[Starter for @swordsandchakrams' Xena (going with the 'new warlord' idea).]
Thera was tending to the hounds. Several had not survived the raid, cut down as they leaped to the defense of masters who had likewise fallen to attackers' blades. The smell of blood and smoke pervaded the village, what was left of it, the wailing of survivors drifting in the air.
Thera tended the hounds. She felt for the people of the village (even if she might pretend she did not), but she was a Guardian, and the four legged creatures were her first concern. The injured dogs, the couple of horses that had been deemed too old and too slow to be stolen with the rest. A small knot of migraine buzzed in the back of her mind, a leftover sense of anguish and fear.
The cries and sobbing rose further as shock faded and grief, true grief, began to set in. One of the dogs shifted closer, leaned against her as she knelt in the dirt, blood under her nails (that, at least, was nothing new). Thera exhaled, scratched lightly behind its ear.
"What say we go find those guys?"