In the Shadow of the Night

Don't Look Back

Within seconds they had surrounded me, I tried to run but there were 5 of them and only one of me. "Look what we have here, it's a young lassie all on her own" One of the guys said. I took out my sword and raised it towards them. One of the riders unmounted, the rest followed his example. "Now I would drop that if I were you, you don't want to hurt yourself" the oldest guy said raising his own sword.

"You drop yours and I'll drop mine" I said coolly. They formed a circle around me, "drop your weapons" I shouted but they just laughed. "Hey Gael isn't this the girl from the poster" one of them noted. The oldest guy Gael looked me over, I still had my sword raised but was feeling less and less strong.

"Yeah, ye might be right, playtime's over grab her!" He commanded and two sets of arms grabbed me from behind. One guy grabbed my hand where I had my sword and squeezed it so hard I had no choice but to drop it. I fought against them, but these guys were obviously experienced. "Raise her hair" Gael commanded as he looked at me. The guys pulled my hair up as I struggled, "yeah, it's her" They told Gael. He grabbed something from his saddle bag and threw it to the guys. It was a thick rope.

They tied it around my wrists as I struggled against them. "Let me go" I shouted but they just ignored me. Gael stepped in front of me "Now there princess, you're worth a lot of money, we'll just take you to the queen and get our reward" he said. "Please don't" I begged "the queen will kill me if you do!" my pleas fell to deaf ears. Money was clearly more important than a human life.

"Tie her to that tree, we'll rest for today" Gael said. The two guys who still held me guided me towards the tree, forced me to sit down and tied me to it. "Hey Ty, check her bag, she has food!" One guy said as he held up my bag. I had been very careful with the food so I could stretch it to as many days as possible. But now they plundered and ate it all while I watched helplessly.

"You monsters! You're no better than the queen herself!" I shouted at them. "Tie her mouth shut, I'm sick of her yelling" Gael said nonchalantly to Ty. "No, no please don't I'll shut up." I begged and Ty hesitated. He looked at Gael who waved his hand impatiently. "I'm sorry" Ty whispered as he bound the rag across my mouth.

I sat there for what felt like hours. The men drank and ate all of my supplies, they never even gave me one piece. Ty looked over to me once or twice, a sorrow in his eyes. He looked like he was the youngest of them all and I felt sorry for him. Eventually the gang was to drunk to even notice him and he sat next to me. "I am truly sorry, it's just... Gael is my brother and the only family I have left" he told me.

I nodded to let him know it was okay and that I didn't hold a grudge towards him. "You want something to ease you?" He asked and I shook my head, I wanted to fight if necessary. "Here take it anyway, it makes the day shorter" He said as he removed the rag and held up a cup with a strange liquid. "No I don't want to" I said but the liquid was already in my mouth. The world started tinting black and I fell asleep.

It seemed like only seconds had past but the red morning sky told me differently. My heart was pounding in my chest and I tried to figure out where I was and what had happened. "Pssst" It sounded over the snores of the men. "Pssst" I heard again and I looked up. Tristan edged closer to me, never in my whole life I had been more relieved to see his face. I wanted to speak but he moved his finger towards his mouth and shook his head. He grabbed a dagger from his belt and cut loose the ropes. I stretched my arms, stiff as they were from the long sitting.

Swiftly we snuck away from the bandits, Ty opened his eyes just before we were in the full clear. He nodded and held up his hands, 10 seconds... We stood up from our crouch and started running once more. Seriously all this running started to annoy me. We ran all the way until we finally reached the river.