"Over here, there she is ! " Said the blonde haired solider who was chasing him earlier, with the brunette haired one following behind. During the whole runaround, the General's colleagues got lost entirely and only now managed to catch up after the matter was settled. " Looks like you already caught him General Rana."

"Took you two slugs long enough, I might as well report that I completed this solo." Rana said, obviously not pleased with their performance. " Zoila your knife." She ordered, and the brunette responded without hesitation and handing the knife she had hoisted on her side for fieldwork to her senior.

Zane meanwhile knew nothing he did now would make a difference, and dangled in mid-air suspension of his vine trap. After all that it was hard to believe that the General, Rana wasn't even breathing heavy let alone break a sweat, while she looked like she got done with a casual jog, he looked like he completed a full marathon.

Rana with the knife in hand roughly grabbed the tops of vines and proceeded to cut them loose and in the process causing Zane to flat on his back letting out a slight yelp on impact. She wasn't worried if he would attempt another chase knowing he expended all of his stamina prior. For safety measure though she lifted hard large metal shin guarded shoe and pressed it directly onto the stomach and partially chest of her defeated foe.

" Uh-oh, looks like her sadistic side is coming out today." Whispered the blonde soldier to Zoila.

" Quiet Anna!" Rana commanded, and with those two words shut her up faster than lightning can strike. With them under control, Rana shifted her fierce hazel eyes way down to her captive.

" Now onto you. I'm going to make this simple, I'll ask you some very simple questions and you WILL answer. If you don't, I will press my foot down on you until I crush you like a tiny, little, bug." Rana declared and for demonstrations sake applied some slight pressure onto the completely vulnerable Zane, the act caused him to writhe and cough several times. In all fairness, Rana probably applied minimal force in her mind, but with the size difference the relative force Zane felt was much worse, plus he needed all the oxygen he could get and a giant foot over his lungs certainly isn't helping.

Feeling like she's made her point, Rana alleviated the pressure she inflicted upon Zane thus far, despite being all business even she found it a bit humorous to how silly he looked with her mere foot covering most of his body, with only his limbs sticking out flailing like a puny turtle on it's shell.

" Now first question, what is your name?" Rana ordered. Zane knew now wasn't the time to go into deep thought in considering his options. At worst, he tells his name and they know who he is and probably executed on the spot. At the VERY worst, he stays quiet and is literally crushed here and now.

" Alright, Zane. Tell me are you a mercenary for the opposing forces?" Rana sounded more serious about this question (if that was even possible), unlike before though, Zane didn't know what she was talking about.

" What is she talking about? Is Xaria in the middle of battle or something?" He thought.

It didn't take long for Rana to grow impatient from Zane's brief moment of silence and she in return abruptly pressed her foot downward driving the breath straight out of Zane's lungs as he vainly tried his hardest to push her enormous foot off his body to give himself the smallest amount of wiggle room.

" I . .don't know what you're talking about ! " He managed to squeak out in a barely audible voice, he knew she had no reason to believe him, but he attempted to look up at his captor's imposing form that towered over him like a monolith right now, in hopes to stare her in the eyes to convince her he's not lying.

" Is that a fact?" Rana sarcastically asked while raising her eyebrow. Even if he was working for her land's adversary she didn't expect him to confess anyways, still she was partly unconvinced and kept her foot down with the same amount of pressure.

" Then tell me, what were you doing here?"

" I . . .I. ." Zane was asked another question that's difficult to answer given his situation. Telling her he was pursued gives her ground to suspect he's a criminal and his brain was working in overdrive to think of a passable excuse.

" I wouldn't even try to fabricate anything if I were you. Seeing as you fled from me on sight was a pretty suspicious act." Rana now started to slowly increase the pressure on Zane's prone body, which further expelled the little oxygen he was fighting to keep.

" I . . .wasn't doing anything honestly!" Zane squeaked out, it was bad enough he was on verge of suffocation, but the pain on his body was starting to become unbearable.

" And why should I believe some lowly vagabond who was loitering around like you?" Rana rhetorically asked. " Truthfully, pressing down as hard as I can and leaving you splattered under my foot would make my day a lot easier."

" Puuh . . .l . eease . " Zane used the last bit of air from his lungs with his plead, and even Rana's teammates Zoila and Anna had semi-concerned looks on their faces, not concern for Zane per say, but the possible backlash if Rana killed in cold blood . If she continued any further his lungs could be ruptured and his ribs fractured. Or if she went full force . . .it wouldn't pretty spectacle to say the least.

Rana feigned a skeptical look for a few seconds as if she was contemplating putting some pitiful creature out of their misery, but ultimately lifted her foot off of Zane's body, and he started to alternate between heavy hacks, inhales, and exhales.

" Lucky for you my orders today are quite clear and I need to take you under the city capital's custody." Rana then leaned down and performed a customary pat down on her barely breathing foe to check for any weapons or anything else out of the ordinary.

All she found was the bow, arrows, sword, and bag he carried on him, none of which were a lethal threat to her, still she confiscated them no less and motioned over to her soldiers to supply with some rope. Roughly kicking

Zane's lifeless body over to have him lie on his stomach, she pulled both his hands backwards and tied his hands together, right after doing the same to his legs. These procedures were overall unnecessary with how worn down he already was.

For the last order of business Rana pursed her lips in an "o" shape and let out a loud whistle that echoed through the air, seconds afterward a large crow descended from the air on her shoulder with a piece of paper tied to its foot. It was a messenger bird, that was used to relay information in advance, for something of this level a bird was sufficient, for more highly classified information a human messenger will be sent to deliver the news.

Untying the paper, inside it was a pen and she became to quickly write on it some documentation on her findings. Once finished she tied the paper back on and the crow flew off.

" There, by the time we reach back to the capital the council will decide on what to do with you." Rana leaned downward and gave another display of her immense strength by effortlessly lifting up Zane by the fabric of his shirt and threw him over her shoulder as easily a bag of groceries.

"Come on you two it's time to get moving." Rana ordered as she began to walk, with Anna and Zoila following.

" Cutting it a little close don't you think? I thought you were really going to go all the way." Anna asked, out Rana's near murder of Zane.

" That's an understatement." Zoila said in agreement.

" So what if I got a little carried away." Rana huffed with an irritated roll of the eyes." If the law is broken, punishment should be served swiftly and mercilessly. Given our current situation we're in no position to be taking chances even if it's petty crime.”

Anna and Zoila expected no less from Rana who was dedicated to her position to the very end, willing to die if she's ordered to without a second thought and began to whisper among themselves being sure to keep their voices down from their superior, which lost its purpose when they broke into giggles every now and again.

Rana felt herself growing more annoyed by the second as she heard them, she knew they were talking about her and yet she didn't want to confront them about it to keep an apathetic facade over the matter. Soon after the quiet conversation came to a halt and Rana thought her curiosity would finally subside, that is until Zoila ran ahead beside Rana and got up the tip of her toes to say something in a low tone.

" Hey captain, I think you may have missed something on the little captive." Zoila stated, trying her hardest to hold back her snickers. Zane who otherwise has been completely lifeless and complacent until now started to mentally tune into the conversation.

" I checked him thoroughly, all weapons I confiscated from him." Rana replied holding up the bag that contained Zane's weapons and supplies, she was irked enough by her companions private talk, and she can tell they're trying to goad her into something.

" Are you sure? Maybe you should check him closer." Zoila was practically chuckling after every sentence, and Anna couldn't even keep a straight face anymore.

" Very sure." Rana said getting even more irritated.

" Oh come on, maybe you should . .you know, do a detailed inspection on every last inch of him." Zoila said in a mischievously playful tone, and Rana caught onto where she was going with this. Zane did too and found something new to worry about.

" This woman is out of her mind." He thought.

" You're an idiot, why in the world would I want to do that?" Rana said feigning callousness to mask the embarrassment she felt about the question.

" What a stiff, take a look at him. Why don't we have a little fun with our little prisoner, it can be between the three of us and him. " Zoila said as she took a pace back to admire the completely helpless guy on Rana's shoulder, and placing a hand on his messy black hair to lift his skull up. Zane didn't want to imagine the thoughts that were going on in her head right now as she locked onto his amber eyes with all sorts of fascination on her young face.

" He's pretty cute, don't you think? Haven't you ever wanted to try 'it' at least once?" Zoila asked looking up to Rana.

" Stop being ridiculous! It's disgraceful for our kind to sexually engage with anyone, it taints our blood! Besides it's not being necessary for our reproduction." Rana nearly lost her temper on the spot at the remark and secretly felt mortified at the thought. The act alone is considered lowly by many other Xarians, and Rana would never be able to live it down.

" Relax, I was only playing sourpuss, you'd probably crush him anyway." Zoila said with a laugh, and fell back to walking with Anna. Rana simply sighed at the ludicrous conversation she was subjected to and Zane counted his lucky stars for dodging potential sexual exploitation. For the rest of the trip through the vast forest the travel was pretty uneventful, and took them a good two hours to reach near the exit. The down time at lest allowed to regain some of his stamina, but it wasn't particularly comfortable being draped over Rana's armored shoulder and the anxiety of what was in store for him wasn't easing in the slightest. He was also bored out of his mind from being carried around like a piece of luggage this whole ride.

" At last we're finally here." Rana said, it was nearing the afternoon when the squad stepped out of the lasts of the forest trees and began their walk down a dirt trail.

After a few more moments, Zane lifted his head around to see the open massive doors to the city that even substantially dwarfed someone of the stature of Rana, and standing at the side of door was a woman who was of a staggering height of 7'11, while a bit shorter than Zoila, Anna, and especially Rana, Zane began to quickly realize that probably everyone in this land had heights around the the 7 foot and onward range.

" Welcome back Rana, looks like you've caught a live one." The guards-woman joked.

" He was a squirmy little pain, but we'll find out what to do with him in a bit." Rana said, walking into the city.

" You two report back to the headquarters on how things went, I'll take this guy to the courthouse." Rana said.

" Want some alone time, hm?" Anna snickered handing Rana the bag of that was taken from Zane before, and Zoila joined in with the giggles soon after before going their separate ways.

" Why do I always get stuck with those two?" Rana said while shaking her head.

Rana began to move, and Zane was shell shocked taking in all that Xaria had to offer, he never thought he'd see the actual city life (albeit as a criminal), merchants selling things, grocery shops, plazas with various monuments dedicated to soldiers, and people casually going about there way with their purchased items and chatting amongst themselves. Occasionally a few people would cut there eyes and stare at Zane, making comments about what they made of the person Rana caught.

It didn't take much longer for Rana to reach the court house that she mentioned earlier, and there was several steps leading up to the building that has stood the test of time judging by the small cracks that on some of the marble the building was crafted out of, and it's dome shaped roof.

The interior was nothing like what the elaborate exterior would lead you to believe, the inside having some more stairs leading to the floor that had a few empty rows of seat, and ahead of that was a single chair with shackles at it's armrest and legs. Beyond that was a greater sight to behold, on an elevated platform were five regal and elaborately crafted chairs, with 5 people sitting in them.

Zane looking ahead couldn't feel more nervous and he detected that something was clearly bothering. It was made especially blatant when she dropped him (accidentally) and the bag she took from him immediately after seeing the who was ahead of her.