Only Darkness Lies

Chapter 4

The Troupe was an infamous gang of thieves in the village of Etiome. Loot and murder were their primary activities. Elvira reached there after a day's journey and on reaching there, tried to gather information about them from the local people but to her disappointment, they outright rejected to talk about them.

Elvira then decided to go to the trade area of the village in hopes that she may gather some information from the dissatisfied traders.

While she was checking on the trade area, two people approached her. They looked almost the same age as her and asked her what she was trying to find there.

Someone showed interested in talking to her, she thought of it as the best opportunity and asked them about the Troupe. Both of them were startled on being asked that question, they exchanged glances and asked Elvira to come with them. They took her in an alley and introduced themselves. The boy's name was Elfred and the girl was Willia. They asked her the reason why she wanted to know about the Troupe. Being enquired like that made Elvira suspicious of them. She suspected that they may be members of the Troupe and so refrained from giving them any information about her or about her reason.

Elfred realised that she might have suspected them and thought it was best to leave her alone for the time being. He politely said to her " Well.. it's alright if you don't want to tell us what your reasons are. We aren't here to interfere". He insisted Willia to come with him but she was fixated on learning the reason for Elvira's action. Finally, Elfred managed to convince her and both of them left.

It was evening, Elvira went to the cottage the shopkeeper had given her address of. He had made prior preparations for her stay in the village. She would have to try getting information the next day.

It wasn't hard to find the cottage but when she reached there, she was surprised to find Elfred and Willia.

They saw her and Elfred approached her. "Sorry, I didn't ask you earlier, what's your name?" He asked and after knowing it, laughed and said "We are here for the same reason as you. I assume Mr. Miller may not have told you about us". Elvira didn't know who he was talking about and so she asked him about Mr. Miller. It turned out that Mr. Miller was the shopkeeper who had asked her to help him.

After knowing those information about them, she finally trusted Elfred and Willia who shared the information they knew about the Troupe with her. They told her that the Troupe had frightened the villagers and that is the reason why no one would dare to talk about them.

They asked her to accompany them to their hideout outside the village the next day to which she agreed.

All of them went to catch up some sleep before their journey which would begin at dawn. 

The next day, they all got ready to go to the Troupe's hideout and Elfred had already rented three horses for them.

The hideout was to the East and they had to cover a long distance to reach there. On the way, there were many traders they met and Elfred and Willia introduced Elvira to the ones they knew.

The journey was not as easy as it seemed in the first place. They had to cross over a hill to reach the hideout. They got off their horses and tied them there. They had to walk to the other side. The hill had a dense cover of trees with wild animals roaming around so, they had to be careful. The sun had set and they hadn't crossed the hill yet.

Willia complained that she wasn't able to walk any longer and suggested that they should take some rest. Elfred agreed that it was dangerous to walk and try to cross the hill at night as they could be attacked by animals.

Finally, after searching for an hour they found a suitable place to spend the night. Elvira and Willia began to gather firewood while Elfred collected some fruits for dinner.

Elfred and Elvira tried to light fire but failed. Willia, at last succeeded in lightning the fire after a lot of hard work. After having the fruits, they began to plan about the rest of their journey.

Elfred suggested keeping a safe distance from the hideout and making it in time to the horses and most importantly return without getting spotted.

They discussed for sometime and then went to sleep under the star studded sky.

The bright sunshine and chirping of birds woke them up. Without wasting much time they resumed their journey and in a few hours, they were able to get to the base of the hill.

The hideout could be seen from there as it was not very far away. It was a demolished building with the area surrounding it being deserted.

They started walking towards it but after a few steps, Willia accidentally stepped on a wire that triggered a bell. They had been spotted and to avoid the worst case scenario, Elfred guesterd them to return to the horses. All of them started running up the hill. They were being chased by a man. They barely made it down the hill in time and without wasting a second to look back, rode their horses at a high speed. They maintained that speed until they got to the cottage.

They were able to reach the cottage by evening. All of them were very tired as were the horses and so, after returning them back to their owner, all of them went to sleep without having dinner or disscussing about the day.