"Plough you, you horse-fucker!"
"What the hell's going on there?!"
"Nothing sarge, just this whore elf being too proud to dance for me." There was an audible thud of fist hitting flesh and the very obvious sounds of throwing up, the immediate low pitched coughing answered the question of who had been hit. "If you wanna fuck an elf then do it on your own time, and I don't care how long you been in the squad, I'll still string you up for it. That's how we end up with mutants like that." The Sargent's voice carried loudly across the clearing to Saadra, she guessed he was gesturing at her. They all talked about her like that, she hated it, it wasn't her fault that the two people who had decided to screw and bring her into this world were an elf woman and human man. Yet she paid for it every day.
She estimated she had been kneeling here for about two days, based on how many times the outside of the bag on her head had turned bright then dark and back to bright. She hadn't been allowed to sleep in that time, and her knees and hips felt like they were on fire. But every time she moved to try and stretch then, Wam! "Stay the ploughing hell still" a guard shouted. They knew the only way to keep her under control was to make her exhausted. As they said, "them beast slayers are trouble, cousin told me they are just wannabe witchers and could kill a drowner in a barrel, but tell that to Hansel." Hansel was the reason they were afraid of Saadra.
She had been camping by a stream, after an extremely annoying but successful hunt. The bag with thirteen harpy heads and loads of feathers hanging from her horse. She could deal with them easily, it was when she found a cursed shack or well that she had to worry. They were complicated. She preferred to fight monsters she could actually sink a good axe into without it howling, turning to ash and then just regenerating at the fucking full moon. And in order to stop them you had to find out their bloody life story and bring them 'peace'. Leave that rubbish to the witchers and priests. She'd stick with ripping harpies and drowners apart.
In this case the harpies had been bothering some camping travellers and Saadra agreed to get rid of them, for a fee of course. She tracked, killed and bagged the oversized fairies and headed back to the camp to get her reward. On route her horses, Kaeli, saddle strap broke, so she had to stop and take care of that.
She stopped by a stream, fixed the strap and ate some lunch. Suddenly there was the twang of tightly pulled string being released and an arrow thudded into her shoulder. She hit the floor hard, clutching her left shoulder, her blurred vision and hearing told her horses were approaching, fast. And they were already close. She forced her head to concentrate on surviving and not the burning pain in her shoulder. Her head snapped up. Her vision focused on the handle of her axe stuck in a stump she had been using for firewood. Not five metres away. Could she get there before the horses, she had to try. She scurried across the ground, not wanting to try and get up as that would require balance, something she didn't have right now. Her body screaming at her to stop, but she refused. She shot her right hand out, mere inches from the axe as a horse suddenly appeared on her left and a boot collided with her face.
Two thumps sounded, Saadra hitting the floor and the soldier who had kicked her dismounting his horse. "Well well, what 'ave we here." His voice was sly and confident. Saadra was still waiting for the world to stop spinning as a hand grabbed her injured shoulder and yanked her up. "How's about I stick another shaft in you, she elf bitch." He laughed maniacally, as the view of him running his eyes down her body came swimming into view. "Provide some entertainment for me I thi-ARRHHHH."
He screamed as he registered the amount of force around the hand he was holding Saadra with. She had grabbed him and even with an injured shoulder still had enough strength to start breaking bones. There were a series of cracks from the hand as she felt bones give way, she then snapped her right hand across punching up with as much strength and anger as she could muster. Fist met arm and bone broke, a point of bone forced its way out the arm, spraying Saadra's face with blood. She didn't even hesitate. Moving back and striking out with her foot, the force threw him back hitting the stump right beside the axe.
Saadra's fingers were shaking but she didn't stop tugging, with one final effort the arrow came out her shoulder. She gasped, composed herself for a second, then advanced. The soldier had managed to slump into a sitting position, blood spattered his legs as he coughed it up. She grabbed his throat, moved her face close to his, blood trickled out his mouth as he tried to speak. "Please, I…" "I don't care." Snapped Saadra and her hand holding the arrow stabbed down, straight between his legs, pinning him to a root of the stump. He let out a high pitched howl, it would have probably lasted a few minutes but Saadra's axe cut it short. She split his skull straight down the middle. Then she collapsed.
The screaming obviously attracted the attention of the man's companions. As they arrived on the scene they found a girl on the ground bleeding and trying to get up and one of their own pinned to a tree stump by his genitalia and an axe resting squarely in the centre of his head. That man was Hansel, and this was why they had immediately tied her up and now wouldn't let her rest even a wink. She wasn't even sure why they hadn't just killed her.
