Lost Scout

[ChickieBooBoo]

Ghegari's chubby fingers brushed up against Ruby's arm but were not able to firmly grasp the girl as she moved backwards again. In anger, the orc cook simply resorted to hitting her victim with the stick several times to try and calm her down before trying again. This time she hooked the stick again around Ruby's waist, but jerked harder and faster to slingshot the girl to the door, and her waiting arm.

 

[Frundette]

Strider nodded, but glanced to the camp again, he had a strange feeling that his Ruby was still there, and needing help. "Weather it is or not, theres still a lot of humans there that need help, and a lot of places to hide the girls. "

"If one or more ran, the patrols will surely be stepped up until they find whoever escaped," Aelfric said, simply thinking out loud about their options. "And possibly less of them in the camp itself."

Jasper chimed in. "We could sneak in and rescue them!" He was still nervous about the orcs, of course, but the thoughts of those people suffering under their cruel treatment was enough to override his caution.

"No," Aelfric said firmly, not about to take the surgeon's apprentice into the orc camp. "If Ezra and Jasper can make it back to the settlement and get news to Lord Ragnar... " he left the statement hang, looking at Strider to see how his friend felt about launching a rescue attempt. "Can you and I cause enough of a diversion to get the prisoners out?"

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

"Its a day and a half journey back to the settlement," Ezra pointed out, not keen to be left out of the rescue mission when his daughter's life was potentially at stake. "If we leave now, it will still be at least three days before we can get enough men out here to stand much of a chance beyond the element surprise... if you get caught, you probably won't live long enough to be rescued." His voice held a tone of caution for the two men about to embark on the rescue mission... this wasn't going to be easy.

 

[Frundette]

The scout followed Gomez, this time without attacking him. She walked mostly in silence, leery of attracting attention of more orcs. Her misgivings returned as they walked, not because of any suspicious action on the part of the orcish creature ahead of her, but simply because she had time to dwell on the possibilities. Other than evidence of some previous lashing, what proof did she have that he wasn't taking her straight back to the orcs?

The one reassuring fact was that he was leading her generally north and west, which seemed appropriate to her if her estimate of where the orc camp was in relation the settlement was correct. "How do you know my name?" she asked him quietly after they had been walking for awhile and she felt reasonably confident no orcs were close by.

--

"And if we all get caught... or killed and no word is returned to Lord Ragnar, then we are assured that no rescue will come," Aelfric countered. "It is critical that this news reaches the settlement."

"I could do it," Jasper offered. "If I may take Duke, he would surely be the swiftest to reach Lord Ragnar."

That wasn't exactly what Aelfric had in mind, instead trying to present the two options as either they all return as quickly as possible to the settlement, or that he and Strider stay behind to launch a rescue attempt, knowing it could be a suicide mission, once Ezra and Jasper had enough time to get a safe distance away. But as Ezra had a loved one taken prisoner too, he looked to the farmer to gauge his reaction to what Jasper had just suggested.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Gomez glanced back at her for a moment, looking glad that she had asked. "I hear things around the camp. Being invisible isn't always a bad thing, you know. I watched you while you worked, and listened from a distance. And at night... in the cage as well. I heard you introduce yourself to the newcomer, Danielle, last night." He fell silent again, the only sound coming from his footsteps. Unexpectedly he piped up again and added as an afterthought, "and by 'you' I don't mean you personally. If you were expecting some kind of romantic love story, forget about it. I meant the general population of slaves, your kind intrigues me."

--

Ezra knotted his fingers together and stared at the ground. He wanted so badly to be there when, or if, they rescued Danielle. But at the same time he wasn't naive enough to think that he could do a better job then either Aelfric or Strider, perhaps the best idea was indeed for him to return to the settlement with Jasper. If that was the most responsible and useful thing for him to do at this point, then as much as he didn't want to leave, he decided that he would.

"Sorry, you are right Aelfric." He shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. "Jasper and I will return to the settlement with news. Be careful though... please."

 

[StarrNico]

Ghegari's chubby fingers brushed up against Ruby's arm but were not able to firmly grasp the girl as she moved backwards again. In anger, the orc cook simply resorted to hitting her victim with the stick several times to try and calm her down before trying again. This time she hooked the stick again around Ruby's waist, but jerked harder and faster to slingshot the girl to the door, and her waiting arm.

Ruby cried out as the stick hit her. She was pulled towards the orc again, this time she let her pull her close, then kicked out with all her strength, aiming for the orcs head. She hoped to have enough strength to snap her neck, giving hher another opportunity to get free.

Strider listened to the others quietly. He nodded "we will be as careful as we can be." He assured "we will rescue the girls. " he looked back towards the camp again

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

Ghegari, being as stuffed into the cage door as she was, didn't have any chance to move her head before Ruby kicked her. She roared with anger and lashed out with her free arm, surprisingly quick for someone her size. While Ruby kicked her, she lunged forward again and this time caught the girl's leg. Stubbornly, the hideous creature was not even knocked out or further phased by the blow delivered to her head.

Excited that she had finally managed to grab one of the girls, she whipped Ruby out of the cage by her leg and hung her upside down. After locking the cage again to ensure that Danielle wouldn't escape, Gregari carried Ruby over to a rough wooden bench with four crudely cut holes in each of the corners. She dropped Ruby roughly onto the bench and pushed her face down into the wood with one arm as she began working on securing each leg to two of the holes on that side of the bench with the other arm.

 

[StarrNico]

(They better get here soon)
Ruby tried to get her head free even as she kept her legs moving in an attempt to not get tied down to the bench. She knew if she was then she would be killed, and Danielle after her. She kept fighting, delaying for as long as she could, hoping against hope that something would happen and free them from the orcs.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

(I wouldn't ever kill your character without asking you first, so don't worry!

)

In each hole on the table, a rope was already drawn through and waiting. Knotted on one end, it made it easy for Ghegari to simply pull the other end around one of Ruby's legs and secure it to the bottom of the table with a loop that was also already tied into the rope. The cookhouse was small, cramped and unsightly, but the kill table was reasonably advanced and well thought out compared to the building itself. Clearly it was used regularly, as the orc cook had perfected the routine.

Satisfied that Ruby would not move with one leg tied down, Ghegari let go of the other leg and focused solely on her head. She left the bonds tied on Ruby's back, and took another rope which was also already waiting at the table, and yanked it across the back of the girl's neck to hold her head down. She then tied it down the same way that Ruby's leg was secured. Within a couple of minutes, she had her victim tied up on the table by her head and both legs.

 

[Frundette]

"Take this token so Ragnar knows this is in earnest," Aelfric said, taking a gold chain from his neck with Lord Ragnar's device of a boar emblazoned upon a medallion, gifted to him when he had sworn fealty to Ragnar. He handed the symbol to Eza. "Now make haste."

Already it was late in the afternoon and as Ezra and Jasper started making their way cautiously back along the trail they had come, Jasper whispered, sounding worried, "Does he worry Ragnar wouldn't believe us?"

--

Once they had gone, Aelfric looked back to Kane's map drawn in the dirt and scratched his chin. "What do you think is the best way to approach this?" he asked, wanting to come up with a plan that at least gave them a fighting chance of surviving it. "Could start a fire somewhere for a distraction," he suggested.