Cataleya stopped her horse to look again on her map. On her estimation, it had been hours or so since she entered a detour in the forest. Instead of reaching another small town to sleep for the night, she was only met with dead ends to dead ends.
Her brows furrowed when she seemed to lost the small track that she took a while ago. She bowed down on her map with a furrowed brows and dug out her compass put them on the map. She got down the horse, get some apple from her bag and fed it.
She tapped the beasts neck and proceeded to walk the uphill just a little ahead of her. She then squint her eyes in the distance, in hope to see any semblance of humans or small establishment of the town. But there wasn't any.
She was certain that she took the right way of the detour basin on the wooden signage that she saw at the entrance to that place. Sighing when the sun was almost setting, Cataleya planned on turning around and go back into the main road. Maybe if she had taken the easy road, she would have been away from there for long.
She rode on her horse and maneuvered it back to the her previous course. She wasn't even away for long when she heard voices of men and the gallop of horses on her direction.
"We caught one!" one man exclaimed with a grin on his face, he turned to the other four men as they stopped in front of her.
"You gotta be kidding me," Cataleya groaned under her breath but readied her sword that she never thought she will be using in her trip.
"What do you want?" she asked in brusque tone of voice, in hope to scare these filthy looking bandits in front of her.
"A feisty one. She might be beautiful too. We can sell her out too." The other man said.
Cataleya didn't like how it sounded to her ears. She tightened her hold on her sword and rein to her horse. She shouldn't even be thinking of fighting the five men in a battle which she would surely loose. She can give a decent fight since her body was trained to do so. But it won't be that useful against the men who make a living on fighting their victims.
"Let me go and none of you shall be hurt." Nice one Cataleya, keep going. She thought to herself. But then the men only laughed at her.
"You entered our territory. You need to submit to us. Give us that bag and maybe hand over yourself to us too." The man in a turban said while his fellow bandits snickered at him.
Cataleya had no time to waste listening to them as she immediately dashed forward to their direction, making them startled . One was blocking her path and she had no choice but to swing her sword against his face.
The man exclaimed in ugly and horrible scream but then she galloped past by them instead.
"Don't let her get away!"
"After her!"
Cataleya's heart clenched in panic but then she had to concentrate on riding efficiently on the horse and used its speed on her advantage. No one match such a horse that she was riding and it was evident that the beasts that the bandits were riding were malnourished compared to her own.
She dared to peek behind her and saw that no one was keeping up with her. She tapped her beast's neck. "Good job, girl. Let's get out from here. I'm sorry for bringing you."
The horse just blow air from her nose.
The problem that Cataleya was facing now was to exit from there. She was lost and it took her long enough to admit that. She was never a clumsy explorer. But the forest seemed to have something in it that made her mind muddled.
She shook away her head and she noticed that her horse was doing the same as her. then she looked around and realized that the smoke around wasn't a natural presence of the fog. Her eyes widened when she was actually heading to the edge of the cliff. Good thing that she pulled the leather rein on time or she'd be stumbling down to her death in such deep ravine.
She harshly turned behind her when she heard those men again. She looked at them in confusion on how they easily tracked her down.
"Looks like the smoke is getting on her head." The man said.
Cataleya knew that she was doomed in that very moment, most especially after she her vision swirled into a confusing hallucination. The smoke might had done tricks on her mind, making her think that she was escaping away from them.
But she wasn't a villainess for no reason. She had to get away from there as much as she can. So, in such difficult situation, instead of shivering in fear, she decided to wield her sword instead. The one that had a Briston insignia at the bottom of the handle.
Pointing the blade at the men's direction. "Let me pass and none of you shall taste the wrath of this blade." She said and it seemed to amuse the men instead.
"We got no time for your little play, miss. The sun is gone in the sky. Seize her."
Cataleya's horse snorted and neighed as if it recognised that its master was in danger. She had to immediately hold on tight with it while her legs locked on the saddle when it stood up, kicked its front feet in attempt to shoo the danger away from them.
As the horse were on fours, it didn't wait for any second as it galloped away from there. Cataleya was in danger of breaking her neck on how wild the horse was running away but she couldn't complain when the men were after her again just behind.
"Shot the horse!"
Cataleya's heart quickened upon hearing that. So she had to tap the horse my its neck. "Faster, girl! Faster!"