After the lizardmen had lain Cassandra down on the floor, Cassandra continued to stare vacantly at the ceiling. Lizardman peered over her and asked, in an amiable tone, "Cassandra, are you OK?"
Cassandra badly wanted to scream "No, I'm not OK at all, you heartless, murdering bastard!", but when she opened her mouth, she found herself completely unable to vocalise her jumbled thoughts. She looked down at her clothes – she was still covered in blood, which had now dried, and pieces of it were flaking off onto the ground. Eventually, after giving up her vain attempts to voice her disgust, she decided upon a more immediate and simple request. "Could you carry me to the river, please?" she asked quietly. "I would like to wash before I retire for the day"
Lizardman immediately dispatched two of them to carry her to the river nearby, so that she could bathe. She stooped down to remove her shoes, when she suddenly looked behind her. The two lizardmen were still stood there, resolutely.
"Can you go, please? I'd like some privacy."
They shrugged, and sauntered off. Once Cassandra was sure that she was definitely alone, she removed her clothes and immersed herself in the river. She frantically scrubbed herself all over, but it was no use – even though the blood has disappeared, she could do nothing to clean herself emotionally. The horrors she had seen would stay with her forever. She also discovered that the blood would not wash off from her clothes, meaning that she would have a constant reminder of the atrocities she had witnessed.
Once she had finished bathing, she spent a long time kneeling on the ground, and whenever she tried to stand up, the painful memories came flooding back. "How", she thought, "can I return to such bloodthirsty creatures? How can I stand to live with them?" But of course, Cassandra still had nowhere else to go – if she left them, her only other option was to be completely and utterly alone. Reluctantly, she rose, and by this point it was nightfall. When she returned to the caves, the other lizardmen were already asleep. Unable to bear the thought of sleeping next to them, she ended up resting just outside of the caves instead. It was much colder, but she preferred suffering the cold to lying next to a group of murderers.
When she awoke, she peered into the caves, and to her disgust she found that the lizardmen were gathering their weapons once again. Lizardman looked up at her and walked to her side.
"Hello, Cassandra. What are you doing outside?"
"Aeon", she said, "what's going on here?" She did not know why she had asked him this question, because she knew exactly what was about to happen.
"Why, we're heading for another siege, of course. We had a very fortunate plight yesterday…" Cassandra shudders slightly. "So I see no reason whatsoever not to attack another village today. We must bring those dreadful humans down to their knees!"
"They're not dreadful!" Cassandra shouted. "Those were innocent people you killed in cold blood! They would never harm any of you in their lives!"
"Dear girl, that's what they want us to believe. You can't trust anyone in this world!"
"Well, you're right on that one. I thought I could trust you, but clearly I was wrong! And if all of those humans are so 'dreadful' to you, then what the hell does that make me?"
"Cassandra, you are so different from the others…"
"Oh yeah, how? What makes me any different? Because I 'returned your humanity'? This is sick!"
"Now, now, Cassandra". Cassandra was unsure about how much longer she could stand his affable façade. "When you join us, and participate in these purges, you will see that it is for the best"
So Cassandra joined them in their journey to the next village. But with each step she took, she found herself desperate to get away from these creatures. "I don't care if I have to make it by myself", she thought. "I have to get away from them". After the group had been travelling for around half an hour, she began to sprint away from the group. Immediately, the lizardmen turned towards her.
"Cassandra, stop!" Aeon shouted. "We need you!"
She tried her best to ignore him, and keep running, but she found herself slowing down her pace slightly.
"Don't leave me!" She turned around. Lizardman seemed to have broken down into tears. "Please, don't do this! We cannot afford to be separated in this cruel world!"
Against her better judgment, Cassandra found herself turning back towards these creatures, all of whom had become hell spawn within her mind, and found herself joining the group once again.
The march to the next village was even longer and more arduous than the march to the first. However, Cassandra's hunger and thirst was overpowered by her fear and dread of the massacre she knew that she was going to witness, that she knew she was going to take a part in. By the time they had arrived at the village, it was almost sunset. Immediately, Cassandra could see two children playing together in the fields, one boy and one girl. She stared intently at their faces – they looked almost identical to Pyrrha and Patroklos. She grimaced slightly. The thought of killing anyone without just cause distressed her, but if she were to allow these children to fall, she would be forced to relive the pain of being cast from Athens. She could still remember Sophitia's last words to her:
"Even if no one else knows it for sure, I do. You killed her. And I can never look at you in the same way because of it"
Cassandra's fist tightened. "I'm not going to let that happen again", she whispered. "I won't make the same mistake again"
The workers in the village had suddenly noticed the presence of the lizardmen, and froze with shock. Lizardman seized this opportunity, and turned towards his compatriots whilst pointing his axe towards the village.
"Ready? Charge!"
The lizardmen swarmed, and the conflict began. Some of the village people tried to flee. Others tried in vain to protect themselves with whatever tools they could find. Cassandra, however, was blind to the mindless bloodshed that persisted all around her. Amidst the havoc, she could see the two terrified children, who were too frightened to move, and clinging desperately to each other.
"I must protect them!"
For the next hour, the village people were brutally put down by the lizardmen. Just as before, no one was spared. A sea of bodies lay on the floor – some were already dead, whilst others were still writhing with intense pain. The lizardmen plundered the village for food and materials, and they gathered together their stolen goods, away from the mass of corpses that lay behind them.
"Men, we have brought justice upon another group of loathsome humans", Lizardman said triumphantly. "We may not be able to destroy everyone who is a threat to us, but rest assured that as long as we have the will to fight, and the will to protect ourselves, we will survive."
After finishing his speech, Lizardman suddenly realised that Cassandra was nowhere to be seen.
"Cassandra?" His tone had now become one of panic. "Where are you?"
Immediately he began searching through the bodies strewn across the ground, and the other lizardmen dispatched to help him. They looked inside every hut, in every field, behind every tree, but she was nowhere to be found. Eventually, one of the lizardmen growled, and beckoned the others. They all crowded around, and gasped in disbelief at what they saw.
Cassandra was lying on the ground, eyes closed and ghostly pale, and she had a deep cut all the way down her chest, which had caused blood to ebb onto the ground around her. Next to her were the two small children she had tried, and failed, to protect, who were curled up like snakes next to her. Lizardman desperately placed his hand upon her chest, hoping that she might have somehow survived. But she did not breathe. Angrily, he turned to the other lizardmen.
"Which one of you bastards killed her? Answer me!"
They all looked at each other, and bowed their heads in shame. The truth was that no one knew who had killed her – they had been so overpowered by their lust for bloodshed and revenge that they had not even noticed that Cassandra had fallen in the midst of battle. She had opposed them, refusing to let them harm the children, but their fury knew no limits. Blind to the world, one of them had struck her down along with the children.
"What if it was me?" Lizardman could not bear the thought that he might have killed her. "I can't let it end like this", he said resolutely. "We must honour her".
Solemnly, he and his comrades turned away from the village, leaving behind the goods they had stolen, and carried her dead body back to the caves.