Durin awoke to find himself in a dark room. He tried to sit up and found himself strapped down. This immediately kicked his mind into the past. He checked himself for any wounds from the last fight, and for where they could have taken his possessions.  There was a faint ache in his chest, right by the left shoulder, but he felt otherwise fine. All he was wearing was a gown and some pants. Durin shifted, rocking the surface he was strapped to quite a bit to test the strength of the bindings. Even his great strength was not enough to free him. The band across his ribs did not feel metal, so this band of leather must be secured very well to bind him. Durin rocked a few more times just in case before checking the rest of the situation.

He could spot several other people lying like him. Other gladiators no doubt. The room was also rather large, enough to fit 3 score people if you tried hard enough. Durin flexed his hands, they felt strong, but  his left was a bit slower than the right, probably from the injury. The leather binding him was firm, but the mistake everyone made with him was underestimating how slippery a dwarf could be. With about 12 minutes of dedicated shimmying Durin found himself freed of the contraption. The pathway leading to the outside did not seem to be guarded, the fools, as stealthily as he could, Durin crept towards safety.

Until he found his path blocked by a young human girl who looked tired and rather irritated.

"I knew I should have stopped her from using the belt." she said, rubbing her eyes.

"Out of my way girl, do not speak of this and I'll let you walk away from this." Durin replied, his eyes darting around for any more guards that were inbound. A girl such as her did not deserve to be ended.

"You're not well enough to leave yet. Your gnome friend arranged a meeting at the inn at dawn while Lady Kayleth operated on you. She left after we finished up hours ago. You were still out after we finished treating the last of the guards from the afternoon's battle, and she did not want you walking out without knowing about this, which is why she used the strap. Now could you please just, go back to bed." the girl explained before walking off into the Dark. Durin stood there confused. Battle? What battle could there have-

There was a bunch of skeletons attacking the town. There was an ugly demon shooting icicles. It ran off. He led the gnome and human broads here. Rubbing his forehead, Durin returned to his spot in the clinic and went back to sleep.

[@The Fated Fallen]