“But… I thought fighting scared you.” Gale said, confused. But Puffrel burst out laughing.
            “Ohohohoh. A fight? You call this a fight?” She scoffed. “Tell me, when you commit a crime under the eyes of the crown, on the crown’s land, at the end of all of crown’s endless weapons, do you call what follows a ‘fight’?” She smiled, flexing her wings, and pushing away the wheat around her.
“Or do you call it an execution?” she whispered menacingly, turning back to the men.

The men clenched their teeth, filled their sails, and rushed Puffrel but she shot into the air. The men gave chase, but they were too slow. Every time they thought they were on her she would just speed up even more, seemingly never reaching her top speed. All their swipes went wide as Puffrel headed towards the dense layer of clouds above them. She put her fingers to her mouth and blew to create a loud, distinct whistle as she continued to evade the slashes. The thick layer of clouds were very high up, but the further up she went the more the sail men fell behind. Finally, she shot through the clouds to see the beautiful night sky. It was black, but the stars were not shiny dots in the sky, instead the stars were a vast array of long shiny lines that curved across the night sky like a barrage of shooting stars that you could not see the heads nor tails of. Puffrel ruffled her wings and shook the water from the clouds from her body. She admired the sky as she flapped her wings, making her way closer to several of the towers of the estate that were poking through the clouds. After covering a bit of distance, she turned around just as the three men shot through the clouds, looking in each direction.
            “Took your time chicken!” She shouted into the sky.
            “That be a strange choice of words for the coward who ran from us!” One shouted back. Puff looked surprised, but then she started to laugh.
            “Ohohoh! That’s cute, they still think I’m talking to them.” She chortled.

            “Eh? Then who-” Said one of them dumbfounded as the clouds under where Puffrel was hovering began to bend and grow as if something was about to break through them.

            “I already told them I don’t address peasants.” she said menacingly as the gigantic, blindfolded bird erupted from the clouds underneath her feet. She flapped upwards to keep just above the bird and watch their expressions.

            “…That’s not a chicken.” One said in genuine fear. As the bird squawked and tore through the sky towards them, it’s talons dragged through the layer of cloud below. The other two darted off to the side but the bird’s talons found purchase on the one frozen in fear. It held him with its claws long enough to pierce his chest before dropping him from the sky and going after the others. The two remaining sail men began to duck and weave through the sky, dodging blows and attempting to make something close to a significant cut in the monster’s gigantic body but it was useless. The sky sparked alive with blood and cut feathers as more small cuts appeared on Puffrel’s skin. Finally, one sail man decided to turn his attention to the girl controlling the beast instead. He filled his sails and shot towards her, but the princess lowered herself to the cloud layer and placed her hand on it. The cloud began to swell, ebb and flow as if it were the waves of the ocean. The waves started small but soon became a towering monstrosity that he couldn’t fly over in time. It crashed into him, covering him in a wet, vision obscuring fog, the bird and the other sail man soon followed under the wave of cloud.
The two sail men looked around in confusion but managed to find each other. But the squawks of the bird could be heard echoing through the fog, each time from a different direction. It was searching for them and the wind from its massive wings were pushing them to and fro. Suddenly from the fog the bird shot through between them glancing both but leaving them unharmed. But now it knew where they were. Once, twice, three times the bird shot through, getting closer to a serious blow each time.
            “I can’t see shit! Under the clouds! Now!” He said, growing frustrated.

But when they busted out through the bottom of the clouds, they found themselves face to face with Puffrel, hovering just below the clouds herself. Her smile grew knowingly, and their eyes widened in terror as a gigantic beak blasted through the cloud swallowing the closest one whole. The last man alive looked at her in terror and took off away from her, but she grabbed hold of the bird and gave chase. Seeing it quickly catching up to him and opening its beak to eat him. Seeing the futility, he instead decided to pull back in all his sails to suddenly slow down. Holding his cutlass vertically he launched himself into the creature’s open beak and jammed his sword in the roof of it.

            “Got ya!” he said. But his triumph was short lived. Puffrel, who was siting on the tip of the beak, looking out into the sky as the bird flew forward, put the bottom of one palm against the fingers of her other hand and pushed. It was as if the tension had caused the skin on her palm to tear, but instead a strange ethereal crack appeared on her hand. From the crack, the thorny vines of rose bushes begin to creep out. They had already begun to wrap their way around the man’s body before he noticed. It was like rope tying him up until he began to bleed from each thorn of the vines as well. He grimaced, looking around and trying to understand. Looking up, he saw her, and he stared at her in anger as the vines finished wrapping him up. They were so tightly bound; he couldn’t hold the cutlass anymore and was forced to release it. A single rose bud on the vine was now positioned delicately in his palm and began to bloom.
            “You bitch!” He said as the vines began to creep into his mouth. Puffrel pressed the sides of her hand together and the ethereal crack disappeared, cutting off the vines. She opened her mouth to speak, and blood began to slide down from the corner of her mouth.
            “Release” said Puffrel. And the bird opened its beak fully, sending the sail man falling towards the ground. She watched as she wiped the blood from her mouth. The man had shut his eyes at first but when he opened them again out of morbid curiosity, he saw Puffrel was following him down. Instinctively he tried to reach out his hand.
            “H-help… me…” He muttered through the vines.
Puff smiled kindly as he followed him down.
            “Well… it would be a waste” she said. The man felt relief as he watched her hand reach out for his own. But his heart dropped when she picked the rose on his hand instead. Puffrel admired it before smiling at him condescendingly.

            “Awww, that’s cute. He did it again.” She giggled before pulling up and watching him fall out of sight. He let out an angry muffled scream as he fell to the ground.

Meanwhile on the ground, Gale watched the eldest man grimace in pain, his legs broken, blood pooling into the wheat field. Gale stared distantly at him, weighing up his choices before he finally decided to step over to him.
            “Why… Why did you attack us?” asked Gale.
            “…What’s it to a filthy slave?!” he spat spitefully. “Like I’d tell ya anything you could run off to your master with.”
            “I just want to know who you people are.” Gale said calmly.
            “Like I said, I aint giving up anything!” He spat again.
Gale sighed before sitting down beside him.
            “Fine. I’ll just ask one thing then.”
            “Fuck off! I already told ya-”
            “What’s your name?” Gale said sincerely.

The man looked at him surprised, a small bit of humanity shining through a tough exterior.
            “…Vendrick”
            “Thank you”
            “Do you slaves even have names?” He asked in return.
            “It’s Gale.”
            “Aye, Gale.” He confirmed.
            “You fought well Vendrick” Gale said after a pause. The man began to choke up blood, but he was determined to speak through it.
            “Ahah! I did, didn’t I?” He laughed faintly.
Gale chuckled weakly and shook his head.

The heavy beat of wings emanated from above them before the massive bird landed in front of them and Puffrel hopped off to the side.
            “Kill” she ordered dismissively. The bird plunged its beak into the man, killing him instantly.

            She looked at Gale who looked back at her with a deadpan expression
            “Wait, were you in the middle of talking to him?” She said in realisation. Gale sighed and stood up.
            “Go wake up mother. Have that wound looked at.” The princess said to the bird, it promptly took off as she bent down to start looking over the man’s possessions.
            “Were you always so ruthless?” He said plainly.
            “I’m a princess, just because I love my followers doesn’t mean I’m going to give enemies mercy.” She said without looking at him, pulling out and inspecting a gold pocket watch from one of the pockets.
            “This doesn’t tell me anything.” She muttered at the pocket watch.
            “Will you at least bury them?” Gale asked. Puff blinked.
            “…Of course! I’m not a barbarian.” she pouted while looking away.
            She never even considered it. thought Gale.
            “I do hope this has not soured our relationship, has it?” she said, idly patting down the man’s pants.
            “I wish you wouldn’t act so cruel.” He muttered.
            “In all fairness, if you actually wanted to be my body-guard, you could have chosen to give their deaths more honour.” She said trying to tug off the man’s boots. Suddenly realisation dawned on her face.
            “Bodyguard” she whispered in epiphany before the boot suddenly came loose from the foot and she tumbled backwards. Gale chuckled before having to quickly catch the boot thrown at him. Puffrel, suddenly looking a bit dustier was now back her feet, her face a little red from embarrassment.
            “I’ve just had a brilliant idea you ungrateful sod! I can’t free you without father disobeying my orders, but he won’t get in my way if I make you my personal bodyguard!”
            “…I could come with you when you travel.” Said Gale, a giddy realisation dawning on him.
            “We can go to the Hollows together! And you can see the Lionnets!” She said smugly.
            “I could see it… I could really see the outside world… Hah… Ahaha!” Gale said in disbelief, tears starting steam in the fire on his head.
            “No need to thank me, I know.” She nodded.
            “Y’know its strange” Gale said half laughing, half crying. “I could have sworn you just brutally killed three people in front of me, but somehow I ended up feeling really happy about tonight”
“Mmhmm, Mmhmm” Puffrel continued to nod. But her tone changed when Gale put his hand on her head and ruffled her hair.
            “Hey, Hey! I’m not a child.” She said, but Gale just laughed.
            “No, you don’t have the innocence. A little monster, is what you are.”
            “But there IS good in you.” He smiled.

Puffrel stopped fighting at this, she looked away, red in the face. She tried to keep her condescending exterior, but her bright eyes betrayed her, they sparkled with a genuine gratitude she was too prideful to admit.