Sterre & Elke 2023

Lyssa/Lys

How long had she been walking? Hours, probably. She was exhausted, that was for sure. Rayna rested her hand on a tree and leaned on it for a little while, trying to get her breathing under control. Even hours later, her heart was still beating like crazy, most likely because she hadn't taken a second to rest up. Now she could. At least, she thought she could. Rayna looked back into the direction she had come from, her yellow eyes searching the horizon for movement. There was nothing. Was she safe, then? She had to be. She had no energy left to keep going at this pace.
With a sigh she sat down, her back resting against the tree. She was safe. She had made it into the woods, where she would be a lot harder to track for anyone who might have been following her. In the open plains, you could see people from miles away. Even further if you had her eyesight. Here, in the shade of the trees, she would be a lot harder to spot. Which was good.
After resting for a while, Rayna realised how dry her mouth was. Slowly, she got up again, and pain shot through her side. Frowning, she looked at the spot that hurt, and was surprised when she saw a red mass of half-dried blood. Had she been wounded? She hadn't even noticed, not until now anyway. Luckily, she could hear water running nearby, most likely a small river or stream. One more time she looked into the plains, but there was still nothing for her to see. She must have lost her followers some time ago, if they still hadn't caught up. Good.
Carefully, Rayna started to move towards the sound of the water and as she had predicted, she stumbled upon a small stream of water. First, she drank the cold, fresh water with big gulps and when her thirst was quenched, she started to splash some water on her painful side. There was a gash, a pretty big one, but it didn't seem to deep. There was no blood coming out of the wound anymore, so she decided to clean it by gently rubbing the cold water over the bare skin. It stung a little, but nothing compared to wounds she had had in the past.
After drinking and cleaning herself of the blood, Rayna felt more like herself again. She was no longer fleeing, she was no longer thirsty and also, she was alone. She had never been truly alone. In her old clan, she would always hear the sounds of the other hunters, or see them as they moved in on their prey together. She would hear their whispers and, for the sake of peace, pretend her hearing was not good enough to hear what people were whispering about. Now, there were no voices anymore. Sure, she could still hear the water and the sound of various animals, so it wasn't completely silent, but there were no people.
A twig broke somewhere to her right. Her ears turned towards the noise and Rayna quickly grabbed her bow and arrows, pointing them at the direction the noise came from. Not long after, a six-legged deer shot out of the bushes. She lowered her bow, not willing to hunt in territory she wasn't familiar with. If there was a clan living here, she would rather not piss them off immediately by hunting on their grounds. Instead, she kept her weapons at the ready and she moved back into the shadows of the trees, following the water upstream. She had no ultimate goal, except to stay alive, so it didn't matter whether she went up- or downstream. What mattered is that she kept moving, she wanted to find a good spot to settle in for the night before it got dark. Judging by the sky, she still had an hour or two.

She stood tall while watching the younglings train in the freezing water. Her dark brown hair cascaded down her back in messy, wet waves from when she was training the adults and a group of them managed to knock her into the same water the kids were playing in. Training, but it was more a game to them. She didn’t mind, one way or another the children had to learn to defend themselves and if they enjoyed their training, it made her job a lot easier.
“Zarek, what do you do when your weapon is shorter than your opponents?” She’d been hounding them with questions during their training to make sure they didn’t forget everything they had learned while having fun, which happened more often than they wanted her to know.
“Get in close!” The little guy yelled back. A smile twitched at her lips, good boy.
An hour more she kept the kids to train until she finally gave them the all clear command, they could enjoy the rest of their day while she attended meetings with the rest of the council, checked the camps defences and prepped some lessons for the following days. Lyssa wasn’t exactly the type of person interested in joining these council meetings. They were long and boring, not to mention almost never about anything she was remotely interested in. They asked her about training and defences, but as long as she did her job, they had other priorities. Feeding the camp, for example. Important, but not her task.
There was never a moment of peace when she walked through the camp, her eyes always scanning and evaluating. Eventually one of their bigger tents became visible and she threw the flap to the side to enter. The tents were only used during the day, at night they slept in the caves they carved from the mountain. The rest of the council was already seated, Lyssa nodded at them while taking her place right next to Evander, their leader. He was a good leader, gentle with their people, resourceful and incredibly smart. She respected him, but she didn’t like him. There was no reason for her to be friends with him as long as they were capable of working together, which was enough for her.
The meeting went on and on and Lyssa had quickly lost interest, until suddenly the council turned towards her. Immediately her eyes narrowed, framing her sharp, angular features. Her wings ruffled on the ground, ready to strike. At times they had a mind of their own.
“Lys, a few of the border patrols have confided in us that you’re pushing them too hard. Our people are already scared to be out there and the long hours do not make this easier, is there any way we can make the job more pleasant for them?”
Pleasant? A haughty laugh escaped her.
“Of course, I will bring them pie next time,” she raised her eyebrows at Evander and could see he wasn’t going to back down at her sarcasm.
“No, Evander, we can not. Not unless you’re willing to spare more people for the defences, I’m sure we don’t need our hunters to do their job. Or maybe the elderly can jump in and defend us from an attack.” She shook her head. “I will talk to them, but unless we have more people, I won’t be able to make their life any easier and frankly, I don’t want to.” While it was a scary job, nothing had happened for the past months, years even. Nobody else had found them, there was no reason to think they would now. It was a dangerous job, but not as bad as they made it out to be and to go complain to the boss himself annoyed her more than she was willing to let on.

Time continued to pass as Rayna kept walking. The stream of water seemed endless, but she was sure there had to be some sort of source where it started. If she could reach it, that would be a good place to set up camp for a while.
As she was walking, she plucked a few berries every now and then. If she was unsure whether or not a berry was safe to eat, she'd leave it, so there were only a precious few that she was actually able to eat. It didn't really make her less hungry, but it was better than having an empty stomach. Still, she avoided hunting the creatures here. Bloody messes of feathers and tufts of fur would draw a lot more attention than a few missing berries, she figured.
Ahead of her, she heard twigs snap. Now, that wasn't unusual in this forest. Since she encountered the first deer, a few more animals had caught her attention. But not like this. There was a more methodical breaking of twigs this time, and she could hear voices. Far ahead, still, but definitely humans. Rayna put an arrow on her bow, just in case, and moved forward even more carefully than before, making sure she would hide in the shade of the trees at every possibility.
The voices were growing louder and soon, Rayna could understand what they were saying. Clearly, these people were not happy. They were discussing their lack of sleep and the fact that their commander seemed to think that they didn't need rest. Another person in the group hissed at them to be quiet, clearly nervous about whatever could be lurking in the shadows of the trees. Rayna smiled faintly. If only they knew that she had an arrow trained on them, simply based on the location their voices came from.
She chose not to shoot. If she did, she would maybe be able to take down a few of the group, but she was clearly outnumbered and there was no point in killing them. Not yet, anyway. Instead, she stowed her weapons and decided to move a little closer. They would still not be able to hear or see her, unless they had someone with the exact same skillset as she did, but to her they were quite visible. They must have a camp nearby, a place they called home. Perhaps they would take Rayna in if she approached them in a neutral manner. As much as she had enjoyed the quiet for a little while, she knew that it wouldn't last. Tonight, the nightmares would most likely begin. The flashbacks. She couldn't shut those out forever. And if she was all alone in a forest unknown to her, the odds of her making it through the night alive were considerably smaller. A camp meant other people. People that would probably not trust her, but perhaps they had enough humanity left to take a newcomer in. A loner, a stranger. Perhaps she could show that she was useful.
Something clenched in her chest and Rayna felt that she really didn't want to stay alone as the group of patrolling humans walked on. No, she had to go after them, make sure they lead her to their camp. It couldn't be too far if the patrol wanted to be home before it turned dark. The sun was slowly setting already, it wouldn't be long now.

Evander had to realise she wouldn’t give in more than saying she would have a look at it and talk to the people complaining. He was the boss, but if she didn’t want to do something, it very rarely happened that she did. There was a fine line between guidance and force and he never stepped over it. Not with her.
“Alright, but if the complaints keep coming we might have to evaluate the relationship between you and those working in the patrols and defences.” Her shoulders tensed while he spoke.
“You are an incredibly skilled fighter and the training you give our people is beyond valuable, your social skills however are lacking.” Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward, invading his personal space a bit, before abruptly getting up and walking out of the tent. He went too far. She was the only person capable of keeping this camp safe and he knew it, there was no reason to doubt her skills nor her ambition. Perhaps there was some kind of powerplay at work. The other council members never truly liked the way she could do what she wanted, seems like Evander finally listened to them.
“Fine,” she muttered to herself. He wanted her to talk to the patrols? She could do that. They weren’t going to like it if she did, but she could.
The patrols had certain routes they were supposed to take in order to prevent them from bumping into each other and leaving other parts of their immediate surroundings unsupervised. This allowed Lyssa to know where they were supposed to be any time of the day. She’d surprised them more than once on their patrols to check how they were doing before and they were never too happy with it. For some reason they were either not where they were supposed to be or they were doing things they shouldn’t be doing. But they wanted more freedom. Wanted her to not be such a terrible bitch and tyrant. Gifts like that only came after performing their duties correctly.
“Hi!” Coming closer to the patrol, she could hear them chatting it up together. If they had actually paid attention to her coming from the camp, they would’ve seen her walk up to them without a care in the world - however, she now startled them. Idiots. Incompetent idiots. Some of them were good and did their job, or at least tried, but most of them were utterly incapable of performing any kind of task. All the properly trained members of camp were hunters, since apparently food was more important than defences.
“Lyssa, hi, what are you doing here?” One of the men came up to her, but stopped a few steps in front to look her up and down. It was never a good sign if she suddenly appeared and he knew. They all knew.
“Just checking in, I had a very interesting council meeting a few minutes ago and I figured we should have a chat.” The instant panic on some of their faces was glorious. This was going to be fun. Let them go whine to Evander and the rest, she’d prove it was their own fault for not training and listening.

The group was skittish. At least, some of them were. By tracking them, Rayna learned a lot about them. It was a small group, but big enough so they could provide cover for each other if necessary. She decided to take a risk, see how dangerous this group actually was, and picked up a rock from the ground. For this, she had to move closer, because although her hearing and sight were greatly improved, her throwing was no better than that of the average human. She threw the rock from a distance and it clattered of a tree very near the group. Two of the people in front made a surprised noise and stepped back from where the rock hit the tree. A third person, a man that looked like he'd seen everything, gave the two startled people a slap on the back of their heads. They muttered something about the dangers of the forest and continued walking. Rayna had to surpress a laugh. If she had meant harm, these people wouldn't stand a chance.
The patrol group seemed a bit more on edge because of her stone-throwing for a while, but it didn't take long for them to start chatting with each other again. They complained a little more about having to patrol at all, since there was never any danger, and then the conversation shifted to whatever would be for dinner. Or, what they hoped would be for dinner. Fresh meat, since the hunters had left early in the morning. Admittedly, Rayna's mouth started to water at the thought of freshly caught food.
Something was approaching the patrol group. Or rather, someone. Her ears caught the footsteps first, as the person walking closer did not try to sneak at all. Rayna moved through the shadows so the trees wouldn't obscure her vision and she saw a newcomer approach the group, a woman walking with confidence. More noticable, a woman with wings. The leathery wings caught her attention immediately, even though they were not spread. The wingspan must be immense, since the wings themselves were quite large, even when tucked in. A mutant, like her. And because of the way this woman moved, Rayna immediately understood that she was powerful. Even if she hadn't noticed, she saw the group get startled when they finally noticed the woman. If the winged newcomer had been hostile, this patrol would have been very, very dead.
She could hear them speaking without any difficulty, her ears facing forward to catch as much of the conversation as she could. The winged woman had an intimidating tone in her voice and even though Rayna had no idea what the conversation was about, apart from the fact that they wanted to have a chat, she immediately understood that there was a warning undertone.
From her current position, Rayna was unable to see the expressions on the faces of the patrol group, but their body language spoke a thousand words. All of them backed away from the intimidating woman, who apparently went by the name Lyssa. Rayna wasn't sure she liked the woman, although she would probably also have been angry if a patrol group didn't spot the tall, winged woman until she stood right in front of them.
This was gonna be interesting. This conversation could possibly tell her everything about the dynamic of the camp she was about to enter and honestly, the more she knew the better. If the patrol group was this bad, they could definitely use someone like her.

Their worried, skittish look made her happier than she was going to admit, because wether or not they deserved it, she was still their superior in this camp. They were supposed to listen to her and respect her decisions. Clearly they didn’t, but getting mad at them for being incompetent assholes was not going to help her in any way.
Lyssa walked over to the edge of the patrol. The key to a good patrol and figuring out if enemies were coming, wasn’t to be on your guard for everything. You needed to search for what wasn’t supposed to be there. Even if you couldn’t see an enemy, there were many signs from the forest  somebody was out to get you. Leaves ruffling against the wind, or a broken twig after which complete silence fell. If it was an animal, it would break more than one twig making their way through the forest. Humans, however, had a habit to stand completely still trying to figure out if they were spotted or not. Sometimes the quiet eeriness gave humans away, they’d scare off animals whose sounds usually filled the forest.
Right now they were no signs, so she turned back to the patrol who was impatiently waiting for her judgement.
“No need to own up to it or deny, I know it was all of you who went to the rest of the council to whine about how unfairly I treat you.” They wouldn’t know unfair if it hit them in the face.
“None of the other patrol groups seem to have a problem with how I manage them, so I decided to make some changes to this group. Initially I let you be a group because of the personal connections and trust between you, but that is over now. You’ll each receive more, extensive training to make up for your fear. After all, if you’re more convinced of your own skills, there is very little to be afraid of here.” There were some clenched jaws going around the group, but none of them dared go against her.
“You will all be put in a different group and I’ll make sure you get a mentor to ensure your safety and skills. Of course, those mentors will report back to me on how well you perform your tasks and if you still seem incapable of being a proper patrol member, I will personally find a better suited job for you.” She couldn’t run them out of the camp, but she could make their life hell. They should’ve kept quiet.
“Any questions?” She smiled at them, before turning back to the forest. It was getting darker and they should head back to camp before another patrol came too close. Having two of them so close together wasn’t ideal, but walking while telling them the new order wouldn’t do them much good either. They’d be too distracted to listen to her.
Behind her she could hear somebody scrape their throat. Possibly to comment something about her upcoming discipline measures. Instead of listening to them, she slowly spread her wings, showing the immense wingspan and power of the weapons at her back. Tonight it would be best not to mess with her.

It seemed that Rayna had just found the worst patrol group. They weren't all that bad if she believed the winged woman. She hoped so for this camp, else their glory days would probably be very short-lived.
The in-camp affairs that the woman mentioned didn't really spark any interest in Rayna. If she was indeed allowed to join the camp, she assumed that she wouldn't have anything to do with the training of patrol groups either way. So, although she could clearly hear them talk about the new orders, she didn't really form an opinion on it or even register it fully. Just a boss talking to her underlings. Nothing new there, she had encountered that in her camp too. Well, in her old camp. She had to remind herself that she no longer had a camp and that made a pang of guilt shoot through her. Best not to think about that.
What she should be thinking about was how she would make her entrance in this new camp. She already understood who was at least partially in charge, but she still needed to find a way in. Preferably without getting killed in the process.
The woman decided to make an impressive statement by spreading her wings. Rayna could now see that, although immense, the wings were not really suited for flying. As combat weapons however, they seemed really dangerous. Best to avoid this woman in close combat, if she could.
An idea suddenly dawned upon her. Was it dangerous? Certainly. It could really also mean her end, if she wasnt careful enough. But Rayna figured she could afford the risk.
She found another rock on the ground and gripped it in her hand. She was gonna do the same thing as before, but this time she was gonna attempt to draw the attention of the woman. Quietly, she moved closer. Nothing but the natural sounds of the forest to mask her movements.
When she thought she was close enough to throw the rock, she moved fast. This time, she hit one of the patrol group members on the shoulder and he made an annoyed sound. She didn't wait, but turned around and moved back, climbing a nearby tree to avoid immediate detection. As much as she had wanted to draw the attention of the winged woman and her patrol group, she'd rather not be caught in the wingspan before she had a chance to talk.
'What on earth is going on?' said one of the voices, frustrated. 'I didn't know it rained rocks in this forest!'
One of the other voices was clearly trying to get the first to quiet down, perhaps afraid of what the woman would say if she found out that this was not the first rock they had had thrown at them. Sure, the forest was full of strange occurences, but rocks usually didn't throw themselves at people. At least, not where Rayna came from.
She climbed up a little higher, hiding between the thick leaves of the tree she had chosen, waiting. Would they just move on, brushing this off as just some random coincidence, or would they investigate? Should she ready an arrow, just in case? No, she shouldn't. That would immediately imply that she was hostile. Which, clearly, she wasn't. If she was, she would have shot the entire group already. Maybe with the exception of the winged woman.

Immediately her eyes scanned the surroundings. If this wasn’t the first rock thrown at this patrol, it meant somebody was out there. Occasionally it was to be expected that an animal would drop something on a patrol, but you’d be able to hear or see the animal and it wouldn’t happen twice in a few minutes. A surge of annoyance brewed in her at the thought that somebody had been watching them, listening to their conversation and that the patrol knew somebody was out there. Or didn’t know, but should’ve known. She never should’ve let this group become a patrol on their own, clearly it was a good thing that today was the last day.
Even though she came up empty after scanning the forest, Lyssa knew there was somebody here. It was too quiet for animals and there was barely a whisper of wind.
“I might not be able to see or hear you, but I know you can hear this,” right after her words, Lyssa unsheathed both her swords. The metal slicing out if its hilt created a pretty gnarly sound. Whoever was out there was bound to hear it. In order to protect herself, she pulled her wings a bit back and created an armour around herself. Arrows could still pierce her wings and it would hurt like hell, but they wouldn’t reach the rest of her body, so they couldn’t kill her. From this distance any other weapon was useless against her. Swords, axes and mazes were used for close combat and after arrows, the only reliable weapons you could use from a distance were knives and spears. Both of which her opponent would have to be in view for, or they’d never be able to throw so far. Although some mutants could. Considering there was a person out there who she couldn’t hear nor see, while they were throwing stones at her group, it was likely there was an added difficulty to them. She couldn’t help but be excited, it had been too long since she properly fought another mutant.
“Tell you what, show yourself, tell me what you’re doing here and I won’t kill you on sight. Deal?” Depending on who was out there, she meant it. It couldn’t be more than one, perhaps a few, because there was no way an entire army could hide from her. From the patrol definitely, but not from her.
A few of the group had been smart enough to draw their weapons after Lyssa grabbed her swords, but she signaled to put them back. Whoever it was, she didn’t want them dead by a stray arrow because her group was incapable of using even the smallest portion of their brain. Evidenced by the fact that they weren’t completely silent while she was waiting for a potential opponent to come out of their hiding place. Where had she gone wrong with this group? Most of the others knew how to handle every situation she threw at them and she was actually proud to train them, but this was an abomination. She should’ve left and let whatever intruder was out there kill them. That would’ve shown the rest of the camp what happens to idiots.

She had caught their attention. More specifically, her attention. A smile showed on Rayna's face, but she didn't yet reveal her location. Not yet. The winged woman was clearly ready for an attack, with her swords drawn and her wings in a defensive, protective position. It was quite silly, actually. If she had wanted to fight the patrol, she wouldn't be throwing a rock at them. No, if she had meant to kill them, attack them by surprise, her first projectile would have been a deadly one. She observed the group. Most of them had also drawn their weapons, but they did stay back a bit more. If she had wanted to, though, she could still easily fire a deadly arrow and end at least one of them before they could react. That was not her intention, though.
Fine. When she started talking, she would definitely make the others aware of her approximate location. They would not know that she was hiding in a tree, however. And none of her enemies seemed particularly fond of ranged weapons, so she wouldn't get random projectiles shot at her.
'If I had wanted to kill your patrol, I would have done so an hour ago,' she replied, 'and actions speak louder than words. You might say that you won't kill me, but your swords are drawn. That seems like a contradiction and a hazard to my safety.'
She retreated a little, so that her body was pushed against the tree. There was always the possibility of the enemy throwing a sword at her and she'd rather not be hit by those. They looked sharp.
She knew she had revealed her location by speaking, but she was relying on the fact that she was high up in a tree and still at a decent range away from the patrol group and their leader to ensure her safety.
'I will, however, tell you that I am alone and that I am here to change that.' Saying that, which was an answer to one of the things the winged woman had asked of her, was a token of her goodwill. As was the fact that she had not killed any of that group earlier. Surely this warrior must understand that. In terms of tactics, it would be terribly foolish to track a patrol group for an hour and decide to attack when a strong figure, possibly a leader, arrived at the group. Just like the fact that throwing rocks at trees and shoulders was not usually the way to start a war with a group of people.
Rayna was listening carefully. The leaves of the tree did obstruct her vision slightly, so she did have to rely more on sound. Approaching footsteps, for example. So far, there was nothing. That could be a good sign, or a bad one. The forest seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for the winged woman to make her next move.

Whoever it was had certainly been capable of taking out the patrol considering their massive inability to take care of themselves and do a proper job, but that changed when Lyssa herself entered the playing field. Perhaps if it was a small army travelling through their forest she’d have an issue going up against them, but one person would hardly make her sweat. She wasn’t worried. No matter how skilled this invader was - clearly they had certain skills that allowed them to go by unseen, when it came to battle, there were very few capable of winning from her. She hadn’t met one yet. Although she was always up for a challenge.
“The only safety hazard you should worry about is not annoying me into breaking my promise. I am not putting away my swords until I can see you.” Behind her she still heard some muttering and Lyssa made a mental note to make their training even harder. Had they learned nothing the first time around? They didn’t even need to deal with this enemy on their own. Frankly, not at all. She was doing their work for them and they had the audacity to try and ruin it. Did it not cross their minds that they could’ve been killed by this person?
Things got more interesting when she heard the person speak again. They were alone and wanted to change that, perhaps somebody was looking for a new group to join. Interesting. Lyssa was nothing if not curious, however she wasn’t very fond of strangers and wouldn’t immediately open up her home to whoever walked into their camp. Not that it was her decision to make, the entire council with Evander at its head were responsible for such decisions. She was only one part of a well oiled machine. Unfortunately for them no such machines existed anymore and looking at her patrol, neither did the people.
“We can talk about your worth to our camp later, I’m not opposed to having another mutant join if you bring some value with you.” There was no doubt about it; this person had to be a mutant. While she was audible, there was still no sight of her. Humans weren’t that skilled. The evidence was right behind her.
“Or, I can of course tell the patrol behind me to send out a warning signal which will cause all available soldiers to circle back here. We are a big camp, do you want to take the risk of me declaring you an enemy without getting to know each other? That wouldn’t be very social of us.” They had a system and she could very easily call upon all available fighters. If enough of them joined - and she knew they would - she’d comb out this forest inch by inch to find whoever dared come so close to their camp. The mutant might be invisible now, but their tracks wouldn’t be.

Rayna rolled her eyes, even though the winged woman could absolutely not see her do it. 'There truly is no need for continuous threats,' she spoke in response to Lyssa painting the scenario where everyone would be hunting her. 'By the time the rest of your camp gets here, I'd be long gone. Either way..' She took a deep breath and made a decision. Carefully, she shifted her weight on the branch to her feet. The leaves rustled. If the patrol had just been passing by, the sound would probably have meant nothing. Now, she was sure at least the winged woman realised that it was her. She calculated the distance and leapt onto a lower branch. Still not on the ground, but clearly visible now. Her yellow eyes looked at the woman for a while and she wondered if they were even capable of seeing her mutation from this distance. She was still quite far away from them and honestly, she did not intend to move closer until the others sheathed their weapons.
To visualize the fact that she was harmless, Rayna raised her empty hands. 'Since I did my part, I'd really like it if you would sheathe your weapons,' she said. Her voice was extremely calm, some would even call it relaxed, but her heart was beating in her chest. She could hear her own blood rushing through her body as every muscle in her body was ready for action at the slightest hint of hostile movement. Quickly, her eyes shifted from the winged woman to her followers, that could also see her now. Most of them didn't know what to do, some were making half assed attempts to aim their weapons at her. They were no threat. The woman with the swords, she was the threat. So, Rayna focused her attention on her and tilted her head while she was waiting for a reaction from her side. She wasn't sure whether or not her appearance was expected, but here she was. On a branch, in a tree, in a forest that clearly was someone elses territory.
'As to me joining your camp or not... well, I hate to say it, but you seem to be in dire need of anyone who can listen to the forest and actually distinguish threats from natural occurences.' Her eyes shifted to the patrol group for a split second, but then went back to focusing on the woman. 'With all due respect, of course,' she added, a little too late and with a slightly sarcastic undertone. She had definitely just insulted this patrol group and although they might not have realized it, she was sure the woman did. And since the woman did seem to suggest before that she was in charge of the groups and their training, the responsibility fell on her shoulders. Surely she might vocally disagree with Rayna, but in her heart this woman knew she could very well use someone with her skillset. She was not just a mutant, she was also a trained hunter and tracker. This meant that she not only had the talent, but also the training to perform. One could not go without the other, just like this woman had probably trained long and hard to be able to turn her wings into weapons.
She shifted her position on the branch slightly, so that she could jump back to a safer spot if necessary. Other than that, she kept her eyes fixated on the woman.

When the woman finally revealed her position, Lyssa sheathed her weapons. With squared shoulders and crossed arms she wasn’t in a position to immediately attack which should set the intruder at ease, but her muscles were primed for action and part of her hoped she’d get to throw a punch. She could really use a good fight. The council already berated her one too many times for hurting people when they were training. Part of the learning experience, but unfortunately they didn’t see it this way.
Lyssa couldn’t help but chuckle when the woman had something to say about her patrol. Touche.
“I have no doubt your mutational skills come in handy, but I’m not a very trusting person, so we’ll have to see if your skills are more valuable than your life.” Right. She was trying to get the person down, not scare her off to run back into the forest.
“Lucky for you, I am not the only person judging wether or not you can stay.” That should make up for her earlier threat. At least she was trying. Nobody ever asked her to deal with a single person who wanted to join the camp - if that even was the intention of this stranger. She was more the person they went to if heads needed to be cut off. That she was good at. Enjoyed it, even. A lot more than those social interactions.
She sighed as she turned around to the group. Her back was exposed to the mutant behind her, but Lyssa made sure to position her wings in a way that they’d be hit by arrows and not the rest of her body.
“Continue your patrol, we’ll talk about repercussions in the evening. Let the girl through.” And with that she started walking back towards the camp.
“This is your one chance to follow me and plead your case to stay with our council. If you leave now and I ever see you again, I will kill on sight.” Everybody knew her preferences, but she figured the mutant would make a different choice. At the very least both of the options would bring some excitement back into her life, she’d been rather bored lately. The mutants arrival also gave her a much better case regarding the patrol and the council, because the patrol would not have been able to spot this intruder and she now had a firsthand witness to verify their shortcomings. Perhaps this worked out in her favour after all.

The effects of her actions immediately showed. As the woman with wings sheathed her weapons, the rest of the patrol followed suit. Rayna did not notice any more weapons pointed at her and although it was possible that there was someone hiding, still aiming at her, she thought it was not very likely. She didn't hear anyone sneak up on her, either way.
Nimbly, she dropped to the ground, landing on the dirt with a muffled sound due to the leaves that were there. Since she was still quite far away from the patrol, she quickly put her bow away, made sure her arrows were still there and started moving through the bushes, towards the people. The winged woman was already moving back, which meant that Rayna would have to pick up the speed a bit more to not fall behind.
When she reached the patrol, which clearly hadn't moved on yet, she received a few curious looks. Most of them quickly looked away when she stared at them with her yellow eyes. It was clear that they didn't know how to behave towards another mutant, as Rayna did catch them staring at her ears and eyes when they thought she wasn't looking at them directly. She made a feint towards them as she passed, which made the person closest to her jump back a bit. A faint chuckle escaped her mouth, but she got serious quickly when she realised that the winged woman didn't stop to look back. With a quick sprint, she closed the distance between the other mutant and herself, although she was careful to keep some distance between her and the big wings.
'I am grateful that you didn't have me killed on sight,' she told the woman. It was more of a singular statement than a conversation starter, as Rayna didn't really know how to make small talk with the other person. She had never been good at it and especially not with someone that was absolutely unknown her. They were about the same height, but because of the wings, Rayna definitely felt smaller.
They kept moving, without talking to each other. It turned out to be a relatively short walk, as Rayna could hear the familiar sounds of an encampment in the distance. The sounds of people talking, of fires burning, weapons clashing and just overall the sound of life. Her ears perked slightly forward, so she could take in all of the sounds. It had to be quite a large encampment to be producing that much noise. She understood why the winged woman worked so hard to protect it. Many people seemed to depend on her.
For a second, Rayna stood still. She checked herself quickly. Her hands were empty and although she was wearing weapons, they were visible and not held in a way that she could quickly draw them. It had to be enough to not be killed on sight. She cast a quick look on the winged woman that had been walking next to her. Rayna was quite sure that if this woman gave any kind of sign, she would indeed be killed on sight. If this woman changed her mind, there was no way Rayna could run. If the camp was ready for her, perhaps to kill her and see if they could transplant her mutations on to someone else, she would have no chance to escape.
But she had no choice anymore. The two women stepped out of the dense forest, into the encampment. It was quite large, as Rayna had suspected by the noise. It consisted of tents, but it looked like there were a lot of caves carved into the mountainside. A good position for a camp. The mountains provided a natural defense against any enemies and it gave daring climbers opportunity to easily scout the surroundings from high up.
People were looking at the winged woman and the newcomer. Instead of staring back, Rayna looked at the ground in front of her. She didn't want to disrespect anyone by looking at them straight. They had always taught her that with her unusual eyes, she could easily make people uncomfortable. Normally, she wouldn't mind. But if she was to stay here, she should be careful to show respect.
She heard two people whisper on the right. They were curious as to what Lyssa had brought with her. They wondered why Rayna wasn't bound. They wondered why Lyssa had left a stranger, a mutant, alive.
Rayna ignored the voices. There were too many anyway, she wasn't able to decipher all of the whispers. Instead, she followed the winged woman. She had spoken about some sort of council, so Rayna assumed that was where she was being taken.