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Sarah
Sarah hoped that the massive man was trustworthy as she jumped down from the cave and began to sprint back the path she came from. This had the potential to be profitable if everything went as planned but she had to hurry or their only window for attack would be closed. Three silvers per dead orc for thirty to forty orcs, plus whatever they could get for the goblins, plus any salvage from their village.
If the big guy is as tough as he looks and Thane catches even half the orcs in his initial blast then the rest should be easy. When she found the others she took a moment to catch her breath before updating them on what was happening. She told them about the strange looking leader and the Grey Orc, as well as the plan.
“Just make your way along the river and stop when you reach a pile of logs, wait for the explosion from Thane’s spell before you move in.”
“How many are there?” her brother asked.
“At least fifty total, mostly Orcs.”
“Are you insane? We can't fight that many.”
“We have a plan, and someone else is helping.”
“Anything I should know about his appearance? I don’t want to attack him by accident.”
“He is three meters head to toe and as wide as you are tall. You can’t miss him. Now go, we have to attack soon or we will be forced to retreat.”
She took the bow and a whistling arrow from her brother. Instead of the arrow head, the tip of the arrow was carved like a signal whistle. The air passing through as the arrow flew would make a loud shriek that was difficult to miss. She snuck in until she could hear the coarse voices of the orcs eating nearby. She pointed the bow up and shot the arrow into the sky.
The shriek filled the air and she waited. Either another whistle or a fiery explosion would be the trigger for her next action and she was almost shaking in anticipation. When the attack finally came she could feel the heat from the blast even though she was fairly far away and concealed behind trees.
She smiled, “Either that beautiful idiot has gotten stronger or he overexerted himself again.” She didn't know why Thane hesitated to send her on this task, she was obviously the best suited for it. She could kill quickly and could easily escape if the exposed position put her in danger.
She emerged from the treeline just in time to see the massive man drop for the sky like a meteor. She shielded her eyes from the flying debris and smiled when the dust cloud obscured her vision. This would make her task much easier.
She began her work, slicing and stabbing the orcs that were groaning in pain from the blast of fire or revealing their positions by shouting out. When the dust finally cleared she assessed the situation. Most of the orcs that Thane hit with his spell weren’t standing up anymore, there were very few that needed help dying. All of the Orcs' attention seemed to be on the man who created the large crater. Mahs and Kisha were far from danger, picking off Orcs with magical spears from a distance. She found Thane on the other side of the crater. He was cutting down the archers that were firing on the big guy. She was getting ready to cut a path to him when she saw him take a heavy blow. It seemed like a boulder dislodged itself from the earth in order to crush him. It smashed into his side and sent him flying several meters away, crashing into another Orc.
That...he won't be able to walk away from something like that. He stood up and stabbed through the back of the Orc he collided with but immediately fell down again. He can’t even stand!
She began to run to Thane in a panic. A few Orcs took notice of her and blocked her path. “Get out of my way!” She shouted as she ducked under the axe of the first and slashed into him before jumping back. Her shout caught the attention of Stone, who immediately turned to her and cleared her way, killing both remaining orcs with a single wide sweep. He had turned his back on the others he was fighting to do this, and they didn’t waste the opening. Stone grunted in pain as a spear struck his lower back from behind and a Goblin climbed up his back and began to frantically stab him in his neck and shoulders.
The Goblin was grabbed by one massive hand that slammed him down into a rock turning him into a coarse paste.
With her path clear, she ran to Thane, she saw the smooth skinned orc run around her, but she didn’t have time to deal with him, not while Thane was in danger. He was strung up, his feet were tied down to the ground by roots, while his arms were pulled into the air until his back was arched like a bow. The part that worried her was that his face was turning reddish purple as a root squeezed his neck.
She ran up to him and tried to pull the root off, and the plants around her seemed to writhe in protest. She readied her knife and aimed for the root around his neck. Please don’t miss, she thought as she hacked at the root with her knife and pulled with her free hand. The root snapped and broke free, but he still wasn’t breathing.
She cut the roots holding his arms up but failed to catch him before he fell. When he fell face first into the ground, the impact seemed to kick start his lungs and he gasped and coughed on the ground. He was still unconscious, however, and once she confirmed he wasn’t in danger of dying she scanned the area. The fight was coming to an end. The only enemy movement she saw was a handful of goblins running into the woods scared for their life or scrambling for a place to hide.
“Kisha!’ she shouted, “Thane is hurt!”
Kisha and Mahs came running up to the others with the wide frame of Stone right behind them. Thane had managed to wake up and prop himself up to a sitting position as Kisha approached. “I’m fine for now.” he croaked out with a hoarse voice. “Take care of Stone’s bleeding first.”
“Fine?” Sara said, “You have a dislocated shoulder, probably a few broken ribs and a concussion.”
Thane leaned to the side a bit and applied pressure to his arm, giving out a grunt of pain as the shoulder slid back into place. “See? My shoulder is fine now, take care of his bleeding.” Sarah clenched her fist and glared at him, “Hey, possible concussion remember.”
Stone raised his hand to stop Kisha “I have had worse,” he said.
“So have I. That wound on your neck looks pretty nasty. That should be taken care of first before you bleed out.”
Sarah bit her lip without voicing her thoughts. Stop lying to make yourself look tough.
Kisha reluctantly walked over to the giant who was sitting down. She always had anxiety about her height, a problem that was compounded as she failed to see over the shoulders of Stone as he was sitting down. “Could you lean forward so I can see the wound?”
Thane began to speak as he was being healed, “Why did you do that, I told you we can take care of ourselves but you did everything possible to draw all attention to yourself.”
“You even ignored your own safety to assist me.” Sarah added.
“Do I need a reason to protect children?” he asked.
“We’re not children.” was Kisha's reply, “I’m the youngest and I have reached the age of adulthood already. Besides, we can fight and this child is the one patching you up.”
“Children who can fight are still children.”
Once she finished closing the large wounds on the back and shoulder Kisha moved over to Thane. She gasped when she saw the large purple spreading bruise on his neck, and then placed her hand on his chest and began to heal him once she recovered. “Yeah those are broken.”
“Please tell me when you are done so I can knock him out for being an idiot again.” Sarah said.
“Please don’t” the younger girl replied. “I’m almost exhausted so I can’t heal them completely. They will both be sore until I can get a night's rest and fully heal them.”
Sarah smiled, “A day’s worth of pain should be enough then. It’s unfortunate that the half breed got away.”
“He didn't,” replied Stone, “The Raven has found him by now.”
“What was he?” asked Thane, “You said he was a half breed and he didn’t look ugly like an orc. He used nature magic, was he some sort of Orc Tamlin? A half Fey?”
Sarah looked over to Kisha for a reaction, and tried to hide a mocking smile when the younger girl clenched her fists at the mention of Tamlin.
Stone simply nodded and Sarah thought back to her history lessons. The last Ash Mountain Eruption tore through the Silver woods of the elves, and was rumored to have destroyed the Heartwood Grove inside. If they would have brought back Fey slaves, they could have bred a number of Orcs that could use nature magic.
Once Thane's ribs had fused back together he stood up and rotated his shoulder a few times. He was trying his hardest to disguise the pain but Sarah could tell easily. “Let’s get back to town, I need to eat and rest.”
They began to walk back into the wooded area, leaving the burned and crushed village behind. Kisha took the lead and Sarah stayed close to Thane. Kisha paused when they came close to the tree line and stomped her foot on an exposed tree root a few times.
“What is it?” asked Sarah.
“The woods… everything is...hard? It’s like every root and branch in the area is made of steel.”
Sarah stepped forward and pressed her foot down on a low branch. It didn’t budge at all. She brought her knife up to it and tapped it, then tried to cut into it. Even pressing with all her might she could only make the slightest scratch on the branch of a sapling. She walked deeper into the woods, roots and branches were twisted unnaturally, like when Kisha was using the plants around her to fight, but on a much larger scale. And many of the branches and roots were covered with large, dagger to sword sized thorns.
“This is the Raven’s doing” said Stone.
“It’s nature magic,” confirmed Kisha, “Extremely powerful nature magic.”
“It will return to normal before dawn tomorrow.”
“Um, that's a bit troubling.” said a new voice, “I don’t suppose you could get me down before then?” Looking to the source of the voice, the group saw Liam wrapped up in roots tied firmly to a tree.
“Liam, did you follow us?”
“Of course I did, this was your last test. I was supposed to report your strategy and decision making skills on an actual assignment. Samson gave me a few magic toys so I could follow you quietly. I was also here to make sure you didn’t get yourselves killed.”
“You were protecting these children?” asked Stone.
“Yeah.”
“You did a terrible job.”
“Hey, it's not my fault some woman tied me to a tree.”
“So does this mean you found number five?” Thane asked.
“Ha ha, this wasn’t a square fight. She told me not to interfere and tied me up while I was distracted by her shapely...um, while I was distracted.”
While the others continued to mock the trainer that had soundly trounced them a few days ago, Sarah continued to pick through this mess of a battlefield. Many of the thorns were stained with blood, and in the middle she found a pillar of roots spiraling upwards. She walked up to the pillar and used her daggers to chip and pry, trying to see what was inside. When she finally got a look she instantly regretted it.
Inside of the spiral was lined with thorns and in the middle was the shredded remains of the Orc mage, the end result of having a hundred daggers dragged across his skin. For the first time in her life she felt ill, backing away she saw the orcs staff on the ground and picked it up. She got a good picture of what happened from the surrounding blood stained thorns and the state that the corpse was in.
She accidentally voiced her thoughts “This wasn’t a fight, she didn’t just kill him, she tortured him. This was rage, pure unbridled wrath.”
“Oi, you shouldn’t have looked in there girl. I saw it happen, that isn’t something you should have to see. You’re right though. She kept screaming something about abominations as she tore the guy into bits.”
“The Raven has much that haunts her past.”
“Raven huh? Yeah that fits. Black hair, wrapped all in black from head to toe. Only skin I could see was around her eyes. Had a black feathered cloak too. Wasn’t raven feathers though, unless there's a raven with a 10 meter wingspan out there somewhere. So anyway, can you get me down now?”
Without a response Stone swung his axe, the roots wrapping Liam seemed to be shattered more than cut and Liam finally was able to put his feet on the ground. “Much better.” He looked up at Stone, “You look bigger up close, where did you guys find the Brun?”
“Brun?” asked Kisha.
“Yeah, a large race that lives on the coast. Big into fishing and whaling. Some people call them Half Giants, since they are large, but not quite as big as the real thing. So where did you come from?”
“He was getting ready to attack the Orcs while we were scouting the area.”
“You sticking around, big guy? Up for joining our mercenary band? You could put your strength to good use and get paid for it.”
“My task here is done, my debt to The Raven paid. I will speak with your leader later. For now I will see these children home.”
“My leader? What makes you think that I am not a leader?”
For the first time, Stone smiled, he gave an amused “hmph” before hoisting his axe over his shoulder and walking ahead.
Liam could only say one word before following, “Rude.”
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