Sharp, amber grass littered the ground, stretching over hills and tucking out of sight. Narrow pathways, cut by wheels and hooves from drawn carts, traced along like snakes. Devastated by bi-yearly flames, few plants decided to take root here, most of it consisting of the waist-high grasses that could prick through the skin like tiny needles. Even fewer than plants was the creatures that called this place home, the only real danger came from bandits.
The Amberset Hills were plains that stretched across Genkai, the lack of beasts, and its length across the land's belt making it a necessary journey for any trader. It was much preferred to deal with people with a few knives than a monster, and their existence even created jobs for vagabonds to protect those of wealth.
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The soft-touch of flames licked across her face, within her skull. A gentle touch, which could scrape away the skin with a burning ease. A memory that easily awoke her, preventing her from delving too deep into real sleep. The lull of wheels driving over gravel, the static felt through even the cushions, had an effect on her awareness. It had been around an hour since they were picked up by the merchant's caravan, and both Izivel and Devyn were generously placed in a cramped cart along with most of the merchandise, with barely any room to move beyond the moderately-high quality chairs that had been placed inside. Unattached to the cart itself, it was the luck of magic engineering that allowed the ride to be smooth enough to prevent them from sliding around the interior. It wasn't for the sake of their comfort, more so the quality of goods.
As little of the space was available to them, it was near impossible to avoid sitting closely, and Devyn found it even more so impossible to avoid the pervasive smell of rotting meat that seemed to hover around his 'ally'. At least the cart was refrigerated enough to prevent it from getting worse.
Biting his tongue to prevent himself from making a comment about the smell, Devyn instead chose to watch the dusty road stretch and tuck behind hills behind the cart, the cloth curtains at the end allowing just enough of a view for just that.
"So, Devyn."
Cutting through the anxious atmosphere, Izivel spoke up.
"What can you tell me about the bandits in this area?"
"Hmm? They're bandits. Poor idiots who think it's easier to cut some fat off of the rich assholes who pass through. I doubt they're different from any other bandits, yeah?"
He spat.
"Hm. So that's their only motivation?"
"Yeah, obviously. What, you think they're in the right for stealing? Sure, most of the merchants are assholes, but that doesn't mean their work should be taken advantage of. The guy we're watching over has kids, right?"
Devyn turned his eyes from the yawning road, and towards Izivel. The visible half of her face showed nothing more than a smile. No emotion. Had she even blinked since they met...?
"... Hey, Iz. What are y-"
Before he could finish his question, an explosion rocked the cart, the impact spinning it over multiple times. As full as the cart was with items, it wasn't shocking that the both of them got battered to hell and back.
"W-what... the hell?!"
Devyn gasped, half-blinded from a trail of blood originating from a cut on his forehead. Trying to stand up, he found that his ankle couldn't support his weight. Izivel was nowhere to be seen, but what caught his eye was the fact that in the middle of the road, one of the horses that had drawn the cart was imbedded by what appeared to be... a tree?
"Man, looks like most of the shit was destroyed. Fuckin' shame, could have been eating well. Oi, Kaliev, I told you to try and hit something besides the horses, broke the whole shit."
Spoke an unfamiliar woman's voice, the crunching of grass signaling approaching footsteps.
"... I told you, that's not how it works. I can't time it, so I set it to trigger when it sensed movement."
Replied a tone like honeyed gold.
"Oh? It looks like someone's still here. Do you think the old guy was running a slave trade? Hm, actually, they're too well dressed for that, plus they're human."
Turning his head to find the source of the voices, Devyn found that the one speaking didn't match their voice, black veins running across their body, and yellow snake eyes set within narrowed lids. Long green hair framed olive skin, a smile with fangs folded back inside the mouth, small green flecks that seemed to be scales littered across the bridge of the nose. A Yuan-Ti.
Behind him was a gruff and muscular girl, with dark skin that faded into orange and black stripes on the forearms and shins, a single rounded ear placed on the right of rusted hair, glinting blue eyes centered in a scarred face.
It was easy to tell that the bandits were inhuman, and judging from their talk about slaves, Devyn could assume that they have escaped ones themselves, and like many in the same situation, could only live hunting carts until they became enough of a problem to get the national knights sent after them.
"... Hah. You damn monsters... fucking costing me the job."
He murmured, propping himself up using one of the intact parts of the cart. He, unfortunately, wasn't a saint, he couldn't feel pity for the dire situations that creatures he didn't care about went through. He pampered enough to see them as nonequals, and that wouldn't change considering they almost killed him.
"My my, Devyn. You shouldn't be rude to our employers."
Izivel's soft voice spoke from beside him, scaring him enough to put weight on his broken ankle and collapse again.
"Employers...? What do you..."
Stepping between Devyn and the two Inhumans, she turned towards him with a widening smile.
"Well, it's simple really. We were given a better offer."