Assassin

Courtier Tales: Assassin

There was a saying in the town that suddenly was giving you pause: be careful where you sleep, Assassin flies at night. It rather reminded you of a saying your mother was taken with saying: always wear clean underwear. You were not sure why you were making the parallel but considering your job seemed to involve you sleeping in some rather strange and at times unorthodox places you were feeling a little nervy about the suddenly re-popularized saying. After all the reason you should always wear clean underwear was because you were never sure what day you were going to die, or what would happen to you. When you thought about it it meant your mother was taken with a rather morbid saying. That gave you pause as your mother was generally more of a cheery sort of person. The kind that made it a little surprising for that to be her favorite saying. Perhaps that was one of the reasons you were feeling a bit more unnerved over the saying: be careful where you sleep, Assassin flies at night. Especially when those twin sayings haunted you when you were trying to settle down to sleep under the night sky.

However you usually managed to drop off until at least an uneasy slumber in the odd locations she usually found herself sleeping in. Tonight that odd location was halfway up a tree. After all it was a lot harder for the venomous ground dwelling beasties share bunk-space with you. Though calling whatever you ended up sleeping on bunk-space would be rather generous. Usually you ended up trying to cram your sleeping bag or hammock wherever seemed safest and the least uncomfortable. Honestly it was no wonder you had problems dropping off when there always seemed to be one more sharp rock of pointy branch that was jabbing into you. Not to mention the two times that the branch ended up not being as strong as you had thought and dropped you onto the unyielding ground. Or nearly devoured by a swarm of ants that happened to be living in one of the trees.

But it was the phrase that kept you up at night. Be careful where you sleep, Assassin flies at night. It was fast becoming a macabre interest of yours. And you were constantly trying to figure out who this Assassin was. What they were like to cause that saying. And it was really keeping you up at night. That is until exhaustion had its merry way with you and you passed out cold. You sigh as you face another night sky a few weeks later with the usual puzzle at the forefront of your mind. Who was this Assassin and what were they like.

It was partway through the wellworn track of these thoughts that you heard a strange noise, an unusual noise. Then you hear the faint thump and a rustling. You bolt up your heart racing and your mind hyperfocusing. You see what looks like a blob of black in an otherwise black and shadowy environment. Then you see the eyes. They were glowing almost like a cat's yet larger then the eyes of even a tiger. Then you slowly made out the form.... of black against the shadows. Just about then you nearly had a heart attack as the thing cleared its throat and spoke " Hi there. nice night isn't it?" The tone is quite conversational and oddly intimate. After your heart resumes beating you respond "I guess...." For lack of anything else to say. The voice speaks again "By the way if I were you I would move where you are sleeping. And leave early in the morning. There is a thief setting up shop just on the other side of the hill." The eyes flicker and point elsewhere before the voice spoke again "Just thought you might want to know it might get messy. And I would hate for you to walk into that little scene first thing in the morning." You follow the advice out of pure self preservation and also the fact that you know there is no way you are going to sleep for the rest of the night exhaustion or no exhaustion. The next day you read a paper with an article ASSASSIN STRIKES AGAIN: ROBBER RING DESTROYED EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE. All in bold capital letters. So that is want the saying means. You drink your coffee feeling a bit more relaxed. Maybe it is not you that is the one that needs to worry about Assassin... but those who are planning things they shouldn't at night. That thought soothes you and under that nights sky you sleep like a baby. Be careful where you sleep, Assassin flies at night.