The sun's glow upon the leaves of the forest mixed well with the cool autumn breeze flowing between the trees. The colors were a vibrant mixture of reds, greens, oranges, and yellows among the branches of the tall brown oaks, and even the shades seemed to provide their own palette of colors to the mix. A lone worker within the shade was chopping away wood from a tree he had downed near a week past.
He was a Velociraptor, unlike the humans that lived around the forest, his dark green scales and the long jagged black stripe down his back gave a sense of camouflage, but it was counteracted by the brown of his cloth shirt and the leather strap on his waist that held his dagger. He swung the woodsman's ax, splitting the wood it had hit into two halves. He put the two halves onto a pile of his other gatherings for the day, and as he gazed up at the sun between the leaves, decided to head home with is workload. He shouldered his ax, picked up a handle of the barrow, and wheeled it on to his forest home.
When he pulled his collection next to the side of his house, he looked over the clearing on that side, some of which he had cleared himself, and smirked. He had much of the clearing for practicing combat, using combat dummies he made out of some of the extra wood he harvested. He also had a large boulder with a flat top that he would lay on to bask in the sun. He looked back up at the sun through the oval shape sky above the clearing, and decided against basking at the time. He unloaded the barrow, placing the wood neatly piled next to his house. He put the ax leaning against the pile with the blade up off the ground to help prevent rust and bug juices. He went inside to grab his wooden practice sword and practiced his attacks, defenses, and stances until his scaly skin glistened with sweat. He looked back up the sun and decided to use the rest of the time before it hid behind the trees to bask before heading into the house to sleep for the night.
* * *
Cloaked figures huddled around a campfire that night. Several had missing teeth, most looked as though this was not their first night sleeping on dirt and grass. They had a rabbit skewered over the fire, roasting, though it was hard to tell it was a rabbit anymore. Their clothes were as dark as their attitudes towards each other except one among them. That one had an air of authority about him, however dark his means and looks was. One of the others, with two gaps on his upper teeth and one in the middle of his lower, looked up to the man while his hand strayed toward yanking the last leg off of the rabbit.
“So, your plan to take out the beastly fella' what live in this forest, what it be?” he said before he began to chew on the rabbit leg.
“What business is it of yours, it ain't your plan, now is it, Snapjaw?” replied one of the others of their gang, this one with gaps on both sides of his mouth.
“Shush, Monger, I was asking Bismarq, mean he's the boss, not you.” Snapjaw replied before taking another bite out of the rabbit leg.
“Why I oughta...” Monger said, drawing the dagger from his belt. Within a matter of seconds, all of the cloaked figures had stood up, daggers drawn and threatening each other. All except Bismarq. He sat for a moment, watching his ragtag bunch of thieves threaten each other like a bunch of children.
“Sit down, all o' ya,” he said in a commanding tone. The cloaked figures considered him for a moment before complying, daggers back on their belts. When Bismarq was satisfied with the result, he continued, “Now, as for my plan for the reptilian bastard, I plan to skewer his heart with me dagger, much like that rabbit be skewered over the fire. Then I plan to gut him, just to see what be inside. And, when all that be said and done, I plan to let him rot where he lay. These forests be better without the likes o' him, especially for us bandits. We could use that little clearing o' his to get proper training for louts like you, as a command post for attacking that human town o' Hemlaq. I even plan to make his house me own when I've killed him. Any o' ya argue with the plan, I'll kill yer too, understood.” The others hastily made their agreements with Bismarq's plan, after which he added, “Now rest up, ya lazy slobs. We attack on the morrow.” Every cloaked figure around the fire began to laugh.
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