Needle and Thread, a Broken Heart it can Mend.

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I slammed the door to our little wooden house shut. How could that boy make me so angry, but so stunned by how handsome he was at the same time? Mavericks, my little brother, came running as soon as he heard the door shut.

"Claire's gone!" he cried.

Claire is my sister. She's also younger than me, but not as young as Mavricks. She tends to get in trouble a lot, so it's not unusual for her to be gone, but the tone of Mavricks voice sent a sliver of worry through me.

"What do you mean she's gone?" I asked. "Is she gathering firewood?"

He just shook his head.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a nervous giggle.

"They took Claire!" He cried again.

"Who?" I frantically asked.

"The slavers!"

Panic took over and I was shaking now. The arena-masters came every once in a while to steal a few village children away. They would take anyone between five to eighteen. The slave-masters would take all of the captured children from that village and put them in an arena, each of them with a weapon, for the royals to watch. All of the children would kill each other, with a feast prepared for them every kill they got. After the first kill, the children would each be taken to a cell, while the child with the kill would feast; The rest of the children would starve. The same would happen for all the kills after that.

I was out the door with my bow, sword, daggers, and pretty much anything else I could grab in that fraction of a moment. I had gathered my weapons, a block of cheese and a water-skin by the time I got out the door. I knew that the wagon that was carrying my sister would be going much faster than I could ever run, but nonetheless I didn't stop. I knew that they would make it to the arena before I could catch up to them but I still didn't stop running. I couldn't see them at all, but I still didn't stop running.

I had been running for almost three hours now and I was so concentrated on keeping my pace up, that I didn't even hear the hoofs galloping towards me. I only noticed when I was picked up off the ground and put onto the back of a horse. Only someone as strong as an ox could pick me up that swiftly, and I knew no one that strong.

I was certain I was captured by an arena-master so I tried to jump off.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I heard a calm, but stern voice say. 

Cave-boy! The one who captured me!

"You!" I hissed.

"Me!" He responded sarcastically excited.

"What are you doing?" I asked, refering to why he was riding his horse towards the arena-masters wagons.

"Saving my sister. What are you doing?" He asked.

"Saving my sister!" I exclaimed.

"Then we better hurry up! We have two children to save now!" He replied.

"Wait, we?" I asked.

"Yes, we!" He answered.

"Have you forgotten what you did to me? I am NOT going with you!" I said accusingly.

"You'll never catch them if you don't come with me. But it really is your choice, and a simple one too. Save your sister? Or let her die?" He responded in a tone that made me want to scream at him because he was right.

"Fine. Just don't talk to me." I said, annoyed.

A few minutes passed, before I started to get bored.

"Tell me about yourself." I practically commanded.

Silence. I waited a few minutes. Still silence.

"You awake?" I asked.

Silence.

"How am I supposed to respond if you gave me the order of being quiet?" He finally asked.

"Okay, you don't have to be quiet anymore." I said, because I actually did want to hear about him.

"Good. Now what about me?" He asked.

"Tell me about... your life at home. I don't even know your name!"

"Well, I'm Bentley, and you're Alexandra. Anyways, I come from a family of four. My mother takes care of my sister, Cassandra, who is 10, my father has a disease and can't move any of his limbs because of it, and I do the hunting. I found my underground forest when I was twelve and I have been hunting ever since then."

I have to admit that I didn't hear the rest because I had fallen asleep, which, to me is very surprising because I don't fall asleep very easily .

When I woke up, I was on the ground. I had a blanket covering me, and a waterskin next to me. I rolled over, to find Bentley sleeping, without a blanket, about six feet away from me.

"Aww..." I whispered to myself. 

He gave me his blanket... but I'm still mad at him for capturing me like that yesterday.

I gently covered him with the blanket then stood up and walked around. To the west was a forest, and to the north and east was a large dry plain. Then, to the south was where we were coming from. I walked to the forest, then walked into it. I almost immediately ran into a stream of cool, bubbling water. I smirked.

I know exactly what to do with this...

"What the- Hey! Alexandra!! What'd you do that for?" Bentley yelled at me, soaking wet.

"What do you mean? I was merely waking you up." I responded, trying not to giggle.

"By dumping water on me?!?!" 

I just laughed. Oh, sweet revenge. I walked back into the forest and refilled the waterskin, then walked back to camp and jumped on the horse.

"Hey! Wait for me! I still have to stand up!" He said playfully.

"Oh, do you need help with that?" I asked, also playful.

"I think I'll manage." He grumbled.

The rest of the day was uneventful. How are we going to break into the arena...? What will we do if we can't escape? What if they've already made it? My thoughts were interrupted by rolling thunder and lightening.

We made camp around seven, and refilled our waterskins in the rain. We each had a blanket, so we wrapped ourselves in our own blanket. After about two hours of shivering, we eventually fell asleep.

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Hello again! I hoped you liked this third chapter! Again, if you have any questions or opinions then please, leave a comment. And pretty please vote! 

As always, Thank you!

-MW

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