After avoiding soldiers all morning, Rhunal finally found a safe place to stop and rest. She scanned the surroundings from the flat roof of a two-story house. 

'Master must have returned to the manor early this morning. He found his dead and missing servants and announced the theft of many valuable items. The city is on high alert now.' 

She knew Master Carinus was an influential man, but she had not realized exactly how powerful until now. It seemed like every guard in the city was out on patrol.

'He must think I'm dead somewhere too. If I wasn't so damn hungry, I could wait until they call off the alert. Those thieves are long gone. The guards won't catch them.'

She looked down at the manacles around her ankles. The chain was gone, but the manacles were still an obvious identifier of her status as a slave. She heard the continuous clanking of armored soldiers patrolling the streets. Removing the manacles now would be far too noisy. Hungry as she was, the best thing to do was to rest. And despite the rumbling in her stomach, she finally passed out.

*

She awoke to the sound of a roaring crowd below. The people refused to let a little citywide manhunt cancel their tournament. She peeked over the edge of the fence surrounding her rooftop. The house she was perched in, backed up to the arena grounds. She had been so exhausted, she'd slept through half the tournament. She watched as a mounted warrior smashed his opponent off his horse with a vicious blow from his long mace. The other man fell to the ground and did not immediately rise.

With all that noise now is the perfect time to get these manacles off. She hunched back down below the fence and pulled both feet closer to herself. She reached her left hand over her feet and hesitated. What she was about to do would hurt like hell.

"Bah!" she scoffed, shooting power through her hand. Waves of heat emanated towards her feet. This did not torch her skin. Her master had once described the effect as an inability to harm oneself, even through magic. He specified that not all magic followed this rule. But most known spells did. 

The waves of heat increased in intensity to become roiling orange flames. They continued passing around her feet. The effect could not protect her from the now glowing hot manacles, which seared into her ankles. The smell of burning flesh was overpowering. She tried to avoid thinking of it as her own. She’d pass right out if she dwelt on that too much 

When the pain and the smell became overbearing, she forced an intense blast of pressurized fire into the manacles and cracked them in half. They flew off in separate directions. One smacked into the low wall surrounding the rooftop and the other careened right at her face. She batted it away with her bare hand, earning another burn for her trouble.

Rhunal looked at her scalded left palm and the nasty deep tissue burns on both ankles. She held her palm in front of her and willed her healing magic into the skin. Energy flowed through the hand and the scalded flesh scabbed up at an incredible rate, then fell away. Then she held the hand over both feet.

The crowd below gave a triumphant shout, "He's going to finish him!" 

She split her attention between pouring healing energy into her burns and peeking into the arena. Her ability to heal was the only magic that her master had not taught her. She could perform it with no focus at all, her other spells could be interrupted if her attention lapsed.

Down below, a much larger man clad in chainmail with a two-handed axe advanced on a smaller one with a long flail. The big man, with a black, short beard, was the crowd favorite. There wasn't much question why, as his smaller opponent was a foreigner. His bronzed skin and scale armor marked him as a native of the empire to the south. 

His flail was a rare weapon in the arena battles. A flail could inflict devastating blows, but was an unreliable weapon and was useless for blocking. The small man's only defense against the bearded axe was a small buckler. 

The giant in chainmail moved fast for his size and brought his weapon down with incredible force. His opponent did not leap out of the way. He stepped towards the attack and intercepted the side of the axe-head against the buckler with perfect timing. He stepped around to the right of the giant, swinging his flail around in a long arc. The big guy didn't even see the round ball of the flail as it slammed into the side of his helmet.

Rhunal heard the sickening crunch of metal even from her perch high up. "What a blow!" she exclaimed, covering her mouth nervously after her outburst.

Luckily nobody heard her over the metallic 'crash' of the giant falling to the ground. She couldn't help but continue staring at the man. He had fallen on his back and seemed almost to be staring right at her. 

'No chance. He's unconscious for sure. If he's even alive at all!'  

He lifted his head and raised a hand to his head, blood flowing around his fingers. His helmet lost when he had hit the dirt. He stared right at her. 

'How did he get up from that?' She froze. 'He is right below me. From that distance, he can see exactly what I am!' 

 Her light green skin would be obvious even from a distance. She was wearing nothing but a leather vest and a pair of shorts. 

All it would take would be for him to point and shout. 'Hey what's that orc doing up there?' Which would bring the guards down on her head. Orcs were not unheard of in the city, but they kept to the weapon shops and adventurer's guild. They were not permitted to spend the night. One hiding on a rooftop would trigger all kinds of questions. 

But it was he who broke eye contact. He rolled over and pushed himself to his feet. Before he could get a good second look, she ducked out of view.

 She crouched behind the low fence around the rooftop. Footsteps thumped below her in the house, steadily becoming louder. "Time to go", she muttered. Her ankles were completely healed, but her clothes were a dead giveaway. A young orc female wearing a simple vest and pair of shorts would stick out. And then she spotted the robe hanging from the line. 

'By Inferno, how did I miss that? I guess it had been dark when I first climbed onto the rooftop.'

She snatched the blue robe with a red hood from the clothesline over her head. It was a long robe and concealed all six feet of her height. Miraculous, when the average person was about five foot six inches tall, with women even shorter. The footsteps got louder as they stomped up the stairs. The hatch to the roof lifted. Rhunal climbed on top of the fence, overlooking an alleyway. She looked down into a narrow alley, over two stories down, and jumped.

The owner popped out of the hatch onto an empty rooftop. "Who's up here?" he shouted. She was gone, flying towards the ground. She desperately worked out how to hit the ground a little softer than her current velocity. 

In a panic she had leaped down at a set of barrels and a crate stacked in the alley. She had overestimated the size of the crate that she intended to break her fall. It was barely longer than she was tall. 

She frantically propelled a wind spell at the ground. She had never tried to stop her fall with her wind spell, but it was her only option. The vortex of wind churned a tornado of pebbles and dirt below her. She slammed down onto the crate at almost max velocity anyway. The crate shattered with a loud crunch and the sickening sound of something being squished.

Laying stretched over the half-destroyed crate with her legs over the side, She had made a mess out of a perfect set of grapefruits. Rhun grinned sheepishly, the expression making her tusks more pronounced.

'Nailed it.' 

She raised a fist in mock salute. Grapefruits lazily rolled away from their destroyed container. Most of the public was still attending the tournament, and nobody had heard her fall.

*

Rhunal rolled out of the ruined crate and stepped out onto the street, pocketing a couple of the less squished grapefruits. 'Master never let me out into town unsupervised.' she thought.

Despite the risk of being caught, she was grinned excitedly as she took in the tall buildings and narrow streets. They were built wider on the second floors, making them even closer to each other at the top. But she didn't sight-see for long. Her sense of the city streets wasn't perfect, but she knew the town castle behind her was near the middle of town. If she followed the street away from the castle downhill, then she would come to the town gate. 

She hustled down the unpopulated street and kept her hood tight around her head. The sun was high in the sky and the hood would shadow her face and green skin. She kept away from the few people and nobody gave her a second look.

But the city gate was barred shut and well guarded, when she reached it. The gatehouse was a poor one; the wheel that controlled the portcullis lay exposed on top of the wall. But it was still essentially impregnable to her and manned by four guards. She approached within shouting distance of them, and they pointed their spears in her direction. 

"Nobody is allowed out of the city!" they shouted. "The gate is closed while a major theft and break-in is being investigated."

'So much for my stupid plan. How did I think I would get past the gate?'

She was forced to turn around and go back the way she came. Hanging around would make the guards suspicious. If they got too close, she'd be sent packing back to her master. She walked away from the gate slowly, unsure of where to go. 

'Where can I hide until the city is off lockdown?' 

She nearly ran directly into a group of patrolling guards. Fortunately, this group wasn't taking their job too seriously. The lead man was looking back and chatting with another behind him. The ones with spears had them leaned over their shoulders. But they were quickly approaching, and she was one of the few on the streets. Relaxed they might be, but they were looking over everyone they passed by.

The disguised she-orc frantically looked for a way out. The robe hid her distinct features, but it also made her stand out as a person of interest, like a mage or a healer. Neither trade was very common and the guards would definitely question her. 

Before she lost her nerve and ran, she saw the large red sign for the Adventurer's Guild next to her head. She knew it was one of the few places that her kind was welcome. She ducked inside the door before the guards could take notice of her.