Samantha sat next to her mother — frightened by the wagon's speed.

Her father was scaring her — shouting for them to stay down.

She and her mother huddled in the wagon bed, behind various boxes. Boxes that her daddy planned to sell at the village.

Samantha was confused.

“Mommy and daddy told me that we were going to be safer with the other merchants,” Samantha felt herself begin to tear up.

Now they were trying to escape evil men who were shooting arrows at them.

“Damn those Lunar Empire soldiers!” Her daddy shouted out as he whipped the horses to go faster.

“Father! They’re getting closer! I’m about to run out of bolts!” Jake, her older brother, shouted to her father.

Her father swore.

Looking back at him, her father yelled, “Start throwing out the boxes, and try to trip those Empire scum! We need to make this wagon lighter if we’re going to make it to the village! We just need to make it to the village. There is an outpost. They’ll be able to handle these pieces of shit!”

A bolt struck inches from her mother’s leg. Her mother screamed in fright after seeing how close the bolt lodged itself into the back of the wagon.

Even though they tried to make themselves smaller targets, they almost hit her mother.

“Mommy, I’m scared!” Samantha cried out to her mother, burying her face into her mother’s arm.

Her mother patted her head. “It’ll be alright, my baby. Daddy will get us to the village, and we’ll be safe.”

From how her mother talked, Samantha could tell they would probably be caught by the evil men. She didn’t want to think about what was going to happen.

Samantha nearly tumbled to the floor as the wagon suddenly weaved.

“What are you guys doing!?” Her father yelled out.

She heard a voice call out, belonging to one of the other merchants, “I’m sorry, Carl. We have to think about our family!”

“Stop it! If you keep tossing your boxes, you’ll make the horse’s trip!” Her daddy tried to reason with them.

There was another lurch of the wagon as it dodged another box the merchant threw in their way.

“BRACE YOURSELF!” Her father yelled back at them.

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Samantha tried to understand what her father meant before she was forcibly pressed against the wagon as it violently tumbled.

It felt like the world had flipped upside down.

They all were flung out of the wagon after it flipped once and turned over again.

Her mother held on to her as the two of them hit the grassy ground. They rolled and eventually slid several feet before finally stopping.

The entire world felt like it was spinning out of control. Her whole body hurt.

“What happened?” Samantha groaned.

Samantha didn’t know how long she lay there.

The edges of her vision were dark, and everything was bright. A constant ringing was heard in her ears.

Through the ringing, there was a voice calling out to her.

Turning her head, Samantha saw her mother. Her mother tried to tell her something, but the ringing drowned every sound.

“B-by, -re you a-right-??” She slowly started to hear her mother’s voice but could only understand a few words.

“Mommy, w-wha-what ha-happened?” She struggled to form thoughts.

It felt like her mind was full of wool.

With each passing second, the world didn’t feel like it was out of control, and Samantha was able to see better. The ringing was still there, besides her dizziness, but it was less.

She struggled to get up — failing to do so.

Samantha drunkenly looked around at her surroundings and saw her brother and father holding a sword.

The evil men chasing them were slowly approaching her family on their horses.

“Seems like all of them survived!” Yelled out the man in the front while the other men were laughing. “I was worried I would have to please a corpse.”

This made the other men laugh louder.

Panic began to bubble up inside her, partially understanding what the evil men were planning with them.

She couldn’t understand why there were such evil people.

A figure moved in front of her, blocking the view. Samantha took a moment to realize it was her mother.

“It’s going to be okay. Mommy will protect you.” Her mother’s voice trembled.

“Molly!” Her father yelled. “Jake and I will hold them off. You need to take Samantha and run to the village.”

“Tom, I won’t leave you!” Her mother shook her head.

“Damn you, woman! For once in your life, will you just do what I tell you!? We’ll be okay! We’ll see you in the village!!” Her daddy screamed out. Desperately pleading with her mother.

“Mother! Please, for all that is pure in this world! Listen to what Father is saying! We will see you in the village! You can’t let these savages have Samantha!” Jake tried to reason with her.

Her mother started to cry and began to get up. She stumbled for a second, and when Samantha looked, she saw a large patch of blood on her mother’s skirt.

Her mother turned her around, looked straight into her eyes, and said, “Samantha, your mommy, daddy, and Jake love you very much. Can my baby be a big girl for mommy?” Her mother was sobbing with tears streaming down. “Can you, my big girl?? I need you to run towards the village. The strong knights will protect you. Listen to your mommy, okay? We’ll see you at the village after Daddy and Jake beat the bad men.”

Shaking her head, Samantha yelled, “No, mommy! I don’t want to go! I want to stay with everyone!” Samantha knew that her mother and everyone were lying; if she left, she would be alone.

“Who the fuck are you!?” one of the men in the back yelled out.

Both Samantha and her mother looked back to see what was happening.

Behind the evil men was a beautiful carriage with a scary dragon in front. In the stories, knights would ride on pretty white horses, not have a menacing dragon. She was scared that this was a bad person working with the wicked men.

When the carriage stopped, everyone was looking at this carriage. Slowly, a door opened, and a beautiful lady in a pretty maid outfit came out. It looked like she was holding the door open and bowing her head, her back towards them.

A man came out wearing weird clothes. He looked older than her brother. Walking a little bit away from the carriage, the man looked around. He acted like he was coming for a picnic, just enjoying the beautiful weather.