Ultimate Assassin Saga: Tundra

The guards stared at him with fierce looks on their faces and they looked ready to attack him, but they didn't make any move to attack. He would welcome such an attack, but he really didn't want to kill any of his own people. He had just gotten back home from finding his sister and he had enough problems with bringing a Demon home. He didn't want to add to those problems by killing any of his own people. After all, he was suppose to be the next King of the Elk tribe and it wouldn't look good for him to have killed a few of his people in the past. Darcine would definitely angle that in his favor and he could get away with doing so.

With that thought in mind, he believed that he knew just who it was that these guards served. These had to be a part of the faction that were loyal to Darcine and his interests. Of course they wouldn't want to listen to either Diana or Darville. However, if they didn't and attacked them, it would mean their deaths, but that wouldn't concern Darcine. No, what would concern Darcine though was if those Barbarians could be tied back to him and there was no way he would take that chance right now. He couldn't afford for such an overt attack on his siblings and he damn well knew it.

Even while he believed that his brother would have no problem getting them out of the picture, he didn't believe that Darcine would kill them. No, it was more like Darcine would remove them and possibly imprison them somewhere where no one would ever find them. He was drawn from his reverie when he noted that several of the men had moved their hands away from the hilts of their weapons and they straightened, dropping their aggressive attitude. They knew their place and they knew the delicate situation they were involved in.

As the Barbarian Prince watched, the men shuffled away from them, but they kept their gazes on their contingent and were obviously pissed off. He narrowed his eyes as they disappeared into their tents and he made a vow to himself to remember their faces. If nothing happened, then fine, but he didn't think that was going to be the case. Darcine was very capable of dark things, but killing his family wasn't something that he believed his brother could do. Darcine was a politician and a puppet master, manipulating others to do his bidding without every dirtying his own hands so there was no way to actually prove it.

Sighing, the blonde man straightened and gripped the shaft of the war hammer. Then, he lifted the weapon and placed it back over his shoulder so he could carry it with ease. He stared at his sister who looked just as confused and worried as he felt. However, he didn't show it on his face at that moment, but in his heart, he was troubled. He was fairly certain that his sister was feeling the same if the look on her face was any indicator. However, Acheron looked completely unconcerned and that heartened him a little bit, though why he didn't know. The fact that this stranger knew nothing of their tribe or how they dealt with things would be easier for him to manage and control.

Without a word to them, Darville turned around sharply and he walked deeper into the village towards where his father's tent would be at. Right in the very center. His father had to know about this and know about it now. Keeping this a secret wasn't an option and he knew it. If it had just been him, he wouldn't have said anything to their father, but this was different and he knew it. Something was very wrong and they had to figure out what it was.

He needed his father.

Breal lay awake in his bed in the home and he stared at the roof. The darkness of the room was all encompassing and nearly suffocating. However, he rather liked the comfort of the darkness and relished in it surrounding him. He was within the home of the man that he'd seen in the pool and he was to meet with the Amazon Queen tomorrow to deduce if he was a threat or not to the Amazon village at all.

He knew that he wasn't a threat to them, but they had to figure that out for themselves. The silver haired woman named Twister had told him that her endorsement went a long way, but it was possible that she was overselling herself. She might just be filled with a lot of hot air and a big ego. She could simply be lying completely to him to put his mind at ease, but for some reason, he didn't think so. He believed in her when she told him that though he didn't understand why.

She just seemed like a trustworthy person, but she was a woman. Women of all races could be deceptive and pretend to be your closest ally while plotting your demise. He knew that he had trust issues especially when it came to women, but it would be a long time before he could fix that. For now, he was going to have to work on gaining the trust of the Amazons and having them believe that he was in fact there to be their friend, not their enemy.

The Half Demon sighed and he closed his eyes, attempting to fall asleep. However, his mind was in a whirl and he couldn't seem to be able to get to sleep. After nearly half an hour of being unable to sleep, he opened his eyes and he continued to stare at the roof. This was seemingly impossible to get to sleep in a high stress situation and he could understand that. Sighing heavily, he sat up and allowed the sheet to fall into his lap, staring at the wall in the corner.

The room was dark and warm, but it was without a fire of any sorts. It was simply the weather from the outside that came through his window and gave him a light breeze from the High Forest beyond. He was completely naked and that was only because he enjoyed sleeping naked. Clothing was very restrictive and he didn't want anything restrictive when he slept. That was the only reason that he didn't wear any clothing when he slept and he found that easier. Of course, it could create something bad when he was attacked and he could end up naked while in battle, but he could handle that. He'd done it before and it wasn't that hard to fight naked.

The Blood Demon pulled back the cover and climbed out of the bed. He walked naked across the wooden floor and he stared out his open window at the darkness of the village. There was literally no one outside and he found the quiet of the village something to be desired. Unlike Dalkia, this village was quiet and absolutely no one would be caught outside after a certain time at night. In Dalkia, people were always on the streets and were always plotting their next deceptive plot. It was...refreshing to say the least.

He looked up into the sky and he could see the waxing moon glowing in the velvet night. The sight of the stars twinkled in the night and created some light, but very little. In fact, there was so little light that came from the stars that if the moon wasn't in the sky, it would be completely dark. He enjoyed the majesty of the night and he never wanted to go back to Dalkia.

Never would he return there.

Breal turned away from the window and he walked over to the corner where his clothing had been piled. He picked up a pair of black leather pants and he slid them on one leg at a time. Tucking himself in, he pulled the tabs together and he zipped the pants up. Finished pulling on his clothing, he walked across the room and he pulled open the door to his room, stepping out into the empty hallway.

He moved swiftly, but silently down the hallway towards the living room. He knew that at this time at night his benefactor would be asleep so he wasn't all that worried. He just needed to get out of the house and get some air. He wasn't going to go anywhere as much as he might want to. To do that could put the entire thing in jeopardy and he wasn't going to do a thing that might bring distrust among the Amazons down on him. It was up to him to make sure that his clan survived and he had a feeling that Lord Shido had an intention of bringing the Blood Demon clan to the High Forest to live. Or at least that was what he hoped.

He could be wrong, but he didn't think he was. After all, if they were just going to betray the Empire and run off to support Acheron, they wouldn't need to make allies with the Amazons. No, they could simply leave and find a place to live without worrying about anyone else. However, making alliances with the Amazons would allow them to live within the High Forest and would put them on the front lines if a war did come to the Wilds. The other two paths were blocked by other countries and Emperor Azrieal knew that.

To the north was Shadir which was a dark and evil nation like Dalkia, but the Emperor of Dalkia hated the King of Shadir. He saw King Kane as a weak and feeble man. He was but a Human and Azrieal had never had a high opinion of Humans. He thought they were weak and useless creatures, consuming the air around them without putting out anything that could be used. In many ways he was right, but the Half Demon knew that it didn't really matter. The prejudices of the Emperor against King Kane would never change and that was why he knew that he would never take his army through Shadir. Though Azrieal hated the King of Shadir, he also recognized the power of the Shadiran army and he didn't want to lose any people to one war to fight another with his brother which was exactly what would happen if the Emperor attempted to take his allies through Shadir to get to Acheron.

To the south was the Andarian Wasteland and that place was no better than Shadir. Anyone who had ever gone into the Wasteland had disappeared and never come out again. Their corpse was never found, but there were those who reported sightings along the Andarian Wasteland's borders of strange masked warriors wielding weapons and watching them. It was because of this that the Andarian Wasteland was off limits other than the fact that there was no life other than the strange assassins that seemed to live within it.

The Blood Demon himself had never seen the Andarian Assassins of the Wasteland, but he believed that they existed. Many were skeptical because of the fact that the Andarian Wasteland was indeed that: a Wasteland. It was a bone dry land that had no vegetation and no water, but it stretched from the southern Dalkian border all the way across the center continent to the eastern border of the Manatheran Empire. No one could walk the Andarian Wasteland from end to end without succumbing to dehydration and dying before they got close to the end of the Wasteland. That was just a fact and everyone knew that.

In fact, Acheron had taken a contingent of guards into the Andarian Wasteland a long time ago when they were still campaigning to build the Dalkian border. Azrieal had seen the Wasteland as a good piece of land that could bring them all the way across to the Manatheran border and would give them the perfect troop passer. He'd thought to build oasis' within the Wasteland so his people could move from point to point and not die before they got there. However, that had failed. Acheron had returned after only two weeks, all alone, and he'd insisted that they leave the Wasteland alone. He'd never told anyone what had happened there, but all of his men were dead and he refused to lead another campaign there.

All of these thoughts passed through Breal's mind in warp speed, and by the time the last thought had come to mind, he had stepped out of the hallway to the living room. The room was rather large and open. At full capacity, it would be able to fit over one hundred people there and he couldn't imagine such a large room back at the palace when it came to a normal home. For a palace, such a room was usually confined to that of the audience chamber, but this was just one home and one living room. However, he had been told that the Amazon man that he had taken up residence with, Tide, was the Prince of the Amazon people.

The wooden floor was bare and carved of perfect redwood that seemed to gleam in the darkness which created an odd effect. In the center of the room was a curving couch with plump green cushions and it looked like it could seat a dozen people comfortable on its cushions as it formed a semi circle. In the middle of that semi circle was a large wooden table with glass in the middle, but there was nothing on top of the table. This was just a place for conversation and maybe even passing a little thinking time or family time. From what he'd seen though, Tide didn't have any children so this room was most likely abandoned most of the time and no one spoke in here unless people came over.

On the other side of the couch there was a long hallway that he knew would lead back to his benefactor's room and that was where the man slept. Breal had the oddest impulse just then, but he fought it back and laughed softly to himself. What a fool notion that would be, he thought to himself incredulously. His impulse had been to walk down that hallway, enter his benefactor's room, and crawl into bed with him. Not only would that not do well for the trust that he was trying to build, it would be awkward trying to hold a relationship with his benefactor after that. It was a good thing that he had iron clad control of his impulses or he would be in big trouble.

He had felt an undeniable attraction to the man the first time he'd seen him, but the Half Demon had perfect control of his impulses. He'd had to learn that over the years because within his clan, one outburst could get him killed. If he'd struck out in anger instead of self defense, he would've been put down and there wouldn't have been anything that Lord Shido could do about it. It still confused him to this day why Shido had allowed him to live and trained him, but he wasn't going to question it too much. He had accepted that some mysteries would never be solved and had moved on a long time ago.

Why Lord Shido had broken one of his own mandates was just one more mystery to add to the quickly growing list.

The Blood Demon shook his head and snorted. His blood red eyes closed for a moment as he tried to shake the image of Tide naked and wet out of his mind, but to no avail. It was one of the things that was keeping him up and he couldn't help it. The image just wouldn't leave and other images accompanied it. Fantasy images of what he would like to do with the other man's body and what he would like for Tide to do to his body. Opening his eyes, he noted that his cock had grown stiff and aroused in his pants, but he ignored it. There was nothing he could do for it now. He needed air and that was what he was going to get.

Breal turned and walked down the hallway to the front door, stepping outside into the night.

Acheron sat in the corner of the rather large tent and stared at the fire in the middle. The tent was warm and filled with furs, but he could tell that the fire in the hearth wouldn't be able to catch anything. It was carefully contained and the smoke was let out by a small hole in the top of the cone-like tent. There were furs along the floor of the tend, keeping them away from the snow and other furs that were stitched together to serve as a quilt so they would be warm during the night. It was quite the set up and one that he found quite impressive despite their lack of sophisticated building techniques.

He had thought the Barbarians were much dumber than he'd first thought. He could tell by this tent and the others that surrounded it that they could actually fold down quickly. Then, they could be rolled into tight cones of material and carried on one's back. Everything in the tent could be easily lifted and carried by one person so being nomadic was made easy for these people. However, for some reason, the Elk tribe was settling down and making their home in one place indefinitely.

That severely confused him. Why would they decide all of a sudden to settle down and no longer mover around? It wasn't very smart as far as he could see. There were dozens of large Barbarian tribes all over the Tundra and each one of them were at war. It was all out with no allies and there wasn't likely to be any allies made. With that kind of constant threat, it would've been smarter to be a nomadic tribe so their enemies couldn't find them, surround them, and continue to barrage them into non-existence. However, he wasn't going to criticize their methods, but if anyone attacked their village, he would help them out in any way he could. If they let him do so of course.

The Chaos Demon had noticed the distaste among the guards when they'd entered the village and they'd looked ready to kill him right away. He'd been able to sense that they were completely Human so he hadn't understood how they could know what he was, but it was obvious from their reaction that they had. What had concerned him more was the fact that they had been ready to cut him down even with Diana in front of him, telling them that he was with them. From what he had been told, Diana was a Princess and the guards should've listened her or at least trusted her judgement, but they hadn't. Just what the hell was going on with the Elk tribe?

Her brother Darville had intervened of course and had vouched for him as well. However, even with his voucher, the guards hadn't looked ready to drop it. It had looked like the guards were going to attack him as well, and from what Diana had told him, Darville was the heir to the throne of the Elk tribe. The guards had conceded, but they hadn't looked happy about it and he found himself concerned about this. He hadn't come here to cause strife among the other members of the Elk tribe, but it seemed that was exactly what he had done. It would all be up to the King of the Elk tribe he supposed. He was to meet with the man tomorrow and they would determine what was to happen from there, but he wasn't worried.

Both siblings had assured him that their father was a kind, fair minded man and that he was most likely going to allow him to stay. As they'd pointed out, the Command Assassin had saved and protected Diana from a rival Barbarian tribe so it would probably go over well. However, the Command Assassin had seen stranger things happen before and most of the strange things that he'd seen done or said over the years had come from Human actions or Human lips. They were a completely unpredictable race and he didn't doubt that the Elk tribe would be much of the same.

After they'd entered the tent village at the bottom of the basin, he'd been relegated to staying with Diana and he didn't complain. She was just a girl after all and he didn't have any sexual feelings towards her. In fact, he found her to be cute, much like a child or a younger sister. He didn't know why he had such strange familial emotions towards her, but he did. He felt as if Diana was one of his own and that he should protect her with everything that he had, even if that required his life. It was a strange feeling, but not one that he would willingly trade for anything else.

With thoughts of the girl, the Chaos Demon turned his attention to her form on the other side of the fire and he smiled softly. She was laying on her side near the wall with her fur quilt pulled up to her neck and she was sleeping quite soundly. If he couldn't see her moving up and down with her breathing, he would've believed that she'd died. She was simply sleeping that soundly and she hadn't moved at all since she'd laid down. He had never come across a person that didn't move at all in their sleep, but he supposed that there was a first time for everything and this was that first time.

He shook his head and turned his gaze to where he was suppose to sleep. It was a bed of furs much like Diana was sleeping on and it looked very comfortable. Already laying next to the bed of furs was his broadsword of which he'd taken from his belt when he'd gone to sit down. It was very uncomfortable to sit with still in his belt and he'd decided that he was safe enough to lay it a few feet away from him while they ate. The mole that they'd had was good and she was an amazing cook. He supposed that he should get into the bed of furs and go to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long day of work, work, and more work. After all, he'd promised Darville that he would help the Barbarians carve out the stones necessary to build buildings, and with his working with them, they might be able to get it done a lot faster.