41 Jaeden Town's Bandits and Something More

Nia marched forward with her hood covering her head and darkening her face. Forward until she was no longer on the outskirts of the town. Her resolve wouldn't fester. Not until she discovered what happened. The mist made it difficult for her to see far, even though her vision as a dragon far exceeded that of an average humans'. She relied on her vision and hearing. As she continued to walk along the empty roads, she heard the slow creaks of signs as the wind blew by. Nobody was in any building. In the alleyways, there were only a few rats that scurried around and hid in the cracks between the walls.

She was being watched. There were people in the dark corners of the alleyways. If Nia wasn't a dragon, she wouldn't have been able to see them in all of the mist. She didn't believe they were friendly. She held the hilt of her blade, but kept it unsheathed. She was awaiting for the moment that they pounce.

"You're quite the brave little person for coming this way. I thought that all this mist would scare away normal folk," one of the men said, but the voice echoed and she couldn't quite tell which one of them said that.

Nia stopped in her tracks ready for a fight.

"Do you know what happened to all of the people here!?" she shouted into the mist hoping for an answer back, but not expecting to get one.

Laughs ensued between the group of people hiding in the alleys. One of them slowly started to move out of the corners. It was misty, but Nia could see the man clearly. He was slightly taller than her and had a devious smile on his face. He wore dirty ragged steel armor, a bandana, and held a short sword. He was confident that he could sneak up behind her.

Nia looked straight at him. They locked eyes and at that moment, the man's expression was that of shock. He was surprised that the girl in front of her could see her. The mist was thick enough to hide, but not thick enough for a dragon. Nia, however, wondered how the man could see her.

"Damn it! You can see in this, too!? Guys, be careful! This one can see us!" he yelled in fear.

Nia unsheathed her blade and rushed forward towards the man.

The man staggered and tripped back. He fell to the ground landing on his butt. Nia continued forward. She didn't want to kill him as she needed to know what happened to the people of the town.

However, in that moment, an arrow struck right in front of her feet from behind. She stopped and looked back. From the rooftop of one of the buildings, there was a woman holding a crossbow and a whip. She jumped down from the roof and landed on her two feet.

"Well, what do we have here? I know that you aren't a part of our band otherwise I would recognize you. Yet, you can still see in this fog." she said with a devious smile as if she was looking at prey.

She had messy dark hair and skin. She wore ragged leather armor. There were scars all over her face. In one hand, she held a crossbow, and in the other, a whip. The woman pointed the crossbow at the hooded Nia.

They were unable to tell what was under the hood except for details such as the eyes, mouth, and nose. Some strands of brown hair came out of the hood.

The man got up and took some steps back from Nia. He carried his sword shakily.

The woman slowly walked closer and said, "Well, you can see in the mist, but not completely. It still covered me. You would have been able to see me as I was just sitting up there pondering about these easy days."

Nia stayed on guard without giving any reply.

The woman shot more arrows, but as she did, Nia quickly ran to the right. Each arrow missed their targets. The crossbow kept shooting more bolts, but Nia kept dodging and hitting them away with her red blade. Her hood fell revealing her long brown hair.

"That's a nice sword you got there," the woman said as she shot more bolts. Eventually, the cartridge holding the bolts ran out. As soon as Nia heard the sound that the crossbow made when it fires without any bolt, she stormed forward straight to the woman.

The woman threw her crossbow to the ground without trying to reload it with more arrows. Her smile grew larger. Her heart rate increased as her enjoyment over the fight grew.

She lashed out with her whip. Nia froze and dodged one lash. She has never faced an enemy using a whip before. It was unusual. The next lash, the whip wrapped itself around Nia's red blade. With the flick of the woman's wrist, the blade fell out of Nia's hand and towards the woman. The woman grabbed it in the other hand and admired it.

"A dragonscale blade. Now, what dragonslayer did you kill to get this? Or maybe you killed a dragon yourself?" she taunted as she continued to lash out with her whip. Nia dodged side to side. She was unable to get close to the woman.

The whip struck Nia's arm and wrapped around the leather gauntlet. The woman gleefully smiled as blood rushed to her whole body. She tried to pull the whip back at her, but it was stuck. Nia grabbed onto the whip and tugged back with the force of a dragon. The woman was pulled towards the ground and let go of the whip as she scraped her skin on the stone ground. Her other hand dropped the red blade and it slid back towards Nia as if the blade had a conscious mind of its own. Nia unwrapped the whip and threw it behind her. She leaned down and grabbed the red sword.

The woman got herself up to her knees and as she did so, Nia held the red blade pointed at the woman's neck.

The woman laughed and replied, "I can see that you can fight, lady. If you want to join our band, I think I can talk to the boss about it. We sure could use some more women that could pick up everybody else's slack."

Nia asked, "Where are the townspeople? What happened to Jaeden town?"

"Jaeden town now belongs to us. We were just a bunch of nobodies, but now we own this town."

Nia's eyes squinted to see whether there were any more people coming out of the corners. Perhaps, she can get more information from their boss.

"If you're not the one in charge, then I'd like to speak to him. I don't need to talk to a lackey."

The woman laughed again and said, "You got guts. Hey, Marko, go crawl back to hole. I got this."

As she said this, the man shakily holding his sword nodded and ran away. He must have watched the whole fight and got scared stiff without even trying to help his comrade. He disappeared within the mist.

She got herself up to her feet.

Nia still kept her guard up. She was unaware of one bandit, and there were probably more lurking within the mist. It could also be trap to let her guard down.

"Relax. There are others, but they can see what's going on. I'm Miranda Levime. What's your name?"

Nia relaxed slightly. She was still on guard, but she slowly put her sword away as she locked eyes with Miranda.

"I'm Nia," she said as she kept her blade to her side unsheathed.

"Nia. It's nice to meet another real warrior," Miranda said as she approached Nia with her hands up trying not to show that she was a threat.

"I just came here to know what happened," Nia said as she took off her hood.

"And if you find out, what will you do?" she asked.

Nia paused and replied, "That depends..."

Miranda licked her lips. She continued to raise her hands showing that she was peaceful.

"I would actually like it if you could stay with us. Our new boss has big plans and to be a part of it would be grand. Something I never would have dreamed of, but with him on our side, I think it would be possible."

Nia was puzzled and asked, "What plans?"

"Just follow me to the tavern. That's where our boss is. After seeing his power, you'll want to join, too."

Nia's questions only brought new questions. Who was this boss? What were these bandits planning? She knew, however, that if she met with the boss, she can directly get the answers.

"Alright. I'll follow you to see this boss."

Miranda smiled believing that they got a new recruit on their side. She eased her arms back down. She walked forward holding Nia's hand.

"By the way, Nia, do you mind if we be friends after you join?" Miranda asked in a cheerful tone.

Nia looked confused and after a couple of seconds of silence, she continued, "Nevermind. Maybe, that was too strange of a thing to ask."

She continued to hold Nia's hand as they walked through the mist.

"I don't want you to get lost in this mist. I'll show you the way through," Miranda said. Miranda was excited thinking that they have gotten a new strong friend, but Nia was only interested in finding the townspeople.