A New Path

by Xander Jade

  "Wow, I’ve never seen him act like that to anyone. Amazing. You must be special, he has been here for two years and was about to be let out into the wild because of his attitude towards others. He wouldn’t let anyone around except to feed and groom him," Sheila breathed out in awe.

  I didn’t comment and let go of the stallion to head back inside. We stopped at the counter and she started speaking, "Max, I’m going to give a discount on the Courser since he’s been here for a couple years. All three horses with full tack kits will be twenty gold."

  That seemed steep, I came back with, "That’s too high. Twelve gold."

  "Come on Max, you’re taking bread off my table," she countered.

  So we went to haggling, thirty minutes and fifteen gold later I walked out of the livery to find the girls. We would have to wait an hour before everything was ready, so I headed to the tailor first, not knowing where the girls were. Not seeing them there, I decided to check out the general goods store. I spotted numerous people when walking through the door, talking at the counter and some walking the aisles in the store. Strolling down an aisle browsing the merchandise, my ears picked up conversation a couple lanes over in the coffee area where some tables were setup. Looking over, I saw the girls sitting down drinking something and talking with a group of ten people; six male and four female. Two of the males were closer to my ladies than should be, I laughed at the thought of them trying to do something inappropriate, knowing how that would end. Standing there taking a closer look, I observed the females around the table; they seemed to want to be somewhere else. Shaking my head, I wasn’t going to get involved unless necessary and decided to leave them be for now. I walked up to the counter trying to be discreet, hearing two gentleman converse over to my left.

  "Did you hear that more people have gone missing? That’s ten instances this month."

  "I know, people are starting to get scared and not leaving there homes."

  "The damn rangers need to find out what the hell is going on. If not them, then the king needs to step in."

  "Agreed. I’ve heard it’s happening all over the kingdom."

  It would seem that areas of Augustia are having issues, that doesn’t bode well if the rangers can’t seem to locate the missing people. I need to talk to Will about this and went back listening to the two males.

  "Yeah, last week a caravan was ambushed out by Pilot’s Point. The wagons were left, but were trashed, the supplies and people were gone."

  "Wow, it’s getting worse then. The kidnappings started with one’s and two’s, now it’s a whole caravan."

  I stopped listening after that and knew what my next move will be. Checking that story out. While going over the conversation in my mind making sure I didn’t miss anything, loud screeches and whimpering came from the other side of the store. My head turned quickly to the sounds and sauntered over to find a crowd in a semicircle, my ladies in the middle with the two ass wipes on the ground in fetal positions. Confidently walking up to the scene, I observed that a couple of their friends were about to jump in, but before they did anything I pulled my sword out and coldly stated, "Try it motherfuckers and you’ll be dead within seconds."

  My voice startled them and the crowd moved away from me as I calmly came up to my girls. "Ladies, what the fuck is going on?"

  Cass responded while I was watching the other males in the group. "We were having a civil conversation with those folks when these two on the ground thought they could cop a feel."

  I looked over at Val and she nodded. Going over to the first culprit, I put my sword to his throat. "Well, who do I have the privilege to talk to? With the stupid ass clothes you have on, it would make you some kind of noble."

  He snarled, "Bastard! Your bitches are going to be in the dungeons by the end of the day!"

  Chuckling in a dark manner, I slowly slid the blade across his throat, barely touching the skin, but it had the desired effect as a cut here or a nick there showed up. "Don’t call my women names. It’s uncouth sir, but let me give you some advice. Any of you ever touch my women again and I will cut your fuckin bodies up and dump them piece by piece in the forests spread all over Augustia, no one would be able to find all of you."

  They didn’t have anything to say to that and I stepped back to glance over to everyone. "Get your sorry asses up and leave my sight before I change my mind and just kill you right now." Nobody seemed to move, sheathing my sword, I grabbed my dagger and stated, "I changed my mind, who wants to be first?"

  Everyone around us sprinted to get out of the store. Putting my dagger up, I smiled and asked, "Everything okay, ladies?"

  They nodded and we grabbed the purchases before exiting the emporium. "Ladies, did you get some new clothes?"

  Cass grinned and replied, "Yes hon, we were done and taking a break in there while waiting for you."

  "Who were those idiots?"

  She responded with venom in her voice, "Fuckin nobles. They were from Whitehurst, Lord Nelson and Lord Petry. The others with them were from towns across the kingdom, they met here to escort their friends to Whitehurst for some reason; we didn’t really pay attention."

  I nodded as Val asked, "Did you get us some transportation?"

  "Yes ma’am. Let’s go and get them. By the way, I picked up some interesting conversations about kidnappings around here."

  Cass nodded, "Yeah, we heard the same. A whole caravan has gone missing. Are we going to investigate?"

  I nodded responded, "Yep. It was over at Pilot’s Point, we’ll drop off our purchases at home and ride over to check it out. It’s about ten miles north of here."

  We walked back to the livery to see if our rides were ready. My eyes saw the Morgans out front tied to the rail post, saddled with the panniers, but big boy wasn’t out yet. As we came upon them, I turned to the girls and smiled, "Ladies, say hello to your new friends."

  They looked where I gestured and ran over to them, giggling. Dropping the packages to the ground, they petted and talked to the horses, the latter neighed at them. The girls laughed and looked over to me, Cass asked the obvious, "Where’s yours?"

  Shrugging I replied, "Not sure, be right back."

  They nodded, went back to their friends, and started putting their items in the panniers. Coming into the front I didn’t see Sheila at the counter, so I went outside to see if they were getting my horse ready. Stepping out a voice yelled out, "We can’t get him to stay still to put a saddle on him!"

  "We have to, he was bought and they will be here at any moment," Sheila heatedly responded to two males that were having issues with the big stallion.

  The big bastard was making it difficult for the crew to saddle him. I almost busted out laughing, but held it in. Walking carefully towards them, the stallion’s head came up and neighed, then looked over in my direction. He pushed the two males out of the way and trotted over to stop right in front of me. Stepping up to big boy, I rubbed and pet his neck, saying some soft words to calm him down. Looking over to the three attendants, they were all gawking at me, so I just shrugged and smiled then waved them over.

  "What’s up guys? Just bring over his kit and put it down. I’ll handle it."

  They carefully set the saddle down and one of the males spoke out, "How the hell are you doing that? We couldn’t get near him unless he wanted something."

  I laughed and responded, "Not sure, but I’ll take it from here. Thanks for your help."

  They grunted and walked away. Sheila gaped at me, shaking her head as she went by. I patted him, told him it was alright now, and would be saddling him. He stood still and waited while I got him ready. The big bastard was almost too tall for me to get him equipped but after a few minutes it was done. Grabbing his reins, I led him out to the front where my women were, coming out I noticed them ready to go. Both ladies gasped, wide eyed at the sight of the black stallion.

  "Holy shit! He is magnificent, Max!" Val gushed and Cass agreed.

  Smiling I stated, "Yes he is. You girls look ready.
Shall we?"

  They nodded and I grabbed the saddle horn to pull myself up. "Ladies, all the purchases fit in your panniers?"

  Cass responded, "Yes babe. We will follow your lead out of here."

  I nodded and replied, "We will need names for our compadres. I will give big boy here the name Zeus." Petting him on the neck as he led us out at a slow walk, not wanting to run anyone over.

  Val smiled and stated her choice, "I will call mine, Abby."

  Cass responded as well, "I will use the name of my grandmother. Lilly."

  Grinning to the girls, we were coming near the entrance of the town and needed to relay a warning. "We will need to have the horses get adjusted to our two big family members, girls."

  They laughed and agreed. When we were out of the gates, I had Zeus at a slow trot, feeling like he wanted to run since he had his freedom now, but reined him in. A mile out, we slowed to a walk and I explained to the huge stallion what was about to happen.

  "Zeus, we’re about to meet some of our companions. Both are predators, but are on our side and will protect all of us. Got that?" He neighed and kept going down the road, soon the killer duo walked out from the foliage and I stopped our little group a hundred feet out. Zeus stomped his hoof, letting them know he wasn’t going to back down and without me gesturing to him to go, he started towards them. The girls stayed back and waited, the duo just sat and waited for the stallion to come closer. Ten feet away Zeus stopped, I dismounted and strolled over to my acquaintances.

  "Guys these are our newest additions to the family, protect them and try not to scare them too much." Zeus annoyed at that statement, snorted, then walked over and moved me out of the way. I shook my head and laughed at his arrogance. They sized each other up for a couple minutes before something strange happened, the bastards nodded to each other. What the fuck? I looked at each of them, observing. A few moments later, Zeus snorted and stomped trying to get my attention. Looking over he stared at me, waiting. I turned my head to the girls and saw them anticipating my signal that it was okay.

  "Ladies, it seems they have come to an agreement of some sort." They snickered and started our way. Climbing back onto Zeus, we set out on our way back home. Ten miles later, our lands came into view, and had Zeus lead us over to the barn. We took the panniers and saddles off, then put them in their stalls, brushed them down, and fed them. Pulling the girl’s purchases out, I stored the panniers on a couple of shelves before carrying the goods inside our home. Cass and Val grabbed them from me then kissed me on the cheek as they went to put up what they bought. I called out to them that I would get dinner started. After a few minutes, both of them helped out which made it quicker. The stew we made was satisfying, as we finished our meal I advised them of what was our next step.

  "We’re going to rest tonight and tomorrow we’ll set out to search and investigate Pilot’s Point to see if we can see anything out of the ordinary."

  Cass nodded and replied, "Yes, we need to see what’s going on since it’s this close to us. Maybe we can find out where they’re holding these people."

  "Yeah, I’m ready," Val agreed.

  We stayed up talking about expanding the cabin and how to earn some coin. The girls agreed to start out with healing items that could be sold: potions, poultices, and salves. After some discussion we headed to bed, knowing tomorrow would be a long day.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Waking up early the next morning, we ate a dry meal of bread, jerky, and cheese as we armed ourselves, anxious to get to our location and hoping to see if we could find some answers to the kidnappings. Our group went at a decent pace, passed the outskirts of Silvershore heading to our destination. As we traveled, the girls tried to keep their minds off of what may happen with small talk, but when coming upon Pilot’s Point, we stopped to look at the scenery. It was named for the mountain range surrounded by the forest, its main attraction was the peak of the mountain; its elevation measured almost a mile to the top. At least that’s what I heard and by looking at the peak it would seem that the scholars were accurate.

  Turning my mind and thoughts away from the range, I led them further down the path and brought up some heavy but important questions. "Cass, I never brought up some things when we met and until now it wasn’t pertinent. Can you explain some things to me?"

  She looked at me with knowing eyes, "You want to know how I was captured since I’m a Were-Mage."

  I was looking at the ground looking for clues to anything out of the ordinary when she explained her capture. "I was stupid and careless. I was headed out to the forest to grab some herbs and practice some new spells. Coming up to a scene in a meadow a couple miles outside of our town, my eyes picked up a group of orcs and gnolls totaling around fifty attacking a group of mixed weres, I believe their count was twenty. Not really thinking about it, I jumped right into the fight not knowing the real reason for the attack."

  She stopped for a few moments, I turned to make sure she was alright only to find her looking off in the distance with a blank stare, and knew she was remembering the encounter. Cass continued, "It turned out that the orcs were pushing them back to a certain spot within the meadow, I was the only mage within the group so I took point and used my magic to counter their attacks and killing some, but no one saw the five black hooded individuals hiding in the forest. They ended up being warlocks and it was already too late when we figured out their plan. It didn’t even matter that we were surprised, when they started using their spells the fight was over. The warlocks overpowered us, then put these cuffs on us that suppressed my magic and any shapeshifting, we were powerless. They rounded us up in these caged wagons and left the dead out in the open for the forest critters to take care of. I worked and fought the cuffs, but couldn’t get them off. The fuckers were taking us somewhere, not really caring where, I just knew it was bad and needed to escape."

  She took a couple breaths then continued, "After a week later, the warlocks left and the orcs and gnolls ended up being our sitters. Thinking about our situation, there were ten of us in the caged wagon and all of us whispered our thoughts and ideas to get those cuffs off. My bright idea was something that would hinder us at first, but we were running out of ideas and time, any idea was a good one when you’re a prisoner, even a crazy one. The manacles were tight but found some space to work with and knew it wasn’t really a good idea. I ended up breaking both my thumbs to get those dreadful contraptions off me. I had to grit my teeth and suppress any sounds that anybody outside the cage would hear, it hurt tremendously, but knew when they were off that my healing would start to take effect. Everyone within the cage saw what happened and decided to take their chances as well, within an hour all of us were free of the manacles. We spread out when the next one of us would break theirs and the rest of us covered for them by whispering loudly. Since it was night, the bastards didn’t know what was going on within our prison and our broken digits healed overnight. We had discussed our escape and someone revealed our answers after ten minutes or so, the ten of us decided to make our escape the next morning, then rested for the night. At dawn when they let us go relieve ourselves, the plan was about to take effect; we held the cuffs with our thumbs and hid them away from our chaperones. Our strategy was that a couple of males would arrogantly goad on their captors to the point of a brawl, then when the fucks weren’t paying attention, we would take off in different directions. I’m not sure how many escaped or were killed, but I didn’t care at that time. The rest you already know."

  Not really knowing how to respond to her monologue, especially the escaping part, I kept my thoughts to myself for a few moments. Damn, that had to hurt, just thinking about breaking my own thumbs made me cringe. Getting that mental picture out of my mind, I responded to her, "Shit Cass, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I was just curious but didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories."

  She shrugged it off, "It’s alright babe. I will get my revenge one day, who knows, it might be today."

  Val smir
ked at her reply but didn’t answer. We kept going for some time before Herc and Reap picked up something and stopped, both had their heads moving around like they were looking for something. After a few moments they started in a different direction, we two legged creatures glanced at each other and followed them into the woods to see why the two predators got off track.

  It wasn’t long before we saw something lying on the ground a hundred yards away, a body it seemed as Reap and Herc walked towards it. Picking up the pace, we dismounted and tied our horses to some trees, then hurried over to investigate. Coming to a stop, I saw a female with dark hair and tanned skin, wearing some green clothing; well ‘clothing’ wasn’t the right word. She had what looked like a wrap around her hips that only covered down to her thighs and a binding over her breasts that only just concealed them. I tried not to stare, but hey, I’m a red blooded male.

  Cass and Val checked on her to make sure she was okay, by the way her chest was moving clearly meant the lady was alive. I noticed other minor details about the individual, it didn’t take my feeble brain long to know what the pointed ears protruding out from her hair meant. She was an elf. Great. I’m saying this in my mind in the most sarcastic way I can. Elves aren’t known for their friendly temperament, hopefully this one isn’t like most of her kind. After examining the elf, the cuts and bruises on her body tells me that she was injured recently. Groaning brought me out of my thoughts, glancing over I saw the elf moving to sit up. When the elf detected others around, she shrieked and tried to move away. Cass and Val were trying to calm the lady down, Not knowing how to proceed, I let the girls handle this situation, and looked towards the furry duo. They were plopped on the ground a few hundred feet away from us, watching the woods around for danger, so I walked around the forest to see if any two legged tracks were about, maybe the elf escaped her captors. A voice called out and brought my mind and ears back to pick up a conversation between the females around me.