Theives and Assassins

The cart shook and rumbled slightly at intervals, causing Wara to shift Zola's head back unto her lap so he would not hit his head on the flooring of the cart.

Stroking her fingers through the child's hair, she squirmed slightly.

She felt completely uncomfortable being squeezed beside Sica but did not voice out her complaints as she had noticed they had given her more space than was available all because of the child.

She noticed Yhra's finger seemed to twitch uncontrollably everytime she glanced as her like she wanted to ask her something but was stopping herself and distracting herself by humming along with Fjammi.

Fjammi had stopped humming and was tracing the cart's walls when Wara noticed Yhra steal a look and twitch again.

"Ask." Wara voice was hoarse as she blurted out, annoyed by the constant glances.

All eyes in the cart turned to hers and she cleared her throat, misunderstanding the reason why they were staring at her.

"You want to ask me something, so ask." She clarified but she did not expect all three to blink at her and ask her the same question.

"Who are you?"

Wara paused her fingers that were stroking through Zola's brown curls. Who was she?

"I do not understand. Whatever do you mean?" She asked, completely unsure of how to answer the question thrown to her by the three different people.

"You can perform magic without using a cost." Sica began, narrowing his eyes at Wara.

"You are poisonous to a bloodsucker." Fjammi continued.

"And you speak my language. Something that should not be spoken on this side of the veil." Yhra completed.

Wara was confused. Except for the first statement, everyother thing they had said, she had only recently discovered and she did not ever remember speaking in another language.

"Your language?" Wara asked, to understand better. "I am certain I have never spoken in any other language to you so I am quite surprised by what you have just said."

Yhra frowned, not expecting it to be the case. Perhaps she had drank a language elixir as she was certain there were definitely other Potion makers who she could have gotten them from.

Crossing out the language issue in her mind, she then focused on the use of magic without a cost. Surely she had her own curse as hers was to loose her life force whenever she used magic and could only get it back by sexual means.

She was about to ask when Fjammi suddenly added another issue to the list.

"Do you know what power fire holds?" The question was a strange one but Sica kept quiet knowing clearly of the boy's intellect. He would not ask such a question unless there was a reason behind it.

A strange smile made its way onto Wara's face. The warm evening sun seperated by the shadows of the trees illuminated her features, giving more strength to the eriee look she wore. "Fire..."she whispered and then increased her volume.

"A force of nature... that is beautiful in a dark, destructive, and mysterious way" she looked up to stare directly into Fjammi's eyes, causing the boy to squirm uncomfortably.

"Yes. I know what power fire holds."

Held captive by her spell, he whispered out what was on his mind.

"Then why do you go against nature?"

The question was more confusing than the last and immediately it had left the youngsters lips, he closed his eyes and that action signified he did not expect an answer.

Wara did not answe the question and frowned, staring at at Sica who had been giving her a strange look.

"Look up." Wara said. Sica glanced up and saw nothing by the huge trees swaying slightly due to the evening breeze.

After Wara had noticed he had not seen what she saw. She did not tell him anything and quietly insulted him under her breath.

"He is blinder than I thought."

The truth was she herself had not noticed it until she caught Yhra staring up and the trees with a frown on her face.

Yhra had a hand up and it was clear she was trying to feel the direction of the wind but Wara did not understand why until she saw it.

A few of the branches in the trees were moving differently and some of them would fall off. It was normal as flying creatures did like to hop from tree to tree especially since this forest had really high trees.

The strange thing was that the broken branches were always grey in colour like they had withered. Some were black even.

Other branches fell too but the grey ones seemed to be only at the route they were taking.

Both women came to that realisation at the same time and brought their heads down only to meet each other's gaze.

After Wara had tried to alert Sica that something was wrong and it failed, they both came to an unspoken conclusion not to say anything and watch if the stalker was going to take any action.

What Wara failed to notice was that Yhra had been looking at two places meaning they had two stalkers and not one.

The carriage suddenly stopped and Fjammi sighed.

"We camp here for the night. People like us staying in one place for too long is not good."

Wara did not understand what he meant by people like us and did not pry. She had other questions that arose more suspicion when Nak made all their belongings reappear and dropped a dead creature.

The creature had a protruded snout and whiskers at the tip of the snout. It had small eyes, moderately-sized ears, and a scaly, nearly naked tail.

Wara was distracted by the creature until she saw Yhra suddenly stab a small, furry creature with long ears, short fluffy tails, and strong, large hind legs.

"Rabbit Stew!" She heard Fjammi's groan and suddenly realised she was the only one still sitting in the cart. Scooping up the sleeping child and resting his head on her shoulders, she left the cart.

She did not notice that the child had been sleeping a lot more than usual lately and she had failed to question it.

"Rabbit stew?" Wara voiced her confusion. "What is Rabbit stew?"

Yhra suddenly paused skinning the animal and turned to stare at her. Yhra then realised the reason why Wara had not eaten any of the foods she had given her. The food must have been foreign to her and during the Dies Lucis, anything strange was to be avoided.

"Have a taste when I am done and you will know." Yhra replied, humming in content when Fjammi had lit up a hole for her to place her pot.

After the whole ordeal and darkness had settled, the tents had not been raised so everyone had to sleep on the ground.

Fjammi had insisted on keeping watch despite the constant argument from Sica who kept voicing his displeasure.

Yhra had said nothing and it was clear something was wrong with her. Wara also noticed a different behaviour from Nak as he suddenly became aloof and distant, going to sleep immediately after eating.

Wara shook Zola awake as Fjammi and Sica argued and against her better judgement, tried the said rabbit stew.

It was neither good nor bad but she was hungry and so she ate, feeding Zola as she ate. The child insisted once in feeding himself but a stern look from Wara had quickly forced him to submission.

In the end, after a groan from Yhra, Fjammi had won the argument. Sica and Yhra stood up to take a walk and with Sica supporting her as she walked, Wara had questions but she was exhausted.

Thinking and trying to figure out why exactly Zola was being chased from the vision she had seen was taking a toll on her and soon, she gave in to slumber.

After a while, Sica and Yhra had returned and Yhra was looking as energetic as she had been the first time Wara had met her, meanwhile Nak looked exhausted.

After exchanging a few looks with youngster who was playing with fire, he found a log to rest his head and joined the others in slumberland.

Yhra laid her head too to sleep and after a while, Fjammi suddenly began to doze off. Yhra felt a strange presence and popped open an eye only to see a shadow taking a few scoops from her stew.

She ignored the shadow as it seemed harmless and the strange presence she could feel had still not disappeared despite the shadow retreating to the trees after having its full.

Suddenly, too quick for her to react, a hand appeared out of thin air, reaching for the child's throat.

However, before it could reach, another hand had caught his and Yhra looked up to find a very pissed off Wara glaring into the air.

"Who the hell are you?"