Blood trickled down my head; Was I going to die like this? I doubt it, but it hurt like a bitch.
I looked up at the bloodstained plains wondering how many of my comrades had died already. I'd already assumed there were near to none hopefully.
The battle we'd just gone through was commissioned to us by a noble family of the Taran kingdom. The small village the nobles had been ordered to watch over had been targeted by a large group of blood wolves. Overly large wolves who had fur the shade of blood.
The nobles decided to use us, as to not waste their soldiers.
I'd pull my sword out of the dead wolf below me and sheath it back into my belt.
"Alice!" A voice called to me from my left.
I turned and saw the familiar face running towards me. "Seems you're still alive Rye," I said while moving a piece of blood-soaked hair out of my face. My hair that was a light brown before this fight was now stained red.
"Surprisingly, one of those little guys almost took my eye." He said pushing a piece of his honey blonde hair out the way to show me a light scratch above his purple eyes. "You think it'll leave a scar?"
"Uhh– Yeah. "I said sarcastically before being cut off by a familiar voice once more.
"Fall in!" I heard the command; grabbed Rye and started rushing in that direction. North it seemed.
"Alright troops, a total of two of you guys did not make it. I must say. I'm very disappointed in some of you guys. Well, Was." The man preaching was the leader of the mercenary group. Pax Valnorn. He was a large middle-aged burly tan man, He had short brown hair and a bushy beard. He also was my father.
Sadly I was born inside a very known mercenary group in the kingdom of Taran. We were called the Black Wolves. Funny since we just fought a bunch of wolves. Ha, I'm so original, I know.
Due to being the child of said leader I was expected to take over after him. This means in most cases where I've been slightly injured; I'm the first to be yelled at.
"Alice. Is that blood on you yours?" My father's voice rose amongst the large platoon. "Don't let it happen again."
It wasn't my blood.
I stood there in silence.
My eye may have twitched.
"We'll leave the corpses for the soldiers to take care of. The shadows will track down any wolves who successfully escaped." My father exclaimed.
The shadows were quick and skilled fighters, they were technically assassins, but my father said that sounded too brutish.
"We'll stay at the inn in the nearest village and leave at dawn to the base, I'll head to the noble's mansion and take our compensation." He sighed saying this. He picked up his overly large great sword and headed in the opposite direction with a few of the veteran warriors by his side.
A soft hand landed on my shoulder. "Seems like the princess got hurt." A highly feminine and highly obnoxious voice said to me.
Elaine Maltor. An annoying bows-woman in training. She had obnoxious long wavy pink hair and hot pink eyes.
It looked like she hadn't lifted a finger in years.
She hates me and I make an effort to keep it that way.
"It seems so," I said sarcastically. "It seems you still have all your arrows," I said looking directly at her bag that'd still been filled to the brim with arrows.
"I didn't have the chance." She said glaring up at me.
"We were fighting for four hours. If you're not going to fight at least make yourself useful to the men." I said a bit irritated.
"You have no right to say that to me Alice Valnorn!" She said while shoving her disturbing skinny fingers in my face.
"Do I now?" I chuckled at this. "I'm not going to argue anymore, I don't have time to listen to your unnecessary yapping."
I sighed and met back up with Rye and began walking towards the inn. Along the way, we met up with Sabira,(my best friend) and her cousin Sarian.
Sabira had curly black hair, she had high cheekbones, and dark piercing eyes. She was a mage who used earth magic. Her Cousin Sarian had medium-length curly hair that was tied in a bun the majority of the time. Sarian had amber eyes, and a dark complexion just as Sabira.. He used daggers and had a high chance of joining the shadows if he got on my father's good side. They both joined 4 years ago.
"I can't believe Elaine is still trying to get under your skin, it's been 7 months since she joined," Sabira said pressing her thumbs to her temples. "I'm surprised you haven't just knocked her out yet."
"I'm surprised too," I said scrunching up my nose in remembrance of what she said.
Rye and Sarian imitated Elaine and burst into laughter.
"Hey, guys let's not make fun of her," Sabira said which shocked me with her sudden change of personality. "She's just a little too special for her good."
The boys burst into laughter and I joined in too.
About 30 minutes had passed and we finally reached the inn. A few people had already made it to the inn and gave the owner and workers a quick heads up. Due to this the inn was empty.
The inn had 3 stories with 5 rooms on floors two and three, 2 beds each. It wouldn't be enough for everyone, but we'll make it work. Hopefully.
I think it's time to take a nap.