Evie: A Wintry Ambush p10

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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‘Psssssssh!’

His little toy crossbow made a funny little sound when he pulled the trigger.

I gasped, and the youngling got a dismayed look on his face.

“Awwww! Ihh broke!” he whined.

He had such a forlorn and defeated look on his face, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the little guy.

And just when he had ‘caught’ his first real prisoner, too!

I felt so badly for him…but his sad little look made him somehow even more irresistible!

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This is page 10 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p9

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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“Wha??” He exclaimed “You IS my pris’ner, stupid blonde ‘umie!”

“Of course I am!” I giggled. “Oh, this game is so much fun! I’ve never been the prisoner of such a fierce captor before!”

The youngling stared at me, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying to him. I was going to have to really play along if I was going to get him safely back home.

“Are you going to take me back to your lair?” I asked.

“Gaaahhh!” he muttered. “Ferget it!” And he pulled the trigger of his little crossbow!

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This is page 9 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p8

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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“Grrrr…I’ll show YOU cute,” the youngling growled as he leveled his toy crossbow at me.

“Oh my!” I exclaimed, surprised. He was so funny and sweet, play-acting being tough.

‘Oh! I get it! He wants to play a game with me!’

I realized that playing his game was a good way to put him at ease from ‘stranger danger.’ I’d role play along with him until I figured out how to get him home safely.

“I surrender!” I called out playfully when I was right before him. I stuck my sword into the ground and raised my hands. “I’ll play along, little guy! Let’s pretend I’m your prisoner, ok?”

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This is page 8 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p7

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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He looked like a goblin, only miniature sized.

“Stop roight there, ‘uumie!” A high pitched voice rang out.

He was adorable!!! He must be a goblin youngling, I thought.

In all my encounters with squads of goblins, I’d never actually seen what their children looked like. I would have thought they would look a little cuter, maybe less wrinkly and mean. But somehow that made this youngling look all the more cute and huggable.

“Aren’t you just the cutest thing!” I called out as I walked closer to him. I just had to see this adorable little guy up close.

I hadn’t seen any evidence of a goblin settlement in the area, and I thought it strange this little guy would be out here all alone when there were reports of an ogre about, he might be in danger!

I figured I’d better help him get back to his home safely before something bad happened to him or his little squig.

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This is page 7 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p6

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page 6 and vignette at the WordPress link

Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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A flash of bright orange low to the ground caught my eye and startled me as I rounded a tree. I stopped short as my attention was drawn to a gaping maw full of huge teeth on the face of the strange creature. It sniffed the air and snorted, and a tongue poked out from behind the teeth.

It looked like a round orange blob on two short legs, a blob with beady eyes and a stubby snout above the rows of teeth that captured my attention. It was eyeing me, but for some reason it wasn’t moving to attack.

‘A squig,’ I thought. I’d only seen pictures in the bestiary before, I’d never seen one in the flesh. They were said to be voracious little monsters that would eat anything available. But they could also be domesticated, to an extent, and used by other creatures as mounts.

Only with that thought did my eyes travel upward to see an even smaller creature riding atop the squig. Green and wrinkly with glassy little beads for eyes, he wore a tiny horned helmet and brandished a little toy crossbow. He looked like a goblin, only miniature sized.

“Stop roight there, ‘uumie!” A high pitched voice rang out.

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This is page 6 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p5

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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One thing for certain was that if a large ogre was strolling along obliviously in these woods, I’d be able to see it quite a ways away. I’d be able to carefully track it, watch and learn from its movements, and determine how to set a trap for it.

If I was lucky, an ogre might even be oblivious enough to my presence that I’d be able to sneak up closely on it and deal with it on my own instead of having to come back later with assistance. I might be able to sneak up to it to snare it, or catch it by surprise in an ambush.

Besides, even if the ogre did suddenly see me, it would likely underestimate me…after all, why would an ogre have anything to fear from a much smaller and solitary human?

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This is page 5 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p4

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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I remembered one of the hunting lessons of my youth—that snow on the ground made hunting and tracking easier. Fresh snow enabled a hunter to see dark shapes moving against the white background. A new snowfall also made newer tracks stand out from older ones.

The improved visibility helped both hunter and prey, but the advantage now shifted to the hunter. Soft snow could absorb footfalls, and it muffled sounds…it was easier for a smaller, more mobile hunter to quietly approach a larger prey.

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This is page 4 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p3

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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Then little flashes of white falling from high in the trees caught my eye. It was snowing! It had been so long since I’d been this far north—I hadn’t seen snow for a couple years, at least.

And it was so pretty! It looked so surreal and beautiful falling through the branches. I found myself wandering through the trees with my head tilted up and my eyes on the falling flakes. It was mesmerizing to see the little clusters of white swirling about.

Even better, it was settling on the ground, filling in between the blades of scrub grass and beginning to cover the low brush. Everything was becoming fresh and new…and so was my attitude.

I decided to press on. Experience told me the snow might help me complete my mission faster. At worst, I knew I could find a sheltered area to make a fire and spend the night in the valley.

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This is page 3 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p2

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Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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The deeper into the valley I went, the colder it got. I hadn’t been this far north in a long while, and I wasn’t quite dressed for it to be this chilly. Worse, the sky was getting more overcast as the day went on. It was going to be a long frigid hike back to the inn where I’d stashed my gear.

I wished I’d at least worn some leggings and a warmer tunic. And I wish I had my special Cryptae Ranger-issued overcoat. Unfortunately, the last I had heard, another Ranger was wearing my coat when she infiltrated a fortress…and she came out of the fortress without it, so my coat was likely lost forever.

Besides the cold, I was tired, hungry, smeared with dirt and speckled with mud. I was discouraged and ready to head back to the nice warm inn and a long soak in a very hot tub.

I’d found no signs of a large creature in the area–no large footprints, no droppings, no scattered bones. Yet there were many many footprints of smaller creatures—ones who would stay away if there were a large predator in the area.

Maybe the reports of an ogre were inaccurate. Misunderstandings, maybe, or a little hysteria. Perhaps it was another kind of creature entirely that was harassing livestock and raiding homes.

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This is page 2 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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Evie: A Wintry Ambush p1

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page 1 and vignette at the link below

Evie scouts the northern woods for a troublesome ogre. But there are other creatures besides ogres lurking in the forest!

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Hunting for ogres is not an exact science—and can be downright dangerous.

In my years as a ranger, there are many things I’ve learned about ogres, most of them from trial and error…and error…and error.

There are lessons I won’t forget, mistakes I’ll never repeat. Ogres were part of one of my most unforgettable lessons—specifically, a lesson learned from being trapped in a cave with three young and horny ones. For several hours. In the dark. Unarmed. Bound. Naked.

Among the things I learned that day was to not meet them on their turf—or in their cave—where they have all the advantages. It is much better to lure the ogre out and then spring a trap.

Which is why, today, I was scouting this valley. There had been numerous complaints of an ogre raiding farms and homes here in the far northern realm. The sooner I located the ogre and tracked it to its den, the sooner I could determine the best way to draw it out and make it come to me!

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This is page 1 of a full Evie story in collaboration with ArtOfVenus.

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