Chapter 1

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In the dark of the night, with our only light the moon itself, we hid high in the orange fall trees awaiting our target to come rolling past us. The forest sounds of rustling bushes and crickets cloaked our breaths. Our target was a small, topaz carriage with silver embellished designs and two silver coat horses. It was carrying Duke Anderson of Jeshain and a luggage cart carrying gold and fine velvet that was worth more than the average peasant could earn in ten years, especially with the recent economic depression.

One of our scouts reported the target about 50 feet in front of us. Sure enough, we heard the wheels of the fancy car rage along, but not for long of course. One of the midfielders, Mark, I think, came out of the trees dressed as an old beggar woman with his cane clicking along in front of the carriage, causing it to stop.

"Move aside peasant, we have places to be," the driver demanded impatiently.

Mark held up a battered metal cup and cried out in a high pitches, scraggly voice, "Please, some money or food to spare?"

Strangely, the carriage seemed to be unprotected. I looked at the mission leader, Caleb, another midfielder, who noticed it too. He cracked two twigs back to back from the tree he was on, giving the signal the be on guard and stand by.

"Move, filthy beggar," the driver repeated, sounding more irritated.

One of the archers from the other side of the forest road shot an arrow into the carriage through the door. We waited to see if any guards come out of hiding, then slide down toward the trees. I inched to the edge of the forest. Caleb went out first and we followed, quickly surrounding the carriage.

"Driver, come down to the ground and someone restrain him. Get off your butt, you arrogant noble, and get out here. We have you surrounded," Caleb demanded.

However, it wasn't a noble who came out of the carriage, but ten guards packed into that carriage who charged at us with their swords drawn.

The five of us promptly took our fighting positions and met them head on. I was a forward, meaning I had short range weapons, two one foot long daggers strapped to my back, and had to get in close to fight. Two midfielders, who had slightly longer rage weapons like spears, stayed toward the middle of the fighting. Finally one archer flanked the back, raining arrows on the enemy while one longer range weapon defended the back and the lightly armored archer.

One of the guards reached me and jumped to strike straight down on my head. Fortunately,  this left his torso open. I blocked the sword with both of my daggers and kicked his stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Another guard came up to my left side and I flipped over his head and kicked him, knocking him unconscious. By that time, the first guard charged at me. I dodged the sword then hit the side of his neck with the handle of my dagger, making him unbalanced. I used that advantage and hit the back of his head, making him unconscious as well. A guard came at me from behind, but was shot by the archer in his dominant arm. The guard attempted to fight with his non-dominant hand, but I easily flipped him and he landed on the ground with a thud.

By the time I looked up, the others had begun tying up the driver and the guards. I grabbed my sack and began to grab the loot in the luggage cart, which was not as full as expected as it was carrying extra guards. Ultimately we filled five ten-pound bags with the loot. Caleb slapped the horses' butt, causing them to run down the path.

When we arrived at base camp, the smaller half-pound bags had already been set out and the contents of our loot divided up into about one hundred bags. The sound of jingling coins alerted us that other groups finished dividing up their loot, giving us 200 one-pound bags total. Then we split into teams to distribute these bags. I got my usual assignment of the small village of Rusnana with only around fifty people.

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