... Luna was starting to tire again; the exhaustion was now so deeply ingrained into her muscles she was sure the she would not be able to move again. Even as this thought crossed her mind Luna found that she was too exhausted to carry on and her legs lost all strength. Stumbling Luna fell into a tumbled heap into the ground, her hair spilling like a pool of moonlight on the dark ground. For a few minutes but it felt longer Luna laid, her face pressed against the cool fragrant earth, her limbs sprawled where she had fallen. Closing her eyes Luna just concentrated on breathing, she could feel her heart pounding against the solid earth, she could swear it was so loud the slavers would be able to follow the sound and hunt her down. 

So she lay for what could have been minutes or hours she wasn’t quite sure time was not behaving correctly for her. It was then that she heard the large crunch of a booted foot nearby the foot fall was heavy and it crunched through the undergrowth. Luna lay still, there was nowhere to move nowhere to hide, her best bet was to feign unconsciousness and see what was to come. The footsteps got nearer and nearer until they stopped right beside her, the next thing she knew was pain as her face was lifted from the ground by her hair being tugged roughly upwards. Despite the pain she made no sound and kept her features lax, the adrenalin was coursing through her veins and the element of surprise were her only hopes. 

It was a man, she could tell from the rough grunting breaths and his large rough hands. Opening her eyes and fraction of an inch she looked at him. He was scruffy, unkempt and the smell of him was enough to make her gag she could tell he was one of the slavers, it seemed this one had some skills in tracking. He had a nasty, dirty looking sword in his hand and a dagger strapped to his belt, he also didn’t seem the brightest of men, apart from nearly breaking her spine as he pulled her face up to him he seemed to have no idea what to do with her. Luna knew this wasn’t good; he was the kind of stupid that might just gut her to simplify things. 

Moving on instinct alone Luna reached out with a snake like movement and grabbed his dagger then with all the force and aggression she possessed she slashed across his chest. The splash of crimson sprayed out bright in the moonlight as did his howl of pain. He instantly dropped her, his now free hand springing to his chest. However it seemed he had a little more sense in him than Luna had thought and she had to scramble backwards, tripping over her own feet to get away from him as he brought his dirty short sword round to try and fend off the threat.

Luna fell to the floor and rolled away from him knowing she was lucky to be alive as his sword had been aimed across her throat. However a stinging sensation in her right arm told her she had not got away unscathed. She knew that she would have to end this quickly, there was no other option, there was no rescue coming and she was tiring fast. Looking up she saw he had staggered away from her too, a rough plan had formed in her mind and she knew nothing better would come to her. Pulling herself to her feet Luna ran full tilt at him screaming bloody murder. Predictably he swung his blade horizontally aiming for where her head should be but Luna had ducked, avoiding the blade she kept running at him. His swing had taken the sword far off to the right and Luna took full advantage, running in dagger held firm in her hand she barrelled into his chest and they both went tumbling to the floor. 

The forest was silent for a minute or two and nothing moved within its stillness, even the wind seemed to quiet. Then very slowly Luna began to rise, pulling herself up onto her knees she looked around. The man laid a little way from her, his slack face upturned to the canopy above, the bone hilt of the dagger protruding from his chest a black stain spilling out around its point, he was dead. Luna looked at him for a long moment, her entire body shaking as the shock started to kick in and the adrenalin started to wear off. She looked down at herself, for the second time in a few days she was drenched in blood. Luna took a gasping breath trying to keep down the horror and disgust she felt, she had killed a man, she had ended someone’s life and as this realisation overtook her tears began to fall thick and fast.