REBORN AS A HIGH ELF SLAVE

Hours earlier, when the elf group had barely left the Oakhaven village, when the sun had barely cleared the treeline, the bandit camp stirred awake.

Smoke from last night’s fires still hung low between the pine trunks, and the smell of burnt meat and damp leather clung to everyone in this camp. Everyone in this camp was moving around the clearing in loose groups, checking blades, tightening saddle straps, filling waterskins. No one spoke louder than necessary. This was not a celebratory morning. They suddenly received a mission early in the morning. All this preparation was being done for that purpose. If it were their will, they would’ve had a little more sleep, considering how late they slept last night, having a party and all. 

At the center of all of this preparation for a raid sat the man they simply called Boss.

He was a broad-shouldered figure with a scar that ran from the corner of his left eye down to his jaw, old enough that it had long since turned white. His cloak was heavy, dark, and patched in places where steel had cut it before. He sat on an overturned crate, sharpening a short axe with slow, deliberate strokes, which looked way too short for his build. The scrape of stone on metal was the only sound that carried clearly in the crowd's noise.

One of his minions, thin, sharp-eyed, missing two fingers on his left hand, stepped closer. Lowering his voice, he asked the question that had been gnawing at him since the boss gave instructions to get ready, “Boss. You really gonna do it? Just because the second son of Hyra asked?”

The axe sharpening stopped. Boss didn’t look up right away. He tested the edge with his thumb, then finally spoke, voice low and rough from years of smoke and shouting.

“Huhhh… Do I look like I have to answer you that?”

The lieutenant shifted his weight, not as shaken as he would be if this was some other mission. He had to make sure this mission was worth it before he fully committed to it. 

“I mean, yeah, I know that Neir’s the reason we still walk free in these woods. He’s the reason the local patrols of this Edger County look the other way when our carts roll through. I get that. But being his dog…doing everything he asks, that sits right with you?”

Boss’s fist tightened around the axe handle. A muscle jumped in his jaw.

“And who the fuck said it sits right with me?” Other men around him looked up to see why the boss got angry all of a sudden.

He finally raised his eyes. They were cold, tired, and angry in equal measure.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for a chance. One real opening. But until then I have to follow every order that prick sends, whether I like the taste of it or not. That’s the price of breathing out here, you get it? If you forget that, you'll be the next body hanging in the shitshow Neir has built in his courtroom, not me. So, quit your chitchat, and get ready.”

He stood, rolling his shoulders. The camp quieted a fraction as men around him understood the boss’s intention right away.

“We’re moving.”

The words cut through the clearing like a blade. Men who had been lingering straightened at once. Saddles were cinched tighter. Waterskins were capped. The scrape of steel being checked and re-checked filled the air for a few breaths before the camp began to break apart into riding order.

As the thin minion guy turned to mount, another bandit, stockier, with a crooked nose that had been broken more than once, caught his arm and pulled him a few steps aside, out of the boss’s immediate hearing.

“Oi, what the hell was that?” the man muttered, voice low and annoyed. “You trying to jinx the mission before we even leave? You know how he gets when someone questions his orders in front of the whole damn camp.”

The lieutenant of this bandit camp jerked his arm free but didn’t snap back right away. He glanced toward the boss, who was already swinging into the saddle of his scarred bay, then exhaled through his nose.

“I know,” he said. “I know it’s not the usual kind of job we get. We don’t get orders to go after a pack of elves out of nowhere. Hell… this is gonna be my first time even seeing one up close, let alone fighting them, well, not counting the market slaves we used to see at the Denares marquessate before. Most of us only ever heard the stories of elves being strong and such in our childhood. Most people my age never fought one. So, I just felt like I had to ask, you know, just to be sure.”

The crooked-nosed man frowned. “And? You got an answer? Don’t you know he’s doing it because that Hyra cub Neir says so. Same as always. What’s left to explain? If it is elves, then so be it. What’s there to be sure? Are ya scared?”

The lieutenant’s sharp eyes narrowed. He lowered his voice even further.

“Uhh, I don’t know. I just get a bad feeling about this. This one feels a little different. The message even came before dawn. With no warning. No time to dig into who these elves even are. Just saying, ‘intercept the group heading into Edger County and kill every one of them, except the marquess and the elf leader.’ That’s it. No numbers, no names, no reason why we should do any of that. I mean, yeah, we have done things without asking questions like this before, but doesn’t time feel different? Doesn’t this order mean those elves somehow became enough of a problem for the second son of Hyra to pull us out of our beds for it? Don’t you find this suspicious?”

He paused, rubbing the stumps of his missing fingers absently.

“And you ever face elves before? Proper ones, not the half-starved ones that used to get dragged through the markets? Well, I haven’t. But I’ve listened to the old dogs talk. They still talk about what it was like before Duke Hein went through the northern woods like a wildfire. Said a single skilled elf could cut through three or four of us before you even realized the fight had started. Said the only reason any of the free companies survived those years was that Duke Hein bled the forests first. Without that slaughter, half the men in this camp would’ve been fertilizer years ago. Maybe that’s why the boss is coming himself with us, instead of just sending a few of us, you know. Because he knows too.”

The crooked-nosed bandit was quiet for a moment, listening to this guy talking by himself, feeling like this was the biggest bullshit he had ever heard in this year.

The other man grunted, then nodded once. “Yeah, yeah. I get it already; they are strong. So just stop already. I already have enough of a headache from the lack of sleep last night."

---

They mounted without another word. The column formed up quickly, nearly a hundred riders. Boss took the lead without looking back. The rest followed in a long, dust-raising line as the camp disappeared behind them among the pines.

The ride to the main road was mostly silent. After about 3 hours, they finally reached their destination, where they waited for anyone coming from the Denares estate’s direction.

And when the scouts at the front raised a hand, the entire column picked up their pace once again, knowing their prey had finally reached close to them.

Before long, they could see. There, coming the other way, was the caravan for whom they were waiting.

Carriages. Riders. A tight cluster of people moving with clear purpose. Dust rose behind them in a thinner plume than the bandits’ own.

Boss lifted one gloved hand. The riders behind him reined in hard, spreading into a rough line across the road about thirty paces away. Horses stamped. Metal clinked softly. The last of the dust drifted and settled between the two groups.

For a few long seconds, no one moved.

Boss sat straight in the saddle, scarred face unreadable, heavy cloak settling around his shoulders. His eyes moved slowly over the opposing riders, lingering on the young man at the front with a girl clinging to his waist, and the young girl riding nearby, with another dark-skinned girl on the same horse.

All the people at the front had their heads covered with hoodies, but he could still make out their ear shapes, knowing beforehand that there would be elves among them.

He did not draw a weapon.

He simply waited as the group leader finally came forward, head still covered by a hoodie.

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