My back slams against the open china cabinet. I successfully braced my head behind my forearms, but then plates crash on me, which gets him to hesitate, buying me time, until I cut my hand on some shards while crawling back up. I forgot to take my lip piercing out, and I'm sure I'll suffer the consequences later.

As I jump up to kick him square in the face, he manages to grab my foot. I reel myself in to grab his hair, to which he has to choose between me on his back and his curly black locks. Giant sweaty palms push me around like a sports ball while I move to his back and pull his head backwards. A fist strikes me at the head, causing me to lose my grip, then spin out and away. He turns around and tries to get a leg over me, before I kick him twice, once in the groin, and once in the nose. The elephant of a man groans in agony, but still manages to stand upright... barely.

The room stops spinning as the head trauma wears off and I regain the coordination to butterfly kick him across the face, then stomping again on his open palm, trying to jump from it, only to land on the ground again, belly up. He manages to rip my right shoe off, affording me an opportunity to sweep kick him right behind the knee, causing him to tumble, landing on a hand, to which I jump onto him, triangle choking him above his head, and pummel him with fists as he incoherently slaps across his shoulders, stumbling along in all directions. Right as I reach to gouge his eyes, I hear women screaming.

"Please! Stop! Let's talk!"

Come on, I barely managed to press them in.

Two sets of hands pry my fingers away from his face, and two women in primitive gowns pull the man away from me.

"Chill out, both of you have some explaining to do," Adel says, staring at me with Corvus, completely confused.

"Phillip, that's not how you greet guests," one of the seven or so women say to him. “And those plates! Where the hell are we going to find new ones? Heavens,” she groans, looking at all the shattered pieces.

"You all trust too easily," Philip responds between heaving breaths, groaning at the bruises covering his face, palm on his abdomen. "My gut was tellin' me something's awry with that one," he points at me.

“The door was unlocked. We thought this place was abandoned,” I growl, lunging forward, before Adel and Corvus grab me again, and then my shoulder screams at me. "We'll talk first," Adel says, as I collapse to my knees. "This fight's over." She walks to the other eight.

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"Hi, I'm Adel Steele. We're... escapees from Cauldron," I look up to see her extend her hand for a shake. "The boy is Corvus, and that's... Lorianne."

"Yeah? We'll give you an even bigger problem to escape from, if you don't scramble outta here--"

"Phil, let them talk first," one of the maids place a cloth on his bleeding nose. "Go to the other room and rest."

He stares at me and grumbles, slowly plodding away, moaning in pain. "Lissa, go wash his wounds in the powder room," she says, releasing Philip.

I feel my chin getting wet. My piercing has stretched its home out a little wider than it should be. I whimper as I slowly ease it out, splattered red with blood, while Corvus puts his hand on me. "You... okay?"

Right as I turn to him, he seems to turn pale. "Stupid... question, I guess. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," I sit down on the ground, then falling on my back. God damn it, my stomach feels like it's about to suck itself into a black hole.

Bread. Chewy, spongy, warm, bread. Now I remember what the fight was about, as I stare at the plate of it on the coffee table, somehow untouched from the mayhem.

"That must have been quite the march!" one of the maids exclaim.

"No, we drove here."

"Drove? Like, a carriage?"

"Uh... yeah, a carriage... that moves itself, sort of."

"Malithe, we're lucky he didn't just open fire on the newcomers," another says. "So long as they're not here to just destroy the village, we could use some hands on the field."

"The rowdy one seems desperate for bread, maybe if we just feed her a bit, she might calm down."

"If she was able to hurt Philip that badly, she'd certainly have the muscle to do a lot of work out in the field."

"Please," Adel quietly says. "If we're not welcome here, we don't know where the next place to go is. We'll make a deal, so long as we both can grow."

Everyone goes quiet, hopefully in thought.

"Sanna, let's go ask Philip." Malithe motions her away. "Feel free to give Lorianne the bread, it's hard to negotiate on an empty stomach, I'm sure. Let her know we're not here to fight, either."

"Understood," Adel nods humbly, before picking up the plate and handing me the bread. Before I could even think, my mouth is already full, and I just about choke on how dry it is before Adel pulls my hand with half of the roll away.

"Whoa, there, Princess; I'm hungry too, you know," she rips 1/4 of it for herself, and hands me the rest. "Slow down until you get water, I don't want to un-choke you too and take even more credit."

"He... started it," I mutter through a mouthful.

"Well, it probably wouldn't have hurt to ask before helping yourself," she turns to Corvus, "Oh, shit. Sorry," then ripping the 1/4 in half again, and extending it to him.

"No, thanks," Corvus mutters. "Lori clearly needs it more than I do."