††† Sally †††

After hiding the late enforcer’s body, the motley group of four moved towards their destination with haste. With Haylee and Sally scouting far ahead, Sieg and Ryden could travel at a run too.

Sally regularly caught herself staring back at Siegfried. Not having to watch his every step to prevent making a sound, the tall warrior was astoundingly swift, albeit not exactly silent. She watched as he shot through thick shrubbery and large, green leaves that blocked his vision, trusting his reflexes to prevent him from crashing into a mammoth tree's roots behind them. A broad grin split his face as his reinforced leg muscles catapulted his weight far over the wooden appendage. He hit the ground with a dull thump that sent slight tremors through the earth before launching into a full sprint once more.

Seeing him running with childlike joy after experiencing his darker side seemed surreal. The vision of Damon’s gruesome end still haunted her.

Not far behind, Ryden simply used the path Siegfried carved into the landscape. While he didn’t seem to share Siegfried’s reflexes, The Healer could keep up with his ludicrous speed, running faster than any human should.

A reasonable distance ahead of them, Haylee looked back every once and then. She had shifted into her fully feline form and used her senses to make sure nothing too dangerous would be in hearing distance of Siegfried.

All three of her new companions had surprised the rogue enforcer since the moment they met. Contrary to the Red Brigade’s assumption, Haylee was a feline shapeshifter, not a regular feline-human hybrid. It was also apparent that Ryden was capable of more than just his already impressive healing ability. That he could keep up with them at full sprint for hours was evidence enough. And Siegfried's ability shocked her to the core. The Red Brigade assumed he was a regenerator. They were dead wrong.

Usually, the Red Brigade sent out enforcers that would be more than a match for the expected threat. If a hybrid were a fair challenge for a third-class enforcer, they would send five third-class. Or even one second-class. Everyone thought it was overkill when Jenna left Nemeah with her entire squad. If they had known Siegfried's actual ability, they would have sent two dozen regular squads and two death squads to assure his demise before he could learn to fully utilise it.

The female enforcer stopped her musings as Haylee abruptly froze in her tracks, sniffing intensely with her snout to the east. Sally reacted instantly and shot towards Siegfried in a blur.

Sieg bent his knees and dug deep into the earth to halt his movement. His posture was defensive, muscles straining like a bull ready to charge.

Sally did not flinch from his gaze but explained herself immediately. "Haylee stopped. She's smelling something.“

Ryden came up next to Sieg, breathing heavily but still steady. They advanced cautiously until Haylee came into view on a high branch in a faraway tree, urging them on with frantic paw movements. Ryden ran afront before the other two reacted. The overcautious cat-girl would not urge them forward if it weren't safe.

Ryden rushed around a massive tree trunk, where he hesitated shortly. Sally could see his eyes ablaze with anger before he went ahead. When she caught up, the cause for his distress became obvious. The Healer knelt above a green-scaled, red-stained form on the ground.

There were clear signs of crudely cauterised, deep flesh wounds, and every limb had been broken at least once. The lizardman couldn't move a muscle, but neither could he bleed out. Somebody left him in agony to die a slow death.

Sally took a tentative step forward before being ripped back harshly. Siegfried pushed her against the back of a tree with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs.

"Don't you dare to approach there in your red mantle!" Sieg growled quietly.

His tone projected a quantity of anger that Sally hadn't thought possible to relay with words. Unbidden, a vision of her body pinned to the tree by multiple spikes flashed through her mind.

His patience thin, Sieg pressed on, "Now, you're going to strip or not?"

Instinctive fear kept Sally on the wrong path of thought for a moment until he caught up and snorted.

"Your damn red mantle, idiot! You know who did this. We ran in the direction he came from, right?" Sieg spat. "Spare the poor guy a flashback."

Sally let out a breath she did not remember holding. She nodded, ashamed of not having thought of it herself, as she unclasped her mantle. The man before her was terrifying, but he’d clearly set his anger behind his worry for the poor creature.

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††† Ryden †††

Ryden's heart filled with joy as the lizardman's eyes focused on him after a few minutes of treatment. It meant that his brain was still functional despite being shut off due to the pain earlier.

"NGHNN!" the lizardman pressed through clenched teeth.

"Don't worry, I can heal you, even from that. The pain will fade. I promise it on my gift!" Ryden said with heavy emotion, meaning every word.

The lizardman's eyes widened in recognition. "The… Heal—" coughing interrupted the sentence.

"Calm, my Drakish friend," Ryden intoned. "I can mute some of the pain, but there is a lot of damage to your body. I cannot mend it without more pain," Ryden explained.

He had apparently suffered in this agony for several hours. Before starting the treatment, Ryden shouted to the rest of his companions, "Sieg, Sally, secure the area around us, Haylee, higher ground," he commanded. There were no complaints.

Two hours filled with painful grunts from a patient that should have screamed went by. Ryden wiped the sweat from his brow. "We're done," he commented tiredly. "How is it? Anything numb when you try to move it?"

The lizardman flexed one muscle after another, slowly raising his limbs until he cautiously sat up. "No pain," he stated in a slow, guttural voice. "Nothing numb. Rak is very grateful," he bowed his head to the healer.

As the lizardman had recovered, the rest of the group got back together.

Rak rose to his full height, which dwarfed even Siegfried by a head. His elongated, reptilian snout opened as he worked his stiff jaw a few times, revealing rows of wickedly sharp teeth.

"Rak, those are my friends, Siegfried, Haylee and Sally," Ryden introduced.

Haylee had transformed back to a partly feline form, waving with a grin in her usual, bubbly demeanour. "Hi, Rak! Nice to meet you," she chirped, receiving a slow wave in return.

Sieg approached the green-scaled man with measured steps, always focused on the bright-orange eyes of the lizardman. They were protected by thick, scaled orbital arches, giving them a predatory look. Ryden believed there was a kind of silent exchange between the two silent giants before Sieg finally gave a respectful nod and offered his forearm, which the lizardman took with an approving grunt and even wider smile.

Sally was visibly uncomfortable. When Rak turned to her, she bowed at the waist. "Greetings, mister Rak. I'm glad you have recovered.“

The looming hunter inclined his reptilian head. He stared at her for an awkward minute, assessing her, before his scaled lips curled upwards into a frightening, sharp-toothed grin.

Ryden laughed, clapping Rak on one of his boulder-like shoulders. "Well, friend, we have to be on our way.“

"Rak must repay The Healer.“

"Nonsense, Rak. You can go back to your clan and—"

"Cannot go back," the lizardman interjected with a heavy rumble. "Betrayed clan. Now in debt too," he explained to Ryden.

With a deep sigh, Ryden nodded with furrowed brows. "I know a bit of Drakish customs. If that is how it is, you're welcome to join us, Rak. If everyone else is okay with it," he threw into the round.

None spoke against it. Nearing their destination, they had to move more carefully, and Rak wouldn't slow them down.

With Ryden needing to recover from using his gift, it was also time to set up camp.

Rak led them to a wide hole amid the forest not far away. It looked as if the earth just broke away in a rough circle.

"Old entry to mole-tunnel," Rak articulated. "Tunnel collapsed. Can make fire here."

While Haylee and Siegfried went hunting, the rest of the party stayed behind. Rak insisted on Ryden resting and Sally guarding him while the lizardman collected firewood.

The exhausted healer sat down, his back against a tree, while Sally kept standing where she was. Ryden smiled wearily at the fidgeting enforcer. There was a bashful quality to her posture, now that they were alone and without immediate danger. Without the sturdy, reinforced red mantle, she looked kind of vulnerable in Rydens's eyes.

The stiff leather that hid her form in a gender-neutral armour had been replaced by a skin-tight white shirt with long sleeves and fitting brown trousers. Her figure was womanlier than Ryden would have thought, and while her facial features were rather plain, the whole picture was kind of endearing to him. Her short, dirt-blonde hair underpinned the unassuming appearance. The second-class enforcer, dreaded and feared by most beings, looking like an innocent, timid woman, unsure where to look or how to act in his presence. He couldn’t stifle a slight chuckle at the thought, prompting her to give him a questioning glance.

"Come on, Sally, sit with me for a while," Ryden offered, mirth colouring his tone. "You've heard what we are trying to achieve already. But what about you?" he asked calmly. "If we get through this alive and you get to choose, what would you like to make of your freedom?"

Sally visibly relaxed a fraction as she contemplated the question. "I honestly never thought this would come to pass," she murmured with a slight frown. "As long as I don’t return to the city, I will keep my gift… but I can’t use it without giving myself away. Without that gift, I would be weaker than every other species out here.”

"Several options come to mind," Ryden assured her. "You know there is also a vast difference in power between the various races out here. But some of the weaker species thrive like no others.“

"Like the mole-people.“

"Yes, for example. Or the Nivetians," Ryden supplied. "The Ape-human hybrids," he added after seeing her perplexed expression.

"But the mole-people thrive because their skills are useful to others and the… Nivetians survive by occupying places others can't reach or won’t bother with. I can do neither," Sally complained.

"The moles thrive by providing a kind of knowledge that others can't easily achieve," Ryden generalised her statement. "You also possess knowledge that few have access to. Someone might promise you safety in exchange for inside information on enforcers. And that’s just one example. We still have ways to go until there, so you have plenty of time to explore your options and decide later.“

Sally sighed deeply. "Thank you, Ryden. I guess I'll just need some time to come to grips with this new chance," she smiled wryly. After carrying Akali's gift for so long, she wondered how hard it would be to adapt to a life without it.