While Scott struggled against the inescapable grasp of his own lifetime of alienation, a world away there was another desperate struggle. It was midnight in the forest of the ancients near the city of Autumn. A place of magic and wonder, fireflies buzzed around. Luminous fungus and plant-life gave light to the space between the massive trees that had been growing in the area longer than the city had existed. Trees wider than a small house towered above the landscape.

Normally a place of serenity and natural wonder, it was now the sight of brutal conflict. A loud feminine cry pierced the stillness just before a girl crashed into the area. She was blond, nearly naked due to the fact that her clothes were bloodied and heavily torn, and panic laced her voice as she cried out.

She hurled herself back onto her feet. Brilliant dove-white wings flared out behind her, but she had not meant for them to do so. The sudden change in her momentum caused her to stumble. She lost balance and nearly fell.

She was temporarily saved from an embarrassing fall due to a hard strike to her abdomen delivered by a glowing green rod. Her mouth flew open and she made a retching sound before she fell to the damp forest floor anyway. She panted heavily while using her hands and knees to steady herself.

The glowing rod rose again and then fell with brutal efficiency. It slammed down atop the girl’s head with enough force to kill a normal person. However, she was no normal girl.

Knocked completely to the ground once more, she was temporarily vulnerable to a series of hard strikes to her head and back. Bruises and ugly welts rose up. Innocent flesh was torn. Yet, she managed to withstand the barrage and rolled away.

“Oh no you don’t!” snapped another feminine voice as the wielder of the rod entered the glowing light emitted by the forest plants. She was decked head-to-toe in green silk and wore a peaked hat similar to a stereotypical witch. In fact, she was a witch. Her name was Charlene and she was as cruel as she was beautiful.

The winged girl continued to desperately roll away in order to avoid the constant attacks that came at her. She did not have a moment of respite until she rolled up against a fallen log then quickly slid underneath it.

“What? You think this stupid little stump will stop me?” snapped Charlene. She dropped down and started thrusting her rod under the log in an attempt to stab at the girl.

The winged girl had trouble maneuvering due to her wings. She took several hard strikes to her arms and side before she managed to slip far enough away to gain a safe distance.

“Shit! Stupid log!” snapped Charlene before she slammed the rod down atop it. A loud cracking sound echoed through the air immediately after her strike and her eyes widened in shock.

She made a disgusted noise then raised up her weapon. The gem at the top had stopped glowing, and there was a large crack in the shaft. “Not good.”

“What’s wrong, my pet?” asked a masculine voice.

Charlene turned to look at the new arrival then offered him a nervous smile before showing him her cracked rod. “I sort of broke it.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

“Really?” she asked, her eyes grew wide and began to sparkle with emotion.

“Yes, I’ll punish you repeatedly, later. Let’s focus on the task at hand for now,” he said.

“Master…” said the girl, her tone of voice showed both a hint of fear and an undercurrent of excitement. Punishment or pleasure, either way it meant that he would touch her later.

The newcomer strode forward then stopped a few feet short of Charlene. “Go ahead and finish this.”

“Right!” Charlene tossed her rod to the side and then lifted one hand into the air. “In the name of burning passion, and the will of my master, flames of judgment come forth!”

In the air above her hand motes of light began to appear. They swirled around as though caught in some unseen wind for a moment then whirled together and became a coherent sphere of burning energy.

“Burst Sphere!” shouted Charlene before chopping her hand down and hurling the burning sphere toward the log. It hit with incredible force and shook the entire fallen tree. The energy of the sphere spread outward like a luminescent oil and the tree caught fire. Some of it fell to the ground and began to burn there as well.

Smoke rose up from the burning wood and wafted among the trees. Charlene and her master merely waited. It would not be long now.

The winged girl could feel the heat and knew that she had little choice. The explosion had scared her, but the idea of being burned alive was terrifying. She began to wriggle as fast as she could in an attempt to reach the other side of the log. The middle section was the hardest part to navigate, but the light from the fire helped a little.

She managed to slip out from under the log on the other side of a bit of steel-thorn bramble brush that obscured her from the watchful eyes of her tormentors. She tried to quietly get away, but the brush that had obscured her view had also blocked off her path through the trees. She was forced to use the remnants of her shirt to try and make a space to crawl through the brambles without being spotted.

Charlene noticed movement on the other side of the massive burning log then glanced at her master. He smirked in response and then she smiled in a wicked way.

Cerene, the angel, did her best to hide her movements while protecting her body, but the thorns still tore into her. She was resistant to casual damage from such a common thing to some degree, but the steel-thorn brambles of the ancient forest were known to be able to pierce even well-constructed body armor.

Bleeding lightly from dozens of minor wounds, she crawled through the brambles then slipped forward among the brush. A quick glance back revealed that many of her feathers had been left behind. The plant-life had claimed trophies and dozens of pure-white feathers now lined her passage.

Shirtless, covered in blood and dirt, she rose to her knees then clambered forward and around the side of a nearby tree. She panted slightly for a moment in order to steady her nerves. This was her best chance to get away! She had to be ready to move.

“Wow, I wonder if she’s burning yet?” called out Charlene’s voice mockingly.

“Well, she couldn’t get away even if she got out. She can’t fly with your curse on her,” said her master in an overly loud and obnoxious tone.

Cerene clutched her hands to her chest for a moment then smiled briefly. They didn’t know, yet. There was a chance! The winged girl folded her wings as tightly as she could with the curse on her and started forward again. If she used the trees for cover, she might be able to get away. If she was lucky the curse would even wear off and she could escape.

She crawled around the trunks of two trees on her hands and knees; and started to feel a bit of hope. That hope was destroyed by the sudden pain in her left wing followed by a hard punch to the back of her head.

“Dumb bitch. You actually thought you’d get away?” asked Charlene before she punched Cerene in the back of the head again.

“How! I heard you talking,” asked Cerene after the second strike.

Charlene laughed cruelly and then grabbed the girl’s platinum blond hair and pulled her head back. She forced Cerene to look into her eyes. She started to speak but no words came from her lips. However, her voice could be heard back on the other side of the burning log. “Such a fucking idiot.”

“You should just go ahead and give in before you make her mad,” said Charlene’s master. Cerene looked over to see him leaning casually against a tree.

“No…” whispered Cerene.

Charlene slapped her hard across the face then laughed when the blond girl began to sob quietly. “You’re only hurting yourself. No one gives a fuck about a stray like you.”

“No,” said Cerene once more, her voice stronger this time.

Another slap to the face did not cause the girl to relent, but it did cause her to lash out in an attempt to strike at her tormentor. The moment Cerene’s fist made contact with Charlene’s abdomen, a powerful magical current arced through her. The blond girl screamed in agony and fell to the ground while pain lanced through her body.

“Man, you’re dumb!” Charlene lifted her hand to her mouth and laughed cruelly. “You know you can’t fight back.”

A small puddle of urine formed between Cerene’s thighs due to the sudden onset of pain. She twitched spastically for a moment then curled into a ball.

“Oh, poor little thing. I think she’s ready, master,” said Charlene in a light tone of voice.

Henry smiled casually then slipped forward. “So soon? She was easy.”

He stopped at Cerene’s head and loomed over her fetal form. “You led us on a merry chase my angel, but there was never any chance of escape. You can’t fight Charlene.”

“No…” whispered Cerene weakly.

Henry placed a hand to his ear and made a listening gesture. “Was that a yes that I heard?”

He reached down and grabbed her by her hair. He dragged her up from the ground a little then said, “You’ll learn that no is not a word that you’ll be allowed to use.”

Charlene smiled darkly as her master began to instruct his newest capture. It always made her feel a slight tingle when she watched her master break in a new pet.

“No…” whispered Cerene, but she slowly mouthed something else that could not be heard.

“What was that? Yes, what?” asked Henry with a smirk.

Cerene’s fist shot forward and solidly connected with his groin. The sound of a heavy impact was followed by a girlish scream that echoed through the forest. Henry dropped to the ground and clutched at his injured pride.

“You bitch!” snarled Charlene. She lunged forward to try and attack the angel, but the winged girl jumped up at just the right time to put the witch off balance. Charlene fell atop her master and he cried out again.

The witch apologized repeatedly to her master, while they tried to disentangle themselves. Cerene took the chance to try and make her escape.

“Get off of me, you useless slut!” screamed Henry.

“Master!” croaked Charlene. He was mad. That was his mad voice. She knew it well.

“You told me she was bound against attacking you.” snapped Henry.

Charlene winced. “Well, she was bound against attacking me as you asked.”

He stopped struggling and stared at her, hard. “Useless. You bound her against attacking you, but left me vulnerable?”

“Brother, I’m so-” began Charlene, but a hard slap across her face stopped her.

“Don’t you ever call me that, you slut.”

“But-!” Charlene cried out.

Henry whipped the back of his hand across her face once more. “My sister died three months ago. You’re just the whore who was left behind. A dog in heat, nothing more.”

Charlene clutched her face and began to sob. Another slap echoed through the clearing and she cried out again.

“Stop that crying, you useless bitch. Go catch her, or I’ll sell you to a dockyard brothel,” snapped Henry.

“Y-yes, of course bro- master,” said Charlene. She bit down gently on her lower lip and fought back her tears. Her face stung terribly, but it was nothing compared to the pain he had inflicted with his rebuke. Of course, he was right, she was not his sister anymore. She was just his property.

Charlene rose to her feet, took a deep breath, then turned and ran off toward the fleeing angel. The stray would pay for causing so many problems.