CutiePie1997
Literotica Guru
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- Jun 22, 2016
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"From Whence the Magic Comes"
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It was the most dangerous place on the island-continent of Turlane, a hundred miles of narrow, rugged road passing through the deepest and darkest of forests. The road connected the Baronies of Porla and Dree, which were -- by necessity -- major trading partners. Merchants, envoys, and other travelers could avoid the road by sailing the North Sea. But those waters had their own hazards in the form of dangerous, uncharted shoals and blood thirsty pirates.
The safest way of traveling the Dree-Porla road was in vast numbers. At one end of the road or the other, those wishing to transit it would wait days, weeks, sometimes months until finally there were enough of them to afford the armed escort that would get them through safely.
Usually get them through safely...
The latest Train consisted of more than twenty wagons and carts pulled by oxen, mules, or even their human owners; as well as another sixty or more travelers walking amongst them. And protecting them was a force of 40 heavily armed men, some on foot, some on horse back. It was a very significant protection force, and yet, in the dark of the third night, the Train was set upon.
The attackers were dressed in black from head to toe and moving with a swiftness that was almost inhuman, as if they were magical spirits from the Underworld rather than mere humans from the deep foliage. The blackness of the night erupted with the cries, screams, and moans of the travelers as swords and daggers slashed, as arrows and spears plunged. The armed escorts were the first to fall, then the travelers who either put up the greatest resistance or attempted to flee.
Eventually, the fight ended and the survivors -- chained at the wrists and then chained together -- were lead away into the forest by half of their assailants while the remainder pillaged the Train...
With the sun high in the sky and yet still providing little illumination through the thick canopy, the attackers led their captives out of the trees on a slight rise. Before them, sitting at the bottom of a forest choked valley, was a temple unlike anything anyone in Turlane had ever seen...
The procession continued down a steep trail, where more men in black were waiting. The prisoners -- 40 men, 18 women, and 6 children -- were separated by gender and tossed into dark, dank cells ... where they would remain for the next four days, provided with little food and water ... and no answers as to their future.