Lost Scout

[StarrNico]

Reba caught herself against the wall and turned. She stood tall, glaring at him defiantly for a moment before forcing herself to turn to the work. She knew she needed a weapon to fight them, but had been unwilling or unable to just go along without a word. 'This is not the time to fight, not yet' she told herself, though it would have to be seen if she could follow her own advice.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Orkhan met her gaze squarely until she turned away. Her misguided courage did not go unnoticed, however, sooner or later she would realize that it was decreasing her life expectancy by a rather significant margin. Not many of the humans ever turned mouthy or rebellious against the orcs, it never ended good on their part. He would be keeping an eye on this one from now on...

 

[StarrNico]

Reba kept an eye out as she worked on the wall. She watched the orcs and searched for a way out, but kept up a steady pace. She had decided to treat this as a training mission as she waited for her father to come, or a way out to present itself. She wouldn't leave the others here, but she would watch and plan.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Leaving Reba to work, Orkhan moved slowly down the line of human workers at the wall. Like the other orcs who were supervising the work he was armed with a dangerous looking whip to punish anyone he deemed as slacking off, and he certainly wasn't afraid or unwilling to use it at his convenience. On many occasions it was the young, elderly and sick who received the worst of his treatment as they weren't able to work as fast. It was part of his method of eliminating those workers and replacing them with fresh captives like Danielle who could work more with the same limited amount of food.

 

[Frundette]

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!"

The most official looking building wasn't really much to look at, though the roof thatching on Lord Ragnar's hall had been almost halfway completed the previous day. Even though the sun had barely come up, two men were preparing to begin the work again. One opened the newly constructed door only a few moments after Emma started banging on it.

"Can I help you?" he asked, seeing the worry written over every line in the woman's face. The blonde haired man looked a bit younger than Emma and was dressed in simple work clothes so his station was hard to judge.

 

[Frundette]

"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."

Jasper, knowing the others in the group were struggling to maintain hope, did his best not to appear overly happy about being allowed to ride Duke, but couldn't help a small smile as he ran a hand over the horse's sleek neck. In another few minutes, Duke was saddled and Jasper climbed aboard.

"If we can, let's see if we can follow Duke's trail back to where he lost his rider," Aelfric said, already headed in the direction from the horse came.

 

[StarrNico]

Strider nodded and mounted up, leading Rosa as he followed Aefric. His eyes never stopped moving as he studied the forest around them and the path they were taking. He lightly fingered his bow, then shrugged and pulled it in front of him to be ready in case they found trouble.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

The most official looking building wasn't really much to look at, though the roof thatching on Lord Ragnar's hall had been almost halfway completed the previous day. Even though the sun had barely come up, two men were preparing to begin the work again. One opened the newly constructed door only a few moments after Emma started banging on it.

"Can I help you?" he asked, seeing the worry written over every line in the woman's face. The blonde haired man looked a bit younger than Emma and was dressed in simple work clothes so his station was hard to judge.

"Uh..." Emma looked at her feet, feeling an unexpected bout of nervousness at facing the two men. Born and raised a farmer, and life as a peasant, she wasn't really sure how to act and speak around those of a higher rank. She wanted to be polite and respectful, as someone of her rank should, but she also wanted to pass along the urgent message in a way that would give it some priority. "My name is Emma," she began. "My daughter has been missing since last night, I must speak with Lord Ragnar as soon as possible. Please!"

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Jasper, knowing the others in the group were struggling to maintain hope, did his best not to appear overly happy about being allowed to ride Duke, but couldn't help a small smile as he ran a hand over the horse's sleek neck. In another few minutes, Duke was saddled and Jasper climbed aboard.

"If we can, let's see if we can follow Duke's trail back to where he lost his rider," Aelfric said, already headed in the direction from the horse came.

From where he was standing beside Panago, Ezra caught the slight smile that crossed Jasper's face as the young man mounted Duke. Despite his previous misgivings about letting Danielle ride the animal, he had to admit that the colt was indeed a beautiful horse. He was proud that his daughter had trained him entirely on her own.

"The ground will still be soft after the last bit of rain." Ezra called to Aelfric from the rear of the group. "The tracks should have made a good imprint to follow." Lightly tapping Panago's sides, he followed closely with his mount, eager to find something that would lead them to his daughter.

 

[Frundette]

Ezra proved right about Duke's tracks being relatively easy to follow as it ran mostly east, but it was not always fast as sometimes the trail disappeared for a bit and the group had to fan out and search in order to find it again. So the sun was already climbing high in the sky by the time the trail emerged back into the main road that ran through the Greywoods.

Jasper, who had been doing fairly well with the black colt, tightened his grip on the reins as the horse began prancing a bit as they broke free of the woods. Just ahead, Duke's trail merged with tracks similar to those the group had found the previous day, the tale of the struggle between Danielle and the orcs written in the dirt...


---


"He'll be along in just a little while, Ms Emma," the blonde haired man answered. The other, an older man with a few days worth of stubble covering his chin, overheard the conversation and walked toward them, favoring his right leg slightly. "You Ezra's wife?" he asked gruffly as he stepped out of the building and picked up a pile of threshing for the roof.