The Girl with No Name
Copyright 2013 by Edward -EC-
EC's Erotic Fiction - /~caligula97030/

(warnings: public nudity, sex between adults, corporal punishment, maledom, 
humiliation, war violence, occult, language)

Chapter Twenty-Two – The Scavenger

The forest is an unforgiving mistress. Yes, the Ancients can bless those who live 
in the Realm of Nature by treating it with respect, but such blessings are only 
available to those who know where to seek them; and even for the wise, those 
blessings are usually fleeting. When one is in the forest, the goal is to eat before 
sunset and survive to see another sunrise. Perhaps it is possible to contemplate the 
future, but too much thought on the future and too little on the present is vanity.

 Danka took her young slave into the mountains with those thoughts in mind. 
Strange to think, just a year before she had lived a pampered life in the Grand 
Duke's castle, and now she was about to embark on a life as a wanderer in the 
Duchy's wild country. She tried to remember all of the training she had received 
when she was a Follower. She would need every bit of that knowledge to make it 
through the rest of the summer and prepare for the upcoming winter.

 Danka and Isauria spent the first week traveling east, ever deeper into the 
southern Danubian forest. The outcast was determined to get far away from 
Malénkta-Gordnáckta and anyone who had known her during her sojourn in that 
town. For the rest of her life she would harbor deep resentment against its 
inhabitants. She hated the men for willingly going out on slave-capturing raids, 
but she even more, she loathed the town’s women. She had spent months teaching 
them everything she knew about collecting food in the forest, sharing much of the 
knowledge passed to her by Babáckt Yaga and the other Followers. However, 
along with distributing practical knowledge, Danka had made the mistake of 
trying to pass along the philosophical wisdom of the Cult of the Ancients. She 
subconsciously wanted to influence the beliefs of her neighbors and have them 
reward her by accepting her as their de facto spiritual leader. She failed to 
understand that attempting to appoint herself as a spiritual guide was an act of 
hubris, and the Ancients always punished hubris. Danka’s self-appointed spiritual 
mission failed miserably and its only result was for the former cultist to be 
accused of being strange and then to be ignored, ridiculed, and ultimately 
ostracized. She felt betrayed by her female neighbors and resented the fact they 
had not accepted her as part of their community. So, she wanted nothing to do 
with the women of Malénkta-Gordnáckta and never wanted to see them again.

 As soon as she was far enough from the town that it would be unlikely she’d run 
into any of its inhabitants, Danka had an important decision to make: which 
direction to continue her journey. The countryside immediately to the east and 
southeast was covered with thickly-forested low-lying hills, which contrasted with 
higher mountains that lay to the north. The mountains were part of a crescent-
shaped chain that separated the southwest portion of the Duchy from the southeast 
part and at that time the highland region was completely unsettled. Beyond the 
northern mountains lay the Black Swamp of Misery, which was in reality a large 
marshland that fed into the Rika Chorna River. Either the mountains or the swamp 
would have been good places to hide, had Danka been a fugitive. However, she 
considered herself a traveler, not a fugitive, and had no desire to spend her 
remaining time in the Realm of the Living in a squalid cabin with an illiterate 
serving-girl in a lonely, isolated settlement. The only hope for either the woman 
or the girl to have a fulfilling Path in Life was to keep moving and see where the 
Ancients led them.

 Danka decided to journey directly eastward and stay within a day’s walk of the 
Duchy’s southern border during the entire trip. At that time she had a vague idea 
of going to the Vice-Duchy of Rika Chorna and seeing if she could settle there. 
Danka did not know what to expect from the inhabitants of the Vice-Duchy, but it 
was away from western Danubia, which was what she wanted at the time. So, she 
and Isauria would continue working their way east, spend the summer in the 
forest, and eventually emerge into the Eastern Valley. 

 As was customary for Followers of the Ancients, whenever they were in the 
Realm of Nature and temperatures permitted, Danka and Isauria walked 
completely naked, wearing nothing but their boots. Isauria was not bothered by 
Danka’s order that she carry her clothing in her traveling pack instead of on her 
body. She already was used to being nude: as a collared slave she had been denied 
the right to wear clothing at any time. So, the naked girl plodded behind her naked 
mistress, with the heavy supply pack cutting into her bare shoulders and Danka’s 
uncovered bottom and thighs always in front of her.

 Danka was not a sympathetic or patient teacher, because the Realm of Nature is 
not sympathetic or patient. Also, the former peasant had experienced very little 
sympathy in her life, so she did not know how to display it to anyone working 
under her. Danka was not kind to Isauria as we would understand kindness in 
modern times. She expected Isauria to carefully listen to everything she said and 
to follow her instructions exactly. On the few occasions when Isauria did not meet 
her expectations, she was harsh with her voice and as quick to use the switch as 
any other impatient slave-owner.

 ----------

 Isauria received her first switching from Danka only five days after they ventured 
into the mountains. She had been tasked to collect some roots and mushrooms and 
to start a fire to boil water while Danka climbed several trees to get at some birds' 
nests. She nearly fell to her death while trying to grab a large, almost fully-grown 
cuckoo chick, so she was not in a good mood. Meanwhile, Isauria, who was 
extremely hungry, had ignored Danka's warning to only start the water boiling 
and not to put in the mushrooms until the mistress had a chance to check them.

 Sure enough, Isauria had included some poisonous mushrooms in the soup and 
the entire batch had to be discarded. Danka was furious at her ward's disobedience. 
She slapped the girl hard across the face and snapped:

 "You can say you're sorry all you want, but the forest doesn't accept apologies. I 
don't accept apologies either. There's no point in telling me you regret something, 
because I don't care about your emotions. When you commit a stupid act, I will 
punish you, just like the Realm of Nature will punish both of us. How you feel 
about that doesn't matter."

 Danka handed the frightened girl her dagger.

 "Now, go to that thicket of willows and cut me several switches and peel them. 
They need to be about half a fathom long. Make sure they are sturdy and thick 
enough to hurt when I hit you."

 Isauria was crying, but she dutifully spent the next several minutes cutting and 
preparing five switches according to her mistress's instructions. When she 
returned, Danka ordered her to place her hands on a fallen log, and not to move 
until given permission. Danka said nothing more, but she took the switches and 
swished each through the air to test it. The trembling girl flinched at the sound of 
each swoosh, but she kept her hands on the log.

 Danka struck her servant with a cruel blow across the middle of her bottom. The 
girl flinched and suppressed a painful squeal, but she did not cry out. The woman 
studied the welt forming on the girl's backside to make sure the blow had marked 
but did not break her skin, and struck again. 

 Isauria shook and cried during her punishment, but she tried to be brave and did 
not take her hands off the log. Danka was pleased by the girl's stoic behavior, but 
she did not openly express approval nor consider showing pity. She felt that she 
could be no different than the forest. If the girl made a mistake, she'd have to 
suffer for it. 

 The girl's bottom and thighs were completely covered with welts before Danka 
tossed the switches into the fire. She ordered her whimpering servant to stand up 
and accompany her to search for mushrooms to replace the ones that had to be 
discarded. Isauria was still crying, but Danka admonished her that they still had to 
eat that day and the eggs and chicks she had gathered would not be enough if they 
did not have vegetables to accompany them. Therefore, they had to search the 
woods for a replacement meal before sunset. Being forced to move about among 
the trees with her backside covered in painful welts would be the final part of 
Isauria's punishment.

 Isauria's first switching would have been considered unduly severe by modern 
standards, but it was typical for the time. Danka had endured plenty of similar 
switchings while growing up, so she did not see anything wrong with treating 
Isauria the same way her parents had treated her. If anything, she felt that she was 
being somewhat lenient. It was because of Isauria's failure to obey instructions 
that both she and Danka had nearly been poisoned and that a morning's worth of 
food gathering had gone to waste. Had she not had the foresight to check the soup, 
they actually would have been in grave danger, without the strength to gather food 
or move about, and would have been at the mercy of unforgiving elements for 
several days.

 They didn't get back to the campsite until sunset. Danka restarted the soup while 
Isauria cleaned and gutted the chicks. There was no further mention of the girl’s 
punishment, because as far as Danka was concerned the incident was over. Isauria 
remained fearful of doing anything to further offend her owner, but she had 
learned the lesson Danka wanted to teach her. She never again did anything 
without being absolutely certain she understood exactly what was expected of her.

 ----------

 Isauria's Path in Life would be to remain Danka's servant and companion 
throughout 1756. She continued to wear her slave collar, partly because Danka 
did not have the tools necessary to remove it, and partly because Danka knew it 
would be best for the girl to consider herself a slave until her mistress felt she was 
ready to face the harsh world on her own.

The quiet girl clearly was not ready to fend for herself when Danka purchased her. 
Yes, she had endured several traumatic events during her short life, but trauma 
does not necessarily prepare a person to face the world. Isauria's only practical 
knowledge consisted of looking after sheep (from the days before she was taken 
captive) and housework (from her year living in Alexándrekt Buláshckt’s 
household). As for fending for herself in the forest, she was still a child, as naive 
as any guild-master's daughter.

 So, it was Danka's Path in Life to teach her ward how to survive in the Realm of 
Nature. She trained the girl how to find anything that was edible, how to hide 
among the trees and find shelter, how to anticipate changes in the weather, how to 
identify animal tracks, and how to pack supplies and move about undetected. 
Within days Isauria knew how to forage for roots, mushrooms, and fruit. She 
knew how to set campfires and prepare a campsite, while Danka was hunting or 
looking for promising trails. Her daily routine was grueling, but she became 
invaluable to her mistress.

 During her first months in the woods Danka would teach Isauria how to set traps, 
tie knots, and make snares. She showed her the basics of fishing, which the girl 
picked up with ease. Isauria was fascinated with everything having to do with fish 
and became much more adept at catching fish than her mistress. Other skills 
learned by Isauria over the summer included searching for springs, collecting 
rainwater, making and reading maps, compass-reading, land navigation, using the 
stars to navigate at night, and moving about in total silence. The girl learned 
quickly and became competent at living outside. By the end of the summer Danka 
knew that if anything happened to her, Isauria would be able to survive on her 
own, at least for a while, and continue traveling.

 In spite of her willingness to use the switch, by the standards of slave owners in 
eighteenth-century Danubia, Danka was a good mistress and most foreign 
captives would have been happy to exchange places with Isauria. She never struck 
from anger or frustration, nor was she spiteful or condescending. She never did 
anything to humiliate her ward, which was a huge improvement in the girl's life 
over the treatment she had received from Alexándrekt Buláshckt and his nephew. 
Instead, Danka’s treatment directly reflected on how well the girl performed her 
duties. As long as Isauria followed instructions, she had nothing to fear. If she 
didn’t understand something, her owner encouraged her to request clarification. It 
was important that Isauria understood her responsibilities and why she needed to 
perform each duty in a certain way, so the only stupid questions were the ones she 
neglected to ask. 

 The social distance that normally would distinguish an owner from a slave was 
absent in Danka’s relationship with Isauria. Danka used the lower-class form of 
“you” when addressing the servant and told Isauria to use the same form when 
responding. Danka’s speech reverted to her peasant background, with Isauria 
expected to address her mistress in the same way a guild apprentice would 
address a mentor. Whatever food was available she shared in equal portions. She 
cared for the girl’s medical needs and allowed her to rest when she was sick. As 
for the travelers’ sleeping arrangements, Danka had with her a single sleeping roll, 
which she shared with her servant. Peasants were used to sharing beds, so Danka 
shared the sleeping roll with her ward in the same way she had shared her bed 
with her sister while growing up. 

 There were other ways Danka let Isauria know that she did not consider her mere 
property. She began to teach the servant to write during the rare occasions they 
weren’t occupied with wandering, hunting, scavenging, or gathering food. Isauria 
recognized the importance of writing, so on her own she practiced tracing letters 
in the dust whenever she had to opportunity, to the great satisfaction of her 
mentor. When Danka prayed to the Ancients, she insisted the girl accompany her. 
Over the summer Isauria learned about Danka’s religious beliefs, to include 
singing some of the ancient hymns and speaking a few words in archaic Danubian. 

 ----------

 Danka had never been as experienced at hunting or tracking animals as she was 
gathering edible plants. She had some basic information about forest animals from 
her year in Babáckt Yaga’s settlement, but even among the Followers hunting was 
a task mostly carried out by the men. Out of necessity, her hunting skills greatly 
improved over the summer of 1756. She snared her first rabbit the day after she 
punished Isauria. A week later she killed her first deer, a partially grown fawn. 
Over the month of June there were a few more rabbits and another deer. The dead 
animals were both a blessing and a hindrance. The hunts meant a better diet and a 
supply of animal skins, but also considerably slowed down the journey. Every 
time she killed an animal, she and her servant had to spend time at camp 
preparing smoked meat, preparing tanning solution with the animals' own brains, 
and scraping, stretching, and tanning the hides.

 Along with basic survival skills and reading, Danka felt that her servant needed 
to know the basics of combat. She was concerned about being a woman alone in 
the forest and wanted the assurance that if she were attacked, Isauria could come 
to her assistance. Using the second dead deer’s carcass for practice, she taught 
Isauria several maneuvers with her dagger, making sure Isauria knew how to stab 
deeply and cut muscles and arteries, in spite of her small size and relative lack of 
strength. Using sticks, she taught her servant the basics of fencing and sword 
fighting. The sword-fighting was the hardest skill Danka passed along to her 
servant, because every time she did anything having to do with sword fighting, 
she had to struggle against the flash-backs of her final moments in Babáckt 
Yaga’s settlement.

 ----------

 Danka owned two weapons: her crossbow and the dagger given to her by Farmer 
Tuko Orsktackt. The crossbow would be useless if she ever ran out of bolts. By 
July running out of ammunition was becoming a real concern, in spite of her 
efforts to conserve and retrieve used bolts as much as possible. She just had to 
find more bolts and obtain a weapon for her servant and another for herself. The 
only items she had that she was willing to part with were a few animal skins, 
which would hardly suffice for what she needed to purchase. She realized that to 
obtain the weapons she wanted, she’d either have to steal them, or steal something 
else of value so she could purchase them. With that thought in mind she decided 
to make her way back to the settlements of eastern Hórkustk Ris province, but 
would try to avoid getting close to Malénkta-Gordnáckta. If she had to dishonor 
herself by stealing, at least she wanted to make sure she didn’t do so around 
people she knew.

 It turned out she did not have to venture out into the cleared area of the province 
to obtain the new weapons. As the woman and the girl silently moved through the 
forest, they came to a clearing where they heard the pitiful crying of the voice of a 
teenaged boy. As they approached the crying sound, it abruptly stopped. Danka 
crept along some rocks and saw what had happened, a man was standing over the 
corpse of a boy that he apparently had just killed. The dead boy was wearing 
nothing but a pair of trousers and had his hands tied behind his back. The man 
was too distracted cleaning the boy’s blood off a sword to notice that he was not 
alone. 

 Danka decided she wanted the sword. The man was a murderer, so he probably 
would not be missed. Anyhow, she would avenge the dead boy. She armed her 
crossbow and crept closer to her target. She slipped behind a bush next to the 
clearing, stood up, and aimed. The man turned around just as the assailant 
released her bolt. He had enough time to see a young woman, naked from the 
waist up, pointing a crossbow at him. He screamed as the bolt pierced his chest. 
He was mortally wounded, but the shot did not kill him immediately. The scream 
turned into an agonized gurgle as he flailed on the ground and desperately 
grabbed at the bolt to remove it. Danka re-armed her crossbow and stood over her 
victim, her eyes full of sadistic triumph. She didn’t know why the man had killed 
the boy, nor did she care. The only thought on her mind was the weird joy of 
watching a person much stronger than herself helpless, struggling, and dying on 
the ground. Eventually the man coughed up blood and started shaking. His eyes 
rolled up as his movements slowed and stopped.

 Danka looked around to make sure no one else was nearby. She noticed Isauria’s 
terrified face staring at her through the leaves. She retrieved the sword and held it 
up.

“Servant Isauria. Come here.”

The terrified, trembling girl approached her.

“Here’s the weapon I promised you. Go to the stream, rinse it off, and make sure 
it’s completely dry.”

 “Y…yes….Mistress Danka.”

While Isauria was occupied at the stream, Danka searched the clearing and the 
corpses for anything useful. Her victim’s shirt was ruined, which was too bad, 
thought Danka, because it looked expensive. However, the man’s boots and 
trousers were intact, so she pulled them off the corpse. The boy’s peasant vest and 
shoes were lying on the ground, which she took, as well as the rope used to bind 
his hands. Best of all, the man had an expensive dagger and a coin purse 
containing three silver and seven copper coins. She pulled the crossbow bolt from 
his corpse. It was broken and useless, but she did not want to leave it for anyone 
to find.

 After having taken anything of value from the bodies, she left them. She thought 
about trying to bury the boy, but abandoned that idea when she heard a dog 
barking in the distance. She tapped her servant on the shoulder and they slipped 
away into the brush. Danka never learned what had happened between the man 
and the boy, or whether there had been any justification for the boy’s death. The 
dispute between those two was of no concern to her. What mattered was that she 
now had money and items to trade for additional crossbow bolts.

 Danka led her servant to the edge of the forest. She turned northward and 
reconnoitered the cleared area until she spotted a large village likely to have a 
blacksmith who could supply her with crossbow bolts. She then put on her 
trader’s disguise and consolidated her belongings into a single backpack that 
Isauria would have to carry. She took Isauria’s sword and told the girl that, 
following protocol for a slave, she would have to remain naked. The girl struggled 
with the heavy burden as Danka led her into the village.

 Danka replenished her depleted supply of crossbow bolts and had both her 
dagger and the sword sharpened by the smith. While waiting for her weapons, she 
visited the tanner to have her servant’s boots repaired and to sell a deerskin and 
the stolen boots. She spent her remaining coins on salt, a specialized hide scraper, 
flint for starting fires, sewing supplies, two loaves of fresh bread, and a sweet-roll 
for her ward. Isauria looked at her mistress in dumbfounded gratitude when she 
was handed the treat. For an ordinary person Danka’s generosity would have been 
a trivial gesture, but for a slave to be given something like a sweet-roll was a huge 
signal of goodwill and approval from her owner.

 The traveler was enormously relieved when she returned to the woods with her 
supplies replenished. She stripped and put away her clothes, split the load into 
two backpacks, retrieved her bucket, and directed her servant to follow her to the 
southern border of the Duchy. 

 As they traveled, Danka took advantage of breaks to continue teaching Isauria 
how to use her sword. She also decided it was time for the girl to learn how to 
operate the crossbow. Isauria struggled with a weapon that seemed almost as big 
as herself. Drawing back the bow took every bit of strength she had and at the 
beginning she could barely keep control when the trigger was released. However, 
she persevered and eventually Danka felt she was ready to use a few of her 
precious bolts and aim at targets. 

 ----------

At the height of the summer, in the middle of July, Danka led Isauria southward 
on the pair's foraging expeditions. They traveled along the southern border, where 
the woods opened up to the Lord of the Blue Moon's territory. They emerged near 
a village that seemed completely deserted, with every structure in sight destroyed 
or burnt. The people were gone. Danka commented that the Lord of the Red 
Moon must have invaded the area.

 Isauria, whose family had been massacred by the Lord of the Blue Moon's men, 
glanced apprehensively towards the open country, clearly having no desire to 
leave the safety of the Duchy. However, Danka wanted to explore the settlement 
and a couple of nearby abandoned manors, hoping to scavenge for useful items 
that had been abandoned during the fighting. They hid the majority of their 
supplies and at night forded a shallow spot in the river. Upon crossing, they both 
got dressed in their trader’s guild outfits, even though no one was in sight. Unlike 
the relatively casual attitude of Danubians, women in the Kingdom of the Moon 
absolutely never appeared naked in public, even at night or on their own 
properties or in isolated areas.

 They cautiously made their way towards the ruins, their path illuminated by 
moonlight. Danka was used to traveling through the forest in the dark, so moving 
along an open road under a full moon was easy. The ominous ruins loomed at the 
top of the embankment. The woman and her servant slowly moved uphill, 
listening for footsteps and smelling the air for anything unusual. Danka heard the 
light scattering of animals moving about. There was a very slight whiff of carbon 
and of corpses that had long since decomposed. Apart from that, the only smells 
were those in any typical open area.

 It turned out the village had been abandoned for a long time. Still, it was not a 
pleasant place. The streets were a labyrinth of ruined buildings and rubble. Much 
worse were all the skeletons, some still intact and some scattered, which were 
everywhere. The streets and houses were full of bones. Many more skeletons were 
hanging on the walls, the victims of impalement. An even worse detail were the 
numerous skulls that were mounted on poles stuck into the ground, with their 
empty eye sockets staring at the two visitors.

 Danka froze, her feet firmly anchored to the ground. Her world went completely 
dark. A pair of bright yellow eyes appeared in the distance. They were tiny at first, 
because they were so far away. They slowly approached and grew much larger. 
The Destroyer's face filled Danka's vision as her knees shook with terror.

 "Danka... Danka Síluckt... I've been waiting for you. I knew you'd come. I knew 
you'd return to me. I knew that, because I gave you no choice."

 "Wh...what do you...what do you want from me?"

 "I want you to know me. I want you to know me well. You will have to learn my 
ways...if you want to remain in the Realm of the Living...and if you want your 
little slave to remain in the Realm of the Living. To know me. That is all I ask of 
you."

 "I don't want to know you. I serve the Ancients. I don't serve you."

 "The Ancients are not here, Danka Síluckt. Do not concern yourself with the 
Ancients, because they are not here. This is my realm, not theirs. If you don't wish 
to believe me, try praying to them. They will answer you with their silence."

 "But...what do you want from me?"

 "I've already told you what I want, Danka Síluckt. You will learn my ways. And 
as you come to know me, I will act through you. You will prosper, and your 
slave's safety is assured."

 "And...you did this? Everything around me...this is your doing?" 

 "Mine...or the Lord of the Red Moon, if you prefer...this was a Blue Moon 
village, you know...the Lord of the Red Moon paid these subjects a visit...on my 
behalf, as you might guess."

 "Why?"

 "Yes indeed...why? Why? Why? Why?"

 The eyes vanished and the ground released Danka's feet. Danka realized that 
Isauria was holding onto her arm, with her small body badly shaking.

 "Mistress Danka...Mistress Danka...the owl..."

 Sure enough...a large owl was sitting on a nearby ruined wall...its unblinking 
eyes staring at the woman and the girl in the cold moonlight. The bird took off 
and silently vanished.

 "Mistress Danka...you were talking..."

 "That doesn't concern you, Servant Isauria. You don't want to know..."

 "Yes Mistress."

 "Come along. It's getting light outside. We need to search around...see what we 
can find."

 "I...I'm scared, Mistress."

 "Of course you're scared. And perhaps...you think I'm not? It doesn't matter, 
because fear won't fill our stomachs. We can be scared all we want, but we still 
have to see what's here."

 So, as the sky lightened, they searched the town. It was a cool dreary overcast 
morning. The forlorn weather seemed perfectly suited for the bleak ruins and their 
endless supply of skeletons. Each skeleton had its own depressing story, from 
being the remains of a once-living person who died a horrible death. The woman 
and the girl were reluctant to go anywhere close to the corpses, but they needed to 
closely examine each one. Occasionally there would be a ring or a coin next to a 
set of bones, something that was overlooked when the Lord of the Red Moon's 
troops massacred and looted the town. They spent the entire day going through 
the destroyed houses, finding metal items such as cutlery, tools, and a few 
porcelain cups and dishes that had miraculously survived the fires and building 
collapses.

 By mid-afternoon Danka had collected enough objects to fill three sacks. She was 
surprised the town had not been more thoroughly scavenged. She did not know 
that priests from the Lord of the Red Moon's army had officially cursed the area, 
which made it off-limits for anyone in the Red Moon faction. All of the Lord of 
the Blue Moon's supporters had been killed or had long since fled, so the only 
people who would consider coming in were wandering Danubians, who were 
rightly concerned about being captured and tortured by foreign soldiers who were 
still bitter about the defeat in Hórkustk Ris.

 The woman and the girl returned to the Duchy after dark, carefully fording the 
river with multiple sacks of loot. Most of the items were metal that she would 
trade to a blacksmith for additional crossbow bolts. However, some of the tools 
she would keep in case she had to set up a shelter to pass the upcoming winter. 
Some items, such as a few rings and a necklace, would be very valuable if she 
could find an honest buyer and negotiate a good price.

 The wanderer and her slave stashed everything in a small cave along with 
Danka's bucket. They foraged the next day's meal and rested in preparation to 
cross back over and look for anything they might have missed on the first trip. 
Danka already had enough for a very nice day of trading, but she became greedy. 
She wanted more. So, there would be at least one more dangerous day across the 
border foraging among the ruins.

 Isauria continued to be scared out of her wits, but Danka's emotions had changed. 
Instead of raw fear, she felt hostility, determination, and cold anger. She wasn't 
sure who to be angry at, but finally vented her emotions against the Ancients, who 
had forsaken her and forced her into her current situation. So...the Destroyer was 
right. The Ancients were indeed silent and no longer watching over her. Maybe 
the Ancients had departed, or maybe they were never watching over her in the 
first place. What mattered was that they currently were not part of her life. Her 
only reality was the Destroyer.

 Danka and Isauria ventured more into the remaining houses and poked around in 
the rubble. The skeletons of people who obviously had died while being tortured 
were all around them. Depravity and atrocities were the only reality the residents 
had faced on their final day in the Realm of the Living. In one ruined room, the 
partially mummified remains of three children hung on hooks, facing another 
decomposed body that had been chained to a post. Probably the corpses were of 
children impaled in front of a parent who was forced to watch. Danka took a deep 
breath and continued searching.

 Two coins...an axe head...a bayonet...some lead musket balls...a buckle...another 
coin...some metal buttons...a pair of shears...hooks...a piece of chain...

 They moved on to a house that still had its walls, but was missing its roof. It 
seemed to be a good place to seek shelter, because it had a commanding view of 
the surrounding collapsed ruins. As Danka pried open a burnt strong-box, she felt 
a silent tap on her arm. Isauria pointed at the window and held up two fingers. 
Danka armed her crossbow and crept to a break in the wall. Two armed men were 
outside, suspiciously looking around. One of the men was wearing a bloody 
Danubian tunic and carrying a crossbow, but because of his long hair it was 
obvious he was not Danubian. The other man looked like a deserter from one of 
the Kingdom's armed factions.

 Crossbows were not commonly used in the Kingdom of the Moon, so Danka 
hoped that perhaps the bowman's companion would not be able to operate it. 
Anyhow, she decided that she wanted the weapon for Isauria. She knew that her 
life was in grave danger and that she should have been scared, but her thoughts 
focused on seizing the crossbow and whatever else those men had on them. She 
calculated how best to kill the strangers. Using sign language, she ordered Isauria 
to be ready to take and re-arm her crossbow as soon as she fired it. Isauria held 
onto her sword, trembling as Danka took aim. At the last second Danka decided to 
switch targets. She'd not kill the man with the crossbow, but instead target his 
companion. She calculated the man with the crossbow probably did not have 
much practice and would miss when he fired. A missed shot would give her 
precious time to reload and kill her second victim.

 Danka released her bolt with deadly accuracy. Her target spun around screaming, 
so his companion did not immediately know where the shot had come from. The 
man frantically looked around and took cover. Danka tightened her lips: she had 
not expected the bowman to hide and save his bolt. She handed the crossbow to 
Isauria and took the sword. The girl gasped and grunted as she struggled to reload 
the weapon. Danka ignored her and peered through the window, only to see the 
bowman's head facing in her direction...she swallowed and tried to suppress her 
fear. He had figured out her position. She took the crossbow from Isauria and 
passed back the sword. She motioned Isauria to move back against the wall and 
guard the back door. The girl was shaking so badly that she could barely hold her 
sword. Danka figured she'd be useless...and that she would have to fight on her 
own.

 Danka heard a frightened gasp and a crash behind her. As she spun around, she 
saw that a third man had burst into the room and Isauria had brought her sword 
down upon his neck. The enemy was injured with a painful cut , but not 
incapacitated. He screamed, grabbed the girl, and rolled on top of her. Fortunately 
his injury gave Danka time to react before he could kill the girl. With every bit of 
her strength, Danka kicked him squarely in the face. Stunned, he fell off Isauria, 
giving her time to recover the sword.

 "Finish him!"

 Isauria hacked at the intruder while Danka turned back to the window, just in 
time to see the first opponent charging towards her, armed with a musket 
equipped with a bayonet. Her crossbow misfired, but she hit him in the leg, 
causing him to miss when he lunged with his weapon. The musket tumbled to the 
floor, but the man hit Danka in the stomach with his fist, knocking the wind out of 
her. He straddled her and clenched his hands around her throat. Danka was about 
to pass out when she heard a high-pitched scream. The grip on her throat loosened 
as Danka's assailant turned to attack the girl who had just tried to stab him in the 
back. He grabbed both the sword and the girl. Danka recovered and grabbed her 
dagger and plunged it into the man's thigh. She clenched her teeth and stabbed 
again, digging the blade into his hip. Isauria pulled free, grabbed a stone block, 
and hurled it at the man's head. Danka stabbed again, but the blow was ineffective. 
The man grabbed Danka's wrist and tried to force the dagger from her hand.

 Isauria was the one who killed the assailant. She picked up another block, and 
instead of throwing at the man's head, held on to it and brought it down on his 
skull with a tremendous blow that cracked the bone. She screamed with her high-
pitched voice as the rock found its target. The man's bloody body went into 
convulsions as Danka held her throat and tried to recover her breath. Isauria was 
on her knees, crying.

 For a moment neither the woman nor the girl could react to what had just 
happened. They were winded and bruised, but fortunately neither was injured. 
The enemy's convulsions stopped as both men's blood stained the ruined floor. 
Finally Danka recovered enough to stand up. She stripped the bodies of their belts, 
holsters, and boots. She cut off the buttons and retrieved a coin-purse and some 
beef jerky, which she gave to Isauria. She retrieved the musket and a packet of 
gunpowder. The musket would not be of much use to her in the forest, but would 
certainly fetch a nice price in the market.

 Finally, Danka led her servant outside, to search the third body and recover the 
foreigner's crossbow. It was not in the best shape, but could easily be fixed. A 
sword, more boots, another dagger, and some crossbow bolts were added to their 
sack of loot. 

 The mistress and her shaken servant made their way back to the river, weighted 
down with sacks of metal and tools. Much more important were the new weapons. 
Danka now felt that they both were adequately armed for whatever awaited them 
in their Paths in Life.

 ----------

 Danka and Isauria spent several days moving their items to a safer location away 
from the border. They returned to the village where they had previously traded, 
sold the musket, and exchanged most of the metal objects for more bolts and 
supplies needed to get them through the winter. Danka decided to purchase a 
donkey from a young farmer to carry the supplies, which she paid with her 
collection of scavenged jewelry.

 When they left the town, Danka formally presented Isauria with the captured 
crossbow, a satchel of bolts, a canteen, and a fine dagger. The girl quietly 
accepted the weapons. Her Path in Life, like that of Danka, would include 
violence. She was barely twelve years old, but already had killed two men.

 They retrieved their remaining tools and supplies and traveled well to the east of 
their first incursion into the Kingdom of the Moon. As they moved through the 
backcountry, Danka intensified Isauria's training and education. There were 
enough crossbow bolts for Isauria to use on target practice, there was mock sword 
fighting, and practices with close combat. Danka produced some parchment and 
ink for Isauria to practice writing, and ordered the girl to keep a journal of their 
travels and observations. Isauria's life was hard and the learning was frustrating, 
but she did as she was told and never complained. She did not understand what 
type of life her mistress was preparing her for, but obviously it was not to be a 
house servant or a sex slave.

 Throughout the trip, the donkey turned out to be a bothersome necessity. Yes, 
they needed help carrying their supplies, but having a large animal slowed their 
progress and made them much more visible in the forest. Danka had to give up the 
idea of traveling to Rika Chorna that year: she announced that she and Isauria 
would winter in the mountains and go east the following spring. They'd build a 
comfortable shelter, sell or butcher the donkey in the fall, and continue their 
journey on foot after the snow melted in the higher elevations.

 Meanwhile, Danka calculated they would continue to scavenge the ruins of the 
Kingdom of the Moon for valuable items. The Danubian outcast and her servant 
kept close to the edge of the forest, leaving behind the donkey and crossing the 
river at night to search the ruins for items that might be useful. However, when 
they returned south, nothing awaited them but disappointment. They continued 
looking for anything they could scavenge, but apart from some rusted metal, they 
found very little in the ruins. No...from the villages to the east, nothing remained. 

 As Danka and Isauria wandered the edges of the Kingdom of the Moon, all they 
could see was the work of the Destroyer. It was true that two years before Danka 
had witnessed plenty of cruelty and devastation on the Grand Duke's campaign, 
but what she had seen in 1754 came nowhere close to the absolute desolation that 
had swept across the southern kingdom. It was all the same, everywhere they 
went. It seemed that both the Lord of the Red Moon and the Lord of the Blue 
Moon had completely lost their sanity. As a result, the Kingdom of the Moon was 
dying.

 The civil war had been going on for just two years. At that time Danka and 
Isauria had no way of knowing there would be eight more years of war to go.

 ----------

 At the end of August, the journey of Danka and Isauria paralleled territory that 
was more firmly under the control of the Lord of the Blue Moon. The villages had 
not yet been invaded and that section of the Kingdom seemed intact, at least for 
the time-being. As a lone Danubian, Danka was much more at risk if she 
attempted to cross into the hostile territory, so the explorations would have to 
cease. She considered moving well to the north of the border, to avoid risk of 
running into bands of Blue Moon troops that might want to cross and forage in the 
Duchy's territory.

She changed her mind when she came across a group of foreign woodcutters who 
had crossed the river to exploit the Danubian forest. The lumberjacks had cleared 
a sizable area, leaving it exposed to the south. As anyone from the Duchy would 
have viewed it, the men were invaders who were stealing Danubian resources and 
usurping Danubian land.

 Danka decided to take it upon herself to "defend the Duchy", as she put it. In 
reality what she wanted was the foreigners' equipment and camping supplies, after 
having spent a month wandering ruined villages searching for items to scavenge 
in vain. "Defending the Duchy" was pure fiction, but it justified the fact she was 
about to attack the woodcutters so she could take their belongings. 

 The Danubian wanderer directed her servant to lead their donkey to a watering 
hole, secure him with some food so he would not be tempted to wander off, and to 
off-load and hide their supplies. Meanwhile, Danka scouted the logging camp. It 
seemed there were about 20 men working in the area, some were cutting down 
trees, some preparing charcoal, and four others were cutting boards. When she 
saw all of their equipment and supplies, Danka's mouth watered. Axes, saws, 
hammers, nails, a small forge, weapons, four oxen, chickens, leather, finished 
boards, ale, glassware...all for the taking. The only thing that stood between her 
and all that loot was 20 men, who she'd have to figure out how to kill.

 The loggers posted a guard throughout the night, but otherwise their security was 
completely deficient. Danka figured the most difficult task would be killing the 
sentry in silence. She had plenty of training and experience moving through a 
hostile area in silence and killing with a dagger, so the other men she could kill in 
their sleep. There would be some danger, because she'd have to move among the 
loggers. A single mistake, or a chance awakening, would ruin her plan and most 
likely end her life.

 As she observed the foreigners, Danka realized it would be better to go after them 
at dusk, after they finished working but before they went to bed. Towards the end 
of every afternoon several wagon teams arrived from the south, loaded boards and 
charcoal, and left behind a supply of fresh meat and ale. The men feasted and 
usually became obscenely drunk. One-by-one they wandered into the bushes to 
urinate, often becoming lost as they tried to get back to the camp in their drunken 
stupor. As they stumbled into the woods, they could be killed individually, 
without their companions knowing anything was wrong.

 Danka and Isauria put on their boots and leather peasant skirts. Like the 
legendary nymphs, the female guerrilla archers from two centuries before, they 
carried nothing but their weapons and were completely naked from the waist up. 

 Isauria slept curled up at the base of a large tree while Danka crept forward to 
watch the final hours of the loggers' routine. As always, the wagons from the 
south arrived to take away boards and leave behind a supply of ale and fresh meat. 
The smell of the cooking tormented the Danubian, who was used to the Spartan 
diet provided by the forest. The tree cutters and charcoal burners drifted in from 
the edges of the encampment towards a large fire. They took their first portion of 
strong ale, one full bottle per man.

 As she crouched in the darkness, Danka counted 22 foreigners altogether. She 
felt the Destroyer's presence, like a hand on her shoulder. Greed and hatred filled 
her soul as she watched her future victims finish their first round of ale and take a 
second round. They consumed vast quantities of meat as they became drunk. 
Danka slipped back to the tree to summon Isauria, who was sitting in the darkness 
and cradling her crossbow with a terrified expression. Danka explained what was 
about to happen as they returned to the camp. She would pick each target and 
have Isauria accompany her as backup, knowing that she was proficient enough 
with the crossbow that she could rely on her to fire the second bolt at each enemy.

 When they returned, they heard bushes rustling and the distinct sound of a man 
relieving himself. Danka tapped her servant's arm and aimed her weapon at the 
silhouette. They fired silently and killed silently, as befitting of Followers, woods-
women, and Danubian nymphs. The man fell to the ground without making a 
sound. Isauria performed with her crossbow as Danka expected, but she was 
terrified at the turn of events and her mistress's merciless behavior.

 They crept around the encampment in the dark, waiting for the next drunkard. 
Within a few minutes a second man was lying in the brush, dead from bolts he 
never saw coming. Within an hour, half of the loggers had been dispatched in the 
woods. Those remaining at the fire were too drunk to defend themselves. Danka 
led Isauria into the camp itself, planning to dispatch the cook next, since he 
seemed to be more sober and alert than his companions. Two bolts finished off 
the cook, and when his assistant discovered his body and frantically looked 
around, he was next.

 The men remaining at the fire began to realize something was not right. No one 
who had gotten up had come back. Two went out to investigate, as Danka and her 
slave slipped out ahead to intercept them in the bushes. They staggered around, 
the alcohol blunting their awareness to the silent danger that awaited. Two more 
shots...four more bolts...two less men in the camp. Another man stumbled into the 
darkness and was stopped by the two assailants.

 The men remaining in the camp now were standing up and reaching for their 
muskets. Finally they realized the camp was under attack. Danka decided to act 
quickly against the surviving foreigners. She and her assistant fired rapidly at a 
young man with a large musket. He fired as he fell, the noise from his firearm 
adding to the confusion of the others. Danka and Isauria re-loaded and fired again. 
Four remaining men now realized where the bolts were coming from and 
incoherently shot in unison. Danka and Isauria rolled to the side just in time to be 
clear of the musket balls that whizzed past them. They slipped through the trees as 
the men came after them. They snuck around to the opposite side of the camp and 
shot into the back of a logger who was facing in the opposite direction. They had 
just enough time to reload their crossbows to take out another man charging in 
their direction. By now the remaining pair of loggers were in a pure state of 
drunken panic, calling out to companions who no longer were alive. They fled 
back into the camp towards the oxen, trying to reload their muskets. Danka 
scuttled through piles of lumber in pursuit. She stood up and aimed at one of the 
men. He turned and frantically aimed his musket, but it was too late. Danka 
released her bolt and her victim fell screaming. Isauria caught up to her and fired 
a finishing shot into his chest. 

 Only one logger remained alive, but it turned out he was the most difficult to kill. 
By now he had sobered up enough to stay hidden and listen for the enemy's 
footsteps. Danka had to order Isauria to go out into the woods and throw rocks to 
flush him out while she moved about the camp. The man saw her and for the next 
hour they chased each other around wood piles as the fire slowly died. Finally 
Isauria, who had remained hidden, ambushed and shot the man in the stomach, 
and it was Danka's turn to finish him off with a second shot.

 The woman and the girl did not have time to think about anything apart from 
surviving the fight while it was happening. Now that the loggers had been 
exterminated, the enormity of what they had just done began to sink in. A young 
peasant woman and her adolescent servant had committed a massacre of 22 
human beings. Danka felt nothing but cold triumph, but Isauria was clearly 
distressed. As they looked around at the bodies, Danka noted the girl's bewildered 
and frightened expression.

 "In the forest, the wolf must kill to eat, and it's better to be a wolf than a sheep. Is 
that not so, Servant Isauria?"

 Isauria took a deep breath. She was trembling, but she forced herself to answer:

 "Yes, Mistress Danka."

 "I am a wolf. A vicious she-wolf. You're a wolf too. A smaller wolf, not much 
more than a cub, but a wolf nonetheless. Is that not so, Servant Isauria?"

 "Yes, Mistress Danka. That is so."

 "Very good. With your help, I have re-taken this land for the Duchy. You did 
well tonight and pleased me with your performance."

 "Thank you, Mistress."

 When Danka looked towards the moon, an owl, that owl, was perched on a 
branch watching her. The Destroyer said nothing. The bird simply sat for a while, 
observing the campsite, before flying off.

 ----------

Danka and Isauria feasted on the remains of their victims' beef and pork. As much 
as she also wanted to indulge in their ale, she avoided it, knowing that she needed 
to keep her wits about her. For lighting she told Isauria to re-stoke the fire as she 
began looting the camp. The first priority was to examine all of the visible corpses, 
to make sure they were dead, retrieve any bolts that were not damaged, and look 
for small valuable items such as coins, daggers, rings, and medallions. At 
daybreak she'd have to explore the woods to look at the other corpses, the ones 
hidden in the bushes.

 Next, she gathered all the weapons she could find and moved them to the edge of 
the clearing. She piled axes and saws near the weapons. She gathered up all the 
cooking utensils. Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw a large barrel of 
salt and several bags of flour. The tools...the supplies...the weapons...if she could 
just take all those items and secure them, not only would she be rich by Danubian 
standards, but she'd also have everything she and Isauria would need to live in 
comfort throughout the winter. As the day broke and there was enough light, she 
ransacked the sleeping cabin while Isauria stood guard.

 Isauria appeared at the entrance and silently called her mentor's attention to a 
noise she had heard outside. Danka looked out, noticing that the birds had gone 
silent. She and Isauria armed their crossbows. She could hear movement in the 
bushes as a woman's voice called out to her in Danubian:

 "Come out and put your crossbows on the ground. There are only two of you and 
there are a lot more of us. We want to meet with you, but you must disarm your 
weapon and step away from it."

 Danka exchanged glances with Isauria. When she hesitated, the voice continued: 
"Don't be a fool. Put down your crossbow and stand where we can properly see 
you. We're not planning to take it from you."

 "Who are you?"

 "We're Defenders of the Duchy. Now put down your crossbow. Then we'll talk."

 Very reluctantly, Danka disarmed her crossbow and set it on the ground. Isauria 
followed suit. The woman and the girl moved forward two fathoms and stood in 
the open. Ten Danubians, three women and seven men, stepped into the clearing 
through the bushes. The women were dressed like Danka: in short leather skirts 
and boots. The carried crossbows and the only item each wore above her waist 
was a satchel for bolts. The men wore green tunics that were open on the sides. 
They wore nothing underneath apart from sturdy boots. Two of the men had short 
swords, two had muskets, and the others had crossbows. The oldest man in the 
group stepped forward. The woman who had called out to Danka from the trees 
continued:

 "Please salute our commander. And we will show you the same respect you 
choose to show us."

 Danka tapped her servant's shoulder and reluctantly saluted the stranger by 
tapping her right fist to her left shoulder. Isauria copied her mistress's actions and 
saluted as well. The older man returned the salute.

 "Greetings. My name is Commander Sáupeckt. I lead military operations in this 
region. As you've already been told, we are Defenders of the Duchy. Now, what is 
your name?"

 "Danka, Commander Sáupeckt. My name is Danka Síluckt."

 "Excellent. So you weren't stupid enough to lie about your name. And your 
companion? What's her name?"

 "Isauria."

 The commander looked over the servant.

 "You're not Danubian..."

 "No, Master. I'm from a manor south of Malénkta-Gordnáckta."

 "Commander. I'm not a 'Master', I am a Commander."

 "Yes...Commander... Commander Sáupeckt."

 "That's much better." Commander Sáupeckt directed his next comment at Danka: 
"We've been watching you for several days. You're a competent woods-woman, 
but if you were as good as you think you are, you would have noticed our 
presence. We'll have to work on that. You obviously know how to operate a 
crossbow. I congratulate you on your success here."

 "Thank you, Commander."

 "I may congratulate your success, but that is not to say I'm pleased with what you 
did. Because of this massacre, this area will be full of Blue Moon troops, seeking 
to find out what happened to these loggers and avenge them. There are three 
nearby villages to the east that we'll have to evacuate and defend. Because of the 
time of year, you've just placed the region's fall harvest at risk. We'll spend the 
fall in combat instead of strengthening our defense network, which is not what I 
was planning. I did want to confront these loggers, but they were not a top priority. 
Not now...not at this time of the year."

 "Yes, Commander."

 "So...the question in front of us is not what has been done, but where do we go 
from here. With your experience, you'll have an easy time redeeming yourself. 
You will do so as a nymph under my command. As of now...you are members of 
Oana's squad..." the commander pointed at the oldest of the three women, the one 
who had called out to her... "both you and the girl."

 Danka said nothing...trying to think how she could stall for time and slip away. 
The sharp-witted commander saw the doubt in her eyes and continued:

 "We've already secured your belongings and are taking them to the main winter 
camp. You'll find them waiting for you in your sleeping quarters. They were not 
as well-hidden as you thought."

 Danka gave up on any thoughts of escape. Without her equipment and supplies 
she could not hope to survive the winter in the mountains. She and Isauria had 
been drafted into the militia and that was the end of it. She'd have to make the 
best of her situation, just as she had to make the best out of being a concubine for 
the Grand Duke.

 "As for what's here...everything in this campsite belongs to the Duchy. I will give 
you first pick at choosing one dagger and one short-sword. You can keep one 
medallion, one ring, and a fourth of the coins. The coins are compensation for 
your efforts and reimbursement for selling us your donkey."

 "Yes, Commander Sáupeckt."

 "Good. Now, report to your squad leader."

 Danka and Isauria turned to Oana. She gave Danka a sharp look, until the 
newcomer realized that she needed to salute. By saluting, she acknowledged that 
she was under Oana's command and obligated to obey her orders.

 Additional Defenders arrived to help clean out the logging camp. They picked up 
all the tools, bedding, and cooking utensils, cleaned out the bunk house, and drove 
away the four oxen. Meanwhile, Oana led Danka and eleven other female archers 
to the road, where they would ambush and kill the wagon drivers tasked with 
resupplying the loggers for the day. As they set up, Oana treated Danka the same 
as she treated any of the other archers in her squad. She was expected to follow 
orders, coordinate with her peers, and perform her duty with her crossbow. The 
fact she had joined the unit just minutes before meant nothing. For the time being, 
she'd be able to keep Isauria as her assistant, but the squad leader hinted Isauria's 
role and her relationship with her mistress would change within a few days. 

 The ambush of the teamsters later that afternoon was anti-climactic. There were 
eight of them: when Oana ordered her nymphs to fire their crossbows, the 
foreigners all died instantly. The Danubian women took control of the mules, 
picked up the bodies, loaded them into the wagons, and continued the journey to 
the camp. By the time nymphs arrived, the logging compound had been 
completely dismantled. The Defenders already had made off with the best wood: 
the rest was used to create a funeral pyre to dispose of the victims from the night 
before, as well as the eight new corpses. The bodies were laid out in a neat row, 
ready to be thrown onto the fire from a wagon that was being used as a platform.

 A poorly-dressed Priest from the Old Believers' sect arrived to say a prayer for 
the dead foreigners. As soon as he finished, several men came out with flutes and 
a drum. Oana's nymphs, including Danka and Isauria, stripped off their skirts and 
boots. The women spent the next hour dancing naked while the musicians played 
and the men took turns mounting the wagon to toss corpses into the fire. It was an 
ancient and sinister celebration of death and victory, an acknowledgement of the 
Destroyer and the power that "the Profane One" held over the Realm of the Living.

 Danka learned the dance and repeated it as best she could. She now was a 
member of Oana's squad of nymphs and a Defender of the Duchy. As such, she 
had her duties, which she would perform as well as possible. 

 She glanced upward at the tree tops. After a scanning the branches for a few 
seconds she found what she was looking for. Sure enough, from a distance two 
unblinking yellow eyes were staring back at her.