A close swap

A man sat atop a Roc, flying underneath the cloudy sky. Up ahead on the road, he spotted 2 horse riders below. One was wearing a robe, long flaxen hair flowing gently in the breeze.

He had found his mark.

Touching the neck of the Roc, he guided the giant bird down. Releasing the reins, he retrieved a dagger from within his sleeves and jumped off…

“How could you have given that filthy merchant so much gold for these horses? I thought you were good with numbers!” Kyle, garbed in leather armour, held his arms up in the air for emphasis. A bow was strapped onto his back, and there was a scabbard hooked on his belt.

“We needed the horses, and I was pressed for time. It wasn’t that much gold anyway.” Brea brushed her golden hair back, letting it flow over her blue robe. “Excuse me”, she apologised, and in one smooth motion, lifted herself up and flung herself to the right side of her horse.

Brea turned around to face skywards, and saw a man covered with black cloth about a dozen feet above her. The air around her blurred for a moment, and the attacker appeared in her place. He hit the ground, gave a groan of pain, and immediately rolled to the side.

But it was too late. Brea cracked a bolt of lightning at him and he went unconscious. Then Brea held out her hands to buffer her landing on top of her horse, and slid fluidly back on the saddle. The horse gave a whinny. “Shhh… it’s ok” soothed Brea, stroking the horse’s neck.

“How did you know… What did you…” stammered Kyle. “Who was that?” he managed, pointing at the attacker lying on the ground, smoke still sizzling from his clothes.

“It seems we might have company soon.” Brea studied the man. A shriek sounded in the air, and a giant bird was seen flying away in front of them.

“Why did you jump off the horse? You could have swapped places with him from where you sat.”

“Well, he would have killed the horse before I could do anything. As you mentioned, I paid a lot of gold for the horses.” She smoothed her robes. “Besides, I’d rather not walk all the way to Honeybeech.”

=====
This is an excerpt from the Math Wizard, where there are more short stories like this. It’s an example of how the power Swap of Twin Primes might be used (and described).