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change his mind by conversation alone.
“Villid?” Swift rolled his eyes. “You need a woman,” he smirked. “Now go sharpen your weapons.”
Villid pushed impatiently past him and came to his bedroll. A Tyran woman had approached where they had been sleeping. Villid recognised her as Rouge, who he had trained with several times in past weeks. She gazed intently at him as he came to the bedroll.
“Hello, Villid,” she said pleasantly. “Did I hear you need a woman?”
Her eyes shined at him in the firelight as she half-smiled, looking up at Villid expectantly with her head on one side. Her tunic was low cut, and the white scars in the shape of the number six thousand, two hundred and nine stood out on her skin, just above her left breast. Villid gazed at her for a moment, and felt his interest peak.
“For a while,” he grunted. Smiling, she brushed past him, and they made their way to the trees.
 
     

Chapter Four
    The moon had risen in the now cloudless sky, beaming down at the assembled Tyrans who stood in rows, weapons newly sharpened, each still and silent in the moonlight like beasts in a pack. Shade’s steel armour was brightly polished, his long, curved swords in their sheaths at his hips, anticipating the nearing battle. He marched swiftly round the group, glaring at them all with his piercing eyes, checking positions, barking an order every so often, glaring at those he didn’t like, and grunting to every other Tyran to stand up straighter. He reached Villid, who stood to attention, his axe and sword sitting at his back. Shade looked him up and down, and when he couldn’t find anything to criticise, snorted loudly and moved on. Villid let a slow sigh escape his lips. After all of the Seer’s warnings, they were still going to attack the Elves.
A few moments ago the Seer had disappeared to the back of the ranks, where the impatient Shade had ordered him to stay behind and wait for their return.
Villid had no idea how he could reach the E lf girl before Shade, or convince her that he was there to protect her. But he trusted the Seer much more than he trusted his tribe leader, and would rather hide the Elf girl away from Shade than risk the Tyrans being doomed by the Dragons, as the Seer had shown him.
His nerves squirmed inside him as he felt the familiar shivering thirst for blood rippling throughout the crowd of Tyran warriors. They stood with their fine armour and sharpened weapons, as if attending a glorious, equally matched battle. Villid felt like they were being led to murder children. He knew about the E lves. In past battles they had lost hundreds with little victory – and that was when they were actually expecting to fight. Now they were unknowing, oblivious to the army outside their walls. This was not a battle, but an extermination. Each second that slipped by gave Villid more determination to reach the Elf Seer, and protect her from harm.
Every Tyran eye was fixed on Shade, who had reached the front of the group. He gave a small nod signalling for the soldiers to follow his lead, turned round, and slowly entered the thicket of trees just ahead. The assembly of warriors followed suit, pushing through the trees in single file. Despite their heavy boots, the Tyrans moved swiftly and quietly, their weapons and hair occasionally getting caught in the loose branches.
They moved silently through the forest, each Tyran with his ears pricked for the sound of something other than their own boots quietly crunching on the ground, and the steady breathing of the warrior in front of them. The moon sat high in the clear sky, beaming through the leaves, casting pale light on the Tyrans. Every so often a twig would snap loudly or a stray animal would make some unexpected sound, causing the silent soldiers to clutch their weapons tightly, before composing themselves and moving on.
To Villid, it felt as if a lifetime had passed before they reached the end of the wood, but it couldn’t have been more than