Happy Friday, everyone. Time for another update on Rise of the Storm. Let's see what Lucas is going to do now after he ran away. Enjoy


Chapter 4: Captured

I did it. I was free. Free from my father as he wasn't leading me to my path as the destined and strongest ninja. Free from his protection as I was on my own in the woods. I can take care of myself. I trekked through the forest as I pushed branches out of my way to stay away from my home. I felt tired as it was past my bedtime, but didn't care as I wanted to move farther and farther away.

And yet, I didn't know where to go.

There was no way I was going back to the dojo as I hated my father. What was I going to do? Where was I going to find shelter? Food? And water? Just this one time I appreciate my father for taking me out in the woods and giving me survival skills. I know how to start a fire well and know the perfect apple tree nearby that I can use for my source of food. But what about water?

As I trekked through the woods, it sent shivers down my spine. There was the occasional owl hoot and wolf howl in the distance. Even the darkness of the forest sent shivers down farther and I don't have a weapon to defend myself. What if something attacks me and I didn't have anything to defend myself with? I decided to wait until morning to think on my tactics. But for now, I needed to get farther away from my father.

As the night grew, the temperature kept dropping. It was March. The weather would be warming up, but oddly the temperature at night was freezing. I shivered in my black suit and hugged my chest to warm myself, but my teeth still chattered to the cold. I needed to find shelter before I freeze to death or pass out from exhaustion on the lack of sleep.

I came across a hollow underneath an oak tree and smiled to find shelter finally and crawled in. Inside was large enough for me to crawl through without hitting my head to the roots above me. Must've been an abandon home from a bear or fox, but didn't matter as I'll need it for shelter. I broke branches from the tree I was under and weaved them to act as a door for the entrance of the hollow and layered dead leaves to cover them to block the wind. I then found some pine needles and grabbed armfuls of them and threw them on the ground in the hollow and then grabbed more dead leaves and used them to shape then into a small bed for me to rest.

With my handiwork on making shelter and exhaustion crawling up on me, I took my small door and covered the entrance of my shelter, but wind still blew through the small cracks and didn't bother with them and slowly and tiredly crawled into my make-shift bed. The leaves provided minimal comfort and I used my bag as a pillow for my head. I did not take off my mask as it now provided warmth to my face as it was slightly warmer in my shelter. I wished I packed a blanket with me, but I was in a rush to escape from my father and didn't have time to get one packed. I rolled to my side and tucked my knees into my chest to conserve my body heat and instantly fell asleep.

...

Snap. The sound of a branch breaking woke me up fast. Snap. Snap. I quickly sat up and grunted in pain as I held my head in pain as I forgot I was in a cramp hole in the ground. Snap. I carefully crawled to my door to peek through the cracks to see it was still dark outside. How long was I asleep for? Hours? Or minutes? I still felt exhausted as it was probably a wild animal trekking through the woods and I tiredly crawled back to my bed of leaves. But suddenly begin to smell smoke.

I was coughing through my mask as my throat burned. Was the woods on fire!? I quickly grabbed my bag and crawled my way out of the hollow. After I kicked my door down, I crawled out in the open to see the fire and damage it was causing. But to my surprise, I didn't see any forest fire happening. I looked around and sniffed the air to smell smoke and saw an orange light several yards to my right. Curiosity got the best of me and I slung my backpack over my shoulders as I went to inspect.

As I came closer, I began to wonder if it was a hiker in the woods having an adventure out here. But slowly stopped as I heard voices. But these voices clattered as they talked. When I came closer to the light, I ducked under a bush and peered through the branches. And what I saw surprised me.

A small group of the Skulkin Army. What were they doing above ground?

I looked around their camp as their fire roared and blazed high. I can see shadows being casted on their bones and reflected off their armor. Outside the camp was this monster truck-like vehicle with a few motorcycles beside it. There were only nine or ten skeletons in the camp, but why were they here? My father told me that they are from the Underworld and follow this one skeleton I can't remember his name. What am I doing? I hate my father and suddenly remember a lesson from him when I'm trying to forget about him. The skeletons closest to me began speaking and I carefully leaned in to hear them.

"How much closer are we to our target?" one asked.

"Samukai says we're closer." the other answered while polishing a sword. "But dawn is approaching soon and we'll have to wait until nightfall."

Samukai. That's the leader I couldn't remember. But my next question about them is what are they looking for? What is their target? And why do they need to reach it in nightfall. I needed to know more and carefully crept to hear them. And also make a strike to fight them off.

Snap!

I gazed down at my right hand to see a broken twig. I gave out a silent gasp as I looked up to see the skeletons turning towards me. I was glad I was wearing black to hide in the shadows. But needed to forget about fighting them as their weapons were drawn out and started walking towards me. I quietly crawled back and out of the bush without disturbing a branch and ran back to my hollow. I quickly ducked in my hollow and dare not lie on the bed of leaves as I didn't want to expose myself even more. I just sat and waited and hoped they don't find me.

Snap! Crunch! I tensed up. Someone was coming.

Outside I could hear stomping as a skeleton was searching for me. I slowly crawled to the mouth of the hollow to see how far or close it was to me, but stopped as an iron boot stomped in front of me. I held my breath and dare not move to give myself away. I could see the bleach white shin bone in the darkness. It shifted a lot as it was looking around its surroundings for me and hoped it doesn't look down. The shifting stopped and walked away from my hollow. I sighed in relief and slumped onto my back as I got away safely.

Suddenly, I felt something grab my left ankle to give out a small scream as I was dragged out and hung upside down. I was shaking in fear as I couldn't scream more as I was facing my captor; a skeleton. But this skeleton was different as the others for it had a hunched spine, ape-like skull, and surprisingly four arms. I felt the blood rushing to my head and started feel dizzy as I was dangled by my ankle and my backpack slipped out of my arms. The four-armed skeleton caught it with his lower left hand before it reached the ground and looked at me with the red flames for its eyes. I couldn't tell if he was angry at me for I didn't see any expressions on his skull and started to squirm to escape him. The skeleton huffed and we both made our way to the camp.

When we reached the camp, I continued to squirm out of his bony grasps and was surprised on how his arm didn't fall off to my weight. I kept thrashing to escape, but grunted in pain as I felt something hit my stomach to make me stop squirming and saw a bony fist of my captor retreating. I hugged my stomach while dangling as it hurt so much. And with a tearful eye, I looked at the skeletons who I can't tell if they were glaring at me.

"Look what we got here, boys." my captor said, "Tie this brat up." and threw me to the ground.

I let out a painful groan when making contact to the ground as I was still in pain from his punch and was immediately surrounded by four skeletons. I struggled as three of them held my hands behind my back while the fourth was tying my wrists together with thick rope. I kicked my legs at them and two more skeletons came to aid the others and held my legs together and down. I continued to thrash my body as the skeleton that tied my wrists was now doing my ankles and tied them tight. Once they finished tying me up, they seated me near the center of their camp and one skeleton grabbed onto my mask. I bit down on it to conceal my identity, but with a tug, I felt the fabric yanked out of my teeth and off my face. My identity was revealed and began to struggle out of my bonds.

"Well, well, well, look what we got here." my captor addressed the other. "A worthless child."

I stopped struggling as it was no use to free myself and glared at him. "I am no worthless child." I scoffed, highly offended. "I am a ninja."

"Did you hear that, boys? A ninja. More like a brat walking around the woods playing dress up." and the other skeletons started laughing at me.

I growled through my teeth for mocking me when clearly I'm a ninja and struggled some more to see if there was any slack. The four-armed skeleton opened my backpack to shuffle through what I had. The skeleton stopped as he found something and pulled out my flute. I stopped struggling and my eyes grew wide as it was the only thing I had left of my mother when she gave it to me for my eighth birthday. And she would always dance to it when I play as she was once a dancer. "Leave that alone!" I shouted at him.

The skeleton huffed and threw it back in my bag and zipped it close. "What use would we have for it if we don't have lips." he said and threw my backpack at me. I groaned in pain as it hit my head and landed in my lap. The skeleton, who I couldn't tell if he was smirking at me or not, had his lower right hand behind his back. "Tell me, ninja, do you know what we do when we capture them?" And in my response, I shook my head and felt fear crawl up my spine. "Good answer." he chuckled and drew his hand out with a curved dagger.

I gasped at the sight of the blade and knew what exactly they were going to do. They were going to kill me for being a ninja. My hands may be bounded behind my back, but I still scooted away from the skeleton as he came closer to me, but felt something grip my shoulders and couldn't move away. Fear was still climbing up my spine and I was miles away from home, but hoped someone else was nearby in these woods. "HELP!" I screamed, "Someone, help!"

The skeleton was growling while covering what use used to be his ears with his upper arms and glared at me. "Someone gag that brat so we could do this quicker without him screaming!" he commanded.

"Help! Hel-mmpph!" I looked down to see black cloth sticking out of my mouth as the skeleton that took my mask off stuffed it in my mouth to gag me. Before I could spit it out, I felt a strip of cloth wrapped over my mouth and tied tightly behind my head. I was now helpless when being tied up and gagged. Tears of fear rolled down my cheeks as I continued to scream, but to only hear muffled sounds from my mouth. The skeleton stood in front of me with the curved blade held high with a free hand on my chest to make me lie down and to hold me still. I closed my eyes as it was the end for me.

"Samukai, stop!" a deep voice shouted.

I opened my eyes as I felt pressure off of my chest to see the four-armed skeleton in front of me was the leader of the skeleton army. Samukai, King of the Underworld. I heard him growl through his teeth and walked towards a tree. Who was the person who saved me? And why did he sound mad at Samukai? The air felt still as I slowly sat up and gazed around the quiet skeletons who had no clue what was happening. I turned my head to a skeleton that had spikes sprouting from his head with a metal eye patch over his right eye, jumping excitedly for an odd reason as he stared at me.

"Look!" he says while pointing a bony finger at me. "It's our target!"

The skeleton next to him with a similar ape-like skull like Samukai's looked angry at him and smacked him hard across the face to make the one with the eye patch's head spin. I think I'll him Eye-patch for his eye and the other Kong for his skull before I die. Eye-patch clamped his head to stop spinning and the red flame for his one good eye still spun inside his skull and stopped in his left eye socket and I think he gave him a grimace look. I wish they had facial expressions so I'd know what they are saying by looks.

"Don't expose this kid our plans, you idiot!" Kong shouted, "He could be a spy for all we care." and gave Eye-patch an upper cut punch under his chin and literally knocked his skull off.

Eye-patch's head rolled on the grass and dead leaves while his body still stood with his hands out for guidance. "Hey. Over here." his head commanded to the body and the body heard him and walked around to find the missing skull. "Follow my voice. To the left." he commanded, but the body didn't go left and went right and smacked into a tree and fell back. "No, your other left." he sighed and the other skeletons laughed at him.

I gave them a weird look as I see this one as the idiot of the army. "Really." I heard Samukai say astonished and turned my head at his tree. I saw him walking back towards me and I began to struggle free again and scream through my gag, but it was no use. He grabbed the front of my gi and lifted me off the ground. I was shaking in fear as he still had the curved dagger in his hand, but sheathed it behind his back. Why? What ever happened to killing me for being a ninja? "We have better plans for you, ninja." Samukai said and carried me to his vehicle. When we got to it, he reached in and pulled out a burlap sack. My eyes grew wide at the sight of the bag and struggled even more furiously to escape. But Samukai didn't look fazed and huffed and threw me in.

I kicked the bag with my bounded ankles to hopefully break the bag and escape somehow. But couldn't as the material was tough. I gave up on the bag and began to free my hands from the rope. I grunted in pain as something hit my head and saw it was my backpack and looked up at the gap of the bag. I screamed in protest to not close the bag through my gag, but they ignored me and closed the bag. I was surrounded in darkness.

It was hopeless. I was captured. Scared. Not knowing what will happen to me now. But mostly to me, I was captured by the skeletons.

What's going to happen to me?


Cliffhanger! Hope everyone has enjoyed today's chapter. Find out next week on what happens to Lucas. Oh in case if you were wondering, the skeletons named Eye-patch was Nuckal and Kong was Kruncha. I don't know why I thought of that as a nickname, just thought his skull almost looks like an ape's skull. But anyway, review if you like and see you all next week. Have a wonderful weekend. :)