[maikafanawen]

As Ani Dao listened to Nevlhachien describing one of her adventures, she noticed a dwarf tack something up on the bulletin board. She excused herself for a moment and went to look at it. After reading it over she thought to herself, perhaps this could be my chance for true adventure. She took another drink of her ale and went back to join Nevlhacien and Sofiya.

“Where did you go?” asked Nevlhachien. The mirkwoodian elf shrugged, “To get more ale.” The two elves nodded and Nevlhachien continued her story. Ani Dao’s mind began to wander, leading her back to ancient memories …

“Quickly, Ani, attackers come from all sides in face-to-face,” informed her personal trainer, Ahret Ban. She defeated the allusionistic enemies in a quick combination of flexible kicks, and punches, finishing off the last one by pinning him to a tree with one of her throwing knives. The allusions faded into the ground, and she retrieved her knife from the large oak, wiping its blade off on her tunic.

“That was good.” Complemented Ahret Ban. “Try with the sword now.” He chose a long blade off the bench behind him and handed the hilt to Ani. She stepped back.

“Master, I dislike the blade, and I can do better without it,” protested the maverick warrior elf. The weapons master stood firm holding the blade out in front of him.

“Ani Dao, if you do not learn all forms of combat, you will be of no use to the royal guards or of special service to the king.” Surrendering to his comment, Ani Dao grasped the hilt firmly and swung it once to her left and over her head standing perfectly still, awaiting the first assault. When it didn’t come, she glanced over at her master. In that split second, a hallucinated warg hit her from her left side throwing her onto the ground. She quickly recovered and turned to face it as it began to advance. She sensed the second warg on her left and turned out to meet it. She caught it mid-air plunging the sword into its throat. She removed the blade in a single sweep and sliced the third warg as it crept up behind her. The warrior then flipped out of the way of the first warg and set herself above it in a nearby tree. As the warg turned in confusion she leapt off the branch landing on the mutated wolves’ back, stabbing it with the clean blade as she fell. It bolted taking her weapon with it. Then it disappeared and her sword lay on the ground about thirty yards away. The fourth, largest warg then emerged from the forest and stood over her blade. She immediately groped for her throwing knives. Finding them missing she ran right at the huge allusion. Side-stepping it at the last second, she recovered her blade and threw it at the animal. It caught in its neck. He stumbled around momentarily then collapsed in a heap of invisibility. The weapons master nodded his approvement.

“You are very gifted in the ways of combat, Ani Dao. You will be great one day.” …

Ani Dao shook her head and glanced over towards the notice, where a few more dwarves and men were reading it. She would inquire about it tomorrow with the dwarf. Now she decided that she would continue her conversation with the two elves she had befriended.