Chapter 24

                                    

                                          
"What about for a rare Gwent card?" Iespeth asked as she stepped over a large fallen log. The heel of her boot knocked the caps off of a few white mushrooms growing out of the miniature tuft of moss as she swung her leg over the rotting wood.
                          
"Give me an option," Ciri demanded.
                          
"John Natalis."
                          
"Is he the gold card with a strength of 10?"
                          
"Yes!" the elf exclaimed assuming she'd found success.
                          
"No." Ciri playfully stated as she pushed a low hanging vine out of her path.
                          
"Well, what about a new silver sword. Made by gnomes?"
                          
"Not a chance Iespeth."
                          
"Even with runes?"
                          
"Nope."
                          
"So there is nothing that I could realistically give you to get you to kiss a rock troll?"
                          
Ciri smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "What about you? What could I give you to kiss one?"
                          
The two came upon a tree whose massive base was the diameter of a windmill. Iespeth went up to the ancient oak and leaned against it. She spat a green, soppy wad of grass she had been chewing onto one of the protruding roots and looked at Ciri.
                          
"That question doesn't apply to me. As I have yet to see a rock troll, much less interact with one, I cannot in good knowledge agree to a wager for that which I've too little information. Therefore, I pass."
                          
"What? What do you mean you pass?" Ciri asked, taken slightly aback by Iespeth's bureaucratic archness. "You can't pass, those aren't the rules. Besides, with that logic, you could not 'in good knowledge' ask me to kiss a rock troll in exchange for something valuable without actually knowing what such an act encompasses. You wouldn't be able to adequately weigh the value of the thing you are giving with that which you are getting. For all you know a rock troll is a creature of pure beauty. Perhaps all I am doing right now is just getting you to agree to give me something nice in exchange for me kissing such a beautiful creature."
                          
Iespeth frowned.
                          
"Are you?" she asked, almost convinced.
                          
"No."
                          
"And rock trolls? They aren't beautiful right?"
                          
Ciri shrugged her shoulders and smirked.
                          
"Oh go on!" Iespeth spat as she kicked the air playfully in Ciri's direction. Ciri took the pack of the few belongings the two women had; it now being her turn to carry the pack. They carefully stepped over the thick roots of the surrounding base of the tree.
                          
Neither suspected the array of arrows pointed at them when they made their way around the massive oak.
                          
Iespeth's hand immediately went to the hilt of her blade and Ciri had already begun pulling her sword from its hilt. The sound of tightening bow strings quickly convinced both to release their weapons.
                          
"That would not be wise d'hoine."
                          
The voice came from the group of elves surrounding them.
                          
"Such stealth. I didn't hear them," Iespeth whispered.
                          
They both slowly moved their hands near their heads.
                          
"Iespeth. Take off your hood. But do it slowly," Ciri commanded her friend. Iespeth slowly began creeping her hood off her head.
                          
"Ha! Bloede d'hoine. You think we cannot recognize one of our own without seeing a pair of pointed ears. Pathetic," said an elf before Iespeth's hood even hit her shoulders. The elf walked towards them through the drawn bows. He examined the two women with scrutinizing eyes. "Though I must say you weren't what we were expecting when we went to investigate such a loud disturbance in our forest."