Steve didn’t open his eyes right away. He felt his body aching everywhere. Blurred, incomplete images of a few past days quickly flashed through his mind. One of the images was particularly clear. Getting hit in the face with a bare fist from a soldier of Bouler.

Slowly, with a deep fear of his present situation, Steve opened his eyes. In close presence to him, rocks and water were splashing calmly. Further away, he saw a raft destroyed by the boulders. He was surprised that he was still alive. And above that, why it looked like he just came out of water. Then he recalled stories about sending unconscious people straight into deep waters for certain death. It seemed that he had enough luck to be thrown into the land.

“Ohh… what did happen to me,” Steve grunted, standing up more vigorously than his body allowed him to.

He checked himself whether he had any visible wounds, but didn’t find any. Instead, he was surprised to see that he was still wearing his clothes from before the incident.

It was night, so he couldn’t see his surroundings very clearly. The only way into the land was the path in front of him. He couldn’t do anything except go into the forest.

Forest felt like an exceptionally dark place in his current situation. Fearsome trees and branches hanging all around him chilled his bones. Then, in the faraway place, he saw light. Small, orange and almost not visible color, warmly inviting to join. Steve didn’t hesitate too long, running in that direction. As soon as he arrived at the place, he slowed down and became more cautious. Slowly and quietly as much as possible, he tried to look into the camp. All that he saw were bodies scattered around and carts with broken wheels. It looked like an ambush, but what surprised Steve was that the bodies lying on the ground were surely bandits.

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“Why would bandits be attacked, and why would they fall so easily.” Steve asked himself, slowly stepping on bare ground, trying not to touch any branch or leaves.

Sweat was pouring all over his face when he realized that these were no ordinary bandits. Steve searched through their pricey clothes and weapon, with no luck at all. It looked like someone took all the money and valuable items. He carefully avoided all costly-looking weapons when a sudden idea came across good eyes.

“Why were all the costly swords taken away?”

A sound broke the silence. “They were looking for something. Swords ain’t they?”

Steve reacted quickly, rushing to the nearest tree and hiding behind it.

“Don’t worry, if I would like to do anything to you, you would already have an arrow sticking through your chest.” The voice almost choked from laughter.

Eyes were moving in fear, pupils dilated, and hands were shaking. Fear froze him in place. Not knowing who was it and where the enemies were, added more danger to this situation.

“Who’s that?!” Steve almost shouted, trying to hide his voice tremor. In the last burst of courage, he grabbed the first weapon that came into his eyesight. It was just a sword. With a size of something around half a meter, it couldn’t be described as something dangerous. There was nothing special about it, just an ordinary weapon that every soldier gets after joining an army. Steve hoped that the enemies didn't notice that. “I have a weapon, and I’ll use it!”

“Hahaha,” laughter continued. “Don’t worry, you really don’t need to worry. I’ll reveal myself to show my good intentions in one… two… three… . Here I go!”. A short black figure fell from the tree, the same that Steve was using as a hiding place. “I’m Whirl, I'm bored, and I'll be your company as long as you will be doing something exciting”.

Steve was stunned by this appearance so much, that no word came out of his mouth. He planned the next steps. Just by looking at Whirl, he knew he didn't stand a chance. She looked like a thief and probably could fight like one. Black coat and deadly daggers underneath, could cut the throat in an instant.

Steve let the air vent out from his mouth and asked almost calmly. “What?”