click here if you haven't read the first chapter topic78137.html . this is going to be very difficult to read if you haven't...
Chapter four
We ate breakfast as we left, a meal of bread and salted meat. Whenever people came to a medicine lady for help, they were obliged to bring a gift, usually food, which is how Sarah kept fed. Unfortunately, this meant she rarely got fresh food, and had to evade malnourishment only with the help of dried fruit.
As we stepped out of the door, filing our mouths with food, the chilly autumn air swept over me, giving me goose bumps and forcing me to shiver momentarily. The landscape before us was grassy and vast, and the hills seemed to stretch on forever. There was only one path leading in the direction we were going; a dusty rocky dirt road that seemed like it had accommodated many travelers in the past. Gradually, the beautiful hilly landscape degraded into a wild, bumpy path, dotted with bushes, trees and rocks on either side of it. We could no longer see to the horizon in all directions, and as the area became more and more rough, we came across a sign.
Below several words that were scribbled out, the wooden sign read in white chalk: "civilization 2 miles".
"What do you make of that?" I asked Sarah.
"It's clearly a trap. Everyone knows this area is full of highwaymen, and you won't find civilization on any map for another thirty miles."
"I'll bet the sign said 'beware of highwaymen' before it got crossed out," Dean suggested as he directed energy gradually into my legs so they wouldn't tire.
"Well let's continue, we knew there would be trouble this way when we started," I said.
"Right. We'll walk until nightfall, then we'll set up camp." Sarah responded decisively.
Soon, night fell, and the trees, bushes and rocks all appeared to be threatening figures. We had not yet been attacked, and had made it almost a third of the way to the forest. That was what I was dreading. I was sure that with Dean's help I could take a couple highwaymen, but the few survivors of what was fearfully referred to as "Blightwood Forest", described monsters that struck like lightning, and stung people with poison. It was not the part of the journey I was looking forward to. That would come later, when I would get to plunge my sword through the heart of that warlord, Kane.
As we set up camp, which consisted of our two packs, Sarah's makeshift bed, and a small glass with something glowing inside it to provide light. I had no idea how it worked, but I didn't feel like asking Sarah. She was busy doing some kind of ritual. The thought had only just crossed my mind to ask what she was doing, when Dean cut in.
"Don't ask her any questions, apparently Rebecca doesn't like to be disturbed while doing magic."
"It's not magic it's medicine."
"Whatever."
"What is she trying to do anyway?" I asked, silently observing her place stones in a wide circle around our camp, while dusting them with some sort of powder.
"Some sort of protection spell I think."
When she finished, Sarah explained that no one would be able to cross the ring of what she called runes. They looked like rocks to me, but according to her, they now made an invisible and almost impenetrable barrier. She warned me that I would probably die a horrible death if I left the circle and then reentered. Part of me hoped she was joking.
"Sarah," I said, as we laid on the bundles of cloth that made up our beds.
"Yes Duncan?"
"Where is your family?"
"My parents died when I was very young, and my grandmother raised me until two years ago, when she died too. She taught me everything I know. What about you?"
"My village was my family, but they're gone now."
"Gone?" she asked, clearly wondering how an entire village could have disappeared.
"Kane killed them, and burned everything."
There was silence for a moment, and then a few weak sobs. I looked over at Sarah, who was crying lightly into her bedroll.
"It's okay," I said, trying to console her, "I'm fine, really." I was still very confused as to why she was crying in the first place, but assumed it was out of pity for me.
"I'm sorry Duncan," she said, sobbing harder, "I'm so sorry."
"What's her problem," Dean said bitterly, "It's not like it was her village."
Later that night, it became apparent that she was not joking about the horrible death. My sword was already in my hand when I heard a man shrieking with pain about three yards from where I was standing. His body was engulfed in flames, and several feet behind him stood three terrified highwaymen. They dropped their weapons and ran for their lives. As I realized I was safe, my heart gradually relaxed its rapid fire pace, and my sword found its way back to my sheath. I walked towards where the body laid, a look of shear astonishment on my face. All that was left of him was a charred skeleton, and metal coins he had been robbing from people. I guess she did come in handy after all.
When morning broke, I made breakfast, (which was made by taking a piece of bread and some dried fruit out of a bag) as Sarah carefully undid the magical barrier around us. Dean wouldn't shut up about how Rebecca had stopped talking to him, so I began to ignore him. At last, after all of the breakfast was eaten, we began to walk again.
I began to get an uncanny feeling that we were being watched, though that was probably just nerves. It was understandable why I was nervous, because while I might have been able to handle a couple thieves, not knowing when the ambush would happen was nerve wracking. I tried to make small talk with Sarah.
"So if you don't mind me asking, what's the most powerful spell you can do?"
"Well if by powerful you mean it takes a long time, and does something really cool, I guess you could say the empathy link," she said, with a hint of distain for how much I oversimplified her craft.
"What does it do?"
"It bonds you to the person you cast it on, and any harm that comes to them also comes to you."
"That sounds horrible, why would anyone want to cast that?"
"People have their reasons," she said mysteriously, "Hey is there any of that dried peach left?"
"Yeah, I think there are some in the-" I said, before I was tackled to the ground. With Dean's help, I rolled the man off of me, giving me enough space to draw my sword. Three more of them came out of the bushes on either side of us. As we had walked, I had not noticed the foliage getting thicker on both our left and our right, allowing a perfect hiding place for thieves.
Suddenly, the man who tackled me lunged in my direction with his oversized knife. I was halfway through the motion of trying to stab him when he fell backwards awkwardly. An arrow protruded from his eye, sticking out of him like some sort of grotesque new appendage. The other three assassins, two of whom were attacking me from behind, and the third menacing Sarah, all dropped dead in a similar fashion. Their killers were undetectable in the surrounding brush. My blood ran cold, wondering if I was next in line.
xD) then why would she leave her duties to go with him? It just seems a bit strange.
