#kaua

 “Eyes on the trees, Llinos.”

 Her hands don’t tense on her bow. That’s important to know. She was not startled.

 “Those sure are some trees,” she replies, flicking her gaze over the forest on one side of the path.

 Rhydderch shows himself for a moment, standing at the top of the bank between two trees and looking down, as if he’s checking on her. Then he disappears back into the undergrowth with a flick of his tail.

 “See, Rhydderch has it.”

 Jasper hums. “Glad one of you has your head in the game.”

 “I don’t know what you mean.” Llinos leans out to see down the length of the caravan. “My head’s plenty in the game. Just a quiet game, that’s all.”

 Jasper grins and starts to form a retort, but he’s interrupted by a yell from the head of the caravan.

 “I didn’t jinx it,” Llinos says, lifting her bow up and reaching for an arrow. “That doesn’t count as a jinx!”

 Jasper decides not to answer as he draws his sword and turns to meet the bandits appearing from the forest.

 Kallyin bounds past Llinos and snarls at someone. Llinos raises her bow and fires, bringing one of the bandits down before he’s cleared the forest.

 Jasper is fighting at her back; she can hear the clash of sword on sword, but ignores it in favour of stepping around the side of the caravan and firing down its length at another attacker.

 Rhydderch barks, somewhere in the forest, and then yelps.

 “Go!” Jasper calls, before she even looks around.

 Llinos lowers her bow, grabs an arrow in hand, and charges up the bank and in amongst the trees.

 They haven’t all charged the caravan. She’s fast, and they’re not expecting her, so she gets the drop on them. Two bandits fall to her before they get to their feet, dropping their own bows and drawing hunting knives.

 Llinos jumps back, turning away one knife with her bow, wincing as it shaves some wood off. She ducks another and twirls an arrow in her grasp, stabbing it into his gut before coming up inside the reach of the other fighter, too close for him to get a swing in. She smacks her fist into his face and knees him in the groin, yanking the knife from his hand and stabbing it through his neck.

 There’s a flash of red and Rhydderch is there, blood staining his bright fur and something that looks suspiciously like fingers in his mouth.

 “Caravan,” she says to him, laying an arrow on the string of her bow.

 Someone’s chasing after Rhydderch, knife held awkwardly in his off hand.

 Llinos fires the arrow into his chest, and he falls backwards.

 Rhydderch races towards the caravan, tail a banner behind him.

 Llinos crouches, half behind a tree and ducked into a bush, and listens for anyone else crashing around the forest.

 Rhydderch barks at something behind her, followed shortly by Kallyin’s loud snarl.

 Llinos lowers her bow and takes another arrow from the quiver strapped to her leg, and thinks that maybe she should have kept that knife. The body’s just there.

 It doesn’t sound like there’s anyone nearby, although it’s hard to tell exactly with the fighting still going on by the caravan.

 She puts her bow down, inches out from her cover, and reaches for it.

 Something cracks nearby.

 Llinos throws herself towards the sound before she can think and stabs out with the arrow in her hand.

 At the same time, something stabs into her side, sliding easily through the worn leather she hasn’t managed to replace yet.

 “Ow.” She thinks, briefly, that it’s a strange kind of defence spell that means the attacker stabs herself.

 “Llinos?”

 She knows that voice, hadn’t been thinking about it for the whole day, but ah- “Kaua?” She looks up, finally.

 With Llinos on her knees, Kaua is taller just now. It’s strange to be looking up at her.

 “What are you doing here?”

 “Nice sword.” Llinos grins. She hasn’t let go of the arrow. Her hand’s brushing up against Kaua’s armour. She must have found a gap in it. “Very sharp.”

 Rhydderch barks behind Llinos, and it’s a struggle to whistle for him, but then Kallyin is there anyway and Jasper not far behind.

 “Mind giving us a hand back?” Llinos asks. “We’re a little- uh- cut up?”