[Attalus]

Here we go:

It seemed to Ganstis' excited senses that they had only reached the highway and taken their places for a few minutes when a few distant notes of music drifted through the still night air. He could hear stealthy movement all around him. Then, a party of surface elves on horses rounded the bend. Shal'drissa waited until they were very near before she shouted, now, and the road was suddenly full of fighting drow warriors, assailing the elves from all sides.
Ganstis had at once jumped from the bushes to rush at the party. A huge elven warrior stepped in front of him and knocked him sprawling. "Your Highness, make a run for it," he bawled, engaging Shal'drissa with a mighty quarter-staff. At the very rear of the column, a white horse bearing a cloaked woman whirled and galloped off.
"You," Shaldrissa managed to gasp at Ganstis as she fought the big elf, joined by several of the males, "you are fast, I have seen you run. Catch that bitch and bring her back, or I will have your hide." Terrified, he scrambled to his feet and rushed after the fleeing princess.
After running for a while down the highway, he was relieved to see the princess had halted in her flight, and was listening to the dying sounds of battle. Entering the bushes, he managed to sneak up on her, then lept upon the back of her horse, tackling her around the waist. The elven horse, terrified, bolted, carrying them both off into the night, until Ganstis managed to wrest the woman out of the saddle onto the ground.
After a brief struggle, he had her pinned. She was quite beautiful, with rich blonde hair and bright blue eyes that looked gray in the moonlight. Laughing into her defiant face, he straddled her and tied her wrists with some rope from his pack. "A fine one you are," he crowed, "and how good this shoud put me in the graces of Shal'drissa and Lloth. Up you go, and let us see where my comrades have gotten to, so that we can leave this cursed Surface and return to Ust'Natha in triumph." He pulled her to her feet, and, giving her a shove, started back in the direction that he imagined the fight might have been.
Veldren and Paoli first became aware of them by the sound of the drow's boastful taunts and the elf-maid's stinging rejoinders. Veldren knew some of the Drow language from his mother, so he immediately caught that this was some incursion from the Underdark. Setting the wolf pelt down, they hid themselves and waited until the strange pair came into view.
There was no doubt in Veldren's mind what he was seeing. That was obviously an elf taken prisoner by a raiding Drow party. He had heard what her fate would be, though she was holding her head high, cursing and berating her captor. He knew what his father would do, and a look at Paoli showed that he thought the same. The old ranger had no love for keeping anything free a prisoner, and was obviously angry. Once agan, Veldren nodded, and they attacked.
Ganstis was in the midst of describing the ceremony of sacrifice to the Spider God, when an arrow smacked into his chest and another into his belly. Afire with pain, he grabbed the princess around the waist and held his scimitar to her thrroat. He was quickly confronted by an old man with a spear and a boy weilding twin katanas. "Come no further, rivvil," he shouted, "or the bitch dies. Throw down your weapons."
They kept their weapons to hand, however, and the boy laughed. "From what you were saying," he chuckled in fair Drow, "she is going to die, anyway, and in a good deal of pain. Perhaps she would rather do it here, quickly, and not let Lloth's foul altar sully her skin. You should let her go, jaluk, and come after me, for Lloth would much rather have me. For, behold, I am Veldren, son of Viconia and Attalus, Lloth's greatest foes. But, lay my weapons down? Not a chance. Come, let us see who the greater God is, Lloth the foul Mistress of Treachery, or Helm the All-Seeing."
Enraged, Ganstis let go of the princess to take a cut at Veldren, who easily blocked the stroke with his left katana, as the right slid under it into Ganstis' armpit. A searing pain, and his world grew as black as Lloth's heart. He fell to the grass and died.
The elven princess spat on his body, then turned to her rescuer. "My thanks, Lord Veldren, for your rescue of me. I am Novenna, daughter of King Fandorn and emissary to your father. I have long heard tales of his prowness in battle, and give thanks to the Leaflord that his son is true to his breeding. Will you release me now?" She smiled whimsically.
At once, Veldren sheathed his scimitars and took his sheath knife out to cut her bonds. She proceeded to embrace him and kiss him soundly, to Paoli's silent amusement. When she had quite finished, Veldren smiled, a bit lopsidedly, and said, "Thank you, Princess Novenna, for your gift of a kiss. It is more than enouh reward for killing such scum and setting you free to dance on the grass again. But, come, we must be going, there must be more of these around, and my father must know.

[ 10-25-2002, 06:07 PM: Message edited by: Attalus ]