A Surprise.

Rounding around the end of the first covered wagon you are happy to see Yvette and Jane waiting, and your heart soars when you see the happiness in their eyes when they see you. You all nod your head, since this isn't over yet, and while they get their rifles at the ready you open the door. You let out a relieved sigh as nothing jumps out to attack you. As your helmet adjusts to the low light inside you can see this wagon was lined with bunk beds. You count eight beds in total, so the guards must have been rotating in and out to get their rest. A thought occurs to you.

"Dawn, how many guards are there for most caravans like this? Even for ones that have fifty slaves" you ask Dawn.

"There are an average of three guards, with a high of six guards and some with only two guards" she replies.

"What about the slavers themselves" you ask.

"That average is six" she replies.

"How many guards were there for this one" you ask.

"Sixteen" she replies "Ten we could see, and six we couldn't see" she adds.

"Why so many" you wonder out loud. You shake your head to clear your thoughts, and not seeing anything immediately important you step outside to go clear the second covered wagon. This wagon was slightly larger. Inside were bunk beds again, but most of it seemed to be meant for storage. Rows of drawers lined each wall all the way up to the ceiling almost, and there was one last door in the back of the wagon. The three of you stepped forward, and the girls readied themselves as you pulled door open while stepping aside to give them a clear line of sight. You watched as their eyes widened, and it worried you that their eyes stayed wide, but you felt a little relief as they lowered their rifles down.

Curious as to what was inside you peeked your head around the door to see inside. You are surprised to see a woman sitting on a stool with her wrists and ankles bound with rope, but looking back at Yvette and Jane you see their jaws hanging open now, and you can't understand why this woman is such a shock to them. You look back at the woman. She is certainly beautiful. She has long pure white hair, dark brown eyes, and it looks like they've clothed her in a ratty potato sack. A **** collar is fitted around her neck. Finally a rope is tied tightly around her jaw, and it is holding wadded cloth inside her mouth. You look back at Yvette and Jane again, and they look at each other still in shock as if asking each other "are you seeing what I'm seeing", and they once again look back at the woman. Annoyed you look back at the woman.

"Miss, we are here to help. I would like to remove your bindings, so are you ok with me using my knife to cut through the rope" you ask her pointing at the knife on your wrist. The woman looks back and forth between you and the girls for a few seconds.

She nods her head holding up her hands. You pull the knife out to quickly cut through her rope. You notice she must have been tied up for a long time when you see the rope had been cutting into her ankles and wrists as she pulls the cloth out of her mouth. You put your knife away and grab one of her hands to examine her wrist. You feel her tense up as you hold her hand to look at her wounds. You look up her arm, and you see both old and new bruises. It looks like she'd been beaten pretty often which makes you frown. You gently touch her cheek to turn her head slightly to the side. You see bruising and light cuts from the rope, and you notice her ears for the first time. They weren't normal human ears, and instead you realized they were longer and more pointed. Like and elf's ear, and finally your eyes go wide as well.

"You...you're a...I didn't even know..." you stammer, but you quickly clear your throat to clear your mind.

"Ma'am...are you an elf" you ask her.

"Yes" she replies shyly, but you can see a curiosity in her eyes as she looks at you, and the sound of her voice makes you feel goosebumps forming on the back of your neck. With just one word she'd made you feel more relaxed.

"I see. Well, if you would like to follow us out we can get you a healing potion for your bruising and cuts" you tell her.

"Yes, thank you" she replies as she stands up. You turn to see Yvette and Jane still staring, but when you clear your throat they snap back to reality. They still stare at the elf, but they start backing out of the wagon, and you can't help but smirk when you see them bump and stumble into things.

"Right this way ma'am" you gesture, and the elf takes a deep breath and follows the girls out of the wagon. You see her eyes squint, and she shields her eyes from the sunlight as she steps down the wagon's stairs.

"All clear Rene. You can come down with Copper now. We have some slaves to free" you tell her. You can see the elf looking at you with even more curiosity now.

"On my way" you hear Rene reply. You all meet up in front of the **** wagon, and you frown seeing the walking slaves still clinging to each other in fear.

"Everyone please listen to me" you say to get their attention. You see them all look at you, and your heart drops seeing two children pop their heads through some legs to look at you and hear what you have to say. You let out sigh.

"I can not imagine the suffering you've had to endure until this moment. I am...sorry. Sorry that I didn't arrive sooner then today, but I am here now. My name is John Doe. This is Yvette, Jane, Rene, and Copper" you tell them, and you smile hearing Copper let out a single soft raptor bark as if to say hello.

"You are all now free" you tell them. You hear gasps and murmurs through out the group, and the people walking don't seem as fearful any longer.

"I have some healing potions, but I was not expecting so many of you, so I may not have enough for all of you. We will determine which of you are in need first. However, there is one more thing" you state and you see all of them looking at you waiting. Some look resigned that this is a trick, while others seem angry that it is a possible trick, and the rest look curious.

"I would like you all to travel with me to the south to a place we call the Sanctuary. Once there we will clothe you, feed you, and take care of any of you who need further care. At that point you will have a choice to make. We would like you to stay with us, and build a town. A place you can call home. We will help you build your homes, places for you to craft, and places where you can relax and have fun. We will help you create a place you can call your own" you tell them, and you can see most of their jaws have dropped, but some still seem skeptical.

"If you do not wish to stay and build a future at the Sanctuary. We will provide you with clothing, food, water, and money. You may leave and go where ever you wish to go from there" you tell them, and they all look at each other in disbelief.

"But we are all registered slaves" someone exclaims.

"They will just turn us right back into slaves" someone else concurs.

"Or kill us" one of them says calmly.

"Right now all I am capable of doing is providing you with either a place to create a new life in freedom, or just freedom to go where ever you wish. I can not change your status as a **** anywhere else, but one of my goals is to destroy the slaving guild and their registry" you tell them.

"You are crazy! That is impossible" someone yells.

"Shut up Tom" another chastises him "I'm going with him. Even if it is a trick it makes no difference then where I was twenty minutes ago" they add, and you smile seeing everyone nodding their heads.

"I know this sounds like a trick. You've only just met me, so there is no reason for you to believe me, but I will show you truth through my actions. First thing is first though. Let's get all of you free from any bindings, and see who needs some healing. Please be patient as we come around" you tell them. They all nod and start whispering amongst themselves. You motion everyone in really quick.

"They are all still scared, so be careful. Scared people do stupid stuff sometimes, so ladies if you'd walk around together I'd feel a lot better" you whisper to them. You suddenly feel Copper's head poking over your shoulder.

"Copper, I'd appreciate it if you kept on guard as well buddy" you whisper to him, and you hear him let out a gentle warble. The girls nod in confirmation and they start walking over to start freeing the walking slaves, while you head to the back of the caged wagon. You see a metal lock keeping the door closed, and you groan when you realize you'd have to search the guards for a key. Turning to look at the bodies you notice the elf is following you around.

"Any of you know which guards had a key for this thing" you ask them all as you jiggle the lock.

"Actually" you say as an idea pops into your head "Never mind, I have an idea" you say. You chastise yourself a little bit for not considering a magical solution, and you examine the lock with a **** spell. You begin channeling magic through to push open the lock, and you're surprised to feel it easily give way to your spell. With a clink the lock pops open, and you throw it away to open the door.

"This way everyone. If you are too hurt to move just stay where you are and we'll be along with a healing potion. The rest of you if you could just go sit together right over there I'd appreciate it" you tell them pointing at the ground next to the wagon. Most of them start to file out of the wagon, including the two children who are looking at you with quite wide eyes. You give them a wink and a smile, and they shyly smile back. Seven remain behind because of their injuries. There are two broken ankles, and the rest seem like sprained ankles. You head back out and the girls have everyone else freed as well, and thankfully none of them had any major injuries besides the cuts from the whip along their back. You examine the walking group and you notice they seem to be the strongest out of anyone, which isn't surprising. They were trying to keep the strongest of them exhausted you suspect. You shake your head at the brutal methodology of it, and you grab seven healing potions.

"These seven are going to those in the wagon still. Rene and Jane, can you go help them while we figure out how to dish out the remaining health potions" you ask while handing the potions to Rene.

"Yes, no problem" Rene says and you watch them go towards the wagon. That left thirteen potions for the rest of them, and you mentally chastise yourself for not bringing more.

"I did not bring enough for all of you. I am sorry for that. I want to give each of you one so you can feel a little relief, but I only have thirteen more. I promise when we make it to the Sanctuary that I will give each of you one, but for now we need to figure out who gets it and who doesn't" you tell them sadly. You see them all look around at each other nodding their heads.

"Give a potion to each of the children, and hold onto the rest. None of us need any right now, so save them in case any of us injure ourselves on the way to the...Sanctuary" a man says as the others nod in agreement. You notice it was the guy who chastised whichever of them was Tom from before, and you make sure to remember him. The town was going to need leaders other than just you. He pushes the two kids forward, so you kneel down when they walk up to you.

"What are your names" you ask them as you hand them each a potion.

"My name is Tim sir" the taller boy says.

"And my name is Mark sir" the smaller one says.

"Two well mannered young men. I am pleased to meet you Tim and Mark. There is a child back at the Sanctuary who is going to be very happy to meet you I bet. She knows lots of games to play, so I hope you are ready to have a bunch of fun" you tell them and their eyes light up as they walk back to their group. You feel a little sad when you think about when the last time these two just got to be children at play, but you felt glad you were changing it back to how it should be. You look up to see people walking out of the wagon, and you smile counting all seven of them followed by Rene and Jane who are smiling ear to ear. The group of seven mingles into the group. You see some hugs and handshakes.

"Well then. We should probably get moving. There is still some daylight left before we need to bed down for the night. I figure we can just ride the wagons to the Sanctuary, so if you'll excuse me I have some Dinos to tame" you say walking over towards the triceratops pulling the caged wagon. You notice the elf still sticking close to you, but that's fine you figure. You reach out with your taming spell. It isn't hard to figure out how to tame the triceratops. All he wants is to not be whipped any longer, which you are more than happy to provide. The two stegosauruses are equally as easy to tame. It seems slavers treated their Dinos only slightly better than their slaves, so providing them with safety from whips was all it took. The former slaves piled into the wagons shortly after, and you were all on your way.