wandering fairy

Under the gloomy and cold sky, the autumn wind endlessly blows away what little life there is on the barren land.Thick clouds all over the sky pressed down on the huge hills that stretched for hundreds of miles. There were large and small gravel everywhere, the big ones were like farmhouses, and the small ones were as small as knuckles.Only in the crevices of the rocks can some sporadic small shrubs grow with difficulty.Looking around, there is a lifeless gray-green between the sky and the earth.

Pregg's caravan was bumping and struggling on the gravel road. Since entering this mountainous area 5 days ago, more than a dozen wheels of the 27 cars in the team have been replaced one after another.The rough mountain roads and irregular rocks of various sizes quickly damaged the relatively strong wheels, and also quickly destroyed the morale of the team. The guys began to become dull and anxious at times.

Praeg was looking around on a stocky horse.It is said to be a horse, but it is actually only a little bit bigger than a donkey.This kind of horse is nothing but hardworking and not picky about food!Looking at its dark yellow shaggy hair, its listless horse face, and the Plague riding on it in a worn black cloak, it looks like a bereaved dog.

Indeed, Plague's caravan can be considered a homeless dog. Since the team was too small to hire guards, Plague had to distribute one or two crude weapons to each of the more than 30 men under his command.He also knew that such an outfit would be useless except to disperse some small groups of goblins.Now he can only lead the team to leave the convenient road, and cautiously advance on this barren and bumpy mountain road, no different from a group of dingy dogs.

They must stay away from the wide and solid roads, because there are bandits of different sizes and races, from hill giants with thick leather and leather, to goblins, kobolds, and clever people. An intermediate mage who specializes in arcane arts, an ogre wizard who specializes in frost, and a forest troll who is so stupid that he can't even count ten fingers.All of them are hiding in the deep forest at the foot of the mountain, waiting for the opportunity to strike.The more convenient the road, the more dangerous people there are!But trails with inconvenient traffic like now are safer. Of course, "safety" is only relative.Bandits would also drive each other off, and the losers would wander off to the back roads to continue looting.One's own team might bump into one.

So he remained quite vigilant, constantly looking around the surrounding hills to see if there were any traces of large groups of biological activities.Although he firmly believed that the goddess of fortune, Timora, took good care of him, if he made fun of his property and life based on this, it would be a kind of contempt for the goddess.

Suddenly there was a noise from behind the team, and the guys looked back one after another, and the team stopped.

Frowning, Praeg rode the donkey-sized pony back from the front of the line.

At the end of the line, four or five guys in rough clothes were whipping a female slave who had fallen to the ground.But the man lay motionless on the ground, as if dead.There were more than a dozen female slaves bought together, huddled together in fear and at a loss.

Plague's brows were furrowed even more. These guys became more and more difficult to discipline. A group of people only knew how to toss the poor woman here, but none of them went to the front of the line to report the matter to themselves.He shouted slightly angrily, "What are you all doing here? What happened?"

A man dressed as a farmer hurriedly turned around and approached, flattering him and said, "It's this bitch who refuses to leave. After whipping her dozens of times, she's still lying on the ground, ignoring us at all." He was originally A farmer, who was kicked out of the territory by the lord three months ago, only joined the team two months ago, so he was still wearing a farmer's uniform full of patches, which was old and torn, not only seriously faded, but also full of gray stains and mud , just a little bit better than beggars.

"It's because you don't take me seriously." Praeg reprimanded loudly: "Since entering this hill, you have become more and more disobedient! Yesterday, two people contradicted me! You still took my head Do you take it seriously? You don’t tell me when things happen, and you only know how to vent your anger on these women. When you really meet a few robbers, where did your prestige go? You all tell me Well, no matter what happens, no matter how urgent it is, you must notify me. If you act like this without authorization, delay the speed of the team, or fall behind the team, I will be rude!" He said sternly As he spoke, he got off his horse and pushed everyone away, grabbed the slave girl's black hair, and pulled her head up for a closer look.

This poor slave girl has passed out.She was skinny all over her body, and the skin on her face was dry and wrinkled like old bark, she was no different from a 70-[-]-year-old woman!There is a very obvious dead gray on the brown skin.The whole person looked like a freshly dead mummy.But the ears are long and pointed, like the ears of elves.

"It turned out to be that half-drow half-drow of mixed blood." Praeg pondered.He bought this female slave from a businessman in the city, and at the first glance he could tell that this woman had been resold several times.Her face was thin, her eyes were dull, and her body was covered with wounds from whips.Bandrow's skin is usually brown, but this woman's complexion has a gray color, which seems to be suffering from some kind of disease.But at that time, Praeg didn't care about these things. The officers and soldiers in Wilwach City only needed female slaves as a tool to vent their anger. Those STDs will do.Seeing that she is tall and tall, and her appearance is still somewhat beautiful, I checked again to see if she has no such disease.Praeg bought it.

Who knew that the female slave would become so sick so quickly!Now her bones are protruding from head to toe, and her whole body is covered only with a layer of wrinkled and dry dead skin, which is terrifying like a living corpse.

Can this and that be sold?No one wants to pay you back!

The business was about to suffer another small loss. Thinking of this, Praeg became even more angry, and cursed: "Damn, I wasted so many days of rations."

The guy in the farmer's outfit immediately came up, and said right away; "She looks so sick that she doesn't even have the strength to stand up. She probably died on the road before Wilwach City. How about that?" Forget about leaving her here, so as to save your future rations."

There was a hint of approval in the eyes of the guys around. Except for the boss Plague who could eat and drink enough every day, the rest of the dozens of guys could only fill their stomachs half full.If this female slave is still here, the remaining food can just be distributed to them. Although the food distributed to each person must be pitiful, it can finally be full once!

Praeg looked at the greedy eyes of the guys, he knew what these guys really thought, but sometimes the boss couldn't accommodate the guys, he had to use some things to show his authority and foresight, especially at this time.

"No!" He ordered firmly: "Throw her into the cart containing the magic potion. Even if it is dragged, it must be dragged to Wilwach City. As long as she is still alive, someone will buy it."

A few guys sneered and joked, "Would you buy her and cook and eat her? Just like eating those centaurs?"

"Talk!" Praeg glared at them sternly, and shouted in a deep voice: "You just need to know about those things, don't gossip! I can't spare you if outsiders overhear! Throw her into the car! "

The guys hurriedly lifted the half-drow slave girl lying on the ground to a carriage in front, which contained more than a dozen flat wooden boxes, which just flattened her on top of it.There was a faint and weird smell of potion from the wooden box, and a dozen words were painted in ink on the outside of the box—special potion, high quality and low price, produced by the Arcane Art Research Society.

The convoy continued to bump and move forward slowly. The guy dressed as a farmer secretly grabbed the other and asked in a low voice: "What's the matter with eating centaurs you just said?"

The man peeked at Plague in the distance, and said in a low voice, "You also know where Wilwach City is?"

"Of course I know, it is the front line for us humans to resist the centaurs. I have long heard that it was the Duchy of Clarence, the Duchy of Gloucester and our Duchy of Hereford who jointly sent troops to guard this place, preventing the Pannonian Plain from attacking the centaurs. The centaur's invasion of the interior."

The man asked again in a low voice: "Then you also know what the centaurs did in these three countries before."

"I know a little bit. I heard that 20 years ago, the centaurs suddenly appeared in large numbers in the Pannonia Plains, and passed through the Wilwach Valley, bypassing the surrounding steep mountains, and invaded these three countries." He became excited, a little angry "Then they burned, killed, looted wherever they went, and did all kinds of evil. They robbed the gold and silver jewels of the rich, smashed the mud houses of the poor, burned the crops of the lords and farmers, killed all men taller than wheels, and defiled all Women even like to cut open the stomachs of pregnant women and take out babies to eat. Those years were simply the nightmare of these three countries.”

The man took the words and said: "So, after driving these vicious races back to the Pannonian Plain, the kings and nobles of the three countries jointly funded the construction of the current Welwach City, and stipulated that the three Every country has used a part of the tax revenue for the defense of Wilwach City, because those centaurs have not given up their plans to invade again, and frequent battles will occur around Wilwakh City every year. Centaurs captured humans Of course it was killed and eaten, so what do you think will happen to the centaur captured by us humans?"

The guy dressed as a farmer was a little surprised and said: "It can't be... wouldn't it also eat the centaur? I heard that there are many righteous people gathered in Wilwach City. How could they allow this?" What kind of thing? And the army has a lot of money! Think about it, the three countries invest money in it every year, and there is no shortage of wealth there. If you want wine, wine, and meat, how can you use centaurs for the pot?"

The man sneered, this guy just came out to play, he hasn't been freed from the indoctrination of "other races are evil, human beings are always righteous", and he doesn't know how cruel this world is.

"This is a military need. Sometimes it is necessary to rely on this to improve the morale of the army. They eat us, and of course we have to eat them. Centaurs have never exchanged prisoners with humans, and they will eat for nothing."

"Huh? Centaurs don't exchange captives with us? But I heard that's not the case!" The man dressed as a farmer couldn't believe it, because it was completely different from the hymns he had heard from bards before. Always praise how righteous, how tolerant, and how tolerant the human side is.Human beings always passively endure the centaur's attack, and then are forced to fight back when they can't bear it anymore. The generals are always very patient and conduct unremitting negotiations with the centaur leaders for a few human captives, exchanging a lot of supplies In exchange for their compatriots.

The man laughed in a low voice: "You have been deceived by those boring troubadours! They always like to make up a whole set of incomparably sensational stories out of nothing. Only in this way, you will be willing to spend the copper coins in your own pockets. Then he said seriously: "Did they still make up a story that those human generals would mobilize an army of hundreds of people to fight a head-on duel with centaurs for the sake of a certain only son prisoner? Did they still say that humans always start at the beginning?" He was beaten so hard that he couldn't lift his head, and then a certain noble and handsome noble young master came, and he raised his arms and shouted, leading the frantic soldiers into the centaur camp, and in the nick of time, he was about to be killed. Killed the captives and rescued them intact?"

"Well, that's what I said."

"Hahahahahaha" the man couldn't help covering his mouth and laughing again: "You were deceived by them! It's all nonsense! Those generals don't worry about a few prisoners. They never worry about whether those prisoners are dead or alive. It doesn't matter. The soldiers in Wilwach City know that once they are captured by centaurs, they will definitely be chopped into pieces and eaten, and their leaders will not care about their lives! Let alone one or two, Even if hundreds of people are lost at a time, those generals will not blink their eyes. Anyway, every day, naive young people go there to enlist in the army to carry out the cause of "justice." He deliberately put the word "justice" It's a little heavier.

"No way..." The guy dressed as a farmer still couldn't accept such "evil" actions by "just" human beings for a while, let alone imagine that "noble and wise" generals would ignore their soldiers .

The man patted him on the shoulder and said: "This time, I happened to be going to Wilwach City. Don't you know when you get there? Anyway, don't listen to the nonsense of those troubadours in the future. Those stories they made up, Nine out of ten are fake!"

They fell silent again, and with the team, under the gloomy sky, they marched slowly and hard on the barren rocky hills.

Several vultures gathered in the rocks in front of them.

Plague stopped the team vigilantly, and then called a few strong men, holding swords and shields together, and carefully swarmed over.

The remains of a gnoll littered the ground.

Complete skulls, broad chest and shoulder bones, human-like arms, and three-segmented leg bones were scattered over a 30-foot (approximately 10-meter) area.

"It's the jackal!" The guys screamed in surprise, each of them raised their heads, raised their necks like frightened ducks, and looked around nervously, as if the jackals were nearby. roam.

Praeg frowned and despised the group of panic-stricken cowards, while he muttered to himself, "Who killed him?"

"I think it was killed by other jackals?" a guy guessed.

"Maybe it was killed by monsters like scavengers?" Others guessed even more outrageously.

"Or a dragon can do it?" Absurd conjectures began to appear.

"Shut up!" Plague cursed at them, pointing at them, "Use your brains! If the jackals do this, there will be nothing left of this corpse except the skull! Jackals Humans are notoriously gluttonous, except for skulls that cannot be broken, all other bones will be eaten up! There are scavengers and dragons, and there will be no bones left!"

"Maybe the guards in Harmonwell Town did it." said a tall middle-aged man wearing simple leather armor and holding a regular big sword. , The guys in coarse and dirty clothes are very different.He is Praiger's deputy, Mahinda, who used to be a mercenary.Compared with these peasants, refugees, and bankrupt citizens, he has the highest status in the caravan, and he is the authority second only to Plague.Therefore, the equipment, food and other treatment are the best.

He continued to analyze: "The bones are relatively complete, and there are no traces of canine gnawing, so it must not be done by jackals or ordinary beasts. More importantly, look around, and you don't see a piece of leather armor or weapons. Not even a piece of cloth! Obviously, someone killed the wolf man and pulled off his equipment. Jackals generally work in groups, and it is impossible for a few humans or goblins to successfully intercept them. And ha The town of Montwell is one day away from here, it may be that they encountered a group of gnolls when they sent troops to patrol, killed one in the fierce battle, and then pulled out everything on it!"

Praeg nodded approvingly, and then thought of another question: "But when we arrived in Harmonwell four years ago, they were still beaten by gnolls and dared not come out of the town. What happened after a few years?" Just go out and kill the wolf man? You must know that these beasts have a strong desire for revenge."

Mahinda shrugged and said, "I don't know either. Anyway, this is the most reasonable explanation. If we act fast, we will be able to reach Harmonwell before sunset tomorrow, and we will be able to find out by then. .Boss, you don't have to worry too much."

"Yeah." Praeg nodded and said to the guys: "But tonight we have to arrange reliable people to take turns on the night shift. Now there are gnolls in this area, so don't let your guard down! They like to move around at night most, a little bit less Be careful that everyone will be plucked and eaten raw by those beasts!"

The cold night wind blew over the big and small stones on the wilderness, making a sad whistling sound.Dozens of carts from Pregg's caravan formed a circle, and several bonfires were set up outside the circle, swaying non-stop in the cold wind, dimming and brightening, and the atmosphere was a little weird.The guys lay and slept in the open air beside these bonfires, and a few peripheral watchmen also huddled by the bonfires, dozing off boredly.

Being thrown on the wooden box, Lelin slowly woke up in pain. The cold wind caused bursts of piercing pain on her body, bruises, whips, and bursts of nasty pain emerging from the bone marrow, gnawing continuously Looking at her extremely thin body.There were all sorts of weird magic potion smells coming from the box under her body. She tried to turn her body, but the mummified body could only raise her arms slightly.

"Benevolent Eilistraee!" She murmured sadly in her heart: "For two years, I have suffered so much humiliation, and I have suffered the pain of being bitten by demons every day. I have never given up on Your faith, but why haven’t I received any response from you? Haven’t even seen a sliver of hope? Have I been abandoned by God?” She became short of breath, staring at the dark sky with her desperate eyes .

"Maybe, I have always been under the shadow of Goddess Fimulica? Maybe my prayers never reached Goddess Eilistraee?" She thought hard, the power of the curse for two years not only completely destroyed her The once tall and strong body of a warrior is gradually destroying her brain, and she can feel that her thinking ability has begun to decline.

"Could I really become a body that can't even control shit?" She was terrified again, feeling her skinny body, crying in her heart: "Yeah, it's almost, it's almost, it's already That's it, maybe tomorrow I will be like that. Gods! Why should I bear this ending? How long will this kind of life last?"

The cold wind still blew past her icy body with a mournful whirring sound. In grief, she reluctantly turned her head and saw a protruding nail on the box.It was a large rusty iron nail with a pointed top facing upwards.

"Maybe it's better to die!" Her heart suddenly hardened: "Whether you go to Eilistraee's kingdom of God after death or go to Fimulica to receive punishment, it won't be worse than now! The worst The ending is to be eaten by the spiders of Fimulica." She thought hard: "Perhaps a complete disappearance, even a complete disappearance of the soul is the best choice? At least I don't have to suffer any more humiliation and pain? No more Facing a hopeless life every day?"

"Yes, it's better to be dead! It's better to disappear completely!" Her breathing became violent: "This nail can penetrate into the skull!" She stared at the nail firmly, and raised her body to face it with great effort. It was difficult to move inch by inch.

"It's all over, this life is going to end soon." Her eyes were a mixture of misery and a hint of relief.

With a "boom", the temple on the side of the head hit the big iron hard.

Pain, more severe pain stimulates the brain.The withered brown skin was torn open, and half of the horrible skull-like face was covered with blood with a strange smell.

She is not dead yet. A warrior's body will become tougher with the improvement of martial skills, especially the muscles, bones and skin will become very strong. For a level 10 fighter like Lelin, the strength of her bones is already close to the strength of the bones of ferocious animals .

There was another "boom", and her head hit the nail again.She felt a sharp tingling, but a strange numbness enveloped her, as if her soul and body were beginning to separate!The body can clearly feel everything, but the consciousness is unmoved. She feels that she has been separated into two parts, the "body self" and the "conscious self".

"Are you going to die? Is your soul going to be separated from your body?" There was some inexplicable excitement in her heart, and she didn't know whether it was fear, regret or joy.She slammed her head against the big iron nail again and again, making a "boom, boom" sound, and then she felt a slight cracking sound of her skull.

The inexplicable excitement became more and more intense, and she bumped faster.