"It went right," the dwarf corrected, and his beard could not quite hide the grin. "Water break. Then you do the next ten alone."
Farther down the scaffold, a dwarf girl with charcoal on her nose complained about smith-school homework to an elven ranger.
The ranger looked down her long nose at the child, informed her that pages were wasted on smiths, and held the practice slate steady for her anyway.
The wolfkin escort captain counted the children twice. Then she counted their guards.
There were none. The empire had sent its pups onto Confederation soil, into ruins the old war had made, with an escort of carpenters and a handful of elves.
"It's almost like they're baiting us..." the escort captain muttered.
"They're taunting us!" her soldier hissed. "That long-eared slut is looking at me like I was a filthy dog!"
"Those bitches always have a condescending expression. Ignore it," the captain sighed.
