The war against Ladriz is Krarr)
was telling them something. He tried to figure out which direction they were going, but as far as he was concerned they would probably disappear somewhere around that hill that he had observed earlier.
"I know. But if we don't leave the next few hours, she may send us home," one of the men said.
"She can't send us back. We don't work for her anymore. Besides, she needs us here right now: if she doesn't get this message then her people's chances of defeating Krarr's army are very slim."
"We have a plan. It involves taking advantage of Krarr's weakness and using the opportunity presented itself to us to get rid of Krarr."
"We have already discussed this and we decided to carry out this plan. I suggest that you stay here and wait for us. If we don't succeed, you'll still get paid and we won't lose any soldiers, which is worth every penny."
"What do you mean by taking advantage of Krarr's weakness? Are you sure you're not referring to that thing he's carrying around? The one called Krass? That thing?"
"Yes, Krass."
"That's a stupid name, what are you guys playing at. What are we supposed to use that? A sword and armor? No way in hell Krass: I'll never use that thing," the man said angrily "Besides, even if we get rid of Krass, we won't have to worry about Krarr's allies. I have already contacted them and they agreed that they'll come and pick us up after Krass goes down."
"Then you should also know that the alliance is not going to end until Krarr is dead or captured."
"So why not let us kill him?"
"Because that means we lose our leverage if Krass escapes. You know how hard Krass is working. We've lost too much already, if we lose Krass, we lose everything."
"You know, that guy is going to die anyways, it doesn't matter. Let's just get rid of Krass, and that will be enough."
"We don't have enough people to kill him, not yet anyway. So it would be better to wait a little longer."
"But you know damn well that once Krass dies, his allies will rise up again. And we will definitely lose."
"No we won't."
"How can you say that?"
"Just because the alliance isn't up yet doesn't mean they'll be up in a few months. Krass isn't as strong as we thought, and that's why we're here. This whole situation has been planned long ago, but we have to follow through with it in case things get bad. Now let me go back to sleep, the sooner we leave tomorrow, the sooner we will be done with all this nonsense," the leader sighed. "And don't you dare wake me up again, or I'm gonna break your neck!"
There was no need for the man to talk again, Krarr already knew what he was saying. He knew that what they were doing was wrong, and Krass had warned them countless of times how serious this was. But they didn't listen. Instead they listened to Krass's orders, followed them blindly, and then went ahead and did everything they could to try to kill their new enemy. Krarr wished that they would understand what they were doing was wrong, and not following Krass's orders was their biggest mistake. He hoped that the man and those others wouldn't get hurt, but there was nothing he could do about it now. He was just a prisoner, and he wasn't free enough to take action. All he could do was pray that one of those guys would come and save him, because he didn't want to spend the rest of his days locked away in some prison camp. But even if he managed to escape, what would happen to him? Krass's guards would surely find him. There was nowhere he could hide; not even in a cave could he hide from all of them.
As Krarr was thinking about all this, he realized that the moonlight coming from the forest floor was disappearing very quickly. The darkness of the night surrounded him; even the stars were gone, and the night was now pitch black, except for the light of the moon. As he looked down at the ground he began to notice a faint outline in the grass, as if a person was moving towards him. When he saw it it confirmed his fears, for it was his captor.
It wasn't a human, it was a beast!
Before Krass could scream the creature attacked him with its mouth open and bit his leg. As he fell to the ground he grabbed the creature's head between his hands, pulled it off of him, and stabbed it through its throat. Blood flowed out of the wound; it looked terrible, red everywhere and dripping onto Krass. In spite of everything Krass didn't feel anything, he was just too shocked. Then he looked at his hand, and the blood on it astonished him as well, and as soon as the first shock passed, Krass began screaming in terror.
Kass jumped up from where he sat, grabbed the nearest weapon he could find, turned the weapon upside down, and started hitting the monster's head with it without stopping to think. His hand shook and sweat was pouring down his face. As the creature moved, Krass dropped his weapon, stepped back a little, and then rushed towards it again. With a yell he kicked it as hard as he could, but he was too late. The thing had killed itself. Krass had to catch his breath, and sit down for a while to recover from what he had just seen. After a short time, Krass was sitting on a rock and staring at the body of his fallen comrade. He felt numb. He was afraid he was imagining it.
A short time later, he heard another noise in the forest, and then two more. Two big dogs, which were running toward Krass, barking furiously.
When they reached him Krass jumped away. But they came right after him, chasing him.