Briefing

 is the first chapter of Avatar: The Assassin War. It introduces the assassin, Raven.

Autor’s Note
''The legends begins! It would be wise to read to have some background before reading, therefore read the story page. Enjoy and please review!''

Synopsis
Raven looked up at the sky. Where was he? The messenger should be here now. If he was to late... She smirked and grabbed a shuriken from her belt and played with it, imagining the fear in the messenger’s eyes. Behind her, in a small hut, someone started playing a flute. Raven closed her eyes and lulled softly from the left to the right, smiling. Ah, music. She loved it, and it was her only weakness. They were few people who knew. And even fewer who were still alive to tell it. “Damn it”, she whispered, as the tattoo on her back began to itch again. It did that quite a lot lately. A black raven on her left shoulder. She had it as long as she could tell. Either she was born with it or she got it short after her birth, she didn’t care. It gave her her name, status and a reputation as a fierce killer. Nobody knew her real name. If she would take a new name, she would have to rebuild her reputation from the start. No, then rather -. Raven was awakened from her thoughts by a rider appearing at the horizon. “Finally”. As the rider closed in, she stood up from her bench and walked to him. After a while, the messenger stopped his horse next to her, stepped off and bowed.

“You’re late”, Raven said with a cold, emotionless voice. She observed the messenger during the time he was to scared to speak. He was middle-aged, and his hair was falling out on different places. He was sweating. Afcourse it was hot, but she could see it was out of fear. Afcourse she would be terrified too if she would stand in front of the number one assassin of the globe. As if she would waste time killing such a low-life. He seemed like a guy who lead a normal life. A wife, kids... No evidence of him being a spy whatsoever, but Raven was still cautious. In these days, spies were people you never expected them to be. High superiors, kids, old men... Deep in herself, Raven hated her life. Her job, the world she was living in, the people she was going with, her tatoo... For the second time in a short time, the messenger awakened her from her thoughts.

“Yes, my lady, I’m sorry.We had some problems with -“

“Spare me the explanation. What do you have for me?”

“Oh, afcourse, my lady.” The messenger wiped off some sweat and continued, “your lord has sent me to report that he wants the heart of the lord of the Kiku clan. Silently.”

“I already expected that”, Raven waited for the messenger to leave, when he didn’t, she continued. “You can go now”



“Yes, my lady, afcourse, my lady...” The messenger bowed again and jumped on his horse. The music stopped. Suddenly, something behind Raven struck him in the neck. He fell of his horse, death. Raven turned around, just to see a young boy retracting his weapon. Raven didn’t understand. Gengi just broke the most important rule of the assassins: never kill an innocent. Why? She watched Gengi as he walked at the man. He sliced his shirt open, revealing a small necklace with a silver feather hanging at it. “Damn it all”, Raven said, “A spy from the Meygen clen.” Gengi nodded and got back into the hut. The music started again, but Raven kept looking to the feather. Could he information be correct. Probably. The spy probably killed the messenger, and then carried out the task himself, to gain no suspicion. Raven realized her mistake. If this man had reached his superiors... This was probably not the only thing he knew. Lucky Gengi was here. She lifted the man on her back and putted him in the shadow of a tree. She would clean that up later. First, she had to complete her mission. “Hey Gengi! Grab the stuff! We need to do this secretly. No massacre, no explosions!” The music stopped again. Raven smiled. This shouldn’t be to hard.

A few hours later, Raven and Gengi stood in front of a small wooden fortress. Two guards were guarding the gate, and many more were on the walls. “You see that?” Raven whispered, “Guns.” Gengi said nothing. He never did. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t speak. Raven shrook her head. Barbarians. Guns were the ‘new’ weapons these times, but it was forbidden for assassins to use them, and most assassins hated it anyway. An assassin wielding a gun, was killed. No excuses. “See that tree?” Raven pointed at a medium-sized tree, hanging over the path leading to the fortress, “We’ll take them down quietly.”

The guard scratched his back. Stupid insects. On evenings like this, there were much insects who gave the unlucky guard who had duty very itching bites. After a while, he stopped scratching and sighed. Why did they had to guard the entrance anyway? There never happened anything these times. Suddenly, the other guard poked him with his gun. "Hey, what do you think you're -", the other guard silenced him. "Look",he pointed at a nearby tree. Under it, a young boy was standing. The two guards walked carefully to the boy, their guns aimed at the dark figure. When they were close enough to examine him correctly, they saw the boy had a strange appearance. He was wearing some kind of armor and his mouth was covered by a metal mask. "Strange", the guard whispered. He kept looking at the boy, until he suddenly heard a strange sound behind him. He turned around, only to see a dark figure hanging from the three grabbing his fellow guard and snapping his neck. "What the -", he yelled and pointed his gun at the dark figure. Or at least, he wanted to. Before he could react, something else, something shiny moved past him. Maybe a weapon... Then everything went black.



Raven let herself fall from the three as Gengi dried the blood of his weapon. "Good think work", she said and looked up to the walls. "Help me with this, will ya?" Together, She and Gengi threw the bodies in the nearby bushes. Raven putted up a black cape, and gave Gengi another one. "Follow me", she said, and winked Gengi. They ran to the gate and hided there in the shadows. "See that?" Raven pointed at a big building at the center of the fortress plaza, "I need to get there unseen, provide some distraction". Gengi nodded and grabbed his flute. When he did that, Raven hesitated. This wouldn't be all 'quiet'. She shaked her head. They could still say it was just the nature. She started to run. Meanwhile, Gengi began to play on his flute, but there was no sound. However, suddenly, hundreds of bats came flying into the fortress from all directions and began to attack the guards.

Raven smiled as she passed the screaming guards. She didn't knew how Gengi could control all those animals with his flute, but she liked it. When she reached the building, she checked for guards and quickly opened and closed the door. She was in. In the building, you could hear almost nothing about what was happening outside. Good, so she still had the element of surprise. She walked further in the dim lighted halls, but suddenly stopped. Voices. Three of them. She walked further, hiding in the shadows. Three guards were talking in front of a giant door. Each of them were carrying a katana. Raven smiled. These were traditional, royal guards, who just as assassins refused to use guns. The lord was close. There was no way Raven could pass unnoticed. She had to kill them. She counted to three. One... She began to run. Two... She pulled out one of her Kodachi. Three! She sprinted out of the shadows and stabbed the first guard in the back. Then she continued to the second one, grabbed him by his neck and pushed until she heard his spine broke. Finally, she ran to the third, who was pulling his katana out, grabbed his hand, disarmed him, and used his own weapon to slice his chest open. This all happened in a matter of seconds. Raven stood a while before the three dead guards. There was no time to hide them. It could happen any moment now that a guard was smart enough to check on his lord. She putted her Kodachi back and looked at the door. Here it was. The lord's chamber. She checked her cape and her weapons and went in.

Raven kneeled. The lord was eating. His last meal. He looked up from his dinner when Raven kneeled before him.

"Who are you?"

Raven looked down to be sure the Lord didn't saw her face.

"I'm just a humble messenger, your highness"

"And what message do you bring?"

Raven chuckled. This question begged for a show-of answer. She always loved a bit of drama.

"Death"

Raven threw of her cap, revealing her face to the lord, who was absolutely terrified.

"You..."

That were his last words. After that, five shuriken pierced his face, chest and neck. Raven reacted quickly and ran forward to check his pulse. He was death. She grabbed her knife and immediately started cutting. It could only take seconds before one of those idiot guards came running in. Finally, done. She walked to the door, but suddenly heard voices on the outside. "Damn it", she whispered, and she climbed up the wall, to the ceiling, just in time before 5 guards came dashing into the room. "My...Lord", the leader gazed at his dead lord and the open wound in his chest. "Search the building! Let no one in or out! The killer can't be far". Raven cursed very softly. There was no way out. She grabbed two smoke bombs from her pocket. This is not how it was planned. But yeah... First things first. First escape, then worry about the mission. She threw the smoke bombs on the ground. In all the chaos that happened, she quickly ran out of the building, onto the plaza, where the bats were still attacking the guards. hen she was outside, she ran to Gengi's hiding place, where he was still playing. She showed him a small wooden chest. Gengi stopped playing and followed Raven out of the fortress.

A few moments later, Raven walked calm to a gate, holding the small chest closely to her. Her black cape waved behind her. She was angry. And scared. She had failed to complete the mission correctly. There was only one punishment for that: death. As she walked through the gate, one guard told her to identify herself. She just ignored him. The guard quickly saw his mistake and bowed for her. She just walked on. She wasn't ready for death. She was only 17, damn it! She walked to her Lord's chambers. Would he kill her. Probably. But still, she was his best assassin. Well, she would soon find out. She closed in on the chambers, but hesitated a bit before she opened the door. She took a deep breath and entered. Inside, she closed the door, turned around, and kneeled.

"I'm sorry, my lord, I didn't mean to -"

"You have it?"

Raven nodded and handed over the wooden chest to the shadowed figure, who opened and inspected it. "Raven". Raven looked up, "you know the consequences of your deed?" Raven nodded. "Good." Raven held her breath. It could happen any second now. "I have a task for you." Raven was stunned. What was so special that he wouldn't kill her?

"You must kill someone. Someone very special."

"Who, mylord?"

"The Avatar"

Raven was a bit shocked. The Avatar... He showed up again. And now she had to kill him. She still had a question however.

"Where can I find him, my lord?"

He's not far. Travel to the west. Ask around. You'll find him. Raven nodded, stood up and bowed. Then she left the room. When she was back on the plaza, she jumped up the castle wall and stood there for a long time, looking at the horizon. She saw the farmers gathering their crops, and whispered:

"Get ready, Avatar. I'm coming after you"

But deep in herself, she was full of happiness. Deep in her mind, she could only think at one thing.

"She wasn't dead. Yet"

Trivia

 * The moves Raven uses to finish off the three Royal Guards are inspired by the Hissatsu killing moves of Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
 * The Raven on her left shoulder is based on the real Australian Raven
 * The silver feather comes from the game Assassin’s Creed, where the assassins use a feather to mark their pray.