Meddling in Foreign Affairs

Chapter 3: Kidnapped

Dismas awoke to an aching pain in his shoulder, followed by pain everywhere. He was upright, but he couldn't move and spent a few minutes just standing there before he realized that there were thick ropes wrapped around him, tying him to a tree. His head felt like a horse had kicked it and his vision was foggy. The few trees that he could see were the kind with spiky needles instead of leaves, and even in his confused state, Dismas knew that they were in the mountains. He watched the trees as they moved past him, thinking that they must have something very important to go to that would cause them to move so quickly. Trees usually stood quite still, at least from Dismas' knowledge of them.

"Stryel, I do believe that our guest has awoken," said a voice to Dismas' left. When he managed to turn his head to look at the source of the voice, Dismas saw a very short man leaning against a wooden railing. Maybe he knew about the trees...

"Where are the trees rushing to?" Dismas managed to mumble out. He was surprised by how rough his voice sounded. The short man turned to him looking confused, but didn't respond. Dismas assumed that he didn't hear him properly and coughed before repeating his question.

"I heard you the first time, elf. The trees are not moving, you are."

Dismas raised his eyebrows upon being called an elf, but decided that the moving trees were at a higher priority at the moment. "No, I'm not moving. I'm stuck to this here tree."

Another voice spoke up, but Dismas was bound too tightly to turn and face the speaker. "That is not a tree, it is a mast."

"What's a mast doing in a forest? It belongs on a boat!"

The second voice sighed. "I knew that poison would incapacitate him, but I had no idea that it would influence his brain this much. I thought that they were partially immune to poisons. The rumors must be false, then. 'Tis a shame we do not often have the opportunity to experiment with the effects of our poisons on other races often."

"Hey! My constitution is better than normal for a human! And I'm not an elf! Look at my ears!" Dismas tried to use the mast behind his head to knock his hood down so that they could see his obviously human face. In his struggle, his head banged against the wood behind him, and the world was dark again for a few seconds.

When color came back, there was a short bearded man directly in front of him. As Dismas stared at him he realized that it was not a man, but a dwarf. And suddenly the previous night all came back to him. He was, in fact, not watching the trees walk by, despite how entertaining that had been while it lasted. He looked around and saw that he was tied to the mast of a fairly small boat that was obviously dwarven made, as all of the lines were straight and geometric patterns were along the railings. They were traveling upriver and the mountains were approaching more quickly than he was comfortable with.

"Are you back to normal yet, elf?" the dwarf in front of him asked. He recognized the voice as the one who was the leader.

Dismas shook his head to clear it of the last bit of fog. "Meh. Normal as I'll ever be. And still not an elf."

"The Otetsus will determine whether or not you are an elf upon our arrival in Dragtsyenost. We will be arriving there within the hour, if the wind continues to blow in our favor. If you are truly not an elf, you will have no problem with this arrangement."

"Well, actually I still have a problem with it. I have things to do, money to spend. And you're delaying me with this little trip up the Brosayas. Us humans don't have such long lifespans, we gotta make every minute count." The dwarf ignored him and went back to doing whatever he'd been doing before Dismas woke up. "Well, isn't this just great. Could someone at least untie me? No? Course not. At least I'm facing forwards and can see what's coming. This would be a lot worse if I was facing the other way."