Flashback

KATE- 10 Days Earlier

The blazing sun beat down on Kate as she trudged through the forest, her bag half filled with herbs and plants that she might be able to trade at the market in a few days. She had decided to call it quits after she had stumbled upon a patch of Stithen, a rare flower that is used in medicine that could fetch a high price. It had been almost a month since she had come across such a bounty, and her joy was infectious that not even the sweat that refused to stop could dampen.

It was a long walk back to her home, the sun had almost set completely at that point, coloring the sky in reds and oranges. Luckily, her trek back was uneventful and she had managed to avoid any contact with any Ferals.

As she approached her house, she spotted her mother, Layla, crouched low in the midst of a patch of flowering bushes, pulling out weeds that threatened to ruin the scenic garden.

“Hi Mom, I’m back.” Kate called out, startling her mother out of her single-minded focus.

“Oh, hi honey. Find anything fancy this time?”

“Maybe” Kate replied, a knowing smile on her lips. “I’ll wash up and show you after.” Kate skipped right past her, entering the house and dropped her bag onto the kitchen table.

Her father’s only greeting was a small grunt from one of the chairs as he was whittling a small piece of wood into God knows what.

Stepping into the bathroom and stripping her clothes, Kate began to scrub the grim that had built up during the day, letting the hot water stream over her. The artifact that provided the water they had bought last year was truly a godsend. As she worked down her body, enjoying the cleansing feeling when she heard a loud-

BOOM

It sounded as if an explosion went off and the whole house shook, practically confirming her fears. Shutting off the artifact and throwing on some loose clothes lying about along with her sword, Kate rushed outside to a nightmare.

Her mother looked to be ****, with burns all across her left side. A man in a pure white cloak with a gold trimming, only dirtied by some soot that must have gotten on him after the explosion, held her mother by the throat. Perched on his shoulder was a massive black hawk with fiery red eyes and flames pouring off the back of its head to form a plumage, and a collar around its throat inlaid with a red gem. Behind him stood two more men, one of which was holding his side, trying to stem the flow of blood pouring out of a wound. They wore similar cloaks as well, the only difference was in their trimmings, theirs being black rather than gold. All three men had rings of golden bands with varying colors of gemstones, the injured ones looked to be dimmed, not nearly as vibrant a color as the others.

Facing them down, with his back to the wall of the house was her father. He was trying to hold himself up while tying off the long slashes across his thigh, quickly losing his mobility.

“Get back inside Kate.” Thomas growled, not taking his eyes off the three intruders.

Kate hesitated just a moment, and in that split second the uninjured man in black trimming hurled a dagger right at her head. Kate hopped to the side almost immediately, allowing the dagger to sail past her head and shatter the window that was once right behind her.

The man leading the raid in gold trimming gave her only a glance before lifting Layla into the air and slinging her limp body over his back. He turned and began to retreat into the woods away from both her house and the nearby village. The two men stepped forward, obviously looking to cover their leader's retreat.

“Grab the girl and meet me at the camp. I’ll deal with this one” He ordered as he walked off as if they were nothing but annoying flies buzzing around.

The man who wasn’t injured raised his hand, and his ring glowed a deep shade of green. A woman with green hair and a deep brown tunic began to form as an ethereal light spilled out of the ring. She fully took form and opened her eyes, giving off an almost beastial glare before shifting again. This time she transformed into a light green animal no bigger than a wolf with densely packed, sharpened branches brandishing out her back as if she was some species of giant porcupine. She had two prominent horns the same deep brown color as her spikes sticking out of the top of her head and would likely be the most dangerous part of her new form.

After seeing the Lava Hawk this came as no surprise to Kate, and she was ready when the Hathli came charging at her. Kate danced to the side and took a swipe at the creature with her sword trying to reach the soft underbelly, but couldn’t quite make such an acrobatic move and her sword simply swiped harmlessly against the Hathli’s thorns.

She reoriented herself and managed to notice her father out of the corner of her eye trading blows with both of the men, barely managing to hold his own, but doing so nonetheless.

Focusing solely on her opponent, Kate considered how best to take her down. ‘Her underside her most obvious weakness, but it would not be so easy to get to it. Perhaps a head on approach to target her face that was also left unprotected... If you didn’t count the two twin horns jutting from her head.’ Options flew through her head and she readied herself for another charge.

The charge didn’t happen however, and the Hathli instead seemed to be in concentration and suddenly the wind picked up, whipping into Kate’s face, her hair flying in her face partially blinding her for just s second. Adjusting to this new challenge, Kate wiped her hair out the way just in time to spot the huge stake flying towards her, slamming into her shoulder. Piercing through her shoulder, the high speed momentum threw Kate backwards and tossed her to the ground.