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I awoke to a ferocious headache and blurred vision, confused as to where I was for a moment. I blinked several times to find myself leaning back against a tree with my hands tied behind my back in front of a large fire. I looked around in confusion for a moment.

“So. Yer awake, finally,” the tall man said from where he sat next to the fire.

I glared at him. “You had best release me. The penalties for holding a sister against her will are severe.”

He grunted, a habit that I was finding very annoying. “Mebbe in civilized lands, sister, but not out here in the wilds. There’s no sisters or brothers to protect you and we won’t be takin’ you anywhere near a town to be seen.”

My heart went cold. “So what do think you’re going to do with me?”

He shrugged and grunted. “Not totally sure. Thought about a ransom but that’d bring others.” He eyed me with a leer that turned my stomach. “There’s…needs to be met here that I’m sure you’d fill. They say they teach sisters all sorts of things in that department…

“Then there’s that dragon about. You say you can take it? May get to prove it. We find it, make you fight it and you either kill it or die. It dies, we make lots of money and…celebrate. You die, well, solves a problem dunit?”

He stood and walked over to where I was sitting up and I looked up at him in cold rage and fear. He ran a cold, greasy finger along my cheek and it was all I could do not to flinch away. He could tell and grinned. “I’ll just let you sit and think about what’s to come. Bit of fear, despair, it’ll do you some good, a high and mighty sister brought down a few pegs.”

He laughed again. “Dunno if I was you if I’d want the dragon to show up quickly or later.” He patted me on the head and stretched himself out and gestured to the three others who were sitting around staring.

“Keep an eye on her and don’t touch her. I find out you have and you’ll regret it. Hear?” them and said in a menacing voice and then men quailed before him and nodded.

He looked back at me and leered once more. “Sweet dreams, little sister,” he said and turned to crawl into his tent.

Fortunately for me it seemed his men were fearful enough of him to follow his orders, though it didn’t prevent them from staring at me and making rude gestures which I ignored. I settled myself and wondered if I dare try to sleep.

I only hoped that Teras would come looking for me soon. If they were to set me loose to fight him it would be an easy thing to escape. The dragon had protected me once and I knew he would do so again. A couple of roars and I was sure the men would flee. No one in their right mind stood up to a dragon.

I must have fallen asleep at some point as I was awoken by the tall man shaking me roughly. “Get up, Sister. Time to go dragon hunting.”

I glared at him and winced at the sunlight shining through the trees. My head was still tender and eyes sensitive. The man turned to yell at his men to get the camp packed so they could move on.

I felt a pressure in my bladder and grit my teeth. There was no way I could hold it and urinating on myself was a revolting thought. “I need to perform my morning ablutions,” I said through grit teeth.

The man looked at me, eyes narrowed. “That some morning ritual sisters do? No.”

“No, damn it, I need to urinate!”

He stared and then burst out laughing. “Well, go squat out in the bushes. I’ll come along to make sure you don’t run.”

“Have you no decency at all!”

He grinned. “Not where prisoners are concerned, especially ones that may try to escape.”

He strode over and lifted me up by an arm causing me to gasp in pain. “Come on, over here,” he said with a grunt, and pushed me forward.

I staggered forward, awkwardly walking in my battered snowshoes as we went a short ways into the woods. I looked around and found a spot that would give me some privacy. I turned to glare at him. “I can’t lower my breeches with my hands tied.”

He grinned at me. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to do it for you.”

“You keep your hands off of me!” I yelled, fear clutching at my heart.

He laughed and grabbed ahold of me, putting his shoulder into my stomach as he grabbed my breeches and jerked them and my under things before I could so much as move.

“There,” he said, pushing me backwards so I fell over. He grinned down at me and I futilely tired to cover myself. “Do yer business. We got a dragon to find.”

“Turn away!”

“No,” he said and grunted, leering at me further.

I managed to roll over onto my knees, him staring the whole time, and it took all I could to simply relive myself with him looking on. I had never been so humiliated in my entire life! Maker, why was this happening to me? Was it some punishment for dealing with the dragon?

I stood, shaking in fear and anger and he slowly walked over, making show of it, and bent down to pull my breeches up, taking all too long about it. “Sucha pretty thing you are,” he said as he straightened up. “If we don’t find that dragon today we may have to spend a bit o’ time together, if you catch my meaning.”

It was all I could do not to scream at him, knowing it to be the reaction he wanted, so I just stared at him, trembling. He grinned again and jerked my arm, gesturing back towards the camp. “On with ya.”

I staggered forward and managed not to fall over. The men had packed up the tents and had their packs on evidently ready to leave. The tall man grunted at them and gestured and we started out in search of the dragon. I could only hope that Teras turned up before nightfall…

Thick, wet snow covered the ground where we walked and it was all I could do to stay upright even with my snow shoes on. One of them was coming apart but I wasn’t about to say anything to the tall man and his miscreants. The less attention on me, the better.

I occasionally looked up at the sky, hoping to see Teras coming to rescue me but he was no where to be seen. Every passing minute added to my fear, especially as night approached. I furtively looked around, trying to see if they had kept my staff but it was nowhere to be seen. Unlike some sisters the staff was all I had to channel the Maker’s power. Some had rings made or other jewelry. I never had due to the time and cost and now I rued the decision.

We trudged along till the sun started to dip below the horizon. The tall man grunted and waved to his men. “Find a place to make camp.”

The others scurried off and he walked back to stand close to me. “Well, no sign of the dragon, little sister. Kind of a pity, I wanted to see how you’d do against it. You’d soften it up a bit before my men took it at least, if you got yerself killed that is.”

He reach out and clasped my chin and forced me to look at him. “Perhaps it’s better this way. A man gets lonely out here in the wilds.”

I tried to jerk back and he held my chin all the tighter, causing me to cry out in pain. “Still got a bit of fight. That’s good. That’s very good.”

He shoved me backwards and I fell to his laughter. I rolled to my knees and stood up as quickly as I could, face burning, a fear like I had never felt clutching my heart.

“May the Maker take your soul to the Abyss!” I spat at him and he laughed again.

“Don’t believe in any of that, little sister. There’s no Maker, no afterlife, only this one so you take what you can get when you can. It’s fools like you and weaklings that say otherwise.”

He looked over at where one of his men was waving and grunted, then grabbed my arm. “Go,” he said with a shove.

Every step caused my heart to pound all the harder, caused the hollow feeling inside to grow to a raw ache. I started muttering prayers, hoping the Maker would hear me, hoping that the dragon would show, praying that someone, somehow would rescue me.

The men already had a fire going and two braces of rabbits they had taken earlier in the day roasting over it. Despite myself my stomach growled and the scent of the meat before I was overcome with revulsion at the thought.

The tall man pushed me to the ground in front of the fire and I landed hard on my bottom with a grunt. The men set to putting up the tents and clearing out places for themselves to sleep while I looked on, heart still pounding.

“Get her some food,” the tall man said, grunting as he came out of his tent.

“I can’t eat with my hands bound!” I said.

“Oh, I’ll feed you sister, don’t worry,” the tall man said and I nearly vomited at his tone of voice.

“I don’t eat meat!”

“Well, looks like you’re going to start, eh?”

The man took one of the rabbits and cut a bit off of it, then turned to crouch next to me. “Open up, little sister,” he said in the same voice one would use with a baby.

I turned my face away and he laughed, then sized it, hard. I gasped as he forced my jaws open and shoved the bit of rabbit in, then held them shut leaving me no choice but to swallow.

The greasy rabbit did’t get far down my throat before I choked and vomited into my mouth. He laughed and held me for a second before letting my mouth open. I coughed and spat it out, heaving and gagging repeatedly. The men stood around and laughed and the tall man just grinned down at me.

“I’ve done nothing to you, why are you doing this?” I said in harsh voice.

“You sisters are all the same. Walking around in white, giving out useless blessings, saying you can heal the sick. All lies!” the tall man quite nearly spat. “Meanwhile my mother died because of your false Maker and fake medicine!”

“I would—” I started.

He reached down and jerked me up by my arm, wrenching in cruelly. “Enough of this,” he said. “Time for some fun.”

I jerked away and he leered at me and started to reach down the front of his pants.

I broke and ran in desperation, somehow managing to keep my balance with my hands still tied behind my back. I heard their laughter and the sounds of their pursuit and I pushed myself harder, pleading with the Maker to let me get away.

The sounds of the men pursing me got closer and I staggered as my snowshoe broke and pitched head long into the snow. They were on me in a moment, pinning me down, the tall man watching with a feral expression as his men held my arms.

“Looks like the little race is over, sister,” he said and bent down to hook his fingers in my breeches. I managed to kick him in the face with my free leg before one of the men grabbed it and he just laughed.

“All spit an fire still? Good. It’ll be fun humbling you,” he said and reached for my breeches again.

No matter how I twisted and turned his fingers hooked in the waist and he jerked back, taking my clothes with him, underthings and all while his men held my arms and cheered.

The tall man loomed over me and stared and no matter how I twisted I couldn’t get loose. Terror surged through me, my heart pounding so hard I thought it would split. I was nearly overwhelmed, the terror, the feeling of the snow on my bare bottom. He knelt down, eyes fixed on what should be covered, and I felt a hand touch my inner thigh…

Something snapped and I drew my legs back fast enough to pull them loose of the man holding them and kicked out as hard as I could while twisting. The motion startled the men who were all to fixated on the sight of what their leader was doing.

I let out a piercing scream, hoping that someone would be near enough to hear as scrambled to my feet. I don’t know how I managed to get to my feet or run in the snow but the sound of the tall man screaming at his men to catch me drove me onwards.

I ran towards the tree line, hoping I could get through and dodge around them somehow, hoping the adrenaline surge would last long enough to shake my attackers. The tree line was only forty feet ahead, I could make it if I just pushed harder!

The sound of booted feet and harsh breathing came up behind me all a sudden and I let loose another piercing scream, knowing there was no way I would make it to the trees.

The man tackled me and I twisted, trying to break his hold and fight back when he struck me in the side of the head, setting my ears to ringing. I lay there, dazed, as he stood up, grabbed my arms and started to drag me back to where the tall man was waiting.

“Gonna…make…you…regret that…when…it’s…my…turn,” the man pulling me breathed out between gasps setting my labored heart to pounding all the harder for a moment.

I had no strength left with which to fight, sweat started pouring down my face as exhaustion took over, as ever step brought us closer to the tall man and the waiting humiliation.

There was a sudden ear piercing roar that blasted down from above us as a dragon slammed into the ground in front of us sending snow spraying everywhere.

The man stopped abruptly, cursing and wiping the snow from his eyes when he suddenly disappeared from view. I looked up to see him hanging from Teras’ jaws and the dragon gave a quick back and forth shake of his head, nearly tearing the man into two pieces, blood and worse spraying everywhere, as he flung his carcass aside.

I got to my feet somehow and watched as Teras turned and charged at the other men. “Teras!” I cried out weakly, trying to stop him, wiping the blood from my face. Those men claimed to hunt dragons!

The tall man was shouting orders and one of the men dashed back to the small camp while the other two separated to force Teras to pick a target. The dragon drew up short, growling, the air around him quite nearly alive with the force of his rage.

The men had their swords drawn and the tall man barked out an order. The other man standing in front of Teras darted forward and the dragon reared back to slash at him then jerked as a crossbow bolt hit him in the chest.

He roared in pain, and the tall man ran forward to strike at the dragon’s belly. “Teras!” I screamed out.

The dragon seemed to realize the sudden danger and shouted something, some language I didn’t understand and couldn’t seem to remember the words, the very sounds, after they were spoken.

The tall man slammed backwards as if he hit a brick wall and the second crossbow bolt shattered on an invisible barrier that had formed between the dragon and the men.

Teras growled and bit the crossbow bolt off where it had hit him in the chest, then drew his head back and the tall man’s lackey who had feinted forward was suddenly engulfed in flames, his screams cut short as the fire burned his throat.

Another crossbow blot shattered against the invisible barrier and the dragon roared and charged forward into the trees. Mercifully, I could only hear the mans screams suddenly cut short and not see the results of the dragons savage fury.

The tall man watched for a brief moment, looked at me, looked back towards the dragon, at me again with a look of pure hatred and dashed towards the trees.

Teras bounded out and looked around, then his eyes fixed on me.

I was utterly paralyzed by what I found there.

This was what the book warned us about. This was what the sisters training was for.

The pure rage, the anger, the sheer elemental force of it all radiating from the dragon seemed to grab at my very soul and I couldn’t break the dragon’s gaze.

I started to walk backwards and fell as the dragon started forward, eyes still locked on me. I pushed backwards, scooting, trying to get to my feet as he came forward and loomed over me.

His head came down and I screamed as he sniffed me a couple of times, then reached out and grabbed me in his fore claws. The ground fell away beneath me as he took to the sky.

And I couldn’t stop screaming