The ragged corsair stood before the mother and her daughter, holding his sword with his right hand.
The moon's light reflecting on the blade, he readied himself to force them both back upon their ship along with the rest of the island's inhabitants that his crew had gotten.
The mother knew the fate that would befall her and her daughter if they were to be taken, but for all of it's worth she didn't intend to fight back.
She didn't want to break the vow of total pacifism that she and her people had lived by for thousands of years.
She closed her eyes and hugged the frightened teenage girl that was behind her. Resistance was equivalent to death when facing with an armed person while you yourself were unarmed.
Knowing well that the man in front of them had two choices:
to bring them both back to their ship to be sold as slaves in one of the Free Cities, or to kill those that resisted them making the one's left alive more compliant.
After seeing the older woman turn her back to him and embrace the one next to her, the shabby looking man raised his sword to strike her down and drag the other one back.
The sword went to slice her back and and yet...
It never came.
The mother gingerly opened her eyes and slowly turned her head.
What she saw was the same person, the one that chased them from their home towards the sea of trees.
His sword was still raised in the air, but never went down.
It had been the exact same scenario that had been before she turned to embrace her daughter, with only one difference.
A sword was protruding from his wide opened mouth. The sword's tip looked sharp like that of a needle. The rest of the blade was covered in red, assumably from the corsair's blood.
As she tried to grasp just what had happened, the blade was pulled back towards the inside of the now dead man's mouth. As soon as the blade was taken out from the back of his head accompanied by a loud thud' the man's body dropped to the ground, like that of a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The mother and the girl could not help but stare at the new figure that stood in front of them.
The person stood taller than the fallen man at his feet. Glancing at the man that had been dispatched then turning it's gaze towards them. Its head was covered by silver metal helmet that resembled the head of a beast that seemed to be snarling. It masked the entirety of the person's face, it had only two holes placed where the eyes should be. A golden light dimly shining from them.
Wearing a foreign outfit that was predominantly blue with hints of black outlined at the edges and the middle. A white shirt underneath, a few gold buttons at the chest and a black belt at the waist with a gold buckle that had a scabbard with gold decorations. Holding a sword that had a golden guard and a golden handle that gleamed at the moon's light.
The mother forgot to breathe, the fear that she had felt and the danger that radiated from the figure began choking her, so she started gasping for air.
The person then placed two fingers on the temple of it's head whilst looking at them like a predator eyeing it's prey.
The panic and nervousness began to show when she felt the one in her arms shiver more intensely, her tears had already began flowing down her face and her teeth rattling while her hands dug deep into her mother's forearm unable to let go.
The figure then put down the hand that was held beside his head then walked towards them.
The older woman seeing this began to embrace her daughter even more tightly. It drew closely to her then stopped at arm's length them.
Please Lord of Harmony, at least let me die a painless death.
As she thought of this the figure held out his hand.
Please let my daughter live.
This was all she could hope for.
And then...