Halts first apprentice

Part five

Eli was not very fond of his master, basta.

In fact, he would'nt have worked for basta at all if he had the choise.  But he did'nt.  Not at all.

Eli did'nt know what was so bad with basta. It was not like the leader of the robbers and killers was suposed to be nice. But it was something about him.... Perhaps the way he treated his followers, like they where worth nothing? Or his bad temperament? Or maybye his sheer size? Or, Eli thougt,  his bad breath and his huge, dirty, red beard in witch you easy could see what he had for breakfast?

Or Perhaps a combination of all those things.

Anyway,  Eli was'nt very pleased when basta joined him and Thor at the fire.  And by the look of his face, Eli did'nt think Basta was very pleased either.  God, he hoped there would'nt be any trouble!  Basta was devistating in battle, with that huge club of his. He acually gulped as basta sat down.

"I am conserned. " Basta sounded calm enough.  Eli relaxed a bit.

"And why is that, mylord? " Eli ansered smirking,  trying to flatter the huge man.

Basta glared at Eli for a while before he answered.

"I am conserned, because I don't like working for our Bosses.  I heard rumors that they take all prisoners from the capturers."

Eli ansered, his voice a little more high-pitched than he wanted:

"Yes mylord,  I heard so too. In fact,  Thor and I was just talking about that. But what choise do we have? "

Basta sounded anoyed as he spoke.

"Non, I supose. " He sighed.  "And I've got another cuestion for you: what did you find along with our prisoner? "

Eli relaxed again. As basta had begun to ask the cuestion,  he had thougt that Basta wanted to punish them. Thor sounded casual as he spoke.

" Well, not mutch. Just the ordnary stuff. Things for a camp, youknow.  A cloak. A bow.  Well, the coak looked pretty weird, but, who cares? And the bow  was broken. That's it. Oh, and a purse with three gold coins! "

Eli kicked Thor hard at his leg. Why could'nt he just shut up! Now basta Wold clame the purse for himself!

Basta snorted.

" Oh, you keep your little gold coins.  What about the horses?"

Eli answered hestitatingly.

"Well, there was  two horses, but we could'nt get them to obey us, so we left them."

Basta looked conserned, so Eli continued:

"Of corse,  we can go back and get them, no problem,  acually,  I can do it myself. ...

But Basta held up his hand and Eli stopped at once.  Slowly,  he turned to the prisoner who was lying about two meters away.

"He had two horses?"

Eli frowned.

"Why, yes mylord? "

"And he was traweling light?"

" As I said, not mutch in his bags," Thor said, confused.

But Eli saw where basta was getting.

"CAN'T YOU PUT TOGETHER TWO AND TWO?" Basta shouted,   getting on his feet. He started to shake Thor.

"THERE MUST HAVE BEEN TWO PERSONS! WHY ELSE WOULD HE BRING TWO HORSES?"

"pack horse?" Thor wispered.   

"HE DID'NT NEED A PACK HORSE,  HE TRAVELLED LIGHT!"

Basta pushed Thor hard, and he fell backwards. Then he semmed to calm down a bit.

"We've got a follower.  Perhaps more than one if there is People helping him. Eli, what do es this man work with?"

Eli steped back a bit.

"I i. . Don’t ..."

"What is his buissnes in this Woods? "

"W-well. ."

"WHAT DOES HE WANT? "

"M-mylord,  why does' nt you ask him yourself? "

Basta stayed cuiet for a while.  When he spoke again,  his voice made Eli shiwer.

" Then,  let's see if our guest is conscious."