The creature looked at the barrels before looking at the unexpectedly dishevelled looking party members.

"Out of curiosity, what took you so long? You look like you have an interesting story to tell."

Uruk stepped forward pointing at the creature, spittle flying out his mouth as he spoke.

"That "lake" you sent us to was nothing more than a soggy hole in the ground, think yourself damn lucky we managed to find another source."

The creature stroked the area where a chin would be, if he had one.

"Empty...hmmm.....ah yes, now I remember, after devouring the village I was a little thirsty so I drained the lake."

Uruks muscles tensed, his clenched fists hung at his side. Astrid and Fred was their usual stoic selves, while Eric just looked tired.

"Now then as promised I will consider making the trade..hmmmm...Well seeing as I already drank I no longer see any benefit from making the exchange."

With that proclamation he tossed the girl in the air, she screamed, his tongue lashed out pulling her head first into his gaping maw, a couple of seconds and she was gone, her screaming silenced.

"NO!!"

Without thinking Eric had summoned his weapons and stepped forward, the rest of the party doing the same. The creature chuckled at them.

"Even if you could kill me the girl is gone, nothing can change that now. Fighting me would only mean the rest of you dying as well, and that seems rather pointless, don't you think?"

"YOU BASTARD!"

"Oh don't be so melodramatic, I mean it's not like you two were dating or anything now is it?"

He then winked at Eric before fading from view, his laughter echoing from all corners of the village. Annie stood staring at the now empty space where the creature had been.

"He....he killed her."

Uruk sighed, stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Welcome to the adventurers life kid, you can't save everyone."

"No...you can't."

Fred had a distant look on his face as he's spoke, almost like he was reliving a painful memory.

"All you can do is move on and seek to do better in the future."

"But what else could we have done?"

"Nothing, fighting would have gotten us all killed, and refusing the deal would have generated the same outcome. Question is what do we do next?"

Astrid's seemingly indifference matter of face response shocked Annie a little, but Fred and Uruk only nodded at her statement showing that they had a similar view of things. Without saying another word about it she simply turned to Eric who seemed to be lost in a daze. She tried talking to him but he didn't respond, noticing this Uruk stepped towards him flicking his fingers in front of his face.

"Hey, still with us?"

Eric blinked, coming back to himself, the dazed expression turning briefly towards guilt. His spoken response was.

"Yeah....I'm just not used to this"

However within his own head he kept thinking about the offer Limbo made, combined with the creatures parting words. "I won't betray my wife" he told himself over and over. He was pulled back into the world when something slapped against his face knocking his head to the side, in front of him stood an annoyed looking Uruk.

"Hey, if you're going to lead us then you had better keep your head in the game, ain't no time to stand around feeling sorry for yourself. Now, what are we doing next Chief?"

The rest of the party who had watched the exchanged simply looked at him as if expecting a response. Eric hesitated for a brief moment before answering.

"Well, the only place I know how to get to is the town we came from. Maybe someone will have a map or something we can use to get an idea about where might be worth visiting next?"

Uruk grunted in response.

"Not much of a plan."

"I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any."

The others shook their heads before turning to look at Uruk, who simply grunted before moving back in the direction they all came from, everyone else simply followed behind him.

------------

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Elf eater sat leaning against a building watching as the party left the now empty village. He drummed his belly with his fingers before letting out a satisfied burp, followed by a sigh as he made himself comfortable. He closed his eyes ready to take a nap when he heard feet shuffling in the distance, ooooh he thought to himself opening one eye to see what was coming. In front of him was a chestnut coloured human woman carrying a small bag full of leaflets, she kept stopping now and then to peer in one of the windows shouting "hello, anybody around?". Elf eater let out a sigh, "nope, not food", he closed his eyes to continue his rest.

"Hi there."

He opened one eye to see the woman stood in front of him smiling, he looked around but couldn't see anyone nearby, "she couldn't possibly be...."

"You ok? You seem a little confused."

"You can see me?"

"Of course, you are right there."

She pointed right at him.

"Kinda blurry, but definitely there. I'm Pamela, what's your name?"

Not seeing any point in continuing to hide he deactivated his invisibility spell and appeared right in front of her.

"I am known as the elf eater."

She blocked blinked, the shook her head a little

"Is that because you eat elves?"

He simply nodded in response.

"Just elves?"

Another nod.

"Nothings else?"

"Nope."

"Well that's not very diverse...or inclusive."

She mumbled to herself.

"What was that?"

The elf eater was starting to get a little annoyed about having his rest interrupted, he stood up and moved towards the irritating woman. She put her hands up and took a couple of steps back.

"I..I was just thinking, that if you was to be more inclusive with your food choices then you could diversify your diet and gain massive health benefits."

She had backed into a wall just before she had finished talking, the elf eater stood in front of her looking down at her.

"What the hell are you blabbing on about?"

"Diversity and Inclusion, here."

She passed him one of the leaflets from her bag.

"Everything you need to know is right here."

He took it from her and opened it up to have a look while she stood in front of him smiling.

"Hmm, so, do you think I should give human a try?"

She nodded

"Oh yes, then after you can go with an orc, gnome..."

He placed a hand on her shoulder interrupting her speech.

"You know as luck would have it, there happens to be a human nearby."

"Hey that is lucky, you should go grab them before..... Why are you looking at me like that?"

He leaned forward licking his lips.

"Hello human."

She edged along the wall laughing nervously.

"I.. didn't mean me."

"Why not you?"

Without realising she reached the edge of the wall and fell on her bum when she tried to lean against it. The elf eater continued to follow her as she tried to move away from him.

"You, you need me."

"What for."

"T to teach you about diversity and inclusion."

He waved the leaflet in front of her.

"But I thought this would tell me everything I needed to know."

"I I it does, it's just...umm"

The elf eater stopped moving towards her and held up a hand, once she had stopped talking he responded.

"Look, it's all well and good paying lip service to a new idea, especially when someone else ends up paying the price. If your not willing to be one of the people sacrificed however then you do not get to expect others to take your ideas seriously."

She sighed in response, looking a little sad.

"Yeah.... You're right."

"That's what I thought, now why don't you go....mmmphh"

Before he could finish his sentence Pamela had leapt up off the floor and swan dived head first into his mouth, she slipped down his throat causing him to instinctively swallow. His stomach started to burn and he stood there gagging and choking for what seemed like forever, when finally he threw up. A load of water came up with a half rotted and definitely dead Pamela.

"Urghh, of all the stupid.....gahh, fuck diversity and inclusion."

He screwed up the leaflet and threw it across the street.

"I'm sticking with elves."

He muttered to himself as he started to move away from the village, his invisibility spell shimmering around him until he disappeared from sight.

--------------

Diversity and Inclusion stood next to each other looking down at what used to be Pamela. Diversity shook his head.

"The best idiots always seem to die young... Don't they?"

"Mhmm, hazard of the job"

They continued to look at her for a while, Inclusion sniffed and wiped her nose, a single tear falling from her eye.

"You know, she kind of looks like some of our zombie friends....they are still being excluded by society by the way."

"Hmm, pity, if every race had a zombie version of themselves living amongst them then that would double their levels of diversity."

Inclusion started stroking her chin as she looked down at Pamela.

"What are you thinking?"

"If the zombies had a leader they could create their own separate society, perhaps that would make it easier for them to integrate with others."

"It might...whoever leads them would have to be kind, brave, and above all loyal to the cause."

"You mean like Pamela was?"

"Yes....wait, are you thinking we should have her raised as a zombie?"

Inclusions eyes opened wide, a massive grin creeping up her face.

"I am now, do you think Mordan is home right now?"

"If he isn't we could certainly find him, I'll grab her arms, you grab her legs, let's take her to him."

With that they grabbed what used to be Pamela, a series of lights started to dance round them and they faded from view.