Chapter Two

The young man sat next to the body of the overseer he had killed, he didn't care that the blood of the man puddled around him and soaked into his clothes. All the overseers were dead, the workers had made sure of that. He didn't want to know how many of them had died in the process, the woman who had helped him earlier lay nearby, her body broken and bleeding. A tear slid down his cheek as he surveyed the battle field, how long did they have till the King sent soldiers to kill them all? He didn't care, let them come, he would be ready, he would be waiting and he would kill them all. Thunder growled in the distance and raindrops splattered onto the ground around him, the rain fell harder, little streams ran through the cracks in the earth. The rain soaked through his clothes washing the blood off his face and clothes, the blood of the overseer and the others bodies littering the ground was swept away with the ever rising water. A hand touched his shoulder, he looked up and saw one of his fellow labourers, the womans face was filled with sorrow and blood still leaked from a cut on her forehead. Despite the blood trickling down her face she was still beautiful, her chocolate brown skin shining under a thin layer of sweat, her hair reached her waist, the many braids swaying as she shifted her weight onto her other leg, her bright blue eyes looking straight into his.

"They are coming." She said quietly, she held out a hand and he grasped it, she pulled him to his feet. The other labourers had saddled the overseers horses and were helping the wounded onto their backs, they all knew there weren't enough horses, some of them would have to take their chances on foot. He grabbed the reins of one of the horses and motioned for the woman to get on. She shook her head. "I will fight." She said, he nodded and lifted one of the younger workers onto the horse, a girl no more than ten, then he seated another girl behind the first, the horse could carry two.

All the horses had riders now, mostly wounded and young workers. They rode off with a last glance back at those who remained.

"We might be outnumbered!" The young man said picking up his sword that he had laid on the ground while helping the children. "But we will not go down without a fight!" he shouted the last sentence and the labourers roared in agreement. They could hear the soldiers approaching now, they picked up the swords they had scavenged from the overseers bodies and stood in formation. The soldiers came into view through the pouring rain and the labourers let out cries of fear, awe and surprise, the soldiers were being led by a scarred man atop a dragon.

~

The first thing Yuana noticed when she woke up was that she was in her wolf form, the second was that she was in a copper cage.

She staggered to her feet and looked around, she didn't recognize where she was. All she could see from where the cage sat, surrounded by wooden crates was a dark and cold room, it looked like an abandoned barn.

The lead dragon rider with the turquoise dragon walk in and walked over lifting one of the crates and walked out again, when he came back there were two more men with him. They threw a cloth over her cage and she felt it being lifted up. Yuana new the second they left the building, it was stifling hot outside. The men unceremoniously threw the cage into the back of a cart and the cloth slipped off, she saw an old building with a sign hanging above the door and Yuana recognized where they were, they were in the eastern part of Sovaisa.

She felt weak, she knew she had been poisoned, why else would she be in wolf form? Yuana wasn't sure which poison they had used as there were a few poisons that would force a shape-shifting to shift into their first animal form. She tried not to think as the carriage lurched into motion, her head throbbed where the dragons tail had hit her. They finally arrived at another warehouse and her cage was unloaded, she wanted to growl but she was too dazed to do anything but lay there, had they drugged her with something to keep her docile? Or was it just the bump on her head and the heat? She was put down next to more cages filled with all sorts of animals, with horror she realized she recognized them, she could see that the animal in next to her was Risun, she glanced round and saw more and more familiar faces, Kallos, Dylan, Taylor and sweet innocent Falia.

Falia met her gaze and nodded her lynx head to Risun then to the lead dragon rider. What was she trying to say?

"Come on, let's go!" The lead rider ordered

The cages were carried one by one through a door into what Yuana could only assume was another room.

She managed to snarled at the riders as they came towards her, but they knew she couldn't do anything. Her cage was carried into the room, there she saw a swirling black, blue and red portal. She gasped, she had never seen a portal but she knew what it was, she knew the stories that were told about these magical things, they led to other cities and sometimes even to other worlds, the portals didn't stay in one place for too long, everyone knew that, they would wander around and once they found a place they like they would stay there a week or so before moving on. She pushed herself into the back of her cage, as far away from the portal as she could get, she didn't want to go through because how in the name of the gods would she get back?

The riders grinned at her then threw her cage into the portal.

The colour of the portal blurred and swirled around her as she hurtled through it, it only took seconds to reach the other side but it felt like much longer, the cage slammed into the ground throwing her forward into the front of the cage bruising her shoulder.

She staggered to her feet, her wolf eyes adjusting to the bright light that reflected off the snow that covered the forest clearing. Wait a minute! she though. It's midsummer! why is there snow? she shook herself the shivered it was freezing, she could see that there was a group of about twenty people waiting, the majority were men. When they were sure there were no more cages flying through the air they split into five groups of four, one group headed towards Risun, one of them poked him with a stick through the bars of his cage, he didn't move, they pulled him out of the cage and rolled him over, his white polar bear fur was stained red, his throat had been slashed, Yuana realized that's what Falia had been trying to tell her, it was the lead dragon rider who had wounded Risun and now he was dead. The group headed towards Yuana as Risun was dead, he was of no use to them.

One of the men opened the cage door. "Get out!" He ordered.

Yuana pressed herself into the back of the cage and growled, did they seriously think she would listen to them after their friends had captured her and killed Risun! The man reached in to drag her out, she bared her teeth but when he continued to drag her out she bit him and he pulled his hand back cursing and shaking his hand, little blood droplets splattered the glistering snow. The rest of the group laughed and one of them said: "That's not how you do it Max, I'll show you."

The young man who couldn't have been older than nine-teen or twenty took a whip off his belt.

"Out!" He snapped.

Yuana didn't do anything except let her growl melt into a vicious snarl. He hit her across the face with the whip, she snarled louder but other than didn't react, he hit her again and she sprang at him she shifted back into a human the moment her paws left the ground, drawing a knife as she did.

Just as the knife was about to pierce the junction in his armour between his shoulder and neck, he grabbed her wrist and jumped to the side, her momentum letting him twist her arm behind her back with ease. He squeezed her wrist digging his nails inbetween the tendons on her wrist forcing her to drop the knife.

"Shift!" He growled.

"No!" Yuana snarled back.

"You asked for it!" He said, she felt his foot on the back of her knee and he yanked her ankle up breaking her leg with a sickening CRACK.

She screamed and tears of pain sprang to her eyes.

"Shift or I'll break your other leg too." He hissed his voice filled with menace and promising pain.

She gritted her teeth unable to hold in the small sob that slipped out of her and shifted back into a wolf. He smiled and strapped an iron collar around her neck, then slipped a muzzle over her snout. All the other wolves, dogs and coyotes had been harnessed to a sled, the other cages containing the rest of the prisoners, were loaded onto the back of the sled, there was one place left for Yuana at the place where the lead dog usually is.

"Forward." Someone called.

Nothing happened and the man with the whip came and pulled on Yuanas collar to make them move, she was too scared to bite him so she contented herself with a growl which she regretted as she got hit with the whip for it.

"Onto the Ice River and follow it."

They set off, Yuana limping in the front.

They kept going for what felt like hours to Yuana who winced every time her broken leg brushed the ice. Kallos nearly drowned at one point when the ice broke under her, but she was harnessed right in front of the sled, and was pulled out immediately. Yuana heard Max and some others talk about some kind hunt. Just as her paws were starting to collect ice Max said;"We're here."

He blew into a horn just as a stone castle with a moat around it came I to view. An answering horn blared, and the gates opened. A beautiful woman in a red dress and white fur cloak walked over the moats bridge towards them. Yuana bared her fangs, she knew this woman, it was Resina, Yuana started snarling.

"Unharness her Jay." Resina said pointing at Yuana, the man with the whip walked over to Yuana and removed the harness.

Resina raised an eyebrow "The collar too!" She said. Jay drew his dagger and took off the iron collar.

"Good, now make her shift!"

"You heard what she said, Shift." Jay muttered. Yuana shifted, but not into a human, into a huge polar bear, her sudden increase in size knocked Jay back, the muzzle ripped to shreds now far too small. She charged toward Resina. Even though she could only run on three legs the distance decreased rapidly, a man jumped in front of her, she swatted him away with her paw. She had nearly reached Resina who was still calmly standing there, when an arrow hit her shoulder she shifted mid-fall and rolled breaking her fall but breaking the arrow shattered off and pushing the head deeper into her shoulder, she let out a cry of pain.

"Traitor!" She gasped through the pain. Tears welling in her eyes yet again. She cursed herself for being so weak.

Resina smiled a sweet smile and bent down to whisper in Yuanas ear. "You have no idea what's coming, if you are clever you'll end it yourself before he does, he'll make it slow and painful, so very painful."

"Who?" Yuana murmured, she didn't know what Resina was telling her this, hadn't she just betrayed them all?

Resina smiled."The scarred one."

The Resina straightened and said. "Take her away Jay!"

Jay hauled Yuana to her feet ignoring her gasp of pain, he let her go once but she collapsed as soon as he let her go, her leg couldn't hold her.

"Take her to the courtyard." Jay sighed, Yuana glanced around, none of the men or women had any scars she could see, neither did Jay. Two of the men came over and propping her up they walked trough the castle gates into a stone courtyard that had been cleared of snow. There were wooden stakes in a row and the men led her over to one of them where they tied her hands around one of the stakes, then they went back to where the others were, she slid down the stake and sat on the ground, though the stones sucked every bit of warmth from her body she didn't have the strength to stand, her eyelids fluttered shut blurring the face that appeared before her, she registered that the face had two thick scars running down it before she fainted, her blood freezing her shirt to her side and pooling slightly on the cobble stones of the courtyard.