The Scavenger and the Assassin

Ever since the elves had lost the war against the humans, now more than a century ago, their colonies had been outcast to far beyond the walls of the kingdom, out in the wild, where they were forced to fend for themselves. Though elves and humans had lived together for over a thousand years, it had only taken one evil king, who condemned his own daughter to death for falling in love with an elf, to shatter the precious harmony that had existed between the two species for so long. A war raged for more than a decade, but the elves lost in the end, and were banished.

Mairi was a young elf, not even fifty years old yet, and therefore had not known anything besides the harsh life her people had to face beyond the walls. Some would call her naive, but she knew better. Despite being only a child in the eyes of some of the older elves, she was already their best fighter. Her skills with a bow were unbeaten to this day, and she could win a fight against almost any man. For the last ten years, she had been a scavenger; one of the elves whose job it was to go into the kingdom at night and steal food to take back to her colony. Although many of the elves hunted regularly, there simply was not enough food outside the walls to sustain a colony of this size, so it was inevitable that raids had to be conducted on the kingdom every few weeks.

For Mairi, it was the highlight of her life. She enjoyed nothing more than running into the kingdom under cover of night; sometimes alone, sometimes with as many as eight friends, and scavenging all the food she could find from market stalls and from people’s houses.

It was on one of these nights in the early summer that she was first spotted by the king. Sometimes, the elves would be seen, and occasionally there were tragedies where some would go out and, by dawn, the returning party would be one member short, but as of yet, Mairi had never been caught, though it was inevitable that she would have been seen on more than one occasion, and she was content to keep it that way.

Her arms were laden with fruit and meat as she ran through the darkened city, her footsteps far more silent than any human could ever hope to be. Yet, even with her heightened senses and powers, she was still alert and on the lookout, constantly prepared for someone to shout at her or, even worse, for an arrow to sail past the side of her head. The fear never left, no matter how many times she stole from the humans, but it was worth it for the excitement.

She was almost at the wall when she heard a noise.

Spinning round so fast that some of the apples clattered to the floor, her eyes pierced the darkness for any signs of life. For a moment, the night was still and she could see nothing, but then she heard footsteps.

Running footsteps.

As Mairi backed away towards the wall, human soldiers wearing armour and carrying swords came charging down the path that led towards the castle. One of them yelled out—he shouted ‘stop,’ and then they all joined in.

‘Stay where you are!’

‘Traitor!’

‘Thief!’

She didn’t care that they were calling her a traitor or a thief; it was their fault, in her opinion. They were the ones who had banished her people. So rather than stopping like they were telling her to, she turned and ran. More fruit clattered to the ground, but she had no time to retrieve it, and having her arms free would be better anyway. Like a flash, she took out her bow and an arrow and turned to face the soldiers, firing three arrows in quick succession.

Two of them hit the soldier at the front, and he staggered backwards amidst gasps of horror from all his fellows.

Their hesitation was all she needed and, as half of their attention turned to their wounded comrade, she turned and fled, running faster than a small, thin girl looked capable of, her long, platinum blonde hair flying out behind her like a silvery halo, jumping lithely across a fence and then diving through the crack in the wall that her people always used as a way of getting in and out.

She knew they were following her, and an arrow sailed through the air as she squeezed through the crack as if to prove it. They were shouting, and the sound of metal on metal rung through the night as they chased her away. Now she was out, would she be safe? There was no way of knowing, but it was a long walk back to the colony; she would not get back before morning. In the mean time, she was out in the forest, alone and vulnerable.

Not that she had ever felt vulnerable before of course; she was skilled enough in every type of combat to fight any kind of creature that tried to attack her in the forest. She had faced everything from wolves to giants out here in the time she had been scavenging.

***

‘It’s no use, your Majesty,’ Cael said, falling to his knees at the king’s feet. ‘We lost her. Again.’

‘Again?’ repeated the king in disbelief. ‘How can she have eluded you so many times? She’s a girl, soldier.’

‘If I may, your Majesty, she’s also a very strong fighter,’ Cael pointed out, not wishing to disrespect his king, but not wanting this important fact to be forgotten either. ‘She’s better than any of the elf-men we’ve fought.’

Looking up, Cael saw that the king seemed to be deep in thought.

‘I think that this may call for more drastic measures, soldier,’ the king said, deliberating as he spoke. ‘I think we will have to dispose of her before she can come back again and wreak yet more havoc.’

‘Dispose of her?’ Cael repeated. ‘You mean, send someone out into the forest to go and find her? Your Majesty, that’s highly dangerous!’

‘I know,’ the king mused, ‘which is why I will be using my most skilled assassin.’ He gazed upwards at that point, looking to the guards that stood at the doors to his chamber.

‘You!’ he said sharply, and the guard on the left sparked into life.

‘Your Majesty?’ the guard asked with a bow.

‘Find me the best assassin in the kingdom,’ the king instructed. ‘And bring him to me immediately.’