A reason to worry

"What do you mean you lost track of the hunters?" he asks the sweating lackey softly.

The pay had been good and benefits satisfying up to this point for this woman who'd drawn the short straw. Now? Maybe she should have opted to quit when it had come to light that her liege lord had opted to sell his soul.

Oh, he'd been creepy, with those black, fathomless eyes that all the damned have when they've sold their souls. He'd been an alright sorta chap, up till then, but alway not quiet getting....

No, let's be honest. Stryke had been an SOB (but a loser) even before now. Now? Without a trace of compassion (a hallmark of those with souls, compassion), this guy now had.

Why he'd sold his soul? Well, the usual reasons, she guesses. Still, jobs are hard to get, so why cut and run?

Maybe she should have. Guy doesn't take bad news well at ALL!

Let's see. First, strangers of unknown province fly in on alien, never before seen transportation (flying carpets for crying out loud?!) and steal the pride and joy of her master's eye. Despite magical alarms which should have given an early warning of their approach (or . . . would have if their creator had thought to include "flying freaking carpets" in the alert matrix of the magicks). Despite the powerful magicks that would have youthened any fools attempting such things, if they should get past the magical barriers for flyers. Get clean away, despite strong and powerful....

And now, the loss of the some of the pride and joys of her master's creations, the hunters (made from real human prisoners, to make them useful). Oh, not much for conversation after that, but boy were they useful!!

Unless the strangers somehow killed them (which they had). Lost track of them, she and the other witches had....

This wasn't her day . . . her last day as a human being. Hey, at least she'd still useful to her master . . . as a replacement hunter....

Later, we find the Champions have landed (so to better hide in the cover of the woods from prying eyes). Better to do that because by now the mages will be looking in the skies for their carpets. At night, it's better, but daytime was now out of the question.

"How long will this take?" one of the Dancers asks as she trudges alongside her sister, Artizza.

See, there's a reason why she'd been brought forth, besides curiousity on Artizza's part. Elves like Artizza and Fertal are VERY good at woodlore. So are the other Champions, but the Dark Elves edge them out. However, it would be better by far if the Champions could manage to make a decent camp instead of quaffing magical potions for just trying to stay away. It works, but is rather . . . wasteful. Might soon find themselves in need of one and find they'd drank the last one, they'd be in a bad way, right?

But they'd been found, despite their best (Dark Elfin) efforts, so what now?

Maybe where "ordinary" elfin Woodlore failed, a Wood Elf "ranger" (a truely dedicated nature type, even by elf standards) might succeed!

Besides, those potions taste HORRIBLE! Bad enough, the aftertaste, but the initial taste!!

So, they'd pulled forth Aialia, and boy does it look good! The potions effects . . . were wearing off....

And sadly enough the Dark Elves had needed a potion. They don't sleep, but they needed time to recover from that trial by carpet. Rest. Time to rest which they hadn't gotten enough of, alas. Until now...

Real good hiding place. Done better by the counter tracking techniques provided by the wood elf. Real eye opener, those tricks! Provided a nice place to talk, without worry of being spotted (hopefully). So while the humans slept, the elves talked. They wanted to learn more about each other than that initial (hurried) first "briefing" had allowed.

Besides, Artizza and Aialia were sisters (both elves and analogs). Go figure!

After providing better weapons than the decorative (butter knife dull) weapons that Flagg had conjured up for the wood elf, the former human felt a bit better. Might ask for a better outfit, but . . . she liked how it showed off her curves....

Elfin vanity, go figure....

Anyway, they wanted to learn more about the other before Aialia got blockified again, so...

"Sooo, you're Dark Elves?" the wood elf ranger begins. "Hm, I'd kind of figured Dark Elves to be . . . well . . . evil?"

These two were like NOTHING her new knowledge patterns implanted within her mind said they should be at all!

So her sister (and his husband, an elf who'd been a human named Fred (!)) tells their tale more in detail.

"But before we continue I'd . . . kind of want to ask you something," Arizza asks suddenly (off the cuff). "When (not IF), but when we're done here, what are your plans for your future?"

"Huh?" the other female elf asks, not sure what to make of THAT. Right now, she was more worried about the present than the future.

Still, that was . . .a very good question. Not like she'd be able to return home. While her nation was rather enlightened, doubt they'd let an elfin woman sit on the throne . . . and . . . the thought of sitting on the throne appealed even LESS to her elfin heart now then it did when it had been human!

1. "What are you suggesting?" she asks, wondering if her 'sister' is suggesting what she thinks she is suggesting.

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