A Warrior's Revenge

2. An unexpected encounter

Ciri breathed hard, staring down at her hands. Dark red blood smothered them, almost covering the dirt that hid beneath it all. What made it all so much worse, was that none of the blood was hers. She slaughtered these men like pesky bugs, she hadn't even thought that she was taking lives. What had she done? Ciri raised her head, looking around at the seven dead bodies encompassing her, all spilling blood into little puddles around them.

She had to get out of here, make it to Mistwatch and clean herself up, then escape this miserable city for the rest of her life, and live somewhere else on Seldarine. But, there were so many more guards at Eladrin who would surely notice their captain was missing. Hell, they could be gearing up right now to come and find him. Ciri knew that when they found their comrades bodies, they would know exactly who had murdered them. And then they would go back to camp, and torture each and every slave as to her whereabouts. But when they said they didn't know where she was, they would be killed.

Ciri couldn't let that happen. She owed the people their freedom. The worst part about Eladrin, wasn't the torture or labour they had to do. It was the fact that they were all innocent, every slave there was wrongly accused. They were paying the price for someone else's crime. And all of Seldarine knew it, but did nothing to stop it. For three years she had been there, three long and suffering years. Ciri can still remember the sound of the whip cracking as it broke her skin, tearing her flesh apart. And then the salt that was rubbed in her wounds. She knew why they did that only to her.

She looked down at her hands again, and wiped the blood on her tunic, staining the delicate material. Her hair fell in her face, and instead of seeing ash coloured locks, bright red blotches pigmented some strands. Ciri couldn't help it. She was disgusted with what she did, what she was. The blood running through her veins forced her to do this. With a sigh, she pushed her hair behind her shoulders with the back of her hands, careful not to get any more blood on her hair.

Leaves crunched underfoot close by, ripping her from her gruesome memories. She scanned the trees, waiting for a shadow to move but found nothing. Trees bristled in the slight breeze, their leaves rustling about in the darkened sky. She searched again willing her senses to alert her of any human presence. Nothing happened.

"Probably just a rabbit." Ciri reassured herself, frowning down at the litter of bodies around her.

"That's almost insulting." Said a deep male voice from behind her. Cirilla froze. Every muscle in her body corded with... fear. It was so odd, she hadn't felt pure fear in a long time, not since she was little. The only time she ever acknowledged it was in a fight. And even then, it wasn't fear towards her opponent, it was fear at herself, of what she would do that person. Her instincts hadn't detected a major threat, but what was worse that she didn't even notice him approaching her. She flared her nostrils, trying to smell the man. The ancient smell of blood met her senses, mixed with the fresh scent of grass and dirt. She knew then what he was, and why she hadn't sensed him around her. He would have broken that stick just to scare her. She turned around slowly, trying to mask her fear with boredom as she overlapped her arms across her chest.

The male was Fae, pure solid Fae. He stood there staring at her with an animal stillness that made shivers go up her spine. He wasn't any ordinary Fae, no, he was much worse. He was just like her.

"Almost insulting?" She cooed at the male, swallowing down the fear that beckoned to work its way into her voice. Ciri couldn't take her eyes off of him. He was tall, every inch of his body seemed to be an array of muscles bigger than she'd ever seen. He was built for wars and fighting. He could easily slaughter her in one movement, as if she was nothing more than a speck of dust in his way. His broad shoulders didn't even move an inch as he flared his nostrils to smell her. Suddenly, she took a joy in knowing she hadn't bathed in three years, but she knew he could still smell what she was.