Sihil felt the wind knocked out of her as Teagan placed the bag on the ground, slamming her into Aaliyah and Hassan. The three of them had been kept in its confines for over a day now, punctuated only by infrequent and short breaks given to them to eat, drink, stretch, and attend to any other needs one otherwise couldn't in complete darkness. Now it seemed as if Teagan was about to let them out again, but alas, nothing happened. Sihil waited hesitantly, but when she heard the muffled sound of giants conversing in their guttural tongue, she knew that it was a false hope. Teagan had forgotten about them.

With a saddened sigh, Sihil rested her back against Teagan's waterskin and tried to fall asleep. She was ready to slip into another night of dreaming about home when she heard Hassan's voice pierce the silence.

"How much longer is this going to go on? I'm not going to live out my days like this."

"You know there's no answer either of us can give you, but it can't last forever." Aaliyah replied, "The giantess is traveling, right? Sooner or later she'll reach her destination, and we'll at least spend our time is a place more dignified than a rucksack. Ideally with a bit more legroom."

"You know that's not what I mean, Aaliyah. It doesn't matter if it's a canvas bag or a gilded cage, a prison is still a prison. We're people, not playthings, and I'm getting more and more afraid that the giantess sees us as little more than a passing interest."

"So what's the point of bringing it up, hmm? You thinking of trying to escape?" Aaliyah asked.

"Believe me, I'm not that desperate." Hassan answered, "The giantess doesn't care for us. Only Sihil. We'll be killed on the spot if she finds us, and as if that wasn't bad enough, there's no water around for miles and we have nothing to navigate with. I'm thinking we could get Sihil to build a little trust, you know? The giantess clearly fancies her, that much is undeniable. If she can just figure out a way to ask for nicer accomodations and more freedoms, it'd be a lot easier waiting this captivity out."

Sihil felt their eyes on her. Hassan's plan didn't actually sound risky or dangerous at all, but how was she to communicate what she needed to Teagan? Their shared vocabulary was extremely limited, and abstractions like freedom and trust were a lot harder to translate than simpler, more corporeal concepts such as objects or places.

"I can try. I'll need time with her, time alone, and privacy, but I can try. She's more malleable than you might think, and, well, I actually get the impression that she thinks of me as a friend. Maybe I can play into that, give her the impression that the feeling is reciprocated, and eke a favor or two out of her while I've put her in a good mood."

With these words, Sihil fell back into slumber. She heard Aaliyah and Hassan talking to each other for some time, but tired as she was, no amount of noise could stop her from falling into a gentle slumber.

She dreamed of home. Alephasia, a small town on a big riverside, surrounded by verdant fields free of dangerous creatures. A small but sturdy brick home with a warm hearth and a soft bed. A loving, caring father, two rowdy brothers, and fiercely loyal friends. It was, in many ways, a perfect life.

Too perfect.

Teagan loomed over the village, her face shrouded in darkness, her hands stained in the blood of countless untold thousands. Alephasia was next, and the town fell into ruin at her approach. Crops withered. Houses burned. Dozens were crushed with her every step. The streets ran red with blood, the air grew clouded with smoke, and the screams of the desperate townsfolk filled the air. Sihil could do nothing to stop the slaughter that unfolded in front of her eyes, and felt her stomach turn as she felt each life snuffed out.

"Stop." she said, to no avail. Teagan simply continued.

"Stop!"

"STOP!"

Sihil was jolted from her dream when she felt something shaking her. She woke up to see Hassan leaning towards her, hands on her shoulders.

"Sihil. You're shouting. It was just a bad dream. Are y-" 

Hassan was interrupted as the aperture to the bag opened.

~

"Cessare!"

Teagan froze as all eyes turned her way. Sihil's voice was audible, even through the bag, and now Teagan was going to pay for it. Wulfric looked disappointed, Hannah worried, and most of the others either afraid or angry.

"What have you got in that bag, hmm?" the old man asked, "I haven't ever seen a bag that speaks before, so I'd assume that the contents are responsible for that noise."

Before Teagan could respond, Wulfric answered the old man on her behalf.

"No need to dance around the truth, Peric. She's got tomkins in there, aye. Not many have the luxury of knowing when their next meal is out there. They serve as nourishment in a pinch. That being said, Teagan, there's no need to keep those things around. Why don't you just dispose of them and we'll get you some real food, eh?"

Teagan opened up the bag, and looked inside. Hassan, Aaliyah, and Sihil were sitting together. Aaliyah was squeezing Sihil's hand, while Hassan was clasping her shoulders, in the act of trying to calm her down. Teagan knew that what she would have to do next would break Sihil's heart, but she had no choice. Without giving herself time to second-guess herself, Teagan plucked Aaliyah and Hassan out from the bag in each hand, holding them up for all to see. Their terrified faces faced towards her, however, and she saw their forlorn sadness in all its pitiable desperation.

I can't do this... how have I gotten this soft?

"I... I guess this isn't my home after all. I know none of you will believe me, but these tomkins are good people. I'd rather take my chances out there than kill them for my own safety."

Teagan was lying, of course - she was more than happy to kill a tomkin for her own pleasure, let alone safety - she didn't want Sihil to hate her for killing more of her friends, though. If she had to abandon Sudgau, so be it: she'd just continue on the path to Whitebreeze Keep.

"That's not how this works, and you know it." Wulfric said, standing up, "We can't take risks. It's standard practice - if the tomkins know that we're out here, then they'll hunt us down. Makes our lives harder than you might think. You can leave if you want, but not with those tomkins."

"No."

"If you don't want to kill them, you can hand them over. We'll do it discretely, quickly, and painlessly."

"No!"

"Teagan... don't make this harder than it has to be. Please." Wulfric said, walking slowly over to one of the oxcarts. 

"This isn't right." Hannah said, obviously panicked, "Everybody slow down. We can talk this through."

"I'm not handing them over, and that's final." Teagan said, lowering Hassan and Aaliyah back into her bag. She needed her hands free for her combat, if things escalated any more.

Teagan heard a snap and a whistle. Wulfric pulled something out from the oxcart.

Then the pain hit.

Teagan cried out in pain as the realization hit her that she'd been shot. A crossbow bolt was lodged in her right thigh, surrounded by a quicky spreading bloody stain on her pants.

"WULFRIC! What are you DOING?!" Hannah screamed, wrenching the crossbow from his hands. Wulfric ignored her and stalked towards Teagan, followed by three of his men.

"I'm sorry that it had to come to this. I really am... it's a damn shame that I ever had to even consider hurting you, but you left me no choice. Peric, kill the tomkins. Eckhard, Vale, hell, everyone else with a weapon - let's escort Teagan out of the area and make sure nobody else gets hurt. Hannah... keep everyone else safe."

"Wait, yo-" Hannah began.

"Hannah! Please, keep them safe! We won't kill your friend. I swear. Just get them out of here!" Wulfric interrupted, marching towards Teagan.

Teagan, now kneeling on her uninjured leg, made a quick headcount of the aggressors coming towards her. There were six in total, though Wulfric and Peric were unarmed.

"You're making a mistake..." Teagan groaned, forcing herself back to her feet.

"Don't give me that. I see your knife, and while I have no intent of killing you, I won't hesitate to defend myself if you draw that on me. If you don't want to end up any more injured than you already are, I advise being smart an-"

Wulfric was cut off when Teagan launched herself at Peric, who was getting ready to seize her bag. In one swift motion, she tackled him to the ground, drew her dagger, and stabbed him in the throat. Peric's eyes went wide as he drew his last gasping, blood-choked breaths. 

2.

"I warned you." Teagan growled, yanking the crossbow bolt out of her leg with a wince and tossing it aside.

Wulfric looked at his men. They were nervous, angry, astonished, and eager in equal amounts, bundles of energy waiting to be spent.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" he cried, "Kill her!"

They charged.

Teagan was ready.

The first among them, a young man with a wood-hewn spear, stumbled back as a phantom force impacted him in the gut. The next, a man sporting a bushy black beard with a red face and a bald head, swung his hammer at Teagan's chest, but his blow was stopped short just before it connected for no apparent reason. He managed to muscle his way through the resistance, but the blow had already lost its momentum, and barely seemed to hurt Teagan at all. Teagan, in retaliation, planted her dagger in the man's chest, slipping the blade through his ribs and hitting his heart. The man dropped to the ground, but Teagan's dagger, lodged as it was in his wound, dropped with him. Teagan was left weaponless as she faced the remaining four foes.

3.

The spearman and a scrawny woman with a large knife, seeing what befell their comrade who attacked alone, charged Teagan together with a warcry. The man shouted in surprise as his spear burst into splinters in his grip, drawing the woman's attention just long enough for Teagan to grab her fallen foe's hammer. When the woman looked back to Teagan, she received a powerful uppercut to the jaw with the hammer, shattering half of the bones in her face. She screamed in agony and flailed aimlessly with her knife, but her blind jabs and slashes came nowhere near hitting Teagan. Teagan swung her hammer at the woman's head again, augmenting it with as much force as she could. There was a sickening crunch as the woman's skull was caved in, and she dropped to the ground, dead.

4.

The last of the armed aggressors, a scrawny man with a cudgel, was nowhere to be seen. Teagan assumed he had run away until she felt an explosion of pain erupt from her neck. Teagan whirled around and saw the man winding up another swing, this one aimed at her head. She easily grabbed the wrist of the hand holding the cudgel in one hand and punched him in the face with the other, paralyzing him with pain, or perhaps shock. Teagan neither really knew or cared, but in any case, it gave her enough time to put the man in a headlock and snap his neck.

5.

The young man, seeing the littered corpses at Teagan's feet, started to back away, hands raised in submission. Teagan wasn't about to let him get off that easy. With a twist of her offhand, Teagan wrenched the man's left leg out from under him, toppling him to the ground. Teagan loomed over the man, hammer in hand, casting a hateful glare downwards.

"Gods above and below, please, please, show me mercy, spare my soul!" he shouted, eyes squeezed shut.

"It's me you should be asking for mercy." Teagan said, driving her into the man's side with a vicious kick, sending him into a coughing fit. Teagan knew he wouldn't be getting back up to challenge her again, leaving only Wulfric. He had grabbed a sword while Teagan fought his underlings, and was now staring Teagan down.

"So, you're a mage." Wulfric snarled, "I should have just let you go, in retrospect."

"Yeah." Teagan curtly replied.

"There's no going back now, though, is there? One of us is dying here."

"Yeah."

"Alright. Just don't kill anyone else if you defeat me, okay? They don't deserve it. Just me. Can you just promise me that?"

"Yeah."

Wulfric lunged forward, blade pointed at Teagan's throat. She tried to sidestep the stab, not confident in her ability to parry it with the hammer, but her injured leg gave out underneath her in the middle of her manuever, and Wulfric's stab hit her in the right shoulder. The pain helped Teagan focus and push herself back to her feet, but her vision began to swim and her lungs screamed for air. Her gratuitous use of her power had drained her energy significantly, and blood loss was by no means helping. Teagan dropped her hammer and rolled backwards as Wulfric made another strike, this time trying to stab her in the chest. She managed to evade the strike, but by the time she had scrambled back to her feet, Wulfric was coming at her yet again. Teagan swept the area around her with her hands until she got a hold of the cudgel used by the scrawny man. Barely an instant before Wulfric swung down at her head, Teagan raised the cudgel in a protective block. Wulfric's sword destroyed the makeshift weapon, but Teagan herself remained unharmed.

"Just give it up, Teagan. I can tell you're out of power, or else you would have used it on me. I might even let your little tomkin friends go if you stop resisting." Wulfric 

"You're... a terrible... liar." Teagan panted, taking advantage of the brief pause to the fullest and wrenching her dagger from the bearded man's chest.

"So be it." Wulfric replied.

Teagan was able to block Wulfric's first swing, but his second was too fast for her, and ended up clipping her left arm. The cut was superficial, but Teagan was too exhausted to fight on. The pain from her myriad wounds was just too much. She fell back to the ground, released her grip on her dagger, and stared towards the starry night sky. Wulfric raised his sword above his head, tip facing down over her heart.

"I lost a lot of good men today. You took more than you could imagine from me today, so be thankful that I still elect to grant you a painless death."

Teagan said nothing and closed her eyes.

"NO!"

Wulfric turned his head.

Teagan saw an opportunity.

6.

~

Hannah couldn't help but cry out when she saw the bodies of her comrades strewn about the area. Only Wulfric remained standing, preparing to plunge his blade into Teagan's chest. Hannah immediately regretted her impulsive shout as Wulfric turned his head to look at her, just for an instant. She watched in horror as Teagan, appearing defenseless and weak the moment before, sprung up and drove her knife into Wulfric's back.

When he turned back around in shock, she stabbed him against, this time in the eye. She left the dagger embedded in Wulfric's head as his body dropped to the ground. Teagan stood amid the carnage she wrought, covered in the blood of Hannah's companions and kin. Hannah, not caring whether Teagan would kill her, ran over to her brother's side, and cradled his body in her arms. She started to sob.

"You killed him."

Teagan said nothing. She simply kneeled down and picked up her bag.

"You killed them all over the lives of two tomkins."

"I did." Teagan coldly replied.

"Kill me, then." Hannah said, overcome with emotion, "Let me join them. I've been looking for them for months, and when I finally return to my home, you destroy it."

"No. Wulfric made me promise that I wouldn't hurt you. I won't break my word." Teagan said, beginning to walk away.

Hannah noticed that Teagan had left Vale, the youngest of the group, alive. He was cowering on the ground, nearly motionless.

"How did you do this? How did you kill them? Wulfric was a skilled swordsman. No human could have possibly killed them all... you're no human at all, are you, Teagan? You're a monster. You're a monster!"

Teagan continued to walk away, ignoring Hannah. Hannah looked down to Wulfric. She quietly pulled his hand away from his sword, seized it in both hands, and stood back up, steeling herself. She was no expert with a sword, not on Wulfric's level, at least, but she wasn't a complete novice either. 

"I'll kill you! Get over here before I stab you in the back!" she screamed, to no avail. Teagan continued to walk away.

Hannah tried to give chase, but felt as if she was frozen in place, held back by some invisible wall. Maybe if she was less distraught, she could have pushed past it, but as she was, Hannah was hapless. She fell back to the ground, sword slipping out of her grasp, and watched Teagan walk until she disappeared under the horizon. She was never going to get her vengeance.

~

The moment Teagan was sure that she'd limped out of Hannah's sight, she fell to the ground, exhausted. She slowly pulled open her bag and retrieved her waterskin before slowly undressing, trying to ignore the throbbing pain from her wounds. After peeling off her bloodied shirt and trousers, Teagan examined her wounds. Out them all, the wound left by the crossbow bolt looked by far to be the worst of them all, the triangular wound still bleeding profusely in comparison to the superficial wounds inflicted by Wulfric. Though she pretended not to notice, she watched keenly as Hassan emerged from the untended bag at her feet, followed by Aaliyah and finally Sihil. The three of them watched as Teagan washed her injuries with the last of the water from her waterskin, staining the nearby ground red with blood. After she'd finished washing off as much blood as she could, Teagan tore what was left of her shirt into a trio of long, misshapen bandages, the largest of which she used to start binding her leg wound. Teagan shuddered with pain as she tied the makeshift bandage tight, compressing the injury and causing her a fresh wave of discomfort.

"Teagan..."

Teagan turned around. Sihil was worriedly looking up at her, fixated on her shoulder wound. She gently lowered a hand to the ground, allowing Sihil time to clamber onto it before bringing it to her uninjured left shoulder, where she let the girl climb off.

"These injuries must look pretty fuckin' huge to you, huh? You should see the other guy, though. I did it all for you, too, not your two friends over there. I like the woman a bit, I guess, but in the end it was really just so you don't hate me as much. I don't know why I'm so attached to you, and so far, I've really just gotten my ass kicked by life for it. I guess you've just got a winning smile and pretty face. If you could understand me, maybe I'd like you a little less, if I'm being honest. It's nice being able to talk to you and not having to worry about you caring what I say."

Teagan planted a soft kiss on Sihil's head, and felt her heart leap as the girl leaned into it instead of shrinking away from her. Progress! The girl might not hate her with every fiber of her being! Teagan suppressed a squeal of delight as she pressed her cheek gently against the girl, the affectionate display helping take her mind off of the events that had transpired minutes ago.

"That's right. This is why I keep you around. I feel like I'd go insane without someone to love. You're a real champ, kid, and I'm no fucking monster myself. I guess you probably think I'm one, though."

Teagan looked down at the other two tomkins, who were still awkwardly staring at her. Specifically, Aaliyah had been watching her talk to Sihil, while Hassan was clearly trying his hardest not to stare at her exposed breasts. Teagan normally would have laughed at his awkward reaction, but she was more surprised that neither of them even tried to make a break for it. Maybe saving them wasn't such a bad idea after all...

"You know what I need? A little rest and relaxation to get my mind off the pain. Why don't you little guys help me unwind a bit? I'll make it fun for you too!"