A rag is impatiently snatched from around my mouth, rudely awaking me. After we had all been tied up we were thrown into a dingy wagon with no covering. To keep us hidden they piled all sorts of nonsense on top of us. There was no point in struggling so I had decided to just sleep through the ride. But now it looks like we're in a different area. The room we're currently inhabiting looks like a carved out cave. There are torches hanging on the wall that lead to stairs, which in turn lead to an unseen part of the cavern. My hands and feet are still bound but I'm able to move my jaw. To my left are Garrett, James, and Paul, all strewn out around the area groggily waking up from their naps on the wagon.
“Tell me what you know about this,” an ominous voice demands. The owner of the voice is holding a paper that describes the sword of Balthazar. Shoving the paper in front of Garrett’s face he angrily repeats the question..
“Tell me.” He snarls. Garrett looks utterly lost, squinting at the print he shrugs as if the gesture will get rid of the conspicuous threat in front of him.
“Can’t read.”
The man moves down the line asking the same question, getting no information, that is till he gets to me.
“I know you have heard of this sword.” He states fed up from his lack of information.
I don’t say a thing.
“ahhh so the princess isn’t going to talk.” He growls grabbing my chin and violently jerking it up to him.
“I no not what you speak of.”
“She lies.” And with that he slaps my face, sending my head crashing to the ground. I lift it up slowly in an attempt to show that the assault didn’t hurt me.
“Tell me about the sword princess before I get fed up and decide to kill you all.”
I honestly don’t believe him, so I don’t utter a word.
“Tell me or the boy gets it.” He dictates grabbing Garrett by his hair and placing a sharp blade below his neck. Eyeing the sword for a few minutes I shift my gaze to the man wielding the weapon. He doesn’t look like a thug. And he most definitely isn't built like one either. He must be extremely clever to be ruling this pack of scoundrels.
I raise my eyebrow in defiance, as if asking him to go on with the act of violence. Both him and Garrett’s face display shock at my lack of caring.
In fit of rampage he throws Garrett down on to the floor and stampedes over to where I stand yanking me up by my hair. My scalp is screaming from the torture but I don’t so much as squeal in pain. Taking the knife he places it a little to close to my neck for comfort.
“Tell me or I will. Kill. You.”
“Alright Mr. Man I’ll spill the beans, just settle down for a second, okay? ” I say giving in.
“The sword chooses who rules this land.When it feels there’s a need for it to pick a new ruler, it will decide who it sees fit for the job. But in all honesty I highly doubt it would choose you.” I say.
“The sword isn’t meant for me.” He snaps crossly.
“Well who ever it’s meant for I’m positive it won’t choose them.”
“Whatever girl, where’s the map you carried here with you?” he spits changing the subject.
“Hah! Considering I was kidnapped it's no longer in my possession!”
“We’ll just send people to retrieve it. Now sleep hostages, you have a long day tomorrow in helping us retrieve this sword! Sweet dreams.” He creepily dismisses us extinguishing all the flames from the torches, leaving us in complete darkness.
A heavy sigh comes from in front of me.
“What’s wrong?” I ask the voice the sigh came from.
“How does he expect me to sleep with my appendages bound together?” James ponders allowed.
Seriously?
We all laugh at such a question, for it seems like such a trivial problem at the moment.
“Okay guys but with all laughter aside, from now on we have to start acting like a team if we want to get out of this mess.” Garrett speaks up from the darkness.
“We are behaving like a team.”I input.
“No! I almost died twice . . . in one night! Once in the alley way when you guys decided to ditch, and another this night when you almost had my throat slit!” he hisses.
“Oh yea. Fine, fine, we’re a team from now on, got it?”
Murmurs of agreement echo in the cave. And I lay my head down to rest on the frozen cave floor. This turned out to be an interesting day I think to myself. Hopefully no more peculiar things will peak their heads in my what used to be normal life…
Way to jinx it.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Waking up in the morning I turn to see Jane sleeping calmly beside me. Deciding the kidnapping last night was just a dream; I drowsily close my eyes again. There's the faint noise of something scraping against some kind of tough fabric, and the occasional human curses. It's an irritating noise, and I turn around to tell the bothersome person to shut up, only to realize I am still in the cave. Jolting up right, I try to make sense of what is happening. The irritating noise is still going and I glance in its direction, only to see Garret filing away at his rope with a dull rock. I just watch him saw at it wondering how dense the kid really is, till, to my amazement the rope actually breaks freeing his hands! He swiftly unties his feet and stands up stretching. Glancing around the room he realizes I'm starring at him, and he jumps in surprise.
“Untie me!”
He looks from me to outside and back, as if contemplating ditching us. Shrugging he trudges on over to where I sit tied together.
“Why is Jane here?” I ask him while he's unraveling the knots.
“Beats me princess, but she looks a little bruised don’t you think?”
Studying her more closely I realize there are scrapes on her knees, and bruises covering her cheeks. One of her eyes flick open as if she knows she's being inspected. Studying the room she realizes this isn’t where she is supposed to be and jumps to her feet. The movement is to fast for the condition she's in, and she collapses to the floor where Garrett catches her.
“Easy there girl.” He murmurs laying her gently onto the floor.
“Where-”She tries asking.
“We don’t know where we are, but it’s okay you can go back to sleep now.” He whispers brushing a strand of hair from her face.
“But-”
“Shhhh. Sleep.” He gently commands.
And she does, snuggling closer to his chest and dozing off instantly.
“You acted like a woman with a child! Where on earth did you learn to be so…comforting?” I snort.
“I dunno, you just learn things.” He says trying to smile, but the expression looks more like a grimace.
“Well common let’s try and figure out where we are.” I say feeling bad for making him remember something he obviously would rather forget.
“Mmkay.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I'm starring at the plump clouds drifting in the atmosphere, taking my slow time to head outside. Garrett seems a little more eager to get outside and sprints for the opening in the cave, only to suddenly drop out of sight vanishing into thin air. A strangled cry comes from him, then a grunt only to see his fingers appear over a ledge.
“Care to help?” he asks me once i've walked over to him. From the looks of it, the cave is on the edge of a cliff. There's only one way out and that's through the dark unknown part in the opposite direction. It is possible to jump from the ledge, but you’d have to be desperate to even attempt the feat.
“Hmm? I think I’d rather you dangle for dear life.” I state planting myself on the floor and wagging my feet in the air.
“Two can play at this game.” He grunts grabbing my ankle and yanking me upside down below him.
“NOOO!!! PUT ME BACK!”
“Hmm? I think I’d rather you dangle for dear life.” He mimics grinning like mad.
“GARRETT!!!,”I screech flailing my now upside down arms.
That’s when James’s head pops up. He's lying tummy down on the ground staring down at Garrett and I with a look of pure interest.
“Help?” I weakly requested feeling sicker and sicker by the moment.
And evil grin spreads across his face matching the same expression Garrett is wearing on his own. And before I know it Garrett lets go of my ankle! I scream in sheer terror waiting for the moment I'll be pancaked into the earths crust. And just when I feel like they actually might let me die, a hand grabs hold of my ankle and yanks me back up to solid ground.
“That was NOT funny!” I howl trembling from fear, watching James and Garret cackle madly on the ground.
“I'M. GOING. TO. KILL”
They don’t register the threat and continue to guffaw like idiots. I strike both of them in the side with my foot, just to get the point across. Gasping from the pain and laughter I leave them to tend to their wounds. Walking into the cave uttering curses at them I notice Jane and Paul are awake and trying to keep a smile of their faces.
“Laugh and you’ll end up just like them.”
Paul snorts trying to keep the laughter in. Glaring in his direction I raise a threatening fist.
“It was a snort! I wasn't laughing I swear!” He says catching my fist.
Kicking his shin I sit down next to Jane satisfied with the assault. Garrett and James stroll over to where we all sit in a circle.
“So Jane care to explain why you’re here?” I inquire tying my hair up.
She stares into space for a second then seems to remember I asked a question.
“They kidnapped me.”
“Well of course, but why?”
“Oh. After you had left last night I just assumed you guys had found what you were looking for and were heading to that place you mentioned. So I didn’t really think too much about you being gone. But at night I came back to the inn and noticed all your stuff was still there. I tried to tell my self to forget about it, but I just couldn’t. I was having a hard time sleeping thinking you guys might have gotten into trouble when I heard ruffling coming from outside the door. I pretended to be asleep when two men came in and went straight for your bag. They rummaged through the contents for a while then just decided to take the whole thing. Thinking it might lead to where you guys were I followed. It didn’t take long for them to realize someone was following them and they turned around to see me. There was no point in running back so I dove for the bag. It was a losing battle from the begging and they bashed me up a little, tossed me in their cart, and I woke up the next day here next to you guys.” She finishes.
“So they have the map then.” I think aloud.
“Yes, matter of fact we do.” The leader from yesterday says walking in.
“By the way the names Hector. From now on we will be working together to achieve this sword. You disagree with my methods, we kill you off starting from the least useful and up.” He states eying all of in order of what he thinks is our importance.
“Understood?” Turning on his heels he motions for us to follow. Scrambling to get up we follow him down the dark part of the cave.
“Watch your step.” He warns reaching for a torch.
I hear the warning a little to late, only to slip on something moist. Flailing my arms I try to regain my balance by putting my hands out in front of me but nothing is there. Swiftly a hand reaches out and catches me as if they're expecting this.
“Let me go.” I order, realizing the hand belongs to Hector.
“I would have chosen better words Princess.” Hector laughs lighting the torch.
The light illuminates the area we're standing in, and I now realize I'm dangling over yet another ledge! The area consists of stairs carved out from the rock itself. It looks like a drill has gone straight down the middle, and the stairs are jutting out of the walls. By taking one wrong step you could be plummeting to the bottom of this unending whole. Gulping I get back on to the stairs and stay as close to the wall as possible. The whole journey takes about twenty minutes just to get to the bottom of the stairs. And the new room we're in is extremely cramp. It's a small little hovel at the very bottom of the cave. Water leaks from above, and covers the floor in about two inches of the moist stuff.
“Alright here's the plan.” Hector says stopping us all in our tracks.
“There’s a party three weeks from now. The hosts of the party are believed to have the sword in their possession. Your job is to steal this sword. Follow.”
He leads us to a table in the middle of the room, which my stolen map now lays upon. There are scribbles all over it, places circled and crossed out everywhere.
“This is the last place we haven’t checked yet, the sword must be in their possession.” He says pointing to the Hollerdand castle.
“The ladies shall act as perfect women do, you shall stay in the castle for a while, like all the other girls preparing for the party. There you'll learn as much as you can about the whereabouts of the sword. Gentlemen you shall work in the fields or stables. Wherever the people of the castle choose to put you, is where you will work and gather information on the castle, got that?”
We all nod.
“You'll see me around but make sure you don't acknowledge my presence. Don’t even make eye contact with me, are we clear?”
We all nod again.
“Okay ladies follow that path there, and there should be a carriage outside that will lead you to the castle. Stay on the task.” He warns.
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Lately i've been feeling like writing a modern story ._. Maybe i will...maybe, just maybe . . . Oh, and i may not upload for a while so enjoy this chapter!