Role

Chapter 6

Had Magdan not acted, the entire affair probably would have ended with a
bloody nose for Sulye and a case of wounded pride. Instead tragedy
ensued. The larger guard correctly interpreted Magdan's change in posture
as a challenge to his authority, and he was not one to have his authority
questioned. Especially not by some raggedy cur of a boy from Balator.
No, he would have to make an example of him. And so he did. Sulye was
forced to watch as her friend (her only friend, really) was murdered
before her eyes. Because of her foolishness, and because of his
ridiculous ideals.

After the initial shock of her friend's death had subsided, something
snapped inside Sulye. Something that had, perhaps, lain long dormant,
only occasionally percolating to the conscious surface of her life.
Before this she had never issued a feral growl. Her family were simple
farmers; what opportunity would she have for such a thing? She growled
now. Then, bending her body backwards, she dragged her claws across the
neck of the guard who had been restraining her and severed his jugular
vein in one swift motion. He staggered for a moment, more surprised than
anything, before falling face first on the dusty road. His companion, the
larger man who had slain Magdan, was still busy wiping his cutlass clean
(on Magdan's dead body) when Sulye pounced on him from behind. Biting,
tearing, they tumbled to the ground in a heap. When the scuffle
eventually subsided he too lay dead, face and eyes having been ravaged by
Sulye's teeth and claws.

She ran, then. Not back to the farm lands, but southeast. Blindly.
At last she collapsed and, when she finally woke, found herself in the
company of some sort of woodsman. She had not known there to be any woods
near the area, but apparently there were. The man had prepared a camp
site while she slept and now offered her some of his food. She was
suspicious, even more so given all she had just been through, but
something about this man told her he was no friend to the Sultan's
guards. He listened without speaking as she spilled forth the events of
the previous day. Then, when she had finished, he began to speak. Of
trees, and imps, and ancient gods. Of the wilds, and towns; things long
past, and things to come. It was music to her young ears...