An injured man was running like crazy in the night, his eyes were darting left and right trying to spot something in the dark all around. His left hand was stabbed and bleeding, leaving a trail of blood behind him and his feet were stumbling onto the branches and rocks on the ground as he struggled to remain on his feet. He fell several times but he always managed to stand up again, that great was his fear of them… Somewhere ahead he saw the light of a fire and struggled to get there, feeling that his strength would soon leave him, the closer he was getting the louder laughter he heard.
Around a small fire sat some Dwarves, armed to the teeth, drinking and laughing, not caring if they’d be heard or not. Some were placed as sentries around the camp but they didn’t see, nor hear the man, the laughter of the others was too loud to hear his steps. He suddenly rushed in the middle of the camp, he stumbled over the Dwarves that sat in front of him, took a tumble and turn and ended up on the ground, near the fire, on his back, a big rock was under his shoulder, making it bleed, giving him some more pain.
The Dwarves jumped to their feet, drawing their weapons and aiming at him, he coughed and lifted his trembling hands. “No! I was at the camp where the caravan came…” he said in a breaking voice, his breath was cut from the fall. One of the Dwarves leaned closer to look at his face, furrowing his thick black brows over his narrowed eyes, “And why are you here?” he asked and went on, “Where is the caravan?”
The man shook his head quickly and frowned, taking deep breaths before answering. “We were betrayed… We captured another caravan and when yours came those men managed to took our men by their side and destroyed your caravan.” His words made the Dwarf tilt his head to the right and a wrinkle of though appeared on his forehead, his eyes were fixed on the man’s, making him even more afraid. “They did what?” he asked as if he didn’t want to believe it and pressed the point of his axe more against the man’s neck, the man nodded quickly and looked around at the others who were still aiming at him. “Yes, they attack and destroyed your cart… I ran away only to inform you…” he said in a low voice.
“Where are they?” asked the Dwarf wrinkling his nose as his frown became deeper. “I don’t know, their strike was precise… They seemed to know…” was the man’s response, the Dwarf then nodded and all weapons were drawn back, the man let out a sigh of relief and the Dourhand spoke “We will set an ambush then… We’re leaving!” and turn around to leave, the man put his hands down to push himself up with a groan but the falling hammer of a Dwarf kept him down for good…
The Dwarves put the fire out and mounted on their ponies at once, they rode fast to the camp to track the group down and then set a new course, to a place good for an ambush…
