Auri crossed back over the river with a grimace plastered on her face. The heads were still there by the rock. There was nothing she could do to hide them from him. They were staring at her with glassy, dead eyes.
'Your handiwork?' Mawr said from her side and nodded to the heads.
'They tried to kill me, I hoped the ghouls would take them.' she said, truthfully.
'Idiots.' Mawr replied and sniggered. 'I assume they were sent to kill you then? They didn't just wake up with a desperate need for violence?'

'You assume correctly,' she said and eyed him. Auri hoped this would be the last of it, the last of the hunters and the never-ending running. She was so fucking tired of running. Running from Skellige, running from Aretuza, running from Sodden-

'They did a shit job if killing you was the goal.' Mawr continued and kicked one of the discarded chest-plates swiftly across the damp ground, it clanged off some rocks and ended up near the riverbank.
'Or,' Auri interrupted and sat down with her back against a looming oak, 'I did a good job protecting myself.'
'You may be good with magic, but in a swordfight you'd be dead in a second,' he said and crossed his arms.

He was infuriatingly sure of himself. She had been raised on Skellige, her own father had placed a blade in her hand the moment she knew how to grasp a spoon, she'd heard tales of ulfhedinn, harpies and ice giants since before she learned to fear the dark. Her ability to wield a sword was irrelevant when the Nilfgaardians wanted her dead.
'I haven't died yet, so I'll take my chances, thank you.' she said and rose from the ground. 'There's a cave nearby, I sleep there during the day, we can stay there and wait for your ghouls. I'd like to be out of the light.'
He said nothing as he followed her along the side of the mountain.
'And by the way,' she added as an afterthought, 'I don't need to be good with a sword if I can incinerate anything simply by snapping my fingers.'

The sun was high in the sky when she entered the cave with Mawr and his horse following behind.
'You weren't lying about the cave,' he pointed out as he tied the horse to one of the cracked stalagmites covering most of the cave floor.
'Why would I lie about a cave?' she questioned and grabbed a skin of water from behind her shabby bedroll.
'I don't know, I assumed you wanted to bring me somewhere secluded to rob me blind, steal my horse and make your way to wherever you so desperately want to go?' he continued, gently running a hand over the horse's flank to ease him. She watched him unfasten the straps holding the saddle on when something he'd said rang through her head.
'What did you mean by used to be a commander general?' she asked, twirling a lock of dark hair around her finger. Mawr placed the saddle on the dusty ground, groaned a little and sat down, resting his back against the worn leather. He didn't look at her, he kept his eyes placed firmly on the cave entrance and hummed.
'Exactly what I said, I used to be one, now I am a bounty hunter, currently waiting for nightfall so I can kill those ghouls and make my way back to Redania and get my pay.' he said and picked at a blood stain on his arm.
'Bit of a detour for you then?' she continued and took another sip of water. She should have filled the skins when she had the chance. The water had an unmistakable taste of cowhide and stale wine.
'What do you mean?'
'You came from the south when I met you,' she said and raised a brow. 'If you had a contract on the ghouls here I would have thought you'd come straight here and not ride south first?'
'I take work where I find it, I got the contract off someone else, I think he was Nilfgaardian, I had more use for the coins than him so I relieved him of it.' he replied and closed his eyes. 'He got the contract from a Redanian, hence me going there once I kill the beasts.'
'Did you desert the army?'

He didn't reply, which was answer enough she supposed. If he had deserted the army, and lost his station he would need to pick up whatever jobs he could to feed himself. Perhaps he as on the run as much as her-
'And you? How did you end up here?' he asked suddenly breaking her train of thought. What to tell him? That she fled constantly because scouts were after her? That the King forbade her to wreathe his Kingdom in flame?
'I used to be at court in Aedirn. I was called to fight at Sodden-' she began, deciding to give him the broad strokes. He'd been there too, he'd also seen the flames and the carnage. 'I fled after Sodden. I was followed by a band of Nilfgaardians. They finally caught up with me in Temeria and I burned them all. Fire magic is fickle, I was angry and in me the chaos found rage enough for me to escape with my life. King Foltest was gracious enough to not have my head for it if I helped him dispatch the Nilfgaardians constantly entering his Kingdom on behalf of the Emperor. He had no need of an alliance, most of the time they just robbed farmers and threatened bloodshed if he refused to adhere to the demands. I thought I was free to go when the two last ones came for me.'
'What happened?' Mawr asked and finally looked at her. She'd expected to find him concerned. If she spoke so easily about burning men alive, what was to stop her from burning him? Instead she found intrigue, and anticipation.
'They said they had orders to follow, and I realized then that they no longer cared about the King, they were there for me. The Emperor knows now, so I have to flee again. I have to get home before he sends someone other than simple foot soldiers to kill me.'
'You're scared he's sending assassins after you?' he said and chuckled. She had no idea why it amused him. For a single instant she felt the fire crackle in her chest, the raging, burning sensation heating her mind and her skin alike. If she lost control for even a second he'd be dead, just like the soldiers-
'Is any of this funny to you?' she snapped, kicking a small rock in his general direction.
'It is actually,' he said and rose. His armor creaked and her hand instinctively dropped to the pommel of her stolen sword. 'Here you are, In the middle of fucking nowhere, fighting off ghouls and rogue soldiers for a King who wants you dead, scraping a living off nothing and you're scared of assassins?' He held up his palms 'Relax. I'm not going to fight you. I'm waiting for you to find my ghouls so I can get out of here.'

Auri's fingers curled around the hilt. The metal dug into her palm, and she eyed the commander.
'I'll find you your ghouls. Once I do you'll kill them and then leave me alone. I don't trust you, I don't like you and I do better on my own. Understood?'
A nod.

Him coming from the south despite seemingly belonging in Redania was convenient. Too convenient. She had no reason to believe he was who he said he was. She had lied about her own identity the first months on the continent, perhaps he did the same.
Her eyes grew heavier as the sun kept rising. She needed sleep and food. The latter was scarcer than she would have liked and hunting in the woods was out of the question. She would like to avoid running into more scouts or monsters of any kind until she had to. He must have noticed her stomach rumbling all the way to the back of the cave-
'Here. Eat. It's salted beef. I can hear your stomach growling. It keeps me awake in fact. Wake me when you find my monsters.'

She scowled at him in the darkness but ate nonetheless. How he managed to fall asleep she'd never understand. Auri paced the cave for hours just to keep her muscles warm. She had no doubt the ghouls would find her before she found them, they would smell the horse and the dead soldiers before anything else.

The first soft growl caught her attention. It came from the river. The ghouls had tracked the reeking blood of the rest of their pack. The crunching of bone knotted her spine and sent shivers down her arms.
'Are you awake?' she spoke to the darkness behind her and half expected another snore.
'Yes.'
'They're here.'
'I gathered. I assume they're eating the poor fucks you killed earlier?'
'Yes.'
'Good. It will keep them off my scent. They did reek terribly, are you sure you killed them today? They smelled like they'd been dead for at least a week.'
'They smell like every other Nilfgaardian,' she turned to the back of the cave and rolled her eyes. 'Do you want to talk or do you want to kill your ghouls so you can go back to where you came from and leave me alone?'

Mawr stepped out from the shadows and she glared. He'd taken her sword.
'What are you doing?' she questioned and held out a hand for it. He was armed already, he didn't need more steel.
'Contingencies.' he said and handed her the blade. 'I may need your fire if this goes to hell. I assume it won't, but they' he pointed out into the looming darkness 'are definitely more than two.'

He was right. It was a whole pack of them, at least six. Three of them ate, the other three stood guard. The growling moved in circles, they were pacing. The moment they picked up the scent of the horse they would come for her and she would be utterly fucked unless she sent out the commander.
'Go. You wanted ghouls! There they are.' she said and gave him a shove. Mawr only chuckled darkly, drew his sword and grinned.
'If you've stolen my horse when I get back I will hunt you down.'
'You can try, if you live.' she said and stepped back into the shadows. If he died the horse would be hers, she owed him nothing at all. She would have been perfectly capable of killing the ghoul that attacked her herself, he'd just beaten her to it.

She watched him step out into the dull moonlight and sneak left. He made sure to step on the sparse grass and moss covering the ground to hide the sound of his footfalls. Auri knew how this would go.
She knew ghouls. They would smell him before they heard him, then they'd pretend to be occupied with their prey, and when he stepped wrong they would turn on him. The rage would fuel them, if they were indeed a pack, they'd be on him before he even took a breath.

Much to her dismay she found herself stepping out of the cave and sneaking after him, following his footsteps around the bend of the mountain. She heard the rumbling of the river and snapped a finger. The flame flickered in the darkness, casting shadows on the stones and the mountainside. Auri took a deep breath, focused her thoughts and flexed her hand. The flickering flame grew into a ball of fire and she stepped around the bend.
Then came the shrieking, blood curdling screams and the smell of putrid blood.
She saw him then. The fucking commander or whatever he was. Standing on top of the rock, swinging his sword left and right, trying to aim for the snapping, reeking jaws. Auri snarled.

She moved her right hand over her left, splitting the ball of fire in two, gently easing her ragged breathing as she stepped over the burnt armor on the ground. The wind picked up, it blew in from the south and sent a whiff of iron floating to her face. Not monster blood. Not his time.

Human blood.
His blood.

Auri grabbed for her sword.