The crack of the Balista shot caused Rögdûl to raise an arm up to his face; he had expected as such, and soon his arm lazed back to his side. He figured shouting would only be seen as an act of aggression--and it wasn't like they could hear him over the blare of the alarum bells clanging in unison. Rögdûl rubbed his temples; it was going to be a [i]long[/i] day.

[color=silver]"We should have sent the crows first; you know they don't like our kind around here!"[/color] Nerakghu shouted as best he could above the screaming chime of the warbells.

A grunt, a sigh. [color=green]"Did you bring the torches?"[/color]

[color=silver]"No."[/color]

[i][color=green]"Bubhosh![/color][/i]

	Since it takes a moment to reload a ballista, Rögdûl moved past the lodged ballista arrow and toward the fortress gates, and that is when Nerhrakgu spoke up again,

[color=silver]"The arrow."[/color]
[color=green]"What?"[/color]
[color=silver]"Send your request through the arrow."[/color]
[color=green]"They'll think we want a fight!"[/color]
[color=silver]"You do not have another option. In a few seconds, there will be more than some incompetent artillery men descending upon us. Send the arrow."[/color]
[color=green]"Fine! If this doesn't work, you owe me Dushut."[/color]

	Rögdûl plucked the ballista arrow out of the desert sand. Nehrakghu stripped the pouch from his robes; he kept various diplomacy tools in those wizardly looking robes: pens, parchment, paper, ink. He removed the pen and paper from his robings and wrote: [i]peace.[/i] He wrapped the small strip of paper around the ballista arrow. Rögdûl grabbed the ballista arrow around its midsection and drew his arm back to toss the ballista arrow as one would a spear--he launched in an arc; its parabola steep enough to ensure that it went [i]up, up, up. . .[/i]