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Village

Previous Chapter:  The Savage Hand

He had been traveling alone for a month. For the past week he had been on foot since he had given up his horse to a family that was moving. Their mule had stepped into a hole and broke its leg. In return they fixed him a hot meal and listened to his stories about Avris the Dragon Dancer. They had already heard of her and actually knew a few of his tales. He had rode with her for over two years as he had pledged he would at the funeral of Anash. They had especially been fascinated by his last story. It was about a village where dryads had run slaves through. He did not tell them all of the story.

They had heard that the Empress Marasha was there or had recently been there. Upon their arrival they found the slaves being rounded up and placed into one of the buildings. A woman was commanding everyone. Migus recognized her as one of the nymphs serving the Empress from the day Anash and his men had been ambushed. Migus had the best eyesight and was able to recognize her. He just wished he could hear as well as he could see. He whispered to Avris about the nymph.

There was one dryad guard that Migus would never forget. While they watched from some tall trees just outside of the village, they saw him show his disagreement with some command she had given. He was taller, but that didn’t matter to her. She didn’t like what he said and she struck him. Everyone was surprised at how hard she hit him. It was obvious that she was uncommonly strong for her stature and race. Her hit literally lifted him off his feet and knocked him out. She then pointed to him and two other guards came and picked up the unconscious body and carried him into the building with the slaves. Then the building was secured and the woman went and took a torch out of a fire and began setting it to the building. Once she was satisfied she threw the torch onto the roof and walked over to a black horse, mounted and quickly rode out of the village gates.