Chapter 1
Eleni had sat in the tree branch for a good long while now, and began to worry. She occasionally shielded her purplish blue eyes with her slender hand and stared hard into the well traveled dirt road that led towards and across the wooden bridge in the distance as if willing the stocky form of the dapper dwarf to appear by the sheer force of her will and boredom alone. Of course it failed, and the elf girl blinked away the dirt in her eyes that the playful summer wind had deposited there with a woosh, saying, "Come on Duron...hurry up.."
Only the birds answered her pleading however, and Eleni sighed for the twentieth time this afternoon, mentally counting with an inward groan. Honestly, she didn't know why she put up with this nonsense, she told herself with righteous indignation. But in the back of her mind, she knew. Duron always brought back coins from his little escapades, and sometimes bright baubles too. Her pulse was still light enough, matter of fact always light, for Eleni to put up with this "nonsense" that she hated with all the aloof and haughty airs her elven heritage could muster and bluster. It never failed to cause Duron to lightly chuckle and pinch her buttocks for her troubles however. It was all a grand game to him and that is what annoyed the elf girl the most.
Eleni debated whether to let out another shuddering sigh, and looked down at her tight fitting dark blue dyed leather pants and her well worn boots that was in need of resoling. Her hands absentmindedly worked on a number of braids that already adorned around her delicate face. She got a hold of one of the long strands of her hair that hung about her pointy ear, and started her fingers working on the length of it that refused to cooperate, escaping all her attempts at trying to get it to braid. Eleni was about to let out another deep sigh, when she noticed a shape coming along and over the wooden bridge. The elf girl began to smile and noticed with some alarm that the shape, which happened to be of a correct height and shape that matched Duron, was also being chased by shapes of other sizes. Most of them happened to be carrying weapons, it seemed.
Eleni shimmied down from her perch on the tree as lightly as any feather could manage, being careful not to step on the pile of travel packs and Duron's rather ridiculous looking sword that looked like a fencing rapier. The elf girl was in the process of dusting off her short sleeved white silken tunic that she had just recently cleaned when Duron's breathless voice reached her, full of panic.
"Run!" Duron's voice floated toward her as Eleni's sensitive ears also picked up words from his pursuers, which included, "Stop him!", "Kill the wretch!", "Don't let that cad get away!"
The dwarf was quite the sight. His dusky brown ponytailed hair that he had brushed and greased this very morning had already seen better days, looking more akin to a wild shrubbery now than anything else. And his neat fluffy sleeved shirt and pantaloons were generally dissheveled and torn in places. The acrid smell of cheap beer also assaulted Eleni's nose as the dwarf came closer, and she did the only thing that she knew would save him. She yanked Duron's sword from its scabbard, and threw it at Duron. It landed with a metallic thud on the ground in front of the running dwarf, impaling itselt by its point. The dwarf fairly lunged for the pommel and without breaking stride, grabbed it, rolled forward to keep the momentum, and kept running until he was upon Eleni, stopping and whirling around with a wild look in his eyes. Eleni, however, made no movement to her weapons however. "Elle...my girl, back me up on this..." Duron whispered harshly under his breath as the figures, which turned out to be the men from the village, surrounded them with their crude cudgels and pitchforks, as well as a rusty sword or two. Duron's eyes were already making calculations, the elf could see. Eleni slowly turned around, taking in the crowd of mostly curious onlookers and the occasional angry faces that stared back at her with hardness.
"Whatever my friend here did, I apologize profusely." Eleni stated to speak slowly, her purplish eyes falling upon the ones that were here to see the show. "We will try to make restitutions if we are able. We are mere travellers to these lands and we certainly do not want trouble..." Eleni continued as she saw some of the men's look soften at the sight of her entreaty. "Whatever he did could not have been so terrible. He is a harmless dwarf who..."
One of the angry looking men cut the elf off sharply with a curse that colored Eleni's cheek. "A harmless dwarf! The horny wretch forced himself upon the mayor's wife!" he growled, his eyes full of fire.
"I saw it with my own eyes! He took her to the stalls and had his way with her!" another man chimed in, waving his pitchfork toward Duron. "She had no chance! None at all! She was ravashed! Her screams still echo in my ears!"
Duron cleared his throat and replied in a rather matter of fact voice, "Of course she screamed, my good man. She was most vocal in her approval of my actions. I daresay, the old girl hadn't had a good..."
"Duron!" Eleni admonished in a rather ladylike fashion, her cheeks crimson with embaressment.
"You wound me, Elle." Duron stated in a rather hurt voice. "The lady favored me and I did her service. She was most greatful before the louts here chased me out of the village. I was more the victim here than she, mind you. She is not the usual fare that I take on as a client, but she paid well enough..."
"Lies!" the man with the pitchfork screamed. "She told us that you had forced yourself upon her!"
Duron yawned lightly, trying to piece together what little dignity there was left for him to cobble together. "Of course she would, my dear good man." He began, using his sword like a cane and looking at him sagely. "As all good ladies of breeding are wont to do if they were caught in the act of a little tryst with a handsome, mysterious stranger. Be a reasonable fellow. I only spell this out for you as no other fine gentleman of my station are apt to do since you and your friends have greatly misunderstood what had transpired between me and the lady."
The first man narrowed his eyes at this and spat out, "Look at that short treestump, primping and frumping like some Waterdhavian lord. Know your place, dwarf. You eat dirt and rocks in your mountains. I smell the odor of ore on you. If you had thought that us simple country folk would be awed by your manner and your strumpet of an elf wench there, you're sadly mistaken." The man then turned to the rest of his fellows, and said, "We will place them both under arrest until our mayor returns from his trip."
Eleni held up her hands in front of her and said, "Wait a minute. Let us all calm down here. I am sure we can come to an understanding." Her eyes were already reading the hidden, dark intentions that some of the men had in their faces as they inched forward toward her. She knew that she would suffer the supposed fate of the mayor's wife, or worse.
Duron lightly covered a yawn with a produced handkerchief and picked up his sword, twirling it in the air and catching it neatly. "Dear, dear humans. Why must you all persist in this course of action. So ready to judge to the quick, coloring me with your prejudiced eyes." He neatly parried the first thrust aimed against his gut, merely turning the rusty sword away with one hand while covering his mouth from another yawn. "By the way, as your mayor's lady can attest to, I am not short in the least. Where it counts." Duron continued, smacking the man with the sword across the face with the flat of his blade when he lunged for the dwarf once more in a clumsy attempt to behead him. It caused the man to yelp and drop his sword, covering his red, swollen face with his hands.
Eleni yelped when the men came rushing forward to grab her. They were all coming for her at once, the three of them. "Duron! Do not hurt them!" was all Eleni had time to blurt out as she slid forward between one of the men's legs and rolled forward into a quick handstand, pushing off hard and over the stunned young boy who happened to have followed the mob. She watched in shock as one of the men raised his club to strike at where she was, and attempted to finish through the stroke on the boy's head, his face etched with frustration and anger at having been fooled. As if in slow motion, the elf girl saw the young boy's face contort first into surprise and then his eyes start to close shut. Half way through the landing, Eleni made a quick choice, and twisting her body in contortion, she made a quick motion with her left hand. A small shiny dagger flew out from the grasp of her slender finger like a questing, silvery bird, and sailed on with a deadly whistle that ripped into the air and on, and skim the wrist of the man that held the club, drawing blood and causing the man to scream and drop his club. Eleni sighed to herself with resignation as her momentum died and she felt the ground meet up with her rather quickly with a rushing sound. The sudden sensation of the earth slamming into her back was a shock to her even though she knew it was to come, as the breath left her lungs with a rush. She continued to roll anyway, curling herself up into a little ball. Her eyes drifted over to the young boy, who kept his eyes shut tight against the world around him, only the wind rustling through his brown, curled hair. Eleni watched on as the boy slowly opened his eyes, searching for the blow that was to dash in his brains, and finally locked eyes with Eleni's own. The elf girl gave him a quick wink and rolled out of the way to the left as a man's body slammed into the ground at the spot where she had been. A jabbing stick was aimed at her throat now, but eleni saw the blow coming even before the churlish man had acted, and grabbed onto the stick to pull her forward as the surprised man pulled back on the stick. Her hand flew over and past the man's eyes as she broke out into a run past him. The man screamed and clutched at his eyes as the crunchy sound of a handful of dirt smashing against his wide open eyes and face registered to the elf girl's pointed ears.
The confused and stunned onlookers gave her way as Eleni kept running, with the man with one of the few serviceable looking swords in his possession hot on her heels. Eleni suddenly reached up with both hands without breaking stride, grabbing onto the low hanging tree branch that she had sat upon just a few blissfully silent and peaceful moments ago, and swung herself up, the momentum of her run carrying her through the top in a graceful yet quick arc, and then with her legs kept together the elf rushed downwards through the swing, planting both her boot prints into the back shoulders of the surprised man that had been chasing her. The blow, with all the momentum that her small body could muster, had a telling effect as the man pitched forward in midstride, the sword in his hand tumbling out of his grasp as he fell face first into the grass covered dirt with a heavy thud. The elf girl let the branch go as she swung through, landing in front of the prone man's head and picking up his sword. She spun lightly around on her heels as if pirouetting, her tightly woven braids that framed her face whipping about like black tendrils.
"Stop her! She's about to kill Jonas!" A voice called out from the crowd. That was all that Eleni needed as she threw the sword away from her as far as she could, and broke out into a run and into the woods. She spared a quick glance towards Duron, and her lips broke out into a smile as she saw the dwarf barrel through the gathered men in a very dwarf like fashion, their meager possessions clutched to his broad chest. Duron stopped midway, as the crowd that were hot on his heels did as well as if on cue. He spun on his heels, cleared his throat, and intoned with a curt bow, "I thank you all for your hospitality or lack thereof as it were, good sirs and gents, and I use those terms very very lightly. You shant see me in these woods, for you see, I think of your women in these parts as no better than smelly breeding cows with diseased udders..."
"Kill him!"
"Well, toodles and all that." Duron quickly announced, breaking out into a run once more, following the sounds of the elf girl's haunting giggles that echoed like ghostly voices amongst the trees that led deeper into the forest.