A New Path

by Xander Jade

  "Well, Reap and I bonded when I was hurt after the attack with his mother. I just never said anything about it," I said sheepishly.

  Juls finally got her voice back, "Whoa, whoa, you met the princesses? That is so cool. What were they like?"

  I laughed at her question, telling them that tale and the only thing she got out of it was meeting the princesses. I told her they were kind, very astute, especially Lady Corisande. We conversed about some events after I left, but had an important discussion with them.

  "Mom, Dad, I’ve been thinking about having Reap and Herc with me will be a disaster if we stay here. We’re moving out and taking over grandpa’s cabin, if you’ll allow it," I said with butterflies in my stomach. Dad stared at me blankly, I guess he was thinking about issues with me leaving home. Mom had a sad look on her face.

  "Son, I don’t see why not. I can understand wanting to leave the nest. I just thought we had more time," dad sadly stated.

  "You are bright and intelligent. I’m proud of the man you’ve become," mom said as she came over to hug me.

  Liv and Wade were sad too. I wasn’t happy about it either but it was time for me to go. They came over and hugged me again, telling me to come by before I leave. I nodded as they left.

  "Okay, I’m going to gather my stuff, can you spare some seeds and other items from your garden, mom?"

  "Of course, honey. I will go get some prepared."

  I turned around and Cassie came over to me. "Your family is nice," she whispered and I nodded. She followed me to my room and helped collect my things. I didn’t have much, but it was sentimental to me. Putting everything in burlap sacks, we went back to see my parents waiting for me in the kitchen. Mom came over and gave me what I asked for, she also had some food supplies for us on the trip back. Dad gave me some daggers and extra arrows. He told me to start back my training, and I heard his voice in my head from the numerous training sessions we had. ‘Trust your instincts and the blades will do the rest.’ The commotion outside brought me out of my daydream, so I went to check on what was going on and saw Wade with Liv outside waiting, carrying bags hanging off their shoulders.

  "Here are some hides for the colder temps," Wade stated.

  Liv handed me her bag and said, "I brought some fresh bread from the bakery. At least it will last a couple of days."

  "Wow guys, thank you so much," I said, hugging both of them.

  "We’re going to miss you, maybe we could come visit?" Liv asked.

  "Definitely, give me a few weeks to get everything settled though," I requested. They nodded and left. Gathering all the supplies to divide out portions to put on Reap and Herc’s back, we said our goodbyes and left Black Crest.

  Chapter Fourteen

  We went the long way around so that if anyone was following us, we could lose them. The first couple of days were uneventful, but on the third day things got interesting. We were strolling through the woods when our group heard some shouting, the four of us tracked the sounds silently to an area not far from a brook. After a few minutes we came upon a camp full of individuals that were fully armored. I couldn’t tell what the insignia was and decided to get a closer look. My group edged our way over to them to get my first look at the colors and insignia, it looked like a black raven, with purple and white surrounding the symbol in the middle.

  Lady Cassie saw and silently stated, "Shit, those are Lord Damian’s men. What are they doing out here." I didn’t know who this Damian was, but it looked like they had about fifteen soldiers in this group. Glancing around to check what kind of defense they had set up, I found sentries around the camp and also spotted where the shouting was coming from. It came from a female in the middle of the camp that had shackles on, and was filthy. She has long raven black hair with purple streaks throughout, caramel skin, and was around the same height as Cass. Her clothes were torn and cut up, showing lots of flesh; my rage started to build, but kept my cool for now.

  "What do you suppose is going on? That one lady can’t be the only captive for this many people."

  "Maybe, depending on what she is. I can’t get a good reading on her from here. We need to figure out why she is being held captive, but if Damian’s men have her, it means slavery or something worse," Cassie whispered.

  We listened to the discussions in the camp, but tried to figure out how we could get her out of this alive. I came up with a plan, but it was risky. Whispering my thoughts to Cassie, she left to get in her spot as I told Herc to follow and protect her. He grunted and took off in her direction. I smiled at my friend and said, "Well, Reap, how about we have a little fun, huh?" He grunted his answer that I took as yes, we watched the camp for a few minutes carefully looking for their leader. I found him next to a tent close to the prisoner, he was about my height, with dark hair and tan skin. I chuckled at his pointed nose, the thing was about four inches long, and crooked. He reminded me of a jester, all he needed was a hat that had bells on it.

  "Come on guys, you know the entertainment doesn’t start until after we eat. Although, it looks like she could use some release and relaxation. So proud and fierce, we will have to break that spirit before we get her back to town. Lord Damian will want his slave back, but he didn’t say we couldn’t sample the product. Since she led us out this far away, we will take our time getting back," the leader cackled as he got up and started walking towards his captive. I watched as he slowly came to ogle her. "Reap, stay here until I give the signal." He grunted as I stepped out of my hiding spot to go pick a fight.

  "Excuse me gentleman," I yelled, and for some reason the camp panicked, guess they didn’t usually have someone sneak in their camp. The leader immediately rushed my way with some guards in tow.

  "Who are you? Why are you here?" The jester demanded while his colleagues stood there waiting for his command.

  I smirked and loudly responded, "Ah, yes, names aren’t important right now. I was watching your camp for a few minutes and thought to myself; these guys are up to no good. Sure enough, I find you have a lady captive in your custody. I asked myself, why it would take fifteen men to capture one person, then it came to me; either you are incompetent and need someone to help you, or you can’t handle a woman like that by yourself. I’m going to go with the latter. Damn, she must be fierce in the sack or very dangerous." After finishing my rant, I found Jester was red faced with anger.

  "How dare you say that to me, you disrespectful peasant! You have no idea who you’re messing with."

  "I really don’t care who you are, but if we need names to go forward, then I shall call you Jester. So, Jester, what are you doing in my neck of the woods?" I calmly asked.

  "My name isn’t Jester! I am Lord Samuel Tolleson, Count of Dirtfrost in the Kingdom of Mair, you will show the respect I deserve," he bellowed.

  Where the hell is Mair? I didn’t have a clue, but wasn’t going to let this blowhard know. "That name is too long so I’ll just stick with Jester. I just wanted to know why you have her captive," trying hard to hide my snickering because he was getting really red now.

  "That is none of your concern. You are interfering in Lord Damian’s business, so it would be best if you just leave. That way you will live another day," Jester sneered.

  I smirked and commented back, "Well, since you are in the Kingdom of Augustia then I suppose it is my business. You are trespassing, so at this moment I could care less of your Lord Damian. All I want is for the release of your prisoner, and then you may leave alive."

  "She isn’t what you think, she is an abomination and doesn’t deserve to live freely. I am taking Lord Damian’s pet back to him, if you catch my drift," he cackled and soon after the rest of his men laughed with him.

  I looked at the woman in shackles and noticed her wrists had burn marks on them. Hmm… She glanced up at me with despair and defiance battling for the dominate emotion. The color of her eyes were a deep brown and were filled with intelligence.

  "I don’t really care for your opinion, so I will ask one more
time for you to let her go. We can do this the easy way or the hard way"

  He laughed and said, "There are fifteen of us against you, I believe we will take our chances."

  Smiling at his bravado, let’s see if he has it after a few minutes. "Okay, I warned you, so whatever happens is on you," his smile faltered, and my adrenaline was peaked so I hollered out "Cassie, Herc, come on out." They walked out of their hiding places on the other side of the camp towards our position. Herc roared and the faces on the guards went pale. They weren’t sure where to flee, but they had their swords out ready to defend themselves. Glancing to the woman on the ground to see how she was taking this, her eyes were wide, but wasn’t afraid. I stared at her for a moment, then turned back to Lord Pointed Nose. He was sweating profusely, almost pasty looking, so I decided to add to the terror.

  "Reap, come on out, show these men the error of their ways." He stepped out of the woods in to the clearing and roared. I will remember this day for as long as I’m alive. Lord Jester literally fainted and face planted on the ground. It was stupendous. Half of the others followed in his wake, fainting, but some fell to their knees and pleaded for mercy. Although not inspecting the unconscious assholes, the smell clearly told me something foul was in the air. The whole campsite smelled of urine and feces now; so reiterating, I didn’t go around checking, but can safely say they pissed and shit themselves. Groaning from the stench and holding my hand over my nose to block the smell, "Reap and Herc, I don’t think they will move, but stay here to just in case." I left them and walked over to Cassie with the woman fugitive and could tell she was nervous when watching me approach. Cassie was staring at her but not saying anything.

  "Cassie, everything okay?" I asked staring into her eyes. She was fidgety for some reason, wanting to tell me something, but held back. Cassie nodded finally and we looked at the woman in front of us. I was going to have to be gentle with this one, she looked like she would bolt at any time.

  "Hello, my name is Max," gazing into her brown eyes, but suddenly they changed into gold. What the hell was going on?

  She started ranting in some language I had never heard before, but Cassie was intently listening to every word.

  "She says we may as well kill her. She isn’t going back to being a pet slave for anybody," Cassie calmly said.

  "You can understand her? What language is she speaking?

  "It’s Sowa, most people don’t use it very often. I will try and communicate," she answered and I nodded my agreement. She started up the conversation and it lasted for a couple of minutes before Cassie turned back to me.

  "Her name is Valencia Amcottes, and she lives in the Notholm Forest close to Mair. She was taken from her family about a year ago, and has been a slave to Lord Damian ever since. I told her we were in the area and came upon them when we heard the noises from the camp. She wants to know what you are going to do with her," Cassie repeated her conversation and I was at a loss. I wasn’t going to anything with her, except let her go, but noticed her wrists were red like the cuffs were burning her, and thought she didn’t show any pain. They looked silver, and my feeble brain tried to think of someone that silver hurts or suppresses. It hit me like a ton of bricks.

  Thinking carefully for a few moments before advising the statement Cassie needed to ask, "Tell Valencia I didn’t do this for recompense and that she’s free to go. Before we get her out of those cuffs though, I need her to tell me what kind of were she is." Cassie gasped and looked at the shackles, realizing she had missed that and nodded to me. They went back to communicating, and the woman stepped back a few steps after a few sentences. I’m assuming she just asked what animal she was. They finished conversing and Cassie looked back to me.

  "I take it was a surprise that you knew she was a were." I mentioned and she nodded.

  "She was distraught, and wanted to know how we knew. I advised her it was the cuffs. She didn’t want to tell me at first, but she’s a lioness."

  It only took a few seconds to make a decision, and took out one of my throwing knives. The lioness moved back a couple of steps, so I held it up and pointed to the cuffs. She was hesitant, but nodded. Taking the shackles in my hand wanting to get this done quickly, I picked the locks, threw the cuffs in the woods, and advised she was free to go. The lioness looked at me like I was crazy, but ignored her and walked back to the captured men. Pointed nose was still unconscious, so advised the pricks to listen to my commands then glanced over at Cassie to find the female were behind her. I nodded toward the other woman and Cassie just shrugged.

  "Decision time, we can’t leave them out here. There is a town about ten miles to the north, Stathmore is the name, and we were going to pass by it anyways. I believe the town has a ranger station and garrison; we can leave them there, I have enough rope we can tie them up in a single file line." She deliberated in her mind for a few moments and finally nodded. I gestured to the lady behind her, "Why is she still here? Is she hurt or need medical attention?"

  Cassie shook her head and answered back, "No, she has no one, and doesn’t want to be left alone. She wants to know if we will let her tag along for a while." I contemplated having another person in our entourage and nodded to both of them. "No problem, but explain to her what our plans are regarding the living area, it will need some work. Also, ask her if she can defend herself." Cassie again started talking in that language so I just tuned them out until they were done. "Valencia says she is fine with hard work, and says she knows how to defend herself. First time they captured her, she was caught off guard, and this time it was because she passed out from exhaustion. She knows how to use knives and daggers, but her weapon is herself."

  "Okay, she can come with us, but she will begin training again. I assume she is out of practice, so all of us will begin training when we get to our home." I commented and Cassie actually looked excited.

  We gathered the prisoners up and tied them together. As they were slowly walking out of camp, I went around to all the tents and grabbed anything useful, ending up with numerous swords, daggers, knives, and rations. I found jerky, cheese, and hard bread for some rations, then we walked out of that camp on our journey together. The ten miles we traveled was uneventful, but as we were coming into town I stopped the group. "Reap, Herc, stay out here and hidden. We don’t want anybody frightened by your presence." They grunted and went off to the side and out of sight. I led the group to an overweight guard posted at the outer gates, and stopped when he bellowed something incoherent.

  "Good sir, I caught these men hiding out in the wilderness and need to drop them off at the garrison." He looked at our group with disdain and let us though. They followed me down the main road until I heard someone shout my name. "Max!!" I turned around and was shocked to see Will coming down the street to meet us. We hugged and grasped arms in greeting.

  "Max, what in tarnation is going on here? Why are these men tied together?"

  I smiled and responded, "First let me introduce you to Cassie and Valencia." He bowed to them, and I introduced them to Will. After the greetings, we told him about the incident with Lord Damian’s men. "Well, we came upon these men out in the wilderness with a captive. So we took it upon ourselves to release the prisoner after we found out these are Lord Damian’s men." He gasped out something I didn’t understand so continued on, "We captured them and brought them here to the garrison or the rangers; whoever wants them." He nodded and advised me to stay put and he would be right back. About five minutes later, guards were coming towards us, so we waited for Will. Handing them over to the guards, we gladly let them have the burden. Will came over and wanted to know what really happened, so I told him. He was angry at the mention of slaves, and we mentioned Cassie was one too.

  "It seems we need to have a sit down, so I can catch up on your new adventures." He said and I laughed but agreed to meet him at the tavern in twenty minutes.

  "Cassie, Valencia, we need to tell Ranger Will about the slavery ring that’s evidently in our part of the kingdom." T
hey agreed and so we hurried over to the pub for some ale. We waited for Will to meet us before any ale was brought to the table. He showed up with a bag in his hand and tossed it to me.

  "Reward for catching slavers, especially, Lord Damian’s men. We will be able to get some intel from them," I opened the bag and my jaw dropped. It must have been fifty gold in the bag and it would go a long way to rebuilding the cabin. "Now, tell me what I’ve missed. It seems you have new members in your group, so don’t go sparing any details, I want to know everything." Will stated sternly.

  "It started when ……," I gave him the story of what has happened in my life the past few months. Going out on my own, rescuing the princesses, the two ladies with me, and I have a kodiak. I grinned at his dumbstruck look, so I went in to detail of that skirmish with the orcs. After I was done, he sat back in the chair and didn’t say anything for few minutes. I smirked at his demeanor, he finally got his thoughts together and told us about some occurrences happening around this area. People were disappearing, and the rangers were trying to track them down. That was disturbing to know, I wonder how many were kidnapped, and for what purpose. We finished with the gloomy discussions, so we talked about the cabin and the work it’s going to take to fix it up. The conversation came to an end, so we packed up and left the town to meet up with Reap and Herc outside the range of the watch towers.

  Our group continued on the journey, and stopped when the sun went down. I started to set up camp and asked the ladies to gather some wood to make a fire. Getting a pot out of my pack, I went to the stream we found to gather water, and cleaned the pot the best I could. The ladies met me at the location where the fire would be, and dropped their loads. Placing the pot down on some rocks, we got the fire started. Cassie was cutting up some veggies to put in the pot and Valencia was helping set out the bed rolls. We ate our meal in silence, thinking about what lies ahead. The veggie stew was good, so I had seconds. After cleaning up dinner I laid up against a log, letting my eyes rest, when I heard someone talking in an accent. My eyes opened to see Valencia staring at me and it dawned on my inadequate brain that I could understand her. My ears picked the end of her sentence, "…would like to thank you, Max."