Ahnaressu wiped the blood from his face after freeing his dagger from yet another man's chest. He was exhausted, but he had to fight on through the fatigue, sorrow, and anger. He fought for what was left of his broken family. He moved to the front of the yurt and peeked out the door. He spotted a few survivors fleeing the camp with the remaining rogues not far behind. The young dark elf walked to the center of the camp and inspected the damage through teary eyes. He sat down in utter dismay, and the exhaustion and minor cuts and bruises of the fight finally caught up to him. He invited the blackness of sleep.

He awoke to the sound of his crying brother. Knowing the baby was hungry, he searched a nearby yurt and found a few comberries. He crushed them up and added some water to make a sauce and began to feed his brother. He let his brother crawl around while he searched for something useful. He found an iron shortsword and an enchanted ring.

---

"I don't want excuses, Nyph!" yelled Valnor, the leader of the rogues. "The remaining Urshilaku have the high ground, and definately in a position to easily defend themselves!"

"Even though they have the high ground, we can easily force them off the cliff onto more flat ground where we can take the rest of them." Nyph argued.

"Are you blind?" Valnor yelled. "They have archers at the top of that hill slaughtering all that come up. At this rate they might outnumber us! We took them by surprise at their camp, but now they are ready."

Nyph shrugged his shoulders to show that he conceded the point. "All we can do is wait."

---

Ahnaressu put the last shovel of dirt over the grave he dug for his mother. He scooped up his bag that contained an extra set of clothes, some food, Zaldin's alchemical recipes, and his baby brother, Relgar, with his head sticking out of the top. "Where can I go?" he asked himself. "Where can I go?" He tightened his belt that had his chitin dagger and iron shortsword, slung his bow and quiver over his shoulder, and headed west towards the coast.

(c)2005 Dantrag

On to the next chapter