“Do we look like bandits?” scoffed the hairy, half-nude man.

I cringed inwardly. Scoffing at my fiery little sister was a big mistake. Yes, no doubt about it, I could already see Bheriya’s lower jaw begin to jut out.

“You really want me to tell you what you look like?” replied my sister testily, taking a belligerent step towards the man.

I heard a deep, rumbling sigh from near me and looked over to see our Lord rubbing his eyes in exasperation.

I still couldn’t believe that a being like him existed. I was even more shocked at how Bheriya and sometimes even Dabi spoke to him. Like he was a friend or a comrade. I didn’t have Dabi’s brain nor Bheriya’s…force, but I knew that our Lord was a hero of legend if not a demigod or even a god. I dared not speak to him in an overly informal manner. I didn’t care what my other sisters did, I had stumbled into divine protection and didn’t intend to lose it.

I got flustered when my Lord suddenly glanced in my direction, caught my eye and then turned his head away suddenly looking uncomfortable. I cursed inwardly as I too shifted my focus my back on Bheriya and the hairy man in front of her. I flushed as I realised I had begun to stare at my Lord too frequently. It made him uncomfortable I could see that plainly. Curses Heta, do you want to be pushed away? Left to the mercy of the world? Shape up!

We were near the Eastern edge of the Great Forest. I was glad to be part of my Lord’s company and dare I say it even part of his inner circle, however, I dearly missed the small settlement that we had left about a week earlier. It was the last bandit camp we had freed, a small thing. We had released seven women there, and one sickly baby.

The liberation of that last camp had been a personal point of pride for me. I still felt myself light up at the memory of the part I had played in the liberation. I had got my first bandit-kill there. My other sisters had all killed numerous bandits already, Bheriya most of all of course. Even Rinja had killed more bandits than me! But I had finally got one, accident though it had been.

When my Lord had stormed the camp with a might shout, I had been guarding one of the flanks with Rinja. My vacant-looking sister had been seated on a mossy boulder staring off into the distance, while I watched through the trees for any sign that my other sisters and my Lord would require my aid.

All of a sudden, I had heard a wild rustling and sounds of running when a shabby man burst through the thicket in front of me. I would have liked to have been on the ready and defensive, but truth be told it hadn’t happened like that. I had frozen when I saw the bandit with a rusty sword in his hand appear in front of me. I don’t think Rinja had even moved by then. Looking back objectively, I would probably have been skewered or worse if the bandit hadn’t been in a panicked state and tripped over a tree root right in front of me.

He had fallen face first on the rough ground, still breathing heavily. I hadn’t even be sure at that point whether he’d noticed my sister and me or not. Then he had groaned and made to rise. That groan…it reminded me of other men. Hot, stinking and sweating. A weight over me, my hands pinned to the side. And the pain and the violation. I remembered screaming and falling upon the prone bandit and stabbing him relentlessly in the back.

When my Lord, Bheriya and the others had found Rinja and me, I was covered in blood and sitting a foot away from the mangled body of the bandit I had killed. Rinja still sat on the boulder, not having moved through my ordeal.

Bheriya had looked at me with pride, clasping my shoulders and smiling at me with fierce love and compassion. Dabi and Vinua had spoken words of consideration, cleaning me and giving me a drink of water. My Lord…my Lord had looked uncomfortable. I thought I had spied a glimpse of sadness on his face as he took in my bloody form, but then he coughed and turned away.

The seven woman that we freed had wanted to join our company like all the others we had freed in the past. Instead, we presented Dabi’s plan to them and after a restless of night of waiting, they had agreed to follow it. We stayed with them for two days, working hard to clear away the dead bodies, building rough living and storage huts and erecting a make-shift wall around the periphery of the camp. Vinua and Bheriya also managed to nab a deer and a hare in the forest which they cleaned, skinned and presented to the seven survivors as a ‘gift of the Lord of the Forest.’

When we were leaving ‘Eastwatch’ as Dabi had dubbed the latest settlement, Bheriya insisted on erecting the same sign that she had been placing at all our newly liberated camps. In bandit’s blood the rough wooden board was daubed with ‘Territory of the Lord of the Forest. Aggressors forfeit their lives.’ I caught my Lord rolling his eyes when my fierce little sister staked the sign in the mud. But I noticed that it seemed to make the seven survivors we were leaving behind relax a bit.

When we left Eastwatch, Bheriya tried to make the case that we should turn around and head back to the Western side of the Forest, checking in on all the other camps we had helped set up along the way. But the Lord insisted on seeing the edge of the Forest.

“There’s nothing there at the edge of the Forest! It just peters out into craggy ravines and sheer drops,” she said in an exasperated tone of voice. My heart was in my mouth to hear her speak so indecorously with our Lord. I would give her a piece of my mind later on in the night.

The Lord wasn’t moved though. He simply shook his head.

“I want to see it,” he replied simply.

“But I’m telling you, we’ve scouted it out. There’s nothing to see. It’ll be a waste of a few days. In that time we could be back at Broken Tree,” she said heatedly, referring to the penultimate bandit camp we had raided, so named for the tree stump that lay in the center of the camp.

The Lord looked at Bheriya dead in the eyes, “I’m going East. You are free to head wherever you wish. This isn’t a debate.”

Bheriya huffed and looked like she was going to yell. But then she deflated, probably realising that our Lord had cornered her. He had always been clear that he didn’t need us around. It had always been our choice to follow him.

“At least tell us why you’re so keen on seeing the edge of the Forest,” she said in a defeated voice.

He considered her for a few moments, not speaking.

“Can you see the top of these mountains from here?” he asked pointing to the mountains that loomed over us.

We all looked to where he was pointing. It was a clear day, so the snow covered peaks glowed in the sunlight. There were some clouds but not enough to obscure the view.

“Yes,” replied Bheriya.

“I’ve wanted to see what’s on the other side for a while now,” our Lord continued. “But the climb has been either too steep or too sheer or too high. But I’ve been following the line of the mountaintops as we’ve travelled East and it’s been dipping. Gradually at first but sharper and sharper over the last few days. I want to see if the mountain is scalable from the edge of the Forest.”

We all thought about his words. I found them confusing, did the Lord want to climb the mountains? Surely not. I panicked slightly at the thought. He would certainly be able to traverse these titanic peaks but what about the rest of us? How would we follow?

“Why do you want to see if the mountains are scalable?” asked Bheriya.

The Lord shrugged.

“A friend told me once about a legend that there used to be a group of people who lived beyond the peaks and came down to trade once every year.”

“You mean to trade with them?” asked Bheriya clearly confused.

The Lord shook his head.

“No, I suspect that if even there had been people living there once, they no longer do. But if they had lived beyond the peaks once then the land must be somewhat habitable.”

“And what will we do with somewhat habitable land?” asked Bheriya incredulously.

He looked at her then, still not rising to the bait.

“It could be a sanctuary. From the Prids.”

Bheriya got heated again, and I felt like dragging her away and giving her a few choice words.

“I thought we had decided to face them head on!”

“We decided nothing,” said the Lord in a sharp rumbling tone, a clear sign that he was growing annoyed. I sweated. Why was this stupid girl ruining it for all of us!

“Are we going to keep running?” yelled Bheriya.

“I am going to do what I need to do,” replied the Lord loudly. His voice like a storm over us all. “You’re a foolish girl who’s killed a few ragtag bandits and thinks she can conquer the world!”

His voice was a roar, disturbing the peacefulness of the jungle in an instant. We all held our breath as our enraged Lord drew up to his full height and grabbed the peculiar metal cylinder that never left his side. Even Bheriya seemed cowed.

“You want to know what I fear?” he asked, still roaring.

He lifted the metal tube, pointing it downhill from us. He fiddled with something momentarily and then my breath was taken away as something erupted from the end of the tube. Something hot, large and orangish-yellow.

I watched in awe as the thing that had emerged from the tube flew with a whine and hit a tree a hundred metres away from us and obliterated it completely.

There was silence. All we could hear was the muffled sounds of bits of wood dropping to the earth.

A few moments later, someone coughed.

“Excuse us,” came a gruff voice from a distance. A male voice. Not our Lord’s voice. We had no other males in our company.

I swung around as did my sisters and our Lord to the source of the voice and saw three bears standing there observing us.