Fleas - Songs of the Gnolls I

WHAT MANY HANDS PAINT 9.4

The guards had lost the trail as well as the desire to search. Finally, they could breathe. Fátrwa put a finger to her mouth and caressed the hollow where a fang had once been. It did not bleed anymore.

Hiding near the castle had its risks. For some reason, the humans had gathered in the streets and slept in the open. There were a lot of them. As far as she knew, they preferred to live in houses, in groups of no more than six. With so many of them, one might notice them and alert the guards. For the moment, the roof of a huge building with bells that rang from time to time was a good shelter. From up there, they could see and hear everything, and humans were not in the habit of checking above structures. They had learned that from their time on the Wall.

"We should escape. Now is our chance."

"No," Fátrwa replied angrily, "we are going after the emperor. I am going to wipe that grin off his face."

There was another reason to stay. The little cub had been devoured by the earth. That had been the work of trolls. He must be hiding somewhere. Maybe if he killed the emperor, with the chaos that would cause, he would come to light...

"This is madness!" Mrrar objected vehemently. "Rriala is wounded, if they don't sing to her she could die."

"Going through the whole city seems more foolish to me. The castle must be in the center, and we can't avoid all the guards. Not like this."

They were interrupted by a trumpet sounding at the gates of the building. They remained silent and approached to investigate what was happening. The humans did the same, gathering around the sound.

"Attention, attention! Soon reinforcements will arrive from Lei Livilan and we will be able to retake the invaded part of the city!"

"When is soon?" Asked another. "By now those savages will have eaten all my horses."

"And they will have burned our houses. Who will compensate us?"

The five Wind Paws looked at each other in surprise. That explained why there were so many people in the streets. They had taken refuge.

"Finally! Scourge and the others took over the city. Then we just have to go through the wall," Mrrar said.

"No," Fátrwa replied with a smile, "we will open the gates. Once we do that, nothing will stop us from overthrowing the emperor."

They could almost taste the victory. They would wait for nightfall and infiltrate, one last time.