She saw them, barely, almost faded into the trees.
"Come on out, or I'm coming in!" she shouted.
****
"She's speaking the Kara Tur tongue," one of the two elves said as they stepped out.
"What are you doing her drow?" the second elf demanded in the elven tongue, a bow in hand.
****
Ranma stood ready, she was at the beginning of her life now, much of the skills she had learned in the previous one were already hanging just out of reach, waiting to be relearned in this new life.
One of the people, a pale skinned version of what she was, stepped out and challenged her, but she couldn't understand a word he said.
"What?" she asked, flinching and glancing behind her as two more archers showed themselves behind her.
****
"She doesn't understand," one of the elves said in disgust. "Try common."
"What are you doing here?" the other elf demanded again, this time in the common tongue, but it garnered no better response.
"Who cares what she speaks. She's young," an elf noted. "Confused and alone."
"And the Vhaerun worshippers will pay handsomely for any female," another noted. "Imagine what they'd pay for a full-blooded drow female."
"Move in," the first elf said, smiling darkly as he switched from his bow to a flat club. "Subdue her, just subdue her."
"It'll be fun breaking this drow in for Vhaerun's people," another elf chuckled.
****
Ranma grimaced as the bows were put down and clubs were taken up. She knew enough and had seen enough in travelling in her previous life to know what that meant. They thought to take her alive, and the vicious smiles on the four other elven faces told her it wasn't for her own benefit.
****
"What are we waiting for?" a man asked in confusion from cover. "These are the rogue elves we've been waiting for. They're going to take that drow girl while we just sit and watch."
The man was a short, wiry man, almost rattish in appearance. He had dark hair and black eyes and was obviously eager to jump into the fray below. Despite his impatience, however, he stayed deadly still and even his speech was barely a whisper. He wore two golden rings around his left ring finger, one with a yellow garnet and the other with a purple amethyst.
"I doubt it," the man's partners said. "I think this will be an amusing show, if not, we can step in before they take her."
The partner was bucktoothed, blonde human female with a similar, slim and wiry build as the man. Her face was set as she watched the coming conflict and tapped her fingers silently, waiting to see what would happen. Like the man, she wore two rings on her left ring finger, and one of those was an amethyst, but the other was a small piece of Onyx.
"She's unarmed," the man said. "And Mo's set up on the other side already." He pointed across the way to what seemed to be no more than an oddly colored rat.
"Just wait, this'll be good," the blonde said.
****
The elves moved in and one raised his club to strike, attacking with all the grace and speed of an elf. Ranma swiftly ducked to the side and slammed her fist into the elf's stomach, feeling the light chain the man wore give before the assault.
It was a trigger, and soon all four elves were moving to strike her. Ranma passed under and around the one she had just knocked the wind out of and slashed out a side-kick into the face of a second attacker.
A swung club was trapped in her crossed arms and quickly it flew across the field of battle to strike a third elf between the eyes even as the arm that had been carrying snapped under a swift assault.
The rogue elf's screams were cut off quickly as he was dropped, unconscious, by the impact of Ranma's backfist.
****
"A monk?" the male bounty hunter asked as Ranma continued to cut an easy swath through the slave-traders.
"No, not a monk," the blonde said. "This one's too practical, too vicious, too accurate, no mystical concentration. She's a warrior, a fighter, a specialist."
****
Ranma stopped in stance, looking about her at the unconscious and/or moaning elves that she had just dropped. The sound of clapping brought her attention and she was ready, again, to fight, but, then again, she was always ready to fight.
"Wow, that was great," a blonde human said in Ranma's own language as she stepped out of the trees, followed by a man.
A sound behind her alerted Ranma to the purple-haired beauty that stepped out of the woods. All three were wearing leather armor and lightly armed with daggers and short swords. Rogues of some kind, and good ones if she hadn't heard them at all. Looking to their hands, Ranma saw the rings and realized that the three of them were married to each other.
Ranma didn't stop to wonder at how she was slowly developing a greater awareness for the cultural significances of this world.
"Yeah, we didn't have to do anything this time," the purple-haired woman said, poking at the unconscious bodies.
"You know that the Elven Court is offering a handsome reward for these bandits," the blonde said.
"Reward?" Ranma asked. "Elven Court?"
"You were raised by humans, weren't you?" the man asked. "And they didn't bother to teach you about what you are, right?"
"Aren't you human?" Ranma asked.
"Yes and no," the blonde said as she went about the task of tying up the elven slavers. "We're wererats. We had some...disagreements with our clan and do bounty hunter work now."
"Can we, you know, get moving," the purple-haired one asked. "This is, like, way close to the wrong parts of the forest."
"She's right," the blonde said. "I'm Lydia, these are my spouses, Romeo and Moisha." She pointed at the man and the other girl as she spoke.
"Hi," Romeo said.
"Like, well met," Moisha said.
"Come on, four of us, four of them," Lydia said, she pointed to the elves. "Grab one and let's get back to the places where the right people are in control."
"Huh?" Ranma asked.
"Look," Lydia said. "We chased these goons way too deep into the forest. If we don't get to areas patrolled by the Dalelanders, or the Elven Court, or Eilistraee's people soon, we'll get found by the freaks these assholes work for...or worse, the demons in Myth Drannor. So get moving, that way, and keep your eyes open."
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(Posted Sat, 03 Jul 2004 04:37)
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