THE ASSASSIN (excerpt)

THE ASSASSIN

 

Page 1-

 

1st Panel- This is a panel showing two armies squared off to face one another.  Caption- "It had been a time of great civil strife in our lands, where tribes were ever-warring."

 

2nd Panel- The Sultan is making a passionate decree while holding up a thin scroll of papyrus and pointing to the sky.  He is thin and with a very elegant style of clothing with jewels all over him.  Caption- "The Sultan, as a show of force and in order to quell any future uprisings, offered up a proposition.  Any man worthy of killing him would retain his empire.  However, if he failed, the assassin's head would adorn the inner walls of the Sultan's palace."  Caption 2- "He gave them 10 years."

 

3rd Panel- Children are playing in the audience of adults paying rapt attention to their Sultan.  In the foreground is Naim, a man in his mid-twenties who is wearing a cloak that shades him from the sun.  He has a very stylized beard.  Caption- "A child could know why he would do this.  If the assassins came along one by one, then he would deal with each threat in an orderly fashion."

 

4th Panel- Naim is sitting around a campfire in the desert.  He is dressed in typical Hashshashin garb, with a dark turban and a scimitar attached to his back.  A quiver of arrows is crisscrossing the scimitar.  He is almost completely black.  He has two people, one on each side of him, sitting by him while his horse is in the background.  You should oly be able to see a little bit of the men next to him.  His face is completely serious.  Caption- "The offer was nevertheless alluring, if not for the wealth, than revenge for my people at the lands the Sultan had claimed.  So with a mind belying my age and a heart to match it, I decided to meet the challenge personally."

 

Page 2-

 

1st Panel- Naim is riding on his horse, whose nostrils are flaring.  Caption- "I remember the tepid mist running its fingers through my hair."

 

2nd Panel- This can be a silhouette of Naim on a horse, riding quickly over a dune.  The sunset will show a deep red.  Caption- "And the dusk sun painting my ebony horse with a dark reminder of my murderous purpose."

 

3rd Panel- This is a shot from behind the horse.  Naim has gotten off of the horse and is walking at a crouch by the horse's side.  There is steam coming off of him, but it doesn't rise above the horse.  In the background you can see the palace and the palace wall.  Caption- "When I got to the gate, I remember waiting for what felt like millennia, for my body to cool enough that evaporation didn't smoke me out in the chill night air."

 

4th Panel- Shot from the grass roots up, this is a shot of Naim, with grass about to be stepped on by his boot.  Caption- "The grass underneath my boots made it difficult for me to walk silently..."

 

5th Panel- Shot from behind of Naim walking carefully over short grass.  He is in the shadow of a tree, next to a bush.  It is hard to make out his outline.  In front of him, guarding the wall face, are two guards a fair distance from one another.  Caption- "...but I had learned from my father, who had learned from his."

 

Page 3-

 

1st Panel- Close up of Naim's eyes.  Caption- "'There is an art in all you do,' they would say."

 

2nd Panel- An arm is jutting out of the shadow that is hiding Naim.  It is holding a miniature crossbow.  Caption- "'If a mark is lost, all is lost.'"

 

Naim- "praise be."

 

3rd Panel- An arrow is hitting an armed guard in the face while the other one is looking away.  Caption- "'Make your timing like the sun...'"

 

4th Panel- From behind, Naim is steadying the crossbow with his foreman.  The other guard is getting shot in the face.  Caption- "'...as well as your steadiness...'"

 

Naim- "praise be."

 

5th Panel- Naim is throwing up a grappling hook.  Caption- "'...and you will rise...'"

 

6th Panel- Shot of the top of the palace wall.  Naim is only a few feet from the top.  There is an arrow tower at either side of him.  Caption- "'...to places no one has seen."

 

Page 4-

 

1st Panel- Naim is running towards one of the arrow towers.  The moonlight and light from below casts a lot of strange shadows.  Caption- "The shadows begged to envelope me in their cool cloak.  I couldn't have run faster."

 

2nd Panel- Naim is climbing the wall facing outward away from prying eyes, putting his feet and hands into the crevasses provided by loose mooring.  The palace still has a great deal of dynamic to it.  People are still awake and still going on about their activities.  Caption- "Still milling remnants of life walked the city streets, reminding me of what it could be like.  What it would be like."

 

3rd Panel- He is peering over the ledge at the archer in the tower.  Caption- "I remember pitying these poor people who were simply doing their jobs to protect their Sultan."

 

4th Panel- He crawls over the ledge while the archer is looking away.  Caption- "I could offer them nothing but a quick death..."

 

5th Panel- He stabs the archer in the back.  Caption- "...and a prayer."

 

Naim- "This is an honorable death.  Praise be."

 

Page 5-

 

1st Panel- Naim looks from the hawks nest onto his targeted Palace.  This shows the inner palace but only a hint of the wall with heads on it.  Caption- "For who could possibly do more with prayers..."

 

2nd Panel- Shot of a couple of heads dangling from pikes on the inner palace wall.  There should only be two or three in the panel.  Caption- "...than someone who held allegiance to a monster?"