Sarah was very annoyed. She tried to flee from her pursuer with quick steps. But she worried the group might lose sight of her if she overdid it. So she had to bear with it.

"So tell me, what is this new place like? Who is the leader there?" asked the red-haired beauty called Denise with a crooked smile. It looked a bit weird because her cheek was still swollen from Sarah’s slap.

Remembering this sweet moment, Sarah smiled at the annoying woman. She flinched back out of reflex and stumbled over a thick root that was coming out of the ground.

She fell to the ground unceremoniously and showed a surprising lack of reflexes. She only noticed halfway that she was falling, so her hands were only raised to her hips awkwardly, which caused her to fall right on her face.

Sarah stood still for a moment and looked at the fallen woman with a gentle smile. "If you could stay like this, it would be perfect."

Denise looked up at her with her dirt-smeared face, and for a short moment, Sarah saw burning rage deep in her eyes.

Sarah’s face changed immediately and took on a hungry look. "Bring it, bitch."

The enraged look on the woman's face faded as fast as it came. It was replaced by her usual, unwavering smile.

With an exhausted groan, Sarah turned around to resume walking. This person was insufferable. She didn’t know why, but Sarah’s guts told her to rip that poop-face’s heart out.

Denise seemed to have accepted that this wasn’t the time to sweet-talk Sarah into giving her more information. So she started limping some distance away from her. But not with the other ones.

For some reason, they always stayed some distance away from her, but nobody wanted to say why. This was kind of unsettling for Sarah. Maybe she needed to have a more intimate talk with one of them.

The ragged group of people barely had the strength to walk. They were too emaciated because they had gotten just enough food to not die from hunger. They were carrying everything they were strong enough to carry. Which was mostly food and some furs, which were in surprising good condition. They would make a good addition to the caves with their skills.

Without any forewarning, a particular memory of the dirtbag camp came to mind. This memory made Sarah feel sick to her very being.

In the aftermath of her fight, Sarah tried to hunt down the dirtbags. But she only got one of them. She had heavily overestimated her tracking abilities.

When she came back to the camp, she had to convince the people for hours that she wasn’t here to eat them or something like that. When she finally managed to convince them of her good intentions, many broke down crying.

Sarah started to help them gather their belongings when one of them came to her with a disturbing request. It was to help them bury their dead.

She confusedly followed them, not knowing what to expect. But not long after, she witnessed the most horrific sight of her whole life.

A big pile of decomposing human bodies was located some distance away from the camp. Most of their remains had been eaten by wild animals, but there was still enough left for them to smell extremely repulsive.

Two of the women started to pull the remains down from the pile one by one without even showing a smidgeon of emotion. She later learned that they had been forced to carry the corpses to this place and strip them of their belongings. And not only corpses.

To punish troublemakers, they first crippled their limbs and then threw them on the pile, so they would get eaten alive by the wild animals. Sarah had a hard time accepting this reality. This was a level of perverted cruelty that was outside of her scope of understanding.

She forced her consciousness to come back to reality. This memory would haunt her for her entire life.

She positioned the big pile of stuff on her back to be more comfortable to carry and resumed her march. They weren’t very fast, but they would reach the caves in the next hour or so.

Her estimation turned out to be right, as they arrived at the caves when the sun started to set.

The group behind her fearfully stayed some distance away, too afraid to experience a new kind of hell. They still didn’t fully trust her.

The busy people in front of the caves soon noticed their approach and started gathering in front of Sarah.

They greeted her as one of their own, albeit sometimes with a suspicious look. Nonetheless, this felt really good. She hadn’t been here for long, but it was the place that had come the closest to home up until now.

"Where’s Andrew?" she asked the noisy crowd, who was asking her who all these new people were.

Before anyone could say anything, Andrew came in front of the crowd. Sarah had to look twice when she saw his face. His usually stoic and neutral face seemed a bit more… alive.

"Nice to see you again and alive. Welcome back." He said to her like he wanted to give her a hug.

Sarah hastily grabbed his outstretched right hand and shook it in an awkward position.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Not much of a hugger, huh?" Andrew asked with a chuckle and patted her shoulders. "Are they from the other camp?" he asked with a now more serious tone.

Sarah nodded and came closer to whisper in his ear. "Beware of the red-haired bitch. I think she has the same abilities as you, but… something is wrong with her. I cannot explain it, but be careful. My gut tells me she is bad news."

Andrew looked at her with a surprised face. "I am honestly surprised that she is still alive."

"Do you think I am a monster or something?" Sarah asked with anger in her eyes, only to see a mischievous glint in Andrew’s eyes. She hit his chest, which nearly sent him tumbling to the ground.

"Damn, that hurt Sarah. But I guess I deserved it." He said with a pained groan while finding his balance again. "Go rest up. I am pretty sure you had it rough. And let Melissa take a look at you. This mission might have damaged your emotions somewhat."

Sarah wanted to protest at first, but then the scene of the mutilated pile of corpses came to mind again. So she nodded and swallowed down her angry response.

"I’ll deal with these people for now. Come with Melissa to the woods behind the kitchen area. I’ll cook for you, as promised." He told her while pointing in the general direction where Melissa could be found.

Sarah gratefully accepted, threw her backpack to the ground, and got away from the clearing as fast as possible. She didn’t want to deal with this walking mass of trauma right now. She had no idea what to say or do to help them.

She had to admit that Andrew wasn’t completely useless, as he was able to handle situations like these pretty well.

Sarah had been searching for some time but wasn’t able to find Melissa. She soon became frustrated and started looking for her using her magic sense.

"Found you." She said with a glint in her eyes. She was looking forward to seeing the gentle beauty again after having this red-haired bitch around her for days.

When she came closer, she heard the sounds of chewing, which made her pretty happy. She was hungry and would have to eat something before Andrew cooked for them.

When she came past the last obstructive bush, she saw Melissa. She was crouching on the ground, her hands full of half-rotten food. Melissa was looking up at her with a shocked face, her mouth stuffed full.

She coughed and spit out the food and hastily came to her feet. "This isn’t what it looks like!" She said in a desperate voice.

"So you didn’t eat half-rotten leftovers?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.

Melissa’s shoulder slumped down, and she let her head sink in shame. "I am so sorry you had to see that." She told her in a quiet, quivering voice.

"Eh, it’s no biggie." Sarah answered and sat next to the pile of leftovers, probably put here by the kitchen crew. They were mostly spoiled food, bones, and inedible plant and animal parts. At least they were inedible for most people.

Sarah took something out of the pile and started eating. "It’s actually not that bad." She mumbled with a full mouth. "I have eaten much more disgusting things in the swamp. Do you know how utterly horrible acidic snails taste?"

Melissa looked at her with a priceless expression. "I did not expect that."

"So what did you expect?" Sarah asked her with a frown.

"To be… rejected for this habit." She fumbled with her curly blond hair and continued speaking. "I am a stress eater, you know. I have to deal with so much shit here, and I can’t help myself. And it helps conserve our food reserves when I eat this. I am the only one who has strong enough poison resistance for this."

All of this more or less gushed out of her, as if she had wanted to tell someone about this for a long time. And suddenly, Sarah had an epiphany.

"So that’s how you stay so curvy!" she said while nodding in realization. Soon after she said that, she felt a cold chill run down her spine.

She turned her head with an apologetic smile, only to see the cold smile of Melissa. "Watch your mouth."

"Yes ma'am."

Melissa sighed and sat next to her. "I guess there's no point in pretending anymore. Might as well resume eating."

Oh, but don’t eat too much. Andrew will cook for us tonight." Sarah told her with a happy smile. She was looking forward to eating cooked food again.

Melissa, on the other hand, started stuffing food into her mouth even faster than before.

"Why are you doing this?" Sarah asked her with squinted eyes. Suspiscous.

"No reason." Melissa answered as well as her full mouth allowed.

While shrugging her shoulders, Sarah also ate one or two things to not spoil her appetite too much. She thought about asking Melissa to take a look at her soul, but somehow she couldn't gather the courage for it.

After a while, Melissa seemed to be finished eating. "Thanks a lot," she said to her. "For accepting me, I mean. I am always afraid to show this side of me to other people."

"Don’t worry." Sarah told her while caressing her head a little. "You are lovable enough for more than a few quirks."

Melissa looked up at her with a provoking smile. "So you think I am lovable?"

Sarah felt the blood shoot up in her face, and she hastily stood up. "I think I heard Andrew! Let’s go look for him."

Melissa stood up with a giggle and followed her into the woods. Even though Sarah had lied, they really found Andrew not far from them, sitting next to a small campfire.

"I thought you might like some distance from the others." He told Sarah with a smile, not in the least surprised at her finding him here. When he looked her in the face, he started frowning a little. "Why is your face so red?"

"It is not." Sarah told him and looked at him with murder in her eyes. Melissa giggled a little next to her.

"But I clearly see…"

"It. Is. Not."

After giggling some more, Melissa showed mercy on the flustered Sarah. "It’s probably from the fire. The light makes her pale skin seem red."

Andrew still looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but then shrugged his shoulders.

Sarah was still a little bit embarrassed but still grateful for Melissa's intervention. They sat together on the ground next to Andrew, who was busy stirring a stone bowl with some kind of stew inside.

"You want some too…?"

"No thanks." Melissa spoke as fast as lightning, without giving Andrew the chance to finish his sentence.

"More for us, then." He said with another shrug and scooped Sarah and himself into wooden bowls full of stew.

Sarah couldn’t help herself, took the offered spoon, and took her first bite with a delighted expression. Which crumbled soon afterwards.

"What the…? Andrew? What is wrong with you?" She said with a full mouth, not really daring to chew any more.

"Why, what is it?" Andrew asked in a bewildered tone, already happily eating his meal.

"I don’t know how you did it, but this is by far the most disgusting thing I've ever had. How did you even manage to do this? There is nothing that even remotely tastes as horrible as this."

"Uhhh." Andrew said with an irritated look. "I think it's fine, though?"

He was looking so lost with his half-full bowl in his hand that Sarah started wildly laughing, spitting out the food that was still in her mouth. Melissa also started laughing while holding her stomach.

Oh, Andrew, you are so useless apart from leading people." She cackled while wiping away a few joyous tears.

Andrew made a resigned face, which caused even more laughter from the two women.

The evening went on like this, with her and Melissa making fun of Andrew and him giving horrible comebacks. It was the first lighthearted moment she had had since waking up in this strange world. And a lot of heavy feelings inside her started to melt away.

With a happy smile on her face, she watched Melissa argue with Andrew over whether the mushrooms he gathered were poisonous or not. This moment was so light and comfortable that she wanted it to never end.

And soon after, she fell into a deep and comfortable slumber.