chapter 8 tunnels and bandits?

the trading outpost in the elven forest had seen better days. Once many merchants visited to trade now human traders were a rare sight. even elven traders returning from dagos became fewer and fewer. at the wooden walls surrounding the city an arrow flew out into the forest hitting a goblin in the head. 

“Those green basterds are getting bolder by the day.” Fae said observing her kill.

The elven guard next to her sighed “you have no idea. They've been like that for a month now. I think they have another outpost on the other side. you're part of the royal guards right?”

“Yes, why?”

“Did you ever overhear anything in the palace? you know about the missing elves?”

Now Fae sighed and looked out into the forest “I'm not allowed to tell. but what I can say is we're looking into it later today.”

The guard was elated “great. Can you keep an eye out for my sister?”

Fae knew that question was coming. She's been receiving similar requests all day. At this point she had 20 elves she needed to find. So she let the soldier describe his sister to her. The rest of the shift was calm when it was over. Fae was excited to meet up with Kolvar. She has had a slight crush on him for a year now and hoped to impress him today and maybe... 

“daydreaming again?” The voice both spooked and soothed Fae. 

she turned around to see Kolvar “you've been out of it since you got here. Are you sure you're going to be ok for the expedition today?” 

Fae was usually more outspoken. But around him she was more reserved. “I'm fine and ready for today's expedition.” 

Kolvar smiled at her “that's good it'll help to have you with us. I heard you mastered some useful skills.” 

Fae responded like a child telling her father what she achieved “oh yes i mastered spirit arrows and their elemental versions and the blink ability…”

Kolvar grabbed her shoulders and said, “calm down. Is this your first expedition?” 

Fae's face became red “no, I've done a few small expeditions.”

Kolvar guided Fae to the meeting point “Look, Alwin told me a lot about you. So I know you're reliable. try to get focused for today's mission ok.”

Fae thanked Alwin in her mind. They arrived near a gate where the 2 other soldiers that would join them had gathered supplies when Kolvar had one more thing to say “oh! Alwin said you had something important to tell me.”

“oh um... it can wait till we're done.” She now wanted to fill Alwin's bed with stinking mushrooms. 

When they left the outpost. The other two guards introduced themselves.

“I'm Saida, this is my brother Jandar.” the elven woman said.

“good to meet you. I'm Fae.”

Jandar looked at fae “i think i saw you with Alwin. It's been a while since I've seen him. How is he dealing with his promotion to captain?”

Fae laughed a bit “He got drunk during the celebration and nearly missed his first meeting. Why were you not there?”

“Our family moved to this outpost and we became more permanent guards here. still i think i should've traveled for the party.”

Kolvar coughed to get their attention. “Let's prepare for the trip.”

The expedition led them to the north where the ocean separated the elven forest from kings island. They followed the oceanline from the mesa that went all the way to Yamdorei towards the mountain range that went halfway to dagos. if humans took elves they could only escape by ocean. 

while looking out to sea saida said “There's too many rocks to get to shore. maybe with a rowboat?”

 Kolvar shook his head "we'd see the ship from a distance and I doubt they could with the rough waters here. capturing elves and using a rowboat to bring them back wouldn’t be possible unless they made a spell against these conditions.”

Fae eagerly agreed “That's why we need to check the entire shoreline. to see if we can find a hint of their arrival.”

Jondar looked at the sand. As far as he could see it had been untouched for months “Maybe it was goblins anyway. maybe the humans and goblins have started to work together.”

Fae laughed “I doubt it. goblins aren't smart enough to talk with any other species let alone forge an alliance.”

“Besides, I doubt humans would waste their magic chains to enslave useless goblins” Saida chipped in.

“Goblins are smarter than you think.” Kolvar said “though i agree that an alliance with the humans is unthinkable. Those screeches they make are hard to figure out.”

They reached the mountain range and took a small break. 

“nothing huh. I guess there is no way you can land a boat on this side.” Saida said to Jandar. 

“I knew it's a terrible place for a boat to land. But why are we considering only the humans? The dwarves could have dug a tunnel all the way here.”

Kolvar dismissed the idea “that would be a long tunnel for which they don't have the wood for support beams.”

“What about the beastmen? They were pretty mad when the king allowed the human armies to hunt them down in the kingdom. Maybe the harpies turned back to their feral ways?”

“my grandfather wasn’t even alive when the harpies were feral. I doubt they’d turn feral just for a lack of partners.” 

Saida looked confused, “why would they have a lack of partners?” 

Fae giggled a bit “you never realized harpies are an all female species?”

“like goblins are an all-male?”

“yes but never say that in front of a harpy.”

“Doesn't that mean they at one point kidnapped people like goblins do?”

 “Well…yes. I think so, but don’t mention that either”

 “but it's like the two species were made for each other.” 

“Just stop.” Fae tried to cover Saida's mouth in a small struggle.

Kolvar sighed, “let's talk about something else before this gets weird.”

Jandar thought for a moment and piped up “when did beastmen grow to be so hated by the other races. 8 years ago it got so bad that mixed towns started hunting them down.” 

“thefts, assault, rape amongst other crimes. For the past few centuries it seemed like they all turned to banditry.”

“Do you think the humans lied to make them seem evil?”

“This came to pass over more than 200 years. They don’t live that long. How can any human keep that kind of plan going even after his death?”

“Or even why?” Jandar looked at a notebook he had brought “There's the rumored book of the human kings.”

“the one keeping memories of the past? What could a beastman have done for a human's descendants to hate the entire race?” Saida asked.

“I really think we should drop this subject.” Kolvar commanded.

Fae heard a noise coming from the forest. grabbing her bow she aimed to where she heard the noise. she noticed a young elf girl wearing a tattered cape looking at them. “Hey! What are you doing this far out?”

The rest of the party noticed the girl. She ran off. The party jumped up and gave chase following her to a cave. 

“Was there always a cave here?” fae asked.

They used mana to make energy arrows to shed some light. in the shimmer of the light they noticed the girl fall, get up and keep running. 

Carefully following the girl, they reached a bigger part of the cave. it almost seemed like an arena with tunnels leading in all directions. Aside from the one behind them. None of these tunnels were at ground level. Making the tunnel they came in from the only entrance.

“There she is!” Jandar shouted.

On the other side of the cave the little girl was climbing up the wall towards one of the tunnels. A piece of rock she grabbed got loose and she fell. Fae vanished for a split second to reappear closer to catch the girl. 

Immediately she started screaming. Seeing the girl closer, the group noticed she was starving, bruised all over and had a purple chain around her neck.

“Shit! It's a trap.” as Saida said that the ground started moving. 

The entrance they came in on was now out of reach. the screams of the little elf girl echoed through the cave. 

“what is…” before Kolvar could say anything. 

Another voice yelled over the screams “All right elf! your task is done.” 

The girl went silent. when they looked to another tunnel. where a huge man holding a slave necklace appeared. He jumped down from the elevated entrance and smiled  “I told you not to get caught but you got them far enough. Now come here.”

The girl immediately ran to him. The slaver grabbed her by the back of her clothes and tossed her to the entrance he jumped down from. There she landed roughly “stay there.”. 

The party of elves cursed him. Fae looked at the entrance they came from. If only one of them could escape to warn Yamdorei that would be enough. 

more bandits came from several entrances as their leader was gloating. “I'm rycroft grimm and you better remember that because you'll be my products soon.”

Fae could see some mages in the entrance grimm had appeared from.  The ground started shifting again because the mages moved the earth they stood on. The moment the floor stopped at a tunnel. Bandits rushed out to attack the elves. 

The party started firing their arrows to keep them at bay. They wounded the bandits. Making them fall to the ground made Fae wonder if this was going too easy. 

The wounded bandits dragged themselves to the wall when Grimm called out “it's recovery time boys!”.

The ground shifted again revealing the mages had been joined by healers. The wounded soldier made their way in the tunnel to heal. 

“healers AND attack mages? These bandits are too well organized.”

Fae agreed, it was rare for bandits to even have one let alone both. The bandits that were hurt were replaced by enslaved wolves and wolfmen. They were more aggressive than usual. not just because of their wolf nature but as slaves they had no choice but to fight. 

The ground shifted a few more times until fae had enough and launched a blaze arrow into the tunnel of mages. one was set ablaze as the others were knocked back. They had some time now. 

While fighting several enslaved wolves Jandar smelled something. the sea. an entrance they could reach led to the sea. “Kolvar, that tunnel leads to the ocean!” he shouted.

Kolvar turned after stabbing a bandit that got too close. “It's still too high.”

“not with a boost.” Jandar shouted.

Rushing towards the wall. Kolvar followed with saida and fae right behind him. Jandar jumped off the wall just as Kolvar jumped. He grabbed his foot and boosted him to the entrance before landing. “Ok now you two.”

Saida shook her head “no you and fae should go. she has a better chance at outrunning them with Kolvar.” 

Jandar fired his arrows at some more wolfmen and turned to Fae “I'll give you a boost. we'll both stay here and keep them busy.”

Fae nodded reluctantly but took the boost and jumped to the tunnel. looking back she could see the bandits and their slaves had gotten numerous. she hoped they'd survive till she got back as she ran in the tunnel.

 When she got out of sight, Saida noticed something “Are they laughing?”

Using her blink ability several times she caught up a bit behind Kolvar. Kolvar was glad she had caught up. Fae would've gotten closer to him but she was exhausted from using so much mana. They arrived at a cave containing a small hidden pier and several boats. 

“there!” Kolvar pointed to the cave entrance leading out to sea “we'll swim around the outside to the shore and run to the outpost, send a message to Yamdorei and gather soldiers to save the others.” He got to the end of the pier and jumped in the water.

Fae was about to jump in when Kolvar was launched back out the water with immense force. She had barely noticed him flying past her. looking back Kolvar had hit the wall with immense force leaving a trail of blood where he hit the wall to the floor where he lay slumped down.

Fae turned around *this is not happening* she rushed to Kolvar turned him around *The water just slammed him against the wall. HOW?* “Kolvar! Can you hear me?” 

Kolvar coughed up some blood. “I think I'll live.” 

Fae was about to smile when an ax was embedded in his chest. Fae was frozen in shock when Grimm grabbed her by the neck “enslave!” 

Saida and Jandar were brought to the hidden port shortly after. They were bruised, exhausted and when they saw Fae and Kolvar's body, all hope faded. The bandits told them to sit near the wall where Kolvar lay. “So boss, where do we send these?” one of the bandits asked. 

Grimm looked them over. “The princess requested a good fighter. shame the leader was broken. then again she did say the client asked for it to be a pretty girl one.” he looked at Fae and Saida “Take them both to St Baalz. let him decide but give my message that i suggest the blue haired one. as for the guy... put him with the rest for kings island.”

Jandar was led onto a ship while Saida and fae were brought to a travelcart. they were told to keep quiet on the trip as they set off through the tunnels for st Baalz