The young Holdfast woman sat down on a tree stump. She looked tired out already, Aila thought, feeling a weight of responsibility for her. After everything she had been through, to die of hunger in the wastes of Northern Kinell seemed an ignominious way for it to end.
Aila turned, and hurried down the track. Ahead, she could make out a few figures moving through the camp, or sitting by fires, but she knew that the bulk of the workforce would already be at the forest’s edge. She glanced back to check how far away Kelsey was, then considered a disguise.
You see me as an old peasant woman.
She slowed her pace to match her appearance as she walked into the camp. Kelsey had been right about hunger leading to the abandonment of morals; everywhere she looked, she was sizing up opportunities for theft, seeing the people in the camp as targets to be exploited rather than fellow human beings. She would never steal from a child, but that was about the only condition she had set herself. She watched as men unloaded sacks of grain from the back of a wagon, but it was well guarded, and grain was not much good to her or Kelsey. The guards were local militia, paid to keep order in the camps, and to ensure that the flow of timber never ceased. Quotas had to be met, as they had learned in the few days that they had worked in a camp, or there would be consequences.
The guards paid her no attention as she walked past. As she turned a corner, she saw a pile of rotting vegetables on the ground by a large tent and she walked over to take a closer look.
‘Hey!’ shouted a man. ‘Keep your hands off; that’s for the pigs, not you.’
‘Do you have anything to spare?’ she said.
‘No, now bugger off.’
‘Asshole,’ she muttered, then she saw the small herd of pigs on the other side of the tent. One of those would last them a good day or two, she thought, at least until the meat went bad.
She watched as a heavily pregnant woman emerged from another tent, and she stared at her for a moment, imagining what her own appearance would look like in a few months. She was past her first trimester, but was still barely showing, and due to the way her self-healing worked, she sometimes almost forgot that she was pregnant. Even if the child within her was mortal, her powers would shield and protect it from starvation.
A well-dressed man approached, his long robes trailing in the mud. He looked like an official from Kin Dai, and had a worried expression on his face. Aila silently apologised to him, drew her knife from her belt, then walked right into his path. He came to an abrupt halt, raising his palms, and Aila fell to the ground in front of him.
‘I didn’t touch you,’ he said.
‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I slipped.’
She slowly got back to her feet as he glowered at her, then she lashed out with the knife, slicing through the man’s belt. She caught it with her other hand as it fell, and she bolted, her turn of speed taking him by surprise.
‘Stop her!’ he cried to the guards by the grain wagon.
Aila darted between a row of tents, detaching the purse and dropping the rest of the belt into the mud.
You see me as a young pregnant woman.
A moment later, three guards barged their way towards her, nearly knocking her over.
‘Careful, please!’ she cried.
‘Sorry, miss,’ said one; ‘did you see an old woman go by?’
‘Yes,’ she said; ‘just a moment ago. She was running.’
‘Where?’
Aila pointed in the opposite direction, and the guards rushed away. Aila walked back to the main track leading through the camp, the purse hidden in her clothes. The man she had robbed was still standing there, a furious look on his face as he talked to a handful of other guards.
‘The security in this camp is a bloody disgrace!’ he shouted. ‘I have enough to worry about without some old witch thieving from me in broad daylight. I want her flogged when she’s found, understood?’
Aila took back her silent apology from before.
‘Is the rumour true, sir?’ said one of the guards.
‘Yes. It’s a dragon, there’s no doubt about it. I’m heading straight back to Kin Dai to request immediate assistance.’
‘Shall we move the camp?’
‘No. Absolutely not. The work here must go on, without cessation. The dragon’s not interested in stopping us.’
‘But I heard it ate someone, sir.’
‘Lies. A man was killed, yes, but he was torn to shreds, not eaten, and that was only because he had strayed too far into the forest. He must have disturbed its lair. We hold tight here, and carry on, and wait for the regular army to turn up to deal with it. I’m also going to request a demigod with vision powers to assist in tracking it down.’ He paused, then noticed Aila’s glance. ‘Do you want something, girl?’
‘Did you say a dragon?’
‘It’s of no concern to you; go back to… doing whatever you were doing.’
Aila glanced away, and began to walk back down the track. When she was out of sight, she switched her appearance to that of an old man, and continued out of the camp. Kelsey was still sitting where she had left her.
‘Good news,’ Aila said.
Kelsey’s eyes lit up. ‘You have food?’
‘I have a purse.’ She sat down next to the young Holdfast woman. ‘And, as a benefit, the man I stole from was an asshole, so there’s that too.’
Kelsey smiled. ‘How much is in it?’
Aila opened the purse, and almost cried in relief. ‘A lot. Enough.’ She picked out six gold coins and gave them to Kelsey. ‘Hide these; they’ll be no good to us in the camp, but they’re bound to come in handy later. That leaves at least twenty in silver. Oh, and apparently, there’s a wild dragon
