Escape from the Elvenwood
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"Such a pretty thing... she'll be worth something to anyone. And if it so happens that we come across her kind, they'll have to pay us for her. I can imagine the luxury we'll have with the worth of those elven goods!" Skara laughed.
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So far the Easterlings had eluded capture, and emerged victors from a small clash of arms with the sentinels - sentinels who everyone had thought before to be magic folk that could send an arrow quick as a look of the eye into their foes. Skara and his men were confident, for the time being.
Although weary from the day's toil they had not been long in the Elvenwood before Rū-Sahn had taken a prize of worth beyond their hopes, a live and mostly unharmed Elven-maid. Skara and the rest of the band had caught up with Rogar and Rū-Sahn just as the weaponsmith had thrown the girl roughly against a tree. Before falling unconscious the Elf had, as she lay helpless on Rū-Sahn's shoulder, been staring at the ground in fixed horror. It was as if she saw a terrible vision, perhaps of others of her kind lying helpless as she was. Skara knew this could not be. If the girl had had friends behind her, as Skara had guessed from sounds in the wood, they had almost certainly fled. Rotten luck, he thought, since all the Elves ever bred would soon know of the girl's plight. If they were not as cowardly as they had seemed at first, they should surely be tracking the Men by now.
When they were a league back out into the plain, the Men rested for a while. The girl Nura had scrounged enough wood for a fire, and cooked for them as best she could in a hurry. The lighting of a fire here was dangerous, but their provisions were so low that it was either roast venison or starvation. The flight back east would be a hungry one, Skara thought. There would be no time for hunting.
A quick search of the girl before had turned up some dried fruit and light cakes of a kind the Men had never seen before. "Light and flaky, just like them!" one of them had snorted in disgust at the cakes, speaking in the Trader Language so the girl could understand. She had also carried an elegant dagger with her, a weapon of fine make. Rū-Sahn had of course taken this. He was doing exceedingly well out of this venture so far. Nevermind, thought Skara, when we sell this girl off to the highest bidder, I'll have my share all right!
After a few hours' rest, they started off again, on their journey back towards their rafts by the Great River.
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"Come on girl, we're going."
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Skara could hear his companion's rough voice behind him, as his band readied themselves, scattered the fire and trudged on into the gloom of the hours before dawn.