Rosalind opened her eyes, she had woken up due to some noises coming from outside the door, but this time nobody opened the door, so whoever was outside was not likely here because of her; curious as to what was happening, she quietly crawled next to the door and tried to sneek a peek under it; there were two men talking to each other in loud voices, they had already started drinking.
"Hey Hanz, for how long are we going to stay here? I am dying of boredom."
"Shut up Berg, you are getting paid for sitting here and do nothing and you are still complaining?"
"Ahh come on, is that guy even going to show up? can't we have a little fun with the young lady over there?"
"Seriously shut up, If the boss even hears you joking about that you will lose your head, the client was very clear about her being untouched."
"Hehe, those nobles surely are more wicked than thugs like us, what do you think he is planning to do with her? I bet he has a secret dungeon in his basement"
"That just shows you that you should never get on the bad side of those nobles."
"And what about the father? do you think he will show up here with the ransom money? if it was me I would just run away with all my riches, I could always just have another daughter, heck why just one, with that kind of money I could spend the end of my days in a brothel."
"Hah, thats why you are still just a street thug, you are always thinking with the wrong head."
"Well whatever, it is better to live like a fool, than to die a righteous man, as soon as that man shows up here with the money, he is as good as dead."
The two men continued chatting and drinking, not knowing that Rosalind was listening into their conversation.
'What? so this was a trap all along? the other man must have lied to me to keep me under control, even if Dad brings them the money they will still kill him.'
After listening into the conversation Rosalind's emotions swelled up once again, a combination of fear, sadness and despair swirled inside her; but now, a new emotion took hold, was this, guilt?
'Hfmm, sniff, sniff, if it wasnt for me, Dad would not be in danger right now, I only wanted to help Dad feel better, If I hadn't bought that book maybe everything would still be normal, I was having so much fun learning to craft runes, working together with Dad at the workshop every day; I never expected my inventions to attract this much attention, and now I am paying the price.'
"Dad, please don't come, please forget about me." Rosalind was once again, at the back of the dark room, sobbing just quietly enough, as if to not be found out.
"Sniff,sniff, Dad, please save me." As her true feelings started to pour out, Rosalind released her contained emotions, and after crying for another while, maybe as a self defense mechanism, she once again fell asleep; but this time, she would not have enough time to dream.
Shortly after, a huge commotion could be heard from outside the room. Rosalind, startled by the loud noises woke up, from all over the place yells and alarm bells echoed, Hanz and Berg shouting in response to the panic in their base.
"Hey, what the hell is going on out there? what is the Boss doing? are we under attack?"
"I dont know, maybe the father showed up, or maybe he brought reinforcements? whatever it is, stay here, I will go take a look, keep an eye on the girl."
Hanz left the room, leaving only Berg alone, with Rosalind.
Berg, approached the door and opened it, Rosalind tried to fake being asleep.
"Hello little missy, you are awake arent you? there is no way you can be asleep with all this ruckus, who do you think showed up, is it your Daddy?"
Rosalind turned to face the man, but did not grant him a response, her face was showing a clear expression of despair.
"It is such a shame to let you go, you are very pretty, you have a very plump and healthy looking body, how old are you again?"
Despite all the taunts and mockery, Rosalind still didn't respond. Berg feeling frustrated for being ignored approached her closely.
"You know what is going to happen to you right? why dont you let me teach you the basics, at least that way you will have more experience for when you meet your new owner, I can be very gentle you know." -Rosalind continued looking at him with a blank stare.
"Huh, you are no fun, whatever." -Berg was bored and frustrated, but he didn't dare to touch Rosalind out of fear for being punished.
'Damn it, I want to get out of here now, but I cannot disobey orders, the Boss is an advanced warrior with a very bad temper, if I leave my post he will surely make an example out of me.'
As Berg was thinking this to himself, Hanz returned carrying something over his shoulder.
Rosalind, looking from inside the smaller room was confused at what she was seeing.
'Is that a woman?'
Hanz was carrying a young woman over his shoulder, a young blonde lady probably around Rosalind's age, she was wearing casual adventurer attire, but she was not in a good physical condition.
She had bruises and small cuts all over her body, with some blood stains covering her clothes, Hanz then dropped her over the table where they were drinking.
"Hanz , what is this? what happened outside?" -Berg asked Hanz in confusion.
"This little brat is the cause of all the ruckus, apparently our lookouts spotted her trying to peak into our base, then the scouts caught her; she put up a bit of resistance, the Boss told me to bring her here to get information out of her."
"Oh really? thats good, I was starting to get really bored." -Berg replied with a big grin on his face.
"Well then, lets get started then, wouldn't want to dissapoint the Boss."
Berg took some rope, and tied the young girls hands behind her back, same as Rosalind's, then grabbed a mug and after filling it with water, he poured it over the unconcious lady's face.
"Argghh, cough, cough, what? who, who are you?"
The startled lady woke up and started coughing profusely.
"We are the ones asking questions here, who are you? who sent you to spy on us?" -Berg replied raising his voice.
"My name is Sara, I am not a spy, I'm an adventurer, I was doing a gathering mission when you guys attacked me."
"Ha, and you think we would believe that? who goes out collecting at night?"
"It is true, I am a D-rank adventurer you can look at my badge, I came to collect monarch fireflies, they only come out at night."
Sara replied, she pleaded with fearful eyes and a shaky voice hoping the men would believe her, looking around at her surroundings, she spotted Rosalind, sitting on the floor inside the smaller room, the door was still open, and for a brief moment, their eyes met.
"What do you think Hanz?"
"Well, this is a D-rank badge allright, so I guess her story checks out."
"Please, let me go, I won't tell anyone about this."-Sara pleaded with teary eyes.
At hearing Sara's plea, Berg and Hanz chuckled.
"Of course little girl we will let you go, but before that, shoudn't you take responsiblity for the mess you made?"
"What are you talking about? It wasn't my fault."
"Now now young miss, we were all here minding our business late at night trying to get some rest, when you came in and caused this commotion, we wont be able to get any sleep at this rate, so we will need you to help us relax, there is about 40 of us, so we will probably let you go in the morning."
Sara's eyes filled with fear and despair, Berg reached out his hand towards Sara grabbing her by her trembling shoulder; Sara closed her eyes out of fear, tears falling down from her cheeks.
At that moment,a loud noise came for the outside, once again the alarms started to ring.
"What the hell is it this time? answer me bitch, is there someone else with you?"-Berg yelled at Sara, raising his voice.
"No, I dont know what that is, I came here alone."- Sara answered, still crying.
"Dammit, Hanz go back out and see what is going on."
"Ugh, whatever Berg, but remember, I don't take orders from you." -Hanz left the room, closing the door behind him.
"Agh, what is it this time? anyways, I'm not going to keep waiting."
Berg turned around and pushed Sara down over the table, his body now on top of her.
"Hey, what are you doing? don't touch me."-Sara yelled out in panic.
"Calm down missy, I have a lot of experience, you are going to like this so much that you won't be able to walk in the morning."
Berg pushed Sara down by the neck with one hand, while trying to remove his pants with the other, he bent over to kiss Sara but she spat on his face, some of her saliva entered his mouth.
"Get off of me you pig."
"Stop resisting you bitch."-Berg, now enraged, slapped Sara in the face.
"I am sorry, please don't do this, I beg you."-Sara continued to cry out.
Rosalind, from inside the room was shaking with her eyes closed, she did not want to see any of this, she wanted to cover her ears too, but her hands were still tied behind her back; she wanted to help this girl, but what could she do?
"Haha, that's right keep begging, that only turns me on even more."
"Huh, what is this?"
Suddenly, Berg's body collapsed over Sara.
"I.. can't move, What did you do to me?"
"Finally, it took some time to take effect, what do you think Berg, did you like the taste of my saliva?"- Sara replied with a mocking tone.
Sara took off the ropes binding her hands and removed Berg from over her, now Berg being face down over the table.
"You, how did you take those off?"
"Ah these? it is very simple when you are a mana user, did you like my acting? pretty convincing right? It got you really turned on right?"
Sara continued to mock Berg, while grabbing a knife that was left nearby and locking the room door using a chair.
"You really think you can leave this place alive? there are a hundred men in this base."-Berg tried to yell, but his body only allowed him to talk in a low voice.
"Didn't you say there were forty men in here? I guess you are more honest when you are horny."
"Answer me, what did you do to my body?"
"Not much, it's just venom, there is this really delicious sea snail that lives in the eastern coast; their venom is quite unique, it has an incredible paralyzing effect; the fun part is, it stops your body from moving but you are still able to feel everything, after eating a few of those snails I am now able to produce this venom in my saliva."
At the same time of giving this explanation, Sara started pressing the knife againts Berg's buttocks and back.
"Anyways, I dont have that much time to loose chatting with you Berg, so I will need to cut it short."
"No wait, please stop it."-Berg wanted to shout out and call for help, but his voice now only came out as a faint whisper.
"Shut up Berg, unlike you, begging doesn't turn me on"- Sara whispered into his ear, while covering his mouth with her hand.
"Hmm mmmpf"-Berg tried to call out, but to no avail, only soft moans could be heard.
"Relax Berg, didn't you say you wanted to get some rest? you are going to like this so much that you won't be able walk in the morning."
"Hmmpff, hmmpff."
"Did I say in the morning? I meant never again."-Sara stabbed Berg in the back, severing his spine.
"Don't worry, I will make sure to take responsiblity and pay my services to all your friends too, Good bye Berg."- Sara whispered into his ear one last time and then sliced his throat.
Sara turned around and looked at the smaller room. Rosalind was on the ground with her eyes closed and visibly shaking; with every step she took toward her Rosalind started to shake more and more; seeing this, she stopped and started humming a song.
"Hmmm, hmm, mhh,"
"Huh? is that?"- Rosalind opened her teary eyes and asked.
"How do you know my song?"
"It's okay pretty doe, you are safe now, your father sent me to save you"- Sara approached Rosalind slowly, looking into her eyes with a kind smile, and cut the rope binding her hands.
As the binding from Rosalinds hands was released, so did her emotions, she burried her face into Sara's chest and started crying, while at the same time Sara patted her head.
That was the day the dragon and the doe first met.