It was a few hours before Celeste had Iza stop for a bit. Celeste drank some water while the pony munched on some grass. She looked at her water flask. Did Iza need some water? She knew horses needed a lot of water, but did ponies? Maybe she should’ve asked Quin for some advice on ponies before she took off. She held out the flask to Iza. She gave it a quick sniff before going back to the grass. Maybe she wasn’t thirsty.

It was around noon before they stopped again, this time so Celeste could eat a little something. She was sure that there were animals around that she could eat instead of dry jerky, but she wasn’t sure if she had time to set up a fire and wait for it to cook. That and she wasn’t entirely sure how to trap and skin one. It wouldn’t be a problem dressing it, she had done chickens and fish before, but never anything like a rabbit. She’d have to stick with the jerky for now unless she found a stream that she could fish in.

She was about to mount Iza once more when she heard the thundering hooves of a group approaching. She took Iza a little off the road so they would be able to go by. Iza wouldn’t be able to keep ahead of horses.

The group pulled to a stop when they saw her. Celeste had hoped that they would pass by and ignore her, but it wasn’t meant to be. She wondered what this particular group wanted. None of them seemed particularly pleasant. Most of them had no armor, just animal skins and clothing. The ones that did have armor didn’t have metal armor. They looked more ragtag than any Revivers or Renewers she’d seen. They didn’t have the symbol of the ill-fated group she and the elves had met either.

“Now lookie what we have here, lads.” One of them jeered. “One lone traveler. And a pretty one too.”

“It doesn’t look like she has much stuff on her.” Another commented as he rode around her. She considered making a break for it, but he would easily block her before Iza could get anywhere. “After all, she just has a pony. They can’t haul too much.”

Celeste bit her lip. Ah, so these were a few of the bandits that she’d heard about. And she had stayed on the main path too, or so she thought. Had she strayed off it accidentally? There weren’t exactly clear markings out here.

She dumped everything out of her bag. They probably weren’t interested in the book she had, but if they took her food and water, she’d be in trouble. One got off his horse and shuffled through her things. He picked up a book, opened to the first page, and then tossed it aside. He must’ve not been a good reader, if he could read at all, to not realize that he threw away something written by Orsic.

“Is this all?”

She nodded. What did they expect her to have? She doubted anyone traveled alone carrying a lot of things. She doubted they were after money if it still existed after Feon fell. She hadn’t seen anyone exchange any. The one going through her things picked up a piece of jerky and bit into it.

“It was slim pickings enough when it was just the Renewers, the Revivers, and those women around. Now with these Unifiers, there’s even less.” He spat the piece out and threw the jerky to the ground. “What do we do, boss?”

The boss (a slightly larger bandit) put his hand to his chin and stroked his unkempt beard. “She doesn’t have anything we want or need, so maybe we should just be on our way. There might be some worthwhile prey down the road, closer to one of the small settlements.”

Celeste mounted Iza, intending to take off on her so that the boss couldn’t muse anymore about her. Maybe they wouldn’t think it was worth catching up to her. But the bandit near her grabbed Iza’s reins.

“But we can’t just let her go. People will hear that we’ve gone soft.” The boss continued before looking at her. “You, can you cook and clean?”

She nodded, not knowing what else to do. If she lied, there’d be no telling what they’d do to her. Keeping quiet was the only way she knew to hide her fear, though she was pretty sure she was trembling. It probably wasn’t Iza. The pony seemed unaware or uncaring of the danger and stood passively as the bandit held her reins.

“Then consider yourself part of our camp as of now. You can bring your stuff.” He indicated Iza. “But you’ll have to leave that behind. It won’t be able to keep up with our pace and we aren’t slowing down.”

Celeste dismounted and spied the goblin dagger still on the ground. None of the bandits seemed to be paying attention to it or her, busy talking among themselves. She ran toward the dagger, snatching it up. This time, she made sure it was pointing the right way.

“I-I won’t go with you!” She hated the stammer that came out. She had faced Davik himself, these bandits shouldn’t scare her. But they did. “So you better move on!” The last phrase ended in a squeak. All bandits laughed.

“Do you even know how to use one of those girly?” The boss asked as he dismounted and approached her. “And here I thought you were going to be good and come along without any trouble. Oh well, I’m willing to drag you all the way there if you’re going to be that way.” He drew his blade. It was shorter than most swords she’d seen and longer than a dagger.

Celeste knew she didn’t stand a chance against him. Not only did he have a size advantage, but he held the weapon like he knew what he was doing. Meanwhile, she could feel her dagger starting to already slip in her sweaty palms. Maybe she should surrender… No. She might’ve not been experienced, but she wasn’t naive enough to think that they would just be satisfied with her cooking and cleaning.

He flicked his blade up, hitting the blade of her dagger. It went spinning out of her hand and landed on the ground. She now had a sword pointing at her.

“One last chance to come quietly. You can either ride up on my saddle with your hands-free or be tied to the horn. If we weren’t in a rush, I’d make you run alongside the horses, but you wouldn’t make it very far.”

Why were they in a hurry? There was no one else around…

One of the bandits yelled, which was followed by a hearty thump. The boss cursed and quickly ran back to his horse.

“Those she-devils caught up to us. Let’s ride boys!”

The one holding Iza let go of her reins and ran back to his horse, only to be downed by an arrow. The other bandits took off. Celeste saw three streaks pass by in pursuit. How was that group of twenty afraid of three people? She heard a set of hooves clop to a stop somewhere behind her. She nearly sprinted, thinking that not all of them had left.

“Peace, fellow sister. I mean you no harm.”

It was a woman’s voice. Celeste turned around to see a woman on a horse. She carried a lance with her and had her hair pulled back in a short, tight braid. The woman wore a strange outfit. It was a form-fitting cloth with little metal studs that went over her torso, but she had armor on her arms and legs.

“Are you injured?” the woman asked.

“No, I’m all right. They didn’t hurt me.”

“You were fortunate we happened to be pursuing them.” She got off her horse fluidly and picked up the book that the bandit had flung. “Did they take anything? They’ve been getting bold lately and attacking people on the main path.”

“No,” Celeste replied as she gathered up her things. “Well, one piece of jerky, but I still have plenty for the rest of the way.”

“You shouldn’t be traveling alone. No one should. Are you going very far?”

“Just to Rusty’s. Though I’m not sure how far it is exactly from here.”

The woman handed her the book and then picked up the goblin dagger. She turned it over before tossing it and catching it by the handle.

“A decent weapon. A bit flimsy, but you're not probably going to be going blade to blade.” She offered it back to her. Celeste took it and the woman frowned. “Do you know how to even hold it properly? A weapon doesn’t do you any good if you don’t know how to use it.”

“No one’s taught me, but…”

“Then you must come with me.” She grabbed her arm in one hand and Iza’s reins with the other. Celeste could feel how strong she was. “I can’t just leave you be.”

“But I have to get to…”

“Hammerforged is not home. He passed by our main camp while heading out to the Badlands and has not passed back. Whatever business you have with him will have to wait.”

If Celeste thought the bandits outmatched her, this woman did even more. She found herself sitting in the saddle of the woman’s horse with Iza tied to the horn. The woman turned the horse around and kicked its side, making it head off with Iza a step behind. So much for this being an easy trip.