The Loss Pt. 2

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            Drefen didn’t know what he was going to do. He knew that if he told Nyara who the person was he didn’t want her to see, she would be upset with him for not telling her, but she’d also be upset if he didn’t tell her…She’d get it out of him eventually, but if he could just hold back until Port Insgk, she wouldn’t insist on going back. He was thinking of this when Nyara suddenly tensed her shoulders. Confused, Drefen was thinking she had figured out who was the one person in Denorsk that he didn’t want her to see, and started to stop the wagon, intending to give in if she asked the right questions, but she just touched him and breathed, “No, keep the wagon moving, we don’t want to alert them that we know….” And it clicked.  Ambush.

            Silently cursing himself for not noticing the silence sooner, he continued down the road, wishing for the first time that he’d listened to Nyara and stayed with the caravan. If it wasn’t for his obsession to swim, they probably never would have been here now, and he probably wouldn’t have seen Grace as she stepped out of the tavern door. Dang, he thought, she probably recognized us and wants revenge. It’s too late now; I’ll just have to try and talk my way out of it, as usual.

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            The fool wasn’t even listening to the sounds of the forest behind him, he was concentrating so hard on the approaching wagon that it was too easy to knock him out. Like the oxen were suddenly going to sprout wings and fly off, destroying their “Oh so perfect” ambush. I rolled my eyes silently as I bound and gagged the “scout”. Seriously, if this was the type of criminal that Father had to deal with….

            I paused and leaned up a tree, suddenly filled with emotion. It’d been a year since my family had been attacked, and mostly everyone lost, but it still hurt. I wanted to curl up in a little ball and never come out of it again, but there was a certain person out there counting on me to take out as many as possible before the fight started, as I knew it would. Not for the first time, I wished he didn’t have such an obligation to jump into every puddle of water he saw, we’d still be with the caravan if he didn’t, but it was one of his quirks I loved….when it didn’t put us in danger.

            I came up on another scout and quickly dispatched him with the pommel of my sword to the back of his head. Unlike the other one, he had been more alert, but I was too fast. He had only begun to turn his head, when I hit it. I was tying him up when I heard Drefen begin whistling. I listened for a moment, and then sighed. There were four that he could see, but there were bound to be a few more hidden around the bend where he couldn’t see them. I smiled as I drifted back into the shadows. This was going to be fun.

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