Biting back her urge to cough from the dust, she held her breath fearfully as one of them entered the half destroyed hut. He was obviously a drow elf, one she hadn't seen before, and wearing a long brown robe that covered his real clothes. His left ear had a golden crescent earring, which sparkled compared to his tucked away raven hair and gray complexion.
      "Oh no! If he catches me here he'll tell the town!" she ducked further into the hay.
      "I know you're there. Come out and we won't pluck your ears from your head." He warned her menacingly.
      She took in a deep breath to stay hidden longer, but couldn't handle the dust and started coughing.
      "Aha!" a hand grabbed her arm and yanked her out. She held onto the book but dropped the mace.
      "Let go! Let go!" she screamed, struggling with him.
      He held her in place roughly, being twice as tall and strong as she was.
      Two more men ran into the room at the sound of the racket. On had long brown robes with a dark mantle. His face was peachy with two elven ears, emerald eyes and long brown hair. The other had short, light brown hair with blue-green eyes and slightly lighter skin. Lime greens and baby blues covered him with yellow swirls. Matching in a strange way he had an orange gem embroidered in the shirt. For no reason she could think of he had ridiculously large shoulder pads stretching about a foot out from his shoulders.
      "Who is she?" the latter asked, rubbing one of his black eyes.
      She had long black hair strapped into a ponytail by a brown leather strap. The tunic she wore was a navy blue, with extremely large bell-shaped cuffs at the sleeves. Under her shoulder two more leather straps bound the top of her sleeves to her arms. Both her emerald eyes gleamed angrily as Blake tugged on her arm. Dirt kicked into the air as she clumsily struggled, getting ash all over her midnight black boots.
      "How am I suppose to know? I've been gone ten years." Blake firmly yanked on her arm.
      "Let go!" she screamed again. Two more came into the room, a human looking purple man with purple hair and a girl that looked like a cat morph.
      "What's going on?" Eric asked.
      "We have a little looter." Blake let go of the arm as she was surrounded. Seeing the book in her arm he bent down to take it.
      "No no no!" She held it away from him.
      "Don't be ridiculous, that's just a children's book." He replied. She glared at him queerly.
      "You can read?" she asked.
      "Of course I can!" he snapped.
      "Then, you're an outcast." She paused, "The others will kill all of you when I tell them!"
      "Not if you walk into town with a book they won't." he informed her as she turned to run.
      "What's going on? Please explain." Emeryl tugged on Blake's cape.
      "Back in the villages when you try to learn more than the others they outcast you. Learning was for the weak, and they didn't want anyone weak in the community. If she goes and tells them about a bunch of us here, they'll get suspicious of her staying behind for so long." Blake explained.
      "What a strange way to work a town." Emeryl tapped his cheek.
      Remembering the mace she shoved her hands into the hay and snatched it out, but Eric caught the other end of the chain before she could swing it.
      "How old are you?" He eyed her.
      "I'm nine! Let go!" she tried to force the chain out of his hand.
      "What's your name?" Prism asked.
      "Leiko!" she gave up. He was too much bigger than she.
      Leaning on his uplifted knee for support, Blake calmly informed her, "You're going to have to come with us. We can't risk being hunted down by an entire village."
      "I'm not babysitting." Bentora immediately dismissed herself of the responsibility.
      "No one asked you." Blake closed his eyes.
      "Don't!" Prism scooted between them, "Don't even start. I think Blake knows what's going on best, he should watch her."
      Blake took in the surprise request, trying to figure a way out of it.
      From behind Emeryl wrapped his arms around her, lifting her up.
      "You shouldn't be so hard on her, she's just a little girl." He swung the hysterical child playfully.
      "What are you doing?" Blake raised a brow.
      "My dad used to always swing me." Emeryl answered.
      "So that's what happened to you..." he murmured.
      "Ne?" Emeryl blinked. Jumping out of his arms, she clenched the book and the mace defensively.
      "Listen up, I'll keep an eye on her, but I'm not taking watch tonight." Blake told them.
      "But I'm terrible at waking up." Emeryl moaned.
      "I wouldn't trust you with a watch anyway." Bentora retorted.
      "Bentora!" Prism scolded.
      "Good, then you can take the time on my watch." Blake answered.
      "Blake!" Prism scolded all sides.
      As they argued Leiko stepped to Emeryl's foot, staring curiously up at him.
      "You're funny looking." She said.
      "I am? How so?" he squatted down to her height.
      "You're scrawny." She told him bluntly.
      "Uh... ne..." he paused.
      Beside them Eric continued striding around with the sword.
      "Can't we make camp? I'm hungry!" he grumbled.
      "Eric is right!" Prism slapped Bentora's hands off Blake's neck, "We should set up now so Emeryl has plenty of time to heal us."