Erandor

One of the knights standing at the helm of the rest was Sir Keaghan's second in command, Allen Wess, he held one of his twin blades out pointed right for the dark elves neck from a distance. Questions ran through his mind as he looked into the abominable eyes of the treacherous elf, questions like; ' how the hell could an elf have walked right into our walls completely undetected till now? ' he turned his head to address the knight to the immediate left of him " Go, find Sir Keaghan and report this, but tell him I've got it all under control. "

With a proper salute and a " yes sir " the knight was off to track down the chief commander, Allen had neglected to mention exactly were to find him but someone as renown as he did not go out and about the city without being noticed so he was sure the knight would locate him easily on his own. Back to more pressing matters " I don't think I need to tell you this but just so that we are very crystal clear, you are outnumbered and we will not hesitate to cleave your narrow necked head from you shoulders if you do not surrender promptly"

Some of the men were itching to test their metal against her, they had no qualms about slaying a woman during times like theses, war was war and if you weren't human then you were an enemy. " If your prepared to surrender without a fight then strip down, now, and drop every weapon you may have hidden, lay on the ground and keep your face in the dirt " He said, one of his twin blades still trained on her, ready to make a move to lob off her head if necessary

"I don't intend to fight. Nor do I intend to dishonor my people by handing myself over."

The moment she finished that utterance the men charged the night elf full force, each one envisioning their own blades severing the head of their enemy but faster than any of them could even blink she had the man behind her with a blade to his vulnerable jugular. Allen, who chose to stay back and let them go for minor glory, eyes widened as he called out to his men " halt! halt damn you! "

They all came to an abrupt stop, nearly tumbling over each other like a pack of untrained pups and one pulled off his helm and turned back " if he was weak enough to be subdued by a tiny elf woman like that then let em' go, we all must sacrifice for the sake of the war! " shouted one of the younger knights with a fire in his eye, he was a blond haired blue eyed lad who had reached knighthood no more than a month ago. The rest normally knew better than to support such ideas being under the command of Sir Keaghan, but an elf invading their walls made the eager to make an example out of her and they all shouted out their support proudly, each wanting to send a message to the rest of the elves. As much as he wished to do the same he would never sacrifice the life of another human life, he had no choice but to let her walk.

Allen pulled of his helm as well as he walked forward to join his comrades and stepped right up to the younger knight who was the first to speak out among them, he looked him dead in the eye when he spoke " we do NOT sacrifice our own men, now step aside before I move you lot myself "

There was nothing but anger and disgust in his expression as the knights quieted down and all stood to the side, making way for the night elf to go free, once they were all finally out of the way he turned that look of the elf as he said " scurry away now little elf, but I will meet you again, and I will take your head " and with that he stepped to the side and dropped his twin blades, the sound of metal clambering to the ground filled the air as the rest of the knights did the same.

The men all had reached down and recovered their arms and were muttering to each other until Allen rejoined them once more " I know your all disappointed letting the elf go like that, but it was the right move, Sir Keaghan would not have approved trading a life for a life .

They hated to admit it but they all knew very well that he was right, had they went ahead and let the man die to kill the elf every last one of them would be facing the possibility of being stripped from knighthood if Keaghan's saw fit. The blond knight emerged from the small group of men with his helm tucked between his arm and his waist " sir, my apologies sir , i was out of li- " before he could complete his thought an arrow tore through his neck, his eye widened as if they were going to pop right out of their sockets and his hands flew immediately to the arrow in his neck in a futile effort to remove it, he tried to call out for help but instead of words he found himself gargling and chocking on his own blood.

Allen was immediately upon him, dropping to a knee as the boy first fell to his, clenching his neck while is bright blue eyes looked right into Allen's. No more than seconds later Allen laid his limp body on the ground, and there he lay dead with his face frozen in that expression of shock and pain " There! " one of the men managed to pinpoint the direction the arrow originated but when he looked to the rooftop all he was able to pick up was a blur of motion as the assassin made her escape.

The rest of the men were at the young knight's side as well " GO! Find those damned elves and kill them all! " he roared t the men and without hesitation they were off to search high and low for the culprit, a couple went to headquarters to report the attack and the presence of elves within their walls. It wasn't too long till half of their forces were searching Erandor fruitlessly, Allen himself went for Sir Kheaghan leaving the lifeless body behind, medics would come to retrieve it and inform the boy's birth givers of his death. The brutal gears of war were turning, they would have to make an offensive move on their enemies soon.

The men had spent hours searching for the elves but they all came up empty handed, a couple burst in the doors of the Inn to fill him in Drake in on the cause of the sudden uproar and before he could reply to what Drake had said initially he looked him dead in the eye and cocked his head towards the exit signaling Drake to join them. " I'm afraid this will have to be put aside for another time, we have work to do. Meet the rest of us in the war council room " and with that he rushed through the doors of the Inn without uttering a word to anyone else, beneath his calm exterior he was filled with rage over the loss of such a young life within their very walls, at the hands of elves no less.

a short while later Keaghen arrived at the war council room were he would be convening with other commanders in with a couple of purposes in mind. One; they were to figure out how the elves snuck into their walls so effortlessly and undetected and strengthen their defenses so it may never happen again, Two; they would be forming strategies and arranging orders to launch a counter attack on the elves, the Dwarves were no longer an immediate threat as it didn't take long for news of their crushing defeat that left their armies in shambles to make it to Erandor.

He joined the commanders who stood in a circle around a large round table with a geographically accurate model of Calandine, it basically took the entire continent ( assuming it is a continent ) and shrunk it down to an appropriate size for such meetings to take place, even though there was no head since it was a round table one could tell Keaghan stood at the helm. Each commander looked to him and awaited him to speak first, His helm was off so it was easy to see by his expression that he was in deep thought as he stared down at the map, stroking his hairless chin.



After roughly thirty minutes of just standing and waiting they grew restless " can we get on with this already! " one of the commanders exclaimed " We didn't come here to watch you stand there like a statue "

Keaghen simply looked up at him with one eyebrow raised, it was one of the older commanders who wasn't particularly fond on Keaghen taking the title of Chief commander over them, his expression was enough to express himself and the older commander simply looked down at the map to avoid further eye contact, realizing he was speaking out of line. Once that little disturbance was done he went back to his contemplation for several minutes before he looked upon the rest of them " right then, on the mater of the attack on the elves a quarter of our men will be sent into the elven territory, I will take half of them to travel to the east western ship yard and from there we will set sail north towards the Hydra's den " he said tracing a path with his finger along East Calandine all the up to the area marked as such " We will anchor here " he pointed to an area out at sea near the hydra's den " we will take small vessels to land to avoid detection, from there we will scout west, as you can see we have no recorded indications of any elven cities or villages so we must proceed with the up most caution for we do not know the lands. If we happen across any settlements we must maintain the element of surprise, they cannot know we are on their territory for they will be fighting on familiar lands " They all nodded in agreement, he may have been young for a chief commander but his strategic mind was as mature as any of theirs.

" the other half of our men will be led by by Drake ( if you object to this, let me know ) " he looked up to Drake who should have been walking in right behind him to see his reaction to this plan " north west on foot towards the silverwood forest, seeing as this is the only known area recorded on our maps it's safe to assume the forest it's self is crucial to the elves so fully expect to run into elven settlements in the general vicinity " he said tracing a large area around the forest " you must exorcise extreme caution once you cross the borders into their territory. These mission are purely scouting so do not engage unless totally necessary, it is very important we fill in this map more so that we do not run blindly into a land we have no knowledge of, we would surly be decimated by their forces. Since this group has a higher chance of meeting resistance and will be on foot they will given more rations and supplies " He looked at the faces of the commanders for signs of approval or objection

( if there are any objections to this strategy I will wait for any other human characters to object, if none do in a timely manner then this will be the final decision. After that is finalized i will work on a post for human defenses )

so...

The humans are preparing their troops very wellHunter thought. Hunter was casually sitting in a tavern, watching the troops movement though the city, Erandor.
'So, is it a deal, assassin?'
Hunter just relized that he was talking to somebody, and nodded his head.
'Good,' the man sitting across from him said, 'I want them dead in a week.' and with that, the man left.

Hunter decided it was time to go, so he left the tavern and made his way out of the city. No one approached him, and yet, he hid his ears. Humans in this part of the city get paid a large price if they behead an elf and bring it to the guards. Hunter hurried his pace and left the city without a trace. It was going to be a long journey, but he had to be there in a week. Luckily, he bought a horse from the local horse trader. He sprang up, then landed silently on his horse. He gave it a kick, and it reered off.

Hunter had to keep alert, as the forest was a dangerous place, even for a roaming warrior. Rumors say that the trees could use it's roots, snatch an unaware creature, and suffocate the victim down under the ground. Though Hunter wasn't worried, because he knew the rumor was true, yet the trees didn't attack him. The trees sensed his blood as an elf, and let him pass. Hunter was glad that he was an elf. Though when he thought about this, something rustled in the bushes. Hunter unsheathed his daggers, then waited. Must just be the wind. Hopefully it's not a- Something jumped out and dashed for him. Yet, just as fast, Hunter sprang off his horse and dived towards the attacker. Unexpectedly, he was pinned down with a dart from the side. Oh, not the stabilizer darts. The attacker walked up to him, then whispered silently, 'Goodnight, my friend.' and with that, Hunter lost conscience...