July 2023 ver.

Devin stared at her arm in the sling. She wiggled her fingers. There was already plenty she could do with it so long as it didn’t involve holding anything heavy for an extended period. It made taking her bag on and off a little bit tricky. At least their benefactor had given them a decent payout after seeing her injury and hearing the story.

“You okay?” Rowan was watching her from the other side of the camp they were putting together. Apparently she had been examining herself harder than she thought.

“Y-yeah.” Her answer wasn’t confident and she could tell by the way her elder bit the inside of his cheek that he picked up on it. He dragged his gaze from her though to resume their routine. He wasn’t going to push her yet. Good. She wasn’t ready.

Devin pulled herself from the tree she was leaned against to sit, “Thanks, Avery.” Her brother had situated her area for her.

Cue his big grin, “Happy to help!”

“Hopefully I’ll be able to start doing it myself again in a couple days.” She really hated being so useless. Hated that she was still so weak.

They settled in, but it wasn’t quite lights out yet so Rowan made a suggestion, “Maybe we should head back to Marion for a while.” The felines’ heads lifted. Their cousin continued, “I don’t know about you two, but I’m feeling pretty spent on this open country travel.” He didn’t pay their staring any mind. “This is the closest we’ll be on our current route so let’s just cut back there. Maybe squeeze a visit to gramps? Take a week off? Then when we’re ready, we’ll take the ferry, and our sweet time to gather some better information on this event happening. I still have almost no idea what it’s about. Which is weird with how people gossip…” His head finally tipped their way atop his arms, “What do you guys think?”

“Um,” Avery sounded on the fence, but eventually deferred to Rowan, “If you think that would be best, I’m not going to argue.” Her jaw clenched. Was this because of what happened to her?

Devin scowled at the sky, “Isn’t that event supposed to happen on the equinox?”

“Yeah?”

“The equinox in September? When we’re still in Sextilis?”

“Well,” the young man was scrounging for something to brush the question away, “the time will fill up faster than you expect.” He didn’t do very well.

“Can we sleep on it?” Not having to worry about traveling felt like a relief, but if they only wanted to do it because of her… “We don’t really need to decide until after we pack up tomorrow, right?” She didn’t want to be the reason why they slowed down.

“R-right.” The mage fumbled on the word, perhaps having expected her to immediately agree. “Uh, good night?”

“…Night.” she mumbled.

“Good night!”

Devin waited until they were asleep. Then she rolled out of her roll. One quick check before she walked off into the trees. She kept on until thoroughly out of sight.

The girl heaved a breath then her eyes fell down her own figure. She untied the strip of cloth and let it drift off to the ground. Both arms dropped to her sides, wiggling her fingers. Then she lifted the injured limb to peer at those fingers curling in front of her. It didn’t hurt at all.

The brawler planted a foot and struck the open air. That didn’t really hurt either. It probably would if it connected with something. She examined her open hands carefully then clenched them into tight fists. Until it actually did start to hurt.

It had happened twice now. But why did it happen? Those surges of strength and rage, she didn’t understand where any of it had come from. Was it just how she was deep in her subconscious? Even when she felt perfectly calm? As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was scaring herself.

Devin shook herself out. ‘Okay. Get angry.’ She bounced while she searched her mind for something to do the trick. It took some sifting. Only one thing sprung to mind in recent memory. ‘You’re lucky you’re not actually related to gramps.’ She bit her lip. Another lunge of her fist. There was more energy sure, but this wasn’t the feeling. ‘This isn’t-.’

“Devin?” Her fur fluffed, tail doubling in size. She twisted to meet Avery’s sudden company.

“Are you trying to give me a heart attack!?”

“N-no!” She glared. He shrunk, “I got worried you walked off and hadn’t come back yet. It doesn’t take you that long to go.”

Devin hesitated then ended up sighing, “Sorry for yelling.” She reverted to her self-study.

“I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. Is everything okay?” He was radiating the aforementioned worry, “What are you doing out here?”

She kept her back to him, “You wouldn’t understand.”

Her brother didn’t appreciate what he interpreted as babying and jumped to his own defense, “Hey! I understand plenty! I’m the one who figured out the banshee!”

Devin’s exasperation peaked. Her shoulders went slack and she rolled her eyes to the treetops, “You wouldn’t understand because I don’t understand! I don’t even know how to begin explaining it for you to understand!”

“Oh,” his tone deflated.

“Yeah, ‘oh’.” The brawler finally faced him and borderline begged, “So would you lay off? Please? I don’t have a second to work it out by myself with you and Rowan hovering all the time.” Her tail was lashing. “I got hurt. It happens. It’ll probably keep happening since I’m at the front so get over it.” She blinked. She got hurt. A hand clutched her arm, tightening. She got hurt.

The young woman wavered, nearly collapsing. “Devin!?” Avery rushed in to catch her. His nerves strained further. Why did she suddenly feel so tired? Again? “What’s wrong?”

Devin grasped her head, “I feel really foggy all the sudden. Kind of like-.” Eyes went wide. Like when someone hit her with a sleeping spell. The fog lifted as shock took its place. She shoved her brother, “Run!” Her ears warned her a half-second before.

“Wha-!?” She had unintentionally sent him all the way to the ground. She only meant to throw him out of reach. A rope met her body. The weighted ends saw it wrapped around her torso. It carried her off her feet and she hit the dirt herself. A bolas.

“Run! Get Rowan!” Avery clambered up to flee only for a second bolas to burst from the woodland. He dropped as she had with a yelp. Devin took a deep breath. The brawler writhed as the name ripped out of her, “ROW-!” Her call was cut short.

“Shut your mouth.” She was left with jaw agape. No sound coming out. She couldn’t even squeak after the command. More magic? “Blackout.” A woman was spewing the spells. Devin squinted as her vision dimmed. She cinched her eyes shut feeling she could fight off whatever was just cast on her.

She went to stand and felt hands on her. Devin lunged herself upward and the top of her head into someone’s jaw. She heard them stagger and swear quietly.

“Quit screwing around and get them to the boss. They both have really high resistance for some reason. These spells aren’t going to last more than a few seconds.” More sets of hands pinned her. Whoever they were, they soon had her gagged and wrists bound to her chest.

The magic was losing its grip as the caster feared. For a brief second everything was clear. Their attackers were all scarred and in light armors, like they were constantly at odds with others. It also told her they didn’t have a healer in their group. Avery was already being hoisted up and shoved forward. It all went back to black.

Devin threw her weight as she was hauled to her feet as well. The side of her boot found someone’s shin and she was quickly struck across the face in response. But she didn’t go down.

“Immobilize, immobilize, immobilize.” Every call of the word saw a numb feeling creeping deeper and deeper into her fingertips and her toes. She dropped to her knees, unable to support herself. The woman’s voice continued on to taunt the men, “Think you can manage such a little girl now?” Devin grunted as she was slung over someone’s shoulder and the bone connected with her gut. She was helpless. She was so sick of being helpless.

A man spoke last, “We’ll kill the mage.”

x x x

Devin winced into her gag as she landed on her arms and pain spiked through her injured limb.

“Mmmph!” was her brother’s muffled shriek. His weight dropped directly on top of her and she winced again at the second collision of her partially broken arm to the floor of their cage. He wormed off of her fast enough. Both managed to adjust into sitting positions. Avery glanced about in panic, his ears flat, at the confines of their cell. It wasn’t even big enough to stand up in if they wanted. Not that she did. Barely big enough for two of them to be in. Devin occupied herself with staring at the man closing the door behind them. The metal hinge squealed as it went.

“Glare all you want, kitty cat,” he informed her with a conceited expression, “not going to get you out of this.” A padlock sealed them inside and he gave it a good pull to show it was solid. “And thanks for the new knife.” She stayed cold as stone. These men were lucky they’d gotten the drop on her. Her gaze raked over their little camp. Six tents. They were small. Did that mean six of them total?

Another cage then caught her eye. A lithe figure sat facing away from everything. A blue, scaled back. A zefiil? That’s right, females were considerably smaller than the males. She just hadn’t interacted with any of them yet.

A new woman’s voice chimed in, “Not a bad catch at all. Well worth the wait. Hard to get them at this age. Usually still suckling at their mother’s teat.” A honey blonde woman with her hair twisted up in a style that splayed the ends out like a fan behind her head strolled over. Unlike the others her face was flawless, beautiful even, but she was geared just as they were. The woman peered at her, but spoke to their prison guard, “Any problems?”

“Girl gave us some trouble and a loose end is being tied up. Travel companion.”

She was looking them over carefully, “Yeah, she looks like a handful.” This woman seemed to be the real lead here, barking orders when she turned, “Starve her out, burn off some of that muscle. We don’t need the bitch causing us problems further down the line. Get her closer to the boy’s frame. He’s going to net us a fortune.” This woman smiled at Avery like he was a fine meal.

Devin threw herself in front of him eliciting a laugh from the leader. The latter leaned to be eye to eye with the brawler, placing a hand atop their cage, “Maybe you’ll learn to stop glaring like that if I break him in myself right now.”

The half-emeran averted her gaze immediately. What the hell did that mean? She couldn’t tell if it was a real threat or not, but she wasn’t going to risk Avery’s well-being for sheer pride. The situation was still manageable, but any one single complication more would spell the end for them. “That’s what I thought.” The brigands walked away, but they didn’t go far.

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Devin looked to Avery. He was on the brink of tears. He wasn’t built for dangers like this. She simply nodded. There wasn’t anything to worry about yet. They just needed fewer eyes on them. These people had to sleep, right? She hoped her unwavering confidence would be conveyed to him. Her brother calmed and she scooted to sit right next to him. It was a waiting game.

An ear was kept on the traffickers, but most of what they said seemed inconsequential to them. Like if they should press their luck or cash in and what they were going to buy with their cut. They were getting out of this before any of that would be relevant. The traffickers chittered like birds. She hated birds.

She plucked her nails on Avery’s bindings rather awkwardly since she couldn’t exactly reach any of her own tied as they were. Every once in a while she had to stop to pretend they weren’t doing anything like good little prisoners.

The girl found herself focusing on the other captive. The reptilian female was sitting with legs crossed. She was restrained as they were. Her head hung as low as it could go. What was she doing? Devin couldn’t discern anything else from here about her positioning. How long had they had her? Why did she seem so blissfully unaware?

Another trafficker spoke, “Shouldn’t they be back by now?” Rowan had to be catching up. He could win no matter how bad the odds. He’d be here any second, wouldn’t he? They could take the rest if they were together. Unless. What if they had… what if he was…?

“Psst.” Her ear twisted and hopes soared. Then she crashed back to reality. The face on the other side of the bars to their left wasn’t their cousin’s. Not even close. It was pale and freckled with green irises. A young human male in a mix of leather and armor plating. A mane of orange hair was barely contained behind him. “I’m going to take care of these guys. Try to get free on your own in case something goes wrong.”

They glanced to each other and then pretended they weren’t watching him slip out of sight. She wasn’t sure who he was. Why couldn’t he have been Rowan? Not that they were going to refuse a distraction. Could this guy take out four people on his own though? Sure it was easy enough to get the drop on the first. If he was able to sneak in close enough in that armor. He had to keep waiting until they were speaking again. They lost sight of him for a minute.

A man screamed. A loud strike followed. “Fucker!” Their attention snapped to the center of the camp as their ‘savior’ was knocked flat in front of everyone. The only one ignoring the scene was the zefiil. He at least rolled immediately into a quick recovery to face his opponents, sword still in hand with the end stained red. The aforementioned man collapsed, muttering something they couldn’t make out.

“Where the shit did this guy even come from?” Their fallen ally was checked by another, “I think he just killed Tom!”

Their boss drew her sword, “I don’t know, but he’s about to regret meddling in things that aren’t his business.” The swordsman made a wide swing and that woman locked blades with him. She easily pushed into his space with the weapon. Withdraw and strike. The blades met again. The woman rammed her body directly into him and he dropped like a sack of bricks.

‘Oh shit.’ This guy couldn’t even take one of them head on! He was wholly overwhelmed by their leader. Once the man was down, the last of the present traffickers came over to kick him square in the jaw. Then their boss stomped on his hand, forcing him to relinquish his weapon. Devin picked and picked, but the rope was still barely frayed. This wasn’t working. This guy screwed them! He could have at least found something sharp for them to use! She could have figured this out. Rowan would have come. Now what was going to happen? Were they going to be dragged off to the next location? How the hell would Rowan find them then!?

“How dare you kill one of my men.” Grunt after grunt and wince after wince came as they kicked him over and over again. The sound of every hit made her brother flinch. Listening to that had her heart pounding. Her guts twisted as they made a game out of it. She knew these people were awful, but this was torture for the sheer fun of it. The boss was laughing as the young man puked, “Wow! You really bit off more than you can chew, kid.” She put her boot on his head. “How many times do you think it’ll take to kill him?” They were going to beat him to death.

One of her underlings answered, not playing along anymore, “Boss, I’m not sure we should fuck around. He’s got the country crest on his glove. I think he’s a soldier.”

“Well, well, look at that.” She focused on grinding his hand into the dirt again. “They sure do make them pathetic these days, don’t they? Not enough war to toughen ‘em up, I suppose. When did the last one end? Thirty years ago? Forty? Answer when I speak to you, little boy.”

“Ah! Aaaaah!” They couldn’t see what she was doing now, but it had the soldier shouting in pain. Devin was practically gasping from the rising panic. She flexed her fingers. The fingers of her injured arm. She peered at it remembering how it’d been when she broke it. The rage she’d felt. How she had overpowered something that swatted her like a gnat mere seconds before. It wasn’t just adrenaline. It wasn’t anger. It was pain.

Devin stopped her frivolous clawing at the ropes and maneuvered to a crouch. She focused on the bars of the cage. If she just had enough strength to rip through the bindings.

The brawler hurled herself forward, slamming her injured arm into the metal bar and letting out a strangled cry. Her brother jolted from the impact. She didn’t need any clarification that he was asking if she’d gone crazy through the cloth in his mouth.

“What the hell is going on over there now?” One of the men turned, but Devin had already reset her position.

She wailed as her bone snapped. The second throw into the steel finally did the trick. Tears stung her eyes and a dizziness settled in, but underneath all that, her fingers moved again. She breathed deeply and slowly. All the muscles in her body tensed. A new strength flooded into her as it had before.

Devin flexed, screeching through the pain of using her injured limb to such an extent. But it served to push her further. The rope at her wrists began to tear. Just as their captor neared the door, she ripped through and sent the scraps flying to either side of her. He stumbled at the sight. The girl pulled her gag away. She hunched in their half-size cage and placed hands to the bars.

The sound of metal grinding sliced through the encampment as they bowed under her demands to make space.

“What the fuck?” The man merely bore witness, dumbfounded. He’d never seen anything like it. “B-boss!” She was already looking. They were all already looking. Even the bloodied soldier with his good eye.

“How is she doing that?” The blonde demanded an answer from the world. “Those bars are solid steel!”

Devin stopped, panting in the opening she had created, “So, you like beating people to death, huh? Funny, I was just thinking about taking up the hobby myself…” She took a step out of the cage, rolling her shoulders, and they took one back. They were terrified. It amused her briefly. Then all she could think about was how much her arm hurt. The pain pounded in her head. A pulsing sensation driving her to insanity. A desire in her was screaming to inflict that pain on someone else.

He didn’t come to her. She walked up to him and he still didn’t move. Unable to process what was happening, no doubt. He wasn’t much taller than her. Her fist slammed into his jaw. She felt it crack under the impact. The man went to the ground, spilling blood and teeth over it.

The brawler roared her challenge, “COME AT ME YOU FUCKING PANSIES!” They still hesitated. Her heel drove into his arm, snapping it worse than her own. He cradled what was now a useless appendage for him. She bent to take her knife back as well as his and tossed them behind her, out of his reach.

Their boss finally snarled, “Don’t just stand there!” The other followed command. A sword went for her neck. She ducked. It felt like she was in overdrive and waiting for that strike to clear was the longest moment of her life.

Her hand shot out, easily grabbing the last lackey’s wrist. She jerked him by it, ramming the top of her skull into his face. He staggered and she let him. Just enough to latch onto his hair instead and crunch his nose against her knee. He went from dazed to limp. Devin let go, allowing him to drop. He came back around soon as this time she chose to break her opponent’s leg to keep him down. She chucked his blade to her left. As much as she wanted to hurt them, needed to ensure her safety and Avery’s, she didn’t want to kill anyone. She couldn’t.

Her eyes fell upon the queen bitch. The woman flinched then readied herself. “I’m not afraid of you,” her quivering hold on her weapon begged to differ. She was going to bow like the bars. “You’re nothing but a fuc-”

Ice burst through the woman’s abdomen before either made a move. The sharp spike had appeared from thin air. Her sword slipped from her grip and she stared in disbelief at the foreign structure jutting through her body. The trafficker fell to her knees. Over her head, Devin saw Rowan yards behind with hand extended. His breathing was heavy and he was drenched with sweat. Had he ran all the way here?

He kept running, kicking that woman’s weapon further before she found an ounce of strength to strike again. She screeched as he did, “Bastard!”

The brawler gritted her teeth as his arms came around her. The bottle she’d crammed her emotions into shattered. She grabbed on without a thought and sobbed against his chest, “I’m sorry! Rowan, I’m so sorry! I-!”

Rowan put her at an arm’s length, “Where’s Avery?” The mage gathered his bearings. Devin looked to their cage. Her brother was awkwardly sawing at the rope around him with one of the knives. Probably hers. The last strand snapped.

His ears had lifted and his head followed as he heard their cousin. He called the second he could, “Rowan!” He scrabbled over to crash into him as he had into her.

Their cousin gripped a shoulder of each, tightly, “Are you both okay?” Avery nodded.

Devin was still trembling both in form and voice, “I-I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I walked off-.”

“Don’t apologize.” His hardened tone startled her. His grip on them faded. His shadow fell over the blonde, “It’s not your fault.”

She was coughing blood, slumped on her knees, barely preventing herself from complete collapse, and dragging herself somewhere. The trafficker spat at him, “You had better hope this kills me because if it doesn’t I-”

Devin flinched as another shard exploded through the trafficker’s chest. Blood spattered across the caster and he didn’t react in the slightest. The woman crumpled to the ground. Still. But Rowan. Rowan didn’t kill people. He couldn’t. Yet she watched more red soak into the earth. That wasn’t who he was…

…right?

Her cousin replied to the body, “Yeah. Not really the wait and see type.” Burning blue eyes fell upon the next nearest soul. The beaten ginger. A step closer and new panic struck.

She flung herself over the soldier, “He’s not one of them! He-.” Devin went to meet their elder’s gaze and the rest caught in her throat.

The image of that revenant burned in her mind.

The mage stopped with a blink, “Avery, see to this guy’s wounds while I deal with the other traffickers.”

Her brother twitched at the call of his name, “D-deal with?” He had been keeping his distance. Shock painted his face, “Are you going to…?” The teen swallowed and he watched Rowan walk to the men scrambling atop the dirt in efforts to flee. Avery inched closer to her and, coincidentally, further from him. “Shouldn’t we take them to the authorities? There’s people who handle this kind of thing, aren’t there?”

Rowan didn’t answer. The men couldn’t collect themselves enough to get away.

“Please! Don’t!”

“You’ll never see us again!”

A flourish. Devin flattened her ears and jerked her head from the sound of more tearing flesh. Deafening silence followed. She took a deep, quivering breath. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. She dragged her gaze to Rowan. He stood over the dead with hands on his hips. Her breathing stopped. Ringing drowned out more and more of everything else.

A tap at her arm broke through to her, “M-miss?” The young man under her spoke. She nearly had her chest pressed to his face and Avery was waiting for her to move. Devin made room. “Sorry…” The fledgling scholar took to mending his wounds. The ginger breathed easier not long after.

Rowan had moved on to searching the men then the woman, “Here we go. Should have guessed.” He plucked a set of keys from her that he put into his pocket. This was followed by a small booklet that he scrutinized briefly.

Neither sibling could meet his eye, but Avery pointed out, “W-we should help the zefiil.”

Rowan tossed her a glance, “I think she’ll be fine a couple seconds longer.” The soldier was struggling into a seated position. The mage patted their new ally’s shoulder. “You okay, man?”

He hacked up blood, a lot of it, “Yeah. Thanks.” The soldier frowned at the spot. A tooth was fished from the soil. “I don’t suppose there’s anything you could do for this?”

“Uh, sorry,” Rowan consoled him. “Once it hits the dirt, it’d just give you an infection to put it back in.”

Their leader stood, ready to help the lizard girl, but right as he started toward the zefiil’s cage a large, glowing, circular, amethyst colored outline appeared atop the earth in the center of the camp. Rowan jumped backward and placed himself between it and them. A second circle appeared in the center. This one was filled in. It then expanded, nearly meeting the first, but not quite.

She tensed. Hadn’t enough happened already?

Awe flooded Rowan’s words, “It’s a summoning circle.”

Something struck out from the middle of the same glowing color. It was see-through. It kind of looked like a hand. A hand with hooked claws. It solidified to the brown scaly foot of a beast. A beast that used those claws to haul itself further from the circle and into existence. A different lizard creature with an extended, round snout. It’s body was incredibly thick and long, but it barely held itself over the ground on a set of four bent legs. It’s tongue flicked out at them. The circle vanished leaving only this thing behind that was about three times as big as Rowan in overall mass.

Avery’s voice was still up an octave, “A Giillis lizard?” What the hell was a Giillis lizard!?

Their elder’s stance slid wider, ready to fight it, “Eh?” It promptly navigated further from them. It hauled itself up, hooked forelegs onto the door of the zefiil female’s cage, and ripped the thing from its hinges. She crawled from the half-size cell. The Giillis lizard bit it’s master’s bindings, shredding them with ease. For a second she stayed on her knees to pat the creature’s head. Then the blue scaled girl straightened.

Devin couldn’t help noticing that she really was tiny. Smaller than herself. Eyes like amethysts shone at them. The bipedal reptile nodded gratitude to them then climbed onto the quadruped like one of them would ride a horse. Except it was so close to the ground she hooked her feet up on it behind her too. Even then her knees almost dragged the ground. The beast sauntered off into the darkness beyond the campfire.

Avery broke the silence, “She’s… a summoner? Was she casting this entire time?”

“Yeah. I guess she actually didn’t need any help at all.” Rowan looked to his own again. “We should take her lead and snake out of here too.” He clicked his tongue, “Come back to me, I can do better.” His behavior was the same as it always was, unfazed by his actions.