I didn't move when I saw them in the trees. Men armed with farm tools, wearing rough clothing and covered in dirt and dust from the road. I just examined them. When one realized he had been seen he froze, and started mouthing something at me. He was relatively young, no facial hair, brown hair tied back from his face. I looked away from him, glancing around the camp. No one was paying any attention to us. So I kicked the closest female. She turned to glare at me before she realized who I was, then she shrank away. I rolled my eyes, jerking my chin in the direction of the young man. I didn't know what language he was trying to communicate in, but she probably did. She slowly drug her eyes away from me, turning them in the direction I had indicated. When she saw the man she froze, shock and hope playing across her features, before the fear was back and she was glancing around the camp.

When she looked back at the young man they had a mouthed argument that soon escalated into dramatic gestures and mimed pleading. The young man was miming talking, then pointing to the men around the fire. It took me a while, the woman was refusing, looking afraid. She knew what he was saying, she just didn't want to be bait. But if it was a distraction they needed, then I could provide. I kicked the woman lightly, ignoring her, but letting the action draw the boys attention to me. I mimed talking using my hands, turned so he could see where they were tied, then pointed to the men, then to me. He nodded vigorously, looking relieved. I made a questioning look, tapping my foot once, pause, twice quickly, pause, three times, pause, then shrugging. I thanked god he got what I meant because he held up ten fingers. Ten minutes then. I nodded grinning widely before motioning him to shoo, wanting him out of sight once they looked my way. He must have understood because he ducked out of sight immediately.

I shuffled a bit, turning that wide grin to the woman next to me and winking. She just looked confused so I rolled my eyes and turned back to the men by the fire. The young man looked like a male version of the woman beside me. Siblings at worst, twins being most likely. The women must be from the village they mentioned to me. Kyle probably assumed that's where I went first, and assumed I already knew the world around me was medieval. The women were taken, and now the men were out for blood. I can work with that. Unless the brother joined some bandits to get his sister back, but since they all had farm utensils it seemed unlikely.

I scooted a bit further away from her, not wanting any of them to get caught in the crossfire. I was thrilled slightly at being told to annoy the piss out of people. Well, not in those exact words, but close enough. I cleared my throat loudly, getting no attention from the men at the fire. Well then. I sighed,

"So, cunt wagons, how does it feel to know your mother would be ashamed of what you're doing with your lives?"
Yeah, I'm playing dirty, bringing their mothers into this, and so early in the game at that. But it was true in any case.

They were attempting to ignore me, so I raised my voice,

"What, you bitches don't think they would have approved, do you? Psh, with the knowledge you have from even first through third grade you could do some basic math and blow these people's fucking minds. You could have used the history of our world to spin such amazing legends and stories, you could have used basic chemistry to be worshiped as gods! But you're so phenomenally stupid that you automatically just started going against the law because it was so much easier here than it was back home! You gave up! You took the easy way!"

By now the ones who could understand me were twitching, but the ones who didn't actually looked annoyed. Well, to them it was just nonsense, just noise. One of them muttered something, so Kyle stood, stalking closer to me. I knew he was probably going to fall back on tried and true methods to shut me up. But I had to keep it up. Otherwise the escape might fail, and where would I be then? But instead of slapping me again he placed a heavy booted kick straight to my ribs, knocking the breath out of me, cutting my expletives off mid word, and causing me to fall over. Padfoots growling increased, and I nudged him gently with my toe, hoping he would get the message that I was okay, mostly.

Kyle looked satisfied and turned, saying something to the men that had them chuckle briefly. I coughed and spluttered for a second, but when I had my breath back I struggled back up into a sitting position, and started again, ignoring how things twinged when I moved.

"Go bathe in an ocean of radioactive waste you deplorable bitch! I think your mother must have mated with a dementor to bring someone so soul suckingly boring into existence! Or perhaps he was a particularly nasty troll, because you, you absolute twatfungus, are the most vile thing to ever walk among human beings, and I do believe that your-"
Another vicious kick hit my legs this time, and I resisted the urge to suck in breath or react anymore than raising an eyebrow at him as he started to walk away, thinking it was solved.

"Oh, leaving so soon? I was about to poison the tea. But then again, personality like yours, hello kitty would have even said bye, so don't let the door slam onto your fat ass on the way-"

Aaaand he was back,

"Don't speak to me that way, you're just digging that grave of yours deeper! Frankly I don't care how good of a place you're sold to, and it doesn't matter how marked you are to me!"

"Oh shut up, you'll never be the man your mother was!"

Another vicious kick,

"I've seen decomposing bodies less offensive looking than you!"

A punch to the shoulder, sending me spinning. I used my elbow to shift me so I could sit up again,

"I'm so sorry that you seem to have entered this battle of wits unarmed, but that doesn't mean you should take it out using violence, after all you shouldn't be thinking anyway, it might sprain your brain."

By the time I could speak again only four minutes had passed in my time to use to distract them. The ones who didn't speak my language were watching with interest, and of the ones that could some looked angry for Kyle's sake, others were holding in laughter, Gordon was taking notes.

Ohhh, dissent in the ranks.

"How did you even get to be leader of these guys, anyway? Did they have a stupid contest and you won by default?"
Not my best, but I might have a concussion, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

My ankle was burning after that last bit, but time wasn't even near up.

"I mean, why not have one of the younger guys take over, pops? You're so old your memory is probably even in black and white."

A particularly savage hit for that one, oooh, a sore spot.

"What, protest for that one? Admit it, you're so old all the candles on your birthday cake raised the temperature of the planet by three degrees all around."

I spat out blood after the next one, wishing I could rub my jaw to check the damage. I used my tongue to take a quick count, and was just grateful that none of my teeth had been knocked loose. He was probably wary of that, our teeth might be a selling feature, all pearly white, solid enamel, healthy from lifetimes of dentists visits. I always hated the dentist, but Terese was always so insistent... My mind was wandering and I forced myself back into the present, their attention was straying from me as well, and I can't have that, three, maybe four minutes to go. I'd lost count.

"My, my, Kyle, same reaction to everything, perhaps I was wrong about your parents, they weren't sibling, where they? Because you're at least one Brady short of a bunch and that would explain it."

I ended up face first in the dirt, his boot on the small of my back. There was a strange scraping sound, and the men around the fire started talking quickly, loudly, slightly alarmed. I wondered if the attack had started, but no, there was something cold pressed up against the back of my neck. Oh, it was Kyle's sword then. They must not like that he was going to kill the goods. Eep.

"Now, now, there, no need for that. How about you go relax, slip into something more comfortable...like a coma."

He growled, low in his throat, pressing the tip closer to my neck, I think he was drawing blood at that point.

"Shut up, you bitch. I've had about all I can take of your mouth. I don't think the price is worth carrying your worthless carcass all the way to the-"

Battle cries from the far edge of the camp, thank god. The sword was removed as Kyle turned to help and I kicked out with my feet, catching his ankles and sending him crashing down into the dirt. Fuck, that hurt my ankle, and my legs, and everything else, but still, he was face first on the ground, struggling to get up while the men armed with farm tools got closer. He took a pitchfork to the back, and Kyle moved no more.

I resisted the urge to puke, looking into blank eyes. I beat down a hysteric laugh, a hunger games moment. What was it, 'he wasn't much, but he was from home?' Sounds about right…These guys weren't much, but they were my only hope of translations or getting my references. Dammit, and my last one had been the Brady Bunch for crying out freaking loud. But none of that changed the fact that he was dead, and it was my fault, but he was a bad person, but he was dead, and he was gone, but he was-

I was being untied, and I nearly reacted violently until I realized it was that same youth who had been communicating with us through the trees. He was rambling something to me but I shook my head,

"Yeah, no hablo, buddy."

He tried again, but got the same response. I didn't bother to watch as he ran off somewhere, probably to his sister. I was more focused on freeing Padfoot and massaging his poor paws. That muzzle went quickly and he automatically began smoothing slobber all over the bruises of my face.

I murmured nonsense to him, carding my fingers through his fur as much as possible while he ran a few circles around me, enjoying his freedom. After a second of resting my aching limbs I used Padfoot to help me stand, walking over to where I could see my bag and weapon piled haphazardly with all of the men's things. I fished out my bag, setting it to the side and grabbing my bow, which the bastards hadn't unstrung. That was terrible for a bow, and I resisted the urge to kick one of them, the thought brought a little vindication to the vindictive part of me, but all other parts felt a little sick at the thought. My 'blanket' and 'cape' that had been holding various other materials for survival had been scattered and I didn't bother trying to gather them all together.

None of the dead men had been an archer, and I was sort of thankful for that. I would have taken it because it was needed, but I would have felt terrible the whole time because it was a dead man's weapon.

I put my bag on, quiver over it like usual, wincing as it pressed on all my new bruises. But I wasn't being sold to the slave trade, so it was mostly worth it. I absentmindedly brushed some hair out of my eyes and let a huff of air free in surprise at the pain it sent shooting through my cheek. Yeah, that was going to bruise spectacularly. I saw Padfoot over in a corner of the camp, giving his love and devotion to the guy who had untied me, and gave a sharp whistle that had him careening across the camp to me, tail wagging wildly. I waved to the young man, about to be on my way. Dark as it was I would rather get moving, now that I knew there were people I could either seek some out or avoid them as much as possible.

But the man yelled something, rushing over to me, hands up and waving around at various things. I let him ramble, staring at him blankly and waiting for him to realize that I wasn't comprehending anything.

Finally he stopped, pointing to himself.

"Kodran."

Oh, if that's his name then poor, poor kid. I pointed to myself,

"Holly."

Then, because he was all over our business I pointed to the dog as well,

"Padfoot."

After much miming, waving of hands, and whispered conversations I wasn't apart of I realized I was being offered food and use of the camp. How nice of them. One of the women had even approached me, motioning to my bruised face. I'd waved her off, trying to mime 'thanks but no thanks' and feeling like I'd had little success. Finally a bowl of a real stew was shoved into my hand as well as a wooden spoon and I was shown to a place to sleep.

It was separated enough from everyone that I felt comfortable cleaning and awkwardly wrapping my wounds with the supplies a brown eyed, shy girl had given to me before running back to what looked like her father.

I didn't particularly trust these people, but this was the first actual food I'd had in about a year and a half. There were carrots and seasoning along with venison and I nearly cried at that first bite of heaven, and the medical supplies was invaluable. When the men gave the scraps to Padfoot and he promptly fell asleep beside where I was sitting it was decided for me. It's not like I could pick him up and carry him like old times. And I didn't want to wake him, he'd had a pretty bad day, too.

So I set out my fur blanket on the ground, deer side down, and used my cape as a blanket, curling up next to Padfoot. I was exhausted but sleep didn't come easily. When I finally managed to doze I was met with accusations of murder, and calls for damnation. Not a happy night. But I was free, and alive. But I was now totally alone. The last to come through to this dimension from my own, and all that was left of those that came before me. Hurrah.

~TimeLordOfPie