A wisp of smoke was rising from over the hills, probably a campfire. But why? Shalina decided that her errands could wait for a little bit while she went to investigate. Sometimes tribals from further inside the country would come up to trade, and sometimes they had interesting things to offer. She climbed up the sandy slope and looked across the crest only to quickly duck her head down. It wasn’t tribals, it was Spanish soldiers! They usually didn’t dare go this far from their forts in this area, what could they be after?
She crept a little closer through the minimal undergrowth to try to hear. She understood a few words of Spanish, but most of it was just grunts to her and she couldn’t make out enough to get anything out of it.
Then, suddenly, a firm grip around her neck and she got yanked into the air and - with a triumphant roar from her captor - tossed across the crest, bouncing and rolling and sliding down the sand into the camp. Before she could get her bearings another gloved hand grabbed her throat and lifted her up again. She was being held uncomfortably close to the face of a grinning mountain lion while her captor - a wolf - strode confidently down the slope he had just tossed her down. Both of them were in military uniforms.
They exchanged a few words in Spanish before the mountain lion once again tightened his grip on her throat and lifted her up, leaving her to gag and struggle.
“You are a very pretty little female” he said in broken Berber, and then turned to his comrade and saying something in Spanish before returning his attention to her.
“I know the one thing your kind is good for. We will have fun with you tonight.”
As if he wasn’t clear enough, he reached down to undo his belt buckle. Shalina grabbed his arm to take some strain off her neck so she could get a few words out.
“Were all the women in your family whores,” she gargled, “and is that why you treat women like this?”
The look on his face made it evident he understood enough. His eyes went fully black with rage and he let her go. Before she could gain her balance or even get a breath of air down, his gloved hand hit her right below her eye. She came to just a moment later, face down on the ground with a mouthful of sand.
Sand… Her ears were ringing, then she heard the roar. Rolling to the side she narrowly avoided the heavy boot that was coming down at her head. She flailed, struggling to get away, and burned her hand. Hot! Embers! She dug into the sand, scooping up a handful of sand and burning coals and flung it at the furious mountain lion’s face, then rolled backwards onto her feet, turned and ran, accompanied by the screaming of the mountain lion and the laughter of the wolf.
Neither of them followed her.