[b]Miriam
Chapter 23: Dawning[/b]

Miriam was swift with the duck and she dragged herself to the side to avoid the thrust of the giant's halberd, she scrambled swiftly through the snow and got back on her feet on the opposite side of the man, he had more of an issue getting around, what with his giant size and the long halberd he carried. Miriam ran her right hand across her face, her vision was blurry and when she flicked her hand she noticed blood flew off it. Her hair clung to the right side of her face, where the man's kick must have split her brow open. She heard Leia growl and gnaw ferociously behind the large man, who had now turned to face the huntress. His face was grim with determination and anger.
	"You killed him!" He roared, and came forward again, like a branded bull, with his halberd held in front of him, Miriam did not doubt he had every intention to kill her now and she knew she wouldn't survive another charge from the man. She looked to her options, with a spring in her step she jumped onto a nearby barrel that stood leaning against a wall, with the next step she scurried up the wall as best as she could and reached her hand for the roof's wooden ledge. Caught it! Miriam began hoisting herself up, feeling safer by the higher she got, until something grabbed onto her ankle. Miriam jerked to a pause, and then came the pull. With one tremendous pull she was dragged away from her hold on the roof and was thrown down into the snowy ground again with a painful crash, she landed poorly, with her right arm coming first and the rest of her weight following, she heard the crack as the bones inside of her arm undoubtedly fractured and she yelped out in high pain. She dragged her bloodied face through the snow, gritting her teeth to quell the pain of her injury but it still hurt, it hurt a lot.
	"Leave me alone..." She whimpered. Suddenly she was again grabbed, this time by the collar of her gray cloak, she was held up to hang face to face with the bear-caped man, who sneered furiously toward her.
	"My brother, you Bitch! You killed my brother!" He practically spat the words at her face, she could hardly see, blood still flowed over her right eye, it stained her face crimson and her head beat in a pace she found most discomforting. The man shook her by the collar angrily and her legs lifted off the ground momentarily.
	"Your brother was scum." Miriam growled through her teeth. "I was just WALKING!" She flailed shortly in protest but the pain in her broken right arm got the better of her and with a jerk from the man holding her she stopped. He roared then and flung Miriam again, straight into the wall at their side, she crashed into the barrel first and then rolled off it back into the ground, for a moment she could hear Leia bark furiously at her side, but the giant was standing before her again, he rose his halberd and pointed it down at her.
	"Die!" He bellowed and thrust the weapon down at her. Miriam rose her functional arm in poor defense, what good could that do? She caught herself thinking, she shut her eyes and accepted her fate. Come on then, death. 

But she did not die. A second past, and another, Miriam still heard Leia bark furiously a few paces away, she slowly opened the eye that had not been draped by her blood-drenched hair and looked. She saw the halberd first, it hung stiffly just above her, as if the man had stopped his attack miraculously in the middle of his thrust. Miriam looked past the weapon, her body shaking fearfully, and she saw the man, his face was clenched in a painful expression that he could not undo, his eyes darted from side to side in confusion, as the man failed to move his body in the slightest. He mumbled a sentence, but his muscles did not allow for the words to come out. Miriam stuttered a "What?" But it came out as nothing but a whisper of "W's." Leia appeared next to her now, her muzzle coloured red, equally confounded by the man who had been hung stiff and motionless by seemingly nothing. Miriam accepted her good graces, she scrambled quickly to her feet, grunting with pain from her various injuries and aches and she called for Leia as she ran. She passed over the man who had first pursued her, his face and throat had been torn open and Miriam paid him not a second glance as she ran past, and down the street, clutching onto her broken arm. At this point she did not care what had stopped the man from killing her, she intended to keep living, and she ran.