Black Shadow was awoken by the sound of footsteps, very soft footsteps, and then something crawling. He grabbed his bow and snapped up, waiting for whatever it was that was entering the cave. He aimed his bow at the entrance ready for anything. Whatever it was was not going to stop.

A few seconds went by but to Black Shadow it felt like days. He held his breath, until he saw the glimpse of something peak out of the entrance. He fired his arrow, not taking chances. Then a screeching sound came, and it was in that moment clear that what he shot was not in fact another human, but a wild fox, hoping to find shelter in the night.

Then a man came from the sky in the matter of seconds, dropping from the hole in the roof. It was the man whom attempted to murder Espor and Black Shadow.

“You are a very good at hiding, almost had me for a minute there. Lucky for me I am the best tracker in the world… and you,” He said, “You’re nowhere near the best at hiding I’ve dealt with.” The man pointed his knife at Black Shadow. “Now, I gave you a choice, and you didn’t take the smart one. So, this mean I have to kill you, and as a safety precaution I now have to gather a group and kill all those monks to get to your daughter too, so you just doomed a couple hundred people, and have to die with that conscious.”

In that second the man threw his knife at Black Shadow. Shadow attempted to dodge the knife, moving his left shoulder down and pulling an arrow from his quiver. He fired, hitting the man in the shoulder. The man did not even flinch, but instead looked down at the fresh wound and laughed.

“Oh, you think a silly arrow will do anything to me? Ha! You make me laugh just thinking about you.” He boomed, mocking Black Shadow. Just then he reached his hand out, and Black Shadow felt a sting in his back as the knife was imbedded into his shoulder. “Too easy.” The man said.

Black Shadow reached back and grabbed another arrow, accidentally grabbing one of the silver arrows he found in the wreckage. He did not even look when he fired his next shot, but the look of show on the man’s face told Black Shadow that he did exactly what he needed to without even knowing.

In that instant, the man burst into flames just as the tree did, yet the flames were not orange and yellow as they were before. Now they were almost black, purple, and blue, as if the night changed what they were like. The man screamed and fell to the ground, the arrow being ejected into the air and onto the ground unharmed in front of him.

Black Shadow walked up to the body, waiting for it to stop burning. When the fire was out it was clear that the body was now burnt to a crisp, only bones remaining, and the bones so burnt that they would break from being picked up.

Now he was safe, and now he could return to Espoir, who was probably scared for her father’s life.

“I’m on my way my little angel.”