A Quick Rescue

Syri opened her eyes and felt an awful throbbing headache from all sides, face down and dust in her fur. A number of strangers had approached the scene, curious and questioning if help was needed. The soldiers on horses glanced at each other as several of them investigated the fallen carriage, pushing away several loose planks of wood. Since the carriage had fallen on its side, the only exit was up top with a cracked window. No noise was heard within.

Syri rolled over to her back, feeling something wet on the right of her head and an aching soreness in her thighs and chest. When she wiped the water away, her vision suddenly began to lose focus and their was a clear ringing audio piercing through her ears. Placing her paw where it hurt made it sting, and pulling back she saw why as her paw now had something red staining it. Footsteps were dragging towards her, someone clumsy was coming to her direction. Falling on his knee, she turned her head to see the driver of the carriage with his chest plate dented and missing a shoulder plate as well, some clear bruising around his young freckled face.

"Hey, you're breathing."

Her eyes blinked, was he talking to her? He sounds more like a boy, the thought of a boy wearing oversized armor made her giggle only to wince hard and curl up. Her stomach hurt, it pained her to laugh. He was making these weird sh-sh-sh noises at her as if trying to calm her down, but it only left her feeling awkward about him.

"Raz!" A soldier called out, "What do you have there?"

"She's with us but she is badly wounded." He answered before turning to look at her, his head blocking the morning sun. "Did you do this? What, did you carry some sort of death wish? The way the carriage collapsed, you surely took a hard impact. The fact that you're in one piece is nothing short of a miracle."

"Nnh~" She grumbled, mustering her strength to push herself up to sit. Everything hurt to an extent that she couldn't tell what the pain was anymore, and her head was feeling dizzy along with the throbbing. More men were approaching, she could see their armor and swords reflecting the bright daylight as they stood over and watched her.

One of them commented, "Ye sure she's not at death's door?"

The youngest, Raz? She wasn't sure but he shook his head and held a hand to her back to keep her steady. "Perhaps not, I can't say if she broke anything. Still breathing."

"You said that. What are you waiting for, chain her already."

Raz looked up at his commanding officer, his eyes narrowed their bushy brows at him in return making him nervous. Raz nodded and reached into his pouch, patting his waist around. "Did you lose them?"

"Maybe lost them during the impact."

"Hey! We need some help here!" A soldier called out from on top of the carriage. His hands were on the lever of the door, he was pulling to an extent that sweat dripped from his brow but to no avail. Suddenly the door flew open throwing the soldier out of the carriage and falling to the ground. The door fell with a force the shattered what remained of the glass view into a million little pieces several feet away from them, and Syri gasped at what she saw. It was a paw that kicked the door open, and a moment later she saw Perdilius climbing out from the exit. He patted his robe, a cut above his left eye bleeding slightly but his clothes seemed indifferent to the damage. His eyes fell upon hers with furious intent behind him, only to look back down into his carriage.

"Who else was with her? Search the perimeters, Nekomata's do not travel alone!" He shouted, commanding attention and obedience through the confidence of his voice. The soldiers all understood with several saying "Yes sir!" or "Right away!", the noise making Syri's head throb harder all the more. Suddenly the crowd was beginning to disperse, parting at an alarming rate for something else was coming through. Perdilius looked over and squinted at what seemed to be a large cart or wagon being pulled by two horses but with no cargo on top. The wagon pulled besides the Nekomata, pushing the soldiers away as Janette dropped off as quickly as she could. Raz looked up at the young woman and stepped away, watching as she bent down to try and carry the Nekomata herself.

"J-Jan... nette?"Syri mumbled, unable to see her panicked expression with the sun in her eyes. Janette swallowed and pushed herself to carry the girl in her arms before Reta helped her settle into the cart behind them. The soldiers carried a puzzled look on their faces with several of them drawing their swords.

"Hold on!" Reta shouted as she tightened her hold on the reins and whipped them hard, the horses obeying with a loud neigh and galloping through the crowd once more. Janette fell back but gripped the side of the cart hard to keep from sliding out, making sure Syri was settled in as well. looking back, she saw the young soldier watching them with a shocked expression and Perdilius shouting at the others to go after them.

"Shit, they're following us!"

"Of course they are, they have horses so why wouldn't they?" Reta shouted back, her eyes focused on the dirt road.

"Try to be careful, we rented this remember?"

"You did." Reta corrected her.

"So what about the others?"

"We'll be finding them soon, first I gotta shake these bad boys off! Or would you rather we take them back to your place too?"

"Not funny, just go!" She frowned and shook her head to get some of her hair out of the way from her eyes. Looking back, she held Syri's paw and saw she had her eyes closed before scooping her head to rest on her lap. "If you guys had waited for me I would have come up with some other way to distract them, you know? Now they have an ample reason to hunt us."

"Way I see it, we were being hunted anyway." Janette looked out from the back. "I count five guys on our tail!"

"Good, I hope that Na'Vi chick knows her directions or else!"

"Or else what?"

"Or else we're probably fucked!" Janette felt a heavy lump in her throat, that was good to know.