Dragon Scales

Chapter 13

“How could you go with us? There would be to many of us. We would get noticed.” Regorn argued.

“Where are you going?” One prisoner asked bluntly. Thon looked at Aresa, Aresa looked at Dion and Dion looked at Regorn. Regorn waited, then answered, “To the Dragon Hunters.”

“I thought nobody knew were they were.” The prisoner exclaimed.

He looked at Regorn. “Well, it looks like whoever said that was wrong. Where are the Dragon Hunters?”

Aresa glanced at all the prisoners and sighted, “We don't know if we can trust you. If you told the soldiers...”

“We would never tell the soldiers! We hate them!” One of the prisoners yelled angrily.

“Calm down, it is safer if we don't know were they are, then if soldiers catch us we can't tell them were
they went.” A other prisoner interrupted. “But, we want to go with you.”

“Maybe we could take them with us. Without them I would still be a prisoner.” Aresa muttered, she would feel guilty if they where caught and thrown into prison again.

“Good, we'll have to hurry. We have to be out of the city before the soldiers are rescued from the cells.” Regorn stood up.

The others followed him out of the house, and down the street. They came to the city gate.

Soldiers were checking the people who went out of the city. Aresa feared that they would be stopped, but the
soldiers let them past with only a glance. They walked down the hill and came to the ferry.

Just then Aresa looked back at Tarbor
and saw soldiers running down the hill. Leading them was Werlek.

“Soldiers! Get in the ferry!” The others did not need encouraging. They climbed into the ferry, looking back fearfully.

But the soldiers were to late to stop them. They could only look on in anger as the ferry went over the river.

It would take at least a hour for the ferry to get back.

Werlek was angry at himself. How could he be so careless? He should never have let the prison be so unguarded.

Werlek looked at the river. Maybe if he could swim across he could catch them. He quiekly gave his soldiers orders to come as fast as possible, then he jumped into the river,
swimming with all his might. Some soldiers shook their heads, while others watched on in awe.

Werlek would catch the criminals if he could get across the river. The current pulled at him, trying to pull him under and away, but he did not give up.

He came to the half point. The current was now so strong that he was being pulled down stream even when he was swimming with all his might.

Werlek did not stop. After a while the current did not pull as strongly.

He was nearing the other side of the river. He would get to the other side.

They thought that they were safe and
unreachable. Werlek chuckled to himself. They would get a big surprise. And that was fighting Werlek again. Very soon.

“We have escaped them!” Dion called joyfully.

“Well, they will get over the river, so let's not waste time.” Regorn said looking behind them.

Thon leaded them as they ran into the woods. “We have to hurry. We don't want them to capture us.”

The other agreed and they sat of. But they could not go so fast as they would have been if it was just Regorn,
Thon, Aresa and Dion. The prisoners slowed them down.

They were not used to walking, except for in the cell, and that was not much.

After a while the people started complaining and saying that they were tired and hungry and that they could not walk further.

They rested a little while and ate a little bit of food, and then set of again.

They felt a little bit better, but soon they were exhausted again. This went on until Thon exclaimed, “This can't
go on any more! If we go at this speed, the soldiers will catch up with us before the sun sets! We can't dream of escaping if we continue with this pace.”

The former prisoners stopped to complain, and promised that they would go faster.

“There is a village. Are we going to pass it?” Aresa asked and pointed at
smoke rising above the trees.

“No, we will have to stop, we need food.” Regorn replied.

Suddenly one of the prisoners
muttered in a surprised voice, “This village looks like the one I used to live in. What! That's my brother!” The prisoner ran forward and called, “Brother!” The people in the village turned to stare.

One of the people in the crowd ran forward and cried, “Isha! I thought you were dead! Do you have any news of father?”

There was a moment silence then the prisoner muttered in a sad voice, “Father was taken to the king's castle.
They wanted to take me there also, but one of the soldiers said that I was to young. I was only taken to Tarbor.”

“To Tarbor! To think you were so close! If I had known I would have come to rescue you. But how did you get out? I heard that Tarbor's prison is very well guarded.”

“Well, I had help. '' Isha answered. She called to the others, “Come out! You don't need to be afraid. Every person in this village hates the king. They will not betray you.”

Slowly Regorn, Thon, Aresa and Dion, together with the other prisoners came out of the wood.

The villagers welcomed them and Isha said, “This is Regorn, Thon, Aresa and Dion. They are on a their way
to the D--”

She was cut short by one of the prisoners. He muttered quickly, “It is best that as few people as possible knew were they are going. It would not be good to tell the villagers
were their going. The soldiers are following us and will come here. They will ask questions and maybe somebody will tell them. It is to great a risk.” The others agreed with him.

The villagers took them to the little inn that was also a bar. There
Regorn, Thon, Aresa, Dion and Isha, sat down to talk about what they would do. “You could leave the prisoners with us. Webcan hide them.” Isha said.

“That would be good. We could walk
much faster.” Thon agreed.

“But the soldiers will come here. They will ask the people here if they saw anything of us. What then? We can't let the whole village get into danger.” Aresa put in.

“I have a plan. My brother could talk with them. He is really good at fooling people.” Isha smiled.

“Well, that sounds like a good plan, but we really should get going. I don't want to go to jail, and we probably will go if we don't set of now. That commander, he made a mistake and will probably not do one again. He probably will catch us very fast.”
Dion grumbled.

“Dion is right. We have to go now.” Regorn stood up.

After they had gotten more provisions and said goodbye to the prisoners,  Regorn, Thon, Aresa and Dion jogged into the woods. They hurried through
the woods, fearing that they would hear soldiers behind them. However, no sound disturbed the peace of the woods.