Chapter 12
Abraham's P.O.V
Ramirez had told me to look around the city for anyone who needed help while he dealt with everyone in the castle. I was glad he had told me that since I wanted to explore the city a little more. As I traveled through the main street I saw smoke coming from a bakery's chimney and the clanging sound of a local blacksmith.
I was always amazed at how fast villagers adapted, which was another reason they took death so calmly and just spoke a prayer or to. But they weren't to be underestimated as they can do some great and terrifying things as any human would have done on earth. There were times when I had ruled the village, bandits would attack, they were worse than mobs since they had better minds. But due to our volunteers we always held them back.
I had entered the town square where a few villagers had set up stalls to trade some goods. It was very crowded and I could barely get to one place or another. But there were a few people who caught my eye. Their clothes were torn slightly and didn't look like they fit, I thought I had recognized them from the past village but couldn't make their faces out as they were wearing black bandanas. I counted 3 of them around the square.
I kept my eye on one who walked into the crowd, shoving a man slightly, but I could see his hand reach at his gold nugget pouch and snatched it while the villager gave him a dirty look. That was enough for me to step in. I walked into the crowd, trying to get past all the shoppers. The robber then did a motion with his hand and the other robbers started to follow him at a distance. When I had finally gotten past everyone I was about to grab the man's shoulder to confront him when I saw the dagger next to his thigh, hidden.
I stepped back, I was unarmed. The man looked at me for a second as if seeing if I was going to do anything and walked off, shoving a few more people grabbing their purses in the process. Once the robber was out of the square, I could see him and the other two walk into a small mansion that must have belonged to one of them.
As once being a protector of these people I couldn't just let this slide by. I was in need of a new weapon anyways and walked into the blacksmiths shop on my way back into the square. "Ah if it isn't our old mayor Abraham, what can I do for you sir, Can I interest you in some gardening tools or some hose shoes?" She said in a cheery voice. "I was actually looking for a weapon." I said sheepishly. She was silent for a moment but then a grin spread across her tan, dirty face. "Want the good stuff eh, well lucky for you I have quite the collection." she said motioning me to follow her across the counter.
"So where do you keep them?" I questioned. "In here." She motioned toward an iron door. I stood back as she pulled down a small lever which made the door swing open. I followed her inside where she walked over to five different boxes "These boxes hold different weapons, the first one holds longs swords, the second one, short swords, the middle one daggers and throwing knives, the fourth one flails, and the last one cross bows which aren't very good quality since that's the carpenters job to make." She finished. "When did you make these?" I muttered impressed at her arsenal. "Well I can't just make gardening tools and other crap, that's just boring." She laughed.
When I had gone through the boxes, I had chosen two daggers, three throwing knives, a cross bow with a couple bolts. "What do you need these for anyways?" The blacksmith asked. "Just need to take care of a couple of robbers." I replied. "What are you going to do massacre them all!" she said as if were crazy. "Relax, I doubt I'll use any of this stuff on them, it'll probably scare the crap out of them before I even say a word." I grinned. "Let's hope, anyways take them for free, no need paying me after how you helped everyone." She assured. "Thanks…" "Velma." She said. I thanked her again and left the shop. All I had to do was confront the thieves.
Julian's P.O.V
At long last, after the long trek up the mountain we had finally made it to the top. Food was running low and we couldn't find as much as we used to and whenever we did see one it ran away as if knowing we were going to kill it. I sat on a rock, extremely tired next to Andr. Whitney though, seemed as energized as ever. "There's a small valley up ahead with a small forest area, there's also a….castle." Whitney said not believing herself.
Andr got up and followed her gaze seeing it to. Is there a mob kingdom up here?" I asked. "Not that we know of, maybe its villager made." She said still scanning the area. "No, it can't be, villagers have never been heard of to do that." Mark added. "Well whatever it is we should head for it right now." Whitney said getting ready for the trek down. I groaned, I would never make it that far without rest. Besides I hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon. "Stop being a baby Julian, you should be worrying about water more than food anyways, that'll kill you way faster." Mark grumbled scanning the area for water. I sighed and got up. All of Whitney's subjects had long ago changed into human's which made hunting food even harder, but they still hunted in pacts and found enough food to barley keep us going.
The only good thing about going downhill was that we moved at a quicker pace than the way up. What took us most of last night yesterday to get uphill, only took us about a half an hour to get to the bottom We had finally started to enter the forest and head towards the castle that Whitney and Andr had reported. Maybe there we could stop traveling and finally be safe.
But something didn't feel right. There were still princesses out there that were looking for refugee from the incoming threat. Even though we hadn't seen much of them was because they were too busy trying to take over the mob kingdoms. But once they have reached their goal they would roam the land in place of the regular mobs.
We had finally gotten out of the dense trees and come up to the gates of the fortress. "Hey you people down their state your business!" A man yelled from the high wall. "Were looking for a place to stay!" I replied. There was a short silence and I could hear a conversation on the wall. "Stay where you are, we have to get approval from the king." The man replied and soon disappeared. After a long wait the gate opened and their stood a crowd of people wanting to see what the commotion was a about. But in the middle of them all was Ramirez. I stood there with a shocked impression on my face. Ramirez smiled and motioned everyone to come inside. "Welcome to my Safe Haven everyone, and Julian." He greeted
End of chapter 12
