A Tale of Wolves and Sheep (a For Honor inspired story)

Chapter 16 (Scarlet)

Scarlet was thrilled to offcically have her first assignment on the field. Herself and Lady Lyssa would be tracking down this supposed scouting party that William had spotted. The two peacekeepers would take point in tracking down their prey while William and Ser Rickon would follow at a distance in the case that things get messy. The group went into the treeline and followed where William had last seen their targets. They walked through for a moment until Scarlet picked up a trail of snapped twigs and muddied footprints. 

"Lady Lyssa!" she said, pointing at the trail she spotted. 

Lady Lyssa knelt down to get a better look at the footprints. "It appears to be some sort of small group. Only a small amount of footprints by the looks of it." she glanced at Scarlet with a proud expression, "Well done!" she began to take the lead and followed the trail of footprints. 

Scarlet glanced behind her and gave a thumbs up towards the other two knights before following her teacher through the forest. The two continued to follow the trail before Lady Lyssa stopped and held her hand up, gesturing for her to stop. 

"Wait a moment." she stated, insepecting the trail and looking up ahead. "Do you smell that?" 

Scarlet took a moment to sniff the air, picking up the scent of smoke. "A fire?" 

Lady Lyssa nodded, "That's right. " she replied, "They have a camp nearby. Stay on your guard." 

Scarlet nodded and carefully followed behind her mentor, keeping a hand placed on the hilt of her sword. Eventually the two found a small clearing, staying hidden behind the trees. She saw a small camp with five vikings gathered around. Four of them were lightly armored, sporting padded tunics and helmets. Each of them were equipped with bows in hand, quivers slung of their backs and swords sheathed to their sides. 

One of them however, stood out from the rest. They wore a metal helmet that fully encased their face. In one hand was a spear and in the other was a small iron rimmed shield. Long blonde hair trailed from their helmet and down their back and their arms were exposed, revealing a more muscular physique.

"A Valkyrie." Lady Lyssa muttered. 

"A Valkyrie?" Scarlet asked, glancing over at her mentor. 

"Yes, female viking warriors. They usually lead viking scouting parties." 

"So what's the plan?" 

"We'll have to go about this carefully." she surveyed the camp, as if trying to plan out an approach. "Let me handle the Valkyrie. We'll see if we can pick off as many of the other four as we can."

"Do you think we should fetch William and Ser Rickon?" Scarlet asked. She was a tad nervous about getting into her first engagement but also felt a creeping sensation of excitement. 

"Under normal circumstances, I would say no." Lady Lyssa replied. "But given how the slightest movement can startle them and cause them to flee to their allies, we will need to play our cards wisely." 

"Maybe we can try leading them in William's direction!" Scarlet replied. "We take out as many as we can and herd them into the boys for them to get finished off." 

Lady Lyssa gave her an impressed look. "Great thinking apprentice!" she replied. "We will need to maneuver around so we can lead them into the others. I'll target the Valkyrie since she'll be the one to give us the most trouble." 

"I'll take out however many I can" Scarlet replied, keeping her hands placed on Claw and Fang. The duo exchanged nods and made their way around the clearing and were now behind the group of vikings. 

"Ready?" Lady Lyssa asked as she loaded her hand crossbow. 

Scarlet replied with a slight nod, quietly unsheathing her weapons.