Trouble in Damacus (OPEN)

Hakeem Al Qatan trotted along the streets of Damascus on his horse. " Home, sweet home.." He
Muttered. Hakeem fought and begged to be placed in the bereau in Damascus,his birthplace and childhood home. It had been years since he had left the city
as a starved orphan, but it felt like it was yesterday. That fateful day when his father died during a crusader raid on his caravan, and the month after when his mother died in grief. As he trotted along the road, he spotted a group of drunken knights harrasing a merchant. " Oh well, I was getting rusty anyways." He said as he rode towards the knights. but he noticed when he got closer that they weren't normal knights, but Templars, among them a well known Templar that has been under the Assassin's radar for years. Knowing that he can't take them down on his own, he galloped back to the bereau, excited and frightened at the same time.

(Sorry about the mistakes , I doing this on my phone.)

The city she was in was a bustling metropolis in its area, where the scum of the streets mixed with people of all kinds. Among the stalls the rich mingled with those of the middle district and the poor gazed wantingly at trinkets they could never afford to call their own. There in the souk, a girl in boys clothes could be spotted in the rafters, watching as the masses passed below. Baggy pants and a shirt three times too large covered her stolen armor and hid her many weapons. A cowl with a face mask covered her, but the mask hung low off her features to try and combat the potential issue of overheating in her perch. It was mostly meant to hide her lighter skin from wary Saracen guards. If they saw then she would be hunted even harder the few rare times she slipped up. The only things she couldn't hide where the quiver and bow she had taken from the city guard. Liberated from a fresh corpse one of the many times the bells tolled. The early day would bring many prizes with it. Though there was more than one reason the disguised 'boy' hid away from the vendors. Her bad habit of stealing without realizing was something she was working to control. The guards hardly looked up or cared for the creatures which stalked the rafters and that was perfectly fine with Pan.

She made her way towards the exit closest to the rich district, hoping to spot a target she could easily slip a trinket or two from. It took a while but eventually one caught her eye. Dropping down silently and followed her prey, not paying attention to the people muttering about the young boy's bad manners as she slipped behind the rich target and relieved him of his coin purse. Briskly turning the other direction and flowing with the crowd of people to make her escape. His shouts when he realized the missing weight came too late as the girl flitted around a corner and took a roundabout path back to the markets to purchase food for the week. It was easier than traveling back to her little hideout where she stored the excess coin and the odd trinket.

She had a stride, a rhythm nobody could break. There was a beat only she could seem to hear that drove her selfish actions. Pan called it the heartbeat of the city. When she chose to speak her voice was low and poorly disguised as a boy's. It barely passed, but it seemed to work for now. The now was her only care. There were no plans for the next year past surviving it. Maybe she could slip in some place that would actually challenge her?

These thoughts guiding her, she turned her attention to the people in the souk once more as she tucked her food away in a bag she kept slung over her shoulder for her acquired items which rested against her quiver. Listening for anyone living beyond the means of the standard person. They were the easiest and yet hardest targets. The guards would be the challenge hopefully while snagging something valuable would be easy. Though in reality, she could just scale the outside walls both in and out. That would be a night time job though as her darker clothes were better suited for such things. A challenge, indeed. With an absent mind, she slipped coins from a passerby and give a small chuckle before taking up high to the rafters again. Listening and learning. Her target would present itself because they always did. Even better yet, maybe something exciting would break the monotony of her life and she wouldn't go seeking targets to fill the boredom? She already had more money stashed away than the average poor family made in a moon cycle.

Not far off, the sound of shouting reached her ears. Where they bothering poor Kasib again?! The merchant man had been kind, giving her discount prices on wares she needed. He always did that for the poorer people. Dislodging from her perch, she made swift and easy work of the rooftops with gravity defying leaps. Landing in a table on a nearby roof, she crouched low and scanned first for archers in range of sighting her. Satisfied, she nocked her bow and prepared to take aim on anyone that was not a buckethead. Those men scared her if she was honest. They were faster than they looked, more powerful than seemingly humanly possible and she remembered fire when one was in her sight. The burn on her arm and the missing eye stung with remembered pain. They we supposed to be 'her people' if you asked any Saracen, but the kinship was lost on both parties it seemed... though blind was all they seemed to be ironically. Their armor glistened like the Knights and she gave a soft curse as she realized they were all bucketheads.  But nobody was helping Kasib so it fell to her to draw them off and hopefully lose them. The armor they wore wasn't great for climbing, which she counted on as she drew back the bowstring and let her arrow fly and ricochet off the plated armor the Knights wore. "Crap!" She muttered. Not being the best shot meant she missed the holes in the armor from so far away.

Shouts of "Infidel!" and "Stupid boy!" rang through the streets as she started to lead them off, retreating faster than they could follow. Her path taking many high risk leaps, but if it meant she didn't have to fight then it was worth the risk. She took to scaffolding and pillars, swinging down through merchant stands only to rouse more shouts of dismay. She was a terror wherever she went, never staying in one city for too long because of it. No shouts of 'assassin' followed her though so she could count her blessings even as an archers arrow zipped past her nose, the feather stinging her face. It was the reason she wore tan and brown instead of scholar white. The mistake was only ever made once and she wasn't about to repeat it. Another bright side was she had wanted a challenge! Losing crusader knights was among her list of exciting occurrences that held more risk than gain as another arrow clipped her leg upon entering the poor district. Cursing, stumbling and turning down an abandoned alley, Pan slipped into a crumbling building to try and wait them out. Their shouts were enough to draw the attention of almost every archer in the district and alert the city guard as she was now aware. Alright.. far more risk than gain but at least Kasib was safe for now.

Hunkering down, she checked her leg being careful to rinse the wound with what little water she carried. She had seen what happened when even the smallest scratch festered and here she had a gash that would pain her for weeks to come. She was officially slowed and trapped. It was only a matter of time or stealth and she had a glaring blind spot on top of her injury. What was the turn of phrase?.... Her goose was about to be cooked, perhaps. It wouldn't be the first time she had to escape a no-win situation... help might have been nice. Half her pursuers had scouted on head, leaving only two maybe three in the alley. Though they would regroup likely in the alley once they realized they lost her.would they start combing the buildings?

((Not worried about mistakes. Sorry for the long post... but it has been sitting. Waiting. Patience was never my strong suit... Welcome to the forum!!!))

Hakeem ran atop the houses of Damascus armed to the teeth. He was determined to reach the souk before the Templars made some serious damages to people and property. As Hakeem dropped from the rooftop he noticed a feminine figure in a hood and armour. Thinking it was another assassin, Hakeem called out her."Hey!" He shouted, but the mysterious figure slipped among the crowd, out of sight. "Damn!" He swore. Hakeem ran in to the crowd, having no choice but to find the strange woman.

(Are my posts too short?)

(No man, I just write a lot.)

The shouting voice trying to catch her attention blended into the shouts of the crowd. His pursuit wouldn't be fruitless however if he followed the soldiers and guards. The only obvious hiding place being the falling down building nearby. As the guards moved off and the armored soldiers began their search in the obviously wrong places, the tiny form of the woman in a boy's costume slipped out of the building, pulling herself to the roof and crept slowly along a bean towards a stack of crates she could duck behind. Blood trailed the path behind her and the sound of ripping fabric could be heard from where she was ducked down. Pan was shredding her pant leg for a makeshift bandage around the cut which was deeper than her original assessment let her notice. Her thigh was exposed as she tied the bandages too tight. The bottom half of her face covering had fallen open in her haste to exit and bow lay next to her.

Hakeem saw the Templars marching on Damascus' streets. he followed them, thinking it might lead to the woman , pushing people aside, he followed the trail, only out of curiosity. He kept his eyes on the Templars, watching them, making sure they won't leave the souk. Only if the woman can help he would he complete his mission and kill his target. Jumping into a bale of hay, ( Heh, old school) he sneaked behind the knights ,watching.
When they swarmed around a building, he concluded that the strange person he met on top. Sneaking behind the buildings, he reached the house the knights besieged. Climbing on top the building, he saw the woman slumped over, bleeding from a gash on her leg.
" Well, you can't fight with a leg like that. The name's Hakeem."

When footsteps joined her on the roof, she pulled out a knife and prepared to throw it as her one good eye narrowed on him. A thick scar ran across her other one, only white showing in the dead eye. "Watch me do it anyway. You don't look like a guard. What is a scholar doing climbing roofs?" She kept her tone lower, trying to disguise her gender as she watched him and kept a knife trained on him.

Drawing herself up and letting the stained and torn pant leg fall to reveal it missing bottom half at the knee. The sounds of the soldiers came from below and it caused the woman pretending to be a boy to tense. "Pan is the name." She grumbled out as she peered over the edge and picked up her bow, red to nock another arrow once the man on the roof stopped posing a threat. She obviously wanted to finish what she started and in an empty alley was optimal.

"Hey hey, we could work together," Hakeem told her. " You want them gone, and I want a person among them dead." "You're pointing the bow in the wrong direction. I am not a Temp-, I mean a knight." Crouched, Hakeem peered over the edge. He drew a throwing knife, a weapon he didn't use often, and primed it forwards the soldiers. "So you are going to help me or not?"

A scholar killing people? Now she had seen everything! A mirthless chuckle rose from her. "Armor is weak at the neck, under the arm and the back of the knees... aim well." She stashed her knife and nocked her bow, taking aim carefully with her good eye. "Payment for one eye, coming up."

Raining down a flurry of arrows on the knights, two fell. Her aim was much better at closer range. She continued to call her shots, even as the Knights scattered beneath the arrows and sudden knives storming down on them. A third got an arrow to the back of his knee, falling prone as others scattered, taking up shields and trying to call reinforcements.

Hakeem threw the knife at one of the knights, it hit him square in the neck. Hakeem's target broke ranks and ran. "That's my target, hold the knights off, and I will deal with him." Hakeem informed her. " It was nice meeting you, here," Hakeem handed her a map with Maysaf marked on it . "Meet me here in a week's turn, Then you will know why a scholar is killing people." Hakeem tailed the knight hidden blade unsheathed (you can call it that, I think, I really don't know.) chasing the Templar to his death.

(I mean start a new topic.)

The map fluttered to the roof as she continued to take aim, pinning the soldiers into the alley and picking them off slowly. "One day, maybe!" Pan growled out as she tried to focus on her targets. Arrows were ricocheting off heavy armor for a tense couple of minutes, arrows running low as the last fell. She was finished long after the scholar's robes flicked out of sight; long after she could ask any questions.

Reaching for the map, she looked it over as she secured her bow on her back and limped away from the scene. Pan was wary of guards, but she had little strength for dealing with anyone else. The sun was high in the sky, but she needed a rest and a good cleaning for her leg. She wouldn't be lifting any coin purses for a while! There would be plenty of time to consider the new proposition. Someone who let her just slaughter knihts, helped her even... then dangles a carrot. It made her wonder where the stick was hiding, but she considered it. She considered it long and hard.

(We can tie this into the thread "a bit of a run in". I have already posted I am on the road on that thread)

(Sure. I was start a topic called The Meeting We wil continue there.)