Lost Scout

[ChickieBooBoo]

Ezra remained motionless, his eyes staring dully forward, as the night settled in and ran its course. Like Aelfric, he was trying desperately not to think about where Danielle was right now. Someone must have stolen Duke... he tried to convince himself with only partial success. She probably just forgot her cloak in the saddle bag before she went in for the night... it can't be hers... it just can't be.

----

Like father like daughter, Danielle had taken up a similar position against the back of the cage. Her knees were drawn up tight against her chest, and her chin rested gently on top of her kneecaps. It was cold and dark in the cage, and soon after having been dropped inside she started shivering. The thin dress and shawl which she was wearing weren't the warmest since her cloak had gotten left behind.

After Gytha had initially introduced herself, Danielle hadn't spoken to anyone else. She didn't recognize any of the girls in the cage, and she felt small and insignificant compared to their silent determination to stay strong in spite of their circumstances. Especially the one called Reba. She only felt cold and scared.

 

[Frundette]

As the early morning sky started to lighten, the door of the cage swung open and slammed against the makeshift wall hard enough to shake the whole structure. An orc carrying a club in one hand and a whip in the other suddenly filled the doorway. "Up!" he growled to the humans huddled together inside.

Gytha's eyes shot open and she almost sprang to her feet, trying to pull Danielle to her feet as quickly as possible. She'd learned the hard way on her first day of orcish hospitality that a slow response was quickly met with a sting from that lash and hoped to spare the younger girl that lesson.

"Milly! Wake up! MILLY!" Gytha looked sideways at one of the men from Wedmoor trying desperately to rouse his wife. The couple had been imprisoned here longer than Gytha by about a week and seemed much the worse for wear. The wife, obviously a well kept woman unaccustomed to hard physical labor, lay, unmoving, on the cold ground, her too pale skin and blank eyes said that the orcs would torment her no more and Gytha turned her gaze away from the site.

A second orc, this one much smaller than the one holding the whip, poked his head into the cage and, seeing the scene within, scooted past and over to the woman. Finding her dead, he growled something in the rough orcish tongue and then began to drag her body out of the cage.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

The rattling cage jolted Danielle awake at the same time that Gytha grabbed her hand and began pulling her to her feet. Confusion settled into her eyes for a moment before she remembered where she was, but she didn't recall falling asleep the night before. Having been in the cage for only a single night she didn't feel too worse for wear compared to the others. Only a little bit stiff and tired from the cold sleep, and sore from having been dragged to the orcs camp.

"Gytha!" Danielle was surprised that she remembered the older girl's name from the night before. "What's going on? What are they doing with her?" Her voice sounded frightened and disorientated when she inquired as to why the orc was dragging the older woman from the cage. It was unclear whether or not she even realized that Milly was dead.

----

Long before the sun had even risen above the horizon, Ezra rose from his sitting position and moved to begin readying the horses for the days trek onward. With Danielle's green cloak in hand, he was eager to get moving. The orange glow to the east provided enough light for him gather sufficient water for their three horses, and the one (two?) that had arrived earlier with Kane.

 

[Frundette]

"Shhhh, be quiet," Gytha snapped, trying to silence the girl and hoping that her voice would not be noticed over the wailing of the husband pleading for his wife to be left alone. But it was too late, she realized as the orc standing in the doorway turned his attention on Danielle. The large brute crossed the distance of the cage in two steps and slapped her... hard... across the mouth. "NO spak!" he ordered, saliva flying from his mouth.

Gytha made no move to intervene. This brutal treatment was almost as hard to watch as it was to take, but she was biding her time, hoping she'd find a time to escape when her chances of success were better. But as the smaller orc dragged Milly out of the cage, she felt that small hope fade further. Every day she did not find a way to escape was the potential for another captive to meet the same fate. Eventually it would be her.

--


Hearing the movement, Aelfric rose from his troubled dozing and started prepping his mount. "Ezra," he began. "When we find these orcs, prepare yourself for the possibility that there may be too many for us to counter. The wisest course may very well be to bring news to Lord Ragnar and gather a larger force." Thinking Ezra may be ready to counter, he held up a hand, presenting the farmer with a hard choice. "You and Jasper could get word to the settlement quicker..." he let the statement hang, for he could not insist the man abandon the search for his daughter.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Ezra avoiding looking at Aelfric as he finished watering Panago with the small leather sac. He snapped it shut on the animal's nose with a little bit more force than he intended and Panago snorted in protest, searching with his nose for the sac again. Deep down he knew that Aelric was right, but his conscious mind was still in denial and desperate for some sort of proof.

"I need to know, Aelfric." He hung his head miserably and clenched his fist tightly around Panago's halter. "How can I go home, and tell Emma that I don't know where she is? She'll be devastated... she probably is already. I need something to give her... anything." After several sentences of looking down, Ezra finally turned his gaze to Aelfric. "Bad news is better than no news. I know that the four of us might not be enough, but if we find out what we're up against then at least we'll have a better idea of who to bring back from the settlement."

---

Seeing the orc turn it's beady eyes on her after Gytha hissed the warning, Danielle managed to take a couple of steps backwards before the orc reached her. She threw her hands up in defence and flinched, but both did little to mitigate the blow what was delivered. Too shocked to even utter a cry of pain, she reeled backwards against Gytha's reassuring grasp but remained on her feet. After the hit she kept her hands up in defence, cringing away from the orc in fear as though she expected another one to follow. That wasn't a mistake she would make a second time.

--

As Milly was being dragged out by the smaller orc, Orkhan approached the cage with heavy, impatient footsteps. "What's taking so long?" He barked in orc tongue at the one who had struck Danielle. "They were supposed to be at the wall ten minutes ago! Daylight is being wasted!" For a moment his eyes were drawn to the dead woman and he snorted disapprovingly. "The rest of them will have to make up for her," he turned a cruel gaze on her husband and said in fairly decent english, "I had better not notice a decrease in production today..."

 

[StarrNico]

Reba had stood when the cage door opened. She watched silently as the orcs dragged the woman out then looked to the one who had stuck Danielle. Hope was a hard thing to hold onto, but she knew her father was searching for her even now. She had not seen him struck down, so held on to that hope like a lifeline. She glared at the orcs for a moment, then made herself look away. If I could just get a weapon, they would die. she thought

~~~
Strider had woken to the sounds of Ezra moving around, but stayed still until he heard Aelfric talking. He stood up and went to check on his and Reba's horses. After seeing them cared for he disappeared into the forest to scout around and make sure there were no fresh tracks near them. He came back a few minutes later with a brace of rabbits and several lengths of rope that had been the snares he had set before camping the day before.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Having gotten no information from any of the neighbours as to Danielle's whereabouts, Emma was growing concerned that something terrible had befallen her daughter. It wasn't like her to wander off, especially for an entire night. The next morning, as Ezra, Aelfric, Jasper and Kane were gearing up to investigate the orcs, Emma left the grass hut as dawn as breaking on the horizon. Olivia and her brother were still sound asleep, and didn't awaken when the door closed.

With Ezra gone and two kids to look after, Emma knew that there was nothing she could do to find Danielle on her own. She couldn't leave her children to search the woods herself, and it was too dangerous to take them with her. As a result, she was heading to the main area of the settlement to alert Lord Ragnar and his officials of the missing girl. This area of the camp was unfamiliar to her, as she had only ever been as far as the market area where she sold all of their produce to make a living. Finding the most official looking building, she rapped loudly on the door and called out "hello!"

 

[Frundette]

Aelfric nodded, understanding Ezra's decision. "Then we'll go find her..." he said, as he brushed some dirt and loose hair off his horse before tossing the saddle on the beast's back and quickly cinching up the girth.

"You know," Jasper said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as Strider returned to camp, "if we have to make a quick run for it, Master Corin's old tired horse won't keep up." He looked between Reba's horse and Duke. "What if I rode one of them?"

--

"Move now!" Mulush growled at the prisoners when Orkhan said they were taking too long. "Get move!" He cracked his whip, aiming at whichever prisoner was slowest to exit the cage. The small group was herded back toward the partially finished wall for another day of labor, not to be fed anything until the day's work was done.

 

[StarrNico]

Strider glanced to Jasper then to Reba's horse. "You could try, but Rosa won't even let me ride her, only Reba does." He turned back to Stone and saddled him, then put the saddle on Rosa. He spoke quietly to the horses as he got them ready to go, then looked to the camp.

~~~
Reba moved with the group, staying quiet. She frowned as the wall came into sight again. She glanced to the orcs again and moved slightly away from the others "You know, humans work better when they are fed at least twice in a day"

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

"Her, and possibly Gytha and Reba." Ezra offered, thinking wouldn't be an entirely wasted event to search for Danielle. The chances of all three women meeting a similar fate at the same time was a huge coincidence. "Jasper, if Rosa won't let you ride her then you can take Duke if you'd like. He's pretty green still but Danielle has been working with him for awhile. I reckon he'd outrun even Panago, come to think of it."

--

Keeping close to Gytha, Danielle fortunately wasn't far enough to the back of the group to be on the receiving end of Mulush's cruel whip. A rather nasty looking bruise was already developing at the lower end of her jaw bone, near her chin. She didn't want to do anything else that might anger any one of her captors.

--

Orkhan brought up the rear as Mulush led the small group towards the wall, and was closest to Reba when she slowed down and spoke out. His thick, heavy hand found the back of her neck and squeezed hard enough to make it fairly painful, but not life threatening... yet. The sheer weight of his arm and his forward motion was enough to force her to continue walking forward in a half crouched position with her head down. "I do not care how much food you desire, or need, human..." His voice was deep and menacing. "You are replaceable, and once you can no longer keep up, you will be replaced. If you become a problem before you can no longer keep up, you will be replaced sooner." He released his hold on the back of her neck and shoved her forward, hard, towards the wall. "Get to work."