5

It had been days of wandering around and searching for a way to the surface before he had found it. By this time he was covered in mud, clothes were tattered, and his hair appeared a dusty brown gray from the amount of dirt he had been sleeping on. Nevertheless he had found it and climbed out into the bright daylight of the overworld.

Grunting, he placed a hand over his eyes to shield them from the light but found it to difficult to see. It was luck for him that the sun was lowering, which would mean night soon. He had only heard rumors of the night sky, where small lights would appear in a sea of black and no matter how dark it got, it just wasn’t enough. That meant that he was going to have to find a place to hide and rather quickly.

Traveling through the slight brush that was scattered around a field, he slowly started to see the density of trees as the sun escaped below the horizon. Perhaps there was enough foliage there to keep him in the dark until he was able to come upon a traveler and steal their wears.

Upon entering the dense foliage, he began to creep deeper. Once and a while his ears would twitch to the sound of a crackle, an animal rustling, and finally a sweet sound he never thought he would hear. Water. Eyes growing large, he put all worries behind him and started to run towards where he could hear the water. Coming upon a creek that was only a couple of feet across, he watched as the water ran downstream.

Removing the remains of his shirt, he knelt beside the water and started to splash it against his face. Dipping his hair into the water and trying to wash the dirt and what not from his hair before it was to late. There was no way for him to know, with his ears so close to the water, that there were two soldiers performing their rounds nearby and one had caught the sight of the bone white hair through some trees as Xan lifted his head.

The two guards were smart enough to hold still, knowing well enough what kind of precautions to take when there was a drow nearby. It was quiet obvious that they had been around drow before because they crouched low to keep from being seen. Xan had no idea what was going on as he looked behind him and through the trees before getting to his feet and stretching.

Moving into the river, he started to walk upstream so as to not leave any footprints. He didn’t exactly want the Matron’s to be able to find him. The water was freezing and by the time he had reached a couple of miles upstream, he had needed to remove himself from the water and try to warm his feet.

Sitting on the riverbank, he looked up at the lights of the night sky and grimaced. Even the small lights were enough to bring him pain, how was he going to deal with the noonday sun when it was highest in the sky. Shaking his head, he didn’t want to have to think about having to deal with that and focused solely on warming his feet.

Xan hadn’t noticed but the two guards had been following him the entire time that he was moving upstream. Both men were human, middle age, and holding swords for weapons. One of the men had been smart enough undo his belt and motioned for the other man to do the same. While the drow was distracted by other means they were going to get him and take the drow back to their master.

Turning his head from side to side he allowed his neck to snap before lying down on the soft grass and closing his eyes. Inhaling deeply the sweet scent of the pine and maple trees around him and placing his hands beneath his head with his fingers interlocked. It wasn’t long before his steady breathing turned to that of one of sleep.

The older soldier pointed at the belt in his hand before pointing at the drow, trying to give the younger one idea of what they were doing to do. Nodding his head, the younger guard slowly began to sneak around the other way, keeping to the more cushioned grass so as to not disturb the drows sleep.

Finally, when a soldier was on each side, they waited to make sure that the breathing pattern didn’t change at all. Crouching down, the younger man positioned his hands at the drow’s ankles, holding the belt ready to tie while the older one got ready to belt the drow’s hands together and to his lower body. The older one looked up at the guard, slowly mouthing, ‘On the count of three… one… two…’