"Let's get going," Roman said while referring to his map, "down the left fork."
With that Roman started down the left trail without hesitation, leaving Devin and Hanna scrambling to keep up. It was a steep trail, and Devin could see where the water had carved shallow gullies into the earth. Hear and there was a chipmunk or a squirrel. Then to his right Devin heard a group of sparrows explode out of the underbrush.
"Watch out!" Roman managed to yell before he was rushed by two brigands.
Devin jumped backward and drew his sword in one fluid motion, wondering at the same time how he knew to do that. Then one of the brigands was upon him. The man swung wildly and lost his balance. Devin turned his sword ninety degrease and swung it at the man's head. There was a loud thumping sound as the flat of the blade the man's skull, sending him down in a heap.
Beyond the fighting, in the forest, Devin saw a stout man bearing an ax, and shouting, "That's boys, that's the one who escaped us, the one with the amulet!"
He remembered everything at once; the fear, the pain, and what his father had told him. All of that seemed to open a door from within himself and he was washed away in the tide of rage. Before he knew what he was doing, Devin started close the gap between himself and stout man.
Seeing Devin's approach brought a cruel grin to the stout man's face. Then after quickly looking around, the grin quickly dissolved and the man turned and ran into the forest. Devin was bewildered at the sudden retreat of the man, but didn't slow down to think and charged into the brush after him.
The stout man came to a sudden halt, and skidded along the banks of a small river. Then the man dropped his ax and spun around while drawing his own short sword. When he turned and saw that only Devin had followed, the grin came back to his face. Without a word he sprang forward. Devin had just enough time to raise his own sword before the man crashed into him. The impact forced him to stumble back a few steps, and just as he recovered his balance, the stout man was upon him again.
The man swung his sword as hard as he could, aiming to cut Devin in half, but Devin avoided the full force of the blow, and received only a shallow cut to his thigh. The pain of the cut sent him stumbling backwards again, and he fell flat on his back. When he hit the ground, a rock dug into his ribs, driving the air out of his lungs.
He heard the man laugh, "I know how your father realy died! To bad you'll never know the truth!"
Then, out of his blurred vision, Devin saw the brigand charge him again, with his sword held high. Devin shook his head to clear the image, and his mind. He searched his mind quickly for what he should do, but there was only one readily available. At the last second, before the stout man was upon him, Devin raised his sword.
The effect wasn't quite what he had predicted. Instead of the man running himself up to the hilt of the sword, the maneuver had more of a gutting action, slicing open his stomach. With a look of surprise on his face, the man tried to say something, but only blood gushed out of his mouth, and he fell to the ground and died.
Looking at the dead body, Devin realized that there was one more job to do. He didn't want to do it, but he knew it might make a difference later on. He still had to check to see if the brigand was carrying anything valuable. With his sword, Devin cut off the belt of the man, took it, the dagger hanging from it, and the pouch.
