She slunk along in the shadows of the wall. She would have to lie low after that scene she had just instigated back there. The axes were hitched onto her belt and hidden under a cloak. She pulled the hood over her eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped out from the wall, into the throng of humanity. Ah, people. She hated people. Sure, they had their uses, but for the most part, they were a dispensable commodity.

Ries studied the two coins left in his hand. Should he buy potatoes or apples? Or maybe shoes, and scrounge for the food later. Eh, he could be mobbed and beaten and his shoes taken. But then, he could be mobbed and beaten and his food destroyed as well. Hmm. He shuffled the two idea around in his head. Ha, he laughed. He should find himself a nice axe like that maniac had earlier.

“Careful what you wish for,” a low voice from nearby remarked.

Surprised, he looked down. A gray cloak covered the diminutive figure at his elbow.

“You know,” she said. “You are rather dumb, but you’re pretty large, and I think that most fellows would shy away from attacking you.”

Ries’ ego rose as he prepared to flex a well-toned muscle in a show of bravado.

“But of course,” she continued. “You’re so ignorant that you probably couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn with your fist.”

He stared slack-jawed at the casual attitude the accursed female was exhibiting.

His ire rose.

“Look here,” he said. “I might be ignorant, but I’m not dumb! I don’t who you think you are to get away with this jibberish, but you’ll get a piece of me if you keep that up!”

At least, that was what he was intending to say. He never actually got beyond ‘jibberish’, for the girl raised her head and looked him straight in the face without blinking an eye. He stumbled backward nervously.

It was her, by jove! What an idiot to come out in public when every constable in town wanted her head!

“Shut your mouth, country boy, or I’ll do it for you.”

He snapped his jaw shut. Nervously, he looked around the market. Lowering his head to hers, he whispered,

“You have got to be as crazy as you said I was dumb to be out here in public after what you just did. For all you know, I will cry wolf on you.” “Haha,” she tinkled, for all the world like she was out on a pleasure walk. “You won’t do that, and I know you won’t, because you don’t want the constable around you as much as I.”

She stopped and looked him in the face.

“I want to join you, country boy. I need someone to come with me in my travels, to help with little ‘set-backs’, and watch my back as I watch yours. I know you’re not that dumb, just a little bit at times, and I know you can take care of your own. Now do we have a deal?”

“You’re crazy,” Ries said.

“Oh, really now? Let’s just see how crazy I am.” She raised her voice. “You don’t want to be seen because you are a runaway, and you would get beat if anyone found out and returned you to your master,” her voice kept rising with every word.

“Fuck and damnation!” Ries exclaimed, jumping forward to clamp a hand over her mouth. His arm was caught halfway in an iron grip while steel-gray eyes bored into his.

“You will never touch me, country boy. Never.” Her bony hand was digging rivets in his arm.

“Damn it, let go! Let go, I say!”

She held her stance a moment later, and then dropped his wrist.

“We leave in half hour. Meet me at the gate then.” With a swish of her cloak, she had vanished into the crowd.

“Witch,” Ries muttered. Then he slapped down his two coins and chose a pair of boots. God knew he would need them if he was to be fighting brigands, or ‘little set-backs’ as she called them. For all he knew, she would wield those axes to bring down the mighty government of a thousand years in one fell swoop. He knew he couldn’t refuse her command to meet him at the gate. He may as well be back at his master’s.

“Damn,” he muttered as he tugged the stiff leather boots on his feet and laced the ties.

“Just swell.”