"The army has stormed the auction house!" Cried one man.
"Hurry up and move the goods!" cried another.
For the past few minutes, there had been some commotion in the underground corridors of the auction house.
And even Pavas could see that the situation had really become critical.
"Burn the order books!" Ordered a voice.
"Work on stalling them!" Shouted another.
The voices were so distorted by the shouting that Pavas couldn't even discern the men from the women.
Until now, she had been kept locked in the cage she was in, waiting for the terrible fate that would soon be hers. But since the adults had started running around and screaming, she knew that they might come for her, to take her with them.
And if they managed to take her with them, she would surely disappear forever. Without ever seeing Ewan again, with his warm smile. Nor his horse, with its rough and soft coat. Nor... that scary thing.
No, even if that thing scared her, she still preferred to have to face it, rather than be sold to people she didn't know, and be used as a guinea pig or slave.
She may not have been as old as Ewan, but she already knew what those words meant.
She knew the gravity of those words, and the misery and suffering that accompanied them.
Therefore, it was with anxiety and despair that she watched from her little prison as silhouettes came and went in front of the open door of the room, blurred by their rapid and chaotic movements.
She really hoped that no adult would come looking for her. She didn't want to go with them.
So she clutched the shell in her pocket tightly, praying that someone would come and save her. That Ewan would come and save her. She even closed her eyes for a moment, and opened them again, hoping that this would make the young man reappear in front of her.
But... Nothing at all.
There was no one there. No young hunter, no military officer, no big horse with thick legs. Not even a silver dragon. Although the latter surely couldn't have fit into such a small room.
And still the same commotion outside the room. She could even hear the sound of swords clashing, a sign that fierce fighting was approaching her position.
Maybe someone would come to save her after all.
Yes, someone would come to save her.
And as if in answer to her prayers, a figure stopped in the doorway. A man whose face she could not see, lit from behind by the lamps in the corridor.
At last!
She was relieved, and would finally be able to get out of this cage.
And the first thing she would do on her way out, would be to go find Ewan. She would talk as much as he wanted, as long as he let her stay with him.
She would have done so much better to talk, instead of hiding in silence as she had done. Then he wouldn't have handed her over to those bad adults!
With apprehension, she saw the figure enter the room and approach...
And saw with horror that it was one of her jailers.
With an evil look on his face, the guy reached into one of his pants pockets and pulled out a set of keys.
He was going to take her out, but to take her with him.
'No!' She thought, panicked.
The man approached the cage to open it, and she took the opportunity to kick him through the bars.
But with her childlike strength, she only grazed the muscular arm, and found herself lying on the floor, held by her foot.
"What do you think you're doing?" Smiled the bearded man mischievously. "You're going to come with us, since you're such a prime commodity!"
She tried to struggle to free her foot, but the man's big hand held her tightly. And as she struggled, the door of the small cage had been opened, and she had been dragged onto the stone floor of the room.
The man was now holding a canvas bag over her head, probably to put her in it.
But if she was to disappear today, she would not do so quietly.
With a lightning reflex, that only a life or death situation could have triggered, she quickly jumped forward towards the man, and violently bit the hand that held the bag.
The bag fell silently to the ground, and releasing her grip on the man's thick hand, Pavas shouted.
"EWAN!"
The man, meanwhile, screamed in pain at the same time; and in his rage, hurled the little girl against another already empty cage.
"You'll pay for this, you bitch!" He shouted. "I was told to bring you alive, but I guess a few less teeth won't show!"
With these threatening words, he pulled out a knife, and walked dangerously close to the little girl left on the ground. He had clearly announced his intentions, presumably to terrify her even more. And it worked.
She was trapped, and couldn't back up any further, her back digging into the cold bars of the metal cage right behind her. And she was scared to death. Maybe even as scared as the night her parents had died.
No, on second thought, it wasn't as terrifying as that night. What had happened that night, she couldn't change. Simply because the events were far too terrible and had gone beyond the stage of a solvable problem. It was something that humans could not fight.
But against another human? No. She wasn't afraid. Well, she was. But much less than the night her parents died. And much less than when she had almost died with the young hunter. She was not afraid.
But already, the menacing man was reaching out toward her, ready to grab her as soon as she relaxed her attention.
In fact, she was afraid. Really scared. It didn't matter if she was more or less afraid than the other times. Because fear always had the same terrifying intensity, when you experienced it.
You could play it safe and say you weren't afraid, yes. But that was lying to yourself.
On the other hand, even though being afraid might seem shameful, it should never stop anyone from asking for help.
So she began to hope. Hope that someone had heard her scream a few minutes earlier.
'Someone come and help me...' she thought with all her heart. 'Anyone...'
Yes, anyone would do, as long as she could get out of this situation.
And just as the arm was about to reach her, a blade came out of the darkness and split the air, causing blood to erupt right before her eyes.