I stopped and glared at the bushes in the dark, which seemed to move. I hoped that my glare was enough to kill whatever demon was hiding behind the bushes, but just to be sure, I was carrying my cards and a small dagger. As something moved again in the distance, I stepped closer to the horse that I had bought earlier tonight. Even though I resorted to glaring in the dark, I knew it wouldn't do much for me, but I had no other option but to keep going.

Thanks to Vittoria, I was travelling at night this time. She was determined to send me to my brother's palace, and no one, even the Matriarch, didn't stop her. As I heard another eerie noise behind me, I contemplated if I should keep walking or stop and investigate the noise. 

Now, I wasn't that stupid.

I pretended to be oblivious to the noise and kept walking through the woods. But I wasn't going to pretend that travelling through the woods alone at night wasn't a stupid decision on my part already, but I had no other choice. 

I had to travel through the woods because I had a feeling that someone from the ferry was tailing me. The idea of being followed by another human seemed way better now than being eaten alive by a wild animal or worse— coming across a member of one of those cannibal tribes.

The only thing scarier than encountering a wild animal in the woods was meeting another human or something that resembled a human but wasn't one. 

I shuddered. 

The fire in my lantern flickered, threatening to go out. I wasn't sure how far I still needed to go to cross the woods. Though I'd been walking for a long time, if I was headed in the right direction, I should already be halfway through the woods. 

The woods seemed to get denser and darker the deeper I threaded through them. After a point, I was tired of walking, and the woods had grown less navigable. I decided to wait till sunrise to go any further. Until then, I decided to rest here and think of ways to make my brother listen to me. Or else, I could always make him see our dead family. 

I decided to set up my tent below an ancient tree with strange marks on its trunk. I admit I could have found a better place, but I was just too tired to go any further. While setting up the tent, my horse started to act a bit oddly. I had tied him to the tree. For some reason, he was constantly pacing and making odd noises. 

"Are you hungry?" I asked him stupidly, but the horse continued to act strange. I was too tired to give it a second thought. I didn't pay much attention to him as I proceeded to set up my tent and build a fire. I had a small dinner before going to sleep. The horse had calmed down by the time I had fallen asleep.

I was halfway into the dream that had started to play at the back of my eyelids when I thought I heard a noise outside my tent. I was sure that it didn't belong to my horse. It woke me up slightly, but again, I didn't pay much attention to it and tossed around before curling cosily into the blanket and continuing to descent more and more into my dream.

"Who could be it?" A voice asked. At first, I thought it was part of my dream, but then I realised that the voice belonged to a man which had nothing to do with my fantasies of living an unbothered life at the shrine without a High Priestess named Vittoria. I was sure that that voice wasn't part of my dream, but I was just too deep into my sleep to wake up on my own and check. 

"Let's find out," another voice spoke before my horse neighed out loud, making me sit up all of a sudden. As I reached for the dagger in my pouch, I heard the tearing sound of my tent's fabric before I found myself surrounded by a dozen of men. They were holding dangerous weapons, and their faces were covered. 

My blood ran cold. It didn't take me long to realise who were they. Everything that followed next was a blur. All I remembered doing was taking out the danger from my pouch and stabbing the very first bandit that dared to come near me, making him cry out in pain. Before I could do anything further, someone yanked my hair back, making me see red.

I flung the dagger blindly at whoever was in the way, wounding another bandit. Still, it wasn't of much use because soon someone caught my hand holding the blade and even before I could reach for my cards, both my hands were being tied behind me while the bandits laughed and joked about me fighting them.

Though I didn't give up my struggle, I gave the men a hard time as they continued to tie me up. I managed to kick one of them right in the face, making his nose bleed, but it didn't do much. In response, one of them slapped me hard and stuffed my mouth with a cloth before throwing me in a bag.

"We might not have been able to loot any merchants, but I think boss would be happier to have a pvssy tonight," I heard a man say as they started moving while I still struggled in the bag. The rage I was feeling for Vittoria was so intense, I could feel my whole body grow hot with it. I felt like a volcano ready to explode. Oh, how I wished I could be one. 

I kept moving, making it harder for the bandit who was carrying me over his back. He stopped and hit me twice until another bandit warned him, "Don't bruise her yet. I want her to look her best before boss; otherwise, he will have our heads. We didn't have any luck tonight. Better not spoil this gift,"

I snapped at this point, and even though my legs were tied together, I managed to align them against his back and pushed hard against it until the bag fell to the ground, and this time, I ended up hitting my head hard.

The bandit carrying me cursed aloud before he opened the bag and tied me again. This time, he tied me to lock my whole body together, not allowing me to move a bit. And even if I managed to wiggle, the ropes dug into my skin painfully. 

I had to accept my fate, though that didn't mean that I was giving up. I was tied now, but I wouldn't be like this forever. They said that they were taking me to someone. As long as I could see, talk and hear, I could get myself out of the situation, but for now, I saved my energy and tried to come up with something... anything to get me out of the problem. I could hear the bandits talking, so I paid attention to them to know what to expect.

"I think it's rather odd we didn't get them tonight,"

"Are you sure you saw those merchants heading this way?"

"Yes, I am sure they were coming this way, and they were a large band of them. At least 30 of them, and as far as I heard them, they were talking about some precious blue stones,"

"Lapis lazuli?"

"Nah, something else. I don't remember, but the way they talked about it, it sounded like something precious,"

"Are you sure they were actual merchants? It would have been easier for us to find them if they were such a large band, but we couldn't even find a trace anywhere,"

"I'm sure I saw them, and they were actual merchants but—"

"But what?"

"I'm not sure, but I think I saw them carrying some strange-looking weapons. I've never seen weapons like that before. They must be from far off lands... there was something so peculiar about them..." The voice trailed off. I didn't know why but this intrigued me, especially those merchants due to whom I had to fall prey to these bandits. 

"Like what?"

"I'm not sure, but they didn't seem to be like us. I mean, yes, they seemed to be from far off lands, and they looked different than us, but there was something eerily different about them... the way they moved. It seemed unnatural,"

For some reason, that description reminded me of the peasant I met on the ship a night ago. 

"You must be seeing things," The previous voice dismissed.

"I don't know. I'm just telling you what I saw,"

"Try explaining this to the boss when we get to him,"

"I think he'll let us go tonight," The voice spoke before someone poked me. I wanted to curse out loud, but my mouth was stuffed. "I hope so. He hasn't seen a woman in a while,"

With that, the two of them started laughing while I remained quiet, trying to remember some spells to defend myself, but at that moment, I couldn't remember anything.

The bandits stopped briefly at a point after walking for almost an hour. I had no idea where they were going, but I thought I heard the sound of water running down a stream. This made me recall the map of the woods that was probably lost somewhere with my pouch and other things in it.

They must have placed me on a rocky surface because I could feel a rock digging painfully in my hip. For the most part, I was busy wiggling and trying to get off of it while the bandits took a break.

"Did you hear that?" A voice asked, alarmed.

"Hear what?" Someone asked before a deathly silence shrouded over the bandits. I, too, stilled and listened for once.

"Must be an animal," someone dismissed after a while before all of them got to work, but oh, something in me said that it wasn't an animal. All of a sudden, I could feel the air shift. I stayed still and absorbed the energy, trying to understand where it was coming from.

There was something so dangerous about it. It made all the alarms in my body ring; goosebumps surfaced all over my skin, the hair at the back of my neck stood up the more I absorbed the energy. But the bandits seemed oblivious while they prepared to resume their journey back to their hide.

As someone picked me back up, I heard a strange noise course through the air. It made something settle at the bottom of my stomach because I was familiar with the sound. 

It was the sound of a sword cutting through a body. I heard someone shriek, followed by the sound of metal sliding against metal.

In the next moment, the bandit who was carrying me dropped me on the same rocky surface. I landed on my hip and let out a muffled moan. Even though I couldn't see anything around me, I could feel my surroundings fill up with chaos. From what I could make out by the noises, it seemed like a fight had broken out between the bandits and whoever the other group was. I was praying for the other groups to be anyone but the cannibal tribe. I would be in deeper trouble then. 

I could hear metal clashing against metal, metal slashing against the flesh, a few bandits begging for mercy and some gory noises that could make a person sick by hearing them. I could already imagine the stream turning red, the night air coated with the thick scent of blood, inviting more trouble. My instincts were right. 

I didn't move a bit while I heard the whole group of bandits being slaughtered like pigs to be roasted for a huge carnival. There was no mercy. 

I decided to remain as still as possible, hoping that I wouldn't be noticed; otherwise, I was sure that I might end up meeting the same fate, but fate has its own sense of humour.

I had my eyes squeezed shut and my body tense while I prayed not to be noticed by the group who slaughtered the bandits until I heard some voices talk. 

"Did you find anything from their belongings?" A voice asked. Suddenly, I felt something flutter in my stomach like it did that night at the ship while talking to that peasant. The voice was also oddly familiar to that peasant.

"Not much, but I do see a bag there. It looks heavy. Maybe it's their loot for tonight," another voice answered. I instantly knew they were talking about the bag into which the bandits had put me. I stilled even more as soon as I heard some footsteps closing in.

"Hmm..." the familiar voice spoke just above me. "Let us see what they looted tonight. From the looks of it, it doesn't seem like something regular on their list," The voice wondered out loud before the bag was being ripped open.

The light of the lantern almost blinded me as it was flashed on my face. This made me move for once, but soon a firm hand gripped my arm and turned me around. A series of those strange yet familiar sensations coursed up my arm, intensifying that fluttering feeling in my stomach. As I blinked away the blurriness, my eyes locked with a pair of dark brown eyes into which I had gazed just a night ago. 

They were slightly wide as the owner of those eyes stared at me in surprise. I was surprised to see him too. Momentarily, he tore his eyes off and glanced down at my body before looking me back in the eyes.

"So we met again,"

_