<span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">For the longest moment, Ry'kanos knelt there, staring at the dead man he just killed. He was as still as a statue amid the broken bodies and the soft churn of the water in the hot springs. Inside of him, there was chaos. <br/>
<br/>
He did not enjoy killing. He was a warrior who would rather lay down spear in exchange for a hoe and field in a heart's beat. The young man. cut down in his prime, had been an evil necessity. Necessity... the word made justification for atrocity. The War of Desolation had made it necessary to stain a weapon's edge that stain spread to the core of any sentient creature. <br/>
The young man might have been lying there, at the end, about having a family. Somehow, he doubted that though. There, in his last moments of his brief life, he had only thought of escape towards his little boy or girl and hold his wife as tight as he could. He had marched in the Kaldean Legions, no legion tattoo marred his flesh. He had never killed a man.<br/>
<br/>
But here he lay. And would do so forever.<br/>
Because, by necessity, Ry'kanos was a killer.<br/>
<br/>
Tenderly, Ry'kanos reached down and closed the accusatory eyes of the young man. A deep breath, and he rose from his crouch near the dead boy, grabbing haft of spear as he did. A hard tug and the spear came loose from the lower back of an untested boy. A flick of the spear and the blood there was whipped away to spatter the stones in a pattern that Ry'kanos dared not contemplate for long.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"We can't do this all by ourselves. We need to seek help." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He lifted eyes that were eerily similar to those of the dead man to watch Raida rush to the cages. In his dark reverie, he had forgotten the caged animals entirely. He had not come here to save them. He looked down at the dead human at his feet.<br/>
<br/>
Their death had called him.<br/>
<br/>
He tore his gaze away from the dead man and calmly picked his way through the broken bodies that littered the ground. Raida was leaning against an empty wagon, tending to a wolf pup she had found in one of the cages. He leaned against his spear and idly reached up with his free hand to gingerly probe the small puncture in his shoulder. Shallow and not hindering movement. Irrelevant. He would see to it when the killing was done.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"This is getting dangerous Ry'kanos. What are we going to do now?"</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He glanced at her briefly before his gaze returned to surveying the surrounding forest. They couldn't stay here. They didn't know if this was the only human camp or if someone had escaped to bring word of what had occurred. They needed to move. He didn't say any of that though as she continued speaking to fill the encroaching void,</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"Are you hurt? I can heal you."</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He shook his head briefly. It was a minor wound. He would see to it that it did not become infected. There was no reason for her to waste her energy on him further.</span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"Slayer's on to something. We should follow him. It's best we get our asses out of here." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">Finally, a mission. He nodded and stopped leaning against his spear. The fight had enlivened him and he was ready to continue the fight; even if the thought of more spilled blood, even in the service of his people, filled him with dread. </span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He watched as Raida stood and stuffed the wolf pup in to her empty satchel. He understood why she did it but he would have preferred if she had left the pup. It would slow them down and might alert enemies to their presence if it was to inadvertently make a noise at the wrong time. He sighed inwardly. Still, he understood why she did and thus he kept his silence. <br/>
<br/>
Following Raida from the broken scene of slaughter and to where she freed the horses hitched to the wagon, he watched them go with something like sadness. It was good to see them run free but it still hurt him to know that they had bore witness to what had transpired here.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"We need to follow these tracks and then I think it's time we seek out the other elves and storm the castle to free the others." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He nodded enthusiastically. It was a mission he could fall behind and he found his voice.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0000">"In all haste."</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">He eyed Raida expectantly but also critically. She was tired but her spirit to do good for her people was burgeoning within her. Despite the dying embers of his own desire to help his people, he found it a duty to fan the flames within her feeling responsible for lighting the blaze to begin with.</span><br/><br/><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0080">"Come my friend." </span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">She held out her hand and he smiled, taking it lightly and giving it a squeeze before letting it go.</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ff0000">"Let's."</span><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#ffffff">And he began to walk, following the tracks outlined in the ground. In his youth, he had been a hunter and had learned to track the signs of those who called the steppes of his childhood home. However, tracking the forest was slightly different and he slowed to keep pace with Raida.</span>