While it wasn't Noa’s first time waking up after being knocked out, it was by far the worst. Was this how people felt after being bashed around by The Hulk? No, most of them probably felt dead, he thought, glad to find that he still had a decent sense of reasoning. Still not quite enough to figure out what was happening around him, though he tried.

There was a hole in the ground beside him, rectangular in shape, and about six feet in length. The moon hung in the sky above him, half of its light shielded by tall pines. His nose itched, but when he pulled an arm up to fix it, well, it never came. Huh. He tried again. It moved, and so did his other one, attached by ropes at his wrists.

Right. The bad guys had him, and they'd done the smart thing and restrained him. Noa lifted his head, finding the bad guys, all three of them, standing beside the apple wagon. She-monstrosity made large hand motions, and the constable sneered. He shot Noa a look and did a double-take before making his way over.

Kneeling down, Loic grabbed Noa’s collar, and lifted him up slightly. It didn't exactly have the effect he was probably looking for, as Noa's head just dangled backwards. Lifting the heavy thing was a large ask of him right now.

“Is it true?” Noa winced at Loic’s voice, shying away when the man dropped him. Did he have to be so loud? “Are you an ardent?”

That's what he's worried about? Noa thought, blinking a few times. Come on, man, pull yourself together, he told himself. He grimaced, sorting through the ringing in his ears and the pain in his head, only to realize Loic never stopped talking.

“━kid!” Still so loud. “Curses! I broke him.”

“If you mean that Priest Olwen pressed his thumb to my head and I married two people, then yeah, that happened,” Noa muttered. He furrowed his brow. Something wasn’t quite right about what he just said, but when he couldn’t figure it out, he gave up trying to think through it.

“You should have had him kill the kid before he knew,” Waroc growled, crossing his arms. He didn’t look so big and buff with all that bruising over his face.

She-monstrosity slapped her husband. “We can’t afford any mistakes, not after what you’ve done!”

While the married couple continued to argue, Loic looked at Noa with a fiercely serious expression. “Are you the only one that knows about the stolen apples?” he asked.

“What answer doesn’t result in my death?” Noa asked.

“No answer, and I'll throw you in that hole and leave you buried six feet under, even if you are an ardent.” Loic nodded his head towards the too-perfectly shaped hole in the ground.

Okay, options were slim. That said, he wasn't going to throw Conagan under the bus━not that he'd seen any of those here. So how should I bluff my ass off? More importantly, hadn't She-monstrosity seen Conagan?

“There is someone else,” Noa said, then whipped his head to the side when he heard a loud snap!

Loic scowled, looking in the same direction.

“What was that?” She-monstrosity asked.

“Kid says someone else knows about our thieving,” Loic replied, and stood back up. He bent over and Noa jolted as the constable began to push him towards the hole.

“No! no! Curse you!” Noa squirmed, and when he kicked, he found his legs bound as well. Damn! He looked towards the hole as he got closer to it, feeling his stomach plummet before he finally fell in with a yelp. Pain flared through his left hip where he'd first landed, his shoulder following next.

Despite the drop, he was thanking... erm, Elorn, for only bruising, nothing broken.

“Spread out,” She-monstrosity said, and had Noa not been in pain, he might have rolled his eyes at the lighter sounds of their heavy footsteps. It seemed like they were trying to be quiet, but the two football monstrosities were incapable of it. Loic, on the other hand, scared Noa━he could actually be quiet.

Okay, in a hole, tied up, everything hurts, Noa assessed. Taking the opportunity, he gritted his teeth, and stifled a cry when he snapped his left thumb. On purpose, this time. Cringing, he pulled his hands free, and cradled the injured one against his chest as he bent down to untie his feet. Hell! How he quickly missed having two working thumbs!

While he struggled with the knots, Noa dipped into his aether, finding that he had restored a little from his forced nap. Not nearly enough to heal his thumb, but possibly enough to help. As he got the first knot undone, Noa decided against using the precious aether he had left, and found the next two knots relatively easy to untie.

Freeing his legs, Noa pushed himself up, getting an immediate bout of vertigo, enough that he leaned against a dirt wall. Waiting it out was excruciating as he half expected someone to return any moment. Likelihood was that some animal had caught their attention, so the moment the vertigo passed, Noa moved to the very end of his hole, and got a running start before jumping up and grappling at the ledge. He kicked to shove himself up, finding the dirt wall to have excellent traction.

The two monstrosities plus stickman constable were pushing through the woods to the left. The wagon was behind Noa, downhill a tad. Right, the forest inclined towards the hills, he thought, watching the three thieves as he slowly and quietly stepped around the hole. He moved to the wagon, using that as cover next, before starting his way downhill.

Half of him screamed to run, while the other half said to move slowly to utilize the trees as much as he could to hide. Fighting against his nerves, he did both, sort of. He sped up between trees, then stopped, hid, and assessed before continuing.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Loic!” She-monstrosity bellowed, making Noa jolt behind the next tree. He peeked out around it, seeing that She-monstrosity was back at the hole. “He's escaped!”

“Curses!” Loic shouted, and as he looked around, Noa hid himself back behind the tree, trying to get his breathing under control, not entirely sure when he started hyperventilating.

“I told you we should have just killed him!” Waroc yelled━his only volume, currently.

Yeah, that was why breathing was so hard━terror.

“If the church found out one of their ardents was murdered...” She-monstrosity trailed.

Noa felt jittery, peeking back out. They were spreading out again, and all he wanted to do was just run.

Keep it together! he told himself, taking one deep breath. That helped, up until the ground quaked, followed by a brief wave of energy barely setting his [Aether Sense] off. A wall of earth shot up to his left, albeit small, but had Noa leaping right out of his hiding spot. He shot a look towards Loic, a smirk playing across the man's face.

“Got you!” he said, alarming the others.

Noa jerked into a run, and just as he did, he slammed right into another earthy wall and stumbled back, barely sensing the aether that spawned it. Gritting his teeth, he steadied himself, and moved around the wall. Focus!

Aether writhed in the direction he was going, so Noa turned sharply to the side, barely dodging another wall trembling up from the earth, the space around it concaving as it rose. [Aether Sense] wasn't perfect, as Noa hit another wall, this time not as hard.

“Hell’s bells!” he hissed, his hip inflaming at the movement, but in light of the danger, ignoring it was relatively easy. Dodging another wall, Noa looked back. Loic moved slowly and deliberately. The two monstrosities barreled past him, and at this rate, Noa would be caught.

“Okay, Elorn, help?” Noa pleaded, and almost like a switch went off, a tug pulled him away from another jutting wall. Just as quickly, it guided him in a different direction as the next wall popped up.

I am so going to church more often, Noa decided, sprinting ahead whilst weaving around new obstacles before they even emerged. Looking back, he grinned at the lead he was making while Waroc and She-monstrosity began to be encumbered by the very powers that were supposed to help them.

Seeing the trees thin ahead brought a sense of triumph. With Something incorporeal guiding him, he felt unstoppable! Nor did pain slow him, not with possible death behind him fueling the adrenaline in his veins.

Noa felt an extreme tug backwards, and completely halted. A wide wall, stretching twenty yards in either direction, emerged. It was shorter than the others, but still too tall to easily jump over. Not to mention, the earth under him sunk quite a bit, seemingly feeding the wall.

“No! No, no no!” he yelled, looking back at the monstrosities. As he ran along the wall, it was clear that they would easily catch him. More frighteningly, Waroc was ahead, hands curling into fists. Despite this, Noa pushed. Maybe if he could go just a little faster!

The sharp tug in his chest wasn't nearly fast enough as Noa smacked right into an emerging wall, buffeting him right off. Falling backwards, Noa gasped. As Waroc came upon him like thundering doom, he curled up, covering his head with his arms and bracing for impact. His breathing trembled when he heard Waroc let out a warcry, and Noa tensed, closing his eyes.

“Waroc!” She-monstrosity screamed. The wall beside Noa exploded with a crash, rubble of dirt and clay flying over his form in a wide spray.

The wall... exploded? Noa opened one eye, having to brush dirt off his face to look at what was happening. Above him was white marbling dancing across magenta skin, turning as the large creature did.

“Magenta?” Noa asked, jaw dropping. He looked at where he expected Waroc to be, just in time to see a large fist raising up off the brute’s broken form. Dead, very dead.

“Waroc!” She-monstrosity screamed again, and as she raced forward, Magenta picked her up with his other hand, holding the large woman effortlessly.

Magenta looked down at Noa, and grinned. “Human bard! I am glad I made it just in time!” he exclaimed.

Noa nodded slowly. “Me too,” he said, then looked at Loic, who was frozen a ways ahead, too far to make out his expression. “The constable,” Noa pointed.

“I think I can handle him,” Noa whipped his head around, looking at Olwen as he stepped through the gap in the wide wall. Behind him was a panting Conagan, along with Elvethor and Lila, plus her entire battalion, it seemed. On horseback. Why... had it taken them so damn long to get here!

Priest Olwen moved forward, and Noa felt a powerful shift in aether, but nothing happened. Well, nothing that he could see. The constable, however, ran towards them. The ground quaked slightly, and a spike emerged towards Olwen. The priest threw his hand out towards it, and the spike bent away from him in response. Coolest. Priest. Ever.

Several more came, each doing the same, until Loic was upon Olwen, who then froze, going wide eyed. The constable just fell backwards, twitching.

Noa pushed himself up to his feet, wincing now that he had time to feel pain. “What did you do to him?” he asked.

Olwen looked back, and shrugged. “Grand class [Priest], in the job description, son. Poor Constable Loic never honed his skills properly anyways,” he said.

I'm going to need to read more books. Noa decided not to question the vague, yet oddly normal sounding answer. I must be growing numb to weirdness in this world.

“Kind young man, if you could please give Yana to Lila’s knights?” Olwen said, looking up at Magenta.

The troll nodded, turning around, and dropped Yana beside the knights, wailing as they quickly overtook her. Others rushed forward to take care of Loic, and Noa finally released a sigh of relief, looking over at Conagan and Eliaz.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you guys,” he said.

“You look like a mess,” Eliaz greeted, making Noa smile.

He felt a brief warmth over his body, getting an alert.

System Received [Lesser Assessment].

Conagan followed after, and Noa looked at the short blond. “Thanks for fetching help,” he said.

“I wouldn't thank him so fast,” Eliaz interjected, and Conagan shrugged when Noa gave a questioning look. “There's something you should━”

“Human bard!” Magenta boomed, and Noa yelped as the troll picked him up. He held Noa in both hands, wearing an impossibly wide grin. “When the yellow haired one said your life hung in the balance, I came searching right away!” he beamed. “I have saved your life!”

“Yeah, thanks,” Noa deadpanned. “You can put me down now.”

“Oh, funny human! I saved your life, you come with me; serve me until life debt is repaid. It is the troll way.”

Noa’s jaw dropped. “You're kidding!” He wiggled, and gave Eliaz a hopeful look as Magenta started to walk off with him.

Eliaz gave a nervous grin and waved.

Bastard.