Free The Dawn of the Raven Omnibus 1: Episodes 1-5 by J.L. Blackthorne Page B

glass for himself, and then one for
Kiella.   At first, Kiella hesitated.
    “Oh please!”
scoffed Bob.  “You still don’t trust me?  At this point, I thought we were like
old mates!  Old hunting buddies!  Practically kin!  Come on, it’s not
poisoned!  Here!”  And, just to make sure she was convinced, Bob downed his
full cup at once.  Then, he refilled it, laughed, and held it up to toast their
friendship.  “Ah, it’s good fortune that brought us together, my friend!  Let
us drink to it and enjoy this beautiful night!”
    Kiella finally relented.  She tipped her cup to him and then
sipped from it.  The mead was quite strong, and within moments she began to
feel its effects.  They laughed and told jokes as the fire spit out sparks that
attempted to fly up to the heavens, but always burned up far short of the
mark.  She wasn’t much of a drinker as it was, so it only took a few cups
before she began to grow very drowsy, and her eyes began to cloud.
    Kiella’s dreams were quite strange.  Images of battle, huge
monsters ravaging the land, and even being mauled by wolves and other creatures
of the forest all plagued her sleep.  When Kiella finally began to come to,
something wasn’t right.  She was groggy, so it was hard at first to make sense
of it, but she couldn’t seem to move her hands.  No.  They were stuck behind
her back, and no matter how hard she tried, they would not budge.  She found
she couldn’t move her feet properly either.  Slowly, by degrees, her senses
started to come back to her, though this took much longer than it seemed like
it should have.  Was it the mead?  This seemed strange even for a hang-over. 
Finally, she awoke enough to open her eyes and try to gain her bearings.  She
was still at the campsite, lying on the ground, but she was face down, and her
hands were tied behind her back, and her legs were bound at the ankles.  She
tried to yell for Bob, but she found that she was gagged as well.  She looked
to the mule, and saw it still tethered, with Raveena still unconscious on the
stretcher laid down on the ground behind it.  There was no sign of Bob
anywhere.  Suddenly, she heard several voices approaching.  The voices were
loud and cocky, with laughter filling the air.  Was it the savages?  The
Elken?  Had they killed poor Bob, and now they were coming back for her?  She
fought as quickly as she could to try and slip out of the bondage, but her
efforts were useless.
    Unable to do anything to change her destiny, Kiella laid
there squirming and mumbling unintelligibly through her gag as three men wandered
into the clearing.  They were smiling already as they entered, but their grins
widened all the more at the sight of her.   They laughed and patted one another
on the back.  Behind them, Kiella heard a familiar voice joining the chatter. 
It was Bob Bumbelden, who grinned from ear-to-ear as he showed off the spoils
of his most recent hunt to his brethren.  He leaned down to Kiella and spoke to
her, his huge, almost toothless grin mocking her.
    “Ah pretty! 
I guess I wasn’t quite as forthcoming as I could have been.  I’m not all that
alone out here, after all.  It’s me, Cretin, and quite a bit of the rest of my
kin.  There are quite a few of us Bumbeldens, actually.  But we do get lonely
out here, don’t we boys?  We don’t see many fine young things like you in these
parts, no we don’t.”
    “Ah yes . .
. “ joined in one of the others.  “I love the blondies.”
    Another just now took notice of Raveena.
    “And what
about her?  What’s wrong with this one?”
    “Oh”
answered Bob.  “That one there is out cold.  Has been cut up a bit.  But do as
you like.”
    “Oh, she’s a
looker!  I like this one!”
    “Well, help
yourselves boys.  Fuck them all you like, and, when we tire of them, they’ll
make quite the feast!”  As Bob said this, he sharpened his knife and smiled
again at Kiella, who continued, frantically