Ravenna stood up abruptly, her eyes snapping open and locking onto the two strange men. They froze at her sudden behavior, contemplating wether to continue towards her or run for their lives.
To their shock, she charged at them like someone possessed, catching them off guard. The two men exchanged a look before bolting in the opposite direction. The crazed look on her face sending chills down their spine, nobody wanted to deal with a crazy woman it was absolute bad luck according to their beliefs. They wanted to live, survive and escape slavery not contract bad luck from a deranged person.
Both men dashed towards the group of men amongst the crowd ,but what they didn't expect was for the men to all flock away avoiding getting involved. Fear gripped them as they sought refuge or a place to hide.
A glimmer of hope returned when they spotted a group of hulking bullies. Without considering the consequences, they sprinted towards them as if their lives depended on it.
" Maa' save me " one of them mumbled a prayer to the guardian of their empire. It was the only thing he could do at the moment.
Just before they could reach the bullies, Ravenna suddenly halted , freezing in place with her eyes cast downward, as if possessed.
Both men too stopped running, confused and scared. They turned back to carefully watch her next move, at the same time maintaining a long distance out of fear. Everyone froze too wondering what she might do next.
There were many deranged slaves amongst them but they had never seen one as aggressive as this young girl at the center unmoving like a tree.
Everyone flinched as she dropped to the ground dramatically and began twitching, pretending to have a seizure. Gasps and murmured shocks erupted from the crowd, as everyone backed further away.
One of the bullies who believed she was just pretending walked forward.
" You fool ! Everyone she's faking it. Get up stupid, nobody's buying it. "
" No don't do that the guards would be back to take her away " someone within the crowd interrupted, but he was too invested in exposing Ravenna.
He moved to grab her hair harshly, the hair that she had tightly packed with so much effort to hide away the gray patch of hair so as not to draw attention.
With ease Ravenna latched onto him like a monkey and bit his ear really hard, making sure to draw blood. A loud scream filled the wasteland causing fear to grip everyone.
The bully though in pain tried shaking her off , but she was tightly glued like a koala bear.
The girl with short red hair suddenly screamed, " Don't touch her ! you'll get bad luck !" she rushed forward as if she cared for him.
" What do you expect me to do in this situation? Get her off of me ! " He screamed frustrated and in pain.
The red haired girl pushed him and he lost balance causing he and Ravenna to fall to the ground.
Finally releasing her grip, and fading out again Ravenna cursed in her mind.
Everything would have gone smoothly if this idiot hadn't butted in behaving like he knew it all. Now she had been forced to go an extra mile else things could have gotten out of hand if people actually believed she was pretending.
With blood staining her lips and an ear between her teeth, she showed no hint of disgust —only pure madness. Let them believe she was truly insane.
The big bully immediately rolled away as soon as she released her grip
" You deranged wench ! " He cursed, bitterly angered yet backing away. Everyone cleared the road avoiding as they all believed he now had bad luck.
" Your ear ! " The red haired gasped and he shot her a glare.
" Shut it ! " he barked, hissing in pain.
' Serves him right '
Ravenna gloated in her mind, satisfied by the outcome. This way people would avoid her which was extremely comfortable for her.
She opened her eyes now, as though she had recovered from whatever it was she had just displayed, then she calmly walked towards where she had been sitting before. The gaze of someone followed her till she was sitted and when she turned to look she saw that it was none other than the red haired girl.
There was a smirk on her face and a glint in her eye as though she knew what Ravenna was thinking. She looked away not bothered but on guard and the reason however was unexpected.
Apart from the guards up in the tower, she could feel several eyes on her. She could swear it wasn't from the crowd, it came from all direction yet from no direction.
It was pretty hard for her to pinpoint but she knew her gut feeling was never wrong.
She returned her gaze to the tower before glancing away.
' They wanted a show right, now they got one ' she sneered, wiping off the sweats.
She just couldn't wait to escape this wretched wasteland, She needed to know what Maurice had to tell her.
****
Back at the tower, the guards all stood intensely watching the deranged woman displayed and entertain them, it was something they never expected. She was very different from all the other prey. They had never seen a prey become the predator, it was hilarious how everyone reacted. They could all tell she was pretending, because mages could see and sense illness in people and that girl was perfectly healthy. If they weren't level three mages they all would have believed her act.
" How entertaining " A chilling voice spoke from behind them and they all froze, yet thinking it was one of their fellow guards that was immitating their commander, they lightened up before turning around.
" Ran, don't play tricks like that " one of them scolded and they all turned to see if it was actually Ran. Whipping their heads around in shock.
Everyone froze, sweat drenching them immediately and chills running down their spine.
In front of them stood Malcolm, the crown prince's right hand man, his black souless eyes grilling the courage out of the guards....
" So this is how you spend your free time " .....