[Child of the 7th Age]

"All right! All right! Hold yer horses," snapped Makdush. "Let's not be stupid. Those addled fools are taking their time. If it was orcs and uruks with a man in tow, how long would it take us to agree on a sentence of death? No more than it would take us to down a draft! I smell something fishy. Maybe they can't make up their minds."

At this point, the uruk grinned slyly. A new thought had occurred to him. "Hey, maybe we have some admirers out there. Men are unpredictable....elves are even worse. One minute they'll run you through, and the next they'll be cooing like a bunch of babies. If we're lucky, the fools might even come to blows with each other. If it looks like a fight, we might want to hold back for a minute. We'd have a better chance of bolting if they were busy knocking each other up. Anyways, let's think before we bolt. Right now I'd like to hear what's going on up there."

He stared up at the top of the pit and then gestured to Gwerr, "Go on. You or Ishkur get on my back and crawl up to the grating. You want to be careful. It has to look as though the leather straps are still in place. See what's going on. Then we can decide if this is a good time to make a break or not."