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"Let's be on our way." Turstin told them. He stood and walked
forward beyond the edge of trees. Somewhere to the west an old road lay,
abandoned and overgrown. He'd walked it many years ago, these woods had
been his home, but he'd been away, serving as a guard in foreign lands
when the giants came.
The other's gathered near, Alaric was the last, reluctant to leave
his cousins grave. "I don't like to leave him here." the young man said,
to no one and them all.
"We've been lucky, Alaric, we were lucky that not all of us were
killed when we stumbled on these gnolls." said Turstin.
"I don't feel lucky." Alaric replied.
"No one ever does." said Fulbert.
"You are too unkind." Giannette came up and put her arm across the
young mans shoulder. "Do not despair Alaric, life can be long or short but
it always ends too early for those of us left behind." She whispered
something into his ear that turned the young mans face a crimson shade and
kissed his cheek. "I will go ahead and scout." she said and quickly moved
away. Fulbert and Turstin watched her go, their eyes following her every
step as she made her way, graceful and lithe, across the rocky ground.
Jofrid laughed, "You are too easily distracted." she told them
both. "And you are too easily embarrassed." she said looking at the young
warrior Alaric.
The day was fair and warm, the morning chill was gone and the
sun beat pleasantly down upon the woods. Birds sang and a mild breeze
brought fresh scents from wild plants, it raised their spirits.
Giannette worked her way through the trackless wilds, she'd
returned once to report that the way was clear and now went so far ahead
that the others were lost from sight.
The Rhennee thief had picked up a great deal of woodscraft in her
years of self-imposed exile from her people. In her youth she had sailed
the great Selintan, riding on her families barge, singing and dancing and
thieving in marketplaces and docks all along their path. At fourteen her
father had her married off, or tried to, but she would have none of
it. Small and demure, she had a will of steel and a mind as sharp as a
razors edge. Giannette had set off on her own and never once looked back
to the life and family she left behind.
Now, years had passed since she last saw any of her kin, but she
had not forgotten the skills she'd first learned, her father had been a
master thief. Instead she had carefully honed her skills and built upon
them, but she was no sneak thief or cat burglar, but found her calling
as an adventuress, at home among these trees, or in a long forgotten tomb,
or among the teeming crowds of a bustling city marketplace.
Somewhere ahead she heard the sound of a barking laugh, the clank
of metal and the chop of an axe against a tree. She smelled the scent of
burning wood and roasting flesh. Looking up, she could see a drifting
tail of smoke winding its way over the tops of trees.
She dropped down and moved in a crouch, a knife had appeared in
her hand without a conscious thought.
The woods were thin and the hill covered with loose soil and
jutting rock. They had been working up from the forest into the hills,
the land rose and now the woods were filled with boulders and long stone
ledges ringing the ascent. Bushes there were in plenty, she kept low and
made sure not to rustle the clinging branches as she passed by.
Finally she came to a clearing where the fire burned. The barking
laugh had become mixed with growls and snortings, a score of gnolls
wandered about a wide open space where the hill had leveled off. They'd
set their fire near a jutting ledge where lean-tos had been set.
The gnolls seemed careless and at ease. Giannette could see no
guards posted along the camp, she circled to the right and followed the
line of shrubs that concealed her from their view. Half-way round she came
to the rising ledge of stone, the hill sloped sharply down on her right,
a path curved along on her left and went across the jutting rock.
The clump of running feet pounding along the ledge gave her
warning of the approaching gnolls, she backed off deep into the shrubs and
caught only the sight of passing hairy legs as a dozen gnolls ran by.
"Time to go." she said to herself and backed further off, then
turned and quickly made her way back to her companions.
* * *
(To Be Continued)