Elements

Taking

It had almost been too easy. He just couldn’t believe his luck! He’d been on his normal patrol when he came across the fight. The specimen had been outmatched 100 to 1, but she had managed to defeat all of the soldiers. This was a perfect specimen; the boss would be pleased. She was about to run away, but he couldn’t allow that. 

He picked up the largest rock he could find and threw it. It hit exactly where he had aimed, the head.  It tried to crawl away. He grabbed a length of rope from his belt and jumped on top of her. She wasn’t knocked out yet! Nothing got his goat more than having to carry a screaming and struggling specimen back to camp. 

He picked up a magic black arrow, that his kind made many times and sold, and inserted it into the specimen’s right shoulder with care. She almost immediately blacked out. He knew it wouldn’t be able to wake up for about a day or so, it wasn’t an exact science. It depended on how much poison was put in the arrow. Then some arrows had more poison than others. The arrows didn’t always insert all of the poison in it either. Some specimens were also stronger than others. So the stronger the specimen, the sooner the effects of the poison wore off. But getting hit with more than one arrow could be fatal. There were many things to consider when using these. 

He shook his head, clearing his mind of these thoughts. He had work to do. 

He tied her legs and her hands behind her back. He used the most complicated knot he could think of, the yarn knot. That should hold her. He looked over the specimen to make sure there were no serious injuries that needed tending to. 

Its long hair was a mess. Surprisingly the rock hadn’t caused her head to bleed. She had a few scrapes, cuts, and developing bruises, but nothing major. Its dress was a dirty brown, was ragged, torn, and had a large section missing from the middle of the left thigh down. No serious injuries. 

He picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. She was very light, but not many things were heavy for him. He began walking back in the direction he came from. Maybe later he could come back and see how many of the soldiers were actually alive. Their customer would pay a great deal for their return. 

He marched through the forest back to base. After a few miles, he broke through the tree line and found a large bonfire with a small shed behind it, a line of tents to the left, and a line of people to the right. This was the base camp, at the very head of the plains. The plains went form the forest to Ship Anchor; a river so wide that a large ship could turn around with ease. It was called “Ship Anchor” because the whole river was turned into the largest harbor in the country. A town was stretched along the entire river, cutting the country almost in half by nothing but a town and a river. This was one of the largest cities in the country of Almor. 

He stepped into the camp borders, and was suddenly surrounded by a group of trolls with spears. Their clothes were large and shabby. Their eyes were large black dots of fury surrounded by white. A few pointed teeth stuck out of their lips. Their hands were ginormous, as were their heads. Their hair was a dark gray that grew in a circle around their heads, leaving the top bald, and grew down to their shoulders. Their skin was a deep, dirty green that was wrinkly and covered with warts. Their ears were large as well, and pointed. But the trolls most striking feature was their noses. Unproportional to their faces, it was round and looked like someone had stuck a watermelon in between their eyes. “It’s just Bert,” the one in front of him stated lowering his spear. “Where ‘ave ya been all t’is time!? We’ve been needin’ ya in the barn!”

The rest of Bert’s brothers lowered their spears and marched back into the camp to get back to work. “I foun’ a new specimen for trade.”

“Ah, the boss ‘ill be ‘appy abou’ dat. A strong one is it?”

“Very. Took out a couple 50 o’ so soldiers an’ dat.” 

The two walked forward for a few steps catching up on their day, when a large troll with angry eyes and a large, golden ring pierced in his nose came walked down the path. The large troll stopped in front of them, glared at Bert, and growled, “And just where have you been!?!”

“I foun’ a new specimen for the trad, Boss.”

“Well! Let’s have a look at it then!!”

Bert grabbed the human slung over his shoulder by the arms, and held it up above the ground to show the boss; the same way a person might hold up a shirt in front of them to see if it looks good. The human’s head rolled down to its chest, its brown hair with white and silver highlights hiding its face. The boss took his pointer finger, put it under the specimen’s chin, and lifted its head up to get a better look. “Yes, I think this one ‘ill do nicely. Get ‘er to da barn an’ put ‘er wif de others!”

“Yes sir!”

The boss went to the line of people their right, and the two trolls went to the shed in the back of the camp. The rather large shed is what they referred to a “the barn.” from the outside it looked like a dry bunch of wood all pieced together to form a weak structure of some sort. But on the inside was a sturdy metal frame that kept the whole thing together. It had a metal pole with chains around it in the center and a blazing fire to the right of it. The two trolls strolled in, shut and locked the door, then Bert walked to the center of the shed, and chained the human to the pole.

Then they just went through the procedure. Check the specimen for any weapons and personal items. They found a small, black, leather bound book in the a pocket hidden in the inside of the specimen’s dress. They threw that into the fire as they did with all personal items. Finding nothing else, they continued to the next step: branding. The trolls did this to all of their soon to be slaves. 

Bert grabbed a rod of iron from the flames. The circular design on the end glowed bright white (:). The second troll ripped the back of the human’s dress, exposing her right shoulder blade. Bert came over with the rod, his brother held the specimen to the pole. 

As Bert was about to put the hot iron on her shoulder blade, the trolls heard some commotion outside. “Shoul’ we go see wha’s happenin’?” the brother asked.

“Nah, we gots work ta finish!”

Bert placed the white hot metal on the human’s back. He expected it to scream and struggle, but he did not expect what came. The moment the hot iron bar touched its skin, the air itself seemed to vibrate. The specimen let out the most disturbing and unholy sound they had ever heard in their lives! Wind started whipping around them, ripping wood off of the sides and causing a storm inside the barn!!

A.N. Sorry for the long wait guys!!! I was focused on the other book and had no motivation to finish writing this chapter. But here it is!!! :D

READ, COMMENT, VOTE, FOLLOW!!!!!!!!!!!! Love the comments dudes!!! Thanks:D

your favorite red dog

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