"What happened? Where is your vulture?" The Clan's Elder questioned with a frown. Nikolai tried to gather his breath and put up his best act of lifting himself to sit.
"I... it was a disaster... we wanted to ambush the outlander, but he seemed to have foreseen our trap and brought in a group of pirates with him. They surrounded us and shot down our vultures. The chief risked his life so that I made it back to call for reinforcement. Please, hurry, the chief is..."
Nikolai acted emotionally, and the Elder seemed to buy it. He stood up and flicked his sleeve to command the guards beside him.
"Gather fifty clansperson and follow me. Treat this disciple and make sure that his wounds heal. We leave immediately." The Elder made his decisions swiftly and moved to execute them like the wind.
