The Depth of Perception

Hunted

Oriana and Jonathan had decided it would be a good idea to pretend their conversation had never happened, at least as far as the rest of the family would be concerned. Oriana knew by then that they would never do her any harm, but it was safer for everyone if they didn't know her true identity.

Instead, she spent the next few weeks learning anything Wrench's family would teach her. Already naturally inquisitive, Oriana's desire to keep her mind occupied left her even more eager to learn than usual. The fact that she was leaving everything she'd ever known behind for the Romantics' homeland (which they told her was called Viducia) still made her uneasy if she thought about it too directly.

She learned to play a few simple tunes on Jonathan's lute, and how to dance like they did (which involved a great deal of jumping around and was delightful). She learned some of their songs and taught them some of the ones she knew. She learned a little about how the caravan ran, but couldn't wrap her head around anything other than the most basic workings of the machine.

When she tired of learning or ran out of subjects, she would hunt for dinner. This concept utterly baffled the family, who had never seen anyone use a bow as much more than a toy at short distances. Oriana tried to teach Wrench how to shoot, but her friend seemed just as incapable of understanding it as Oriana would be trying to build a caravan from scratch. Wrench had eventually become frustrated and thrown her namesake at the fox they were hunting, accomplishing more than she had all day. That night at dinner, a proud look followed her for the whole meal.

But there was only so much to keep her occupied on the road, and by the time the mountains that separated Viducia and Oriana's homeland—Mardok—were in sight, she was beginning to dwell on the past again. Even though she could almost see Wrench's family like they were her own, she missed her mother. Wrench's constant babbling about all the wonders of her homeland barely managed to attract Oriana's attention, and her meals sat abandoned after being poked at in vain.

By the time they finally reached the boundaries of Wildwood—the forest that encompassed most of Mardok—and set up camp in the shadow of the mountains, she was barely able to sit still with all the thoughts scrambling for a spot in the front of her mind. The night was already making way for the earliest hint of dawn when she finally nodded off.

It wasn't long after that she was awakened by a peculiar feeling. Her nose tickled, her mouth felt hot, and she was having trouble breathing. Still groggy, she had almost concluded that she was getting sick when two things happened at once; she realized there was a strip of thick cloth tied over her mouth, and she felt herself lifted into the air and over the shoulder of someone whose dark silhouette she couldn't recognize.

"Gots her. Take care of the rest of 'em."

It took her a moment to wake up fully and realize she was being kidnapped, but when she did she flailed like a fish out of water, punching and kicking at her assailant and trying without avail to scream through her gag. Unfortunately, the brute carrying her, while not much taller, was built like an ox and didn't seem at all affected by Oriana's protestations.

Despite this, Oriana kept at it, refusing to go easily. The man brought her back into the forest, and she had just lost sight of the campfire outside the caravan when she managed to push her gag from her mouth and scream at the top of her lungs.

"Won't do ya any good, ya little freak, " the man said, laughing. "Them Romantics is all tied up by now and they'll be dead soon enough."

This only caused Oriana to fight even harder. She couldn't let Wrench's family die! But she was having no effect whatsoever; he was just too much bigger. She had to try something different.

"Let me go! I'll pay you!"

Instead of letting her go, he stopped for a moment and tied a thick rope around her arms and body, and a smaller one around her ankles, before throwing her back over his shoulder. Oriana's attempts at stopping him may as well have not happened for all the good they did.