The Vale

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

The walk to her ''camp'' was long and excruciating, the sun was blasting down on us and my shoes were crippling me. At one point it felt like tiny little knifes were stabbing the soles of my feet and with every step I took it got harder and harder to walk, so I eventually decided that walking barefoot was a much better idea. Elisia seemed curious about my actions but said nothing. In fact she hadn't said a single word to me since I saved her from the men in black earlier. Part of me wondered if following her was a good idea, I didn't know her and for all I knew she could be leading me to my death but a tiny fraction of my brain was telling me to trust her. I just hope I wasn't wrong.

It wasn't until the sun started to drop below the trees that she actually spoke to me and if I wasn't looking at her I would of missed it " Why are you dressed like that? " Her voice was quiet and shy, nothing like it was before. I looked down at my dirty Halloween outfit and shrugged at her " it was for a costume party" my answer caused confusion to wash over her face " a what ?" I looked at her for a few seconds and studied her, was she joking? " you know? A costume party? People dress up as different characters and drink and dance?" she shook her head " I have never herd of such things before, we don't drink and dance here " the words rolled of her tongue in such an awkward way that I believed her.

We continued to walk in silence, the conversation clearly over when she suddenly stopped, turned around and placed her finger over her lips indicating for me to be quiet. Something was wrong, I could feel it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and goosebumps appeared on my arms. Elisia looked around us and I did the same but I saw nothing " Whats wrong?" I whispered she looked back at me concern in her eyes " they're not here!" she whispered back. This confused me, I looked around once more " Who's not here?" she ignored my question and before I could say anything else she ran off into the woods. I tried to follow her but she was fast. I almost thought I had lost her at one point until l I rounded a group of trees that were clustered together and saw her kneeling on the ground.

My eyes drifted from her as I looked at all the horror that was in front. Shredded tents lay in heaps on the floor, items such as food and clothes were strewn every where but that wasn't the worst of it. Hanging from a large oak tree were over a dozen men, all swaying from side to side in tune with the wind. This was obviously a message but to who?

Emotions overwhelmed me, and a sickness formed in my stomach I had never seen a dead body before and didn't know how to react. I walked over to Elisia who was sobbing on the floor " im sorry" I muttered. She rose and stood before me anger clear on her face " Your sorry?!" tears were still pooling out of her eyes " You don't have the right to utter those words to me! you didn't know these men! You didn't know the woman and children that were taken here today! For all I know this was all because of you!" she screamed at me. I looked at her for a moment shocked that she could think that I would do something as horrific as this but then she didn't know me and I didn't know her. " I arrived here moments before you ran into me, so I can assure you that this wasn't because of me. Im not even from here, this is your world! How do you know this didn't happen because of you?" anger started to bubble up inside me and I could see that my words had hit a nerve because Elisia's eyes narrowed into little slits and she opened her mouth to say something but instead she jumped onto me, knocking us both to the ground and knocking the wind out of me" Get off me!" I shouted between gasps of air. But instead of the blows I was expecting she roughly placed her hand over my mouth " If you want to live then I suggest you be quiet " I nodded. She removed her hand and shifted her weight off of me.

I breathed in deeply, taking in as much air as I possibly could when Elisia grabbed my arm, pulled me up and dragged me behind one of the large trees. I peered around the corner to see what or who we were hiding from when the familiar men in black walked into the clearing. My heart lurched into my throat and for a second I forgot to breath. Why are they here? Was this their doing? Elisia's eyes was trained on them, watching their every move making sure they didn't come our way, " we need to run" I whispered to her. She shook her head " Why not" she took her eyes of the men for a second to look at me " Because they will see us " she turned to look back into the clearing when I herd rustling behind me " Well, well well, look at what we got here" a male voice boomed around us.

Elisias back stiffened and her face went as white as sheet of paper. My whole body started to tremble as I thought about what would happen now. Would I end up like those men hanging from the tree? Or would he kill me quickly? I looked to Elisia for help but her eyes were trained on the floor. The man standing behind me, moved closer towards me. so close I could feel the heat from his body, he leaned closer to my trembling body and told me to move. I automatically complied and moved away from our not so good hiding place and into the clearing with my fearless guide ahead of me. " Look at what I found hiding behind a tree " the man shouted to the others. They all looked up and a larger man walked towards us " a couple of stragglers huh?" He walked over to Elisia who still hadn't looked up from the floor What was wrong with her? And grasped her chin forcing her to look into his black beady eyes.

" This one ive seen before she belongs to Alec" He let go of her and walked over to me, my eyes weren't on the floor but instead they looked straight into his and this shocked him but only for a second " but this one is new and very defiant, who is your master " He barked at me but I said nothing. Anger flashed in his eyes " Who is your master?! I wont ask a third time!" again I refused to speak to him, I had no answer for him and if I told him the truth what would happen? These wernt good men! He raised his hand in the air ready to strike me when a voice spoke up " She's mute" both of our heads whipped around to Elisia who know had a look of concern on her face. " What?" she looked at me her eyes flashing a secret that I understood and then back at the man standing before me " She dosent speak sir, I found her wondering through the woods. " he studied her for a moment trying to figure out if she was lying but her face gave nothing away. " very well, Marcel, chain them we will take them back to the village and this one " He looked at me " Will be sold, after she learns some respect" His black eyes shone with an evil glint that caused me to shiver. Thick heavy chains were tightly clamped around my wrists and I was dragged from the clearing.

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Thank You for reading my Fourth chapter! What did you think of it? did you like it?  don't forget to comment and vote!