The Dragon Curse

Rescue

Robin and I were getting closer and closer to Jack, but when we reached him we saw that we can't do anything. He was in a cage and soldiers surrounded him. They were on the main road already and heading quickly towards the city.

We ran after him, but they were too far away to catch them. I stopped running, so Robin stopped as well, taking deep breaths.

"We need to save him," he said between his breaths. "They will kill him."

I nodded and with another deep breath, we started running again. We reached the city and started walking down on the street, which was not as noisy as it was before we left. 'Where is everyone?' Now the city looked like it's abandoned. The houses' doors were opened wide, carts were left on the road and the goods from it were all over on the road. It looked like bandits were here, stealing everything they found and the people left the city.

"Where is everyone?" asked Robin as we were walking.

I heard some noises, coming from a distance, but it clearly sounded like something big was happening. We reached the town square, but I didn't see anything else, because of the crowd of people.

"Go up on the roof while I go help Jack. Here. Take my bow." I said as I handed him my bow.

"Right." he nodded and turned around to find a safe place where he could climb up on the roof.

The crowd was shouting and cursing, but I didn't see anything because of them. I slowly approached closer to the center, sliding between them. They looked at me when I passed them, but I didn't really care. My goal was now to free Jack if what I think was happening right now.

"This person is the child of the devil." said a man who was standing beside the stake.

I saw Jack as he was tied to the log behind him and another man was holding a piece of wood, which was on fire. I knew it they will burn him alive. I had to do something

"He is pure evil. Only the holy fire can clean his sinful and dark soul." continued the bishop, then raised his hands and face up to the sky. "Please God, save his soul, by this fire and let him leave this body."

Everybody was shouting and cheering, while the man with the fire, went closer to the stake to set it on fire. He was about to bend down, but a really familiar arrow hit him in his heart, killing the man. Unfortunately, the piece of wood on fire fell from his hand and set the whole stage on fire. The crowd from fear started screaming and shouting, then they started running as the fire spread, but then another shot hit the bishop's shoulder. I took this fright as an advantage and tried to go up to the stage, where the stake was, to free Jack, but the fire was spreading fast and it caught the wood under Jack as well.

"Mark?" he shouted when he saw me.

"Come on we need to hurry," I said as I went behind him and quickly cut the ropes with my knife.

We jumped down from the stage, but we weren't quick enough. Soldiers surrounded us, but they just stood there with swords, because the fire was wildly spreading and they didn't want to get closer. Another arrow flew in the air and hit one soldier, then another was killed. I quickly ran up to the dead soldiers and grabbed one sword on the ground, then the fight began. The rest of them attacked me, but I could fight back easily. I grabbed another soldier's sword and threw it to Jack, while I tried to defend myself because they didn't give me time. Luckily Jack was there, so only two of them attacked me, while the other two were fighting with Jack. The crowd was screaming the chaos was big, but it slowed down the upcoming soldiers, so after we were finished with the others, we could run away. We went through the crowd using it as an advantage and try to blend in with them.

"Mark!" I heard someone as they shot my name, so I froze for a second and looked around.

It was Bob and beside him was Wade, standing surprised, but more disbelief, that I'm able to help a criminal.

"I'm sorry," I said then turned around to continue my way out of the town.

The crowd opened suddenly and three other soldiers were standing in front of me. They attacked at once and I could dodge it easily, but they didn't let me go. I raised my sword again to block their attack, and push them back to have a little more time to run away.

"Mark!" shouted someone else.

It was Jack on a horse and was holding another one's bridle, waiting for me. I ran up to him and quickly jumped on the horse. A new group of soldiers came, but the horses whinnyingly stood up on two legs and the soldiers fearfully backed up. The horses started running out of the city, towards the main gate. People were still screaming as they tried to run away, but the soldiers weren't that easily avoidable, because they were still following us. After we turned on a corner we saw Robin fighting with a group of soldiers.

"Robin!" shouted Jack and he extended his hand to grab Robin and pull him on the horse's back behind him.

The gate was close. We were almost there, but suddenly they started closing it, so we had to hurry up. Jack and Robin easily could get out, but a wall of soldiers blocked the way. They held up long spears to stop me. I have to jump through them. I saw as Jack's horse was running further and further away, so if I wanted to go after them I have to do this. I encouraged the horse, kicking its side with my heels so it started running faster. When I was close enough I made it jump and we easily jumped through the soldiers.

We were heading to the forest and ran through the woods until we were far enough from the town. But we can't stop. They can come after us. We stopped the horses and I looked back if any of them was following us, but luckily not.

"We can't stop. Let the horses go and find a hiding place somewhere." I said and we got off of the horses.

As they ran away we started walking deeper into the forest, to find a place where they can't find us. I just hoped that they would follow the horses for a while, so we would have a little time to get away.