Explorer of Edregon

"What?" Vin said dumbly, slowly holding up his hands before him as if Curash were a wild animal. Shia stood stock still, her eyes wide as she concentrated on not moving a muscle. Licking his lips, Vin offered Curash a nervous smile. "Let's all just take it easy. What do you want from us?"

"And why even tell us about the Red Dawn in the first place if you were one of them?" Scule spat, glaring at the Hunter. "We wouldn't have even known you existed!"

"Just a little game I like to play," Curash chuckled, bringing his free hand up to his mouth. Letting out a shrill whistle, he grinned, pointing at the ground between them. "Besting people is no fun if you take them entirely by surprise. Now then, why don't the two of you make things easier on all of us and toss your weapons on the ground there. If I find you've tried to hide anything from me, or my crew gets here before you're done, I'll take one of this girl's pointy ears as a trophy. Could always use a new ear after all!"

Vin's eyes never left the Hunter, but he could easily hear the whooping and hollering of what sounded like half the camp running up the hill toward them. Not having any time to think, he tossed his staff and utility knife onto the ground, nodding at Scule to do the same. Grumbling, Scule ripped off his bandoleer of daggers, tossing it forward as well.

"Only a few more seconds," Curash said, nodding toward the faster members of his crew nearly upon them. His black eyes seemed to gleam for a moment as he stared directly at Scule. "If you value your friend's wellbeing, I recommend you give up whatever weapons you're hiding."

"He's got some sort of skill," Vin realized, whispering to Scule. "Hurry, your bag!"

"Damn it all," Scule hissed, unclasping his cape and tossing the dimensional bag forward as well. Scule's bag barely hit the ground before the first of the Red Dawn showed up, and Vin let out a sigh of relief as Curash gave them a satisfied nod.

"Cut that one a little close," he laughed, kicking Shia's staff out of her hands and into the pile as well. "I'll admit, I'm curious as to just how many weapons you're hiding in the small bag of yours."

"What'cha find this time boss," a deep voice called out as the members began forming a circle around them. Only now did Vin tear his eyes away from Curash, blinking at the colorful crowd of murderers and thieves surrounding them.

He supposed it was due to the fact that Curash, Kym, and Golrim were all humans, that he'd expected the rest of the prisoners to be human as well.

Turns out, that was only partially the case.

While half of the sneering and hungry looking members of the Red Dawn were in fact human, the other half were a mixture of a couple different races. Vin spotted a few beastkin similar to those from the citadel, one or two dwarves, and even a good handful of a totally new race to him, which the man who had just spoken belonged to. They were large, thick chested, and with small tusks jutting out of an underbite.

A quick use of his Common Ally passive informed him these people were orcs, along with the knowledge that they were pure carnivores. Apparently, they could eat almost endlessly, and all the extra nutrition went toward either improving their already bulging muscles, or used to heal injuries practically before their very eyes.

"A wayward Explorer and his friends," Curash said, earning a round of snickers from his crew. "Not only that, apparently, he's met Golrim. Said he was here on his behalf in fact."

Curash might as well have just told the surrounding marauders that he was ordering them to give up their lives of crime based on the roars of outrage and angry shouts that rang out at Golrim's name.

"We should gut them and send them back to Golrim in a basket!" one of the beastkin shouted above the rest, unsheathing a blood encrusted sword and stepping forward.

"Jounice, are you telling me what I should do?" Curash asked quietly, sounding more confused than anything.

Immediately, the uproar died, and everyone took a quick step back, leaving the horrified looking beastkin standing there all alone.

"No!" she stammered as she glanced around, her eyes pleading with the others to step forward and join her once more. "I hate Golrim just as much as everyone else! If they're working for him, I just thought-"

"Trod, this one's a spellcaster of some sort. If she does anything funny, bash her brains in," Curash ordered.

"Aye, boss," the large orc answered, stepping forward and gripping Shia's shoulder with a massive hand. "She's not gonna do anything, are ya?"

Seeing Shia shake her head, Curash nodded, cracking his neck as he began walking toward the beastkin that was looking more panicked by the second.

"Boss, I wasn't telling you what to do!" she repeated, practically shaking as she tried to take a step back and found a wall of people blocking her from doing so. Turning to watch Curash approach, the hair covering her entire body stood up on end and she began panting slightly. Realizing she had no escape, her entire demeanor changed in an instant.

The moment Curash got within a half dozen feet of her, a deep, powerful growl rose up from within her chest, and she roared as she slashed out at him with her blade, her fear entirely forgotten.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Vin gasped as Curash waited until the last second before twisting under the blade, whipping an arrow out of his quiver in the same motion and slamming it into the beastkin's wrist. The woman howled, dropping her sword as her fingers lost their strength and blood went everywhere. At the same time, Curash stepped in closer, flowing around a swipe from her other clawed hand before ramming the tips of his fingers into the warrior's throat almost as an afterthought.

Vin couldn't help but stare in shock at the man's fluid movements as he ended the fight in mere seconds. The Hunters movements felt strangely familiar, and Vin felt a chill go down his spine as he finally realized who they reminded him of.

He moves like Alka.

Coughing and sputtering, the beastkin finally went down, curling into a ball at Curash's feet and cradling her wounded wrist as she struggled to breathe. Curash looked down at the gasping beastkin as though she were a wounded animal he was contemplating putting out of her misery. Scratching his chin with another one of his arrows, he shook his head.

"I don't take pleasure in reeducating you lot when you make a mistake," he called out, his eyes scanning over the silent crowd. Vin stared as even the largest and meanest looking of the marauders cowered under the man's gaze, leading him to believe Curash had done far more horrific things in the past to establish himself as their leader.

The sight of one particularly large and muscular looking orc trying to hide a giant warhammer nearly the size of Vin's entire body behind his back was particularly jarring.

"That's why I'd appreciate it if everyone tried their hardest to remember these lessons," Curash continued, slowly pulling his bow off his back and placing his arrow on the string. "You know how these things go, Jounice."

"Please… Boss," she coughed, looking up at him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again!"

"You're right," Curash said, drawing back his arrow and pointing it right between her eyes. "One way or another, it won't."

Vin prepared himself to look away, not wanting to see someone executed right in front of him. But to his surprise, rather than fire at her point blank, Curash suddenly jerked his bow upwards, firing his arrow directly into the sky.

Vin blinked, wondering what the hell was going on. His group seemed to be the only confused ones however, as the watching marauders went stone faced, staring at the fallen beastkin with a mixture of pity and fear.

"Boss!" She cried again, moving to stand up.

"You know the rules, Jounice," Curash said, his cold gaze freezing her in her tracks. "Move one more inch and the next arrow goes directly between your eyes. Wouldn't you rather leave things up to fate?"

Whimpering, the beastkin nodded, squeezing her eyes shut and panting as she began to tremble. Despite the insane situation they were currently in, Vin's Common Ally kicked in all on its own as he wondered about the panting. According to his passive, the beastkin were actually largely incapable of sweating, and instead would pant when nervous.

Before he could think about how weird that had to be for them, Curash's arrows came screaming back to the ground, lodging itself deep within the meat of the beastkin's thigh with a sickening thud.

"Gods above," Scule muttered, and Vin winced as the beastkin howled in pain. Strangely enough however, the marauders all began to cheer, and two of them rushed forward, helping the wounded beastkin to her feet as blood began pouring down her leg. Even Curash stepped forward, clapping the shakily grinning woman on the back as he laughed.

"The Gods still smile upon you Jounice," he grinned, leaning down and ripping the arrow out of her leg without warning, earning a fresh howl of pain from the poor beastkin. "Go get yourself fixed up. And remember this the next time you think you're ready to lead the Red Dawn yourself."

"Thanks boss," she nodded shakily, hobbling off with the aid of two others.

Vin could only look on in disbelief at the cheers and claps the injured beastkin received as she wandered off back to camp. Clearly, whatever this strange punishment Curash dealt out had become some form of tradition that the marauders seemed particularly proud of. As if sensing Vin's eyes on him, Curash finally turned back toward him, offering them an apologetic grin.

"Sorry about all that. The downside of leading a band of bloodthirsty raiders is that some of them aren't too bright. Far too quick to forget who calls the shots around here, and far too stupid if they think they can take me on," he said, nodding toward one of the dwarves that had been practically standing on the balls of his feet all this time, staring eagerly at Shia's staff and Scule's cape. The dwarf had a cracked pair of goggles hanging from his neck, and he looked like he was ready to risk Curash's wrath if it meant he could get his hands on the stolen items. "Pyron, thank you for your patience. I know you've been starved of artifacts of late, but make sure you take your time with these. Who knows how long it will be before you get any new toys to play with."

"Of course boss," Pyron nodded, bowing low before rushing forward and scooping up the entire pile. For a moment, Vin tensed, wondering if the dwarf was going to notice the other couple of artifacts still on his person. Thankfully, it seemed Pyron was far too engrossed in the stronger auras coming off of Shia's staff and Scule's cape to realize Vin was carrying more artifacts on him, and the dwarf practically skipped away with glee, their belongings cradled within his arms.

"Prison gets all sorts," Curash chuckled, watching the dwarf scamper away. "Poor Pyron has had a tough time leveling back up his Artificer class since The Escape. Not a lot of artifacts to be found around these parts."

"What are you going to do with us?" Shia demanded, ignoring the giant orc standing right behind her, his hand still planted firmly on her shoulder.

"That's a very good question," Curash admitted, pulling out another arrow and twirling it between his fingers before using it to scratch his chin. "Normally we just kill people that wander into our territory, but you lot are special. Seeing as you know Golrim, I have a feeling there might be plenty of other interesting things you've got up here," he said, taping his arrow against his temple. "In a perfect world, I suppose you'd tell us what we want to know and then we'd kill you. Or I might very well offer you a spot in our ranks if you prove yourselves. The Gods know these morons kill themselves faster than you would believe," he sighed, shaking his head. "For now, how about you don't do anything stupid, and I won't have Trod crush your skulls between his teeth while you beg for mercy."

Shia turned and looked up, getting an eyeful of the orc's massive tusks before nodding.

"And the two of you?" Curash asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing toward Vin and Scule with his arrow. "Do we have an understanding?"

"Loud and clear," Scule called out. Vin simply nodded, which seemed to be enough for the Hunter, as he tucked his arrow back into his quiver with a smile.

"Excellent! In that case, why don't I show you lot to where you'll be staying?"