**
The sky was blue, clear, the sun was high, everything was good.
Neila was laying on the grass, enjoying the start of summer, the sound of birds singing in the morning.
She always loved birds, so free, so beautiful.
She wanted to be like them, and now she was.
But she still had something to do, somewhere to be.
She spent the first weeks of her newly granted freedom struggling to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep, but she quickly got used to it.
She quickly understood that people like to feel better, and one of the ways is to help a little girl that's hungry in the streets and getting beaten by some thugs.
They would give money to the thugs so they would leave her alone, and then give her a good meal.
Of course this only worked in the middle classed streets, too low and people don't have anything for you, too high and they see you like no more than a cockroach, a parasite dirtying their floor.
But this was only temporary, the others started getting greedy, they wanted more.
So she left, they tried to force her of course.
And they failed, no one would chain her ever again.
She wanted to find her family again, and started looking for them.
Then one day she realised, there's probably others that were like her.
So she decided she would find as much of them as she could, before finding her family.
**
Neila and Mia waited until they were sure the fights were finished, then they rushed.
They first arrived at where Scaf was.
The scene was bloody, everything around them was red.
Scaf included.
Neila rushed to him, checking if he was still breathing.
He was.
It was shallow, slow, but it was there.
"We have to do something,'' she said turning toward Mia.
But she wasn't there.
Neila tried to find from where he was bleeding, but there was so much blood she couldn't see which one was his and which one wasn't.
Then Scaf raised his finger, slowly, showing her the main places he was bleeding from.
She got a piece of cloth out of her pouch, and started cutting it into small bandages and put them in the places where the bleeding was the largest.
"We gotta get you out of here, now," she tried to grab him from the shoulder to lift him but he didn't budge.
He was too heavy so she could lift him alone, and too tired to even move a single muscle.
He opened his mouth, trying to talk, but she stopped him, "Don't waste your energy on that, I'll find a way"
"Ro...sa…", the word finally escaping his mouth, and Neila opened her eyes in realisation.
At the same time, she heard noises from behind them, when she turned it was Mike, with a few men, probably Mia's.
They started getting closer, and two went toward Scaf, but Neila already had her dagger out.
She wouldn't let them touch him.
Mike stepped forward, walking toward her.
Calmly, as if walking toward an old friend, until he reached her.
She attacked him, but stopped her blade just a few inches away from his uncovered throat.
He didn't shiver.
She lowered her blade, and ran toward Rosa.
The two men stepped forward and lifted Scaf.
When Neila arrived, Mia was just at the limit of the forest.
She was shaking.
And Neila understood why.
The air was heavy, suffocating, filled with anger, hatred and blood lust.
Neila felt as if she did one more step, she would be cut right on the spot.
And yet she did take that step, and another one after, and another, until she reached Rosa's back.
She then put her hand on her shoulder and said, "It's over now Rosa, let's go home"
Rosa started to slowly let go of her blade, then looked toward Neila, giving her a tired smile.
"Watch out !", said Mia from the back,and as soon as she did, a black figure appeared in front of them, bloody, tired.
And when it got closer, the figures' eyes were blazing.
Looked like a devil, a devil with a blade in its sheath.
It walked toward them, slowly, then it looked at the body at their feet.
He put his left hand under the body's neck, and it's right arm under his knee and lifted him.
Slowly, with a lot more effort than it normally would, and he left just like he appeared.
Walking, slowly, toward the forest.
"What the hell just happened ?", said Mia once the figure disappeared, "Why did you let him go ?"
"They have the right to bury their dead, and you'll have to bury me too if I don't quickly get to rest".
***A few days later***
"Honey, please stop moving, I have to change your bandages"
"I told you I'm fine, it's not a few cuts that r gonna get rid of me"
"You heart literally stopped three times while they were getting you here"
"...Fine", he said grumpily.
"Where's Neila anyway"
"Well, you know, it's that period of the year"
"Oh, I forgot we spent so much time on one mission"
"I see you are doing better my dear", said The Man while entering the room.
As usual, they didn't hear him coming.
Neila was going back to Scaf and Rosa, the sun had already settled a long time ago, but it wasn't that late.
She brought them garlic, because Mia told her it was a nice thing to give sick people.
But, of course, it wouldn't be that easy.
Four men blocked her way, one was in front and the three others were a few paces away.
She was already thinking about how much time it would take her before getting to them.
She concluded they wouldn't even have time to draw their weapons.
But before she even moved, two arms appeared behind the man.
The right arm got around his neck, and the left arm was pushing on his shoulder, and in an instant, the right hand grabbed the left wrist, and he got locked in a choke.
Before he realised it he had already passed out, and started falling, and a figure appeared behind him.
The man had a blue leather suit, with different harnesses going from his shoulders to his waist, or around it.
His face was covered by a hood and a mask, showing only purple eyes.
As the man started falling on his knees, he grabbed him by the hair and then turned around to his confused compagnions , "Now you fuck off lads".
They didn't think twice, they ran as if death was chasing them.
The man then turned toward Neila, still grabbing the unconscious criminal by the hair.
He then took off his hood and mask, revealing a face full of scars, the most impressive one being the one on his right eye, going from above it all the way to his cheek.
His long dark coal hair, framing a squared jaw, were tied in a bun.
"Hey Neila, long time no see", he said in a gentle tone.
"Gregory ?"
Gregory smiled, a sweet, warm smile.
"So you do remember"
They went to a tavern just in front of where they met.
Gregory decided to leave the man's body in front.
"So this explains your sudden vanishing", he said as he sat back at the table, a beer in his right hand and an orange juice on his left.
She had told him all about their new job, and how things didn't go as planned.
"And you, what are doing ?"
"Oh me ? I travelled around the world a bit, but I realised i was only good at one thing, so I became a mercenary"
"So, why didn't you kill that man earlier ? and how did you know where I was ?", she said, sipping her orange juice, and making a weird face.
"I told you, I'm a mercenary, I don't kill if not necessary, it's about efficiency more than about anything else really, and of course, it implies finding people that don't wanna be found, you know you really made a wreck, you're very famous in the underground world"
"Always have been", she said with an awkward wink.
They kept talking, Gregory telling her about the world, the places he went to, and she was listening, attentively, holding her cup of orange juice with both hands.
"It reminds me, that thing you did with the three guys and how you appeared, was that magic ?"
"Magic ? absolutely not", he said in a small laugh," it's just a trick I learned, it's very useful"
"Oh and why did you lock him like that ? you don't have a weapon to simply knock him out with it ?"
"Of course I have weapons, what kind of half assed warrior don't use weapons, it's just better to use my body as a weapon, at least am sure it's not gonna fail me, and am not gonna hit the wimp too hard"
And the night kept going, and they kept talking, but the more the time went, the dizzier Neila felt, even if she drank nothing but an orange juice.
And Gregory noticed that.
He started saying something, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.
"I don't feel so good," she managed to say, trying to get up, but she stumbled around and almost fell.
Someone grabbed her by the arm, the world around her was moving.
"That's what i'm saying, you're in trouble", was the last thing she heard, before passing out.