The red-haired woman approached the young handsome man, whilst completely ignoring Judith, who was still dazed by the beast in front of her.
"What happened here? You said you would watch the slaves." The woman said, with a voice that did little to represent her age properly.
Judith on the other hand had raised a brow when she heard the word 'slaves'
"I am. As you can clearly see, I handled the situation." The young man had spoken for the first time. His voice was more brash and scratchy than his gentle looks and elegant demeanor would have suggested.
"This is handling the situation?" The red-haired woman pointed an arm toward the row of slaves lying on the sand, each of them completely unconscious.
Judith had snapped out of her daze, and returned to wondering to herself what was actually happening here.
As she thought of possible scenarios to escape, she couldn't help but find something about all of this familiar.
She had turned in every direction, and then realized she was surrounded by sand that seemed to stretch on into the horizon, in other words, she was in the middle of a desert.
Of course escaping the desert without dying was one thing, but the matter that took precedence at the moment was how she would escape her captors first.
Judith didn't intend on escaping now, not when many eyes were on her. Yet she couldn't help but try to free herself from this humiliating grip the handsome young man had on her.
After a small struggle, it had dawned on Judith that this young man was incredibly strong.
He held her in place with just one arm, whilst conversing with the petite voiced fire-red haired woman.
Judith had wondered to herself how he could hold her down without even looking like he was trying.
At this moment, she had found herself feeling like a twig, waiting to be snapped.
"I don't see the problem here. They were out of line so I handled them."
"By creating dead weight, how do you propose we carry all these slaves back to Qugan?"
Judith froze upon hearing that name.
"Prince Lee, if you couldn't handle it you should have said so." The red-haired woman had said right before turning her back to prince Lee with a condescending disposition. After which she began to walk back to her mount.
"I could handle it." The prince defended, but the red haired woman had paid him no mind.
Judith tried to wrap her head around her current circumstances, but failed miserably.
The name Qugan, was a very distinct name to be given to a location, a name she had only heard from in one place.
As this realization sank in, she began to put two and two together.
She realized the situation she was in, was exactly as it was there.
She realized, the environment, the slaves, the prince, the fire-red haired woman with a petite voice.
The way she acted, dressed and looked, everything was exactly how they were described…in Judith's favorite eastern-fantasy novel 'Sojouners of a Titan' Judith thought to herself.
Suddenly, a chill rattled up her spine, and not as a result of the cold night's air brushing against her very exposed skin.
She had turned to the woman, and watched as she mounted her strange beast.
Judith then analysed the creature, and found its features were exactly like they were in her novel.
A rhino-like creature, with two horns coming out of its head, strong legs like that of a horse, except a version built for carrying a tank. Then to tie it all together was a hide colored brown and thicker than steel, with streaks across it's body that emanated purple lights which seemed to flow from one direction to the other.
Judith knew exactly what this beast was, and why those lines gave off an otherworldly glow.
As she continued to watch the woman, a carriage came in. A carriage which was not pulled by any mount, and was not suspended by wheels. But rather, was held up by glowing stones placed underneath.
"Alkalis stones." Judith whispered.
A curtain at the side of the carriage slid open, which revealed a woman in very expensive and exquisite attire. This time, her clothing was reminiscent of those in medieval movies as opposed to historical Chinese movies.
The noble woman had stretched her head outside the carriage, so she could get a good view of what was going on.
Immediately she laid eyes on Judith, and she saw the rags Judith was wearing, along with the blood covering her mouth, she wrinkled her nose as though she had just perceived a fresh pile of poop.
The noble woman had pushed Judith to the part of her brain that immediately forgot unimportant matters, and then diverted her attention to the fire-red haired woman.
"Lady Qui Lin, is there a problem?" The snooty aristocratic looking woman had asked, whilst pretending she couldn't see the unruly scenery before her.
Judith on the other hand had her suspicions all but confirmed when she heard the name Qui Lin.
At this point, there was no doubt left in Judith's heart. She was sure these were the characters in her novel, and this was exactly how the opening chapters had played out.
Although this should have been difficult to believe, there was no other explanation.
Somehow, she was living out the events of the novel she always read.
But one question had taken precedence in Judith's mind.
'How is all of this possible?' Judith thought, just before a distant rumble had interrupted everyone.
"Dammit." Prince Lee said, after which he had let go of Judith rather rudely. So she crumbled to the ground, face slummed into the sand.
With anger glazing her thoughts, Judith had gotten onto her feet, albeit with some amount of difficulty thanks to the chains and manacles imprisoning her.
Once Judith had erected herself, her gaze had been taken toward her supposed assailant. Who now was lying on the ground, and barely breathing.
Her thoughts didn't linger on this man for more than a second.
Guilt or depression as to the fact that she almost killed somebody didn't affect her in the slightest. As she felt the world would be a better place without men like these.
After she had settled on this thought, her sights were redirected to prince Lee, who was now talking to Qui Lin.
"Get the slaves in line, and leave the unconscious behind. We have to hurry before the skorpons reach us. And also," Qui Lin likewise had redirected her sight to Judith. "Watch over her." She said, before urging her mount forward with a rather gentle pat on its hide.
After she rode on, leaving the prince with a cloud of kicked up sand, he had sighed, then turned toward the slaves.
"Keep moving!" He screamed and the slaves obeyed.
Before Judith could join the slaves in moving ahead, prince Lee had yelled at her.
"Girl, come here!" He said, whilst keeping his gaze intent on her.
Judith could not have found this prince to be more rude, but she knew disobedience would possibly lead to punishment. Which she didn't feel like going through at the moment, so she was left with no other choice but to do as he commanded.
As Judith had made her way toward him, her eyes never left him for a moment, which is why she found herself on her defense when the prince had risen his fingers to his mouth and had let out a whistle.
This whistle Judith misunderstood for a split second, but when a mount had rushed in, she at once corrected her assumptions and quickened her steps towards him.
The mount this time was different, in the sense that it was missing its most unique feature, the glowing streaks across its body.
Upon sighting this mount, Judith instantly could remember that, the prince had no magical abilities.
/AN/
Qugan is Mandarin for Torso