Luca laid alone in her tent and wrestled with sleep. Her face was warm, but her feet were cold. Her limbs ached. She threw off her blanket. Luckily, the servant accompanying her was a deep sleeper. 

She was suddenly very deeply frustrated. It was mainly her inability to fall asleep, but, also, where was she? What was happening in her life? Clawing at the tent's fabric beneath her, trying to let out at least a little of her current aggression, she found she had torn a hole in it. The dirt had already gotten under her fingernails, so she just dug her fingers deeper into the earth, willing her grievances to escape through it. 

She was almost nodding off when something rustling outside of her tent caught her attention. The night had been so still until then, the crack of a twig sent her heart racing. She pulled her blanket back on, all the way to her nose, and watched the opening of her tent. Unfortunately, the servant accompanying her was a deep sleeper. 

The weapons Khaliq had forged her the day before were sitting by her feet, within reaching distance if she really were to need them. She made a mental note, though, to leave them even closer from then on. 

The candles had blown out a while ago, meaning that Luca had been left in almost complete darkness. Yet, she could have sworn she saw the fabric move and draw away. Her breath hitched. Moonlight filtered in behind a figure, compact and bent over.

Its face was brown and it had eyes and a nose like a human's, but Luca did not think it was a human.

It crouched lower, lean and predator-like, to enter the tent. It was coming towards her, she knew, but she had no way out. Trying to make a decision between a known and an unknown enemy, she debated screaming. Before she could think it through, though, a howl not unlike the jungle monkeys' filled the tent.

The attendant was awake. Flames started to come to life and  filter in through the tent's fabric. The thing just stared at her, and Lux found that she could hardly tear her eyes away from theirs either. 

Suddenly, she wished she'd had more time. As footsteps grew closer to them, shouts ringing through the outside air, the non-human crouched down besides her and reached its arm over her. She froze, still analyzing the situation, its hand came down on the floor and, just like that, it was gone. 

Lux sat up, startled, and looked at the place where his hand had been just a moment ago. The only thing there was the hole she had broken, dirt now spilling out from it onto her blanket. 

The tent was ripped open just a second later, this time by people in uniforms she recognized. She glanced at the maid, now blubbering in the corner, t