@Marakai "Ruby, Ruby, look what I found!"
Ruby looked up from her weaving to smile at the small snake her young charge had picked up, twisting this way and that in his hands. "Well, look at that. You've probably scared the poor thing, though, don't you think you should put him back?"
Azure pouted, but gave a little shrug and a nod as he trotted over to return the snake to the shrubbery where he'd found it. "Do you think it was poisonous?" he asked curiously, glancing back at Ruby over his shoulder.
She chuckled and shook her head. "No, not that one. Now, if it'd had a yellow stripe down its back, we should have been worried." But she would never have taken the children out where they might find poisonous snakes- though it certainly didn't do any harm to teach them what to avoid, just in case.
The small clearing wasn't too far from the village, but it was calm and quiet. When her charges had begged for a change of scenery, she hadn't seen the harm in bringing them out here; they were still just within shouting distance, just in case, but the general bustle of the village was far enough away that all they could really hear was the sounds of the forest around them.
All three of the tribe's children had been put under her care for the afternoon, and Ruby smiled again as Azure ran to the other blue-scaled boy, Sapphire, and tugged on his arm, obviously trying to goad him into some sort of game. The eldest of the three boys, if only by a few years, Sapphire seemed to be more concerned with acting more mature than Azure and Emerald than he was with actually enjoying himself.
With a quiet laugh to herself, Ruby set her weaving aside and got to her feet, brushing a few loose strands of hair behind an ear. "Alright, boys, if you can't play nicely together than you can help me find some more reeds for this basket I'm making," she told them with a pointedly arched brow.
Immediately they were good as gold, chattering and laughing and chasing one another happily about the clearing. Emerald even grabbed her hand and pleaded with her to join in, batting those massive golden eyes at her.
With another laugh she relented. "Okay, okay. You three hide, but
stay close." She put her hands dramatically over her eyes and heard the boys scramble to find nearby hiding places. In a singsong voice, she chirped, "
Run and hide, I'll come and find you, through valley and over hill. Hide away, hide away, before I-"
A hand closed over her mouth and a suddenly suffocatingly close scent filled her nose. Ruby's heart stopped and she threw her hands back, attempting to grab at whoever had silenced her.
"Easy there," a voice breathed in her ear, making her skin crawl and a growl scratch at her throat. Her wrists were grabbed, jerked behind her back at an angle that made her cry out in pain, the sound muffled by the hand clamped over her mouth.
She bit down, sinking sharp teeth into flesh and holding on. Her captor cursed and suddenly a sharp blow landed on the back of her head, making her see stars. He released her wrists, but hit her again, sending her to her knees with a sharp cry.
"Damnit! Wild thing, huh?" Before she could twist to even get a proper look at him, a solid blow landed on her side- a kick, probably- and she could only gasp in pain, automatic tears welling in her eyes and she heard and felt the sickening
crack of her ribs. "Don't be more trouble than you're worth now," her attacker sneered, leaning down to leer in her face.
Unable to get a proper breath, Ruby nonetheless still kicked out, catching one of his knees and making him shout in pain and curse loudly. She felt a tiny flash of satisfaction as she struggled to push herself up, ribs screaming in protest. "Boys, run! Back to the village, run-!"
Another blow struck her from behind and her vision went black for a moment. Dazed, she heard her attacker snap, "Eris, Thane, you get the little ones?"
No. No no no no NO!"Got 'em, Boss. Slippery little things though, had to gag 'em quick." Blearily, Ruby saw two more strangers emerge from the trees. Human? No- no maybe not. They weren't kulshedra, but...
They had the boys. One held Azure and Emerald by the napes of their necks, crude gags stuffed into boys' mouths and their wrists bound together. The other had Sapphire over his shoulder- the child appeared to be unconscious.
Ruby screamed, her whole body burning as she tried to launch herself forward. "Let them go!"
She saw Emerald's eyes widen, saw the panic in Azure's already terrified little face, and then the blade sank home, sliding into her side with horrifying ease. She dropped, gasping, one hand pressed to the wound in her side as she tried desperately to push herself up with her other arm. "No..."
"She worth taking?"
"Nah- the others must've heard by now, we don't got time to drag her along. Besides, she'll bleed out soon enough."
Ruby's vision flickered as the man who had first attacked her stepped over her, grabbing Azure from the woman who held him and throwing him over his shoulder, kicking and screaming into his gag. "Let's move!"
"NO!" She tried to push herself up, grabbing desperately for a leg as they started running, but she couldn't hold on, her grip was too weak. Blood soaked the moss and grass around her and she felt cold creeping into the tips of her fingers.
Still she struggled, forcing herself to her hands and knees with a cry of pain and trying to crawl after them. She couldn't let this happen, this couldn't happen, she had to save them, she had to get them back...
Her vision tunneled, then went black.