“Name.”

Twenty-six had been saying this to herself repeatedly as she walked through the wooded area that she had found herself in since she had managed to escape. While she didn't have any skills related to tracking animals, wilderness exploration, or even basic survival there were a few that things she had managed to work with to make up for what she was lacking.

Having taken everything that she could salvage after the slaughter, that she didn’t immediately think was useless, Twenty-six had a lot to work with. It was mostly mundane items that she grabbed because they were there, but there were a few items that had a magical charge to it.

A frying pan that would heat on its own without the use of any sort of fire, a water skin that was able to produce a bit of water each day, and some clothing that didn’t fit properly, but allowed her to keep warm in the night due to some heating enchant were what she was getting the most use from.

Realizing that she would need to deal with her luggage, Twenty-six did eventually get rid of a lot of what she had taken from the corpses of those she had killed, some of which had become stained with their blood since she was unable to clean it off properly.

While the weight wasn’t much of an issue for the dwarf, especially since she had been able to get healthier and was no longer burdened with the weights that used to be a hindrance placed on her limbs, the size and shape had been cumbersome.

Because of that, she left everything she didn’t think she would need in a cave that she managed to stumble across, not realizing that some of the weapons she left behind would be worth well more than the money she had taken with her. The workmanship and, in one case the material used, would draw the attention of many skilled smiths and fighters.

After some consideration, Twenty-six kept a long knife, a short knife, and a mace with her for protection, but had a bag of semi-random items that she felt was her true protection.

Anything that she came across that wasn’t too large and seemed like it would be of use would find itself placed within the bag. To most people, it would be seen as a small hoard of items that weren’t even good enough to be baubles, except for a few literal gems. To Twenty-six the items in her bag only mattered because of her necklace.

While she didn’t pretend to know everything about it, Twenty-six felt that she knew enough.

Her necklace, or more precisely her locket, would open up over time allowing her to use the locket when she was ready for it and would close or open anytime she tried while in that state.

On the other hand if she found herself in immediate danger it would echo the last effect it had upon her, but only for the smallest of moments. Just long enough for something to be done and, if applicable, the animal instincts to imbue themselves upon her and fade away as the effect left her.

Even then it left her feeling drained and needing to eat a lot immediately after. The first time it happened she had managed to kill a beast in that short moment, but its mate survived. If not for a bit of luck regarding it biting something that she had with her that embedded itself into the roof of the mouth of the creature, Twenty-six thought that she would have died during that time.

“Name.”

Naming herself was something that she had been feeling obsessed with as she kept moving without any real goal or destination.

Considering that she was a child when she had been taken and forced into the cages she had no clue about anything related to the geographic, social, or political aspects that might help her out in the world. Despite those shortcomings, she felt confident because she had been blessed with the locket. It had accepted her and aided her with killing those who would try to take it from her and end her life.

If it made her extra hungry at times or didn’t return what it took within itself to help her, Twenty-six thought that it was more than a fair trade for what she got out of their relationship.

Lightly touching the locket in her hand, she opened and closed it a few times while moving away from where she had stopped to eat, not bothering to clean up her mess except for packing what she would take with her.

“I’m still not sure of a name. I mean what even works for a name?”

Continuing to hike away in the direction of the line that she drew on the ground, Twenty-six went along with her randomly selected route hoping that it wasn’t going to take her anywhere to terrible.

“You’d tell me if you have a name for me right? I mean your name is locket because that’s what you are, but I can’t just say I’m dwarf. Do I even need a name?”

Thinking about names again, Twenty-six started to say what she thought could be a name with each step, mixing words that sounded like they could be names with stuff she thought had a nice tone to them, even if she wasn't sure that they were names people had.

“Aquatic. Trestil. Forest. Branch. Stab. Ulliquip. Pierce. Prance. Jeribyo.”

It wasn’t long before Twenty-six found herself needing to stop as she found herself at a cliff that looked down sharply at a much more open area.

There were nearly no trees compared to the land that was right behind her. Peering down Twenty-six tried to think about how she could get down there, but there was nothing that looked like a pathway and she didn’t feel confident enough to climb down so she began to walk along the edge. She tried to be close enough to look down at the lower level of the land, but not so close that a single misstep would end with her falling off the edge.

“I don’t think I’ve seen one of these before, or at least I don’t remember it.”

Following the path that the cliff had restricted her to, Twenty-six watched the lower level of terrain she was able to observe. She didn’t allow this to limit her attention to the terrain in front of her, but she kept finding her eyes drawn down.

“What,” Twenty-six started as she saw something, “are those?”

Running for a moment to get closer to what she saw, Twenty-six looked down and saw some stretched out shadows that were moving away from her in the same direction she was traveling. A bit of running told her that it was moving faster than she could and she considered putting some animal piece into her locket in hopes of catching up, but she didn’t want to risk using in now in case there was trouble later.

Instead, she just kept along the terrain as best as she could, trying to see what it was before the midday sunlight made the stretched out shadows vanish.

No longer able to know if she was following what she had seen, Twenty-six slowed down and took out the water skin and some of the food that she still had with her.

After a few swigs of water, it stopped pouring out for her. While it would stop eventually, this was a lot sooner than any of the other days that she had drunk from it. Not knowing how magical tools worked, Twenty-six started to feel a level of panic as she squeezed it and twisted it in an attempt to get it to work for her again.

Because of this, a sudden feeling of panic and anger erupted within Twenty-six and she yelled out a string of nonsensical gibberish that was able to be heard further than she realized it would when she cried out.

“Alright nameless just get moving,” she said to push herself, “You have been eating and drinking just fine and there were even a few streams you found. This should be fine.”

Continuing along her path, Twenty-six went back to the job she had been working on, of choosing a name.

“Lupht. Winter. Summer. Autumn. Rephio. Halvett. Sallia. Spring.”

While continuing along the path she had chosen she didn’t notice that the cliff was getting shorter, allowing her to see more of the details below until she saw some smoke on the horizon.

“Smoke?” Twenty-six exclaimed as she stopped, her mind still stuck on the game as she moved closer to it cautiously, “Flame, Blaze. Fire. Heat. Choking. Burning. Ember. Char. Ash. Soot.”

Picking up the pace a bit to move closer to the smoke, Twenty-six took enough time to look down the cliff and realized that she wasn’t nearly as far up as she used to be. While it was still a substantial drop she thought she could risk climbing down it if she needed to, but knew a fall would still be dangerous.

As she got closer to the source of the smoke she noticed a few things. Carts and a number of people lingering around them along with some animals tied to a tree while people cooked over a fire.

The cliff still went on for a while when she stopped, sitting at the edge as she looked down at all the people.

There appeared to be a lot of people, most of which she couldn’t make out for certain what they were except for a single beastkin with horns on their head that curved up and along the sides.

They were all mingling with each other, many of them near the fire that looked to have a large cooking pot over it. The smell from the pot was just strong enough to get to her and it made her stomach growl as a result.

Twenty-six wanted to yell out to them but hesitated as she saw one of the people had a very noticeable weapon at his side that caught the light from the setting sun revealing how much of the day had passed without her realizing it.

This sight caused her to retreat away from the edge of the cliff and get on her stomach before peeking over its edge to try to observe the group of people. She would sometimes move along the cliff in the direction that she had been going this entire time.

After enough time passed while she watched them, Twenty-six felt that she wasn’t looking at anyone connected with those who kidnapped her. The people would never be in such a small group, as far as she knew, and would have everyone armed in some way instead of just a few of their numbers.

Thinking about this she came up with two ideas. The first one was to try to climb down the cliff so she could meet them, but she had concerns about her ability to do so and didn’t want to use her necklace yet in case she was wrong about them and she had to quickly react.

Besides that, Twenty-six considered continuing the pathway in hopes that it would get close enough to the ground that she could just walk around it and continue around. While she did have hopes that it would be easy to manage, the fact that she had gone so far already and it still didn't touch the ground gave her reason to think that was unlikely to be the case.

While she began to ponder the two different possibilities she heard something that drew her attention back towards the people who were lingering below her.

Hesitantly she stuck her head out a bit more and looked down more attentively at the people and saw one of them, a smaller sized person, flailing their arms around and saying something. It was likely that she would have been able to make out what was being said, considering the person was yelling, but instead she backed away from the cliff and moved behind the first thing she found, which turned out to be a good-sized stone that she could crouch behind.

Holding the locket in one hand she opened it while her other hand reached into the pouch of oddities that she thought might be useful to her if she got in trouble.

Listening for anything close to her, Twenty-six attempted to make herself as small as possible in case someone was able to see where she was.

Time felt as if it was stretching on for Twenty-six as she waited. As she waited she checked what she had on her just in case and couldn’t figure out why she was hiding when just a bit ago she was thinking of how to get down to the people.

Shaking off the concerns brought on by the sudden shift her planning, Twenty-six stood up and as she was about to take her first steps back towards the edge of the cliff something rustled the grass not far from her.

The sound drew her attention to the small patch where it had originated and she managed to notice the grass move ever so slightly.

She was just about to take a step closer to see what had made the sound when a burst of smoke erupted from the source. Once it had cleared a human woman stood where the smoke had burst into existence as she waved her hand, dissipating the smoke.

“Who’s up….. Oh, a young dwarven woman.”

The voice was soft but somehow commanded attention that Twenty-six couldn’t help but pay attention to. Before the woman moved closer, she saw her bend down and pick up something from the grass before placing it in a pouch at her side.

As the woman approached, Twenty-six took the entirety of her person in.

There was a distinct smell of ash and smoke that lingered in the air.

She looked dirty, but not as much as she had come to accept as part of life within the cages. While obviously human, the woman's’ hair was fashioned in some intricate way that made her hair almost look as if she had rounded animal ears on the top of her head. If not for the fact that she was close enough to see her normal ears, Twenty-six might think she was a beastkin instead of a person.

Her height was noticeably taller than Twenty-six, but being a dwarf she was used to being smaller than many of the other people of other races. The height didn’t take away from her size as the woman seemed to have some areas that were large while others that looked frail in almost a timekeeper way.

Eventually, the woman crouched down to get more on Twenty-sixs’ eye level and smiled in a way that seemed to amplify the size of her lips and her eyes reminded her of a citrine, not that she remembered the gems specific name anymore. Her hair seemed to frame her head and showed a color darker than her eyes that were closer to hessonite.

“You’re alone?” The woman asked as they got more eye to eye, “What are you doing all the way out here on your own? It could be dangerous. If you're in trouble tell me.”

Twenty-six spoke loudly to the woman and made a quick story, compared to what it could have been, about what had happened.

Being abducted as a child, locked up in a cage for years while the people who took her planned and prepared, and then when she had the chance at freedom taking the job they offered.

Not wanting to let anyone know about her lockets uses, she chose to ignore that it even existed and ended up making it sound like the job was basically to teach the people how to kill by providing them easy targets as a result.

It ended with a lot of the story being told in a confusing manner as she made it sound like some feral beast had killed all those who were intent on killing her instead of the truth. The woman looked more and more concerned about the situation and was tearing up just a bit.

To the woman, anything that didn’t make sense was thought to be explained away due to the trauma or simply not knowing the events exactly as they happened, due to how fast it all happened in the end.

Standing up quickly the woman wiped the tears from her eyes and whistled sharply.

Before Twenty-six could ask what the sound was for, something metal found its’ way up the cliff and was quickly grabbed by the woman.

“This will make it easier for me to get down the cliff,” the woman exclaimed as she started to tie the rope around a tree not far away.

Taking out the bauble that she had picked up from her feet earlier, the woman handed it to Twenty-six.

Feeling it in her hand, Twenty-six noted that it felt smooth, although not as smooth as the interior of her locket.

“You get to throw that down the cliff,” the woman stated, “ I would suggest trying to get it to land somewhere without a lot of people and just going with the flow. If you aren’t used to it the travel isn’t very graceful.”

With that, the woman grabbed the rope and, almost as an afterthought said, “Oh but untie the rope for me before you do it. No sense leaving it behind.”

After her last word was said the woman scaled down the side of the cliff using the rope. Her hands were coated in some sort of ashy looking something as she descended down much faster than Twenty-six thought she could manage, even if the distance was halved.

Once the woman was at the bottom, Twenty-six untied the rope from around the tree. She noticed that there was some metal hook attached to the end and the knot holding it was extra-large, but just let it fall from the side of the cliff as she was asked.

When it was no longer in view, Twenty-six walked to the edge of the cliff and looked at the bauble she had in her hand.

Looking at the oddity, Twenty-six noted the coloration it had. A purple color that seemed to easily reflect the light from the sun. Beyond that there wasn’t much to make note of.

It was simply a sphere made of something that made it the color purple that was smooth to the touch.

“It’s probably a magical item of some sort,” Twenty-six reasoned as she held the closed locked in her other hand, “I wonder what you would do for me if I fed it to you.”

Thinking on that she heard some voices starting to get louder from down the cliff and looked over as some people were yelling. She couldn’t make it out at all, especially with all the different voices overlapping, but somehow it felt heartwarming as the sounds echoed in her.

"Never mind,” Twenty-six apologized as if she had broken a promise to the locket, “Maybe we can test that later with something magical.”

With that she threw the stone down the cliff and watched as it landed in an area that wasn’t too far from everyone, but within their sight.

It wasn’t quite instantaneous, but very shortly after the bauble hit the ground Twenty-six felt a tugging within her body. Six places in total felt as if there was something unseen pulling at her, but not like someone had grabbed her or anything. It was simply six small parts of her body that felt a tug within them all at once, each spot no larger than the tip of a finger.

On instinct, she struggled against the pulling sensation, but without seeing what was pulling at her she didn’t understand how she could fight it.

Before she realized it, however, Twenty-six was no longer at the top of the cliff, but staring up at the ground before her face collided with it. The painful sensation making it obvious she fell and had gotten flipped somehow.

A lot of voices were heard again, but this time they were all must louder and she was able to make out specifics of what was being said.

“.... thing just fell on her head. Do you think….”

“....that Seneyri found was only a…..”

“.... stuff with her. Do you think she….”

Eventually, someone went to her side. It was the beastkin that Twenty-six had seen from up on top of the cliffs. Now that she was closer she was able to see that the beastkin was a man with a strong figure who soon picked her up and started to carry her towards the center of the group.

“You look better than expected considering you’re by yourself. Seneyri said you need some help so you get to come with us,” the beastkin commanded, “She didn’t tell us anything yet except you need some help so we will help you out. How much that’s up for debate. In the meantime, RHIO.”

The sudden change in volume at the last moment made Twenty-six physically squirm, making the man need to adjust his grip.

“Ah a bit loud sorry,” he apologized, “Rhio get the jump stone.”

Unable to see who the man was talking to, Twenty-six started to struggle in his arms.

“I am able to walk on my own,” she exclaimed.

Holding on with more strength than she expected him to have, the beastkin was making it just hard enough for his reasoning to be heard without dropping her.

“You fell on your head,” he stated matter of factly, “I am only carrying you until we get….. Here.”

Before she was able to wrench herself free from his grip, Twenty-six found herself placed amongst many other people.

Looking around she saw that it was mostly humans, but with a good amount of beastkins as well, but none of them had horns like the one who carried her.

After being placed down by the horned beastkin, he walked over to a beastkin woman who seemed to have long droopy ears on the side of her head, like all of the beastkin except for the man had. A short talk was had before the woman walked over with a smile on her face as she moved to sit behind her.

“Just hold still,” said the woman as a strongly toned suggestion, “My husband wants me to see how badly you hit your head. That is why you don’t fight the pulling unless you know not to control it.”

The woman started to look through Twenty-sixes’ hair and, eventually, backed away, “Looks like everything is fine. Seneryi can get to nearly any sort of footing with that thing without so much as a misstep. I heard it’s been in her family for a long time. Anyway enough stories, for now, we got plenty of time for that.”

At this point, some of the kids that had been with the woman previously had gotten closer to them and had started to talk quietly about her.

“Forgive the kids. I don’t think they’ve seen a dwarf before. This is our first time going to the capital since I got married.”

Standing up and shooing the kids away the woman continued, “Korza didn’t want us to come until all the kids were old enough to really enjoy the sights so we just sent his brother to sell for us. This year our youngest is seven. We thought that he was just old enough that it would work, at least as long as we don’t leave him alone too much.”

Unsure of what to say, Twenty-six kept quiet. Having proper conversations like this felt intimidating. For so long things had been simple in their own way.

Only speak when spoken to by those who had control over you. Speak quietly to those around you, but even then there wasn’t much to say that wasn’t already said unless someone new joined their ranks.

Being freed to that cabin had been when she felt the freest to speak. Even then the rules were on her mentally, even if they no longer seemed to be enforced. Now there were just questions.

Did she have the right to speak to them?

Were they people who would beat her for saying something they thought was wrong?

Was she allowed to ask questions?

The woman was staring at her and Twenty-six wasn’t sure what to say and began to panic. Because of that, she did what she had been doing anytime that she felt the panic returning and grabbed the locket.

“Oh, my what a lovely locket,” the woman said, “Where did you get it?”

Looking up at the woman, Twenty-six was glad to have something to use as a starting point to speak.

“I found it. It likes me.”

The woman smiled a bit and moved closer to the fire where the smell of food was coming from.

“There isn’t must stew left,” she admitted, “But if you like you can have the rest. We can figure everything out in the morning.”

Twenty-six hesitated a little bit. It wasn’t a question so she decided to wait for a little before responding.

“That sounds fine…. Could I have some water too? My water skin ran out.”

The woman chuckled, “Sure, but if we are going to have you with us, at least for now, I’d like to know one thing.”

A moment of silence passed before the woman spoke again, “Could you tell me your name?”

“My name?”

Twenty-six hadn’t decided on a name yet. There were so many options and she had thought she would have more time to decide.

“Yes,” the woman confirmed, “Could you tell me what your name is?”

Taking a deep breath, Twenty-six exhaled audibly before speaking.

“Right, my name. My name is…..”