[This is part of my Creative Writing Experiment.]
As they turned the corner to the front gate an arrow struck Nessa in the shoulder, dropping her to the floor. This seemed to wake Nerith up as she scrambled to drag her sister back into cover. While doing so, she saw that the gates had been breached with soldiers beginning to pour in. Only Chaya remained on her feet upon the parapet, somehow still fighting back the enemy horde. There was no way to get to her. On the other side the telltale clicks of the scorpion men grew ever closer and Nerith broke down into tears as she looked at her wounded sister. Having no more options she held her magical amulet in her hand and hugged Nessa.
In a flash they were suddenly in the midst of smoking debris and dead bodies. At first Nerith thought it didn't work, that they didn't get transported back to the Sand Market but upon closer inspection that was exactly where they were. "The Wizard King didn't take kindly to my helping you," said a sad, broken voice from behind some smoke.
As it cleared, Nerith saw that it was Drisana - the caravan mistress. She was covered in ash, beaten, and wore only what seemed to be dirty rags that didn't belong to her. The two women silently stared at each other for a moment before they both turned their attention to the injured Nessa and wordlessly removed the arrow and dressed the wound with fabrics torn from her sister's attire.
"What do we do know?" asked Nerith blankly as she blinked back tears.
"We start over," replied Drisana. "Somewhere else. Fortunately the soldiers didn't take from me what they couldn't find so I think I can get us passage across the sea."
"But the Wizard King..." began Nerith, with a clear edge of rage to her voice.
"The Wizard King has won," interrupted Drisana forcefully. "At least for now."
Without the heart to continue arguing, Nerith just looked back at her sleeping sister then across the smouldering field of debris.
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