Gladhron
Gladhron hesitated slightly. "I heard you say something about.. captives." He whispered, though not so quietly as he could have. "Are there a lot? I mean," he hesitated. "Are there any in particular you might.. remember?"
Ruby tilted her head at this unexpected question, then realized. "Ah.. lost someone, did you?" She asked softly, with a little smile of understanding.
He looked down and shrugged slightly in silent admission. "My sister. My brother and I keep hoping we might find her, but.." He looked up again, hopeful. "If these bandits have so many captives, perhaps she's one of them?"
Ruby tilted her head at him. "It's possible," She answered, thinking swiftly how to work this to her advantage. "But how long since you lost her?"
Gladhron spared a glance toward his brother, who still kept his back toward them. He looked back at her. "A few months."
Ruby nodded slightly. "Then there's hope," She murmured softly. "Listen.. untie me, and we can discuss it more?"
"I'd better not..." He answered, with reluctance. "But please.. perhaps you'd know her?" He asked with a hopeful look on his face. "I'm sure you'd remember her if it was your group who took her."
"Sorry," She gave him an apologetic shake of her head. "I mean, there's so many people these guys capture, it'd be really hard for one girl to stick out among all the others."
Gladhron shook his head with a little sigh. "No. You'd definitely remember my sister." Which was very true, he thought with a little pride.
Ruby reconsidered this. If she could convince him they had his sister, alive, then maybe he'd be more willing to free her to help get her back. "Well, what's so notable about her?" She kept her voice down, worried the other one would hear and come over.
"Well, let's just say... she definitely put up much more of a fight than her captors anticipated," He explained with a somewhat proud sort of smile. "Took several of them out for good, if you understand..."
"Oh." Ruby took a moment. "Ohhhh, yes.. her." She widened her eyes. "I know exactly who you're talking about." She smiled charmingly. "Yes, I know her. She is definitely still there."
Gladhron looked hopeful. "Are you sure? Fair hair, with a sort of... stout build? A bit older than I am?"
Ruby nodded. "Yes.. yes, I know who you're talking about." She insisted. "Uh.. what was her name, shoot, it's right at the tip of my tongue..." She seemed to be searching in her memory.
"Gwendolyn?"
"Yes, that's it," Ruby nodded. "I can take you right to her. Come on, just trust me a little? She's talked so much about how her little brothers were going to come for her, I can't believe I'm actually meeting them. Untie me, and I can take you to her."
Gladhron looked down for a moment, before smiling back up at her. "And I assume she's got a plan for rescuing the others? Has she asked you to help?"
"Of course." Ruby smiled. "Us girls are plotting our big move the moment we have a chance.. but y'know, it's only a few of us against all these big strong men..." She batted her eyelashes at him. "But with your help... I bet we could take them easily."
"Only a few?" He frowned. "I thought you said there were many?"
"They.. don't tend to last very long," She explained. "Which is why you need to hurry," She added urgently. "A few months is... well, her time's running out, they don't tend to last much longer than that. This group really doesn't like keeping survivors alive for long."
"Unless they agree to join the bandits. Right?"
"Well," She shrugged. "Whatever you gotta do to survive..."
@Arnyn
Gwestion
Gwestion was keeping an ear slightly turned toward the whispered conversation. He could hear much of what they were saying, though not everything the woman said was audible. She was keeping her voice down a little more carefully than Gladhron, naturally. But he was able to make out enough, and it was not really comforting.
As he listened, he tried to focus on tending to the food, but when the topic turned to their sister, he closed his eyes slowly as it renewed the ache in his heart to hear that topic brought up, seemingly with such carelessness. Though Gladhron was finding out some information quite effectively, what he heard was quite saddening. Gwestion lowered his head a little. Believing that everyone else was still fast asleep, with his back toward the bandits, Gwestion had less reason to keep his guarded expression up. His face grew sorrowful as he struggled to deal with the inner pain of heartache. The loss that he couldn't get over.
As much as he would like to ask the questions, he knew this was why he couldn't do it. Quietly, he rubbed at one of his eyes when it began feeling a little damp, then inhaled and exhaled slowly to maintain his composure as well as he could. The food would be done before long, he knew. Fortunately, the sack of coffee was right next to him, so he quietly went about getting a fresh pot going. At least he had something to keep him busy so he wasn't just endlessly staring at the food cook.