Picture This!

To help readers to visualize the story a little better, here are some images (if you haven't already, note the images depicting the two main characters on the right side of the page).

This is what Mush'a, Keina's owl looks like. I'd imagine its wingspan to be about 8 feet. It is a remarkably light bird, but very powerful and with razor sharp talons.

This is Ishna, Keina's riding nightsaber. Basically it's a big tiger: very agile, very strong and very useful in combat. Except Ishna doesn't have the goofy-looking head plate-decoration-protector thingy. It just looks odd.

These are the weapons Keina uses:

First, her bow. Her bow is one of those used by the Silverwing Sentinels, light but extremely powerful. Keina's keen eyesight and strength allow her to shoot with pinpoint and deadly accuracy from distances up to 100 yards.












When close combat is called on, Keina uses one or both of two weapons. Her hunting sword, made of truesilver, is both light and strong, making quick killing strokes easy. Its design doesn't make it a great defensive tool for blocking other's moves.

















That's why she has her war staff. Thanks to clever gnomish engineering, the staff actually breaks down into two smaller halves. This is mainly for traveling convenience, especially when riding on Ishna. Keina, however, uses the staff's halves in combat as well- either the bladed end for both another blade with which to strike or block, or the bottom half as a blocking tool or blunt weapon.

Nicholas rides a black stallion named Adil, which he has owned and ridden since he was a teenager. Adil looks much like the horse below.

Being a rogue, Nicholas spends a lot of his time in the shadows, has a different combat style. When striking from the shadows, he uses his primary weapons- two daggers, with blades about 9-10 inches, made from mithril, which is, in the words of Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins, is "light as a feather, and as hard as dragon scales." The light weight allows Nicholas to wield the daggers with blinding speed. The idea is to incapacitate or otherwise neutralize his target in the first strike or two. If he anticipates a longer battle, then he will use his first moves to inflict the most damage he can or open deep wounds that will cause a steady loss of blood in his opponent, weakening them as the fight goes on.

Though deadly with the daggers, they aren't the best choices for fights that last longer than Nicholas' first one or two strikes. That's why Nicholas carries, on his back, two short swords, both also made of mithril. The curved blade is a gift from his friend, Myrokos Silentform, the blood elf who recruited Nicholas to the Ravenholdt Order of thieves, spies, and assassins. The other is a strong dwarven blade which he acquired from the dwarves of Dun Garok during the war with the Scourge.

On occasion, Nicholas has need to strike from a distance. This he does with a crossbow, also of dwarven make. It's the perfect tool for someone hiding in the shadows for three reasons: 1) though typically a two-handed weapon, its small size allows him to shoot with one hand as the situation calls for, 2) when it shoots it makes very little noise, and 3) the bow part folds down for easy storage on Nicholas' back when he travels.