Tales of Faerûn - Part 2

“Ha. Idiots.” He smiles again now looking back to you. “So tell me, what do you see?”
You can´t see much against the rising sun in front of you, the snow just increases the blinding. The mountains on both sides of the path shining through the forest covered in snow and everything reflecting the red of the early sun making a wonderful panorama, but you guess that´s not what the elf means. You concentrate on the forest in front of you and you can detect many small black spots running over the path. “Are that footsteps there?”
“Yes, so what do you conclude?”
“It could be animals, but I don´t think you would have mentioned that so there may be bandits.”
“Very good. So you haven´t spotted them yet. Look at the big bushes at either side, the two being nearest to the path are darker. The sun helps us here, even though we can´t say how many there are I doubt they´re more than four.” He smiles again, puts away the bow and draws the rapier. “Here, take that. Let´s see if you can´t kill someone.”
You gulp, but take the weapon and walk to whatever that´s coming to you.
About 20 steps before the bushes the elf gets off the horse and tells you to wait. As he walked half the way four men jump out of the bushes, the two nearest to the bushes equipped with spears, the other two seem to have swords. You walk closer to assist the elf if things get really ugly, because he doesn´t stop walking even though unarmed.
“Hey stop man! We don´t want to kill you, we just want to take your gold and we let you get away alive! So just follow our orders and don´t make fast movements.” Three steps in front of the bandit leader the elf stops.
“That´s the dumbest thing I have ever heard.” Then he pulls something out of his sleeves and throws it at the outer bandits, each hit by a shining blade in the throat. As they collapse the elf throws himself at the third bandit next to their leader, kicks him between the legs throwing him to the ground while the elf grabs his chin and turns his head to an unnatural angle. A loud crack and two choking breaths later it´s just the elf, the bandit leader and you. “Now it´s your turn, kill him.” You´re not as baffled as the bandit leader, but you can´t really move either, the two bodies still spilling blood give you a weird feeling in your stomach.
The bandit is the first to regain his senses. “Who the hell are you?” He asks the elf.
“I am Lianlar Cal´Dor. But I think you already know me.” He smiles again, a very dangerous smile.
“Holy shit! But you let me live back in the day, you can do it again?”
“I didn´t let you life, you were just lucky I missed you.”
“Will you let me life when I kill your fella?”
“Maybe.”
The bandit lifts his sword and runs towards you.

You manage to get out of his path just before his sword hits you; that make him lose his balance for a second, but before you can react his weapon races at your throat again. This time you can fend off his blow and hit him on his head, but now you know that rapiers are made to stitch and not to swing. His next blow you can duck under and manage to place a stitch in his arm pit, even though you aimed at his throat, but a hit is a hit. The bandit stumbles backwards and falls down at your next stitch in his stomach and let his sword go, now defenceless he lies in front of you. “Now finish him.”
The bandit spills tears and looks like he is going to poop his pants every moment. You just can´t kill that weak creature, so you drop your weapon and it falls with a soft pling in the snow.
Lianlar walks closer and draws a dagger from the back of his belt, he kneels down and slowly slices the throat of the bandit. This time you still have a weird feeling in your stomach, but you don´t vomit. ´Do I get used to that brutality?´ you ask yourself.
“Are you really the Gold Dagger, Lianlar?”
The elf sighs, “Yes I am.”
“Do you know Herbert Hauser or the Black Dragon? He is my father and always told me about your adventures together.”
The elf sighs again and you can see something like melancholy in his face. “I know him indeed, seeing he got a bit quirky the last years I better tell you how things really were.”