Rawgh"faz surveyed his surroundings, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the burning buildings of the village around him as his clansmen set about looting the unburned houses and setting them ablaze. At this point, the village seemed to be empty. They"d only managed to kill a few before the rest managed to flee into the hillside, much to his frustration. He"d have to content himself with leaving them without food or shelter.Raiding had never been the most profitable work for the tribes, though he was luckier than most. The Fanged G.o.d had seen fit to give him The Gift, as well as a stature far above that of his peers. That alone made it possible to pillage locations that would otherwise easily throw back gnoll bands.
He had plans for his warband. Big plans.
Though, why he had been commanded to come raid this tiny, out-of-the-way village with no meaningful resources was beyond him. There was nothing to be gained, outside of perhaps a fearful reputation and some food, both of which could be generated in far greater abundance elsewhere. He had enough scouts and fighters to even sack one of the larger outlying walled cities of the kingdom. He"d even laid plans for taking the fight into the interior.
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But here he was, putting the torch to the middle of nowhere instead.
The emissary had given the order, and Rawgh"faz had obeyed. He knew better than to dare question the order. He"d replaced the splattered corpse of last chieftain who"d made that mistake.
He could only determine that there was a meaning of importance he wasn"t aware of to this out of the way spot. And that would have to be enough.
He turned towards the nearest group of buildings, where the majority of his raiding party were tearing apart the interior.
"Hurry it up, you sc.u.m! Nothing in this worthless s.h.i.thole is worth taking that long to find!" He barked loudly in their direction.
He turned to survey the rest of his immediate surroundings again, and that"s when his nose p.r.i.c.ked up by a sudden new smell. His eyes darted in its direction, which was somewhere between or beyond a couple of the buildings in one of the nearer sections of the square.
He sniffed strongly a few times. It was definitely a living smell. Not human, but not animal or plant, either. It was too clean to be greenskin, but too earthy to be an elf.
What WAS it?
As if on cue to his question, a small humanoid shape walked out from between two of the buildings, looking around as if lost. It looked like a small human girl, a child even. She wandered out into the edge of the square, seeming at first to not notice him.
He felt a chuckle of s.a.d.i.s.tic amus.e.m.e.nt rattle his chest. Poor little thing. She had no idea she was about to be his new plaything.
He turned his head back towards his ransacking clanmates and shouted a few sharp yaps, and immediately the lot of them scrambled out of the building in a ma.s.s of limbs and singed fur, their tongues lolling out of their mouths from the intense heat.
As if on cue, the girl"s attention shot towards them, and she froze in a look of panic, seemingly unsure of what to do.
"Grab the girl! She"ll make a good addition to my collection!" He barked, and on cue, the gnolls bounded towards her. The girl screamed, and turned and ran down the square away from them, headlong into one of the village"s side streets.