A dark fairy tale about traps, lures and falling for shadows.
When you see an eldritch dark horror made of shadows by the side of an old cursed trail that no one dares to go, you expect it to be less charming as it tries to trick you with deceitful...
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Art by James Fenner (@JMFenner91 on Twitter)
I struggled to keep up since I had my hands tied together, but I managed to climb off the wagon without falling face down on the dirt road, and then Brutt and the two men that had been riding at the back all hurried to the front, with me dragging reluctantly behind them.
When they stopped ahead of the horses and I peeked over their shoulders to see what was going on, I saw what seemed to be the problem. Lighting ominously struck in the background on cue, illuminating the whole area and giving us all a clear image of what lay ahead, the dark bulk of a huge tree was toppled over the road, blocking the path.
One of the men on the wagon's rider seat held up a lamp to cast some light over us, while the other man beside him stepped down the wagon to check on the blockage.
While the gang mumbled among themselves about what to do, I stood behind them making mental notes to myself. It seemed like there were two men in the rider's seat and three more at the back, inside the wagon with me. Five total thugs for the count.
The one holding the lamp up at the rider's seat was a scary-looking man that was always barking out orders to the rest of them. He was most likely their boss.
The other guy riding by his side, who had just stepped down to join us by the horses, looked like his second in command.
That left three of them riding at the back of the wagon with me. The one who had been roughing me up was definitely the muscles and brawn of the gang. An old-looking fellow with yellow teeth and a malicious glint in his eyes had been the one who tried to stop Muscles from kicking me.
The last one was the youngest. If I had to bet, I would risk saying that he was their cannon fodder, an expendable man that could be thrown to the wolves if needed. He could be the younger brother of one of them too, or maybe an ambitious kid trying to bite more than he could chew. None of the men paid attention to what the kid said or asked about his opinion on anything, so he just sulked at the sideline, glaring at them in silence. But one thing they all had in common, they all seemed malicious and dangerous, each in their own way.
I couldn't fight them all, was the first thing I realized... even if my hands weren't tied together, which they very much were, I still wouldn't stand a chance. If I tried to run away, one of them would probably catch me without even breaking up a sweat. My chances of escaping were close to none.
All I could do was pray that I would get out of this alive. Muscles seemed to be the type of guy who got extremely aggressive when things didn't go his way, and things definitely weren't going his way at the moment.
As they all stood in front of the fallen tree, trying to figure out what to do, I lurked close behind and searched for a way out. All pairs of eyes were set on the tree, only mine was turned to forest, looking for a familiar dark shape moving somewhere in there in the shadows... but I couldn't see much though. There was no moon out tonight. Not even the stars were shining, it was just this thick, dense, black void taking up the sky and covering everything in absolute darkness.
