His running chewed down miles fast. He didn't feel the burning in his muscles, the ache in his body that told him that he was pushing it too hard. He didn't care. She had to be safe. She was his savior, the bright light that had shone into his life when there had been only darkness. He loved the little pest, no matter how annoyingly right she was all the time. She mattered, and nothing else did. Not a strange elf and her sword, not the men that were attacking the village, and not a Queen that held his heart in her cold, uncaring hands.

He finally reached the village, his lungs and legs burning with the effort, sweat pouring over his forehead. His feet hurt, but he kept moving. The palisade wall would have put off most raiders, but not all. As he reached the gate, or the splintered remains of the same, he saw that it had been battered down using a tree trunk. Blood was on the dirt there, which indicated that a couple of the boys that knew how to handle bows and arrows had put a few of the raiders down. The fact that the bodies had been taken away told Keiro the tale of the battle without him needing to see where it happened. The villagers would have been more concerned with putting out the fires than burying a handful of dead bandits.

He stepped inside the gate, seeing what had ensued after the gate had been battered down. Bodies were strewn over the muddy ground, mostly of men, but a handful of women with hammers, pitchforks and other such improvised weapons. They had probably come out once it was apparent how things would go. Keiro's eyes moved across the grown, his eyes hard, his body still. They moved all the way to a group of five of the bandits that were still around. They were drinking from a barrel, one that keiro recognized as belonging to Marrus, the local innkeeper. There were two girls on the ground, in the mud, chained together, clothes missing. This group had stayed behind to enjoy their spoils of war a little longer, Keiro mused.

The fury that filled him wasn't a white, all consuming heat that most men felt. his fury was like ice, a blizzard of divine proportions, the kind that would kill anything in it's path without thought, without remorse. He knew the two girls. One was Tania, barely sixteen, Marrus' daughter, and the other was Melina, daughter of Harrod, the tanner. The two were inseperable. They saw Keiro walking determinedly towards the drunken bunch first, eyes and mouths wide open in panic and hope.

Then a couple of the bandits caught side of him," 'Ey look," One said with a course southern accent," Looks like we missed another one."

Another one stood, drawing his sword," 'E looks right pissed. I'll kill 'im and we can get back to the party..."

The man advanced on Keiro, staggering a bit from the strong drink but gathering his wits enough for a wild lunge in Keiro's direction. The man's reaction was a swift as it was terrifying. He swayed his body, the blade missing him impossibly, hands snapping out, one cracking on the bandit's wrist, making him drop his blade, the other lancing into the man's throat. With a clean, smooth movement, he picked the falling blade out of the air and spinning, slammed it into the bandit's throat. Blood spurted as the sword was drawn out, and Keiro kept moving forward, barely missing a step.

"Fock," One of the men gasped, mouth gaping. But it wasn't long before they realized what was happening an were scrambling for their weapons. One dropped as Keiro's hand snapped back and forward, throwing the sword spinning through the air to plant itself in the man's chest. Another had his ax in hand and attacked, but missed keiro as he ducked and stepped forward. His own sword was in his hands, the tip tinged red as the axman dropped, trying to keep his guts from dropping to the floor. The two remaining bandits exchanged worried glances before moving forward, the one closest to Keiro swinging his sword sword. It was almost condescendingly parried and Keiro rolled his blade, slashing the sharp metal across the man's jugular. Keiro moved like liquid, flowing around the last man's attempted strike, blade spinning as he pulled it into a backhand and ferociously slammed through the man's spine. He fell face first to the mud, twitching.