Scout Stories: Bruised Beginnings

Feathers and Flame

The sack that held the hawk was still but Faye could see a slight, sleepy aura, so it wasn't dead. She wasn't sure if she should be happy or disappointed that it was still alive. It had touched an Aed, and she couldn't let it go without knowing if it had been affected. So that meant she had to keep it, at least until she got it to the council and that she would need to take it when she escaped. She would probably have to name it too.

Wait, would it count as one of her three Finds?

How the hell was she supposed to explain that?

She shook the thought away. She couldn't know that until...

Until after she had trekked all the way to the council. Naming it was something she could concentrate on. Animal auras were different, so watching it for a few days would tell her very little about it's temperament. The colour and patterns were completely alien to her. One colour could mean up to six things in a human depending on the shape and texture it took. Trying to read an animal would be a useless waste of time and energy. So, what would a normal person name their animal? What would be a good name for a hawk?

She could just call it Hawk, but that would be giving up. She didn't think a name like Tricky suited such a brave, vicious thing. Maybe she would call it Killer. Or was that just lazy? She leaned back against the tree, deciding that she would have plenty of time to think on the way to the 'boss' the men had been talking about earlier.

She still had two names to learn. She could affect Colm and Lorcan from a distance, put changes into their auras. She could give them nightmares when they fell asleep, but she didn't see the point when they clearly weren't even in charge. Lorcan had a natural presence that made the other two listen to him, even as they controlled him. That was a rare quality. Faye wondered briefly whether she could use it to her advantage.

Or she could just wait until all of them had fallen asleep and slip out of the rope. It was tied tight enough to mean she would have to dislocate a wrist to wrangle out of it, which was damn annoying but workable. It wouldn't be the most pleasant way to go about escaping. She would have to be quick and quiet. Plus she would need to remember to grab the bird. She smiled, thinking about her training.

Her teacher had insisted that she would be glad she knew how to do it. At the time, she had hated him and didn't want to listen to anything he said. That didn't mean much though; she had hated everyone back then. If he could see her now, he would smirk and crinkle up those islander eyes and laugh at her. As it turned out, he was right. She was glad she could do it, even if it fucking hurt. That meant she owed him some meat the next time she ran into him.

Though it turned out that she had underestimated the men who had captured her again, however, and never had a chance to put her plan into action. They were better trained that she would have guessed, and used to watching people. They took turns to sleep and watched her throughout the night. Given their attitudes, and lack of respect and discipline; Faye decided that they were probably slavers, or banished men who joined a gang. Warriors who deserted stood straighter, took better care of their hair, beads and weapons. It wasn't even a pride thing with most of them, although the majority of former warriors she had known had a lot of pride. Breaking habits are harder for some than leaving a life behind. Eventually she gave up waiting for them to give in to their tiredness, gave into her own and slept.

She kept sleeping until she was roughly shaken awake and some food was shoved into her face.

"Eat," said one of the men whose name she didn't know. It wasn't the one who had held the knife to her neck.

"Good morning to you too," said Faye.

"Shut up bitch."

Faye snorted at being called a bitch and sat back. He didn't untie her hands so she eating was awkward, but not all that difficult. He was a little afraid of her and very angry about it. Faye didn't need to see his aura to be able to tell that. Looking at his aura only told her that anger was a permanent state of being for this man, the only change being the amount of rage he felt. He stood over her as she ate, so she chewed slowly to annoy him. He tapped his foot, so she matched the speed of her chewing to that. He yelled at the other three, who were packing up, to get a move on.

When she was finally finished, he cut the rope tying her to the tree.

"Get up," demanded her charming bystander. He grabbed the sack with the hawk and slung it over his shoulder. The hawk made no sound, but Faye could tell it from the movement of the sack that it was awake and not very happy. He caught hold of the rope tying her hands together with his other hand.

Faye stood up, walking next to the man instead of behind him while making their way over to the others. She smiled and hummed as well. Her calm confidence confused the man, who was used to dealing with frightened and timid people. Faye hoped her attitude would throw the men, make them second-guess everything and therefore more likely to make a mistake. Faye smiled and waved to the other men as they reached them.

"What's going on, Ger?" asked Lorcan. Faye's smiled widened. Now she had three names.

She was also close enough to Ger to touch his aura. She was much better at close range and her touch was no longer light but strong enough to force a feeling to spread to all of her target almost instantaneously. She used his natural anger, just increased the level of it until she could see his nostrils flaring.

"What do you think is going on," said Ger through gritted teeth, "I'm good to go. Are you ready to go or not, you blathering idiots?"

The other man grunted and walked away. Faye didn't look at him or Ger. Anger was an unpredictable emotion, and impossible for her to direct. She didn't want it going wrong and have Ger lashing out at her.

They walked until they came to the edge of the forest. Faye got a little panicky until she noticed that they was another one in sight. She hadn't left her territory. Most likely the gap existed because of the town they were heading towards. As they came closer, Faye saw something that made her go cold all over and formed a pit in her stomach.

There was a large hole in the boundary wall. Some of the stone around the hole looked scorched, the rumble was on the inside of the wall.

"What happened?" asked Faye, slowing down to stare at it.

Ger turned around and slapped her.

"Next time you open your mouth, I'm going to knock out your teeth," he said.

Faye glared at him and imagined hurting him in various ways, but said nothing. Lorcan took a step towards Ger.

"Hit her again and I'll hit you," he said, getting into the older man's face. Faye watched with interest. She didn't exactly know or care what reasons the young man had for standing up for her, but ti could be useful. This could be her chance.

"That a threat, pretty boy?" asked Ger.

Colm surprised everyone (including himself, by the look on his face) by stepping between them.

"We're almost there," said Colm, "Soon we won't ever have to see each other again. So, let's just get it all done and over with."

Lorcan grabbed the rope from Ger's hands and pulled Faye towards the town. Colm ran forward to walk next to his brother. The nameless man laughed.

"That's right," he called after Lorcan, "Be nice to the witch-girl before you give her away."

He didn't expect Faye to laugh, and when she did all of the men startled.

"Are you all right?" asked Colm, recovering and staring at the red mark on her face.

"Don't talk to her," said Lorcan, pulling her forward again.

Note: Last night I had a dream about Downton Abbey, but the girls were summoners. It was pretty cool. 

Almost as cool as getting votes and comments...