††† Siegfried †††

A bead of cold sweat ran down Siegfried's forehead as he glared at the self-satisfied second-class enforcer. She could have killed him easily with her first attack, and he knew it.

His right arm throbbed painfully, but he concentrated on stopping the blood flow in the gash as quickly as possible. "It seems you know who I am, but you really have me at a disadvantage there," he tried to engage her in conversation.

"Oh, are you trying to stall for time? I can see your flesh knitting together, you know?" The enforcer answered in a sweet voice. "Regeneration. Quite the ability but ultimately useless against me. To answer your question — my name is Hannah. And as much as I'd like to cut you up slowly, it would be easier for both of us if you come willingly," she added with a smile while shifting into an attack stance to emphasise her statement.

Siegfried took a glance back at Haylee. There was not a shred of hesitation visible in her gaze. Legs bent and claws bared, the cat-girl was ready to pounce at the first opportunity.

But Siegfried would not let her risk everything for him again. Not if he had another option available. "Agreed," he stated as he looked back at Hannah.

"What?" Haylee exclaimed, flabbergasted.

"— If you let Haylee go," Sieg finished while moving between the women. "It won't make a big difference for Ultor as long as you take me back, right?"

An amused laugh left Hannah's lips. "Very well, drop that sword first. It does not belong to you," she said with a smirk.

"Siegfried, you can't really think —" Haylee's voice dropped in tandem with his sword. The metallic clang of the blade hitting stone cut into her startled mind. "Have you gone mad?" she cried out.

Hannah snorted. "You think that weapon would have made any difference? This was purely symbolic, little kitten." Nevertheless, she still approached Siegfried with caution, her sword aimed at his chest. A vicious grin spread across her face as she rested the blade's tip on the oiled fabric of Sieg's raincoat at a level with his heart. Just a quick push would be enough to end his life.

"Now, how should I punish you for killing my squad, I wonder? They might have been trash, but they were my responsibility after all," she cooed while putting some pressure into her grip, eliciting a grunt of pain from Siegfried as the blade cut his muscle.

Siegfried slowly lifted his hands, palms up in a placating gesture. His voice was strained but still firm. "I can't argue with that logic, but I believe you're making a wrong assumption."

"Oh? Pray tell, dear Siegfried, what wrong —" her question turned into a high-pitched scream as the enamel-white blade shot out from Sieg's palm through her sword hand. The enforcer's weapon dropped, and Siegfried quickly thrust out his other palm, skewering her chest before she could back up.

"You assumed that my ability was regeneration," Sieg answered as life slowly left Hannah's eyes.

Haylee stood next to him, looking down on the dead second-class enforcer. "Well, that was… anticlimactic," she stated. Siegfried just stared flatly at the cat-girl. "What?"

"Nothing," he answered with a sigh. "Can you tie that one up?" he nodded at the unconscious woman that the cat-girl had knocked out. "I can't lift my right arm anymore."

"Sure thing, hero," Haylee answered with a wink.

"Oh, knock it off," Sieg complained wearily while sitting down against the wall to take care of his injury. The heavy use of his ability to regenerate wounds had left him more exhausted than he would like. Even though he could replenish some energy by consuming food, it still tired him in the long run. "I'm no hero, not at all."

"You know there are lots of people who say otherwise," she continued in a conversational tone while binding the still knocked-out enforcer.

A low chuckle escaped Siegfried's throat. "A hero would save the innocent maiden, not let her do most of the dirty work and get injured, right?"

The cat-girl gave him a pointy-toothed grin as she answered, "maybe you just didn't get the chance yet to save an 'innocent' maiden."

Sieg laughed again, but the sound devolved into a dark chuckle. "No, I've already had my chance once."

Haylee’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, but she knew it was neither the place nor time to pry further. "You're adapting amazingly fast if you're already able to focus on regenerating while talking," she tried to change the topic.

As she walked over to him, Siegfried noticed once more the grace and deliberateness that marked her every step. Beautiful, dangerous and somehow alien for a human body.

"If any of us two is amazing, that would be you. I can't believe you just fought through a dozen enforcers by yourself. How did you even manage that?" Siegfried inquired with honest curiosity. He witnessed her combat ability first-hand — swift and deadly.

Contrary to the third-class enforcers, Haylee also had the reflexes to keep up with her speed. He had no doubt that she could best one of them without taking a scratch. But a dozen?

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Haylee sat down beside him, careful not to jostle her injured side. Her cute nose scrunched up, and her delicate brows furrowed as she stared at the ground for a while. Eventually, she made up her mind and answered. "I wouldn't have made it far in a fair fight, even in close quarters," she admitted. "But my real strength isn't being quick or having sharp claws anyway." She held her right palm up so he could see the soft paddings that adorned most of her inner hand. "I've got the same on my feet, so I'm quite silent. My hips and legs are adjusted for the same purpose."

Her voice was kept level the whole time, but Siegfried detected the slight tremor she tried to hide.

"Cats have a wider range of movement because their joints, and some bones, like the shoulder blades, are completely replaced by muscle and sinew, so I can be more flexible than a human when I shift."

"So, basically, you are like Hall. More a silent killer than a fighter," Siegfried deducted as he studied her cat-like appendages. "I guess with those claws, you could even crawl along the ceiling if it's wooden," he joked. But from the corner of his eyes, he noticed Haylee wincing slightly at his words. "I'm nearly finished with my arm. Time to give that wound on your side some attention. I trust Eurydike has added at least an ointment to stop the bleeding to our pack?" Sieg deflected and turned to check on their supplies.

While the warrior rummaged through the leather rucksack, Haylee stood up to unwrap the makeshift bandage and the elastic linen covering her lower regions.

When Siegfried faced her again with a small bowl containing the ointment, a bottle of alcohol and a fresh bandage, he tried hard to not stare anywhere inappropriate. Upon inspecting the bleeding wound closer, he took a sharp breath through his closed teeth. "That's quite deep. Impressive that you could even move with that, let alone fight."

"I'm used to pain," Haylee answered quietly, facing away from him. "But I guess that's something we have in common. I don't think many guardsmen would manage to even stay conscious after the fight you had in the sewers."

Now it was Siegfried who stayed quiet as he cleaned out the wound. His mind wandered to dark places, so he steeled himself and forced the memories down with pure will. When he looked up into the vertically slitted eyes of the cat-girl, he found her staring back with the same intensity. A strong gaze that carried the iron tenacity of someone who experienced the worst and overcame it. And a sense of kinship suffused him.

Sieg broke the moment when he had to apply the ointment. "There, all done. Just let me bandage you, and we can get out of here."

They headed for the small corridor the band of enforcers came from. Another thick iron door led into what seemed to be the dining and meeting room in one. "Well, that door explains why they didn't show up earlier. I couldn't hear much at all from outside either." Reaching the last door between them and the wilderness, Siegfried hesitated.

Haylee threw him a smug glance. "Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now, big guy," she teased.

Sieg snorted. "It's not that, just… now that I know that most of what they told us about the wild is a lie too, I've no idea how it looks out there. The unknown is always kinda scary, ain't it?"

Haylee laughed — a sound like jingling bells that Sieg could really get used to. "Don't worry just yet. We first have to descend the mountain before we even get anywhere. There is nothing but rocks and dirt, as far as you can see. And tomorrow comes the beautiful part," she said and grinned.

"Now go, open that damn door, or do you want the wounded, innocent maiden to do all the heavy work?"

Sieg snickered at the phrasing and pushed hard against the heavy iron door.

A chilling gust of wind greeted them at the outside. Although he couldn't see that far with only the moon's faint light, the city-born young man still felt overwhelmed by what he could see. Giant, jagged walls of rock towered above them to both sides, encompassing an enormous chasm. The steep descent was studded with more rugged boulders, jutting out of the ground like pointed teeth until they were swallowed by the darkness beyond. Just like a gargantuan maw.

"It's a long way down, but we have to get as far as possible before they send a squad after us, so let's get going. I can see fine in the dark, just follow my steps and keep your knees bent to hold your balance," Haylee advised, taking the lead.

Siegfried sighed in resignation as he followed the feline shapeshifter into the cold night.

Although he followed Haylee's surefooted steps, Siegfried moved more on adrenaline than on his feet. The bulky warrior weighed more than double the lithe cat-girl. Any loose stone plate would break under him, and patches of cracked rock slid down beneath his boots. There was no path down the mountain — just a seemingly endless constellation of declines, narrow passages and small, natural trails.

It was already starting to dawn when they reached the bottom of the canyon, as Haylee called it.

Looking at the sheer rock walls now visible in the first light, Siegfried felt his spirits drop anew. "Please don't tell me we have to climb up there now," he grumbled.

Haylee snickered. "Don't be so glum now. You're still keeping up nicely! A little ascend wouldn't stop a big guy like you, would it?" She chuckled at the exasperated glare she received and decided to have mercy. "I'm just kidding. There's a small cave system leading through the cliffs. We are nearly free of the mountain!"

"You're one evil woman, you know that?" Sieg growled, eliciting another giggle from the bratty shapeshifter. Deciding to save his breath for walking, he followed Haylee in silence. The entrance wasn't far, but when she told him that the cave system was small, Sieg didn't anticipate that she literally meant the tunnel's size. Just after a few steps in, all light had vanished, and he had to rely solely on his guide to not walk into hard rock.

The tunnel got so narrow a few times he could barely squeeze through. In complete darkness, he fought his newly discovered claustrophobia. In those moments, he hated every bit of the outside world he had seen so far. All the greater felt the alleviation when a ray of light finally reached his eyes again.

When they stepped out of the tunnel and Sieg's vision adjusted, he was left breathless. Before them lay a sheer endless field of grass and flowers that swayed serenely in the calm wind. A quiet river parted the colourful plain, and the edge of a forest with enormous, towering trees loomed in the distance. There were all shades of green and yellow Sieg ever saw and more.

Haylee observed his reaction with a gleeful smile. "Not what you envisioned the outside to be, is it?"

"I knew that there would be a lot of plants and animals," Siegfried breathed, eyes wide. "Those we have in the city had to come from somewhere, after all. But this… this is beautiful."

"Yeah, I wish we could stay," Haylee sighed. "But it's also the worst place to be if the enforcers come after us. We are aiming for the northern border of the forest, following the river to cover our tracks."

"Well, the sun's smiling upon us — nothing like a relaxing swim in the river while being chased," Sieg replied sarcastically.

"That’s the kind of enthusiasm I want to see!" Haylee chimed in, retaking the lead with an exaggerated spring in her step. Siegfried rolled his eyes but ultimately followed with a smile of his own.