Orfeus dropped to her knees. It was half an accident, her legs folding, but she put a hand on the ground to steady herself and bowed her head. “Take me with you,” she said.

“You’re surrendering yourself?” said the Shark.

The Hyena jutted out their chin, balancing the stun-stick on their shoulder. “Smart,” they said. “Play nice and we won’t hit you too much.”

“I don’t believe you,” Orfeus said a little distantly, and she looked at Faol. “He hit me a lot.”

The Wolf stepped back sharply, nearly recoiling. “It’s the job,” he said stiffly.

Orfeus nodded, and dug her fingers into the dirt. Home. The last place she could be right now, or ever again. “Take me with you,” she said. “Your leader will want to meet me.” The bravado felt desperately thin, a shell for them to tear through to get at her. She coughed, and cleared her throat, and looked up at them and said, “I would like to join the Order of the Vengeful Wild.”

Part Two

The Wild

Chapter Six

Back in the before times, people grew greedy, and we took and we took and we took until the oceans emptied and the forests were torn down and the hungry wailed. Weapons made with our own clever hands raked the soil and left it no good for growing things. We hurt Honoured Earth until she sorrowed, and Smog Sky and Rising Tide arose and punished us. Storms shook the land and oceans ate the coast.

And then we learned better, little one. We planted more than we took, and we listened, and we honoured the old ways and we found new ways, and we made it better. And we must never step back to the Brink again. All of us, little one. We must do better than our ancestors, and we must do them proud. We will never fall so far again.

- Basma of Hollyhock

They gave Orfeus time to pack her things. She didn’t think it would take long. There was little to take and this time, there truly was no one left to say goodbye to. It was bad enough knowing what they must think of her now, after she’d set the square burning in sight of half the town. She didn’t need to see the betrayal and hatred written clear on the faces of her neighbours and friends.

Most of her travelling gear was with her already. Orfeus grabbed the rest of her depleted herb store from the cupboard on the off chance that bounty hunters liked to trade. She could trade rosemary and tea for caffeine or cigarettes, for any advantage, for one more day alive.

Fire was visible through the shutters as she packed. Quickly, Orfeus bundled up the herbs and some clothes and her pennywhistle in her thickest brown hemp cloak and tied the bundle to her bag and just like that, she was done. No reason to linger.