B.L.A.Q

Chapter 3

"Well this is a fine pickle we've gotten ourselves into" Ace rubbed his chin, eyes squinted as he looked down at the man now laying on one of their sleeping bags. Len having cleaned his wounds and patched him up a bit. "Now isn't the time for your jokes Ace" Qin glared over at the bear as she stood next to Bai. He looked lost in thought as he stared down at the man. "Says the kid who screamed her head off. Good thing I was there to protect you before the big bad man ate you" Ace smiled widely at Qin making the young girl growl lowly at him. "I did not and will not ever need you to protect me and stop calling me kid, I'm as much of an adult as you are" she crossed her arms "maybe even more so" Len shook his head at the two before looking over to Bai. "What do we do Bai?" Bai was fishing his cigarettes out of his pocket "Nothing to do now but wait until he wakes up, then we see what's going on with him." He lit the smoke and shrugged "That's all we can do." The four of them sat in silence for what seemed like hours looking into the campfire, Len periodically checking the man's wounds. Ace had sat under a tree and dozed off. Qin was picking apart a small tree branch that had fallen and Len had went to gather more wood for the fire. Shortly before sunrise the man stirred. Slowly he began to sit up. Len rushed to his side "Whoa, take it easy. You were pretty injured when you got here. Try not to move around too much." He offered the man some water to which he eagerly accepted. The others had gathered around him and Len told them not to crowd him. Bai had sat down in front of him and was staring at him intently. Qin stood behind her brother with a hand lazily on her whip, prepared to use it at a moments notice. Ace had stepped a few feet back but was still looking as if he were ready to pounce. After the man finished his drink he thanked them. Bai spoke first. "How are you feeling?" The man blinked a few times and said "Thanks for the drink, but I would feel a lot better if I had some food." Bai looked over his shoulder at Ace, who smirked and turned to rummage through his bag. "Ace will handle the food" said Bai turning back to the man "Now in the meantime, as you probably guessed, you've got a few questions to answer." Qin noticed her brothers tone and shivered a bit. She had heard him use that tone only a few times. Mostly when he met people that he didn't trust or know. It was a tone that said he wanted answers and wouldn't beat around the bush. She thought it was because he was a lion but with him, she could never really tell what he was thinking when he used it. "Let's start with introductions then take it from there. I'm Bai." he gestured his thumb over his shoulder "This is my sister Qin." He nodded at Len still sitting next to the man "That's our resident medic Len. He's the one who patched you up. And I've told you Aces name already" he said looking back over at Ace who had moved to the fire and was preparing food. "And you are?" he said looking at the man in the eye. "My name is William Clove." Bai continued on "Good start. So William, where are you from? We're at least two days journey from the nearest village, and no offense, but you don't seem like the type to wander these woods on your own." The man pulled himself up a little further out of the bag he was in. "I'm from a village called Hyland. As you said, it's a day and a half journey east of here." Bai waited for the man to continue. "It's a decent sized village, but as you can imagine we don't have a lot of protection from roaming bandits and although we do pretty well for ourselves we can't afford to hire any huntsman to protect us so we make due with what we have." He glanced over at Ace who was busy with the food and continued. "A few days ago some bandits came through our village and began to tear up the place. They took anything valuable they could find and destroyed half the village in the process. We tried our best to evacuate the village while some of the younger men stayed to try and fight them off. Those of us that didn't escape were either badly injured or..." the man trailed off with a look of sadness in his eyes. "Not many of us were able to escape. We took refuge in a cave not far from our village to try and wait out the worst of it. We feared that grimm may have entered the village with all the chaos to attract them. I left to try and find help, but I got lost in the woods and ran into a beowulf. Also as you surmised, I'm not a fighter. I barely managed to get away from it but not without getting injured" he gestured to himself. "The village chief's granddaughter was abducted during the raid. She tried to reason with them, against the protests of all the villagers. I don't know why they took her, but she's very important to us. She was cheerful and loving and honestly the most caring person you'll ever meet." He looked at each of the team members "I notice you all have weapons, are you huntsman?" Bai finally looked away from the man to pull his smokes out of his pocket "Yes we are. And it's your lucky day. We'll escort you back to your village and we can talk about this more with you village chief. Ace how's the food coming along?" Ace was just finishing plating the last of the food "All done. Get it while it's hot." He brought over two plates piled high with meat and rice and handed one to William and the other to Qin. "This smells delicious," said William as he took a giant bite. His eyes lit up at the taste. "I don't know if it's because I haven't eaten in days but this is possibly the best thing I have eaten in years." He began eating greedily as Ace bought over plates for everyone else. "Well if there's anything other than fighting that I'm good at, it's cooking" Ace said proudly. "I caught this boar myself about a week ago and cured and sealed the meat myself to keep it fresh." Len put his spoon down and looked at Bai. "So I take it our current mission is going to be put on hold until we can figure out this situation, Bai?" Bai was finishing a piece of meat and tossed the bone "Of course it is. A village was attacked by bandits and people were killed and a girl abducted. That's what we do." William looked up from his almost finished plate "I thank you for your generosity, but as I said, my village wasn't doing great before the attack and the bandits took what little we had left and destroyed the rest. I don't know how we'll be able to pay you for your services. And you've already saved my life-" Qin cut him off "He did say it was your lucky day right? You might have just found the only team in Remnant that isn't fueled solely by money. I'm sure we can figure something out. Finish your meal while it's still hot." She glanced over at Ace "He cooks a lot better than he looks." She smirked at her own joke and Ace almost choked on his food "Was that a joke? From Qin? Wow...I'll give you some lessons later on how to be funny" and winked at her. She shot back "Maybe I'll give you some lessons in etiquette. Wipe your mouth." She tossed a napkin at him. William looked from Qin to Ace then at Len who had just finished his own plate then to Bai "These bandits were pretty serious. Are you sure your team is up for this?" Bai looked at him and chuckled "A better question is are the bandits ready for us." He scooped the last bit of rice from his plate and stood up "Alright BLAQ lets clean this up so we can get on the road. The suns coming up. Let's reach the village by dawn tomorrow." As the sun crept slowly over the horizon the team worked to clean up the camp. They put away the sleeping bags that they hadn't used, put the unused food away and put out the fire as William watched. The sun was only halfway over the horizon by the time they were done, which gave them enough time to hit the road before it was fully dawn. "Next stop, Hyland" said Ace as they began walking, leaving the campsite behind them.