My eyes opened, where am I? It feels warmer here. The sun is blocking my view. I can see a bit clearer now. Shapes of men sitting around a fire. Slowly reality sinks in and the painful memory of what happened before I passed out. I looked around fanatically, and found myself tied to a pole with both hands tied behind my back. All my belongings were gone, only me and my torn shirt and pants. There was no more snow, green fields with lush vegetation and trees. Before me sat a group of unfriendly looking men around a fire. They had long hair and scarred faces, one of them had a very large posture and a glass eye. It was the one who found me... I cant tell were these men hailed from, a northern tribe?
Looking beside me were more captives tied securely and lay motionless on the ground, all men. Some prisoners looked Rohirric and some looked like folk of Bree. The large man I soon nicknamed "One-eye" noticed I had regained consciousness. He grabbed a piece of wood walked slowly in my direction, and I took a look in his single cold grey eye. He grinned right before he knocked me out with a swing of the wood... passing out once more...
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I cant tell how long I have been out. I find myself in another location now. I am still tied to a pole, and left and right there are a series of captives tied in a similar way, neatly in a row. Before me is what looks like a market, crawling with people and stalls and huts. I have seen these huts before... This is Dunland... People were selling weapons, food, handcraft and little statues of false gods. Most people look like typical dunlendings, savage and rough appearance bearing axes and swords. Some wear warpaint or have strange markings carved in their shoulders. But there are also a few men with darker skin colour and black hair, with dark and sinister eyes and swords which were bent in strange way.
I noticed One-eye talking with one of the wild men. They seemed to be arguing about a price. Suddenly I realized that One-eye was selling -us-. The Dunlending walked to the skinny captive beside me. I could smell his fear and felt sorry for the man. The Dunlending unsheathed his sword an held it at the throat of the poor soul. The man was trembling uncontrollably. I saw the Dunlending roll his eyes and started to argue with One-eye again in a foreign tongue, he did not seem to be pleased. One-eye breezed and stepped furiously towards the skinny man. With little effort One-eye twisted the head of the skinny captive and I heard its neck break.
Now the Dunlending was turning his attention to me. I saw him check my arms and legs. I tried not to give into fear and stared at the Dunlending without a lot of emotion. The Dunlending walked towards me and plunged his fist at my cheek, hard. With a bleeding nose and lip I stared at him again. The Dunlending started to argue about a price with One-eye. Soon after I saw the deal was settled and I was dragged to cage on a cart pulled by horses. After half a day there were two other captives dragged into the same cage who shared the same miserable fate as I. What will become of me?
