The elf thralls are still hard at work in the pit digging for the tunnels. Outside the pit Captain and the Lieutenants are watching the road that leads to the main gate, waiting for the scout to return.
The sun has gone down and the Lieutenants aren't sure the court will return.
Lieutenant 1 speaks up, "sir?"
Captain raises his hand signaling Lieutenant 1 to be silent. They hear something coming, from the road the scout rides into site. The scout rides up to Captain and jumps off his fury.
"What did you find?" asks Captain.
The scout answers in a scraggly voice, "sir I went into the forest and found a trail of broken brush, and then two large piles of ash, but sir I've never been in a human forest before so it might be normal."
Captain sighs at the thralls stupidity, he turns to the Lieutenants, "it looks like your scout was taken down and most likely the hunter has been eliminated too."
"How is that possible sir, no human could do that!" answers Lieutenant 2.
"How far are we on the dig?" asks Captain.
Lieutenant 1 speaks up, "close sir, very close, we hit what looks like the shell of the underground tunnel."
Captain thinks to himself for a moment.
"Send half the force to guard the town gates," Captain orders.
"Yes sir!" Lieutenant 2 and 3 quickly responds.
However Lieutenant 1 doesn't look confident in the Captains order, "Sir our orders where to retrieve the key not fight-" before he can finish his sentence the Captain grabs Lieutenant 1 by the throat, picking him up off the ground.
Lieutenant 1 gasps for air but doesn't dare fight back and Lieutenant 2 and 3 keep their eyes forward and mouths shut.
Captain calmly responds, "who ever is coming maybe the only humans alive that know elves attacked this town. If word spreads of who we are and what we are after, then this mission could be at stake," he throws Lieutenant 1 to the ground, "Don't question me again, Lieutenant."
The CPT turns and walks away.
"Yes sir," replies Lieutenant 1.
The other Lieutenants help him up, with out saying a word it's clear that all three of them hate the Captain, but are powerless to do anything about it.
Lane and Guy have gathered all the towns people together in the tunnels to brief them on the escape plan.
Guy steps forward and address the crowd, "Okay everyone we are going to lead you out of the town."
The citizens are surprised and begin to whisper.
"Do you mean leave the tunnels?" asks one citizen.
"Yep, pack your things," Guy quickly replies.
"We can't leave its to dangerous!" shouts another citizen.
"It is dangerous, but we are doing it anyways," Guy coldly replies.
The People now begin to panic, "why would we do that when we can stay here where its safe?!" Say one person and the towns people all agree.
Guy gets annoyed, "hey bad people are on their way here so like it or not you're leaving! Ill drag you out by your feet if I have to!"
The towns people start yelling in anger and booing Guy.
"Boo all you want I don't care!" Shouts Guy.
Lane slaps him in the back of the head, "Good job."
A towns woman speaks up, "my lady, please, we must wait for the king's army!"
Lane steps forwards, "Im sorry but we cant wait for the kingdom to respond."
The crowd goes silent.
Lame continues, "the invaders are only hours away from discovering these tunnels, The kings army will never make it in time to save us."
The townspeople are terrified and Lane can tell "before my father died he made me promise to do everything in my power to protect this town and its people. Tonight we are going to lead all of you to safety, and that means leaving these tunnels and going out in to the unknown, but i can promise that I won't let anything happen to any of you. I beg of you to trust me like you did my father."
The towns people remind silent, but then one person stands up, "Ill go with you my lady."
Another towns person stands up, "So will I."
One after another the people agree to leave.
Guy smiles at Lane, "good job."
Lane smiles but then a determinations comes over her face, "I can't fail them like I did the before."
Guy and Lane lead the townspeople out of the underground tunnels and inside the house. The sun has gone down and there is no sign of any Elves.
"So what's the plan?" asks Lane.
"You gave that amazing speech and you didn't have a plan?" Guy thinks for a moment, "Well, the only way out is the way we got in, over the wall."
"That's a lot of jumping are you sure we won't get spotted?" Lane asks.
"No, but what else can we do?" says Guy.
"I guess that's the plan. So once we are over the wall and everyone is out of town we head back in and find the Captain?" asks Lane.
"Yep, are we ready to head out?" asks Guy.
"Wait, I just want to say, thank you for doing this, and trusting me." says Lane.
Guy smiles, "Come let's go."
Guy, Lane and the townspeople file out the house and into the ally way. They move to the end of the alley, Guy pokes his head out and scouts the market area, its all clear. Guy runs to the nearest hiding spot and waves to the others, Lane sees Guy and sends the townspeople in groups of 4 over to him.
The group of townspeople led by Guy sneak across the market district and have made it half-way to the wall. Guy again runs ahead to the next spot and waves everyone across. Lane is in the back with the last group, who is a mother and her 3 kids. The mother is holding on to a rope that she has tied around her 3 kids so they don't fall behind. As the mother is led across by Lane, the rope comes untied leaving the 3 kids in the middle of the road.
The mom makes it across before noticing, Guy roles his eyes and signals her to stay hidden. He is about to run out and grab the kids when suddenly he hears two thralls approaching. Lane quickly hides everyone behind a building, as 2 thralls walk down the road towards them. Guy and the townspeople are on inside of the road while the kids are on the other side.
Guy picks up a rocks and before the thralls notice the kids he throws the rock behind the thrall.
The thralls turn around to check the noise, giving Guy enough time to dart across the street. He grabs the kids and barley makes it across the street in front of a shop before he notices the thralls turn back around. Guy panics, he spots a blanket on the ground and throws it over the kids, then jumps up above them on the roof of the shop.
The thralls turn continue down the street, walking past the kids unknowingly. Guy breaths sigh of relief, but then one of the kids sneezes because of the dirt thrown up by the blanket.
The thralls hear the noise and approach the blanket. They lift up the blanket to see the kids. One of the kids wave "hello."
The thrall look at each other confused, but before the thralls can do anything Guy jumps down and cuts them in half, turning them to dust. Guy wraps the kids up in the blanket and carries them back to the mom.
With tears in her eyes the mother hugs her children, "Thank you so much!" she tells Guy.
Guy ignores her, grabs the lead rope and doubles knots it, "Pay attention to your kids lady."
Guy walks away.
Lane runs over to the mom, "sorry he's under a lot of stress."
Guy, Lane and the townspeople have made it to the end of the mark district and are hidden behind the last building, the only thing between them and the wall is few yards of open field.
"We made it," whispers Lane.
Guy peeks around the corner of the house, "Lets get up to the wall and start sending people over."
"Wait," Lane point towards the road, there is a handful of thralls headed to the market district gate.
"What is up with all the thralls?" asks Guy.
"Did they spotted us?" asks Lane.
"No, that scout must have returned and by the looks of it they know some thing happened to the hunter and they think someone is coming," explains Guy.
"Its a good thing we are already inside," says Lane.
"Yea but now we got to get out," says Guy.
Using the shadows they lead the towns people to the wall, far right of the market gate.
"Everyone gather around, Guy is going to take you over the wall," Lane explains to the crowd.
She grabs a random man and pushes him to Guy.
"I dont understand how you're going to get us over the wall," say the man.
Guy wraps the man's arm around his neck, "don't scream."
"What-" the man is interrupted as Guy jumps high in the sky and over the wall. The man covers his mouth, muffling his scream. They land on the other side of the wall and the man collapses to his knee.
"What the hell!" the man yells.
Guy then jumps back over the wall and lands in front of the surprised crowd
"Who's next?" he asks.
No one answers.
"We don't have time for this," Guy complains.
He snatches another citizen. They struggles in fear as Guy jumps over the wall.
Back in the market place a group of thralls are running to reinforce the market gate. The lead thrall stops the group, he's spotted two piles of ashes left behind by the two thralls Guy killed when he saved the kids.
"What is it?" asks one thrall.
"Two piles of ash," explains the lead thrall.
"So what?" say the thrall in the back.
The lead thrall scratches his head, "I'm pretty sure that if we are killed we get turned to ash."
"How would you know, you've never died before," says the thrall in the back.
"No no hes right, I've seen one of us die and he turned to ash," explains one of the thralls.
"And look a set of footprints leading away!" shouts the lead thrall.
"So?" say the thrall in the back.
"So someone must of killed them!" says the lead thrall as he pulls out and alarm horn.
Guy is breathing heavy as he leaps back into town for another towns person.
"Do you need a break?" ask Lane.
Suddenly Guy and Lane hear the thrall's alarm horn blaring from the market district.
"I don't think we have time for a break!" says Guy as he grabs another citizen.
Back at the castle Captain and the Lieutenants hear the alarm horn in the distance.
Captain turn towards Lieutenant 2, "go and see what's happening."
The Lieutenant 2 nods and heads towards the market district.
Guy leaps back into town.
"Looks," says Lane.
They both spot the thrall with the alarm horn running to the market district gate.
"You've got to get the rest of the people out, I think they know we're here," explains Lane.
Guy quickly grabs another scared civilian and jumps them over the wall.
The group of thralls with the alarm horn get to the market district Gate and explain what they found. One of the thrall at the gate pull out binoculars and scan the area. He quickly spots Guy jumping over the wall and then he sees Lane who is the only one who hasn't made it over the wall yet. The thrall blows another alarm horn.
"Again?" says Lane as she looks towards the gate and see a group of thralls running towards her.
"Guy they've spotted me! Their coming!" shouts Lane
"Im coming to get you-" but before Guys can leap over he hears the whistle of an arrow fly by. Guy looks towards the gate and see the thralls have come through gate on his side of the wall and are closing in.
"They've come through the gate on my side too!" shouts Guy.
Lane thinks to her self, "Guy can't leave those people."
Guy is slicing the arrows out of the air trying to protect the towns people, and on the other side of the gate the thralls are closing in on Lane.
"I can't fail my people again," determines Lane.
"Lane Give me a minute and im coming to get you!" Shouts Guy.
Lane takes a deep breath,"Guy listen, you can't do both."
The thralls on Guys side have him and the people surrounded with swords.
"I can't climb this wall in time and you can't come get me," explains Lane.
"What are you talking about!" yells Guy as the thralls size him.
"Guy you have to go, please...at least saves them!" Lane shouts.
The thralls surround Lane and draw their swords.
Guy hasn't responded and Lane realizes that Guy is gone. Lane takes a deep breath and picks up a tree branch to protect her self from the thralls.
To be continued...