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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Destan" data-source="post: 1165256" data-attributes="member: 12157">Of Wolven and SheepThroughout it all, the howling was incessant.Kellus half-walked and half-slid down the slope, mud fountaining behind him.  He had had enough of this running – they all had.  There’s something horribly demoralizing about being chased, about knowing there’s something or someone behind you that wants you dead.  Battle is not easy, certainly, but at least you’re face-to-face with your opponent; closure, whether for good or ill, is at hand.That’s the difference, Kellus thought, I never have much time to think during combat.  But I have all the time in the world now.  He stopped at the bottom of the gully, placed both hands on his knees, and sucked in huge gasps of air.Kellus watched as Baden came tumbling – literally – down the slippery fold.  The Rhelmsman extended a hand and helped the dwarf to his feet.  A few moments passed – and all moments wherein they weren’t moving seemed to last an eternity – before Dog Bigby appeared upon the crest and began his own, more-controlled descent.Their guide, Kellus noted, wasn’t even winded.  “How does-”  A wheezing cough exploded from Kellus’ chest and forced him to take a moment.  He swallowed, spat, and ran a hand across his bald pate.  “How does it look?”“T’not good,” Bigby answered.  The big man studied the rearward ridgeline. If he had other thoughts, he kept them to himself. “Onward, then,” Baden said, his voice still strong.  The dwarf, despite the weight of his black armor, seemed in remarkably good shape.And move they did, albeit more slowly.  Indeed, Kellus thought, our pace slackens with each pause.  It will not be long now.  He looked toward Lady Mavis.  Raylin and Vath were practically carrying the woman between the two of them.  Kellus was amazed she had endured this long, and with little complaint.Her henchman, however, was an all together different story.  Huarto seemed to have spent the past four years within a tavern’s common room, and his body now protested the abuse.Kellus watched without sympathy as the thin mercenary dry-heaved amber fluid onto the dying weeds.  “Done?  Good – now move.”Huarto glanced upward at him with tearing, pleading eyes.  “I canna do it.”Kellus looked past the doubled-over man at the fleeing party.  There was no time for caring.  In this world, when had there ever been?  “Then drop to your knees, Huarto.”  Kellus hefted his mace.The man apparently still possessed enough energy to appear horrified.  “N-No!”“Then let the wolven do it,” Kellus shrugged with indifference.  “Though I doubt they’ll be as quick about it.”  On cue, the howling – always closer – grew shrill.The man clutched at Kellus’ cloak as the priest pushed past him.  Kellus wordlessly helped him to his feet, shoved him in the right direction, and followed in his wake.Through the ground fog, perhaps a half mile distant, Kellus saw a sinuous, black ribbon that could only be the Dusk Ford.  Its banks had been overrun by the churning waters – swollen and angry from the recent rainfall.  As Kellus stumbled toward the water, Bigby helping him maintain his balance, the priest had to chuckle.  He looked to their guide.  “If that’s the ford, we’re dead men.”Bigby winked.  “That’s the ford.  And we been dead men since first settin’ off last night.”At that precise moment, the howling ceased.***John flung mud from his hands and eyed Bigby where he stood near Kellus.  The bard was supporting Amelyssan; the elf had not uttered a word of complaint, but his pallor was ashen, his eyes sunken.  “Bigby!  They stopped.  Are we safe-”“No,” Bigby murmured, though only Kellus could hear, “now we are dead.”Their guide drew a hand-and-a-half sword from the sheath upon his back.  “The water’s high, friends.  You’ll need to remove your armor.  Get to it.”Baden's face seemed to wrestle with conflicting emotions.  Bigby pierced him with a stare.  “'Tis your armor, stump, or your life.”  For a fleeting moment, Baden’s face twisted into a mask of rage not wholly his own.  Yet, it passed quickly enough, and the Axemarch dwarf nodded before beginning to unbuckle his greaves.“I will not cross that!  We're certain to drown.”  Mavis placed one hand on her hip and lectured Bigby as if he were a wayward child.  “You must be mad!”“I know.”  Bigby walked past her without a second glance, studied the ground, and seemed to find a patch to his liking.Mavis, finally, broke.  She tore off her cloak and threw it into the water at her feet.  “’Tis them they want, anyway!”  She combed her hair with shaking fingers, eyes wide.  “Huarto!  Lead on.”Huarto had taken the opportunity, while the others were removing their armor, to lay spread-eagled upon the ground.  He rolled to his side with effort.  “M-milady?”Mavis pointed eastward, away from the ford.  “They will not follow-”Her words stopped with a gurgle.  It was hard to talk, after all, with a half-troll’s hand wrapped about your throat.Vath held the woman by her neck, his arm unbent.  Mavis’ feet kicked futilely a full pace above the turf.  Huarto scrambled to his feet, grabbing the hilt of his longsword with one hand.  Raylin, his own swords sheathed, arched a brow.  “I’d think again before drawing steel against the half-troll, friend.  I’d think real hard.”Huarto, for all his faults, wasn’t stupid.  He removed his hand, slowly, and took a few steps backward.Kellus purposefully walked forward, breastplate hanging from one last strap, and laid a hand on Vath’s shoulder.  “Easy, friend, easy.  You’re killing her.”“I know.”“If she dies, we learn nothing.”  Kellus removed his hand and walked to put Mavis between the two of them.  “Nothing, Brother Vath.”After a long, long time thinking, Vath lowered his arm.  He relaxed his grip only enough so that Mavis could breathe.  The woman’s face began to lose its bluish tint.  She vomited onto the half-troll’s forearm, but Vath ignored the bodily fluid.Kellus stepped forward, aware time was short.  “Mavis – listen to me, and listen well.  We have no time.  If you hesitate, you will die.”  The priest shot an unnecessary glance toward Vath before continuing.  “You said – ‘Tis them they want’ – what did you mean?”Mavis shook her head, tears streaming from her eyes.  “I do not…” Her voice collapsed into a choking sob.  “I do not know what you are talking about.”“Let her go, Vath.”  Kellus measured his half-troll companion with an even stare.Vath, after but a moment’s hesitation, released his grip.  He turned without further comment and made his way toward the water’s edge.Mavis rubbed at the welts on her neck.  She looked at Kellus with an odd mix of emotions – both appreciation and hatred.  “I suppose…I suppose you want my thanks.”“No,” Kellus unclasped his breastplate.  “I want nothing of the kind.”  The priest drew his mace, turned away from Mavis, and let his eyes drift across the southern ridgeline. He did not watch her as she picked her way through the mud, away from the party, away from the ford, alone.***Bigby joined him.  “Women.”“Women,” Kellus echoed.  The two men watched Mavis disappear behind a bank of thorns.  “Think she’ll make it?”“No.”“Do we have time to cross, Bigby?”Their guide ignored his question.  Instead, he swept about one arm in a large half-circle.  “I’ll let you in on a little secret, friend.  Them wolven, they ain’t been chasin’ us.  No, sir.”“Then what have they been doing?”“Herding us - like dogs with sheep.”  Bigby smiled as if he admired such tactics.  “Told ya – they be smart bastards.”Kellus stared hard at Bigby for a moment, then turned to look at his companions.  There they stood, not one of them – not even Baden – wearing armor.  A horrifying sense of hopelessness washed over him.  He thought of all the places they might have stopped to make a stand.  Good, defensible places.  He thought of how he may have paused to pray to Helm – how some of his divine gifts may have better served their evasion.  He recalled how John suggested they take to the trees, spread out the missile weapons to those that could use them.He thought of many, many things they could have done – should have done.But then, of course, the wolven came - exactly when and where they had intended.And Kellus no longer had time to think.</blockquote>

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