Collecting ingredients

Sabina had been traveling for almost two days without daring to stop in case her family had send someone to bring her back. Now the horse she had taken, even though it was the best of all the horses owned by her family, was getting so tired she feared it might collapse if she didn’t let it have some rest soon. Luckily for her she came by a small creek flowing through the woods and she decided to stop there. She dismounted the horse, took the saddle off its back and then just let go of the reins since she knew it probably wouldn’t wander away. Then, with a tired sigh she sat down with her back against a tree, and watched the horse as it walked down to the creek to get some water. Now she too really started to feel the exhaustion herself and found it harder to keep her eyes open and before long she had fallen asleep.

When she woke up she was surprised at how bright everything seemed compared to how it had been when she arrived here. Then she realised that it was already morning and that she had been sleeping for far too long. Quickly she scrambled to her feet and looked around for the horse, afraid that it might have wandered away, but was relieved to see that it had just crossed the creek and was grassing peacefully in the morning light. She prepared herself to continue, put the saddle back on the horse and checked that she still had all her supplies in her backpack. Nothing seemed to be missing so she got back in the saddle and continued her journey down the road.

The next couple of days went by almost in the same way and she started to calm down, confident that she wasn’t being followed anymore, though it also scared her to be this far into Dalen all alone. She knew far too well just how dangerous a place this could be, but at the same time it was also her only chance to find someone or something that could help her to bring back her love from the dead. It wasn’t going to be easy, but by following the instructions from a book she had stolen from the royal library it should be possible.

She entered a small town and started her search for some of the “ingredients” needed for her spell. There was a small marked where she could by some of the more common things and resupply. In addition to the marked there also were a group of slave traders. No matter how much she hated the idea she was going to need someone to sacrifice for the spell to work and it wouldn’t just work with an animal, which she had already tried and nearly was killed in the process. She walked by the slaves, who were all chained to a wall, standing in a row and looked at them all one by one. What she was looking for was someone roughly the size and age of her love and who didn’t seem to have any connections to anyone else.

She was just about to give up hope when she spotted a guy who fitted just to this description. He was sitting with his back against the wall, his hands chained behind his back and had for some odd reason been muzzled. She wondered why he was being kept like this, because he didn’t look that dangerous to her. She decided to approach the dealer, a big troll like being, to get some more details on the guy. Unfortunately, the dealer didn’t really know that much about him and clearly didn’t care either though he was eager enough to sell the guy to her. Sabina hesitated for a while before making her decision and bought him. The now very eager slaver quickly grabbed the guy by his arm and roughly pulled him to his feet and almost dragged him over to Sabina, handing her the end of the chain that was secured around the guys neck. The guy didn’t say a word, kept his head down and just followed Sabina as she started to lead him away.

When they had put some distance between them and the marked, she stopped and turned towards the guy. “Uhm.. Hello..? My name is Sabina. What’s your name?” she asked in a friendly voice even though this was a rather awkward situation for both. Not surprisingly the guy didn’t answer, in fact he didn’t even react to her question. She hesitated a little “Look, I promise to free your hands and take that muzzle off you if you just tell me your name and maybe a little about who you are”. Still no reaction. She sighed. This was not going to be easy and yet if she didn’t get to know him in anyway then it might become easier to use him for the spell. But what to do now? She still needed a few of the ingredients and a place to keep her horse and the guy until everything was ready.