Barras cursed the desert winds and the relentless barrage of sand that was a constant reminder of the dangerous shifting around him. Dangerous, too, was the deadly wave of heat from the noonday sun beating down on the endless dunes of sand that made up the hundreds of miles of desert all around him. As he crested a hill at one point though, he finally saw what he was looking for: Angband, the hidden walled fortress. Before the walls, though, a battle of powerful magic and blindingly fast swordsmanship was taking place. From this distance, though, Barras - not being an elf - could not see the combatants clearly. They were merely specs on the horizon to him.

As he trudged onward through the endless sand, though, and as the walls slowly grew from immense to unfathomably massive and a truly awesome spectacle to behold besides, Barras began to see the outlines of the battling figures more closely. After almost ten minutes, he was finally close enough to see that the two combatants were far too intense to notice their surroundings, which was why they didn't notice the evil grin on Barras' face as he observed their combat.

Barras had a thought. It was a fun thought. He began uttering the words of a spell and finished quickly, by which time the ground around the combatants had turned inky and black as thick smoke curled up around them. Each thinking the other was at fault, they intensified their battle greatly - only to end up coughing and sputtering as they slowly suffocated. Finally, the two were dead. Once the smoke had cleared, Barras went and collected their gold and water. He was thirsty; such was the effect of a desert. He drank one full canteen and took the other with him, but the gold he pocketed as he headed for the massive opening in the carved rock that wall that marked Angband so very clearly.

Apparently, however, he was not the only one thirsty and poor enough to warrant a raid. Someone was coming toward him. They drew their weapons - and attacked!

It happened in the morning that Ianos woke up, not in his bed like he expected but surrounded by some ancient ruins deep within the Anfauglir. Something weird must have happened through the night, it seemed that his enemies had gotten to him and somehow managed to teleport him into this desolated place, hoping that he would either be killed or never find his way back. It was for the first time when he was so close to the desert, and the arid air made him pant for breath, but he quickly adjusted. Up on the day’s sky, the merciless sun threw its powerful light and heat towards the ground, it was the hottest place in all Arda, and he quickly started to suffer of dehydration. As if that was not enough, the ruins were inhabited by all sort of thugs and cutthroats who left him without a gold coin, at least he still had a sword perfectly concealed in his trousers to make his way around, and another weapon, one that no one could take it away from him: a strong charisma. Amazing how he could talk people in doing even the weirdest of things. A good example of his skill was the fight currently undergoing into the improvised arena between two men.

They fought to death, because they were talked into it, each thought that the other insulted them in such way, and stolen the only water supplies they had. And without water you can’t live into the desert. But something unexpected, something Ianos didn’t foresee beforehand: the appearance of a spell castor who summoned a sort of black some who took the breath away from the two combatants. They were both death!

“Interesting!” The noble thought, watching from a far. “Another mouse took the bait, well, the more the merrier.” One thing set him off though, the greed with which the other man drank a full canteen of water. Such a fool, like this he will be dead in no time. Meanwhile, Ianos revealed his longsword and charged towards the fool, casting the anti-magic field spell on the way. For one hour, none of them will be able to cast any spell.

“What is a mouse without its cheese, what is a sorcerer without his spells, what will you be without your life?” The blade descended with such fury that it threatened to spilt the man’s skull in two.

Barras was not an easy man to kill. Even without magic, he was not so easily defeated. He was no warrior, but he was quick enough to duck to the side. He rolled through the legs of some people talking nearby and came up on the other side. The group just happened to be his salvation. They were paladins all, though it was well-concealed, but he recognized the badge one of them wore on a headband and decided to take advantage of the situation.

"He's trying to kill me!" he screamed, and then ran off.

The paladins immediately drew their two-handed swords and started casting defensive spells - only to realize they couldn't. Then all five of them attacked Barras' would-be attacker at once.

Barras, meanwhile, laughed at the situation as he made his way up onto a balcony nearby. The man would not last long if he had but one sword, unless his skills were so refined as to match those of a guardian - which Barras seriously doubted they were. Paladins, after all, trained for years with their chosen weapons and their magic was powerful besides. Even when they couldn't cast, though, they were formiddable opponents. Barras watched it all with glee. He had manipulated them well...

“Out of my way commander!!!”

The Anfauglir desert was not a place for paladins, it happened rarely that any of them could be found around that place, especially within the ruins of Angband which was known about the people who usually lived there.

“Sir?!” The commander halted the rest of the paladins and each looked in awe at the charging noble. “That man, he stole my water supply.” Being a noble of Lomedor, he was well known around, the paladins too knew him. “Gah, I lost him” He was forced to stop in place by the paladins, and panted for air as he watched the wizard climb onto a balcony and make his escape through the ruins. His master plan was now destroyed.

“What are you doing here sir, this is no place for you.” It was a question that he could answer only with a shrug. “I wish I knew, I woke up in this hell of a place this morning. I suspect a subtle assassination attempt, that damnable Zane!” He shook his head, and lowered the tip of his sword to the ground. Running while being so hot outside was not a very good idea, and he was not quite young either.

“Let us escort you back home sir, here, we have plenty of water supplies.” A canteen was handed over to him, and he thankfully accepted and took a drink. “Refreshing… Yes, an escort sounds nice. Hell, I don’t even know my way around here!”

The spell caster was now the last of his concerns, such a coward, at least if he would have stayed there and fought like a man instead of running away like a real mouse.

“Idiot…” Ianos thought.

Though the man no doubt thought him an idiot, Barras hardly cared. He scowled at the paladins not having killed the man outright, but then the man's clothes did mark him as a noble. Nonetheless, he was quite safe now and fully intended to complete his business here as quickly as possible.

It didn't take Barras long to find his way back to the ground on the other side of the building onto which he'd climbed. His boots made a soft thwup sound as they hit the sand that suddenly flew up, creating a small, harmless whirlwind that was as common in the desert fortress as massive, deadly sandstorms were throughout the rest of the desert outside the fortress city's walls. Barras walked on through the dusty streets of Angband, in truth wishing the battle had lasted a bit longer. Clearly, the man and his 'friends' were either idiots, cowards, or some combination of the both of them. Then again, he might not have come out of that one alive if they had decided to kill him - but that was in the past. What mattered now was the present, and the future.

Barras went up to some men talking in corner of a cul de sac and spoke with one of them quietly. The conversation was then carried amongst the three men and Barras to a side street. There, they began to do business. Once gold had been exchanged for information, Barras headed on his way. The men went back to talking.