Asya wore a ragged cloak, hiding her reptile-like eyes.
Humans these days stared too much. And they loved to whisper among themselves, creating rumors that would spread like wildfire. Since they were the lowest in the food chain, they tend to be cautious towards predator races. More specifically, the demons. Add dragons and the undead, then you'll have the unholy trinity to human race.
Being mistaken as a suspicious wanderer was better than showing off to everyone that she's one of the unholy.
Asya waved a hand, checking the transportation lines. She did not want to crash into a magician or a demon in space. They were the other two races that could also pass through air, but it was a difficult skill to attain.
Without delay, she teleported as soon as it was clear.
She appeared at the plain outside the city walls, hidden by thick bushes. Noise from a crowd of farmers and travellers just a few distances to her grabbed her attention. Congested at one place, they all stared at the same direction. This got her curious.
Asya walked towards them. Almost all of them were pointing and waving their hands in frustration at the closed city gate and a legion of soldiers stationed there, looking like there'll be war anytime.
"Did you plan to go into the city too?" an old lady asked softly.
Asya glanced at her. The wrinkly old lady sat at the front of a dilapidated wagon. And at the back, filled with hay, were two cloaked men. And their hoods were facing her direction.
Asya smelled their surrounding space. There was no disturbance from those two, meaning, human travellers. Secured, she smiled back at the old lady, saying, "That's right, but it's a pity, seems like I can't anymore."
"A pity, indeed." The old lady nodded sadly. "An hour ago, the city lord locked it down and set his men around the walls. I hear he'd done something terrible, and the emperor ordered a high-ranking general to deal with him. Now, we civilians will have to carry our city lord's sin too."
"But I doubt your city will fall easily," Asya said. "As you can see, there's only one way in to the city. These two mountains on each side of the city wall will not be easily infiltrated. Besides, at the back is the barren border between humans and demons. The terrain and location of the city is an ideal defensive stronghold."
The old lady blinked at Asya in surprise.
"You must be a warrior, young lady," she said, awe masking her wrinkly face. "Can you tell me if how many days it will take before the city's taken down?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't," Asya replied, eyes drawn in sympathy. "Because the gods can change the flow of the lives of mortals, not a single person could tell what's planned for them."
"I see." The old lady nodded, understanding filling the light in her eyes. "You speak wisely for someone very young. You must have gone through a lot."
She did, but she was not young anymore.
"Can you tell me where I could take a detour around the city?"
"Of course," she said. "Hop in, these two travelling warriors were hitching a ride with me. I was about to visit my grandson within the city, but since this happened, going back home is all I can do. It's up in the mountains at the east."
Asya planned to sneak into the city by night, and cross the city in a flash without being detected, but she could smell magic distributed around the city. Hired magicians, in fact. Their smell was pungent, impure and filled with malice.
They were trouble.
And she did not want extra trouble.
Also, using old magic would notify the three gods where she was. So, she had to keep from using it until she reaches the border.
Looking at the amiable old lady, Asya took the offer. She climbed at the back of the wagon, nodding her head in silence greeting to the cloaked men, who both sat idly on one side. None of them returned her gesture. But she could feel their stare underneath their hoods.
She shrugged it off, taking a spot across them and watching her surroundings move as the wagon rolled over the rough road.
An hour later, she regretted her decision.
She did not mind the rough and dusty road, the tall trees, and the wild animals that hid behind the bushes. However, when the terrain changed, so did their path. A winding path at the edge of the mountain with a steep cliff on one side.
And she sat at the side of the wagon that was dangerously close to the cliff. She gulped, heart throbbing too fast for her liking as cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
Holy shit!
Trembling, she pulled her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around them. Then she leaned her forehead on her knees.
'Don't look and don't think about it,' she thought, chanting those words again and again in her mind.
"Are you all right?" a voice asked across her.
Startled, she looked up and met the gaze of the man who knelt close to her. Lately realizing she'd knocked her hood back, revealing her reptile-like pupils. Taken aback, the man jumped away from her and reached for his sword beneath his cloak.
Aysa hissed, eyes turning bloody and black horns growing out from her forehead.
"Demon!" the man shouted.
Asya would have laughed out loud if it weren't for her petrified body. The man had the gall to call her a demon. These humans must have never seen a warrior dragon. Well, dragons rarely visited humans anyway. When she thought bout it, dragons in their wargon form did resemble demons.
"How dare you appea…!"
He stopped. His companion, the one taller than him, had grabbed his forearm from pulling his sword completely out.
"At ease," he said in a low and commanding voice. A man of importance. A warrior leader and very human.
"I apologize for Sven's actions, my lady," he said, his hood facing her direction. "It seems like we're heading to the same direction, and as a fellow traveller, I would like us all to be calm until we part ways in peace."
Asya narrowed her eyes at the man called Sven, then back at Sven's boss or something. She forced her head to nod. It was getting harder and harder to move her muscles because all she could think about was the ravine behind her.
"Good, I hope we can all get along," he said. "Now, put that sword away."
Sven bitterly nodded before slipping his sword back.
Relieved, Asya sighed subtly. Good thing the other human was rational, and very calm, unlike the coward-looking Sven.
She was about to lean her forehead back to her knees when the wagon violently veered off its path, causing her to grab hold of the wooden planks. Then the next thing she knew, she was thrown out of the wagon into empty air.
Fuck her luck.
She was falling backwards down the cliff.