Antirne stood silently in the red glow of the evening twilight, her elven body fully erect as she listened attentively. The alarm bell was rang in the distance -- the prisoner had escaped. A small smile of triumph touched to her lips as she slowly fingered the broken arm band that had held her in the world of man for so long. Nineteen years... she thought bitterly; throwing the broken band to the ground and spitting on it. She looked out across the distance towards the sounds once more before she disappeared into the Eastern Woods, never once looking back.

* * *

Antirne ran through the night, the wind touched her face and she laughed -- the sweet freedom of it all was beyond anyone's comprehension of bliss. She leaped over the fields of wild flowers that slumbered, over the mountains, the valleys, the canyons. Never once stopping until she was sure that the world of man would never haunt her sleep again. Sometimes as she ran she thought she could almost touch the stars if she could just capture the wind for only a moment. Night turned to day, the sun grew weary and still she ran, only stopping to rest when she could not go on any longer.

Finally exhausted, Antirne slowed to a halt under a tree. She cautiously searched about for any signs of woodsmen in these parts. Satisfied, she climbed into the high branches of a nearby tree where sleep folded its loving wings around her tired body. Antirne looked at the night sky lovingly as her eyes began to close. The pregnant moon above her smiled down at her and kissed her battered form just as the once-slave-child slipped away into peaceful unconsciousness.

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