The owner was feeling up the girl again but I didn't have the energy to tell him to stop. Hungry, tired and aching, I began to consider why I even decided to join this group of misfits in the first place. 

Oh right, I really didn't get a choice. 

"Hawk!" I called out and the pig trotted to underneath the branch I lay on. 

"What is it?" 

"Catch," I said tiredly, slipping off the side of the branch to land on the pig, ungracefully. Moaning, I lay on the pig's back on my stomach, arms and legs hanging over the sides. 

"Geez, you really have it in for your body, don't you?" the pig snorted. 

"Don't judge me. I never knew human bodies could be so fragile," I mumbled.

Every part of my body throbbed, bones and muscles aching. My feet had all but become numb, so I guess that was one consolation to being pain riddled - human bodies reached a point where pain couldn't be felt.  

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Hawk asked but I ignored him. 

The owner jumped from the tree with girl in arms, before placing her gently on the ground. She wandered over to where Hawk had pushed off the young knight and we followed after her. Her white hair was flowing in the wind as she stood on the edge. 

My tired eyes narrowed in on the beautiful blue jewel hanging from her left ear, originally covered by the locks of her hair. Hmm, looks nice. Might take it for myself. 

"So, why exactly are you looking for the Seven Deadly Sins?" the bar owner asked. 

The girl looked out over the countryside. "I want to ask them to help me stop the Holy Knights." 

"Are you serious? Why in the world would you want to do that?" 

"I have many reasons why," I mumbled, sitting up on Hawk's back. I began pulling twigs and leaves from my hair as Hawk continued.

"The Holy Knights are the King's men - they're the knights that protect Liones. They're real heroes." 

"But," the girl whispered, "what if they were behind a plot to start a war in our country." 

War. I'd seen some when I was younger, between both animal and human. Deadly, horrible, a plague on the lands and the bringers of carnage and sorrow. I shuddered and Hawk oinked underneath me. 

"The other day, except for the King himself, the entire royal family was arrested and are being held by the Holy Knights." 

The bar owner's eyes widened. "Does that mean that the King isn't really sick in bed?" Hawk asked.  

Shaking her head, the girl's shoulder's sagged. "That's just a cover story the Holy Knights are using. I don't know what they think they can accomplish by driving the nation to war. But now, they're drafting the people of the kingdom; they're taking men wherever they can get them. They're preparing for war everywhere you look." She paused. "Soon, their reach will extend all the way out here." Her voice was beginning to crack and waver. 

"That's not good," I mused. 

"Yeah, tough break, huh?" the bar owner said. 

I gave him an incredulous look. How could he be so cold to the suffering of others? 

"Wow. You don't have any empathy at all, do you?" Hawk asked, glaring at the bar owner.  

The owner ignored the jab from his pig friend. "So how does all this tie in with the Seven Deadly Sins again?" 

"If there is even the slightest hope of preventing the Holy Knights from doing this," the girl said, turning around to face us, "I know they're the only ones who can!" she ended with a angry cry. I had expected her to be crying, but she wasn't - she was angry and determined. 

"Just checking here," the owner began, studying the girl. "You're trying to find those guys, even though you know what kind of people they are?"  

"The Seven Deadly Sins," she began, "the most vile order of knights the kingdom ever produced, made up of seven vicious and bloodthirsty criminals, each one branded with the mark of a beast." 

"That's not fair," I whined softly. How dare they tarnish me and my friends? We aren't all vicious creatures!  

The girl continued, with only a glance at me. "Ten years ago, when they were suspected of trying to overthrow the kingdom, the knights of the realm launched a full- force attack, scattering them to the four winds." 

"Well, if you believe the rumours, they each died a long time ago," the owner stated frankly.  

"Such amazing people wouldn't possibly let themselves be killed!" the girl cried with passion. 

"Hmm, but they are criminals, aren't they?" 

"The Holy Knights are the ones causing the suffering of the people right now!" she cried, her blue eyes filling with tears. She took a deep breath, wiping away her tears. "Long ago, when I was small, only five or six years old, my father would tell me stories about them. And that's when I learned, they were the most powerful knights-" 

BOOM!  

"Huh?" the girl and bar owner said, while my spine tingled like I was being watched. A smell, sweat and armour, filled my nose. 

So entranced by the girl's story, I didn't smell or hear the knight stalking up behind us. Too late, I turned round with wide eyes to watch as the big brute of a man, the one from the forest with the giant moustache and red armour, swing his sword and render the ground between himself and us into half. 

Rumbling underfoot, the ground began to fall away and the only thing I could do was scream as we fell.  

~ 

"You there! How dare you survive without my say- so! I shall not be revising my death tally conclusion!" 

A deep voice, an irritating voice, brought me back. Blinking my eyes opened, I admired the strands of green grass wavering before my face. 

I'm not dead.  

Lying on the grass, I raised my head slightly to look at the knights some distance away from us. A look to my left showed me Hawk and that young knight he had pushed off. The bar owner held the girl over his shoulder as he stared down the men. I pushed myself to my elbows, using Hawk for support as I stood.  

"Who asked you to anyway?" Hawk shouted over to the tall knight.  

"What gives you the right to do that?" I shouted at the big brute angrily. "Especially to your own man?" 

The moustache man ignored me, his voice carrying over the distance between us. "Tell me, which one of them would you believe to be a member of the Seven Deadly Sins? Neither bears any resemblance to the wanted posters." He eyed us, stopping on me in particular. "I remember your face; conclusion, you're that nimble thief that stole our meat." 

His eyes wandered again, settling on the girl, before they widened and he pointed his sword at her. "Ah ha!" His eyebrows furrowed and a sly grin worked it's way onto his face as he began to move forward. "Fate is smiling upon me today. The crystal on that earring you are wearing is from the royal family, which means that you, conclusion are Princess Elizabeth!" 

Shocked, stunned, I looked at the girl with newfound interest. A Princess?  So too did the others. 

"You're... a... prin.. cess?" the bar owner asked. I was guessing he wasn't used to meeting royal; he's probably regretting the manhandling now.  

"Wait, are you really Princess Elizabeth? You're the third princess in the royal family!" Hawk exclaimed and my mouth kept gaping open and close like a fish's. 

The knight was still moving closer and Elizabeth looked scared, stepping backwards away from us. "A decree has been issued from the capital," the Knight began, "to determine your whereabouts. The order was to capture you alive and in healthy condition." 

A tremor began in my legs when he ended his sentence. I had a feeling that his next words were not going to be nice, as I shuffled backwards behind the bar owner and began scuttling slowly sideways to the forest. 

"But if you lost your life in an unfortunate accident," he crowed. 

"Run now!" the bar owner shouted, waving us away. I didn't need telling twice; I bolted straight into the forest. But my sensitive ears did not miss the next words the brute knight said. 

"CONCLUSION!" he shouted, and I dared a single look over my shoulder, his hand drawing his sword and slashing it horizontally. The air and power it created was a tangible form and I felt my heart leap into my throat as it came straight for us. "ACCIDENTAL DEATH!"