[Sophia the Thunder Mistress]

Rysha held back, as the rest swept into the caverns. Sikilkolindo gave her a withering glance and rushed into the fight as well. Rysha stood stock still, her ears straining. Were those footsteps behind? Her dark eyes narrowed she pressed herself close to the wall of the passage, dark cloak flung around herself, hoping the shadows would mask her presence.

Labored footsteps came up the passage from behind her. Rysha's hearbeat quickened. Finally, a chance to see what these creatures were after in the caves. Rysha had been around long enough to know what treasures Gorthroth and Cersed coveted, and thus far hadn't seen anything worth this expedition.

The footsteps drew nearer, a faint moaning sound accompanying them. A dwarf, Rysha thought, and at least one man. Two men, actually, she quickly corrected as they came around the corner. The man nearest her had long brownish hair and a tanned face. She grinned in the darkness as she made up her mind. Stepping out of the shadows she drew her sword, its curved blade glinting dully in the torchlight from the larger cavern.

The man, her target, gave a startled cry. "Take Nori out of here!" he yelled. Rysha's smile grew wider. Stupid fool, sending away his companions. Her blade clashed with his as the other two ran down the passage.

"My name is Rysha." she said softly, as she swung her blade around toward him again. She didn't really want to hurt him at this point, but it was necessary to keep him busy. The man grunted in response to her question. "What are you here for?" she asked him, her eyes narrowed to slits. With every blow of steel on steel she skillfully maneuvered him back into the deeper caverns. The dark fell around them.

It was like a dance, the swing and block motion. Rysha barely thought about it, as she continued the small talk that would eventually bring this man under her whip. "Why have you come here? Do you not know that this is the ground of the dead that walk? They will not let you leave."

The man's eyes began to grow wild. Rysha had seen it happen before. Her calm persistence was out of place in this dark world, and men were afraid of her. "I serve the darkness. I am Rysha, the strong arm of Gorthroth, King of these halls." She laughed in her head at that pretentious title for a relic long dead. But it was the sound that mattered, the sound that made the man shiver with fear, made him lose his nerve. It soon would cause him to make a mistake.

The mistake soon came. The man stumbled over the uneven ground in the darkness. He fell backward, his head striking the rock wall of the cavern. Rysha returned her sword to her belt, barely winded. She looked at the man lying unconscious on the stone floor.

Grinning, she surveyed the cavern. There were certain places most suitable for the questioning of a prisoner. Rysha's maneuverings had brought them close to one of those places. Not much farther, she thought, as she grasped the man's wrists and began laboriously to drag him down the passage. Just a bit farther...

[ May 23, 2003: Message edited by: Sophia the Thunder Mistress ]