All was quiet, and then, it was not.

The wind rustling the leaves in the trees made a certain sound. Footsteps broke the pattern. Unlikely as it was she hoped it turned out to be survivors- otherwise it meant the Silencers had come. Sina let her eyes sweep the land, turning her head this way and that to figure out where the footsteps were coming from.

There.

Three men in the distance: one dwarf, one human, one orc. Armed, from the looks of it. She was not as well armed today; it was too late to worry about that now.

She couldn’t decide what their intentions were. Usually the ones the Others sent were alone or paired off, but maybe they were adding on a third to ensure at least one of them came back this time.

It wasn’t wise to stay here much longer.

At the same time, they needed the farm to keep going.

Sina did not dwell on such things at the moment. The moment at hand was what was important.

If these men were Others, they were an unusual sort. They didn’t usually gesture so much with their hands, but Sina supposed there must be some variation somewhere. She was about to throw a spell to send them in another direction, get the game started, figure out what they really wanted, when she heard another noise.

A gun.

A bullet through the air.

It lodged in a tree near the men. Bad aim or a sadistic preview?

Somewhere up the slope, someone had fired. Sina didn’t move. Whoever it was hadn’t seen her yet, which gave her an advantage.

She apologized to the men, silently, in her head, because if one or more of them died at least it wasn’t one of the people she had said she would help take care of. Ideally no one would die but the Silencer. Unless it was a ruse, and they were all Silencers.

Eledan was not going to be happy if she died today. Or at all, really. He was an elf and as such did not appreciate having to go out and defend humans and orcs and a [i]half-breed[/i] like Sina.

But, as she always told herself, it could be worse.