Flames danced across the ground, over broken boards, up walls, igniting stacks of hay. They leapt from roof to roof as the wind blew smoke and embers about. A large orc slammed through a wall, the house it exited collapsed as any sort of structural support vanished. Its eyes darted back and forth wildly, searching for someone. Burns covered a large portion of its upper body; they didn’t seem to be bothering it all that much as it hefted a large, crudely-made axe above its head and shouted something unintelligible.

Mina smiled as her amber eyes landed on the orc. It was looking for her—it wouldn’t find her, not in time. A large crack resounded through the air as another house was unable to support its weight. Ash and sparks exploded towards the lightening sky.

She tilted her head to the side, crimson hair falling over her shoulder. She raised her hand and watched with delight as the flames changed from red to orange. The orc’s skin began to bubble and blacken. It screamed in pain as the flames wrapped around its legs and danced up its torso. The axe it held in its hand fell from its fingers as it ripped at the cloth that encased it legs. 

A sadistic grin curled her lips upward. The skins of orcs were extremely durable, but there weren’t many things that could survive inhaling superheated air. She couldn’t stop until they were all dead. She wouldn’t be happy until every single last filthy, disgusting orc in existence lay bleeding at her feet. She didn’t care if it was their children or their elderly that burned. They would grow up, and when they did, they would become the same despicable creatures that raped, killed, and tortured for fun.

Mina’s gaze was drawn to the burning corpse of the woman not far from the large, dead oak tree she’s chosen to be her perch. The woman was an unfortunate, but necessary, casualty of her mission. She’d done her a favour though; her life would never be the same. It was far better that she was free in this way. The fewer people that were marred by the touch of an orc, the better off the world was. 

She wouldn’t think about the family the woman probably had. Doing that wouldn’t help anything, and it wouldn’t bring back whoever she had been. That was granted her family was even alive, which wasn’t very likely.

Mina slowly climbed down the tree, ensuring that the branch she put her foot down on was sturdy before completely lowering herself onto it. When she made it down to the ground she surveyed the smoking mess that was left of the outpost and nodded her head. Perfect. One down, countless to go.

She turned and took a deep breath. The area between her and the dense forest beyond was nothing but decay and death. It was one of the side-effects of orcs living in the vicinity for an extended period of time. They killed any living plant within an ever-increasing radius around them. 

She didn’t feel like she was making any kind of dent in the orc population. She’d lost track of how many she’d killed, but there were always more. It was a never-ending tide. She needed to figure out a way to be more proactive with killing them. But how? 

Getting a horse would be useful in reducing time, but that’s another mouth she would need to feed and another life for her to worry about. She needed to find a better way to track the orcs too. Searching blindly for the signs of them wasn’t all that great, and it could take a while to find them.

Mina rolled her shoulders and lifted her arms above her head, fingers interlocked as she arched her back and stretched. Blackened leaves crunched underfoot and she couldn’t hear any animals. She’d been walking for thirty minutes and was just reaching the dense forest. It was a relief to be entering the greenery and to be hearing the sounds of birdsong and insects. This was healthy, this was normal and natural. 

She’d need to head to a village or a city to restock. The latter would be preferable, it’d be easier to find what she needed and she could pick up a few jobs as well. She definitely needed the money. Her waterskin needed to be repaired and she was running low on medicinal herbs. 

It wasn’t often that she got hurt on her excursions—she was too careful for it to be a common occurrence—but sometimes shit happened and she found herself injured.

She stopped and sat down on a tree that had fallen over for a quick break, and so that she could look at her map. She pulled it out of her bag that she placed at her feet and opened it across her lap. She’d headed west from the orc encampment. There was a village not too terribly far away, and the next closest city to her was Lynden, and it was much further than the village. 

Mina sighed and rolled the map back up. Village it was. She’d need to get some hunting done before she reached the village; she only had a day of rations left and the village looked to be a few days walk from where she was. 

She stood and began to walk again, not stopping until the forest began to lose light. She quickly found a small clearing that would work for a camp for the night, and there were plenty of young saplings that she could snap and turn into pikes to bury in the ground around her tent. She pulled a long piece of string with small bells attached periodically along it and strung it up between the pieces of wood. 

She wasn’t all that worried about wild animals; they didn’t typically bother people unless they were extremely hungry. It was the other things that went bump in the night that concerned her.

Small branches had fallen from the canopy above and Mina picked one up, bending it between her hands. It was as green as the saplings that surrounded the area she’d designated for her camp. She frowned and tossed it back on the ground. She could burn green wood, but it would cause a ridiculous amount of smoke, which could alert something to her presence and location. She was almost completely sure she’d killed all the orcs, but there was always that small sliver of a chance.

She managed to find enough dry wood and leaves to get a small fire going, and she made her way back to her camp. She grabbed one of the larger sticks and drew a circle in the ground and an indentation into the circle. She tossed in the sticks she’d found on top of the detritus that was already there. 

Mina sat on the ground and let out a soft sigh, holding her hand up and pointed at the hole in the ground. A singular butterfly made of red flames materialized on top of her finger and then flew in lazy circles until it landed on the top piece of wood and immediately set it afire. 

Something had been off about that orc encampment. There were more orcs than she was used to seeing, and some of them had been wearing the symbols of various tribes. That just didn’t happen. Tribes didn’t mix; they were too territorial for that. What would have caused them to be working together like that? 

They’d been more organized too. Orcish outposts tended to be chaos, having no sort of rhyme or reason.  This one had had straight lines, and it was obvious where the living tents were, the slave tents, the shaman tent. She’d had no issue picking any of them out. 

She watched as the flames danced before her eyes, combinations of reds, oranges, and yellows. It was hard to take her eyes away from it—not that she had too. Her stomach growling at her made her reconsider that opinion, though. 

She reached into her bag and pulled out a small package wrapped in paper and tied with a string. The hard bread wasn’t her favourite thing to eat, but it kept for a long time which was a necessity for her long journeys. Maybe she’d be able to get something that actually had taste to it and wasn’t like biting into bark when she got to the village; she considered it a reward for a job well done.

Her attention was drawn back to the flickering flames. She didn’t know why the butterfly spirit had chosen her, what it had seen, but whatever it had been Mina was eternally grateful. She wouldn’t be able to return in kind everything that had been done to her by the orcs without it.

She untied her bedroll from her pack and laid it out next to the fire. She did a lap around her pikes and bells to make sure everything was still in good order and then kicked dirt over the flames. While it would keep the wild animals from coming near, it would attract anything else that was up and about of her presence. She really didn’t want to have to deal with any demon that may be in the forest. 

She pulled a thread-bare blanket from her bag and used it as a pillow as she crawled into her bedroll.

Mina awoke to a ray of sunlight cutting across her face and the sound of birds beginning their morning calls. She winced as she opened her eyes and threw her arm over her eyes. 

Sleeping on the ground had sucked at first, but now she was used to it. It was honestly more comfortable than a bed at this point. She let out a long sigh and sat up, running her hands through her wavy hair to get the knots out that would have made themselves known during the night. She flinched when her fingers caught on a particularly nasty one.

She grabbed her bag and dug through it, looking for her comb. She scowled.  She’d thrown it at a fucking orc. Her shoulder twinged at the memory. It hadn’t lived very long after that. 

She’d get a new comb at the village. At the rate she was spending, she was definitely going to need to find some work or something soon. She doubted that there would be anything at the village, but Lynden should definitely have something for her to get some money. 

 

Mina’s legs trembled and she stumbled, falling against a tree. Bark cut into her tanned skin. She blinked and shook her head, trying to clear her blurry vision. She’d managed to find a stream yesterday to slake her thirst, but it had been three days since she had been able to catch anything, and all the berries she’d come across weren’t safe for consumption. 

She tried to take another step. The village had to be close now. She was almost there. It was so close. 

Her step faltered and her vision clouded more. She didn’t remember hitting the ground.

Mina’s eyes shot open and she sat up quickly and regretted her decision immediately. Her head swayed and her vision blurred and doubled. She squeezed her eyes shut as she suppressed the urge to vomit. Last thing she remembered she’d been in the forest on her way to that village. She took a deep breath and realized she wasn’t laying on the hard ground anymore. She was laying on something soft. 

She slowly opened her eyes and glanced around, trying to figure out where she was. The walls of the room were wood and covered in flowering vines. The only thing in the room was a table that was settled next to the bed she was laying on. 

No one else was in the room and beams of sunlight streamed through the gaps between the top of the walls and the roof.

Where the hell was she? She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, her legs trembling with the effort. She took a wary step forward, but she didn’t fall or blackout. That was good. Her stomach growled as the smell of something delicious wafted into the room.  

She headed for the door and slowly opened it, trying not to alert anyone that may be on the other side. The hinges creaked as it swung, destroying any hopes of that plan working. 

“Oh, goodie! You’re awake!” a woman glanced up from the fire she stood before, stirring something in a large pot; that was where the delicious smell was coming from. “I was a bit worried for you there.” 

Mina’s brows furrowed and she glanced around, trying to deduce if anyone else lived with her. The woman was smaller than she was, and looked rather frail. There was no way she would have been able to carry Mina here by herself, not without one or both of them being injured in the process. 

There weren’t any signs of anyone else living there though. There were, however, plants everywhere. Mina recognized a few of them: lavender, sage, basil, peppermint. There were far more that she had no clue about. 

“Come, come, have a seat. The stew will be ready soon!” the woman gestured at the chair that was across from the pot. Mina walked over, but didn’t sit. She regarded the woman warily. 

Who was she? How had she found her? How had she gotten her to this cottage? Where the fuck was she?

“I’m Meridith, but you can call me Merry, everyone does.” The blonde woman glanced up and smiled. “I found you in the forest earlier this afternoon.” She picked a wooden bowl up from the table beside her and poured some of the stew into it, handing it to Mina with a spoon of the same material.

“How did you get me here?” Mina demanded, crossing her arms. Her eyes flicked down to the food. It really did smell good. She wanted answers first though.

“Oh, the plants helped.” Meredith didn’t offer any further explanation that that and just smiled happily.

“The plants?” Mina arched a brow. A nature Spirit of some sort, perhaps? If she could control plants that would explain how she got her here; and it would also explain the amount of greenery in the small cottage itself.

“Mhm! They can be quite helpful when they want to be. Good thing they wanted to be today, right?” she let out a soft chuckle. “Now you can ask your million questions later, eat your food. Make sure you eat slowly though, I know the early signs of starvation when I see it. We don’t want you making yourself sick because you decided to eat too quickly.”

Mina blinked and then her eyes darted back down to the bowl and she picked it up. Chunks of meat, potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery floated in the dark brown broth. Her mouth began to salivate at how good it looked and smelled. 

She took her first bite, realizing belatedly that she hadn’t even tried to see if this Meredith had poisoned it. Shit. She was not doing well. That was an amateur mistake, a stupid one at that.

“It’s not poisoned, I promise.” Meredith took a bite of the stew that she’d taken from the pot as well. 

It did little to set Mina’s mind at ease. It could have been poisoned with something Meredith had grown a resistance, or even an outright immunity, to. 

Her stomach growled again and all the suspicion Mina held slipped away as she began to eat again. It took effort, so much effort, to not devour the stew as quickly as she could. Meredith was correct, if she ate it too quickly after going so long without food it would upset her stomach and even possibly kill her. 

“This is quite good,” Mina said. She put the bowl down after eating half of the stew. She needed to allow her stomach to acclimate to the feeling of having food in it.

“Thanks, my mama taught me.” Meredith winked at her. “She made me promise not to tell anyone though, so I can’t give you the recipe.”

Mina blinked, “I wasn’t going to ask.”

Meredith paused and then laughed. “No, I don’t suppose you did.”

They ate the rest of the food in silence. Meredith stood, grabbing both empty bowls and placed them on a countertop that was off to the side of the small house. She turned and leaned against the counter, studying Mina with light blue eyes.

“So, what were you doing in the forest anyway? Is there going to be someone looking for you? I left a note out there, but I’m not sure if anyone will find it.” she picked at her dress. “There’s an encampment of orcs not too far away too. I hope that whoever you were travelling with is okay.”

Mina shook her head and gave a sardonic smile. “The orcs won’t be a problem anymore.”

Meredith blinked and tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean? There were easily fifty orcs and counting there. Did you and whatever companions you’re travelling with take them out?” Her face lit up. “Are you from the Kingdom? Did they finally decide to answer our pleas for help and send the Knights of Lynden?”

“No, I’m not from the Kingdom. I’m not travelling with anyone either. I just simply burned it to the ground.” Mina couldn’t keep the smugness out of her voice. 

“You did what? You gonna clarify there?”

“No.”

“Right, well.” Meredith patted her hands the skirt of her dress. “I will go retrieve Lady Elizabeth, she’s the head of the village. She’ll want to learn of this. I will be back shortly.” 

Meredith didn’t wait for a response before she left.

Mina stared at the door where the blonde woman had exited. This had to be the village. So, she’d managed to get here, but not of her own volition. Passing out in the middle of the forest, that was not good. Anything could have happened.

She appreciated how lucky she was that it was Meredith that had found her and not a wild animal or, worse, a orc. It couldn’t happen again though. She needed to get better at hunting and foraging. There was likely someone in Lynden that could teach her in return for pay or she could possibly barter something in return. 

It wasn’t twenty minutes before Meredith returned with a dark-haired, older woman. The moment she stepped into the cottage the temperature dropped several degrees. Mina shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, staring at who could only be Elizabeth. She didn’t move from her spot in the chair, though.

“Merry tells me that you burned down the orc village, is this true?” The woman’s voice held no emotion and there was no change of tone.

Mina just nodded, not taking her eyes off the older woman.

“Then I would like to thank you for your assistance. She also informed me that you are not from the Kingdom. I would inquire as to where you hail from, then.”

Mina thinned her lips and narrowed her eyes. She flicked her eyes over the woman. She wore modest clothing that hid any kind of figure she had. The way she held herself though, that quiet confidence. She was a fighter, or she had been at some point in her life. That wasn’t something you could hide or fake.

“If you do not wish to disclose that information, that is your prerogative, and I shall respect it. However, I will ask that you not stay in my village then and be on your way as soon as you regain your strength.” Elizabeth crossed her arms.

“I was planning on doing that, regardless. I just had some things I was hoping I’d be able to trade or purchase.” Mina crossed her legs and lifted her chin. 

“And what would those be?”

“I need rations, enough to let me reach Lynden at least, my waterskin repaired, and some medicinal herbs and a new comb,” Mina said.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes and then nodded. “I will allow you to do these things. The moment they are done, you are to leave.”

“I can agree with that.”