Young Writers Society

"You wanna do that legally or do you care?" Kazimir asked casually between slurps. "'Cause I don't."

"I mean..." He probably should care. But sometimes you had to do what was necessary to get a job done. And... "We're already fugitives." Even though he hadn't committed any crimes to warrant that. "What's a few more crimes?"

39 words

When it became clear that Derik was willing to compromise whatever morals he had to steal a little bit so they could be on their way and catch up to Marcus and the bald-headed kidnapper, they did just that. After spending the night at the inn like law-abiding citizens and catching up on some much-needed sleep, they got up just before dawn, and in the shadows of the morning, managed to slip into someone's room next to theirs and steal their traveler's pack. After that, they quickly hurried into the downstairs kitchen and plucked away some food. When someone was trying to get in the door, they ran out the back and high-tailed it out of the harpy's inn.

So much for leaving a better impression this time. Now they would probably be "wanted" to some degree with the harpies too, but it was all in a good day's work. Sometimes the world was just against you, even if you were trying to do the right thing.

Or at least, that's what Marcus would always say.

Kazimir gladly took the backpack and decided to be the pack-horse while they were on the road, especially since he knew they were aiming to keep up a steady walking pace all day to try and catch up to their lost distance and lost time.

After a few miles, the two of them seemed to lose their motivation to keep up any kind of conversation as they focused on walking. They did make some stops to get water and to eat, but Kazimir, for one, had tunnel vision.

They were going to find Marcus, and they were going to kill baldy.

Three days passed, and they'd spotted baldy's wagon from far off. Kazimir was just able to recognize it before it went over a hill, and with that spot of luck, they rushed ahead, following the wagon tracks as they veered off the main road and went on a rocky dirt path, deeper into the forest, eventually leading up to what looked like an old abandoned barn.

At least, it would've been abandoned, if they didn't see the horse and wagon outside of it.

Kazimir and Derik crouched low in the cover of the bushes and trees, watching from a small distance.

Kazimir was ready to rush in, but he looked over to Derik with a quick glance.

"Okay. So... let's go?" he said.

"Wait a second!" Derik whispered urgently and grabbed Kaz's arm. He knew that if Kaz wanted to charge ahead there wasn't anything he could do about it. But it was a weak effort to dissuade the fool-hardy behavior Derik kind of expected at this point. "We gotta see what we're going up against."

Kazimir frowned in disappointment as he let out a long sigh through his nose and sunk down a little lower under their cover.

"Yeah? And how do you suggest we get a better look, huh?" he whispered. "We're going to have to get closer anyways."

"Closer, yes," Derik shot back. "Doesn't mean we go charging in until we've got a better idea of what's going on. Do you even know if he's alone or if there's a whole nest of criminals waiting for us?"

Kazimir narrowed his eyes at Derik.

"I've only seen this guy working alone. Haven't you been tailing him too? I probably know as much as you do," Kazimir scoffed. "Let's just... sneak up to the building. Do we have to talk about how we're going to do that too?"