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Once again, Christian’s sleep was not sound.  This time however, it was due to the throbbing in his head from yesterday morning’s exploits. His face was still swollen, but at least today, he could open his eye completely.  Blood still matted parts of his hair and the bruising continued to spread down past his chin. He was not a pretty sight by any means.

            Thonas’ head was pounding as well and he noticed the boy sitting alone, gripping his head in agony.  He shuffled through his pack, withdrew two putrid green vials of liquid, and crossed the camp to Christian.  “Drink this down,” Thonas insisted “and try not to let any of it come back for a second visit.” Thonas opened the second vial and choked the liquid down.  His hesitance was obvious, yet Christian figured if Thonas had wanted him dead, he would have let the ogre handle that. 

            With a quick jerk of his head, he drained the vial much as a drunk empties his shot glass.  Never in his life, had he tasted something so rotten.  Christian had to remain still for nearly five minute to keep from vomiting every bit of it of it back up.  “What is that vile potion thou hast no doubt poisoned me with?” Christian winced. 

“Not poison lad, one of my gifts from the elves,” Thonas assured him “I think thy may have cracked thy skull a bit, it will mend now.”

“Ye can’t fool me old man, I know thy stories aren’t true.” Christian quipped.

Thonas smirked, shook his head and returned to stuffing his equipment in his pack. His thoughts reeled back to Tatiana and the elves of El’leiterra. He would see them soon, and they would finally meet the boy. 

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“Thonas,” Udorus grumbled as he walked through camp, “take yer broken boy there and scout some o’ the pass, I heard some rocks fallin’ in the night and I’m not to be headin’ any farther up there not knowin’ what’s in me way.”

“Aye, aye cap’n,” Thonas snapped into a mock salute.

Whipping around with a scowl on his face, Udorus replied, “Does it look like I be on a boat? Fer that matter, Have ye e’er seen a dwarf on a boat?”

The camp broke into a muted laughter.  Udorus, irritated by the mirth at his expense, stomped away, nearly tripping over his own beard in the process.

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“He could have at least let me eat some breakfast,” the boy complained.

             Pulling some dried meat from his own pack and handing it to Christian, Thonas laughed as he said, “mayhap thou shouldst have stirred thyself from that sound sleep two hours ago when the rest of us met the morning lad.”

            Having no retort, Christian grunted and walked on ahead. 

It wasn’t long before the two companions did happen upon a blocked section of the pass.  “This will take hours!” Christian whined in what was becoming his usual tone, “Why didn’t he send more then just the two of us?”

 “Well lad, thou keep complainin’ and we’ll be here even longer!” Thonas shouted back at him as he dropped his pack and began prying at the base of a boulder with a downed branch.   

            The longer they worked, the more concerned Thonas became, “I’m not to be thinking this is a rockslide that happened by the hand of nature, lad.”

            “What say ye?” Christian inquired, “That someone blocked our path intentionally then?”

            “Mayhap” he replied, “How say ye we pick up the pace so as we might get back to camp in time for lunch?”

             Thonas attempted to make his tone unworried, but it did not get past on Christian that in fact, he was concerned.  Had either one of them a bit more experience in tracking, perhaps they would have noticed the footprints all around the area, but they did not, and the prints went unnoticed.

However, from a ledge high up on the pass, the presence of Christian and Thonas did not go unnoticed to rogue half-elf watching them, in fact, he had been expecting, no, anticipating them. With a few hand signals, unrecognizable to most, the rogue dispatched his assembly of hired thugs, mercenaries and thieves. It had been a long time since he remembered having so much profitable fun. “I really must do this more often!” he said quietly to himself as he tumbled to his feet and darted off along the upper mountain pass towards Udorus’s camp.  He stopped before the two were out of sight, shot a glance back at Thonas that would have frozen water, and whispered to himself, “ Soon, you and I will meet again, and I will take from thee, just as thou hast taken from me.”

Just before midday, Christian and Thonas completed their task of clearing the pass enough for the caravan to make it through. The journey back to camp was a quiet one though, as Thonas was silent in his thoughts of the road blockage and Christian daydreaming of being home.

As they closed in on the camp, Thonas proclaimed, “Dost thou smell that lad? They must be cooking us some lunch for all our hard work this day!”

Finally, something appealed to Christian, and he picked up his pace so much that Thonas had to jog just to keep up with him.  However, Christian’s appeal was short lived.  Camp was in sight when Thonas grabbed his shoulder from behind and stopped him in his tracks. 

“What?” Christian tried to shout, but Thonas only silenced him with a raised hand and pulled him off the trail. 

On a second look, Thonas saw that smoke was rising from the camp far more than from a cooking fire. Christian, spotting this himself, began to shake, fear was overcoming his body and without realizing he had done it, he had drawn his sword. Thonas had done the same. Seeing no movement at all, they crept towards the camp, staying a bit off of the established trail.  

The smell went from appealing to appalling the closer they got to camp. It did not take Thonas long to realize they did not smell lunch, but human flesh.  The slaughter had been brief, yet, effective.  None of these hands were anything more then novice swordsmen, and apparently, those that attacked were professionals.  The wounds that were inflicted by swords were precise.  They were exactly where they needed to be for a quick, silent and complete kill.  Two of the hands had arrows protruding from their bodies.  Arrows that looked familiar to Thonas, but her could not at the moment place from where.  One was not so lucky. It would seem at least one of the aggressors’ preferred brute strength over skill. The poor hired hand that had the unfortunate opportunity to meet this aggressor found his body twisted and his arms torn from their sockets.  The horses were gone, yet there was no sign of them being slaughtered. The wagons wheels had been broken and what remained of the wagons, and the last of the crew, were set afire. 

Christian found himself mentally and physically unable to handle the scene laid out in front of him.  His mind closed down and his body opened up, any remnant of dried meat that was left in his stomach was now on the ground.  Thonas however, while obviously sickened by this ghastly scene, went on checking to see if any remain alive so that he might find out what happened.  His concern grew stronger as he realized all were dead, except Udorus.  In fact, Udorus’s body was not to be found anywhere. 

With the words not truly registering in Christian’s head, he heard Thonas talking aloud, “Did they take him with them? Is he bleedin’ to death somewhere?” and he began to yell, “Udorus! UDORUS!!”

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