Still reeling from the blow of the gnoll"s glaive, Eleanor found herself suddenly being half-walked, half-drug down a narrow, damp corridor, lit only here and there by a rough metal torch sconce nailed into the wall. A time or two she stumbled, only to find herself forcefully jerked back upright with such aggression that she was afraid the dog-man holding the chain would pull her head off.They lead her through the corridor, then down another after reaching a for, then down another fork in quick succession. The tunnels all looked identical and were so crooked and winding that Eleanor, despite her best efforts, completely lost any sense of direction.
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Part of her wanted to wonder why she was even bothering trying to find a way out, but the stubborn optimist in her stifled that thinking almost immediately. Even if the odds were grim that she would ever see her way out of this alive, giving up and accepting defeat was absolutely not an option. As soon as she did that, any chance she had of getting away or making it until a rescue vanished.
No, it was better to hold onto that glimmer, no matter how stupid or foolish or naïve it seemed to the rational part of her brain. It was the only thing she had that no one else could take from her, even in these circ.u.mstances.
After several more twisting tunnels, the gnolls finally led her a ledge that overhung a large, open cave room. Compared to the rest of the place she"d seen, this felt downright ma.s.sive by comparison. The ceiling easily rose a hundred feet or more above, and the ample torchlight in the s.p.a.ce danced and refracted across the myriad stalact.i.tes that hug down from the roof. The room was perhaps twice as long and wide as it was tall, and seeing its contents made whatever shred of hope Ellie was holding onto in her chest completely vanish in an instant.
The room contained dozens of ramshackle tents and huts, arranged in six or seven rough circles, with common areas featuring cooking fires, tables, workbenches, and all other manner of items necessary for a functioning society. And amongst these circles of dwellings, she could see well over a hundred more of the dog-faced creatures milling about talking, working, feasting, and fighting.
This was an entire city, all kept within a ma.s.sive cave network. And somehting told her this wasn"t the only one of these kinds of gatherings in this cave. The sheer scale of it made her dizzy.
Before she could reflect any longer, the gnoll holding the chain jerked it again, pulling her behind him down the narrow, sloping pathway from the ledge down to the main area below. Once they reached the ground floor, they went straight into the midst of the village.
As her captors led her into the midst of all of the other gnolls, a good many of them stopped whatever they were doing to gawk at her as she was led past them. Some pointedly paid her little mind. Others, seemingly the younger members of the clan, based on their relative size, howled and made lewd gestures at her, which caused the bile in the back of her throat to rise up in horror.
The gnolls leading her navigated past one circle, then another, until finally the three of them reached a large corridor in the back of the chamber. Once they reached it, two more gnolls, much larger than the rest, and wearing polished metallic armor stepped out, their polearms held at the ready.
The gnoll holding her chain barked something, and gestured to her. The two large gnolls looked her up and down, and after a moment, stepped to the side and motioned for the three of them to enter.