“My name is James,” he replies. “A wanderer.”
“Spy of the Empire no doubt,” she says. “I should just kill you right where you stand.” She pulls the bowstring back a fraction of an inch.
“I’m not a spy!” he asserts, trying to prevent the arrow from being released.
“No one wanders these woods in times like these unless they’re up to no good,” she says.
“Believe me,” he says, “I am no servant of the Empire.” He glances briefly over to where their camp lies. The horses are visible where they’re tied but there’s no sign of Jiron. Scanning the woods behind the woman, he sees him working his way quietly through the trees to get around behind her.
“What business do you have here then?” she asks.
“Merely trying to get back to my home in Cardri,” he tells her.
“Perhaps,” she says.
Jiron is closing the distance quickly, now no more than ten feet behind her. James sees one of his knives in his hand as he sneaks up behind her.
“One more step,” she says loudly, cocking her head to the side, “and I’ll kill your friend.” When Jiron comes to a halt, she glances back to him. Nodding to James, she says, “Go over and stand by your friend. Now!”
Jiron doesn’t resheathe his knife but does what she says and makes his way over to stand next to James.
“So, two wanderers,” she states.
“We are no friends of the Empire, you can rest assured lady,” Jiron says to her. “In fact, we’re trying to escape from them.” He gives her a serious look and then continues, “We all need to be getting out of here. A large force has been tailing us since yesterday and could be in the area at any time.”
“I saw the force you mentioned earlier,” she tells them. “It went past earlier as it made its way south.”
As James stands there with the arrow pointing menacingly at him, he begins to once more feel the tingling of magic being worked in the area. “Jiron,” he says nervously. “I feel it again.”
“Where?” he asks looking around, the danger from the woman now ignored.
“I’m not sure, but it’s getting stronger,” he replies. “They may be heading back.”
Jiron moves to return to the horses when the woman says, “Stay right there! I don’t know what kind of trick you’re playing here, but it’s not going to work.”
“This isn’t a trick,” insists James, fear growing in his voice. “A mage of some power is out there, and he is drawing near.”
“You expect me to believe that?” she asks. “I don’t think so.”
Further down the mountain, the sound of a large number of individuals can be heard as they forge their way through the brush. She glances down and her eyes widen when she makes out the unmistakable sight of Empire soldiers heading their way.
Seeing them too, James says, “Now do you believe us?”
Nodding her head, she relaxes her bow and quickly replaces her arrow in the quiver behind her shoulder. As James and Jiron begin running toward the horses, she says, “Leave them!” When they both look at her, she continues, “They’ll just slow you down in the forest. Follow me.” She then slings her bow behind her shoulder as she turns and begins running through the trees.
Jiron looks to him and James only shrugs. Breaking into a run, they follow her as she races through the undergrowth. “Where are we going?” asks James when they finally catch up to her.
“I know a trail that will take us through the mountains,” she tells them. “It comes out near the fortress of Kern on the Cardri-Empire border.”
“How long will it take?” Jiron asks.
“About three days perhaps longer,” she replies. “Longer still if we can’t shake the pursuit.”
The sound of their pursuers gradually diminishes as she takes them further up into the higher elevations. They all remain quiet as they work to navigate the sometimes steep and narrow way. Boulders and fallen trees have to be circumvented and at times scaled in order to continue.
They come to a cliff face with a small trickle of water running down its side. Turning to them, she says, “We have to climb up to the top of this.” Indicating a section of the wall, she adds, “Start here, it affords the best hand and footholds than anywhere else.”
She reaches out and takes hold of a crack and begins the ascent. When she’s gone about ten feet, Jiron looks to James and asks, “You want to go next?”
“You better, I might end up falling and I wouldn’t want to knock you down in the process.”
“It’s only about thirty feet,” states Jiron. “You can make it.”
Looking dubious at the prospect, he steps to the wall and begins following her with Jiron’s help. Once James has gone far enough to allow him room, Jiron steps to the wall and begins his ascent.
When James is halfway up, he hears her voice from where she’s standing at the top of the cliff, “Hurry up.”
“Do you see anyone coming?” Jiron shouts up to her.
She looks out for a moment then replies, “No. All I can see is the tops of the trees. They could be just right below and I wouldn’t know it.”
“Great!” he hears Jiron grunt below him.
As he reaches the top he sees her hand reaching down to help him up the rest of the way. Taking it, he’s soon up over the edge and lying on the top. Arms and legs shaking from the ordeal, he just lies there a few moments until he sees Jiron’s head crest over the top.
She reaches down to help him as well, but he just shakes his head as he makes the rest of the way on his own.
“We can have a short break here,” she tells them as Jiron gains the top.
James sits up and reaches into his belt pouch where he pulls out the pitiful remnants of what use to be rations, oh so long ago. Grimacing, he takes a bite out of the stale fare and looks up to see her grinning at him. “What’s so funny?” he asks.
“Just your expression when you bit into that,” she explains with a slight laugh. She pulls out some jerked beef and hands him several strips. “Here, you can have some of mine.” When she sees Jiron’s hungry looks, she gives him some as well.
“So what are you doing out here?” Jiron asks as he takes the offered food. He keeps a constant lookout for any approaching soldiers, but it looks like for the moment they may have lost them.
Her expression turns grim as she says, “Surviving. I used to live in Mountainside before the soldiers came. Fortunately I was out hunting in the mountains when they showed up and was spared the ravages they inflicted on my family and friends.”
“That’s too bad about your family,” James says.
“Yes. I miss them dearly but we can’t live in the past,” she says wistfully. “Now I stay up here where they can’t find me. Been doing alright so far, though I hope they get pushed back into the Empire so I can go home. If there’s even a home to return to.”
“We were just through there and it looks like most of it is still standing,” explains Jiron. “Some of the buildings were burned down by the fire, but most of them appeared in good condition.”
“Strange thing about that fire,” she says. “It just started up out of nothing. I was in the forest that day and there wasn’t any lightning or such to spark it. Though I heard a whole lot of soldiers got burnt in it. That was good news.”
Jiron glances at James who just shakes his head. He doesn’t want her to know more about them than is absolutely necessary. “So you just stay in the woods?” he asks. “How are you able to manage?”
Giving him an annoyed expression, she asks in reply, “What? Do you think I’m some helpless little girl who can’t take care of herself?”
“We’ll, no,” he replies. “It’s just that…”
“It’s just that I’m a girl,” she finishes for him. “If I were a man, would you even ask such a question?”
Face reddening, he looks to Jiron for help but finds him smiling, enjoying the predicament he’s gotten himself into. “No, it’s not that at all. Where I come from, women are considered equal to men in all things. What I was getting at was that the soldiers might’ve discovered you, or something.”