-----"Give him some room until Raven has a chance to check the ground," Garrison says as the woodsman approaches and keeps some of the onlookers back from the searching Gorian.
-----Dilton quietly goes about helping some of the villagers reunite with their loved ones or helps with some of the smoldering dwellings. Meanwhile, Pil stands over some of the captured troop seemingly used, by this time, to guard duty.
-----After a moment, Sol stands, a bit frustrated in his attempt to find any kind of clue or track.
-----Raven finally makes it over to the area in question. As the others wait, the Hunter immediately checks over the horse and then inspects the ground. With a stern expression, Raven looks over the trampled dirt and occasionally emits a curse. After a moment, he stops and looks across at Sol. "You said you thought there was a spellcaster riding this horse? I wonder if he just disappeared like we've seen the Lord Wizard do?"
-----The Hunter then calls the wolf over. As Rinda holds the horse, Raven takes the saddle from the mount and lays it on the ground. "Haven't done this a lot," Raven says, as he works, "but it's worth a try." The ranger then urges the wolf over. The animal shyly approaches and sniffs over the saddle. As it works over the saddle, the wolf seems more animated as if it has caught an interesting scent.
-----Now Raven speaks softly to the animal all the while in an encouraging way. The wolf's nose suddenly leaves the leather saddle as the wolf moves over the patchy dirt spots on the ground. It walks a few paces from the horse toward some of the low dwellings. Suddenly, it stops a few feet away from a small shed that houses a couple of pigs. The wolf emits a low growl. Raven raises his eyebrows and nodding, looks at Sol.
-----Sol's eyes narrow with dreadful purpose, and he growls out in an unpleasantly soft tone, "Spread out." The Gorian then moves forward quickly, heading towards the entrance to the shed.
-----The pigs' 'shed' is nothing more than an opened walled shelter with a thatched roof to cover it. Its dimensions are roughly twenty feet long by ten feet with a long trough running down through the middle of the floor area. Rough planks notched into the support beams keep the animals in although they are no higher than a man's stomach.
-----As Sol climbs into the pigpen, Garrison, Strolum, Whisper and Raven spread out around the perimeter of the structure. Sol's boots step across the lightly moist bare dirt. On the other side of the trough, the two pigs lay quietly against some of the wood plank fencing. The Lathanian blade hisses softly as it leaves its scabbard. Sol then walks around the perimeter of the trough swinging his sword especially into corners where shadows seem to linger.
-----Just as the pigs move in alarm to the visitor in their dwelling, a few boards near their position move slightly. Suddenly, Garrison is heard saying, "There he goes!" In the next moment, the woodsman and the Hunter are seen racing after some slight movement in the tall grass a few feet from the pigpen.
-----Garrison dives from one side into the grass but seems to only grasp at thin air. Raven, however, leaps and grapples with something unseen on the ground. The Hunter quickly rolls and grasps a tighter hold onto whatever is there. Raven then positions himself on top of the unseen "thing" and looks as though he has someone's arms pinned.
-----"Please! Please! Mercy, I beg of you!" comes a young man's voice from underneath Raven.
-----Sol stalks over, and hisses between clenched teeth, "Reveal yerself."
-----Not really having had anything to add, as his skills and expertise lay in other areas, the Elf had been content to simply stand apart and wait.
-----When the competent group managed to isolate and identify the dweomercrafter, Whisper complied to Sol's instructions with ease, keeping an arrow nocked, and the bow partially drawn.
-----Seeing the situation in hand, Whisper started giving thoughts on how to recover any usable arrows, and what to do with the prisoners.
-----"Please, . . . please," the invisible man's voice says, "a few more moments. The effect comes from a potion."
-----"Then you don't move," Raven snarls, his eyes glaring at the seemingly bare ground in front of him. The Hunter then adds, "But keep talking. That way we know you're still around. Garrison, somebody, . . . bring a rope!"
-----When the woodsman brings forth a rope, Raven holds up invisible wrists and Garrison ties them. How odd it looks for the bundled coil of rope to move in the air as the two rangers gather up their invisible prisoner from the ground and bring him over to the pigpen. They then set about tying the unseen man to the low boards.
-----"Well?" Raven asks as he stoops down to the level of where the man's face would be, "how long before this potion wears off?"
-----"I, . . . I'm not sure," the prisoner replies. "I drank it all so it may last for an hour or longer."
-----"Great," the Hunter says with a frustrated expression. Raven then says, "You asked for mercy. Why should we grant that if your army was enslaving these people."
-----"Please," comes the pleading response from the strange floating ropes, "I wasn't really part of this army. I, . . . I really had no choice. My own family has been taken."
-----Much of the anger fades from Sol's face at the captive's reasoning, but such change of heart is only temporary. Soon the furious grimace returns, and the Gorian's words bite back, "An' yet ye rode wi' their officers an' canny enough t'own yer own potion o' magik. Ye'd best start wi' telling us yer story, an' then we'll work out how unbelievable it is."
-----Sol looks away, and tries to spot the blacksmith who earlier spoke to him.