Observers of all colors crowded the outer ring of the training ground. The visiting caravaneers were interested to see a show, the local armsmen were waiting to get back to their drills, and many workers found themselves with a spare moment to wonder why Count Briello was stalking around in their space. The Count himself lingered along one side of the arena and spoke quietly with his vulpine scribe, wearing a cruel smile on his face that only deepened over the course of their discussion. Most of the rabble chose to give him plenty of room, until a hammer struck a bell and the loud voice of a colorfully masked raccoon shifted their attention.

"Lords and Ladies!" The announcer's strong voice hushed the murmuring crowd. "Merchants and masters and mezzos all, please direct your attention to the Dawn Arena and its valiant contestants! In the Field Corner, coming up to one hundred sixty centimeters, wielding her curious crossbow and knives with an expert's flair, presentiiiiiing! Saaaavrah of the Seeeeaaaa!" Several pairs of eyes whipped over to the announcer at that, including those of the named huntress. The announcer returned Savrah's surprised look with a sly smirk and tapped the side of her own dark hair. Savrah sighed, rolled her eyes, and muttered to herself while she checked her weapon and bolt case one more time.

"And in the Castle Corner, rising up to a monumental two hundred seventy centimeters! The Bruin of Ruin, the Bear Handed Bonebreaker, Gabrieeeeel, Brielloooooooooo!" As Gabriel threw off his helmet and cloak and stood from the seat he'd been hunched on, a wave of surprise swept over the spectators, followed by a raucous cheer! The Count finally took a seat on a cushioned chair to watch the proceedings as his son strode forward, dwarfing the huntress even at a distance.

"You know, you could hand over that necklace now and save yourself a trip to the healer." Gabriel pulled his gauntlets off as well and tossed them towards a cluster of vulpine women that interested him. He flexed his bare claws menacingly. "But it'd be nice if you didn't."

"You think I make enough to skip this payday? You've got nothing coming, big guy." The small woman's taunts barely registered in Gabriel's ears as he put his helm back on and ran through the plan he'd crafted in his head for the past ten minutes. First a feinted dodge to the left, then a lunge to the right to throw off her aim. Then a leap forward to close the distance and scare her into dropping her bow. She could only use two knives at a time, and mere knives wouldn't do much through steel, mail, and bristling fur. All that was left was to decide where he should bite her when he was done. An arm, perhaps? Her right arm, she looks like a righty. Then I tell the healer to let that wound scar.

"Both fighters, ready! And! Begin!" Gabriel flexed his legs, feinted-

ffffftchak

And toppled to the ground as his left knee suddenly flared with pain unlike anything he'd ever felt. He arrested his fall with his elbows and shoved himself vertical once more with a growl, and got a glance at the bolt wedged into a gap between poleyn and greave. A horrid spasm ripped through him when he tried to stand and move, but with his father watching him… damned luck! He kicked off of his right leg and jumped, hoping to skip ahead to the part in his plan where he bit this bitch's face off. Even through the mesh on his helmet, he could see her fear… and her crossbow, at her shoulder again?! That didn't make sense, he'd never seen anyone reload so-

ffffftchak

The crowd shrank back at Gabriel's roar of pain as it echoed over the field. Savrah whipped a third bolt from its case and worked the loading lever as fast as she could, backpedaling while the Natural warrior barely caught his balance again with a heavy stomp. "Damn it! Really?!"

The huntress circled over the sandy soil of this 'Dawn Arena,' which definitely had too grandiose a title. "Just to let you know, I'm gonna see how many of these I can fit into your knee before you tap out or it falls off. Think there's room for all ten?"

"It looks like you're going to lose, Gabriel!" The Bruin of Ruin gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand tall once more as Count Briello goaded him. "What are you, a peasant? Every last one of my soldiers knows how to use the weapons they have, and you haven't so much thrown a ball of mud! You're pathetic!"

It suddenly became clear to Gabriel why he was here, facing a woman whose unblinking eyes were locked on his with predatory intent. Fine, if Father wants me to use his crappy spells so much… I'll make him regret it later, somehow. Twisting his hips, he swept his injured leg across the dusty ground and turned the sting into a shout as the rhythm he found so distasteful poured out. "TemPESTA di Sabbia!"

A cloud of powder engulfed the bear's boot and sprayed forth, forcing Savrah to drop her aim and scramble into a rolling dodge to keep her skin from getting sandblasted away. She finished the roll on one knee, aiming again, but Gabriel was ready with a second wave, easier now that he'd accepted both his injury and the necessity of those old rhythm lessons. "Tempesta di Sabbia!" Another wave of sand poured at her and she rolled again as the bear corralled her into his kill move. Clenching his jaw, he leaned some weight on his bad leg and stomped the earth with the other. "Colpito da una Roccia!"

A boulder broke out of the ground in front of Gabriel and rose several centimeters into the air, the massive stone nearly as large as he was! With a vengeful grin, he stomped out again and kicked this briefly hovering rock forward. He heard a high pitched shout of alarm! And the slab crashed down onto the huntress's only escape path, plowing her into the field as his missile dug a deep furrow. The bear laughed as he watched the crowds flee from the sliding stone and knelt to work one of the crossbow bolts out of his leg, panting. "That's plenty, right Father?"

Contrary to his expectations, Count Briello sighed with a purely disappointed expression on his face and motioned at the announcer to hurry it up. With a quick nod, the raccoon cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "The winner by decision! The Cerulean Sniper, Savrah!"

"WHAT!?" Gabriel jerked his head up and jostled something behind him.

"Yikes!" Savrah pulled her unsheathed dirk up and away from the viscount's neck before she killed him and lost her paycheck. Gabriel ripped his helmet off to find that the clothing and skin on both of her arms were shredded and raw, as well as patches of her knuckles and scowling face. "You'd better be happy that I know where my bread is buttered. That big rock would've crushed me flat if I'd been stupid enough to follow your cadence."

"You…" Gabriel snarled, but felt a strong paw clamp on his shoulder even as he pulled his arm back to gut this wretched louse.

"Failures do not get to claim satisfaction after they've lost, son." Count Briello sneered the word and yanked Gabriel to his feet, ignoring his son's growl of pain. "Do you think I forgot about your behavior when you were supposed to be learning to armor yourself in gapless stone? Bontà Della Protezione Della Terra. Get up and learn it." Gravel collected at the Count's feet, and built upwards into sharply angled armor. The stones gleamed as they fused into a solidified mass, and crunched while he gestured grandly in Gabriel's face with disgust on his own. "And now you look pathetic. This humiliation is how you've repaid yourself."

Savrah took a few steps back, at first to get away from the predictable swipe that poor losers were known for… and then she stayed there to let the two Naturals deal with themselves. She had her eyes on the Count when he shoved his stumbling son away toward a tall rabbit Natural and turned to face her, all the more imposing in his rocky carapace. "My clerk will present your reward money to you shortly. In the meantime, I formally invite you to join us for dinner in the seat of honor, in which a certain useless lout has been sitting too comfortably lately."

"I, uh…" The woman watched Count Briello's shaggy eyebrows lift and quickly thought better of outright refusing, even if the assorted Naturals around them all gasped at the obviously scandalous idea. "It would be my pleasure, Your Lordship. I haven't much to wear besides this, though."

"Arrangements will be made. Maybe a bit of mockery will finally light a fire under that boy's ass… that will be all. You're dismissed."

The Count turned to tromp back towards his castle keep while Savrah silently mimicked 'yOu'Re DiSmIsSeD' behind his back, and then fixed her expression when she saw people watching. If the canine-looking fellow who approached her with a coin purse noticed her making faces, he didn't comment.

"The built-in corset I can understand, but THIS…" Savrah hissed precious air away at a pair of soft and fluffy bear ears on a headband. The cage of whalebone around her torso ensured that she wouldn't reclaim it easily. The headband that Savrah was complaining about didn't care about the verbal abuse, but the quail-looking Natural whose hands she'd snatched it from had already retreated out of the room at her ferocity, not staying long enough to let her even finish her sentence. "Figures."

With an almost-sigh and a curse on all corset and dressmakers, Savrah minced across the room to the door. Her timid 'attendant' hadn't locked it during his hasty exit, so she opened it and ran into the breastplate of a broad armored rhinoceros. The rhinoceros barely seemed to notice, except to repeat "Please stay in your room until dinner, Miss Savrah. It will be ready soon," in the same monotone as he'd used the last time she tried to go exploring.

"Aren't you supposed to be standing off to the side?" The huntress complained as she retreated from the motionless two-legged mountain.

"No."

Savrah considered diving past his legs to escape this puffed up mess, but her next half-breath reminded her that 'lots of cardio' was temporarily not an option while she was laced up. I'd have to leave that crossbow behind too… can't do it. I'm never gonna find lever action as good as this, even if they took my bolts.

I wish I'd gotten one of those feathers, though. Those were perfect for fletching. Grumbling, she quietly slipped the fuzzy headband onto the warden's thick leather belt, closed the door herself, and checked the open window pane instead.

From her vantage point, Savrah could see streams of Naturals and half-Naturals… mezzos, they were called? It didn't seem like a name used in fondness, from what she'd heard. They scuttled to and fro like fishes in a pond, all strange shapes and colors, distant and darkened under the setting sun. There were a few figures that she decided looked both important and vulnerable, in case she was forced to find some leverage later. That chubby goat with the pile of books and scrolls, he looks important and easy to threaten. I could probably hit him from here, actually… if I had something to shoot. And then Stonebrains the Rhino outside would probably barge in and stomp me into tonight's pudding.

Unless he tries to scrub me with sand like Gabriel did? How many of these Naturals can do that in a fight, all of them? Gabriel hadn't been the first she'd seen conjure the elements, but that had been the first time those elements had been aimed at her, and it wasn't a pleasant win, even if a rabbit Natural had washed the abrasion away somehow with a bubble of water. The hare had obviously done his job halfheartedly, and her arms stung even now. Even more reason to be on her way, there was no getting along with these assholes. I bet once they're done using me to make a fool out of Gabriel, they're gonna add Smoked Savrah to the menu, anyway.

Although… that was one hell of a payday, even if Count Briello probably plans to take it back off my corpse later. No wonder Carlyle turned his coat on Hadrian. Greedy ass got what he deserved, though. Idiot never learned not to die with his hand in the cookie jar, I'll bet. That's your lesson, Savrah, everything can be abandoned. Even the crossbow.

With a sigh of finality, Savrah put away her thoughts of bad decisions, worse hosts, and shooting galleries for later, and pulled a dirk out of her boots to carefully slice the strings of her corset open. The cords unraveled after a few saws with the hiss of friction, and the full breath of air that followed tasted glorious to the woman's beleaguered lungs. The second breath was just as delightful, and the third gave her plenty of satisfaction and enough of a headrush to think straight after it had passed. She crossed the room again and quietly locked, jammed, barred, and wedged the door shut to give herself time to plan her way out of here. Staying for dinner while surrounded by Naturals was one of those things on her bucket list that could wait indefinitely.

Several deep voices began talking outside the door as Savrah twisted yet another candelabra into a gap in the door handle. She immediately stopped what she was doing, grabbed her travel pack and bow, and pressed her ear to the door to make the conversation audible through the thick wood. "-to take Lady Savrah to her seat immediately, Grance. Get out of the way."

"I will only move when your father bids me move, Gabriel."

"My, my father sent me to fetch her! Do you think I actually want to be her escort?" Savrah frowned to herself.

"It does not matter to me what you want, Gabriel. I will only move when your father-"

Stolen story; please report.

"Bids you move, yes yes, I get it. Can I at least talk to her through the door?"

"I have no reason to stop you."

"THANK you. Sheesh."

Savrah pulled away and shuffled to the dress cabinets as heavy knuckles thumped on the door. "Lady Savrah? Lady Savrah, may I have a word?"

"I'm a little… busy?" There was nothing in these dressers but skimpy little party dresses, and she'd already turned the two with the most gems embedded in their fabric into tight rolls at the bottom of her pack beneath her coil of emergency rope. Oh, right… for emergencies. Like this one.

She sighed at herself as Gabriel cleared his throat. "Lady Savrah, I wanted to apologize for my rudeness in our sparring match. My father was right, I've been playing with prey so long that I didn't recognize a predator of equal standing."

"Equal?" Savrah coughed before her smarm could enrage the bear outside enough to test the door. "Hardly equal, sir, uh, I'm just a lowly hunter compared to a noble Natural viscount! I'm grateful you let me win."

"Well, uh, I, uh…" While the bear found his words, Savrah glanced out the nearest arched window and decided that she did not like how much of a drop there was to solid ground, even with her rope. "You looked like you needed the money and it's really not that much to us, so I was happy to help! A couple of arrows to the knee and a little, um… em-bear-assment is nothing to me either, hahahaha!"

"Hahaha…" Ew. The boy's pun and the frankly rude pick up line came together and made Savrah's lips wrinkle in a cringe. Ugh, he's one of those types. Clingy losers are the worst, I should have let him win. I need to get out of here fast… of course, the dresses! "I'm sorry, good sir, I'm almost done with my make up, and if I laugh too hard it'll be a mess!"

"Oh! My, uhm, ahem! My apologies, Lady Savrah, I look forward to seeing you at dinner tonight."

"And I you, viscount."

Gabriel's and Grance's voices resumed their low rumble outside of the door, and Savrah started tying fine silks and linens together like her life depended on it, which she was sure it did. One by one, the fine gold-threaded evening gowns and handsome ivory-studded waistcoats transformed into a lumpy rope full of thick knots. The huntress-turned-weaver bound them together and watched the sun paint the sky into an orange tapestry on its journey toward whatever lay below the horizon. It might have been breathtaking, if the loose corset around her waist hadn't already soured her to having her breath taken away. She had better things to do with that time anyway, like scouting out her exit routes.

The streams of people thinned as Savrah spectated the roads. Annoyingly, that goat scribe had vanished from his spot while Gabriel was distracting her. In his place, the chained up laborers in dirty cloaks wearily trudged back from distant fields that overlooked the ocean. Big, small, misshapen, they dragged themselves across the churned earth with the same exhausted gait, pausing beside some figure in a green cloak. This cloaked person lifted the lid of a nearby crate and handed a parcel to each of them, one by one. The last man in line was keeping his feet beneath him better this time, but rather than give him a parcel, the greencloak carelessly tossed something at him that scattered onto the ground around him. The man immediately stooped and picked up as many of these things as he could before the chain gang inevitably dragged him away.

Further on, Savrah noted their second destination: a squat building of stone and mud, with green grass growing on its roof. Ah, that's where the goat went. The Natural seemed to be looking at a list as the laborers entered the doorway beneath his lazily kicking hooves. Savrah had to lean forward and squint to be sure, but it became clear enough that the brambles around the laborers' ankles were disappearing one by one as the goat pointed at each lumbering figure. The unshackled workers bowed and obediently ducked into their barracks, until that last one was the only one remaining. The goat hopped off of the roof for him, and shoved him into a nearby cage before releasing him from his hobbles. Even at this impressive distance, she could hear the metal door slam.

"Yeah, Savvy, that's gonna be you here in a minute if you don't hustle your bustle." The huntress urged herself to refocus on her own affairs, and untangled her silver necklace… well, the crazy Marovo stranger's necklace, more like… from the last hitch she was tying. A pair of satin sleeves creaked with satisfying solidity as she cinched the final knot around a grandfather clock. Even better, as though the heavens themselves were her co-conspirator, the solar star tossed one final beam of light across the land before allowing Briello County to descend into dusk. As the guards on the ramparts lowered their visors or lifted their hands to shield their eyes, Savrah dumped her escape rope out of the window and leapt down after it.

id–nt-…

A whispered word caught Savrah's ear as she descended from the tower, and she almost lost her grasp on the knotted dress clothes as it turned into a throbbing headache. She stuffed her arm into a taut, stretched sleeve just before the pressure overwhelmed her, and swung freely just beneath the window for a few dizzy seconds.

Then the wave receded and she came to her senses, clutching the clothing rope again in a death grip before her arm slid out of the pinching fabric completely. "At least it's over with…" she groaned quietly and rappelled down the side of the keep as fast as she could manage. The window above was still silent, and the courtyard below had already been smothered in the shadow of seamless stone walls. Savrah landed on smooth pavement and bolted for the nearest alley, searching for familiar territory in foreign lands.

re-p--ger-…

"Again? Ngh…" The hunter dizzily pressed herself to the wall with her favorite dirk in her hand. A bleary glance to the left, the right, up, down… she whipped around to see if there was somehow a Briello phasing through the wall at her to whisper in her ear. There was not. Could there be? People told stories about things that Naturals could do all the time. If those stories were to be believed, she needed to get away from anything made of rock, or they would find her for sure. She was already moving by the time the thought fully matured.

Savrah stole another garment on her way out, a dingy sheet hanging from a second story wire that she muddied on the ground and draped over her fancy new clothing like a cloak. I'd feel better if the next laundry line had a few bolts hanging in the clothespins maybe, but so far so good. The rapid descent of night's chill gave her as good of a reason as any to keep her head covered as she stalked behind shops and houses, staying out of the way of the few pedestrians that remained outdoors after dark. Fortunately, the armed Natural patrols were much easier to avoid on her way to the unwalled fields.

The huntress lowered her body as she reached the edge of the clusters of buildings, and surveyed the stone barracks that would provide her with cover until she located an irrigation ditch to crouch into. Simple plans are good plans. Simple is good. Okay, Savvy, you can do this, in three, tw–

"FIND HER!"

Savrah's heart dropped like a lead weight and somehow still ended up in her throat as she heard the furious bellow from the keep. A fainter voice in her head screamed to freeze, hide! But she was already ignoring that voice, swift feet sprinting for the field, panicked thoughts crowding out rational thought with their desperate suggestions. Dig a hole, cover yourself in soil! No, use the sheet as a parachute and try the cliffs! No, stand and fight, take as many down with you as you can! No, better to die on the rocks than be eaten by Naturals!

Free me!

Savrah tripped and fell into the mud with a splash, startled back into awareness by a silent plea that did not feel like her own. A massive headache swiftly followed on its heels, but just as quickly dispersed when a hoarse voice sounded in her ears.

"Please! Free me! Whoever you are! For the love of life, please…"

The woman blearily lifted her head to see a prisoner in an iron cage, begging with his voice and his filthy, reaching hands that extended from his confinement towards her.

Stop for nothing! His life is worthless! Savrah's panic redoubled. Every second you wait is wasted! Run, damn you, RUN!

Torchlights gathered beyond the buildings. Any longer would be too late. The huntress gritted her teeth and stood up again in a burst of adrenaline.

She did not run. She faced the cage. "How do we get out?"

"Your key! It does something, I can feel it!" One hand opened and closed, causing crumbles of earth to flake off and fall. "Let me have it!"

"I can't take it off! Oh fu–duck!" Savrah hit the deck as she heard the whump of an approaching heavy missile, and the prisoner's hands disappeared as a boulder crashed into the cage from the darkness and burst a corner open with a harsh metallic squeal.

"I can't believe it," Gabriel's boots sploshed through the muck as he approached, wearing a handsome slashed sleeve doublet of brown and green over the rest of his partywear, his torchbearer holding a firebrand aloft behind him. There were no signs of his previous injuries in his gait. "You would choose the lowliest mezzo? Over me? ME? The one who was going to save your life?!"

Savrah sighed as she saw the end of her life approach, in the form of a furious Natural viscount and the guards that were slowly assembling themselves to surround her in a wide circle. Her paranoid streak quietly sneered Told ya so and then fell silent.

The huntress bid it good riddance, tossed away the crossbow that had been so disappointingly empty since that morning, and decided to snark as much as she could with the time she had left. "Of course I would. Duh," she scoffed, and then laughed at the sight of Gabriel's eyes growing as round as platters in the ambient light.

"Save my life, my ass. What could an arrogant, untempered little whipping boy like you offer me? Were you gonna ask daddy 'Oh, pleeeeease don't eat her, I wanna win a fight against her first'? Eat shit, jerkass, I don't have that kind of time to waste on you. All this guy wants to do is get the hell outta here!" She jerked her thumb at the bloodied half-Natural as he struggled through the jagged rift in the bars. "So yeah, I do like him better. How about that?"

There were a few 'Oooh's and hisses of shock from the gathered guards, but they quickly faded into silence. Gabriel himself seemed to be completely stunned with an indignant expression. Savrah thought that was just fine with her, and was happy to give the viscount all the time he needed to sort out his daddy issues.

Somehow, the standoff continued until the prisoner finally pushed himself out of the cage and landed on the ground nearby. The jagged protrusions of bent metal had made sure to strip the cloaks off of him as he wrenched himself free, revealing a malnourished, muck-spattered wretch of an albatross half-Natural beneath. Most of his apparent bulk came from an enormous pair of grey wings, straining even now against cruelly tightened chains that bound them to his body… silver chains, thrumming with some kind of power. Something that made their inner light undulate, like the moon reflected on gentle waves.

The grimy man looked at the ring of guards from beneath a head full of long, unwashed hair for a second or two. Then he scraped the unkempt strands away from his face and turned to Savrah. "Fuck," he said with a wry, grisly smile, made all the more macabre by the sallow emptiness of his left eye socket.

"Pretty much," Savrah agreed, and lifted the cord of her necklace. "Want to die free?"

The prisoner nodded and lifted an arm to reveal a silver padlock, partly embedded in his ribs. "I figured that death would be my freedom, but I'll gladly take a bit of free life till it gets here. I'm Rhodon."

"Savrah, charmed. Got any plans after this?" The huntress tried to sound casual as she stooped to fit the key around her neck into the lock, but there was something terribly eerie about how Gabriel hadn't moved a muscle. Nor had the guards. Even the tongues of flame from their torches were frozen in place.

Savrah had never had a near death experience quite like this. Life flashing before her eyes was one thing, but for everything to simply stop in place? It reminded her of the gravy freak a little. No, it felt exactly like that, actually. Savrah shuddered. Between this morning's faceful of Natural magic and whatever this was…ugh. At least Rhodon wasn't shoving food in her face.

"I was thinking of going for a jog, perhaps. I've always wanted to try my hand at cliff jumping too, but I never got around to it-t-t…" Rhodon stuttered as the padlock clicked open and the chains violently unbound themselves from his body. His crumpled wings sprang free as he took his first deep breath. "Oh… stars…"

Gabriel's indignant roar suddenly shattered the moment and sent needles up Savrah's spine. "You ungrateful swine! Father knew you were a spy since… since…" The bear Natural's jaw dropped open as he finally realized the full breadth of the prisoner's wingspan had unfurled before him.

But only for a moment. The viscount screamed at the top of his lungs "Kill them both! NOW! Colpito da una Roccia!"

Chunks of craggy stone, twisting needles of fire, wispy blades of green air, a veritable rainbow of bright elements illuminated the muddy field like a festival and converged on a single point. Rhodon launched himself at Savrah, tackled her to the ground, and covered her with his torn, patchy wings. "Thank you," he breathed, giggling with a madman's glee. "Thank you so much."

A whisper of a word echoed in the huntress's mind as the violent energies descended on their targets. The headache returned as well, but this time it flowed through her and into the winged man's arms as he sheltered her. Re-p--gere, re-pi-gere… RESPINGERE. "Respingere?" she repeated aloud, an incredulous whisper that resonated between them, bouncing back and forth until something broke open and bloomed.

Rhodon's eyes went wide as his wings flapped of their own volition, and he groaned as a wave of rhythm-filled mist escaped from his feathers and congealed into a dome around himself and Savrah. In an instant, the fastest of the fire arrows hissed as they were extinguished. The hurled rocks skipped off the surface to impact the field or pound into the walls of the nearby barracks. The surface of the bubble foamed and roiled with the introduction of each new deadly form of energy, and one by one it suffocated them all.

"AGAIN! KILL THEM OR YOU'LL ALL HANG!" Gabriel shrieked as the impregnable sphere rose from the mud in defiance of the Natural's order and began to stumble away, indifferent to the tens, perhaps hundreds of projectiles that assaulted it. In his desperation he barreled after them himself, frantic to reach into that orb of boiling fog and tear the escapees to ribbons before his father could punish him, but even this fear could not force him to follow the two as they hurled themselves over the cliffs beyond the fallow fields.

The distraught viscount could only watch as the sphere swiftly disappeared into the darkness, but the albatross prisoner's elated crowing rang in his ears for a long time after.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.