A cold shiver shook my heart on hearing what Sierra said.

“No Sierra! This man isn’t going to hurt you. He is here to help you,” Urvi said, trying to calm little Sierra down.

“No... he will kill me,” Sierra replied. Beads of tears formed at the corners of her eyes.

“Maybe we should take her for the moment,” I said.

“What?” the officer replied. His voice got aggressive, and his eyebrows furrowed. “Are you trying to steal the child from us!”

“Just to calm the child,” I said, trying to clarify.

“There is no need! We will take care of her.” His grip around her arm tightened. My blood boiled on seeing that. He reached down and grabbed a few copper coins before tossing them at Urvi.

Her lips twisted into a frown. “Let her go... sir,” she said, her voice was ice cold.

“The child is scared of you. She is scared of you more than us... strangers,” I said.

“Guards!” the officer shouted.

I immediately put my hand up, casting a tranquil at the officer. He suddenly spaced out and his grip weakened.

“Sierra come!” Urvi said. Sierra broke free from his grip and ran into Urvi’s embrace.

Urvi stood up with Sierra safely in her arms. We immediately turned around and walked out. To our left, two men, with spears in their hands were approaching. Luckily the shortest exit was to our right. As soon as we turned, one of them shouted, ‘Stop right there!”

We didn’t, instead picked up the pace and jetted into the market. The lanes of the market crisscrossed, creating a maze. “Urvi, don’t lose sight of me,” I said as I tried to guide her through the convoluted market place.

The villagers looked at us in confusion, but no one stopped us, instead clearing the way for us. I tried to make sense of where we were going, trying to gauge where the damned exit was. But I knew I had to ask someone here.

I came to a sudden halt and Urvi did the same. Turning to a man sitting on a raised wooden platform, I asked, “Good sir. Could you tell me where the east gate is?”

“Turn left over there,” he said, pointing ahead of us. “Then a right. Keep going straight and you will find another right that will take you to the exit.”

“Thank you very much!” I said and we ran.

Following the man’s instruction, we made it to the gate. Two more guards stood at the gate on the other side. We slowed down our pace as we walked past the guards. My heart trembled in fear, but neither I nor Urvi looked back as we vanished into the forest ahead.

***

I lost track of how far we walked. The only thing I could think of was getting away from the village as fast as we could. By the time we slowed down and looked back, we were on the brink of exhaustion.

“Why don’t we rest for a while?” I asked panting.

“Gladly,” Urvi replied, setting Sierra down before flopping onto the forest floor. I took a seat beside Sierra, who appeared a little shaken, though seemed much calmer than before.

“Why did you think the old man was going to kill you, Sierra?” I asked.

“Because he had the mark of a bear,” she said.

Mark of a bear? “What do you mean?” I asked.

She twisted her right arm, revealing a tattoo on the inside of her forearm. On closer inspection, it looked like a bird. “Is that your mark?” I asked.

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“The mark of a sparrow,” she said nodding.

Urvi popped back up and looked at the tattoo. “What do the tattoos mean?”

“Probably tribes,” I said. “Is he from a different tribe?” I asked Sierra.

“I don’t know. Mom told me that anyone with Mark of Bear will try and kill me.” There was sadness in her eyes.

“Damn. Well, we stay away from anyone having a bear tattoo and find a village with a bird tattoo,” Urvi concluded.

***

With daylight fading, we decided to set up camp a little further east. There was an underlying fear of getting caught by the villagers, even though we were confident we could overpower them.

“You eat meat?” Urvi asked Sierra.

Sierra nodded. We sighed in relief as we had run out of rations and our only source of food was the deer meat. She immediately began to tear away the cooked meat, feasting with the hunger of a wild cat.

“We need to do some more hunting tomorrow. Otherwise, we won’t last for another two days,” Urvi said.

If we hadn’t had to flee the village, the market would have been a great place to see what our coppers could have bought us. “Agreed. Let’s do that first thing in the morning.”

“You okay with it?” she asked.

“Like I said. We need to adapt.”

***

“Fuck! That bastard is fast!” Urvi grunted as she ran behind the deer. The deer was hopping around in circles, appearing as though it was mocking her for lack of speed. But it was probably just confused.

“You know you can cast spells, right?” I said. I stood by the side watching over Sierra, who was watching Urvi with wide eyes.

“I know...” Urvi grunted once again. She stopped and prepared to cast a decimation spell. But by the time she could, the deer seemed to have vanished into the bushes. “Fuck!”

“Urvi! We have a child!” I exclaimed with a tinge of playfulness.

“Sorry,” she replied panting. She put down the axe and wiped the sweat off her mouth. “We need to look for another one I guess.”

Suddenly the shriek of the deer echoed through the air as it flew out of the bushes and crashed into the ground before us. The deer was dead on arrival, its limbs crushed and twisted. I instinctively covered Sierra’s eyes, protecting her eyes from the gore.

Thundering steps shook the ground beneath us as a mighty green Orc appeared through the bushes, this time armed with a heavy wooden mace. It looked exactly like the one from before, just a little bigger.

“Whoa! Urvi...” I began as I tried to formulate a plot.

However, she interrupted me. “If you don’t mind. I want to take this one on myself.” She seemed pissed off and wanted to blow off some steam.

“Go for it,” I replied.

As I prepared herself with the axe and Saber, the Orc approached her calmly. It didn’t roar nor did it make any aggressive gestures, which made it all the more menacing. “This thing looks mean. You sure you going to be, okay?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied.

The Orc drew first. It held onto the mace with both hands and swung it towards Urvi. Urvi, however, disappeared in a flash. “Where did she go?” Sierra asked.

“Look up,” I said.

Urvi had launched herself into the air, gaining the higher ground. The Orc looked around for the woman before looking up and seeing her coming down onto him. He blocked the stab with his armored left arm, the blade barely made a dent. Urvi bounced off his hand and landed on the ground on one knee.

“Get rid of its armor,” I said.

“Got it.” Urvi got back up and stood in a star pose. As the Orc approached her, she stood still. I wondered for a moment what she was doing but it didn’t take long for me to realize that she was raising her mana well.

Casting with both hands armed can seem impractical. But one of the perks of dual-wielding skill is that it allows the user to channel the mana through weapons as they are essentially an extension of her hands. This meant that Urvi could now cast with her blades.

She dashed towards the Orc, who replied by bringing the mace onto her. Urvi dodged the mace by jumping to her right, but he followed it up by sweeping the mace in a circle.

She encircled the Orc, trying to get behind him, but failed to do so. The Orc made sure to not expose his back to her. This forced her to hop back and out of the range of the sweep. While he was still recovering from the sweep, Urvi cast a weak decimation spell through her Saber, right at his head.

The Orc was caught off-guard and stumbled backward. She used this window to slide underneath his legs and get behind him. With one quick slice, she cut off the belt holding the armor in place.

The Orc countered by trying to smack her with his free hand, but she blocked it with her hands, throwing her off.

By the time she gained her footing, the Orc was charging towards her. His armor was loose and rattling as he ran. Urvi grinned as she quickly casted another decimation spell and as planned he blocked it with his armored arm. The armor came loose and flew into the air, landing on the ground a few feet away.

Urvi charged towards him before engaging in a series of slashes. The orc countered with solid blows from his mace, some of which she blocked but a few others she couldn’t.

The Orc was now bleeding all over with deep cuts from Urvi’s blades. It stumbled back as it panted. It tried to regain the strength to lift the mace back up, but Urvi found her opening as she used her remaining strength to slice the belly of the beast open.

Blood and guts splattered out of his wound before it fell to the floor with a dull thud. Urvi wiped the sweat and blood off her lips with a smile. Meanwhile, Sierra watched the whole battle with stunned eyes and a dropped jaw.