Hunted

Problems

Alys ran through the woods; she quickly lost her way despite that giant man telling her which way to go. She was not used to the wilderness and did not know the woods at all. Despite this she kept running until she found a break in the tree line which showed a large clearing which was quite large and circular in shape. She had adjusted to her feelings of discomfort, but they were still there. Her legs gave out and she fell to the itchy grass. On the other end of the clearing was a boy around her own age, he looked average size if a little thin and his hair was a beautiful orange-gold. His flawless features and dark skin, that resembled the color of many of the trees around them, were the last things she saw before she collapsed, and fell into unconsciousness.

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Lance and Joseph walked through the woods together, Joseph had to support the other man with his shoulder due to the sedative that slowly made its way through Lances body. Joseph could see how his condition was worsening and knew he needed to get him to the cabin soon, fortunately they were not far from Josephs home. Unfortunately, through all the excitement of the past hour he had been unable to get any food and his waterskin was empty, both things the man would need to flush out the poison.

Fortunately, he could see the girl's footprints going in the correct direction as he walked, and he kept an eye on them to make sure she had not gotten lost. A groan came from the shorter man and his steps came more sluggishly; this was going to take a while.

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Lance did not know who this large man was, but he was grateful that he had been saved, if he hadn't come Lance couldn't even imagine what might have happened. Since the sedative began to kick in and Lance could no longer properly move his muscles Joseph was helping to prop him up, they had been walking for close to an hour and the large man still hadn't said anything since that first exchange, on top of that he stared at the ground intently at something, it seemed, Lance couldn't see. The more he walked the weaker he felt, his legs kept getting harder to lift, his arms felt like useless weights and his eyes were beginning to blur. He hoped they would get to wherever they were going soon, or he didn't know if he would make it.

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Lord Kieran Schnieder was a Baron of the seventh dominance of Keren and owned the town, soon to be city, in the far east of the Shen country which marked the border to the great forest. This forest was home to many monsters such as horned rabbits, Black squirrels, which were abnormally large, and wild boars. It was also made up of dense foliage and trees which only craftsmen in this town had learned to cut down through the use of special tools and secret ways of persuading the Xon of the forest. They were called Iron trees and had recently been found to be an incredibly useful resource, they could be made into sturdy housing and if worked correctly could even make weapons and armor. It was difficult to get expeditionary wagons through the forest because they were usually attacked by a monster making the workers who survived the attack retreat to town to spread horror stories of their ordeal.

Lord Kieran was an ambitious man who, through many dealings with higher rank nobles, would make this backwater into a proper city. One such deal he was negotiating was with his current guest, Duke Cleoth don Martre lord of the seventh dominance of the Shen nation and one of the highest-ranking nobles in the country. Lord Kieran was always intimidated by the man's ominous eyes and his prominent nose which made him look like some bird of prey. His bright red hair and immaculate white suit marked him as nobility. This had been a deal years in the making and finally, with Alys turning 17 this coming spring, would finally come to fruition. He could be rid of the retched girl who had appeared in his office as a baby as if delivered by the Xon themselves, but lord Kieran and his wife Bianca found her creepy with her hair white as one of the elderly and eyes like the blind. This man's son, Lance, was 20 and seemed to have liked his ward, which would make this whole situation run that much smoother.