It had been weeks since a Woad attack. The Knights were slightly unsettled by this, but at the same time, they were happy to not be risking their lives for Rome's desires. However, patrols of Roman soldiers had been sent out along the wall, and as the summer progressed, even daring to patrol outside of the wall, venturing a mile into the woad territory, almost daring them to come and fight. They got what they wanted, in a way, but not involving Woads.

Damara's POV

Goddamned dog. Nissa's famed "demon dog", that was supposed to be a perfect stealth animal, was the entire reason for why she was now tied up in the dark. But she couldn't fault Nissa anymore. You shouldn't curse the dead. Even if the stupid thing had run off howling when the Roman soldiers had approached, giving away their entire position, and costing the lives of her entire team.

Except for her friend Annuska, really called Ana, who had been off scouting, and Hana, a fierce fighter who was the usual scout but had been recovering from wounds along with the best archer, Kirima, . Of her crew that had been out by the fire, all had been shot by poisoned arrows. She had been sleeping, dozing really, and upon hearing the cries of her comrades had shot out of her tent, only to find herself at the end of a Roman sword. Hana and Kirima had been dragged out and kicked in the head for their resistance to the soldiers.

The soldier who held the weapon at her neck had looked at her in a way that made her wish she had a seriously twisted side that favored torture and had a pair of gelding shears.

"Who are you?" he had demanded. "You're not Woads and you're definitely not Romans, because we Romans aren't as needy yet as to use women for our armies."

She had stared at him, giving him her best Eat shit and die looks.

He hadn't taken the hint.

He had surveyed her a little more, wide eyed at her choice of dress, and had finally had her tied up and thrown over her horse, as had Hana. All of her weapons had been taken, and her baggage, and her friends had been thrown in the fire, cremated before her very eyes. She had turned aside, tortured by the sight of her comrades and friends bodies burned before her by the men who had killed them. She had then been beaten by the soldiers, so that she wouldn't be awake or able to attack them on the ride to the wall. She remembered faintly a popping sound coming from her left shoulder. Great, she thought, one more little problem for me, before blacking out entirely.

Once they had reached the monstrosity of stone resembling every other building in the Roman Empire called the wall, she had been tied even tighter, and thrown into a wooden carriage. She was now being joggled painfully by the motion of the cage she had been placed in. She was sure that her shoulder had been dislocated, and it was paining her to be in this position, not to mention her numbed hands and feet which would be bloody from chafing.

"Damara?" came Hana's voices out of the dim compartment. It sounded hopeful. Hopeful and sad.

"I'm here Hana", she replied.

"Isn't this a lovely setting for royalty Hana?", came Kirima's teasing voice out of the darkest corner. There weren't any windows, but there were a few holes near the top of the wagon, apparently for air. There seemed to be a series of chains along the wall, perhaps for cargo, if this was a supply wagon. At least they'd left the cloaks to the girls, keeping them warm from the cold, bare wagon.

Damara snorted in derision. "Oh, because I'm so used to traveling in luxury and leisure Kirima".

"Just trying to lighten the situation, oh fearless leader".

Fearless. That's funny, Damara thought, because all I'm thinking about now is about when we get to wherever we're going. That, my shoulder, and the spider biting my butt.