Fantasy An Innocent on Death Row

[Northern Ranger]

Aremir watched with keen eyes as the wagon slowly cajoled down the rocky landscape. They were only a few miles out from the mountain city of Mindri now, and they softly made their way from the dirt path of the forest onto more unforgiving terrain. He kept himself hidden in a tree, watching them take their leave- not that he planned on letting them get very far.

The prison wagon was heading out to the small town for one reason- public execution. Perhaps some of the wagons passengers were merely headed for a jail cell instead of an untimely demise- he had no way to know, and didn't particularly care. He was focused on one person, and one person alone- the tabaxi, sitting with her hands in manacles and her right eye closed as she made her way towards the chopping block.

He had just been passing through the town where she was arrested- he hadn't meant to get involved. In fact, unless he was being paid to do so, Aremir very rarely got involved in political dealings such as this. However, the idea of being arrested- and subsequently hanged- for the mere act of helping someone just didn't sit right with him. He had looked further into her story, and found only scattered bits and pieces- mentions of theft charges one town over, whispers of underground crime rings, a brother facing life in prison... he knew not what was rumor, and what was truth. Nothing seemed to add up quite as it should, and the ranger was disquieted still.

He had debated with himself for a long time about whether or not getting involved was the right idea. He didn't tend to stick his neck out for random thieves, or cause trouble with any well meaning townspeople on purpose, and wasn't all together happy with the idea. Still, he had eventually decided that, even if she had done everything the town claimed she had, that taking the girls eye was punishment enough. Even jail might be reasonable, but hanging for theft? It was apparent that these people did not want to see justice; they wanted to see blood.

The best way to attempt to free her, he had decided, was to help her do it herself. He could hardly rush at the two guards leading the wagon and simply hope for the best- even if all went well, he might end up wanted himself. Instead, he had simply dropped a small lock-pick in her lap as the wagon had passed under him, thanking old gods that the other prisoners had not noticed. Hoping that she knew what she was doing, he brought his bow to full attention, and leveled his arrow at the left most horse, hesitating only a second before releasing.

Chaos quickly ensued. The horse cried out, rearing up as if it were going to tip backwards on the wagon before collapsing under its injured leg. The other horse started, desperately trying to run, but the wagon was stopped by its new burden. One guard began screaming at the horse. attempting to rein it in, while the other drew his cross-bow and looked wildly around, attempting to find where the shot had originated. Aremir watched silently from the shadows, ready to help as needed, as most of the prisoners leapt to their feet and began straining against the shackles.

Lioness075

 

[Lioness075]

As the wagon had creaked forward towards her demise, Leandra continued to quietly stare down at her lap. Her hands were open, her claws unsheathing and sheathing again. She was trying her best to play it off cooly as if she were merely bored, but deep down she was terrified for her life and wondered if any of the other prisoners could hear her heart racing. Her fidgeting could not distract her from the cool air and a puff of air escaped from her. She glanced up briefly and took in the sight of the trees and shafts of sunlight peeking through the canopy beyond. A pair of sparrows chirped and flew through the trees, deftly dodging branches and Leandra felt her racing heart ease ever so slightly. It was too bad that she would not be able to look at the sky before her execution. The thought quickly spiraled her back into her misery and Leandra's gaze returned to her fidgeting hands.

There was the faintest clink and Leandra's ears flickered forward when something small and metallic landed in her lap. She forced her ears to relax, as she glanced down at the lockpick now in her hands. Now her heart was racing for an entirely different reason.
She had no reason to believe someone in this cruel world had actually gone out of their way to help her, but it was impossible to see this for what it was. Someone was helping her escape. There was also a chance that the lockpick had been meant for someone else, but she did not care. She refused to go down without a fight.
Surreptitiously, Leandra tilted her head to the side and began to pick at her lock. Her eye flickered back and forth, as she tried to avoid bringing any attention to herself, but also quietly breaking her lock. She would have to wait and get her ankles whenever the stranger did the next step to their plan. Leandra could only hope it involved some kind of distraction.

As she waited, Leandra slipped the lockpick into one of her sleeves and then scowled when she looked up and saw a prisoner looking at her eagerly.
Luckily, the wagon had likely never seen a pint of oil in its life, so it creaked and groaned consistently. Alas, this also meant that the irritating prisoner was willing to risk whispering to her.
"Hey, cat, why don't you share your little secret with the rest of us, eh?"
The prisoner was an older man, greying hair and a rough beard. His clothes were practically falling off of him and Leandra caught sight of the faint stain of blood on one of his sleeves.
Leandra maintained her scowl and glanced sideways at the guards to make sure they had not heard them. When the guards did not react, Leandra whispered back, "Shut it, old man. I don't help murderers."
Her eye glinted dangerously in a shimmer of sunlight and the man gulped before leaning back and shrugging. He attempted to play it off, as he said, "Your loss."

Leandra narrowed an eye at the man, but did not get a chance to say more as the wagon abruptly halted. The one horse still alive reared and shrieked in a panic, the guards shouting as they tried to get it back under control. Leandra had no idea what was happening, but she was not about to stick around and find out.
Leaning forward, Leandra deftly picked the lock to her ankle shackles and sighed in relief when they dropped to the floor.
Leaping to her feet, Leandra began to rush for the wagon's cage door, but cursed when she was tripped and hit the floor on her hands and knees. The man had caught her in her obnoxiously large blind spot, leaving a leg out for her to trip over. The other prisoners were riled up now, shouting and struggling against their shackles to be freed as well. Leandra scrambled on all fours forward between the legs, hissing when someone stomped on her tail and gasping repeatedly as she was kicked in the sides.
When she finally reached the cage door, Leandra had a number of new bruises and blood trickling down from the right side of her forehead. It really was not her day.
Grabbing for the lock, Leandra hissed at the nearest prisoner, who froze in surprise and gave her just enough time to pick the lock. With a grin, Leandra turned to face the prisoners and tossed the lockpick in the air while saying lightly, "Have fun, degenerates."
She leapt down from the wagon's cage and smirked at the bloody frenzy that now ensued between the prisoners. She doubted any of them could even reach the lockpick now, but they would certainly serve as a lovely distraction in addition to what was already happening.

Turning away from the wagon, Leandra froze when she heard a guard shouting, "Halt! Prisoner, do not move!"
Cursing under her breath, Leandra dropped to all fours and began racing away from the wagon and road, crashing through the underbrush of the forest. She had no time for subtlety now, all she could hope for was to outrun the guard. This was in her favor luckily, as most humans had a very hard time keeping up with her kind unless they had a mount of their own.

 

[Northern Ranger]

Aremir watched the scene play out anxiously from his hiding spot in the canopy of the forest, heart pumping faster than ever as the Tabaxi girl swung open the cage door. She was panicked, and looked a little worse for wear, but she was out, and very nearly home-free amidst the chaos. His heart was caught up in the excitement of it all, and he tried to calm down, to convince himself that he cared not for the fate of a random thief on her way to the gallows- a futile effort. If he was truly uninterested in her, he wouldn't've risked his own life to free her. If his elder rangers could see him now, they would more than likely dismiss this as the naive antics of youth- the foolish notion that most people are genuinely good. Yes, they would call him foolish. Indeed, he would call himself foolish were he in any position to do so.

As the guard approached her, he steadied he bow yet again, stopping himself from releasing the arrow just in time. The girl- Leandra, he reminded himself- was much faster than the guard could hope to be. Even if he did follow her into the wood, Aremir could quickly dispose of him using his sword or dagger; no need to kill a random man doing his job, after all, although he was more worried about another stray arrow giving away his position than anything.

As she tore through the woods, he quickly went after her. When he had first come up with his plan, he had considered just letting her escape herself. After all, what more could be asked of him after saving her life? But he knew he couldn't, not really. It was a fortnights trip through the forest on foot, and abandoning a slightly injured, hungry, and unarmed prisoner would nearly be murder in of itself. Not to mention that it would be cruel to let her fight her way through the wilderness- she obviously couldn't take the main road, but rangers knew of paths others overlooked. And even putting aside all of that, he couldn't deny his curiosity- he hadn't investigated into her story for naught, after all.

He sped quickly and silently through the branches- but still found himself glad for his head-start. There was no way he could've caught her in time without it. He crouched in a branch just about six or seven feet off the ground and, spoke to her as loud as he dared. "Look up, my friend- you are not alone." His voice was quiet and scratchy, creaking with disuse. His onyx eyes gleamed from under his hood from where his face was hidden in shadow.

 

[Lioness075]

Leandra was just rounding the large trunk of an oak tree when she heard someone speaking to her. She thought she had lost the guard a while back and yelped as she tripped over one of the tree's roots. She crashed headlong into some neighboring bushes and muttered a quiet curse.

Slowly, she rose from the bushes and quickly brushed any twigs and leaves from her fur. Leandra glared up at the stranger hanging out in a tree above her. She crossed her arms over her chest and said with a growl, "What do ye want, stranger? Here to collect my bounty and turn me in?"
Narrowing her eyes, Leandra spread her stance and prepared to dash back into the forest. She refused to give up easily after escaping her death so soon.
"Yer gunna have a hard time catching me now that I've tasted freedom once more, stranger."

She quietly unsheathed her claws, the only weapons she now had in her possession. Leaning over, Leandra slowly crouched and got prepared to leap at or away from the man depending on what he chose to do next. She kept her one good eye on him, tilting her head to the side so she could see him more clearly.
Despite her best efforts at training the one eye, Leandra had never fully recovered her depth perception and the trip earlier hopefully did not give this fact away to the stranger. Many tried to use her disadvantage against her and Leandra had spent many years trying to overcome it.

 

[Northern Ranger]

Aremis stayed perfectly still aside from blinking as he sized up the near-stranger before him. He certainly didn't want her to run again; there was no way he would be able to catch her. Still, he had never been known for being the most charming or charismatic of people. He drummed his fingers on the side of the branch before finally deciding on something to say. "I care not for your bounty." He eventually said, slowly spelling out the words as if it might make them more convincing. He lowered his hood so she could see his face- pale, with wavy black hair cropped messily at his shoulders. His pallor was somewhat offset by the dirt and dust that accompany's someone who had been painstakingly following a small wagon of criminals through the wilderness for five days, but his eyes were sharp.

"And if I wanted you locked up, it would've been a strange move indeed to give you that lock-pick, and kill one of the horse's carrying you to the gallows." he finished, splaying his open hands as if he were a stage magician. Nothing up my sleeves.

"My name is Aremis, Ranger of the Northern Snow. You, my fair lady, are Leandra, and for some reason or another, the people of Eovien wanted you dead." he continued. "I simply couldn't find a good enough reason why. You were only helping that boy. Perhaps I missed the law where thieves were automatically hanged." he shrugged, attempting to convey nonchalance and not any sort of threat, but couldn't help but feel tense. What if she chose to attack him? What if she ran away again? Always making friends in low places, me. I must try to kick that habit...

 

[Lioness075]

When the man spoke again, he did so in such a slow manner that Leandra had to wonder if he was not the brightest. She frowned and arched her back while her tail flicked this way and that behind her. Her eye shifted from side to side while the man spoke, as she mindfully chose her best exit route from this small clearing.

The sun shafts coming through the canopy gave the earthy floor a spotted appearance and Leandra hoped that the deeper in the forest she went, the less sunlight would be able to pierce through the canopy.

Just then, the stranger mentioned the lockpick that had fallen into her lap. Leandra glanced up at him sharply and tilted her head to the side.
"That does not explain your motivation," she said simply before continuing to glare at him.

Without further adieu, the man went right into a formal introduction and Leandra blinked in mild surprise. She could not understand why this Aremis was so forthcoming with information or why he even cared so much about her in particular. She was just another thief being punished in this world. She certainly did not stand out in a crowd except for the fact that she always kept her right eyelid shut. She really missed her eye patch now that she thought about it. The eyelid muscles were bound to get exhausted at some point and then she would be forced to open the eyelid.

Sighing, Leandra forced herself to relax and proceeded to sit down cross-legged on the forest floor. If the guards were still coming after her, she would have heard them recklessly charging through the forest by now. Placing her hands on the ground on either side of herself, Leandra leaned back and looked up at the man.
Her tone took on one of boredom and slight sarcasm, as she said, "Great story. Really. Look, I still don't understand why a complete stranger gives a damn about me, but I suppose I'm at least grateful that I'm not on death row for now. I don't know what yer plan is here, but I'm still a wanted criminal. I kind of have a really obvious appearance."
She narrowed her one eye at Aremis and then added, "Why are you still here with me? Why bother introducing yourself?"

Pausing for a brief moment, Leandra then added in a grumble, "And I'm no fair lady. Don't give me a title. I don't have a title and I don't want one."