FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ipweld was an ancient city. The Lavi River met the sea at a natural harbour, and a trade town had grown around it centuries ago. Its name back then was remembered only by scholars. Since it was taken by the Ernan Empire, it had been called Ipweld, and it had grown to be one of the most populous cities in the world. It was a city of grey stone and dark wood, and the smell of the sea hung over the place. Its ancient roads had settled and worn, allowing water and waste to accumulate in the streets. The city had been conquered, burned, and rebuilt multiple times. Old buildings sat next to new ones, and the city sprawled without a care for planning and order. While there was a well-maintained outer wall, two older walls stood in various states of repair inside the city, relics of a time when the city was smaller. On the whole, Erin thought the city was an ugly, dreary place. She understood the importance of its position and she knew its storied history, but she still struggled to understand why anyone would place their roots in such a place. She hoped her business would not keep her in Ipweld for long.

Erin had bypassed the gates to enter the city. Her business in Ipweld was entirely legitimate, but her appearance often provoked suspicion. It was always a coin toss on whether she would be stopped and questioned, and she was in no mood to deal with inquisitive guards. She passed through a market close to the gates and purchased a small loaf of bread. The baker eyed Erin suspiciously but took her coin without comment. Erin couldn't really begrudge the woman. She would look on anyone with a hood and a cloth mask covering the lower half of their face with suspicion as well.

Still, Erin's patience extended only so far. She kept to the alleyways, taking a meandering route towards the harbour where she was due to meet her contact. The meeting was scheduled for the evening, so she had all the time in the world to get a feel for the city.

She was passing through a narrow alley in a rather dilapidated neighbourhood when she stopped with a sigh. “You'll want to find another mark. This one is more than you can handle."

A man stepped out of the shadow of a doorway twenty feet in front of her. The cut of his hair and clothes were nicer than the neighbourhood but not by much. The corner of his mouth twitched up in an arrogant smile. “Nah, I haven't marked yeah, friend. There's just a toll to come down this road, y'see?"

“I have no patience for fools or thieves. Stand aside."

The man laughed, and he thumbed the dagger at his hip. “I'm no thief, lass--"

“Just a fool then. So get out of my way."

The man's smile darkened. “You may want to look--"

“Up." Erin eyed the man's surprise with a little satisfaction. She had been keeping her eyes on him, the leader, this whole time, and she was sure he was wondering how she knew. “There are two on the roofs, another behind you, and two more behind me." The man had lost his smile entirely, it having been replaced by a grim line. “Escape would be child's play, but if you're dumb enough to try me, I'll do the world a favour and send you on to the next world. Last chance."

“So be it."

The man drew his knife with the ease of practice, but he was far, far too slow. Erin's sickle was already in her hand by the time he had wrapped his fingers around his knife, and it had barely cleared the sheath when Erin disappeared in a silver flash and reappeared directly in front of him. Her sickle had sliced his throat before he had time to register her new position, and he hadn't yet hit the ground when a silver flash returned Erin to her previous position.

“If anyone wants to run, now's the--"

A quick sidestep took her out of the arrow's path. Its fellow impacted above her head on the wall. “So be it," she echoed the dead man.

Erin seemed to run like the wind, her cloak flapping behind her as she closed on the woman with a short sword who had come behind the dead man. The woman swung with more skill than most alley bandits, but Erin ducked the blow easily, her sickle catching the back of the woman's leg. As the bandit stumbled, Erin slashed her back, and the woman fell with a cry. Erin twisted to avoid another arrow from above, but she couldn't dodge the second in the confines of the alley. The bandit cried out victoriously as the arrow seemed to hit her shoulder, but her form flickered, and the arrow struck the wall behind her without a scratch. In his confusion, he failed to nock another arrow as Erin turned to engage the thieves behind her.

They attacked in tandem. It was clear they had practiced this maneuver before, but it was just as clear they had never encountered anyone like Erin before. Her sickle caught the blade on her left and swung it into the blade on her right. Erin disengaged her sickle and struck with preternatural speed. Both men lay dead before either could attempt to bring their knives to bear.

The archers were either stupidly brave or sure of the safety of their vantage point. They still didn't run but tried shooting again, Erin weaving out of the way. With a sigh of exasperation for the stupidity in the world, her sickle flashed with silver light and she was behind one of the archers, her sickle slicing the man's spine. The other got his bow up in time to block the sickle, and it split with the force of Erin's blow. The man tried to draw a knife but fumbled it when he leapt back from Erin's strike. Erin noticed with amusement the exact moment when the man realized he had jumped from the roof. She stepped off after him, but he lacked the wings of smoke and shadow that appeared to lower her gently to the ground. He landed with a crack and a cry, which Erin swiftly silenced with her sickle. It wouldn't do to disturb the neighbours, after all.

Erin cleaned her blade on the shirt of the first man she had killed, hung it from her belt again, and walked away. She had taken out the trash. Let someone else pick it off the street.

---

AN: This is a rewrite and slight extension of something I wrote last July. This version is about twice as long as the original was. It's not my usual sort of story I've posted here, but fantasy and action are things I've long loved, and I find it surprising I don't try my hand at it more often. Leave a comment and tell me how I'm doing at it.

Hopefully I can continue this at some point, but I don't actually have anything plotted for this. I just really like Erin, and I wanted to write something with her being able to show off a very small amount of her skills. I do want to showcase more of her abilities and share more of her history and personality though.

This is also not my usual fare for this site given it only has human characters in it. Perhaps that will change in future chapters, provided I write them.