The sharp eyes of the thief spotted the gnolls and spurred her mount to some rocks for cover. From the entourage behind them, it looked like they were slavers and she had no desire to join the ranks. Gnolls slaves were some of the most unfortunate creatures on the earth as gnolls often ate parts of their slaves during their roaming and made no effort to ensure the survival of their commodity.
She wasn’t sure if she had been spotted but it wouldn’t take much effort to discover the trail of her riding lizard and if they were hungry they were likely to try hunting it down. If they weren’t hungry which seemed likely as it appeared they still had slaves left alive they might avoid the creature as duracks didn’t go down easily.
Seras observed that they were twenty in number with no young among them. There were no elderly in gnoll society as they were all killed and eaten before they reached the age one would call old in another society. Some sages wondered how long a gnoll could live if they weren’t murdered but that was a question only the gods were likely to be able to answer. She swore a curse against the gods of luck as the gnolls turned as they found the trail of the lizard and started to follow it.
There was no use in dwelling on the approach of the foul creatures as it would waste the precious little time she had to prepare for their approach. She removed the bridle from her riding lizard so it would have full use of its jaws in the coming battle and started to load crossbows and gather weapons in case they started to get clever which she doubted. They were single-minded monsters who believed in the direct brutal dominance of opponents they felt were weaker than they were.
The bolt struck the lead gnoll in the eye socket dropping it in front of the surprised others. A second gnoll dropped and they quickly dropped back behind their slaves for cover on the open desert sands. Seras could almost hear the thinking of the hyena-like humanoids thoughts as she reloaded her crossbows. They were trying to determine how many they faced in combat to see if they would fight or run. She wished she knew which ones were the tracks so she could slay them before they revealed there was likely only one or two people in the hills.
Seras eyed her gear as she decided on her next move against the enemy. A few good shots might free the slaves as they were only held by a rope which would create chaos and free her to shoot the gnolls who would no longer have cover. She had some explosive fire orbs but they were likely to injure the slaves since they were so close to the gnolls but the expense of them was more on her mind. It seemed like such a waste to use them on simple slavers since she didn’t know what lay ahead on her quest. Her final idea was to wait for them to make a move and try to counter it. They weren’t known to be the best battle planners and she had the durack to back her up. She didn’t need to kill all of them just enough to make them look for easier prey elsewhere.
She had briefly thought about running but it would likely inspire the creatures to chase her after they realized she had disappeared. The real reason for her disinterest in flight was her hate for gnolls. They were truly evil always looking to cause destruction where ever they went. Even slavery was more for cruelty than profit, to please the foul demon who had given them life long ago. If ever there was an intelligent humanoid that should be destroyed to the last one it was the gnoll. She had heard there were gnolls in the world who hadn’t fallen to the worship of demons and did great good for the world but she believed them to be a myth and wishful thinking. Only dead gnolls had merit in her experience, as food for vultures.
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