“Ow,” I breathed at the sensation of a thorn stuck to my foot.

Though the gloom prevented me from the sight of my bleeding feet and ankles, I had enough of a vivid imagination to paint a clear enough picture for myself.

I was still barefoot, dragging my dirty talons across the grassy, gravelly hill leading to my Checkpoint, out of air and out of sweat to shed.

Since no one thought I could rid myself of the shackles they made me sleep wearing, leaving the tents was easy.

A bracelet of gold goes a long way when given to the right person. And the drunken money-hungry coachman I paid before going to bed, while Alice was out of sight, happened to be more than proficient in pickpocketing.

The only real worry I had while traveling till here was that I might get zapped by some kind of sorcery from those stones they spoke of. But I’m pretty sure they were bullshitting me, those two knights.

Prison stones are too expensive for a measly handful of knights to afford, and to use on a weakling such as this body's owner. Even in the book, they were only once, and that was with the Magic Tower Head's permission, so...

The road I took was the one we came from. To my left stretched yards and yards of yellowish greenery along a meadow, and to my right were woods characterized by such tall and bulky tree trunks that I could barely imagine what the leaves resembled. I was climbing the muddy road as I had mapped an escape route inside my head yesterday during dinner.

Now I just needed to make it to the traveling merchant stand I glimpsed through the window deeper into the woods yesterday, and I would be saved.

“Crazy people,” I muttered, tightening my hold on the thick and crusty fabric of my everything-at-this-point-covered attire, holding it up to not tumble while I dragged my feet uphill.

I could hear my heart beating inside my head, and the sound got louder the higher the sun rose above the horizon to my left.

“First of all…” I whispered to myself, quickening my step. “I’m too young to be confined.” I was breathing aloud at this point, keeping my gaze down to make sure I didn’t catch a boulder with my foot. “Second of all,” I looked up to measure the distance before I reached the large boulder; my checkpoint. "I'm too young to be dead."

A brownish, man-sized boulder appeared in the distance, filling me with excitement.

Now I just need to take the route carved beside it, which leads into the forest.

“Excuse me?” A voice resonated to my right, within the woods.

Slowly, I turned my head towards the person calling to me.

And as soon as I met his gaze, I couldn’t help but hold my breath.

The man emerging from the woods was a knight, as showed his (tilted?) bronze shoulder armor and brown leathery attire. The kingdom’s Slithering Black Snake emblem was carved on his short chest plate. His skin was a rich brown color, lightly contrasted with the black color of his messy hair. His cheekbones were prominent and his jaw well-defined, with a goatee making his triangular-shaped face even more distinct.

But his complimentary features didn’t hold a candle to the pleasing nature of his eyes. A round, hooded golden gaze.

This color I don't remember ever reading about in the book.

How can that be?

“Y-Yes?” I replied, mustering up a pleasant smile.

The stranger looked around me, as though looking for something familiar. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was in a light pout. 

I don't think he's trying to discern my identity.

“Do you perhaps know how I could get back?” He asked, yawning.

He wiped sleep off the corner of his eyes and scratched his jaw.

“Back where, Sir?”

“To the campsite.” He remembered to add. “I believe I am lost.” He admitted, shoulders slumping.

“Oh! Well, I am afraid I cannot help you, Sir. I know not of any campsite in the area.” I said, internally proud of my smooth, sophisticated language.

His golden gaze lingered on mine for a moment, blinking in hesitancy.

“Who…”

I could feel droplets of sweat run down my right temple. The fatigue of crossing such a distance with this frail body was slowly catching up to me.

“May I ask you to identify yourself?” He squinted his eyes. “Your appearance is... familiar.”

“I'm… Oh, wait! I remember now!” I exclaimed, turning away from him, hoping to prevent any further inspection of my appearance.

Why did this body’s appearance have to be so appealing? It’s such a pain in the ass that people remember it.

I would much have preferred one resembling my original body.

One could say that my plain expression was dull, or that my short brown hair and deep-set green eyes rendered my appearance less feminine than what was conventionally accepted, but I loved how seamless I could be when I so wished to be.

“It’s there,” I pointed at a random point. “I saw smoke emitting from over there, last night. I believe it might indeed be your destination, good sir.” I nodded.

"Really?"

I quickly looked at the meadow over which the sun was hanging, nearly risen all the way.

“Shit, I’m late.” The knight muttered, once he, too, acknowledged the sun’s current positioning. “Alright, I must be off before people realize I left…” He yawned again.

Given his messy hair, the leaves stuck to his back and head, his incomplete armor, his puffy face, and his words, I can only conclude that he must have skipped night watch to go sleep in the woods.

Sounds like they don’t pay him well.

Pinning that thought somewhere within my collapsing mind, I took in a deep breath in preparation for my next step.

“Well, then,” I said, looking up at the man who was fixing his slanting shoulder gear. “I shall be on my way.” I nodded, giving him a clumsy courtesy, and then my back.

“Alright, thank you!” He exclaimed behind me, making me let a smooth breath out as I strutted away in victory.

This was scarily easy.

I threw a look back after walking a few steps and couldn't help but grin like an idiot, seeing as he, too, was walking away, towards something that was approaching.

I turned around, giddy as I located my checkpoint again.

I took a couple of steps, getting back in the mood when something dawned upon me, making my grin drop flat.

Something's approaching?

“WE FOUND HER!!” A distant cry made every bone in my body shudder.

“WE FOUND HER!!” A distant cry made every bone in my body shudder.

I threw a hasty look back, gritting my teeth at the sight of four horses ridden by fully armored riders galloping up the muddy road, diverging the air and directly coming at me.

“THERE SHE IS!!” They roared

“I’m so dead.” I bit my lips, grabbing my skirt like a bundle against my belly, feeling the chilly breeze on my calves and lower knees.

Between trying to convince the handful of angry muscular men that I was totally not trying to escape and making a run for it, the second option sadly was much more plausible.

I lifted a leg, preparing for a sprint up the road, eyes set on my destination.

But I hadn't moved another inch before I caught a silhouette to my right, a presence that speechlessly threatened to harm me the moment I made any move.

“I thought you looked suspicious.” The golden-eyed knight said.

He set a firm hand on my shoulder, spinning me to face the galloping knights only a few yards away.

“Come up with an excuse for the both of us." He ordered, speaking lowly and motionlessly, standing next to me.

“Huh?” I turned to look up at him. His gaze was fixated on his distant colleagues, a neutral look on his features.

"If you manage it, I shall lie for you.” 

I simply blinked at him, then turned back to look at the knights, who were seconds away from joining us.

“You weren’t trying to run away. We were on our way back just now.”

“Oh-Okay.” I nodded, looking around us as quickly as I could. What in the world kind of excuse am I supposed to come up with?!

An affair? No, we'll both be hanged.

I needed something simpler. Something dumb, but plausible...

“You insolent bitch!” The leader of the bunch, with tan skin and coy hair, roared as soon as they had halted in their approach. He dismounted from his horse in a single motion and strode towards me, fist curled up.

The knight beside me took a semi-step forward, opening his mouth to speak. But before he could utter a word, the man raised a firm palm, eyes bloodshot and eyebrows furrowed.

I took a step back, looking up at the two in fearful realization, eyes wide as I anticipated what his body language signified for me.

He threw his shoulder back. “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!”

Before I could even blink, the man's chest was in front of my face, and a hurled fist had come in contact with my lower right cheek. He had landed an uppercut on my jaw.

At first impact, and for a split moment, my consciousness slipped away from my grasp.

I had lost control over my body as everything became black. My teeth bit at my tongue and my jaw snapped and dislocated before I landed on the ground. A warm liquid ponded within my mouth and trickled down my nose.

I blinked up at the bunch through teary, unfocused eyes, leaning back on an arm while the other held my face which was in sharp, throbbing pain.

The scenery hadn't changed much from earlier, the sky’s bitter blue color was only a tad lighter, the tree trunks seemed shorter now that I was sitting on the ground, and fronting it all were four horses, three mounted by other stranger knights. Closer than the horses were was the commander’s vague silhouette.

With a few blinks, ears momentarily unresponsive, the portrait was clearer.

His glare was still fixated upon me, shoulders slumping forward as he held his fist in his hand, his shrunk pupils communicating to me his urge to throw himself onto me and beat me dead.

Even closer to me than the commander was the stranger, who had his back against me, standing in between the two of us.

“Sir, is there a problem?” The golden-eyed knight asked, his tone chillingly calm as he stepped closer to his commander.

“HOW DARE you try and fucking ESCAPE! What is your purpose!? Huh?!” The commander bumped against the golden-eyed knight’s shoulder as he closed in on me, shaking an accusative index down at me. “Are you trying to have us BURN AT THE STAKE!? HUUH!??” His eyes were bloodshot, droplets of sweat sitting on his roughly shaved beard.

The man’s voice echoed across the meadow behind me, even after his lips had fallen shut. He breathed heavily, thinking of what to say next.

I could feel my hands shaking, and his posture had me wondering if these would indeed become my last moments in this hellish second life. I might be about to get beaten to death by this rabid dog.

“Please be calm, sir.” A voice broke me out of the 101 thoughts that were about to send me spiraling. I looked up at the man standing in front of the commander, catching a cold, piercing, disdainful golden gaze directed right to me. “She was not escaping. I bore witness to it all.”

The commander furrowed a brow, still hunched over at me. He turned sideways to look up at his golden-eyed soldier. “What?”

I spat out the blood pond that had formed inside my mouth, sitting up despite the numbness in my joints.

“I never tried to escape,” I stated, glaring back at the golden-eyed knight with as much, if not more disdain than he held for me. “I’m here…” I couldn’t fully open my mouth; my voice was barely audible. “To take a piss.” A rush of blood urged me to spit it out again.

I wiped the blood trickling down my nose.

A scoff left the lips of one of the riders still on their horses. He had a distinct scar instead of his right eyebrow, a firm and rubbery-looking lesion. Looks like a keloid scar.

“Quite the lady you are.” He muttered.

“... Is this true, Truman?” The commander turned to the golden-eyed man.

“Yes, sir.”

“I woke up very early with a sick stomach and needed to go to the restroom. Everybody seemed to have passed out for some strange reason. I was honestly quite afraid… Some knights were even sleeping outside!” I made sure my tone was confused, and not too dramatic. “I met a coachman who was suffering from a hangover, or was drunk, I’m not sure. I asked him for the keys to my shackles and he brought them over, bless him. He entrusted me to Truman, this gentleman knight, who kindly escorted me out here to, uh,” I threw a sheepish look at the rider who laughed earlier. “go to the toilet.”

I can’t think of a better way to put this.

“… Soldier?” The commander glanced at Truman again, eyebrow furrowed.

“It is all true, Commander.” Truman nodded.

The commander’s skeptical air lasted only a moment.

“Right!” He sighed as his tense stance melted into a slouch and a smirk formed on his lips. “Our security is not so frail that a woman can escape through everyone and reach this meadow without a single person on her trail!” He laughed, looking for approval from his subordinates.

“That’s what I was saying all morning!” With a receding hairline and a missing tooth, the other rider giggled, wearing a proud look.

“Truman, your shift must be over now.” The scarred rider stated.

“I’m glad it finally is.” Truman’s eyes were droopy again.

“You have such shit luck, my friend.” The scarred rider said, grabbing the reins of his horse.

“All of the night shifts always end up within Truman’s fortune. In a way, it is amazing luck.” The toothless rider laughed.

“I shouldn't have played boulder, parchment, shears to settle the matter again...” Truman said, making everyone chuckle.

While they conversed within themselves, I stood back up (barely), and gently helped my jaw in place.

I breathed in and out, ignored the relief that I wasn’t facing breathing problems, and stopped moving my tongue in fear of touching one of the several bleeding injuries inside my mouth. I used my free hand to dust my disgusting clothes and comb my hair back down. I stretched a few strands above my shoulder so I could check it out again, and as expected, the barely golden strands from a day ago had turned an even dirtier, duller shade of grey.

“Well then,” The leader put a hand on both sides of his body. “Let us go back and load.” He ordered.

He mounted his horse and gestured for Truman to follow along with me.

Quietly, I did as they demanded.

The fact that no further questions were asked about the matter, despite the degree of anger with which the leader knight approached me, could only be explained by these men’s humongous pride, and it being hurt by the thought that I could have succeeded in leaving the campsite unnoticed.

I can’t believe the day has come when I am grateful for a man’s inflated ego.

“You deserved it,” Truman said, walking to my side.

I kept looking forward, discounting his words.

No, I didn’t. I didn’t fucking deserve to be beaten. I don’t deserve to be in this situation.

Before I realized it, my palm was bleeding from the pressure of my nails digging into its flesh.

More injuries to treat. This is ridiculous...

“Yeah,” I simply muttered, gently holding onto my jaw, suppressing the tears rushing to my eyes at the surging pain shooting from my face down my throat and up to my forehead.

It feels like my face will fall off.