Prologue

"Sian! Sian wait!"

„If you're gonna dawdle like this, we're never going to make it back before sunset, and you know far too well, what my father is going to do to us then!" I stopped urging my younger friend for a moment, to hop over a tree root poking out of the ground on the path in front of me.

"But it was your idea to go and find the herd, so you should get the most of it!" she yelled after me, mimicking my little jump as she followed me.

"And who was it that didn't give me a moments peace because of 'the beautiful deer she saw in the morning'?!" I wanted to turn around for a second to stick my tongue out at her, but stopped in my tracks.

There was a noise, a rustle too unnatural and too contrasting against the sounds of the forest, to be simply caused by the wind playing with the branches. I immediately stopped in the middle of the path, causing a little cloud of dust to raise from it, and looked around. In the shadows of the trees I could barely make out the silhouettes of men.

"Sian!" from the panic in her voice, it was obvious, that she spotted them as well.

One glance around was enough to realize that I was surrounded.

"Ethia run!"

"But...!"

"Please listen to me at least this once and run!!"

I wasn't able to say anything more. I heard some strange noise behind my back and suddenly, I couldn't breathe. The last thing I heard was Ethia's voice, so heartbreakingly desperate that I felt a sharp pain in my chest.

"Sian!!!"