"Teleported?" I mumbled in question. How? How could I have been ripped from Whitevale in such a manner? Yet, strangely, a memory trickled into my mind as if triggered by this.

"Fool! I'll send you straight to hell!”

"Huh?" I muttered aloud, looking down at my bandaged hands. Even the bitter cold of Salvar could not mask my physical pain. I realized that whatever sent me here must have inflicted these wounds first. Teleportation just... clicked. Yet, even more questions arose from this. Who teleported me? Why? And why did I feel this sick sense of worry? I remembered words, out of nowhere, from a familiar stranger. Yet, I had the feeling that they were not even aimed at me. Huh...

I looked up, my heart pounding as my gaze swept across my rescuers. I needed to get back. Now.

"I need to go home!"

The two hunters exchanged unreadable glances. Then, Annor turned to me with wary eyes, "You carry a deep magic within you. Are you sure you want to venture into Church owned territory?"

The thought frightened me. I could barely control my powers! What if they turned on accidentally right in front of a chapel building? I shivered from a chill even deeper than the icy weather could bring, but I knew I just had to get back to Whitevale!

I nodded, "If I have to!"

Annor took a stick and started poking at the fire, trying to keep it strong. "The Naurim worship old gods and are deep in magic. My tribe tried to keep our traditions throughout generations, but the Church of the Ethereal Sway snuffed my ancestors out."

Sadness seemed to glaze his eyes as he looked up at the woman, who gazed upon him with sad sympathy unlike her sarcastic self. "I'm one of the last. Sash here has been my only friend for many years, she's an outcast of her own Skavian tribe. We survive together, in Skavia. We avoid the border of Archen at all costs."

I blinked in sadness, understanding that feeling of isolation too well. I had been an outcast in my own place of birth, a long time ago. Sash took the plate of steak and handed it down to Annor, who eagerly took and ate. Sash looked back to me, "We prefer the dangers of Skavia to the dangers of Salvar, but we be close enough to the border. Ye may stay with us for the night, and we'll get ye winter hardened. Be warned, however, of the dangers, lass. Skavia is wild and free, but Salvar is a prison. Flee with haste, and ye may break out."