*The Chronicles of F.R.E.E. Earth's Knight - Ruth Watson* Part 2 - NARTHWICH

Chapter Nine - On the Right Trail

*Hodgson POV*

I knelt down on one knee, desperately trying to catch my breath and clutching my aching broken arm to my chest, while the others fought valiantly on against yet another strong pack of Coffinhounds. Every bloody day we have had to fight these fuckers since we left Ozryn, and some days, it hasn't been only them we encountered. Smokelings and Razorsnares had also been rampant and smacking their lips at us, hoping to make us all their dinner.
My hopes of finding the girls alive were quickly dwindling, I was starting to think we were more likely to come across their bodies. Perkins was still holding on to the glimmer of hope that they were still going, they were still fighting, but with everything that we have had to endure since we left, I seriously doubt the girls would have lasted long. The only sign that they were still around, that I desperately clinged to, was every now and again we would come across remains of a campfire. Every new one we found, Perkins and I immediately jumped at the chance to take a look around for any more signs of the direction they could have gone.
We have been travelling East, rising early with the sun as it shimmered through the thick forest canopy, taking turns in pairs to do the night watch while the others slept. Perkins, Hunter and I still haven't given anything away to Moon, Edwards, Clayton, Grimes or Jackson on why we were so desperate to find the girls, but they have been questioning why we rise so early and continue on until so late, and why we walk at such a fast pace every day. Hunter had cleverly come up with the story that the girls had a good bounty on their heads if they were found alive, and that seemed to answer the boys burning questions for now.
The new additions to our group were proving to be a godsend though.
Jackson, although a bit of a cocky bastard, is great with a longsword. He hadn't been very wise regarding what armour he wore, however, and had opted for just the helmet and gauntlets, leaving his chest and legs uncovered. It was a good thing he was so strong, but he does like to show it off when we practise and has a bad habit of making brash decisions. He had earned himself a nickname the first day we met him back at Shields of the Shield when Perkins pointed out he looked like 'Gaston' from Beauty and the Beast because of his looks and attitude. It was funny because it was true. He has slicked back black hair, harsh blue eyes and a body that the girls back in Ozryn knew very well and swooned over. It had been sickening to watch him flaunt his good looks at them all.
Edwards was my Ginger Viking. He's a skinny lank, with huge bushy red hair and matching beard that hung to his belly. His grey eyes are full of kindness but he kicks arse when needed. He sports a short sword and shield combination and the strikes from his blade are always on point. The only downside is he doesn't get along with Jackson at all. They have been bickering non stop since we left and I've lost count with the amount of times Perkins and I have had to drag them away from each other before they started fighting.
Moon was the smallest of our group. A small, blonde haired, blue eyed cherub of a boy and our only archer. He prefers to fashion his own arrows from sticks on the ground, so he's constantly picking them up, sharpening them at one end with his small dagger before placing them in his holster. I almost always forget he's with us, he's so quiet. He likes to keep to himself and only speaks when you talk to him directly. But he doesn't miss a beat. He's our eyes as he is always the first to spot danger before it's even noticed us, giving us that much needed opportunity to prepare ourselves.
Clayton, our axe wielder, is a brute of a boy. His huge, veiny muscles are always on show as he hates wearing armour, stating 'it slows him down'. He complains the most, even more than Jackson and that's saying something. He was the first to question why we were pushing forward at just a fast pace and that we should take it easy. He's a lazy son of a bitch but amazing with his axe. He twirls and spins it around with such ease, that almost every blow is fatal. He has wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes and a very slimy attitude.
Grimes is my favourite. I first met him after my duel with Collins, and he made me burst out laughing when he removed his helmet after his spar to reveal he tied his long mane of brown hair back into a man bun. His face is thick with stubble that seems to stop growing at a certain point. Instead of sticking to the normal, he was the only dual sword wielder in the whole of SOS, so I made sure to snap him up before anyone else did. When I asked him why he preferred to use two blades than a sword and shield, he responded "because I like the challenge." He's the bravest of all of us, the first to charge into battle, always has your back and will leap in to help you without any hesitation.
Since we left Ozryn, we have slowly become accustomed with each other, for the most part at least. The first day in this blasted forest, we had a close encounter with a small Coffinhound pack of around six or so, since then their encounters and group numbers has grown over the past 3 weeks. The pack we're combatting with now has at least twenty six of them.
"Moon, BEHIND YOU!" I hear Grimes shout and my head snaps up breaking me out of my thoughts.
Moon was already taking on a Coffinhound with his dagger, but now another was fast approaching from behind. I took in a deep breath, tightened my grip on my sword and charged at it. I made a strong upper strike at the beast when I got close enough, and its rotting body fell to the ground, headless.
Breathing heavily, I took another chance to gage how we stood against these dogs. The dead bodies littered the floor and overtook their living now. We were now looking at only six left to take care of. Grimes had leapt in to help Moon with his, Jackson was facing his own, as were Clayton and Edwards.
Perkins and Hunter were in close combat with the biggest of them. Perkins was on his back, struggling to keep the snarling rows of teeth away from ripping his face off, while Hunter was pinned down by its hind legs, valiantly slashing his sword upwards, trying to reach its stomach. I was about to rush to their aid when I was knocked away from the side and pinned down by another Coffinhound.
The stench of its rotting flesh and bad breath made me gag, as it growled ferociously in my face. I grimaced and lunged my blade into his chest. It arched away from me, whined, then slumped on top of me, dead. Shoving it off, I scrambled to my feet.
To my relief, Hunter had managed to strike the beast in the stomach and it was now whining in agony, backing away from Hunter and Perkins advances. I glanced over to Clayton who made a fatal blow with his axe, adding another body to the forest floor.
Jackson was laughing like a maniac, enjoying showing off his dodging and sword skills a little too much.
"Quit mucking around, Jackson!" I ordered angrily. Jackson shot me a dirty look and made his final strike, killing the beast.
"Happy now?" He jeered.
Edwards sliced his enemys throat and turned back towards us, leaving the beast to bleed out. He cast Jackson a poisonous look. "You think this is a game? Do you really think that showing off is going to get you anywhere?!" He snarled as he sheathed his sword and swung his shield onto his back. "All you look like is a cocky cu-"
"You can talk, you tosser!" Jackson spat at him. "You think you're fucking invincible hiding behind your shield. That's all you ever do! You wouldn't last five seconds in a spar with me if you didn't have it. You're a pussy!"
"You..." Edwards made to attack Jackson, but was caught and held back by Perkins.
"Just let him be." Perkins grunted, struggling to hold onto him.
I sighed and rubbed my forehead. I honestly don't know how much more I can stand of their fighting. I sighed and looked to Grimes and Moon who were bent over, trying to catch their breath. Grimes gave Moon an encouraging slap on the back before straightening and walking over.
"Will you two just shut up?" Grimes groaned as he stretched out his back with his arms behind his head. "This is getting boring now."
Hunter, Clayton and Moon nodded, mumbling under their breath in agreement. I sighed. "Let's take a quick break, guys. Rest up and be sure to eat something before we move on."
I wandered away from the group in the direction we would be heading and scanned the surroundings. The light from the sun was shredding through the trees, it's lights illuminating the forest floor. There didn't seem to be any further dangers in front of us... for now.
"You alright, Hodgson?" Hunter's voice made me jump violently.
"Jeez, don't do that to me!" I gasped, clutching my pounding chest.
He chuckled. "Sorry, mate. Didn't mean to scare you there."
"That's ok. And yes, I'm ok." I lied. I wasn't ok. I had a nagging feeling these old campfires we were following didn't belong to the girls. They looked too old. Hunter knew me better than that though.
"You're doubting this, aren't you?" He whispered.
I sighed, bowing my head. "Yes. I just can't shake the feeling we're following someone else's trail." I looked over to the spot where we last saw a campfire's remains. "They just look too old..."
"They've been gone for more than 5 months now, Hodg." Hunter put a hand on my shoulder. "It makes sense that these campfires look old. They're also leading East, in the direction we're heading. Even if they belonged to the girls or not, we have to believe that there's still a good chance."
His words did reignite the dying flame in my chest. I gave him a grave smile but a glimmer of silver coming from behind him caught my eye. I shoved him out of the way and ran towards it.
"Hodg? What you seen?" Hunter called after me.
It was a blade and it was covered in fallen leaves. I lifted the blade with my hand, allowing the leaves to fall off it, until it revealed a very recognisable engraving above the blue hilt. My heart leaps to my throat. Can this actually be...?
"IT'S STAINTONS SWORD!" I screamed back to them excitedly. "IT'S ACTUALLY HIS SWORD! IT HAS THE BLUE HILT!"
"Fuck off!" Perkins yelled and dashed to my side, snatching the sword from my hand. "Holy shit! You're right! WE'VE GOT THEM!" He started jumping up and down, punching his fist in the air. He grabs me and pulls me into a bear hug, so tight I struggle to breath.
"Well... Someone's very excited about getting their money..." Clayton said, suspiciously. He crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow at us.
Hunter quickly came to our rescue. "D-didn't I say how much it was?" He lied quickly. "It's over 300 tokens for each of us if we bring them back alive."
"Really?" Jackson asked greedily, looking at Clayton and they raised their eyebrows at each other.
Relief flashed across Hunter's face when he saw his lie working. "Yep," He said, popping the P. "We'll be set for life, bro!"
"Hell yes!" Jackson breathed, fist bumping Clayton and looking at the blade in Perkins' hands. "Which one do you recon did it?" He asked, making my stomach churn.
"I'm betting on Watson!" Clayton chuckled.
"I think it was Goodwin, you know." Jackson nudged him. "She never liked the fucker."
"Did any of us?" Grimes asked, taking the sword from Perkins for a closer look. Moon peeking over his shoulder.
Clayton chuckled. "That's very true."
Edwards appeared beside Hunter, watching Grimes turning the sword round in his hands. "I doubt they did it in cold blood. I think we all know that Stainton did something proper fucked up to lose his head. I reckon the girls acted in self defense, if they did it that is..."
"Oh, how about this..." Jackson had an evil sneer on his face. "Stainton was on cleaning duty with Green on that day, right?" Perkins' angry eyes latched onto Jackson when he heard Green's name. "Stainton was fucking Green in the cleaning cupboard and..."
He didn't get to finish. Perkins tackled him to the floor, punching his face with all his might.
"Perkins, get off him!" I yelled, desperately pulling at his arm but failing miserably.
"You bastard!" Perkins screamed at Jackson.
Edwards grabbed his other arm, and helped me successfully lift Perkins off Jackson, Hunter and Clayton dragged Jackson away as Perkins tried to kick him.
"The fuck is wrong with you?!" Clayton demanded, helping Jackson sit up and handing him a cloth to clean the blood off his face.
"I-it's nothing," Perkins grunted. He shoved Edwards and me away from him and stormed off in the direction I had been facing earlier.
Clayton, Jackson, Moon, Grimes and Edwards were all staring at me for an answer. I shrugged. "Don't look at me. I don't have a clue what's going on either." I lied.
I turned and broke into a run, following Perkins. He hadn't got very far but we were out of earshot from the others.
"Fuck sake, Perkins. You nearly blew it there!" I got in front of him with my hands on his shoulders, stopping him from going any further.
Perkins avoided looking at me, tears brimming his eyes. "Did you hear him?" He sniffed. "Did you hear what that arsehole said?!"
"Yes, I heard him." I let him go and removed my helmet to scratch the back of my head. "But you shouldn't let it get to you. We have found Stainton's sword. We're getting closer to them!"
A small smile stretched across his face and he finally made eye contact with me.
"If they managed to get this far, they must have gone further and found somewhere safe," I continued, more to build up my own hopes than his.
"Yeah... Yeah, you're right!" Perkins smile grew into a grin and he wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I just can't bear the thought of what Stainton did to them to make them-"
"I don't want to think about it either." I stopped him, sitting on a protruding rock on the ground. "I don't think I ever want to find out what really happened. All I want to do is find them, and get them as far away from Atkinson and Ozryn as possible."
Perkins slumped down beside me, sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out in front of him. He scratched his beard, deep in thought.
"We should have left earlier," he finally said. "If we had left earlier, we wouldn't have gone through Atkinsons interigation, we could have caught up to them. They're four months ahead of us. Unless they've stopped somewhere and made a home, it's going to be a miracle if we find them."
"I know," I groaned. "I've been thinking the same and regretting not leaving when we had the chance. But how would we have got out? Atkinson told the guards at the gate not to let anyone in or out after the bastard died." I put my head in my hands, leaning my elbows on my knees.
"Hodg, Perkins?" Hunters voice came from behind us, and we both turned to see the rest of them standing and looking at us. Grimes still held on to Staintons sword. "Er... Shall we get going?"
I looked at Perkins, giving him the smallest of smiles to encourage him and got up. "Let's head off then, lads."
With our path looking clear, we headed off with me leading the group and Hunter and Grimes taking the rear.