Kitaria shuffled her feet anxiously, she’d really done it this time. She’d done it on impulse, but she’d just been so damn frustrated.

                But she really should have thought more before acting so rashly. Then she wouldn’t have ended up sat on a cold bench in a cell with iron shackles around her wrists and ankles. Of course, they weren’t fully iron, probably an alloy of some sort, and a weak one at that. Still, she could feel an uncomfortable prickling, a kind of burning itch where the metal shifted over her skin.

                These cells were supposed to be soundproofed, but she could still hear a muffled yelling from beyond the door. She couldn’t imagine just how loud they were, but she’d seen the veins in General Yang’s neck protruding as she was escorted past him, and knew that all of the upper Generals would now have resorted to screaming at each other for the lack of answers.

                She sighed, toeing the ground nervously and wincing when the iron around her ankle rubbed uncomfortably with the movement. She’d been here for hours already, and their anger could only be growing with every passing minute. Things were not going to work out well for her.

                The muffled yelling grew louder, and Kitaria sat up straighter, her eyes fixed on the door. A moment later it opened swiftly and the eyes of Captain Donghae looked back at her. He turned his head in a subtle notice to not let herself relax, he wouldn’t be able to help her this time. He’d tried to keep her out of trouble but this was more than even he could handle.

                “The Generals want to see you.”

                Kitaria swallowed, “Generals? As in more than one?” She was done for.

                Captain Donghae nodded, “all of them.”

                Oh .

                A heaviness settled itself in her stomach weighing down her steps, a weight that had nothing to do with the iron chain Captain Donghae was connecting to her bindings.

                “Really starting to feel like a criminal now.” She forced out a chuckle, just trying to avoid thinking of what was awaiting her.

                “You’ll be lucky if that’s all you are when this is over.” Donghae bit back at her, pulling at the chain to make her stumble after him. “None of us can help you this time.”

                An added weight settled along with the others in Kitaria’s gut, a familiar sensation of guilt. Donghae had stuck his neck out for her so many times… he’d probably be a higher rank by now if he didn’t have her pulling him down. But even as bad as she felt about the situation she couldn’t regret doing it, which somehow made everything worse.

He tugged on the chain again to quicken her pace, and Kitaria felt bad for him. He wasn’t a mean guy by nature, she could only imagine how much this was eating him up inside. But he couldn’t whack her like he usually did, he couldn’t risk looking so familiar with her, not now in her circumstance. Pulling the chain was the closest he was going to get to chastising her.

The walk was long, taking her further than she’d ever been in the officers building. What had previously been only a mild burning was beginning to take its toll on her ankles, but she couldn’t find it in her to say a word, she could only keep walking as she felt the warm trickle of blood dribble down over her heel.  

“In there.” Donghae had stopped next to a door, and he looked at her one last time. He couldn’t say anything to her, couldn’t whisper any words of comfort or encouragement, he could only memorise her terrified expression even as she tried to make herself brave.

“By myself?”

Donghae nodded stiffly, “it’s a closed court.” He saw her face pale, and his heart was cracking, splintering around the edges. Not being able to watch her tremble any longer he stretched out his hand.

For a brief second, Kitaria thought he was going to embrace her, tell her that it would be ok, lie to her to give her some kind of hope. Then closed as his hand clasped around the door handle instead, opening it for her and gesturing that she should walk inside.

                “Where is it?”

                There were no formalities, no reading of her offence or requests for council. Everyone in the room knew her guilt and was intent on destroying her for it, but only once they’d found out what they needed.

                Kitaria had already set her mind that she wasn’t going to tell them anything, no matter how terrified she was. She hadn’t done this just to throw her life away, it had been an impulse, yes, but not an unreasonable one. The fact that her silence was the only thing keeping her alive was just an extra reason to keep shut.

                The five Generals were sat at the high bench in front of her, each a man of such high standing that she’d never seen them before. General Yang was the only one she knew by name, and that was only because he’d been the one ‘interrogating’ her earlier. The veins pulsing on his neck were thicker than they had been before, and an idle though in the back of Kitaria’s mind worried for his health.

                “Answer.” The General in the middle was the one speaking to her. Older than the others, but even more formidable. The delicate bone structure that defined her kind seemed almost lost on him, he was a heavyset man, built from years of hard work, a life that had carved lines of age into his face. His gaze rooted Kitaria to her spot, not able to move even if she wanted to. She almost wanted to blurt out what they wanted, just to escape from them. But surrendering wouldn’t free her, only seal the chains around her wrists.

                She shook her head and slowly met his gaze, “no.”

                General Yang leapt to his feet, palm slamming down on the desk in front of him. He was obviously about to engage in another bout of yelling and Kitaria cringed in advance, but the middle General held up his hand and silenced General Yang.

                “Are you going to tell us where it is?” His eyes narrowed at her, and once again the other four Generals blurred out of her vision as she focused on the man in front of her.

                “No.”

                The middle General nodded as if he expected the answer.

                “Banishment then. Until it is found.”

                “Banishment!” But you cant!”

                “I have every right. Unless you have something to say.”

                Kitaria lowered her head, blinking back the itch in her eyes threatening to break forth, she’d expected a harsh sentence, imprisonment possibly, but not banishment. Never banishment.

                “Where will I go?” She found herself asking, but the middle General had left the room, only General Yang remained with her, his angry face twisted into a sneer.

                “You’re going to the sentry posts.”

                Any warmth Kitaria had left in her system fled, and numbly she felt herself being led somewhere by the heavy iron chain.

                The sentry posts, those were outside of the forest boundaries, outside of Fey borders.

                That was wolf territory.

                She was literally being thrown to the wolves.

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OOO wolves, I WONDER who that could be! 

To those of you who have found me here from my site, thatnks for your continued support, and to any newcomers, welcome!

I've wanted to try a chaptered fic for a while, then got this idea and figured I should give it a go, so here goes!.