The Wilderness

[Prince Xannder]

A warm wind brushed across the plains. High above the red sun Rakhmet, and the dull, brown sun Creyatos hung at the top of the sky.

On the wind rode the stench of fire and corpses. Smoke rose in the distance.

Xannder Bonechain pushed his horse to her limits, galloping away from the wreckage of an Omnik nomad camp. Behind him came five Lunans, snarling like animals, riding astride giant rat-like animals.

The korre rats were not nearly as fast as an Omnik horse, but this horse was winded and had not been fed recently. The marauders slowly closed in.

Soon, though, Xannder came to where he was fleeing to. A deep canyon cut through the ground in front of him, spanned by a rope bridge. As he approached it, he unslung an axe from his back.

He rode across the bridge and, as he came to the end of it, cut two of the ropes holding it up. The bridge fell, dangling from the far cliff. The Lunan riders pulled their korres to a quick stop, howling in anger.

One drew his bow and attempted to shoot at Xannder, but the fleeing shaman was already far away.

After a mile of running, Xannder slowed his horse to a walk. The road he was travelling to Aeleon City, rarely used and overgrown with grass, was a long one.

[Monty Reinhardt]

Monty was slowly moving in the grass on what seemed no path. He had been walking for a few days now, two days without rest, but he kept moving. It was time to sell some of his bounty. Over many days he had hunted and skinned quite a few animals and it was now time to sell what he had collected.

However, he heard the sound of a horse behind him actually traveling along the road. Instantly, Monty's hand went to his sword and he slowly drifted to the road. When he was there, he turned, "Excuse me, is this the road to Aeleon City?" He already knew the answer, but he had to establish communication somehow.

Monty didn't look like much, he was wearing a dark cloak with furs and animal hides thrown over his back. His eyes were dark and bloodshot from lack of sleep and he was completely covered in dirt. He looked upon the man before him and his horse. Both look exhausted and the smell of smoke either said one of two things, he was near a campfire or some type of raid. He didn't say anything though, he waited for the man to speak.

[Prince Xannder]

Xannder pulled his horse to a slow stop. The cloud of dust that had been following him, kicked up from the dry roadbed, settled. "Yes, it is," he said in a blunt voice, "Fourty miles as the city people measure it."

[Monty Reinhardt]

"Ah thank you sir. Tell me, what are you doing on this road? It's not one many people use." Monty said, his eye straying over the stranger, he had to make sure he wasn't hostile. It wouldn't be good. Monty didn't want to kill anyone. At least... right now. It'd be a time for murder and death later.

His eyes scanned the grass, which was strangely still. There was no wind and Monty's hand gripped his sword, he had to be careful, he hated silence. His eyes searched for any signs of life but he only found insects.

[Prince Xannder]

Xannder smiled in a friendly way. "I ride to Aeleon," the medicine man explained matter-of-factly, "I have business with their chief."

He made a gesture at the furs that the stranger carried. "You are a trapper?"

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