Chapter twelve:A glimpse of the Mercenary's Past

**ELENA'S POV**

It's been two weeks since the incident and not once did the mercenary even come back. The good news is that I can now walk without my crutch, I still limp but it's the little things. Chloe made it her mission to try and make me forget about the incident, my neck still has bruises from his grip. I still can't believe that Ava and her husband were willing to let him harm me if Chloe didn't come in I don't know what would have happened to me, I even shudder just thinking about it.

I was sitting on the front porch of the Aeneases house, Ava came to where I was, I didn't bother looking at her, I know that even if she wanted to help me she couldn't but she should have at least tried to help.

"is that seat taken?" she asked pointing right beside me.

"no it's not,"

She sat down and we didn't talk for a brief moment, the gentle afternoon breeze went past our hair making our hair dance in the wind.

"you hate him don't you?"

"well he did try to kill me so what do you think?" I defiantly made eye contact with her.

"makes sense, but he's not all bad once you see past the grim reaper's assistant and see the little flecks of Rayan,"

"Why do you people like him, his not your family?"

"we've known him for, Chloe's nine now so five years ago, yeah we've known him for five years and to be honest Rayan isn't really a bad person as much as he tries to show."

"huh."

'well we have a lot of time on our hands so let me explain. When I finally reached eighteen, a few months later Henry's father came to our house with the marriage proposal. Henry at that time wasn't really the doctor he is today, he had started in this field. My father was in charge of this village and Henry's father was the lead doctor, it seemed that it was a nice match. I remember seeing Henry for the first time he was really shy and nervous, he was even afraid of shaking my hands.

Our fathers gave us three months to get to know each other and after getting to know him, I was sure that I couldn't have found a better man than him, now let's skip to a few months later we had gotten married and I had given birth to Chloe. There was this gang that was raiding villages, towns going from one village to another and what separated them from other regular bandits was that they would leave a fox carcass on the entrance of every village and town they were planning to raid. Once you saw the carcass the regions knew that it would only be two to three weeks before they got raided.

Most of the areas surrounding this village was already raided, everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before they would raid this place too, fear made living our lives hard we would always gaze at the entrance until the fateful day one of the kids found the carcass.

They raided our village, they ransacked this place of our livestock, the merchants lost their money, lives were lost also me and Henry lost both our fathers. Since they were prominent figures in this village, we hoped it would be the last time we would ever face something like that. We spent the next three years in peace, Chloe was four at the time. They came back again, those animals waited for the regions they raided to stabilize so that they could raid them again.

Those sadists raided in the exact order as before, it was only four towns and two villages remaining before they got to us.

"I'm going to get help," Henry told me while we were eating.

"help from where, the last time father sent a letter to the noble of our area to send guards but not even a reply did he receive," I said.

"what should we do then wait like last time and hope that they won't kill us too? What will happen to our daughter if they decide to kill us?"

I didn't know what to say, he was right but who was going to help us we weren't important to the kingdom, we didn't provide a large tax.

The next day, Henry called every adult in the village. He suggested that we all contribute some money so that we would look for a mercenary to help protect us. We all donated a total of ten gold coins, most mercenaries weren't expensive from what we heard. Henry wasn't going to leave the two of us here with the uncertainty of the coming raid. Which was both stupid and clever, every mercenary we found was either too drunk to talk to or too greedy. We didn't find anyone and we gave up.

We were traveling back when someone stopped our wagon, outside was three of the mercenaries who we tried talking to they all had their weapons in their hand. I tightly held Chloe in my arms as they order us out of the wagon. They searched Henry for anything they could find, that was when an arrow found its way to the back of the man who was searching Henry when the men turned to the direction where the arrow had come from two more arrows flew past us and lodged themselves in their shoulders.

The person who shot those arrows was as tall as me, his face was covered with a mask and he was wearing a hood, the hood casted a shadow which also covered his eyes. The men ran away when they saw him he put his bow around his back and walked to where we were. His gazed moved from Henry to me to Chloe.

"You people are morons for bringing a child with you,"

"are you a mercenary?" Henry asked.

"Yes I am,"

"I have ten gold coins and I'll add twenty more coins if you help us,"

"sorry I charge higher than that," he said as he begun walking away.

"please, we need your help," I silently whispered, I didn't want to lose hope and tears begun falling from my eyes.

Chloe saw me crying and started crying too but she was loud as she cried. The mercenary stopped and looked back at us. He placed two fingers on his nose and rubbed them hard.

"FUCK!" he yelled. "fine I'll do it, but you better pay me the full amount or else,"

He had his two swords on his back he climbed up the wagon and went with us. We offered him a room to sleep in but he rudely refused, he went and sat down at the gate as he waited he never once moved unless it was to hunt for his own food.

Most kids were afraid of him, they looked at him like if he was a wild wolf, my daughter on the other hand was just curious about him, I was the one who would try to hold her back until I gave up. She would go to the gate and peek at him, the man just spared her a glance before looking away everyday it was the same and Chloe kept becoming more and more curious about him. One day she sat close to him and started talking to him, I couldn't hear what she was saying but she kept on rambling and the man just looked at her no word came out his mouth.

Chloe then came with a red flower, she picked from our garden and she walked to him and stretched it to him. The man took the floor and Chloe took off running with a giggle, the man brought the flower close to him, shook his head before placing the flower in his pocket. A horse ran past him and a fox carcass was dropped at his feet, he contemplated chasing them but he gave up.

Like the first time everyone locked themselves in their houses the next day. The man kept collecting bamboos and sharpening them, he then asked for a shovel and started digging a really deep hole forty steps away from the entrance , he went in with the some of the sharpened bamboos, he then borrowed a tarp covered it and started spreading dried leaved and twigs on top until the tarp was hidden. He then arranged the remaining bamboos in strange contraption, he pulled a string and a wall of spiked bamboos sprung up from the side of the gate, he tied the string so that it would be tripped by someone. Then he went on top of the building that was closest to the gate and made that his new post.

The day we dreaded arrived, the gang came in the dead of night just like last time. I saw the mercenary through my window, he placed an arrow and he aimed at the large man riding a horse, he let the arrow go but the man swiftly blocked the arrow with his hammer. The men saw where the arrow came from and charge in anger, the large man who was on the horse climbed down from his horse his large hammer in hand. He swung the hammer on his shoulder and let it rest there.

There was twenty men who were charging at the village. The man watched them and he kept four arrows in his bow and pulled the men were uncertain who the arrow would land on but after a few paces we heard leaves rustle and the sound of sacks fall to the ground. The remaining men stopped at their tracks and saw where their comrades had fallen and that was when he released the arrows. They all landed on the men who were staring at the frontline staring at the hole.

He kept on firing arrow after arrow each one landing on the intruders. He reached inside his quiver but his hand didn't grab anything, he had already fired all his arrows, the remaining five walked forward they didn't charge like before, they walked carefully until one of them stepped on the trip wire and the spiked bamboo wall came out and impaled two more men. The remaining men were now filled with fear and doubt but can't blame them from twenty men to three men excluding their leader anyone would have their same reactions.

The mercenary, unsheathed his two swords and jumped down from the roof, rolled on the ground and stood up. The men charged at him hoping they could outnumber him but he blocked the first swing at him with his right sword and lunged forward with the other sword getting the gut of the man, he pulled the sword dropped on one knee and spun around as he dodged the slash, he jumped up a little and sliced of the head of the next. He threw his blade at the last man, the sword impaled the man in his back as he tried to run away he dropped on his knees before landing on his stomach. He walked to where he was and pulled the sword from the man's back, blood spilled as he pulled it out.

Suddenly, the mercenary pulled two of his swords up to block an incoming attack, the hammer collided with the sword sending both sparks and the mercenary back. The mercenary slid back a few strides, the man still charged at him swinging his hammer so effortlessly as the mercenary kept parrying, the large man the swung with all his strength and the mercenary blocked with his left sword but it was knocked out of his hand a loud crack! Sound came out of his hand.

The large man spun around and hit the mercenary with the handle of his hammer right in his ribs the mercenary flew back and hit his back on the wall of a hut. The man ran at him and threw a kick that landed on his chest pushing him back on the wall. He swung his hammer at the head of the mercenary but he dodged and the hammer got stuck on the wall.

The mercenary swung his sword at the man's thigh, the large man managed to move back but his thigh was still scratched and blood came out of the wound. The mercenary swung his sword but the large man grabbed his hand before it could reach his neck and threw him over his shoulder the mercenary rolled on the ground, his sword finally out of his hand and the hood on his head came off revealing his silver hair.

He got up took off his mask, straightened his broken wrist as he winced in pain, he then tied the mask around his wrist like a bandage. That was the first time, I saw Rayan's face, he was just a child, his mouth and nose dripping blood. He still raised his fist close to his head and gestured for the bear of a man to come at him.

The man ran at him like a bull, disregarding his leg injury, he swung a straight punch at Rayan, Rayan dodged the punch and landed his own punch right in his ribs and threw three more alternating punches which landed on the man's face. The man dived at Rayan, Rayan threw a knee strike which landed on that man face cleanly. The large man stumbled backward as his nose bled out profusely, Rayan ran at him, jumped and managed to lock his legs around the man's neck, he kept landing punches after punches on the man's face and the man fell down.

Rayan kept chocking and punching, until the man stopped moving, he pulled his legs away from the man and stood up. He walked over to where his swords were and put them back in their sheaths, he tried taking another step but he passed out on the spot. We carried him to our home where Henry found that he had four broken ribs and a broken wrist. Henry tried paying him the remaining twenty coins but he refused saying that it was payment for the treatment.'

"so what am trying to say is that he is not that bad once you get to know him. He could have left us but he didn't he kept on fighting even with his injuries for a tenth of the payment he usually receives, but it's all up to you," she said.

I hadn't realized that the sun had already set before Ava decided to get back inside the house.