Chapter 10. First Blood
-Authors notes-
I'm sorry for not posting yesterday, my internet was out for the entire day and there was nothing I could do, To make up for it today I'll post two instead of my original plan which was to start posting one a day. More details at the end of the story. Enjoy -Blade6309
I moved into the forest and was greeted with faint laughter ahead of me. I could hear the bandits just ahead. I drew my dagger, I noticed how you couldn't see the dagger's blade in the night and only barely could see its handle. I moved up, dagger in hand and just ahead I could see what looked like makeshift defences. There was a rickety wall surrounding the camp with only one entrance. I noted which side of the wall I was facing so I could find my way back and moved towards the wall. It was made with logs and what looked like scrap metal plates, most of them rusted over. I touched the wall and found there was a resistance, not very much however. I moved over towards the entrance and found three bandits watching over it, one with a bow and two with weapons. My first thought was to run in and kill the three but the man only wanted the two leaders dead. I went around the wall looking for a way in and found a tree the wall was leaning on. I climbed the tree and hopped into the camp. Now that I was inside I could see quite a large amount to tents. Most of them were lit and quite a few people were either inside or around the tents. In the clearing in the middle of it all was a large bonfire. The fire was raging as it cooked different types of meat surrounding the fire. I moved around the wall again to get a good idea of my area. There was mostly tents but there were a few makeshift buildings. I moved up to one of the buildings and peered into a window. I could see quite a lot of different types of weapons and armour, most of it rusted. I also saw a large amount of supplies, It might be easier for me if I "Borrowed" some, I didn't recall him complaining about anything like that. I moved closer to the window and hopped in. Since it was makeshift the window had no glass or protection of any kind and shortly after jumping in I blew out the candles inside. I quickly moved to see what the camp had. I could see a large collection of herbs and berries. I kept looking up to the point when I could faintly hear the sound of someone approaching from outside the door. Since I had heard it before he reached the door I had time to hide, I quickly jumped into a corner and put a large piece of skinned leather overtop of me. I could hear the door open "Why are all the lights out..." the bandit said in a quiet voice. I could hear him moving around as he tried to look without much light. The window gave enough light to see the room a little. I could hear something being picked up, it sounded like a barrel of sorts. "I think this was what he was asking for, That basterds going to run us dry. I really wish Carinal didn't get banished, He should have been leader" the man grumbled loudly as he hauled the large barrel out.
After he closed the door I waited a moment to get up and toss the leather off me. If that man was going to see the leader it would be best to follow him. I jumped out from the window once more and saw the man carrying the barrel over his shoulder. The man was thin so he had a hard time with carrying it but eventually he reached another makeshift building. The one he had entered was larger then the one I had entered. It looked like it had maybe four rooms inside. I moved along the wall looking over the building. It had no entrances but for the door in the front. There weren't any type of windows around that I could enter. This was going to be a problem. The entrance was very well lit, with two torches outside much like the other makeshift building. It was also close to the clearing, the one with a large amount of people in it. This most certainly was going to be a problem. I moved closer to see if there was in fact a easier way to move into the building I moved closer to the building only to be interrupted by a loud bang. "If these bloody worms can't understand directions, I might as well deal with everything my-bloody-self" I could hear loud footsteps and just after a few moments of this the door slammed open. "Listen up you pigs, If I have any problems with tomorrow I'll 'ave your bloody head strung up like his" A man walked out carrying a dead body, The body of the man I saw carrying the barrel. He was larger than others, much larger. He wore a large leather vest and long ripped pants. He also had what looked like a gun in a holster, which would explain the loud bang. "If any of out idiots bother to pull your own weight be might have attacked the bloody outpost months ago" The man grunted as he carried the body towards the bonfire. With one movement the body went flying onto the ground in front of him after a short moment he then turned towards the storage room and started walking towards the building. In the moment he had thrown the body to the ground I realized that everyone had their eyes on the leader. I gave a quick cheek to see if anyone was looking a moved silently into the building. "Norin is that you? Did ya bring the right damn barrel this time?" a voice came from another room. In the short time I was given before the man had called out I could see this building was clearly the living quarters of the leader. There was a large amount of furniture as well as trophies mounted onto the walls. After hearing the voice since I had little time to react I looked for a hiding place and dashed to the first one I saw. I hid on the side of a shatty bookshelf and blew out the candle in front of me, making my side of the room much much darker. Out of the doorway to the right of the entrance a man stumbled forwards holding the side of the doorway to hold himself up. This man was very much drunk.
Not a moment after the drunk came into view the door swung open and the leader walked in. I held a still as I could since the light from the door being open shone on me slightly. I quickly turned my head so that the back of my hood would face the leader, since it was black it would mean I would blend into the shadow near me. "Wha- Your to drunk Kojai, Get back to sitting down" The leader quickly said as he saw the drunk as he closed the door. I turned back to facing them since the light was now gone. "I was just askin if you brought the right barrel, geez" The man said as he did his best to turn around and leave. I could hear both sets of footsteps now and I silently moved from my hiding spot. I checked the doorway closest to me to see what was inside. There was a large desk with multiple types of books behind the desk. I also saw a few flasks of some sort of brown liquid. The liquid caught my attention for a few moments before I moved towards the other doorway blowing out the other candle as I did. I peered just off the doorway as saw the two were both sitting at a table. The leader had a knife and was poking a large hole in the top of the barrel. Shortly after he poured the contents into two large cups. The two clanged the two wood cups together and began to drink. They both sat on opposite ends of a large table but neither of them were facing me. I think at this point it was safe to say this was the leader and his deputy. Besides the laugher and talking (Or at least attempts at talking) from the two idiot drunks I could hear a faint whimpering. I couldn't tell who it was but I could tell it was coming from the doorway behind the two bandits. At first I thought I would jump towards them and attack but then I remembered the gun the leader had, I also didn't know what the deputy had. I looked around for more options but none came to mind. Not until I remembered the small knife I had found back in Zaun. I slowly slipped it out of the pocket I had hidden it in and felt it weight. I wasn't far from the two, I could kill one with the knife by throwing it and follow up with my dagger on the other. I thought over situations one by one of what might happen when I killed one or the other. I came to decision to kill the deputy first. I quickly threw the knife and shortly after I did I dashed with my knife and went directly for the leader. The knife hit the deputy perfectly, hitting his head the knife sunk into the man's head, The man dropped almost instantly. The leader shocked with what he just saw grabbed his gun and started to turn towards me, however it was too late. My knife was already cutting his throat open. With my open hand I pushed the gun away from me as he fired it twice. "That won't help you" I said. The leader just grinned as he nodded towards the entrance. Just then I could hear people running for the door. I chuckled at him as I forcefully stabbed him in his forehead and pulled the thrown knife from the mans head. I dashed into the room behind them and found what looked like a bedroom. I looked for a hiding place, I rolled under the bed just as the door blasted open. I was breathing heavily from panic when my hand touched something, And handle. I didn't waste any time quickly pulling it up, Nothing happens. I panic again as I push it up as much as I could only to be met with not movement. When I had given up I pushed against the handle to push it away with me, and with the sound the wood pushing on wood the trapdoor slid away. I didn't wait I crawled into the trapdoor and found myself slamming onto the ground. I had fallen into a cave, I looked up to see there was a ladder leading down into here. I quickly climbed it and slid the trapdoor closed and slid the lock over it. I let a sigh of relief escaped me as I looked around only to see something I wasn't expecting.
There was a large dungeon, filled with cages of corpses and dead animals. The cave reeked of rotting flesh and meat, flies filled the room. There was only three torches all of them hanging off of the walls giving light to the whole room. There were buckets of blood lined along the sides of the cave along with slick trails leading to it. Different types of torture devises laid on a table to the right of me, most of them rusted and bloodied. There were different Cages some hun from the ceiling while others were a small boxed room. For bandits this place was very very unusual but that wasn't what got my attention. Just ahead of me was a large cage, It looked large enough to fit 20 people, however only one was inside. A single person sat there on there knees crying. I could hear the weeping again more clearly. However it was slower now and more like sobbing. I could hear now that it was from a female. I approached the cage slowly making sure not to make any noise. As I reached for the cage door I found it was locked and after looking around briefly I found them in a box. I could hear the whispering stop as well as chains moving. I turned to be face with a woman, facing me. Her long black hair was leaking from the hooded cloak she wore. Her arms and legs poking from the cloak were skinny and boney and... Her mouth, had been sown shut.
-Authors notes-
I want to take a moment to thank your for reading this far. This is the most I've written story wise for a long time. It's going to help with my other project's. I also wanted to let you all know from this chapter on I'm going to be posting one chapter a day. Lately I've been stressed from exams and I wanted to take a bit of a break. I most likely wont be posting two a day again, well maybe if two chapters have a low word count but that's only when that happens. I'll likely do this once every 5 chapters to give you all a update. I would greatly appreciate it if you told me exactly what you liked about the story as well. This is the first time I've seen my work get this much attention, it might be small but still I would like feedback, Thanks for reading- Blade6309