I crawled myself out of the cave with what little of might remained in the iron of my soles. It was not of much, but away from the mouth of the crumbling cave had it brought me and to the dampen soil of the forest.
As the last lingering traces of strength dissipated away from my ankles, my knees buckled from beneath me, toppling over each other. Though my body threatened to collapse and crumple to the floor, I willed to remain upright, planting one knee to the ground. That were an intruder, in form of man or animal, were to stumble upon me here, I would not be seen as of so vulnerable a prey, but a warrior who still had some fight in her.
The assurance of only soreness to plague my right arm eased by naught the agonizing pain that of wretched its' pair hanging limply on my left, maimed and left with grotesque looking flesh. The ache that blanketed my body had been another thing entirely, as my emotions were of equal distraught. Sweat trickled down my neck, dampening further the collar of my soiled shirt. My face contorted in pain, anguish marring my features as I opt for my arm to raise, however the slightest, no matter as long as it did.
It did not.
I hadn't realized I held my breath for quite too long till exhaling proved difficult, I released it a cry as though I had been an animal tortured.
No, an animal caged.
Caged in a body no longer able to fight as wholely as it did. The loss of all sensation in my limb a grave indication what I was not to be the fighter I once was and my body never as it once were. My arm had lost its fight, vulnerable. Useless.
My breathe ragged, though the entirety of my body trembled, my left arm naught but twitched. "I cannot even move my fingers," I gargled out.
I felt as though I deemed myself alike the flame exalting beast, the large being imprisoned in a cage, and neck, arms and legs held with by chains. But as I had, I had freed him, only because he could be freed, from the cave and the chains that, from his flight, withered to torn threads.
I cannot ever be freed as I am to be a prisoner of my own body. Imprisoned not in cold stone but tender flesh and bones, chained not in steel but by mortal ties that could not be severed.
My body that had once been a vessel that my mind had driven, by the needs of others, shall never be wielded again. As I was never to return to thievery, just as the mangled flesh of my arm never to return to its once state of firm skin, I was never to accomplish this quest.
From where my back was faced was an almost inaudible rustle of leaves. my chest heaved as the beat within it quickened at the cognition of an intruder in my midst, whether wild animal or bandit, I was vulnerable with neither strength to fight nor swiftness of flight. And I had called whatever creature they were, here, with my scream.
My head suddenly felt as though it was trampled upon, I felt light headed. I inhaled a shallow breath and turned my head. The rustling had ceased rather ominously.
My breath hitched as snap of a twig emitted from elsewhere, not of behind me. I turned back and saw a pair of large boots a mere arms' length away.
I stumbled back, kicking the ground to place by even the slightest more distance between me and they. I struggled to sit up as i had no arm to support me as my right grasped my sword and raised it to the intruder with barely enough strength to hold it up for no longer than a moment. At the slightest movement of their hand, reaching for a the bag that rested against their hip, I shrieked, "Stop! Don't move!"
He did not stop. Clasped in his palm was a vial that encased strange, foreign looking liquid.
Poison!
I scrambled backward, digging the soles of my boots to the ground and slashed my swords wherever direction, my body's reaction to the plan I wished to make true: that I may somehow render them immobile and acquire of however short a time that I could use to flee.
A hand reached for me, startling even more so the ripped and tarnished fabric of my being. The muscles of my right arm strained, I hoisted up my claymore with a swing and cut their palm. They hissed, and the look that marred their features, of that I recognized, was annoyance.
I tightened once more my grip on my sword, mirroring their furrowed brows and angry gaze, but before I could lift, one large boot kicked it away.
I met the intruder's eyes.
I was apart from my weapon, both my arms were useless, and the situation that enveloped the scene was hopeless. My lungs suddenly felt very tight.
My eyes could I no longer keep open, and my body could I no longer feel. Numbing cold slithered from bare forearms, to my neck. My vision slanted, and the evident part of my lids closed, constricting light were it a blur. The brush of my lashes at my cheek the last of whatever lingering feeling of my body remained, ceased at the loss of my consciousness.
