Night descended upon the winter landscape, only a thin sliver of the waning moon giving light to the forest road.

But it was enough. A lone rider galloped into view, pushing his steed hard. The horse's hooves pounded on the frozen ground, kicking up clumps of snow and dirt. Steam came from its nostrils and despite the frigid temperature, sweat formed on the beast's chest and flanks. And yet, the rider pushed the tired animal even harder.

A long howl from a warg came from somewhere behind him and the rider felt a fear rise in his chest. "Grant this horse wings," he prayed, but even as he said it, he knew the horse could not keep up this pace for long.

---

Early the next morning in a small nearby town...

A riderless horse meanders down the main street in town. His richly adorned saddle is slightly askew, reins broken and dragging on the ground. Four parallel cuts run across his flank, as if scraped by heavy claws.

An elf of the name Alieo saw a horse trot into town he walks over tot eh horse looking at how bad the sattle was torn up and thought "wargs " not many knew to much of the wargs , he came from a Elvin castle deep in the forrest where many beasts would wander. alieo always has his bow and then sets off following the horeses tracks to find this beasts that lurk near this village.

The horse's trail was easy to follow through the fresh snow, dotted occasionally with a drop of blood from the animal's wound. It led Alieo into the forest and then another mile along the road until it came to a rather gruesome scene.



A splattering of blood stained the fresh snow. The surrounding area was covered by hoofprints and large paw prints, confirming Alieo's suspicions about wargs. There were also at least two pairs of boot tracks. From the spot, it appeared something had been dragged away from the road, heading roughly north...

Brusenna, or Senna as she preferred to go by was hurrying through the forest, singing softly. As her voice floated quietly through the still air, the plants and branches blocking her way parted before her like water around a rock, closing in once more after she had passed. Her fire red hair was slightly pale in the moonlight shining down on her and her bright blue eyes seemed to glow as she hurried towards the place she had been staying. The young witch had a basket over one arm filled with the herbs she had been out to gather.

alieo knelt down listening to woods it was quiet snowy he looked around and show hoof prints and paw prints but then something caught his eye it was boot tracks as if someone came to collect the dead or he walked away with help uncertain he heads towards the boot tracks and drew his bow with arrow and thought " anything that croesses me will parish"

A young couple paced quietly through a forest, a forest where a horse lost it's rider, a witch carried a basket, and an elf held a bow.

The two people seemed about the same age, and about the same height as well

One was female, the other not so much, she had bright red eyes, he bright blue, they shared the same short golden hair, and the same pale colour.

She wore a red cowl that blew gently in the wind, with simple white clothes underneath

He a cape that flowed the same, with just as simple white clothes and they both had a pendant that held the Gemini symbol on it

The two elementals, who we can now clearly say, are related, walked aimlessly, and calmly, until they found a gruesome scene in the snow, there were three sets of tracks leading in one direction. Two old, one new, without sharing so much as a glance, the two began to follow the trail, not seeming to mind the mess, or eerie lack of remains.

Castor, the boy, seemed to watch for their left, and Pollux, the girl, seemed to watch for their right. and they didn't seem to pay as much mind to the front.

Jack was bored. He snarled, and kicked the chair in front of him to the ground. He'd been stuck in this place for ages. The ale was bland, the bread stale, and even the air seemed to bear the stink of boredom. The waiter trambled, as he approached Jack's table. Without a word, Jack's glass was filled with the best ale in the house - which wasn't very good. Jack sighed, as he took his glass, and took a swig. It was as bland as boring as he'd expected in this bland and boring little hamlet in the boring little field with it's boring little people.
Jack didn't like small places. This was ironic, seeing as how he was quite small, standing up to the chest of most men. His diminutive size aside, however, he was an intimidating man. He wore a plain white tunic with slight half-cleaned blood spatters, a bright red cape, and a belt of fine leather, from which hung two long daggers. His boots were of the same fine leather as his belt, one of them containing an extra knife. His face and hands were covered in scars from a variety of weapons, as if he'd run naked through an armory, or gotten on the bad side of a small army. The scariest thing about Jack, however, were his eyes. They were the eyes of a killer. Eyes that darted around the room, only to settle on you for an unsettlingly long time, sometimes staring into thin air for no apparent reason. They were the eyes of a man who would stab you in the gut, and not even blink, before trying to get the blood out of his shirt.
Jack had been called here by the owner of the house. The man had told Jack of a group of bandits nearby, and Jack, being his usual heroic self, had jumped on the opportunity to wipe out a group of evildoers such as that. He'd travelled miles, through snow and rain, honing his dagger, ready for the taste of blood. Bards would sing tales of his heroism, and he'd have some great material for his next book. Perhaps he'd finally become the famous hero he'd hoped to become. However, when he'd arrived, the bandits had moved on. Apparently, one of the villagers had boasted that they'd called on a killer to deal with the bandits, and the bandits had done the smart thing. Jack had not been amused.
Sighing, Jack stood up. He'd waited for three days already for the bandits to return. Not only that, but the villagers had refused to pay him. He'd had to stab two of them just to get them to give him his money. This had been a bad week for Jack. However, a smile was slowly creeping across his face. Jack had certain instincts. An instinct for adventure. An instinct for danger. And an instinct for murder. Right now, he knew something was going to happen. It was a kind of tension, like the gods were on the edge of their seats, watching the spectacle of life unfold below them. Jack wasn't planning on missing out.
Jack sttod up without a word, the villagers around him fearfully moving out of the way, as he made his way to the door. He retrieved a wide-brimmed red hat from the stand, a white feather portruding from it artfully. He opened the door, breathing in the air, which was filled with excitement, as he walked out into the sunlight. It was time for a walk in the woods, thought Jack to himself.

The trail led Alieo (as well as the couple following the elf's trail) almost a mile north through the woods, until the forest opened up suddenly and the terrain dipped sharply down into a valley. Below were dozens of tents with perhaps hundreds of orcs and half as many wargs milling about. The trail that Alieo had been following showed that something had been dragged down the hill directly to the encampment.

Jack smiled, as he saw the carnage. Something was killed here. Looking at the tracks, most likely a horse and it's rider. The smell of blood was old, however. At least a day, although in this frigid climate, it was harder to tell. Jack ignored the frost. He'd grown used to it a long time ago. He studid the tracks, smiling,as he traced them. So many people.. A search party? No. The tracks were made at different time periods. One person followed the drag marks. Two people followed those marks. A chase? No, the footsteps weren't hurried, or far apart. Most likely, the front person did not yet know he was being trailed.
Jack smiled. He could feel it again. That tingly feeling. The feeling he knew meant bloodshed. There would be dead before the day was done, and Jack was going to join in. Smiling, Jack stood up, sniffing the air like a hound. The blood was.... that way. Smiling, Jack set off through the underbrush. He took a curved path. He would intercept his prey soon enough. However, the first ten meters he took care to hide his tracks. Couldn't have someone trailing him, now could he? No no, that would be MOST inconvenient.

Waking up was not a pleasant sensation. Jacob barely had a chance to open his eyes and register the fact that he was in some sort of dimly lit tent before he was being hauled roughly to his feet. Orcs. Foul, disgusting creatures, thought Jacob. He remembered that 2 of them, mounted on their wargs, had caught up with his horse. He had fought hard, managing to injure both of them before being knocked from his mount by a strong blow.

"Where is it?" the low voice was barely more than a growl. Jacob didn't answer. The orc's clawed fist slammed into his stomach and Jacob would have dropped to his knees if he hadn't been firmly held in place by two more of the creatures. "Tell me" the orc demanded.

They must have read the letter, Jacob realized, wondering which of them had enough brain power to learn to read. Again he said nothing. Heck, he didn't even know exactly what he had been carrying. The small package and sealed parchment had been handed to him by his lord and he had been told to make haste to the town of Glengate to find the wizard Myadl.

When Jacob again failed to answer the question, the orc grabbed a burning stick from the fire pit nearby and held it close to the human's face. The fire burned and he could only bite back a scream for a few moments. "In the saddle bags!" he finally cried.

The orc grinned, holding the fire close for another few moments before tossing the stick back into the fire pit. "We find the horse," he said to the other orcs gathered around.

Alieo looks around and since him being an elf he could see far as he examines the camp he realizes "orcs the most foul of them all" alieo then focuses to the a man being held captive by the orcs and wants to help him but must do it quietly or he will be in the same boat as him. But knowing that if an orc recognizes him as the prince of the Forrest elves he could be in for more than he bargained for. He looks around and climbs into a tree as he can hear some rustling in the snow " someone has followed my trail" he takes an arrow and readies it as he angles it down waiting for whatever was following him.

Captor and Pollux after not much longer reach a clearing, to see a good sized settlement of sorts. It seemed to be comprised of Orcs and Wargs alone.

Pollux scanned the ground, while Castor scanned the camp. "Castor." the female said. "Hm?", "Footprints. gone."

Pollux looked to where she was now pointing, it seems that the trail had gone away, the footprints seemed to veer into the denser brush.

"...Maybe they ran away" he said with little interest. "Follow?" the girl asked looking to her brother.

"...No, I don't think so...who knows what they are, or what they could do..." Pollux seemed disappointed, and yet un-surprised by this answer, she looked to the camp as he was now also doing. "Go?" she said more then asked. "Quietly..." he replied

The two began dashing nearly silently off to the the side, keeping their heads low, and their presence scarce.

They had never seemed to notice the arrow that had been readied for them, or the person who had readied it

Alieo drops quietly he follows the two until he reaches them and says " So you are the ones following me who sent you " the bow is drawn at the brother and sister he looks and examines them and they do not look like normal humans he could sense they were different like himself being an elf.

Jack moved in from the side, only to see a stand off. Interesting. An elf appeared to be mugging a couple. He smiled, as he pulled out Mr Stabby. Mr Stabby was his left-hand knife. It had belonged to an orc, who had used it to sacrifice virgins to his master. Jack, with a sense of irony, had then sacrificed the orc himself to the god. In an odd twist of fate, the orc had turned out to be a virgin, and Jack had spent the next five days with the blessing of a Dark God attracting every good cleric in a hundred miles towards his position. However, having friends in low places had it's perks.
Jack moved up towards the group, dropping all attempts at stealth. He happily sent the dagger in a spinning arc, as it l;landed in front of the elf's left foot, piercing the snow. Smiling, Jack stepped up, retrieving a second dagger from his belt, his eyes menacing. "Say, mr Elf, could you give me back my dagger? I appear to have dropped it. it is quite precious to me." Jack stood there with his expectant smile, completely confident. Defying all laws of logic, he had failed to notice the massive orc encampment.

alieo shifts his attention to the loud distraction this man had made he points his already drawn bow and points it at the man saying " if you have any sense you would drop that blade before my arrow pierce's your skull and be mindful of the orc settlement behind us "

Jack simply smiles, as he walks next to him. He stood confidently, twirling the knife around his fingers absentmindedly, not even looking as the blade sweeps around, narrowly avoiding removing his fingers each swing. "Say, elf. How fast do you think a bow is? Fast enough? From this distance, do you think I could push your bow aside before you hit me? Because if I do, I can kill you before you notch another arrow." Jack smiles at the elf, licking his lips. "I'm willing to bet my life on it. Are you? If so, shoot me. We'll take a gamble, and one of us will die. You or me. Well, elf? How fast do you think your bowstring moves?"

"well if you know anything of elves you would know that the bow is the weapon of choice and how swift we are, but let me tell you this i will not kill you but i will injure you but unless you want to fight we can focus our attention to the orc camp where someone is trapped or you can bleed here whille i do the rescue?" the elf drops his bow looking at him.

The brother and sister had stopped their movements when a voice had come from behind them, they turned together to see an elf, and a bow, both giving off a hostile vibe towards the two young elementals.

"Elf" the girl simply said, not seeming to pay much mind to the question.

Her brother nodded, "Elf" he said in conformation, they both just looked at the man blankly until a dagger came and drew their attention to a new person

"Short" The girl said this time,

"Short" the brother confirmed once more.

they didn't seem at all to grasp the danger of their situation, and didn't make any move to defend themselves from either stranger.

"Orc" the girl said once more, pointing to a orc scout who was coming near them, whether or not they had noticed them all, was still up for debate.

"Orc" the brother confirmed, still not giving any hint to fear, but he tugged on his sisters sleeve, and they both began to continue running, not seeming to care about the two they had just met. The problem? they were running towards the orc...the orc who would likely alert the many many other orcs nearby, if the trespassers were seen

Jack was about to reply, when the girl called him short. At this, his eyes went dead. He smiled a dead smile, and the dagger in his hand disappeared. it wasn't magic, of course. He had simply moved faster than most would have expected. A lifetime of killing people bigger than you could give one remarkable speed. The dagger flew through the air, landing solidly in the brother's shoulder with a solid thunk. Jack sighs, as he turns his attention back to the elf. "Sorry about that. I don't like being called short. Say, mr elf, do I seem short to you? Do you think I'm diminutive? Tiny? Dwarfish? Well?"
Jack hooked the dagger on the ground with his boot, kicking it into the air. He caught it in midair, and, continueing in one fluid movement, stabbed it into the elf's right hand, pinning it to his bow. He then twisted it, wondering how much pain the elf would take before screaming. It had been a while since he'd stabbed an elf. The feel of their flesh, to Jack, seemed different. Softer, more graceful. And he had always enjoyed the look they got. Almost as if they were indignant at the thought that a mere human would dare stab one of them. it kind of made him want to stab them more.

Alieo felt the dagger go into his name not making a sound. he ripped the blade out and in one fluid motion he dropped the blade and fired the arrow before the short man could even move and shot him in his knee and then made a soft whistle sound and thru the woods a white tiger bigger than a normal comes running. Alieo had a pet tiger but could not keep it in the village so he always spent most fo his time in the forest hunting with his tiger helios. As the tiger comes Alieo says " ratavish" a langauge he had tought his tiger. the tiger comes up to the short man and lets out a soft growl then alieo says " look human you either help me find this person or keep this pissing contest on hold because there is more to deal with than you. Alieo twist the arrow in the mans leg and pulls it out fast and then says the tiger " ravash" the tiger runs with alieo as he chases after the brother and sister heading toward a orc scout.