Vial of Poisons and an Assassin, A

Written by Carterian, a character on the Earthen Ring server, and posted on the Blizzard Earthen Ring Forums

=Part One: Fun in the Snow=

A quiet place, Dun'Morogh was, and the path to Thelsamar was even quieter. The road was slightly iced over from the recent snowstorm, and the foliage was only slightly visible. What wasn't visible, however, were the people. There was no one around. Well, thats not so true.

Overlooking the road was a fairly high sub-mountain, with a decent amount of jagged edges capable of supporting a person.

Upon one of these empty edges, was a man in completely black leather and two slim, razor-edged swords knelt, looking through his spyglass.

His face was masked by a black mask, so only his piercing teal eyes that were almost hidden by his long hair were memorable. The man's body had nothing but lean muscle, which were visable through his armor.

He continued to watch the road with a steady posture, breathing very lightly.

"Come on, Tagotah, you must see them already." He complained to himself. "Look harder. They must pass through here."

After a few some-odd minutes passed, the feint sound of hooves made his heart skip a beat.

"Finally" Tagotah muttered, watching idly at where he heart the sound.

Soon enough, the outline of a two male humans, a female elf, and a horse came into view. A few seconds later a cart piled with crates came into view as well.

Now, the once feint outlines, were in full blown color. The humans were dressed in the normal brown merchant's garments, and the elf was in a set of rusty mail armor, and had a sword sheithed at his side, and a wooden tower sheild on her back; she also wore a worn out mail helmet, concealing her hair.

Now they drew closer, the elven guard's eyes darting around; they never did seem to lay eyes on Tagotah.

It was now time for the hiding Tagotah to get closer, for the caravan was slightly ahead of his spot. Even though, if he jumped down from his edge he would die, he looked confident.

Tagotah looked to his right and picked up a normal sized cage that was concealed by a pile of snow. Upon lifting it, a feint screech emitted from it, but the sound did not reach the target's.

He unlocked it, but took a small piece of ice and put it so that the door of the cage would not open. Then, slowly, he took a hold of something thick that was slightly buried in the snow. Upon lifting it, the snow that was covering it fell off, revealing a sturdy rope.

Tagotah grasped it with one hand, and the cage with the other. Slowly and quietly, he opened the cage, and the thing that was inside burst forth; it was a large bird.

The bird, as soon as it was released, let out a long screech. It was then that Tagotah jumped, his gloved hands tightly grasping the rope.

He braced himself as he swung, the bird still screeching, soaring up above. And then the ride was over. He had touched the ground, making a loud noise, but the screech concealed that.

Tagotah got up and quickly unsheathed his swords; the bird stopped screaching and flew away. Now the snowy area was dead silent, except for the sound of the horses' hooves and the clattering of the caravan. They were not far ahead of him at all.

Practically gliding, he moved across the snowy terrain towards the caravan. Now they were only fourty yards ahead of him, and he was behind a thick tree to the side. It was then that he put his right-handed sword between his legs and took out a throwing dagger.

Taking aim at one of the human's, he held his breath; then he threw it. Tagotah had good aim. This was apparent, as the target fell to the ground, and the other two travellers became alarmed.

The elven guard drew her long-sword, and then her sheild. She looked around, her eyes surprisingly calm. The other merchant, however, had taken cover behind the now stopped caravann.

"I know your out there!" The guard yelled, gripping her sword.

Then Tagotah moved. He moved so quickly that he was practically a blur. As one of his swords got parried, the guard shreiked, and then swung.

Tagotah crossed his blades and parried, bringing his leg up to her stomach; he made contact.

The guard made an "oof" sound and fell back, barely ducking from on of Tagotah's swords.

"Argh!" The human merchant yelled, as he ran towards Tagotah with a clenched fist.

Tagotah easily evaded, and put his sword through the man's back; the body fell to the ground face forward, a pool of blood seeping into the snow. Tagotah felt feintly noxious, but he brushed it off.

The elven guard struck again, but her form was sloppy and predictable. Tagotah managed to slice off both her hands in two quick motions, and she shreiked. The shreiking ended, however, when she died a split second later. He then managed to knock out the horse without letting it die.

"Done." Tagotah muttered, smiling slightly, his face somewhat pale, all the while stepping out of the pool of blood.

He could not savor victory for long, however. The sound of heavy feet reached Tagotah's ears, and he became alert.

Two armored dwarves came running at Tagotah, but skidded to a stop fourty yards away from their target. As they reached for their guns, Tagotah took cover behind the caravan.

The sound of gunfire ended the very short silence the snowy forest had. The bullets ricoche'd off the wooden caravan.

"F***!" cursed Tagotah, sheathing his swords and hastily rummaged through one of the larger creates. "Oh I am in luck!" He grinned, taking out a nicely crafted gun and a sachel of bullets.

Quickly loading the bullets into the single barreled gun, he tried to take aim from around the caravan, but it was not good enough.

He decided to risk it, then, knowing that he was more agile than the dwarves were. He leapt out of his safe-spot and began firing, but there were now five dwarves.

After a few seconds of gunfire, a bullet caught him near the shoulder and the breath flew out of him as he fell to the ground.

Tagotah tried to get up, but he only fell down again. Now the dwarves ran over to him, one of them stepping on his chest. The foot was hard, and Tagotah was barely able to breath.

"We got 'im." One of them said. "Run back an' alert Uggaragh that we have 'im." Then the dwarf turned to Tagotah. "'E's been waitin' fer ya." He grinned.

It was then that Tagotah passed out.

To Be Continued....