Qinran rested under the house for a while. Each breath was becoming easier. When the pain had fully subsided to the point of just soreness, he pulled himself out from under the house. He had spent far longer under the house than he had hoped. The alarm from the small village had certainly spread. Qinran needed to find one of the marked humans. If he came back empty handed he stood to lose everything. It would probably be better to be killed than return home empty handed. He shook his head free from the thoughts. As he looked around, he noticed that many of the houses were now empty. He couldn’t hear the sounds of any occupants, nor could he sense the tell-tale signs of any of the especially gifted humans with their swirling magical auras.

He continued along between the houses. In the distance, he heard the sounds of a family leaving their house in panic. Qinran moved into the shadows. The two children were in panic. The mother worked to calm them, while the father held a torch in one hand and a machete in the other. He avoided looking into the torch with practiced movements, a technique to preserve his night vision. Qinran was confident in his abilities to remain unseen. He didn’t know how well his ribs would have healed. This would limit his movement until he had a healer examine the bones. Qinran had made that mistake in a previous life and was unwilling to repeat the same mistake.

The family moved. The mother held a large knife. Qinran didn’t see where she had pulled it from. She seemed unskilled with the blade if Qinran were to guess. The woman had less awareness of her location than the father had. The man seemed trained. Could he have been a guard at some point? Could he have been a mercenary? It wouldn’t matter if Qinran wasn’t caught, but having some estimate of the danger around him couldn’t hurt. The children weren’t even a threat. If Qinran had been on his first life he would have looked at them in a more utilitarian manner. He had lived and died for long enough to develop language skills to communicate. There was a sense of empathy that had formed. They had long moved from animal to a sentient species, different than his own. It wasn’t an uncommon occurrence with his tribe of elves, but it was severely punished.

The family had arrived near the buildings that were constructed with stone. Others had flocked to the center of the village. A loose ring of the town guard welcomed the family and pulled them into rest of the crowd. Qinran kept his distance for as long as they could. Small groups of guards started escorting the other town’s citizens further out from the village. He carefully scaled one of the buildings to get a better view. Qinran had not been a navigator, but he had visited this village far more than he would have liked. They were on their way toward the larger city. As the crowd in the center of town started to grow smaller the guards started breaking off in groups to search houses. He found a man dragging a makeshift litter alone. He was joined by a couple others that helped pull it off the ground. He recognized the woman in the litter. She was not dead. With the poisons that Qinran had given her, that should have been the case. She wasn’t conscious, but she certainly was living. Qinran cursed under his breath. He had sworn to protect the alchemical secrets of his people. The oaths were starting to wear thin and out of all the potential targets in the evacuating citizens, she would probably be the easiest.

Qinran waited for an opening and descended the building. He made his way towards the jungle. It would be easier to follow the group from some hidden vantage point than it would be to sneak along side them on mostly open terrain. When he got settled he waited for them to pass and started to make his way along them, making sure to put extra effort in not being caught. He grew confident moving between the trees. Humans were notoriously blind. Many of them also traveled holding torches. Unlike the father he had followed many seemed to be making the mistake of catching the torchlight in their eyes. The road was well maintained in the jungle. Quinlan worked himself into hearing distance,trying to keep at least a single line of trees between him and the road. Many of the refugees were talking in low tones, seemingly scared of what dwelt in the dark. It wasn’t wrong, and they had every right to be scared. There was no telling how many elves had worked themselves into town, unseen.

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“-even happened to her?”

Qinran caught a voice coming from near the litter. He worked closer, catching only snippets of the conversation.

“I punched the elf,” Said one of the men answering an unheard question.

“Was it the one they caught?”

“I hope it was the one they killed,” spat the man at the head of the litter.

One caught and one killed? Qinran grimaced. It was one thing if he wasn’t returning to the floating island. The loss of two others was a devastating blow to his clan. The proven, unproven and the hopefuls would have to undergo additional training. The under preforming would be would be culled. He knew his own immediate family would be put under extra scrutiny.

“This thing is heavier than I thought it would be.” Stated one of human men holding the litter.

“I didn’t have the time to build anything lighter,” growled the man.

“I’m- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” the other man cut himself off, “It’s just heavy is all.”

The first man sighed, “No, I’m sorry. I’m glad you are helping.”

“Can your uncle really help her?” another man asked.

The man tried to shrug but while holding the litter he just preformed an awkward shoulder roll. They continued in silence. Qinran followed them If there was an alchemist in the city, it would be interesting to look into his methods. The city would be at least a day or two away. The refuges would need to rest and Qinran would have to be extra careful. Thankfully the trees were tall and humans hardly ever looked up.

When they stopped to take the first break, soldiers patrolled along the string of refuges. Some groups had broken off from the main group, moving to places unknown along smaller roads. Qinran still kept the group with the litter well in sight. They seemed to be destined to the city. The man that had pulled the litter stayed at the head of his group and never strayed far. Other men seemed to rotate in shifts to help him. Qinran couldn’t tell if the man was important or if it was some sense of community coming together to help one another. He had not spent enough time with humans in the village to tell them apart with enough certainty. He could learn, but it probably wouldn’t be worth it.

When Qinran had felt confident enough in identifying the group he set out trying to find out more about the two elves. The dead elf was the navigator. He had apparently been beheaded. His head was left in the center of the village on a pike. The body was being pulled along on a cart with the other elf. Qinran had never learned either of their names. He probably would never learn them this life. If in the future they were able to finish the task given to them he might. The elves had been stripped of their equipment. This had been a complete disaster. The fact the navigator was dead doomed the other two elves. There was no way they could make it back to the floating island. On the plus side, a failure of this magnitude would be investigated. His own mistakes might not reflect on his clan if he could manipulate things enough. He would have to think of it.

The groups started to move again an hour after guards had giving people food and water. A lot of it seemed to come from stores in the town. Qinran kept pace with the litter. They had fallen into a routine. The woman’s skin seemed to be a normal complexion. It was still had for Qinran to tell due to how many different shades human skin came in. She seemed to at least match the color of the ones around her. A movement from the other side of the road caught his eye. Qinran mimicked the call of a monkey. He altered it subtly to make a word in elvish. He called out twice. Hopefully the refugees below wouldn’t notice. A few minutes later a call returned, repeating the same word twice. Qinran looked down at the humans. They still weren’t looking up. He grinned to himself. The training rumor was true. Humans didn’t look up. It was probably more because the calls of monkeys in the jungle was to be expected. Qinran chuckled. He wanted to believe and nothing would shake it from his mind.

When night came the group stopped moving. It had continually grown smaller taking branching roads. With less refugees the guards were more concentrated. When it grew dark enough Qinran crossed the road he did the monkey howl and made his way towards the reply. Sure enough, there was another elf. He was a part of the raiding party.

“It’s good to see you, leader.”

“The navigator is dead, and one more has been captured,” Qinran said, “I don’t know how this is good.”

“Two dead, one captured,” the elf replied.

“We’ve failed.” Qinran sighed, “I’m Qinran.”

The other elf nodded, “I’m Aimon”

Qinran relaxed, now that they had shared names the party was officially dissolved. They still had a lot they needed to deal with but because of the unspoken agreement they were officially working together.