Her dress
~~~~~~~

Most people in their right mind would probably avoid a forest where a large amount of kidnappings have taken place; especially at night. Though, I think it's been pretty well established that 'in my right mind' would be a terrible way to describe me and my sanity, so of course I was out here around midnight, it's what any less than sane and possible psychopath would do.

For the most part, I had been impressed with the plan the grass head and spark plug came up with (the grass head was now attempting to get me to call him by his name, but I forgot what it was only a minute after being reminded, so there's that). The plan was to send the only member of the group who had any skill with infiltration and espionage, me, out into a popular place for kidnapping, and then hope that the criminals took the bait.

Like I said, I was fine with all of that, my magical presence was still relatively low and I had the best chance of getting back out even if everything went to shit; but then the bastards had to throw a wrench into the plan. I growled softly as I walked down the dark path in my ridiculously puffy, pastel purple dress. My hands clenched by my side, just itching to tear this stupid dress apart. Both the soul mage and the fairy girl insisted on this being part of the deception; according to their fucked up logic, this dress made me look more innocent and helpless.

I did my best to counter argue that an 11 year old being out in a dangerous forest at night was already pretty suspicious, but in the end logic was overruled by idiocy, and I was forced into this fabric monstrosity while being threatened with electrocution if I ruined their plans.

The rest of the team was apparently following behind me as stealthily as they knew how, though I insisted on them being as far away as possible to increase our chances that the kidnappers wouldn't pick up on the most obvious trap since ever. While that was happening, I did my best to form a relatively passable smile to replace the feral look that my face had naturally adopted (Once again, fairy girl's idea... Something about it making me look less threatening).

I was pulled out of my thoughts by the underbrush rustling about 10 meters ahead of me. Outwardly, I showed no indication of hearing anything, but I was groaning and rolling my eyes on the inside. It was pretty obvious that there was an ambush waiting for me ahead; in fact, it was amazing that these criminals had managed to kidnap anyone at all, this was just so sloppy.

Judging by the shadows, there were probably two large men hiding on either side of the path with some kind of dart gun, waiting for me to get in place before taking me out without any fuss. I couldn't fault the idea, as far as concepts go, this one would probably worked well if the leaders hadn't chosen total meatheads to do the job.

Unfortunately, it was my job to keep walking and pretend that whatever I was about to be hit with actually affected me. This is where things got tricky, my blood naturally repelled foreign substances before they could take affect, so I had no way of knowing if this was something that was designed to knock me out, simply paralyse me, or if it was meant to mess with me in some other way. The smartest plan would be to drop to the ground and play dead for right now, but it was a risk non the less.

As expected, the dart hit my neck and I could feel some form of magic trying to take over... Was this magic, or just a sedative? I swatted my neck, and looked at the small bit of blood that came out while trying to analyze the whatever it was. I honestly hadn't needed to analyze magic that was actively trying to control me before, so I gave up on that line of investigation and simply dropped to the ground after swaying for a second.

"Hey boss,did you see that? This one dropped like a rock, no one's done that before!" One of the goons stepped out from the bush and gestured wildly to the other person. I cursed quietly under my breath as they approached; how did I just know I would get it wrong. At this point my only option was to stick with my facade... Well, that, or I could just kill these two now and use whatever evidence I found on their bodies to find the base, but something told me that my the team I was with would be less than happy with that idea.

Another rustle told me that the other meathead had come out of his bush, "Hmph, what a hassle," I knew as soon as I heard this new dude's voice that I hated him. He had a nasally, pinched voice that felt like sandpaper against my ears. A foot nudged against my side, rolling me to face the light of their lantern, "This one looks young, maybe the dart affected her differently. Whatever it is, it should be fine, she's going to end up with everyone else anyways. Grab her and we'll head back."

End up with everyone else? The urge to scrunch up my eyebrows was strong; If they were killing the people who were kidnapped, that would answer a few questions I had, but what was the purpose? If I was being honest, this mission was starting to remind me of one of my first major assassination contracts; I saw things that night that no human should see, especially not a eight year old.

I was picked up roughly and draped across one of the guys shoulders before the two began to head off. There were so many things to pay attention too, but I did my best to focus on where they were heading... Well, trying to do it was the most I could do. As an assassin, I had a huge range of skills at my disposal, and if we we're in town, I probably would be able to tell where we we're going fairly well; sadly, I hated forests because I could never keep my sense of direction in them.

If I needed to escape, I would probably be able to make my way back to town... Probably.

As much as I hated to admit it, it was a good thing that the team was following us; death by getting lost in the woods would be a pitiful way to go. The men kept talking, but I heard nothing of importance so I focused on keeping my body limp and not tensing up with every rough step.

***

After walking for a while, I was carried into a cave and dropped unceremoniously to the floor; receiving a swift kick to the side to wake me up.

"Come on you useless girl," the voice was rough, as though he spent his whole day inhaling noxious smoke, "That damn drug should have worn off by now, if Kanate screwed up the dose I'll wring his scrawny little neck." If all I had to go by was the force of this man's kick alone, it would've been pretty easy to tell that this guy had no qualms about hurting me; so I began to stir.

I groaned as I reached down to cup my now wounded side, and groggily opened my eyes. If I could snigger right now without arousing suspicion, I would have; it had been too long since I had infiltrates a place like this. I missed fooling with people so thoroughly that they practically threw themselves at me to kill.

My eyes widened almost comically, and I sat up, allowing myself to look around the room in fear, "Where... Where am I?" It seemed I was in a small cavern, just large enough to be a storage closet. There were more large crates than I had time to count, and one too many ugly meatheads. "Who are, are you?"

My voice went up in pitch as I slowly began to 'realize' what had happened; a sadistic look of glee was growing on the meathead, and I scoffed internally. The poor baby though he was scary, I needed to remind myself to teach him a lesson in sadistic intent before I left.

The meathead stopped down a bit so he would be closer to my face, "Well then, your awake doll face, I was worried we had killed you for a little bit. It's too bad we can't sell a pretty little thing like you right now. I bet you'd fetch us a pretty penny." I gasped and scrambled away from him until my back hit a crate.

Thankfully, I didn't have to bust any heads just yet, because a voice could be heard from the other side of a flimsy door, "Hey idiot, would you stop creeping on the girl and actually do your job!"

"Yeah! Just get her ready so we can move on. If we get yelled at by the boss cause of you, I'm making you take all the blame, you hear me!"

A few other yells could be heard, and this time I couldn't help but grin while the meathead's attention was diverted; so this wasn't the first time the idiot had pulled crap like this, huh? He sounded so popular with his comrades.

The meathead straightened and glared at the door, "I'm working on it, alright?" He sighed as he threw a bundle of clothes at me, "Those idiots, always ruining my fun. Put this crap on, okay, and don't try nothing or I'll kill you where you stand."

If this guy expected a complaint or for me to beg for my freedom, he was sorely mistaken. The instant I saw that real clothes were in this bundle, I had already torn away the horrible clothes the fairy girl and soul mage forced me into with more vicious glee than was probably wise, given my situation.

In under a minute, I was in the sackcloth clothes and out the door, trying my damnedest to keep up a scared prisoner persona, rather than just looking way too pleased with myself. As I exited the storage shed, my captor rushed out after me, "Hey, wait, what the hell! Get back here!"

Well shit... I grimaced slightly as I looked back and cowered away from the big man, what a rookie mistake. Honestly, if I had made mistakes like that while my mentors were around, I would probably be dead; they would've killed me.

"I, I'm so so-sorry!" I stuttered out as I covered my face with my arms protectively, "Don't hurt me, I just, I just wanted to get this over with! Please let me go home!" A small look of satisfaction crawled over the meathead's face at my desperate plea.

"Go home?" Once again he began leaning in towards me, "Doll face, you're never going home again. It'd be better for you if you got that through your head." I cringed away and whimpered, but otherwise, I did nothing; suppressing the urger to slam this idiot's face into the wall hard enough to crack his skull... No, Ember, control yourself... Find the target, take it out. This wasn't the time for unnecessary kills.

I was pushed roughly down the hall by one of his cohorts, who swooped in and pulled me from him; muttering something about the job being made harder by the pervert. A statement which, if I hadn't been struggling to stay in character before, would have certainly done it. I really wanted to laugh, but instead I settled for biting the inside of my cheek and walking down the hallway like the cowed dog I wanted then to believe I was.

Before long, the noises of a crowd reached us, though they certainly weren't the normal sounds one would associate with large crowds of people. Instead of chatter and the sound of everyday life, the sounds I head sounded suspiciously like chains dragging along the rock floor, and feet shuffling slowly.

A particularly harsh shove sent me sprawling into the room, so I didn't get a look at what was going on until I was able to push myself up. People were milling about the room with all sorts of mining items in threadbare clothes, pickaxes and wheelbarrows were common, though there were quite a few people who were loading rocks into a large contraption by hand.

The thing that drew my eye the most though, was their feet. Most people did seem to have rags wrapped around their feet as a form of protection; however, I was unable to spot a single pair of feet that were not bloodied in some way. The lucky ones only had a few blood patches that seemed to have been caused by blisters bursting, the unlucky ones didn't even have foot rags... They were the ones forced to walk around leaving bloody footprints behind them. Obviously, dropping rocks wasn't an uncommon occurrence.

It felt like forever that I sat there staring at the prisoners feet, yet only a brief second passed before the man who shoved me into the room grabbed me by the neck and lifted me up. I struggled against him momentarily before he snapped something around my neck and dropped me, walking away without a care.

I coughed desperately for a moment, backing up against the wall so I could examine what the idiot had done. It seemed he had given me a metal collar. Runes we're carved into the edges, though I had no idea what they were supposed to do.

If this was the best these idiots could muster, then I would be out of here quicker than I thought.

"So you're the newest recruit?" I looked up hesitantly to see yet another meathead standing in front of me, a look of irritation on his face, "From the looks of you, you aren't even 13. How do they expect me to get done witg my job if they keep giving me shitty workers!"

"Take this and follow me." He threw a pickaxe at me, which I managed to grab before it split my skull in two, before walking away. This obviously wasn't a patient man. I hurried after his as best I could just in time to hear him speak, "You'll be mining sector four. If you have questions, ask one of the other people there and don't waste time. Do anything against the rules and you'll be punished. You look like you can barely swing that pickaxe, but I suppose you'll have to do." He stopped at a seemingly random patch of wall and gestured at me, "The only way to stay alive here is to work, if you do anything to get yourself killed, it's no skin off my back, but idiots like you seem to have a high survival instinct, which is good for business. Now get to work, and I don't want to see you slacking off."

Just like that, he left, leaving me to stare at the patch of wall he showed me with so many questions... Was this really their operation? It was like they wanted someone to stop them, but for at least a minute or two I would pretend to follow orders... At least, I would until I found out how they kept the captives in line, after that, all bets were off.