My Second Life Is A Heroic Power Fantasy 147 Escape Part 3

Eleanor exited the next pa.s.sage and entered another, larger open room that seemed to serve as a routing junction for a lot of the paths in the cave. She was about to head down the pathway she remembered being carried down previously, when the sound of a large number of bodies approaching from the right-most pa.s.sage interrupted her. Looking around for somewhere to hide and not finding a better option, she quickly dashed back inside the pa.s.sageway she'd just come from, and hid herself behind a small lip of rock just inside the exit.

After hiding, she remembered that she looked like a gnoll, and that it probably wouldn't matter if she was seen, but she wasn't about to take that risk, if she could help it. If this tribe was only a couple hundred members large, then it was likely everyone in it was at least familiar with everyone else in it. If anyone paid attention to her for long, she had the sneaking suspicion she'd end up caught. After all, she either looked like a gnoll no one knew, or, far worse, she looked exactly like another gnoll that many of them knew. And she had no idea which it was. Best to keep any direct attention she might draw to a minimum, just in case.

Peeking her head gingerly around to look, she watched as two dozen or so gnolls in armor and carrying various types of weapons marched through the chamber in some semblance of attempted marching order. There were at least two of the gnolls in the group she was sure she recognized as guards who'd been helping her. The one who'd smuggled her the components package had a very distinct, wedge-shaped notch near the tip of her left ear. The one who watched her eat when the bowl and spoon had been left for her had a line of several white spots along the base of his neck the rest of the gnolls she'd seen lacked. While she couldn't be certain others didn't have these traits, she felt confident she had the two of them pegged correctly.
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After a minute or so, the sound of the marching gnolls receded into the distance of the pa.s.sage on her left, and she slid out from behind the pa.s.sageway entrance and crossed the room into the far corridor before any others arrived to impede her progress. This pa.s.sage ascended rather steeply in several points, and on more than one occasion she had to use the walls of the pa.s.sageway for support. She had no idea how the guards who'd carried her up these slopes had done so with her on their backs without once having to stop or rely on something else for balance.

Finally reaching the end of the corridor, the exit widened out onto the familiar ledge that overlooked the makeshift village below. Being careful not to draw much attention to herself, Eleanor crept to the edge of the overlook and peeked over the side into the camp.

The entire thing was ablaze with activity in a way that she had never seen it before on any of her previous times seeing it. Gnolls scurried to and fro carrying supplies. Some were helping others fit their armor. A couple were a.s.sembling and stacking piles of rough-made arrows, while others still honed and sharpened axes and sword blades.

Eleanor had never been to a war camp in person, but she knew what they were like from the stories she'd heard. And this, this was most definitely a war camp. They were preparing for a siege, or a large-scale battle, which confirmed her suspicion she'd formed when she'd entered the empty guard room.

Someone was coming to attack the camp.