voice shouted snatching all of their attention off their training. Raleek’s eyes widened briefly, what the hell were they doing here.

“I see that Ma! Stop yer holler’n,” Pa shouted back as they walked up to where Raleek and Olive were and dropped their travel packs in the snow.

“Mom, Dad.” Olive Awkwardly greeted them with a quick hug.

“Ma, Pa.” Raleek extended his hand out to them. Pa firmly shook his hand, but Ma pulled him into a hug, making him feel even more awkward than usual.

“What are you doing here?” Olive sheepishly asked as the twins waddled over to wrap themselves around Raleek’s legs, wanting a ride.

“Olive, um… maybe we should get them settled before we ask questions.” Raleek quietly suggested as he bent down to pull the boys up into his arms. They screamed and threw their heads back when they realized they weren’t getting the ride they had hoped for. “All right you two that is enough of that. I’ll give you a ride later, right now we need to get your grandparents settled into a room in the tavern.” He explained to the boys, and they fell silent, deciding that they were going to suck on their fingers instead.

“Why don’t you let me get the twins, and you can get their bags.” Olive politely said turning to take the twins out of his arms.

“Right, of course,” Raleek stated and bent down to retrieve the bags. Suddenly the kids that had been sledding started screaming and racing back towards them. Even Caleb looked like he was afraid of something, as he cradled Rabbit in his arms, while the others ran in front of him. “What’s going on?” Raleek asked dropping the bags he had just picked up, in case he had to fight.

“Demon Dogs,” Caleb shouted as he ran by. Raleek looked in the direction they were coming from and noticed the flaming hell hounds chasing them. Their sizzling tongue hung out of their massive black snouts, as the snow steamed beneath their paws. Screaming the kids bolted in the door of the tavern and slammed it shut behind them.

“Why did you bring them?” Olive scolded her parents, snapping her gaze back to them.

“Well, we couldn’t leave them home alone, now, could we?” Her mother shrugged.

“Are the kids in danger with them around?” Raleek demanded pointing at the playing hounds in irritation. “I swear they hurt any of our kids, I will kill them, and I don’t care how pissed off you will be. Do I make myself clear?”

Olive, and Pa’s jaws dropped in shock at Raleek’s bold declaration, and they were lost for words. Ma looked at him with a blank expression for a moment and then stepped forward, but Raleek didn’t back down. He would be damned if he let those stupid hounds hurt his kids and she knew it.

“The kids are fine.” Ma finally promised. “They only become physically dangerous when it’s commanded of them. That’s when you need to worry and keep the kids inside.” She explained stepping back, which indicated that she submitted to Raleek on this argument. That in turn caused Olive and Pa to look at each other even more shocked than before. Ma never backed down from anything.

“And Olive, Wolfme, and Doe? Are they going to be fine too?” He was not letting up.

“Yes, Olive definitely, the other two…. Well, eh…... can’t be sure.” Ma shrugged and turned on her heels to head inside. “You, you are probably safe too.” She added with a dismissive wave over her shoulder toward him.

Raleek turned a dark gaze toward Pa in a silent promise of pain if anything happened to any of the children or adults that resided in the tavern at this time. Pa sheepishly grinned and shrugged in response. Olive sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Let’s get inside.” She said turning toward the building.

“They aren’t going to hurt anybody.” Pa quietly promised although he adverted his eyes as if he wasn’t sure about it.

“They had better not.” Raleek quietly warned and swooped down to pick up the bags once again.

“Ma…. On the other hand, she…... might.” Pa added resting his hand on the back of his head.

“Well, let's hope not.” Raleek relented and led the way toward the tavern. Pa fell into step next to him. “The hounds will stay outside. We brought them because we heard rumors of a bunch of ice demons heading this way, and they can help us fight them.”

“What do you mean?” Raleek asked suddenly coming to a stop on the porch. “If we should expect danger then you need to tell me right now. I need to be prepared for it to keep my family safe.”

“We ran into a hunter boy, in the village just over the ridge. His name was Dean, he said he would enjoy watching the ice demons tear you guys apart, over something that went down with his dad. When he mentioned your name and description, ma and I were almost here. So, we turned around and went home to get the pups just encase. If we hadn’t, we would have been here almost a week ago. As it is we’re here now because we used the pups to teleport us here. Since it’s one of their innate abilities. There not hell hounds for no-thin you know.” Pa casually explained stopping to look at him. He rested his hands on his hips and waited for Raleek to respond to this new information.

“Alright, but they stay outside, and you can send them on patrols around the clearing, but they are to be put up when the kids come out to play. Or at least kept out of the clearing, whichever you can do.” Raleek calmly said clenching his jaw at the memory of the hunters that had tried to take his son. Then without another word he carried their bags inside.

“Did you kill them? Did you?” Caleb immediately asked, when the door shut behind Raleek and he set the bags down.

“No, they won't hurt you. You all just need to make sure that you do not step foot out of the clearing when you are outside playing.” Raleek firmly said and continued to walk towards the fire.

“I don’t know how to kill hell hounds, but I’ve never seen any that were pets.” Caleb hissed falling into step next to him.

“Yeah, well, you never met Ma and Pa before either. I guarantee you it’ll be fine. What you need to focus on is keeping your eyes open, there might be ice demons that come to visit, and you need to be ready to help if you have to.” Raleek quietly told the boy before sitting on the floor near the fireplace to get warm.

“Alright.” Caleb nodded in understanding. He was a uniquely bright kid and Raleek couldn’t help but admire the boy, as he headed toward the kitchen to help Wolfme, with lunch.

“Daddy look,” Rabbit spoke for the first time as she sat down next to him holding up a paper rose. “Sissy helped me make a rose, and Caleb made it stiff with sap.”

“It’s a beautiful rose.” Raleek raised his eyebrows in surprise but kept his words casual so that she didn’t go back into her shell.

“You can have it.” She shyly said laying it in his hand as she stood up and ran off to go play with the other kids.

“Thanks.” He quietly said smiling at her back. Once she was fully engrossed in playing a game with the others he sighed and closed his eyes laying down on the wooden floor to relax for a moment.

He didn’t get to rest for long before the twins crawled up onto his stomach and started bouncing. Grunting he folded up slightly and smiled at them, as he went to tickling them, for jumping on him. The boys immediately burst into laughter, and he kept the tickle torture up.

“Food is ready, come eat,” Olive called to them as she placed the last platter of food on the table. In a matter of seconds, the table was flooded with all the children and some of the random, adventurers that had gotten caught in the storm, and couldn’t continue until some of the ice over the pass, melted away. For the most part, they were good people and got along fine with the residents, but there were a few bad apples who stuck to themselves in one of the tavern corners.

“Alright, boys you heard mommy,” Raleek told the twins wrapping his arms around them both to lift them with him as he stood up and headed for the table.

Caleb hung back and decided to sit by the window and kept watching the tree line for any sign of the demons approaching. He was primed and ready, with his concealable weapons hidden on him just encase he had to use them.

“Caleb, dinner is ready,” Wolfme called out to him when he noticed that the boy hadn’t joined them at the table.

“Nah, I think I’ll wait for a little bit,” Caleb called back exchanging a brief look with Raleek, before returning his attention to the tree line. Wolfme sighed and bounced his eyebrow at his wife in blank acceptance. They hadn’t been able to get the kid to warm up to them since he joined their family, and he didn’t want to pressure the kid. He was just now beginning to talk to them.

“Go ahead and come eat, I’ll wait.” Doe suddenly spoke up and took his place by the window. He glanced at Raleek who gave a silent slight nod and Caleb grudgingly walked towards the table.

Raleek focused on his food, slightly shaking his head, Doe knew more than he gave her credit for, and he should probably acknowledge that about her. Pushing the thought from his mind he started eating his food.

“So, we brought you love birds a gift, but we weren’t expecting other love birds.” Ma casually began talking. Raleek and Olive shared a look and pasted casual smiles on their faces, as they listened to the woman speak.

“Why don’t we just give one to each of them. We have two after all and it's not like they are going to hatch anyway.” Pa pointed out a bit cranky about things.

“Hatch?” Olive asked catching onto the details of his statement.

“What did you two go and do now?” Raleek asked sitting back in his chair running his hands through his hair not sure he wanted to know the answer to that question.

Whatever they had done, he was fairly sure that he would be the one that had to deal with the aftermath of it. It would be easier to do that if he knew what he was getting into. Frustrated he sat forward and propped his elbows onto the table in front of him, looking the woman directly in the eyes.

“Okay listen up, I don’t care what you did, but you need to tell me what you did, so I can be prepared to do what I need to do to protect my family.” He sternly told her.

“Boy,” She growled narrowing her eyes as she leaned towards him, meeting his challenge. He narrowed his eyes at her in return. “I have been doing this a lot longer than you have,” She growled at him.

“But I do it better.” He growled back, “It’s time for you to retire and enjoy your grandchildren.”

“Raleek…” Olive gasped in disbelief, that he was challenging her mother in such a way.

“Now, Ma, we came here to spend the winter feast with our family. So, you need to behave now and just go on ahead and tell him how we got the blasted gifts, just in case something comes of it.” Pa chided his wife, as he motioned towards Raleek.

“Fine,” Ma grumbled, sitting back in her chair and folding her arms in defiance.

Raleek sighed and sat back massaging his temples for a moment before he abruptly stood up and rapidly left the building, grabbing his coat on the way out.

“Mom, you cannot treat Raleek like that.” Olive scolded her mother as she stood up and went after him.

“Now look at what you have gone and did, woman.” Pa pointed out and sat forward to finish eating his food, while his wife fumed. He knew that she knew, Raleek was a Gods send and had every right to know if something might affect the safety of his family. She just needed a bit of time to acknowledge it, but in the end, she’d give the boy the details he asked for.

“Well, that was exciting.” Wolfme quietly said and continued to eat. The kids all took his actions as an example and ate their food too.

Raleek

“Raleek!” Olive called chasing after him into the snow. “Raleek, Stop!”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Olive.” Raleek countered, but came to a stop anyways, resting his fist on his hips, but keeping his back turned to her, as the snow crunched under her rapid footsteps. He closed his eyes and silently cussed shaking his head, he should have kept walking. He just couldn’t walk away from her, even when she was angry about something.

“By the Gods, you are going to listen to me,” Olive demanded coming to a stop. She grabbed his arm in an attempt to turn him around to face her, but he lifted his hand in the air, pulling it out of her grasp, and started walking again.

Suddenly he was on his back in the snow, surprised by the fact that she had flipped him, without him even realizing what was going on. He shook his head trying to clear his visions of the stars, and the next thing he knew, she was sitting on his stomach, with her hands pressed on his shoulders to hold him down. He knew that he could easily escape her tiny frame, but he just looked at her in wide-eyed surprise.

“I told you. You will listen to what I have to say.” She growled dangerously, but he cut her rant off, by cupping her face and pressing his lips to hers, surprising her just like she had surprised him a moment before. She melted into the kiss, and all was forgotten on both sides until a piercing howl echoed through the clearing.

Startled, they both looked in the direction it had come from and saw that steam was rising into the air. The hell hounds were fighting something cold, as the sky turned dark, and an icy wind began to whip around them. The temperature seemed to plummet in a matter of seconds, and they looked at each other.

“In the house quick.” Raleek broke the tense silence, causing her to stand up, as he got back to his feet. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he shot toward the wooden porch narrowly dodging Ice cycles that fell from the sky. She gasped as he swung her from one side to the other, to keep her from being impaled by one, that pierced the ground where she had just been. “Go, Go, Go.” He shouted pushing her in front of him so that he could catch her if she fell.

They were near the steps when she lost her footing and fell onto her hands and knees. A large Ice Cycle sped towards her. He shot forward and hit the ice, shattering it before it hit her. Pulling her to her feet by the waste he gave her a little extra shove onto the wooden steps and dove to the side to avoid being impaled himself.

Olive landed in a roll on the slick wooden planks and slid until she slammed into the wall near the door. Gasping she pushed herself up onto her elbows and scanned the area for him with wide terrified eyes. Panic seemed to clutch at her heart when she couldn’t see him. Her parents rushed out of the house carrying enchanted crossbows. Her father pulled her to her feet while her mother went to the edge of the porch and took aim at something that Olive couldn’t see.

“Get in the house pumpkin and get the kids to safety. You might want to send some people out to help as well.” Her father sweetly said, guiding her with a gentle push through the door, closing it behind her.

Raleek had dived to the side and was forced to roll even further away from the porch when a shimmering being, pounced on him within seconds of diving. He verily managed to roll out of the way of its icy black hand that was in the shape of a blade. He didn’t have time to get to his feet before it was pouncing on him again. He pulled out some of his hidden blades in an attempt to block the strike, but before it had a chance to strike, it exploded sending frozen black blood everywhere. He wasn’t sure what had just happened and looked up to find, Caleb holding a blade straight out in front of him, and it dripped with the blood of the creature. Raleek exhaled and let his head fall back in the snow ignoring the fact that the blood on the blade should have been frozen, but for some reason, it wasn’t.

“What are you doing? Get up.” Caleb shouted, spinning into another swing, as a second creature leaped toward him instead of Raleek, who was just lying on the ground.

“What the hell?” Raleek breathed, he could verily see the entities, so how in the hell was Caleb able to see them so easily. If he didn’t know better, he would swear they were solid to the boy. Shaking his head, he flipped back up onto his feet and narrowed his eyes. He could sense the energy of several entities scattered around, but it strained his eyes to try to see them.

Suddenly he caught a glimpse of the one that was attacking Caleb, but it was only after Ma, shot it with her enchanted weapons. In the split second, before it exploded, it had solidified. Raleek cussed under him breathe and slowly scanned the rest of the area.

“In the house boy.” Ma calmly told Caleb as she nodded her head towards the door. “If they get through us the rest of you will have to finish them off.”

Caleb glanced at Raleek who gave him a nod, that told him to do as she said, and then he darted up the stairs, around Ma, and then through the door quickly shutting it behind him. Pa was working on something and seemed completely focused on his task. It didn’t even phase him when one of the entities got close to him, before Ma, blew it up.

“What is taking you so long Pa?” Ma demanded shooting another entity further out into the snow.

“Relax woman. You just blow those damn things up and I’ll have this done soon enough.” Pa countered.

Raleek arched a brow and shook his head before he shot out into the snow with his weapons drawn. He had found, that if he watched the ground he could see where they were at and what movements they were making since the loose power fluttered and swirled a little bit with each move. Ma began laughing every time she blew one of the entities up, she was enjoying this far too much and Raleek wondered what the hell was wrong with her.

Suddenly Olive burst out the door carrying an enchanted crossbow as well, her anger burning in her eyes and it sent chills up Raleek’s spine, causing him to nearly get his head removed. Fortunately, he was able to duck at the last moment to avoid certain death. Olive walked down the stairs killing things as she moved.

“I am not done talking to him.” She shouted at the entities that surrounded him as she started blowing them away.

“Pa!” Ma shouted lowering her weapon.

“What Woman?” Pa yelled back still working on whatever he was working on.

“Is, that our little girl?” Ma asked.

“It sure is,” Pa answered.

“Well, I think she is pissed off.” Ma whistled.

“I reckon so.” Pa nodded and looked up finally done with what he was doing, but he didn’t get the chance to put it into action, because Doe and Wolfme walked out of the house.

“Everybody off the porch,” Doe ordered pushing them all off the porch as she joined them. “Get it done Wolfme.” She added and immediately joined in the fighting.

“It’s going to take a few minutes to turn this wood into Iron, that the supernatural can’t pass.” Wolfme, called back as he started placing some sort of seeds in key locations.

“I have been itching to have some fun anyway.” Doe laughed.

Raleek wasn’t sure what to think about this band of characters as Olive placed her back against his and started loading her crossbow again. Raleek had to push any thoughts he had about the group down as he rapidly moved in a tight circle around her to keep the entities from reaching her. He often had to duck as she fired that blasted weapon of hers. Although it made things quite a bit harder to handle, he found this side of her extremely sexy and couldn’t help, but grin at the thought that she was his.

As Wolfme worked the wood creaked and groaned while shifting into ironwood, and the Hounds began to tighten their perimeter around the building. Melting the snow and Ice between the tree lines and the tavern. It was if they knew that it would force the entities to solidify to advance. Not to mention that it limited the abilities of the enemy to the point that the sky began to lighten back up a little bit and the wind wasn’t as violent. Unfortunately, it also revealed an entire army of Ice Demons, forming a continuous line in front of the trees.

Everyone outside was now staring at the army and dreading what was to come…...

To be continued……….