As soon as Nathalia and I were ready we continued our Journey towards Rydelia. Neither of us owned a map so we were just using our past knowledge of trips we had taken to the City before, and we didn't know how long it would take to reach our destination. The day had started warm and bright, which meant the earth beneath us was crumbly and soft on our feet, this was to our advantage as we had set out as early as possible and intended to make the smallest amount of rests that we could bear, to keep our energy levels up.
We'd been looking for food and had gathered as many different berries as we possibly could, up until the path had started to seperate from the shrubbery and the trees into a large clearing, that looked to have been an old meeting point as there were logs formed in a circle right in the centre of the clearing. On one side of the clearing the river swayed past, and the rest all led back into the forest. We took a short rest here and drank from the river, and my mind went into a deep thought as to if we were getting any nearer to Rydelia, and that's when I remembered that the river that Nathalia was splashing around in went straight to the city, and was it's main water source, and before I could think any further, there was a scream, a woman's scream and instantly I snapped out of my thoughts and looked straight to Nathalia, beckoning her to stay close to me, and if we were to encounter anyone, she was to be my sister.
We hid behind some trees just as a group of middle aged men walked into the clearing dragging with them a woman of the same age with auburn hair and bright green eyes. Nathalia gasped and tugged at my arm whispering that these were a few of the men that had attacked her village. I pulled her even closer to me and felt for my knife just in case they were to spot us.
It didn't seem as if they had any intention on killing the woman, or even doing anything to her. And as we sat and watched the mens movements we realised that as long as the woman kept quiet they ignored her, and it made me wonder as to why she hadn't tried to run away. A few of the men had gone back into the woods, probably trying to hunt down food. Nathalia and I waited for hours before they finally came back, this time with a young man, who saw the auburn haired woman and his face lit up, not out of lust but as if he had known her. I then realised that this is what the men's intentions were, and they were persistent in not letting the man go even though everyone could see in his face that he wanted to rush to the womans side, and a few men had gathered around the woman to ensure that she wasnt going to interact with the man. She had shown no expression to even knowing the young man and I was pretty sure that this was to protect him from harm, as if she were his lover or partner and she hoped that they would make it out alive.
I began to think that maybe I should run out and help them, but looking around I had noticed that there were at least 8 men and all but one of them were armed with swords or knives, even though they were clearly not royal or rich enough to have bought them. Which led me to think about how many villages or towns they had attacked, and how many innocent lives they had taken. This just made me want to protect Nathalia more, and to help any others that I came across who may be in the same position as us, and I knew that we needed as much help as we could possibly get, and the more people we helped, the likelyhood was that they would help us too.
Nathalia had fallen asleep in my lap, and I had managed to throw a blanket around her for warmth. It was getting dark now and the men who were not interested in either the man or woman were collecting their belongings as if they were going to head off, and to my delight in the next half hour or so, they had all gone completely. I would of moved back into the clearing, but thought it best if we camped in the space we were sitting, as it was under cover, just to make sure that no one saw us if the men came back.
If Nathalia was right, and this was some of the men that attacked her village, this could be a new beginning of uprisings, and the future could be a dark one. I knew that I had to get Nathalia and I to Rydelia soon, otherwise we could both be in grave danger.
