Captured(Alex)

Solo returned after a bit carrying a young girl over his shoulder with her arms and legs flaying about wildly, in his other hand a carried a basket containing berries and nuts. The girl’s dark hair tumbled in an unruly mess down over her face, obscuring her features from the other members of the part. A stream of profanities and ill wishes issued forth from her with such vehemence that on occasion caused Solo to wince as if he had been slapped in the face.

“Here you go, Captain’” and he dumped the girl unceremoniously to the ground with a thud.

“Well, I never…” began the girl but she was quickly silenced by one of Solo’s large hands covering her mouth.

“I’ve heard about enough out of you, missy. Now why don’t you be a good girl and tell us where you’re from and what you’re doing out here all alone.”

The three men stared down at the girl (Chewie was still searching the water) with a patient but stern look upon their faces. Luke noticed that Solo had several scratches and bite marks on his hands and arms and even a few on his neck and face. “She give you a hard time, Solo.” He chided nodding towards one of the wounds that the big fellow was rubbing on.

“She may be little but she’s all hellcat.” He said in way of explanation even though his cheeks and neck turned a bright red.

“All right, miss, why don’t you answer our questions nice like, and we’ll have you on your way if we see you’re no threat to us.”

The girl stared up at the men, fire shown in her eyes and her jaw flexed in anger.

Luke smiled at the girl’s defiance; he could easily snap her scrawny neck if he chose to do so. “You are indeed a “hellcat” aren’t you? Let me put it this way, if you don’t answer our questions then I’ll be forced to take you with us or just kill you. Your choice.”

The girl thought for a moment then agreed to answer their questions.

“Alright, we’ll start with something easy” began Luke, “what is your name?”


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Alex finally made it to the shore and stealthily made her way to the protection of some nearby brush. Feeling confident that she was well hidden, she closed her eyes so that her other senses could better tell her what was going on around her. She could hear the splashing of water as the big hairy fella searched in vain for another person, she could smell rain that would be arriving before the sun went down, and feel the gentle breeze on her wet skin. By steadying her breathing she was able to pick up bits and pieces of conversation from the men by the lake. All though she could not see her she knew that they had found Evilin and that she was being her usual stubborn self. Alex felt the forest floor around her in search of some kind of weapon; she was quickly rewarded by a thick stick and a good size rock. Clutching these to her she waited to either be discovered or for the opportunity to rescue her friend.

Battle Ready (Dusty)

Feverishly the elven soldiers worked to secure the many hatches and shields that had recently been set up as protection against a troll firestorm attack. As the wooden fixtures were put back into place Dusty surveyed each ship with its captain to ascertain any damage that might have occurred. So far the inspections had turned up little, the wards spoken by the casters before the attack had indeed done their job.

Meanwhile the enemy forces Dusty had noticed earlier were fully massed in the small vale below them. The Troll leaders did indeed have Gnome casters with them, because now they were bending the rock into assault ladders so as to give several small squads a chance to attack the elven ships on the rocky cirque. Though it seemed as if the elves were not the major target, which would explain how so soon after touching down the elven warships had been located.

Checking over his charts, while at the same time keeping an eye on the progress of the gnomish benders Dusty realized that there was a medium sized human settlement about two hours march from his current location, which meant that the troll forces were massing to attack the settlement. The very circumstance the elves feared when they learned that a troll fortress had appeared in Gatshimntol Pass.

Dusty slowly strode out of the command hut. Walking toward the western edge of the cirque he contemplated the task forces next move. Considering the possibilities he noticed a small group making their way toward the mountain vale from the direction of the human settlement.

“Sir, the gnomes have nearly finished the steps.” one of the elven archers said rushing into earshot of Dusty.

“Very well then, take out every gnome that is visible. Be sure to hit them in both eyes so that they can’t be resurrected.”

“Sir!” he acknowledged. Turning and running back to his post the archer commander shouted out Dusty’s orders.

Weighing everything Dusty decided that his forces needed to help the small sortie from the human settlement dispatch the group in the vale, before continuing on with the attack on the fortress itself.

“All right gentlemen here are the plans…” Dusty started walking back into the command hut. “…we need to drop down and take care of the group down below us. Aktolan, the nearby human settlement has dispatched a small force to investigate or maybe even take on the troll forces next door. They won’t have a chance. We hafta help them out. I want to split our forces. Half will stay on the ships that I want to lift off and circle around the mountain coming in from the north with a hard landing. The other half will stay here and descend the mountain, using the gnome ladders, once the ships touch down. Most if not all of the gnome casters should be dead so the biggest concern will be the ability of the trolls to regenerate. If you take the head they can’t.”
“The Miarason, Shiatsun, Quebecoix, Rainbow, Mirrowbrook and Brighten will stay with me. You other six will be the air assault force, with Commander Waymarker in charge. You must hold out until we can descend the mountain, so you’ll be on your own for the first little bit. We they see themselves out flanked I’d imagine things will turn pretty quickly.”

“Aye sir, we will more then hold our own.” Waymaker replied.

“Good. Now Commanders Suntracker and Waverider I want you to summon the casters. Each of you take half of them and tell them to bend tunnels down through the rock to where the troll gnomes left off in trying to bend those damn assault ladders up the mountainside. Send word right before you break through for the ground units to rally and drop through immediately upon completion.”

“Aye sir.” The two replied in unison leaving the command shack to carry out their orders.

“Commanders Moontripper, Cloudwalker and Dirtmover will ensure that the ground troops are ready for their part of the assault. We should only have the usually Troll forces to contend with but outfit them with gear for repelling majic attacks too. Elemental shields, diamond armor and mithril blades I’d say should see us through.”

“Should we rig for dragonfire, Admiral?” Commander Cloudwalker asked rising to leave on his assignment.

“They need at least a full day to eat brimstone after a run. I certainly hope they don’t have access to more dragons then what we saw. We’ll just hafta take our chances. Let’s get to it lads.”

Eyes Wide Open(Alex)

After several days, Alex received a visit from the medicine man. He carefully unwrapped the bandage from around here eyes and tenderly wiped away the poultice that covered them. “Slowly open your eyes.” His deep voice sounded like a drum that cut through the silence. Everybody was holding their breath with expectation, including herself.

As instructed, she slowly opened her eyes. The little bit of light coming from a nearby lantern caused her eyes to burn but she fought the temptation to close her lids again. After what seemed like several minutes she finally looked at her surroundings for the first time but was disappointed to discover that everything was blurry. “What’s wrong? Why can’t I see clearly?” panic choked her voice and her heart felt as though it would jump out of her chest.

“Take a deep breath and try to remain calm.” The doctor’s voice gave her something to focus on and she relaxed a bit. “Now slowly look around and tell me what you do see. Describe it to the best of your ability so I know how you’re doing.”

Alex was surprised by the man’s use of words, his dialect was very different from those here in the village. She quickly pushed her questions aside and again focused her attention to the task at hand. Blinking her eyes several times in an attempt to clear her vision she began to describe what she could see. “The room is very dark but there’s a source of light coming from a table to the right of the room. There are three chairs at the table but I cannot make out the color or style just their shape. I can see a person standing by the wall close to the table but I can’t see who it is. It’s like I’m looking through fog. I can see shapes but not details.”

“That’s good. We didn’t know if you would be able to even see that much.” For the first time she noticed that there was somebody sitting to the left of her. He was rather tall even though he was sitting and his hair was a light color. “I want you to put this on your eyes twice a day.” He placed a smooth jar in her hand. “Leave it on for about an hour each time and hopefully when I come back in two weeks we’ll have some improvement in your sight.”

Alex muttered a “thank you” as the man stood to leave. He was accompanied by another person whom she figured to be her hostess. Turning to the right she found that the other person was still in the room with her. “Come closer, if you would, so I can see you a little better.”

There was a swishing sound that had become familiar to her over the past few weeks. “Are you Evilin?”

“Aye” came the mousey reply.

“Well, don’t go all shy on me now, not after all the time we’ve spent together.” Alex smiled warmly and reached out her hands towards the girl. Quickly Evilin scurried over, embracing her new friend in a hug.

“I’m so sorry that ya can’t see nothin’. What will you do now?” The girl had a flair for the dramatics as most girls this age do.

“I’ll do as the good doctor told me to do and hope for the best. What else can I do?” she ran a hand through her tangled hair absentmindedly and realized that she hadn’t bathed since arriving on this island. She wasn’t one to be picky but even she had her standards. “Evilin, is there a place where I can bathe?”

“There’s a little cove where the river runs into. It’s about an hours walk or so from the village. You can bathe there without fear of folk comin’ across ya.” Without being told the girl gathered up some items. Taking Alex by the hand she carefully led the way to the cove, chattering all-the-while about what life would be like in the castle.

They arrived at the pool of water just as the sun reached its peek. Even Alex with her blurry vision knew that this was a place of serene beauty. The moss and grass surrounding the body of water was a deep lush green and the ground was soft and springy. In the distance was the rumble from a waterfall that added continuous motion to the water. Birds sang from all directions and small animals scurried about in the underbrush that surrounded the clearing.

“I’ll leave your things on this here rock while you bathe.” Evilin placed a fresh set of clothing and a patched up towel on a large rock that was being bathed in sunlight. “I promised Mamma that I’d gather some nuts and berries for her. I’ll come back in an hour to get ya.”

Alex waited until she could no longer hear the girl before she undressed and entered the lukewarm water. It was very frustrating not being able to see clearly and she found that her head ached from the strain on her eyes. She decided to close her eyes to give them a rest heightening her other senses.

She wasn’t sure how long she had been floating about in the water when she heard the clatter of horses’ hooves approaching. Automatically her eyes flew open and she lowered herself into the water so that her nose was just inches from the surface. Anger welled up inside as she struggled to see the oncoming riders with no avail. Slowly she moved back towards the sound of the waterfall with the hopes of finding a hiding place. She didn’t make it before the riders came into the open, Alex could make out their fuzzy shapes but that was about it. Fearing that any movement would only draw attention to herself, she stood fast in her spot hoping to go unnoticed.

“We’ll water the horses here and break for lunch.” A deep voice sliced through the air scattering several birds that had been nearby. The riders dismounted.

“Luke, I think somebody’s here,” One of the riders had found Alex’s belongings on the rock and now carried them to the fellow addressed. “Either that or they ran away in their birthday suit.” A round of laughter broke forth from the four riders as they scanned the area.

“Have a peek around, Solo, we don’t want anybody stabbing us in the back while we try to eat.” Luke eyed the woods nervously. “Chewie, why don’t you take a swim, make sure there’s no creatures in the water that would want to ruin our party.”

“Why do I have to go in the water?” whined Chewie.

“Cause you stink!” came the answer which was followed by more laughter. “Now get going.” Taking the reins of two of the horses Luke addressed the other man, " Come on, Ben, help me take these guys to the water."

As the two men carried out their orders, Luke and his other companion proceeded to lead the horses to the water for a drink. Alex stayed fixed to her spot her heart pounding in her ears. Carefully sher turned around so that she could judge the distance to the waterfall or some other bit of coverage. Her stomach knotted as she realized she was still a good ways off. Scanning the water she looked for a rock or some vegetation or anything that she could hide behind but there was nothing. Quickly, she made up her mind to try swimming to the opposite bank from where the men gathered, maybe then she could slip into the woods unnoticed. Taking a deep breath she submerged herself under water and began to swim for the shore.

Remnant Adventure (Dusty)

Quietly the shadow slipped in behind the warrior as he walked through the threshold. A flip of a psychic switch and the powers of the ‘gene joke’ on piano would have no effect. His emotions would continue to be his to command. Sliding into a corner booth as smoothly as water flows over glass it settled in for the night, lowering the heavy woolen cowl sewn in as part of the wanderer’s cloak fastened across the slight shoulders of the newcomer. As the person shimmered into the visible wavelength, Giron noticed Phae momentarily hesitate his counter patrol, but continue on as before.

“See, know he will I said,” whispered the small figure sitting lithely on her steed’s shoulder. Absently rubbing her lower ankle the faere settled in and watched as Phae went about his normal barkeep routine.

Flipping the towel down from his shoulder Phae was wiping down the bar when a slight presence tip-toed across his consciousness. Hesitating momentarily he resumed the never ending job of keeping things going for the lost souls that frequented the Serendipity.


Sipping the flagon of ale Dusty slipped back to that fateful day that he had first encountered the young human male that would become the only human he ever felt worth his effort.

Gently the great battleship, Miarason, drifted in the wind. Dusty gazed out over the endless snowy barrens that populated the northern boundary of King Geishlahan's empire. Behind, eleven other wind ships identical to this one drifted, only the sound of timber creaking and ropes whipping in the winds could be heard. Sailing through the canyons of Marlahaim province this task force was running silent toward an encounter with a recently completed fortress of the Mountain Trolls. The elves had two major concerns with this development. The first was the proximity to the northern elfish settlements of a troll stronghold and the fact that the fortress only took two months to be built. That short a time frame meant that majic had to have been involved.

Dusty scanned the horizon for any sign that the elven plan had been uncovered. It was well known that the Mountain Trolls were not typically adept at wielding majics, which just added to the trepidation surrounding the new fortress at Gatshimtol Pass. So the chances that they had divined the nature of the elves mission was remote, but the Gnomes had been getting rather cozy with the trolls of late and the gnomes were much in tune with ley lines. The elves were also known to employ Gnome healers to supplement the elfish priests so as part of every ships contingent there is a supplemental healer. This added another level of concern as the true loyalties of the gnomes were unknown to their elven associates.

Flying true west the Battleship formation would reach the stronghold a little after dawn which would put a fresh sun directly behind them. In the distance Dusty noticed storm clouds boiling to the west, directly in the flotilla’s path. Curiously the wind was at Dusty’s back.

“Dragon Storm, Dragon Storm!” Dusty yelled running toward the signaler on the aft of the ship. “Batten down the hatches!!”

Suddenly every ship in the task force was swarmed over as the soldiers each ship carried began the task of preparing to ward off the oncoming Dragon attack. Slowly each ship slowed its progress and began to descend onto a small cirque that had been chosen to fortify. As each ship landed a formation of two concentric circles took shape as each ship completed its link in the ‘chain’ the soldiers scrambled to hook and fasten the boats together as well as fastening wooden shields and bulkhead sections so as to form shields for the men and ships themselves.

Slowly Dusty’s ship landed in the very center of the fortified formation finalizing the shielding. As soon as the soldiers completed battening each ship’s compliment of battle mages began to chant protective wards over the flammable aspects of the defenses, men included. The end result resembled a huge turtle tucked away in its shell with the outer lip of the cirque providing cover to prevent anything getting up underneath the shell. Just as the round of incantations was finished the first wave of dragons swept over the ships unleashing volley after volley of dragon flame attempting to ignite anything in view. The living flames found nothing to adhere to and so ended pooling at the outermost edges of the elven fortifications and dripping down over the rocky ledges onto the surrounding mountainside down below.

“Stand fast men. Their mounts are only good for three runs each and then they’ll hafta refuel. When that happens the soldiers will landed and go hand to hand. Look for their gnome companions and take them out as soon as you can. For any a ya that have not been trollin’ afore listen up. When a troll is cut by elven blades the flesh that is cut starts to mineralize so avoid their blows while you hack away at their legs. Eventually they will be held fast cause they can’t move their legs when they get like that move on and then we’ll go back and cherry pick’em. Archers aim for those pitch black pits they call eyes, if’n they can’t see us we’ll be harder to hit When your quivers dry up go after the frozen ones with yer sabre’s” Dusty bellowed to his troops aware that the same directions were being given by the other commanders to each boats compliment of foot soldiers and archers.

“We won’t have the benefit of our own ‘chanters’, they’ll need to rest also.” Dusty learned long ago that elven majic was tied into life force and so as the majics were used up the wielders need time to rest as one would from physical exertion, too much exertion leads to torpor until said individual was replenished. The wards over the boats did an excellent job driving off the dragon fire but at a huge cost to those casting, in fact three soldiers from each ship had to be assigned to guard the depleted mages.

Wave after wave of dragon storm swept over the impromptu fortress. Just when the smoke and stench increased to almost unbearable levels the muted world outside the elven fire protective wards silenced much like that beheld in the ‘eye’ of storms. Breaking a seam Dusty peered into the soot smoke and checked the horizon for any signs of movement. Seeing no immediate threat he ventured out and climber atop the protective hatches of the nearest ship.
“Alright boys they’re gone and them flamers won’t be back until tomorrow. Lets pack up and head on.”, Dusty barked as he started to survey the condition of the ships. Two thirds of the way around the cirque the mountainside opened up for the last third and gave an unobstructed view of a small plain several hundred feet below. Dusty watched as the plain filled with a small army of trolls and other sundry forces.

‘Damn’ Dusty thought to himself taking a moment to try to estimate the forces gathering against them. ‘Looks like takin’ off is gonna be a pleasure.’