Adventure of Ash 2

Ash reaches the stronghold gate dragging the giant boar by a hind leg. Her left forearm bleeds onto the dust, and her axe remains clenched in her hand.

The headwoman, an elderly woman with iron-gray braids and a scarred cheek, steps forward in a dark wool mantle. Three broad-shouldered warriors flank her, spears lowered.

The gathered tribe closes around the gateyard. Before Ash can pass, the warriors wrench away the axe and gear, then drive her to the ground with clubs and heavy hands.

Ash is left bruised and shaken while the headwoman orders the boar finished and the confiscated equipment carried inside. No one follows her defense, because none is offered.

They drag Ash beneath the longhouse and shut her inside a timber cell. The barred door settles into place, and the headwoman’s voice comes through the slats.

Ash plants both feet beneath the longhouse and drives her shoulder into the timber cell door. The old planks crack, then burst outward under her strength.

Splinters scatter across the packed earth. Ash steps through the broken frame, bruised, bleeding, and still empty-handed, with the passage beneath the longhouse open around her.

The headwoman appears at the stair with two spear-bearing warriors behind her. Firelight catches her scarred cheek as alarm ripples through the nearby longhouse.

The warriors hurry toward the gate, but the shattered cell opens onto the shadowed rear of the longhouse. Beyond it, a narrow path leads between storage sheds toward the dark tree line.