World Seed

These slavers were very good at hiding their tracks, often leaving behind multiple dummy tracks to slow down any would be pursuer. As the pair grew closer the slavers dummy tracks became even more elaborate slowing their pursuit even more.

Sera had encountered human slavers before when she was still learning under Master Ferlin and while they too used dummy tracks, the ones before her now seemed much more concerned with not being found. It made her curious mind wonder what they were up to for them to go through such trouble.

"Are you ready?" Sera asked Jeren.

"Yawn.. Nope, too sleepy."

"Good, let"s go."

"Hey wait, wait!" As if the trait ran in the family Sera ignored his protests and took off into the forest. Jeren quickly caught up to her pouting at his overly serious partner.
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"Would it kill you to relax for a minute? They"re only half a day away, we"ll catch them before they reach the coast whether you rush after them or take it easy."

"We were half a day away yesterday too and yet they tricked us once again. I"m not going to lose them again."

"What are you even going to do once we find them? It"s not like they kidnapped anyone from Setrhyn and we have no proof that they were the ones behind the disappearances in Lyr."

"We"ll just have to ask and see. If they were behind it then they will die. If we allow the humans to believe they can enslave us unscathed then it won"t be long before they start coming en ma.s.se. Then what? Do we run and hide behind the walls of Tyres Gate like the rest of the Fae"Laran?"

Jeren stayed quite for a moment before speaking.

"What if we kill them and cause others to come for them will it not have the same effect?"

"I"d rather die fighting than die a slave." Sera grumbled before darting off faster leaving Jeren a few steps behind her as they ran through the forest.

Sera hated Jeren"s way of thinking. She had taken the trip to the Fae"Laran capital city of Eltheas with her father multiple times and they thought just like Jeren, that it was better to do nothing than to act. The people there believed the villages outside the walls were foolhardy and dangerous, they were perfectly content to live and die never leaving their little valley protected by the mountains and Tyres Gate.

They ran for most of the morning only taking a break when they encountered the corpses of a direwolf pack. Sera knelt down near one before touching the wound on the direwolves chest.

"The blood has barely started to clot, they"re close."

"They have a mage with them." Jeren spoke pointing out a corpse with burned fur.

"It doesn"t change what we have to do. When we spot them i"ll go alone, you hide and be ready to fight if they try anything."

"You don"t have to-"

"Let"s go." Sera cut him off once more and took off running leaving behind a cursing Jeren who quickly chased after her.

Sera"s elven ears picked up the slavers well before she could see them in the dense forest. She put her bow on her back and gave Jeren a quiet signal before running after them.

She could see six men, four of which were wearing leather armor and swords on their hips. One was an elderly man dressed in grey mages robes and carried a gnarled staff. Lastly there was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties who wore red leather armor with a white fortress embedded on the chest.

She could immediately tell the young man was a human n.o.ble but it only confused her. She didn"t know much about human society but she knew that n.o.bles rarely put themselves in danger unless there was a war. It was useless to guess anymore so she made her way out in front of the group of men.

"You are trespa.s.sing on elven lands. Why have you come here?" Sera asked.

"Oh a dark elf!" One of the men cooed.

"I am not a "dark elf", i am of the Fae"Laran. Why have you come here?" She scowled at the man as she spoke.

"Forgive my men"s ignorance. I am Fen Abery, son of Earl Abery. May i have your name?"

"I am a ranger of the Fae"Laran. Why have you come here?"

The n.o.bles jaw clenched displaying his displeasure at Sera"s rude response before calming himself and responding.

"...We are searching for a garant fruit. My younger sister has fallen ill and the physician said the only thing that could cure her was a garant fruit. So we-"

"You"re on the wrong side of the forsaken lands for garant fruit. It grows on the west sh.o.r.es not the east."

"Ah, is that so.. It looks like our information is old then."

"You should leave these lands. The rangers of Lyr will not be as kind as i have been and will take you for slavers."

Sera suspected they were lying as she had never heard of garant fruit growing on the east coast of the forsaken lands and she knew these woods like the back of her hand. It was possible the humans were truly mistaken so she decided to test them.

If their words were true then she would leave and shadow them until they left elven lands. However if when she leaves they take the opportunity to attack her then this place will become their graves. She turned to leave despite the young n.o.bles protests and almost immediately she could hear the mage begin to chant a spell.

An arrow flew past her as she drew her sword and turned. One of the men had a bolo in his hands ready to throw it but the arrow in his throat stopped any thought of succeeding in his task.

"We need her alive! Do not kill her!" The young n.o.ble called out not realizing the roles of hunter and hunted had already flipped. Sera charged at the mage but he had already finished his spell and it felt as though she had entered quicksand making it difficult for her to move. Locked in place she couldn"t make use of her superior elven agility and was forced to confront the men head on.

The first man swung his sword down forcing her to block it with her own while the other two surrounded her ready to pounce when she couldn"t move. Her strength couldn"t match against the large human but luckily for her, she wasn"t alone.

An arrow shot into his right shoulder softening the blow and allowing her to riposte her blade into the mans armpit. It was a fatal wound but it seemed to only anger the hulking man as he switched sword hands and attempted to swing again but another arrow impaled the mans leg bringing him down to a knee. Sera quickly slashed at the mans throat ending his life before turning around.

One of the two attackers was already littered with arrows on the ground while the other was charging at her, using a s.h.i.+eld to block the incoming arrows.

"Young n.o.ble we must go, she has friends in the forest! Come close!" The mage cried out to Fen Abery while pulling out a scroll.

"Shoot the mage!" Sera cried out to Jeren.

The mage seemed to lose concentration as the spell became weaker allowing Sera more freedom to move and hastily repel the final attacker. The air around the mage was filled with mana fluctuations as he held the scroll and began to chant a spell. Fen Abery scrambled his way to the mage doing his best to avoid Sera who was chasing after him still slowed by the spell.

An arrow flew out from Jeren"s bow, its intended target was the mage but Fen ran in the way and the arrow entered his throat sending him crumpling into the mage. The spell finished and a silvery magic bubble encapsulated the area around the mage and Fen before shrinking into nothingness.

"They"re gone, seemed to be a teleportation spell of some kind." Jeren spoke as he walked out of the woods.

"Let"s collect the mana cores we should get back and tell Master Ferlin." Sera was already cutting open a mans chest as she spoke.

They traveled north for the rest of the day making camp once the sun had already set. Sera was on first watch so she snacked on some yaddle berries she found near their campsite while thinking about the implications of today"s fight.

If the human n.o.bles were behind the kidnappings then things were going to get far more complicated. It could mean war, and it"s not like the rest of the Fae"Laran behind Tyres Gate would come out and help.

The five villages would be on their own, they could always retreat behind the walls like they did during world invasions but she feared they would never be able to leave again if they did. The humans would come looking for them as soon as they knew they left the walls. "As if we didn"t have enough enemies to deal with..."

In the distance an explosion of purple flames lit up the dark nights sky bringing Sera back to reality. The dark purple flames reminded her of Aerwyn"s undead and she thought that maybe whoever shot out that magic was related to him in some way. She ran over and gently kicked the sleeping Jeren.

"Jeren wake up."

"Mm.. I"m up... I"m up. What is it?"

"There"s was a magic explosion near the Ruins of Ardin we should check it out."

"We can check it out tomorrow i need my beauty sleep. Not everyone is naturally pretty like you-"

"Let"s go." Sera commanded and took off into the distance.

"Seraaaaa!"