The Wanderer

Chapter 2

            “Do not dare utter a word!” came a vehement whisper in her ear that jolted her awake.  A hand clapped over her mouth and she felt sharp, cold steel against her throat.  She lay still, not daring to say anything or move.  While her mind ran a hundred different directions thinking of all the horrors that awaited her, she silently berated herself for falling asleep.  She should have kept moving.

            “Shift onto your right side,” came a husky order.  “I’m going to loosen up a bit to let you move, but if you so much as make a squeak or do anything to make me think you’re trying to escape, you’ll regret it.  I promise.”  The knife on her neck tightened as the words were spoken and the girl was sure that they were true.

            Ever so slightly, the knife backed a little off her neck and the hand over her mouth loosened, allowing her to move.  She shifted bit by bit, turning off her stomach and onto her right side.  Her face looked towards the shore, while her back remained towards her captor.  The knife and the hand returned to their positions as soon as she got settled.  The girl gazed absentmindedly at the lakeshore while her mind pondered various escapes, none of them seemingly possible.

            Suddenly, three rough looking men, dressed in dirty, stained clothing burst into her view.  They clomped around, making enough noise to wake a narcoleptic pig.  She could not help, but feel a sense of déjà vu as she watched them search around, looking for something.

            “Where’d she go?” a portly looking one yelled.  She held her breath and felt her heart beating wildly in her chest.  Are they looking for me, too? she thought.  She shuddered at the thought of her fate, if they were to find her.  It could not be a kinder fate than the one at the hand of the guards.  The guards must have gotten the help of the local riff raff to search for her.  She watched as the other two men approached the first.

            A particularly hairy one was the next to speak.  “I thought we were right on her trail.  It looked to lead this way.  There’s no way she could’ve gotten too far.”  He spat a long, brown string of spittle into the lake water.  The girl turned her nose up, pitying the poor fish that would have to swim in it.

            “Will you two stop jibbering and start looking for the woman?” the last man ordered.  He was the only one of the bunch that seemed to have some sense of hygiene.  His clothes, while still stained, were not so much dirty, as worn.  His black hair had also been combed and parted on the side, but was now a bit askew from their run through the woods.  If he bathed and put on a pair of clean clothes, he might actually be handsome.

            As the girl rolled her eyes for thinking such foolishness, she watched the men split up and begin the search anew.  The almost-handsome man walked towards her hiding spot.  Grabbing a long branch, he thrust it into the brush that surrounded them, swinging wildly.  A couple of times the stick came very close to hitting the girl and she did her best not to flinch, but she could feel the knife at her throat make a small cut or two, nothing serious, but still painful.

            With one last blind swing, the man jammed his stick straight for a large fallen tree that lay near them.  The stick connected directly with a large hornet’s nest and stuck fast in the large hive.  The man, not knowing why his stick was stuck, yanked hard, pulling it loose.  A long string of angry hornets flew out, racing towards the man.  As the first insect stung him, he let loose a loud yell.  He turned around and began to run as the hornets gave chase.  The other men ran over to see what was causing their leader to get so worked up.  As they caught sight of the insects they turned around and began to run as well.

            Between the yells of distress, the girl heard one of them yell, “Stupid gypsy girl!  She’s not worth it!”  The peasant girl watched as the men ran straight into the woods, until they vanished from sight.

            All of a sudden, the knife at her throat began to press closer, shaking wildly.  The girl’s eyes widened, as she remembered her other problem—her captor.  The arms around her began to shake and the girl began to fight back, hoping to break free from the person who held her, until an unexpected sound made her fall stiff as a board.  Now that the men had left, the sound of completely unhindered girlish giggling broke forth from the person behind her.