Ciden
It was storming.
Ciden, Grace, and Jamie were just walking through a little village near Picatto when it started pouring. It had gotten cold and the rain didn't seem to stop any time soon, so they decided to stay in an tavern for the night. Grace thought it was still too dangerous, but they didn't exactly have many options.
She had been anxious since the moment they set foot in their room, expecting someone to break in to rob or kill them any minute.
She walked up and down in their small bedroom, which also unsettled the others, so Jamie tried to calm her down. "Would you please stop walking holes into the floor? I mean, the floor isn't exactly nice to look at, but does it really deserve that?"
When she didn't react to his joke, he tried again. "Look, it's going to be fine, alright? It doesn't help us when you're walking around the room like you're practically waiting for a fight. You're only making us nervous, too. Sit down or get some sleep. Ciden and I can keep watch. You haven't really slept in two weeks."
Grace stopped walking. She looked at him, thought about his words for a few seconds, and eventually nodded. Then she went to bed without saying a single word.
"Is she always this restless?" Ciden asked as soon as he was sure she was sleeping.
Jamie sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. It's been a while since the last time I saw her calm and peaceful."
"How long have you known each other?"
"We met seven years ago. More precisely, I ran into her seven years ago. Literally." Jamie smiled at the memory of that day. "I tried to steal her ring."
"And let me guess, she noticed, ran after you, and threatened to kill you?" He could imagine that just perfectly.
Jamie shook his head, grinning. "Oh no. She noticed, ran after me, almost dislocated my arm, and then threatened to kill me. But when she realized that I was actually homeless, she gave me a bag full of gold so I could buy food, clothes, and get a room somewhere."
Ciden would have never expected something like this from her. "She doesn't seem like-"
Jamie didn't let him finish that sentence. "Please don't say she doesn't seem like she would do such a thing. Don't make the mistake of thinking she's a heartless killer without sympathy or conscience, like most people do. You don't know her." His voice became quieter as he talked. "She saved my life. I wouldn't have made it through that winter without her."
Ciden had no idea about Jamie's life. He had never asked.
"There hasn't been a day since then we haven't seen each other. She was worried about me getting sick, and came by almost every day to look after me."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to offend you—or her. I just tend to think the worst of people, you know? If they stab me in the back, or leave me, I would have already expected it, been prepared. Too many people have arleady done that."
"I get it. Trust nobody, and nobody can disappoint you. I've lived like this my whole life. So did she. But it was different between us. I knew I could trust her since the first day, and for whatever reason she trusted me too."
Grace rolled over in her bed. Ciden thought she was awake, listening, but she wouldn't have kept quiet if she overheard them talking about her.
Jamie yawned. Somehow, that guy was always tired.
"You should sleep, too. I'm not tired. I'll keep watch," Ciden offered.
Jamie didn't argue, but only thanked him and went straight to bed, where he immediately fell asleep.
That left Ciden alone with his thoughts.
He wanted to know more about them. About their stories. Not only because he still wasn't sure whether or not to trust them, but also because he envied them. He had only ever had one friend. It had never bothered him that much. For some time he used to have a brother to play with, but their relationship had quickly changed. And when his one friend had suddenly disappeared, he had been alone.
That was when he started wondering if these two could actually become his friends since the three of them were actually very similar. It could work.
But friendship meant to trust each other, rely on each other. He wasn't sure if he was ready to do that already, he'd only known them for a few days, but maybe someday. The thought of having friends made him smile. He should at least try it.
Grace
She woke up around midnight. It was still storming.
She could barely see anything, but she noticed a figure sitting against the wall under the open window. Looking to her left, she saw Jamie sleeping in his bed, which meant Ciden was the one sitting, and sleeping, as she saw then, on the floor. She rolled her eyes. Couldn't she rely on anyone?
She stood up and walked over to him. When she crouched down in front of him, lightening flashed across the dark sky, which brightened up the room for a split second in which she saw Ciden's face quiver. He was sweating, too. Probably a nightmare.
She debated whether or not to wake him up. When he also started shivering, she grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him awake.
As he opened his eyes, he began looking around confused. At the moment his eyes met Grace's, he started to calm down. She didn't say anything, just looked at him.
When he had a questioning look on his face, she started talking. "You were supposed to keep watch." She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to say something.
He cleared his throat. "Sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"I see." She left it by that, and stood up.
Suddenly, Ciden's eyes widened with shock. He couldn't get a word out before someone kicked her in the back of her knees and captured her hands on her back. When she dropped to her knees, someone held a knife to her throat.
She should have seen this coming. Normally her intuition warned her about things like this in time.
Ciden wanted to get up, but stopped at a sign of the person behind Grace, and dropped back onto the floor.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The deep voice of the man behind her sounded. "That's not important."
"What do you want?"
"The monster I was hired to get rid of." He pulled her arms towards him, as if to clarify that she was the one he was referring to.
"Hired by whom?"
"I don't know, but this question won't be important to you, because none of you will be alive to deal with it anymore."
"Oh, we'll see about that," she whispered.
The man did not hear her.
He was about to say something else when she used her chance, yanked her left hand free, and took his knife. She cut his right forearm, turned out of his grip, and shoved her elbow into his face. As she got to her feet, Ciden, who had been sitting behind her, slowly rose to his feet to stand beside her.
Now that she was holding the knife to the man's throat, she got to look at him. Average. Foolish. Nothing she hadn't killed before.
She wondered how he could think he had the slightest chance against her. Didn't he know who he was hired to kill? He must have heard rumors at least...
She was taller than him, he wasn't muscular, around thirty, maybe. She had to suppress a laugh because she needed to get more information out of him.
"I suggest you start talking."
"Really, I don't know who hired me. I got a letter that contained the information I needed, and..." He wasn't as confident as a minute ago, with a knife to his throat. Coward.
"And what?"
"And the amount of money the person would pay me for your death."
That didn't even surprise her. She dealt with assassins and bounty hunters more than she liked.
"How much?"
He did not answer, but only looked to the ground, avoiding her gaze.
"How much?" she repeated, quieter this time. The man wasn't foolish enough to ignore the threat.
"20.000."
She blinked once and slit the man's throat in a matter of a second. He fell to the floor, a puddle of blood forming around him.
The sound of the body hitting the floor woke Jamie up. It was a miracle he had slept the whole time while someone tried to kill her. "What in the—"
He didn't even finish the sentence before he let his head fall back into the pillow. "Again? Seriously? What in whoever's name did you do?"
"This guy sneaked up on me, and wanted to kill me because, apparently, someone put a bounty of 20.000 Tieds on my head. So I slit his throat. And somehow you, my friend, have slept through everything, although you two wanted to keep watch..." she said reprouchfully, looking between them.
Jamie lifted his head again. "Why does something like this always happen when I'm sleeping?"
"Because you're always sleeping," she said dryly.
"Well, fair enough."
"Don't tell me something like this has happened to you before," Ciden interfered.
"No. Absolutely not. Until now everyone wanted to kill us for free."
Ciden should have known better than to expect a serious answer from Jamie.
"Not true," Grace said, raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Until now, everyone wanted to kill us for free or for a a few silver coins," Jamie corrected himself, rolling his eyes.
Grace only snorted. "Get rid of the body."
"Yes ma'am," Jamie said, rolling his eyes again.
She gave him a blow on the back of his head.
Ciden
None of them could sleep anymore after this incident, not even Jamie, so they just sat in their room, planing their next steps.
Early in the morning, they were getting ready to head out.
"We're going to eat on the walk," Grace said. "We can't stay here any longer."
So they left just at sunrise.
They walked, hidden in the shadows, through little alleys on their way to a stable.
Now that someone paid people that much to kill them, they had to be faster, which meant they needed horses.
Grace suddenly stopped and turned to Ciden. "You know how to ride a horse, don't you?"
"Well, uhm—"
"Yes or no?"
"Kind of..."
"That has to be good enough."
She looked at him like she wanted to say something else, but instead she turned forward again and continued walking.
Jamie shot him a considering look. "You have absolutely no idea how to ride a horse, do you?"
"Should I have said 'no' to her? I'm not that tired of my life yet."
Jamie laughed. "Yeah, you have a point there. I just hope you're a fast learner. For your sake."
"So do I..."
They reached the stable only a few minutes later. There were more horses than they expected, so Grace asked the man who sold them which the fastest, most persistent and strongest ones were. He pointed out six of them.
Grace swept a look over the selection in front of her, until her eyes stopped on the tall, muscular, black horse in the corner. Ciden was intimidated by just looking at it from ten feet away. Grace, however, stepped closer to it.
"Her name's Jysra," the man said. "She's not exactly easy. I don't think she's what you're looking for."
"Did I tell you to think?"
"No..."
"Exactly. What specifically I'm looking for isn't any of your concern. I'll take her," Grace said, ignoring the warning, without looking away from the mare.
The man wasn't keen on arguing with her, and just let her take that horse.
She addressed her next words to Jamie and Ciden. "Pick one. We have to go."
Jamie looked at the remaining five horses for a few seconds, then went to a sorrel stallion with a thin blaze on his forehead. His name was Makhi. Jamie stroked his forehead and petted his neck. He seemed to love this horse already.
Ciden, however, had always been kind of scared of horses, so he chose the one that looked the most harmless: a bay stallion with a small white star on its forehead. He was huge, but his eyes seemed calm and trustworthy.
As soon as they paid and saddled up, they were on the move again.
Ciden's stallion, Calimir, was luckily pretty easy to ride. Jamie had no problems with his horse either. And even though the man warned Grace about the difficulty of Jysra, she seemed to handle her very well.
Grace didn't have a single incident with her all day, but when Jamie or Ciden came near that horse, hell broke loose.
There had to be some kind of connection between Grace and Jysra Ciden didn't understand.
◇ ◇ ◇
They rode the whole day, avoiding people as best as they could, with only a few short breaks so the horses could eat and drink at little streams.
When night fell, they decided to settle under a huge oak tree until dawn. Ciden made a campfire against the upcoming cold.
Jamie, who was a surprisingly good archer, hunted down two birds for their dinner.
That was the first time in weeks they had a warm meal, since their regular meals mostly consisted of bread and fruits or vegetables.
After they ate, they went straight to sleep without much talking. They were too exhausted by the long day to keep their eyes open much longer.
Even Grace fell asleep as soon as she laid down.
Okay, this chapter is a bit longer than the others but I kinda got lost in the process so here we go haha
Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYSSSS!!!!🎅🎀🎄
I can't really believe that 2021 is almost over.
Anyway, have nice holidays❣
(You can always give me feedback on the story, or suggestions for improvement.)💕