THE TATTOOED WOMAN - Chapter 8
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Chapter 8:
Azure slid through the trees as she cast a careful eye on the tracks she had been following for quite a while now. Following the prolific sign left by the slaves and children as they fled the scene of the recent battle had been simplicity itself, and even the still-falling snow had made the task only marginally more difficult. However, it never paid to be careless, so she moved warily, eyes scanning the surround for stealthy movement, and delicately pointed ears alert for any unsettled sounds.
She had found the place where the tracks had become confused as the slaves had clustered and milled about and she could imagine the fear of the young ones as she spotted the tracks of the humans that emerged from the trees. Clearly, their appearance had caused obvious agitation and alarm.
Casting around she recognised how the heavy-footed gang of humans had taken off running into the trees and a more careful examination revealed the fainter sign of their quarry. Clearly, Tallis had attempted to draw the hunters away from the slaves and the various crossbow bolts left embedded in the trees were clear testimony of how hot this chase was.
The clearing where the fight took place caused the canny woman the most concern, for unless she was badly misreading the sign there was obviously something very much amiss.
The badly scuffed ground indicated that Tallis had fallen, there was no immediate blood spillage so most likely tripped or knocked over by some device of the pursuers, probably a bolt that failed to penetrate her mail. Looking about she located the culprit lying discarded nearby. It had likely caused little in the way of harm, but still, it had allowed the humans to gain enough ground to bring her to bay, and there was ample sign of a hard fight.
The tracker examined the bodies and chuckled. If they had thought she would surrender meekly they had clearly made a costly error, she nudged a corpse with the toe of her boot and nodded, an error almost as grievous as the one made by this fool, who had brought a crossbow to a swordfight. Tallis had clearly gutted him first,
"Idiot."
The second body was only a short distance away and from the tracks, it seemed that he had been charging the girl when she drove him back and neatly skewered him.
The tracks became more clustered and confused, revealing some close melee, the great pool of frozen blood indicated that the girl had been wounded and Azure frowned. The body with the gaping tear through his femoral artery told a story, however,
"Hmm, knife-wound, she must have been disarmed somehow. Still had some fight in her though."
A second splash of blood, with no associated corpse indicated the girl had likely taken a second wound,
"Probably a second bolt, likely fired from close range."
The Dark Elf looked about and spotted a corpse at the edge of the clearing lying sprawled across a still-loaded crossbow,
"And here we have the marksman, standing all smug and safe at the back of the pack, for all the good it did him. Hmm, throat cut nice as you please, and from behind,"
she grinned,
"well, well, I wonder who that could possibly have been."
The Dark Elf nodded to herself as she examined the other corpses,
"Thrown blades, one to the eye and another to the throat, neatly done. I'm going to have to be more careful around that creature, she's not as cute, cuddly and innocent as she pretends."
The last corpse lay slumped face down, revealing multiple stab wounds in his back and neck. The large pool of blood nearby gave clue to his fate,
"He was going to stab Tallis and our little friend jumped on his back and slaughtered him. I'm definitely going to have to keep an eye on that bloody girl."
The remainder of the tracks gave Azure pause though,
"Soo, looks like another group of humans came running, probably attracted by the screams, they mill about and then run off. And somehow miss the wounded Dark Elf lying in the open not three feet away. That doesn't seem likely, which means some other mischief is afoot here, and that bears thinking on."
A further search showed where the two had lain overnight, huddled together for warmth no doubt, as well as the few bits and pieces of discarded wood that bore signs of having been worked on with a knife, or similar tool, and the marks made by the travois were indication enough of what the girl had been fashioning.
Hefting her powerful shortbow Azure turned to follow the tracks.
...
The snow was starting to fall heavily, and the temperature was dropping like a weighted plumbline. Lily could barely see, she was exhausted, her bare legs felt frozen, and she'd lost all feeling in her hands and arms for at least an hour hence. Tallis had lapsed into unconsciousness and from the red droplets that stained the snow behind them, it looked like she had started to leak again.
Lily heaved the travois but slipped and all but collapsed. She blew on her hands a moment as she panted to the girl in the travois, "Not sure how much further I can drag you girl, I-I think this snow will do for us both. But, for what it's worth I wish I'd seen you in that gown."
She was so tired, and the desire to just give in was almost overpowering. Instead, she heaved herself back to her feet, snarling ferociously as she cursed the heavens, "Damn it to the Outer Hells! Let's play this out, I'm not for giving up to a few damned snowflakes! You're going to wear that bastard dress if it kills us!"
Staggering forward she stumbled, fell and all but crawled as she forced herself on...
The four men stared in astonishment as the half-naked girl staggered out of the snow and into their camp. They were huddled about the campfire waiting for the soup to heat when she appeared from between the trees like a frozen spirit.
