"Steady men, steady." came a whisper from the cliff sides of a canyon. Below was a trade route that passed by the sides of a mountain.
Everything seemed quiet and not unusual, there were no movement darting about the cliffs nor was there any indication of any life.... that is until the sounds of dozens of footsteps beating the ground could be heard traversing through this trade route.
These, were slave traders, evident by the crack of the whip and insult being hurled around.
Their formation was simple, you had what seemed like the leader riding on top of his horse in the lead, followed by two carts, one closed top another was open topped filled with slaves looking all manners of depressed. Behind them were a line of people shackled together, also looking depressed and even in pain as the slavers cracked their whips to keep them going. The line was long but thin, once in a while interrupted by a cart filled with supplies and slaves, before two more carts ended the line.
"Disgusting" came a whisper.
"Ya? But we can't all be angles." Came another whisper. "Ready your arrows and pick your targets, watch for the slaves, their are about to reach the spot."
A few minutes went by of marching and whip cracking before...
"Alright brother, now's the time. Don't miss"
...
*BOOM*
The sound of an explosion echoed the canyon, as rocks in front of the slaver convoy began to slide and then avalanche in front of them, killing the few scouts ahead of the convoy and kicking up a lot of dirt.
The leader's horse reared in surprise, as the convoy halted abruptly. But the slavers had very little time to react.
"ASSUSSUNATIN'!" yelled a loud voice, as a figure leaped off the cliffs with great speed and literally descended upon the leading horse. The impact along broke some bones and caused the horse to collapse, but it was the crude knife to the brains that caused the leading slaver to pass on.
It was then dozens of arrows appeared from the cliff sides, finding their marks on the armed slavers.
Many of the slavers fell dead, as many slaves fell to the ground in fear. A group of heavily armed slavers managed to withstand the first volley, looking around frantically for their attackers, they're attentions were caught by the screech of a hawk. As they looked up, they watched in mix awe and horror as a hawk speeding at them morphed into a grizzly bear and fell upon them, mawing their faces out with it's claws as a secound volley of arrows went out, killing the stragglers.
As the last slaver fell dead, several hunting horns echoed the canyon, before the sound of the trumpet caused a few dozen men in sandy green and red to appear from the cliff faces.
"Gorgitz!" someone yelled as the figure who had killed the leader turned around, looking at a nearby bowmen and his mates.
"Your an idiot, you know that?" The archer yelled, but he seemed to have a smirk on his face the men around began laughing. "Your not suppose to yell out what your doing, as your doing them!"
"huhu." chuckled Gorgitz, the orc guerrilla, as he wiped off the blood from his knife.
Meanwhile, the men were scaling the cliff sides down, some remained onto of the cliffs with bows and crossbows at the ready.
As they approached the convoy, many of the slaves began to huddle together and even tried to back away, but some of the men held out both hands, which were empty, and began to announce that they were friendly and here to help. Meaning while others were beginning to loot the corpses, trying to find keys. Once they did, many tossed it to a nearby friend before they began to unshackle the slaves. Some of the men were checking over the slaves that were freed from bondage, checking to see if they were injured. Those who were were helped into the shade, as the men with scalps attached to their hats began to treat them.
The archer who had yelled at Gorgitz scaled the cliffs himself, followed by a trumpter, before moving for the big orc. Gerwen gave him a friendly knock on the shoulders. "But good job there, you've deaded the leader."
"Huhu." the orc chuckled, a bit darkly, under his hood and gave the man a thumbs up. "Tankz boss."
This "boss" was Gerwen Jager, the captain of the Death Eagles. As the captain looked around, he spotted his brother, Ostwin Jager, giving orders to men to have them take control of the carts and start handing out arms and weapons to the freed slaves.
When both of the brothers met eyes, Ostwin finished giving orders before making his way to his brother.
"Good job brother." laughed the captain. "You managed to hit the broad side of a boulder."
"Shut your face." grunted Ostwin, much to the captain and his trumpter's amusement.
"Did you find the girl?" asked Gerwen.
"Not yet, but we are still going through the conv-"
"Oi, cap'n!" The former sergeant was interrupted by a bowmen, as the two brothers looked over to a group of their men near the first boxed cart. THe bear had morphed back into a human, Walter was his name, who was now sniffing at the locked boxed cart.
The two brothers looked at each other before the three of them headed for the cart. The cart was surrounded by men, who were talking and looking at each other, moving aside only to let the command group reach the cart.
A crossbow sergeant came up to them and gave them a nod, before explaining "Walt here is getting a scent, says he's getting a magical reading behind this door. He reckons that there's somthing magical behind the door."
"Is it an artifact?" asked Gerwen, looking at the cart sideways
"Maybe. None of the lot..." the sergeant said as he thumbed at the freed slaves. "...no anything about it. We are about to get it open."
"Alright, but stack up on it." said Ostwin. "I don't want to take chances."
THe crossbow sergeant nodded as he began giving orders. Bowmen and crossbow men began loading their weapons as they aimed it at the door. Walter took a step back, griping his magical staff.
The crossbow sergeant drew his short sword as waved another crossbowmen forward to the cart with him. The two leaned against the cart, before the sergeant waved a bowmen forward, who began picking the lock.
Once the lock was open, the bowmen quickly backed off, drawing his own bow and arrow. The sergeant nodded to his crossbow underling , who had his crossbow raised, as both of them began to slowly open the doors.
When it was open, the two crossbowmen backed off, as the rest of the men looked on expectantly for what ever that was inside.
