Kahlan slowed down her pace so that she was walking next to Zedd, able to ask the same question she has asked Richard. "Did something happen three nights go as we slept?" Zedd looked at her before looking at Cara, knowing that the reason the Mother Confessor asked was because she had realised when Cara's mood had begun to change.

"No, to the best of my knowledge, we all slept like a log until our shifts came," Kahlan sighed and stared at the back of Cara, "you should ask her if something happened to bring on the bad mood."

"I don't think that she'd be the type to share something if it doesn't affect any of us personally," she replied softly.

"You won't know until you try," Zedd replied wisely.

Kahlan nodded at the wizard before speeding her pace up, she passed Richard with a worried smile before catching up to Cara. The Mord'sith gave her a sparing look before continuing her glaring at the far horizon. Kahlan stared at her for a while, trying to figure out what could cause such a foul mood before Cara snapped at her.

"What?" Kahlan blinked and furrowed her eyebrows at the venomous comment.

"Sorry?" She replied softly, rolling her tongue around the word easily in confusion.

"Why are you staring at me?" Cara held back on her frustration, knowing that Kahlan didn't deserve for it to be taken out on her – though she did feel that it was necessary to take it out on someone. So far she had taken it out on the pebbles upon the ground, and herself internally.

"Something is obviously frustrating you, I just wanted to ask if something happened."

"No, nothing has happened Confessor," she spat before speeding up her pace. Kahlan sighed, hurt by the woman's words, and dropped back to Richard.

He touched her hand softly in reassurance before giving her a small smile. "Don't worry, it's Cara, a deer probably escaped her and now she won't be satisfied until she's killed at least six more in it's place," he joked to lighten the mood. Kahlan smiled at him before looking back to the wrath-filled woman.

"I know, I just wish she'd tell us – it makes me nervous for other people when she's like this."

"I know." He squeezed her hand, "but there's a town in a distance, after a hot bat, I'm sure she'll be fine, she'll just tell off some people, get into a fight and then get kicked out of a tavern, after that she'll be fine." Kahlan laughed softly at him, smiling with closed lips as she usually did.

Richard knew this meant that she believed him and felt happy to know that he could help her in that small way.

-I-

Easily, the young redhead ate the last apple, finally seeing the town. After coming out of the woods, she had to climb a few hills and over pass some fallen trees and a small creek – it had been fun though, and along the way she had came across some more apples!

She picked some for herself, and then some extra 'just in case'.

She licked greedily at her fingers before stopping in her tracks. She took a few steps back and turned her head, roughly towards the east. She took in a large breath for her nose and picked up what her sub-conscious had. An infection. She dropped her bag by the tree and jogged to where a wolf crouched low upon the ground, desperately trying to clean the wound of her child.

"Hush, it's ok, I'm a healer," she whispered as pulled the breast dagger out of her dress, "I promise you that I'm here to help." Her voice was calm and soft as she treaded low and carefully towards the animal.

The mother growled and the girl stopped before returning back to the tree and grabbing her bag, pulling out the flask of water, before she looked around the tall trees. She ran over to a specific one, and with the breast dagger, cut off the large leaves before cutting into the branch so as to pull sap from it so as to have it trickle onto the large leaves.

She then briefly cleaned the dagger upon her cloak and placed it back in between her breasts and ran over to the mother and pup. The mother growled at her, "Back off," she told the wolf, showing alpha status, "I am helping your child," she then ignored the mother once it had backed off.

With the flask of water, she briefly cleaned her hands, before using the rest to clean the wound that was infected best she could, then she pulled out her dagger, and with one hand, held the pup down, whilst with the other hand she cut into the wound and dug out the main cause of the infection. It hurt, not only the pup, but also her. But she'd dealt with worse, and she could deal with this.

She placed the leaves over the wound, using the sap as a method of sticking the fur to it as well as to help it heal. "You'll be ok, if you keep it clean, everything will be better, but you'll need to feed and drink more." Neither the pup nor the mother actually understood what she said, but they received the general idea of it. They at least understood she had tried to heal the pup.

-II-

Cara entered the tavern first, her mood as dark as it had been when Kahlan had asked her about it. A few nights ago, when it happened, she'd been fine - but as she pondered on it further, she became more and more angry with herself. The girl was light on her feet yes, but she also had been dressed in summer clothes, which told Cara she was poor, not to mention that she was stealing. The girl had been nothing more then a common thief!

Mord'sith don't allow their goods - wether it is weapons, jewels or apples - stolen from them. It just wasn't done!

And all that is the why she had been in such a dark mood.

The tavern went silent at her entry, before Richard and Kahlan walked in and stood beside her. They relaxed at the Seeker and Mother Confessor's entrance only because they assumed that she was harmless if she was with them. She rolled her eyes and watched as Kahlan and Richard were fawned over as Zedd made arrangements for bedding and food, trying to offer to pay, though the man refused to make them all pay.

'Idiots,' she thought as she scanned over the room. Her eyes suddenly stopped at the back of a charcoaled cloaked figure. She walked over and placed her hand sharply on the round shoulder of the figure, and spun the person around. When she saw their face, Cara stared down at the ice-flower eyes, and watched as the girl's eyes opened wide in surprise and horror.

The girl stumbled for her bag at her feet and opened it to show the apples, "It was barren in there," she said apologetically, "I only needed a little, here," She dug into the bag and pulled them out, "it's funny- I actually expected that I'd see you again here." She placed five apples in Cara's hands.

"You only stole four."

"Think of the last as tax then." The girl smiled kindly and kissed Cara's cheek before she could react. "Sorry again," she said when she pulled away, laying coins on the table as she left the tavern. Cara stared at the strange girl before walking back over to Zedd.

"Where'd you get those?" He asked.

"A gift for the Seeker," she lied easily, handing them over. "Offering of some sort or another." She shrugged her shoulders and looked around the tavern, "Can we get a hot meal now?" Zedd looked back to the Tavern keeper who nodded and indicated to a table by the window.

"Shouldn't be long," the middle-aged man said with a grin in Cara's direction, "is there anything else-"

"No."

-III-

In the late of the night, she had come across a woman in search of a healer, or someone who could help her daughter. She walked up to the woman, and explained that she was healer and could help her no matter the problem. The woman had been sceptical at first but now, as her daughter's severe fever finally broke, the woman was joyous and had even offered her to stay the night.

She took the offer, having no better place, but refused to move anywhere far from the small child, only to make sure that there were no other symptoms that prove to come from a worse source then what she had first thought.

By dawn, she felt that there was nothing else wrong with the child but prompted the woman to make sure that the child eat, "if she vomits her food, it means she just needs to keep hydrated and wait longer before eating, she'll be fine, I promise you."

"Thank you so much, I made some food for your travels - I hope it's enough."

"Thank you, for your hospitality and for this - I wish you and your family the best." With a parting smile, she left. Never giving the stranger her name, nor asking for one in return. Leave no name behind, nor no telling of which direction she is headed would keep her safe

Pacing her hood back up to hide her hair, she exited down the path and was just about to set foot on the trail when something inside of her rang a warning bell. She spun around, causing the man to miss capturing her by the width of his eyelash. "Healer, make this easier for all of us and give up." His voice had been calm and commanding when he spoke.

She stared down at him as the other soldiers surrounded her.

"No." She dodged another man's outstretched hand and jumped as someone tried to kick her down. Soon all of them were grabbing at her. She jumped, grabbing onto a low branch of the old tree, and jumped over the men. She ran as the men, in their chaos, tried to detangled themselves and run after her.

There was no way the men had caught up to her. In her state of running, she thought over what could have happened, and quickly came to the assumption that they'd took a logical guess at where she'd be headed to and went to the town instead of following her tracks. They truly were determined to get her back. She turned her head around, to check if they were still hot on her tracks - they were.

She couldn't lead them into the town; someone could get into the crossfire and get hurt! The only thing she could think of doing was leading them away from town and hope that she'll be able to escape them by other means - such as losing them.

She ran down the path, and when coming to the T-section, she turned left instead of right.

Already she was getting tired, she shouldn't have used all her energy in the beginning to speed her way out of there, instead she should have tricked them and paced herself, their endurance was far better then hers.

-IV-

"Do you even know where we're going?" Cara asked.

"Yes, we're going... this way." Richard pointed further down the track. He turned to smile at her, but as he did, a girl suddenly ran onto the path from a section of the road that turned left, and ran to where Richard had just pointed.

Cara stared at her- it was the same girl. Three times they had crossed paths within a week. And the girl definitely wasn't following them, not with the men running after her.

Without even communicating with each other, everyone prepared their body for battle, arming their selves the only way they individually knew how. Cara ran forward first, the lust for battle and need to satisfy her curiosity burning through her veins, drove her forward as the others followed shortly behind.

The men didn't see them, it was only after one of them fell to the ground screaming like a pig in slaughter from the Agiel, that they turned and became aware of the third party. They turned sharply, their eyes ablaze with fury as three of them turned and attacked the three of the four new-comers, as the other man continued to run after the redheaded girl, whilst one man lay dead upon the ground from Cara's weapon.

Kahlan hit the man in the back of his lower neck with the hilt of her dagger before striking him to the ground by a sharp kick to the back of the knees. He fell quickly, and without time to think and realise whom exactly, he was truly up against, she grabbed his neck and released her Confessor power within him.

"Command me mistress," he spoke as silent thunder broke away from her as she released the withheld magic.

As she had been fighting one of the men, Richard had been fighting another, his sword blazing in the crisp morning light that reflected brightly against the smooth metallic weapon. He laid a blunt force to the man's head and watched as he collapsed to the ground. There was no time to check if the force had been strong enough to kill the man or merely just knock him unconscious, he had to help the others first.

Zedd had easily disarmed and disorientated the man who was now unconscious, half on the path and half on the grass. He tilted his head and kicked at the man to roll him over and check at his status. He was alive, but deeply unconscious. The wizard frowned, something inside of him warned him not to kill the young man – he didn't see evil, just… under orders.

"Where's Cara?" Richard asked. Zedd looked away from the young man to Kahlan and Richard.

"I assume she went after the fifth man." He said, "by now I wouldn't be surprised if she'd caught and killed the man."

Kahlan frowned, "Michael here says that they're under orders to retrieve her, they meant no harm to us or even her, she's just refusing to be compliant."

"Why?" The Seeker asked as he sheathed his sword.

"Michael, why do you want the girl?"

"She's a Healer of the Blood." Zedd made a reaction of surprise at the man's statement.

A/N: I re-uploaded the last chapter because I didn't realise the paragraph breakers didn't transfer. My mistake, sorry guys.