As soon as the Warlock left, the girls resumed work, though Dene was no longer paying attention.

'That was it?' she thought to herself, confusion filling her heart.

She had seen the pain in her father's eyes when he slashed at her, along with the shame she felt when she had to shave her head, both to try hiding her identity.

And then after one month as a captive and now deep into the enemy territory... no one has ever asked her name, not even once.

'They didn't even try to know who I was. Maybe if father tried to hide among the other tribesman...' She wondered for an instant but quickly shook her head, discarding the idea. 'Even if he would agree to such a thing, I don't think the white ones would ignore father's markings.'

"Haaa..." Dene passed the back of her hand through what little hair had grown back in the last month. It no longer prickled when she did so, but it was still shamefully short.

After succeeding on her trial, she never once knew defeat, neither as a hunter nor a warrior. The long, dreadlocked hair reaching the lower back was proof of that.

Now it was gone, along with her family, her tribe and everyone else she knew.

*CRACK!* The sound of wood breaking brought her back from her thoughts.

She looked down and saw what had happened.

All this while she had been grabbing onto the side of the bathtub and must have put too much strength into it.

"What was that?" A guard asked from outside.

Dene glared at the nearest girl.

She trembled slightly then made up a lie, "I-I slipped Sir," afraid of what Dene would do to her.

"Hmph, hurry up and finish washing it, we don't have all day."

"Yes, Sir." the girl answered, then turned back to Dene awaiting permission.

“... You heard him.”

The girls got back to soaping, then washing Dene’s body. When done, she stood up from the bathtub so they could wipe her with the towels.

That’s when the door opened once again, and in came a fourth servant girl carrying a bright green dress, black undergarments along with black leather shoes and a small glass bottle.

After making sure she was completely dry, the servant girls worked together to put her in the undergarments and then in the dress. It clung tightly to her upper body, thanks to the girls tying the laces in the back as hard as they could, while the frilled and slightly bulky lower part reached all the way to her feet.

When done, two of the girls then proceeded to help her put on the shoes while a third sprayed the contents of the glass bottle on her body.

It was perfume, though Dene suspected it to be a torture instrument, such was the nauseatingly sweet fragrance.

“I put a little extra Miss,” the servant girl said, “so it may last all the way there.”

‘So that I may be nauseous all the way there.’

“Now that you’re ready, let’s go, we don’t want to keep the guards waiting.” the girl said, then left the washroom alongside the other three carrying away the soaps, towels and other things they had bought.

‘So this is it.’ Dene sighed before leaving after them.

The same four guards waited outside. Maybe to prevent dirtying her dress, they didn't chain her up again and simply positioned themselves two in front and two behind her.

They went back through the same corridor, descended the flights of stairs towards the ground level, but instead of going towards the entrance, they went the opposite way, towards the back of the castle.

Passing through an open doorway, Dene found herself in a large porch with neatly lined white tables, each encircled by four to eight golden whisker chairs, along with a hole in the middle of said tables through which passed an also golden parasol.

‘Should be able to fit a hundred people easily,’ she figured.

Further ahead was an open field of grass, cut in half by a wide, straight path made of stone, going all the way towards the castle walls’ gateway.

At the right side of this path, there were carriages painted in bright colors lined up with various people around them, mostly guards. Among them was the same assistant from before.

Though her attention was on the carriages, each pulled by two white horses donning golden caparisons. Not stuffed wagons as the one she came in, but carriages worthy of a noble.

‘Must want their “gifts” nicely wrapped. But why only eleven?’ Dene wondered. There were twelve tribesmen counting herself.

Apparently, she wasn’t the only one wondering though, as one of the guards escorting her asked another, “Shouldn’t there be one more carriage?”

“They must have sent one out already, I don’t know.”

Not caring about it, or not daring to ask, the guards just remained quiet and took Dene to the assistant.

“You’re here,” He said, “there’s been a change of plans. You’ll be going on the Gale.”

The guards’ eyes shone when they heard that.

“Don’t get distracted,” the assistant continued, “keep an eye on it the whole way, understood?”

“Yes, Sir!” The quartet answered in unison.

“Good,” he said, then handed them a metal collar, “put this on it and wait here.”

They promptly obeyed his orders, closing the collar around her neck and padlocking it, and turned their gazes to the sky, as if expecting for something.

Dene, on the other hand, was more interested in the collar. It had one small ruby encrusted both at the front and the back, along with one small emerald on each side. Though what really had drawn her eye was the blackish metal with specks of purple of in it.

She only knew of one such metal, the same from the chains and shackles used on her on the way here. Triotium.

‘No weapons, outnumbered and also can't use spells. I’ll have to bide my time, wait for a chance to esca-’

“...kreeee-eeee-aar...”

Dene’s thoughts were interrupted by a hoarse, rasping cry up high in the distance, from the other side of the castle.

‘What was that?’ She looked for the source of the sound, but her view was blocked by the large structure.

Though the guards maintained their excited looks.

‘Could it be the Gale?’

“Kreeee-eeee-aar”

The same scream, louder this time. Whatever it was, it was approaching.

They kept their gazes on the top of the castle, so did her. The seconds seemed to drag forever until finally...

“KREEEE-EEEE-AAR!!”

Dene felt the cry reverberating inside of her as she finally saw the source of it.

With a wingspan almost as large as the castle itself, a gigantic bird descended towards the field, gusts of wind blowing against all those present. On its talons, it carried what looked like another carriage, but without its wheels.

It closed in on the ground, gently dropping what it was carrying, or at least as gently as it could, then landed further up the path and away from the carriages, whose coaches tried to calm the now agitated horses.

‘By the gods,’ Dene remained rooted to the spot, entranced by the gigantic magical beast ‘is this the Gale?’.

Its body covered in an evenly dark brown plumage stood tall at three or four stories high. It had eyes at the front of its head, a powerful, curved beak and strong feet with talons, all traits of a bird of prey.

Wrapped around its neck was a leather strap holding the saddle on which a sat a white armored Knight.

“Start walking,” a shove by one of the guards brought her back to reality and they conducted her towards the wheelless carriage.

Taking a closer look at it, she saw that it was actually a large litter, with a single pole sticking out from both ends at the top where Gale would grab on. Hanging, under each of its curtained windows, were banners in the same golden and white colors she had seen everywhere else since she walked out of the wagon.

She walked towards the litter’s door, under one of the poles and entered.

Once inside, she was immediately greeted by a boy’s stare. He remained seated, gazing curiously at her without opening his mouth.

‘Just a child, probably has never met a southerner before.’ Dene thought and found herself a seat, not wishing for another shove from the guards behind her.

The litter had two rows of six cushioned chairs, each facing one another. The boy sat at the furthest seat at the right and she chose the seat facing him, finding his innocent curiosity preferable to the guards’ hostility.

Not surprisingly, the litter’s inside was a mix of gold and white, with walls painted vertical stripes, the floor completely white while the ceiling was golden. Curtains alternated on these same colors and not even the chairs escaped with their white frames and golden cushions.

‘What’s with these people painting everything golden and white?’ She wondered, then noticing a pair of gold and white hand waving flags over the boy’s lap, ‘Gods...’

The last of the guards got inside, closing the door then taking a seat along with the others and furthest away from Dene. They would be flying soon and the only way she could escape to was down, so no need to pay much attention to her.

With everyone inside, the boy’s attention left Dene. He opened up the curtain along with the window closest to him and waved the little flags at the magical beast outside.

“KREEEE-EEEE-AAR!!” it once again cried and promptly took to the air, away from her field of view, no doubt coming to grab the litter.

Next thing she knew, everything shook and she felt her stomach dropping.