Excerpt:

Chapter One

Aaron and Orion

It had been four days since we saw any people but, still we continued to ride our horses south. Orion turned around to face me and said "We need to find Little Cliftonshire before too long. We are out of water and the horses are getting tired."
I searched the horizon for Little Cliftonshire. I was wearing my long brown cloak and underneath it, I was wearing brown pants and a black shirt. On my side was a long sword, and on my back was the long bow which was handed down from my father’s father who made it from the center of an old yew tree, also on my back was the quiver of arrows that I had made from a Sitka Spruce tree before this trip. As they continued on their way they listened to the skizzards scamper over the rocks and the sand. They noticed the wind started to blow from the south so, Orion pulled out his cloak from his saddle bag to put on. Under his cloak Orion wore a grey shirt and blue pants. On his side was his weapon of choice, a rapier he forged himself.
Orion noticed a smell. It was the smell of smoke. "Aaron, do you smell that?"
“Yeah, lets hurry people might be in trouble.” I said as we spurred our horses up the nearest sand dune.
When we came to a halt on top of the dune we saw the building at the end of a small village burning. Orion and I looked frozen in shock as four bandits stumbled drunk into the road. Orion leaned over to me and whispered “I will go see if anyone is inside the building while you cover me.” As Orion and I climbed off our horses, and led them back down the side of the dune away from the bandits. While I walked back up the sand dune, Orion ran swiftly around the dune to the north behind the building. He was gone before a normal human would have blinked. Still I continued to walk at a normal human pace up the hill with no worry of Orion being hurt, by the fire or by the four bandits. It would take more than that to hurt either one of us. Orion was the oldest and smartest vampire out of the five that I knew, but I was still the fastest.
A bandit turned his back to the group and looked up at the moon that was just rising over the sand dune. As he glanced up I came to the crest of the dune. The bandit started to warn the others that they were not alone when he fell dead from an arrow shot from my bow into his heart with amazing accuracy. The warm blood fell upon the other three shoulders and necks. They gazed from there fallen friend and up towards me. Two of them fled to hide behind buildings while the third stood there. He looked up at me and yelled “I will kill you for what you did to my little brother!” With that he drew his sword and charged towards the hill I was on. As he passed an alley way a board flew out and knocked the man out.
While I was looking for the remaining two bandits, I started down the hill at a slow pace. *Well Orion should be almost done if he didn't get hurt in there. I will give him five more before I go and look* I thought. That’s when I looked back to where the man was laying out cold when I saw the girl being pushed forward held in front of the bandit.
“Let the girl go and you might leave here with your life!” I yelled.
“Who are y. y. you?” the man questioned with a stuttered. He froze because all he could see is a man about six feet tall and a bow equal to his size with an arrow notched in it.
After a few minutes of searching Orion left the building he went out the back door and heard footsteps. He slowly inched further when he heard me yell “Let the girl go and you might leave here with your life!” As he turned the corner he saw a man holding a lady tight and facing me. Seeing that I had his full attention Orion quietly drew his sword and crept silently up to the man.
He poked the tip of his rapier into the back of the bandit, and leaned in close to whispered “you want to have a fair sword fight or do you want to die before you can turn around. All you have to do is let the girl go.” Then he took a step back and said “well what shall it be?.” As he flicked his wrist he left a five inch gash on the back of the bandit. The bandit had loosened his grip on the girl, and she fought her way free, and ran next to me who was about twenty yards away.
“Are you okay?” I asked. All the girl did was smile and gave a little nod. The man turned around swinging his sword for Orion's head. The attack was easily blocked by a laughing Orion.
“You have to try harder that that.” Orion smirked.
The bandit smirked back “You should try before you get killed. The cloak you are wearing might get in your way why don't you put it down, and when I kill you I will wear it for you okay?”
Orion said as he untied his cloak and as he threw it he said “You made a mistake I will walk away from here not you but I will make you a bet. If you can lift it you can have it.” The mans eyes widened when the cloak hit the ground throwing up a cloud of dust. In desperate fear the bandit lounged and slashed, but every one of his attacks was easily blocked. After twenty minutes of metal clashing on metal and the occasional sound of flesh being slice and the yells of pain with it the bandit grew tired and fell to his knees still slashing. When his sword made contact with the shin of Orion. The bandit seemed to get his strength back enough to stand only to have the pommel of Orion’s rapier slam against his skull.
“Hey Aaron, what should we do with these two? “ Orion asked as he dusted off his cloak and retied it where was.
I replied as I handed the strange girl some water “Let them be.”
Orion walked up and joined the group as I looked at the lady as she handed the water back.
“Do you know how far till Little Cliftonshire?” I asked
“You are not far away from there. It is about two miles from here to the east. When you get there come see me I will repay you for helping me. I work at the first bar by the north gates tomorrow night.” She said as she ran into the darkness leaving the sweet sent of roses in the air.
As she faded away Orion looked at his friend “Was that her?” He asked. ”Yeah I think that was one of the two.” I replied as he opened up his satchel and pulled out some papers he was given in Mizz.