I don't own anything but Poet and Kali. Enjoy!

Dom struggled to breath as he dressed in a hurry. His heart was pounding against his chest. 'Kel, could have just gotten up early.' Dom kept reminding himself, but he knew the truth deep inside of him. As a warrior, he was trained to trust his instincts, that little nagging voice inside of him was screaming, 'KEL IS GONE!' Finally, he exited the tent. The second he stepped outside he cringed in disgust. The camp was a flurry of chaotic activity. The tent were the players had stayed was a smoking disaster at the edge of camp and the soldiers of the own were at a loss of how to continue. Lord Raoul was issuing orders and taking control of the situation, but the knowledge that they had failed to protect their own camp had shaken them all. Dom moved quickly toward Raoul.

"Raoul! Commander!" Raoul looked at Dom, who was still move through the throngs of people toward him. When Dom reached his side, Raoul spoke.

"What's wrong, Dom?" Dom looked at him with wide eyes.

"Kel's gone!" Dom's voice was loud and cracked. Raoul paused.

"I know. That's what woke me up this morning. For some reason I felt like something bad was going to happen. When I went outside to get some fresh air the players tent was on fire and I could hear a fight off in the distance. I ran to see what was going on while rousing the camp as I ran through. When I got to the edge of the forest, I found these." Raoul held up a pair of marked handcuffs. On the side of the shackles was the symbol of Scanra. "I know Kel didn't go without a fight. We found four bodies. One of them was killed from behind, so it wasn't Kel, but the other three. A sword killed them; Kel did them in before they got her. I also found our sentries, the damn slavers killed them. I don't know why they attack a military camp but from what I can tell they've been following us since early yesterday." Raoul handed Dom the shackles. Dom looked at them carefully.

"What…?" Dom didn't get to finish his sentence before it hit him. "These belong to slavers. Kel heard them attack the players and went to help them." Dom's heart broke into a thousand tiny pieces but soared up to heaven at the same time. Slavers had captured Kel, but she'd been captured while trying to save others.

"What are we going to do?" Dom asked in a gravely voice.

"Kel can take care of herself, we have to trust her. There is nothing we can do until you head back to the palace and ask the king. I won't risk everyone's life and future. I'll need you to lead the men back." Raoul started toward his tent.

"You're going after her, aren't you." Raoul paused but didn't turn around.

"Well, I'd better get Neal and pack up my stuff. You're not going alone!" Dom left his commander standing in the entrance to his tent. He found Neal sitting a little ways into the forest at the edge of what was the player's camp. In the dirt in front of him was a sword. As Dom got closer, he could hear Neal breathing heavily.

"Neal?" Dom approached carefully.

"This is Griffin, Kel's sword." Dom drew up short at Neal's deep grief stricken voice and the revelation of whose sword he currently watched. Moving closer Dom gripped the sword at the hands and lifted it from the ground. The blade was covered in sticky half dried blood. Dom smiled.

"Neal, Get up! Kel is going to be okay. Raoul, you, and me are going after her. Look at this sword; it's covered in blood. Those bastards don't know who they just took. Kel will make sure they think twice before they do it again." Dom smiled cruelly.

"If they're still alive when we get them, I'll send them to the Black God myself!" Neal nodded and stood.

"We both will." Dom coolly agreed and the cousins made their way back to camp.

After placing Wolset in charge of the company and penning a letter to the King, Raoul and the others set out after their captures friends. They hadn't been on the road more than an hour when night fell on the land. They traveled for a long as they could before it got to dark to keep going. With efficiency gained from years of practice, they set up the camp. No one had really spoken since they'd left the camp earlier, but now faced with the reality of how long it was going to take Neal tried to break the silence.

" Kel is going to be pissed when we get to her." Neal smiled affectionately as the other two laughed. It was true. They all knew how strong Kel was and they knew that she could take care of herself. They also saw something that many others didn't get a chance to see. Kel when she was angry. It was actually very frightening.

"I am willing to risk it though." Dom said with a soft sad smile. Neal sat watching the fire until a though caused him to jump up.

"Poet is going to kill us." Neal's voice was shaking. He knew that Kel would never do him real harm, she would just put something squishy and slimy in his bed, but Poet loved his wife dearly and was know it do serious damage to people who touched her.

All of the color left Raoul's face briefly before he grinned.

" We can use this to our advantage. Neal do you know the symbol of the Rogue," Neal nodded "Good, this is what we're going to do." Raoul and the others leaned closer. Their faces were shadowed and lit by the fire giving them the look of deadly killers.

(Scene Change)

Kel groaned in pain as Kali began stitching her leg. The wagon bounced over a deep rut and Kali accidentally sank the needle into deep. Kel bit down on her bottom lip and tried to find her Yamani self. 'Sure,' Kel thought grimly as the wagon bounced over a rock in the road. 'The Yamani's meditate while doing this, but I'll be damned if they ever have to be stitched up in the back a wagon. The complexion of her face was waxy and pale from the loss of blood, but she still took her time reassuring and complimenting Kali, who had never actually stitched someone up before, on her skill as a nurse. Kel's head dropped back as she forced the pain from her mind. Kel could feel ate growing inside of her. The Slavers had attacked while the camp was asleep and had killed the sentries. Luckily Kel had heard a noise on the way back from the latrine, so with a naked sword in hand she'd gone to investigate. What she'd found would haunt and remind her everyday. It served as a gruesome depiction of why she'd become a knight. The slavers were rounding up any of the men and women they could. Any one who was weak was killed any one who fought was killed. The only reason she'd survived, after charging the scene and killing three Slaver guards, was because she was so strong. Stronger slaves lasted longer and made the Slavers seem more powerful. So they'd disabled her. The wound was long, stretching from the top of her hip bone to the edge of her knee. Kel knew she would bare the scar for the rest of her life.

It was two hours and over two hundred tiny stitches before the wound was closed. Kali wrapped it in a piece of dingy white fabric. Kel didn't look at Kali until she felt a tear hit her leg. Grabbing the hand that was wrapping the bandage around her leg, Kel spoke to Kali.

"We'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you." Kali looked at Kel through her swollen black eye.

"I know, but I'm still scared." Kel smiled sadly. Kali turned away and lay down to go to sleep. Curling herself into a small ball, Kali dozed lightly. Kel watched her until she had slipped deeply into her dreams before speaking.

"I know your scared Kali, so am I." Kel turned her head and looked out the window. The sky was pitch colored, but the Salvers drove on. She could hear the raging of the Vassa River ahead of them. They were so close to the Scanra boarder, Kel felt her chest constrict, not with fear but something untamable and dangerous, fury.

"I won't let anything happen to them. I can't. I'm the protector of the small." Kel lay back against the hard wooden edge of the wagon and drifted off to sleep as the dense murky forest passed slowly.

End of the chapter!