The Tale of Agdug: Part 15 – Eloimaya and Ilyrana Escape

Ilyrana knelt at the feet of the orc and sucked his fingers clean. He had just gotten done fingering her to test her slave heat and so now Ilyrana was being made to lick and suck her juices from his fingers. Neither the taste nor the knowledge of what she was doing bothered her. It used to but she had spent the last few months being broken and conditioned. She was quite used to all sorts of degradations that the orcs inflicted on her as a slave. She made sure she did a good job sucking his finger. She was for sale now in the slave market at Ulylthemar and she knew she had to put on a good show if she wanted to avoid a beating by the slavers for failing to be sold. Both Ilyrana and her daughter Eloimaya had been sent to the market to be sold that morning. Eloimaya was still in a line of slaves on a platform in the market, in display position to present herself to orc buyers.

When the orc’s fingers were thoroughly cleaned of her juices, Ilyrana withdrew her head, letting the fingers slide form her mouth. She looked up at the orc, glancing briefly to the orc’s opposite side of the hand she had just been licking and sucking. The orc’s other arm, his right arm, was missing except for a small stump below his shoulder. She wondered what had happened, though with the orcs’ warlike culture, she assumed it was from fighting.

Agdug briefly glanced at Ilyrana and then back to the orc examining her. The orc was a lieutenant from the Rage Roar Clan named Viggulm. He had been seriously wounded in a battle with the elves and lost his right arm. Being right-handed, Viggulm could no longer wield a weapon and was useless in the orcs’ war campaign. He was thus returning to Aegor. But as a consolation, he was being given a slave from Ulylthemar. From the way he was enthusiastically looking down at the brunette slave kneeling at his feet, it appeared he had made his choice. “I will take this slut,” Viggulm announced, his voice slurring. He was quite drunk, Agdug could tell, not only from his slurring voice but also the smell of alcohol on his breath and his bloodshot eyes. It was not surprising. It was a humiliation for an orc to be rendered useless in battle, especially an officer such as Viggulm. Any hope of rising up the ranks and earning glory the battlefield had ended for the orc.

Agdug nodded. “An excellent choice.” The transaction completed, Agdug turned, readying to depart. But suddenly Ilyrana started making a commotion.

“Please Master, please buy my daughter too!” Ilyrana cried as she grabbed Viggulm’s leg and looked up at him pleadingly. She turned and looked towards Eloimaya, who was still in display position. Ilyrana had been terrified she would be separated from her daughter. When they had been captured, Ilyrana and Eloimaya had been split up. Eloimaya had gone straight to Ulylthemar but Ilyrana had been sent to goblins to be interrogated. Ilyrana’s husband, Dyffros, was the governor of the city of Oshethlenor, in the kingdom of Senadorei, so the orcs and goblins thought she might have valuable information. But after a week of torture and interrogation, Ilyrana had been shipped off to Ulylthemar. The orc slavers had immediately reunited her with Eloimaya. They had decided that forcing mother and daughter to be trained together, to be forced to watch as the orcs committed degrading acts on the other and to have to commit degrading acts with each other, would help break them. It had largely worked. But as horrible as it had been, Ilyrana felt fortunate that she at least got to be with her daughter during these traumatic experiences. The comfort that they had been able to give each other as they experienced this hell together had helped them to cope better than many of the elf maidens that had ended up captured and enslaved by these vile orcs.

But now Ilyrana feared her time with her daughter was coming to an end. “Please, Master, please buy my daughter too!” Ilyrana repeated. Viggulm angrily shook his leg. “I ain’t getting two elf sluts,” he growled.

Agdug angrily stormed over and grabbed Ilyrana by the hair and pulled her away from Viggulm’s leg. “You do not have a daughter anymore,” he snapped. “Your past life is erased. You are chattel now. That slut over there is your slave sister, not your daughter,” he growled, pointing towards Eloimaya. He knew the two slaves had been mother and daughter, having observed his slavers’ training the pair together. But their past relationship was irrelevant now, that they were slaves. That had been driven home to them both by all of the perverse things that had been forced to perform with each other. It seemed the slave was forgetting her place.

Eloimaya remained in display position, but she gave a dismayed look towards her mother. It seemed she too was terrified of being separated from her mother. But she remained in display position, not daring to run to her mother.

“Yes, Master, she is my slave sister and we will serve well together!” Ilyrana cried. Agdug reached for his whip but then Viggulm held up his hand.

“It could be fun having a mother and daughter together as slave sisters. Do they serve well together?” he asked Agdug.

“Let us see. Slut, crawl over thee and service your slave sister for our entertainment,” Agdug commanded.

Her cheeks reddening, Ilyrana turned and crawled over to the platform with line of slaves and she climbed up onto it and knelt in front of Eloimaya. She sighed, humiliated at what she had been commanded to do. But she knew it was her only chance of being allowed to remain with her daughter. Ilyrana leaned down and planted her lips on Eloimaya’s foot. She began kissing a trail up Eloimaya’s foot and leg, to her inner thigh which was parted widely. Ilyrana delayed only a moment before she moved higher still, planting her mouth on Eloimaya’s sex. She began sliding her tongue up and down her daughter’s slit. Almost at once, on Eloimaya began squirming and moaning. Not even Ilyrana could tell if it was genuine arousal or an act. She knew Eloimaya was almost certainly as humiliated as she was. But as her tongue continued sliding up and down Eloimaya’s slit, Ilyrana began to quickly taste Eloimaya’s growing arousal. Ilyrana wanted to throw up. This was a vile act no mother should have to ever perform with her daughter. But the fear of being separated kept Ilyrana going. It was lick her daughter’s pussy or never see her again.

Viggulm was thoroughly entertained as he watched the slaves performing. The orcs were only giving him one slave, as consolation for his injuries in battle. But he could buy another. He reached for the coin pouch tied at his waist and opened it, and began to count out the coins he had. He frowned. The coin pouch was filled with gold coins, plundered from the elves. But he knew this would have to last him a long time. His days of plundering were over. He was not sure if he should spend a chunk of it on a second slave, no matter how enticing it would be to have a former mother and daughter pair as slave sisters.

Agdug observed Viggulm and felt sympathy for the orc. Agdug himself had been fortunate enough to make it to a ripe old age before he had voluntarily retired from military service and began slaving. Agdug knew that had he lost an arm in battle at a younger age, he likely would not have acquired the wealth from plundering that allowed him so start his successful slaving trade “Take the other one too, on me,” Agdug said to Viggulm as they watched Eloimaya gasp and begin to shudder as she orgasmed while Ilyrana continued pleasuring her with her tongue.

Viggulm’s eyes lit up and he grinned. “Thank you Agdug, you are very kind!” he exclaimed. He was eager to take both slaves with him back to Aegor.

A chain was attached between Eloimaya’s and Ilyrana’s collars so that they were coffled together, with Ilyrana in the front. Viggulm attached a leash to Ilyrana’s collar and began to lead them away.

Agdug watched as the mother and daughter slaves were taken away.

 

He felt proud of himself for generously giving a second slave to this orc. He hoped that two elf cunts would help to cheer Viggulm up from the loss of his arm and his forced retirement from the orcs’ campaign of plunder in the elf world.

…………….

Kasula was on all fours, her face pushed into the trough of slave gruel. Surrounding her, all hungrily eating from the same trough were the ten other former engineers from Enyanahil. Orcs were positioned behind a few of them, thrusting into them from behind as the slaves ate. And as Kasula slurped up the gruel, she felt a hand slap her ass. She knew it was an orc and she knew what the slap meant. Kasula parted her thighs wider and moments later, the orc’s cock pushed inside her pussy. As he began thrusting away, Kasula continued eating, barely reacting as her body was used for the orc’s pleasure. She was quite used to getting fucked. She much preferred it to the other abuse she and the other engineers suffered. For months, they had been forced to design and build siege weapons for the orcs. But none of the elf maidens had any experience in building such weapons, which the peaceful elves had not used in generations. Nor did they have any of the tools and equipment that they would have had back in Enyanahil to use to build anything. All they had were the designs for the weapons stolen from their city by the orcs. So, the process had been long, with many trials and errors. And the impatient orcs had punished the elf maidens each and every time they failed. Kasula’s back and ass were marked with numerous cuts and welts from where she had been whipped and beaten over the past days, weeks, and months. But finally, they had completed their work. Or so Kasula prayed. They had thought they had completed the weapons numerous times previously. But then goblins had tested he weapons and found they didn’t work perfectly and Kasula and the others had been harshly punished, and sent back to fix whatever flaws existed. Of course, the goblins that worked side by side with the slaves to construct the weapons, but never got any of the blame. Only the elf maidens suffered for their collective failings. The goblins were now testing the hopefully completed weapons again. As Kasula ate her slave gruel and was fucked, she prayed his time they had been successful. Her poor back and ass could not take much more lashings.

Kasula finished eating and she lifted her head from the trough. As the orc continued fucking her, she looked around and watched as goblins approached. She watched apprehensively, wondering whether the weapons needed more work.

The goblins approached an orc who was overseeing the slaves. “The siege weapons appear to work properly. Our work is done,” the goblin announced.

The orc smiled. “Then tonight we celebrate!” he exclaimed.

Kasula breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that ‘celebration’ for the orcs and goblins meant she would spend the rest of the day and night getting roughly fucked by orcs and goblins. But that was certainly a better fate than the one she and the other slaves would have suffered had the weapons still not worked properly.

…………….

Ilyrana closed her eyes and tried to sleep as she lay inside Viggulm’s tent. She was utterly exhausted. Viggulm and his two new slaves had departed Ulylthemar a few days ago and were travelling towards the portal to the orc world. Ilyrana and Eloimaya had been forced to carry Viggulm’s belongings and the supplies they needed for their journey on their backs. Hence Ilyrana’s exhaustion and soreness.

They had reached the edge of the Great Forest that night and Viggulm had decided to make camp at the edge of the forest, and then head into the forest the next morning. As Ilyrana lay inside the tent, all she wanted to do was sleep. But it was impossible at the moment with the loud sound of Viggulm’s grunts and flesh slapping against flesh as he fucked Eloimaya next to Ilyrana. Despite their close proximity, Ilyrana could not see Viggulm or Eloimaya inside the pitch blackness of the tent. Not that the sights or sounds would have disturbed her too much anyway. She had been forced to watch Eloimaya getting fucked by orcs numerous times every day since Ilyrana had first arrived in Ulylthemar. It had traumatized her at first. Now she was quite used to it. But the loud sounds in the small tent still made it hard for her to sleep.

Viggulm was taking a long time to climax. Ilyrana figured it was because he was so drunk. For the entire day that they had travelled, he had been drinking some kind of fermented alcohol that the orcs liked. And Viggulm liked it way more than others. But finally, Viggulm groaned loudly as he climaxed and then collapsed onto the floor of the tent. Within a minute he was snoring. Ilyrana reached out and found Eloimaya’s hand in the darkness and squeezed it, trying to comfort her. Ilyrana closed her eyes again hoping she could finally rest. But then her eyes shot open. Something dawned on her. Every night during their travels, Viggulm had chained Eloimaya Ilyrana together and then leashed them, and fell asleep with their leash wrapped around his wrist. It kept the two new slaves secure in the tent while he slept. But this night, Viggulm had drunkenly passed out before chaining and leashing the slaves.

Ilyrana quickly sat up. She crawled around, feeling in the darkness for the sack that held Viggulm’s belongings. “Slave sister, what are you doing?” Eloimaya asked her mother. Viggulm did not permit Eloimaya to refer to Ilyrana as her mother, for they were now just slave sisters. Only Viggulm was allowed to refer to them as mother and daughter when he mocked them as they were forced to perform sexual acts with each other. Ilyrana did not respond to Eloimaya’s question. But as she fumbled around inside the sack, she found what she was looking for. A small metal key. When Ilyrana and Eloimaya had been given to Viggulm, their collars had been replaced by personal collars that had Viggulm’s name stamped on them. This was the key to lock and unlock those collars. As Ilyrana felt around inside the sack, she also felt the hilt of a dagger. She debated grabbing it too. She debated stabbing Viggulm to death. Surely, with him being drunk and passed out, and only having one arm, she could kill him before he was able to react. But Ilyrana decided not to and she released the dagger. Even if she killed Viggulm, someone would eventually find the body. She knew the consequences of trying to escape were severe. But the consequences of killing an orc Master were so severe that she dared not risk it. Both she and Eloimaya would undergo severe torture before they suffered painful, slow deaths if they were caught after killing an orc. But trying to escape was worth risking what would be severe but still way less harsh consequences if they only fled and did not harm their orc Master.

“Keep your voice low,” Ilyrana whispered as she pulled the key from the bag and then felt around in the darkness until she found Eloimaya’s collar. She slid the key into the collar’s keyhole and turned it. The lock clicked and disengaged.

“Slave sister, we will…” Eloimaya began but Ilyrana placed her hand over her daughter’s mouth to silence her. A moment later, Ilyrana unlocked and removed her own collar.

She took her daughter’s hand again. “Come, we are escaping this brute,” she whispered and she opened the flap of the tent and led Eloimaya outside. In the moonlight, Ilyrana looked back inside the dark tent towards the direction of the snoring, oblivious Viggulm before she looked around outside. She tried to decide where to flee. Directly to the south was the Great Forest. The forest provided a great place to hide. But Ilyrana knew that the portal to the orc world was somewhere in that forest. She assumed the Great Forest was therefore filled with orcs. Their better bet was to flee in another direction. Ilyrana assumed there were orcs in every direction. Anywhere they fled carried great risk. But they had to try. Their own kingdom of Senadorei was to the east. That seemed like the best direction to run. She knew it would take weeks to travel to the border. Surely there would be countless orcs they would come across along the way. But Ilyrana knew there was nowhere safe for them in Argothrond. Their only chance of escaping slavery was to make it to Senadorei. Holding her daughter’s hand, Ilyrana led her away from the tent and they then started to flee east.

…………….

“Wake up sluts!” an orc’s voice shouted and Kasula groaned as her eyes fluttered open. She looked at the sky and saw that the sun had not yet risen. She knew she had gotten only a couple hours of sleep. They had been fucked by the orcs and goblins well into the early morning. The engineers’ orifices had served as the vessels for the orcs and goblins that had been working on the siege weapons to celebrate.

“Prepare to be coffled, sluts!” an orc barked. “Your work is done, so a deal is a deal. Time for you to go see your families.”

Kasula’s eyes lit up and she quickly picked herself up and got in line. Her exhaustion was forgotten. Her heart was now racing. She had watched as her daughter, sister, and mother were tossed into the fuck pit. The former engineers had been promised that once they completed their work, they and their families would be moved from this area and would get to live under a much gentler slavery. Kasula could only pray that in the months that it had taken them to work that her family had survived their ordeal in the fuck pit with their minds intact.

The orcs quickly coffled the 11 slaves and then they moved out. They all worked briskly, despite their soreness and exhaustion. All were eager to see their families.

As the coffle departed, an orc watched them leave and then turned to another orc. “So where are they ending up?” he asked

“The fuck pit,” the other said.

“Oh, I thought we made a deal with them?” the first orc said.

The second orc chuckled. “We did. Thankfully we don’t have to honor deals we make with chattel and animals.”

…………….

The sky was lightening. Ilyrana knew that the sun would rise soon. She and Eloimaya had travelled all night. Both elf maidens were exhausted. But fear kept them going. They knew that they had to put as much distance as possible between them and Viggulm when he awoke from his drunken stupor and discovered his slaves had fled. The two elf maidens had travelled east all night, parallel to a road, though they stayed off the road itself, assuming there might be orc patrols. And with the sun soon rising, Ilyrana feared that the danger of running into an orc patrol would greatly increase. Their best bet was to travel at night and seek shelter during the day. She just had to hope she had put enough distance between them and Viggulm. But she was confident he would have no idea what direction they were heading. As far as Ilyrana knew, he had no idea of their past and would not know they would be heading east for Senadorei. The slavers had not mentioned their past it to Viggulm when he had selected them. And why would they? As the orcs constantly reinforced to the slaves, now that they were chattel belonging to the orcs, their pasts were irrelevant. So Ilyrana decided the danger posed by an orc patrol coming upon them was greater than the risk that Viggulm would find them. They needed to find shelter.

As they kept moving, Ilyrana moved closer to the road. She was hoping she might find a sign pointing them in the direction of a village, where they might find food and shelter. It was not long before they found such a sign, and it indicated a village was due east, in the direction they were heading. It was only a couple miles away. But Ilyrana was not too optimistic it would provide the food or shelter they needed. They had already passed by another village earlier in the night. They had entered it, hoping they might find some food. She had assumed it would have been pillaged by the orcs and abandoned. But it was worse than that. Most of the buildings in the village had been burnt. Those that not had been burnt were completely ransacked of anything valuable, including food. Ilyrana and Eloimaya had managed to find a well and drank some water but that was it.

Ilyrana and Eloimaya kept walking until they reached the village. By this point, the sun had started to rise over the horizon and there was enough light for Ilyrana to see that, like the last one, most of the buildings in this village were charred ruins. As they drew closer still, Ilyrana could smell the faint smell of death. She knew what it was. Just outside of the last village, they had come across a pit. It was too dark to see inside it but from the smell, Ilyrana knew it contained bodies. Likely the male elves from the village who the orcs had killed.

Though she caught the faint smell, thankfully they did not pass close to a pit as they reached the village. Ilyrana and Eloimaya entered cautiously, in case there were any orcs in it. However, as they walked through the village, Ilyrana knew it was unlikely any elves or orcs were here. Every building was charred ruins. Ilyrana was starting to understand why they had not come across any orcs that night. It appeared this area of Argothrond had been completely ransacked by the orcs. Being that they were still somewhat close to the Great Forest, it made sense. This area would have been hit first. It meant that perhaps Ilyrana and Eloimaya would be able to travel more safely. But it also seemed likely that they would not have much luck in finding food.

The two elf maidens found a well and thirstily drank. Finding no food, they found a burnt-out shell of a building that provided a little shelter. They curled up on the charred floor and passed out.

…………….

Kasula stared down into the fuck pit. She looked around but did immediately see her daughter, mother, or sister. There were many slaves and orcs in the pit and many of the elf maidens were concealed with orcs on top of them thrusting away, or on their hands and knees sandwiched between two thrusting orcs. But Kasula knew her family was down there somewhere. And finally, they would get to leave this hell. With the engineers’ work finished, they were all being moved. The orcs had promised them a “gentler” slavery once in return for the engineer helping them build their machines of war. Kasula did not know what “gentler” would entail. She was sure it would still not be pleasant. It would still be degrading slavery. But at least they would fare better than they might otherwise have.

There was a scream and Kasula turned to watch one of her fellow engineers being tossed into the fuck pit. It was her friend Vaeri. Vaeri was caught at the bottom of the pit by an orc who immediately threw her onto the ground and started ravaging her. Kasula watched, confused. They had been promised that if they did what the orcs asked, they would avoid the fuck pit. The orcs unhooked the next engineer from the coffle and tossed her in. Kasula shook her head. “No,” she whimpered, as it sunk in that she, the other engineers, and their family members were not in fact being rewarded by a gentler form of slavery. They were all being sent to a fuck pit, which Kasula imagined had to be one of the most brutal forms of slavery imaginable.

The next thing Kasula knew she was flying through the air and down into the pit. She screamed as she was caught by an orc at the bottom. The orc threw her to the ground.

“On all fours, and open your mouth, slut!” the orc growled. Crying softly as it sunk in more what her fate was to be. Kasula slowly crawled up onto all fours. The orc crouched down in front of her and reached out, roughly gripping her scalp. “Open your mouth, slut,” the orc growled, and Kasula reluctantly complied.

As soon as Kasula’s mouth opened, the orc thrusted forward and pushed his cock in between her lips. She knew what was expected of her. She started flicking her tongue on the underneath of the bulbous head of the orc’s cock. As the orc shoved his hips forward more to push his cock further in, Kasula opened her mouth wider to ensure her teeth did not scrape his cock and earn her a harsh punishment. Kasula felt the orc’s cock push into the back of her mouth and into her throat. He began thrusting, each stroke pushing his cock further into the back of her throat. As the orc began fucking her mouth and throat, Kasula licked the underside of his shaft with her tongue and gently sucked, doing her best to enhance his pleasure.

She suddenly felt hands grabbing her ass cheek and a moment later she felt an orc’s cock sliding up and down her slit. She realized she was about to be fucked from both ends, like so many of the elf maidens she had seen down in the pit before she had been tossed in. The orc behind her lined up his cock with her sex and then drove his hips forward, hard, plunging his cock into her wet pussy.

Kasula cried out, the noise muffled by the cock shoved down her throat. The orc behind her buried his cock into her sex to the hilt with one stroke. He groaned, enjoying the tight, slippery feel of her cunt. The orc in front of her slammed forward as well, driving his cock fully into her throat, causing Kasula to gag. The two orcs grinned at each other as they both began thrusting hard. Kasula was helplessly impaled between the two orcs, one thick cock shoved down her throat and the other embedded inside her pussy.

The orcs started slamming onto her savagely and Kasula’s cries and the slap of flesh against flesh mixed with the similar sounds that echoed through the fuck pit as the slaves inside her were fucked. The orcs fucking Kasula began driving their cocks into her in a rhythm, one driving his cock into her while the other one slid out, rocking her body back and forth between them.

The orcs were particularly rough as the fucked her. Her holes served as a release valve for their pent-up frustration and anger that had been building up in the orcs ever since they had been in a months-long stalemate in their efforts to take Kaalhone. The orcs were used to battle and violence. But they could only lay siege to the city, delaying their eager desire to fuck and enslave and kill the elves inside. The orifices of the poor elf maidens in the fuck pit provided a means for them to violently work out their frustrations, as poor Kasula was now learning.

Tears welled up in Kasula’s eyes as her throat and pussy were savagely reamed. It dawned on her that her daughter, sister, and mother had been experienced this hell for months. And it sunk in that this was now her own fate, for who knew how long. Perhaps the rest of her miserable life. These nightmarish thoughts ran through her heads as she was roughly fucked. One orc cock drove fully into her throat, momentarily cutting off her air before the orc withdrew. Her throat bulged with each thrust and drool spilled down her chin around the cock invading her mouth. At the same time, behind her, the other orc’s long, thick cock was pumping in and out of her already sore pussy, stabbing into her depths, his hips slapping hard into her ass with each violent thrust.

The orc fucking Kasula from behind began quickening his pace even more and then he groaned and thrusted one last time, burying his cock inside her fully as his cock began spasming and he dumped his cum inside her. The cock in her mouth began throbbing as well and her mouth was soon filled with spurt after spurt of salty cum. She swallowed what she could, though much of it spilled down her chin. Thankfully the orc didn’t notice or care, and she avoided a beating for letting an orc’s cum spill to the ground.

As she tried to catch her breath, Kasula licked and sucked the cum from the cock in her mouth, cleaning him off. The orc released her head and stood up. The orc behind her pulled his cock from Kasula’s battered pussy, a wet slurping noise sounding as he did. He circled around and made her use her mouth to clean off the cum and pussy juices from his softening cock. When the orc stood up and left, Kasula collapsed into the dirt, curled into a ball, and started sobbing. She could not believe this was happening. She had betrayed her own kind by making them devastating siege weapons, all in hopes of saving herself and her family. But it seemed her betrayal had all been for naught. She would suffer the cruelest of fates a slave anyway, here in this fuck pit.

“Up on all fours!” an orc growled and Kasula opened her eyes and looked up. Two orcs were standing over her, their erect cocks jutting up into the air. Doing her best to quell her sobs, Kasula got on all fours again and mentally readied herself to be fucked.

One of the orcs wasted no time. He crouched down in front of her and Kasula opened her lips to allow the orc to drive his cock into her mouth. He began roughly fucking her mouth, causing her to gag and drool everywhere once again. She felt hands on her hips and knew she was about to be fucked from the other end as well. She tried to mentally prepare herself as she felt the orc’s cock sliding up and down against her slit. But then she felt the orc’s cock slide up from her pussy and push against her anus. She groaned in dismay when she realized where the orc’s cock was going. As the orc thrusted forward hard, ramming his cock into her ass, Kasula’s screams were muffled buy the cock in her mouth. As the orcs began to pound her from both ends, Kasula realized she had only been in this pit for a few minutes. She had no idea how she would survive weeks, or months, or years or decades in this hell.

…………….

“Mother this place is not burnt at all! And there is plenty of food! We could stay here!” Eloimaya exclaimed as she hungrily ate the rice that Ilyrana had prepared. Ilyrana also hungrily ate. It was the first real food they had eaten in over a week, since their escape from Viggulm. During their journey east over the past week, they had only found a few berry shrubs and some edible plants to eat. Every town or city they came across had been burnt with no food or anything else of value to find. But that night they had come across an abandoned farm. Abandoned but not burnt. There was no sign of elves, and Ilyrana assumed they had either fled or been captured. But the farm itself was intact. They had made their way inside the farmhouse where they found stores of food. Much of it had spoiled but the rice they found had provided am ample meal. And Ilyrana thought there was a good chance there would be plenty more to find.

The food was not the only thing of value they had found. Ilyrana and Eloimaya were both wearing dresses that they had found in the home. It was the first time they had worn any clothing since they had been captured, stripped, and enslaved.

“Mother, we should just stay here rather than try to get back to Senadorei,” Eloimaya said. “I think I saw an orchard on the other side of the farm! And there is plenty of other food and supplies here I bet. We could life here forever!”

“We will discuss later. But let us sleep now,” Eloimaya nodded and lay down in the bed. Ilyrana lay beside her, wrapping he arms around her daughter in a motherly embrace. It felt like heaven to sleep in a bed. Thoughts raced through Ilyrana’s mind. Would it be safter to stay here? What if orcs returned to this area? They were still in the middle of Argothrond. Or was it better to stay here than to risk travelling and to try to reach out Senadorei.

Ilyrana closed her eyes. The sun was rising, and Ilyrana and Eloimaya had been travelling all night. When they awoke, they could discuss their options. But for the first time in a very long while, Ilyrana felt some hope.

(End of Part 15, to be continued...)