Owl's stomach dropped at his confirmation and the laughter of his buddies. Oh fuck. Oh fuck. She had heard of his deeds, that he had taken out an army caravan, and that all that remained of those soldiers were their charred--cooked--scraps. An entire caravan. Of trained soldiers.
And now here she was, because she had been an utter idiot. Just a few demented toddlers, she'd thought. Now it was off to the butcher.
She choked when he tugged at her chain and, unsteadily balanced on her good leg and a crutch, she almost fell over again before she limped along after him. In some crazy, impulsive part of her mind, she thought she could break free; he was vicious, but she was bigger, and she could yank that chain out of his hand, maybe, and...yeah. That was where the plan fell apart. He had been smart to lame her and, staggering along, struggling to keep up with him, she wasn't sure she could even wrench free. Just moving was making her dizzy and sick, each step was a struggle, and by the time they got to the door, she was panting and blinking back tears.
The sight before her didn't help her mood. Not just the sight of the butcher's, but the cave. The camp. The goblins that were everywhere.
She realized she was gaping, leaning on her crutch and staring. She couldn't even muster up the energy to be embarrassed when passing goblins made crude remarks at her. She had been expecting a forest or just the outdoors. Somewhere she could escape from.
Not an underground labyrinth.
Smed touching her bad leg snapped her from her crushing devastation. She flinched, a hiss of pain leaving her. "It's...uh...it's..." Smelly. Depressing. "Big," was all she could manage. So big. There were so many of them. "Bigger than I--ah!"
She jumped at the slap, which just made everything else hurt, and sucked in a breath. At first she felt mortified, being touched like that, and then it hit her. He was treating her like a horse. A lamed horse destined for slaughter, lead there by the reins. Once again Owl felt hysterical laughter bubbling up. It wasn't even funny, but for some reason, right then, she couldn't help it; this entire situation was so absurdly fucked up, and she was so stressed and afraid, she had no idea how to process it. Her stomach ached so she tried to keep it in, but that just made it worse, and before she knew it, she was laughing uncontrollably and doubling over in pain until she was cry-laughing and unable to walk just from that.