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It seemed like forever since she last saw daylight. Her skin crawled at the filth, her mind numb from the last days events, but her hope had never died.

She often dreamt of Jhereg and the small motley crew she called friends bursting through the door saving her from what fate had delt her. Every morning she awoke cold.. knowing it was simply a dream.

Had she had enough? Was she to lie down like a lame dog and accept this? There had to be a way out past the gates.. the guards and through the desert.. all she needed was an axe for she knew she could craft a bow herself.
The door swung open knocking aginst the stone wall with an empty sound that reverberated through her chambers. She would escape that was for sure.. but not yet. She would have to conserve her strength and as much as she hated it, do her masters bidding.

(3 Days later)

She'd been spared the whip these last few days. She'd worked hard to convince the master he had finally broken her. Best of all she had stashed an axe within the kitchen cupboard.
It was a slow frightful process creeping from her chambers. The darkness so deep only her elven eyes kept her from stumbling blindly. Only her elven grace kept her barefeet silenced.
She came to the stairs even the dim glow causing her to squint. Luck was not on her favor. She heard voices rolling from the cobblestone walls.. one voice actually. It was him, her master whom she never yet laid ey on, but feared more so than death itself. She paused listening. Funny how his voice seemed so plesant.
Her fingers gripped the axe handle tightly in resolution as shebegan the climb. One way or another, she would be free this night.
She reached the top leaning down to peer over the top step. In the adjacent room a single cadlestick lit and a man looking over a book. His back was to her atleast. She ever so slowly began the hesitant small steps towards him axe held in a pair of tiny trembling hands. She fought to control her ragged breathing though it sounded like a gale to herself. She was almost certain it would give her away.
she was just a few feet from him now, her concious screaming at her. Oh how she hated death... it was this man whom she had suffered from all these years. All the pain, the tears, the lonliness.. her resolve was final. She took a deep breath her eye intense on the back of hi neck. She would see his face before he died.. she would let him know whom it was that had slain him.
"Master?" she said in the most meek soft voiceshe could mustar.
The man turned with an eyebrow upturned his hand casually closing the book before him.
His face wasn't that of a cruel twisted an she had thought.. infact he was almost charming, but it was his eyes that bothered her.
"Dyluck?" her brows furrowed.
"What the he.." He croaked.
The voice.. she knew all to well and without hesitation she brought it down with all her hate cutting his words short.

She knelt and wept silently by the masters body, his head nearly cleaved in two. Somehow she felt sorry for this man. She felt as if shed lost a part of herself as odd as it seemed, however it only lasted a moment before she wrenched the axe fre and darted for the door.

Where would she end up? Would she be able to find her friends again?

What she knew for sure is that she was now free and will die free at all costs.
She only hoped she would see her friends again.. and her beloved Jhereg.

~Sabrina~

Some seconds after the elven woman leaves the room, one of the curtains starts to move. Bare, dirty feet can now be seen under it. A person, a human, with a crazed look on his old face, walks out with a BIG grin on his face. He jumps over to the body, fumbles around with the face, and then jumps around making sounds like a chicken.
Then he suddenly stops, and starts to sing a song :

"Once i met a dwarven king, his name wass poole doo
I mae him eat his crown and mind, and then he ate his poo."

Footsteps can be heard. From one moment to another, the man jumps behind the heavy curtain again.
Two guards enter the room. Stopping at the body.
"Dammn. We should have watched..."
"Hey, it's not our fault. It has been Greemy who fell asleep. He will die for that when the master... AAAH !"
At this second, the curtain moves, an red skeletons appear in the whole room. They start to attack the guards, and slowly drive them backwards out of the room. The man jumps out of his hideout, laughing at the two.

"Necrophpocius Fungus - the mad... OUCH ! Necromancer ! How did he get in here !" With these wors, the first guard runs, leaving his comrade surrounded by the skeletons. After a short fight, two skeletons are crushed, but in dying, leaving no trace behind. But the guard cannot stan the numbers of atackers.

Necrophocius Fungus grins, an says : "Well, have fun, now i have to go. I did my funnies and now i have other duties. Laah Laah Laah !" Witzh these words, he simply jumps out of the window.
The guard, bleeding from a wound at his arm, stands with his back on the wall. Other guards run into the room, just to see him falling and the skeletons turn around.

She huddled behind the stables shaking horribly. Through the night she heard the cries and racket from behind. They must have found him.. and now they would be coming for her.

She pushed away from the shelter and began her sprint axe inhand.

"If never I belived in a god now I pray for one to take pity on this elf.. give me strength and saftey" she gasps as she hurried on.

Dyluck awakens from a dream in the middle of the night and rubs his eyes as his vision slowly returns to him again. He puts a hand on his forehead "Ugh...head hurts..."
Outside the heavy rain hammers down and the sound of thunder can be heard in the distance. As Dyluck begins to regain his bearings, he suddenly senses some familiar energy nearby. He glances out the window and for a moment he could have sworn there was a human looking in from outside. When but he went to the window he found no one there. Another thunder clap echoes in the sky, louder than before.
Dyluck puts on his cloak and walks outside...

Early evening. A nice time to go to the nearby swamps - and look for some new frogs. Especially when the weather is still good, but with the warm, electric, steamish atmosphere that indicates there will be a nice rainy thundering night later.
Equipped with a heavy rain cloak and a bucked for the frogs, Damien heads for the swamps. Approaching them, with the bucket in hand, and hearing the frog-singing, Damien grins, and takes a seat near a small sea.
"Nice evening. And the frogs.. that sound is, relaxing. Definition of relaximg : Dammn i could close my eyes a second... But first, i need five or six frogs."

After catching some frogs, Damien decides to sit under a nice willow tree, and closes his eyes for a moment.

He awakes from a thundering sound, and from the feeling of something wet dripping on his nose.
It's dark,and starts to rain.
"Dammn. Well.. gonna make it home dry."

He starts to run. After five minutes, it rains cats and dogs.He approaches a building outside the village, runs around a corner - and crashes into a person. The bucket falls down, and the frogs hop away.

"Ouch... good evening. Hey, who're you ??"

The skies lit up as lightning Arched through the shadowed giants. She stopped to gasp for breath leaning against one of the sparse palms that grew in the sands. Her legs felt like fire though long since grown numb from weariness as she had pushed her body to the limit. She rest her head against the trunk turning tiredly towards the direction she had come. After a moment the skies lit up showing only a distant erie shadow of the citadel prison.
She could no longer hold in her sorrow for what she had done and wept, her soft cries concealed by a thunderous boom.

"I am now free.. but at such a cost.. Jhereg I hope you would be proud. I remeber what you taught me and I have tried to stay brave."

Thinking of her friends a small smile of resolve came to her lips "After all I have something of mine to reclaim."

She looked down at her hands bare of the love gift Jhereg had bestowed to her.

"Hope" she whispered. "In a time of need." Perhaps it was her that needed that hope more so than Dyluck.. she hoped and prayed of his saftey.

"Wherever you are my friend.. I shall find you to reclaim my ring.. and my life." Letting out a deep breath she stood lifting the axe that seemed to weigh as much as a dwarf.

She'd had enough running. She knew of the dangers in the desert and she would still have to cross the river to reach Illarion, but it would not be long. No more than 3 days on foot and she would need her strength.

It'd been a long weary walk. She'd dodged several of the Deserts dangers. The Ogre's were the worst. They had poor eyesight but could smell quite well. She'd almost been caught off guard once already by them. She only hoped she wouldn't have another encounter.

The sands had slowed her pace much more than she would have liked and the hot sun had made her fair skin sore and red. There was little sanctuary in the sand but mostly it was the fire that burned her feet. It wasn't soon after she began to feel she could go no further than the river came in sight. It was only a blue strip on the horrizon but within reach.

When she finally reached it  she fell at it's shore so happy to know Illarion was just a day's walk from the other side. It was quite wide here, she would have to travel up to find a more narrow path across, perhaps a bridge though she remembered none.
She fought to stand, to hurry on to saftey and to meet her friends but she could not for she had pushed herself beyond what she thought possible. It was only moments before her eyelids grew to heavy to hold open and she fell to the earth laying her cheak in the cool river sands.
She would make it, but after sleep.. after..

And her sleep was filled with dreams......