The well-armoured elven scout rode his horse down the supply rout vigilantly. He carefully inspected the road he travelled marking down notes in his booklet as he passed by tracks and broken blades of grass along his way.

The man stopped in surprise when he saw the abandoned carriages in the middle of the road and got off his horse to investigate. Looking around he saw the rotting corpses of the elves who were making the delivery their bones picked clean.

As he looked around he found other bones in the surrounding area as well as broken boards and evidence of animals taking the rations within, some rotten foods were spilt about after being savagely torn open.

He dutifully scribbled his findings and ran to mount his horse again. As he did he spotted a bear in the distance that began running up at him. He quickly reached into his quiver and loosed three arrows in quick succession at the bear. One at its leg another at its hand and a third at its neck as it stumbled to the ground.

The spinning arrows whistled quietly as they flew and fell the bear. His horse was startled by the bear's initial roar at being struck in the foot and he swiftly mounted his horse before it could run off in fear.

As he fled forwards past the carriages he looked over his shoulder and watched as some large cats came out from the tree branches and began trying to gnaw through the bear's thick fluffy hide.

"I guess we know why the supplies are late now,"

He whispered under his breath as he rode on. His horse was understandably startled and he guided it as gently as he could as they made their way down the road they could reach the town by the next morning if he hurried but he knew he wouldn't be able to stay long.

when the horse had calmed down on its own he'd stopped about 2 miles away and gave it some of the fruits of the nearby trees as an apology for letting the bear get so close. He later set up his camp and pulled a piece of parchment from his satchel.

"Acting General Sveinn, I report from my findings that it seems as though animals attacked our latest supply shipment. I will make the executive decision to continue on to the town and request further supplies. I advise you plan the troops' rations carefully it may be a few weeks before they can gather our supplies again. I'll also request that a small platoon be sent to guard the next cart if manpower can be spared from maintaining the fort."

After speaking out loud the page in front of the elf looked like a child's crayon drawing of a happy teddy bear holding hands with a man in important-looking armour with far too many details to be a child's drawing also done in crayon.

Nodding in satisfaction he licked his finger said a slow chant three times and circled the page. Dark red letters in elvish appeared on the page before fading away as if they were never there.

He then made a light birdcall into the forest, like that of a newborn raven singing to the world the song of its people. Shortly after a glowing purple bird about the size of a man's arm from wrist to elbow landed on the bow on his back.

Wiggling his finger he invited the bird to jump down to his hand and tied the child's drawing to the bird's leg and pointed it in the direction of the fort before releasing it.

By the next evening, he arrived at the former human settlement. There was a large wall arround the town with a spiked barrier and mote, but the spiked were directed inward and the bridge operators for the mote were on the outside.

He was stopped briefly by the guards but after removing his helmet and tugging lightly on his ear they permitted him to enter. All around the outer ring of the city was farmland with barely dressed humans with skin tightly clinging to their bones. Some slept in the fields under what little shade the fences provided others were not sleeping.

The few Humans who were standing were personal servants or palanquin carriers, pulling carts of goods from the poorer sections of the city where the people were so thin their hands threatened to slip from their shackles with malnutrition.

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The foul odour of the actvely dying human slaves was beginning to irritate the elf and he wrapped his scarf around the lower half of his face so he wouldn't have to smell the poor.

Turning up his nose at their problems he set his sights on the centre of the city where He arrived at the gates of a fairly shiny house. This one had walls with spikes pointing out. The gatekeeper once again stopped him and asked him why he'd arrived.

He called for the bird again and when it arrived he took from the bird a hand-drawn childlike picture of a bear and a rabbit sitting on toilets that faces each other. He scrunched up his nose at the drawing. Shaking his head he handed the paper to the gatekeeper, who recited a phrase in elvish and began reading the writing beneath the drawing.

"Tell the general that just because the drawing's meant to be a misdirection it shouldn't be so... this."

He handed back the invitation as he opened the gate.

"I doubt he'll listen but I'll keep that in mind."

The red letters on the page faded as the paper changed hands and he walked on into the mansion to the antechamber and was guided to a waiting room of sorts. He sat on the couch provided and drank the water given to him staring out the barred window to the wealthier part of town as he waited.

"Alvar! To what do I owe the unexpected (and uninvited) pleasure?"

Pretending not to hear the words whispered loud enough to be heard across the room Alvar slipped the man the drawing and answered him plainly.

"You've been slacking on training the troops that relay supplies, I found an abandoned supply cart ravished by the wildlife on my way here and it seems the beasts of the forest are wandering the roads. you'd do best to guide them to less important places than in the way of our army's food."

"Oh come now you should have enough non-perishables to last you at least another few months, give us some time to scrape together your shipment. We wouldn't want more slaves to die than usual, Then we would have to go down on our hands and knees to gather the food ourselves."

"Truly the humans must be so blessed to have such a wise master guiding them."

Alvar rolled his eyes at the man with the fake smile rubbing his jeweled hands together as he spoke.

"If you can't spare any food from here just call an import from the homeland."

He dropped his fake smile and groaned audibly.

"But that would defeat the purpose of my stay here."

"If you intend to profit off the blood of your fellow man you'd do well to prepare for when the war causes you a deficit."

He looked at Alvar like he just saw a bug give birth on his sandwich. Alvar stared back unflinching.

"If you're not wealthy enough to afford it though I understand I'll simply send word to the homeland that you couldn't afford to help the war you were put in charge of and call an auditor to search you for misuse of government resources."

He clicked his tongue.

"Fine, taxes will be a bit higher for a while to compensate this horrendus demand for more rations so soon after we sent them, but I'll see to it your next supply cart reaches you within three weeks at the latest."

As he spoke he waved over to a slightly less gaunt slave who was standing with dead eyes in the corner of the room. She brought over to him a quill and ink well as well as a paper. A glowing hawk stood on her head, Blood trickled down her face.

He wrote his request for food from the homelands in plain elvish and sealed this envelope in wax pressing his ring to it as it cooled to make the seal.

"Come along Paavo, I have a letter for you to deliver."

The hawk jumped off the girl's head and flew over to him, taking his parcel in his beak and flying off into the distance.

"There's no need for you to wait around but I suppose I should supply you for your return."

"Really Aadolf? you won't at least allow me and my horse to rest a few days before sending us back on a long journey again? I figured a wealthy noble like you would be more considerate of the knights that protect the wealth he so desperately wishes to hold onto."

"Fine, fine. just take the guest house, use this one however you want while you 'rest'."

He pushed the young slave girl onto him and she didn't react. Shaking his head he took her with him to tend to his horse for him.