I glared at the path ahead of me. It was the safest option, considering what might happen if I'd glared at the true object of my disdain. The soldier at my side roughly tugged at my elbow again, dragging me forward.

"Hurry it up."

He sounded just as fed up as I was.

My hands and wrists hurt, having been tied a tad too tightly, but I doubted that it was an accident. My side still radiated pain; stubbornly remaining on the ground rather then following them immediately had earned me a metal-encased kick to the ribs.

'Shitheads.'

It appeared that the blacksmith's shop wasn't the only one 'under investigation'. There were another handful of people, similarly tied, awaiting interrogation in the middle of the main road. The rest of the town wisely stayed indoors, choosing to gawk at us from the safety of their windows.

"Would you like to say that a little louder?" A soldier snarled, scruffing another young man by the collar of his shirt.

"I said, why don't you go eat shit you son of a pig!" He retorted, spitting directly into the Sarafan's face.

Disgusted, the soldier threw the young man to the ground. He looked as though he wanted to do more, but instead gestured to another handful of soldiers, glaring darkly at the struggling youth as he was dragged away, out of sight.

"Impudent filth..." He grumbled, wiping the spittle from his face. He scanned the gathered people, probably looking for someone else to interrogate. I had the misfortune of making eye contact at that moment.

"Bring her."

My stomach dropped.

The one who had me by the elbow deposited me at his feet, before handing him something that was in his other hand. I looked up in horror to find that it was Adonathiel's pack.

"Well, what do we have here. It appears you were in that little 'wildfire' earlier, with the blacksmith. Wasn't there another woman with you? What was her name..." He feigned, idly digging through the bag.

I chose to remain silent.

"Ah, it was Adonathiel, wasn't it? Do you know her?"

"No." I muttered.

"You'll have to speak a little louder than that, lass."

"I said that I don't."

He kneeled, getting dangerously close. "Then why does this bag , which she is known to carry, next to you when you were found?"

"I don't know. It's not mine."

"So you admit to thievery."

"What?"

"Why else would you have things that obviously don't belong to you? Unless you travel with her, I doubt you'd have this in your possession."

"I said I don't know who she is."

I suddenly found myself eating dirt. I rolled over to find him standing over me, wiping the blood from the back of his gauntlet. My temple throbbed. There was a series of hushed murmurs as I realized my cloak had fallen open. My clothing was still bloodstained, a mix of ruddy brown and darkening orange splotches, old and new.

"You're a terrible liar. We saw you with her." He paused, pulling out a tangled mass of trinkets, making a show of examining them. "Associating with a known fugitive and enemy of the circle, defending said fugitive, attempting to deceive a Sarafan officer, and-"

He crouched down again, dangling a particular trinket over my head. I squinted, trying to make out the significance of this specific necklace. My heart sank to rest next to my stomach. It was a roughly cut piece of metal with the Sarafan crest on it, similar to the one on his breastplate. It came from someone's armor.

"-Murder."

I grimaced as he dragged me to my feet by the back of my clothes like some kind of misbehaving child, and handed me to another pair of soldiers.

My heart was thudding in my ears. Or at least I thought it was. Actually lifting my head, it turned out to be a horse.

"Captain." The interrogator nodded respectfully toward the rider, a satisfied smile on his face.

As he pulled his horse to a stop, the Captain eyed the charred skeleton of the building with a growing frown. "Would you mind explaining why there's a smithy missing, when I sent you to do a simple investigation?"

The interrogator didn't look so sure of himself then.

"And while we're at it, why are these civilians tied up?"

"We have reason to believe that these people are suspect of treason, sir. In fact, this one is charged with the murder of a Sarafan soldier." He gestured toward me.

The Captain stared at me skeptically. "Proof?"

"This." The crest was passed to him, which he scrutinized.

Another moment of silence. "Are you fucking with me?"

"S-sir?"

"You do realize how widespread these things are, don't you?" He tossed it toward the shocked interrogator. "I swear to god. And you've been executing them, haven't you? Are we so well manned that we can just kill off some perfectly good workers? I don't know if you've realized it yet, but we're shorthanded as it is. We've lost dozens of soldiers over the past few weeks. Those crests are usually given to the families left behind. You might have just been interrogating the child of one of our fallen brothers!"

He dismounted, stalking toward the man who was surely about to lose his job.

"This isn't the dark ages. You're lucky you know how to hold the right end of a sword, else I'd have booted you out long ago." He snarled between clenched teeth.

'*sigh*, one could hope...'

"You. Do you have a trade?"

I jumped at his agitated tone. "U-um...no... but I have a lot of practical skills?"

He sighed exasperated. "Untie her for god's sake. And the rest of them." He turned back toward the red-faced soldier. "Honestly man. This slip of a girl, taking on a trained soldier? What is wrong with you."

I pointedly clutched my cloak closed around me. The interrogator glared.

He turned to me again. "You any good with animals?" He said, much more quietly. I must have looked scared, I realized.

I nodded. He handed over the reigns of his horse. "He doesn't like ropes, this one. He'll stay wherever you put him. Just bring him over there, let him rest."

He again turned to face his men. "Listen brothers! As Sarafan, we have a duty to protect Nosgoth. Our history is a long and proud one, and we-"

I could see several soldiers discreetly rolling their eyes. This was something they'd all heard before, and even they knew it was somewhat of a farce.

I lead the massive beast toward the stream near the end of the road. As much as I liked horses, they were always much bigger than I expected them to be up close. It's breath ruffled the loose ends of my hair, and it seemed to like walking very close to me.

It was a bit too close for my liking, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little bit intimidated. I could feel the vibrations of it's hoof falls in the ground.

I'd spent the day doing menial tasks that were assigned to me, exchanging nasty glances with the soldier who attempted to play judge and jury. He managed to get my cloak taken from me, and the blood on my clothes acted as a mark of shame. Even the captain, who'd been sympathetic at first, became terse around me.

It was nearing the evening, and at the end of the day, my role was still involuntary. Nearly everyone else who'd been 'recruited' was being restrained in one way or another, until they were sure we could be trusted to stay put. I sniffed in disgust, trying and failing to rest my spine comfortably against my post while the interrogator bound me. I was to be next to the horses for the night. I'd probably smell awful for weeks if I ever managed to get away.

"Sorry about this, but it wouldn't do to have you running off in the night, now would it?"

I glared in his general direction as another loop of rope was lowered over my head.

"You're not sorry at all you ba- HHCK!" The insult was cut short as he suddenly tightened the bindings around my torso, squeezing the breath out of me.

"Oh goodness, did I do that? I'll try to be more CAREFUL next time." He mocked, punctuating his sentence by tightening the ropes again.

Wheezing, I struggled to breathe under the pressure. I could practically feel the loathsome smile he was surely wearing, watching me silently choking, futilely straining against my bonds.

Just when spots began to appear in my vision, he let some slack into the rope, finally allowing me to breathe. I was too busy drinking in as much air as I could to notice he'd kneeled in front of me.

A calloused hand grabbed me by the chin and forced me to look up into his sneering face. "You don't look so good there, lass. Maybe I'll come back a little later tonight, and have you pay me back for all the trouble you've caused me, hm? I could also use a little- AUGH!" I bit hard into the thumb that had passed over my lips, refusing to hear any more. I'd even turned my head and trapped it between my back teeth, giving it the full force of my jaw. I'm sure I felt something give with a dull, tiny snap before he managed to wrest his hand back.

I spat his own blood back into his face. "You know what? I did kill a Sarafan. Two in fact. And if they're all as pathetic as you are, it's no surprise that a 'slip of a girl' like me could kill them. Trained soldiers my ass. You're a bunch of disgusting, glorified pirates! You're not worth the filth under my shoe, you goddamn-"

"Shut up." He was scarily calm, already with a dagger pressing into my chin.

I refused to turn my head away. "Eat shit."

He suddenly grinned, moving the dagger down to my throat, pressing just hard enough to pierce the skin and draw blood. "I could have you lose your head, you know."

"Your captain will have you shoveling horse shit for it."

The dagger moved, resting just an inch lower than the first wound. "Not if he thinks you've been bitten." He maliciously whispered.

I fell silent at this.

"That's better. Now. Don't move a muscle, I'll be back."

0o0o0o0o0

I sighed, my eyes aching from the glaring red that managed to seep through the skin of my eyelids. I'd given up on escaping an hour ago. I didn't have the strength to attempt working through the ropes, and there was nothing around for me to use. That guard had clearly dropped his dagger just out of my reach (but still within sight) purely to spite me.

Now it was sunset, the intense yellow and orange light beaming directly into my face. It would still be a little while before it gets dark, so in the meantime, I decided I might try to sleep. I groaned in frustration. I was past the point of overtired, and resigned myself to barely dozing, unable to fall unconscious.

I flinched as I heard footsteps in the dirt, refusing to open my eyes. My body tensed as they approached.

"Well, what do we have here?" A startlingly feminine voice said. I recognize the lilt.

I open my eyes but immediately have to look away as the last of the suns rays nearly blind me. I focus on the ground, barely making out the strange shape of distinctly alien feet.

"Um...?" I can barely formulate a response.

I feel the ropes around my raw hands being tugged and loosened. "It would do you well to avoid ropes in the future." She advised, a hint of amusement in her voice.

I snorted. "Is that so? You make it sound like I have some kind of choice."

Her smooth, low chuckle sounded close to my left. "You have more choice than you give yourself credit for..."

"Can you at least tell me where I should go from here?"

"You'll end up where you need to be." I could hear the smile in her voice.

The ropes finally went slack and slid to the ground with a soft noise. I massaged my aching knuckles while trying to turn around.

"I think I know what you're getting at, but would you mind being a little less cryptic...?" My question trailed off as I saw that I was once again by myself.

'Can she just stay in one spot for more than five seconds?'

My eyes fell upon the cloak, neatly folded, and a clean shirt, quite obviously stolen from one of the tents. I sighed in relief and silently thanked her.

0o0o0o0o

It was just a few inches in front of my reaching fingers. Just a single mistake away from being re-captured.

Sudden, raucous laughter startled me, and I drew my hand back again.

"So you're telling me that it's real?"

"The really old ones hardly decompose, why is this a surprise to you?"

"That's rather morbid isn't it though?"

"That's why the old man was a force to be reckoned with! He decimated them. Completely destroyed them. I haven't seen hide nor hair of one of those parasites for months!"

A wry chuff. "Then you obviously haven't been in the stronghold lately. There's still a few stragglers attempting to get a hold of the old bat's head. Why do you think we've been stationed out here and along the roads?"

A few noises of recognition went around the table. "So then, it's being moved to the old man's-"

I flinched again at the meaty sound of a metal gauntlet meeting someone's face.

"Shut your trap boy! The trees have ears in this place!"

As the noise died down, I internally sighed in exasperation. 'Might as well just get this over with.'

I reached over and snatched up the satchel in one awkward movement.

"Hey!"

I heard the shouts of alarm just as my arm retreated beneath the cloth of the tent. I stumbled to my feet and bolted for the nearest horse.

Most of them reared and made even more of a racket, spooked at the sight of a stranger suddenly bolting toward them. They struggled against their ropes, mouths foaming around the temporary bridles.

I nearly missed the one horse that simply took stepped away.

It was untied.

0o00o0o0o0

It had been a very long time since I'd ridden. More than ten years since I'd been to one of those horseback riding attractions. My hips hurt from the awkward angle, not having any time to sit comfortably. My hands ached, both from their previous abuse and from having to grasp at this poor animal's withers for dear life with one hand. The other clutched the bag protectively against my chest.

I pitched backward again, dangerously close to being flung from my precarious perch as it leaped over a ditch. I scrabbled to press myself closer to it's neck.

The thundering of hooves behind me abruptly clattered to a halt with several bellowing horse screams. Human shouts joined them. I risked a glance behind me.

They'd been driving their mounts too hard, too fast, and they failed to avoid the ditch. Flailing hooves and whale-eyed faces hit the packed soil. It's likely that several of them, man and horse, had broken their legs. It was also likely that more than a few riders have just been crushed as well.

Putting a good chunk of the Sarafan riders out of commission had not been in my plans, but I figured it was still a good thing.

o0o0o0o0o

A/N: This year you technically get two chapters! I honestly didn't realize that I hadn't updated in over a year until recently. Time has been weird for me lately. I've been working on this on and off, and I guess my brain assumed that it was somehow complete despite not actually posting anything. I'm also still not quite back into actually writing so much as just describing things. Character interactions are still weird for me, so expect some common archetypes and things that don't make sense (i.e some cannon character simply accepting something that would normally have them reacting in a COMPLETELY different manner). I still don't quite have plot immunity, I'm going to get all scuffed up and ruffled quite a bit. Humans aren't supposed to be invincible.