Wood elves.

As she hung, the blood rushing to her head, a group of figures stepped out in front of her. She took in their leather hunting gear and the camouflage-patterned cloaks, the tanned skins and pointed ears. These had to be the fabled wood elves of the great forest.

Two were male while the third was female. All were beautiful, with spiralling blue woad tattoos on their cheeks. But there was an air of dangerous, predatory tension to them that was at once sexy and menacing.

“The snare appears to have caught a human,” one male said. “A pity. I was hoping for something good to eat.”

“Now Korvran,” the female said. “Don’t be so closed minded. She looks quite a succulent little thing. Shall we cook a few slices of her rump, to see if you like the taste?” She reached over and gave Shairi’s arse a squeeze. “It feels nice and ripe.”

They all chuckled, and Shairi was almost sure they were joking, despite the horror stories she’d heard about wood elves. Certainly, their gazes held desires that had more to do with lust than hunger. The female continued to run her hands over the helpless girl’s body, reaching down to squeeze her breasts. She dropped to one knee and, for the first time, saw Shairi’s face.

The wood elf hissed like an angry cat, her mouth contorting into a sneer. “Half elf! Impure abomination!” She drew a knife.

“Well, that settles it,” the other male says. “Cut the thing’s throat and lets be on her way.”

Shairi felt a shiver of fear go through her at his matter-of-fact tone. There had to be some way out of this. Fighting as she was would be impossible. She was fairly sure she could use magic to cut the rope, but getting away from three opponents who knew the forest well would be hard. Perhaps there was another way – up until a moment ago they’d been looking at her with lust…