This time, when the cloaked men came for her, took her by her wrist and dragged her to the door, not a single sound was uttered. Kira looked around herself, hoping to catch the eye of someone, anyone, who would just please 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴!
"Wait- what did you just- 𝘐 𝘋𝘐𝘋𝘕'𝘛 𝘋𝘖 𝘈𝘕𝘠𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘕𝘎!- No, wait, just a mome-!"
The people avoided her, and a few people covered their faces, and she had a sinking feeling that it was to make sure she wouldn't see them.
She looked back, catching Gerard holding tightly onto a very still Ricky who was watching her with heartbroken eyes. His lips moved, wobbling,
𝘒𝘪𝘳𝘢...
She caught her name just in time before Gerard turned him around, and put him behind himself, away from the wretched woman's gaze. 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘴.
A choked sob escaped her lips as she turned around to the entrance, to the outside that had lightened considerably in the light of dawn.
The beautiful blue sky, with hints of emerging pinks was mesmerising, if only Kira could muster the strength to look up. The man who had a hold of her threw her sluggish body into a large cage like structure that was loaded on top of a huge wheeled platform and nailed to the back, and slammed it shut, locking it with finality as he went on ahead to the front and took a seat.
The black horses, matching the driver, neighed to the movement behind them. She did not raise her head when they started moving, feeling the bars dig into her back as the horses trotted forward in the cobblestones streets.
They travelled for some time, but for the life of her Kira would not be able to tell you how long. It was only when the sun was beating down on her that she looked up, eyes squinting and her hand raising to the top of her head that was now too hot to the touch.
She frowned, her hand coming down to shade her eyes as she finally took a look around. They were on their way to the capital.
She knew that because right there, in the distance, at the far end of the road they were trotting on- was the exact same hill that she had seen the beacon jump out of.
Horses thumping behind her had her jumping in her spot, body aching with their previously cramped position as she turned towards the noise. The other two men who had come to collect her, probably on the behest of Gerard (she thought sourly) were riding alongside her.
Kira focused on the most important aspect at the moment, and opened her mouth, throat parched as she croaked out, "...water..."
No one responded.
She held onto the bars as she twisted her body, feet pulling up to the sides as she faced the rider on her right. Eyes squinting against the heat, she tried again, louder, "Please...water..."
The horse beneath the man she had turned to twitched his ears at the sound, but yet again, nothing else happened.
Frustration crawled in her veins, eyes burning and cheeks flaming as she turned to the other side, asking the other rider on the far side, "Water...please, just...water..."
Her voice was more audible now. She knew. That was not the issue.
Kira hung head head, intending to preserve what remained of her energy as they continued the rest of the journey in nearly complete silence, with only the horse providing any occasional reprieve.
The large cart continued on its way.
----------------
Very soon, they reached the city. Kira lay on the floor of the cart, turned on her side as she blearily looked out the side of the cart.
They had stopped a couple of times, where the men had gotten off the horses, ate and rested a while in the shades of trees, had their horses rest up, and then they were on their way again.
No one had brought Kira anything. She didn't expect them to, and neither did she have the energy to fight back.
She lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness until the Sun was finally lower on the horizon, in her line of sight. It was not tormenting her now, she thought with a small amount of relief as the empty landscape finally gave way to a large thick stone wall, lined with soldiers in red uniforms and chainmail.
The cart finally slowed down to a stop wheels screeching on the streets. '𝘚𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦.' She could tell by the sound. They were off the dirt roads then.
Her head was spinning as she watched the man who had denied her water get down from the horse, and walk up to the guard approaching them.
The man in reds looked inside the bars at her, as she watched through her half-open eyes, and then turned to look at the papers presented to him.
There was a small part, a very small part of Kira that still cared about the whole situation, that wanted to curl up and hide away her face in shame as she was literally carted from town to town like a heinous criminal. Alas, if only she had the energy...
As it was, the only thing she was capable of doing at the moment was watch. She saw a soldier coming up behind the first one, and drinking from a waterskin handing at his side, droplets of precious, precious water falling around his mouth, to the ground.
Her fingers twitched helplessly. A single tear slid past her eye, falling onto the ground by her face, just as useless.
Kira's gaze followed the man even as he thumped his comrade on the shoulder and walked away to his post, standing guard once again.
In her peripheral she spied her captor being handed back the documents and waved inside, and the cart started moving.
The view this time, entering this very large and beautiful city, glistening in the large rays of the sun, the large moving carts and the lavishly dresses people, the people climbling ladders and manually alighting the street lamps were not enough to hold Kira's attention, as they darted past her eyes.
She watched blankly.
The cart zoomed around a corner, and the lively streets and cozy cottages, walking couples were soon left behind as the horse sped up along the wide streets.
Soon the Sun was down, and the moon along with the street lamps lit their path to a large structure.
The horses came to a stop.
The lock of her cage, which she had tried rattling a few time previously was soon being unlocked, and the faces of the men who had taken her away from her relatively safe life came at her, without the bars.
The dread, which she had thought herself incapable of feeling any longer, breathed inside her once again.