Eternally Yours

Wanderers Of Old (Part 3)

In the middle of the night, Garin woke up to the sound and feel of the wind coming into the room through the open door. He sat up and his eyes immediately fell on Hannah who was asleep, still facing the direction away from him. He turned his gaze away from her and looked at the entry point, wondering why the door was wide open. He looked over at the other side of the room and saw that neither Layla nor Kessie was on their mat-bed.

“Oh no,” he whispered and dashed to his feet.

Hannah woke up to the sound of his movement and looked at him, wondering what was going on.

“What is it, Garin?” She asked as she sat up.

“The girls are gone,” Garin told her as he went to search through their things.

“What?” Hannah asked in shock, “What happened to them? Where did they go?”

“I don’t know, Hannah. I just woke and noticed that they weren’t here,” he said while looking into his satchel, “…and neither is my bag of coins,” he added.

They realized now that Layla had taken off with her sister and had stolen their money also. Hannah knew what the reason was and so did Garin. They knew that Layla must have heard their conversation in the night and that must have been why she took off with Kessie.

Hannah got off the mat-bed and went to check on her stuff as well, realizing that Layla had taken more than just their money.

“She took two of my knives as well,” Hannah said out loud.

Garin ran over to the window to look around, hoping to see them but they were gone and it seem like they had left more than an hour ago which meant they must have put a long distance between them.

“They must be long gone by now,” Garin said, and to Hannah, he sounded almost like he didn’t want to go after them.

“That doesn’t matter! We have to find them, Garin,” she said, “It’s not safe for them to be out there. Something terrible could happen to them,”

“Well, then what are we waiting for?” He asked.

Hannah was relieved to hear him say this. They armed themselves with a light arsenal and left the inn to search for the girls. At first, they wanted to split up so they could cover more ground but, they figured that there was only one direction the girls could have gone so, so they went with that direction and they went together.

Hannah and Garin search all night long, covering every inch of Yoran Town but all to no avail. After they were certain that the girls must have left the town, they went beyond it but still, they couldn’t find them; they couldn’t even find any tracks that could help them locate the girls and it was as if they had vanished off the face of the earth.

They both knew what the only reason they couldn’t track had to be and it wasn’t a good one; someone must have captured them and was probably holding them somewhere secure, or worse, they had been killed.

*****

After spending the entirety of the night looking for the girls, Hannah and Garin decided to cut their losses and return to Yoran Town, hoping that the girls were alright and would turn up soon.

The sun had risen from beyond the horizon and had cast its brightening glow upon the land. About an hour after sunrise, Hannah and Garin reached the town but when they got there, they saw the people of the town all heading in the same direction, as if they were all being summoned.

“What’s going on? Where is everybody going?” Garin asked one of the townspeople.

“The square! The King’s guards caught two thieves and are about to punish them in public,” A woman replied.