Ultimate Assassin Saga: Tundra

She turned her gaze to the sky and she saw that it had finally finished snowing. No one knew why, but it always snowed five feet or more of snow. When nightfall came, the snow always stopped and one was able to see the stars and the moon in the sky. Much like right now. The silver of the stars twinkled in the velvet night and there was a large silver moon that hung in the sky, bathing the darkness in silver light. She had always found the beauty of the moon captivating and hypnotizing. She wasn't alone in that however.

The Elk Tribe worshiped the moon and all of it's hidden power. No one really knew just how powerful the moon was, but it was the constant light in the darkness. They never saw any golden sunlight except for one night out of the year and that was the reason why they didn't worship the sun. However, they believed in the Goddess of the Moon and they believed in her overwhelming power. To the Elk Tribe, there was nothing more powerful than the moon and its power over the land.

The Barbarian's thoughts turned to her brothers and her father. Her oldest brother Darcine wouldn't give a damn that she'd gone missing, and if it were up to him, he wouldn't even send out a search party to find her. He cared little for women at all, other than those he could bed. That was all he believed that women were good for was to warm his bed. That was one of the reasons that their father, Darr, had passed over her brother for the next King of the Elk for the second son, Darville.

Darville was the brother who loved with all his heart and cared deeper than he should've. He cared for every man that died in battle and for every woman that died during childbirth. Also, he wept for the children who's father's had died in battle and their mother's lost while giving birth. Others in the Elk might've seen that as a failing of his, but their father saw it as a strength and it was because of his deep compassion for others that he'd been named the heir to the throne of the Elk when their father died.

Darr was a good man and an even better leader. He had once had a Queen to rule by his side and everyone had wanted their relationship. They viewed one another as equals, and even though they did argue here and there, theirs was a relationship that was seen as the perfect one. Girls dreamed of finding a man like Darr for their future husband and boys dreamed of finding a woman like Natalie for their future wives. It was just as simple as that. For as good a husband he had been to Natalie, he was an even better father to his three children and they all knew that they were loved equally.

Under their father's rule, women were allowed to be trained and participate in combat with other tribes. As he put it, they needed to utilize every potential warrior they had and women were an untapped resource. Men had more strength, that was true, but women tended to be more agile and quicker than their male counterparts. It was because of this that the Elk had become a feared tribe over the last thirty years and other tribes tended to stay away from them. However, in the past year, the attacks from other tribes on the Elk were coming quicker and with more numbers.

There was nothing to stem the flow of enemies against the Elk and not one of the Barbarians truly wanted the enemy to stop. Barbarians were most alive when doing battle and it was the opinion of every Barbarian that the only glorious death for them was death in battle. That was what all Barbarians - male and female - sought. Outsiders might've called them insane for this, but they didn't care. Barbarians were warriors and they fought. That was all they were about. Without battle, they weren't Barbarians, but mere gypsies moving from place to place.

Diana drew herself from her reverie and she lowered her eyes from the velvet sky. She stared into the orange and yellow flames of their campfire. It was a beautiful thing that the Elk Tribe rarely used, except to eat their food. Heat wasn't something that Barbarians were use to because there was very little wood in the Tundra and using it as a campfire was a waste. However, this man - no, this Demon, she had to remind herself - had merely manifested the wood and built the fire. It had been an amazing sight to see with him appearing stick by stick out of thin air, an when there was enough for a campfire, he'd merely touched the wood before it sprouted flames.

Magic was a rarity among the Barbarian Tribes of the Tundra, though not completely unheard of. However, there wasn't a single Barbarian that could perform magic. Most Barbarians thought that magic was a sure sign of evil, but the Elk didn't believe that. Her Tribe didn't have any sort of magic within their ranks and the only magic they'd ever seen was from the Dark Races that came every now and again to the Tundra. Raids from the Dark Races were rare, only happening every year or two, but they too had been increasing in the last year. It lead her father and the rest of the Barbarian Tribe to wonder if the two might be connected.

Barbarians weren't the best investigators however. In fact, they weren't well known for using their minds at all. They were best known for charging into battle and killing everything in sight. It was a minor miracle that the Barbarian King had tied the increase in Barbarian raids and the raids from the Dark Races together in the first place. However, there was no proof and that was the problem. Without proof, they couldn't do much of anything to combat it, not that there was really anything that they could've done in the first place. They weren't a war party and they couldn't mobilize all of the Barbarian Tribes throughout the Tundra to drive back the Dark Races. They were a single band of over ten thousand Barbarians doing all that they could to survive the harsh environment that they chose to live in.

Now, there was this most recent development. Diana raised her dark blue eyes to the face of the Demon in front of her. He was busy staring into the flames and paying attention to their dinner. He didn't notice her looking at him and she was glad for that. It would be embarrassing for him to catch her staring at him and she didn't want to explain what she was thinking. It would be embarrassing for her to have to admit that she found him very attractive, despite the blood that flowed through his veins.

The Barbarian knew that Demon's were capable of camouflaging themselves as Humans to blend in, but that didn't seem to matter to her at all. In fact, it seemed to turn her on even more that she knew there was a monster buried underneath all of that Human appearance. She had been warned by her father and both her brothers that if she ever come across a Demon, she should run. They'd told her that running would mean very little because a Human couldn't hope to outrun a Demon, but it was better to go down running for your life than to stand there and allow the Demon an easy kill.

However, she was breaking what they'd told her to do right now. She was sitting here after a day of travel and waiting for the dinner to be finished. Not just that, she was actually allowing him to cook her dinner and she trusted him not to poison her meal. There wasn't a single cell in her entire body that told her that he couldn't be trusted and she couldn't understand that. She had been attacked by two members of a rival Tribe of Barbarians and it had been clear that they intended to rape her before killing her, but fortunately for her, Acheron had come around when he had. He'd killed one and run the other one off with little effort, saving her life in the process.

Maybe that was why she trusted him so easily.

Suddenly, the Chaos Demon raised his eyes and his emerald green gaze met her's. She gasped in surprise and quickly looked down, but the damage was done. She knew that he'd seen her looking and there was nothing for her to do about that. There was no way for her to turn back the clock and look away before he caught her starting at him. She felt her cheeks heating and her heart was beating hard in her chest, making it feel like she was going to explode.

"Food is ready." Acheron suddenly said, startling her. She visibly jumped, and when she looked up into his eyes, she saw that he had a single black brow lifted in askance. However, he said nothing and instead handed one of the cooked moles to her. She hesitated for a moment before she reached out and took the mole from him. She pulled her hand back and she swallowed the knot in her throat. All she wanted to do was run away and hide from this man, but she knew that she couldn't. So, she was just going to have to sit here and eat her meal.

The Barbarian slid the flesh of the mole off of the stick and she popped it into her mouth, chewing slowly to savor the meal. Taste exploded in her mouth and she was barely able to hold back the moan of pleasure. This was far better than any meal of the Elk. Any meat the Barbarians fixed was cooked one way and one way only: overdone. If you didn't like it, you didn't have to eat it. That was just how it went and there was no one who would challenge that. However, this meal was cooked well and was really juicy. It was quite possibly the best meal she'd ever had.

She looked across the fire and she saw the Chaos Demon eating as well. He was looking around at the open snow covered ground, but she knew that he wouldn't see anything. The Elk Tribe were fast travelers and she knew that they would be several miles from here. They would've set up camp when night fell, but if they weren't far enough away from the last camp, they would pick up again to leave. She could only hope that they were far enough away or they might never come back across the Elk Tribe. A search party might be sent out, but not until they set up camp in their new land and got it organized.

Diana was no fool. She knew that she meant little to anyone in the Tribe, save for her older brother and her father. She had no friends and she had no prospective husbands. In fact, most men were afraid of her because she refused to show weakness. That was something that wasn't common among Barbarian women. While the women of the barbarians could hold their own in many things, most women welcomed the attention from their male counterparts. However, she did not and that was well known. She knew that there were whispers that she wasn't attracted to men, but to women. There was no truth to any of those rumors, but she never stood up and denied it.

To do so could give credence to the rumors and that was the last thing she wanted to do. If she did and even her father believed the rumors, she would have to live like a lesbian. She would be forced to cut her hair short and start training to be a soldier. After all, it was mostly lesbian women who were the soldiers in the barbarian tribes and they rather liked their jobs. They were among their peers and the men didn't have to worry about offending anyone when talking about women. After all, the only women the warrior men were around and drinking with were the lesbians.

The Barbarian wasn't about to cut her hair. She liked all of her long hair and no one would get her to cut it off. However, if she declared herself a lesbian - which she would never do because she wasn't a lesbian - she would be forced to cut off all her hair. She wasn't going to do that and she wasn't going to train to be a soldier. She wasn't capable of being a warrior and dealing with the death that would come at her hands. It simply wasn't in her to be able to kill another living thing, even if it meant her harm. She simply wasn't that person.

"You should get some rest." Acheron said suddenly, breaking her from her reverie once more. She looked up from him, the last bit of her meal in her fingers and she was just about to eat it when he spoke. He was done with his mole and he was staring at her intently, her emerald green eyes glowing in the darkness. Despite the darkness of the sky, the snow still created a strange bright tableaux that could mess with one's mind. "We will start again in the morning. I will get you back to your people. I promise you that and I never break a promise if I can help it. This time I can help it."

The Barbarian stared at him, curious as to what that meant, but she knew that he had the best in mind for her. She didn't know how the Demon had the best intentions when it came to her, but she did. She nodded her head, and finishing off the last of the mole, she lay down in the snow, her cloak pulled tightly around her. She pulled up the fur lined hood and laid her head on the hood on top of the snow. She could still feel the cold all around her, but it didn't bother her much, especially not with a fire nearby warming her. She closed her eyes, and before she knew it, she was falling into a deep slumber.

Breal stopped in the middle of the open plain and stared up into the sky. He was on the border between Dalkia and the Wilds. It was because of this that he could see the blood red sky of Dalkia behind him and the dark blue of the morning ahead of him. It was an amazing sight really. It let him know that Dalkia was a unique place in the world and there wasn't any other nation on the planet like Dalkia. That made him feel proud of where he came from and who he served. The harshness of Dalkia was what had made him the warrior that he was and he would never turn his back on that. However, that didn't include the Emperor himself.

Emperor Azrieal wasn't a man that he knew well and he had never seen before yesterday. He had lived like a regular Demon underling, never meeting the top tier of the Empire and serving well. However, his real loyalties lie with the Clan Lord and Lord Shido knew that. That was probably why Lord Shido had told him what he'd told him and felt confident that he wouldn't betray him. He was certain that the Clan Lord had known that the Half Demon was loyal to the Blood Demon Clan and no one else. Whatever the Clan Lord wanted, he would carry out and do so without hesitation.

The Half Demon lowered his eyes and looked forward at the thick trees ahead of him. He knew that this was the High Forest and that he would find who he had been ordered to find within. However, he hadn't been sent there to disrupt any tenuous alliance that Acheron had made with the people of the High Forest. That was what the Emperor wanted, but his Clan Lord had told him otherwise. The Blood Demon Clan was loyal to Acheron and Acheron alone. Now that the brothers had had a falling out, it was time the Blood Demon Clan split away from the Empire and joined him.

The Command Assassin inspired people to his side, lethal he may be. However, he made for a damn good ally and he knew that from first hand experience. If it wasn't for the Command Assassin's interference, he would've had the regular fights every single day in every single place he went. However, because of his staking his claim, no one wanted to take the chance that he would stand by it and they had stayed away from the Half Human for fear of angering the Command Assassin.

Breal feared no Demon or cutthroat and he knew that he could take any one of them on. Then again, he was glad that he didn't have to. It got really old really fast He'd been defending himself from grown Demons from his childhood, and if it weren't for his training with the Clan Lord, he would have died many years ago. Because of his training, he was still here and that was all that mattered. He owed the Clan Lord and he wasn't about to let him down.

The Half Demon had done his research about the races that were known to live in the High Forest. There were only two that were known to live in the forest, but there were people that believed there was a third race somewhere within the forest. Other than a few shells of pottery and an arrowhead that had been found, there was no evidence that there was a third. The Half Demon believed that there could be a third and possibly even a forth. The High Forest could be teeming with life and no one would know it. The High Forest covered a lot of land and there was just no way of actually telling what all lived within the bounds of the forest.

One of the races that lived in the forest were the Wood Elves. They were nowhere near being the most dangerous or the most powerful of races, but they were a challenging lot. They were skilled in spying, assassination, and guerrilla warfare. Dalkian forces had attempted to take the High Forest before and they had been driven back by the Wood Elves who had at the time been allied with the other race within the High Forest, the Amazons.

The Amazons were just Humans, and because of this, they weren't viewed as a huge threat. However, the Amazons had something that no Demon used when they fought: a heart. The Humans fought with heart and they fought for their homes every single day. With the incentive of losing your home, you would fight much harder and that was clearly evident in how the Amazons had deal with the last attack on the High Forest. That had been centuries ago now and they could be weaker now, but he didn't believe that. The Emperor must not have believed that either because he was yet to attack the High Forest and attempt to bring that into the Dalkian borders.

The Half Human reached up and gripped the hood of his cloak. He pulled it down, revealing his face and his blood red eyes stared around the area. There was no one around ready to pounce on him and kill him because he was betraying the Empire. However, he didn't fool himself into believing that the Emperor didn't have a spy somewhere watching him. He would have to find that spy, and once that was done, he could kill the creature. It could be seen as an act of betrayal or it could be seen as an accident, he didn't really know. All he really knew was that he had to find that spy and he had to get rid of it. He wasn't going to be the one responsible for leading Dalkian forces to where the Amazons made their home.

The Emperor had charged him with the task of finding the Amazons and disrupting their alliance with Acheron. Even for someone that was actually going to do the job, that would be something that was hard to sell, even to Humans. After all, they would have to find the Amazons and let them know that they were friends of Acheron's and that Acheron was betraying them. If Humans had come to trust the Command Assassin, he didn't believe that that would be possible to do. After all, if a village full of Humans could come to trust Acheron, then they weren't likely to believe such a story.

Running a hand through his hair for a brief moment, Breal gripped the collar of his cloak and he closed his eyes. This item of clothing represented his hiding from the rest of the full blooded Demons in the Empire and to take it off would be to signify that he was no longer hiding. He'd never wanted to hide from the full blooded Demons, but Lord Shido had insisted upon it. He'd said that if to many full bloods saw his face, he would become a well known target and he would be killed easier. Never mind the fact that every Demon could sense his aura and would know that he was only a half blood from the very moment they saw him.

The Half Demon gripped the collar of the cloak tighter and he opened his eyes. Then, he tore it free of his body and cast it to the wind. He watched the cloak float away, and when the fabric of the cloak touched the ground, he turned back to the High Forest. Taking a deep breath, he began to walk, and in less than five minutes, he found himself at the eastern most edge of the forest, staring at the huge trees that towered high into the air, but they were so close together that it prevented creating a path through the untouched land. Even to a Half Demon, the nature of the High Forest and the pure majesty of it was a beautiful thing.

Breal had never been outside of Dalkia so he'd never seen the beauty of nature. Dalkia had no true nature, only twisted magic and cities. Compared to the look of the High Forest, Dalkia paled in comparison to it and he didn't know that he would ever go back now. He didn't think that he would be able to leave such beauty for the ugliness that was the Empire. Of course, if Lord Shido ordered him back, he would come back, no questions asked, but he wouldn't like it. Nature was a beautiful thing and he didn't want to leave it now that he'd gotten his first taste of it.