The first bath I had taken in months was amazing despite having to bathe in the cold water of the river. The soap had helped clean my skin of the stains the black sand had left on me, but the time I had spent in that room and away from the sand had not even done much. My hair had fared little better and had only gone from a dark grey to a medium grey. Normally I would have been happy to have gotten some coloring to my hair, but this hair dye was made from dead people…

Thoughts of Perrinu flashed into my mind. I had been pushing kept so busy training the last couple of weeks that I hadn't been able to think much but now that I had some time to think. The moment of her death flashed in my mind. Was her death my fault? I knew there was nothing I could have done at the moment to save her, there were just too many men. Maybe if I hadn't decided to join the Servant's side? Maybe if I had helped Martu and Helnion sooner?

I had also left Helnion behind. Why hadn't I been more insistant that Servant... No, she was better off without me. I know we'd had a lot of fun memories together but she would be better off without me.

I felt Helnion was safe. If Servant hadn't kept his part of the deal there was a good chance Usui or Kel would help her. If not Martu would keep her safe.

Perrinu...

The sight of the sword going through her chest flashed in my mind again. Such a pointless death. In a way I blamed Servant as he chose to turn those men into Berserkers with her nearby. He had to know that he woudn't be able to control them, didn't he? I still didn't know how much I could trust him and him putting me in this canyon didn't help much.

I missed Perrinu and Helnion. I had hope I could see Helnion again, but Perrinu...

I recalled all the things Perrinu had done for the men. For me. How she tried to make us happy. How she tried to be a good example for us. How she tried to get us to be nice to each other.

I should have listened to her. I should have done more to help her.

With these thoughts, these regrets, I started crying for the first time since I came to Calorin.

There was nothing I could do to bring her back, but I could try making her proud. I could try to help people, not for money but because it is the right thing to do.

Could I do it? The thought of interacting with people... Yes, I could do it. Even if it's one step at a time.

I shook my head, my still wet hair clinging to my face. I could do it, if only one step at a time.

I finished my bath and got dressed in the clothes Servant game me. I then looked around for Deko. "You can come out now Kitten," I called her by the name I had chosen.

No sooner had I said this than Kitten came out from behind a rock. She gave me an annoyed look but said nothing, if she could say anything to begin with.

When I had picked up the basket, my sword, bow, and quiver I started walking downstream that lead towards the Non' River. Even if I did not want to be in Toa Mirr, it was where I was and I would need supplies eventually so to Eto I would go. I didn't look back to see if Kitten was following.

It had not taken long for me to get hot so I soon walked barefoot in the river, holding all of my supplies above my head to keep them dry. Thankfully, because of all my training in Earth gravity everything was lighter in the lower Calorin gravity, despite my muscles still being a little sore.

Kitten had seemed surprised with how easily I could hold it all.

* * *

It was just before nightfall. I had no idea how far I had walked that day and I had no idea how much farther it was until I reached the Non'. As I wanted to get out of this place in the middle of nowhere, I decided that I would walk for as long as possible and would make a light out of magic after it got dark, if my magic power was strong enough to make a useful one that is.

Kitten stopped and looked around, sniffing the air. She then ran off.

Suddenly I felt a strong sharp pain in my leg and I immediately fell, dropping everything I had been holding. When I looked down to see the cause of the pain and saw an arrow sticking out of my thigh.

I immediately grabbed for my bow on my back with my quiver and loaded an arrow and looked to see who had shot me.

"Put th' bow down if y' do not want t' die right now, Terran filth." A rough male voice said, his accent giving away his Tao Mirran upbringing.

I dropped my bow and looked in the direction the voice had come from and saw a group of seven men coming out from behind a large boulder near the shore on the opposite side of the river. Two of them were holding bows and had them aimed right at me.

"Do not try an' stop the arrows with your magic, Terran," He pulled out his sword as he started to cross the river.

Had these men come prepared to kill me? Had they known I would be here and what my skills were? If so, why had they not killed me outright and only disabled me?

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Your life be worth good money."

Someone had put a bounty on my head? Well, Toa Mirr had tried to capture me before so it didn't surprise me. What surprised me, however; was that he said my life was worth money. Why would Toa Mirr want to kill me when they thought they could get access to my knowledge from Earth? Maybe they had decided I wasn't worth the trouble anymore?

This led to my next question. How did they know I was here? Did Servant set this up or had someone followed Kitten?

The group of men had now crossed the river and had surrounded me.

"We still be playin' wit' the girl before we kill her boss?" One man said.

"Until she dies." The first man said. "But I get first."

WAIT… What did they mean by playing with me? They weren't going to rape me, were they?

I tried to stand and got onto my good leg and said, "I won't let you touch me as long as I am alive."

The men laughed.

"I like it when they act all defiant." One man said.

"Yeh makes it more fun t' break 'em." Another said.

I grabbed my sword from the shallows of the river nearby and then lunged at the nearest man that was holding a bow as hard as I could with my good leg and a little magic.

My sword struck him hard, creating a huge gash across his chest and shattering his bow he had tried to block with.

Knowing I didn't have time to position myself with only one leg to lunge at the next man, I held up my sword and struck at him with lightning, killing him.

I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, causing me to drop my sword. I then fell on my face as one man kicked me in the back.

"Now I see why they told us t' not get near her if she 'ad her sword." One man said.

"Never saw anyone jump like that." Another said. "'Specially with only one good leg."

The leader of the men picked up my sword, "T' think we would find such a valuable sword on such a little thing.”

"How much you think we can sell it for boss?" Someone said.

"We can find out when we finish with the Terran." The leader of the men then knelt and stroked my hair. "Shame you tried dying your hair and skin. Was looking forward t' dirtying the white."

The man stood up and soon after and pulled the arrow in my left shoulder out, causing me to cry out in pain. I was then flipped over and two of the men pinned me down. They then put a crystal collar around my neck, one that I knew to leech magical energy from the wearer, and it began glowing brightly as it did so.

The men then slowly scanned over my body with their eyes.

"I prefer more mature women, but I like children too," The lead man said.

The man knelt next to me and caressed my face before reaching for my clothes. I could feel his lust, as well as that of the two other men, as he did so. I cringed at the filthy feeling and fear began to rush uncontrollably into me.

"Are you all right Buyt?" One man said. The leader paused and looked at the man pushing my shoulders down.

The man in question looked pale, and I noticed that his hold on me was getting weaker. The man holding my feet looked almost as pale.

"Just feelin' a bit tired boss," Buyt said.

As soon as the Buyt said this his arms gave out, and he landed on top of me. The man at my feet fell soon after.

"Get them off of her!" The leader shouted. "Shoot her if she does anything."

They quickly took the two men off from on top of me. As soon as they did this, the leader knelt on my chest and held my sword down at me, ready to pierce my chest.

"I do not know what kind of trick you used but you will not live long enough t' do it again." He said angrily at me.

I could feel his rage. It entered me uncontrollably and to my disgust, I could feel it strengthening me, if only a little. I then noticed something. The more of his rage that entered me, the more pale he became. What was happening?

"Boss you all right?" The man with the bow said. "Hurry and kill her before she does something t' you too."

Instead of plunging the sword into my chest, the man dropped the sword and fell over. When the two remaining men saw this, they readied their weapons.

The man with the bow shot at me. I raised my arms hoping to block a lethal shot. The arrow pierced my left arm, coming out the other side. It was all I could do not to scream from the pain.

Ignoring the pain best I could, I grabbed my sword from the body of their now lifeless leader and hurled it at the man with the bow. With a soft thud it pierced his stomach, and he fell over, clutching at his wound.

Next, I grabbed the body of the leader and with all my strength pulled him between me and the last man just as he brought his sword down at me. The sword dug into my meat shield. I knew I only had moments before the man pulled the sword out so I grabbed his wrist and squeezed as hard as I could, hoping I could inflict enough pain to make him let go of the sword.

The man yelped but held on. I could feel his anger, fear, and uncertainty as I held his arm.

Seeing that he would not let go, I pulled on him as hard as I could, hoping to make him lose his balance. He did and nearly landed on top of me.

I twisted his arm. His fall had loosened his grip on the sword and thankfully a little help from me made him let go and as quickly as I could I finished pulling the sword out of the leader's body and swung at the man before he had recovered from his fall.

I pushed the leader's body off of me and lay for a moment, catching my breath. Was I safe now? I was sure five of the men were dead, but what about the two that had collapsed earlier? Would they wake up soon and try to kill me?

I pushed myself off the ground, barely managing to not faint from the pain. I did not feel as weak as I thought I should have been, and if not because I had been shot by arrows, I felt stronger.

I limped over to where the bodies of the two men that had collapsed lay and checked their pulses. I felt nothing. Whatever had happened to them had killed them. I decided that figuring out how what had happened could come later as I still had an arrow sticking out of my body and probably a lot of bleeding to stop.

I then noticed Kitten had come back and merely looked at me with disinterest.

My wounds were not as bad as I had expected, and aside from being unable to use my left arm and right leg, there was little bleeding so it wasn't hard to bandage them. Sure they hurt really really bad, but it had been nothing compared to… compared to what? I vaguely felt that I had felt pain even worse than these arrow wounds but couldn't place it. Something to do with the way I died?

Another thing to think of later, I guessed. Now it was dark and the light from my collar had become too dim for me to see very well and I did not want to risk that little amount of light revealing my location to any other undesirables that might be nearby. Not that I could walk very far with a hole in my leg, anyway.

Despite the struggle, I had just been through and the wounds I had received; I did not feel very tired, but since I had nothing better to do, I hobbled over to the river and tried to find the things I had dropped when I had been attacked. I hoped that I had not dropped them into the river, but since they had hit me from the opposite side of the river I might have been lucky enough for the force of the impact to have pushed me to drop my things towards the shore. My sword had so the chances for everything else to have done the same was good.

Fortunately and unfortunately, I had been in a section of the river with vegetation not as dense. This meant I would not have to dig through much brush in the dark and could find my things much more easily. It also meant that there was less there for my lighter things to snag on, keeping them from floating away.

As I searched, Nirca rose over the edge of the canyon and cast its dim reddish glow, allowing me to see much better. After this, I easily found most of my belongings and the only things I couldn't find was my right shoe and some loaves of bread. Sadly, most of my food had gotten wet.

With most of my belongings secured and put into a safe place, I checked the bodies of the men. Since all of them except for their leader had been carrying leather bags on their backs, I decided it would be a good idea to check them for food before the several kinds of small animals I had seen got to them.

I was in luck. Well, maybe if you called stale bread, unsafe looking meat, and flasks of a foul-smelling malted drink a lucky find. It was better than starving. I just hoped that the good food I had been given would last me long enough to make it to a settlement of some sort.