OOC: I made a character named Vakath for the sake of our thread.
Vakath watched intently as he saw the figure ride with casual confidence through the canyon below. Although it annoyed him mightily, this outsider, while not native to the desert, certainly knew how to traverse one. From the way he was dressed he almost appeared to be a nomad. Almost. Vakath raked his mind as to what he could be. The figure paused and dismounted to inspect a discarded provisions bag, then took a bite out what appeared to be an apple and continued moving forward. As he remounted the horse, the figure seemed to urge his mount on after something. A tracker Vakath thought, he has to be a tracker, and the one that Akyra warned us about.
Ever since a random adolescent boy had turned up, wandering almost mindlessly through the desert, things had changed in the Sand Dragon Camp. The Elders, the preeminent magic users of the tribe, had attempted to heal the mind of the boy, who was going absolutely insane. What was afflicting the boy Vakath had not the faintest clue, although he had heard fancy words coming out of the Elders mouths about demons and magic. Vakath did not respect anyone outside The Elders who practiced magic. After all, the true determiner of a combatant was how well they wielded a weapon, not how well they spoke and flailed their arms in the air.
This did not mean that Vakath was not bothered by the rumors of demon magic. Any time demonic magic has surfaced near Sand Dragon territory, it did not bode well for the tribe. It was on more than one occasion that demons had nearly made the Sand Dragon People extinct, and Vakath still bore the horrific scars from the Cultist War across his body. The way that demons claws were able to shred through the toughest scale armor still sent chills down his spine.
But the demon attacks of the past were not important right now, that tracker in the canyon was. Akyra had informed Vakath that the corrupted boy was once a slave to a necromantic mage, and it would be more likely than not that the mage was going to send a slave hunter after the boy to get his prize back. For what the mage could have been using the boy for Vakath had not the slightest clue, although he hoped for the adolescents sake that is was not anything perverted.
Akyra's prediction was correct, there was a tracker hot on the trail of the escape boy slave. While this tracker certainly knew his way around the desert, he hadn't the slightest clue he was being watched by multiple Sand Dragon warriors that were stuck on patrol.
It was Vakath's idea to find the boy slave's discarded bag and refill it with the items he had been found traveling with to fool the tracker into thinking he was hot on a trail. So far his plan was working to perfection. Vakath's piercing brown eyes followed the slave hunter as the hunter approached a fork in the canyon below. Turning to a warrior on the opposite side of the canyon ledge, Vakath flashed several hand signals to the warrior, who relayed them to another and another. Eventually the signal would be passed on to a Sand Dragon Youth, who was positioned in a path in the canyon the slave hunter was sure to follow.
A smile of gratification began to embed itself on Vakath's pale lips.
Come on, slave hunter, a little farther.
Credit to the slave hunter, he was following the path the boy slave had originally taken, but Vaktah had manipulated it to make it appear to the hunter he was hotter on the trail than he actually was. It pained Vakath that they couldn't kill the hunter, as their orders were to apprehend him and take him back to camp for questioning.
If all went according to Vakath's plan, the hunter would follow the path until he came upon the Sand Dragon youth. The hunter would think he had his prey, but before he could catch the youth the Sand Dragon patrol would ambush and apprehend the slave hunter.
Everything had worked so far, and Vakath hoped it continued to work without a hitch.