“If we can, we need to make a break for it,” Finn hissed into the darkness. She heard more than saw Adi start at that.

“My father-” she started to protest.

“We can’t save him by staying here and getting raped,” Finn bit out.

Adi didn’t have anything to say to that, though it wasn’t like she had a lot of time to do so. Less than a few seconds after Finn spoke, the door swung open to let a flood of late afternoon light flood into the wagon. Behind her, Adi hissed and tucked her face into her knees to protect her eyes. Finn squinted, the light hurting her eyes as well, but not daring to take them off the men before her.

There were four of them, all of them soldiers and only one of them somewhat highly ranked judging by the different cut of his tunic and leggings.

“God, what strange beauties!” one of them exclaimed.

“Are you sure they’re really women?” another one joked.

They were all staring into the wagon with eyes wide and mouths agog, mostly at Finn since she was so prominently positioned, but also glancing back at the dark shape of Adi behind her.

Finn glared, but didn’t bother trying to cover her chest or anything else. The man with the nicer cut clothes leered, giving her such an obvious up and down, his eyes lingering on what little she had of breasts and the junction of her thighs, that Finn felt almost physically sick. She wasn’t exactly feminine looking, she knew that. She was all muscle and jutting bones and tight sinew contained under scarred, tattooed, and freckled skin. But, she doubted that mattered to these men. They weren’t here to enjoy a pretty girl, they were here to feel big and strong and sneer down at people they thought were lesser than them.

She would probably enjoy rearranging their faces, but she had to be careful. These men might not be a great challenge, but she had no idea where in the camp their wagon had been parked. She would have trouble getting Adi out of a heavily armed camp of soldiers without any kind of weapons or armor, and she definitely wouldn’t have a chance if the mage who had taken her out before was nearby.

“Come here, little girl,” the ranked soldier said with a smarmy grin, beckoning to her with a crooked finger.

Finn raised a lip to show her distaste, but shuffled forward on her knees. She tried to scan around behind the men with just her peripheral vision. She didn’t want to make it too obvious that she was looking for an escape. They were crowded so close that it was hard to see anything behind them, but she thought she heard the rustle of trees nearby and smelled the damp loam of a forest.

The man who had beckoned her grabbed Finn’s face in a rough grip, his gloved fingers digging into her cheeks, and gave her head a rough shake. Finn heard Adi’s terrified gasp from somewhere behind her. She didn’t dare to glance toward her and instead kept watching the man evenly. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, but tried to keep her limbs loose and her expression blank.

“If not for those ears, you might be an ugly town girl, I think,” he commented with a grin shot over his shoulder at the other three men.

They laughed nervously, but did seem a little more at ease for the joke.

Fear was starting to sluice through Finn, but she pushed it down like she had so many times before. She tried to remind herself how many terrifying things she had gone through alone or with her brother. She knew she had to keep her head. If she lost herself to anger or panic, she would miss her chance to run. Not just her chance, but Adi’s too. She needed both of them to escape. She didn’t think she could forgive herself if she left the kobold girl behind after what she almost did to her father.

The soldier moved his hand from Finn’s face to her hair, grabbing a thick chunk at the nape of her neck and yanking it back brutally, forcing Finn to grunt and arch her back to accommodate the way he was twisting it. She reached back with both hands to grasp his fist, to try and control the way he was shaking her, and all four men stared at her chest.

It was so stupid, she thought. Her breasts were tiny. Every woman had them, but somehow they were fascinating, she supposed.

Behind her, she could hear Adi’s rough breathing. “Stop,” she said in a small voice.

Finn’s gut twisted with new fear. Adi needed to stay back and let them focus on her. Finn was tough, and she could face whatever these shitty soldiers could come up with. She wasn’t sure the same would be true for Adi.

“Oho!” the soldier laughed, his eyes immediately turning to Adi. “Are you worried about your little friend? How cute.”

Finn tried to turn her head toward Adi as much as she could, but only barely caught sight of her out of the corner of her eye. She had dropped her knees and was leaning toward Finn. Finn tried to shake her head no, tried to tell her with her eyes to get back, but if Adi saw what Finn was trying to say, she didn’t heed it. She shuffled forward on her hands and knees, her eyes filled with fear, even if her jaw was set in determination.

“Leave her alone,” Adi said, sounding less small but just as terrified.

At this, all four men broke out into cruel, raucous laughter. Finn didn't bother trying to contain her snarl. If they had any idea the kind of courage it must have taken this terrified, naked girl to stand up to them, they wouldn't have dared to laugh. They only found it funny because they felt so sure they had the upper hand. It made rage bubble in Finn's stomach, but it had nowhere to go for the moment.

Finn was so busy trying to reign in her rage that she didn’t predict that the man who still had her by her hair would yank her out of the wagon and into his arms. She gasped as she was pulled none too gently onto the ground, the soldier’s hand moving from her hair to her neck and his other arm going around her waist.

Adi looked terrified at this sudden move, but Finn couldn’t imagine what she had done to earn this turn of good luck. The other men crowded closer to Finn. Their eyes weren’t on her, or at least not on her face, which was good enough for her. Finn took the opportunity to look around.

The wagon had been parked within a few hundred feet of the forest. All the wagons had been pulled into a loose circle with a big green pasture in the center. There were soldiers as well as a few children and adult women, all moving about the wagons with purpose, unloading tents and supplies. Nobody was paying any mind to the four men at the end of their wagon. Unless you looked close, it probably just looked like a group of lolly gagging soldiers, taking their time to unload a wagon.

Could they make it to the trees before someone put an arrow in their back? Finn looked back to the treeline. She could make it easily. She moved fast enough when channeling her meager magic into her body that she would probably be beyond the treeline before anyone could even shout boo. But, she couldn’t say the same for Adi. Could she carry her on her back? She had never tried to carry someone while channeling her magic, but she didn’t see why it wouldn’t work. Still, she would have to take the men out fast, blistering fast, if she was going to make it to the trees with Adi with enough time to escape the inevitable search party that would come after them.

While Finn had been feverishly weighing their chances of escape, Adi had shuffled close enough for another of them men to grab her by her hair and yank her from the back of the wagon with a yelp. She fell gracelessly to the ground before being yanked back up by the same man that had grabbed her. She tried fruitlessly to cover her chest with her arms, but the man yanked her hands away by her thin wrists. Big shining tears spilled from her wide eyes, her nose and lips pink with crying. She cast a desperate look at Finn, her eyes pleading for help.

Finn was frozen with horror at the sight, and had probably been still for way too long already. The men were obviously geared up and ready to go. They had encouraged and congratulated one another enough that they were ready to wreak havoc on her and Adi. The ranked soldier who was still holding onto Finn dug his fingers into her throat and lifted, nearly lifting her off the ground. The hand that was around her waist started moving lower, rough blunt fingertips dragging along the soft skin of her stomach.

Without any thought, Finn sucker punched him so hard that she heard both his jaw and a multitude of his teeth snap with the force of her hit.

He was unconscious before he hit the ground, surprising everyone, including Finn. She looked at her fist like it had a mind of its own. The other three men and Adi had frozen as well, staring at her in shock and surprise.

“Fuck,” Finn spat. She guessed they were making a run for it, planning be damned.

Before she could second guess herself, Finn slammed the heel of her hand into the face of a second man, the one closest to her. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground in a spurt of blood, holding his nose.

She turned to the remaining two men. The one holding Adi would be the hardest to attack since he was so close to her and Finn really didn't want to hit Adi accidentally. So she zeroed in on the remaining soldier. He was still frozen, but was starting to look like he was realizing he was going to get his ass kicked. Finn socked him in his stomach, pushing all the air out of his lungs and causing him to double over. She then elbowed him over the back of the head, knocking him down flat onto the ground, where he lay stunned.

The man holding Adi had seen enough and apparently didn’t realize he had a hostage. He tossed Adi down into the muddy tracks of the wagon and turned around to run into the center of camp screaming.

“Fuck,” Finn spat again. He was going to alert the whole camp. Maybe she should have taken the risk of hitting Adi by accident and taken him out first.

“Holy shit,” Adi breathed, staring at Finn with huge incredulous eyes.

“Hurry, get on my back!” Finn shouted, turning around and crouching with her palms facing out.

“What?” Adi yelped.

Finn looked over her shoulder at her. Adi looked poleaxed and dirty, with mud on her knees and hands. “We need to make a break for it! Get on! NOW!”

With only a little bit of stumbling, Adi climbed onto Finn's back. Finn clutched her thick soft thighs and Adi wrapped her thin arms around Finn’s shoulders.

“Hold on tight,” Finn cautioned, and then focused all the magic could manage into her legs. She prayed to whatever gods were listening that this would work, that they could get away. Then, she sprinted as fast as she dared into the trees.