An (Ex)Raiders Wanderings

Chapters

Ch.1: Of Bird-cats and Bull-men.(Revised)
Ch.2: Night Mare(Revised)
Ch. 3: Proof of Purpose(Revised)
Ch.4: Just for One Day(Revised)
Ch. 5: Heroes and Horses.
Today is 'Piss off the worst possible living beings day'. It's starting off swimmingly.(Revised)

Ch.1: Of Bird-cats and Bull-men.(Revised)

Author's Note

Scots, we all love 'em, but fuck if half the world has a clue what they're saying, no?

Anyway, here's a cheat book I found for you lot who won't have a clue what's going on otherwise. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary_of_Scottish_slang_and_jargon

Now that that is taken care of, enjoy the chapter.

ed2481: I enjoy what I've seen here and wish this story the best, but I reserve full right to say that things are cannon or non-cannon in Wanderings proper (not that I expect that to be an issue, just saying). Think of this as a nice expansion/side story.

Ch.1: Of Bird-cats and Bull-men.(Revised)

After stumbling through the snow for what could have been hour, or even a day, Sia was beginning to think she would have been better off had Cassandra killed her. She couldn't feel any of her limbs, and her hands and feet had started to shift colours, something she knew was a bad sign. Still, staying where she was wouldn't solve anything, so she pressed onward.

While her body wandered through the snow, her mind wandered as well, namely over Cassandra’s actions. The woman's actions, while different, made sense in a way. People who actively raided and assaulted people without reason were, in general, a bad lot. They would kill you for a cap without hesitation. But how many might have Cassandra killed or 'punished' who hadn't actually raided, and only did things that allowed them to survive? Did she also kill the people that had traded with the Legion or slavers and raiders simply on principle?

What could drive someone to so mindlessly follow a path without fleshing out all the facts? Was it just something that had carried over from when Cassandra had to fight to survive, or was it something else?

A sharp pain in Sia's chest brought her out of her musings, and a faint feeling of warmth brought her eyes down to her chest to see the barbed shaft of what appeared to be a extremely thin spear poking of her about two centimetres up from her right breast. Wincing as a cough erupted from her throat, she also couldn't help but notice small flecks of blood fly from her mouth as she fell to her knees.

"Haha, got the stupid mutt! Iron Claw, you see that fucking shot! Hell yeah!"

Faintly, Sia was able to recognise that the voice was coming from behind her. She attempted to turn and look but instead fell onto her side, sending a jolt of pain lancing through her wounded torso. She only just barely felt something wrap around her tunic and lift her up.

"Yea, Breeze," came a sneering, barely understandable voice, "But this one ain't no dog, yous dumb shit. Don't knows what this ones is, maybe we should just eats it."

Sia's understood that well enough and feebly lifted her left arm to attempt to grasp at the claw that was holding her. The thing holding her spread its beak open and laughed in her face as she struggled and wheezed.

"Get.. away from... m… me..."

The first voice suddenly chimed back in, sounding slightly more worried.

"Shit Iron, that's no Diamond Dog in looks or how it sounds. Maybe we should take it back to the camp, show it to He Who Fly's True."

Another pained cry was torn from Sia as a claw grasped the shaft that was still sticking out from her back and snapped it off.

"Alright, but you're carryings it, 'M justs gonna finds food."

As Sia began to fall from consciousness, she felt the odd sensation of weightlessness just before her eyes closed.

"Wake up!"

Her eyes fluttered open and Sia was brought back to reality by a painful slap across the face. Her head ached and every breath she took felt like someone was ramming a knife into her lungs. Forcing herself to focus, Sia found herself tied to a pole in the middle of a camp filled with what appeared to be numerous bird creatures that had been crossed with old world cats. There were also a few more brahmin-like things milling about.

"Good, you have recovered enough to be at least somewhat useful. Now, tell me, what are you?"

I've been tied up… for another interrogation… what the fuck, Sia thought to herself as her situation settled on her. "I'm a human being. From… well, not around here."

The thing interrogating her reached down a gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him. It was then Sia realised what she had been talking to. It was similar, head wise, to a Brahmin, but more closely resembled that of the bull the Legion used. The head was set on a ridiculously muscular body. All Sia could think of was that this thing could probably kill her with a twitch of its fingers or step on her if it was more convenient.

"That is obvious fool. Now, you aren't a Dog, your teats are set too high," the large beast droned as he poked Sia roughly in her left breast, the woman only just now noticing that she had been stripped completely nude, "And this down here tells that you are obviously female, also, you have no fur, which is peculiar."

As she felt the thing’s hand slide over her stomach, the blushing Sia couldn't help but feel sick. She’d seen raiders toy with women like this before raping them. With a snarl and using as much energy as she could muster, the woman kicked out at the bull-headed creature. Her heart froze in her chest when it grabbed her ankle and jerked her leg up, inspecting her foot and leaving Sia dangling from the chains on her wrists and the grip on her ankle. It also made her feel incredibly exposed and tears began to form in her eyes.

"And toes. Not many things have toes here. There are dragons, gryphons and hippogryphs obviously, but really its more claws. Then the Diamond Dogs have their toes. But you, you have fingers and toes, no claws," the creature rambled, dropping Sia's ankle and moving its other hand to twist her head and mess with her left ear. "And these are tiny. Don't seem like they'd be much use. Your teeth tell you're omnivorous, but they are pitiful as well. Are there more of you here?"

Looking down and off to the side, both out of fear and shame at the fact that she was being publicly examined while nude, Sia shook her head.

"No, I am alone."

"Good," came the beast’s reply as he reached back and then suddenly slammed the top of his clenched hand into Sia's stomach, causing her to scream in agony, "Then no one will miss you when you're gone."

Moving it's hand away, the bull-headed creature left the young woman's karambit embedded in her stomach.

"Iron, you brought it here, go dispose of it's body. I have no need of it."

"Come ons friends," the gryphon cackled maliciously as its eyes locked onto her and it gestured to a few other gryphons. "Let's goes have some funs with its before wes kills its and eats its!"

The toll taken on her body from being shot with an arrow, dragging herself through snow and having just been stabbed left Sia unable to do anything more than jerk feebly, and even then it sent pain lancing through her chest and stomach. As the gryphons lifted her and began to carry her off, she noticed that the ground was craggy and steamy, and that she could see a mountain in the distance. Neither of these were native to the Wastes, and it made Sia question if she was even going to die on Earth.

The 'ride', as it could roughly be called, took maybe ten minutes of the gryphons flying before they dropped her on the ground. One of them immediately pinned her still manacled hands above her head while two others grabbed at her legs. The fourth, Iron, just grinned wickedly.

"We's gonna enjoy yous plenty of ways 'fore wes kills yous..."

Adrenaline began to pump through Sia's body as she realised exactly what the gryphon’s plan was. She had accepted the idea of dying, and was in enough pain to be okay with it happening, but she was not going to let herself be raped first. Jerking her hands free of the gryphon, she wrenched the karambit free of her stomach with a pained scream before slamming it into the nearest taloned leg she could find. Instead of actually achieving anything, Iron simply hefted her off the ground by her throat and launched her five feet away where she hit the ground hard, stopping the breath in her lungs.

Rolling to her stomach, Sia attempted to rise only to have Iron wrap a claw around the back of her neck and cackle evilly as his hind claws latched onto her calves and pushed her legs wide open. Without any warning, the claws suddenly retracted, and Iron rolled off to the side with a muffled thump.

The entirety of Iron's beak had been smashed and the gryphon's eyes were lifeless as a large bipedal creature, similar in appearance to a Deathclaw, stepped over the corpse wielding a wooden club. It stared down the other three gryphons before throwing itself at them with a feral growl.

While two of the gryphons attempted to take on the new comer, the third, holding Sia's karambit in it's un-wounded claw, locked it's eyes onto the woman. As it propelled itself forward with it's wings, Sia found herself wishing more than anything she had the tomahawk back to defend herself with. Just as the thought crossed her mind, she felt a weight in her hands and, upon looking, realised she did indeed have the tomahawk back.

Rather than question the inconsistencies, Sia gathered all of her strength and swung the small axe into the oncoming gryphons neck, killing it instantly. Repressing the urge to be sick, Sia instead turned her eyes to the newcomer and his adversaries, or adversary seeing as one gryphon was laying motionlessly on the ground already.

She watched as the second gryphon made a faux attack, then chucked his sword at the bipedal creature before attempting to fly away. A heft of the biped’s club and a solid throw quickly brought the gryphon back to the hard ground where it was quickly finished off by tearing claws. As the newcomer cleaned his club and claws, two more creatures, the same as the newcomer, rose from the ground. One immediately moved to Sia's left, where it removed a cloak and wrapped it around the by far smaller human.

Sia felt her heart and hopes swell as she realised that these new beings had just saved her and clothed her. The original newcomer, a being that stood about five feet taller than her, bent down and pulled away it's cloak's hood to reveal a somewhat fearsome canine face with a kind expression in its eyes.

"Don't fret lass, we're here tae help," it said kindly, proffering it's right paw/claw in a standard greeting.

Sia made to take the paw and shake it, but her right shoulder's wound twinged, and the muscle contracted and pulled causing her stomach wound to twinge as well. Sia's eyes became unfocused for a moment before they closed and she fell forward into the creature's arms.

"How d'ye think the lass is gonna fare, da'?" whispered the voice of the dog-man that had initially greeted her. Sia did not know their exact plans, and while they had helped her, she was too scared to let on that she had awoken.

"Ah'll tell ye fer the last time, laddie, the lassie'll do fine, Ah'm sure. She's malnourished, exhausted, has been shot through the chest with an arrow, has some scratches on the back o' 'er laigs an' was stabbed in the gut. Not tae mention her emotions are probably fucked tae 'ell an' back, but tha's nary here nor there til she awakes. Go eat, son."

Sia listened to the pawsteps of her rescuer recede before chancing a look over at the other dog-man still in the room. He, she believed it was a he anyway, had his back to her and seemed to be working on something.

That meant he wasn't paying attention to her, and for the moment Sia felt that was best. Looking down at herself, she found that her breasts and pelvis had both been covered with a loose tunic and there were poultices on both her chest, leg and stomach wounds. So on the plus side was the fact that they understood basic modesty and had treated her wounds.

Roving her eyes around the room, Sia noticed that there were many medical charts and tools laying about, and that they had been trusting enough to leave her karambit next to her on the desk. Reaching over slowly, Sia lifted her karambit from the desk, not noticing the twitching ears of the creature that shared the room with her until he spoke.

"So, yer awake, how abou' tha'."

Eyes shooting wide open, Sia pulled herself up against the wall, knife at the ready as she attempted to stand on the bed but failed miserably and was forced back to her former position by a blast of pain.

"Don't ye fret," chuckled the creature as it turned, yet remained seated. It was still a foot or so taller than Sia would be standing. "Go ahead an' hold on tae tha' blade iffen it makes ye feel safer, but nary a one o' us is gonna harm ye provided we havnae a reason tae."

Nodding, and trusting the kind 'smile', at least Sia thought it was a smile, she lowered the knife and ask the first thing that came to mind.

"Where in hell am I?"

The beast let out a roaring laugh at this and brought up a paw to wipe his eye.

"The Tauth Clan Burrows o' the Tuath Clan Diamond Dogs lass, just north o' Equestria. By the by, seems m'lad Amais was righ', ye've got some fight in ye after all."

Sia took a moment to think over what she'd been told. She hadn't ever heard of a place called Equestria, had never seen bull-men or bird-cats either. The 'Diamond Dogs' were also something she'd not ever seen before. That coupled with the odd portals led Sia to one understanding, that she was no longer on her own world. Before she could say anything else, her stomach rumbled, and the diamond dog met her gaze with a raised brow.

"Ye sound like ye could use some vittles lass. Up ye get, Ah'll take ye tae the mess hall. Th'name's Glic." offered the diamond dog as he stood, holding out a friendly paw.

Sia hesitantly reached out and grabbed a couple of the long fingers before attempting to rise, and even once she had she felt extremely nervous. Glic had an easy two or three feet on her hands down. Casting a cautious glance up, Sia was met with that same kind smile as Glic nodded.

"Righ' then, let's go an' see iffen we can find mah lad Amais. He's the one tha' found ye and saved ye an' hasnae given me a lick o' peace tryin' tae see if ye'd make it. Ah'm sure he'll be more'n happy tae see ye up, an' ye should probably thank 'im tae."

Glic led Sia over to a door, and it was this moment that Sia realised that where she felt short in her old world, in these burrows she was practically a tiny child. As if sensing her fear and worries, Glic placed a comforting paw on her shoulder and kept smiling. As the door came open and Sia was greeted by the sight of a number of Diamond Dogs. Some wore tunics and others just opted for patterned skirts like Glic. Many of them looked up from their business at the woman and took a moment to flash her smiles while either waving or nodding before going back to their respective work.

"Everyone seems..."

"Friendly, lass?"

Sia nodded, "I was going to say nice, or happy, but yes. Where I come from the only people that smile are the one enjoying a good meal, or coming out of a close call alive. And nobody was friendly. You Diamond Dogs seem...different."

Clearing a way down the hall for her, Glic nodded, "Tha's because, as Diamonds Dogs, we are different. Any one o' us ye'd see further south would be a slobberin' mess tha' would screw ye or kill ye. Disgustin' fucks s'what they are. The Tauth Clan prides itself on bein' honourable, s'just tha' most dinnae bother tae say hi tae us an' expect us tae be no better than the mutts down south."

"I think I can understand what it's like to have the wrong types of people give everyone an impression of who you are. Um, did you want to know my name or business by the way?" Sia questioned, not necessarily minding the nice treatment, but confused by it.

"Iffen ye feel like sharin' feel free, but Ah'm no worried abou' it. Amais said ye were bein' harrassed by those cultist fools. Ye pissed 'em off, so your nary a pal o' them, which means Ah've no problem with ye bein' a pal o' us," shrugged Glic.

"Oh," Sia said, blinking, "Well, I'm Sia, and, well, I don't actually have plans, I'm just trying to find a safe place to be."

"Well lass," Glic started as they neared a large door with music coming from the other side of it, "if ye can tolerate the music and the obnoxious lot, ye've got yerself a safe place here in the Tauth Burrows."

Pushing the door open, Glic ushered Sia inside where a large number of Diamond Dogs were singing, dancing and all around raising a ruckus. It would have been downright scary if they weren't smiling. As it was, even the smallest was about a foot and half taller than Sia, so she still had a bit of trepidation as Glic led her through the throng of Dogs until a voice, louder than the rest, was heard in the middle of a ring of Dogs.

"-she's fightin' 'em off the whole way, Ah'm tellin' ye! Vicious lil spitfire's only the size o' a wee bairn as well, but she's takin' nary a bit o' fuckin' lip. Rips her own blade righ' out o' 'er stomach and chibs one o' th' buzzards in the damned claw. But tha's no' all! Lass gets thrown abou' two metres an' hits the crags, and one of the nasty blighters tries tae mount her, jamming 'is claws intae her laigs. Ah buggered 'is napper up real quick with mah Hackit Stick!"

As Glic and Sia made their way to the front of the crowd, the woman realised the one talking was none other than the Dog that had saved her. Just as she realised this, he noticed her and grabbed her up, quickly setting her on his shoulder.

"An' here the braw an' bold lass is! Let me tell ye all, after all tha', she still gets hersel' up ontae her feet and axes one more right south o' 'is napper! Ah finished with mah own pair, so when Ah turned as saw 'er as-laat 'Shit lass, ye dinnae choose tae fuck aroun', no?' so give 'er a round iffen ye've got the heart fer it, cause this'uns a true survivor!"

As Amais finished his tale, most of which Sia got the gist of, but didn't fully understand, the large, even for his own kind, Diamond Dog lowered her down to sit on the side of a table as he took a chair next to her, putting them at about equal height

"Glad tae see yer back in th'land o' th'living lassie." Amais grinned, sliding his plate of fish toward her and nodding.

Sia's head spun trying to catch up and decipher exactly what Amais had just said, and he seemed to recognise it, because he chuckled and spoke again, only slower.

"Ah'm sure Ah'm a wee bit hard fer ye tae understand, no? Dinnae worry yerself tae much, an' Ah'll try an' keep it simple for ye."

"Uhm, thank you, and for more than just slowing down your words, but...for everything I guess. I..." Sia started, but stopped as her breath hitched, stopping her words. In response a large, yet soft, paw came down and rubbed her back softly. Looking up, Sia found Amais looking at her, simply smiling with eyes that read of understanding and compassion, two things she hadn't seen in anyone other than her father.

Her father, who was dead... and she, who had been nothing but alone and faced insurmountable odds, only to have this Diamond Dog save her. She didn't even know if there was a good reason for it other than because he could. Her throat clenched as her eyes stung and the next thing she knew she was sobbing into Amais' very soft furry chest.

For his part, Amais was unsure of what to do, but settled for lifting the young woman up and carrying her out of the mess hall and back to the medical room. She didn’t even notice that she was moving during said trip and by the time he lay her down on the cot again she was asleep once more. Amais looked down at her for a moment longer, concern in his large eyes before he stepped outside to find his father waiting for him.

"Ah've got the lassie back intae bed, she's geen it yaldi all the day Ah'm sure an' seems 'bout done fer the day." explained Amais.

Glic simply nodded before speaking.

"We havnae a clue how safe she actually is tae have aroun', remember tha' laddie. Til we know o'erwise, Ah'm holdin' ye responsible fer her, do ye ken?"

With a decisive nod, Amais closed the door all the way and stood guard to ensure Sia would get a full night’s sleep.

Ch.2: Night Mare(Revised)

Author's Note

Here we go again.

Ed did me another solid and did some proofreading, as well as the Ethan and Cass part.

Means I get this out just a little bit sooner.

On a plus side, looking at getting a couple proofreaders, so that is always nice, right?

Same as usual, Ed reserves the right to say what's canon and what isn't.

Revised by JeffCVT and AdmiralPopeye.

Ch.2: Night Mare(Revised)

Sia had awoken a short time ago, but in her enjoyment of the downy spread had neglected to get up. The mattress she was laying in was by far the most comfortable thing she had found herself sleeping in since she could remember, and really she just didn't feel like being anywhere else. On top of that her body still ached from the strain she'd been put through the day prior.

After what felt like ages of floating in the feathery softness of the bed, Sia decided to finally rise. Coincidentally it was this time that a soft knock came from the door, followed by a softer voice.

"Ah dinnae know the state yer in, but Ah've got some things for ye tae try on, so Ah'm coming in."

Turning, Sia was somewhat surprised when a Diamond Dog only half a foot or so taller than her walked in. The Dog had a number of things in a basket in her arms that she was ready to present.

"M'friend Amais is outside still. He said ye would might want more'n jest a light tunic since ye don't have our fur or the inner fire tha' a dragon would, so Ah brought some of m'undersized clothes and we had some shoes fashioned for ye. M'name is Oran by the way." The Diamond Dog smiled.

Unsure of how to, or whether she even should, take this offering, Sia stood silent. Oran just seemed to take it in stride as she moved over to the bed and began to lay out numerous tunics, breeches, skirts that Oran called kilts, leggings, a couple pairs of boots and some gloves.

"Come on then you, Ah'm sure we can make something halfway fashionable out of this lot," encouraged Oran.

After several different mix and match attempts with various different articles of underclothing, with Oran facing the door, Sia found herself wearing a bra like top that was shaped like an upside down T and a pair of semi loose shorts that went about a third of the way down her thighs.

"I think this is good, Oran. I just need to figure out some outerwear. And you can turn around now, I actually wouldn't mind your help if that's okay," Sia said, nearly giggling. She couldn't recall a time she'd ever been so carefree or happy, but the time spent with the friendly Diamond Dogs was obviously the tops so far.

Turning about, Oran took a moment to size up the woman in front of her. While obviously skinny and short, once you looked past the covering of tattoos, one could see that see was not out of shape, muscle tone obvious from simply having to survive. She then turned and began to dig through the pile of clothes with Sia, putting her questions about the woman's origins to the back of her mind.

After a bit of rummaging, Sia began to doubt she was going to find anything that fit her body right. A number of the tops were made for the lower set teats of a she-dog than those of a human that sat higher on the torso. After pulling a rather revealing top from her body, Sia couldn't help but laugh.

"Yeah, my dad would have totally been okay with that shirt, right? Ha, he'd've whipped my tail end if I'd dressed like that back home," the young woman laughed.

Eyeing Sia, Oran couldn't help but giggle along with her and commenting, "Aye, ye looked like a regular tail-lifter in tha' one. So, ye've got your pa waitin' back home for ye tae return?"

Sia's shoulders immediately sagged and the mirth left her eyes as her head dropped.

"Not anymore..."

A pensive look crossed Oran's face before it set in a determined visage.

"Hey, Sia, Ah'll be righ' back, Ah think Ah may have summat for ye."

Looking up, Sia did her best to shake the dark thoughts out of her head and took a few moments to recompose, which was just long enough for Oran to come loping back into the room. In her hands was something that looked like nothing Sia had ever seen before. It held the appearance of the deepest blue night sky with the brightest stars that still twinkled.

Oran proffered the clothes to Sia with a wide grin, "My father made this from Astral Wolf pelts. I'm almost one hundred percent sure that they will fit and cover you well."

Sia almost reached out and took them, but Oran's words gave her pause.

"Would your father be okay with this? These look like they'd be expensive..."

Shaking her head, Oran tossed the items onto the corner of the bed before grabbing the first garment, a tabard that hung from a belt, and wrapped it around Sia's waist, letting the belt simply lay on her hips while the pelt hung to just above her knees. Next came the arm pieces, attaching just below Sia's under arms. It took moments to figure out that, due to physiological differences, the sleeves were too long for her arms and leggings too short for legs, so Oran flipped them about.

The sleeves now attached a few inches below the bottom hem of Sia's undershorts, about mid thigh, and ran to her ankles where they flared out a bit. The leggings, on the other hand, were fastened just above her elbow, and ran down to just behind Sia's knuckle with the dew claw opening serving as a hole for her thumb.

Oran stepped back and eyed up Sia, satisfied with how everything was fitting. It just needed the final piece. Lifting the jacket-vest up from the bed, Oran guided Sia's arms through the holes and fastened the leather straps. The jacket ran down and almost resembled a duster due to proportional differences in how their torsos were shaped, and the strap placement caused the duster to open just above Sia's navel and fan out to the sides slightly, but over all provided a near perfect covering for the woman.

"Ye look… well… ye look pretty damned good Sia, but Ah forgot the time, and Ah have tae be off. I'll leave these clothes here with you. Uh...Have a good day, ye ken?"

Before Sia could say anything in the way of thanks, Oran was out the door in a heart beat. Confused, Sia walked to the open door to find Amais eyeing her, looking surprised to say the least.

"Oran let ye have those tae wear?"

Cheeks burning self-consciously, Sia rubbed her right arm as she nodded.

"She didn't really say anything about them, she just presented them and kinda put them on me..."

Amais looked over Sia once, nodding approval.

"It definitely works for ye lassie. Ah'd advise keepin' it as well. If Oran is giftin' it tae ye, then it's because she like ye." Amais grinned, "Which is nice in o' itself, since she's been a bit o' a shut in for quite a bit now."

Sia was pretty sure there was more to it, but if Amais wasn't telling her, there was a reason for it. Dropping the subject, Sia looked down at herself and had to agree, and while parts looked either tribal or, in the jackets case, Khan styled, the clothes fit rather well. What gave her the most pause was the odd sensation of having shoes on when she hadn't put boots on yet. Amais responded by stomping on her foot and laughing at the stunned reaction before explaining enchantments meant to protect a dog’s paws, or in this case her feet.

"That's..." Sia trailed off, really wanting to question the logic behind the now leggings, but giving up, "Really useful actually. So I don't need shoes?"

Amais shook his head and looked down at Sia, who was now bouncing and bending her legs, testing how well her 'bare' feet worked on the ground.

"Once yer finished, Sia, perhaps Ah could show ye 'round the Burrow. If you plan on stayin' fer any givin' time ye'll need tae learn yer way about," offered Amais.

Agreeing, Amais and Sia set out down the hallway.

Sometime later the two were still wandering the Burrows, but were now chatting animatedly about the differences and similarities between their homes. Amais was also spending time to explain the differences between the Northern and Southern Dogs, as well as going into a rant about the Cult.

The Cult apparently followed an unknown figure that went by the name of 'He-Who-Flies-True'. How the bull-man, a minotaur, that Sia had met was Mons Montis. A brutal and efficient fighter, and brilliant tactician, Mons Montis was believed by most to be the leader in combat since He-Who-Flies-True is more of a figurehead.

The Cult had started just a year or so ago, and ever since they had been enlisting and kidnapping many different species, and specifically targeting the caravans that would stop in between the Crystal Kingdom and Icene Peaks to rest.

What Sia got from all of this was that they were a band of highly organised raiders causing trouble, and as she thought about it, could see why Cassandra had been so adamant about eradicating the slavers and raiders alike. Though she still disagreed with the methods.

As conversation continued, Sia began to learn more about the Tauth Clan. That they had an affinity for music and enjoy songs and poems. They also practiced the culinary arts, brewing, painting or drawing with charcoal and sewing. They proved to be far from simple warriors, though they were most definitely skilled in that art form as well. Sia soon found herself enthralled in the camaraderie and culture the Dogs held. It was so different and unique from what she'd grown up with.

"Which, as ye've noticed, makes just abou' everyone here friendly tae anyone they dinnae perceive tae be a threat," Amais said, gesturing to a couple of Dogs waving to them as Sia waved back. "And while we're no all blood kin, we treat each other like we are anyway, cause we can, ye ken?"

Nodding, Sia had to laugh at how just simply wonderful this place was before she spoke.

"So, don't make a threat out of myself and...I can be 'friends'? Like not 'you cook and heal my wounds and I don't just kill you and take your stuff' compatriots, but actual friends?"

Amais' feature grew serious as he turned and spoke.

"Ye used tae only have allies cause ye had summat they wanted tha' they couldnae get on their own?"

"It's how the Wasteland worked," shrugged Sia.

"Well, you're old home sounds like it sucked, lass," Amais groused, before pulling the smaller woman into a one armed hug. "Fer what its worth, Ah'll see to it tha' the Tauth Clan treats ye righ'."

Sia stood awkwardly in the embrace for a moment, adjusting to the sudden grabbing of her person, before smiling slightly and doing her best to hug Amais back thankfully.The young woman found herself crying into Amais' kilt again.

Wordlessly, the Dog lifted her and brought her back to her current room, laying her down, as she had fallen asleep again while he walked. As he made to leave, he paused for but a moment to really look at Sia. Even outside of his species, she wasn't ugly, and had a soft look about her face, and the tattoos served to be equally mesmerising. Smiling one more time, he turned and walked out of the room, ensuring that he locked the door behind him.

Sia ran. Sia ran as the most evil of demons chased after her. The words 'raider’ 'murderer' and 'rapist' floated next to her like thousands of sand particles in a storm. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst of it was that no matter how fast she ran, nor how far she thought she'd get, the most horrifying being remained hot on her heels, and was merely walking.

It was a being that many in the Wastes feared, an unconquerable monster that fed on death. Piercing, radioactive green eyes, narrowed and wreathed in flames, glared after her, mounted on an armoured and duster draped body. As it slowly gained, an electric blue knife appeared in its outstretched arm as its mouth grew into a terrifying, fanged grin.

"Die!" screeched the demon as its clawed offhand wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her up into a soft, furred embrace.

It took Sia a moment to calm down and recognise Oran's voice repeating the same phrase over and over, 'You're okay.' As reality washed over the young former raider, she realised that she'd had a nightmare and must have been thrashing and crying in her sleep. Looking up, Sia found Oran looking down at her with a worried expression.

"Sia, are ye feelin' better? Was it jest a night terror?" asked the friendly she-dog as her paws ran softly, comfortingly, across Sia's back.

Simply nodding, Sia allowed herself a few more moments to savour the feeling of being comforted before slowly pulling back, allowing Oran to gather the hint and release her. The two sat on the bed apart from each other, Oran giving Sia a moment to collect herself, and Sia attempting to that exact thing.

After minutes of simply basking in the silence and not having to address her problem, Sia finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry for all the, uh, crying. I've been doing it a lot. I just..." Sia's words ended as one of Oran's fingers came up and rested on her lips.

"Ye don' need tae excuse yerself tae me, Ah understan'. Jest get yerself dressed, Ah think Ah know what'll get yer spirits up." The she-dog smiled as she stood up from the bed, holding out a paw to help Sia up as well. "We've got clearance tae head up topside for a spell o' abou' three hours. Ah'm thinkin' ye may enjoy the fresh air, an' maybe a dip in the hot springs as well."

Reaching up and taking a grip of Oran's paw, Sia extricated herself from the tangle of bedsheets and stood, stretching out her body. Crouching, Sia fumbled around under the bed for a moment before her eyes lit up and she pulled out the clothes from the prior day, grinning up at Oran happily.

“These work great, by the way. That and the thing that makes your paws safe? It protects my feet. It’s really cool,” Sia thanked as she pulled the garments on before tucking her karambit into the belt.

The pair made their way out the door and Sia couldn’t help but feel an excited fluttering in her chest at the idea of getting out of the Burrows. She didn’t mind them, mind you, but she was eager for some fresh air and if memory served, there was spatterings of grass and trees out there. A rush of giddiness flashed through the woman’s body and she suddenly found herself hopping up and down giggling, completely ignoring the Dogs’ looks as they made their way towards the exit tunnel.

“Excited for summat, Sia?” laughed Oran, mirth obvious on the she-dog’s features.

“Of course!” Sia exclaimed, “I’ve barely ever seen living plant or fresh water before! You have no idea how eager I am for this!”

“How long’s it been since ye’ve seen healthy growing nature?”

Sia stopped for a moment while debating if the geckos, coyotes or nightstalkers could be considered healthy before shaking her head.

“I never have…”

Without a word more Oran swept the Sia up and onto her own back where the woman automatically wrapped her arms around Oran’s neck to not slip off when the she-dog took off racing past other Dogs towards the ever growing light at the end of the tunnel.

For her part, Sia just held a tight grip around the fur on Oran’s neck, both hoping she wasn’t hurting her, and that she wouldn’t lose said grip and fall off. As the light ahead grew brighter and brighter Oran began to move faster and faster until the light caused her to clench her eyes shut just as Oran came to a sudden stop.

“Well Sia, are ye gonna hop off an’ take a gander at th’ sights?”

As Sia’s eyes came open, she froze, her grip slipping and falling from Oran’s back. Even as her feet hit the ground, her legs did little to aid her and she quickly found herself sitting in a patch of grass. Amazed, she ran her bare fingers through the grass, her mouth falling slack at the sheer feeling of living, healthy, grass beneath her.

Moving on shaky legs to the nearest tree, having only just rediscovered the ability to stand, Sia ran her hands across the bark and through the smooth, vibrant green pine needles. The entirety of the sights that laid before Sia’s eyes went against almost everything she knew of the Wastes. The grass was soft, the colours bright. None of it made any sense, yet Sia knew this was what it naturally should have been.

Conflicting emotions raced through the small frame of the woman, both aching her heart for what the Wastes should have been, and filling her with awe and joy at having a chance to experience untainted nature first hand.

“Is there more?”

Twitching her ears to try to decipher the faint utterance, Oran leaned a bit closer, giving Sia a questioning look.

“Is there more to see?” Sia clarified. “To witness, to touch, to smell? I want to see it all!”

Grinning wide, Oran beckoned for Sia to follow as they delved further into the expanse of the out hot springs.

“So how do you think our little mystery girl is doing?” Ethan asked his wife as they began to fly home upon his blue hoverbike. Cassandra had her arms around his waist and was gazing off into the Wasteland.

“Probably dead, she didn’t seem to be the ‘survivor’ type,” Cassandra replied neutrally. To be honest, ‘Sia’ wasn’t even a blip on her radar.

“Not curious?” the man asked, glancing away from the controls and back at his wife’s hard face.

“Ethan, since when have you ever cared about whether or not a single raider is dead?” she asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

“Eh, I don’t honestly,” Ethan replied, turning back to the controls. “Besides, she didn’t really act like a raider. Other than the whole stabbing me thing, but it’s not like that matters much does it?”

Cassandra let out a small sigh and rolled her eyes slightly. While in truth, neither she or Ethan was at much risk from a knife... he’d stopped caring at all about the intent behind such an attack for the most part.

“Well, she was one regardless. She even admitted to it and you know the punishment for that,” she stated flatly. “Drop it.”

“Fine, fine,” Ethan agreed with a small shrug. “Lucy’s coming over tonight right?”

“It is the end of the month,” Cassandra answered with a small smirk. “So what do you think?”

“That you and I might finally get lucky,” Ethan replied, smirking back.

After a practically magical traipse through the trees and grass, Oran had finally led Sia to what she wanted to show the woman. Sia, for all her wonder, could only stare, absolutely transfixed by the crystal clear waters before her. Stepping to the edge of the pool, the amazed young woman dropped to her knees and stuck a fingertip into the pool and put it in her mouth.

There was no tang of dirt, no bitterness that came with the irradiated variation either. It was pure, undiluted water at its finest. Any other astonishment disappeared from her mind as a large amount of said water splashed into her face.

Shaking her head to clear the water from it, Sia looked up to see Oran grinning cheekily from the shallows, wearing nothing but a bodice on her waist and underpants.

“Oops, was tha’ me? Well silly lass, are ye jest goin’ tae stare at it, or are ye goin’ tae hop in and join me? You can drop yer outerwear next tae mah tunic,” Oran mock chided.

Nodding, Sia stood and pulled the sleeves and leggings off first before moving her hands to her top. Half way through unlacing it, she suddenly snapped her head up with cheeks blazing as embarrassment made itself known as she felt someone watching. Looking about, Sia realised it was only her and Oran, and Oran was looking away pointedly. Shrugging the feeling off as just being unused to exposing her feminine body, Sia continued.

Meanwhile Oran’s heart was thundering in her breast as she realised how close she’d come to getting caught after losing herself watching Sia remove her outer clothing and was now chiding herself for being so foolish. Managing herself, Oran kept herself looking pointedly away so that she wouldn’t run the risk of either being caught nor making Sia uncomfortable. It was working well until-

“Banzai bitches!”

A surprisingly large wave rushed forth and swept over Oran’s back and head, plastering her ears down as well as her fur. Suddenly Sia waded past her, giving a second splash up the front of Oran and laughing as she went.

“Oops, was that me?”

“Ohohoho aren’ ye a cheeky lil git!” Oran laughed uproariously, tailing after Sia and swiping a paw through the water sending a multitude of droplets hurtling after Sia. In response the woman scooped up two handfuls of water and tossed them back at the she-dog, her own laughs ringing clearly through the air.

The pair continued their water fight for what seemed like ages until the two wound up lazing about in the shallows, idly passing the time with chatter.

“So, how often do you guys come up here? It’s pretty amazing.”

“Abou’ two tae three times a month as a group tae vent the air down in th’ burrows. Independently, whenever we feel like it. Ah personally prefer comin’ up here abou’ two times every three or four days. Ah like th’ sunsets and th’ stars,” Oran droned, enjoying the warm spring water in her fur.

“Watch the sunset and look at stars? Doesn’t sound very appealing, no offense. I guess you don’t have anything like Nightstalkers coming out at night then?”

“Nightstalkers?”

“Yep,” grunted Sia, her own eyes closed as she floated amongst the steamy, warm waters. “Nasty things with snake heads and coyote bodies. They like to poison you and then track you back to wherever you run off to for safety so they can either get a new den or find more prey.”

“Jings, we don’ even have any beasties here tha’ devious. Ah mean, we’ve got th’ odd manticore, but they only travel in pairs at mos’ and are not tha’ very bright abou’ it,” Oran balked.

“Is what it is. Hey, shouldn’t we be getting back? I think its been three hours, if not more.”

“Only if ye want tae get back. Ah tend tae stay out s’long as Ah want an’ they ken,” Oran spoke easily. “An’ they know you’re wi’ me. Ah generally soak fer a bit, swim fer a bit, enjoy th’ sunset and some stars. Simple stuff tha’s more worth appreciating than most realise.”

Smiling, Sia let her eyes close and allowed her mind to make like her body and drift. It wasn’t much longer until she found herself napping.

Eyes fluttering open, Sia looked about the spring to realise she was alone in it. Confused, the woman stood up in the water and waded back to shore to find no trace of Oran’s tunic. Climbing onto the bank, Sia made to get her clothes when there was a rustling in the bushes.

“Oran, is that you?”

Rather than hear a call back, a Nightstalker leapt out and rushed at her, biting viciously into her leg. Screaming in shock, Sia turned and began running down the bank as fast as she could, intent on putting distance between herself and the predator.

As she ran deeper into the woods, Sia found her legs beginning to not cooperate. Soon after, the woman fell to the ground at the feet of someone she only just noticed the presence of. Looking up, thankful for the sudden appearance, all hope were shattered as Sia’s blood froze.

Above her was the piercing green stare of none other than Cassandra. The woman knelt down and pulled her blue bladed knife from her jacket.

“Filthy vermin,” the woman sneered as she stuck the tip of the blade into Sia’s skin, drawing out a cry. “All you raiders deserve is death, so I’m going to hunt you all down, and when I track you all I will ensure that…”

The knife cut deeper.

“... you…”

Cassandra began dragging the blade along one of the lines of Sia’s tattoos.

“... suffer…”

With a cry and much flailing, Sia shot awake and immediately sank under water, having offset her buoyancy. Due to Sia’s outburst, Oran was also startled from her nap, and after a yelp and quick submersion the she-dog rose from the water to see Sia looking quite chagrined.

“Sorry, another nightmare,” Sia muttered lamely as she rubbed the back of her neck.

“Want tae talk abou’ it?”

“I do… and I don’t. There are things I want to say, but others I don’t,” explained Sia, “I just… I wound up here because I met someone whose ideals varied from mine. She wanted to do good by her nation, and had rules on how to do that. It’s just that her rules about people like me were inflexible and ruthless. Needless to say, I escaped to here, only to wind up prisoner to the cult mind you, but she left an impression. She comes after me in dreams, to kill me.”

“Oh, Ah see,” Oran breathed as she looked over the sight of the obviously troubled young woman. The more she looked, the more she truly began to notice. Faint scars, the tattoos were obviously of some sort of tribal derivative. That coupled with her skittish demeanour, weapons, and the few hints about her past gave rise that ‘her kind’ were from some sort of clan that she obviously hadn’t identified well with. “So what were yer peoples like then? Iffen ye dinnae care tae tell me.”

Debating with herself, Sia began to weigh the pros and the cons of admitting that ‘her people’ were no better than the Cult. On one hand, the Tauth Clan would continue to look at her as an individual, on the other they would… well...

Shuddering at the idea of the Tauth Clan becoming a Clan of ‘Cassandras’, Sia decided to test the water.

“What if… say you, or… uh… Amais, went somewhere where they didn’t like Diamond Dogs. Because the dogs they know are southern ones. And they arrested you and wanted to punish you for it?” probed Sia.

“Well, firs’ off, tha’ wouldnae happen. We don’ act nor sound akin enough fer it tae be possible. But, fer th’ sake of th’ argument, Ah’d be rather pissed off tha’ they wouldnae listen tae reason. Why d’ye ask?”

“My people, which I hated being with by the way, and only really cooked or medicated, were a bit like the cult. They would steal, murder and pillage because it was an easy living. The person I met wants to kill them all, which is a great idea really, cause most all of them are evil and revel in others’ pain, but she wanted to punish me too. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I was scared, and I only was with them cause my dad raised the group around me, or raised me around the group I guess… please don’t hate me…”

Sia looked down and shut her eyes, fully expecting the wrath of Oran to reign down on her. She visibly flinched and audibly whimpered when she felt the two damp, yet warm, arms of Oran envelop her sides and prepared to have something terrible to happen. Instead Sia began to realise that she was simply being hugged.

“It’d be jest a wee bit hypocritical of me iffen Ah thought ye should be blamed for the actions of th’ majority, don’t ye think ye silly bairn.” Oran chuckled softly as she hugged Sia to her chest.

“I suppose it would…”

“S’pose t’would,” Oran parroted jokingly as she rubbed Sia’s head in a motion that was meant for ruffling ears or fur. “Sia, yer a wonderful lass, and ye’ve got th’ makings of a great friend. S’far as Ah’m concerned, you chose whom ye want tae be and ye prove it. No one can do it for ye, even if they were who ye grew up with.”

Comforted by these words, and the fact that Oran hadn’t abandoned her, Sia hugged the she-dog back and the two kept their embrace for a few moments longer before Sia realised the sun was beginning to set. Vocalising her sighting, Oran and Sia moved back to shore, the she-dog shaking excess water off of her fur and donning her tunic while Sia settled for putting on her leggings and letting the rest of her body dry off regularly.

Oran then led Sia off to a nearby outcropping, the large rock being smooth enough to lay against with no discomfort or sharp edges to watch out for. As the sun finally settled and darkness took the sky, Sia couldn’t help but find herself amazed as one by one the stars, then constellations, filled the deep blue sky. Above them, a brilliantly shining moon rose opposite from where the sun had faded.

“It’s beautiful…”

“Ah told ye, it’s th’ wee things tha’ ye usually wouldnae pay attention tae,” Oran responded smugly.

“I guess I don’t know much outside of making food out of dead things, patching wounds, and trying to stay out of trouble,” sighed Sia as she began to slip into the rest of her clothes now that she was dry.

Stretching out an arm, Oran put a paw softly on Sia’s left arm before speaking softly.

“I could show you…”

Subconsciously Sia lifted her free hand and placed it over Oran’s paw, the night sky twinkling above them as they lay next to one another.

“I think I would like that, Oran, a lot.”

The pair lapsed into a comfortable silence as they laid there, one occasionally nudging the other and pointing to a specific constellation. As more of the night sky was revealed, Sia began to question different shapes seen made by the stars.

To answer such questions, Oran regaled Sia with tales of their deity, a Goddess by the name of Dorch Speur. How Dorch Speur had arrived many centuries ago and taught their clan of Dogs to write and read, to grow their own food, and basically civilise them. How the Goddess would confide with their clan elders, and would sometimes influence things on the planet to protect them.

As fascinating as it was, and as enthralled as Sia got, the night time eventually did what it did best and sent the young woman away to dreamland. Smiling at the feeling of having made a good new friend, Oran began to close her own eyes when Sia snorted and rolled into her side, the woman’s arm errantly falling across Oran’s torso.

Rather than push her off, as Oran had almost done immediately, she instead brought a paw up to Sia’s arm and left it there as she too fell away into slumber.

Sia stood stock still as one blue furred brahmin creature and another short brahmin creature eyed her up. The things looked similar to the two brahmin creatures she had seen after going through Ethan’s portal. While part of her felt that the creatures were nice, having just utterly decimated the demonic, hellish illusion of Cassandra, the young woman couldn’t help but feel off put, as if the beings were ready to put her down.

“Hello, child. I must say, when Twilight advised I track some of the nastiest nightmares featuring humans to find the raider that had stumbled through her portals, I was more expecting a traumatised foal over that of the actual human…” the being’s voice rang out from all directions, “Care to explain?”

Unsure of what the being meant for her to explain, Sia just settled for the simplest thing, explaining the nightmare.

“Cassandra scares the hell out of me I suppose…”

Letting out a tinkling laugh, the blue one nodded in agreement.

“She is quite good at that. I think though, I am finding myself more of Ethan’s viewpoint that you’re a silly lost child.”

“I’m not a ‘silly lost child’,” Sia snapped defiantly, putting a single foot forward as she did so.

In response, the smaller brahmin creature stepped forward as well, armour appearing on its form out of nowhere.

“Give me a reason, raider!” it barked hostially.

Blinking in shock and the realisation that she had mouthed off, Sia backed down, her eyes growing wide in fear. The larger brahmin creature put a wing on the smaller one and smiled.

“Calm yourself Glen. Now then, young one, maybe I should introduce myself. I am Luna, Princess of Equestria and an Alicorn. This is my lover Glen, she is an Earth Pony. And you are?”

“Sia… um, I don’t really have a title…”

“And there is nothing wrong with that.” Luna smiled gently. “But there is an issue. You see, humans aren’t at all commonplace on this planet yet, so I can’t have you running about willy nilly.”

“Oh, well, I’m not really running around. I’m staying with some allies… er, friends, they’re my friends actually,” Sia grinned, correcting herself and feeling a flutter in her chest, “They’ve been helping me, and I’m trying to… adapt… and adjust… to their ways. It’s weird having things bigger than me not trying to kill me.”

Luna chuckled at the sheepish tone Sia used before her face grew serious again.

“And who are these friends of yours? Just imagine them and your mind’s version of them will appear.”

Doing her best, Sia decided to think about the moment she first met the Diamond Dogs, specifically Amais, Oran and Glic. She decided it’d be best to introduce the three to Luna and Glen one at a time, and probably when she’d first met them.

The darkness around the trio faded as a scene flickered to life, revealing the black furred Amais frozen in the process of stepping over Sia, his gunstock arcing upward and the gryphon Iron frozen in midair, his entire face and beak smashed and shattered.

“I passed out right after this, but this is Amais. He saved me from… things… and killed the ones trying to do those things.”

The next scene showed Sia backed up against a wall while trying to stand on a bed. Opposite of her was a old, silver coated Diamond Dog with a kind smile on his face.

“And this is Glic. He treated my wounds and made sure I was okay after I woke up. He is Amais’ dad.”

Finally, the scene altered itself one more time to reveal the form of Oran, the she-dog’s cinnamon hued fur oddly shinier than Sia remembered, as well as a brighter smile than the woman could recall. Putting this to the back of her mind, Sia introduced the she-dog.

“And this is Oran. She brought me clothes right after I woke up. She also showed me outside for the first time. It had healthy grass and trees, and it was awesome. Oran’s also my friend,” beamed the young woman, enjoying the use of actually verbally stating these things. “Actually I think I fell asleep while we were looking at the night sky.”

Luna took a moment to eye each of the Diamond Dogs critically. The Alicorn noted that each of them looked far more wolf like, better proportioned and far from stupid.

“And these Diamond Dogs, they are… nice?”

Nodding, Sia couldn’t help but laugh at the notion of the dogs being anything other than nice.

“I see. Very well, I will do what I can to suppress your nightmares for now, young one, and expect to see me again in about a week’s times.”

Before Sia could question a thing, everything faded to black.

Oran smiled as she felt Sia shift by her side, the young woman letting out a cute, squeaky yawn.

“Morning sleepy.” Oran smiled as Sia looked up, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“What? We fell asleep out here? What time is it?” mumbled Sia incoherently.

“Time for you two love birds to pay attention to the fact that you’ve done goofed,” sneered a greasy voice from behind the pair.

Shaking her head to clear her mind, Sia mimicked Oran and shot up, spinning around to get a good look at the two gryphons about Oran’s height, a pegasus better matching Sia’s height and an easily six foot tall minotaur. After a brief staring bout, the minotaur spoke.

“Lay down any weapons and we will enslave you peacefully with minimal harm. This is the promise of He-Who-Flies-True!”

Before Sia could say a thing, Oran launched herself towards the nearest gryphon, her paws lashing out in lightning strike blows faster than anything the young woman had seen before. Oran sent the first two blows, beginning with one to the gryphons right shoulder, then the second to his throat. The next pair raced forward, striking the inside of the left elbow joint of the gryphon’s foreleg, followed by another jab at his throat.

Unable to stand on his wounded limbs, and unable to take a breath through his damaged throat, the gryphon fell to the ground with a wheeze as Oran beckoned the next gryphon to come at her. He obliged willingly as the pegasus cultist darted past the she-dog towards Sia.

Seeing the incoming threat, Sia grabbed her karambit from her belt while dodging off to the left. As she did she felt the wind whip past her as a stinging sensation was drawn from her right arm. As she rolled back to her feet, she looked down to find that her arm had a nasty gash in it, and when she faced the now landed pegasus she saw blades hidden in his feathers.

Silently cursing everything that had to do with the thrice damned cult, Sia adopted her battle stance, realising immediately that this would be a fight to the death. The pegasus charged forward and lunged, sweeping out his wings towards Sia. In response, the woman ducked forward into a roll and kicked out as the pegasus passed over head.

Spinning about, Sia saw that her opponent was favouring one of his back legs, most likely because of her kick to his haunch. Whipping his wings forward, the pegasus launched a trio of blades towards Sia, but with a graceful spin and masterful catch the woman sent one of the blades hurtling back at her aggressor while ignoring the pain of another that had found itself sheathed in her thigh.

The pegasus let out a growl as he ripped his own returned blade from his shoulder and launched himself at Sia yet again, only to find himself struck, then crushed, by the flying and falling of Oran as the minotaur had just struck a vicious kick against the she-dog.

As the gryphon tried to move perpendicular to Sia in an attempt to chase after Oran, the woman intercepted him and used her surprise advantage to immediately drive her blade into the feathery neck. Rising from her fallen foe, Sia turned see the minotaur moving towards Oran, who was laid out on her back with blood gushing from a wound around her eyes.

With an outraged scream, Sia used a higher set rock to launch herself in the air, envisioning burying an axe into the beast head. Sure enough as Sia willed it, the tomahawk reappeared from Gods know where and settled itself in her palm.

Just as she was sure she’d land the blow, the minotaur’s massive hand came up and wrapped around Sia’s torso, jolting her to a halt as an iron strong grip squeezed the breath from the woman before cracking an unknown number of her ribs.

With a scream of pain Sia swung her weapon blindly, burying the head of the hand axe

into the bicep of the arm gripping her. Letting out a grunt, the hulking beast dropped Sia to the ground before kicking out, connecting a lash to the woman’s already bruising stomach and sending her bouncing off the rocky shore and into the shallows of the spring.

Smirking at the ease of the battle, the minotaur turned back to the she-dog only to find a large dog towering over him as it swung a fearsome blow from its club into the side of the minotaur’s head, effectively shattering its jaw.

Falling to all fours, the bull tried to drag itself away only to have the hulking Diamond Dog kick him over onto his back, pushing a foot-paw against the minotaur’s throat while hefting the club up.

“Ah’m bigger’n y’are, Ah’m meaner’n y’are, an’ Ah’m no feert oh ye, ye gangin quint. Now Ah’m goin’ tae pan yer heid in.”

The last thing the minotaur saw was the business end of Amais’ Hackit Stick as it smashed into his face.

Satisfied with his work, Amais quickly moved to his fallen friends, knowing that back up would arrive in moments. Lifting Sia from the waters, he gently placed the woman next to Oran before looming over the two of them as if an avenging angel.

As far as he was concerned, nothing would make it past him until his friends were safe.

Ch. 3: Proof of Purpose(Revised)

“Ugh, fuck me up the ass with a deathclaw…” groaned Sia as she came too, only to find her entire torso aching terribly. Immediately abandoning the idea of sitting up, as the movement caused a sharp pain to stab at Sia’s stomach, the woman laid back and looked around to see a bell on the end table with a note that read ‘Ring for Service’.

Reaching over carefully as not to jar her new wounds, Sia grasped the bell and gave it a couple of rings before laying all the way back down and waiting. Before long, Glic came in through the door smiling at Sia.

“Glad tae see yer awake,” the elderly Diamond Dog smiled, “Punctured lung, four fractured ribs, two broken, and a massive amount of muscle damage. Yer quite a lucky lass tha’ our magics were able tae heal ye, though ye’ll be sore fer a while tae come.”

Nodding, Sia was about to lay her head back down and ask if she could get a meal brought to her when she suddenly remembered Oran laying on the ground, bleeding badly. Jolting up, Sia only stopped loud enough to let out a cry of pain before speaking up.

“Where’s Oran! She was hurt really badly!”

“Calm yerself lass, calm,” soothed Glic as he gently pushed Sia back down, “Oran will survive just fine. She took a nasty hit to the eyes without having any armour on. She’s blind, but our Goddess, Dorch Speur, has already seen to her and granted her the magic to continue on.”

The mere idea of a Goddess manifesting herself simply to aid a singular being, even if it was her first friend, was absolutely ludicrous. She had listened to Oran the prior night sure, but that didn’t mean she believed in a stupid, non-entity.

”I don’t see why you wouldn’t choose to believe in someone in higher power than you, especially if they had an interest in your survival.”

Before Sia could do more than mentally question what the hell just happened, the voice continued.

“I may not have had a hand in your arrival, but you are stronger than you know. I can use you, and in return I can give you aid, beginning at the end. All I ask is that you warn Glic of the cult, and that you prepare to fight against them. They must be stopped at all costs.”

“I suppose that’d be okay, but how do I know you aren’t a bad guy?” Sia mentally questioned.

“The same way I know you aren’t a raider, it’s simply not in your nature to be heartless, Sia Ceannard.”

“Ceannard? That’s not part of my name, I’m just Sia.”

“Name, title, rank, position. It all means the same thing to those that love you, remember that young one. Now, take this small gift for attempting to protect one of my pups, and be on your way. Be warned though, this will likely be one of the last times I come to your immediate aid.”

As if a single second hadn’t passed at all, Sia immediately felt all her soreness and fatigue fall from her body like the shedding of a blanket. As Glic shut the door behind him, leaving Sia in the room herself, she slowly rose to sit again, this time no pain hindering her.

Standing up from bed and scanning the room, Sia quickly located her clothes and dressed herself hastily before moving to the door and pulling it open. Just outside was Amais, who had obviously been making his way to her room.

“Ye shouldnae be up quite yet lass!”

“Well, no,” Sia shrugged, “But uh, well, I guess I had a talk with someone who was thankful for me throwing myself at something that could, and did, throw me right back away from itself easily.”

“Dorch Speur.” Amais grinned, “The Goddess has a loving attitude and cares fer each o’ the Clan on a personal level Ah’ll no understand Ah’m sure. Listen tae me prattle on though. Ah’m sure ye’d like tae go an’ visit Oran.”

Nodding, the pair began to pick their way through the tunnels, and along the way a question sprang to Sia’s mind.

“That’s twice now you’ve saved my life at the last second. I want to say thanks, but how is it you’ve pulled that off twice?”

Chuckling quietly, Amais rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to think of a response, but in the end settled for the truth.

“Ah uh, well lass, Ah originally saw ye whilst scouting, and then Ah dunno, yer tattoos caught mah eyes. Ah like patterns an’ such, an’ yer tattoos are a new set o’ patterns. After tha’, well, Ah know we’re no the same species, but Ah kind of think yer cute.”

Starting at that final line Sia caught her foot on a loose stone and nearly fell only to have one of Amais’ paws reach out and grab her, the angle causing her to lean up against the larger Dog’s leg. Sia’s face immediately lit up at the proximity and she started to stutter, pulling away from Amais and staring intently at the ground. Amais just stood, equally chagrined, as he found an interesting spot on the ceiling.

“Uhhhh, so you uh, think I’m cute? That’s probably, well no, definitely the first time I haven’t been told that with someone trying to rip my clothes off. So, uhh, thanks for uh, not ripping my clothes or trying to uh, man… er, dog handle me… yeah,” Sia stuttered lamely.

For his part, Amais just tried to figure out exactly what happened to his attempt to compliment Sia and make a pass at her. It seemed to both fail spectacularly as well as succeed, though he wasn’t sure what to really make of what happened anyway. Rather than think more of it, he just prayed to have not messed everything up and continued down the hallway.

An awkward silence had settled around the pair and lingered there for the time it took them to reach the room Oran was in. It had also been a silence that allowed Sia’s slightly addled and heavily confused brain to start sorting a number of things out.

“Here’s Oran’s room. Ah’ve got stuff tae go do,” Amais claimed, though his excuse to walk away fell pretty flat and sounded flaky even to himself.

Before he could walk away, Sia grabbed his paw and turned him around. The woman made a point to not look at him, but spoke nonetheless.

“I, uh, thanks for thinking I’m cute too. I just… all this being nice and friendly stuff is new, and I really don’t know what to do with it all. But yeah, thanks and all that.”

Nodding, Amais gently pulled his paw away and turned to wander off with his own thoughts, leaving Sia at Oran’s door. Realising that she wasn’t going to get much out of thin air, Sia put what just happened to the back of her mind so she could check on Oran.

Pushing the door open, the first thing Sia did was duck as she nearly got brained by a floating tea kettle. Oran was sitting on the bed with a shawl tied around her eyes, smiling widely.

“Ah was beginning tae wonder when ye’d show up. Lookit all this, Ah can make things float’n’shet!” Oran giggled madly as a random feather tickled at Sia’s ear, causing her to bat at the offending object. “Iffen Ah’d known going blind would ha’ led Dorch Speur tae give me this kind o’ magic, Ah’da had a minotaur kick me in the noggin ages ago!”

Sia made to belt out a laugh, genuinely finding the comment funny. Instead what left her throat was a strangled, choking sob. The woman had no idea what she was upset about. She hadn’t been hurt, right? Not that badly, so why was she upset? Sia spent a few more moments before it clicked.

“This is my fault… I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. If I had fought harder, or moved faster or-”

“Wheesht yerself,” scolded Oran as she placed her paw over Sia’s mouth, silencing the woman, “This wasnae yer fault, Sia. Minotaurs are hardened warriors, an’ Ah knew tha’. Honestly Ah was thinkin’ more o’ protectin’ ye. Ah look at ye, an’ yer frame is jest so small tha’ Ah was thinkin’ tha’ fightin’ would’ha kept ye safer. ‘Sides, there is th’ obvious fact tha’ Ah’ve now got bleedin’ magic!”

To ensure that Sia fully understood this fact Oran enveloped her with a glowing aura and lifted the young woman up before levitating her over and setting her down on the bed before giving Sia a large hug.

“An’ on top o’ everything else, we all made it out alive!”

Sia just shook her head, completely lost on how the she-dog wasn’t yelling at her, or hitting her, or hitting her whilst yelling at her. Instead, Sia just settled to hug Oran back where the pair quickly found sleep and in Oran’s cause, exhaustion, taking over.

He-Who-Flies-True glared balefully at the scout before him as the gryphon raider explained how the human, Sia, had not only survived, but had allied with the Diamond Dogs. It meant that the being he loathed the most was now actively playing against him. Rising, the large draconic gryphon stopped at the scout’s side for just a moment before snapping his reptilian jaws down on the fool raider’s neck, cracking it easily.

That done, he absorbed the ebbing life force and ambient magic as he gained another few inches in height. Pleased with his work, He-Who-Flies-True made his way through the large tent to Mons Montis. They needed to take the Burrows soon if he wanted what he was after.

Both Oran and Sia awoke to the feeling of bobbing up and down over and over. As the pair opened their eyes, they were quick to realise that they were slung over Amais’ shoulders. Before either could even think of moving, the larger Diamond Dog spoke.

“We’ve got a meetin’ in the mess hall. Seems we three may ‘ave pissed the hellfire out o’ the cultists with our wee stunt. The lot o’ our kin’ll be there.”

With that, he lowered the two females to the ground and let them walk alongside of him as they made their way into the already crowded mess hall. The mess hall itself was in a state of uproar, similar to how it had been on Sia’s very first visit, only angrier. Following Amais and Oran, Sia walked up to the counter and got some food.

Once that was done, the trio found a table while Glic took a stand on a table in the centre. While a small number of the dogs present immediately quieted down, the majority didn’t seem to notice. Amais took this time to clamp his paws over Sia’s ears, and before the woman could ask why an amazingly loud howl tore through the cavern, going so far as to cause Sia to feel the reverberations in her bones.

The effect was immediate and every dog quieted down in an instant as Glic’s howl slowly echoed softer and softer throughout the room.

“Thank you,” the elder dog smiled before continuing. “Now, as ye know, we recently took in a young ‘woman’. A being whose species isnae usually found in our world. She was harmed and under great duress when my son led a rescue mission out o’ his scouting party tae save her. Since then this woman, whose name is Sia, has actively attempted tae learn everything she can abou’ our culture an’ been nothing if no’ pleasant. Yesterday morning, both Sia and our young songstress Oran, were attacked by a party o’ Cultist. Both Oran and Sia were heavily injured during this attack, and Amais saved them.”

This information sent a number of mutterings rippling throughout the mess hall. Dogs were questioning whether the Cult was moving closer, or if Sia could perhaps be a spy. One dog closer to Sia even muttered something about aliens.

Another, slightly quieter, rumbling growl silenced the chattering as Glic continued.

“Continuing on, what this all leads up tae is that the Cultists are, in fact, moving further into our territory, and a few scouting parties ‘ave proved this. This means many things, but the most notable o’ which will be less ventures topside as well as Ah want ye all tae form yer hunting packs. We must make sure they understan’ tha’ this is our home, no’ their’s.”

The ensuing silence was prominent as dogs began to rise, mingle about, and then return to seats in sets of threes. Both Amais and Oran stood as well, but a shout from a nearby dog stopped them and drew the attention of the crowd.

“How d’we know tha’ th’ bitch isnae a spy?!” it shouted while pointing directly at Sia. All at once. murmurs and accusations started float amongst the dogs lips. All this trouble hadn’t started until after the small woman had arrived, so what if it was her doing?

In response to the dog’s accusation, Amais placed himself in between the majority of the crowd and Sia, growling all the while. As more accusations began to fly Oran stood as well, but Sia pushed past her two friends, the two she didn’t want to lose, and spoke.

“I’ll prove it!” she shouted as loudly as possible. “I’ll show you my loyalty! I’ll fight alongside you all, I’ll show you I hate this cult just as much as you all do!”

“Ah’ll be th’ second! Ah’ll fight with Sia!” Oran shouted as well, stepping up next to the woman.

“An’ Ah’ll be the third!” rumbled Amais as he also stepped forward. “Which makes a full huntin’ party. Ah don’ s’pose ye’ll want tae object? Ah’m free fer a fight tae prove yer word iffen ye wish it.”

The opposing dog backed down quietly and the meeting came to a close as Oran and Amais led Sia off to begin her crash course on training.

The next two weeks were by far one of the most grueling experiences that Sia had ever endured in her life. Every morning was waking up to the feeling of having been run over by a herd of brahmin before being used as a punching bag for the Khans and finalised with the idea that a deathclaw had chewed on her for a bit a spit her back out.

Regardless, the woman persevered, intent on proving to not just the dogs her want to protect them, but to also prove to herself that she was good.

While many of her dreams of Cassandra had come to a halt, they had quickly been replaced with similar sleepy time constructs consisting of a myriad of feelings and notions that the woman had never once experienced before. These were instigated by the many conversations she would share with Oran on her life in the wastes, as well as occasional times where she and Amais would choose to sneak a glance at the other at the same time. Those always ended with odd feelings in her stomach and a blush on her cheeks.

Regardless, the training continued with the two dogs teaching her to work cohesively and in synch with them. How they would use the blind spots that one created to the advantage of their own partners, or how they would protect each other and run interference. It was as if each one of them was a limb controlled by the same mind, all geared towards preservation of the self as a whole.

While they trained, skirmishes had begun to take place between the Tauth Clan and the Cult, but so far there had only been one instance of a dog coming back in bad condition.

Tomorrow, though, was the day that Sia had been waiting for. It was the day to show every dog in the burrows just what her training had taught her. Tomorrow was the day to finally spar against another hunting pack.

As she laid her head down and closed her eyes, her mind swirled and the land of dreams took over.

Sia wandered amongst what was a mixture of the burrows, the woods, and the hot springs. Ever since Luna’s visit and her realisation that she could control dreams, she had been practising more and more. The result was thus.

As Sia lounged about in her dream waters, a large shadow cast over her. Keeping her eyes shut in case it was a figment of Cassandra’s memory, Sia focused on making it disappear. Realising she was still in its shadow, she mustered all her bravery in face of Cassandra and willed for the shadow casting figure to leave even harder.

“While I am impressed to say the least,” chuckled a melodic voice, “you are nowhere near the skill it would take to cast me from your dreams, young one.”

Startled, Sia floundered in the shallows for a bit before scampering her way onto the shore and standing up to face Luna.

“I thought you were supposed to show up a week ago? Not that I mind, I just thought… well… never mind, ignore me.”

“Don’t worry yourself over not knowing what to say, nor over the fear of upsetting me. Now, before we continue, perhaps you would like to re-clothe yourself? Or not, it makes no real difference to me,” the alicorn added with a cheeky smile. “Though I doubt that Glen would appreciate my looking.”

Looking down quickly, Sia’s cheeks flushed bright red and warmed up considerably as she realised that she had unknowingly willed her clothes away while relaxing in the warm hot spring’s waters. Thoughts of herself wearing her gear immediately surfaced in her mind and it promptly appeared on her body.

“Now, moving on from that. Sia, we have a problem. My sister is thoroughly displeased by the fact that she had absolutely no idea that there was a subspecies of intelligent, civil Diamond Dogs milling about in our Northern region. Which is, in turn, not good. You see, her fuc...er, her loving partner at this time sent a correspondence to Saddle Arabia. A number of the Saddle Arabians, in an attempt to aid in forging an alliance between themselves and our own country, will be moving into your area with a small number of my own Lunar Guard.”

As Luna spoke Sia couldn’t help but wonder what the Saddle Arabians had to do with her situation, and was prompt in vocalising her thoughts.

“Well, you see, Sia,” answered Luna, “the ‘Southern Dogs’ as you called them, spent a long time at war with the Saddle Arabians. Needless to say the Saddle Arabians won’t react well to any form of Diamond Dog presence.”

Her face finding her palm, Sia bit back the urge to yell out her frustration. Not to yell at Luna, mind you, but just to vent. Instead she took a large breath and let the overabundance do its work calming her mind.

“So then Luna, what do you suppose we do up here? Because the Tauth Clan is already making its own counter-moves against the cultists. Since, well, they like the idea of getting closer to the natural entrances of the burrows and attacked myself and my friend Oran.”

Finding a particularly soft bed of grass, Luna laid down and beckoned for Sia to take a seat. As the young woman seated herself, the Alicorn smiled at her before beginning to speak.

“Well, you go prove that your Tauth Clan is good, and you opt for an alliance. I can’t guarantee the Saddle Arabians will listen, but you will be able to at least explain your situation and attempt to keep the two groups out of each others way.”

“Why does that have to be my job? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not exactly known for a domineering personality, nor the stature to back up anything I say,” Sia groused critically.

“No, I suppose you aren’t. Though being one that vies for peace or at the least wishes safety for their loved ones, can be just as powerful,” Luna admonished seriously. “Though, if your tattoos are not too important to you, I could alter part of them, specifically next to your eyes. I would make two crescent moons on the outside edges of your eyes. I could then inform my soldiers so they would recognise you. You may also want your two friends.”

“Bring Dogs to meet with… Horses… that don’t like…” trailed Sia, her mind taxing itself trying to keep up with the political logic.

Luna chuckled as she continued.

“Bring Dogs that are larger than you to prove that they are not the bloodthirsty beasts from the south. Think about it Sia, even with the prowess for survival you have, do you really think Amais would be phased by your foot kicking him in the head? He’d probably just pick you up and throw you, right?”

Sia kept her mouth shut, choosing not to to mention that during a spar a few days back, that exact thing had occurred.

“So when you walk up to the Saddle Arabians and tell them that the Dogs are nice and civil, your proof is standing calmly right next to you.” Luna finished simply while knowing that her logic was perfectly sound. “Though, I would recommend that the Dogs wait for your signal... wouldn’t want them to be shot at out of reflex.”

“That’s fantastic!” gushed Sia rather uncharacteristically. “But so far every time I’ve met some new grouping of peoples, or otherwise, that are supposedly civil, they’ve tried to kill me. That and these Saddle Arabians are enemies of the only species I’ve met that don’t walk on more than two legs. Pardon me if I’m both wary and a bit cynical.”

Luna debated as to whether she should laugh at Sia’s surprising boldness, or glare at her for the attitude. Choosing the former, the Lunar Diarch spoke again.

“Well, you don’t have to go meet them, but your friends could be harmed, and that would be nopony’s fault but your own.”

Realising that she really didn’t have as much of a choice in the matter as she wanted, Sia conceded to Luna’s plans, and also to the aesthetic changes of her facial tattoos, before bidding the princess a good night and closing her eyes so that she could awake and start the new day.

Rubbing her arm thoughtfully, Sia readied herself for what was no doubt going to be a fight that would leave her sore as hell the next morning. It was true that she had done very well training with and against Oran and Amais, but she also knew they had held back.

This was an actual fight though. The other hunting pack wasn’t going to hold back or be nice about things. The only good thing Sia had going for her was that Oran had copied the spell on her leggings and applied it to the rest of her garments. The downside was that her uncovered skin was entirely unaffected by the protective spell.

That coupled with the predatory looks from Glac Facal, the Dog that had accused her of being a traitor two weeks back in the meeting, left Sia really wishing she had the choice to run and hide.

Amais leaned down and gave the young woman a comforting smile before nodding to the furthest left Dog.

“Rabhadh, who’ll stay back an’ give out advice tae the other two. They don’ see ye as a threat, an’ Rabhadh isnae a fighter. If ye can take him, my own an’ Oran’s fights shall be easier. Ah’ll be taking Glac Facal, the bampot tha’ decided tae mouth off. Finally, Oran is taking care o’ Mall, the burly bugger off tae the right.”

“Right, then I suppose when they bum rush, I should just run as fast as possible and watch as you and Oran run right past me into the fray?” Sia chuckled dryly before continuing. “Actually if you do the roll thing we practised I could slip by while you two fight.”

Oran laughed and nodded, as did Amais. In agreement with their plan, Sia too stood and nodded to the sidelines, letting Glic know they were ready. Even if she didn’t understand why she was made pack leader.

Taking their spots on the line Sia couldn’t help but feel her breathing pick up as Glic stepped out to the middle of the field to relegate the rules. Pretty much basic stuff like no killing, maiming, or removal of limbs. Essentially things to keep everybody alive at the end of the day. Once the elder Dog had finished laying the rules out, he stepped off the field and raised a large flag.

“Ready?” Glic asked rhetorically before swinging the flag towards the ground. “FIGHT!”

Sia set off on a full tilt sprint as Amais and Oran loped easily next to her. The woman couldn’t help but feel fear course through her veins as Glac Facal and Mall grew closer and closer. Just as they were about to meet, Amais suddenly powered forward and threw himself into a leap.

Landing in a crouch, the massive Dog swung his arms out and caused Glac and Mall to stop short. Using Amais’ outstretched leg, Sia nimbly ran up her pack mates back and launched herself over the two adversaries while Oran similarly leapt over Amais to deliver a kick to Mall’s head.

Landing nimbly from her vault, Oran circled around to make sure Mall’s attention was on her whilst Amais performed a similar act with Glac. Using this to her full advantage, Sia landed lightly from her vault and tucked into a tight roll to shift her momentum into a run.

Rabhadh’s eyes narrowed as he realised exactly what the opposing hunting pack had done and called a warning, but that only served to earn Mall a kick to the side of his leg and Glac being dragged backwards by the towering Amais.

“Yeah, no. You don’t get help. It’s just me and you, Radhabh. Don’t tell me you can’t take on little old me,” jibed Sia, intent on getting the Dog to take the first move.

For his part, Radhabh scrutinised Sia carefully before launching himself at her. Expecting as much, Sia manoeuvered herself under her larger aggressor while launching a painful strike from her elbow into his knee. In response, Radhabh kicked out with his other leg and just barely caught Sia.

The blow was still enough to launch the small woman a few feet, and by the time she’d regained her footing Radhabh was already charging her.

A ways away on the field, Oran was skillfully dodging Mall’s heavy swings. While the she-dog did not strike as hard as Mall, and he not as fast, Oran knew that a single hit from the burlier dog would likely have her reeling.

Ducking in to send a flurry of jabs at Mall’s side, Oran sensed Glac breaking away from Amais after having tripped the larger dog and realised that he was intending to go after the pre-occupied Sia. Dead-legging Mall, Oran quickly set after Glac.

Mall, having quickly recovered from Oran’s attack, turned to follow only to have a massive paw slam into the side of his head and hear Amais’ chuckle.

“Yer mine, lad.”

Back across the way, Sia continued the struggle with Radhabh. She had just started getting an advantage over the Dog, but also realised that he was distracted by something. Assuming it could only be Oran and Amais wiping the floor with his compatriots, she pressed forward with her attack. Using the outstretched leg of the Dog to her advantage, Sia performed a neat backflip, landing a kick to Rabhadh’s chin in the process.

Halfway through while still upside down, Sia was suddenly allowed the perfect view of Glac flying through the air towards her. Bringing her arms in for defense, she felt Glac’s powerful paws wrap around her as he bore down and slammed her into the ground. Sia let out a cry of shock and a gasp of pain as she hit, but quickly pushed it aside and kicked out at the Dog’s shoulder to free herself.

Clambering to her feet, she managed to catch eye of Oran engaging the obviously unhappy Raddhabh and Mall struggling futilely against Amais’ superior strength, speed, and size. Recognising that her friends were fine, Sia placed all of her focus on Glac, who was making a point to circle her menacingly.

“You think yer a smart one, don’t ye? Formin’ huntin’ packs, makin’ friends. Here’s th’ thing lassie, yer no’ one of us. Yer a baldie-skinned-bairn who wakes up cryin’ tae nightmares every other nigh’! Ye think we cannae hear ye?”

Understanding the Dog was trying to intimidate her, Sia narrowed her eyes and laughed.

“Then you should know that there are things in my mind that scare me more than you ever could.”

“Oh…” grinned Glac, his wolfish visage becoming almost feral. “Then Ah guess Ah’ll need tae remedy tha’!”

Spinning to the right as fast as she could, Sia only just managed to dodge out of the path of Glac’s lunge, only to find the Dog deftly rounding for a second attack. This time Glac’s jaws wrapped around and clamped down on her non-dominant right arm. While the enchantments to her clothes kept the bite from truly harming her, the steadily increasing pressure was extremely uncomfortable.

Attempting to swing her other arm around, Glac refused to let Sia get a hit in. Standing on all fours, the Dog shook his head violently, jerking Sia around like a ragdoll. The woman felt nauseous as the world began to spin. Just as she finally felt like she would be sick, the pressure on Sia’s arm vanished as momentary weightlessness took over.

The ground met Sia quickly quickly after her short ‘flight’. Bouncing once or twice before sliding to a stop, Sia let out a pained groan. Before she could fully stand up, Glac roughly backhanded her. The Dog’s paw connected to her chest, and the woman was promptly reintroduced to that same weightlessness before finding the ground a second time.

Knowing she had no chance of standing, but also that Oran and Amais were preoccupied, Sia made as if to stand again. This time when Glac attempted to strike her, Sia rolled onto her back before propelling both feet harshly into the dark void of the Dog’s kilt. Glac let out a high pitched keen of pain, his eyes crossing momentarily, before stumbling away.

Struggling to her feet, Sia used the brief respite to her immediate advantage and attempted to gain her breath. In the miniscule moment of respite, Sia managed to gather enough energy to dodge the now infuriated assault on her person.

Glac’s eyes had gone red and he was breathing so hard that spittle was flying from his mouth. Darting forward, he wrapped a claw around Sia’s trailing leg as she leapt backward and dragged her towards him. Caught on the coarse rocks, Sia’s jacket came loose and pulled away from her right shoulder.

In his undiluted fury, Glac took immediate notice of the weak spot and latched his jaws over Sia’s shoulder. His teeth sank through the woman’s flesh like it was little other than hot butter. Giving her a shake or two, Glac promptly threw Sia straight down into the ground at his feet. Rage never once leaving his eyes, he shot his jaws down to envelop her head.

He never noticed her left arm arc towards him, nor the tomahawk that had appeared from thin air. All the Dog knew was an odd pressure in his neck before he fell off to the side and his eyes grew dark.

In seconds, Oran’s magics danced over Sia’s torn skin, slowly knitting the flesh back together and smoothing out the tissue. Rising into a sitting position and pulling her jacket back up to sit on her body properly, Sia couldn’t hold back the revulsion at the realisation that she had killed. Bile rose in her throat seconds before she spewed her meal from earlier across the sparring field.

Before she could utter a word in her own defence, Glic had placed a calming paw down on her back, rubbing it gently.

“Ah was feert tha’ this may ha’ taken a bad turn. Ah apologise fer no’ having put a stop tae this as soon as Glac lost ‘imself. Fear no’ any recompense from us lass, Glac knew th’ rules, an’ he knew what could happen iffen he broke them,” the elderly Dog assured with a kind smile.

Nodding, Sia attempted to rise, only to feel Amais’ massive arms encompass her and lift her as if she were a small child. His large head tucked down and rubbed gently against Sia’s chin before he smiled.

“Ah’m glad yer alrigh’ Sia.”

Practically feeling the worry the Dog had for her, she could only nod as Oran placed a paw on her unwounded shoulder and gave it a caring, gentle squeeze.

“Thank you Amais, and you as well Oran. I, uh, do you think… Would you mind accompanying me to my room? So we can just talk and rest?”

Nodding, the two dogs turned and made their way through the dispersing crowd while Sia simply let the peace fill her being while she had the time to rest.

Author's Note

Starting to debate whether or not I should end a chapter more than a few paragraphs away from Sia being injured or no, hehe.

Anyway, here's is my third chapter, Ed has graciously looked it over for continuity, and expect it's revision by JeffCVT soon.

Also, I love seeing what you guys think and it can shed light on things I sometimes miss or don't think of, so if there's anything to be said go to town!

Edit: Huge thanks for JeffCVT who, despite a busy schedule, worked hard on putting up with my failure to properly 'comma' lots and lots of things.

Ch.4: Just for One Day(Revised)

Author's Note

After working and reworking chapter four, originally supposed to cover Sia's travel from the burrows to the Equestrian and Saddle Arabian forces and delve into her past, I settled with this instead.

I was having issues on how I was going to work Sia's past into things, then I watched 'Lone Survivor' and heard the song and knew exactly what I wanted to do with this chapter.

As usual Ed has all the 'rights' to claim what's canon and isn't.

Ed and Admiral Popeye both helped me out with this chapter, as well as an in-person friend. I figured I may as well have a couple people revise this one ahead of schedule since it's not some 5K hunk of wordiness.

Ch.4: Just for One Day(Revised)

As Sia, Oran and Amais talked while embarking on their journey to find the forces sent north the two Diamond Dogs engaged in conversation. It wasn’t long before their words fell to family. As the two Dogs spoke Sia felt her memories drift back further and further.

The woman’s mind fell back to the one she called family, and all that the title had entailed.

That was when Oran turned to Sia and asked one simple question.

“What was your father like to you?”

It had been hours since the earth shattered beneath their feet, and part of my life had been forever wrenched from my grasp. That was not what mattered though. What mattered was surviving. What mattered was doing what I was told.

I was lifted from the rubble and the dirt by you. I knew to follow you. That following was safety, and safety was worth any price. I followed for days at a time, my body growing weak with hunger, my mind growing desperate from the strain. I wanted to cry, to snuggle up next to you until it was over, but I knew you needed me to be strong.

Then you showed me the path to survival. I hated it, the mere idea of it, but I knew there was no other way. You showed me what I had to do, and when the traders came through the valley the thought of making you happy urged me onward. Bullets tore into the traders, and I hated it, but I understood.

It gave us food, it gave us clothes, it gave us more time. More time was what we needed the most. To rest, to clean our wounds. You needed the rest the most though, I could see it, even if you tried to act tough to not worry me.

Days turned to weeks turn to months turn to years, and I stayed by you. I stayed next to you when you led me to meet the group of men that formed the raiding party. I remember the comforting look on your face as the needle was used to make the tattoos permanent, and how tight the binder was. You never flinched, never faltered.

It was all by being there with you.

Then the end came. There was my shame on one side, death on the other. Funny enough, I think I knew exactly which side you viewed as death and which you viewed as your shame.

And I was standing behind that wall as the bullets raced over our heads. I saw you, and you were so brave. You showed no fear at the danger. But then you saw me. You saw what had happened, and you raced to my side.

I felt an ice cold grip of pain wrap around my throat and you told me we had to go. But I knew how it would end. With pain in my eyes, understanding I would never see you again after the next act, I reached for you and drew you tight in my embrace.

You who had made me who I was without even knowing it. You, who I loved more than anyone else in the world. You who cared for me as I cared for you.

I planted a kiss upon your brow.

I told you to run.

And then…

Then I clamped a broken slave collar on you.

I knew you hated it, and I did too…

So I knew I needed to be a hero…

Just…

This…

Once…

“My daddy…” Sia choked out, biting back a sob. “My daddy wasn’t a saint, but he was always there for me… I like to think my daddy was a hero, or at least my hero.”

Ch. 5: Heroes and Horses.

Author's Note

Finally got this chapter up and running.

I will say, I'm in a wee bit of a dilemma. You see, I need an editor that either uses, or is used to, British English as opposed to American English. My former editor Jeff was doing an admirable job, but ultimately the differences between the operations of the languages were a bit much for him(And also not his fault. I have problems understanding terms used by american fiction writers occasionally too).

So if there's anyone good with British English who wants to edit, please give me a holler.

Anyway, without further ado, I give to the first half of the end of the Den Arch. Chapter Six will be the second half and the opening of the Desert Arch.

Ch. 5: Heroes and Horses.

The next five hours of the journey had passed relatively quickly, what with Sia telling the tales of her father’s decisions and how her earlier life had been. Throughout the tale, Amais and Oran were able to draw similarities and sympathise with how hard it must have been, not just for Sia, but for her father as well. All of it leading up to one final act to preserve what the man had spent his whole life working towards.

It was a marvel, both Amais and Oran thought, that the woman had even made it as far as she had. Even with her father’s aid, the fact that she hadn’t been found out as female in the raiding group, shot, left behind, grabbed after the raiding party, or faced a foe truly stronger than her meant the only deciding factor was that there was a lot of luck involved.

Reaching the crest of the hill they had been marching up, Amais reached out and put paws on both Sia and Oran’s shoulders and smiled at them.

“Ah would say it seems abou’ time fer a break. How about we take a seat an’ enjoy some rations?”

With nods and a groan or relief each, Oran and Sia removed their packs and lowered them to the ground. While the walking wasn’t too terrible, Amais was both more in shape than them, not to mention one step was about one and three quarters a step for Oran, and three steps for Sia.

The two females borderline collapsed to more comfortable seated positions while Oran reached into her pack and pulled out three canteens before passing them out.

“So, Ah do have one question for ye,” Oran piped up after a couple drags from her canteen. “Wha’ happened tha’ made Cassandra th’ one you met, an’ no the one ye thought she’d be?”

Before Sia could say a thing, Amais also turned and gave her a questioning look.

“She’s the one ye have the bad dreams abou’, righ’?”

Taking in a breath, Sia thought back to one of the first times she had heard of Cassandra’s name. It had been a few years ago at this point. Her father had been leading their raiding part towards the shelter of an old airport when a number of Legionnaires appeared. The majority of them had heavy wounds and when they had spotted the raiders, they hadn’t even grunted outside of eyeing the group warily.

Confused, Sia’s father flagged them down and questioned them, albeit at gun point, where they were told of a woman described as both a messiah to the weak and a devil to her enemies. It had been the starting point of Sia’s urge to become a ‘hero’.

When her father had died, along with the rest of the raiding party, Sia had made a point to avoid any other raiding parties she’d found, but also lay out evidence to get them caught. All the while she made her way to the lights shining in the darkness of every night.

New Vegas, home of Cassandra, the woman who was brave enough to take on hordes of enemies to protect the ones she loved. Sia heard tell that she was a magnificent and wonderful ruler, keeping everybody safe and ensuring everything there ran smoothly.

Cassandra, in truth, had been in Sia’s dreams for ages, but only recently had become a nightmare. Before, Cassandra frequented her dreams as a loving woman with a bright smile and kind eyes. She would lead Sia through dreams of clearing out fiend dens, slaughtering Deathclaws, and saving innocents from harm.

In Sia’s dreams, they were an unstoppable force that no one could defeat.

They were heroes.

At least that’s what had been the image of Cassandra before they had finally met.

Oran scooched closer to her smaller friend and wrapped an arm around her as Sia began to sniffle, obviously trying to hold back her emotions.

“I dunno, I just thought, for so many good things to have come from her actions, she had to be good right? It would have made sense. But I saw it when she grabbed me as I dove out the window. She wanted me dead. She didn’t care who I was, or what my life had been like, nor what my dreams were. She just wanted me gone… and she was all I had left.”

As Sia fell into her sorrow, tears drifting down her face, Amais wrapped both her and Oran into a large hug and sat with them.

After letting Sia’s crying run its course and Amais had rose up to go make a fire while Oran turned to the young woman still cuddled up to her side with a semi-sad smile.

“Ye know, Ah find it an odd coincidence tha’ we met. Ye lost yer folks, Ah lost mine too. Granted Ah was jest a wee bairn, so Ah dinnae have many memories. Glic and Amais were there fer me, as were th’ rest o’ the clan. One big lump o’ kin, taking care of each other.” The she-dog smiled as she ‘saw’ Sia turn her head up and face her. “An’ d’ye know what? Most o’ us in the clan consider ye tae be part o’ th’ group. Sure ye have a few nasty blighters like Glac, but he was allus one toe away from breaking one law’r’another, so we all knew t’was a matter o’ time fer him. You though, well ye don’ have tae be alone. If ye’ll let us, we can be tha’ fam’ly you wanted.”

Sia sat silent for minutes, her expression unreadable as her gaze had returned to the ground. Then, slowly, ever so slowly, she turned back to meet Oran’s gaze.

“I don’t want you to be my sister, or cousin, and I don’t want Amais to be my brother or cousin either… I… I…”

For Oran there was no need for words. It was understandable that Sia wouldn’t want more family, lest she run the risk of losing them again. As the she-dog made to lean down and nuzzle her companion comfortingly, she was shocked when Sia’s arms wrapped up around her neck and pressed her lips to Oran’s.

As Sia finally pulled back, the woman had a hot blush showing furiously on her cheeks, and it wasn’t helped when she noticed both dogs’ attention was focused on her. Ducking her head down, Sia realised how awkward things had suddenly gotten and tried to smooth it out.

“I didn’t know how I was supposed to say it, and well… It isn’t just…” Sia trailed, swallowing nervously as she hesitantly raised her gaze to meet Amais shocked eyes. “It isn’t just Oran, it’s… well… all… like, both, not just… uh, you know…”

About ready to give up on her floundering, Sia prepared to say ‘fuck it all’ and dash for the tree line when both Oran and Amais moved forward and lifted her into a large hug. In seconds, Oran’s lips found Sia’s before pulling away and allowing Amais to do the same.

It wasn’t like the dogs weren’t going to fail to understand, after all, for their clan polyamorous relationships were not altogether uncommon due to the bonds formed in hunting packs.

For Sia, though, she was confused and understood all at once. Even as a thousand fears raced through her mind, she also found herself happier than she had been in a very long time. It had been so confusing, making friends, trusting people, and the feelings she couldn’t place that she had always felt around Oran and Amais had not been helping her. But now things seemed to make sense all while leaving her with more questions.

Tears once again flowed down the young woman’s cheeks before she started laughing. Why was she laughing when she was crying? Fuck if she knew, but as she looked up she felt the urge to kiss the pair again. Starting with Amais, Sia leaned up as far as she could, the larger dog understanding and leaning down. As their lips met, Sia practically melted and she felt her back come to rest against Oran’s chest.

After a moment of kissing the woman let out a shocked gasp, tingles racing through her body as she felt Amais slip his tongue into her mouth. At the same time she felt Oran’s lips meet the back of her neck.

Moments later, time stopped mattering to Sia and her companions only began to mean that much more.

Sia yawned hazily, unsure of what to do with herself as she awoke cuddled up snugly between Oran and Amais. She blushed faintly as she remembered how she had wound up between the pair. Smiling, knowing that they had not gone ‘all the way’, Sia leaned forward a bit and snuggled closer into Oran’s chest. In doing so, she must have alerted Amais somehow because the still sleeping dog wrapped one huge arm around her and Oran’s side and dragged them all closer, leaving Sia comfortably sandwiched in the middle.

It didn’t take long to fall back asleep.

”Well, I’m glad to see that you have been doing well, young one. And scoring not one, but two lovers? I must say I am impressed,” giggled Luna as Sia floated herself out of the embrace of dream Amais and dream Oran with red hued cheeks.

“I…” started the woman before just laughing and shaking her head. “Yep, I got lucky I guess. They are both just so… so… gods I can’t even describe. And that whole time, they are both so much bigger than me, but they were gentle, and well…”

Sia stopped for a moment to rub at the scars left from Glac’s bite, shuddering at how the gnashing teeth had slammed shut on her shoulder, her memory reminding her just how painful it had been.

“They took care of me, and when I got nervous and asked to stop…” biting her lip, Sia suddenly took note of what she was explaining to the amused Luna and shut up quickly.

Rather than make light fun of the woman, Luna just chuckled and found herself pleased that the she had found some form of companionship, knowing full well the tortured past of the Sia through her dreams.

“Well, as much as I do enjoy hearing about such tales, I will not bother you for them. Instead I was just going to ask your progress,” soothed Luna.

“Uh, well, I think we’re probably a day away. It would have been less if we, uh… yeah, that.”

Shaking her head and laughing lightly Luna stood and nodded at Sia.

“You are performing plenty well young one. Enjoy the bond you have found, but do try and make it by tomorrow night lest any unfortunate accidents occur. I would hate to start off relations on the wrong hoof, or paw as it is.”

With a nod Sia floated herself back into the embrace of her dream companions, closing her eyes to ‘sleep’ so that she could arise in the morning.

Awakening in the warm dual embrace, Sia snuggled forward, then backward, then forward again, followed with another backward snuggle. She then realised that it was really hard to snuggle two people in opposite directions at the same time.

“Oh, lookit this Amais, the little one’s finally woken up!” Oran laughed as she poked Sia lightly in the side of her bare stomach, eliciting a giggle from the woman. As she pulled back against Amais for refuge, she suddenly stopped as her eyes got wide and her cheeks lit up like a bonfire.

“Amais, that’s a knife right…?”

The larger dog chuckled nervously before responding.

“S’no’ mah fault, this always happens tae males in the morn.”

Jerking forward, Sia hauled herself up and over Oran’s side sporting crimson cheeks as she started grabbing her over clothes and putting them on.

“Nope, nope, that didn’t just happen. Come on you two, up, clothes on, that never happened, let’s go!”

Amais smiled sheepishly as he stood and wrapped his kilt back around his waist whilst Oran belted out laughter at the situation she had inadvertently caused.

As the trio finished getting their over clothes back on, Sia couldn’t help but feel a sudden shyness around her two friends… or lovers… that wasn’t anything like the way she had felt when she had first met them. It was something else entirely, like she kept expecting one of them to do something, or react to something.

Her confused expression hadn’t gone unnoticed though, and Oran moved over to her and wrapped two arms around the woman before placing a light kiss on her lips. Sia responded, kissing back. After a moment or so, Oran pulled away with one arm and Amais stepped forward and wrapped an arm around each of the pair, leaning down and kissing Oran before turning and planting a kiss on Sia as well.

As Amais and Oran pulled away to begin hiking yet again, Sia felt the skin that had fallen under their touches lingering, as if they still held her close. It caused her heart to swell and a wise smile to break out across her face. Looking up, Sia saw that both Amais and Oran were waiting for her.

Stepping forward, Sia put herself in the proferred place between the pair as they made their way down the other side of the hill, following the path laid out by Luna in her dreams. As they walked, Sia took note of the occasional times either Oran or Amais would rub an arm against her, or when one of their tails would swing up and brush against her legs, or in Amais’ case, occasionally swat across her backside.

After a long walk in silence, Sia finally let curiosity get the better of her.

“Um, what are we now? What with all the stuff from last night and this morning? I’ve only heard of it happening between two people, but even then I’ve never actually had any… well, experience,” the woman admitted, somewhat embarrassed as the fessed up to her naivety.

It almost seemed like Amais was about to speak, but Oran quickly reached out over Sia and smacked his arm.

“Ah’m doin’ this, because ye couldnae hit romantic iffen it was a bleedin’ buzzard target fer yer damned club.” Oran jabbed before smiling widely. “Well, ye see, tis actually perfectly normal fer th’ members o’ hunting packs tae share feelings for one another. Seeing as ye don’ join a hunting pack tha’ ye don’ like th’ members o’, it only makes sense. Tha’ bein’ said, it’s also standard fer th’ one who initiates the action tae be th’ pack leader, an’ while we’ve all shared tha’, in startin’ this yesterday, ye’ve actually made the assertion tha’ y’are th’ pack leader.”

“Not tha’ Ah mind it one bit,” grinned Amais as he brought Sia into a one armed hug and swatted her tail end playfully with his own tail, causing her to yelp loudly and flush with embarrassment.

‘Well, congrats genius, you don’t want to be in charge and lo, what do you do. Well, if I’m in charge, and if Amais thinks he’s funny with that tail swat of his...’

Darting over to the side, Sia picked a bright pink flower with four heart shaped petals. Using her natural agility, she scampered up Amais’ back and slid the obnoxiously feminine looking accessory into the fur next to one of his ears and giggled.

“That stays right there, by the way.”

Regardless of her words, Amais reached up to grab the thing only to have Sia swat him with her hand.

“No! Bad pack member. Pack leader gave you a command. Don’t make me treat you like a pet,” laughed Sia as she watched Amais eyes narrow.

“Alrigh’, maybe Ah liked ye better when ye were a wee blushy lass.”

Giving a faint blush, Sia kept her head enough to nimbly dodge away from another swat and chided the large dog jokingly while moving to Oran’s other side.

“Since some puppy can’t act like an adult, I guess I’ll just stand on this side of Oran, and we can share company while you walk over there and look pretty with your precious pink posies.”

Ignoring Amais’ grumbling, Sia and Oran continued on. Sia decided she would also continuing her questioning.

“So, what all does being, well, what we are now entail? We’re lovers, right? But, I mean, this sounds stupid, what does it mean exactly?”

Instead of Oran speaking, Amais took lead on this point.

“Simply means tha’ we treat each other the same as we always ‘ave. We still care fer one another, we still look out fer each other. We jest add a bit more to tha’ now. Hugs, kisses, sharin’ beds when we’re all in a mind fer it.”

“Besides, love,” continued Oran, who noticed the giggle that escaped Sia’s lips at the term, “it’s no like we didnae all care fer each other tae begin with. Now it’s just summat more.”

A soft warm feeling coursed through Sia’s body as a large and peaceful smile fell across her face. Subconsciously the woman drifted back in between her two companions. She felt at peace as either Oran or Amais’ fur occasionally brushed against her arms, though thumped Amais across the arm the next time he tried to swat her rump.

The precise march quickly devolved into a game of tag all while they continued talking, throwing out jibes and jokes here or there. It wasn’t until Amais let out a barking laugh about how his father would find the situation humorous did Sia suddenly remember the one question she hadn’t asked.

“Soooo, you guys know what’s up with my family, but when we get back, do we announce it? Do we keep it to ourselves? Is there going to be some ceremony? Do we have to explain how someone swept the other off their f-whoah!”

As Sia attempted to continue she felt Oran’s paws wrap around her lower back and thighs as the she-dog pulled her from her feet and jerked her into a spin. The woman would have thought it was an attempt at tagging her if not for the two arrows sticking out of the ground where she had just been. Seconds later the she-dog erected a small shield over them as two more arrows came down and shattered against the magical barrier.

Amais watched and immediately went into action. Launching himself up into the boughs of the trees, the dog immediately began moving through them in an attempt to locate the archers. As he did so two gryphons came out of the branches and slammed harshly against the shield that Oran had constructed.

Knowing it would fail, Sia leapt from her pack mate’s arms and willed her tomahawk into her hand in time to block a slash from the smaller, black gryphon. Behind her Oran deftly dodged an overhand swing from the other brown gryphon’s warhammer. Spinning under a dead wing swing from her opponent, Sia saw one of the archers up in the trees.

Taking a steady aim, Sia shot her arm out and released the tomahawk straight at the oblivious cat, catching him perfectly in the throat. At the same time the woman pulled her karambit into her dominant left hand and grabbed the wing joint of the gryphon with her right. Sia kicked off the ground and expertly levered herself up to slam the blade of her knife home at the base of the gryphons neck, killing him instantly.

Above his comrades Amais leapt from a particularly springy branch to catch one gryphon midair and slam him down into the dirt about three metres below. The sound of crunching bones accompanied the gryphon’s touch down and Amais rolled off of him and pulled his Hackit Stick from his back before directing the end of it to the face of a foolish earth pony that had come racing out of the bushes at him.

Oran just smiled as she saw that her two friends were safe and continued her game with the sluggish warrior that faced her. She had clasped her paws behind her back and was nimbly and easily dodging the gryphon’s swings all while giving him tips on how to properly use his weapon. She smiled the whole time before the gryphon finally over balanced and presented a perfectly brutal opening. Bringing her knee up, Oran smashed the underside of his beak, cracking it, before spinning around and delivering a brutal kick to his temple. He dropped like a stone in water.

As the last of the aggressors fell both Oran and Amais’ ears twitched, attuning to the distant sound of combat. Sweeping Sia into his arms and then swinging her onto his back, the large dog began loping towards the noise with Oran hot on his heels.

Jad Allah stood firm, a head taller than the other horses that he led in his platoon. A powerful kick from his hooves flashed out faster than the eye could see and sent a rogue gryphon tumbling away before halting, completely immobile. Seeing one of his brothers singled out, the stallion raced over faster than seemingly possible before slamming his head against the neck of the gryphon viciously, snapping its neck with a brutal headbutt.

“Brother, get back into the line! Stay true and Epona will guide us!”

As he spoke he suddenly whipped around and slammed a spear through the stomach of a minotaur that had frozen behind him.

“Son of a fuck!”

As the hunting pack grew near Sia could see clearly that their rendezvous was currently being interrupted by a group of cultists. Seeing a minotaur, and having developed an extreme dislike for the beats, Sia shifted herself into the perfect position before leaping from Amais’ back.

Karambit in hand, Sia slammed roughly against the beast’s back, immediately wrapping her right arm around its shoulder as she deftly rammed her knife home not once, but twice at the base of the bull-man’s skull. Almost a millisecond later a spear erupted from the minotaur’s back and hit Sia in the stomach roughly.

“Son of a fuck!” she exclaimed. Thankfully it had hit her clothes so it only felt like she’s been punched.

As the beast fell Sia rolled off of it and found herself eye to chest with a massive horse. The stallion glared down at her for a moment, as if to determine if she were friend or foe, before jerking to the side as a cat leapt onto his back attempting to stab him in the neck.

Using the stallion’s leftward movement to her advantage, Sia levered herself around and tackled the cat off the horse’s back before driving a knife into its heart.

“Thank you strange creature, would it be safe to assume you are a blessing of Epona?” the stallion asked.

Willing her tomahawk into hand before throwing it into a distant archer, Sia raised an eyebrow at this and chuckled.

“I’m just a girl. The real blessing is those two packmates of mine.”

Jad Allah’s eyes went wide as he witnessed the most disturbing of sights. Two Diamond Dogs, his national enemy, were tearing into the cultist forces that had attacked his brothers. In the safety of the moment Sia continued.

“I’m Luna’s envoy, by the way, and those two are very good friends of mine that have kept me alive. So, if you guys could not-ah fuck, talk later!” Sia shouted as she raced off to take down another cat targeting Oran, something she was beginning to be exceptionally good at.

Oran chuckled as she dodged yet another attack with ease before delivering a vicious set of strikes to the offending gryphon’s face. With in seconds the gryphon dropped. Turning about, Sia was finishing the last immediate threat.

Pleased with their work, the three packmates moved closer to each other, but Oran detected something in her echolocation.

Before she could do a thing a thrown spear slammed into the small woman’s back, and while it didn’t pierce her enchanted clothes it knocked her breathless to the ground. Herself, Amais and one of the horses all cried out in shock, but already Oran was moving.

Placing herself in between the group and the now enraged Amais, Oran realised that the larger dog was about to lose himself having witnessed an assault on someone so close to him this soon after a battle.

With an ungodly roar Amais threw himself at the enemy only to find himself suddenly immobolised. Oran quickly went to work putting Amais under, but as she did so Sia got back to her feet and looked, for the first time ever, angry.

“I am so fucking sick…” Sia wheezed as she angrily made her way towards the horses. “Of all you fucking fucks fucking trying to kill the fuck out of me the first fucking time I fucking meet any of you fucks! The only fucks that haven’t fucking tried to fucking kill me are my two fucking packmates, you stupid fucking fucks! So fuck you all to fucking fuck and fucking back, cause I’m going to fucking ki-mmph mmmhm mmph phmmm mmhmhph! Mmm Mphmm mmmph!”

Oran held Sia sheepishly, keeping a paw planted firmly over the woman’s mouth as Jad Allah organised his own troop.

“So, wonderful weather we’re having, is it no? Anyway, don’ ye lot mind this lass or tha’ lad o’er there. They’ve both had a hell o’ a day. Frayed nerves an’ th’ lot, y’know?” the she-dog tried to joke. “Anyway, anyone up fer some tea? Ah’ve always made good tea.

Jad Allah could only nod as he watched the strangest trio that Epona had ever have him meet.

About thirty minutes later Oran had managed to make enough tea to fill the bellies of all the horses as well as the now calmed Sia. Amais was still asleep from the effects of the spell Oran used to get him to sleep.

“So, young lady, I see you have calmed from your incident, which I apologise profusely. Do not worry, I did locate the perpetrator and have stripped him one paygrade rank.”

Sia just nodded, still somewhat surprised at herself for her outburst.

“I also want to apologise, Jad Allah-”

“Jad works perfectly fine, lady. You are not required to call me anything formal.”

“Oh, well then call me Sia. And anyway, I want to apologise. Usually I don’t get angry like that, it’s just…” Sia trailed, trying to think of a better way to word her thoughts, only to have Jad sum it up.

“You can’t seem to meet anything that doesn’t almost take your life seconds later?” the large horse offered. “No apologies needed. Now, if I may ask of your, well, if you’ll excuse the expression Lady Oran, but frankly you make for odd company, and an odder ally that Luna would offer us.”

“Oh yeah!” Sia suddenly exclaimed, “There were supposed to be three Lunar Guards, where are they?”

Jad allowed a light laugh at a memory before answering.

“I’m afraid they are escorting three ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders Northern Crusaders’ back to Canterlot after I found the darling fillies hiding in one of our equipment cases. They certainly are rambunctious. I must be honest, seeing you ladies fight, and the resourcefulness of those fillies, I do question why we Saddle Arabians treat our mares like such sensitive beings. Back to my original topic though, as it is making my stallions quite nervous. What is the situation with you Diamond Dogs?”

Sia sat and waited for Oran to begin speaking. And waited. And waited. Finally she turned to find Oran urging her to speak. Leaning back she whispered her frustration.

“Don’t make me do this, you know more and have it all memorised!”

“Yer pack leader in this situation, yer required to speak fer us!” Oran whispered back.

“Fuck that, I’m no politician!”

“Ye are now!”

“Then I order you to speak on my-”

“Ahem, is there an issue, Sia, Lunar Ambassador for these Diamond Dogs?” Jad questioned.

“Eh heh… Uhm, uh, no, sorry. No issues.” Sia sputtered as she tried to gather her quickly fraying nerves, “Uh, I’m Sia… of the uh… I’m the pack leader, well, hunting pack leader of Oran and Amais. Anyway they’re, uh, I mean we’re all part of the Tauth Clan Diamond Dogs. We’re all civil and would like aid in removing the threat the cultists pose. And uh, maybe have future negotiations for peace, and uh, stuff.”

Rather than laugh at her, as Sia was certain Jad was going to do, the horse rather stood and gave a nod.

“A reasonable request in this time of strife. We lost four stallions during the fight, and I do believe that you three can aid us as well. You see, we have located the main camp of the enemy, and we plan to strike it tonight.”

“Tha’ sounds like a masterful plan,” boomed a loud voice as Amais walked up to the group. “An’ perhaps tha’ bleedin’ quint oe’r there abou’ tae piss ‘imself can make up fer attacking my pack leader an’ love.”

Nodding, Jad stood up and moved to his own tent.

“We attack tonight. I personally advise you find a tent and rest yourselves.”

Once alone Sia pulled her two packmates into hugs.

“Gods, I thought you were going to do something stupid Amais. Just, don’t risk yourself like that again, okay?” Kissing her two packmates, the trio wandered amongst the tents for a time.

“Amais, I…” started Sia before she stopped to fish for a way to word her sentence. “Say they’d killed me. Like that one horse, out of fear. If he’d killed me, why attack? I get the protection thing, but if I was already dead, it would be up to you to forge peace a-”

“Ah woulnae want fuckin’ peace if they’d’a killed ye lass. Ah’d want tae murder the bastard!” the dog growled venomously.

Even though she’d known Amais for about three weeks now, and he had saved her a number of times, the sheer hatred in his voice caused her to stop hesitantly and naturally shy away from him. Realising this, the dog loosened up and gave Sia and apologetic look as Oran spoke up.

“Sia is righ’ Amais. If we killed any o’ th’ horses fer bein’ afeert o’ us, then we’d only be playin’ along tae their fears. We’re better than tha’. Ye know how the Southern Dogs act, an’ we have tae prove tha’ we’re no like tha’ if we’re ever tae expect peace and civility, even if they make a mistake, regardless o’ how fuckin’ stupid the cunt who made it might have been,” Oran reasoned.

Hearing this, Amais’ ears folded back as he realised how right both Sia and Oran were with the points they were trying to make. Before he could apologise though, he felt the two females hug him as Sia spoke.

“I just want you to understand that the entirety of chances for coexistence for the Tauth Clan literally ride on the backs of these horses. If they see you are good, they will claim that you are. But if not… people know where you all live now, and I don’t want to see anyone getting hurt if they don’t have to.”

Nodding, Amais continued on, using his stature specifically to look for an empty tent. Once spotting one, he led his pack leader and pack mate over to it, pulling the flap aside to allow them unhindered entry. Once inside, they seated themselves and pulled open their packs, grabbing at their rations.

Right after tucking in there was a polite cough at the opening of their tent. Looking up, the tent flap shifted aside to reveal Jad.

“If it were not too much of a bother, Sia, Amais, Oran, I would wish to speak with you.”

The woman gave a slight smile and nodded, inviting Jad Allah to sit with them and offering him a chunk of honeyed bread.

“So, um, what is it you’re wanting to talk about Jad?” Sia spoke between mouthfulls of food.

“Well it is truly a simple task, but it will lead you to faraway lands. You see, if you truly wish to have peace with my kind you must meet with Prince Farid and his consort, I mean ‘fillyfriend’, Atiya,” Jad corrected, testing the words on his tongue as if they were uncommon to him. “Prince Farid is a good natured soul. He believes that we horses should take more after the Equestrians. That being said, he has adopted many of their terms and tries his best to implement many of their policies. He is an odd prince, but a much loved one. Back to the topic at hoof though, our nation largely expects females to be submissive to their male partners.”

Both Oran and Amais let out disgruntled growls while Sia just sat silent, not sure what to do with the information. It wouldn’t be the first time she shut up and kept to herself. Probably wouldn’t be the last either.

“I just thought it best to inform you, as some horses can be rather rude about the subject. As for the meeting with Prince Farid and Atiya, once our business here is finished we will be leaving for Saddle Arabia. I think it would be best for you three to come, as you are the ones that saved us. You would have the word of all my soldiers at your back, and no one would dare argue against that.”

Seeing that Amais was about to belt something out, most likely in the defence of his pack mates, Sia held up a hand to silence him and turned to Jad.

“So, pretty much expect people, er, horses bad mouthing Oran and I because we’re female?”

Jad turned to look at Sia, then Oran, opened his mouth, shut it, looked back at Oran, then back at Sia and frowned.

“In all truth, I do not think my kind would be antagonistic of the dogs, but instead fear them and stay silent. You are small, though. I merely wish to warn you, as you may become a target for verbal abuse due to your stature and gender. Prince Farid, however, will not, and will be quick to welcome you as ambassadors. He is a gentle loving soul, and I am personally proud to serve in his forces. Anyway, you should get some rest, we move out in four hours.”

Smiling at Jad’s words and advice, Sia finished her food as the stallion left before turning and giving both her pack mates kisses before laying down between them and drifting away to sleep.

“Okay, so they did try to kill you, or one of them at least. But come now Sia, must you really be so petty?” Luna asked.

Sia just swam amongst the springs, having imagined her ears away hours ago when Luna first showed up.

“It is absolutely childish what you are doing. Are you even listening?”

Facehooving, Luna finally forewent her attempts and haughtily turned away.

“Fine then Sia, we shall leave you this night. Hopefully when we visit again you will not be so childish.”

That night the group had been awake and moving silently through the bushes for hours. The Saddle Arabians had expertly made their way around to the back of the Cultists encampment without alerting a soul. To their surprise, and good fortune, they only seemed to have a light guard set up, but still, from the short cliff they now found themselves on, there wouldn’t be a single way victory wouldn’t be possible if there was a direct confrontation.

“I do believe my brothers are ready. Sia, Oran, Amais, follow me. We will sneak into the main tent to take down their leader. Once that is finished my brothers will mop up all survivors.”

Nodding, Oran lifted Sia onto her back while Amais secured Jad Allah to his and then began scaling the crags down into the camp. As they grew closer to the ground, Sia spotted a guard below them. Sliding her karambit from its sheath, the woman fell from Oran’s back and onto that of the unsuspecting earth pony.

With the guard out of the picture, Jad led the trio through the encampment until they reached the largest tent. Moving deftly, the quartet slipped inside, weapons at ready.

“I do not understand. This tent, it is empty?!” Jad exclaimed.

The tent was filled with extravagant gold and silver linings of thread and other niceties, but there was absolutely no sign of either Mons Montis nor He-Who-Flies-True.

“Is it possible they heard tell o’ yer plans, Jad?” quested Amais as he poked around the empty tent.

Any response was ended by Sia running back from the back of the tent with a sickened expression on her face. Before she could be asked what was wrong she held up a slip of parchment.

This was followed by a thunderous roar and a series of cracks.

A shockwave tore through the the air, ripping the tents from their foundations as well as throwing even Amais through the air. A rippling cloud of dust raced through the entire camp as the cliffs that had held the Saddle Arabians were reduced to nothing more than rubble. Shrapnel made up of shards of stone ripped through the canvas of many of the tents, and it was clear that whatever had just happened was done with the intent of destroying anything in the encampment’s boundaries.

A rough cough is what allowed Sia to know she was still alive. Groaning in pain, she dragged herself out from what appeared to be the remains of a table and looked about the destruction.

Tears dragged out of her eyes and horror overtook her as she looked up to where the cliff that had held the Saddle Arabian forces. It now was rent in two with a massive crater carved into the middle of it. It was obvious some sort of explosive force had caused the damage, and it immediately brought back the memories of her own home.

Attempting to rise, Sia’s wobbly legs failed and gave out beneath her. Hitting the ground, Sia rolled to her back and found herself alone as her eyes closed again. The last thing she saw was ash and canvas falling towards her.

Today is 'Piss off the worst possible living beings day'. It's starting off swimmingly.(Revised)

Author's Note

Just gonna give the Special for the character of this story, who isn't anywhere near the skills, nor as storied, as either Ethan or Cassandra. For the sake of simplicity, I won't get into levels outside of the Special.(Mostly because fuck math, lol) Anyway, it gives a quick feel for the type of character you'll be reading about.

Strength-3
Perception-4
Endurance-3
Charisma-6
Intelligence-5
Agility-10
Luck-9

Revised version, now with something something percent more editorial work from the wonderful JeffCvt.

Today is 'Piss off the worst possible living beings day'. It's starting off swimmingly.(Revised)

Sia groaned as she wiped more blowing sand that had found purchase off the glass of her old goggles. A quick tug at the scarf wrapped around her head, face and neck ensured that as little sand as possible would rub and chafe her skin. She knew well enough that the rushing grains in a sand storm could tear skin to shreds if you weren't properly protected. As she plodded along forward, her mind kept wandering backwards.

It had been weeks, maybe a month, since her 'family', a raiding party consistent of a bunch of rapists, chem addicts, murderers and thieves, as well as her father, had tangled with Mormon Missionaries and promptly been killed. Her mind kept playing over the final moments in which her fatally wounded father had slapped a broken bomb collar around her neck, whispered for her to run and then decried her as a fleeing slave as she bolted away.

The act did little to settle her opinions of the man. That man had murdered and pillaged with the rest of the raiders, callously disregarding any other human life. That man had shaved her head, bound her chest so that she never properly developed breasts, and tattooed her so that she would appear more of a short and effeminate man than an easily rapeable four foot four young woman. It was blatantly obvious that, as a father, he had been a good man, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that he had still been a raider.

It was something that near constantly bothered her. Was it fair to see her father as a good man, even though his very actions as a raider told the story of a bad man? Or was it unfair to see him as a bad man when he really just wanted to keep her safe? Confusing and convoluted was what it was.

But, if the young woman had learnt anything from her life in the wastes of the formerly great United States, it was that no matter how hard you tried for black and white there were always going to be constant shades of grey that existed.

Sighing from behind her scarf, Sia scuffed a boot through the dirt as she felt the beginnings of tears build in her eyes. Huffing in as deep a breath as she could, she attempted to calm her nerves. With a quick shake of her head, she stood up a bit straighter and picked up her pace, focusing more on what may lay ahead of her. That was a challenge in and of itself, of course, due to the fantastic weather conditions.

Squinting, Sia did her best to try to figure out where she was going when a long pole came arcing past her, nicking her chest just under her left collarbone, tearing her top open wide and exposing her less than noticeable breasts to the stinging sands. With a cry of shock from the attack and a blush at having been exposed, Sia shot her right hand up to attempt to cover herself while drawing a karambit-styled knife made from a railroad spike.

"Who's out there?" hollored Sia, only now just realising she hadn't deepened her voice. Before she could call again, she froze as a man stepped into her field of vision. He wore red armour that almost looked tribal, and it didn't take Sia more than a second to realise that the man was a Legion Remnant, by far one of the deadliest kinds of people to encounter in the wastes.

Raising her blade in front of her as threateningly as possible, she attempted to back away only to lose her footing on the previously thrown spear. Falling on her behind roughly, the girl lost her grip on her tattered top, again exposing herself to not just the elements, but the scrutiny of the Legionare.

"A young profligate woman... I shall claim your fruits in the name of the mighty Caesar!"

Crying from both fear and desperation, Sia kicked her feet against the sand in an attempt to scurry backwards from the man as he strode forward. With a cry the Legionnaire fell forward onto Sia's form as the young girl screamed.

Knowing she couldn't overpower the man Sia whimpered, her eyes squeezed tight as she felt her attackers body press against her own. She tried to hold back her sobs as she waited for her assailant to continue. And waited... and waited...

Slowly opening her eyes, half expecting the Legionare to be toying with her, Sia was shocked to find herself face to face with the horrified, wide-eyed expression of the man that had assaulted her. Blood was running from his mouth and nose and had started to pool on her bare chest. This was a face Sia knew well. It was the face of a dead man.

Letting out a strangled cry, the diminutive young woman wormed her way out from under the Legionare to find that he had fallen on his own machete, neck now impaled, after having tripped on his discarded spear. Her entire body shaking, Sia fell into a seated position where she would have stayed had she not realised that her shirt, now useless scraps, hung limply about her waist.

Knowing her only choice of clothes was to scavenge, she began removing the armour and clothes from the dead Legionare. As she did so, a stinging pain caused her to realise that she too had been cut by the machete during the fall, and that her hip had a wide gash in it. Unsure of what to do at first, Sia decided to dress herself on the off chance anybody was to walk by. Slipping into the man's tunic, she found that it fit her like a loose dress. Using this knowledge, Sia stripped her pants and set about making leggings to protects her shins from the sands, as well as to bandage the wound on her hip and belt the tunic just under her chest. Making sure her scarf and goggles were still okay, Sia then set about making protection for her arms out of the leather and cloth leftovers from her work and slipped back into her boots.

Taking a moment after standing to self-consciously tug down at the bottom hem of the tunic, Sia realised just how uncomfortable she was in a dress, having never not worn pants. Still, the tunic came down to just above the middle of her shins, and it made her feel a bit better knowing her modesty would be intact for the most part, the loose bottom of her head scarf hanging about her shoulders and ensuring a bit more coverage there as well.

Rummaging about revealed plenty of food stuffs stashed away in the Legionnaire's bag, and with a few hefty tugs the machete also came free of the man's corpse. Securing the machete in her belt and her karambit under her tunic tied to her thigh, Sia hefted her pack onto her back and set off into the now thinning sandstorm. Pushing a bit further, the blowing sands cleared to reveal an old highway road and what appeared to be an old police station. Seeing nothing amiss, Sia made her way across the road, intent on finally finding a place to rest.

Reaching the door, Sia gave it a push and gratefully accepted the cooler air inside due to the shade. She also was quick to pick up on the two Jackal Gang members hanging out inside. It was these close quarters situations that offset her trouble perceiving threats.

The Jackal on the left, immediately reached for his firearm, but his friend stopped him.

"What the hell man, he's a Legionnaire, don't fuck with him! Hey, yo, dude, we'll totes bail the fuck out yo. Like, right the fuck out. No trouble, eh?"

Smiling grimly under her face scarf, Sia quickly realised the advantage she held. Stepping forward, the woman placed both
hands calmly on the hilt of her new machete as she remembered how the Legion said ‘hello’.

"Ave, go now, and I will spare your filthy lives."

The Jackal on the right nodded enthusiastically while attempting to pull his compatriot along when the side door burst open, revealing a third Jackal member. The first Jackal decided to use this advantage to shake the second off of him and pull his 9mm SMG. Reacting accordingly, Sia whipped out her machete and threw it dead centre into the man's chest. Sia then spun about, ducking down in the process while using the top of her foot to gather dirt off the floor.

Coming around with a faux kick, Sia launched the dirt off her foot into the eyes of the third Jackal, a woman with a lead pipe. The woman grabbed at her eyes and Sia pressed her advantage by pulling her karambit and lodging the roughly six inch blade into the offending woman's neck. Finally she leapt over one of the desks and jerked the machete out of the first Jackal's chest and levelled it at the second Jackal, who had backed up to the wall and was holding his hands up in defeat.

"Come on man, I don't tangle with the Legionnaires. I'll just go, and you can have this place."

Giving a subtle nod, Sia waited until the man had been out the door for thirty seconds before rushing to the bathroom, wrenching her head scarf off and vomiting into the already stagnant water of the toilet bowl. Despite her time spent with the Raiders, there was little that Sia believed could ever make her okay with intentionally killing someone. The Legion was a special case mind you, but for most everything else, it was rare that issues couldn't be solved with the application of proper grammatical usage and discernment.

Cleaning off the blades in the other bathroom, Sia then moved the two Jackal corpses outside to the back of the building before going back inside and settling down on the relatively clean mattress in the cells.

It was nice to have a mattress to sleep on again.

Three sharp retorts followed immediately by the shattering of glass jolted Sia from her first peaceful slumber that she'd had in weeks. Leaping to her feet and drawing her machete, the slight young woman moved towards the door, debating on opening it before settling with crouching on the reloading bench behind where the door would open. After a few moments, muffled voices could be heard on the other side of the door.

"Both bathrooms clear, this is the last room."

"So bust the door open, then."

"Fuck that, the guy said it was a legionnaire in here. The only legionnaires left are the hardcore fucks that avoided that psycho Cassandra!"

"Hey Palowski, guess who's just outside with the Commander?"

"Ah fuck, alright, lets get this door open, three... two... one!"

Tensing up, Sia let the three soldiers rush in before jumping down, immediately kicking one of them into another, causing both to tumble down. She then slammed the machete into the receiver of the third soldier's service rifle before bolting down the hall. As she reached the end, the first two soldiers were already up and had put five rounds after her while the third had pulled a nine-millimetre and put his own two rounds after her as well.

Entering the main room Sia saw that both windows had been smashed open. Grinning triumphantly, she darted straight for the closest window and launched herself into freedom...

Or not, as a woman in a long armoured trench coat reached out and wrapped her hand into the front of Sia's scarf and tunic, holding the girl in the air while staring her down menacingly. Realising that she was in some serious trouble, Sia attempted to struggle only for the woman to punch her across the face.

"Thanks for the heads up Susan. With any luck I can get some information out of this one. Finally track down the last of the scum,” the woman said as she continued to hold onto Sia. “Strange... he seems a little short and light for a Legionnaire. They must be getting desperate."

Sia stood in front of the red headed woman, her hands behind her back. Her four foot four height barely coming up to the other woman’s chest with her shaved head meaning there was no hair to add even a centimetre. The tattoos running across her body accentuated her green eyes. She’d been completely stripped of clothing before being handed back her undergarments.

“Well, you’re not a Legionnaire,” the woman, Cassandra, said in a level voice once that had been done. “Or if you are then they’ve become really desperate. However, you were wearing their armor inside of a raider hideout meaning that you might be one of them,” the woman continued before piercing Sia with a green eyed glare. “Who are you and how did you end up with that armor? The truth.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was just really lucky?” Sia asked. “Like Legionnaire falling on his machete lucky?”

Cassandra’s eyebrow twitched up. “Considering how incompetent the Legion is, yes,” she answered. “However, that still leaves us with the real question. Who are you?”

Swallowing nervously, Sia’s mind raced as she tried to come up with an answer that wouldn’t get her killed. Meeting the red-haired woman’s eyes for but a moment told her all she needed to know. They were eyes that anyone could recognise. They were dead cold, serious and foretold the death of anyone who couldn’t answer in accordance to Cassandra’s morals.

“I’m… a… I’m just a wanderer,” Sia mumbled piteously as her eyes dropped to the floor.

“No, you’re not,” Cassandra replied calmly. “You don’t have the look about you. Now then, are you a slaver, or a raider? And if so, how much raiding or slaving have you done?”

Wincing openly at the word ‘raider’ as well as casting a look about her heavily tattooed body, Sia knew that there was no way she could lie her way out of the situation.

“I am, or was, I’m not anymore, but I was a raider. I mean, I didn’t raid but… the group… I just made the food and patched the wounds. It was the only way to live for me,” Sia explained. She also knew it was her only chance to possibly get out of the situation alive.

Cassandra made a ‘hmm’ noise before nodding to herself and reaching down to her hip to pull out a disturbingly large bowie knife with a blue blade.

“Okay, so you were a chef and a healer,” the woman said as she brought the knife up to her face, examining the blade. “Which two fingers do you care the least about?”

Eyes growing wide and burning, Sia realised the tears she’d been holding back the whole time were too much and felt the moisture leak from the corners of her eyes. Not even attempting to speak, the slight young woman just let her head fall forward and began to sob. To her surprise, the woman before her let out a slight sigh and a moment later, a surprisingly gentle hand was placed on her shoulder.

“You’re young, aren’t you?” Cassandra asked her, a surprising amount of compassion in her voice. Then the woman shook her head. “Look. The fingers won’t be the important ones and your wounds will be treated perfectly. If you play your cards right, I may even give you a good amount of starting caps so that you can make your way in the city, provided you don’t spend it all on drinks and hookers. So, suffer through it, alright?”

Sia continued on crying for a few minutes before swallowing and looking up to meet Cassandra’s gaze. Though scared out of her mind, and even more fearful of the idea of losing fingers, she made one last attempt at her own safety.

“I just want to not be the target. My dad, he did this,” explained the girl, nodding at the tattoos, “because he knew I would be a target, being small, and a girl. He protected me, made me look as male as possible. I don’t expect you to understand, but the way things were with the group, looking male, and being useful, those were my lifelines.”

Despite her words, Sia could see no discernable change in Cassandra’s features and continued on, pouring out her life’s sorrow into her plea.

“I know they were bad, I know helping them was bad, but haven’t you made mistakes? I mean, you can’t be perfect!” snapped Sia, anger at the unfairness of the entire situation seeping into her words. “Was there not a time you just wanted to do better?!”

Cassandra stared at her for a long moment before she spoke again, and this time when she did her voice was icy and cold enough to freeze the blood in Sia’s veins.

“Girl... I am the reason behind the Divide. I know exactly how unfair this world is, I am not perfect and never will be and I try and ‘do better’ every day of my life,” she said. “And to me, that means making the lives of the people of the Mojave as safe as possible. No one gets away with any type of raider activity here for the very simple reason that I don’t let them. One of the ways that I make sure of that is by providing a warning. Any raider will lose a body part, that is the law of the Mojave, it is not targeted specifically at you. Deal with it.”

Eyes falling back down, this time to her hand, her hands that had, only when absolutely necessary, killed men. Hands that would lose fingers, though it was not the first time she’d seen such a thing. When she had been younger, a gay raider in the group had tried to force himself onto her having fallen for her disguise. That was when her father had shown up. He’d severed the man’s hand and removed him of his ‘tool’ before telling him to march before he was roasted alive. Remembering this made Sia realise something.

“You’re not as different as you want to be, whether you care doesn’t matter though. You obviously have your mind set, but you want to know raider justice? Generally cutting off offending limbs. As for the fingers… I… just kill me, I can’t use my knife right without them, and without my knife…” Sia trailed off hollowly before shrugging, tears beginning to leak again, “Well, look at me, you think I would last? Just kill me and save me a back alley raping.”

“Fair enough I suppose,” Cassandra replied, sheathing the knife. “What would you prefer, bullet to the brain or slit throat?”

Releasing a pained breath, Sia began to think over some of the better moments of her life before know. Her father teaching her how to hunt and fight, or sharing tales of what her mother had been like. Her first time cooking for the group, and seeing many of the raiders smile for the first time. A lot of simple, yet defining moments.

“I… I think I want my karambit buried with me… my dad made it just for me when I was younger… and I guess just a stab with that karambit in the base of the skull at the back if that’s okay. I... I was never one for gore, and it’s cleaner that way.”

“As you wish, though I still believe you’re wasting your life this way,” Cassandra replied as she pulled the girl’s knife out of a pocket on her armoured duster. “Turn around.”

Turning on her unsteady feet, Sia sank down to her knees and bowed her head. As she readied herself, she couldn’t help but think back to promising her father that she would stay safe. Cause that worked out well obviously.

Whispering to herself, Sia couldn’t help but apologise, “I’m sorry daddy, I’ll see you soon.”

However, before the strike came, a new voice entered her ears. It was definitely male and it had an... energetic and strangely happy sound to it.

“Hey Cassie, sorry to interrupt your execution here,” the voice said casually, “but I wanted to show you these neat tomahawks that Sparky got me!”

“Ethan... I was kind of in the middle of something,” Cassandra said, turning her back on the bound raider. “And there’s nothing special about tomahawks.”

“Yeah, the normal kind but these ones are magic!” the man replied with a grin. “Though she didn’t really tell me what kind of magic...”

“Did you bother to ask dear?” the woman asked, sounding as if she was long used to this kind of shenanigan.

“No...” the man replied. “But it doesn’t matter, they’re magic!”

Sia snapped her eyes up to realise that perhaps, just a chance at best, she could escape. Besides, if she failed she was already slated to die, so fuck it. Darting her head forward, she clamped her teeth down of the gloved wrist of the hand Cassandra was using to hold her karambit while using her still bound hands to grab the blade and wrench it free before scuttling back into the corner of the room.

As she surveyed it from her new vantage point, she noticed a large golden... doorway of some sort just floating there.

It could be that Cassandra had actually killed her, and this was death, or maybe she’d just finally cracked. Sia knew that regardless of the situation, that door was the fastest way out of the room.

As she darted forward, smoothly twisting around Cassandra’s outstretched and grabbing arms, Sia remembered she still had the man to contend with, and had no clue what to do about him, especially with her hands still bound.

Speaking of the man, Sia’s brief look at him revealed him to be... honestly not all that intimidating, he had a friendly smile on his face, as well as a raised eyebrow. As Sia twisted around Cassandra, she suddenly found a steely new hand on her wrist.

“Hi there,” the man said casually as he held onto the tomahawk in his other gloved hand. “You’re pretty nimble, you know that?”

She knew for a fact that the man wouldn’t let go, as well as the blatant truth that if Cassandra got her hands on her she would die. Without the swiftness originally planned, Sia made the hard choice of looking into the almost innocently joyful eyes of Ethan and watching as they went from happy to pained as she used her other hand to grab the karambit, where she then introduced it’s blade to the inside of Ethan’s lower arm.

“I’m sorry,” was all Sia managed to shout before she noticed that, while he had let go of her, the man was now regarding her with a slightly raised eyebrow as... the skin she’d just slashed through... grew back.

“Don’t be,” he replied with a small chuckle as he swung his other hand around, not at full force of course, in a punch meant to daze the smaller Sia.

Thankfully, Sia was accustomed to people mistaking height and weight for a bit of power over her, and lithely pulled back before delivering two strikes, one to Ethan’s wrist, the other to the back of his hand.

The man’s tendons flexed accordingly, and the folded tomahawk fell from his grasp only to be caught by Sia.

Satisfied that she had at least a snowball’s chance in the Mojave, Sia turned and bolted for the golden doorway.

***

Practically falling on her face coming out of the doorway, Sia struggled to regain her balance. Finally managing to find footing, the girl found herself in the same room as a second, rainbow hued doorway and two very shocked looking brahmin like creatures, only skinnier and with one head each.

As they stared at each other, the larger of the two looked to the shorter one and spoke.

“Twilight…”

In response the shorter one only hissed, “Ethan…”

Blinking at the pair, Sia decided to fuck everything and run rather than question her sanity. Eyes locking on the rainbow hued door, Sia ascertained that it had to be similar to the one she just came through.

Running quickly, Sia launched herself into the new doorway, unsure of where she’d be next, but it had to be better than here, right?

Letting out a cry of shock, Sia pulled her already numbed body out of the snowbank she’d just landed in. Looking about the snow driven area, she realised that she could see nothing in any direction. Exhausted both emotionally and physically, tears threatened to spill from Sia’s eyes yet again.

Biting her lower lip to help herself focus, Sia picked a direction and walked, hoping her uncanny luck would stop being so fickle and help her out.