Fangs like daggers sank into his shoulder, snapping off one of the straps attached to his knife and sheath, before Altaïr rammed his palm into the creature's jaw. It squealed or squeaked; the sound of hurt dog ringing in the relatively empty slave hall of Talal. Clearly there had been a shipment recently for Altaïr had heard of Talal's propensity for a plentiful supply.

The dog (wolf? It was a bigger dog than Altaïr had ever seen) rolled back, shook it's head and lunged for Altaïr again with a spray of drool flying from it's muzzle. Throwing himself to one side, Altaïr skidded out of the way, creating a smokescreen of dust from the action. It didn't stop the dog for long and Altaïr tried to stab the neck, feeling the slide of sinew briefly against his hidden blade but only scraping the shoulder instead, sliding off something already there. Underneath the thick ruff of fur was a collar of some kind, a band of silvery metal that was almost a finger thick and a hand wide.

The dog snarled and snapped at Altaïr, barely missing the soft underside of his throat. Talal was laughing at the scene before him, and Altaïr could hear him moving around the high balcony above him. His right shoulder ached from the bite and the abuse he was giving it. The vicious and strange guard dog wasn't going down anytime soon - it would be reckless to try to kill it outright. Deciding that fleeing was the best option, Altaïr struck the dog with a throwing dagger. As it tried to swat the knife out, giant paw patting comically at it's own face, Altaïr ran for a ladder.

An arrow whizzed past Altaïr's face. Clearly the dog was supposed to have finished him. He grinned even against the pain of his shoulder, which was now flaring in bursts of radiating pain as he climbed the ladder. When he made it to the top, Altaïr flicked momentarily into his second sight and locked onto Talal just as the man kicked open a hatch and attempted to flee. Another dog burst from a cage, hidden at first by the shadows. Flinging himself forward into a run, Altaïr flew over the second giant dog, rolled, and smoothly came out of the roll to continue after Talal.

The man was fast and very good at escaping but Altaïr knew the rooftops better than the street urchins, deftly squeezing out the hole Talal had used and turning to run parallel to the man. With feet lighter than a spring breeze he jumped from the roof of the warehouse to a small platform. Talal had made good headway.

There was the sound of an explosion of wood from behind the assassin. Altaïr briefly looked behind him and picked up his pace when the second dog attempted to pursue him, easily making the jumps. Pulling another throwing dagger from his belt, Altaïr sprinted across a plank, kicked it into the street below and waited for the dog to follow. As predicted it leapt and the knife took it by the eye, and it howled, missing a smooth landing and joined with the plank in a shared fate.

Although he would have liked to have checked that the dog wasn't going to make a nuisance of itself and was actually dead, Talal was fast slipping away. In the end, Altaïr threw the last of his daggers into the man's thighs and ankles, forcing him to stumble and fall. The end was quick after that, but Altaïr had a feeling that something was wrong, that he had missed the chance to ask Talal something vital, even as he dipped the feather into the man's cooling blood.

The man had died smiling, a vicious smile of triumph that focused on Altaïr's shoulder than his face.