Who was that man? That scum who had killed of her father, with no mercy at all. She remembered it clearly, though she heard the news for just a day ago.

"Milady!" The guard had rushed into the room and to her surprise, he didn't call her by her name. The young lady frowned.

"Adin, what is it?"

She went closer and put a hand on the sweaty back of the man, but she didn't care. What he was about to say should after all be more important. When Adin finally caught his breath, he stared at the girl with pain in his eyes. And he spoke:

"You father is dead, Maiid..."

She ran through the filthy streets of Damascus with all of her speed. Citizens looked after her or shouted warnings for her behaviour, but Maiid couldn't care less. Suddenly, she stopped. Was someone following her? She remembered the advice Adin had told her when they used to play at her younger ages, that to never turn your whole head around.

"What you should do if you're suspecting someone to follow you," he had said while turning his back to her. "Is to just barely glance behind you shoulder, and then pretend that something on you right or left side caught you attention."

He had showed her, and she agreed that he looked a lot lesser suspicious by doing so.

Maiid turned her head to her left side in a normal way and pretended to watch a man selling pots nearby. She waited a second, and then glanced behind her. There. A man dressed in black clothes and a hood to cover his face. The man bend down when she turned her head, but didn't care to take cover. Thankfully to Adin, the advice had helped her.

Maiid frowned and started to move again. Who ever that man was, she really had no time for him. She was looking for someone else, who she might never find if she did not hurry. The young woman rounded a corner of the block, and then started to sprint down the street again. Perhaps her black-hooded "admirer" would loose sight of her. So she ran for a while, still knowing where she went. Adin had told her that her father got killed on one of the roofs near the church, so that's where she would try and start looking first.

Bastard, she thought with anger burning in her eyes. Why did you kill him? He just did his job!

Finally, Maiid spotted the tower of the church and halted. The man in black, are you still there? She watched the crowd of people behind her but could not see him. Pleased with that, she rushed further and into an alley. On one of the white stone-walls, she found a ladder. Maiid grabbed it and climbed up on the roof.

It was a hot day, like usually. Rain didn't trouble Damascus so often after all, and Maiid liked it that way. She hated rain. The wetness and the cold that embraced her thin body, to never let go... The girl shook her head. Such a silly fear. She had to find a way to get rid of it.

Suddenly the winds grew in force and played with her long brown hair, loosing it from the ponytail she had put it up with this morning. Damn, she thought and decided it was time to move.

To be honest, Maiid was pretty much used to climb and jump along roofs. Actually, there was a time when her father allowed her to come with him while he patrolled, and he had taught her how to jump high and to land in the right way. This meant that Maiid got to the church in almost no time.

In the following hours, she searched the area around the religious building looking for traces of the killer. But she found no. She cursed and was just about to sit down on a roof and rest a bit, when a voice cried out.

"You're not supposed to be here!"

Maiid raised an eyebrow at the guard who had yelled at her. Giving him no time to act, she moved towards him.

"You aren't recognizing me?

This was the best of all. Maiid had practically grown up with all of the guards, and some of them were really close friends of her. For example Adin, who also was the childhood friend to her now dead father. And him, he had in fact being a head guard, and all the soldiers had to obey him.

The guard in front of her suddenly seem to recognize her, and relaxed.

"Forgive me my rudeness milady, but at first I thought you were someone else. But after all, it was a long time since you last visited us?"

The woman gave him a half smile.

"I'm sorry, La'lem. I've been busy these weeks. And now I've also heard of my father's death."

She saw a shadow sweep over the elder mans face.

"Yes, to bad. I was near and patrolling just like him though. But I never heard scream, and I wasn't lucky enough to be by his side in time to save him..."

He sigh and shook his head.

"But I did catch a glimpse of the murderer..."

Maiid's eyes just widened quite a bit, but she turned her head away so that La'lem wouldn't see her reaction. In a voice which she tried to perform in a calm way, she spoke to him.

"You did? What did he look like?"

She hold her breath and waited. Her heart started to bump hard in excitement, and for a moment she was afraid that La'lem would be able to hear it. Then she mentally slapped herself for even think in so dumb ways.

The guard continued finally.

"He wore a white cloak and a hood that covered his face, almost like a scholar. But he was armed with plenty of weapons and around his waist he had leather belt…" La'lem frowned and nodded then.

"Yes, that's all that I know. I had only time to see him for a few seconds after all."

But it was all enough. Maiid smiled and was just about to thank her friend, when a sudden noise was to be heard from the streets under them. La'lem hurried to the edge of the roof and jumped down without time to say goodbye to Maiid. She, on the other hand went to the edge, trying to se what had happened. Citizens screamed and ran around in panic, and in the middle of the street there was a man crouching over a body. He went back to his feet when a crowd of guards ran after him shouting "Assassin!"

An Assassin, eh?

The young woman didn't really know all that much about these rough killers, only that they used to visit her town sometimes and kill off important persons. Curious of the assassin, Maiid followed the hunt from the rooftops.

Suddenly, the man seemed to disappear. The guards stopped and searched the area of him, but all she heard was their angry voices.

But where did he go then?

The woman went over to another building left of her and ran over to a tower. And there, at the very top, the man sat. Slowly, with the intentions to not give him a chance to see her, she moved closer to the tower and made a round to get to him from behind. But just when she was about to climb up to him, someone grabbed her and pulled her close to him. With a strong arm around her neck, she could barely breathe. But she managed to turn her head enough to see her enemy. It was the man in black!

Damn it! she thought and tried to think of a plan to get loose. But then he spoke, with such a hoarse voice that made Maiid to think of death himself.

"Take it slowly, milady. I'm not going to kill you off, yet."

He showed her a knife out of nowhere and pulled her closer to him.

"To think that your poor little body would come to mean so much now when the head guard is dead. I wonder how much they'll give me for you…?"

Maiid's eyes widened, and then she suddenly understood. She was the head guard's only child, which meant that she was the one to take action from now on, now when her father had died. The thought that she'd ever be in danger had never come to her mind, but she realized it now. Without hesitating, she suddenly kicked the black dressed man and brake loose from his grip. The man groaned and faced her, ready to strike with his knife. Maiid was in desperate need of her own, and also of her sword, that she had left at home. She cursed silently as she grabbed her own dagger.

They moved around in a circle, watching each others step carefully. Maiid wasn't really sure when to strike, so she waited for her enemy and had her dagger ready.

Then he suddenly rushed towards her, slicing his knife, but luckily only to cut the air in front of her arm. The young girl was about to strike then, but the black dressed man turned around very quick and attacked her from the right. She barely dodged this time, and felt the wind from the attack. But now, she knew what to do. Maiid ran after him, jumped, and grabbed his cloak to not letting him slip away when she stabbed her dagger deep in his flesh. The man didn't say a thing, but instead he sliced her in her side and kicked her away. Maiid hit the floor with her head, and slowly everything went black.

I'm deeply sorry if my English is bad, but I'm actually from Sweden, so be patient.

What do you think anyway? Is this something to continue with? ;P

Have a nice day!

- MeliZ