Elys looked around at his three companions then down to his side and fiddled with his swords sheath, making sure it was tied around his waist properly. Looking around at the seemingly endless forest behind them, Elys tried to find a good direction to run in, in case this plan backfired and he had to make a quick escape. After a few minutes, he gave up. The trees were too thick to plot out a single route and remember it. Looking back ahead of him, Elys noted as many of the guards patrol routes as he could, and the quickest way to get to their target. Elys preferred not having to kill any more people than he needed to. After all, there was no point in killing someone they weren’t going to get paid for killing, was there?
After several minutes, Elys and his team started to make their way through the camp, sticking to the shadows and avoiding guards, killing them only if they got too close. Eventually, they got to where they needed to be, and Elys looked through the keyhole of the door, peering in to see if their target was in there.

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Elys watched as an arrow flew through the air, embedding itself in one of his team members’ skulls. He screamed, hurling is short sword at the person who fired the arrow, the sword finding its mark and burying into the chest of the man. Before Elys’ swords had even gotten half way to the man, he was up and running back towards the forest. It was his only chance to survive. He could easily lose them in through the thickness of the outer edges of the forest. But the problem wasn’t losing them: it was getting to the forest. Jumping, dodging, weaving and using guards as shields from volleys of arrows was the only way he would make it, and the constant moving around was taking its toll on Elys. His lungs, arms and legs were burning from lack of oxygen and over use, his reaction time to things becoming slower with each passing second. And he was far from escape.
Or so he though. Out of the corner of his eye to his left, Elys noticed the forests’ edge.
“Now’s my chance to get out of here” Elys thought with relief to himself.
Picking up a downed guards shield and using it was cover from a volley of arrows, Elys took off towards the trees, his legs carrying him faster than he thought possible in their worn out state. Dodging around and under the few guards’ strikes that were between him and the edge of the forest, Elys dived, hoping to make it just inside the tree line. He rolled, up onto his feet, then stopped, having felt something hit his back. Elys leaned against a tree, suddenly feeling weary, and reached behind him, where he felt an arrow protruding from it. Another arrow was fired, and it found its mark just at the base...

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Elys bolted upright in his bed, his pure white hair soaked with sweat, his breathing rapid and shallow. He looked around the room, seeing he was still in his mistress’ slave quarters, in the cellar of her house. He looked to the little window near the roof on the far wall, and saw light just starting to peak over the mountains, and into cellar. Elys’ heart dropped, and he shot up out of bed, scalding himself as he did.
“Gonna earn yourself another beating, Elys, if you make Chena wait for her breakfast” he said to himself, rushing up the stairs and to the kitchen, hoping to get his mistress’ tea and toast ready.