AS BERT CONTINUED to tell himself he wasn’t scared and watch the forest roll by from the back of the wagon, he was shocked to notice another person in the group. Tied up like a rabbit on a spit was a woman on the back of one of the horses. Bert had to turn his body awkwardly against his tied-up hands to get a look at her, but it was certainly a woman. However, she looked at least part animal. Wild, dark brown, uncombed hair shot out at all angles. Sticks and leaves matted it along with sticky substances that were as likely blood as honey or pine sap. She was wearing skins and furs that looked like they were made by a blind child. Poorly done stitching and strange cuts made for an odd outfit. At first Bert thought she was asleep, but now he noticed blood dripping from a cut on her thigh. The more Bert looked, the more strange things became. The woman wore no shoes, and her feet were dark with dirt and grime. Besides the cut on her thigh, she had many smaller cuts and scratches that looked like the ones he would get when picking berries from forests filled with thornbushes. Despite all this, she looked otherwise fit and healthy. The fact she was trussed up so suggested she had put up quite a fight.

  “Get a good look, pretty boy?” she spat, snarling at him. Her tough act failed a bit as she coughed and some blood dripped from her mouth.

  Seeing her face for the first time, Bert was stunned to see a full set of white teeth behind the snarl. The woman was as pretty as she was wild. Even the bruises on her face couldn’t hide it. “Apologies,” Bert said quickly. “I didn’t notice you until just now.”

  She chuckled. “You seemed to be taking quite a look at my legs. These pigs took my skirt off when they found I hid a blade in it.” She laughed quietly at the memory. “They didn’t dare take more.”

  “Oh, be silent, wolf-girl,” one of the guards said, glancing at her before continuing to scan the area near them with his torch as the horses plodded on.

  “Make me,” she said, glaring at him. She smiled as she said it and licked her teeth of blood, spitting it out afterwards.

  The guard shook his head, seeming to have had enough fight from her and stepped further away from the wagon rather than deal with her.

  Having won, she quieted a bit. “You ready to fight these pigs for our freedom, pretty boy?”

  “Bert,” he replied, shocked at how open she was being. She was probably quiet enough the guard couldn’t hear anymore, but he couldn’t be sure.

  “I’m hurt too,” she replied quickly.

  “No, my name is Bert, not pretty boy.”

  She smiled, her white teeth standing out against the tanned skin, bruises, dirt and blood of her face. “I’m not interested anyways, Bert,” she drew out the name. “So, will you fight? Or cower like those two?” She moved her head to point to the man and woman tied up on the other side of the wagon.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “I’m not afraid to fight, but I don’t see what good that would do right now,” Bert whispered back, still surprised they were even having this discussion. He moved a little more and was surprised to find his eating knife still at his belt. He decided this wasn’t a good thing anyways. It said the men were so sure of their ability and numbers that the small blade wasn’t even a concern to them.

  “Well, Bert, as soon as they untie me, I’m going to fight until they kill me.” The look she gave him convinced him that she wasn’t just putting on an act. She meant it.

  “There are four of them, all armed. I have no weapons,” he lied. “I don’t like our chances.”

  “You’ll like them less when we get to the camp,” she replied quickly. “Four is a lot less than we’ll find shortly.”

  “Wait. What camp?”

  “They grow some blasted berry and make us pick it all day in the hot sun. That seems bad until they wake you up and you have to try and pick it by moonlight and torch. I won’t go back.”

  Bert took a moment to process all this. Surely she didn’t mean solhara? This close to Keelwick? The idea of being stuck in a camp like the one they had burned near Black Cave was a lot different than being taken to a city where he might talk his way to freedom. He sighed. “An orange berry? About the size of a small apple?”

  She looked deflated. “Oh no, you escaped before too?”

  He shook his head. “What? No, I’ve never been there. Wait, you already escaped once?”

  She sighed. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Will you fight or not? I’ll use my teeth and nails until I can run. This time, I won’t stop to help anyone.”

  Bert shook his head. “No, I don’t think I will fight.” He went even quieter. “Not yet. I want to see this camp first and then I’ll work with you to get out. I’ll take you when I go. I promise.” He said the words without thinking, but he felt them to be true all the same.

  She actually laughed at his words. “I’ve heard that before, pretty boy. I already told you I wasn’t interested. You don’t need to make promises you won’t keep. You won’t get anywhere with me.”

  Bert sighed at her words. He thought of the only woman he actually was interested in, and hoped Cat was safe and making progress in Keelwick. “It’s not like that. Just promise me you’ll wait until the time is right. I don’t want anything from you.” He felt bad after saying it. She was pretty, even if she looked like she might bite your tongue off if you tried to kiss her.

  She narrowed her eyes at him, then laughed. “Someone else, then? I’ve seen puppy dog eyes like that before. Well, Bert, I won’t make any promises one way or the other. But I might keep you to your promise one day. Swear it on the one you’re thinking of when you look at me.”

  Bert actually smiled at this. The woman had a way of twisting words that reminded him of Cat. “Fair enough, I’ll swear it on her. I’ll get your name in exchange.”

  “Sana,” she said abashedly.

  The quietness of her voice surprised him much more than anything else about her. He smiled and held back a laugh.

  “Don’t laugh at me, pretty boy!” she seethed.

  “It’s just…Sana? Like the story?”

  She frowned at him. “It’s just my name. Always has been, I never knew of the story. There was no books for me, growing up in the wild.”

  He couldn’t see her well enough to be sure, but he could tell from her voice that she was reddening. “Apologies again. Sana, I promise on her that I will not leave without you.”

  “Good enough, Bert.” Some of her swagger had returned. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to rest now. I have one hell of a headache that these blasted Badgers gave me.”

  “Of course,” he replied simply as he watched the woman collapse and stop moving. This day had gone from great to terrible to strange.

  Bert let his mind wander as he fell into the familiar rhythmic bumping of the wheels on the ground.