An Axe in the Flames

The First Sign of Trouble

Amery nodded in agreeance, "Anese, you're the daughter of a highly valuable prisoner and Pela...well, you're Pela. The way you talked about Lucan, he's not just going to stop looking for you both. We have to do this."

Draxx nodded, sitting down next to Anese who was still sobbing, "I know you hate it, but I know you hate him more. I can't fully imagine what you're feeling but I know some of it. We have to get you two to safety and the only way we can begin to make that reality, is to change your appearance. Unless Pela has some sort of illusionary magic?"

Pela looked up and shook her head, "Pela."

"You're hair will grow back, but if you're caught. We're all caught, and your escape was for nothing. You want to help your father? You want to avenge your mother? Then sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to, but have to." Draxx said as he pointed to Amery's knife hanging from his brown leather pants.

She looked up, tears glistening in her eyes, "I know. This is all just so much, so quick. Just a few days ago everything was normal. Now, I'll never see my mother again or brothers and maybe not even my father."

Sliding the knife from it's holster, Amery sat down. Anese looked up and smiled through her tears as she loosed her braids. Draxx watched her, impressed with the resolve she had already shown. A princess in some ways, from an enemy army, but here she was fighting for what she knew was right. Moments like these shaped a person's life, sometimes for the good. Sometimes, for the worst. Looking at her as Amery shaved her and Pela bald, Draxx felt like he was watching a transformation. An innocence lost, the making of a warrior, someone raising from the ashes of their past life and coming out a whole new creature. She had showed plenty of mettle just to escape and survive in the woods, now she knew that they had a hard trek ahead to reach the Emerald Castle and she still hadn't turned back. He thought back to his early days, a farmer's only son who watched his family burn. All of those years back, when the pagan tribes ran forlorn and sacrificed and enslaved whoever they wanted. He had hidden in the woods when the attack began and watched all that he knew go up in flames. It had changed him then, and even now it had a profound effect on him. His anger turned to steel, his bitterness to resolve, his drive for revenge had been thrown into training with the axes and he had joined the Emerald Army as a Front Line Fighter. In a way, he was still looking for the satisfaction of revenge. The Emerald Army had crushed the tribes and taken over their land but he never felt the release of the anger he harbored. Would she be the same way? Would her curse be his curse, to always seek the bloody path of an eye for an eye? He saw the twines of steel in her, but he knew nothing of what she would become. Watching her now, he made a vow to protect those two little girls from the unending pain of never finding the satisfaction of revenge through blood.

Amery shaved both of their heads, and as he finished Pela's he stood to survey his work, "Good thing I just sharpened this. That's as clean a head peeling as I've ever seen."

Anese ran her hands over her bald head and wiped the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Pela smiled as she felt about her bald head, and then shivered as a breeze blew. She pulled her hood over and then smiled again and gave Anese a thumbs up sign.

"We'll need to call you both something other than your names, too." Amery said as he put his knife back.

"How about Neal and Peter?" Draxx offered.

Anese shook her head with a disgusted look, "No, Neal is terrible. I will call myself Shath. I think Peter works for Pela. Do you agree?"

Pela laughed and shrugged, "Peter."

"There we go then, Shath and Peter. Now, let's keep moving. I want to get around Dry Lake's main city by nightfall, so that in the morning we can get horses and be on our way to Red Sands. I doubt the Flame Sect has had time to reach that far yet." Draxx said as he helped both girls to their feet.