He was riding alongside Nina.

The rain had decided to continue on from the morning to the afternoon, and by the looks of the steadiness of it, it was appearing to be building up into an all nighter.

So even with her riding right beside him, she was a little hard to hear over the haze of the rain fall.

“What did you say?” he called to her again.

She motioned the horse closer, and without apparently shouting she repeated “You won’t need to kill any elves, I still have about two days head start”

She was attractive, even more so than the usual attractiveness of elves. She had lean features, chiselled yet feminine. Her long hair was straight, although it was currently tied back into a pony tail, he could tell he would enjoy the site of it flowing freely.

Even with her leanness, she held an athletic pose, one that demonstrated many years of physical training. She was undoubtedly a warrior, she moved with far too much precision to be anything else.

Given all that, it was beyond a doubt that most men would only see her beauty.

And he was sure this was a handy advantage to her in the beginning of most fights.

The advantage she had over him though was not underestimating the abilities she had due to her beauty; it was that he got nervous around extremely beautiful women, which he compensated for by being stupid.

“Don’t worry. If I do, I will make sure not to kill too many of your friends”

The frowned look was enough to show he missed the mark.

They rode on in silence for short while. She seemed confused.

He rode a little closer to her again, “Nina, I am sorry about that”

She half smiled and said “It’s ok. Your humour is a bit weird so I will not become too offended.”

Then she added “Anyway, I couldn’t tell you who my real friends are anyway.”

He felt that to be sad answer.

The road from Tribute to the first small town was uneventful, and the town itself, although small, was safe. He had stayed there many times and had always found the lodgings good and friendly.

So with the sun dropping below the horizon making an already grey day darker, with the rain having soaked everything and the town within sprinting distance, Nina saying “We can’t stay in the town, not here, this place is too small to protect us” came as a surprise and disappointment to Emmet.

He halted the horse and swung around to be face to face with her.

He said, firmly “You employed me and my team to protect you, you did this because we know what we are doing, so please don’t overrule my informed decisions”

Nina replied “Emmet, this town, it is not safe because it is not big enough. My hunters will, should they catch up, not hesitate to enter this place and kill anyone who gets in their way of finding me. We stop in the town at the peril of the town.” She waited long enough to allow the information to sink in and just as he was going to start talking she added “We pitch tent just within the woods, we are equally safe here as we would be in there”

Emmet was not overly happy, he had been using the warm dry tavern as his reward, and now she was taking it away. But he was also beginning to wonder just what her hunters were.

Elves don’t attack and kill humans, not is peaceful towns anyway.

“Don’t ask me Emmet, just prepare the tent, set a watch up, and be happy the reward is so large”

Telling Serine and Vestin was not overly easy. Vestin said “This is bullshit Emmet, what is chasing her? I am happy to fight anything I know about, but at the moment we have no idea. We are blind to our enemy; we need to know what is chasing her.”

“I hear you load and clear, but she is right, with big money comes big risk. She has a clear head start and she appears unconcerned in a large way about them finding us”

Serine pitched in “So we just suck eggs on who we are meant to be protecting her from?”

“I think so, just don’t go killing everyone who approaches, she has not told us who they are, so we won’t do anything serious until we have a clear idea from her about it”

He turned from his friends to stand guard by Nina. He was not feeling in control of this situation and it was not helping with protecting her.

“Don’t worry Emmet, we will put the tent up” he heard Vestin calling behind him.

With Serine adding “It will give you more time to get to know your new friend” to which they both laughed.

Emmet never entirely understood why they teased him about female friends or even female acquaintances. He had never strayed from his commitment to Gail. All he would think to himself was “People are strange”.

Moving towards Nina his thoughts quickly altered.

If they were to move forward, trust was going to have to be demonstrated as the dangers were beginning to outweigh the reward. He also knew from experience that the shorter the job, the higher the danger. And there was no point getting a reward when you are dead.

He said to Nina “The tent will be pitched over there” he pointed to where Serine and Vestin had disappeared in the bush.

She looked as if she was waiting for the next question before he even began.

“Look, I realise you want to keep everything to yourself, but we need to know what is hunting you, otherwise we won’t know who to stop”

For the second time that day, she looked to be finding a way around answering, so he continued.

“A few years ago I did a job fairly similar to this one. Big money, little time and for a person I didn’t know. You know the ones, too good to be true.” He looked straight into her eyes as he continued. “Anyway, as the goblins surrounded us, I noticed our charge had already disappeared into the forest. There were sixteen goblins and one orc against three. I watch my two friends get slaughtered that night. Hacked down like dogs in the slaughter house. How I managed to escape eludes me to this day”

Holding her entranced he continued “And here I am again, one stranger being elusive, two friends with one not far behind. And one mother of a reward that is too good to be true. Except this time it isn’t goblins or orcs.” He paused, allowing her to accept the game was going to stop soon without answers.

“We need to know your enemies so we can defend you”

Nina’s face was tight with stress, but she looked composed. “Oak Vale is my home, as it has been for generations of elves.” She was breathing shallow now, rapidly. “We have come to a crossroads, do we eradicate the evil that is entrenched in our home, or do we allow it to engulf us?”

She held his gaze now “Do we stand up and fight our losing battle alone, or ask those we turned away from for the help we don’t deserve?”

“It is beyond believe Emmet that my own kind have become so blind that they deem it better to kill their own rather than seek the help we so badly need. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I am being hunted by my cousins and they are with an evil thought long gone from our lands.”

He was hearing the words, but the belief?

Was it easier believe that an entire good race had turned on themselves or to accept that maybe one elf had completely lost her mind?

“And this evil we thought gone?”

“Sujo”

Emmet went pale.

He was old enough to remember the beasts that almost crippled the region a quarter of a century ago. The large man like creatures with faces of majestic compassion. With lion faces, manes flowing down their muscular backs.

How could such beauty be so evil? How could they turn on humans, slaughtering thousands on the first day alone in such a sync deified fashion?

Emmet remembered the blood and mauling of that week as if it were yesterday.

“How?”

Vestin came out of the bush “Emmet, Nadir is here and he has news you are not going to believe”

Nina and Emmet stood looking at each other in silence.

“Emmet, you need to hear this” Vestin insisted.

He turned towards the camp with Nina in tow.

Nadir was a short man with broad shoulders. His tanned skin looked out of place among the paled locals. He was not native to the area, having travelled from the northern regions where heat ruled and deserts owned the land.

He had a scar down his left cheek that had an intricate tattoo decorating it along the edges. He took some pride in the scar; he felt they were something that had been earned so they required an equal embellishment.

Even with his scarred face and haggard look, there were smiles all round as Nadir embraced Emmet.

“My good friend, it is good to catch up with you again.” Nadir said.

“Same here my confused friend”

Emmet loved hearing his accent because accents were so rare here, barring the elven lilt and dwarven hack which were common to the area.

Vestin piped in with “Sorry to intrude with the hug fest, but Nadir has news.”

“Yes, I do, and considering this elf” he pointed to Nina without looking at her “I feel it is urgent”

“Enough with the dramatics Nadir, just spill the news” Serine pushed.

“I spotted elven wolf tracks a few miles up the road.” He looked to Nina and added “This head start you think you have, my sweet, is non-existent”