It's never easy to sleep in the Abyss.

Especially when you need to get some sleep.

Everything had gone to plan, so far. We left Haven at 10am, crossed the Seeping Wound, met up with several of the Wolf Pup scouts for updates on the path ahead, and steered clear of any potential danger. We made camp at sundown, having travelled light and sleeping wherever the ground wasn't covered in mud. We'd be up before dawn, arriving at the Capital not long after, and making all haste back to Haven with Wolf Queen Arza under our protection, while the rest of the Wolves spread out across the Abyss before making their own ways to Haven.

It's the best plan we have to do this quickly and as safely as possible.

Except for the fact that I couldn't sleep.

This would be fine if I was on watch, but I'm not. I was under strict instructions to get as much sleep as I could, since I was the ace up our sleeve, after all. If things went awry, letting my wings out was sure to create enough of a distraction to let us seize the advantage and make our escape.

Arza also has wings, of course, but she can't fly. I could escape if things got out of control, she couldn't.

It's not the discomfort of laying on a log that's keeping me from sleep, either.

It's the uncertainty of tomorrow. It's hard not to worry about what could happen.

If it comes to combat, we have our plan. Robb, Rann, and Einar are our frontline, the big lads to get their attention. Johnny has his bolas, and Arshak and Arshiya have their bows. I have my sword now, but I'm sort of the middle line between everyone else. I do whatever I need to do. If we encounter anyone while Arza is with us, I'm her last line of defence.

I guess, if there's a question on my mind, it would be "Am I ready to kill someone who's trying to kill me?" Maybe instinct will kick in if it's life-or-death, but if it doesn't, I or anyone else could get hurt. Or killed. No matter how much I think about it, I can't come up with an answer I'm happy with.

Ugh.

All this thinking and worrying isn't going to get me anywhere. I just have to try to force myself to get some sleep, however long it takes. Even if I only get a couple hours, some sleep is better than no sleep.

I just hope everything will go as planned.

…

A hand on my shoulder jolts me awake. Rann pats it, and stands up to gather his things. The sun will be up soon, and it's time to move. If it was anyone else grabbing my shoulder, my wings would have startled me awake before they even touched me, but being startled awake does mean I did manage to get some sleep.

It turns out that I definitely needed that sleep, as not long after we set off, Johnny gave the signal for us to halt immediately. There was a small path cutting through the woods ahead of us, and he saw something he didn't like, as he motioned for Rann to come up beside him.

"How many do you count?" Rann asks him in a hushed tone.

"You're welcome to waste time tryin' ta count 'em. It's dozens of 'em, easily." Johnny sighs, crossing his arms.

The path in front of us has been trod many times by many feet. Recently, too. We all know that there's only one group in this area that would leave so many tracks.

The Bone Breakers.

"What now? Are we still going ahead?" Arshak asks.

"Not this way. I'd rather not be crossin' their tracks. That path they're usin's got ankle-deep mud. If they pay any attention at all, they'll see our tracks. We need another way round." Johnny shakes his head, stepping down from the ridge overlooking the path.

"And that other way round is… where?" Arshak glances to the right.

"Somewhere. Sooner we find it, the better." Rann answers, stepping past Arshak.

Thankfully, our fortunes turned, for the path was interrupted by a rocky outcrop jutting out from the mud not too far from our original path, letting us cross without leaving obvious tracks.

We were making good time towards the Capital. We made it to the path we used the first time we headed here, planning to meet up with a couple Wolf Pups on the edge of the Dead Hollows who would lead us straight to Arza. Within an hour, we'd reach the Wolf Queen, and begin the second phase of the plan.

…

If only it went so smoothly.

Clearing Ahead, Dozen Enemies, Johnny's rapid hand signals warn.

We can hear them. Loudly chattering among themselves, making no effort to hide.

We can get close enough to see them, through the overgrown roots of the trees surrounding the clearing. They're paying no attention to their surroundings.

They're dressed in a motley of rags, rusted metal scraps, and cleaned bone. Some wear recognisable properly-made clothes, dirty as they are, while others wear little more than stitched-together pieces of fabric. All of them are armed; some with wooden clubs adorned with bone and bits of metal, others wield rusted-over swords or axes picked up from the innumerable piles of them scattered across the Abyss.

There's no question about who these people are.

If anything, the fact that they cover themselves with broken bones is a bit on the nose.

Their identity is clear, so the next question is what do we do about them. We're very close to the border of the Dead Hollows, and these Breakers have made camp right on our path. We can only hope this decision was a coincidence on their part, as it's very unlikely that they'd know of our plans.

There are only a dozen of them. They do outnumber us, but we'd have the advantage of surprise if we had to fight. Fighting is the absolute last option here, though, as fights are noisy, and the last thing we want is to attract even more Breakers.

As for avoiding them, we'll have to avoid them now and on the way back. It would be convenient if they moved on, but it appears they've made camp here. Or they plan to make camp, as a few of them are loudly arguing over who has what duty in camp-making.

"Well. Now what?" Johnny whispers, leaning against an outgrown root. "We're losin' time stayin' here, and they ain't goin' nowhere. We'll lose time going 'round them on the way back too."

"We go around. However long it takes. It doesn't matter if we get back after dark, as long as we get back in one piece." Rann whispers back in a harsh tone.

"How far around? They've sat themselves on the only safe passage this side of Dead Man's. We'll lose hours going around them. We jump 'em by surprise, knock 'em out before they can do anythin', drag 'em round behind a tree and tie 'em up. We got plenty of rope. We'll lose too much time goin' round." Johnny leans closer to Rann, trying to keep his voice down.

"There's a Wolf Pups outpost not far from here. We go there, tell them what happened, and they bring their Queen to the outpost and we set off from there. They have their own paths through the area they can use; it's safer for them and us rather than dealing with the Breakers." Rann responds, his tone authoritative. "We're not here to fight."

"Secret paths for kids!" Johnny's whisper-shouting in his exasperation. "What if their Queen can't use their paths? What if no one's at the outpost? We told them we'd meet at the Capital!"

"They didn't tell us there'd be Breakers camped here when we linked with their scout an hour ago." Einar adds. "They'd be at the outpost, not here. If they had someone here, they'd have warned us already."

"Outpost. We're heading there. Even if they have no clue we're here, we're not fighting. Let's go." Rann gives the order, and Johnny sighs and agrees.

We all carefully shuffle away from our spying points, forming back up into a small column, with Johnny at the front, and myself at the rear. This diversion will cost us time, but it's the safest option we have—

<<BEHIND>>

I wheel on the spot, tapping the shoulder in front of me and grabbing my sword in its scabbard, drawing it slightly as I scan for the threat behind us.

It's only then I make eye contact with them. Grubby, scrawny, with filthy matted hair and red eyes wide in shock. They're dressed in rags and bones, and they're carrying a large bundle of twigs and sticks in their arms for kindling.

Time slowed to a crawl as the rest of us turned to see this lone person behind us, some twenty metres away. As for who saw who first, we'll never know. Maybe if I hadn't turned around so abruptly, they'd never have noticed us. Maybe if my wings didn't warn me, we'd have never noticed them. All that matters now is that we've seen each other, and whoever makes the first move decides how this will go.

"E-e-enemies!!" The lone Breaker shrieks, dumping the sticks and sprinting at me, reaching for the club at their waist as I pull out my sword.

"Shut it." Rann steps in front of me just before the Breaker reaches me, elbowing them square in the nose and sending them sprawling into the mud.

Unfortunately, the shriek was heard by the nearby camp, and their clamouring and hollowering grows nearer as they hack through the thick undergrowth to get to us.

"So much for not fightin', ey?" Johnny grunts, grabbing a pair of his bolas from his pouches.

"We can't run here. Into positions, everyone. Aim to immobilise, not kill." Rann orders, pulling out his flat-tipped greatsword and stepping forward to protect the rest of us, Rob and Einar standing either side of him.

"Don't kill them?! They sure sound like they want to kill us!" Arshak yells, nocking an arrow and aiming at the brush between the Breakers and us.

"Corpses attract Carrion Hawks. Carrion Hawks attract everything else. Do you want to find out what else the Abyss wants to throw at us today?" Rann calls back, raising his sword in a guard.

"Point taken." Arshak sighs, lowering his bow slightly. "Guess that means we won't be retrieving any arrows, Arshiya."

I move to the left, holding my sword close as I keep an eye on the flanks. The Breaker that ran face-first into Rann's nose is out cold, likely with a broken nose given the blood.

The noise grows louder as the Breakers edge closer and closer to us, hacking and scrambling to find a way through the trees and bushes to attack an enemy they haven't even seen yet. Whatever they were doing, they dropped it and rushed straight over to a fight without a second thought.

Finally, a hand reaches over an overgrown tree root, as a Breaker wearing an animal's skull over their head starts to hoist themselves over.

Only for a thunk, and a yell, as an arrow impales the Breaker's hand to the tree.

As the Breaker struggles to get their hand free, three more manage to climb over the roots, clambering down the other side with clubs held high, charging straight at our frontline.

Rann, Rob, and Einar have little issue in disarming and disabling the three of them, but a movement I catch in the corner of my eye gives away that their plan is not simply to blindly run into us.

"They're flankin' us!" Johnny yells, as four more Breakers burst from the brush to either side of us.

One of them is charging straight at me, and this time Rann is too busy to come to my defence. This is what I've practiced for.

The Breaker makes a wide, clumsy swing with their bone-spiked club, making it easy to block his swing. What neither of us were expecting, though, was for his club to splinter and break as it struck my sword's edge. Ingrid might chew me out for misusing her sword like that, but it gives me an immediate advantage as the Breaker stumbles back, leaving them wide open to bash them on the forehead with my sword's pommel—causing them to collapse in a heap.

That…

That didn't kill them, right?

They're twitching. They're alive, I think-

<<BEHIND>>

"ARSHAK!" Arshiya yells, as she beats down her brother's assailant with her bow.

We were too slow to react to the enemy that had snuck all the way behind us, only to pounce and club Arshak in the back of the head. There's no blood, but he's knocked out cold after landing face-first in the mud.

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The fight is over already, with a dozen battered and bruised bodies laying around us. I don't think any of them are more battered than the one that attacked Arshak; Rob had to pull Arshiya off of them as Johnny sat Arshak up against him, patting his cheek to try and get him to stir.

"Arshak…! Is he breathing?" Arshiya immediately rushes over to her brother, squeezing his hand in hers.

"He's breathing. Just need to wake him up." Einar glances over at Arshak's limp form as he kneels to tie up the legs of the passed-out Breakers.

"I have just the thing. Sit him up more." Rann says, kneeling down and grabbing a waterskin from his waist.

He uncaps it, carefully bringing it to Arshak's lips and tipping it into his mouth. A small trail of a yellowish liquid runs down Arshak's chin, before his eyes shoot open and he splutters back to life.

"The HELL is that?! Pah…" Arshak coughs, going to stand before clutching the back of his head. "The hell happened… my head…"

"Breaker got you from behind. This brought you back." Rann holds up the waterskin with a grin. "Cider vinegar. It'll wake the dead."

"That is vile…!" Arshak grimaces, trying to get the taste off his tongue.

"It's an acquired taste, but Anton says it's good for you." Rann shrugs, taking a swig of it as well, only to shudder and pull a face. "... still acquiring it myself."

"Now that the kid's okay, you mind tellin' us where you got cider from, Rann? And why you let it turn to vinegar?" Johnny crosses his arms and gives Rann an accusatory glare.

"Ask Anton, he's the one that makes it. Don't know what from, though." Rann coughs, putting the skin back on his waist. "Strong stuff, too."

"So… Arshak's okay?" Arshiya asks, still squeezing her twin's hand.

"I'm fi… fine…" Arshak answers unconvincingly, trying to stand a second time only to fall back again, clutching his head. "Once everything stops… spinning…"

"You took a nasty blow, kid. Probably gave you a real good concussion." Johnny frowns, crouching down behind Arshak.

"Don't… call me… kid…" Arshak slurs, slumping against his sister.

"He'll be okay once we get back to Haven." Rann pats Arshiya's shoulder.

"Rann." Johnny stands, wiping the mud off his knees. "We can't bring him any further with us. Kid can't even stand. He'll need to be carried back to Haven."

Rann just closes his eyes and lets out a deep sigh.

"We have a bigger problem." Einar speaks up, drawing our attention to the neat little circle of bound and gagged Breakers beside him. "There's only twelve Breakers here."

"Yeah, twelve is how many there were… wait… shit, the extra one!" Johnny realises, immediately glancing all around him if there's anyone watching from the trees.

There are none.

One of the Breakers, instead of joining the attack, ran off.

Probably to get help.

"I can carry 'im." Rob says, effortlessly scooping Arshak up into his arms like he doesn't weigh anything. "Where're we carrying 'im to, though. I can't fight if I'm holding 'im."

"We'll be too slow carrying the wounded. We should split the group. Makes it easier to avoid the Breakers." Einar gives his opinion on the matter.

"If they catch either of our groups, we'll be done for! We only managed that because we had better gear and better wits, but that won't mean nothin' against a hundred of them!" Johnny retorts, pointing back towards Haven. "We turn around and head back. All of us. A few more days of waiting won't put the Queen in any more trouble."

"Or it could spell doom for her. The Keepsguard gets closer to her every day. They're expecting us, Johnny. We need to get there first." Rann rejects Johnny's point.

"We need to find one of the Wolf Pups." I add, trying to calm the tension a bit as Johnny and Rann glare at each other. "We tell them what's happened, and they get info back to Haven and the Capital."

"But what do we do about Arshak before then?" Arshiya asks, giving me a worried look.

"We get to one of the Pups' outposts. It'll be safe enough there until we get more information."

"Before long this place is gonna be crawlin' with Breakers. This whole area will be a no-go. How the hell are we supposed to get the Queen out then? I get we have an important mission, Rann, but we can't afford another fight, and we need to get the kid outta here." Johnny is talking sense. While he did originally advocate ambushing the group we encountered, even a masterful ambush won't mean much when it's six versus a hundred. We can't afford to fight, nor can we stay here much longer.

"Then we go with the backup plan." Rann sighs quietly, pulling out his sword and turning his back to the rest of us.

"We have a backup plan?" This is the first I've heard of it.

"You lot go to the Capital and get the Queen out. I'll distract the Breakers." He spells out the long and short of what exactly plan B is.

"By yourself?! Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind?!" Johnny, along with the rest of us, can't believe Rann's suggestion. "They'll kill you in a heartbeat and use your skull as a drinkin' cup!"

"They won't. Not at first, anyway. I'm sure I can work something out with Harv." Rann says, without looking back over his shoulder.

"With… what, just because you were old buddies you think you'll have a good chat with 'im and he'll just let you go? This is Bloodfist, Rann! If that would have worked, why didn't you do it already!?" Johnny yells, not caring for how loud he's being in his exasperation.

"I know how the Breakers work. I'll knock a few heads together if I need to. The only thing they respect is strength." He just shrugs.

I just quietly walk around to stand in front of Rann. His face is impassive, his eyes fixed on the horizon, but I know his tells. The slight crease in his forehead.

He knows this is a bad idea.

"Do you really think we'll just let you go off and die on your own, Rann?"

"I'm not…" He sighs, briefly looking down at me.

"You are!! Look, if you think this is your best idea, you're not doing it alone!"

"Aren't I? If I'm going to die, then who wants to join me?" Rann raises an eyebrow, glancing over his shoulder at the rest of the Expedition team.

"I will." I clench my fist to my chest.

"M…" His head snaps back to me in shock. "Marina, I can't let you of all people get yourself killed—"

"And I can't let you of all people get yourself killed. So I'm not going to let you. I have an ace up my sleeve, don't I?" I tug on my enchanted cloak to make my point.

"You gonna share your plan with the rest of us, Feathers? What's this plan involve, or does it just get both of you killed?" Johnny shrugs in abject disbelief.

"Rann and I stay behind. If Rann is confident that he can get us to see Harv instead of getting killed on the spot, then that's what we do. When the time is right, I pull out my wings and make a distraction. Rann gets away in the commotion, I fly in a different direction and take them on a bit of a chase. I can fly faster and further than they can run. Will this even work? If we get tied up or restrained in any way, no. But I'll only agree to Rann's plan if he agrees to mine."

"... If you get hurt, Marina, I'd never be able to forgive myself." Rann sighs.

"Same to you. Will it work, or not?"

"... It will. I know Harv. I'm sure he's dying to catch up with me." Rann grimaces.

"Then you and I are staying. The rest of you, go, before the Breakers get here."

"None of us have agreed to either of these plans, Feathers! This is nothin' but a gamble, and a shit one at that. You think we'll agree with it just because two of you are goin' on a suicide mission instead of just one!?" Johnny groans out, clutching his forehead. "Are you two that eager ta die again?"

"It's the best option we have." Einar pats Johnny's shoulder. "We need to move."

"Wh- You're taking this too?! Are you kiddin' me?!" Johnny yells.

"John." Rann says, as Johnny wheels on the spot to glare at him. "No one's dying today."

"Ghh…" Johnny grimaces, shaking his head. "Fine! But we'll be back for you two, y'hear!"

"I hear you." I smile.

"I have my own condition, Marina." Rann turns to me. "You only pull out your wings when I give the signal to. No matter what happens, not a moment sooner or later. Only on my signal. Clear?"

"... Clear. I trust you to watch for the best moment to get away." My wings jostle slightly under my cloak to express their displeasure at this, but they'll just have to deal with it. I trust Rann.

The five of them head off, passing through the clearing that's now empty of Breakers, while Rann and I head over to the half-assembled camp. Hopefully, when the other Breakers reach us, they won't find their tied-up friends hidden behind the brushes. Some of them are bleeding, and there's the one that still has an arrow embedded in their hand, but they're out of the way for now.

… It really was over before I knew it. We were waiting with baited breath as they hacked through the brush, then they were on us, then the next moment it was over.

"You did well, Marina." Rann gives me a pat on the shoulder.

"I'm just… surprised it was over so soon. I tried to knock that guy out, but I don't know if I…"

"That's often how fights go. He's still breathing, don't worry. You just knocked him into the mud." He smiles, showing a little pride. "You held your own."

"Against the Breakers, or against you trying to get yourself killed?" I raise an eyebrow at him.

"I wouldn't have done this if it was any other group. I know Harv. He'd be far more interested in seeing me again than he would in his minions killing the both of us." He sits down on one of the logs dragged into the clearing, stretching his legs.

"How exactly do you know Harv? I know you've encountered the Breakers before, but to be honest, you were nervous about ever having to deal with them again. Why did you just offer yourself up to them without a second thought?"

He looks up at me, remaining silent for a long moment before speaking. "He's the reason I ended up here."

"... Oh."

"Don't worry, he doesn't hold it against me." He chuckles lightly. "I'm the reason he ended up here."

"Oh…?"

"The two of us ended up on opposite sides in a battle. We didn't cut each other down, though. Nothing of the sort. No, we just stared at each other like the same pair of idiots we were as kids." He sighs, but he smiles a little as he reminisces. "Unfortunately, getting distracted in a battle is the fastest way to get yourself killed. He got speared in the gut. I took an arrow to the chest."

"Sounds like you do have quite the history with him. Then… how did you end up in Haven, while he leads something as awful as the Breakers?"

"He…" Rann's shoulders slump. "Fell in with the wrong crowd. Got the wrong ideas in his head. That's how we ended up staring each other down. I was part of the garrison, he was part of the marauders trying to loot the town."

"So, not unlike you defending Haven while he leads the Breakers?"

"Thing is, he never led those marauders. He was just one of their scrawny hanger-ons. A whelp for them to push around and do all the work they didn't want to do. He was always a bit of a runt, and that got to him. Especially whenever he was compared to his brother."

"He had a brother?"

"Of a sort. You're talking to him, Marina." Rann grins wryly.

"You had a brother?! Harv is your brother?!"

"Not by blood." Rann shakes his head, looking up as he reminisces. "My parents found him one day, shivering and lost in the snow. They took him home and wrapped him up, and he had a high fever throughout the night. I was seven at the time, and even I thought he wouldn't make it. But he did. Skinny as he was, he recovered. No one in the village knew who he was, who his parents were, or where he was from. He was no more than five years old when my parents found him, and he didn't know how to talk. The moment he got better, though, all he wanted to do was help."

"Really? Harv, the leader of the Bone Breakers, wanted to help people?"

"He wasn't the leader of anything then. He was just a kid who wanted to help, not that there was much he could help with. Even if he was only a couple years younger than me, he was barely half my size. He definitely had an appetite, but as he grew, he never got anywhere near as big as me, which started to annoy him. My parents took him in as their own, and just like that, I had a little brother. They named him Harv, and that was that."

"Then how did you end up on opposite sides of a battle like that? One of you in the town garrison, the other trying to ransack the town?"

"Well…" Rann lets out a deep sigh, clasping his hands in his lap and staring down at them. "He was always my little brother. The local bullies would always find him when he wasn't with me, and I'd always have to get him out of trouble. Though my parents and I never blamed him for it, he was always a bit of a runt. He knew he was weak, and he hated it. Then, one day, I heard he'd gotten into trouble again. I couldn't believe that when I found him, he had joined the bullies and was picking on someone even weaker."

"There's a saying that hurt people tend to hurt other people…"

"I dragged him away from the bullies and gave him an earful. He just stared me down and said he'd earned his place, because he proved wasn't the weakest one anymore. He was bullied because he was the weakest, so he had to find someone weaker to bully to prove that he wasn't. It was a lesson the wrong people taught him, and he never let go of it."

"So that was where the breakdown started…?"

"I wish it were that simple." He chuckles dryly. "He was still my brother. He still lived with us, still helped my parents whenever he could. We had both grown into young men by the time the real fallout happened, but there were little moments here and there that just built up and up. He had the wrong kind of friends. People who thought that might made right, and anyone not strong enough to look after themselves was little better than the dirt. We had the occasional argument, as growing boys do. My parents were concerned about who he was spending his time with, but it all ended the night those men came to our house."

"He'd gotten himself in enough trouble that you couldn't help him out of it?"

"He wasn't in any trouble with them. The men were here to get Harv for their little "excursion" to a nearby village. These men were known bandits, and their excursion was to sack the nearby village. My father greeted them at the door with an axe in hand, only for the men to calmly explain that they weren't here to rob us, just here for Harv. My father and I turned around and looked at Harv, standing behind us, realising he'd been caught at the worst possible time. My father grabbed him, threw him out the door, and told him to never come home again. For all that they'd done for him, seeing him willingly join those bandits was a step too far."

"And that was the last time you saw him?"

"We never saw him again. We just had to accept the choice he made, and moved on. A year later, I joined the garrison of a nearby town and was earning a steady pay, and one day some foolish band of marauders thought we were easy pickings and attacked. Then, I saw him, and he saw me. We both stopped dead in our tracks the moment we saw each other. Those marauders were the same group that picked up Harv all those years ago. Of course, we both stopped moving in the middle of a battlefield, which is the fastest way to get yourself killed."

There's several things on my mind as Rann talks about his history with Harv. Things that don't quite add up.

Harv was just a whelp when Rann knew him, but he's been leading the most feared group in the Abyss for a decade or more now. A group Rann fears. He fears what they could do to Haven if they found it. Yet the way he talks about Harv, it's clear that he still sees him as that little brother that could never quite catch up to him, that fell in with the wrong crowd until it eventually tore them apart. He has fond memories of him.

The Breakers have been on his mind for months now. He shows no hesitation in dealing with them, knocking them down one after another, because he knows violence is the only language they speak.

With Harv, Rann thinks he can talk things out.

He fears the Breakers, but not their leader.

It's a gamble. A dangerous one. But he believes he can work something out that'll get us both out of this alive.

It's the only way he'd stomach putting himself and I in such danger otherwise.

There's a noise in the distance. Then another. The sounds of twigs breaking, feet stomping.

"Should we be sitting down? That also sounds like a fast way to get ourselves killed."

"I'm no gambler, Marina." Rann lifts his head with a determined expression, rising to his feet as the first Breakers emerge from the treeline. "I only place a bet when I know I'll come out on top."

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