A Wolf's Hunt

This is that old oak tree that Kar'Desh mentioned. Stoler didn't think lord Épicier would bother to send guards to help the elves, but he's glad to see some armed soldiers patrolling around the old tree.
Stoler glances around, looking for someone who might be willing to speak with him. It's almost impossible for him to read a person before speaking with them, with the whole being blind thing. At least if they're not wearing anything notable like weapons or jewels. But just about anyone should be willing to give him directions if that's all he asked. He wasn't in his priestly garb or his armour so as not to frighten any of the elves. He kept his sword though. This wasn't exactly a safe place for someone to roam, especially a young woman and a man with a blindfold wrapped around his head.

Normally people were a vibrant, if dim, collection of greens, blues, and yellows, but these elves have hardly any mana at all, making them near invisible to Stoler's eyes. "Miss Erin, would you point out an elf for me? Mothers are preferable."

She sounds unsure as she says, "Y-yes chosen. Anything you need."

They approach an elf with a smile put up. "Excuse me. Could you point me to Yulath road? I can not read the signs myself you see."

A woman's voice with a surf's accent significantly thicker than Kar'Desh's, responds with, "Are you with Épicier's soldiers?"

Would it better to say yes? He speaks carefully. "Oh no. I'm simply a blind man looking to repay a kindness to a friend."

She sounds relieved and somewhat reluctant as she says, "Of course my lord. I don't know about any signs, but Yulath the baker lives down that street there."

That's right. Kar'Desh did say Yulath's road didn't he? Were all the streets in New Town named like that? Stoler follows the outstretched hand and offers his thanks. The main reason he asked an elf instead of one of the soldiers was so he could gift the downtrodden with a bit of money. For whatever good it might do, he handed the kind woman one valuable coin. "For your trouble."

She quickly snatched the coin with a, "Thank you my lord," and scurried off, out of Stoler's sight range.

Stoler repeated this process a few times, surprised by the sheer number of guards Épicier had sent to New Town. Curious, he ease dropped, finding out they were hunting some children who stole weapons from Épicier's armoury. Those are probably the children of the rebels in league with the beastmen. Poor children... They shouldn't be drug into this conflict.
Eventually Stoler found the house, he was sure Kar'Desh had described. On the outskirts of town, with a large garden growing mostly peppers. Something was off though. He had said there was a pair of old folk or their grandchildren who were always around. This house was empty. Typical. Of course Kar'Desh lied. He may as well get what information he can from whoever lives here though.

Stoler knocks on the door frame, since a curtain hangs where the door should be.
Silence.
Hesitantly, he enters. Almost immediately, he kicks a cloak rack. With all the cloaks still attached, the rack was sprawled across the floor. Strange...
He steps over the rack and into the first room. The room is only large enough for a single bed and cooking fire. Once again he steps on something strange. A book, spread out on the floor. Almost as if it were thrown.
The cooking fire is set up, prepared to boil water for a soup, a small splash of blood dried on the pot. Unsure what he's looking at, he follows the blood to find gravel? No... These are teeth. "Miss Erin, is there any dust in here?"

"No chosen. What happened here?"

The realization finally sets in for Stoler. Whoever lives here put up a struggle. As they were torn from their home and recently.
He hopes he has the wrong house.
He hopes there's some sort of explanation, some excuse!

But he knows. "Kar'Desh wasn't lying."
And he is too late.

___________________________________

This wasn't the worst situation, Ren knew. But it was hard to think otherwise. He had to remind himself that his family was still safe and for whatever reason Épicier wasn't after him. Yet.

Ren visited Kar's house this morning to escort Ja to their job at the guild's official fletcher only to find that the place had been trashed and everyone was gone. Ren found the kids in the spot near the Skeggi river he and Kar used to take them to all the time. It wasn't a good hiding place so he moved them somewhere Épicier's troops wouldn't find them. The kids are safe for now, so that gives Ren some time to work.
First, he needed to secure his own family's safety. Markus, the fletcher he works for seems like a kind man and is free from the Épicier influence, but it'd be foolish to assume he'd harbor a family of fugitive ashskins. Ren'll try anyway, but he's holding on to the hope his dad has a place to hide them. And if that fails Ren'll have to either negotiate with Nick or escape Solaris. None of those options are particularly appealing, but they're the only ones he has.

He'll try Markus first since he doesn't know where his dad is right now. He could be on any construction site across Solaris. Ren jogs across the northern side of Solaris, glancing in construction sites just in case his dad was there. He dodges crowds of people as best he can, weaving through all the shortcuts he's aware of.

After almost an hour's jog, Ren finds himself at Markus' workshop. A smaller part of a larger building, Markus shares his space with the guild's official bowmaker and archery range. In the yard, a large group of the guild's enforcers are loosing arrows at burlap targets shaped like people.

Ren slips past Épicier huntsmen haggling for a large batch of arrows and into the back where Markus and his fellows are busy making said batch. Markus glares up to see who barged into his workshop and says, "Thought I'd never see your face again. It'd be smarter for you if I didn't."

Ren adapts a humble posture and recites the spiel he's been practicing for the last hour. "Master Markus. I'm sorry for the delay. Ja's family was attacked. He managed to escape, but Épicier's soldiers are still hunting him."

"Then what are you doing here without him?"

For some reason this wasn't one of the questions Ren prepared for. This is why he let Kar do all the talking. Ren resists the urge to chew on his finger as he stammers over himself before setting on, "I couldn't smuggle three kids out of Épicier territory. I hid them in a safe place though, I didn't just abandon them."

"Okay, then what do you want?"

Again, this wasn't part of his plan. Ren stammers out, "I, well. I fear my family may be next... I was hoping you could..."
This sounds so stupid, now that he's saying this out loud. He chastises himself for being such a fool before finally finishing with, "If you could harbour them for a time, I'd be eternally grate-"

"Are you an idiot? What makes you think I'd do that?"

Ren glares at the ground. He forcibly shoves the lump in his throat down and chokes out. "I know, I'm just. I don't know what else I can do."

The clatter of freshly fletched arrows echoes and the increasingly aggressive haggling bleeds in from the front. More gently, Markus says, "I not going to do that. I can keep you and Ja 'cause you're both good kids, but I'm not housing a bunch of fugitive ashskins. Sorry kid."

Ren nods. Almost silently, he says, "Yes sir. Thank you sir."

Markus sits back down and continues on his arrows. "Don't come back here until you've got this all sorted out. I'll keep a seat open for you."

That's really all Ren can hope for. He nods, thanks him again, then leaves, trying not to dwell on the failure. Next he'll try to find his father. He jogs to the closest construction site he passed on his way here. Finding the foreman, he manages to get gossip and speculation regarding his father's location. Sounds like his father is somewhere in the Hozfur territory. That's a long walk for a rumour. If he had time, sure. It's only a couple hours there and back, he could be back before first dinner. But he has to keep an eye on Ja and his sisters. Besides preparing various hiding spots around the city and escape routs for each, he'd need to bring food and just be near them to calm them down. Kids aren't exactly known for preforming well under pressure.

He'll have to skip his dad for now and negotiate with Nick. Besides, he already knows what his father's answer would be. Of course he wouldn't have a place to hide the family. What kind of childish dream is that? No, all he would do is curse Kar and blame Ren for angering Épicier.

Ren walks for a time, deciding on the best way to attempt to convince Nick to spare his own family. He'll probably have to do some horrendous job for Nick or some other sacrifice, but he's been doing that for years now. And no matter how much it pained him, what was a few extra scarred families added to the list. Ren had the rest of his long elven life to make up for his wrongs. Once his plan is full-proof, he begins running again.
It takes another hour of straight jogging to reach the Épicier manor. Ren takes a moment to catch his breath outside the daunting gates. There are fewer guards than normal. Probably out looking for Ja, Wyn, and Nealu. He needs to hurry.

The gatesmen allow him to stroll through the gates and into Nick's office. Ren rehearses his plan two more times for good measure and prepares for it to go off track. He won't be caught off guard again.
Ren knocks and is allowed in. He begins, "Lord Épicier-"

Nick holds up a finger to silence him. A large bag of coins slumps across his desk, just as a nude blond human slumps across Nick's lap. Ren can't see her face, but he's certain he's never seen this woman before. She must be a maid considering the boring dress lumped on the floor nearby. The blonde woman snakes her arms around Nick's fat neck and whispers in his ear.

Nick motions for Ren to step further inside, nodding along gravely to the woman's whispers. The door clicks behind Ren, an armed guard leaning against it, casually picking his teeth with an overgrown fingernail. Something is off here...

Nick, calm and eyeing Ren with scorn, begins. "I assume you're here about those vile children, stealing weapons from my armoury."
Ren attempts to answer, but never gets the chance. "It's such a shame those kids take after their brother. Such a treacherous bastard he is. Do you happen to know what Kar'Desh has been up to?"
Ren shakes his head. Nick slowly plays with the woman's hair. "I've always liked you ashskin. You were never as skilled as Kar'Desh, but you're so much more valuable. You don't have any of that arrogance he does. You don't assume you're smarter than I am. I value that obedience, you know?"
He sighs. "It's such a shame he values you more than I do."
If it wasn't clear before it's blindingly obvious now. Coming here was the greatest mistake Ren could have made. Nick bats his hand dismissively. "Seize him."

___________________________________

Ja'Lith wants to cry. He was already crying and might still be crying now, but if he or his sisters so much as peep, they'll be taken by the humans. He holds his trembling sisters as close as he can, stroking their hair with shaking hands in a vain attempt to console them. He peers through the cracks in the wood below them, watching the Épicier soldiers overturn boxes and barrels in silent horror.

Only a few groups have come through this storage shed by now and even less than when they were by the river. No one has found them. Even still, Ja is paralyzed by fear. What if they noticed? What if they were caught? He hadn't made his escape yet!
Even with all his worry, the solider merely sighs and wanders off. Wyn leans back to speak, but Ja quickly puts a hand to her mouth for silence. They must wait a bit longer. Thankfully, she accepts and leans back into him.
Once he could no longer hear the soldiers marching around, he began counting.

Ten...

Twenty...

Thirty...

Eventually, once he's satisfied, he lets Wyn speak. "I'm hungry."

Nealu nodded her agreement. Ja knew that much. They haven't eaten since Ren brought the lunch he and Ja were supposed to share at work today. And they ran out of that before the end of first day. Ja says, "I am too. Once I finish this hole, I'll leave for food, okay?"
It would be smarter to wait for Ren to come back with food, but they couldn't wait forever. At some point their stomachs would start to rumble and they'd be found.

They both whimper their agreement, so Ja adjusts himself in the cramped space to resume digging through the thatch roof. It was surprisingly difficult, but Ren said the hole had to be big enough for all three of them to slip through.
Now satisfied with the size, he pokes his head out. Immediately, his heart drops and he jerks his head back in with a finger to his lips for silence.

"Armond said he already searched this area sir."

"Armond is also a lazy dog. Honestly, maybe we should just fuck off for a few hours if it's all the same to lord Épicier. Spread out."

Ja whispers, "Once this group leaves we'll get food."

They continue to wait until one of the soldiers wanders into the shed. He looks around a bit before noticing, a thin pile of thatch on the floor. Ja's heart began to pound harder than he thought it could. His sister's clearly noticed. The man inspected the thatch and did the worst possible thing.

He looked up.

He was confused at first, but the rafters didn't offer much cover. He recognized what he was seeing in a moment. Ja recognized him as the leader of this group. With a soft and gentle tone, he says, "Oh. There you kids are. Don't worry, you're not in trouble. A lot of people are looking for you. Come with me and I'll keep you safe."
He glances around the shed. "Here. I'll stack these boxes so it's easier for you to come down, yeah?"

It's a trap, Ja knew. His sisters pushed against him. "Ja please! I wanna leave!"

Not yet. Once he was a bit closer, then they could leave. He just... Couldn't explain that.

The man continued to speak softly to them while Wyn and Nealu pleaded with Ja. A little closer. He stacked one more box and climbed atop. Ja said quietly, "Now!"

They scramble out of the hole onto the roof. Where do they go now!? Ren said to get to the scaffolding a short jump away and then what? He could figure that out later! Ja and Wyn jump across no problem, but Nealu couldn't do it. "I'm going to fall!"

Ja ran back on the scaffolding with his arms out to catch her. Finally, she jumped and they continued running along the thatch roof towards the direction the soldiers came from, but the soldiers were already spreading out on the street and one of them climbing the scaffolding to reach them! How are they so fast!?

The kids reach the edge of the building in no time at all. The soldiers shout orders to surround the building and there's no way the kids can jump across the street to the other house. Ja knew there was only one way his sisters might escape. His heart threatened to beat a hole through his chest but he didn't have a choice anymore!

"Don't stop running! N-no matter what!"

He took his sister's hands and ran towards the building's ledge where some discarded rugs sat crumpled on the street. He didn't give them a chance to argue as he jumped off. Once they all landed, he pointed straight at a soldier. "That way!"

This is where the least amount of soldiers are. It was still one too many for all of them to escape. Ja charged the man three times his size, screaming his head off, fists flailing! The man obviously caught Ja, but that was the plan. He needed something. Anything to get his sisters out of there. He struggled against the man's grip uselessly and shouted, "Run!"

Wyn and Nealu ran past him, sobbing, but running. The man let go of Ja's hand in an attempt to catch Nealu, so Ja threw his fist straight into the man's groin! It worked! The man's hand retracted and all happiness Ja felt in that moment faded as soon as said hand, punched Ja with a force so hard his world spun and head roared in a pain he couldn't fully comprehend.

Ja watched in a daze as soldier's sprinted past after his sisters. They weren't fast enough, they weren't old enough. They couldn't escape. Ja was shoved into the ground and felt rope surrounding him. There was only one thing left that he could do.

With his cheek against the dirt he shouted, "Help! Someone help us!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, a rag was shoved in their place, preventing him from trying again.
Where are you Ren? Save us Kar! Please please please save us!

Ja's fears were confirmed as a another human came running around the corner. Boring apart from a sword on his waist and a rag around his eyes, the man shouted, "Enough! By the authority of the chosen of Sol, let them go!"