Aslan's ears perked up upon hearing the scream, while Chalice straightened up alertly. She commanded Aslan to stop and stay still at a nearby tree to wait for her. Chalice then leaped through the trees without a sound and stealthily blended herself in the greenery. She inched closer to the source of commotion.
Anyone seeing Chalice right now would exclaim in wonder. Her dress shirt had long lost its sleeves revealing her porcelain shoulders and fair arms. Her slim waist was emphasized by the tight sash of her trousers. Ebony waves put up in a messy pony by a strip of cloth fluttered lightly in the air framing her exquisite face, though smeared with dust was still undeniably breath-taking.
Chalice was the definition of beauty. And this very beauty was on her way to save another. She scouted the clearing and saw a young girl, around 14 of age with her hands bound up. Her robes were partially opened revealing the white skin underneath. Her phoenix eyes were brimming with tears which she obviously was trying hard to rein in. Her cute nose and thin lips added to the delicateness of her being.
The girl reminded Chalice of a Chinese teenager with her face and style of dress. However, her admiration was cut short when she saw a buff guy with scars across the cheek manhandling the girl.
Chalice roamed her eyes around, assessing her enemies. There was five of them. The other four men were either drinking or eating what seemed like beef jerky. She surmised that they were on a short break. Chalice narrowed her eyes. These people were resting after a successful kidnapping.
Chalice noticed that the fog around this part of Cloud Forest was thinner than it was where she came from. Aside from that, the sun was about to rise which had made the place a lot clearer.
It was evident that these people did their operation a few hours ago. Dawn is when people are in their deepest sleep and their guards at the lowest. These hooligans made use of that fact. Chalice wondered who the girl could be. Her question was answered when a man with an eye patch on his right eye spoke.
"Hey, Duff leave the girl alone. We'll benefit a lot more if she's untainted."
The eye-patch guy commanded. Looks like he was the leader. The man named Duff stopped his manhandling reluctantly before turning to the eyepatch guy.
"If you say so boss. But I didn't expect the Keyne tribe have such a beauty among them. She'll fetch a high price that I'm sure."
Chalice frowned as she continued to listen to the conversation of the men. She figured that they were kidnappers and at the same time slavetraders. Chalice was enraged. She couldn't process that her territory was infested with these scum. It must said that Chalice had a strong sense of justice, courtesy of her past life's parents. She treaded the dark path in order to eliminate the darkness of society within.
That part of her was retained and was magnified even more when she was transmigrated in a feudalistic world like this. Chalice wouldn't let anyone of these rats live on.
She gritted her teeth and calculated whether she could take on this group or not. She needed to save the girl and get rid of these trash lest they corrupt her precious fief further. Chalice went down to where Aslan was.
She pressed her mouth near the lion and asked him to bend again so she could sit on his back. After which she asked the lion to go directly to the clearing.
What followed was a scene which dazed the men and even the girl. A beautiful woman languidly sitting down at the back of a lion, a bewitching smile on her vermillion lips. Her enchanting emerald eyes roamed around the men and lastly fell onto the girl being held down.
The people was roused from their stupor when the woman's sultry voice resounded.
"What do we have here? A bunch of full grown men messing around with little girl. How pitiful. How hateful."
The woman's lazy eyes indistinctly sharpened as she locked her gaze unto the opened robe of the girl. The men felt shivers down their spines as they met her eyes. It was cold and indiferrent. She looked at them as if they were insignificant weeds beneath her shoes.
The leader unconsciously gulped, his face turning pale as a ghost. Danger. The woman was the epitome of danger. Though she did not emit any killing intent, the blank indiferrence of her eyes made it seem as if he was staring at the abyss. Years of experience made him a good judge of people. And this woman was anything but simple. Most of all, the lion she was riding was no ordinary beast. Only a few people were aware of the existence of royal beasts, the overlords of jungles whose intelligence were on par if not more than human. He was only one of those more fortunate ones who have heard about it.
But before he could prevent his people form offending this seemingly simple woman, it was too late. Duff snickered and had ultimately sealed their doom with his words.
"Hey boss, it's another beauty. She's even better than the other one. She also has a lion. We've struck it rich boss."
The woman's smile became wider. She beamed at them looking all innocent.
"My apologies, sadly I'm not here to join the fun. I'm here to save the little girl."
The leader was about to talk but yet again he was cut off by his pig-headed teammate. Not one of them noticed that he was almost about to break down.
"Heh. What are you playing at girl? The hero rescuing the beauty? Too bad you're no hero."
Duff the Buff guy laughed mockingly as he said this. In return, the woman sneered.
"Please, the hero saving the beauty is sooo archaic. Let's be more revolutionary, shall we? Oh, my bad, I forgot you don't possess the intelligence required to think that way."
If it were not for the poisonous words spewing from the woman's tongue, the men would have been enchanted all the way by her. But her insults instead infuriated them.
The leader this time rushed to intervene before his companions make the situation unsalvageable. If that happens, none of them would escape here alive.
"Damn it, Duff. Enough. Are you the one in command? You're going to get us all killed."
He shouted to his stupid teammate. The woman's brow raised up.
"Oh? It looks like there is one who still have some semblance of common sense from the lot of you."