A Sliver of Hope: Ishnath's Brave Escape from Gor.

The carriage jolted violently as it hit the first pothole, startling Ishnath awake. She looked around her, disoriented, and realized that she was sitting on a warm fur blanket. A blanket? Why would she be sitting on a fur blanket in a carriage?

Her head throbbed with every heartbeat. She reached up to feel the back of her skull, her fingers brushing against sticky blood. It felt like someone had cracked open her skull and scooped out the contents. Her eyesight was blurry and the interior of the carriage kept spinning whenever she closed her eyes. At least she was no longer tied up. That was something at least.

She took a deep breath and tried to gather herself together. What happened?

Her last memory was that of being dragged down a dark hallway by two burly men, each holding one of her arms above her head. Between them, they carried a heavy wooden door which they slammed shut behind them, plunging them all into darkness.

Ishnath remembered twisting and trying to break free from their grasp, but they held her fast and dragged her forward until she was thrown face-first onto the floor. When they let go of her arms, she flipped back over onto her back and got ready to fight, but instead of attacking or moving away from her, they remained by the door and watched her closely without saying anything. After what seemed like an eternity where neither side made any move or sound, one of them finally broke the silence by grunting something in his guttural language which she could not understand except for the word: "feed."

The second man repeated this word after him several times while pointing at Ishnath while making a motion of pushing something into his mouth. It took but a moment for Ishnath to understand what they were saying: Food! They wanted to eat her... or feed on her!

Fear gripped at her heart when it dawned on her that these people were cannibals!

Ishnath tried to get up but suddenly found herself unable to move - all strength had drained from her legs and she fell back down onto the floor with a thud as though someone had removed all bones from them. When she tried to lift one of her legs again, it refused to budge as if it were chained down by an invisible weight which refused to let go of it. With trembling hands, she grabbed hold of one of her ankles - there was no chain holding it down - but still, it refused to move any further than halfway up before stopping dead in its tracks as though it had hit an invisible wall in midair. The same thing happened with the other leg as well - both were stuck in place despite all efforts to make them budge even slightly. What sorcery is this?!

She had never heard of such a curse before - some kind of magic perhaps? The men laughed when they saw how helplessly she struggled against some unknown force binding her limbs together, mocking and cursing at them in their language which she could not understand. She screamed and cursed at them in turn, threatening death upon them and praying for revenge upon their souls so that their flesh may rot from their bones until nothing remains but dust! But nothing appeared to work - even when she managed to scream loud enough so that it made their ears bleed, they showed no signs of fear or anger towards their captive's outburst but simply laughed even harder... and with that laugh, Ishnath's strongest desire became clear to anyone who might have listened in: I want them dead! I want those cruel monsters dead! Kill them! Kill them now! Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!! KILL THEM!! KILL THEM!! KILL THEM!! KILL THEM ALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!

Ishnath snapped back into reality with a violent shudder after having yelled out those last words through clenched teeth although nobody else might have heard it besides herself... because there was nobody else inside the carriage anymore. As far as she could tell from looking around outside through the small window next to where she sat down at, there was nobody here beside herself either outside this strange carriage: There were no guards or attendants nearby at least - none that were visible anyway - nor did anyone else seem to be traveling alongside with this mysterious vehicle on its journey across some vast expanse of rocks and sand leading towards what looked like an island rising out from amongst everything else in this sandy landscape; There were also no other carriages traveling along on this lonely road with hers or anything else for that matter besides those barren rocks and sand dunes surrounding everything within view; Only this lone carriage slowly making its way across this unchanging landscape while swaying slightly left and right with every bump in the road ahead; And Ishnath too remained unhindered along with whatever sorcery was keeping both herself and carriage from falling apart along with whatever unseen forces driving it ever forward towards wherever this ride might end up taking itself...