This is more or less the story I told at Kada El's a while back. Yes, I made up the story on the spot, so do excuse some of the roughness. I was interrupted by a server restart, so not all of my story was told, so I decided to finish it in greater detail in a story. Expect more of Aregul's Travel stories to begin to appear.
Although it might sound different at times, I did keep this story PG rated. Do feel free to leave comments.
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Aregul has, in some form or another, served as a guard for all of his adult life. His father taught him the way of the blade. He taught him the value of learning to wield a blade as an extension of his arm, how to swing it faster then the eye could follow. His father also taught him the Warrior's Code, but that is for a different time and story.
When Aregul was three and twenty years old, he was serving as an caravan guard. This particular caravan was transiting between Akkaio and the Fortress. All went well for the first three days. The caravan passed by Hydlaa and started on the road to the Bronze Door's Fortress. The company of guards, six man total, was rather inexperienced, with the Commander and Aregul himself being the most experienced and skilled warriors among them. But, reports of bandits were scarce, and their small company of men would be enough to hold off light raids if it came to that.
On the fifth night of the journey, the caravan began to slow, preparing to stop for the night like they had for the past four nights. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. As the lead Caravan stopped and the rest of the caravans began to circle up behind it, a hunting horn was heard, then a cry of female voices. The guards brought their weapons to bear, but soon saw that the cause was hopeless, as a band of all female bandits beset their caravan. The Commander of the Guards surrendered, hoping that all the bandits would do was to take the Trias of the Caravan and spare everyone's life. True, the Guard Companies reputation would be wounded, but at least they would still have their lives, and the lives of the caravan.
The bandits did not seem interested in the caravan, however, and soon let the teamsters, the merchant, and even all of the Tria's go. The caravan soon took off, leaving trails of dust hanging in the air behind them in their haste to leave.
The guards were taken by the bandits back to their camp, and were tied up and left for the night. The only people awake in the camp, aside from the guards, were two bandits who sat by a fire, guarding the tied men. They to fell asleep. The tied men began to whisper and mutter to each other. Hours passed and a plan was formed. The smallest of the guards managed to slip free from the rope that tied the men together, and he took to the camp. He returned ten minutes later with a small kitchen knife. With that, he sawed the rope apart and freed the others. Aregul and the Commander waited, allowing the others to escape before they did. They made sure the others were long gone before they themselves set off. It seemed as if everything would be fine when Aregul inadvertently stepped on a twig. This slight noise awakened the sentry's. One of the bandits screamed, and instantly, the whole camp came alive. Aregul and his Commander tried to get away, but the female bandits soon caught up to them.
They were taken back to the camp and securely tied up. Active guards were set to keep watch over them and they sat like this for hours. Finally, one of the bandits came, untied the rope, and took the Commander away with her to a tent. Several other bandits joined them. For what seemed like hours, Aregul did not hear anything. No sounds of torture, or sounds at all. Aregul wondered what was happening, but when he asked, he was only answered by amused expressions or slight laughter.
Finally, Aregul himself was taken into the tent. He had not seen the commander leave. He was left alone in the tent for a moment when one of the most beautiful women Aregul had, or still has, ever seen walked in. She wore tight fitting chain mail, and was only armed with a single dagger. The dagger was very ornate, with studded Jewels on its hilt. On the pommel of the small dagger, a single letter was inscribed...The letter S carved in flowing script. She looked at Aregul, noticed him looking at the dagger then slid it out from where she had kept it in her belt. She tossed it to one side of the tent then took a step towards him, her hand going to her neck it seemed.
She seemed very surprised when Aregul leaped for the dagger. He brought it up, at the ready and swung it at her. She seemed to startled to react as her hands dropped from the top of her chain mail. Aregul brought the dagger to her throat and proceeded to hold her hostage. He slowly walked her out of the tent and found what appeared to be the entire bandit camp waiting outside, almost as if in line. They to seemed slightly astounded at seeing their leader held captive, but soon took to laughing and giving other signs of amusement. Strangely, Aregul felt that their amusement was at his expense. He made it to the edge of the trees, then stopped. He kept the dagger at the ready and turned to face the women who had captured him and his fellow guards.
She laughed at him and drew a short sword from her chain mail legs. Its hilt was very short, and its sheathe was cleverly designed to blend in with her chain mail itself. Aregul had not noticed it in his haste. She laughed again and twirled the blade, then swung it towards Aregul. Aregul brought the dagger up to defend himself but he found the dagger knocked from his hand. The bandit smiled at him slightly then said 'You and I will meet again my handsome guard. For now, take the dagger and remember me.' She then left.
Aregul took up her dagger, wonder slightly filling him and returned to the path. He caught up to his band of guards and found his Commander once again among them. His commander adamantly refused to tell Aregul what had happened to him, and in the band of guards, the story was never told. As soon as the guards reached Akkaio, the commander excused himself and was never seen again.
Aregul learned from this experience, and had it happened to him in a slightly later time in his life, he most likely would have throughly enjoyed his kidnapping. That was not the last time that he would see his old commander, nor would it be the last time that he saw Katerine, the Bandit Leader.
