Author's Note:

This piece is set in the years before the Queen's Blade tournament, back when Risty was younger. I'm not trying to mess with the canon (which I don't have a full grasp on) all that much, so there won't be too many other characters in this piece. If you note any glaring canon discrepancies, please let me know.

The intro chapter is intentionally short.

~'~

He didn't like it.

The wind whistled as it whipped through the trees and against his face, drying his skin and setting his ears on fire. It wasn't that the weather was too cold. He relished the cold. But the wind played havoc with his tracking. Paying attention to the ground proved hard when he had to fight to even stay on his feet. The dismal overcast didn't help either. At midday, the sun would have proven quite helpful.

But he had to settle for this. This shitty game trail in the middle of a mountainous forest with little to no vegetation and game. His main comfort was that he needed to continue for only one more day before he reached the town.

Had she known about this? The weather? Was that what had convinced the firehaired bandit to take the unnecessary and arduous detour into the Falleen Woods? To throw him off the scent? The longer he spent in the woods, the more he wondered. She couldn't possibly know that he was following her. He had left no tracks, kept his distance to the point that he barely held her trail. Every precaution that came to mind, he took it. It made the tracking much slower and more frustrating, but he knew the trouble paid off in the end when he caught her.

Caught wasn't the right word. He had business with her. Maybe not the most pleasant business, and certainly not something that she would welcome with open arms. If anything, she might take to it in a rather unfriendly manner. Battle-unfriendly.

He hoped it wouldn't come to that. Every mercenary and guardsman in the land had heard of Risty the Benevolent Bandit of the Wilds and her huge…mace. Every region around the Vance lands had tasted of her mischief. She robbed lone travelers, groups, and even caravans when the pickings were ripe enough. How she did it while working solo was something he still didn't understand.

"Eh, frack me," he muttered, ducking under a low-hanging branch. "You think the cold'd slow her down a little."

The only time he had allowed himself close enough to steal a glance had come at the last village before the forest. The bandit traveled light, both in gear and clothing. She didn't have any cold weather clothes. Not even a blanket. The lack of foresight struck him as odd. A seasoned bandit such as herself shouldn't be going around unprepared.

Or maybe she could handle the weather just fine. He could, but he counted himself as a special breed. He had yet to meet another man who could brave the elements in the same way he did. His scalemail and deerskin pants did little to protect him from the cold. He would have been warmer in his cloak, but the damned thing was too long for a forest this thick. After two hours of it catching on roots and thorns he had stuff it in his pack and forgotten about it. Sleeveless never bothered him. Hell, it wasn't even snowing. Piece of cake.

As hard as it was to follow her tracks, he could tell that she was losing ground. The bandit did not appear to be in a hurry. Her breaks came evenly and leisurely. Not the stop-to-catch-one's-breath breaks, but the oh-there's-a-spring-let's-take-a-bath breaks. She had left a scarf at one of the springs. He kept it tucked around his glove, intending to return it as a sign of good faith.

By the time the clouds passed over and the wind receded, the sun had retreated behind the mountains. Trading darkness for darkness. She would be stopping for the night now. Not more than an hour ahead. If he wanted to, he could catch up to her now. Then again, waking up an infamous bandit from her sleep in the middle of a giant forest never worked for anyone.

He decided to not wake her, but that didn't mean he had to let her go. As he settled into a notch in the rocks above her sleeping body, he realized there was a much better way to wake her.