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 Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 6:56 pm
Meanwhile, miles away, Celeborn and Donovan were finally catching up with the second group of slavers. Celeborn could hear them already - four human males and at least a half dozen children.
He motioned to catch Donovan's attention, then signed, Shall I snipe them all or would you like one to play with?
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:00 pm
Donovan surveyed the situation at hand, that was quite a number of children and it was a large (relatively speaking) group of humans. He looked back at Celeborn and signed back. Leave one alive.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:16 pm
Celeborn nodded. He would have to disable the man, though, so that he couldn't turn on any of the children and hold them as hostages. He readied his bow and set his quiver on the ground in front of himself in preparation. For several moments, he just watched the humans, gaging their movements, then he raised his bow and sent off four shots in rapid succession, so quickly that his movements were blurred, impossible to follow.
All four of the humans dropped like stones, three of them dead with an arrow in the back of their skulls, while the fourth had an arrow only through his shoulder.
The children, mostly very young, screamed and huddled together in fear, looking around anxiously to see where the sudden assault was coming from.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:25 pm
Donovan rather not traumatize the children any more than they already are, however... he made a beeline for the alive human. While he was injured there was always the worry he would try something anyway. Desperate people did the most amazing things (and he wasn't referring it to a good way this time around).
"Celeborn," he glanced at the children, "If you don't mind..."
He really never was able to help the children adjust in the first hour or so of them being free. What being human and all.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:33 pm
Celeborn nodded. "I'm on it," he muttered, shouldering his quiver and heading out from the cover of the bushes.
He headed straight for the children, calling out to them in their own tongue, calming them.
Meanwhile, the last remaining human staggered to his feet, one hand over the wound in his shoulder, eyes darting around to see what was going on. When he spotted Donovan making a beeline towards him, he called out in his own language, apparently trying to ask Donovan a question.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:45 pm
While Donovan could probably have a rough... very rough... if he guessed... idea of what elves said thanks to Lin always trying to practice and keep up with her own studies, he still had no grasp of Human Tongue whatsoever.
"Sorry, you're going to have to ask that in Common Tongue, if you can speak it," he told the guy, "Can't promise you'll like what you hear though."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 7:51 pm
The man blinked at Donovan, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"What are you doing?" he asked, completely confused. "Why are you working with them? Betraying your own people!"
He wrenched the arrow from his shoulder, holding it like a spear.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:08 pm
Donovan let his knife slide into his hand, no point in getting caught off guard even if the man was injured. He gave the man a grim look, the many ways he could answer that, but he might as well answer since he was going to let the man go.
"My people?" Donovan raised a brow, his knife flashed in the sunlight, "I'm afraid you are sorely mistaken, my people live far in the forests and mountains in a land you have never heard of. We speak a language unlike yours, we co-existence with the other races. Where I come from, a child is a child no matter the race. My people are honourable."
With that he moved to disarm the broken arrow from the man and pin him to the ground.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:23 pm
The man jerked the arrow out of Donovan's reach, but fell back to the ground, grunting with the pain in his shoulder.
"Honour aside," he grunted, holding Donovan back with his good arm, "I need the money. My family needs to eat too you know - I may not like my job but I have my own kids to think about."
His eyes were not angry - only resigned.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:32 pm
Donovan snatched up the arrow, he really despised the family card. Though he could understand it, but he wasn't ever going to use it to justify what he did for a living. If he did, please someone shoot him.
"Then you know it's nothing personal that I got to do this," Donovan replied back dryly, "Job is a job, for you know... family and stuff like that."
Damn his luck it was someone who honestly did this for a living. Honestly why couldn't he get another job?
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:46 pm
"Nothing personal," the man agreed. "Though the fact that I'm not dead yet indicates that you have no intention of killing me ... a warning to others, I assume?"
A flash of hope flickered through his eyes.
"If I swear never to do this again, spread the word, find an honest job ... will you let me go back to my kids? I have to be able to provide for them ... they have no one else ..."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:55 pm
There were times like these he wished he had some sort of mind or illusion magic, but he didn't. His specialty lied in seals and nothing was going to change that. Donovan looked at the man's eyes, as if to detect the lie that might be trying to wiggle out onto the surface.
"Yea, general procedure is to torture and let the person alive go," Donovan replied.
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:59 pm
The man's eyes widened with fear, and his face paled visibly.
"I ... was kind of hoping to forgo that part ..." he admitted softly. "Is ... is there any ... any way to ... not ... torture ..."
He swallowed hardly. "Please ... I have to be able to work ... hard ... for my kids ..."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:13 pm
It was true, they had worked under the assumption that the men were single, or at the very least had no children what to speak of.
"It is true, you'd have to work very hard to make up for the fact whatever job you get won't pay nearly as well," Donovan studied the man.
What a pain he thought to himself, but the man was not lying.
"However getting off without a bit of punishment isn't going to go over well," Donovan added.
So the question was then, what was he going to do? Everything he had in mind was way too extreme, and he only had sealing spells instead of any other type of magic.
"While I think on what to do, out of morbid curiosity, out of all the jobs why slaving? I mean hell you could have moved out into more open land and lived off of it."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 9:26 pm
The man looked ashamed. "I didn't know what it was at first ... I needed money ... I was asking around ... some people approached me, told me they knew of a way to get a lot of money, fast ... so I went with them ..."
He squinted up at Donovan, the pain of his injury finally setting in.
"And if you think it's possible to work the land down there," he gasped, fighting not to wince, "then you really haven't been there before."
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