Adranel picked her way through the bodies, holding her skirts high out of the bloody snow. During times like these she truly did envy the men their breeches - skirts were such a bother! Her quiver had been severely diminished, and she was trying to find her arrows. Some of them were damaged, and Adranel did not bother with those because she did not have the means to repair them. Besides, bending over hurt her side, and she had no motivation to do so just to get broken arrows. All told, she was able to retrieve about three-quarters of the arrows she shot, and she carefully extricated those, wiping them clean of the black blood and replacing them to her quiver. Grim satisfaction was found by the number of targets she hit. The Orcs would pay yet. Finally deciding she had gotten as many arrows back as she could, she left the small battlefield, though she stayed clear of the soldiers for the most part.
Adranel looked around and saw Beluf and soldier nearby, talking and pointing at something in a tree. Straining her eyes, Adranel realized it was that crazy man, Innema. At least he had enough sense to get out of the way of battle, she thought dryly. She wandered a little closer, trying to figure out what was going on. She was not so bold yet as to approach them; Beluf was likely annoyed with her for her outburst yesterday, and the last time she had seen Innema he had attacked her. She stopped when she was close enough to make out the details. Neither man had noticed her because of their concentration on the man in the tree. It looked to her like they were trying to get him out. Beluf held a piece of bread, as if to lure him down like a dog.
She was tempted to leave them to their own business, but she wanted something to do, and decided to throw out some advice to them. She approached to about fifteen feet away, a distance she felt was long enough that she would not be obliged to join them. “His name is Innema,” she called out tartly. Her voice was neither friendly nor hostile; for all the familiarity she showed, she might as well have never met Beluf. The two men turned at the sound of her voice. “I don’t recommend trying to force him to do anything - he probably won’t take that well. His mind seems to work in rather... well, strange ways.” She crossed her arms across her chest, unwilling to be more forthcoming than that. They could take her advice or leave it; she did not care. She was curious to see whether they would succeed in getting Innema out of the tree - he looked absolutely terrified of the Orcs and perfectly content to remain in his high perch. She just waited in mild amusement to see what they would try.
|