The wind was blowing hard and cold, but Arianna could barely feel it, as sweat ran over her body and she tried hard to catch her breath. She had a few minutes at best before the group of brigands chasing her would catch up and begin searching the area for her, and she needed her energy if she was going to have any chance of getting away with her life. Poor circumstances and bad timing had gotten her in trouble - she could not have been in a worse place at a worse time if she had actively tried. She seemed to have a knack for that.
She glanced down at the clothes she was wearing, having forgotten what they looked like. Her mind was all over the place. Thick, dark green cotton that hung loosely off of her shoulders, tied around her waist with coarse rope, and a simple white skirt around her legs, also made of cotton. No wonder she was sweating so hard. Such old, hardly refined materials, almost hastily thrown together because some kind of clothes were necessary. But it was strange, she could have sworn she was wearing something lighter, more colorful...
That must have been in the other place.
The sound of horse steps getting louder reached her ears, and she knew that it was time to go. She forced herself up onto her feet, acknowledging in passing that her knees were wobbling but not having the time to do anything more. She slipped into the trees of the forest that she had reached the edge of and just started running. She had a shortsword bouncing on her hip, and she wasn't exactly non-proficient with it, but it could only carry her so far in a fight, and even then, that was only against one opponent. There were at least a dozen men chasing her.
Her legs hit her harder than she expected, though. Only a couple dozen trees in, her knee gave way, and she fell hard onto the ground, face first. Pain shot through her, and she involuntarily cried out in agony, immediately wishing she hadn't. She heard the whinnies of horses as they were abruptly steered in her direction. She had given herself away, and there was nothing she could do about it. The sweat on her skin turned cold, and she could practically feel the icy grip of death reaching out for her.
"Hey, Arianna, are you feeling ok? You look like you just saw a ghost?"
She was pulled back into the conversation with her friends with a jolt. Her head was pounding, and without thinking she grabbed the glass of ice water in front of her and downed it quickly. How long had they been sitting there talking again? She glanced down at her thin but stylish layers of shirts, which hugged her figure and showed off her best features. Hadn't there been something about cotton...?
That must have been in the other place.
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