Before Ed had reached the city Priya had already been taking to the Jorgensen Hall. She had been interviewed by the family head, a stubborn but wise old man by the name of Ryegor Jorgensen. There had been tests and questions about her past. They asked about her father and what he knew about his past. They asked about his traits and behavior.
She had felt more like an interrogation than an interview and she was correct. Here was a woman who wandered into a camp owned by a more than capable group of merchants. She was starved, dirty, and claiming to have been a slave.
The dwarves were a proud noble group of people who refused to be enslaved and if this girl was determined to be of even mixed blooded status that would be an insult the house could not tolerate. The ramifications would require a response and the perpetrator would need to be punished.
After her interview, Ryegor met with the other heads of the house.
"Her story isn't a lie; she isn't here to infiltrate the house. She's taller than the average dwarf but I see resemblances in her." Ryegor started.
"Either way she is an unexpected burden. If she is one of us do we marry her into the other houses or send her back home?"
"I say we employ her here and keep an eye on her. Going back across can be dangerous."
"People, People." A gavel hammered on a table. "The real problem is that we have slavers trading on our own. We are not the greatest family but we have our heritage and pride to hold on. When the word gets to the other houses that a member was taken slave they will want to know that we retaliated."
The others all nodded in agreement. The table looked to each other as if waiting for the first person to pipe up with an idea on they do this. Finally, a voice from the far end of the table broke the silence. It was from a dwarf who was old and wrinkly but the light in his eyes will still bright and shiny. He had no scars of battle but the way he sat straight upright spoke to military training at one time or another.
"I can handle this. My family would love to help correct this little problem of ours and verify the girl's story. If its true we just ask that we are allowed to keep any valuables we find."
The others nodded agreement. Ryegor looked at the face of the warrior, "You are permitted to go, you will of course make your contribution to the family as thanks for any blessings you find. Report back as soon as you have an answer." It was as much a statement as it was a question. Everyone knew that they would pay their portion to keep the House of Jorgensen running. They weren't rich enough for major charity but they did keep enough in the coffers to keep everything running smoothly.
In the dead of night, a caravan of dwarves headed north for the border. The map given to them by the housemaster listed out roughly where the girl was found and the direction she indicated she took off from. They traveled with a cargo mined metals under the guise of going to a border outpost looking for ore for tools.
After their trip north, they stopped half a day's ride away from the farmhouse. Torgus, Reggie, and Hollis were unaware they were being watched. The attack force stayed far enough back and used hand made telescopes to monitor the comings and goings from the farmhouse.
For the first few days, nothing confirmed the story except for the layout of the farm. Our three little bandits came and left. Very little farm work was getting done. Torgus would walk around pouting about his misfortunes and angry at the loss of his pet. One day the three of them buried something around the backside of the barn. It was out of the view of the forces who were watching them. They chalked it up to just a dead animal most likely at first.
Finally after nearly 4 days of waiting and watching a small man walked from the barn and later about 8 people came from the barn and began working the fields and caring for the house and barn.
This intrigued them because for 4 days no one had entered or left except for the three men they had dubbed the little pigs.
The farmworkers were all different races of Demi-Human and several different humans. They were all emaciated and barely fed. They were being watched over constantly and even some of the other slaves were acting as guards.
The dwarves monitored for a few days until they had the pattern down fairly well. At dawn, Torgus and Reggie would leave the house and begin a check of the farm. Hollis would then leave and head to the barn.
About an hour after that all three of the brigands would go open the barn doors and about 30 minutes later people would wander out into the fields or towards the house to begin their work. This went on until 2 hours before sundown. At that time fire would be made and a large kettle would be filled with leftovers and grain and brought into the barn to be served as food.
The three outlaws took shifts. Two of them would go to sleep in the house, one would stay in the barn. A small, shifty-looking man would come out of the barn occasionally and scurry into the house like a rat. Sometimes he would scurry back into the barn and not be seen for hours or sometimes days.
A plan was formed for attacking the farmhouse and liberating the remaining slaves. They decided the best bet was to wait until the smallest of the three, Hollis, was on guard duty and attack in a coordinated effort. If the older wiser one and the large one with the scars were asleep it would make subduing them that much easier. The small man was the only variable. After all, he followed no set pattern they could see because he stayed indoors so much.
The attack came one night after dinner but before bed. At this time of the day, the light would be dim and the attackers would have the upper hand. If Torgus, Reggie, and Hollis tried anything the likely that they could defend the caves would be reduced. The dwarves didn't know about the caves but assumed some sort of tunnel system was being used instead. They wanted to hit fast and hard so as to save lives.
Felgar had felt them many days earlier. His gift from Ysennia was powering him slowly but surely and some of the gifts bestowed upon him by the church were coming back. One of them was to feel the intent of others. That is a very handy trick for someone who had so many enemies.
For three days before the attack, he had started weasling things out of the barn and house through another tunnel that was his own personal secret. In the room he claimed as his own in the farmhouse there was a cave that he kept his own supplies in. The gold, treasures, and his precious divine gift were all stored away, safe even from his 3 employees.
When the attack finally came the dwarves moved slowly around the backside of the hill headed towards the barn. Torgus had gone into the barn earlier and Hollis and Reggie were putting out the fire and collecting the large kettle and bowls used for their captives.
When Reggie and Hollis had the large cauldron on their shoulders the first attack force of 3 people came in quietly. There was a space around the side of the barn where tools and supplies were stored. Reggie and Hollis were tucking the big iron pot back into its hole when three small men attacked from all sides. One man swung a club and got Hollis in the back of the neck. If he wasn't already drunk the swing might have severed his neck, but instead, it just knocked him out and he fell to the ground like a sack full of meat.
Reggie, whose age and experience gave him a minor advantage immediately fell to the ground before the next man's club could knock him out. He drew a dagger from behind his back and sank it into the nearest man's upper thigh. It wouldn't kill but it would let him escape. He pulled it out and lunged for the next nearest man. The third would have to weigh saving his comrades from bleeding out or capturing one old man.
Reggie grabbed Hollis' limp form and pulled him up onto his shoulder. For his advanced age, a life of dirty work had left him still in physical shape. He had the pains and aches of age reminding him of his less than successful escapes but his brain was screaming escape so it ignored those for a moment.
The third dwarf swung a club once as Reggie ducked to pick up Hollis and missed. This made him stumble once, he was sure he was going to make contact and the swing unbalanced him. He tumbled slightly forward and over Reggie who used his back to further throw him to the ground. As the last dwarf rolled off his back Reggie took off with the passed out man over his shoulder.
For just one minute Reggie was glad that Hollis was unnaturally thin. The thought that Hollis might be a woman, after all, flashed through his mind but he shook out the thought. It wouldn't matter anyway. Their crimes would see them dangle from the end of a rope anyway so escape was the only option with an unknown number of attackers lurking in the dark.
As the two man-made their way towards the tree line away from the hill and the farmhouse another team of 6 men went into the barn. 3 were equipped for fighting. Another 5 were specialists in healing and medicines. The last man, the small soft-spoken warrior from the meeting was the leader in this adventure and was taking up the rear guard where he could bark orders for changes if needed.
Torgus was just about to wonder where his two idiot friends were when he walked out of the cave's entrance. The barn was empty and the normal sounds of Felgar in the loft, counting coins, or reading books were missing. Even the few animals were silent.
Torgus put his hand instinctively on the pommel of the short sword he carried. The eerie quiet gave him the quick image of wolves for a second. He shuddered visibly and curse all wolves under his breath.
The attack came from a stall that was used for the horses for their cart. One man waited just inside the door, looking for Torgus to step out far enough to not duck immediately back into the large metal gate.
Torgus got about 8 feet from the gate when he yelled, "Where are you, lazy bastards! It's not my night to sleep in here!"
The gate that went over the entrance to the cave slammed shut and 3 small men in dark gray leathers stepped out. Torgus drew his short sword, he couldn't back up to the cave for safety so he darted for the wall on the other side of the barn, trying to reduce the number of angles he could be attacked from.
A dwarf with dark black hair pulled a club made of metal from his leg where it had been secured with straps to reduce noise. He threw it out and it extended into a mace with amazing reach. The Jorgensen family was all about efficiency. Each man carried the exact same number of items. They had different items but they determined that 23 items were the absolute maximum needed to complete a task. Each was secured to prevent noise and made in dark metal or wood to prevent being seen.
The dwarf walked slowly towards Torgus and smiled. Years of training was now going to be put to use. The Demi-humans rarely ever fought major skirmishes so small squads are most common in the armies. They get very few actual battles so fights like this were a rare treat for men and women trained is the arts of war.
He walked forward and gave the mace a small flick of the wrist to test Torgus. Torgus didn't fall for the attack and held his ground, keeping 4 feet between him and the wall.
Torgus attacked first, he held his sword in his right hand, and using his left he pulled a bag off his side and threw it at the man. It was a bag of sand used to hold doors to the cells open so they wouldn't slam shut. It had a large cable on it to allow it to be used as a weapon. Torgus swang it at the man and released at the moment it was almost perpendicular to him.
The bag flew and the dwarf swatted it away. The hit from the mace caused the cheap linen to rupture and fine black sand swirled through the air. The extra small sand made for an excellent choice when you wanted to inflict pain but very few bodily injuries. In this case it hung in the air like dust for a moment, obscuring the attacker's sight.
Another dwarf appeared from a corner farther up and threw a dagger at Torgus. He tried to swat it away with his sword but it stuck in his off arm causing him to wince and scream in pain. He reached over and pulled it out. He grabbed it with his off-hand from his own grasp and held it out like an extra weapon. Blood ran down from the hole and was making his dirty shirt red and his hand sticky.
Torgus shifted on his feet and backed towards the corner of the barn trying to look like a cornered rat.
A stack of grains stood up neatly against one wall. It was nondescript and anyone else wouldn't have assumed it was anything but a wall. Torgus backed up to the wall and used the sharpened dagger to cut as many bags as he could. Causing the grain to spill all over the floor. While the dried grains spilled around his feet he saw the 3rd man finally appear from over near the metal grate. He was the one who had slammed it shut.
The last dwarf was tall, even by dwarvish standards but he was built like a tree. Thick arms and legs made him a grappler and he was the man who made all collections whenever a person was being detained.
The large man moved with incredible speed and barreled straight into Torgus. The weakened bags of grain split in the middle and both men toppled through a hole in the wood. The grain spilled everywhere causing the ground to be uneven and treacherous to find footing in. Torgus used to bar fights, knew how to keep his footing on wet drunken bar floors. He got himself up on one arm and grabbed his sword that had fallen on the ground. He plunged it into the large man's shoulder and twisted before yanking it out.
The wound wasn't meant to be fatal but stop him from attacking. The other two men skittered over the bags and grain and stopped to check their companion. Torgus took off towards the darkest part of the woods. In this instance, the dusky light worked in his favor. He ran into the last dregs of the setting sun where his silhouette would disappear quicker as he moved farther away, letting his change his direction quickly and run towards the river hedge that was only a few hundred meters away.
Felgar waited quietly in his little cave. He was quite cozy with food, wine, and supplies to hide for a month. An escape route was already secured. If they burned down the house he had a small cave that would lead him towards the west and away from the river, which would be the obvious choice. If his three simple-minded hired thugs did what he predicted any attackers would be too busy combing a river to expect that his small form would later be seen walking a trapping trail headed towards the border and another hideout there.
After the attack, the caves were emptied. Thirty-plus souls were pulled from the caves in various states of starvation. Many had illnesses from life in the damp cold weather. Those who had strength were asked to help pull and remove those who were too near death move themselves.
On the large green space outside previous slaves were sat down for medical exams and to have shackles and chains removed. Women were checked over to see if they were abused in specific ways and for signs of forced breeding.
Men were checked for torn muscles and other issues that are common to overworked laborers.
Many of the captured assumed that El-Priyam, the girl who had been set free was behind this and were thankful for her intervention and not forgetting them.
When the slaves were led away from the farm by the attack force the supporters and the leader began to ransack every and all buildings. A collection of gold, silver, and anything of value including food items were put into a pile in the middle of the farm. The farmhouse was lit on fire and so was the barn. It would hopefully act as a deterrent for any other people to set up shop here. The question of whether to pursue the 3 escapees was decided by the leader who had prepared for this exact circumstance.
What this dwarf was unaware of was that he was about to unleash irony into the woods. He had on him an artifact known of the whistle of the northern lands. It was created a very long time ago. It had the power, when blown, to summon creatures. Humans and Minotaurs used to live and hunt together in the far northlands where ice and snow still fell almost year-round.
This artifact was used by them to summon wolves, bears, and other predators to take down roaming packs of large games like Elk, Bison, Moose, and Snow Elephants.
The attack leader imagined gray wolves as he blew the whistle. The sound floated through the forest and into the world and was answered by the sound of howls.
Torgus, Reggie, and Hollis all heard the howling at the same time. They hadn't met at their rendezvous point and all three cursed the damn wolves again. Anytime they stepped into the woods it was always wolves.
They barely made it to a stashed boat upriver from the farm when the wolves came from angles. Gray wolves attack in packs with coordinated efforts. They came pouring to the water's edge just as Torgus was pushing off from the bank of the river and they started flowing south. Hollis snapped back to reality just as the boat was pulling away and snarling faces of wolves filled his vision causing him to cuss and scurry across the bottom of the boat.
"Get away from these damn wolves!" Hollis yelled.
"Shut up, I am! I still have nightmares about these damned things."
On the bank, the wolves stopped and watched the invaders. A small forest spirit sat on the back of the largest wolf, an old descendant of the Dire Wolves from antiquity.
Cai-Pel scratched its ears and petted its neck, "Oh that is still so much fun. We can't let them escape after tracking down Erust, he still owes us for the forest."
The wolf looked back at him and panted in understanding. The wolf had enjoyed the thought of having man-flesh again for one nights meal and was slightly disappointed
"No, you can't eat the summoner. Come on, our job is done time to head back home." Cai-Pel said, pulling at his fur to make him head away from the river and towards the forest where they could rematerialize back home.