In the dead of night, close to the bottom of the small lake behind Lili's house, Lili had been diving for a good minute or so. A record in her diving record that was made possible only by the fear and adrenaline caused by the 4 men pursuing her.
Small bubbles of air started to come out of her nose and she could feel her vision fading slightly. Unable to stay underwater any longer she was forced to surface near the tall grasses that grew all over the lake's shoreline.
Quietly popping her head out of the water Lili took in the sights and sounds around her. The lakeside was quiet, some ways away behind her was her house with smoke coming out of the chimney, and to her left were the tall grasses that stood unmoving in the light breeze of the night wind.
Looking to her right she could only see the outlines of the other side of the lake and forest that stood there. In front of her, the lake continued for a couple hundred meters.
All seemed oddly quiet and calm until she heard whispers on her right and the sounds of bushes rustling. Listening closely she could also hear the unnatural rustling of bushes to her left followed by the sound of a branch snapping.
Alarmed by this Lili only kept the upper part of her head visible she only took calm long breaths out of her nose so as not to make too much noise and then slowly moved inside the tall grasses.
Her heart beat like crazy as she waited there for the sounds to pass further away. While holding onto the tall grasses she waited there until her mind felt more at ease giving her the feeling that the threat had passed further away.
Pushing through the tall grasses she tried to avoid causing the grass to rattle but despite her best efforts small sounds were still released causing her to stop and listen once more.
But nothing could be heard in her surroundings. The night somehow sounded even more deathly quiet than before almost as if the men had never even been there to begin with.
With the muddy lake floor under her feet, she moved forward and once she got to the shoreline she poked her head out of the tall grasses and looked around.
Seeing no movement she crawled out of the grass, pushed herself to her feet and ran towards the tree dark trees in the distance. If only she could just make it inside the forest then for sure she would be safe.
Without torches or search dogs she wouldn't be easy to find inside the forest with just 4 men.
Just then as she was but 5 meters from the first tree she felt the stinging pain again in her head warning her of something. No, it was telling her to get down.
Without thinking Lili jumped to the ground just 3 meters away from the tree and heard a swishing noise go over her head followed by the sound of something hitting the tree in front of her.
Looking up to see what had just hit the tree she noticed an arrow there and then she heard a yell far behind her coming from the other side of the lake.
"There she is! Get her!"
Startled by this Lili felt her heart rate rise and breathing get faster as she picked herself up and ran. From her right, she could hear heavy footsteps approaching fast and then the feeling came again. It hadn't been even 5 seconds as she went to dodge once more. But instead, she fell hard to the ground with a stinging pain in her left shoulder.
"AAAAAEEEEEEEEEIIIIEEEIEIEIEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!" she screamed like the little girl in pain that she was. Her left arm wasn't responsive at all as it just hung limply at her side on the ground.
From behind her, she heard the same voice yell this time in an excited tone of voice as she said.
"Hahaha! I got her! I got the little brat! I got her!"
Using her right hand she could feel a smooth wooden stick with a sharp metal end sticking out of her shoulder. Looking at it she then realised that it was an arrow.
She gritted her teeth to fight the pain as she attempted to push herself back up. Her shoulder hurt like hell but this was no time to just sit still, from her right, she could hear one of the men closing in fast.
With pure adrenaline from the desperate situation carrying her onward, she ran and ran with all her might. Going past the first set of threes and running through some bushes, her blood ran cold as she heard a man's voice coming from behind her.
"Where are you? No point in running now! Your short legs can't get you away from me!"
Glancing backward she noticed the outline of a fat hooded man standing there just past the bushes searching for her.
Running behind a thick-looking tree Lili went down to her knees and held her breath. The man was close, too close and his friends sounded like they weren't far behind.
Looking around she noticed that the tree she was sitting against looked easy to climb with its many low-hanging branches, but with an arrow in her shoulder, she obviously couldn't do it.
Putting her head against the tree Lili looked up to the starry sky and gritted her teeth as she prepared herself for what was about to happen. With her right hand, she took hold of the arrow which immediately made her twitch in pain and feel like wanting to scream.
Tears came to her eyes as she held her screams and gripped the arrow with all her might. Her body tensed up and saliva came from in between her gritted teeth as she bent the arrow.
Then with a hard snap, the arrow broke and she let out a pained yelp.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"
With the sharp end of the arrow in her right hand Lili felt relieved but then quickly realized her mistake.
From behind her, she could hear them coming, she wanted to run but then noticed a big fat hooded man already standing to her right. She couldn't see his face in the dark clearly but she knew that it held no kindness towards her.
All her senses told her to run and she did but was immediately pinned face down to the ground.
The man laughed and pressed hard down on her back and ripped the arrowhead from her hand as he said.
"Hahaha! Nice try kid. You really gave us a good run for our money but now it's time to pay up."
Lili struggled and screamed.
"Noooo! Let, me, go!"
But it was no use, she was too weak and then she froze as she felt the man grab a hold of the other end of the arrow still stuck in her as he said.
"Hold still kid. This is gonna sting."
With a quick hard pull, the arrow was ripped out of her back. She screamed in pain.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"
The taste of blood came to her mouth and she could feel blood coming out of her wounds which made her head feel a bit light. Soon the other 3 men came and grabbed a hold of her and carried her away.
Lili continued to struggle desperately in their arms as she also screamed and cursed at them until she was finally brought back to the house and slammed hard against the ground. The impact knocked the air right out of her lungs, leaving her heaving breathlessly on the ground.
Crouching down next to her the tall thin man placed his bloody hand next to her face and said.
"Look at what you did to my hand you little shit. For this, you're gonna pay. And, don't you go calling us cruel, after all, we did give you a choice and you chose wrong."
Lili tried to catch her breath as she was forcefully turned over to her back with her hands and legs pulled to the sides by two of the hooded men.
After a few coughs, Lili managed to say.
"Damn you! You fucking gangster pieces of shit. What do you want from me? I have nothing to give you!"
With the light of the fireplace, Lili could see smug smiles on all 4 of the men's dirty-looking faces as they said nothing.
To her right, she could see the thin tall man moving a metallic fire iron rod inside the fire of the fireplace. As he pulled it out Lili noticed a scary smile come to the man's face as he looked at the glowing hot metal rod with a star symbol at its end.
Their eyes met and Lili couldn't help but feel shivers go through her body as the man brought the glowing hot iron close to her face.
Lili tried to pull her hands free and run but couldn't no matter how hard she tried. Turning her face away from it Lili could not help but feel the irons warmth close to her skin.
Realising what was about to come Lili felt terrified and completely helpless as she couldn't help but start to plead for mercy.
"No, please. I'll give you whatever you want, just don't burn me."
The warmth went away as she felt the man pull the iron back and heard him say.
"Lili the star. I want to play a game. A game of truths and lies. Tell no lies and answer truthfully then you'll go free. But answer wrongly and well, you know. I'll give you 5 tries and 5 questions, now let's start."
Turning to look at the man she realized there in his hands was the fire iron with a star shape at its end. Lili tried to pull back and struggled as she desperately yelled.
"No, please! Don't do this!"
Moving the burning hot iron closer to her face he smiled and said.
"Don't worry I'm not gonna hurt you. Just tell me who you are and what family you belong to. Give me some names."
Hearing his words Lili remembered Art asking about the same thing which she couldn't understand at all. Why was everyone so insistent on her being something more than just Lili a lone girl in the woods?
Answering honestly to the best of her knowledge she said.
"I don't know. It's just me Lili out here alone and that's all I swear. There is no family."
Shaking his head as if he were disappointed, the man then said.
"Wrong answer."
In horror Lili gritted her teeth and watched as the glowing iron was brought towards her face, but just at the last moment before it touched her cheek the man's hand was grabbed.
Probably the most muscular of the 4 men who had a big beard grabbed the tall man's hand and said.
"Not the face. We can't damage the merchandise too much."
The tall man seemed annoyed as he rolled his eyes and then without hesitation pushed the burning hot iron right into Lili's shoulder which had been pierced by the arrow.
Lili screamed in pain, "Aaaaaahhhhhhh!" As the iron made a hot sizzling noise as it burned her skin leaving a small star-shaped burn mark behind.
Pulling the iron back off of Lili's bloodied and sizzling skin the man smiled as he watched Lili scream in agony. Then he said.
"See girl, I can be quite merciful. I even stopped your bleeding with that, so now you thank me, or we can just continue where we left off."
Only sobs, screams and a pained plea could be heard from Lili as she said.
"No, please. No more."
She could hear the man place the iron back into the fire and say.
"Turn her around. I think she needs some treatment on her back also."
Then she was turned around but the big fat man spoke out.
"You sure about this? What if she's telling the truth?"
A, smack and a, auch, was heard as the thin man spoke.
"You idiot. You heard her play that Lute and sing, didn't you? Do you really think a girl living alone in the woods would know how to do that? She's obviously the kid of some rich noble family. Besides just look at her. No girl living out in the woods could possibly have such perfect skin."
Only a quiet, Ooh, could be heard followed by the sound of the fire iron being taken off of the fire and brought back towards Lili. She wanted to say something in protest but didn't know what. After all the men were right, she didn't have any Lute here to be played and the songs she sang were not written anywhere.
Obviously they wouldn't understand or believe her if she told them the truth about her reincarnation. The story of her running away from home did make logical sense unless there was another explanation.
Right as the heat came upon her back and the iron was about to fall on her she said.
"Wait, wait. I can explain."
Feeling the iron stop just a bit short of her skin the man said.
"Well out with it then. What is your family name? What house do you belong to?"
Thinking quickly Lili came up with a half-truth and said.
"No, I don't belong to any noble house and I have no family, but I do have a master named Dandelion who taught me everything I know of music and playing the Lute."
While this wasn't the whole truth it was sort of true, in the sense that she had been inspired to learn from the character Dandelion and she wasn't a part of any noble house and she had no family she knew of.
For a second the man remained silent not saying anything as did the others. Then he said.
"Nah, doesn't ring a bell."
Then the iron fell on her back shoulder. Lili's body tensed up and she let out a pained scream.
"Aaaaaahhhhhhh!"
The pain was excruciating causing her ears to start ringing and her vision began to fade. She gritted her teeth hard and tried to hold her screams as she closed her eyes and just endured the pain.
Lili didn't know how long the moment lasted, but soon she found herself lying on her back once more with the tall thin man above her saying something.
Through her ringing ears, she could hardly hear anything and through her blurry vision, she could hardly see anynothing. Her mind was at its breaking point unable to give any more resistance. Right now all she wanted to do was give up and let whatever was about to happen, happen.
A moment went by but nothing happened and then as her vision started to clear up she felt something be placed tightly around her small neck. It felt leathery with a metal wire inside it.
Her hands and legs were then freed letting her take hold of the thing around her neck. Touching it she realized it to be a collar with a small metal ring attached to it that held a chain.
Looking at it closely she could see the chain being held in the muscular man's left hand who stood next to her and then said.
"Welcome to the brotherhood, slave. Hahahaha."
Looking around she could see all 4 men standing around her with smug expressions on their faces.
In her mind, she could hardly believe it but wasn't this exactly what Old Man Al had warned her about? Right now she had been branded by what seemed like a star-shaped slave mark and a collar was placed upon her neck. Did she truly just become these guys slave?