The scent of bitter blood is what Tanitha wakes up to. Well, she’s not quite sure if she’s woken up. Though her head, foggy with what could very well be dreams attempting to escape from their rightful place, pounds, she initially senses a voidness around her being.

When she opens her eyes, she sees nothing but absolute darkness. She turns, but finds her arms and legs constrained. A shiver, cold and foreboding, rushes through her body.

Her head swims.

Tanitha has no idea where she is. She doesn’t know what day it is, what time it is, hells, she doesn’t even remember what she’s been doing for the past few weeks. Her mind is a complete gaping hole.

It’s like someone has reached into her and torn her memories straight from her head, leaving a rotting and festering vagueness in its absence. Gasping, the trapped woman kicks at the walls enclosing her, the rope binding her knees together burns her skin.

A scream leaves her as her calves brush roughly against the box holding her captive. Just then, all of her senses collide, and she realizes what has happened to her. Skin, bruised and raw tells her that her body has been abused during her soul’s sleep. The filthy sour smell emanating from her whispers secrets about the amount of time that has passed.

Her ears prickle at what she initially thought was silence. But no, she hears the breath of men. Her eyes, now open, adjust to the darkness, spotting in it tiny rays of dim light. “Let! Me! Out!” Pulling her bound legs back as far as she can, she sends them flying forward.

Wood cracks and the tiniest bit of light shoots from the holes. The box shakes and shudders. Curses, fouls and harsh, flood the air.

Tanitha’s blood runs cold.

That isn’t the mainland’s language, nor is it Talagrek. Heart sputtering, she almost wishes that she had never woken up. Those that carried her drop the box and rip its top off. Her breath catches in her throat. “ Zonith, ” The name rolls off of her tongue like a caress.

She had known that the man would ultimately be tasked with finding her, as he is Zulith’s hertri, but she had hoped that she wouldn’t have to face him until after she bought the services of a drakoen.

A smile, fierce and bitter contorts his face, causing the paste covering the right half to flake. “ Found you, Zalish. ” She shakes at the sound of her name in her mother tongue, memories of childhood games ending in tears and blood making her head go hot. “ Stand her. Untie her legs.” Zonith orders, and the men at his side obey.

Tanitha is pulled up by her arms and damn near tossed on her ass. They throw the box that was carrying her to the side then flip her on her stomach.

“ Watch yourself, ” Zonith barks at the men attending to her. They grumble, but ultimately are less rough when handling her. The ropes at her legs are forcefully torn to shreds and the woman is pulled up by her bound arms.

Tanitha growls. Since the woman is no longer constrained by her fear of being found, she can now freely let the power beneath her skin rumble. And rumble it does.

Each of her teeth elongates as she snaps at the men behind her, begging for a chance to rip into flesh. A hand shoots out, painfully forcing her jaws shut. “ I brought you something, Zalish ” Zonith reaches into a small bag attached to his back.

When he turns back around, a cold shiver pushes shudders down her spine. Tanitha twists, her bound arms pushing against those that hold her unclothed body in place.

Her heels dig into the ground. “ No. Let me go!” They don’t. And soon enough, Zonith is upon her, one of his hands cupping the back of her head, and the other bringing the full muzzle to rest against her face.

A numbing cold washes over her as the pristine leather and metal piece rests snuggly against the slopes of her features. Dreaded tears build in her eyes as Zonith forces the tooth guard into her mouth, effectively gagging her.

Tanitha’s chest rises and falls heavily. Her power is muffled just as quickly as it had risen to her aid.

Once the straps are secured around her head, Zonith gives her a smile. Tanitha’s fingers curl, her nails digging into her filthy palms. He pushes those that stand near them away and leans in. When he’s so close that only she can hear, he whispers, “It will be off soon enough. ”

Giving the faintest of nods, she unfurls her fingers, just the tiniest bit, her eyes never straying from his. Zonith stands straight again, his attention going to those that work with him. Tanitha doesn’t recognize anyone else. Other tribes must have gotten involved once they knew that Zolith had failed to bring her home after the first few close encounters.

“We move ,” is all he says to his companions. And they nod, their eyes only momentarily stuck on the woman that had lost it all.

In the span of a single day, maybe even a few hours, Tanitha had lost everything she had ever owned, and was forced to flee from all she had ever known. She was disgraced and essentially neutered.

Any use of her amono powers would emit a scent that was easily traced by those of her kind. So she was left penniless and declawed.

Her back straightened.

She had persevered.

Tanitha had survived without her family, and with fairly limited knowledge of what happens outside of her tribe. She had earned her keep and paid for her own board, all without her power or connections. People likely thought she wouldn’t survive as long as she did.

She had been no one, and even then, she had still made her way. A nasty shiver trails down her spine, reminding her that she had not been completely of sound mind since she had left home. She can almost taste the cold and bitter desert on her tongue.

The cold sweat building on her forehead had melted the dried dirt. Cascading rivers of mud roll down her face beneath the muzzle. Her lips begin to twitch.

Habit rises as she attempts to snap her teeth at the man that ties her arms to a long rope. They grind painfully against the guard in her mouth. Spit falls. The man tugs her into action, causing her to misstep. The small group begins their journey again, and because her arms are tied behind her back, Tanitha is forced to walk backwards at an unforgiving pace.

Her knees ache even with the bondage removed. Her head throbs, her mind attempting to catch up to its body. The woman can’t even remember how she was captured. Tanitha thinks back. Her brows crush together and her eyes dart as she tries to recall her most recent memories.

But all she can see is Lilian.

All she can see is her smile and her clear eyes.

All she can hear are her melodic words and all she can see is her faint yet jarring smile.

Tanitha trips, falling backwards. Her arms bend painfully in her sockets as the man holding her leash hisses at her. She would hiss back if she could. No . Tanitha do more than hiss at him if she could.

Her body heats with anger.

All of these men stood around her. They bound her naked body and tossed it into a box, as if she was a hog meant for trading. They stare at her as if she is less than the dirt beneath their feet, but if this was a year ago, these very men wouldn’t have even been able to meet her eyes.

They’ll die.

She’ll make sure of it.

Tanitha tugs her body out of the dirt, only to be pulled back into it. Fury rises in the back of her throat. When she looks up, she sees the smallest hints of a smile on the man’s face. Her lips would purse if they could.

Again, the woman stands, just barely being given time to set her feet firmly in the ground before being tugged along again. Whenever she attempts to walk facing forward, her leash is shortened and pulled taunt so that she might have no other choice but to face the opposite direction.

Her bare feet ache as she’s pulled through the forestry. Twigs and the bones of weak animals stab at her heels and threaten to break through her skin.

She sinks her teeth into the mouth guard, wanting something to ground her, as she throws herself into the depths of her mind. That’s the only way she’s going to survive this trip without breaking.

Tanitha is allowed her first stop of the night a few hours later. A river, barely more than a long puddle, stands before her. Zonith motions with his right hand. “Go. No more than two minutes.” He had grabbed ahold of her reins after Tanitha had put the remainder of her energy into dragging that first bastard into the ground.

He had tripped her over five times. How funny can that joke be?

Zonith gives her a few feet of room to move about as she walks towards the river. Surprisingly, Tanitha doesn’t feel the actual need to do anything, so she uses her two minutes to splash her feet around in the water.

Her skin had long since broken. The woman left a trail of dark blood behind them, though she knows that there isn’t a soul that would bother tracking her.

Her family is at home, awaiting her arrival and her definite sentencing for the crimes she didn’t commit. The Onesian’s owe her nothing, and that sniveling oath-breaker could not care less about her wellbeing, just as she could not care less about his.

She sighs as her arms are pulled, signaling that her time is up. At this point, not even the recesses of her mind can save her. Tanitha’s legs wobble beneath her, heat traveling from the nape of her neck down the the tips of her toes.

When trying to inhale, Tanitha finds that her breath gets stuck right in the middle of its travels. Her vision darkens as her arms are tugged again.

Tanitha falls to her knees, wishing her arms were in front of her, if only so she could catch her body.

The woman tremors, her pale eyes glazing just before she falls face first into the rocky bed of the river. She’s knocked out before she even hits the ground.

The sound that awakens her this time around, is a familiar one. The soft and feathery scuffle of lizard’s feet scratches delicately up against the edges of her ears. Tanitha’s eyes flutter open and her head raises from its laid back position.

Looking to her immediate left and right, she sees two arms holding reins that are not her own. Below her she’s greeted with the sight of moist scales flexing with the movement of the creature she’s currently riding.

The woman can safely say that she did indeed miss traveling on the back of a Gronolias. The lizardesque creatures have scales that vary in color and shape, most being some variant of green. Their wings are thick and membranous, yet they somehow still manage to tuck securely under the creatures when not in use.

What Tanitha missed the most about them were their dangerously barbed tails. Her last Gronolias was a willowy female with wings the color of grass and scales a deep maroon. She recalls fondly how the creature would cautiously wrap its tail around her ankle, its barbs tucked away, whenever she was near.

Her heart aches at the thought of her former companion.

She wonders what became of it in her absence.

As Tanitha shifts, the man behind her grunts. She feels the brush of lips against her neck. “ You’re as thin as a little birdy. You’ve not been eating? ” Zonith’s head brushes against her own, and the woman can do nothing but scowl internally.

He knows that she hasn’t eaten a proper meal since she was forced to leave. That would have required her to shift, and that subtle scent of amono magic would have led the tribe right to her. She can feel his mocking smile against the back of her neck.

Tanitha jumps as she feels one of his hands attempting to shift her hair to the side.

She bucks, causing the Gronalias beneath to hiss and swish its tail in warning. “ Calm, little Zalish. I will not look if you are so against it. ” Again, there’s a smugness in his voice that’s hard to ignore.

Oh, she really didn’t miss bantering with the overgrown child behind her. He had long since made it his mission to throw himself into anything she got involved with.

If Tanitha went scouting, he was there. If she was seconds away from brawling, he was standing behind her, whispering words of incitement into her ears.

There was no getting away from him, it seems.

He very well may follow her into the hells.

As her head goes light again, Tanitha lets her eyes fall closed. As they do, she does something that she has not done for quite a while.

She prays.

And she doesn’t pray to just anyone. No. Tanitha prays to Athula, the dark God. The God of sin. The God of truths. The God of souls .

Throughout the journey, Tanitha fell in and out of consciousness. When she was awake, her eyes were closed and her heart was open, begging to be listened to, to be touched. But as everyone knows, the Gods are not ones to get involved in the petty squabbling of mere mortals.

It’s only when they’ve made it to the entrance of the spiraling mountain settlement that her eyes peel open. Her heart seizes in her chest, her eyes blackening at the corners. “ Welcome home. ”

Home.

Tanitha is finally home.

She almost can’t believe it.

Though her end goal had always been to return home and reclaim all that was taken from her, she hadn’t imagined that it would be so soon, nor did she imagine that it would be under these circumstances.

As the Gronolias slither their way into the open passage, the patrol that has settled into trees and at the entryway wave the group through. Their eyes find it hard to stare at anything other than the bloody and dirty nude woman that rides along the back of one of the creatures.

To them, she likely looks like a stray, someone brought in for information or to serve. Though, the muzzle carving into her features has probably tipped them off that she fits into neither of those categories.

Today, Tanitha enters her home as a prisoner.

A traitor.

A deserter.

She can only be happy that a parade of people do not wait for them, for she can’t be sure that they wouldn’t attack her on sight. “ Up. We leave. ” She’s hoisted from the creature and made to stand on her unstable legs. They tremble with the effort it takes to keep her standing upright.

In fact, now that she thinks about it, Tanitha’s entire body is trembling.

It can’t be because she’s scared. No. Tanitha would never be scared of her home. She almost scoffs at the thought of it. She had been fighting and training since she was five years old.

Tanitha knows that whatever punishment that comes her way, she can endure it, survive it. So why is her body fighting so adamantly against the very thought of walking deep within the mountains. Why is her body fighting with itself?

A hand touches the back of her shoulder, urging her forward. The woman walks, her knees buckling like a newborn fawn. It’s embarrassing. No, it’s disgraceful.

Her head almost falls in shame.

She swallows as they enter the sprawling system of mountainous caves, her eyes needing to adjust momentarily to the damp darkness. Tanitha takes a deep breath.

Her nose fills with the scent of rich red mud and crystallized minerals. Her eyes take in the carvings and paintings that coat the bowing walls. Gods, she missed her home.

The men that lead them part ways, each going in their own direction. It seems that only Zonith is needed to deliver her to her punishment.

Bloody feet dragging, Tanitha almost doesn’t recognize the room they’ve just entered. But when she’s shoved, her knees skidding along the cold and smooth floor, she rolls right to the foot of Zulith.

He sits high, on a throne made of stone, a spear in his hunting hand and his blue all-seeing eyes on Tanitha’s dirty face. As she raises, his eyes take her in, noting the dirt and the blood and the gashes all along her.

Tanitha’s head bows deep, muzzle scratching the floor, and her mouth going dry as she pushes words over the mouth guard, “ Hi, papa .”