She was just another powerless and poor soul that had fallen into the depths unable to escape and the only times when she may have gotten a little freedom was when other women were captured just like herself.
There were even occasions where she as a damsel in distress was used in strategies to lure people into traps or cause a distraction allowing the men opportunities to attack, loot, capture and kill.
This let her know even more that she was unable to escape this life so she stopped putting her hopes in being saved.
She wished for freedom, death and for the men to have a painful death for all that they had done but they had continued to thrive and live on because that was the current state of the world.
While everyone is focused on themselves and hiding within their walls, holding onto their own power and ignoring everything else; the crimes committed by bandits and criminals outside would only continue to remain unpunished.
Only high ranking families would be able to move if their own family and interests had been touched by those outside and many others would ignore the small losses they had suffered so that they could continue to hold onto their lives and wealth.
There were some places within the world where justice had been served but these mountains were not one of them.
The days continued to pass and the young lady lay inside the tent with a thin blanket around her body with a pair of dead eyes.
She heard the sound of footsteps and sat up to look at who was near but only saw the shadow of a person.
She peaked her head out of the tent and saw a strange sight.
A cloaked figure walked near her silently and took out knife then placed it in her hand.
Her eyes began to show a look of peace as she acted to kill herself with the knife but suddenly a hand grabbed her arm stopping her. "Fool. Not for you, for them."
The cloaked figure pointed towards the approaching men who were coming as they noticed the intruder.
"Heeey! Good job! You caught us another one."
"Hehe I will reward you tonight."
"Hey you, put down that knife and hand over your belongings quickly."
"Maybe we may consider letting you go if you are obedient."
"If you struggle, you will only make things worse for yourself."
However a ghastly looking hand came out from the cloak which surprised them.
"Urgh!"
"Disgusting!"
"Ugly."
"Must be diseased or something."
As if reaching a group decision they moved with several weapons in hand aiming to kill the cloaked figure but as they got closer, the figure silently appeared before them without a noise and knocked them out. "Begin. Remove the hearts, I will show you."
They wordlessly dragged the young girl before them and began to make several cuts on the first man's body, breaking their ribs and gaining access to the heart. "You do it."
The lady was frightened but upon seeing the scene in front of her but she had also somewhat become numb to her environment and used to following orders so she had to comply with the stranger's orders.
The cloaked figure began to start making carvings on the ground nearby that was very detailed while occasionally adding blood to the markings and then placed the heart at the centre of what looked like a formation or ritual of some kind.
Time passed as the hearts were removed and piled up together one after another then the cloaked figure began to teach her some chants and what to do next.
She began to follow each part one by one as she made a cut on her hand and let the blood drip onto the carved blood formation while speaking or chanting in a strange foreign language.
Smoke began to come from the formation and a weird looking shadowy figure swallowed the hearts but as it was disappearing, some strange death like energy escaped its body and flew into the lady's body making her feel as if she had unlocked something strange within her and she had gained a little strength in her body.
The strange thing was that for some reason she could not hear the sound of her own heartbeat and her own breathing as if most of her own bodily functions had been silenced.