The Forgotten Land

Chapter Seven

Despite her best efforts, the man could see right through her. His tone, once somewhat nice, now took a deadlier tone. He took a step closer, invading Nite's personal space, and said, "You will be taking us to the jungle tonight or else you will have a bullet lodged in your skull."

"Nite." Bickum's words were shaky; he was doing nothing to mask his fear. "We will take them wherever they want." He made eye contact with the man. "We will take you wherever you want."

"Now that's more like it." With those words, the woman's entire personality changed. She instantly became more amicable and friendly. She extended a hand and said, with a smile, "I'm Endi. It's a pleasure to meet you. That's Craid. I'll introduce you to the rest of the group later."

Nite blatantly ignored her hand and turned to Bickum. "Shall I go get the horses to hook up the boat?" she growled through gritted teeth.

Bickum looked past her towards the group. "How quickly do you need to get to the jungle?"

"As soon as possible," said the man, Craid.

He looked back at Nite. "Going west is downstream, but I think it would be in our best interest to still use the horses. So yes, go get them."

Nite walked to the table and grabbed their lantern. She then went to the fire and took an unburnt stick, whose tip she lit on fire and used to light the wick. With it lit, she turned back to the door, where the group was blocking her way. She straightened her back and walked directly at them, refusing to waver. Much to her relief, all eight of them stepped aside.

She stepped into the cool night air. In the distance, she could hear the river rushing. At day the river was calm, but at night it had a mind of its own, as if it became a living being as soon as the moon rose. It would be dangerous to navigate it in the dark.

Before she could even round the side of the house, she heard the woman, Endi, call out. "Killer, go and assist the young lady in her task."

There was a grunt. "Yes."

Nite glanced behind her and groaned. The massive behemoth of a man that she had seen in the fight earlier was the one tasked with making sure she didn't try to escape. She was tempted to tell them that they didn't have to worry about her running away, but she knew it would be pointless.

The man followed quietly behind her. For such a massive, hulking beast, he was surprisingly light-footed. He was also not much of a talker, as he pointedly ignored Nite when she tried talking to him.

"So," she mused, "what are you and your cronies doing this far out in the kingdom?"

Silence from the man.

"Why are you bothering us this late in the night?"

Again, no words.

"Why are you called Killer?"

Nothing.

She gave up trying to get any information out of him and focused her attention on not tripping in the dark. She held the lantern as close to the ground as she could. The walk to the the pasture and stables seemed to take forever.

As soon as the stables came into view, Nite sighed and began to kick herself. She had forgotten to bring the horses in from the field and make sure they were securely into their stalls. Thankfully, the horses were smart and knew that at night they were supposed to go into the stables.

That was where Nite found them, the gates in the stalls were open, but the horses were patiently inside all of them- even fat, lazy, pregnant Marie.

"Hello, darlings," Nite cooed to them. She held the lantern up in the air as she passed them all, checking to make sure they were well. "How are we all doing?"