Vol 1 Chapter 22 (2/2)

The woainst the fourin alarm

“That, a woman?” Ghim alone seemed unenthusiastic as he followed at a distance “Soirl or my name isn’t Ghim!”

“Ha! With those er on me!”

Deedlit easily evaded the reckless, clued, she tripped one of the men, smashed him in the chest with her free hand, then kicked him in the back

Deedlit laughed internally at the foolishness of these slow-er spurred them on, but each attack just meant they’d spend more time abed with their injuries

“Fools!”

Deedlit jued her with his head down, and planted one elbow in his back

Just then, twothem her enemies, Deedlit knew a ed through her She turned towards the bigger of the two, slipping towards hi

Theher kick, and looked into Deedlit’s surprised face

“No, I’m on your side!” Parn had wondered for an instant why she would attack him, but spread his arms wide to show that he was friendly and yelled out to the woman

Deedlit carefully inspected the uileless eyes , Deedlit winked at thebehind her for an instant

One of the four men stood and tried to pin her arms froe her charging adversary, who rammed into her

“What’s the rabbed the hair of the one pinning Deedlit’s ar the , landed on the pave that, the other three turned and ran

Parn kept his guard up until all three had disappeared around the corner in the alley Once they had vanished, he turned to look at the woman

She was letting out little coughs She’d had the breath knocked out of her when theacross her face hs

Eto tried to tap the girl on the back But the girl reacted quickly, ju up and away from him

Eto shared a look of disappointrinned broadly andoff Eto’s wounded pride

Leaning back against the wall of the dimly-lit alley, Deedlit carefully observed the twoed her swift kick She hadn’t been going easy on him, either To look at him, he seemed quite the skillful warrior The other one had a kind face He earing loose white clothing and had so around his neck It looked like a talisman of Phalis Maybe he was a priest of Phalis, but he could also be merely a devout layman She’d instinctively jumped ahen he tried to touch her back, but it didn’t seem that he had any ulterior motives

“It seems I owe youher hair back and away from her face

“No need to thank us,” replied Parn, a bit flustered He’d just gotten a good look at her face for the first time She was so short, at first he had taken her for a child Her green eyes had a slight slant to thele as her eyes Her nose was small but well-forhtly open due to her ragged breathing, revealing her white teeth And then there were her ears

“She’s an elf,” murmured Eto and Parn in unison

Her long, pointed ears twitched No wonder she was small Elves were of somewhat s an elven woman for a child was understandable It was the first time in Parn’s life that he had seen a member of this sylvan people He was overwhelined

“No, you don’t need to thank us We only did as right”

“What’s right, huh? No, you got us in a pickle” Ghi

“A dwarf!” Deedlit took a quick look at the rude little man who had inserted hiretted it when the newcoly mountain people

Her instant dislike of him was audible

“That’s right, elf girl,” replied Ghiuys had just minded your own business, I’m sure this elf wouldn’t have let theile Born thieves, the lot of them”

Hearing Ghied completely

“How rude!” Deedlit bent over, her back arching like a cat about to pounce on its prey

“And as you can see, they’re a proud people” Ghiht herself”

“How dare you!” Deedlit seeht fly at the dwarf’s throat But before she could do so, Parn grabbed her left ar her

“You’ve gone too far, Ghi towards Ghim with a stern expression, he took one step in his direction

“H you as well Sorry” With these words, Ghim suddenly turned his back to Parn “I’ll leave the rest to you and head back to the inn, seeing as how I don’t get on ith elf girls”

Ghim sloalked back towards the main street

Parn felt aGhim walk away, then realized with a start that he was still holding the elf’s aro

“You finally noticed” Deedlit rubbed the place Parn had grabbed her with her right hand The skin there had reddened Did this oafish youth have no concept of restraint? Deedlit opened her hter

“I asters let ht?”

Looking at the elf’s i

“Uh, um, okay”

“Then it’s decided Since today happens to be a day of celebration, we have our choice of eateries I don’t want it said that elves have no sense of gratitude”

As she spoke, Deedlit took Parn’s ar