Zephyrus Turmoil

“Heh, heh, sorry girls,” Will mumbled as he stepped out of the dark side of a tree on a hill a ways away. “I know that was mean, but I must be going, and I wish for you all to not follow me.” Raven sprang down from the branches above and landed on his right shoulder. She’d flown out of his window earlier that night to wait for him outside.

Will grasped at his right forearm as pain shot through the limb, gritting his teeth as he started off towards Kain’s location. But he had to stop and sit against a nearby tree as a wave of nausea nearly crippled him, leaving him sitting in pain for nearly two hours.

He sighed as the pain past. “Phew, that was close, especially back at the hostel. I had to use a Shadow Cloak spell to keep them from seeing my stuff. I can hardly imagine how freaked out they’d be by the sword at my side or the gun at my hip. Heaven forbid they get a good look at my armor, though it seems that Sunset might’ve gotten a glimpse. Oh well, I was going to tell them when I get back anyway.” He picked up his pace to a light jog. Thank goodness this armor is enchanted with muffle and silence spells. I wouldn’t be very sneaky otherwise. He gave a wry grin as he leaned forward and increased his speed again.

********

Will slowed to a stop in a clearing when he noticed the sun rising. I guess taking a rest wouldn’t hurt. I’m a little over a third of the way there, so time isn’t an issue. He’d already taken several short breaks in his run to regain his breath, but now he sat under a tree and just let the forest atmosphere relax him. My gut keeps telling me a fight is coming up, so I’ll need as much energy as I can muster.

After half an hour, he stood and rolled his shoulders, stretching as many muscles as he could before charging off again. I’m coming for you, Kain. Whether it’s to save you or kill you; that remains to be seen.

********

When he estimated he was about a mile away from where Kain was, he slowed to a walk, letting him preserve the rest of his energy. Passing by so many evergreen trees, Will began to ponder if he was moving at all, or if the trees were just repeating to mess with him.

Coming across a large forest clearing dispelled his doubts as he flattened himself against the trunk of one tree and he peered around it into the clearing.

A crimson tent was pitched in the center, next to a small campfire. There was a spit with a dead boar roasting over the fire, and a man quickly emerged from the tent to continue the rotation of the spit.

His skin was tanned and his hair was the color of sand. A silver broadsword was strapped to his back, the hilt resting comfortably just above his right shoulder. He wore a full set, nix the helmet, of fancy, gold-inlaid red plate armor.

As she spotted the man, Raven launched herself off of Will’s shoulder, flapping her wings quickly to reach the man.

Well, I guess that’s my cue, he murmured, pushing off the tree, lowering his cowl, exposing his face, and walking forward.

Raven cawed loudly in greeting as she landed on the man’s shoulders, causing him to start in surprise. He glanced around until he noticed Will raise a hand in greeting.

“W-Will?!” he cried out. “You’re here already?”

“Yep,” he replied with a soft smile. “I left about midnight,”

“But I heard you were coming from Canterlot!”

“Well, I’m pretty tired from running here,” Will chuckled. “How’ve you been, Kain?”

“I was just fine until about a week ago, when my father was gravely injured,” He sat in shock. “You didn’t have to run here, though. It’s not like I’m in any danger,”

Will’s eyes narrowed but he kept his smile. So you got away? For my father and his underlings? Are you oblivious to their possible presence? Or are you in league with them to capture me? Only one way to find out… Will sighed. “Were you followed?”

“No… At least I don’t think I was…” He grew a troubled look and he gazed into the fire in contemplation. “I covered my tracks as best I could,”

“Not quite good enough, though,” A female voice came from behind where they were sitting. Kain twisted to his left and reached back for the hilt of his sword, crouching down into a defensive position. Will, on the other hand, stood quickly and twirled to his right, aiming his 9mm pistol, now in his left hand right for the woman’s heart, his back to Kain as they both glared at the new arrival.

She had long, brown hair, pale skin, and was covered in black leather clothes.

“Well, if it isn’t Valerie, one of my father’s whores!” Will called to her.

“I should just kill you now, but knowing what Victor wishes of you, I will settle with detaining you,” She uncoiled a whip from her back hip. “I hope you like pain, cause that’s all that awaits you!” She charged forward.

Will jumped away in one direction and Kain jumped back in another.

Valerie targeted Kain first, launching her whip at his neck. “Don’t think you can get away from us, either, little prince! There is no escape for you!” Kain blocked the attack with his sword, but the end of the whip wrapped around his sword blade, and they stood in a power struggle, Kain trying to keep his blade, and Valerie trying to disarm him.

Will solved it for them, shooting at Valerie, forcing her to uncoil the whip from his blade and jump away.

“Come on out, boys! Let’s show them what it means to cross the Zephyr Clan!” Valerie shouted to the woods. Four burly men emerged from the treeline, carrying various kinds of blunt weapons, from a wicked spiked mace, to a policeman’s baton, to a thick tree branch, of all things.

Will snorted at her remark, the irony not lost on him, pelting the group’s location with bullets, making them scatter. Finding his pistol to be less than effective, he holstered it to his hip and drew a black-bladed katana from under his cloak, where it had rested on his right hip.

The man wielding the tree branch charged forward, swinging a giant overhead strike towards Will’s head. Will sidestepped and nonchalantly swiped upwards, shearing the branch in half. The man stared blankly at his broken weapon until a sword through his chest obscured his vision. He looked up at Will’s uncaring face before he crashed to the ground, dead.

Kain was holding the attention of Valerie and one brigand, clashing weapons with the brigand while trying to keep his balance from Valerie’s attacks. Will rushed forward and engaged the other two brigands before they could overwhelm Kain.

Will backstepped away from their attacks, blocking and dodging. The attacker to his left launched an overhead strike, and Will caught it with his sword. He pushed with all his might and threw his opponent off balance. His attacker took a tumble in the dirt and took a few seconds to get back to his feet.

In the meantime, Will blocked a vertical slam from his other attacker, his arm muscles groaning in protest from the impact. He redirected the club into the ground and stabbed forward.

His foe stepped to his right, avoiding the thrust from Will. Will quickly sliced to the side, opening a gash on his attacker’s side. His attacker fell to the ground, incapacitated for the moment.

His other opponent had regained his footing and charged back into the fray. Will matched him blow for blow, clashing mace and sword each time. Will put a little more force into his blows, and pushed the brigand backwards. His foe tried desperately to block the slashes thrown towards him, and his arms groaned under each impact.

With a flick of Will’s wrist, he brought his blade down on the brigand’s hands, cutting them deeply and forcing his foe to release the death grip he’d had on his mace. It clattered to the ground with a loud clang as the brigand stared blankly at his hands. He barely noticed the pommel of Will’s sword until it bashed into the side of his head. His eyes glazed over and he fell in a heap to the dirt below.

A noise from behind attracted Will’s attention and he turned to see the brigand with the club just now stumbling to his feet, clutching at his side with one arm to stem the blood. He gave a feeble swing, missing by a mile, and Will clonked him over the head with the pommel of his sword, sending that brigand into dreamland.

Will returned his gaze to Kain, and pulled out his pistol once more, sheathing his sword in the meantime. Kain’s sword was wrapped by Valerie’s whip and it was all he could do to keep it in his hands. The last brigand, brandished his police baton, and prepared to blindside Kain.

Will raised his arm, sighted, and sent a single bullet spinning through the air, where it sliced through the brigand’s skull. The brigand stiffened up and slumped to the ground, dropping his baton as Kain and Valerie separated again.

Valerie hadn’t expected Will to take out all her brigands, and she hadn’t expected Kain to press his advantage, charging straight towards her after they’d separated. She shot out her whip, aiming for his neck. Kain raised his left hand and let the whip wrap around his wrist. He ignored the pain and swung in an upward arc, slicing through her shoulder; shearing through the bone and muscle and disarming her, literally. She fell down to her knees, gripping at the hole where her right arm used to be and screaming in agony.

Kain contemplated what to do with her, but Will acted first, rushing forward and driving his elbow into the back of her head, letting her unconscious body faceplant to the ground.

Kain stared at Will for a few seconds before slowly shaking his head and sheathing his sword onto his back. “You’ve definitely changed over the years, Will. I remember when you wouldn’t think twice about killing someone like her. Someone connected to your father…”

Will just shrugged, “I guess this is what happens when you live in a peace-loving country like Equestria. It starts to affect you after a while…”

“Your combat skills seem as sharp as ever. That’s at least a good sign,”

“I’ll admit, I haven’t done much training or fighting in the past two months. I will need to rectify that later. But for now, let us bandage these brigands. It wouldn’t do for our prisoners to bleed out before they reach their prison, would it?” He knelt down next to Valerie’s body and pulled out a roll of bandages.

“Prisoners?”

“Well, yeah. Did you think I was just gonna leave them here to report back? I’m gonna take them back to Canterlot and turn them over to Celestia herself. Speaking of which, do you have some rope?”

“Luckily for you, I do have rope. I’ll go get it,” Kain strolled back towards his tent as Will wrapped up her wounds. He wandered around, tending to the two others who weren’t dead. Kain returned and they tied up their three prisoners.

“Hey, Kain,”

“What’s up? Something on your mind?” he asked as the two friends sat across the small campfire, Kain nursing the wrist Will had recently bandaged.

“That… noise you mentioned in your letter… which direction did it come from?”

“Umm… The North… I think? What’s this all about?”

“Valerie and her group came from the East… and the noise was important enough to you to write about. At first, when Valerie showed up, I thought that they were the one’s causing the racket at night. But something in the back of my mind kept nagging me. It didn’t sound like my father to send someone so careless… That being said…” Will slid his gaze to the North and pointed his pistol at the bushes. Raising his voice, Will called out, “You there, in the bushes, come out where we can see you,”

Much to Kain’s surprise, a small girl with green scales on her arms and around her face shakily stepped out into the open, going “Eep!” and throwing up her arms at the sight of Will’s gun. She was visibly shaking; the fear was almost too much for her.

“An Anthro,” Will supplied. “Species: Dragon. Subspecies: Green Scale.” He stood very slowly and holstered his gun at the same speed. Stepping forward and kneeling down, Will addressed the new arrival, “What are you doing out here?”

She whispered something and Will leaned forward, catching her words. “I was dragged from my home by evil dragons. They do horrible things to me and the other slaves at night. We’re to be sold on the black market to the highest bidder. They had us camped out about a mile to the north. I just managed to slip away when I heard fighting here. I was hoping you could help my friends.”

Will whispered a question to her. “What kind, of slaves?”

She was unable to speak for a while, not wanting to tell him the embarrassing truth. She steeled her resolve and whispered an answer that made Will’s blood freeze. “…S-Sex. Sex slaves,”

Will was stunned; he’d heard no reports of slavers during his time as a wandering vigilante. He’d killed and murdered thousands of people during his life, but this was appalling to him. His mind wandered slightly down a dark path. What if… images of his tenants flashed by in his mind. His blood boiled at the thought of them being caught in such a situation.

Will had kept his face a mask, but he let a look of alarm slip out for just a second before he regained his calm look. “Let us discuss this,” He stood and returned to the campfire with Kain, who kept shooting him questioning looks.

“What was that about? What did she need to say?” Kain asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

“She’s very shy about the subject, so I let her whisper, as she was comfortable speaking at that volume. I’ve found the answer to my question, but now, a situation has reared its head in our faces. To put it bluntly, she’s a sex slave. She, along with several others, were taken from their homes, and forced to do unspeakable acts. The slavers are camped about a mile to our north,”

Kain had listened quietly so far, and he took an opportunity to speak up, “So, do you want us to go free the other slaves?”

“Ultimately, yes. Theirs is a fate far worse than death. I’m just trying to think about the best way to go about this.”

“Oh… are you sure you want to consider using magic? Especially with that seal on your arm?” Kain gave him a worried glance.

“I’m going to have to. These are dragons we’re talking about here. They aren’t something to take lightly.”

“Yeah, but neither are we,” Kain reminded, “And neither were those brigands, but you took them down pretty handily… without magic, I might add,”

“We don’t know how many slavers we’ll be dealing with,”

“Ten,” the girl replied from behind them, where she’d scooted closer to listen to their conversation. She gave them a smile, seeing as they’d be helping her and her fellow slaves, but that soon broke when she saw the three tied up unconscious brigands. “A-Are you slavers, t-too?” she squeaked frightfully.

“If we were, you wouldn’t be free right now,” Kain replied nonchalantly.

“We’re just two travelers, taking down brigands. These three will be taken to prison, as they are criminals.” Will answered, rolling his neck. “Listen, girl. We need to ask you a favor,” She looked up in confusion. “We need you to watch our prisoners while we… deal with the slavers. Consider it your payment for our services. It might not seem like much, but it is vitally important.”

She nodded, “What do I have to do?”

“Sit here and watch them. They shouldn’t wake up while we’re away, but incase they do, just watch them. Ignore what they say, they’re trying to trick you, just make sure they aren’t doing anything suspicious,”

“I understand,”

“And one last thing,” Will added as both humans stood. “Don’t be surprised if I have to be carried back by Kain. I’m going to be ‘cutting loose’, as it were,” With one last wave, Will and Kain dashed into the forest to the North.