The air was getting colder, and the Rhudons had set up camp deep in the Porpura’s forest. Their tents were burgundy, and they had their banners flying high. The fires were always lit. This place was too wet for them. Brurock was pacing in his tent, wrathful at what had happened when they came across the Master and Lunae. They had not been expecting them. That put a damper on their plans. Druya had mainly been spending his time trying to contain Brurock’s anger and told the rest of the men to stay clear of him. Druya walked into the tent to see Brurock fuming.
“You must control yourself, Brurock. We must think. Now that the Master is here, we must go back and put a hold on the raids,” Druya said. This made Brurock throw a blade at Druya, and when it hit him, it stuck him in the shoulder. Druya looked at him and scowled as he pulled the blade out.
“You are slipping; usually, you’d hit closer to the heart. See, the anger is clouding you,” Druya said. Brurock showed his teeth, grouchy at the observation. He then went to the table in the tent and looked at the maps of the land.
“No, we have to find their encampment. With the group of Porpura people on our side, we have a chance to focus their energy on them, and we come up behind for the kill. Who cares how many of those things will die…the one thing that I can’t get my head around is how in the world did that insolent girl know how to do that? I thought it took years to train a new master,” Brurock said. Druya contemplated what he said. They stood there in silence, the one thing Brurock hated. Brurock then cursed the skies. Druya started to see the humor in the situation.
“Instead of hating her, maybe you should admire her. She will be your bride after all,” Druya said. Brurock scoffed.
“Until we can get what we want from her, Shardoe wants to be the one to dispatch her, but I say we kill her before that. You're right; something is off, and Shardoe holds all the pieces. We should have never trusted him. He’s not even one of us. We’ll stay in his good graces, and when the time comes, we’ll kill him,” Brurock said. This made Druya smile. Just then, another soldier came in to announce that Shardoe wanted to see him. Brurock motioned that it was okay, and the soldier left to go fetch him. Shardoe walked in, trying to hide his anger, but it was clearly written on his face.
“Anything to report?” Shardoe asked, Brurock didn’t think Shardoe was as scary as he tried to let on, and until now, he didn’t want to ripple the water.
“No, nothing, we still need to find the encampment. Have you had any luck?” Brurock said.
“You have seen nothing out of the ordinary?” Shardoe said. It was a dance between them, both of them trying to get information without showing their hand.
“No, it’s been quiet,” Brurock said. Shardoe looked at him for a while and tried to read him, but was satisfied after a while.
“Well, I have come to tell you that the Master and the girl are here; you will stay away. Best thing for you to do is go back home. Leave this matter to me. You can hunt soon enough,” Shardoe said. Druya could tell that Brurock was losing his composure.
“Of course, we will,” Druya said, snapping Brurock back to reality. He agreed, and Shardoe excused himself. After he left, the men just stared at each other for a while. After a moment, Druya went to check and saw that Shardoe was gone. After Druya was satisfied, he looked over at Brurock.
“How did he know about them?” Druya said. Brurock wasn’t sure; he just shook his head, trying to think.
“Well, he doesn’t know we have seen them. Or that would have been a different conversation. We must tread carefully, send the hounds out to try and find scents we will catch them soon enough. Then we’ll kill off the Masters!”