The Ancients A Tale of Survival

Escape

Three weeks had passed since Mỷrἇ and Jåcóbӱ had overheard Ştårbrîghţ plotting their murder.  Ştårbrîghţ had continued to slip sleeping herbs into their food and drink.  Mỷrἇ and Jåcóbӱ pretended to eat and drink, but they made sure to ingest as little as possible.  It was hard trying to pull the wool over Ştårbrîghţ's eyes so every few days one of the siblings would allow Ştårbrîghţ to see them all drugged.

"Mỷrἇ it's time."

Mỷrἇ jumped at Jåcóbӱ's hissed words.  She looked up from washing her hands in the river and nodded.  Jåcóbӱ looked from her back into the forest.  Their camp was 50 yards from the river.  Somehow they had managed to both make it to the river today.  Ştårbrîghţ had been purposely keeping them apart for the past few days.  He seemed to know that something was up.  What he didn't know was that the two siblings were planning on making their break for it today.

"I'm nervous."

Jåcóbӱ squeezed her shoulder.  "So am I, but it needs to be done.  If we don't kill him, he will hunt us down."

Mỷrἇ nodded as she took a deep breath.  Jåcóbӱ offered Mỷrἇ a hand.  She gratefully accepted his hand as he pulled her to her feet.  Mỷrἇ twitched her knee length skirt straight as she flipped her hair back over her shoulder.  She offered Jåcóbӱ a brazen smile as she noticed how he watched her.  Jåcóbӱ returned her smile as he reached forward and adjusted the material that went over both shoulders and covered her breasts. 

"The man who finally wins your heart will win the greatest prize in the world."

Mỷrἇ gave her brother a sweet smile.  "Awe, thank you.  I could say the same thing for you and the woman you'll marry."

Jåcóbӱ grunted.  "I'm not sure that I'll marry.  I'll be sure to father children, but I believe that my future is tied to the magic that we must learn to wield."

"I know," Mỷrἇ sighed.  "I always wondered why Ştårbrîghţ never taught us magic.  It all makes sense now."

Jåcóbӱ looked to the sky.  "It's time sister.  We need to finish this and be gone before nightfall.  we need to get as far away from here as we can before Ştårbrîghţ's associates come back."

Ştårbrîghţ looked up as Mỷrἇ walked into camp.  His mouth smiled as his gaze watched her with sinister eyes.  Mỷrἇ gave him a sweet smile as she stopped a few feet away.  She cocked her head and studied him with her tantalizing eyes. 

"I trusted you with my life and you have betrayed me."

Ştårbrîghţ gave her a convincing confused look.  "To what do you refer Mỷrἇ?"

"You know exactly what I mean.  I saw the men that came in the middle of the night.  I will not let you sacrifice my brother and I like you did our parents."

Ştårbrîghţ surged to his feet only to freeze asJåcóbӱ stepped up behind him and pressed a knife to his throat.  Jåcóbӱ's emerald eyes met Mỷrἇ's shimmering green ones.  At Mỷrἇ's nod Jåcóbӱ leaned down and whispered earnest words in Ştårbrîghţ's left ear.

"You will die tonight traitor.  My parents will be avenged.  You should have thought twice before you crossed us."

Mỷrἇ watched in satisfaction as Jåcóbӱ's knife sliced through Ştårbrîghţ's throat.  Ştårbrîghţ's eyes widened and he made a gurgling sound as blood rushed from his neck.  Jåcóbӱ released Ştårbrîghţ and watched as he fell to his knees. Ştårbrîghţ grasped at his throat before he fell face down on the ground and quit moving.

Jåcóbӱ stepped over Ştårbrîghţ's dead body and grabbed Mỷrἇ's arm.  "Come on Mỷrἇ.  We need to move.  Grab what you think we need.  I'll take care of the traps surrounding camp.  I don't want needless animals to get caught in our traps and die."

Mỷrἇ nodded as she hurried around camp gathering the items that they would need with them.  Several of the things she grabbed would not be needed for several months, but Mỷrἇ knew that they'd need them once the weather changed.  Mỷrἇ was ready and waiting when Jåcóbӱ came back to camp.  He accepted the knapsack that Mỷrἇ handed him.  Jåcóbӱ adjusted the knapsack till it fit comfortably on his shoulders.  He nodded to the forest behind Mỷrἇ.

"That's the way we need to go."

Mỷrἇ nodded as she turned and scampered up into the tree to her right.  She heard Jåcóbӱ follow her up the tree.  Once in the tree Mỷrἇ grabbed two of the wooden staffs with a handle half way down it's length that had curved and serrated double blades attached to the ends.  Mỷrἇ handed the other two to Jåcóbӱ.  Jåcóbӱ gave her a naughty grin before he ran along the sturdy tree limb and jumped to the next tree.  Jåcóbӱ's muscles rippled as he used the bladed staff to snag a hold of the branch to swing to the next tree.  The two siblings traveled quickly through the tops of the trees.  By night fall they were over twelve miles away when Ştårbrîghţ's colleagues found his dead body.