Sadie stared at the chains connected to the manacles on her wrists as they swayed behind the giant Ogre holding the other end. Her head was bowed with her pitch-black hair hiding her tear-streaked face, her pink eyes held a 1000-yard stare as her mind played the happenings of the past few days. She was the youngest child of 20 that the Demon Emperor had. Even with 19 other siblings she had been spoiled by her father who doted on her more than any of his other children, because of this she got away with a lot her other siblings never got away with.
When she had heard that the Ogres had been more active recently she had wanted to go out and get some real-life fighting experience. Even though she had been spoiled the one thing Sadie had always been serious about was her training. At just 19 years old she had already reached the peak of the first evolution and was so close to breaking through the second evolution. Her skill with a bow was nearly unmatched and she could use a sword as if it was an extension of her arm.
With all the praise that had been heaped upon her she had thought she was ready to go out and fight the Ogres. Her father had disagreed and had told her in no uncertain terms that she was not allowed to leave their Empires boarders to go into the Ogres territory. Of course, being as stubborn as she was she snuck out of the Palace and made the journey across their Empire till she reached the boarders with the Ogres, she had taken a round about route and had enjoyed seeing the fruits of her family's labor that showed in their Empire.
Reaching the boarder at a small town she had found out that the collective had dropped off nobles on their planet. All the ones that had been in their kingdom had been found and sent to the emperor in the past week. Apparently the majority of them were demons of some kind but there were some elves, dwarves, gnomes, beastkin, and even humans. Sadie had always wanted to see a human, she had heard stories from her father, mother, and siblings about them but she herself had never seen one. She knew they were on the complete opposite side of the Ogres territory from the Demon Empire.
She had joined an adventuring group that was going to do bounties on Ogres that had been crossing the boarder into the Demon territory in sparsely populated areas. Their job would be to patrol the area for 28 days then return. They would be paid a flat rate for the patrol then their bonus would be paid out per ogre they killed. They were asked to provide scalps of the Ogres as proof to collect on the bonus.
Everything had been going great for the first 3 weeks, she alone had killed about 15 Ogres, unfortunately their group of 20 didn't think to realize why they had come across so many Ogres that each of them had scalps numbering in the 10s and some even in the 20s.
The Ogres had attacked them while most of the camp slept, they had somehow snuck up on the sentries that had been posted and knocked them unconscious. After that the Ogres had snuck into the tents of those still sleeping and had them cuffed in essence nullifying handcuffs before anyone had even woken up. That had just been the start of the nightmare that was the past week for Sadie. The Ogres to celebrate their victory had tied up the men like pinatas from a tree and while the men were forced to watch the Ogres began doing horrible things to the women.
Sadie remembered being dragged and watching with the other women as they one at a time were dragged away and used for the Ogres pleasure. Just as she was being dragged over the Shaman had called out, he was an older Ogre and had recognized her as one of the Princesses of the Empire. She had been spared as the Shaman had decided to save her to give her to his War Chief upon returning to their clan village.
Since that night they had been on the move for another 7 days, this day was the 8th day after being captured. Sadie was broken and just wanted so desperately to go home, every night she would have to listen as the Ogres did unspeakable things to the other captives knowing that whenever they reached their destination that was her fate also.
Now as she walked with tears streaming down her face all she could think of was all the fun times she had while at the palace and how much she missed her family. She wished she had listened to her father when he said she shouldn't go out hunting Ogres.
As she cried quietly to herself as she was led in chains she heard a dull thud, then another, and another. The Ogre holding the connecting chain roared in pain and when she looked up she saw 3 arrows stuck out of his head. As he roared another arrow hit its mark in his eye and pierced directly into his brain, the Ogres body dropped to the ground as if the strings holding it up were just suddenly.
Sadie looked around her and in the chaos unfolding around her she saw as a bunch of beings with all shades of skin rode horses on either side of the prisoner column she was in. The horse archers would never let any of the Ogres get near them and any who approached would become pin cushions.
Looking around to see where the Shaman had gone so she could shout a warning to the riders she found his body riddled with so many arrows she could barely recognize him. With that discovery she realized these horse archers definitely had killed Ogres before and had definitely encountered an Ogre Shaman before.
The massacre ended within ten minutes of when it started, with the Shaman killed immediately and no one to lead them the dumb brutes had just kept chasing the horses until they fell from too many arrows. Saide had gotten the key to her cuffs and had unlocked them and rummaged through the Shamans storage artifact to get her equipment.
Killing a couple Ogres herself she had made it to the rest of the prisoners by the time the last of the Ogres were being killed. There she freed the captive adventurers and had them move away from the caravan the fight was taking place by. The Ogres territory was mainly savanna grasslands, but there were a few trees here and there. It was one of those few trees that she had all the prisoners congregate under.
Sadie watched as the riders carefully approached the remnants of the caravan, cautious that there were no Ogres still alive within its ruins. She saw as one rider in particular was giving out orders and how a few of the riders dismounted and began gathering items they could loot; a majority of the riders created a huge moving perimeter around the caravan and the former prisoners.
The woman who had been giving out orders, finally finished and began riding over towards Sadie. Following the woman was a man in all black with what looked like katanas strapped to his saddle and a bow in one hand. On the other side of the lady was another woman who was tall with chocolate brown skin and braided hair, she wore all leathers and wielded a bow at the ready in her hand also.
Reaching about 50 feet from Sadie the lady stopped her horse and, to the consternation of her followers, dismounted alone and began approaching Sadie with her hands in the air. The lady had brown hair and blue eyes, she was a little taller that Sadie's 5'4" and had an extremely athletic build. As the woman got closer Sadie heard her speak for the first time.
"Hello, my name is Angela, I am the captain of this outfit of raiders into the Ogre lands. We are not going to hurt you; in fact, the majority of the girls that ride with me have all been in the same situation. If you would like to join us you are welcome too."
Looking at the woman Sadie replied. "Could you bring us back home? I am sure our country would reward you handsomely for our return."
Seeing the woman shaking her head Sadie's hopes were crushed. "Unfortunately, I cannot spare any of my girls to take you home, we are headed to the crater mountains to set up a permanent camp so we can begin to hunt the Ogres from there as we received news that they do not enter those mountains. "
Sadie looked behind her and saw the state of the other adventures she had been captured with. None of them seemed ready to make any type of trip back to the demon empire. Deciding to take Angela offer Sadie replied.
"My name is Sadie, me and my group come from the demon empire, we were captured about a week ago. We would be in your debt if you could care for us until my companions are ready to make the trip home."
Smiling, Angela reached out her hand. "It's nice to meet you Sadie, though I wish it was in better circumstances. We should get everyone ready to move out. We have extra horses you all can use."