The unwelcome stranger
She would need to take another trip. She had heard of a woman who lived by the sea. Locals would come to her seeking advise or an indication if they could fish safely. Perhaps this woman would help her make the connection.
This time she would need to find a way to protect herself in flight. This would be a long trip and she still wore the mark of the last long flight, although it was fading, it could still be felt when hand passed over skin.
And there was the strange man who had followed her through the village. He could also be a threat.
She thought she had lost him in the marketplace. She was able to do that, to disappear with a few deft movements. She had been collecting spices for the trip, and noticed his gaze. Burning into her. It made her very uneasy and so she decided she needed to lose him. It was not the first time she had needed to employ evasive tactics. Being an unmarried woman in the town sometimes meant unwelcome attention. They were generally easy to shake. But he was not. After a series of quick maneuvers he was still there, looking right at her. She was starting to feel warm, sweating slightly from the chase through the throng of people, animals and carts. Rounding a corner into a small corridor between dwellings he had stepped into her path. Abruptly. She had thought he was behind her. She was like a stone, heavy, unmovable. Something held her to the spot. He had reached out to her right side and for a horrible moment she thought he was going to disarm her. But he slipped his hand under her traveling coat and through the silk of her tunic ran his fingertips lightly down her scar to the top of her hip bone. Nowhere near her Jian. It all happened in a heartbeat.
Then he withdrew his hand and turned and ran down the corridor, fast. Incredibly fast and then he was gone. She felt sick, bile rising in her throat. Dizzy she took a moment resting her hot cheek against the roughly hewn wall. It's coolness seemed to bring her back. Then she ran after him. Knowing that it was futile, he would be already gone, lost in the crowd of people, but it made her feel better to do something.
How dare he touch her.
Had he known about the attack, or had he touched her there by sheer coincidence?
That night she tried to recall him- to find a clue.
He was taller than her. She had not seen him before today. He was dressed in brown traveler's robes. He had light hair, dark eyes, maybe they were brown. There was nothing striking in her recollection other than he was a westerner like her. He was wearing a hood the whole time and being so busy evading him she had not noticed as much as she had hoped. But she did remember his smell, spruce maybe. Perhaps he had been sleeping in the forest, but that was some distance from the town, certainly a good half day traveling by foot. The forest was mainly Dragon Spruce, the trees not felled for many years as it was thought to be a lucky place.
She would go there in the morning. If there was no warning then she would take her chances and fly.
Fury had always made her a fast flyer. And she was very angry with this man. But in truth she was angry at herself. Eating her meal that night she knew this to be true. She could have moved away from him, stepped back out of the corridor and into the crowd. She has lost her courage, her nerve and had stood there like a sack of grain. Sometimes it is our own weaknesses that cause us to be angry with others. She thought it interesting she could know this, but yet still be angry with him.
Easier that way.
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