The Forsaken Hero

I clutched my staff tightly to keep my hands from shaking as the inquisitors approached. My tail, however, had no such recourse and quivered behind me in fear. Korra had been an inquisitor, yet she hadn’t left any trails to connect us or lead them to me. We’d been traveling alone in the wilderness for almost a month now. Why were they here? And, more importantly, how did they find me?

"My Lady?" a voice sounded practically in my ear.

I jumped and, upon seeing it was only Orion, laid a relieved hand on my breast and took a deep breath. The veteran soldier followed my wide-eyed gaze and frowned, hand falling to his sword hilt.

"Ranks!" he bellowed, disrupting the training behind us. Then, in a quieter voice, "What the hell are they doing here? We haven’t seen inquisitors for months, not since I turned away that brown-haired girl looking for you. They’d better not be the reinforcements the church promised to send."

"They’re strong," I whispered, "The leader’s a full-fledged inquisitor at the peak of sixth level. The others are fourth and fifth."

The rasp of steel behind us caused me to turn. Behind us, the soldiers had formed up into neat ranks again, their hands caught in a salute. I shifted a few feet closer to them, almost passing into their ranks, comforted by their protectiveness. They’d been fairly suspicious of me when I first appeared, yet the soldiers now turned that suspicion on the incoming inquisitors, their faces tight and angry.

After a tense minute, the inquisitors came to a stop before the company. The leader, a tall, proud man with dark eyes stepped in front, toe to toe with Orion. He carried a strange long spear with a two-foot spearhead sharpened like a short sword and curved at the tip like a paring knife. His cold eyes swept over the assembled soldiers as though they weren’t there, coming to rest on my slender body. They crawled over my horns and down to the quivering tip of my tail, which flicked back and forth in agitation.

A grim smile tugged at the corner of his lips and he tried to take a step forward, only to come up short as Orion crossed his arms, refusing to move out of his way. The two stared at each other for a moment before the inquisitor stepped back.

"What business have you in Blue Rock Canyon?" Orion asked expressionlessly.