Aeotha's face was blank after the men were close enough to them to be fully seen. They all had blue eyes like Skandra did, but they were nothing like his at the same time. Only at first glance, Skandra had all the goodness in his, where theirs did not, as if they'd never laughed truly a day in their lives. Aeotha stood there watching, listening, and trying her best to stay calm. She could not use magic, it wouldn't do anything and none of them knew if it would work at all. It still made her feel naked, even more so now.
Skandra moved so fast she barely had time to see what he was doing before the man with the crossbow was dead. Aeotha jumped backwards because she was so startled by it, but it only took a second for her to gather her footing and twist her staff. The man with the sword was charging straight at her with his horse, sword held high in the air. Aeotha whipped the staff forward and crashed the end of it across the horse's face, it wasn't what she wanted to do, but when the beast reared back and threw off his rider, it had the effect she wanted.
Aeotha tore across the space as the man got up and his horse galloped aside. The sword and staff clashed together. He seemed surprised that her staff held up so well, and Aeotha was surprised she could still stand after her arm took the blunt shaking it just had. She had to leap backwards to miss the next strike and pivoted on one foot to bring her staff up and crashed it across his face with a wide swing. He staggered back and only howled in pain for a moment. Blood dotted the ground beneath them from his shattered nose. He brought his sword back and instead of crashing against her staff it slid down it and cut into her hand.
Aeotha moaned in pain, but bought her staff back again despite the biting pain in her hand. The man was laughing, laughing. Aeotha swung the staff over her head and clocked him across the head with it, once, twice, then three times. He doubled back and groaned at the pain of it.