"Tricky!" ili cried, her voice lost in the clamour of the battle.
She ran to the door of the carriage. When she could see neither Tricky nor the enemy soldier, her legs gave way, and she dropped to her hands and knees.
She scrambled out and across the carriage boards on her hands and knees, crawling her way to the edge of the platform, she looked down.
"Tricky," she pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she reached for him.
He had knocked the bandit from the carriage where the man had landed on his back in the dirt. The dog was crouched on the man’s chest biting and snarling.
The bandit was feeling for his weapon on the road with one hand, protecting his face with the other, while Tricky tore at the man in a crazed fight for their lives.
The bandit shouted as he tried to push the dog off his prone body, his hand reaching closer to where his weapon lay, just out of his reach.
ili’s adrenalin surged as she realised her dog was about to lose his life.
With new found strength, she raced back into the carriage and pulled her bow and arrow from the cavity under the seat. She flew back out, nocking an arrow as she ran.
She was shaking and crying so hard she could barely see, but her arms felt strong! Like she was made of iron!
She wiped her tears on her shoulder so she could focus, letting her arrow fly to shoot the bandit’s leg at point blank range.
The arrow went clean through the man’s thigh, pinning him to the ground, and he howled in pain, thick dark blood bubbling out of the wound in a frightening quantity.
"Tricky," ili half-sobbed, half-scread, her voice cracking with fear. "Co! Co!"
The Chow Chow, finally satisfied that the attacker was disabled, obeyed his mistress, leaping back up onto the carriage.
She tried to push the dog behind her back into the safety of the carriage as she prepared to start shooting from her vantage point.
Tricky refused to be moved and stood at her side, poised in attack mode.
ili nocked another arrow. She was talented at shooting moving targets, but this was another thing altogether.
These were n she was trying to shoot, and Bai Li and First Brother’s guards were entwined in that frightful dance of hand-to-hand combat, no distance at all between the n, moving so fast and erratically she was scared she would accidentally kill one their own.
She moved her focus to the woods where she spied movent and none of their n and sent her arrow speeding up the hill.
A bandit tumbled down the slope, an arrow in his shoulder.
She wiped her streaming eyes again, still racked with sobs as she nocked another arrow.
Her arms were shaking so hard now, she really wasn’t confident of her aim.
An arrow flew past her face, travelling so close that it sliced through a piece of her hair loosened in the commotion.
Bai Li looked up at that exact mont and he roared in rage.
"Get back in the carriage, ili!"
He flew through the battling n and bounded up to where she stood, flattening her underneath him as another arrow sped right where she had been standing and lodged itself next to the first one in the front of the carriage.
She looked into his fierce face inches from hers, she was softly sobbing.
He raised himself onto his elbows, shielding her with his body and armour, and he commando crawled back into the shelter of the carriage box, pushing her along on her back underneath him using his booted feet.
Back inside the carriage she took a shuddering breath, finally becoming aware of the intimacy of their position. The man lay on top of her, an inch between their bodies, his face so close she could feel his heavy breaths on her lips.
She closed her eyes tightly and turned her face away from his.
"So now you know to be afraid!" he growled.
She looked back up at him, trying to read his temper, but imdiately turned her face aside again. His lips were re inches from her own. She could feel his armour and weapons pressing against her.
The traitor Tricky, now stood on the carriage seat above the pair like a conquering hero, completely unconcerned that she was trapped underneath the man.
"Bai Li," she whispered, feeling her shaking start to subside now that he was here with her. "I’m fine now. Thank you for rescuing ."
She closed her eyes and ducked her head, as he showed no signs of moving, and it seed to be the only way to avoid his intense gaze.
He remained right where he was, and even with her eyes closed, she could still feel his breath on her cheek.
She turned and looked back up into his burning stare.
"B...Bai Li?" she stamred nervously.
"I’ll be staying right here until I hear you promise not to leave the carriage without approval from or your brother," he threatened her.
"But Bai Li, I can help. You’ve seen my archery skills."
"We can wait like this until the battle’s over if you prefer. Maybe it’s the only way I can trust that you won’t go back out there," he mused to himself.
He continued to stare into her eyes with an intensity she couldn’t na, but it was making her cheeks feel hot.
"You’re keeping from the fighting, i ili. But that’s okay, I trust my n."
"Alright I promise, I promise Bai Li!" she cried. "I’ll stay right here. Please, protect First Brother for ."
A single tear trickled down her perfect cheek. Bai Li reached out and gently pressed it.
"He doesn’t need to protect him, he’s a highly skilled fighter, but yes, I will."
He raised himself to his hand and knees, and still she lay underneath him.
"Stay here on the floor, just like you are now," he looked down at her.
There seed to be sothing suggestive in those words and they hung in the air between them awkwardly.
Her cheeks reddened and she saw the ghost of a smile on his face.
"I an it, i ili. Don’t move!"
Bai Li flew out of the carriage to rejoin the battle.
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