Chapter 2 - Capture
When they made camp at the end of the day, Livvy set up a protective circle. It was easy to do, just required a sharp knife in the dirt and a bit of fiddling with her stone. Raya didn't see what, exactly, as she made sure to look away the second Livvy pulled it from its hiding place between her breasts. Even the smallest glance out of the corner of her eye was enough to make Raya feel warm again.
The circle was big enough to fit their bedrolls and a fire, which Livvy promised wouldn't leap embers and wouldn't go out over the course of the night. More witchcraft. Witchcraft in the invisible, warm wall that supposedly kept them safe, witchcraft in the flames, witchcraft in the terrible stone she had hidden away. Raya glared up at the sky, never more grateful for the Purge.
"Are you okay?" Livvy murmured. "You look really mad."
"That's just my face," she said flatly. "Don't worry about it."
"I know that Eneros can seem terrible, but it can be really wonderful too." The younger girl beamed. "The next city is much bigger. They pull from magic in the river and the ground to make a really nice place. They have a Guardians post too! Have you heard of them?"
"No." Raya slid into her bedroll. "I'm going to sleep. We've talked enough today. Thank you for your help."
Her face fell. "Oh. Um, okay. I guess I'll sleep too."
Raya heard rustling from the other girl, then silence. Then snoring. Well, that was quite the downside to her new traveling companion. Still, Raya had slept through worse and she didn't have much trouble falling asleep to that either, under the stars and the slight shimmer of magic above her. The only real surprise was that the magic didn't bother her nearly as much as she thought it would.
So Raya was more than a little shocked to be awoken by a black ball gag being pushed into her snoring mouth. She gasped, trying to scream but a soft hand covered her mouth so the strangled shouts from the gag were quieted further. The owner of the hand had twitching gray cat ears, swiveling constantly in every direction. Raya went to rip the hand off, but two more bodies fell on top of her, one on her arms and one on her legs. She was strong enough to squirm, but they sat on her elbows and knees, giving her little leverage to get any of the three off.