I apologise for the extremely long wait for an update. I am sorry. If you can't remember what happened in the last chapter Kyle and Gilan were attacked by a group of bandits and Kyle just got away with his life.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranger's apprentice.
Gilan's body hurt all over. His arms, legs, head, everything hurt but he didn't care. As long as Kyle got away he was happy. One of the last things he remembered was Kyle getting away on Sky before he was surrounded by men and knocked unconscious. That was why his head. Something had hit him on the side of his head. Something very hard, maybe a rock or a log, whatever it was had left Gilan with a terrible headache and a cut to his head. The cut seemed to have finally stopped bleeding or maybe Gilan had just run out of blood. No that was ridiculous, he would be dead if he had run out of blood, he had definitely lost a lot of blood though. Not just from the cut, he had several wounds over his arms from where he hadn't dodged a sword strike or had annoyed the wrong person on his way to where ever he was.
His stomach hurt a lot too. He seemed to be the bandits entertainment whilst he had been here, which was only a day. When one got angry or annoyed they would just come over to Gilan and take their anger out on him. Gilan was pretty sure he had no broken ribs or bones but that didn't mean he wasn't in pain. Fortunately for him he wasn't the only one that got a beating when a bandit got angry.
There were several people here, most likely taken when they were attacked on the streets or in towns. They were forced to work here, cook and clean or feed the horses. Whatever the bandits felt like at the time, from what Gilan had seen so far there were three women, four men and two children. All of whom were very skinny and had several bruises and cuts.
Gilan was forced to work as well. When he didn't do something to someone's standard he would usually get punched or kicked. There had been one incident earlier on today where Gilan had noticed one of the children, Ash, getting hit by a drunk bandit. Gilan had immediately talked up and told the man to stop. It was a stupid thing to do but Gilan would rather he got hurt than some helpless boy. He had been punched very hard in the face leaving him with a split lip and a bruised cheek. The bandit had then turned back to the boy and shouted at him to get back to his work before stumbling over to his tent.
Right now Gilan was cleaning up the pots and other cooking things at the river. He would have tried to run already but he didn't think he would get very far. Not before the bandits realised and chased him down. "Thank you" he heard a very small voice say from behind him. Gilan turned round and saw the small face of Ash.
"For what?" Gilan asked as he got back to cleaning.
The kid looked at him for a second as if it was obvious. The answer was obvious, "For helping me with the man earlier on. He would have killed me but you stopped him." The boy sat down and started helping Gilan with the pots and pans.
"Yeh well, I wouldn't let anyone kill an innocent child." Gilan watched the child as he carried on scrubbing the pan. "What did you do anyway?"
"I tripped and fell into him. I didn't mean to, I tried to tell him but he wouldn't listen" the boy said and let out a sigh. "How did you get here? Usually when they take people in they bring more than one person." Gilan looked at the boy, he was about eleven years old with dark brown hair that was almost black. He had piercing blue eyes hiding under his shaggy hair and his face was covered in mud and grime. He wore very simple clothes, a white shirt and black trousers and boots. He had a grey cloak around his shoulders that had more holes in than a sieve and he had a belt around his waist.
"I was out with my apprentice, Kyle, when they attacked us. Kyle managed to get away whilst I distracted them and I was bought here. What about you?" Gilan asked.
"Me and my family were on our way to visit my aunt and uncle and they attacked us. Me and my younger sister were taken here. My sister died a couple of months ago." Ash looked away from Gilan and started to cry. Gilan not really knowing what to do just pulled the boy closer to him and wrapped an arm round him. The boy leant into Gilan and cried into his shoulder. They sat there for a couple of minutes until the boy pulled away.
Ash's eyes were swollen and red from where he had been crying. "My friends will come and get us out of here, I promise that I will get you out of here alright." The boy looked up at Gilan and a small smile appeared on his face.
"How will your friends do that?" the boy asked.
"I don't know, but I do know they will get us out and if they don't get us out soon I will." Gilan finished with the cleaning and stood up. He then collected the things he had been cleaning and he and the boy made their way back to the small camp.
I will get the boy out of here and I will make the bandits pay for what they did to him and his sister Gilan thought as he started to put away the clean pots and pans.
So did you like the chapter? Please let me know because I love hearing your opinions on the story. Please review, favourite and follow and again I apologise for the extremely slow update. Sorry.