They had been being forced to march for three hours now. Lowks did not have a good opinion of their capturers. And not just because they had tied him up. They leered at his female companions. It made him a bit fearful for what these men had planned.
Surprisingly, Vixen had not even attempted to hit on any of them. Perhaps the silly girl did have some self-preservation instincts left. She kept close to his side, giving him the sense that no matter how much they might but heads she still trusted him to keep her safe.
He glanced over where his sister was marching, head held high as she ignored the men eyeing her like a piece of meat. He narrowed his eyes, wishing that his hands were not bound that way he could punch these fellows for disrespecting his sister with their eyes.
He could sense that his companions in general were in low spirits. They were all worried about Raven and the kids. After all, it was pretty hard not to like the smiling amnesiac druid.
Lowks wished that he could have become closer to the fellow. He rather liked Raven"s easy-going att.i.tude. And he really hoped the fellow was alright.
Lowks did not usually just immediately take a liking to someone, but Raven was one of those people he just did.
He noticed one of their captors reaching out a hand to stroke Vixen"s arm. He tugged on the rope binding the two of them and maneuvered himself so he was in between of her and the guy.
He gave the idiot a baleful glare and then turned away. He knew that it was likely to get the ire of the pervert but he was willing to risk that.
Vixen stepped even closer to him, pretty much plastering against him. He could feel her trembling as she kept her head down.
With a sigh, he turned to look at the girl. He leaned his head down to speak to her in a whisper, "It will be okay. I"ll protect you."
She looked up and he saw the look of utter trust in her eyes. And he felt a bit relieved to know that some things had not changed, she still did rely on him deep down. Just like she had always done.
He was not entirely sure to what degree he could protect her at this point. He did not even have his bow. All he could hope was that one of the sorcerers would recover enough to do something to deal with these perverted thugs.
But he kept these thoughts to himself as he gave the girl next to him a rea.s.suring smile.
Vixen then whispered, "You always do." She paused, and then continued with a glimmer of spirit, only Lowks was pretty sure it was false bravado, "It gets rather stifling at times how overprotective you are, but…thank you. At times it is nice to have someone always ready to have my back."
Lowks said nothing, not sure what to say to the human girl who he had looked after for years. But he smiled, happy that she did at least realize that he was looking out for her, not just being the bore she often treated him as.
As Lowks was thinking about this, he grew aware of the sweet sounds of a flute being played. He looked around, wondering who exactly would be playing a flute near by a group of burly perverted thugs. It seemed like an idiotic thing to do.
The rope that bound his hands suddenly tightened, forcing him to stop.
"Why, what do we have here?" Lowks could hear the voice of the ragtag group"s leader as he drawled in a rather interested tone.
Lowks lifted his eyes, as the sound of the flute just stopped, and looked at where the sound had been coming from.
She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Even more beautiful than Queen Dawn. Easily as tall as his own sister, the girl was dressed in a simple white gown girded with a golden belt. Her hair looked like molten red gold that pooled around her bare feet. A circlet was on her head, twisted of gold and silver with a single red gem laying down from it over her lovely face.
There was a warmth to her beauty as well, nothing like the cold beauty that was a.s.sociated with the queen. Her eyes were a brilliant dancing green, with golden flecks enhancing and making it look even warmer. Her pale pink lips were curled up into a warm smile.
Perhaps the most startling thing was the old battered looking symbol hanging from her neck. A bloodstained wooden holy symbol of Xi"eli. Whether the girl realized what she was wearing or not Lowks had no idea.