View Single Post
Old 11-30-2006, 07:44 PM   #293
Durelin
Estelo dagnir, Melo ring
 
Durelin's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 3,121
Durelin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.Durelin is battling Black Riders on Weathertop.
Khamir, Adnan, and Nasim

The wind had died down to a bearable strength, and their visibility was increased for a time. The darkness was now less disorienting, and Khamir and Adnan both felt their heads clear a little. They knew they needed to get moving again as quickly as possible, if only because their help was needed elsewhere. Both their bodies ached, though Khamir knew his pains were nowhere near those of Adnan. He was only fifteen…it seemed against nature itself that he should look the way he did, covered in blood. And the man knew it would look worse in the daylight.

Vrór looked no better, but he at least had a pulse. Khamir felt hopeless, not knowing what to do for the Dwarf. He did know he had to get him out of here somehow, so he could get help, but…how were they to carry him? He was a large man, and he worse his heavy chainmail. And should they carry him? He could have any number of injuries that could only be worsened if they moved him. But they had to do something…

“Can you walk?” Khamir asked, softly, his voice full of concern.

Adnan grunted, but did not look at his companion. Khamir took it as a “yes.”

The one-armed man struggled to pull the mail hauberk off of Vrór. Adnan silently began to help him as best he could. They were both as careful as they could manage, and each stared down at the unconscious Dwarf intensely, their faces creased with worry.

“Can you help carry him?” There was another grunt as Khamir slung the chainmail over his shoulder. He stifled a small groan at the weight of it, and the thought of carrying it any lengthy distance. With many groans and heavy breaths they each took up one end of Vrór, neither thinking even for a moment of leaving a companion behind.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

Nasim and the others moved as quickly as they could while trying to make as little sound as possible. There was nothing to say that they would not run into any surprise encounters, and if they were not careful, they would be dead in a heartbeat. With only the three of them, they felt exposed.

With shouts and the deep thudding of hooves, all their fears came rushing towards them. The slaves, regardless of how much they had been thinking about such an assault, were not really prepared for it. For a moment they simply froze, all thoughts bent on what the body should be doing but wasn’t. Then Nasim let fly a sharp bullet from his sling, and the others fell into action, as well. One gripped his long knife, the other his rough spear – simply a sharpened stone point, but it had served its purpose well thus far.

It took longer than it should have for their brains to process, but they observed there were only two riders, and though they had other advantages, numbers weren’t meaningless. One rider was knocked down as he approached, and Nasim felt a rush of hope that they had the upper hand, though his logic told him that they were in far over their heads. He was not a fighter! He drew his small blade, which he had never used except to skin and clean kills from the hunt.

His limbs were growing numb and his hands and face cold with sickly sweat, as all his thoughts focused on his own mortality. It was either death or back to being a slave in the hands of these men, and if he was dead, there would never be another chance of escape. Death had never been so frightening, not until he had escaped and tasted freedom. And now, in just a few months, he could not, would not let it go. He mentally cursed himself for being a coward. Did he even deserve that freedom?

Nasim’s thoughts traveled to who he knew were deserving of it, and a different sort of terror caught in his throat. Those who could not fight were in danger, and he who could fight was thinking of his own life? He thought of the mothers, the old, and especially the children, and he found a purpose to the madness other than fear.
Durelin is offline