Ravenna Nocerre awakened. Dreamless sleep had left her the gift of headache. She labored to open her dark eyes. The faint gentle light in the room reaffirmed the stark reality of her imprisonment. Unfamiliar stiffness beset four-hundred-year-old joints. Ravenna Nocerre quickly checked her raiment. Everything was gone! All her weapons, armor, and spell components!
“At least I’m left my dress,” the red-haired elf fumed. The simple brown garment still covered her.
Ravenna battled the stiffness, struggled to her feet, stretched, and inhaled stale musty air. The floor, walls, and ceiling were stone. Her ilk’s prized sense of direction deserted her. Sparse furnishings in the eight-by-eight-foot chamber included a simple cot and washbasin. The irregular ceiling was eight feet above her. Webs of tiny luminescent spiders littered the walls and ceiling. A two-foot-wide opening divided the wall to her left. Cautiously the svelte Ranger crawled toward the opening. She actually welcomed the pain in her knees, hands, and feet. The severe throbbing headache was slowly leaving her. The opening beckoned.
“Too easy!” she thought.
Ravenna extended her delicate fingers and allowed one of her tiny eight-legged companions to ramble onto her hand. She tossed the spider toward the opening. The tiny creature met and invisible barrier. A small spark of destructive Magick and brief flicker of light avowed the arachnid’s doom.
“Hmm. I feared as much,” she mused.
Only Ravenna’s uncanny skills with the bow and blade rivaled her skills of Magick. Now, without weapon and spell components, the bewildered first female Ranger of Donothor dropped to the simple cot.
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