Desiare crawled along the confines of the cage where she had been forcibly thrown, as she looked for a way out. Muttering oaths to herself, she shook against the bars of the cage, and found them to be sturdy. Her only gains from kicking the edge of the cage was a sharp pain in her foot and snickers from the two guards nearby.
The pens, as the Easterling had put it, were apparently a large cage for housing the cats she saw roaming around the encampment. Her mind turning to cats, and to one in particular, she looked over to where they had last taken Tank, but could see no sight of where they were keeping him. With no clue where to find him, or even if he was still alive, she felt the loss deeply. Pressing her head against the bars, she closed her eyes. 'Focus,' she thought to herself, refusing to give in to the fear she felt.
Pulling off the robes she had used as a disguise, she set them on the ground, leaning back as she considered her options. The cage was too sturdy to easily break out of, and she had no skills at picking locks, even if she had such tools for it. She reached back, fingering the sturdy wood bars, coming to where they were held together. Feeling the slightly softer material give beneath her fingers, she paused and looked around on the ground with her eyes; refusing to move lest she draw attention onto herself.
Not quite sure what it was she sought, still she noticed a couple of seemingly innocent looking small stones just on the other side of the cage. Quietly she crawled closer to that side, and reaching through with her slender fingers managed to slide them both towards her, pulling them into the cage with a quick flick of her wrist. Hearing voices coming closer, she quickly set them off into a corner, covering them with debris, to look at later.
Looking up, she lifted her chin at the approaching men. The one who had ordered her thrown in the pens leered down at her as he spoke. "Little girl," he said, his accent thick but more understandable than most of the men there, "It would seem you have a problem." Squatting down, he looked her in the eyes as he continued, "I don't like spies at my camp, especially not little rohirrim girls who don't know their place. You will tell me what you were doing here, and who sent you, or I will make things extremely painful for you."
Holding his eyes, she hid her fear as best she could and spoke the first thought on her mind. "My cat -- what have you done to him?"
The man chuckled, "Feisty little girl, I see. We'll see how long that lasts. As for your cat, he's a strong, able specimen. He will make a fine addition to our ranks once he is properly broken. And you," he adds, "Will make a fine addition to my bed, once you are broken. Or, you shall die in the process. The choice is yours." Standing up, he grabbed a long rod from one of the guards and reaching into the pen, slammed it into her side. The force of the blow caused her to double over, gasping from the sudden pain. She could hear his satisfied grunt as he turned and strode away.
She clutched her side, biting her lip to keep from crying out, as she waited for the pain to subside. Going over in her head, she decided there was no option other than trying to escape. Closing her eyes, she bided her time.
Soon, she knew not how long, the men of the camp started settling down for the night. Sitting up carefully, she crawled back to the corner where she had hidden the stones and examined them with the tip of her thumb. One was quite dull and she set it aside immediately. The other, however, appeared to have a nice sharp edge along one end. Nodding in grim satisfaction, she turned her body so that it appeared she was sleeping, and began working on the bounds of the cage.
