You Are Made of Iron

Chapter IV pt. 1

or Zeilla, this trip was one of the longest she could remember. It was not necessarily that the coach was going slower, but it was her situation that made every passing moment drag on. She was terrified of the thought of her master, and of what he would do to her when she returned to his home.
​Maybe I should do something really bad, and then I'll be hung, that's usually painless. At least more painless then being beaten to death. Depressing thoughts like this were to follow; or rather they would have if she had not been interrupted by an obnoxious voice shattering her reflections.
​"Well hello boys!" the driver jumped so high that Zeilla knew he had done so without looking up at him.
​"Oh, it's you, sir! For a moment there I'd gone and thought you was one of the convicts!" that was the guard next to the driver, or as Zeilla had called the 'first one' when they took her from her cell, a place that she was almost missing now.
​The second one was the one to speak now, "You really mustn't vanish into and out of thin air like that, sir.  You might scare someone."
​"Like the king for instance?"
​The first one answered, "Well, you already done scared him. Did you know he has a warrant out for your arrest?"
​"Poppycock! He couldn't catch a rabbit with a warrant if he had it caged, and he knows it!"
​"Most of these here convicts was caught by bounty hunters or re-ga-ler people who wanted the reward." interjected the first one.
​The odd man paused as if thinking, "Then what use are the soldiers patrolling the city?" The question was rhetorical, because he continued talking, "They almost seem as if an army at the ready. None of the other kingdoms have such a concentrated population of men ready to take up arms at any moment. Hmm..." He murmured, almost forgetting the people he was with. He suddenly turned back to look at them, "Well anyway, I do not simply vanish, I was here the whole time. You just didn't see me." He snapped his fingers in front of the second's face, "Pay more attention."
​"A'right sir," said the first one, and then noticing the look on his face, "There something bothering you, sir?"
​"You said all of these people were convicts, correct?"
​"Well– "
​"Then what did she do?" Zeilla lifted her head an inch to see who he was pointing at and was surprised to see the finger hovering above her own head.
​"Oh, umm, her, I think she's a runaway sir," The first one again.
​"A runaway you say? I think I'll go where she's going. Girl!" he shouted to her, "who's your master?" Zeilla shrank back and did not answer. But then, it didn't seem as if the man thought she would, because he continued to ramble on in that annoying voice of his, "What do you think she does? I hardly think she's strong enough to do too much manual work." by this time Zeilla started to tune him out, as she had deiced that whatever he had to say was probably not worth listening to.
​Two prisoners were dropped off, and Zeilla fearfully waited for her turn.
​Her master's house was not actually that far from the city Muqiel, but it was far enough to get from the outskirts of the desert to the beginning of a forest. Her master lived not too far from here, and Zeilla was terrified. But then she looked up at the position of the sun, and suddenly realized that he wouldn't be home yet. She however would be there for at least twenty minutes before him, possibly enough time for her to make him a satisfying supper. Her master was always kinder to her after a good full dinner.
​When they arrived, Zeilla was lifted out of the cart by the first guard. He then dumped her on the ground again and shouted to his partner, who was at the front of the cart, "Hey Bill, should I untie her feet?" So this man's name was bill, good to know.
​"You'd better, Dick, unless you want to carry her in, because I'm not doing it!"
​Zeilla started as she suddenly found the man in the brown cloak standing above her, "Oh, just untie her already, I daresay she'll have enough to worry about once she gets inside."
​It took Zeilla a moment to realize that she heard real concern in his voice, and even longer to comprehend his words, "H-he's already here!" she stammered, "B-but he sh-shouldn't be here for another..." She trailed off, he must have not gone hunting today. It was something that he sometimes did when he didn't have Zeilla to repair his weapons and other hunting gear.
​Bill responded to her, "Sorry missy, I don't know nuttin about whether he should be here or not, but he is. And usually when you run away you master don't like that far too much."
​Zeilla paled, Bill was completely right. "He's going to kill me," she said in a throaty whisper to herself, "I'm as good as dead." She could have sworn that no one could hear her, yet someone did, the someone in the brown cloak in fact. He knelt down on one knee in the dirt to look her in the eye, which she avoided.
​"Now, it can't be that bad, girl. Surely he wouldn't actually kill you. After all, you're his property and you must have cost a fortune. People don't usually like to throw away money like that."
​All Zeilla could do was shake her head. The man's logic was impeccable, but she had a good argument as to why she was disposable too. The main point of which being that her master did not buy her, but rather received her as a gift for supplying the king with the third best venison in the empire, and this was the ninth time she had run away in eight years. But Zeilla was afraid that if she opened her mouth to speak, she would vomit, not to mention that she usually avoided voicing disagreements. So she stayed silent as her feet were untied, and as she was walked to thick wood front door. She didn't say anything as the black cloaked stranger knocked five times three times and then five times again. How strange.