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-----Centering himself, the Wood Elf slid forward, making for the opening in the back.
-----Suddenly, the wagon comes to a halt. Whisper freezes before he makes another move. The stranger, as well, sits motionless and he cranes his neck as he looks to the trees on either side of him.
-----The man’s eyes narrow and Whisper catches a glimpse of his face which appears oddly . . . inhuman. The teeth are clinched and the jaw is jutted forward a bit. The stranger straightens his posture and his nose once more tilts upward as the man takes quick breaths. His nose works and it is apparent the man is taking deep inhalations of the woodland air.
-----Whisper did not blink as he kept his cold eyes on this... stranger.
-----The Wood Elf also began to alternately tense and relax the muscles of his arms and back, readying himself to take his bow up, and draw an arrow should this situation escalate beyond the threat that it already was. It seemed certain that this man's sense of smell was extraordinary, in the range of a wild animal's, perhaps.
-----The stranger leaps down from the buckboard; his boots thudding into the hard packed soil of the trail road. His mules quiver at the sudden motion and for a moment seem to threaten to bolt. The stranger ignores them and they settle although they seem very alert.
-----The man grabs his hat from his head with a fierce manner and starts toward the side of the road where many yards away is Whisper’s camp. The man searches the ground and sniffs as he goes through the first few bushes. He quickly stops and straightens with a cruel smile on his lips.
-----Quietly, he starts a new song, this time in a voice seemingly deeper and more guttural.
-----One little elfy hidin’ in th’ trees,
-----One little dwarfy ugly as ye please
-----One little girlie be with ‘em too
-----Minner go a’huntin’ like only Minner do
-----The man continues to stare off with a savage look toward the trees for a moment. He then turns back and looks at the wagon. From within the wagon, a slight sound is heard as if there is movement underneath the cover.
-----This wasn't right! No one had senses that acute!
-----For a moment, he cursed his own inquisitiveness, and then Whisper's hands blurred, sending two shafts at this Minner, before spinning and dashing for his camp, without even waiting to see if the two missiles hit.
-----The Wood Elf had a sense that he was about to be outnumbered, and his more volatile fire arrows might now come into their own sooner than expected.
-----If they didn't incinerate him first...
-----Both arrows slam home! Whisper can tell as he runs from the sickening thud that accompanies each hit. Immediately a loud brutal cry of pain is heard as if Minner is both anguished and relishing the pain he must feel. The cry ends in a roar that seems to send echoes throughout the surrounding trees. The roar suddenly is cut off and replaced by cruel laughter that seems to follow the retreating wood elf.
-----Other voices are momentarily heard and fall quiet back on the road. Suddenly a sound is heard that threatens to raise the hair on the back of Whisper’s neck. As he runs, Whisper now hears a bestial roar as if some demonic creature had been set loose. A thrashing is heard behind in the woodland undergrowth and Whisper knows he is hunted!
-----Whisper continued running, but changed his mind about his immediate destination.
-----Rather than head for his camp, he angled away, his eyes scanning for a denser cluster of trees that he might be able to ascend.
-----Quickly off to the right Whisper runs. There, a group of silver oak trees seem to grow close together. As he dashes for the mighty trees, he can hear the thrashing of the monster gaining ground through the undergrowth.
-----The wood elf shields himself behind one of the trunks and helplessly sees that the lowest branches are barely within reach. He quickly makes an ill-attempted leap when the pursuing creature makes it appearance.
-----Whisper clings to the trunk barely daring to breathe. As he peeks around the trunk, he sees a large man-sized wolf-like creature just a few yards away. The abominable thing stands on its hind legs. Its nose works as it sniffs the air and its red eyes search from side to side as it pauses in its movements.
-----For the moment, it is unaware of Whisper’s position.
-----A part of Whisper's mind started thinking about what would come next, even as another part hearkened back to the night at the village, and his equally useless attempts at trying to reach a branch, there. His cold eyes did not leave the creature, even though his lips twitched up in a slight smile.
-----His assessment left him thinking that he did not want to get into hand-to-hand range with this powerful monster. Though he did not doubt his own capability, such an encounter would leave him in a sorry state - not to mention vulnerable to whatever else this Minner had spoken with before this thing had begun pursuit.
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