Lise scurried down the rocky slope. Even as her homeland was left behind, she was still somehow finally eager to get out of the mountains in which she had lost herself for so long. Rocks skittered before her as she clambered downward, until she came to a dead halt at the sight of the figure in the distance.

She relaxed into absolute quietness, her finely honed Amazon skills not having left her despite it all. Frozen thus, she watched the man, the only human she had seen in weeks, approach.

He was a young man, about her own age. Fine features, masculine but not too hard, and silky purplosh hair pulled back; rather attractive, in fact. But that was not what interested Lise at the moment.

That tanned skin, the loose desert clothing... There was no doubt the young man was from Navarre. The country that had stolen everything from her.

Her hand tensed involuntarily on her spear, her mind flashing back to the men she had left rotting outside of Palo. She already knew she would leave this one just as dead for the simple principle of it. Patiently, she watched his approach. Navarrese were known for their strength and thieving abilities, but she had not led the most powerful Amazon army of the world without knowing something.

She was perched perhaps ten or twelve feet above the ground below. She waited for him to get closer, and closer, and then –

Lise suddenly vaulted off her spot, aiming to catch her prey with one clean swipe. The thief heard her and at the last second twisted away from the spear that would have plunged through his heart. Instead, Lise fell into him with a loud thud, and he fell to the ground with a grunt.

Lise quickly rolled off and to her feet, but the man already had whipped out a pair of twin daggers, blades as sharp as her own spearhead. He could not get near her, held back by the length of her flailing spear, but he deftly blocked and dodged her blows as she pressed her attack. Neat swipes grazed him, yet still missing flesh, as she drove him against the stone wall behind him until his back was pressed flat against it, her spear hovering now dangerously close to his throat.

Oddly, his life flashing before him did not seem to faze the man. "Hey, hey, whatever it is, I'm sure we can work something out!" he joked with a roguish grin.

Lise had no patience for jokes. "Prepare to die for what you've done to Rolante!" she shouted angrily, prodding ever so closer. The spear teased his skin, and she relished the thought of it breaking the surface, seeing his blood drip to the ground as did the blood of so many of her sisters. The only thing stopping her was an overwhelming desire to see fear crossing his face.

The young man only looked at her blankly. "Rolante?"

Rage filled her, overtaking all reason. "Yes, Rolante! The country whose citizens you murdered, whose castle you took, whose civilization you burnt to rubble!"

For someone about to die, the man seemed remarkably pensive. "So... Bigieu really did... I hoped she wouldn't really go through with it..."

A nagging remaining bit of Lise's sense of fairness caused her to pull down her spear and regard the man with puzzlement. Deprived of her chance to slit a throat, the slightly miffed young woman inquired, "You were not a part of it?"

The man rubbed the back of his neck with one hand in relief. "I've been gone for months. I was banished... well, maybe I should begin at the beginning. I'm Hawk," he said, sheathing his daggers to offer a hand in greeting.

Lise kept her right hand firmly gripping her spear, but cautiously extended her left. "I'm listening," she said.

Hawk met her hand with a firm grip, a cocky yet warm grin crossing his face. "Well... it's like this... There's a woman called Bigieu who came to Navarre a year or so ago, no one knows from where. A beautiful, and mysterious woman… but a witch in disguise. Ever since she came, things have started to change. She slept her way through the ranks, seducing anyone who could move her ahead, until finally she caught the eye of our leader Flamekhan. Soon enough, she found her way to his heart and his bed. Now that she fucks him every night, she has his ear as well. He's utterly besotted, almost bewitched by that slut…." He paused, anger clouding his features, and Lise watched as he composed himself with a few deep breaths. "Whatever hod she has over him, he jumps to do her bidding. She's something else, for sure. The people started to change, too, as she preached that we were going to take over other countries, like Navarre ever wanted anything more than to be a bunch of thieves. The rumors are that she consorts with demons and creatures of the underworld, seducing them with the same nonchalance as she did Flamekhan."

Hawk shuddered slightly, and continued. "It was my best buddy, Eagle, and I who started checking things out a little closer. And... she killed him for it." Hawk's eyes flitted away briefly with the memory. "Eagle had a sister, Jessica, a... friend... of mine. As if it wasn't enough Bigieu killed her brother, the whore put a curse on Jessica... I'm trying to go to Wendel to find out how to free her. I knew she was thinking of invading Rolante, but I barely escaped with my life as is. I think... I don't know... I didn't realize she had actually done it."

Despite herself, Lise felt compassion welling up within her. Perhaps it was the recent pain of her own losses, but her heart resonated with this man and his own struggle. And more importantly, she now knew who was the source of her own suffering. The bitch Bigieu.

And Hawk could lead Lise to her.

"I was the princess of that kingdom," she began softly, speaking the now-empty title.

Hawk started for a moment, then recovered. "The princess?" he said. "There was a rumor the princess had survived... but no one knew how, or where she might be now."

"Well, you're looking at her," Lise spat out bitterly. She stared down at the ground as intense fury filled her.

Hawk stepped closer to her and cupped her chin in his hand. She pulled back at first before letting him turn her face gently towards his, concern in distrurbingly warm brown eyes.

"I'm sorry," he told her with genuine feeling.

"Don't be," she replied brusquely, tugging her eyes away from that strangely mesemerizing gaze to look at the sky, a rock, anything to stop the bothersome thoughts that were creeping up. "It's all Bigieu's fault, and I'm going to find her and put an end to her."

"Well, that makes two of us," Hawk replied nonchalantly. "Perhaps you might welcome some company?"

Part of Lise felt as if she was making a pact with the Underworld itself. But as she nodded her assent, an odd hope filled her.